I've always been a fan of websites that reward you for viewing ads, taking surveys, and reading emails. I've been doing MyPoints for over 10 years now, and have earned about $400 in rewards. Recently, I've been playing games at NetWinner and Live Search Club and reedeming those points for prizes.
After receiving an Xbox 360 for Christmas, I started looking around for deals on Microsoft Points and Live subscription cards. That's when I found some sites giving free video game accessories for completeing online offers. They remind my of the MyFreeDVDs site that I got a ton of DVDs from a few years ago, except these sites have a lot of offers that are completely free and don't require a credit card.
How It Works
Each site has a list of different types of offers. I've only completed the 100% free ones at this point. They're pretty simple. Most of them consist of you signing up for some free service, taking a "survey", or entering a contest. After completing an offer and being approved, you will receive points. One point = one U.S. dollar. You can then redeem those points for prizes. The time it takes for an offer to be approved varies. Most will credit within a few minutes. Others may take a few days.
These are the programs I'm currently participating in:
This was the first site I tried. Over a two day period, I successfully completed 36 offers for 23.66 points. I redeemed 21 points for a 3-month Xbox Live Gold card. Four days later I recieved three 1-month subscription codes in my email.
This site seems to be a little slower at approving offers. Several of the links to offers are no longer valid, but they promise to have more available soon. I completed 32 offers for 20.25 points. I cashed them in for 1600 MS Points on a Thursday, and the code was emailed to me on the following Tuesday.
So far, this one is my favorite. Unlike the other two, offers here are organized as pending, denied, or not available. Over three days I completed 64 offers for 40.09 points. I cashed them in for another 3 months of Xbox Live and 1600 Microsoft Points. Before I attempted to redeem any points, I had my account validated, which consists of calling a phone number and leaving a message with your name, address, and phone number. It took about a day to process the validation. When I redeemed my points, the codes showed up in my mail box within a few minutes.
There are a lot of Lagoon sister sites that offer a variety of other prizes. This one is only for systems and accessories. For actual games try Video Game Lagoon.
The only prizes at this site are gift cards. I completed 34 offers for 20 points and redeemed 10 for an eBay gift certificate.
All of these sites allow you to make custom orders. If you want something that isn't on their prize list, they'll buy it for you as long as you have enough points to cover the cost plus shipping.
Completing Offers and Getting Points
You won't get credit for every offer you complete. There are steps you can take to make sure you get your points most of the time. So far I've been approved for about 90% of the ones I've done.
I recommend starting at the top of the list and working your way down. It's easy to forget which ones you've attempted if you just pick and choose.
All of the offers I have completed require you to fill out a form. Usually you have to supply your name, address, birth date, phone number, and email. You are asked to supply valid information. The info I gave was "mostly true", and I was credited almost every time. You could use fraudulent info and still get credit, but be warned that if the sponsor sites find out they will ban your account.
After the initial form you'll probably have to go through several pages asking you to sign up for more crap. You can usually say no to all of these, or sometimes skip them all together. Sometimes you'll have to go through 5-10 pages of this stuff, but you'll eventually reach a "Thank you" or "Congratulations" page at which point you can stop.
Sometimes you'll see a page that says something like, "Complete 2/3/4 of the offers on this page to continue." Click on them and they will open in a new window. You don't have to fill anything out here. Just close the new window and continue.
You're opening yourself up to a flood of spam when you give your email address out to these companies. I highly recommend creating a new email address to use solely for completing these offers. Some offers will require you to respond to a confirmation email before you can be credited, so using a non-existant address is inadvisable. Be sure to check your spam folder for confirmation emails, because that's where most of them wind up.
Most of these sites have the exact same offers. Since you can only complete an offer once, I suggest that you use multiple email addresses and "variations" in the information you supply. After you complete several offers, you'll notice that a lot of them look similar. Some companies have more than one offer. If you find you are denied on one, you may want to try again using a different email. You might also want to periodically clear your browser's cookies.
Ones to Avoid
I would advise against giving out your SSN or bank information when completing an offer. There are some cash advance offers that require this info. Don't be tempted by them, no matter how many points they may give.
You'll also want to read the fine print on offers that ask for a cell phone number. They will most likely add a charge to your next phone bill.
A few offers involve downloading games or software. It will more than likely contain spyware. Make sure you have some anti-spyware installed if you choose to download anything.
If you do any free trial offers that require a credit card, be sure to cancel before the trial ends. Sometimes you can cancel online, but you may have to call customer support.
Tips for Saving Time
Repeatedly typing in your info can quickly become tedious. There are a lot of browser plug-ins that can auto fill the forms for you. One that will work with both Firefox and IE is RoboForm. It does a better job than anything else I've tried, but it is limited to a 30-day trial.
When completing an offer you will often see pages with 10-20 Yes/No radio buttons to click. I played around with RoboForm's settings to get it to select 'No' for these, but it doesn't work for all of them. The easiest way to select 'No' for them all is to alternate between taping the TAB key and the RIGHT ARROW key. You can finish a page in a couple of seconds this way.
