Make Money with Cash Back Sites

September Income Update: $190.50 in Payouts!

2010-10-03T20:48:00.000-07:00

Here is the breakdown of my September earnings with Mr. Rebates and Big Crumbs.

Mr. Rebates

# of Referrals Added: 17
Rebates Earned: $247.65 (will be paid out in December)
Payout: $126.62 (from rebates earned in June)

$247.65 earned is the highest amount I've had this far. That amount will be paid out to me in December, just in time for Christmas! 17 new referrals is my second highest in one month, so my network of referrals continues to grow.

Big Crumbs

Here are the September numbers for my other favorite cash back site, Big Crumbs.

# of Referrals Added: 15 in Generation 1 and 1 in Generation 2 for a total of 16 new referrals. (Big Crumbs pays you not online for the shopping of those you refer, but of those that they refer as well.)
Commissions Earned: $19.68 ($18.90 from Generation 1 and $.78 from Generation 2)
Payout: $63.88 (from commissions earned in July)

The payout of $63.88 is easily my biggest payout ever from Big Crumbs. My previous high was $37.95. It's exciting to see regular monthly payments in the double digits from BC.

You can create a passive income streamt by referring others to these sites as well. Just sign up for one or both below (it's free) and start referring others. The holiday shopping season is the perfect time to do this.

Sign up at Big Crumbs

Sig up at Mr. Rebates

August Residual Income Update

2010-09-01T08:24:00.000-07:00

These updates just keep getting more exciting for me to write. August was a great month for earning residual income with the cash back sites, Mr. Rebates and Big Crumbs. Here is the breakdown:

Mr. Rebates

# of Referrals Added: 16
Rebates Earned: $175.13 (will be paid out in November)
Payout: $65.30 (from rebates earned in May)

16 new referrals ties my second highest month ever for referrals. Rebates earned of $175.13 is also the second highest month I've had. This all represents earnings from when my referrals shop through Mr. Rebates. And the great thing is, they are saving money too. Finally, this income is completely passive and continues to grow.

My personal shopping with Mr. Rebates

As I've mentioned before, the numbers I report on this blog do not include my personal shopping. So what did I earn? Well, back in May I booked some airline tickets through Travelocity and also ordered some photo collages through Snapfish. By using going to Mr. Rebates first, before visiting the Travelocity and Snapfish websites, I earned $24.26 in rebates. That amount was paid to me, along with the $65.30 I earned from my referrals shopping.

This month I used Mr. Rebates to purchase a bed from Overstock.com and school clothes and shoes from American Eagle and Finish Line. Those rebates totaled $30.93 and will be paid out to me in November.

Big Crumbs

My other favorite cash back shopping site is Big Crumbs and it is starting to be a regular residual income performer for me as well. Here are the August numbers:

# of Referrals Added: 14 Generation 1 and 3 Generation 2 for a total of 17 new referrals. (Big Crumbs pays you not online for the shopping of those you refer, but of those that they refer as well.)
Commissions Earned: $36.74 ($32.63 from Generation 1 and $4.11 from Generation 2)
Payout: $9.98 (from commissions earned in June)

I'm excited about Big Crumbs because of the growth in referrals, which is reflected in the commissions. I'm beginning to get a significant amount each month from Big Crumbs and, in fact, my projected September payout is $63.88. Again, these numbers do not include any personal shopping.

Conclusion

Together, Big Crumbs and Mr. Rebates paid me $24.26 in rebates for my personal shopping and $75.28 for the shopping my referrals did. You can't beat cash back sites for online shopping, and when it comes to residual income for referring others, Big Crumbs and Mr. Rebates are the two best, in my opinion. If you aren't a member, sign up today by clicking the links below. It's free to join so you have nothing to lose, and the potential to both save and earn is great!

Sign up at Big Crumbs

Sig up at Mr. Rebates

Mid Month Update

2010-08-20T08:46:00.000-07:00

Here's a little mid-month update for my two favorite cash back sites: Big Crumbs and Mr. Rebates.

Big Crumbs

Big Crumbs makes their payments on the 15th of each month. I received a payment of $9.98 for the referral commissions I earned in June. None of this was from my own purchases; it was all the purchases of those I referred. My next scheduled payment amount from Big Crumbs is $48.89. I will be receiving this the middle of September.

So far this month, I have eight new referral at Big Crumbs and I've earned commissions of $34.15 on the purchases my generation 1 and generation 2 referrals have made. I will receive that payment in October. Hopefully that amount will grown quite a bit before then.

Mr. Rebates

As of today, my referral commissions for August at Mr. Rebates are at $98.42. This stands to be one of the best months I've had with Mr. Rebates. I also have six new referrals for the month. The payment I received from Mr. Rebates in early August (for referral commissions earned in May) was $75.88 and I will definitely exceed that with the payment I receive in September.

My Personal Cash Back

I never include the rebate amounts I receive on my own shopping in the numbers I report on this blog, because I want it to reflect a completely passive source of income. I want to show what is possible to earn, simply by referring others to the sites. Still, I do use both of these sites for my own shopping, which is why I feel so good recommending them to to others. I have decided that in the future I will share the rebates that I earn on my own shopping, but they will always be broken out so that you can see what I save by shopping through these sites and what I earn by referring others to them. Hopefully, all of this will be helpful information.

This month I was able to earn rebates of over $10, just on the back to school clothes shopping I did at online stores American Eagle ($1.58 rebate) and Finish Line ($9.60 rebate). Back to school shopping is expensive (especially for teenagers) so these rebate amounts were quite welcome.

What lies ahead.

Of course I'll continue to do my online shopping through Big Crumbs and Mr. Rebates. That is money saved/rebates earned on shopping I would be doing anyway. In addition, my referral count at both sites continues to grow and with the heavy shopping season for the year just ahead of us, I am very optimistic about the growth of both of these residual income streams.

You can both save money and earn money by signing up for Big Crumbs and/or Mr. Rebates. Both sites are free to use and Mr. Rebates will even put $5 in your account just for signing up!

Residual Income Report for July

2010-08-05T18:05:00.000-07:00

July was another encouraging month for me in my efforts to create a residual income stream using cash back sites like Mr. Rebates and Big Crumbs.

First, Mr. Rebates continues to grow and perform well for me. These are the July numbers:

# of referrals (signups): 14 (up from 10 in June)
Amount of referral commissions earned: $97.48 (Dwn from last month but still very strong for summer.)
Amount of payout: $75.88 (over double June's amount of $32.60)

Recently I set a goal to get any residual income stream I have to reach $100/month on a consistent basis and Mr. Rebates is very close to reaching that. Because the number of my new referrals stays strong from month to month, I think it will be there very soon and will continue to grow thereafter.

Mr. Rebates is a completely passive income stream for me. I did absolutely nothing, including making purchases of my own, to generate the July earnings. While I have plans to increase the number of referrals I'm getting, and that will require a certain amount of effort, the fact is that if I did nothing else this income stream would continue to grow on its own.

Big Crumbs is another cash back shopping site that I use myself and refer others to as well and it has also paid off. While I haven't reached the payout amounts that I have at Mr. Rebates, I am seeing some progress with Big Crumbs and I especially like it for one major reason: it has a three tiered compensation structure. This means that not only do I receive commissions on what my referrals spend, but also on what their referrals spend and down even one more layer.

Big Crumbs recently changed it's compensation structure from five layers to three, and most people, myself included, are seeing an increase in earnings as a result. Here are my July numbers from Big Crumbs:

# of referrals: 14 Generation 1 or direct referrals (none in Generations 2 or 3 for July)
Amount of commissions earned: $43.66 ($41.75 from Generation 1/direct referrals and $1.91 from Generation 2. These amounts will be paid to me in September.)
Amount of payout: $0 (I earned no commissions in May, which is the month the July payout was for)

These amounts do not include any rebates I earned from shopping at Big Crumbs. (I never include my own personal shopping rebates on this blog; only amounts earned from referrals.) I would really like to get Big Crumbs to that $100/month level and will be focusing on doing just that. The nice thing about Big Crumbs is that I get help from Generation 2 and 3 referrals.

Mr. Rebates Earnings: June 2010 Report

2010-07-01T03:03:00.000-07:00

I continued to be excited about earning residual income by referring others to Mr. Rebates. And since I use and love the Mr. Rebates service myself, it is easy for me to recommend it to others. Here are my June numbers:

# of Signups

I had ten new people sign up for Mr. Rebates in the month of June. This is down from my all-time high last month of 24. Last June, I had three new signups.

Amount of Referral Commissions Earned:

I earned $130.58 in referral commissions on purchases my referrals made during June. This is my second highest month even surpassing the holiday buying months of last November and December. I will receive these commissions as a payout in September.

Amount of Payout

This was my eighth month in a row of receiving a payout from Mr. Rebates. The amount this month was $32.60, which represents commissions earned on purchases my referrals made back in March. A word about Mr. Rebates' payments: they are fast! You have until the last day of the month to request a payout. I requested mine on June 30 and the payment was in my Paypal account the next day, July 1.

Referring others to Mr. Rebates is easy. Sign up for your own account today and start saving money on your own online purchases and on your referrals as well.

May Passive Income from Mr. Rebates

2010-06-08T11:42:00.000-07:00

May was another month of progress in my request to build a passive income stream with Mr. Rebates. Here are the numbers:

# of Signups: 24
Amount of rebates earned (pending rebates): $70.68
Payout: $37.15

Number of Signups at Mr. Rebates:

24 is by best month by far for signups. My previous best was last month with 16. It's impossible to tell exactly where my signups are coming from but it's safe to say they are almost entirely from my online efforts. I have a few blog postings and articles sprinkled around the internet and they continue to bring me singups month after month.

Amount of Rebates Earned:

These are what Mr. Rebates calls Pending Rebates. They are essentially my 'commissions' on what my signups have purchased that month. I earn 20% of their rebates. These commissions are in 'pending' status for 90 days to allow for returns, etc. After that they will be eligible for payout.

$70.68 is my fifth highest month ever and a 7% increase over last month. I am happy with this number because we're not in a time of year where a lot of internet shopping is done. That will come in fall and continue through the holiday season.

May Payout

My payout for May was $37.15. This is money I received in my Paypal account for purchases my referrals made in February. My payout was 75% higher than last month, so, again, good progress is being made.

None of these amounts represents rebates earned on my own purchases. I earned almost $30 in additional rebates my doing my own online shopping through Mr. Rebates.

So how about you? Have you signed up for your own Mr. Rebates account yet? It's free, takes just seconds to do and you'll earn a $5 signup bonus right away. Then you can start earning your own passive income by doing your internet shopping through Mr. Rebates and referring others to the site as well.

Shopping with Mr. Rebates

2010-05-21T13:32:00.000-07:00

If you're interested in creating a residual income stream by referring others to Mr. Rebates, you'll want to keep track of my other blog, Shopping With Mr. Rebates. Following this blog will help you with your residual income efforts in two ways:

1. The best way to share about the site, is to know about it yourself. At Shopping With Mr. Rebates I share tips and tricks about the site, as well as free shipping and store specials that I think are especially noteworthy. And if you find a way to save money on something you're already buying, that's a residual income opportunity as well.

2. Following Shopping With Mr. Rebates will give you things to talk about as your share the site with others. Whether you're developing your residual income stream in using online methods (blog posts, article marketing, Facebook, email signatures, etc.) or offline methods (flyers, business cards, word of mouth) knowing the benefits of the site gives you something to talk about with others.

My last two blog posts at Shopping with Mr. Rebates were:

How to Find Free Shipping at Dozens of Online Stores
and
Summer Travel Discounts at Travelocity, Expedia and More

And stay tuned to this site for earnings updates and marketing tips. This is a residual income method I've had some success with but I don't read about at other places online so this can be your go-to place for information.

Mr. Rebates Payout for April

2010-05-03T07:42:00.000-07:00

Recently I shared with you that my Mr. Rebates payouts over the past four months had totalled over $600. This month my payout will be $21.12. So why am I excited about that?

This payout is primarily for rebates earned in January. (There is a 90 day lag time between when rebates are credited as 'pending rebates' and when they become 'available rebates'.) As we know, January is not a huge shopping month, since the holidays have just ended so the dropoff from the months prior was to be expected.
While my payout was only $21.12, I had no payout for April of last year so that is a definite improvement.
My 'pending rebates' earned in April totalled $65.52. This is money I earned for shopping my referrals did this month. These rebates will become available for cash out in August. Last year during April I earned just $16.06 so this is quite a jump!
I had sixteen new referrals sign up for Mr. Rebates this month. That's the most I've ever had and it's due to my increased efforts to boost this source of residual income.
This payout brings my total payouts from Mr. Rebates to $787.87. This does not include my cash back rebates for shopping with them (which I do). This is only income from referring others to the site, making it a very viable residual income stream.

So overall I'm encouraged by the progress this month. I look forward to seeing what May brings. You can start your own residual income stream by referring others to Mr. Rebates. Click here to sign up for free and get $5 in your account as a signup bonus.

Big Crumbs: How I Earned a $26.75 Commission from Someone Who Didn't Sign Up

2010-04-30T11:36:00.000-07:00

Big Crumbs is one of my two favorite places to shop online and earn cash back doing it. It is also one of my two favorite places to earn residual income by referring others to the site. Of the reasons that I like Big Crumbs is that it has a feature called Crumbs Boosters.

Crumb Boosters are a way of earning money with Big Crumbs even when someone you refer decides not to join. I'm not aware of any other site that has this feature. If somone follows your link to the Big Crumbs site and then clicks through to a retailer and makes a purchase, you will earn the cash back that they would have earned had they joined.

I'll be honest, I hadn't paid too much attention to the Crumb Booster feature at Big Crumbs until this week when I earned $26.75 for a purchase that someone I referred made at one of the Big Crumbs retailers. This is the cash back that this person would have made had they joined but, because they didn't, I got the cash back instead.

The Crumb Booster feature is one of the features that makes Big Crumbs unique as compared to other cash back sites. I'll be writing more about other features in the coming posts. You, also, can start a residual income stream by referring others to Big Crumbs. Click here to sign up for free and start referring today.

My Mr. Rebates Story

2010-04-20T13:25:00.000-07:00

Discovering Residual Income with Mr. Rebates

Sometime during 2006 I discovered cash back sites. I'm not a big shopper, but I like to do as much shopping as possible online so I was excited to learn of a way to make some money on back on that. I immediately joined several popular cash back sites. Mr. Rebates was one of these. Whenever I needed to do shopping online I did my best to visit one of these sites so I could get my cash back rewards.

So every few months I'd get a little check or a Paypal deposit for my online shopping. It wasn't much (as I said, I'm not a big shopper). But while I was enjoying my little shopping rebates, I started to notice that my referral earnings from Mr. Rebates, were becoming more regular. I had written a blog post or two about the site and it seems people were stumbling across it and signing up as my referral. That meant I earned 20% of whatever their rebates were (no shopping on my end required). And since some of them were doing repeat shopping through Mr. Rebates I had a little trickle of residual income beginning because I earned a 20% "commission" for every purchase they made.

My Mr. Rebates Payouts

When I would accrue a little bit of money, I would request a payout from Mr. Rebates. ($19.33 in January '09, $41.00 in March of '09, and $99.70 in September of '09). As these referral commission became more regular, I began requesting a payout from Mr. Rebates each month. For the past five months my payouts have looked like this:

November '09: $115.81
December '09: $240.74
January '10: $83.85
February '10: $62.47
March '10: $110.41

That's over $600. And while I won't exactly retire on that kind of money, I'm excited about it for two reasons:

The earnings are starting to take hold and grow. I've gone from getting a rebate a few times a year, to requesting a monthly payout on a regular basis and the numbers are more significant.
It represents completely passive income (or residual income). Less than $3 of that $600 were rebates on my own shopping. (Have I mentioned that I'm not a big shopper? ;-)) Even if I never referred another person to Mr. Rebates, some of my current referrals would continue to shop and make me money.

But I do plan to refer more people to Mr. Rebates and I think you should as well. You need to know that Mr. Rebates is completely free to use. You'll get a $5 bonus just for signing up (you're already halfway to your first payout), and it's accredited with the Better Business Bureau.

How to Get Started Creating Residual Income with Mr. Rebates

My suggestion for getting started with Mr. Rebates is as follows:

Sign up for a free Mr. Rebates account.
Explore the site and make a small purchase yourself. (There are over 2000 stores so you can choose something small and something you would probably already be buying.)
Once you have a feel for the site, begin referring others through your choice of both online and offline methods. There are tools on the Mr. Rebates site to help you.

It's really not difficult or time-consuming, and that is something you want to look for in a residual income opportunity. Best of luck to you! Let me know if you have any questions!

How to Make More Money with Your eBay Sales

2010-04-18T17:41:00.000-07:00

If you sell on eBay - whether as a eBay store owner or just occasionally - there is a way to make more money with your efforts by promoting cash back sites to your customers. What you'll need in order to do this is a site that does both of the following: 1) pays cash back for eBay purchases and 2) pays commissions for referring others to the site. My top two picks for sites that meet both of these qualifications are:

Big Crumbs: Pays cash back at eBay of 35% of the seller's fee (averages about 4%) and pays the referrer 4% of the seller's fee for eBay purchases.

Mr. Rebates: Pays 3% cash back rebate on eBay purchases and pays a referral commission of 20% of the rebate of someone you refer.

With both of these sites you can promote the opportunity to get cash back on eBay purchases to someone who already buys on eBay. In addition, when that person signs up as your referral and makes future purchases, you can earn a commission on their purchase at no cost to them.

Pros and Cons of Big Crumbs and Mr. Rebates

While you are free to promote both sites, I think it's probably best to pick one to go with. I have experience with both Big Crumbs and Mr. Rebates and I like them for different reasons. Here are my thoughts:

Big Crumbs

For an eBay seller, Big Crumbs has the added advantage of being able to promote your eBay store on the site. This is free to do and makes Big Crumbs popular with lots of eBayers for that reason. I also like the Community at Big Crumbs, especially the Forums. There is even an eBay Forum where you can discuss topics of interest with other eBay sellers. Finally, Big Crumbs pays you a commission down two levels, so you'll earn not only for your referrals, but for their referrals as well.

The drawback to Big Crumbs to me is that the rebate is a percentage of the eBay fee, which is tricky to explain to potential referrals. In addition, Big Crumbs has fewer stores for members to shop at. (It's approximately 500 right now, compared to 2000 for Mr. Rebates.

Mr. Rebates

Mr. Rebates has the advantage of having a straight 3% rebate amount, which is easy to explain to potential referrals. In addition, they have a $5 signup bonus for new members, which is another selling point to use.And while they have lots of stores from which you can potentially earn commissions when your referrals shop at them, they don't have the community forums or the ability to promote your eBay store as a seller.

My suggestion is to sign up at both Big Crumbs and Mr. Rebates (they're both free to join), spend some time on the sites, and even make a purchase or two yourself so you can see how they work. Then you can actively promote the one that feels like the best fit for you.

How to Promote Cash Back Sites to eBay Shoppers

Whichever site you choose, you can use the same methods to promote it to eBay shoppers. eBay has some strict rules about promoting other sites on their site (as in auctions and on 'About Me' pages). But you can promote either Mr. Rebates or Big Crumbs to your buyers when you are in contact with them via email. You can also include information in the products that you send to buyers. (One great way to do this is with business cards. VistaPrint offers very low cost business cards that can be used for this purchase and they offer an 8% rebate through Big Crumbs and 6% through Mr. Rebates.)

So that, in a nutshell, is how to make even more money with your eBay selling efforts. Now you can make money not only on your auctions and stores, but when your referrals shop anywhere online through the Big Crumbs or Mr. Rebates sites.