Sisterly Savings

This  year, I plan on spending more time on market research panels and surveys. While  I am currently a member of a few test panels & survey sites, I haven’t really placed any effort on my part into most of them which I really wish I had. But no fear, with a new year comes lessons learned right?

One market research panel I just joined last month, Toluna, sent me  (2) t shirts to test and complete a survey on the wash & wear of it. Plus I get an additional $10 just for participating & completing the survey. Pretty sweet! So there are definitely some perks to it!!

Now with online market research panels, you won’t qualify for all of them. I have been turned down for quite a few but fortunately I was able to get in on a few high ones!

Once you sign up with a company, the companies will usually send you an email with a screener  to see if you qualify . If you do qualify, then you’ll be able to take the survey and/or participate in a panel.

I get a few emails from Toluna to complete surveys that equal anywhere from $1-$3 generally, but I have also gotten (2) survey opportunities for $10. While I don’t have the time to complete a lot of surveys, they can be a great way to build a little extra money on a monthly basis that I tend on working into my schedule.

If you would like to sign up with Toluna, just click on the above banner to register for free.

This year, my goal is to do do more activities online that will hopefully earn me a little extra money that I can put away for Christmas next year, like I did this year. There are so many opportunities available online to make money like Swagbucks (where I was able to get kids a Wii this year for Free!!) to surveys that are totally legitimate and while your not gonna get rich overnight, every little bit helps and can really add up!

To start off with, Twitter has become a venue where you can earn a little extra money and there are currently 3 that I know of and have joined:

Sponsored Tweets: I have been with this company for a few months and to date I have made $28.30 so far.

How It Works: Once you sign up , you’ll receive offers from advertisers for you to tweet via email. You then get to choose whether you want to accept or decline an offer. This method was slow starting in the process as I only got a few offers the first 2 months, but lately I have gotten quite a few offers all at once. I generally get offers that are relevant for me to tweet out, however there were a few that I did decline because it wasn’t in my readers interests.

Twittad: I have been with Twittad for several months now and have a total of  $15 to date.

How it Works: Twittad offers campaigns that are matched up by your profile. Once a campaign is matched to you, you have the option to accept or decline it. If you accept , then your Twitter background will display the advertiser for a set amount of days. Once the campaign is over, your background will go back to your usual profile. So far it has been slow moving for me and I don’t get too many campaigns. Generally I get about 1-2 campaigns a month at best.

Ad.ly: I just joined this today and it appears to be the same concept as Sponsored Tweets as they match you with a sponsor and the ad gets tweeted out via your twitter account. One feature that I find interesting is that I can choose to have my earnings donated to a charity! I’ll have to keep you updated on how well I do with this program!

While I do realize these are all small amounts,  they are relatively easy and don’t  take a lot of time or effort. However, I do think these opportunities will increase as more advertisers sign on with these companies because Twitter has become so popular!

One word of advice: I do highly recommend that you only accept offers that are relevant to your Twitter followers though and that you are not just advertising just for the sake of earning a little extra money. I know your followers will thank you for it!

Have you had any success with any of these Twitter Programs? Or do you know of another company where you can earn money via Twitter? If so, we’d love to hear about it!!

Here’s a free giftcard offer that you can earn just by having 50 of your friends & family sign up! I just love when we come across offers like these, and they take no time at all!

Here’s how it works:

*Join IMShopping. Be sure to enter a valid email address to qualify for the Free Giftcard!

*Ask or answer a question. The questions vary widely and deal with shopping (our expertise ladies!) They are really easy to answer. Or maybe you have a question that needs to be answered, now is the time to do so!

*Once your all registered and have posted or answered a question, now you can invite all your friends and family to sign up.

In your IMShopping account, you’ll see a tab for “MYIMShopping”, this is where you can find your personal link or you can add email addresses and send to all your friends.

In order for your friend to be valid, they need to also follow the above steps in order to get their Free Giftcard.

After your account has reached 50 people you’ll get your Free Amazon.com Giftcard (not sure if you’ll get an actual card via mail or by email, still looking for details!), you then can earn an additional $25 Amazon.com giftcard for every 100 people who signed up under you, with a limit of $250 per account.

IMShopping is a knowledgeable community provides that answers to your shopping questions. You also can earn points for various activities such as taking polss, asking/answering questions etc. The points help you to build credibility on your “expertise”.

You also have the chance to earn money while answering questions as well!  have answered 2 queations so far, so let’s see how well I do!!

Now, I just need 50 of my loyal readers here to be so kind and sign up too! It’s a win-win for both of us,lol!! Here’s to another Free Gift Card!!

(Thanks to Kim at Work at Home Mafia for sharing this awesome deal with us!)

ShopAtHome.com is hosting a  Holiday Kick-Off Extra Cash Back Event with more than 50 national retailers participating! This event will take place starting today, November 9 – 16th, 2009.

What does this mean for you? You’ll earn extra cash back on the prurchases you make through ShopatHome.com with participating online retailers.

Some of the deals include:

• Target.com – 6% cash back

• Walmart.com – 4% cash back
• Kohls.com – 4% cash back
• Snapfish.com – 20% cash back
• Gap.com – 12% cash back
• OldNavy.com – 10% cash back
• Macys.com – 8% cash back
• Barnes & Noble – 14% cash back
• Best Buy – 4% cash back

Remember you can combine free online coupon codes with cash back savings and there are also many free shipping codes.Check out ShopAtHome.com’s Free Shipping Guide here.

To help kick off this mega-savings event, ShopatHome is offering 1 lucky reader a $100 Target eGift Certificate to help you with your online Holiday Purchases this season! Of course, you’ll want to shop Target through ShopatHome, where you’ll earn money as well, its a win-win!!

To Enter:

Required Entry:

Register Online with ShopatHome.com (you MUST be registered in order to enter). Then come back here and let us know what email you signed up with. Please note that this information will be confirmed.

Extra Entries:

*Leave a comment telling us your favorite store to shop at.

* Become a ShopatHome Fan on Facebook , then come back here and leave us your Facebook Name in the comments.

*Follow ShopatHome on Twitter.

*Follow us (SisterlySavings) on Twitter and come back here leaving a comment with your twitter username– if your already a follower, leave your username

*Tweet about this giveaway. You can do a daily tweet once per day. Be sure to come back and leave us the direct URL to your Tweet in the comments for each day you tweet!

*Stumble this post on Stumble Upon, then come back here and leave us your Stumble Name.

Not familiar with ShopatHome? View our previous post here on how you can earn extra money when you shop online!

There’s a new online study available that will be on November 9-11th,2009 for women only about haircare. The study pays $100, a good way to earn a little extra cash before the Holidays!

Take the screening test and  if you qualify for the paid portion of this study, you will receive a phone call within 2-3 business days from a 20/20 Recruiter.

See if you qualify: http://bit.ly/DkDPq

Good Luck! I signed up, hope I get chosen!!

Get paid to shop, really? Do those words seem like an oxymoron to you? If your an online shopper, you can find some really great deals online but in addition to those deals, you can earn a percentage back through cash back sites such as Shopathome.com.

ShopAtHome offers Cash Back Savings when shopping online at the thousands of merchants such as Kohl’s ,WalMart , Target , Barnes and Noble 7 and a lot more plus more than 46,000 online coupons at more than 20,000 merchants.

Shopathome also offers a unique downloadable toolbar that caught my eye. Once downloaded (optional), if you happen to go on a site to shop and say you forget to log into Shopathome.com first, the toolbar automatically recognizes the store and will still give you the percentage of your purchase back! This feature  is  great, because this way, you won’t ever miss out on earning a little extra cash back!

You’ll also get a Free $5 added to your account just by signing up (it’s free to join) and if you refer friends, you’ll earn an additional $5 for each one who signs up? Pretty cool way to earn a little cash for this Holiday Season!

Shopathome is also having a giveaway right now through November 4th on their Facebook page to win $1,000!

You can find more online shopping tips that can help you save money by reading our previous article here.

PineCone Research is one of the TOP premier research panels that only accepts new applications a few times a year and the panel is now open (usually they only accept new members by elite email invites)! The application process doesn’t stay open for long, so if you would like to join, here’s your chance!

They don’t send very many surveys, but the ones they do are well worth it! I’ve been a member for almost 2 years now, at that time, I had to”hunt” down an elusive banner to sign up, lol!

I have never heard of this company but I am all game when it gets positive reviews from a real user!

Brandie @ Free Sample Freak has made $174 with Hits4Pay. It’s pretty much the same as all survey sites where you sign up to read emails, although with this company, Brandie says you need to log into your account to check what’s available!

There were only 2500 spots available a few months or so ago which means they will be running out of openings soon! I signed up immediately and am just waiting for approval! I also get a Free $10 sign on bonus, woohoo!  I’ll keep you all posted with how well Hits4Pay out!

If you own a blog or website (or would like to start one) you can make a little extra income with advertising and affiliate programs. One of my favorite companies to work with is MySavingsMedia.

I have been with MySavings Media for about a year so far and have had great success with them because of all the legitimate offers they have that are relevant and useful to me and my readers. Not to many companies can offer that!

One of the best features at MySavings Media is the Syndicated Savings Widget where you place the code on your site and voila! You have an instant customizable page of savings that doesn’t need any updating, which leaves you more time to blog! Yeah! MySavings Media makes it quick and simple to offer Freebies and Printable Coupons to your readers while supplementing a small bloggy income!

If you think you might be interested in joining MySavings Media – Promote brand name coupons and free product samples on your web site or blog then  Click Here to sign up! I highly recommend it:)

You all know by now how I am a HUGE fan of Swagbucks, yes? Well I have found a new search engine site that reader Emily has let us in on called iRazoo.

It has the same search engine concept as google,yahoo & swagbucks but with an added twist- you can also “earn” points for your searches. Emily has confirmed that she has won 2 $5 Amazon.com giftcards and hey, I am game after all! Its worth a try at signing up to see what it brings!

Here are the details of the program from the site:

How does the  search engine and points system work?

Step 1: Perform a regular search query. Once you click on result, at the top of the web page you will see our voting frame which asks you to decide to either recommend or not recommend a website to other users. By recommending or not recommending a website, you will receive “4″ points (up to a maximum of 300 points per day).

Step 2: You can also receive additional “4″ points for each comment you enter. Therefore if you vote on a website and enter a comment you will get “8″ points total each time (you have a maximum limit of earning 300 points per day). You can also earn “4″ points each time you enter a comment about a website for which others have already voted on (you will see these websites under our “People Recommended Results” heading on the search results page).

Step 3: You can also receive points by referring a friend on our “Refer a friend” link at the bottom of every page. Each friend of yours that registers on the iRazoo website will earn you “50″ points (there is no limit to the number of points you can earn this way. You have no daily limit, the number of points you can earn are unlimited!!!)

Step 4: Redeem all your hard earned points on our “Accounts” page by exchanging them for exciting prizes such as MP3 players, cameras, memory sticks, game systems, etc!

Step 5: In addition to more points, each person you refer to the iRazoo.com website increases your chances of earning an Instant-Win Gift Certificate! How you may ask? It’s simple. If anybody you refer to the iRazoo website wins a Gift Certificate, you will win that same Gift Certificate as well! Gift certificates are awarded randomly to users just for searching and/or voting on websites.
The best way to earn more points or win an Instant Gift Certificate is to use iRazoo as your everyday search engine and to refer as many people as possible to iRazoo.

Your benefits for using iRazoo:

• You get excellent search results (we aggregate all the data from the best search engines on the planet!)
• You get to help further refine our excellent search results for others as well as benefit from other’s refined search results
• You get points for each vote/comment you perform, each website you recommend/not recommend, and each referral you make
• Best of all, you get to exchange your points for fantastic prizes!

Now aftertaking a look at the prizes, I do think they are too high in points but if I get a chance to win a $5 GC, I will be just as happy! And I’ve already accrued 16 points in a matter of seconds just by leaving a quik comment and recommending!

Want to sign up? Just click here to sign up!

Has anyone else had any success with iRazoo? Please share your experiences with us!

Research companies are a good way to earn a little extra cash for stay at home moms. I just recently completed a J&J research panel where I was compensated $100 for only 2 hours of my time, although I did have to drive about an hour but it was worth it:)

If you ever get an opportunity to find a legitimate company and you feel comfortable with doing research (believe me, I have my limits!), they are a fantastic way to help and earn money.

My Good Cents found one research group, 20/20 that is open right now and looking for study participants for a Childcare survey which will require you to log on and answer question from August 14-Sept 8th. If you meet the requirements and complete the study, you will be compensated with a $225 online gift card (not sure to what store, maybe an online Visa,etc?)

If interested, you can fill out the pre-screening application to see if you qualify. Please be sure to provide accurate information as they do call you if you are eligible:

Thank you for taking our survey.  If you qualify for the paid portion of the research study based on the answers you provided, a 20/20 Research recruiter will contact you within the next 2-3 business days.

***Please note that you will ONLY be contacted by a 20/20 Research recruiter IF you qualify for the paid portion of the research study.

If you are not a member of the 20/20 Research database and would like to join, go to http://www.2020research.com/panel.php

Do you have any research companies that you recommend to our readers, please leave us a comment sharing them with us! Or maybe you have had success with a particular study, we’d love to hear about it!

Get a a Free Copy of A Beginner’s Guide: 5 Simple Steps To Start Making Money With Affiliate Programs that gives you 5 quick steps to start earning money with affiliate programs if your a blogger.

Author Nicole Dean outlines the 5 simple steps you can learn to start earning an extra $50 or $200 and possibly more using affiliate programs. No inventory for you to carry, no parties, no customer support. Just blogging and wisely recommending.

Enjoy!

If you have a website or blog, you can get a Free $25 for signing up with Ready Site! Ready Site is an affiliate that offers “ready made sites” and all you have to do is just place the code on your site!

You could have your very own Freebies Page in a matter of minutes!! You can view my ‘Ready Made Site” here! The best part is that the offers and links are updated daily so you’ll know the offers are always available!!

I’m a little bummed that I missed out on the free $25 for new sign ups, but you’ll be able to take advantage at least:) Hurry now while the $25 Free Sign Up Bonus is still available!!

Sign up for ReadySite here!!

I have a goodie for you that I am happy to report actually works!!! While it is a bit of work, the amount that you can earn depends totally upon you and the offers or referrals itself.

The only part that I was skeptical about was that I has to pay $25 OOP at first for the program. But I did my research 1st, and decided to give it a try. After all, if I didn’t like the program, there’s a 30 day day money back guarantee so what’s to lose?

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Monetizing your website or blog can be very rewarding but it doesn’t come easy. However there are some companies that have gone above and beyond the call of duty to try and simplify the process. The latest opportunity I have run across is using Ready Site a partnership that I became aware of in a special announcement from Logical Media.

Ready Site is easy to use and the best feature of all is that it updates daily by itself. If you feel that your readers would be interested in free offers like product samples (who doesn’t love a free sample to learn about and try a new product) then this is for you.

After you have been approved it is very simple to create your customized page or banner to place on your website, blog or social networking site.  Ready Site manages the campaigns so there is no need to keep up with emails regarding expired campaigns or changes in current offers.

Basically once you have created your page or banner and added the html code to your site you can forget about it. Your work is done, sit back watch your stats and wait to get paid. Right now Ready Site is offering $25 for new signups so if you feel this is something you would be interested in right now is the perfect time to get started.

Just to recap how easy it is to use Ready Site.

1. Sign up and wait to be approved.
2. Customize your page or banner and place the code on your website/blog/social network site.
3. Watch your stats and wait to be paid.

The longest step in this process for me was getting approved. Customization took literally 5 or 10 minutes and the banner I designed fits perfectly in my sidebar and matches my site design. Once I placed the code on my site the ads were there immediately and I have already noticed them changing on their own. I couldn’t be happier with my decision to sign up and use Ready Site.

Do you enjoy sampling FREE products and services? Have you ever wanted to tell companies how they can improve your favorite items? Do your friends turn to you for your opinions and advice?

Then you may want to sign up for Word of Mouth Marketing Campaigns that allow you to test product samples in exchange for your opinion and passing along the word.

I’ve been a member of a few great companies and have gotten some really great Freebies and coupons. Here are my top picks below!

SheSpeaks:

SheSpeaks.com creates valuable conversations between women and brands. SheSpeaks members try products, provide their feedback, and influence the brands that matter to them. Its a win for consumers and win for brands. Since becoming a member, I’ve had 3 chances for trying Brand new products! Great company!!!!

Buzz Agent

Join BzzAgent’s word-of-mouth (WOM) marketing network to try new products and spread word of mouth. I’ve gotten quite a few great products to try out since becoming a member last year!!

General Mills: Psst

The Pssst is a General Mills word of mouth program that asks that you pass along coupons to friends, family, and co-workers and in exchange you get valuable products and coupons to try!

House Party

A House Party™ is thousands of parties happening across the country on a single day, hosted by people just like you. Each event is sponsored by a leading brand and focuses on something cool—like a new product, hit TV show, or great cause—that the sponsor wants its best fans to experience firsthand and share with their friends. To date, I have hosted 2 House Parties! Such fun and great party packs!!!!

You don’t get picked for every campaign, just a few that fit your profile, so be sure to thoroughly complete any profiles in your account so that you can be chosen for campaigns!!

Also, be sure to use an email address that you check everyday because you never know when a campaign will become available and you don’t want to miss out on one!

Now go and spread the word,lol!!!

If your a Bank of America customer, you can sign up for a new cash back program when you register your  BOA credit or debit card.

You’ll get up to 20% for shopping online at over 250 merchants when you start your shopping session at the AddItUp Program’s website.

Registration is free for Bank of America Online Banking customers with an eligible Bank of America credit or check card.

Once registered, here’s how to start earning cash
back:

* Sign in and select an offer on this website to begin shopping. For online purchases, always access the retailer’s website through the Add it UpTM offer page.

* Use your registered Bank of America card to pay. On the retailer’s website or at the register for in-store offers, use a card you registered in the Add It UpTM program.

* Receive cash back. Your cash back earnings are credited to the eligible checking or credit card account of your choice.

Sign up and get more details here.