So like many an internet junkie, I wanted to know how to make money surfing the web. Like many who start down this path of money for nothing, I found everything was to good to be true. Fact: you can’t make money to survive on taking surveys. To clarify, most survey sites will pay little money for you taking surveys that require you to pay nothing. You want the big bucks? You’ll have to pay some company to send you product, or do a month long trial of something you care nothing about. The ends do not really justify the means. However, one website I tried that yielded some success was MyPoints.com.
Before I go any further, I’m going to promise this isn’t a glowing endorsement that ends with my referral. I’m not going to leave a referral or some number you should type in should you choose to use this system. I’m just going to explain my experience with the company. There we’re all square.
MyPoints.com is a website that offers reward for looking at spam, and filling out surveys should you meet the demographic needed. The points you earn are used to redeem gift cards to a bevy of businesses. Essentially the only thing you pay is your time and inbox space.
To begin, and I recommend this to anyone who wants to attempt this, is set up a new email address. This new email account will be used solely for you’re MyPoints emails. They add up, and you don’t want them cluttering your prim and pristine inbox with the awesome account name. After that I filled out a profile that when completed nabbed me some points. This profile will let MyPoints now what junk to send you. I’m still not sure if I actually get different junk than say, a 50 year-old Hungarian woman, but it’s easy points so it doesn’t matter.
The emails you receive are essentially “click-thru’s”. You just open it, click the link, and get five points. If you actually want to take up the offer you get plenty more, but this generally costs money and I want something for nothing like everybody else. Most of the offers are the same annoying car insurance, credit report, book club junk that you could probably care less about.
You’ll get maybe twenty or so of these a week which would lead to about 100 points on a weekly basis.. However, if you always wanted to get on Netflix or Blockbuster’s online rental system, you can get loads of points for spending money there. The emails you receive have MyPoints in the sender so they’re easy to differentiate from your other emails, if you didn’t set up a separate account like I suggested earlier.
If you qualify for a survey you get anywhere from 50 to 75 points after completion.. When you don’t qualify you’ll get 10 just for applying. I’ve actually only qualified for a couple of surveys, but I’m in a strange demographic that I guess companies think are too niche to worry about. Maybe you’ll have better luck.
Point values assigned to gift cards vary depending on the store. For example a $10 dollar Old Navy card is worth 1,400 points as opposed to the Target card which is 1,550 points for the same dollar value. An Amazon.com gift card $25 runs for about 3,750 points. Some vendors have gift cards available from $10 to $100.Of course be prepared to read a lot of emails for that.
MyPoints also has an affiliate program where if you click their link to Circuit City or Border’s and buy stuff you get points per dollar. This could be really beneficial around Christmas time, as you could buy stuff online for family and friends through MyPoints and get points for more gift cards. We’ll see how that works come Black Friday.
So after all these ads and emails and surveys I had accrued enough points to get the coveted $25 gift card to Barnes & Noble. After redeeming my points, I patiently waited for it to arrive in the post and show the legitimacy or illegitimacy of this site. A week and a half later, I found a letter in my mail slot congratulating me on earning points to receive this “free” gift card. Thanks MyPoints, I feel like I really earned this.
Now I’m working on that Target card so I can get another bookshelf.
