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.

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!

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?

(more…)

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.

No, I’m not talking about ballroom dancing. I’m talking about text messaging ChaCha (242242) or calling 800-2ChaCha the human-powered search and answer service. ChaCha is a free service where live people answer your questions 24 hours a day 7 days a week. I bet your wondering why you would need to use a service like this. Let me give you an example.

Say you want to know the hours a restaurant is open but you don’t know the number to call and ask and you don’t have access to the internet. If you text ChaCha and ask them a question like: “What are the hours for (restaurant name) in (city & state)?”, a guide will then search for the answer to your question and reply with the answer. When submitting a geo-specific question to ChaCha you should include key identifiers like the city and state name or zip code. If it is a large city with multiple locations you may want to include the cross streets to help the guide provide you with the information your are seeking.

You can text ChaCha a question about almost anything. Just give them a try, I bet you are not the first to ask that type of question. Keep in mind though that their Terms of Service do restrict some adult-oriented questions.

If you’re bored ask ChaCha to tell you a joke, send you trivia, a quote or even a fortune. Honestly the guides have been asked a plethora of questions from one end of the spectrum to the other. Trust me, I know as I am a guide for ChaCha.

I call being a guide for ChaCha my work at home job that I only have to do if I want to. Seriously, I’m not lying one bit. I log in and perform searches only if and when I want to. I get paid per search performed, which means that I can log in for as little or as long as I want. I can stop and come back as I am able, think of it like being your own boss and you decide if and when you’ll work. While I won’t get rich being a guide it does help me feel like I am contributing to my family and it is a great way for a Stay-at-Home Mom to help supplement her families income. ChaCha is currently accepting applications for new guides and if you are interested in learning more about becoming a guide feel free to email me. I’d be happy to answer any questions you may have as well as invite you to join my team by being your referral. I have many helpful tips of the trade that I am more than happy to share with members of my team.

So now that you know that you have the power to ask someone practically anything at the tips of your thumbs are you going to get out there and do the ChaCha?

{Back in October,2008, we first introduced you to Cha Cha as a means for earning some extra cash. In January of 2009, I received a quick email from reader Karen about Cha Cha:

“Just wanted to say thanks for your info on “ChaCha” awhile back……I joined them and in Nov and Dec I made $600 for maybe 10 hrs/ week. It’s working out excellent for me!!”

Now that they are once again accepting applications, now is the time to sign up before they close the offer again!!}

Are you using Swagbucks.com to be rewarded with the hot digital currency called “Swag Bucks”? If you’ve always wanted to be swagged then now is a great time to join and start accumulating bucks to redeem for prizes. There are numerous ways to earn Swag currency including searching the internet (I recommend using the SB toolbar), recycling your old electronics, shopping online, commenting on the Swag Bucks Blog, referring your friends, interacting with The Swag Guy on Facebook, submitting polls, finding codes and more! Earning Swag Bucks is easy and they accumulate rather quickly.

I redeem my Swag Bucks for Amazon.com gift certificates because you never know when the next hot deal will roll around on Amazon! Besides Amazon.com offers a constant flow of hot deals and who can honestly say they can not find something to purchase there? All it takes to earn a $5 Amazon gift card is 45 Swag Bucks, they accrue so quickly that in no time (seriously a week, maybe two) you can earn your first gift card. The Swag Store has recently gone digital so it won’t be long after you cash in your credits that you can go to your “My Account” page then view the “My Gift Cards” tab and snag that new Amazon.com e-Gift Card. Then head over to Amazon.com login to your account, click on the “Apply a Gift Certificate/Card to You Account” link under “My Account”. This will apply the $5 to your Amazon.com account and you can use it on a future purchase. Pretty easy huh? Almost as easy as earning and redeeming  SwagBucks.

For those of you who are not Amazon shoppers don’t worry because The Swag Guy has an awesome stash of prizes stored in the Swag Vault from vintage collectibles to the latest technology. Truly there is something for everyone at Swagbucks.com. If you are not already a member hurry over and sign up because you never know when The Swag Guy will release his next clue to find a code worth a buck or two. I hope all of you enjoy using Swag Bucks as much as I have and I can’t wait to hear about what kind of prizes you redeem!

Today’s segment is from a wonderful bloggy friend of mine who is a money making guru when it comes to online offers!! Please give her a warm welcome!!

1. Surveys – These can be money makers that you can do at your own convenience.  Not only do you get to give your opinion, but you get paid. At times, you will even get items to test at home or be invited to participate in focus groups.  Some of the companies even give you a bit of money when you complete your pre-screening questions for each survey. 
2. Mystery Shopping – Do you like to shop?  What about going out to eat at restaurants with your family?  If you do, Mystery Shopping is a wonderful way to make some extra money or get free dinners out, etc.  If you apply with legit ( never pay ) companies, you will begin to receive shop requests daily that you can apply for and, if accepted, complete.  One of my readers recently got a $450 Gym membership for free, just for filling out a report each month.  How fun is that?
3. Bank Offers – Do you see all those advertisements for $100 free to open a new checking?  $50 free to set up a savings account?  Most of these have very easy stipulations to meet and before you know it, you have free money in your account.  And, as many people don’t realize, they usually do soft pulls on your credit, so they do NOT affect your credit score.  Yay! 
4. Online Offers – My all time favorite.  Do you remember when Jennifer got her free $500 Gift Cards?  I have been doing these for years and have made a very nice income off of them.  Next time you see a pop up advertisement online for a free Plasma TV, don’t automatically assume it is a scam.  Of course, research to make sure it is a legit company, or check with Jennifer or myself, but consider how much extra money you could make for your family with these.

I wanted to do a quick recap of the top performers in our Make Money Online Series that we started on a few weeks back. Missed a post? You can catch our intro here, but no worries, at the top Navbar, there is a “Make Money Online” link to our series where you can read up on all the posts!

So are you interested in making money online legitimately? We are highlighting only the tried and true methods that I myself have tried and gotten payment or am working on. I hope you will follow along and share your success as well!

Now for this year so far, the top Money Makers that you don’t want to miss out on are Swagbucks and YouData.

So far this year (Jan & Feb) I have made 542 Swagbucks which equals  (12) $5 Amazon.com Giftcards that I plan to use for Holidays and Special Occasions. That’s $60 I made for just searching online and through referrals. This is really Free & Easy money and you won’t want to miss out on this money maker! If you haven’t signed up for it yet, I highly recommend it!!

With Youdata, I have made $9.26 to date just for a few minutes of my time reading exceptionally great ads (literally!). They pay every Friday through paypal and have been prompt in their payments thru paypal. Sure its not a lot, but $9.26 every 2 weeks adds up to $250 a year! Are you willing to throw away money?? And YouData is for everyone, not just bloggers. So please sign up and start earning some moolah!!

And those are my top 2 picks so far! What will next week bring? You won’t want to miss out as we have a special guest blogger who is literally a genius/ guru to making money online!!

Make sure you never miss a deal or post by subscribing to our RSS feed located at the top right corner!! See you next week~~

To the Readers! We want to know if you are using any of these programs, and how much have you made so far? I would love to hear about it and it will help encourage other readers to participate as well, so please leave a comment below telling us of your experiences:)

If you haven’t signed up for SwagBucks yet, I highly recommend you do.  This program is a great way to earn Giftcards just by spending a few minutes a day searching online.

Swagbucks is similar to Google Search and is associated with Google, each search is an opportunity to win random “Swag Bucks” in the amount of $1, $2,$3 or $5. Swag Bucks can then be redeemed for various prizes like Amazon.com Giftcards through their store.

I have gotten quite a few $5 Amazon.com Giftcards last year, and so far this month, I have made 53 Swagbucks ( I got really lucky twice and got $5!). Typically, you win $1 at most times, and not all searches are a win. So if you like winning/earning prizes that can help you save some money, I highly recommend it!!

Its super easy to use and win! I downloaded the toolbar to my computer and I do random searches throughout the day which helps me not to forget. I win at least $1 a day! And they also have a referral program too where you win when your referral wins, so its a win win for you and a friend!

And thanks to Carrie @ MoneySavingMethods, I discovered their newsletter, where you’ll get random codes to redeem for Free SwagBucks! Today’s code is BeRewarded and I got a $1 in my account! Free Moolah! So be sure to sign up for their newsletter!

To Redeem your Code, once you register, click on the box that has your Swagbucks amount and scroll to bottom where it says to “Have a Swag Code”!

And thank you to all who sign up under my referral link!! If you register now, you’ll get $3 Free in Swagbucks to start you off with!!

Here is a new exciting money making opportunity worth trying out! Its called Cha Cha :

They are a texting service that answers any question you may have. The company has been around for a few years, but it made it’s debut at the Sundance Festival in January and has really picked up speed since then!

So how does the making money part work? Well, here’s the deal…You can sign up to be a ChaCha guide (someone who answers the questions asked) and you get paid per question (10-20 cents).

There is a somewhat lengthy “interview” process (about 2 hours total over a few days), but from all I can tell they don’t really turn anyone down unless they are a complete dud. I mean, you can take the test as many times as you want until you succeed. Sounds like a no-fail plan to me!

Sooooo….to learn more about this new moneymaking concept visit Heidi @ Today’s Daily Dose!