A few years ago, I never would have thought it, but the answer is yes! It is actually possible to make money reading emails! Of course, you won’t get rich and retire from your day-job, like all the ads promise, but if you have the time, energy, and patience to put into it, you can make a bit of spare change at it. Between reading emails and doing surveys, I’ve been making a bit here and there for the last 4 or 5 years.
At first it was just with one survey company; (and I get points for referring people,and points=money, so if you want an invite, send me your email address) everytime I do a survey, I get points, and the points can be traded for cash and merchandise. (You can donate them to different charities too, but who ever does that?) It’s slow going; they send you the surveys, it’s not like you have a list that you go down, choosing the surveys yourself. Eventually, if you stick with it, they’ll start sending longer and more intense surveys, which of course equal more points, and they’ll also have you doing product testing. For the product testing, you’ll either get a small check in the mail or points, and you of course get to keep the product. (I’ve done coffee, toothpaste, body wash, laundry detergent, and deoderant)
About a year ago I started branching out into the "get paid to read emails" sites; these I just knew were scams, I figured there had to be a catch. Well, there is and there isn’t: you’re not going to get rich, they’re going to push you to buy things because that’s how they get paid, and you have to remain an active participant to get your money. (You can’t just earn the money, request payment, and then sit back and relax, because they won’t pay you) You can make money though, surprisingly enough; they will actually pay you to click on a link in the emails they send, and then read whatever page opens up. When I first saw how much you get paid I almost quit; it’s a fraction of a cent per email. I think it’s like 4 or 5 emails will get you a penny! Most of them give you a $5.00 sign-up bonus, so it looks like you have something in your account, but those pennies for emails can be very discouraging. I thought at first that was all I was going to do was click on the links, but considering the fact that you can’t cash out until you make $30.00, if all I did was read emails I’d grow old trying to get paid! So, I started looking carefully at the offers; $.50 to join a survey site, $.25 to fill out personal profiles, (so they know what kind of offers to send you) and the really good ones, like $5.00 to join that "Print your postage from your computer" thing, or $6.00 to join Bidz.com and make a successful bid. (I bought a watch for $6.00 plus S&H, and got my $6.00 back; not bad!) Then they’ve got the "Cash for Games"; but they don’t tell you that you have to spend money to play the games! I leave that one alone. Sometimes I do the "Cash for Shopping" though; they’ll give you back a percentage of what you spend (usually only 3% or 4%), just to go to the site through their link. I shop online a LOT, and it doesn’t hurt anything to go there first and see if where I want to shop is on their list; if it is, why not get a little extra back for clicking on the link?
I think if someone wasn’t working, and was to sit on the computer for 6 or 8 hours everyday filling out surveys and reading emails, they could probably keep themselves in cigarette and soda money, but I can’t see anyone ever getting rich at it. I have to admit, it is nice to get the little checks in the mail though, and the products to try, and there’s always the extras like free downloads and free magazine subscriptions for a year.
And that’s Live from Bikini Bottom…
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