Finance

New Site To Make Money From Home And I’ve Made $10 in Less Than 40 Min.

This post may contain affiliate links. Please read our disclosure policy here.

by Cassie on May 21, 2013

Legitimate Survey Companies can be a great way to earn a little extra.  They will no way replace a regular income, nor can you live off of them, but you can pay a bill or two each month.

Some are better than others.  I have done surveys before to help pay bills.  One thing that I find a little frustrating about just survey companies is that the surveys for my demographic (younger mom, homemaker with kids) is slim and I spend a couple of minutes each survey just to find out that I don’t qualify.  I still earn, but it is a bit more of an effort.

Well, last Friday (May 17th), I joined a new company called Send Earnings.  I joined for two reasons 1. They were going to give $5 just for signing up! It is a sign-up bonus that they are running right now, and 2. I always like to try these and see which is worth putting more of my time into.

sendearnings-balance-day1

Now Send Earnings has more than 1 way to earn money, not just surveys.  In fact, I earned $6.53 in just a few minutes of signing up!

I also like the fact that this one is very easy to use, that I can track my earnings real time and they provide to-do lists (they are optional tasks) and you get paid for each individual task, but you also get paid a bonus for completing the list!

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This was my first list that I completed in around 15 minutes!

I quickly did these tasks on the list:

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First was to activate my account.  It was an email I received after signing up and I got the $5 bonus.

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I then did the first survey which paid me .50 (my second survey was $2.25, but of course this will vary every time!)

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I then did my first search which paid me a few cents.  I searched for The Thrifty Couple of course :)

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I then confirmed my first paid email when it arrived (It took time after I joined to receive this, but I spend 2 second clicking on the “confirm this PaidEmail” button.

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So I got paid for each individual task and since I also completed the list, it gave me a bonus of .50.

This was my balance after doing 15 minutes of activities after signing up, then it added another .01 for a total balance of $6.53 the first day.  I then didn’t come back to this until this morning.

sendearnings-to-do-list

This was my new current list.  I was on for about 25 minutes this morning.  I took 1 survey and opened emails and I ended up with a balance of $10.87!  I haven’t completed the above list yet as I only had a few minutes to spend, but I was surprised how quickly my balance is climbing! sendearnings-balance-may21

Now, you will receive  several emails and for each one that you open, you receive .02 (you can sign-up using your coupons, offers and spam email address if you have one).  I am finding that they send around 5-10 a day.  But this takes a click and I get paid.  These emails are from advertisers offering products and promotions, but I just skip through the advertisement quickly (unless something does catch my eye, which it hasn’t) and then quickly click on the “confirm email” button at the bottom and then I get my .02! It looks like this!

sendearnings-email-confirm-button

You can request payment after your balance reaches $30.  If you only earned $1 a day, that gives you $30 a month.  For us, $30 will cover a utility bill each month with just a few minutes of my time each day! That’s great!

So here’s how to get started. Head to the Send Earnings site HERE and complete the form that looks like this:

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Then you will receive an email that you need to activate (and then get your $5 bonus)!

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And then do tasks from surveys, opening emails, search the web and more!

I think you will like seeing your balance increase in real time like I do :)

{ 7 comments }

Alex & Cassie
 

Sell Your Photos to Stock Photo Sites and Earn Extra Income (About $100 Per Month)

This post may contain affiliate links. Please read our disclosure policy here.

by Cassie on April 30, 2013

istockphoto-homepage

Homepage of iStockphoto

If you are a beginning hobby “just for the fun of it” photographer or full-time professional photographer and everything in between, have you ever considered increasing your photography skills and earnings by making money selling your photos online?

What are we talking about?  Well, there are several sites that sell what is called “stock” photos. Stock photo sites provide a database of photos that magazines, websites, marketing agencies and many, many more companies and individuals use to create ads, webpages, and so much more!

In fact, the images you see all over our site we have purchased for a few dollars each (like the ones on the top or on the right hand side displaying the main themes of our site…of course the one of Alex and me is our own and most all of the pictures in our posts are our own too :) ) but the rest were purchased on a site called iStockphoto.com.

iStockphoto.com is just one of the sites out there.  I think it is possibly one of the more popular sites out there because we have many fellow bloggers as well as web page designers that use iStockphoto.com for their stock photos.

Neither Alex or I are are professional photographers, but we have even taken a few amazing, themed and fun photos that we could probably sell too.  So honestly, it really doesn’t matter your skill level…if someone wants to buy the rights to your photo, then they can…and multiple people can buy the same photo too…so your income on one photo is limitless.

But the question really does become “how much can I make selling my photos online?”  Well, we can’t say for sure as we just don’t know.  This isn’t a business or money making opp that we have personally tried, but it is a fabulous idea!

At a place like iStockphoto.com, you can make 15%.  So if a photo sells for $3, you make .45 on that one customer on that one photo.  You can hold your photos on many stock photo sites to increase your photo visibility, but at some sites like iStockphoto.com, you will make more if you only exclusively use them – meaning your royalty rate increases to 22-45% each photo.

Now whether it is best to have your photos on many stock photo sites or exclusively on one for rate increases to determine which will make you the most…. we don’t have an answer for that! If it were us, we would probably test both.  For a time, try holding them on a handful of sites and see which is the most popular.  If one comes out to be the highest earner – perhaps become an exclusive seller through them for larger royalty.

Quite honestly, neither of us really has a clue about photography, but this sounds like a super fun way for anyone to capitalize on any pictures.  Just think, you go to Paris on vacation. Sure, you have a number of photos with your family/friends you traveled with, but what if you snapped some amazing pictures of the Eiffel tower at Sunset or of a French countryside, etc. You offer those few up and make a few dollars per month!

Another idea is to head to your backyard, have fun snapping close-ups of grass, pets, flowers ….. anything! It is amazing the subjects, themes, things and ideas that people need a photo for.  iStockphoto.com has probably hundreds of thousands (maybe millions) of photos.  BUT, there have been a few times when we were looking for something specific and we still couldn’t find a photo.  Pictures of ANYTHING is what you can sell! A close-up of a pencil, a clean desk, a messy desk, a car seat, a waving hand…seriously, anything!

So we gave a brief summary of what you could make per photo above, but what can that equate to? Well, we found a photographer who shared his earnings from posting on iStockPhoto.com.  He makes several hundred dollars per month, but he also has about 800 photos for sale right now.  He has figured that he averages .73 per month per photo.  That is not a lot, but he goes on to explain that if you had 100 photos that will translate into $73; 1,000 photos equals $730, and so on! Now this is just an average because the prices vary, but this can give you an idea. Obviously, the more pictures you have up, the better chances you have of making more money.   You can read about his photo stock selling experience on iStockphoto HERE.

There are several sites out there that sell stock photos. We found another great article that helps to give a summary of 7 photo selling sites HERE that are out there.

Now the title of our idea here says that you can make about $100 per month – we said this as we think this is very possible.  Take a few hundred pictures and upload them to one or many stock selling sites and watch the money roll in…it can very quickly and easily add up to $100+ per month.  $100+ per month more would be a nice blessing for many homes and budgets!

This kinda makes me want to just pull out our camera and have fun taking pictures of things around my house and upload and see what happens.  And don’t forget – practice makes perfect, so the more you take, the more you earn, and the better a photographer you become! :)

 Have any of you made money doing this?  We would love to hear!

This may or may not be your thing, but we share well over 100 ideas and counting on extra ways to make extra income for every person, interest and skill! See our Over 100 Ways To Make Extra Income HERE.

{ 1 comment }

Alex & Cassie
 

Free Financial Resource to Organize All Of Your Bills Plus $2,500 Cash Giveaway and More Prizes

This post may contain affiliate links. Please read our disclosure policy here.

by Alex on April 17, 2013

 

So nearly 2 years ago, we told about this free way to organize your bills.   We have been using it since then and have been very impressed and appreciative of the free, secure program.  We love to use anything that makes our lives easier, but don’t like paying for it and this is PERFECT!  Mint.com is also another good one. But Manilla might be the one to try as they are giving away some great prizes to their free users! The BEST of both worlds, a great free service that gives you a chance at more freebies!

So with that, we thought we would mention this again for two reasons:

  1. We mentioned budgeting and tracking in our Be Intentional Challenges
  2. Manilla is giving away $2,500 and more in prizes and cash right now and so it is a good time to remind you about it again!

Here’s the information that we posted previously talking about how we use Manilla – the information is still good, so no need to re-write it.

I use to use just a spreadsheet to manage all of our bills.  Our bills are divided by month which means I manually log into each separate website (gas, utilities, cell phones, etc), view each bill and then update my spreadsheet.  Thankfully my browser has my login information cached for each as it would be even more of a hassle, but its still a hassle to update each balance manually – and that’s hoping that I’m logging in after the new bill has posted.

Since using free online tools that last couple of years, my life has been simpler.  Manilla is offering a unique, easy, secure and FREE way to manage your bills in one simple place online. 

Here’s how to do it:

Sign up for a free account HERE (took me less than a minute).  After that, you add each account by typing the company’s name into the dropdown and enter your login information for each account – this is a one time process.  Manilla takes care of the rest:

Within seconds my account information showed up with date due, balance and my full bill was available to view.  From now on, I’ll be able to login and view all my bills from one location – and configure each account individually to notify me via email or text message prior to the due date for each bill! Plus they offer a mobile app for both Android and iPhone users to download and provide those reminders as well!  I’ll be downloading that as soon as I’m done with this post. :)

So you might be asking yourself how Manilla can offer this service for FREE.  They don’t offer ads (other than from the businesses you have in your accounts) and this is not a 30-day trial trying to lock you into a long-term commitment.  As we mentioned before when we recommended on-line bill pay through your bank and going paperless with your bill statements, companies pay a lot of money for printing paper bills and sending them out.  When you sign up for Manilla, they stop sending your paper bills so companies actually pay Manilla a small fee every month to save money.  As there are so many companies, this is offered for free to us and paid by the companies.  I did check though and Manilla states they will keep your bills for as long as you have your account – giving you 30 days to download or print your bills later if you ever decide to close your account.

It too me just a short amount of to setup most of my accounts and configured my notification settings for each bill.  Instead of going to all my different biller’s websites, I can now go to one place and review all my account information.  Plus I can even pay a majority of my bills through Manilla as well.  I’m tickled pink (wow, that says a lot for me, doesn’t it?) and can’t believe just how easy it was to get started!

To get started for free, head to Manilla HERE to sign-up and start importing your bills as well! Plus by doing it now, you get a chance at many prizes they are giving away!

Finally, here’s the details of the giveaway that they are doing right now that we saw and just copied and pasted here so you can see those details too!

Use Manilla to organize and simplify all of your accounts in one secure place. Enter The Manilla Get It Together Challenge to become more organized and win the I Got It Together $2,500 Grand Prize and other amazing Manilla partner prizes.

How To Enter:

New to Manilla? Sign up for FREE HERE (same links as all the rest in this post), link 3 accounts and automatically be entered to win great prizes!

Great Prizes
• I Got It Together $2,500 Grand Prize
• Shopping sprees at Pottery Barn to get your home together, at Sports Authority to get your body together and at Ann Taylor to get your wardrobe together

• Amazing Manilla partner prizes to help get it together including,
1. $500 pre-loaded Refundo Account Debit MasterCard
2. Hot Mamalah: The Ultimate Guide for Every Woman of the Tribe book by Lisa Klug
3. 25 Marketing for the Chic CEO E-Books
4. Diva Mama Aromatherapy Spray set, 1 hour phone consultation and a personalized guided meditation to achieve life balance with Shira Adler
5. $25 Target gift card from Go Momma Coupons
6. Tamara Monosoff’s How Hot Is Your Product program and a free Mom Inventors Handbook from Mom Invented
7. 4,000 Shopcade bonus points to use on the site to redeem promotions and retails items 8. Uncommon Chick Kesha Brown 2013 Inspirational Calendar
9. $25 AMEX gift certificate use at the Hipiti store of your choice
10. Organize Your Office In No Time book by Monica Ricci and a 60-minute phone consultation on home or office organizing with Monica

Disclaimer:  This is a sponsored conversation written by me on behalf of Manilla.  Please note that my “neater-than-sliced-bread” review is all my own – I really am a believer!  Please know our continual goal is to provide you good values and save you both time and money.

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Alex & Cassie
 

Last Minute Free Tax Filing Options Plus Get Your Biggest Return Company Guarantees

This post may contain affiliate links. Please read our disclosure policy here.

by Cassie on April 10, 2013

It is now tax crunch time as you head into the last week for filing your 2012 taxes.  The deadline may be a daunting and looming task, but we wanted to let you know about some last minute free federal filing options that you can also do online quickly and easily to hurry up and get it done.

So with that in mind, we wanted to share some options for you to help you get the biggest tax return you can PLUS be able to prepare and file your taxes for FREE or CHEAP!

#1: Free Filing from TaxAct

Tax Act is currently offering free tax preparation and e-filing.

Registration for the TaxAct 2012 Tax Preparation FREE and CHEAP deal is secure through this link HERE and it takes less than 2 minutes to create your account. 

#2: The one we personally use – FREE and CHEAP options from Turbo Tax

We personally have used the Turbo Tax FREE Federal filing option in the past and most recently with our home businesses, we like their online program and the ease of use! They also have some good prices and deals on the tax preparation and filing in addition to the FREE Federal option! We have had nothing but success with them and no complaints about how easy and effective their system is to us!

Register for your FREE and CHEAP deal on Turbo Tax online through this link HERE and quickly create your account.

These are the most popular ones with a FREE or cheap option that we are aware of right now!

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Alex & Cassie
 

Earn Cash and Gift Cards When You Eat Out or Shop With New Easy Rewards Program Plus FREE $5 for New Members

This post may contain affiliate links. Please read our disclosure policy here.

by Cassie on March 21, 2013

We talked about this new rewards program a few months ago.  It has since become very popular and many people and sites are talking about it and so we thought we would mention it again.  BUT, we are also posting it again for you as they have a promotion right now where you will receive a FREE $5 gift card for joining! So the perfect time to join!

What is this rewards program? It is called Plink! This is a real, legit and safe way to earn extra money or gift cards! It is a one time set-up and then you don’t have to keep cards with you, you don’t have a lot of work, just your normal life.

Here’s the description:

Get paid to eat and shop at your favorite stores and restaurants. Join Plink and earn Cash & Rewards from Amazon, iTunes, Home Depot, Facebook and more … just for eating and shopping at some of your favorite stores and restaurants. You’ll earn rewards at more than 35,000 locations nation-wide. Free to join.

Basically, you will link one of your cards (your most frequently used credit or debit card) and then based on your purchase history from restaurants and stores, you earn points.   Those points can them be redeemed for cash or gift cards!

You do need to initially register and link one of your cards so that they can do the rest of the work, but once you spend 5 minutes setting it up…then you are good to go!

It is an easy and secure process. We recommend joining now while they have the free $5 gift card.  We are not sure how long that promotion will last.

The thing that we like about this so far too is that you don’t have to take surveys, do extra steps…etc. just register and move on!  Also, we love the fact that you do not lose any of the normal rewards on your rewards debit (like our favorite… Perk Street) or credit card.  So it is like a double whammy in bonuses!

Head to the Plink site HERE to quickly register and get started with earning free rewards and cash!

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Alex & Cassie