Don't Fret Over "Merchandise Credit" Reciepts

Have you ever taken an item back to the store, only to realize you no longer have the reciept? And then, to make matters worse, you realize all they'll offer you is one of those merchandise credit reciepts so that you can exchange the item for something else in the store? Being the fickle shopper that I have, its happened many times. And usually the store in particular has nothing else Im interested in. But instead of kissing my money good bye, here's what I do.

1. I always ask them to put the exchange amount on a gift card instead of a reciept. You'll see why in a minute.

2. I store the gift card with my credit cards, or in my jewelry box or some place safe. Thats the first advantage of having it on a card; I'm less likely to throw that away or lose it. Obviously, I don't have much luck with reciepts.

3. I shop the gift card around on eBay, so I can get actual cash back instead of being obligated to find merchandise at that one store. I think eBayers are more inclined to purchase a gift card than they are a merchandise credit (and they may be non transferrable at some stores), reason #2 to ask for a gift card.

Simple as that. On average, you will only lose $3 or $4 from what you paid, possibly less. It really depends on how much your card is worth (cheaper cards tend to sell closer to the actual amount). I really recommend doing this instead of ending up with merchandise you're not completely happy with.

Programs I Don't Recommend

I don't have a problem with survey programs, but personally I think they take too long and the end result isn't really worth it. Most of the surveys out there take atleast 15 minutes and are extremely boring, not to mention detailed. And usually the reward is $5...sometimes less. I don't think so. The only time I'll post a survey here is if its for real money; I'm talking, $20 or more. I often see some floating around that are $50 and $75, and more than that, but they're hard to qualify for.

One site I really recommend staying away from is GoZing. I used them a few years ago, I still get emails from them offering me $1 or $2 to take a survey. Sure, if I took them all it would add up to around $10+ per month, but there is time to consider. I know they were taken over by Greenfield Surveys last year, so hopefully things have improved over there, but my experience with them was terrible. Once it took 6 months just to recieve a payment of $4 or $5. So unless you think of it as a long term investment, I'd check out some of the other survey programs on the net.

Software Judge

Awesome, another reviews site. I love programs like this, since I like to write (obviously). Sofware Judge will pay you up to $50 for each review of select software programs.

That sounds great, but obviously they're not going to pay out that much to just everyone. Their minimum is $1 per review, so obviously most people will be getting that. They also have a minimum payout of $200 (no, thats not a typo) so obviously this caters to expert writers who can make the $50 (or atleast half that, which is still probably hard to reach). They currently only pay out by Western Union, which is very odd as well.

I also can't decide if their rules page is funny or just downright rude and unprofessional.

Don’t submit more than three reviews in one day. Better yet, submit one review and see if it gets published or not. If it does not get published, it’s not good enough and we don’t want to spend several hours a day reading crappy reviews. Not everybody is good at this. But you have to be good to get published.

Yeeaah.....

Well, Im going to explore the site a bit more and decide if its worth a try or not. I'll update here if I do, and what my experience is with them.

BoostaForum - Paid Forum Posting

I've been a paid poster through BoostaForum since mid December. I stumbled upon this brand new business while surfing the now deceased VortexMB towards the end of last year. Good programs come along when you're not even looking for money.

With this site you're basically getting paid to make posts on various forums, something you probably do already. I've tried programs with similiar ideas before, and none were too promising, but this is a bit different. Clients pay them to have their forums "boosted" (in other words, get more posts and topics). Then they give the writers a cut of the money.

On average, the jobs pay $2.50 for 25 posts and $5 for 50 posts. The posts have to be well worded, and 25 words or more. They usually have about 6 - 8 jobs available at a time, but it varies. There's always something to work on. They've paid me several times, usually within 1-3 days that I request payment.

The only real downside to this program is that the owners don't speak perfect english and can sometimes be hard to understand. They will also contact you via instant messenger to persuade you to finish your jobs, so if you don't want this happening don't plug in too much information! Other than that, its easy and pretty fun to make some cash with this site. I suggest only taking on forums with a subject that interests you.

Welcome!

Are You Being Paid? Its a simple yes or no question, yet it can become eve more complex. If you answer yes, that brings us to the question Are You Being Paid Enough? Then the answer is, inevitably, no. Now if you said no in the first place, we have an even bigger problem on our hands. Its a problem that I've been trying to solve for years, and successfully so, but the journey never ends.

So basically my quest is to find all the legitamite paying programs on the web. No scams, no paid to read, no surfing sites, no "sign up for offers" that never come through. But I often come across a rare gem that allows me to use one of my skills to make some extra cash on the web. These are the types of sites I will be posting. Only sites that make it easy and fun to make a little extra cash. And there will be plenty of sites for those who are not webmasters, so stick around! I promise to put a little change in your pocket!