1. Coupons – Everyone always forgets to check for coupons before they buy something. Try heading over to Coupon Cabin.com and look for coupons good towards everyday products, free shipping on online orders, or a free trial. As for grocery coupons, try out InboxDollars for coupons that will not only save you on groceries but will pay you $0.10 per coupon used.

Just to get a rough idea, say you spend $100 a week on groceries and the coupons save you $5 per week plus $1.00 paid back to you for using the coupons. With 52 weeks in a year, that’s a total savings of $312 a year! Plus this estimate doesn’t include other coupons like free shipping or free trials.

2. Getting a Credit Card That Offers Points – A lot of people overlook the benefits of using a credit card due to the constant reminder that credit cards can get you into a lot of trouble. On the other hand, a responsible credit card holder can take advantage of a lot of benefits. For example, the Citi Forward Credit Card offers points for every dollar you spend and tons of bonus points for things like paying on time and using your credit wisely. As long as you have the money in your bank account to pay for the things you buy, then there’s no reason that you shouldn’t be using a credit card. As little as 6,000 bonus points is enough for a $50 gift card.

Plus credit cards offer a lot of bonus features that most people overlook. For example, if you book a hotel room with some credits cards and there is damage to the room or theft, the card automatically insures the room. Another example; buy a cell phone with some credit cards and if it’s lost or stolen you can replace the cell phone for up to two years after the purchase for a very small fee.

Savings from certain credit cards can total to about $300 a year and even higher if you ever end up using the insurance feature.

3. Get Your Cable Bill Down – Is your cable/internet/voice bill over $100 a month. If you live in the US you should giving your cable company a call and tell them the bill is too high and you need to cut down on the cost or you might have to drop the service or go to another company. Chances are that if you’re kind and explain that even a drop of $5.00 per month would greatly help you out, they will find a way to lower your bill. this might include dropping unused services or even getting rid of hidden fees like a cable modem rental. It doesn’t sound like much but shaving $5.00 off your bill every month will leave you with an extra $60 in your pocket at the end of the year.

I was always looking for ways to earn some extra money… but mostly ways to earn extra money that didn’t require a lot of work, would pay fairly well, and that I could do when I had the time. Here are some ways that are perfect for college students to earn money online.

1. InboxDollars
I made about $95 in one semester with this website. It was easy to do because I always had my laptop on me, so I was always checking my email. All you have to do is click on a link in an email to view an ad. You get paid $0.03 per email (which adds up). I also clipped some coupons from their site and got paid $0.10 for every coupon I used. Lastly, I referred my friends using a link they give you once you sign up. A lot of my college friends signed up and I never heard anyone complain about the essentially free money.

2. “Get a Free… Site”
People usually brush past these sites as scams, but you’d be surprised to find out that they actually work. I got a free iPod (yes, when there weren’t any iPods with touchscreen yet!). These offers work out really well when you’re in college because you most likely know a bunch of people, college kids like new tech gear for free, and you’re probably just itching to use the new credit card you just got.

Here’s how these deals work and how you can make out on top:

1. You submit your info (you basically create a login)

2. You complete a few trial offers. You are usually allowed to cancel after the initial FREE, or very close to free, trial period. That’s what I did. I canceled the day before the trial period ended with no questions asked. I was charged a total of $9.99 for all the trials I completed.

3. Get a few friends to complete the offers as well by giving them your referral link. I found that showing them the trials are actually free, or nearly free, and you signed up for them with no problems helps get rid of the skepticism.

4. Get your free item in the mail. I have to say, I was extremely surprised when my iPod showed up. Of course I had been telling my friends that I was 100% sure it was a legit offer. Obviously, I was lying. I thought it wasn’t going to work but I didn’t have much to lose. When it actually worked I bragged to all my friends and about 10 people I knew did the offers and referred their friends and ended up with iPods too.

5. Once you get your item, brag to your friends. Then find another cool offer to complete and this time your friends will have no problem completing the offers too. Once you get bored of your item, sell it on eBay.

Here’s one of those offers for you to get started on:

3. MTurk
This is a site run by Amazon. People post small jobs like finding contact info, categorizing a picture, or transcribing an mp3. They pay you per job done. Usually categorizing a picture will fetch you $0.02. It takes about a second or two to categorize the pictures so you can easily complete a few hundred in an hour. It a great way to earn a few extra dollars while you’re sitting in class… I mean, during your free time.

4. SurveySavvy
There are hundreds of paid survey websites out there, but I’d have to argue that SurveySavvy alone. Then I referred my friends and made even more!

5. Social Marketing
Since just about every college kid on the face of the Earth has a FaceBook profile and a million friends, social marketing is a great way to earn money. Look for ads on Craigslist asking for young adults to make posts about products. I know some kids who make $20.00 every time they make a status update about a product. A great way to put yourself in a good position for social marketing is to get as many friends as you can. Remember that kid you went to kindergarten with for one week? Friend him. Companies want to see that you have a ton of friends so their message will get out there.

Amazon’s Mturk

Inboxdollars

So, how are you supposed to make money with Google Adwords? The point is to choose a product or service to refer people to that, on average, pays out more per click than you have to spend per click. For example, an affiliate network might offer a $1.00 reward for every referral you get to sign up with a paid survey company. Let’s say that on average the link is generating $0.10 per click. That means that if you set your maximum bid per click to $0.05 you’ll be making an average of $0.05 per click! That’s amazing. However, it’s not that easy or everyone would be doing it.

The main trick to advertising with Google Adwords and turning a profit is to choose keywords that hint that a person already knows that they want something and they are just looking for a link to get there.

For example, say you’re advertising an energy drink called Blue Bull. You shouldn’t just bid on the keyword “Blue Bull.” This will get you traffic that consists of people just wondering what it is, what it looks like, and more nonsense. However, bidding on the keyword “where can I buy Blue Bull” will most likely generate traffic consisting of people who already know what the product is and are just looking for a place to buy it. Unfortunately these keywords usually have a fairly high minimum bid and will therefore cut your earnings down.

So, what’s the trick to making money with Google Adwords? Here’s a few tricks I’ve learned.

• First, you need to sign up with an affiliate network. MaxBounty is a highly recommended affiliate network. They have the highest pay outs and excellent customer service.
• Once you’re signed up with an affiliate network, do some research and find out which programs have the highest EPC (earnings per click), and make sure to look for programs that you think are underrated or have great potential.
• Research effective keywords using Google’s Keyword Research Tool. Look for keywords with little competition.
• If you’re selling a product look for keywords such as “where to buy -the product-.”
• Find keywords that have a low minimum bid and little competition as well. This will take some time but it will pay off greatly in the end.

Marketing with Google Adwords is tricky and can either end in a loss of money or a large gain. Try small campaigns at first. Some will fail, but a few will succeed. It will take some time but you will learn what works and you will profit.

Let us know if you have any tricks or tips, and let us know how it’s going with your Google Adwords marketing campaigns.

What is Amazon’s Mturk? It’s a place where people and companies can post mini jobs for people to do. Some of these jobs include things like categorizing an image, rating a website, or checking to make sure business information is correct. Anything that would be hard for a computer to do is posted on this site. These type of mini tasks pay anywhere from $0.01 to $0.15. That’s not a bad deal considering if you complete 10 two cent tasks per minute, you’d make an average of $12.00 per hour.

My experience with Mturk has been fairly positive since I joined to test it out. For 30 minutes of work I earned $6.08. That’s not bad at all! I completed a bunch of tasks that included categorizing a site’s format. It was the easiest $6.00 I had earned in awhile.

I would definitely recommend signing up with Amazon’s Mturk. It’s a great way to earn some extra money or maybe even be a part time job for stay at home parents. Just a word of warning- watch out for tasks promising to pay $20 to complete a free sign-up form. You may end up paying more than you earn in the end!

Good luck and let us know how it goes.

Well, you have to start somewhere! The easiest first referral to get is going to be someone you know, especially family. He or she trusts your opinion, and therefore if you tell him something’s worth signing up for or worth buying, there’s a good chance he’ll listen to you. So, the obvious choice is to refer someone you know, right?

Wrong. If you refer someone you know, no matter what the product or service, he will think of you as the go to guy or gal when something goes wrong. If your friend feels he’s been cheated out of money or time, you’ll be the person he complains to. In fact, it can hurt your relationship. If you’re ever going to refer a friend or family member to something, do it in a passive way. Let them make the choice by sending them a link in an email. Just do it in a way that won’t make them feel obligated to do what it is you’re referring them to do.

The best first referral is someone you don’t know. How do you do this? Well, this is the complicated part. The best way to refer someone you don’t know well or at all is to post a link on your social profile. Whether you like it or not, a lot of strangers view your profile. What better way to mooch off the stalkers than to post a referral link? Plus, even the people you know will view this link and will most likely click on it because they’ll be interested in what you’re affiliated with. I mean honestly, don’t we all “FaceBook stalk” once in awhile? Wouldn’t you click on a link if it was in your friend’s profile?

How about other ways to get referrals? You’ll have to wait for the post! I’ll put the link here when the post is up.

Let us know how it goes getting your first referral!

Why is it so hard to make a measly $1.00? Well, the problem isn’t making the $1.00 so much as it is getting hold of that dollar. A lot of sites require that you have a minimum balance before you can request your money. For example, Reviewstream pays you up to $2.50 per review you write, but they have a minimum requirement of $50.00 before you can request payment. A lot of paid survey sites operate in the same way, plus you have to wait untilt he study is over. That can take weeks!

The trick is to find a site that pays you automatically or whenever you want to be paid. Luckily, I’ve come across some of those sites. Here are a couple:

1. Youdata- Once you sign up all you have to do is view a few ads and you’ll be paid through PayPal within a few days. I got paid $2.85 my first time! WARNING: You need a PayPal account to be paid from this site.
2. Associated Content- Have any old school papers? Like to write articles? Submit any writing to Associated Content and you will almost be guaranteed to be offered money. For example, I submitted an article called “Top Ten Things To Do In Connecticut” and was offered $10.18. Plus I receive payments each month for every 1,000 views the article gets. You will be payed by PayPal within a few days of submitting your article.

Those two sites should be good enough to getting you on your way to earning your first $1 online. Once you get paid your first dollar, be sure to come back and learn how to earn some real money!

Let us know how it goes please!

Don’t worry though, with my help it won’t take you a month to earn $1 online.

If you want to make money and get paid within a few days it’s possible… in fact, it’s pretty easy. You just need a PayPal account and decent writing abilities.

Head over to Associated Content and register as a writer. Spend some time researching available categories and write a good article. It doesn’t even have to be that long. Really folks, it’s the quality that matters, not the quantity. You can even write a poem. Seriously, watch for grammar mistakes and write with detail, authority, and in an organized manner.

Submit the article for an upfront payment. You could have your article rejected if you didn’t write something they were looking for or if your article had spelling or grammar mistakes. In that case, get your crap together and start again! Never give up!

Most likely, if the article is of decent quality, you will be offered at least $5.00. My first article submission received an offer of $10.00. You can reject, but if you’re planning on making any money, I would accept. Your money will show up in your PayPal account within a few days. See how easy it is to make money online?

Here’s a quick overview if you don’t feel like reading the entire review of SurveySavvy:
Survey Site: SurveySavvy
Trustworthy: Yes/Five Stars
Minimum pay-out: None (I even requested a check for $7.00)
Time to Get Check: About 2 weeks
Number of surveys per week: About 1-2
Average Length of Survey: 15 minutes
Pros: No minimum pay-out, actually pays, short and entertaining surveys, pays well (avg. $3.50/survey for me), great referral system.
Cons: Long gaps between survey opportunities, survey quotas fill up quickly.

In the last SurveySavvy review I never mentioned anything about the sign up process. Well, it’s extremely easy to sign up, but they do ask some personal information. However, they guarantee that you will not be spammed and your information will not be sold and I completely believe them. Why do I believe them? I have never received any spam from them or since I have signed up with them. I know, sounds too good to be true.

SurveySavvy is a well known and respected survey company and, unlike many “paid survey” sites out there, SurveySavvy is the actual company sending you the survey, not just referring you to other sites.

Within the first week of signing up I did get a few screeners and even made it into one or two surveys. They were fairly short, straightforward, and not at all boring. The best part was I actually got credited for taking the survey within a few days. It got even better after that. I found out that SurveySavvy has no minimum pay-out. You can request a check for any amount.

I was skeptical of the “no-minimum payout” so I gave it a try after earning only $7.00 (which, by the way, was earned after taking two 15-minute surveys). They sent me a check and I received the check within two and a half weeks. This rarely happens in the online paid survey industry. I’m really impressed.

Since I got that first check I have taken a few more surveys. Some weeks I receive no screeners or surveys. Other weeks I receive up to three. I wouldn’t say you can earn hundreds of dollars per week with SurveySavvy but you can certainly earn an average of $10 per week or so just by doing the surveys. That’s not to say that you can’t earn more, it’s just a realistic figure.

Another way to earn money with SurveySavvy is by referring people. Their referral tracking system is one of the best I’ve ever dealt with. It’s as simple as sending a friend a link and have them sign up. Since SurveySavvy is so good I really don’t feel bad about referring my friends. In fact, I’m kind of excited to show them.

I’m not sure exactly how much you earn when one of your referrals completes a survey but I get about $0.50 per survey that my referrals complete. I’m sure it’s based on a sliding scale, but an average of $0.50 adds up quickly!

The only complaints I have about SurveySavvy are that there sometimes long gaps between paid survey offers (up to two weeks) and the surveys fill up quickly. Sometimes I will get an offer in the morning and if I try to complete it at night or the next day it’s already filled.

I really would recommend signing up with SurveySavvy. You won’t earn a fortune with them… and if you do please let me know how you did it… but you can definitely earn some extra spending money, or money for gas and groceries (boring, but necessary).

Let us know what you think about SurveySavvy! Please, all comments, good or bad, are welcomed.

5 Ways to Spot Programs That Don’t Work

1. They tell you “you can earn up to $1,000 a day.”
2. There is a disclaimer at the end saying that the results mentioned above are not typical
3. There are no tax forms to fill out.
4. It only costs $29.95.
5. It’s not a job opportunity, just a guide telling you websites to go to.

It can be so frustrating trying to find online money making programs that actually work. There are so many paid survey sites out there that give you a list of survey sites for $29.95 but promise that you’ll make hundreds a day. Of course it is possible to make this amount of money… it would just take a lot of hard work and a lot of time that could be used more productively elsewhere. So, how do you find the programs that work? Look for websites that don’t charge for a database of websites. Look for programs that tell you upfront that you probably won’t make hundreds of dollars a day. Most importantly of all, look for programs that have gotten good reviews.

One thing that I’ve noticed is that $29.95 is not an investment that will get you a large return. If it were, then wouldn’t everyone be shelling out $29.95? Sometimes you have to invest a little more money than you’re normally comfortable with and you can expect a better return. That’s not to say all programs that cost $100 work… (I wish). Follow your gut and don’t ever invest more money or time than you can afford.