I’m sorry folks, but I’m battling a bit of writer’s block lately (as you might have noticed). I just can’t think of anything to write about lately! So if you have ideas for me, I’d love it if you sent them my way.
I have an important thing to tell you in due time, which should give me plenty of new blog fodder. But for now, here’s some links of interest.
I really like this post at Christian Personal Finance. It’s about creating a budget for giving, by simply adding to a savings account each month designated for gifts. Each year, you might have birthdays, anniversaries, Christmases, weddings, baby showers, etc. to attend. It’s easier financially to have an account earmarked specifically for giving. You might be inclined to be more generous than you would if you didn’t have a special gift account.
Can’t get enough of personal finance blogs? Check out these lists of the top personal finance blogs for April. FIRE Finance regularly maintains a list of top 100 (by traffic) personal finance blogs, and Madison at My Dollar Plan has a hefty list to check out as well. Thanks, readers, for helping me to be on those lists!
I received an e-mail from a public relations person telling me about a cash-back program called…Cashbaq. It’s similar to Ebates, in that you click through the web site to an online retailer, make a purchase, and get a certain percentage back to your Cashbaq account. With Cashbaq, you won’t receive a payout until you hit $25, so that could take awhile (compared with Ebates’ $5.01 payout)
Also, you won’t get referral bonuses (a HUGE selling point for Ebates, in my opinion). I stand corrected.
Here’s some info from the PR person:
“When you spread the word about Cashbaq, you earn 10% of your friends cash back rewards. They’ll get a $5 bonus just for signing up. And it doesn’t stop there. When your friends’ friends sign up, you get 5% of what they earn and 2% of what their friends earn every time they shop.”
Oh. Ok then, here’s my referral link, in case you want to use it.
When you sign up for an account, you’ll get a $5 credit in your account. I don’t know if this goes toward your $25 payout point or not.
My advice? Sign up for an account with Cashbaq, and check it out before you make an online purchase. It’s probably worthwhile to go through Ebates instead, though, as it seems you’ll get your money quicker. If Ebates doesn’t have a percent cash back for a particular merchant, you still could use Cashbaq and eventually get the payout.
Have you used Cashbaq? How long did it take for you to reach a payout?
OK, not to put a damper on the party, but this sounds suspiciously like a pyramid scheme (sorry, “multi-level marketing“)… “make” money by spending money and getting your friends (and your friend’s friends, and your friend’s friend’s friends) to sign up and spend money. How is this different than Amway or other pyramid schemes out there, I wonder? I know it’s different because it’s online and less intense, but it seems to be the same unsustainable business model. I’d be curious to find out how it is different.
Sorry, I’m particularly attuned to this, as I just had to tell an acquaintance offline I wasn’t interested in his “new business opportunity” (MLM business) despite his enthusiasm and insistence.
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I agree–it does sound like a pyramid. The big difference is you don’t have to buy into a business to get a profit.
You just have to make online purchases as you normally would.
I do think that I prefer Ebates’ straight-up referral program, rather than a percentage back.
if you’re looking for a better cashback program, i suggest you sign up with savingswatch.com instead. it has more merchants and a higher cashback rate.
Congrats on your rankings! Your feed subscriber numbers are impressive!!
I also am evaluating cashbaq - I figure I’ll comparison shop and see who offers the better % back.
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@Kacie
THanks for the mention!!
So how do you decide which to use? When do you use EBates and when do you go through MyPoints?
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I look at the overall reward, and if I’m really close to a payout on either one.
For example, if I’m buying something from Target.com and see that I can get 5 points per dollar from MyPoints, or 4 percent cash back from Ebates (I made those numbers up), I’d just calculate the amount back for each option to see which is a better deal.
If I’m just a few points away from getting a gift card at MyPoints, I might go with that one. Or, if I need a little bit to reach the $5.01 payout on Ebates, I might go with that one.
I like having several options from which to choose!
Kacie-
Thanks for the write up. I’m glad you like the site. I am the founder of Cashbaq.
We lowered the payment threshold to $10 (including the $5 sign up bonus so you really just need to earn $5 in cash back to get paid by check or Paypal).
With over 1,400 online stores and services and 100 or so added every month, Cashbaq is the largest cash back site around. We often pay more than other sites so I am happy to have you compare Cashbaq against any other site. We also tend to have more coupons as our roots were in couponing.
As for the Refer-A-Friend program, there was a heated debate about which way to go. You can call it a pyramid scheme but I hope you won’t. We designed it so Cashbaq members can earn from the lifetime value of the shoppers they refer. We added the 2nd and 3rd levels as social networks have grown so much, we wanted our members to have a shopping program that followed them online. (Kacie, thanks for pointing out that there is no purchase necessary to earn money through the Refer-A-Friend program.)
We’re redesigning it with a lot more so keep your eyes open this summer. There is a lot more coming that will help you save when you shop online. That’s what we’re here for.
Thanks again!
-David
I currently only use mypoints. But I like the incentives with cashbaq. I like it better than you can earn on the liftetime of your referrals instead of a one time referral fee that ebates offers.
I definitely wouldn’t consider this a pyramid scheme because you’re not paying money to “get in”. The only money you spend are for the items you are buying.
I haven’t signed up for ebates or any other sites like that because it makes it easier to stick with one program for me since I only shop outside of amazon.com a few times a year. I will go ahead and sign up for cashbaq in case they have a store that’s not at mypoints.
I find it hard to believe that cashbaq can track end user transactions to the level they claim. I’ve build many an affiliate site and it sounds very complex from what I know.