BeccaGirl's Money

Y'all know that Cash Duck has long been one of my favorite GPT sites. I get requests from GPT site owners from time to time to promote their sites - but my answer is always the same. I only promote the sites I actually use and love. Cash Duck is one of those sites.

Why, you ask? Well, for several reasons. I joined Cash Duck last fall and since then I've been paid over $1500!! That's probably reason enough, but Kira (the site owner) just keeps making Cash Duck better and better. She has been adding new site features steadily as a way of rewarding her members.

There's Quackers , a fun game you can play that costs 20 feathers. The premise is simple - Shoot a duck and win a prize. The prizes range from rubber duckies, stickers... even cold hard cash. ;) But the cool thing is that you're given the option of taking the prize OR 25 feathers. So you always win something cool.

The latest feature she's added is the Kudos program. You earn feathers and/or referrals when you reach certain milestones. For example, once you get 15 referrals - she adds 2 free referrals to your downline. Get 30 referrals - she'll add 5 more. Pretty cool, huh?

You also get a massive amount of feathers if your referrals earnings reach $100 (100 feathers) and then again when you reach $250 (250 feathers).

If you've ever made requested a cash out for $250 or more, you can earn another 50 feathers. And if you write a review about Cash Duck on your blog - you get another 25 feathers. =)

Needless to say, I'm really loving the Duck right now... the feathers I earned from the Kudos made it possible for me to request $30 worth of Wal-Mart giftcards. I've got my eye on one of those hot portable DVD players and these giftcards will come in handy for that purchase. ;)

So if you haven't signed up for Cash Duck yet, what are you waiting for? Start making money and earning prizes now!

Labels: gpt sites

Posted by Becca at 9:47 PM | Permalink | Comments

Ok, so someone has been busy on GPT sites this month -- and it hasn't been me! I confess, I haven't done many offers this year... and I didn't do ANY at all this month. And yet somehow I will be cashing out over $185 this month... for doing absolutely nothing.

Here's the breakdown of my referrals:

Rock Hard Cash
41 referrals
$10 referral earnings in Feb.

Deal Barbie Pays
95 referrals
$61 referral earnings in Feb.

and the biggie........

Cash Duck
186 referrals
$115 referral earnings
$474 all time referral earnings on this site ALONE!

I never imagined when I started on GPT sites several months ago, that I'd manage to build a downline of over 300 people. But I did! Want to do the same? Here's all it takes:

• a few well-placed banners in some high-traffic areas (blogs, MySpace, etc.)
• a tutorial explaining HOW TO START doing surveys/offers on GPT sites
• an email where people can request tips, Gmail invites or ask any other questions regarding GPT sites

Keep in mind that not all your referrals will be active - some will never complete any offers - but others will surprise you. One of my top-earning referrals has made me almost $130 on his own! But even if 20 people earn you $5 each... that adds up to $100!

So get out there and start referring people... =)

Posted by Becca at 10:09 PM | Permalink | Comments

So the freebie reversal thing was weird, lol. I lost a few bucks on Cash Duck and close to a hundred on RHC. But just a few days ago, I got all the money put back into my RHC account. Deal Barbie and Pocket Cash GPT didn't do any reversals, so I lucked out there. But I don't think I did more than a couple of offers in the whole month of January. I still managed to cash out with a couple hundred bucks (collectively from all the sites) in referral earnings, so not bad at all. Now I just need to get my own site running... bleh.

I'll have to update my tutorial now that those surveys are being pulled off from the sites. Still I don't think this is the end of GPT sites. Something similar happened last summer with Tickle surveys... so I'm sure this is just a bump in the road and everyone will recoup.

Speaking of freebies, ya'll have heard me talk about a Hot Coupon World. Well did I mention that there's lots of freebie links there? I signed up for a bunch yesterday - everything from free razors, stickers, lotion, drinks, coupons... you name it, they've got it. Check it out here and let me know what you think!

Labels: coupons, freebies, gpt sites

Posted by Becca at 11:25 PM | Permalink | Comments

So, it looks like Kira (admin from Cash Duck) is done with phase one of reversals. I only had a few dollars (as far as I can tell) reversed - all from referrals, so not bad at all. But of course that few dollars translates into $30-$50 worth of earnings (if they're Level 1 referrals).

Here's what Kira posted on her forum earlier:

For the time being I have sorted through the denials as have been processed by the advertiser right now.. there are over three thousand left that have not been declared either way. I will hear about those later in the month and there may be more reversals. For right now, I have only given denials to people who had more than five of one family of offer reverse. There are always a few freebie reversals for no good reason here and there every month so if there were less than five I did not give you reversals. However, there may be more reversals coming once all the leads are reviewed.

For right now, if you are more than five dollars in the red, I will be reversing your cashout. You can redo it and it will be paid as soon as I can (along with reversing the leads, the payout was also held up.)

I was poking around on a forum earlier today and noticed a lot of talk about the reversals going on. Of course they were praising Christina (Deal Barbie Pays admin) to no end... and lamenting the end of the GPT sites as we know them. A little too dramatic for my taste...hehehe.

It's really going to suck for the people who do go into the red though - especially if they were counting on that money to pay bills or for some kind of planned purchase.

I think it's normal for everyone to be confused... scared... unsure... especially if we've been doing this for a few months or longer. I'm sure the GPT admins are doing the best they can, but many it seems, are not even trying to be understanding or offering any further explanations.

I actually purchased my own GPT site about a month ago, but have had zero time to get very far with it. Good thing, I suppose, because I would not have wanted to be in the middle of this mess.

Anyway, the dreaded reversals don't seem to have affected me all that much... yet. Stay tuned. ;)

Labels: gpt sites, reversals

Posted by Becca at 5:00 PM | Permalink | Comments

New Freebie Regulations

Earlier this month GPT site admins (Cash Duck, Deal Barbie Pays, Rock Hard Cash, Pocket Cash GPT, etc.) sent out PM's/emails announcing that there had been a rash of users doing freebies (particularly surveys) on one GPT site after the other. The message went on to say that this was considered fraud and would be taken very seriously. Anyone found to be doing this would have their account placed on hold or worse, completely deleted.

Needless to say, this had everybody scared. After all, how many of us really keep track of the surveys we do? I sure don't. Have I done surveys on all these sites? Yes. Did I intentionally try to commit fraud? No.

Surveys Affected

Further PM's/emails came explaining that because of this, users would now be limited to doing one survey from these "survey families" per week. The surveys affected were:

Big Buck Surveys
Consumer Beat
Consumer Expressions
Survey Network
Winning Surveys

So fine, if those are the rules those are the rules. Still, many users were confused as to which surveys they could do, waiting times, etc.

Affected Surveys Marked

Then came the PM from Cristina, the Deal Barbie Pays admin, explaining that she had marked the affected surveys so that they would be easily recognizable by the users. All other freebies/surveys could be done without spacing them out by a week. She was the first to do so - but the other site admins quickly followed suit.

Mass Reversals

Well today, there are new PM's announcing that there will be reversals. Massive reversals. Kira, the site admin of Cash Duck even went as far as to say that they were coming faster than she could keep up with and that they were in the thousands. Here's more:

You can bet that the advertisers are PISSED. Things that piss them off: doing the same survey more than once on different sites, using false information such as fake names, addresses, phone numbers, and using garbage emails that bounce. Hopefully the freebie restrictions will keep the same thing from happening next month, because this is BAD.

-Cash Duck Blog

Of course this sucks, because everyone knows that payday is just around the corner and now noone is sure how much their payouts are going to be affected. I took a quick glance at my Cash Duck account and saw only small amounts reversed so far, but I know it could get worse. I have 100+ referrals in my downline (70+ are Level 1 referrals) so who knows how much I'll end up losing.

No Reversals on Deal Barbie Pays

However I did notice something interesting on the Deal Barbie Pays site. Here's the PM from my inbox:

Some of you may have seen some freebies reversals. I have decided not to reverse the rest. I don't feel that you or myself has done anything wrong. I am not going to punish my members for something that I do not agree with. Please be assured ALL of the offers with these issues were pulled several days ago. So you can continue to complete offers on DBP without worry of uncalled for reversals in the long run.
-Christina

Christina from Deal Barbie Pays seems to be on top of this freebie ordeal and doing her best to put her members at ease by pointing out the high-paying freebies, promoting contests and refusing to do any reversals. I'm sure that her members will be more likely to stay loyal to her site. Members on other sites seem to be confused and holding off on doing any offers until they (and the site admins) know more.

So we'll see. I'll keep you informed if I see any reversals on my accounts and feel free to post your own. I'd love to know how widespread this is and how this is going to affect the GPT world in the future.

Labels: freebies, gpt sites, reversals, surveys

Posted by Becca at 8:18 PM | Permalink | Comments

I've talked a little about couponing before on this blog, but I think most people don't really understand the extent of my coupon obsession. ;) The thing is that couponing can really s-t-r-e-t-c-h your money further than you ever imagined. It is completely normal for me to go to the store and get $80 worth of groceries for $0 to $10. Really!

People shy away from couponing because they think it involves too much and they figure they can get a better deal by buying in bulk (Costco) or buying generic. *gag*

To those people I say - why buy generic when I can get the name-brand product for FREE or cheaper? And why waste an entire morning (not to mention $100 or more) at Costco when I could just run in and out of my local grocery store?

I have only been couponing for a few months, but already I have a pretty decent stockpile of products. Some examples of deals:

Over 50 boxes of cereal - all either FREE or less than $1/box

Over 60 Jello pudding cups - FREE

60 snack size bags of Snyder's Pretzels - .09/each

10 boxes of taco shells - .29/each

12 packages of Oscar Meier hot dogs - .50/each

20 Delimex To Go taquitos - .25/each

9 8-pks of Bounty paper towels - .50/roll

22 4-pks of Cottonelle toilet paper - FREE

15 cubs of Puffs tissues - FREE + $5 for every 5

10 boxes of energy efficient light bulbs - FREE + $2 each box

10 bags of shredded cheese - .50/bag

and the list goes on and on....

So if I told you that you would never have to pay full price for things like toothpaste, toilet paper, shampoo, deodorant, baby wipes, toothbrushes, make-up, etc... would you be the least bit intrigued?

Well, good!

And how would you feel if I told you that it is super-easy to start couponing?

Really!

Here's Tip #1: Buy the Sunday paper.

Yup... your local Sunday paper is where you'll find the bulk of the coupons you'll need. Now you're probably asking yourself, "Do I really want to shell out $1.50 for a dumb newspaper just to get a couple coupons?"

Well if you're smart, the answer will be YES!

And here's why - In last week's paper (1/7) I received 5 fat inserts chock full of coupons. Some of the best ones were

• Coupon for FREE box of Electrasol (up to $4.29)

• Coupon for FREE pouch of Purina Naturals Cat Food (up to $1.89)

• Coupon for FREE bottle of Special K Protein Water (up to $1.29)

• Coupon for $30 off Ultra Touch Glucose monitors (on sale for $30 at Rite-Aid - so FREE after coupon)

• Coupon for $2.50 off Playtex Sport tampons (on sale for $2.99 at Safeway - so .49 cents after coupon)
  

• Coupon for $2 off Reach Toothbrush (which is on sale at Walgreen's this week for $2 - so after coupon it's FREE)

• Coupon for $1 off Gum Toothbrush (on sale at Albertson's for $1 - so FREE after coupon)
  

• Coupon for .75 off Aquafresh Toothpaste (which is on sale at Fred Meyer's for .99 this week - so .24 cents after coupon)

So just with those few coupons I get over $40 worth of stuff! And that is just the tip of the iceberg. Remember, I said there were FIVE inserts. The coupons were SO GOOD that I ended up buying 12 copies of the paper! That's 12 free boxes of dishwasher detergent, 24 free toothbrushes, 12 free pouches of cat food, 12 tubes of toothpaste @ .24/each, etc. -- all for $1.50 a paper.

Now, not every week is as good of a coupon week as last week, but there are always deals to be had. So getting into the habit of buying the Sunday paper is KEY!

If I've piqued your interest and you're ready to learn more about couponing, then consider checking out Hot Coupon World. This is a forum all about couponing with the coolest people and some HOT deals.

Either way, keep watching this blog because I'll continue to post current weekly deals and couponing tips so that you can see more of what I'm talking about.

Labels: coupons, deals

Posted by Becca at 9:27 PM | Permalink | Comments

Get a Fandango movie code for admission to a FREE movie. *must be 21 or older

Get a FREE DVD of Al Gore's documentary, An Inconvenient Truth, from sharethetruth.com .

Get a FREE Factory Five Racing DVD.

Send a free telephone message from Tony Montana (Scarface) to a friend.

Labels: freebies

Posted by Becca at 8:42 PM | Permalink | Comments

Do you like getting FREE STUFF in the mail? Well listed below are some current freebies that are going on - sign up for all of them and enjoy!

Join the Noxzema Shaving Squad and receive exclusive offers, new product news and more! Sign up today and receive a FREE Noxzema 4-blade Shaver.

Get a free sample from the Sunsilk Hair Care Collection.

Sample Color Care for your hair - FREE!

Get a free sample of Gain laundry detergent!

Click here for your free California Almonds Snack tin, while supplies last.

Get a FREE sample of Playtex Sport.

Get a free sample of Aquaphor Healing Ointment.

Get a free sample of the entire Eucerin Redness Relief system.

Get your free Eucerin Daily replenishing lotion sample.

Free Sample of Pure Decadence Gourmet Hot Cocoa Mix

Get free pretzel coupons for Auntie Anne's Pretzels.

Ok, that's it for now... but more freebies to come soon.

Labels: freebies

Posted by Becca at 1:01 PM | Permalink | Comments