Wednesday, May 02, 2007

Payments for April 2007

eBay$78.32
ReviewMe$20.00
Blogitive$5.00
PayPerPost$20.00
ePoll$30.00
Esearch surveys$1.00
Lightspeed Panel surveys$10.00
KRI Panel surveys$15.00
Total:$239.32
Year-to-Date:$749.52

When I sat down to start this post, I was thinking it wasn't going to be a very good month. I knew the profits from eBay sales was going to be a lot lower than last month, and lower our average. But total income for the month turned out to be right about average, and came from a higher number of sources, which I'm happy about. After all, part of what I'm trying to do with this blog is show that there are lots of different ways to make money online. So I'm happy not to have all my eggs in one basket.

One reason for lower ebay profits this month is because we've just increased our prices, which was necessary due to increased import/shipping costs. Another is because we've launched some new advertising campaigns, which has resulted in quite a few new customers trying out our products. New customers usually make smaller purchases, especially the "trial pack" we offer, which only costs them a few dollars, and from which we make almost no profit. But we know that those low-cost trial packs are great for us in the longer term, so hopefully sales will pick up in the coming months. In any case, I'm definitely not complaining. Over $75 profit on around $275 in sales, and all I do is put up a few auction listings each week, answer a few inquiries, and a few trips a week to the Post Office or the nearest mailbox.

I'm also happy with the money I made from sponsored posts last month. $45 in total, with $20 from PayPerPost, $20 from ReviewMe, and $5 from Blogitive. I think that's probably about as much as I'll ever make in a month, unless I add sponsored posts to some other blogs. I really don't want to just start throwing up a bunch of sponsored posts that have nothing to do with the topics I normally blog about here at FCS, but I've been thinking that it might be a good idea to start a new blog, or re-purpose an old one, that's better suited to sponsored posts, affiliate sales, etc.

And the third way I made money in April was from online survey companies. $56 in total, with most of it paid in the form of Amazon gift certificates, which is just as good as cash in my particular case. I loooooove shopping at Amazon! That's more than I've earned from paid survey companies in a long time. What's changed? For one thing, I think many of the companies are sending out more surveys, so that helps. The only change I've made is that I've got all my survey invitations going to a single email address, and I'm trying to check that email account several times a day, and do the surveys ASAP. Some days I do the "screeners" and don't qualify for the full surveys, other days I do one or two surveys, so it probably averages out to be about 20 minutes of "work" a day.

So as it turns out, I'm quite happy with my earnings this month. Not only did I make over $200 that I wouldn't have otherwise made, but I did it doing stuff I enjoy anyway. Blogging, selling stuff on eBay, and sharing my opinions. Sweet!

Technorati Tags: , , , , , , , ,

Powered by ScribeFire.

Labels: , , , , ,

Sunday, April 22, 2007

Making Money With Paid Surveys is NOT a Job

Deborah Ng at WorkFromHomeMomma posted about paid surveys today, and I suspect her experience with them sounds very familiar. I totally agree that doing paid surveys isn't a job, or even an employment opportunity, and it's a shame that they're often marketed as such.

Deborah makes money online as a freelance writer. She says she has more work than she knows what to do with, and she's being paid to do something she loves -- writing. So it makes sense that she wouldn't want to use up any of her writing time to spend it doing paid surveys. But that doesn't mean paid surveys are a waste of time for everybody.

We've all got to decide for ourselves how we can best use our time, and I know that there are people out there who've managed to turn their participation in paid surveys (and especially the promotion of paid survey programs) into very lucrative businesses. But for most of us, paid surveys are at best going to bring in a bit of extra money. Maybe a few hundred bucks a year. That's not a job, and depending on your other options, it might not be the smartest, or most profitable, way to use your time online.

But if you enjoy spending a bit of your time doing these sorts of surveys (personally, I like the ones where I get to find out about new products before they're launched), and you feel like the money you're being offered is a reasonably fair exchange for that time, then paid surveys can be a nice way to make a few extra bucks.

Some of the paid survey programs that I recommend these days include:

MySurvey
LightSpeed Panel
ePoll
American Consumer Opinion Panel
SurveySavvy
SurveySpot

Technorati Tags: , ,

Powered by ScribeFire.

Labels: ,

Thursday, April 12, 2007

Doing More Paid Surveys

After reading a blog post about paid surveys (that I won't link to because it was basically trying to con people into paying to join a paid survey scam site), I've been making an effort to increase my survey participation. And in just a week or so, it's really starting to pay off.

I've joined a few new programs, updated my profiles at some older ones, and I've made sure when I got a survey invitation in my inbox that I took the survey as soon as possible.

The results? I've been paid around $55 in Amazon gift certificates so far this month. $30 from ePoll, $10 from LightSpeed, and $15 from KRI Panel. And I've nearly got enough points for another $10 AGC from LightSpeed, and $10 cash from NFOMySurvey.

My advice for making money from paid surveys includes:
  • Use two dedicated email addresses -- sign up with one address, then when you've determined that a program is legit, move it to the other address
  • check those email accounts every day, and respond to any survey invitations as quickly as possible
  • fill out your profile as completely as possible
  • never pay for access to a list of survey sites
The thing I like about surveys is that not only do you get paid for doing them, but some of them are a lot of fun. I enjoy finding out about new products before they're released, and I looooooove telling companies what I think they're doing right and wrong (especially telling them what they're doing wrong!). Some of the surveys can be tedious and boring, and it drives me nuts when I spend 10 minutes answering questions only to be told I don't qualify for the survey, but mostly doing paid surveys is an enjoyable and rewarding (financially speaking, that is) experience.

Labels: , ,

Monday, July 04, 2005

Recommended Programs


After reviewing the results for June, I've made a few revisions to my list of recommended programs. They include:

Paid to Read

5StarPromotions
EmailCash (Australia Only)
MyPoints
PecoMail

Traffic Exchanges

BlogaZoo*
BlogExplosion*
BlogSoldiers*
ClickCrazey
ClickVoyager
DeepSeaHits
ExchangePilot
FastLaneTraffic
MysticalMaze
RewardingTraffic
ScreenRotator
ShareAdSpace
Surf4theEarth
TrafficRoundup
WebMasterQuest

* Blogs Only

Paid Surveys

American Consumer Opinion Panel
Ciao! (Au,NZ,Can)
ClickIQ (US)
ePoll (US)
Greenfield
NFO MySurvey (US,UK,Can)
PureProfile (Au)
Socratic Forum
SurveySavvy
SurveySpot (US,UK,Can,Au)



Last Updated on 25 March, 2007



Labels: , ,

Friday, March 18, 2005

For Aussies: EmailCash and PureProfile


Australians interested in saving money should definately consider joining two excellent Australian websites -- EmailCash and PureProfile.

EmailCash is a rewards program that gives members points for reading emails, visiting websites, answering surveys and shopping at EmailCash Reward Partners. And the best part is, not only do they reward you for shopping, but you can find some great Australian websites. My favourite is ClickDVD for music, movie, and TV series DVDs, and my wife loves Alt(Everything) for all-natural body products. EmailCash has been around since 1999 and has over 400,000 members!

PureProfile was originally owned by AustraliaPost, and pays members for participating in surveys. The surveys usually take less than 1 minute to complete, and pay between $1-3. I've been a member since 2002, and not only have I earned a bit of extra cash, I've enjoyed quite a few offers from PureProfile marketing partners.

Categories: ,

Labels: , ,