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

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

If you're looking for another great GPT site that has lots of offers and pays well, give Rock Hard Cash a try:



They just updated to a new look that I like a lot better than the old one. Plus they have this matching game called "Guitar Pick" that you can play to earn extra cash, extra CD's (bonus points) or entries into a monthly raffle. I spent all my CDs and won a few entries in the raffle - so I've got my fingers crossed. ;)

Anyway, give it a try... if you need help getting started, read my tutorial. And remember to feel free to email me with any questions - beccagirlsmoney@gmail.com.

Labels: gpt sites

Posted by Becca at 10:39 PM | Permalink | Comments

You don't have to tell me, I already know. ;) I started this blog with the intention of updating it on a regular basis, I really did. And then life took over and this blog got put on the back burner. Which sucks, because I really like this blog and want to be able to place a lot of good information here that will help people save and make money.

So I'm going to try.... lol.

But here's an update of what I've been doing so far:

1) My student loan is now rehabilitated.

I got a letter from the Dept. of Education earlier this month telling me that my student loan had been successfully rehabilitated and was now out of collections status. Woo-hoo! Of course, I'm still paying this ($85/month) but now I'll be paying them directly and it will look better on my credit report, plus I think this means I'm eligible for financial aid again, if I should decide to go back to school. :)

2) I reached the $1000 mark on Cash Duck!



Not too bad, huh? ;) I am now at the point where I'm earning a good chunk from referrals alone. But I also do my own offers... and a few surveys when I can. It really is easy money and I wish more people would get that. I recently lost a few days work after the Thanksgiving holiday. Well, because of that they wouldn't pay me for the holiday because I didn't bring in a doctor's note. I also didn't get paid for the days I was sick because I was out of sick leave. So I lost a whole week's pay!

Normally, this would've been a big deal, but because I keep my earnings from GPT sites in a separate account, I was able to transfer money to my bank account to cover my normal expenses and it didn't affect me at all.

3) I became a coupon freak.

It all started because I was reading a lot of personal finance blogs and I would read about how much they saved using coupons. So I signed up with The Grocery Game. Once a week I would receive a list that showed a stores weekly sales (and unadvertised sales) and the coupons that matched up with it. I started buying 3 or 4 copies of the Sunday paper (for the coupons) and buying a few from coupon clipping services to build my coupon stash.

Somehow through all of that, I stumbled across a site that I've come to love - Hot Coupon World. Here people talk about their favorite stores and all the sales going on and the best part is that it's 100% free. I joined in late October and just this week I was made the "mod" of the Winco forum (a grocery store in the NW). So now I use HCW almost exclusively.

I have stockpiles of stuff that I use on a regular basis - everything from food (crackers, pudding, juice, spaghetti sauce, cake mix, cereal, etc) to health/beauty aids (make-up, shampoo, deodorant, toothpaste, kleenex, etc.) -- even things like dishwashing soap - I bought 10 boxes yesterday for .60/each + tax. That stuff normally goes for $3-$4!

My subscription to The Grocery Game is up in January and I don't think I'll be renewing. But I will say that it's a great place to start, since they lay everything out for you. Once you get the hang of it, you'll be able to spot deals on your own.

If this sounds like something you may be interested in, watch this blog for an upcoming post about getting started in couponing. :D And if you want to sign up with either of these sites - use the links on the right-hand side of this blog. :)

So there you have it - a snapshot of what I've been up to these last couple of months. I have big plans for the new year. But I'll save that for next time. ;)

Labels: coupons, debt, gpt sites

Posted by Becca at 3:27 PM | Permalink | Comments