There appears to be a new sign-up link for the online survey panel at Pinecone Research. If that one doesn’t work, the last sign-up link I mentioned is also working again. For some background, check out my brief Pinecone review here. Keep in mind these links tend to appear and disappear quickly. I just realized that I haven’t received one of their $5 surveys in a while. Maybe it’s because I moved? Or it just me? Link via Blueprint for Financial Prosperity.

Another online survey company that has paid out is Greenfield Online. I don’t they are quite as good as Pinecone, but there’s nothing wrong with signing up for both.

There appears to be a new sign-up link for Pinecone Research $5 surveys the mentioned previously, via commenter Grant:

[link is dead]

If you are looking for some paid surveys that are looking for new members, check out MySurvey (see my experiences) and SurveySavvy.

Amazon.com recently released a beta program called Mechanical Turk for using human intelligence to solve problems that are very difficult for computers to do. For example, you figure out the name of a band from the album cover, and you get paid 2 cents. Focused people end up making a few bucks an hour. I tried some tasks, but it was pretty mind-numbing. From a money point of view, it’s classic Bored Money. From a programmer’s point of view, it’s very neat.

For more information, also see the Wikipedia entry.

Time for more Bored Money… Although frequent flyer miles are getting watered down by the second, they are still worth something if you fly as much as me. And if they are free, why not get them? Whenever I have some free time I stop over to Gary Steiger’s excellent website FreeFrequentFlyerMiles.com. He sifts through all the current miles deals and filters it down to a easily manageable level. It’ll take a while to get caught up with all the goodies there, but after that I just always check the ‘What’s New?’ section.

There are always airlines giving out miles here and there for surveys, switching long-distance carriers, signing up for e-mail newsletters, and so on. It all adds up! Together with this site and my Starwood AmEx Card earning 1.25 miles per dollar spent on it, last time we flew to visit the parents it was with 50,000 miles for two free cross-country flights, saving us over $1,000.

Next up in the Bored Money arena is e-Rewards. It’s similar to MyPoints in that the make you fill out a big long profile and then pay you to receive e-mails, sign-up for offers, and fill out online surveys. They differ in that instead of Points and gift cards, e-Rewards uses e-Rewards dollars (not actual cash) and gives out some pretty random stuff. It’s pretty easy to earn money though, sometimes I get $5-$10 in one day.

For $25 in e-Rewards dollars, examples of what you can get include: 500 American or Northwest Airline Miles, $25 off any purchase at FTD.com, or 1,000 Hilton Honors points. However, my favorite reward is $25 for 6 free Blockbuster rentals – you get one movie free each month for six consecutive months. Here’s how I use it instead of NetFlix:
[Read more…]

Pinecone Research is a consumer opinion research group that polls people via online surveys and occasionally by actually sending you out product samples to review. In exchange for your feedback, they mail you a $5 check for each online survey you complete for them. Each survey takes about 15 minutes. It has a homegrown-feel to it, so I try to answer all the questions honestly (although I still don’t give out my home phone number).

The catch is that they are usually closed to new members, so it is really hard to join their panel. But this week happens to be Open Recruitment Week, so sign up right now if you’re interested! I’ve probably gotten around $100 from them, the $5 checks seem like nothing but you get one about every two weeks and it adds up! I’ve also received a bunch of free food items to review.

I’ve decided to add a new category called Bored Money. Be forewarned that these are not an efficient use of most people’s time. But if you have a desk job or any job with some downtime and internet access (or are just bored), why not eek out a little money?

The first one I’ll talk about is MyPoints, since it has been around for a while and has always delivered the promised goods. First, you sign up and give up all your personal information. Well, that’s the idea. I actually have an entire separate alias for all these Bored Money sites. The only thing you have to get correct is your name and address (use a fake phone number, they never check). I also use a free Yahoo e-mail.

You’ll get ‘Points’ for filling out surveys. I recommend having lots of interests. Accordingly, you’ll get the equivalent of requested spam in your e-mail box. You click on a link in each of them, most of which give you 5 Points. I get about 3-5 a day. When you accumulate enough Points, you can redeem them for gift certificates to various places like Wal-Mart, Red Lobster, and JC Penney. You can also get Points directly on their website for signing up for trial offers, buying things through their shopping mall, or signing up for clubs or mailing lists. I only do the free stuff, though.

So what’s a Point really worth? I usually redeem my Points for a $10 Target Gift Card, which is 1,500 Points. A $10 Starbucks Card is 1,350 Points. So that’s 0.67 cents a points. Or 3.3 cents an e-mail. Like I said, not a very efficient use of time. But I keep on doing it, because it’s mindless and lots of times you can sign up for sweepstakes, etc. for extra Points. The points actually add up really quick if you pay attention to it, I get about $10-20 in gift cards every couple months. I’ve earned 25,000 Points since joining according to them, worth about $165, without spending a dime. No telling how much time I’ve wasted on it, though. Shrug.

I recently joined this interesting site called BzzAgent. Basically, you sign up to try new products, and you spread the “Bzz” to others and let them know the reactions that you get. It’s better than simply taking surveys, as you actually get the product to try and they get better feedback than “yes, that might be something I’d buy”. The first product that I got to try for free was YourMusic.com. It’s similar to those music programs like BMG and Columbia House (who hasn’t joined one of those at least once), where you have to buy one CD per month.
[Read more…]