Earning Money to Shop Online

Once upon a time, people used to drive from store to store to find an item they needed. Now, thanks to the power of the internet, we can sit at home and quickly search for what we want (clothing optional). However, online stores are not as visible as their brick-and-mortar counterparts. There are thousands of internet stores out there trying to get your business and they spend big bucks on advertising to get your attention and tell you about their products. Thanks to these advertising dollars, there are websites dedicated to advertising businesses, and they're willing to split their profit with you!

Here's how it works. An online retailer wants to generate traffic to his website and places ads on other popular sites (you've seen them on Google, Facebook, blogs, etc.). This retailer pays that website every time someone clicks on the link to his/her store and/or every time a customer makes a purchase after clicking on the link. Now there are some sites that will give you part of the money they make when you make a purchase through a retailer's link on their page. You can earn anywhere from 1% to 20% back on purchases you would normally make online, just by going to that site through a special link, rather than going there directly!

So, what do you need to do to get started? First, become a member of at least one cash-back site. I recommend just joining one unless you do a lot of online shopping. There is usually a minimum you must earn before you can get a check and you don't want to spread yourself too thin. Here are some good ones:

• Ebates One of the most popular sites (and the one I use), this one offers cash back from most popular online retailers, paid quarterly via check . Plus, they will give you (and me) $5 when you make your first purchase if you sign up through my link.
• Shop at Home Another popular cash-back site, this one also features grocery store coupons!
• Big Crumbs This cash-back site pays you monthly via PayPal!
• Upromise This site uses your cash back to help you save for college (for yourself, a family member or a friend). Earnings can be invested in a 529 college savings plan. They also offer ways to earn cash back on grocery store and other brick-and-mortar store purchases.

Each of these sites will pay you a little differently. You may receive PayPal deposits or a paper check in the mail, or deposits into a savings account. You should also look at how often the site pays and what their minimum is. Ebates' minimum is just $5 and they pay every 3 months (so you may have to wait a while to see your check).

All of these sites are legitimate. I, personally, have accounts will all but Shop at Home, but I know several bloggers who use that site. To date, I have gotten almost $90 in checks from Ebates!! In addition, I have saved at least that much again by using the coupon codes I find on Ebates. Most of these sites will list all the available coupon codes for a given online store! This way you're getting the lowest price on an item AND rebates on top of that.

The Art of Comparison Shopping

I love to shop online! I can get great deals on a wider variety of items than I can buy locally and I can comparison shop without having to leave the couch! There are LOTS of deals to be had out in cyberspace! But with all that information and all the online retailers out there, you could spend literally hours finding the best deal on a single item if you don't know where to look. As a veteran (serial?) online shopper and lifelong bargain hunter, here are some of my best tips for saving money on online purchases. Just 3-5 minutes and knowing how to use a few websites can save you 10% - 30% or more (plus shipping) on nearly every purchase you make! The first step is knowing how to comparison shop.

Your best tool in comparison shopping is not going from site to site looking up the item you want, nor is it Google. Familiarize yourself with one of the big comparison shopping sites and let them do the work for you. Try one of these: Shopzilla.com (same as BizRate.com) or PriceGrabber.com. Both of these sites do a great job of finding prices on items at many different online retailers and both offer you the option of entering your zip code so you can compare shipping and tax. I especially like Shopzilla because it includes merchant as well as product ratings. Also, you don't need to know exactly which item you are going to purchase in order to do a price comparison. If you are looking for a blender, for example, but haven't decided which brand (or brand, but not which model), do a more general search (ex. Cuisinart blender). You may find that one website is having a sale, which makes one model much cheaper than others. I have been able to get better models/brands of items than what I would have bought normally (but at the same price) by finding sales like this.

Sometimes bargain shopping isn't about how cheaply you can get an item. You also should consider quality when shopping. Buying a $20 blender that will need to be replaced in a year or two is not as good of a deal as paying $40 for a much nicer blender that will last you for 10 years or more. Check out product ratings while you're on PriceGrabber or Shopzilla. If you don't find a lot of ratings, check out Amazon.com. I love Amazon for their free shipping, but because so many people shop there, they also have more product ratings than just about any other site. Even if I have no intention of buying an item there, I will go to Amazon just to read the reviews. If you're shopping for electronics (cameras, TVs, BluRay players, etc.), check out CNet.com for professionals' opinions of different items.

So, to sum it up, spend a couple of minutes of researching before you buy online. Spend a minute or two on a price comparison site and read a few reviews to make sure you're getting a quality item at a low price. And stay tuned for the next installment: using coupons online (it'll be a good one!).