In 2007, a rewards program came onto the scene called BuzzShed. The concept was that you'd get paid for watching video ads that were targeted to your demographics... like YouData does with charging advertisers (and paying their members) for targeted website traffic. This proved an unsuccessful model (as appears to be the case with YouData, as well).
BuzzShed tinkered with the model some, eliminating the rewards and going for more of a social networking angle, and that didn't prove profitable, either.
Two weeks ago, BuzzShed director Hayden Saunders sent out an email to members saying that they were looking for a buyer or else they were going to have to consider shutting down the site, and to please pass the word to any entrepreneur-types that might be interested. He said that new signups were strong, that they have a loyal core of active members, and that monetizing traffic through links, banners, and contextual ads had not been tried yet and might be a viable way of generating income.
I know I have some rewards program reps that visit CompareRewards pretty frequently. If you think there may be some synergies there between a video advertising platform and your rewards program, please contact hayden (at) buzzshed (dot) com.
Borders has changed its rewards program, adding a new paid membership level called Borders Rewards Plus. Here's a summary of the new Borders Rewards:
The free Borders Rewards program, as before, offers coupons for in-store and online savings and rewards members with $5 in Borders Bucks for $150 in "qualifying purchases." It's offering a 30% discount on in-store purchases of hardcover bestsellers. And while Borders lists "free shipping on $25+ online orders" as a perk of the new free Borders Rewards membership, that's something that's available to EVERYONE -- you don't have to be a member to get it.
The new Borders Rewards Plus program costs $20 a year, and it gives members free shipping on all Borders.com orders without having to hit the $25 minimum, 40% off vs. 30% on hardcover bestsellers in-store, 20% off selected hardcovers' list price in-store, 10% almost the regular or sale price of almost anything else in-store, and the same $5 in Borders Bucks for $150 in qualifying purchases.
The paid membership is worth it if you typically make several online orders a year of under $25, or if you spend over $200 a year in-store.
From today through September 6th, Borders rewards purchase amounts will be doubled in value toward the $150 requirement for $5 in Borders Bucks (spend $75, and you'll get $5 in Borders Bucks, in other words).
Read the press release from yesterday announcing the new Borders Rewards Plus program.
If you're a member of QuizPoints, I want to warn you before you spend too much time accumulating earnings with the program: the word is that payments are slow to non-existent and customer service inquiries are being ignored. The company that owns QuizPoints, Digital Branding, LLC, currently has an "F" rating with the Better Business Bureau. I'm editing my QuizPoints review to reflect this, pulling my referral link, and I suggest that you take your business elsewhere.
Some of my favorite sites that are like QuizPoints but have better reputations and BBB ratings include FusionCash (cash for offers), QuickRewards.net or CreationsRewards (cash or points for offers, surveys, and shopping), and MrRebates or Ebates (cashback for shopping). These are all my referral links, by the way, so your joining and participating will help support CompareRewards. (Thanks!)
FYI, Digital Branding also operates other websites including DollarSurveys.net, GoFreebies.com, and DailyRaffle.com.
Updated daily!:
Ebates.com has a feature called the Daily Double, where they double their usual cashback rate for one merchant.
Today, September 2nd, you'll earn a whopping 32% cashback versus the usual 16% at 123Inkjets! Ebates lists coupon codes for them, too, for additional savings!
Not a member of Ebates yet? Get a $5 bonus when you sign up and make your first purchase! -- Join Ebates today! (aff)
Updated daily!:
MyPoints (aff) is doing a promotion called Double Days, where they double their shopping rate on one selected merchant every day.
Today, September 2nd, you'll earn 4 points per dollar (worth around 3%) at PacSun!
If you're not a member of MyPoints.com and you'd like to sign up, earning points redeemable for gift cards for doing things like reading emails, answering surveys, completing polls, and shopping, please click here (aff) -- thanks!
If you're finding your MyPoints (aff) account balance dropped by 500 points this week and you're wondering why, it's due to a big-time screwup last month.
It seems that "an intermittent technical error in late July" gave some MyPoints members 500 points for just clicking through a ShareBuilder offer, when they were supposed to open and fund a new ShareBuilder account in order to receive the points.
The error was caught and reversed earlier this week, with MyPoints sending out an explanation by email to members impacted by the mistake. This could have been a pretty costly error for MyPoints, depending on the number of "intermittent" erroneous 500 point credits that were awarded: 500 MyPoints = $3.73, give or take.
But the question I have is this: couldn't MyPoints have just honored their mistake? After all, if I go into a department store and an item is incorrectly marked, they honor their mistake. I can't tell you how many price mistake deals I've gotten online over the years, honored by the merchant nonetheless at their expense. You chalk it up to marketing expense, good will, write it off as a loss... certainly a company as large as MyPoints, which according to MyPointsCorp.com has over 7 million members in its database, can afford to honor their own $3.73 mistake... unless it was a very widespread error, affecting thousands and thousands of members, in which case I can see it not being financially feasible to honor the error, but that would indicate that it was more than just "intermittent."
Customer service is crucial to any business, and rewards programs aren't exempt from this principle. People make mistakes, and companies make mistakes, of course, but I think that MyPoints could have handled this better. Their email explanation was cold and impersonal, and though it offered an apology at the end, it didn't even seem that sincere. It read,
"Dear P-----,
We're writing you to explain the recent Sharebuilder activity in your MyPoints Account Statement. An intermittent technical error in late July caused a Point credit of 500 Points under the Description: 'ShareBuilder BonusMail Fund Account'. This offer was for opening and funding a ShareBuilder account. On 08-23-10 we reversed this erroneous Point award from your MyPoints account. Rest assured no rightfully earned Points have been deducted from your account. We apologize for any inconvenience this may have caused and we appreciate your understanding.
Sincerely,The MyPoints Member Services Team"
People respond better to someone TAKING PERSONAL RESPONSIBILITY for a mistake. They also like to be offered some sort of consolation gift when they are the victim of a mistake. Had I been the one to craft this email, it would have gone something like this:
"Dear Becky,
I'm writing today to explain an account adjustment being made to your account. We goofed. About a month ago, we posted an offer that read, 'Get 500 points for opening and funding a new ShareBuilder account.' Thousands of MyPoints accounts were credited in error simply for clicking through the email. We weren't paid by the advertiser for the click-through, only for those members who completed the offer as stated. While we feel the right thing to do would be to allow all members to keep these points since it was our error, this would be too costly for our company particularly given this economic climate. MyPoints strives to provide our members with a seamless and error-free experience and in this instance we failed. Please accept my personal apology and a Good Will Credit in the amount of 50 points for the confusion and inconvenience that this may have caused you. We have learned from this unfortunate incident and will work hard to ensure that it doesn't happen again. Thank you for your continued membership, and please consider ShareBuilder for your online trading needs, where you'll receive 500 MyPoints for opening and funding a new account.
Humbly,
NAME OF SOMEBODY at MyPoints, and their title"
I think people would be more understanding of my version, don't you?
Sears is doing its Christmas Club Card promotion again this year (the co-branded cards can be used at Kmart stores also): buy a Christmas Club card preloaded with a value of at least $5 before October 31st, and you can add cash to the card whenever you'd like. Then, sometime between 11/16 and 11/24 (at the latest), Sears will add 3% to whatever value was on the card on 11/15.
There are two versions of the card: a standard (physical) card and an electronic "card." Either can be used in-store. The only difference is that the physical card can be purchased and reloaded in-store or online... while the eCard can only be purchased and reloaded online.
The Sears Christmas Club website has a handy calculator for building a weekly savings plan: enter how much you'd like to save in total and when you want to begin, then it tells you how much to sock away every week to reach your goal.
The card has no expiration and no fees. It can't be used to buy third-party prepaid or debit cards, and no cash refunds are available for purchases made with the card. But all in all, if you were planning to shop at Sears or Kmart anyway, this is a free 3% store credit (up to $100) just for buying a card by 10/31 and getting it preloaded by November 15th.
I haven't logged in to my JCPenney Rewards account in a while -- sidetracked with personal concerns -- but in planning a trip to the mall this weekend, I decided to log in and cash out my $10 award for the month. I knew for a fact that last month I had spent at least the $250 minimum to receive it. But when I logged in, I had zero points earned since March!
Curious and more than a little irritated, I poked around on the site some and realized the problems:
1. Clearance purchases don't count. I knew this at some point but forgot about it.
2. My debit card number changed when I was issued a new card, and I hadn't updated it on the site.
3. One of my credit cards had expired, and I hadn't been prompted to update the expiration date by two years. (The card number didn't change, mind you.)
Further, if you don't remember to log in and print the reward...you lose it. Since joining the program in fall of '08, they issued me five $10 rewards...and I only used one.
Plus, I would have earned probably enough points to get the $10 reward every month since March had I been vigilant enough to check in and see that my credit card expired and my debit card number was outdated.
I'm not faulting JCPenney, mind you -- their rules are pretty clear. But I wanted to offer this up as a reminder to those of you who may have signed up for JCPrewards and like me, haven't been attentive to your account history: it's your responsibility to keep your info updated and to stay on top of your account to be sure that points are credited when you shop, and rewards are printed and used before they expire. Don't miss out on your rewards like I did! Log in now at JCPrewards.com and make sure your information is up to date!
MrRebates (aff), which already has some of the highest cashback rates on the planet, has increased their rates on hundreds of stores in their 2010 Back to School promotion. In addition, by simply clicking through their links to any store, you may be one of their daily winners of an absolutely free Apple iPad! This promotion runs through August 31st.
A few examples of the cashback rate boosts include Barnes and Noble (up from 4 to 6% -- get your textbooks here), Buy.com from 1% to 4% (great for picking up a new laptop or graphing calculator), Shoebuy from 12% to 15% (shoes and backpacks, and all orders ship free), and Old Navy from 3% to 10% (stylish clothes for all ages).
MrRebates provides coupon codes for all of their merchants, where available. So their cashback rates are ON TOP OF the great coupon codes provided for these stores.
If you're not a member of MrRebates already (gee whiz, where have you been?!) -- CompareRewards visitors have been given a special $7.50 signup bonus (vs. the usual $5)... all you have to do is join MrRebates here! (aff)
My apologies for the two month hiatus here at CompareRewards.com: my mom had open heart surgery (a triple bypass) and I helped my dad take care of her, then six weeks later I became the primary caregiver for my father-in-law who was suffering from end-stage prostate cancer which had metastasized to his lungs, spine, liver, and brain. He passed away three weeks ago. Somewhat distracted by these family issues, I wasn't able to take care of a domain hosting problem and the next free minute I had to check my site, it was, in my husband's words, "all jacked up."
All appears to be fixed now (no thanks to TuCows or iPowerWeb), and finally I'm back in business.
Thanks for checking back in with me, and I hope that you'll continue to visit frequently for the latest news, reviews, and tips on rewards programs, survey sites, and other cool ways to save and earn online!
Upromise increases their shopping reward for one merchant every week.
Through September 3rd, you'll earn 7% (vs. the usual 5%) at Avon!
Upromise has great ways to earn for college or cashback for yourself both online and off. Be sure to check out their dining program and their eCoupons! Not a member yet? Join UPromise.com here! (aff)
