Karlonia.com

Now that the beginning of the month has rolled around again, the SendEarnings GPT program has released its next monthly newsletter for July. This time they have launched a new feature called an “Insurance Center” that is supposed to provide members with information related to saving money on auto, home, health, and life insurance and allow us to do some comparison shopping to find the best rates.

Meanwhile, I had a commenter on my SendEarnings Payment Proof page yesterday who wanted me to “make sign up access quicker” with “better links”. Apparently it was not clear to some people that you’re supposed to click on the banner to get to their home page, and then click on the “Not A Member - Join Free” button to reach the signup page. Therefore, I will make my link a little more obvious:

Click Here To Join SendEarnings

Here is the text of the latest newsletter (yes, the banner is clickable too).

To better serve our members, we recently launched our Insurance Center. This new feature gives you money saving tips and provides a quick and easy way to get the best deals on insurance. Check out this new SendEarnings feature to learn, compare and save up to 40% on your insurance!

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One of the checks that I have received recently was from Mindfield Online, a survey company from which I have now been paid multiple times and can be officially placed in the “non-scamming” category. Most of their surveys that I have encountered are generally in the $1-5 range, although occasionally they will offer higher amounts. While this will not exactly catapult you into Uncle Scrooge style money piles very quickly, if you’re struggling through difficult economic times and are trying to make a little extra money from home, this program is another one that you can add to your repertoire. Here is a screenshot of my most recent check for $19.

After the initial signup, you will receive an internal account where you can track your total earnings, change your preferences or password, and access information related to common questions you might have about the program. There are also a few introductory profile surveys that you can take from here. It is recommended that you complete these because they can qualify you to receive more paying surveys in the future. Moreover, they can also help to pre-screen you, which means that you will not be sent as many surveys that you would not qualify for anyway. This can save you from wasting your time later by starting to fill out a survey, only to be screened out halfway through it and not receive any reward at the end.

Interestingly, Mindfield allows participants from outside the United States and even encourages them to join. Here is the relevant snippet from their Frequently Asked Questions section:

Can I join if I live somewhere other than the United States?

Yes. We encourage people from other countries to participate in MindField Online research projects as we offer surveys to people from all over the world. International sweepstakes regulations restrict some reasons for certain drawings held by MindField Online. However, international panelists are eligible to receive rewards for their participation in specific surveys to which they are invited. The incentive for participation in each project will be posted on the email invitation that you receive.

Payment requests are nice and easy — you can simply log into your account and press the “Get Your Check” button when your balance reaches $10 or more. According to the site, payments are processed within a week from the request date and reach most locations within 2-3 weeks. My checks have always arrived within a 7-10 day period after the request.

The only major disadvantage to Mindfield from my point of view is that they do not have any true affiliate program. Annoyingly, like several of the other rewards programs that I have seen, they simply have a “refer a friend” page inside the internal account, from which you must individually email each prospect in order to have any hope of gaining referrals. There are no referral links or banners that you can promote on your website like a regular GPT program. They do not offer any cash incentives or commissions for referrals either; you only receive entries into sweepstakes drawings for each person who clicks through from your email.

However, in spite of the lack of promotional opportunities, Mindfield is still a handy little account to build up small amounts of money in for those “rainy day” periods where you might need to give your cash flow a little extra boost. In the future, I am hoping that they will find a way to enable PayPal functionality, which would potentially speed up payments and avoid the need for us to deal with paper checks and snail mail.

The SendEarnings GPT program has just released the June edition of its monthly newsletter. For this month, they seem to be emphasizing their Cash Games section, where it is possible to earn extra cash from playing various online games either solitaire style or in competitions with other players.

If you’re wondering about payment reports, I have the confirmation on this posted here. According to my account stats, it looks like some of you are beginning to sign up and accumulate earnings with this program, and one of you has even been paid already and received a free Gold Membership (Yippee!). Information about similar earnings opportunities in the GPT world can be found at my earlier review article on Treasure Trooper.

Cash Games Has Fun, Excitement

Have you tried Cash Games? It’s a fun and exciting way to earn cash simply by playing your favorite online games. You can play just for fun or you can add to the excitement by competing with other players to win cash. In addition to winning cash, for the month of June, you’ll also earn Sweepstakes entries to win great prizes from SendEarnings. If you haven’t swung your mouse by Cash Games yet, try it and check out all the fun you’ve been missing out on!

Cash Games

If you haven’t tried Cash Games yet, you’re missing out a fun and easy way to quickly boost your SendEarnings earnings. Sign up for your free account and you’ll automatically get your first deposit matched. That’s up to $10.00 or $20.00 in game credits you’ll get for free to compete against other players to win even more cash! Anyone can join in on the fun because each game is easy to access, easy to learn and has unlimited free games!

Set up your free account and browse the site to get more familiar with it. Click on a couple games that catch your eye, such as Bejeweled, Scrabble Cubes, Solitaire Rush or Family Feud. Play as many times as you would like for free, either with yourself or compete against other players. After each game, you’ll get a profile of how well you did and you’ll get to see your improvement with each game.

After you’ve sharpened your skills, you can choose to move from the free games to competitions, where you’ll play against other players of a similar skill level to win cash. You can turn your free $10.00 or $20.00 in game credits into even more real cash with your victories. In addition, for each dollar you play, you’ll earn cash back in your SendEarnings account.

See how fun and easy it is to start earning cash just by playing your favorite online games!

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After celebrating its first year in operation last month, the AdBux GPT program has finally unveiled the promised changes to its business model and is scheduled to begin making regular payments again soon. Upon receiving the update posted below by email, I logged into my account and confirmed that the changeover to the revenue share model has been implemented.

So far the new system seems to be working in my favor; my total account earnings are actually higher than they were before. I am showing a balance of 5.71125 “Click Shares” based on a total number of 542 clicks. The share value is listed as an even $1 per share, giving me an effective rate of a little more than 1 cent per click. I have a similarly favorable ratio with the completed offers, giving me a total account balance of $12.76.

May 28th 2008 Updates & Announcements
We’ve finally launched the latest version of AdBux with a ton of changes and with changes still in development. Here are the latest updates:

Revenue Share
The revenue share program is a system we developed to give AdBux users the majority of the entire AdBux monthly revenue divided amongst the given shares. This revenue doesn’t just account for clicks and completed offers but all income including premium account purchases, autoline subscriptions, purchased leads, purchased referrals, 3rd party advertising and more. To learn more about the revenue share program, check out http://adbux.org/support.php.

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Earlier this morning, I discovered a new site called Writers:Share (apparently the colon is supposed to be part of the name) that claims to pay writers for making comments on topics that are posted by the site. Currently their topics are leaning toward workplace clothing, fashion accessories, credit cards, debt management, and home furnishings. The four main categories listed in the sidebar include fashion, homes, money, and food.

After making a comment that gets approved, they will pay £1 (currently worth about 2 USD) each for up to 50 comments. After that, the rate increases to £1.50 per comment with a £50 bonus being paid after your 500th comment. Payments are processed via PayPal every Friday.

Regarding length, the site owners are looking for something in between the typical blog comment and a full-length article. According to their examples, it seems that they are seeking informative blocks of writing that read more like short blog posts that are three or four paragraphs long and fall within the 200-400 word range. They do point out that our writing should be unique (no duplicate content), so we will not be able to get away with copying and pasting text from other sources.

The company appears to be based in the UK (United Kingdom) and has established an active community on Facebook. Writers:Share states that they donate 25p for every comment to their favorite charity organizations. Currently these include WWF (World Wildlife Fund), Red Cross, Garden Africa, and Shelter. As of this writing, the site is reporting total charitable donations of £185.24.

WritersShare is registered under the domain writersshare.co.uk and is using the WordPress blogging format to post its comment topics and program updates. According to the archives, the site has existed since March 16, 2008, making it slightly less than two months old.

At this point, my information on this program is still rather sketchy because it is so new and I do not yet have any direct personal experiences with the company to report. If the site turns out be legitimate, it might be a good way of making some extra money while practicing my article writing and commenting skills. Meanwhile, if any of you happen to have some experience with WritersShare, please let me know about this in the comment section. If I can gather enough reliable information on this program and perhaps even receive some payments from it, I can write up a full review article so that our readers and search visitors will have the chance to check out another work-from-home opportunity.

The GPT program SendEarnings.com released the May edition of its monthly newsletter last week, announcing an improved site design and some additions to its Cash Shopping section. After logging into my account earlier this morning and completing a few offers and surveys, I did notice a change in the design — it’s nothing terribly drastic, but the contrasts among the existing colors seem a little more pronounced and give the site a more pleasing look. They have also made it easier to navigate to the “100% Free Offers” after logging in, which is a good thing because this is usually the section that I concentrate on first. Meanwhile, here is the actual text of the newsletter:

New Design

At SendEarnings®, we’re consistently working on new ways to make your membership experiences even better. Along with our new design, we’ve enhanced our Cash Shopping section to give you even more cash back for your purchases. In addition to more cash back, for the month of May you’ll also earn Sweepstakes entries for your purchases. Check out our new look, browse our featured stores and enjoy your cash back!

Cash Shopping

Along with the new look of SendEarnings, we’ve also added a featured stores section to our Cash Shopping. These are displayed on the first page when you visit Cash Shopping. Here, you’ll find the best deals and get the most cash back for your purchases.

Visit Cash Shopping and see how easy it is to get cash back. Simply choose a store, make a purchase and automatically receive cash back credited to your SendEarnings account. When offered, get extra savings by using the coupon codes that are listed with stores on our featured stores page.

Coupon codes are like an electronic version of the coupons you would cut out of a newspaper and use when purchasing items at a store. Coupon codes are displayed along with some listed stores and, just like paper coupons, are used to save you money when you check out.

Shop, save and get cash back by visiting Cash Shopping. New deals are always being placed, so be sure to check back often!

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Last month I received my first check payment from Treasure Trooper for the previous month’s earnings:

Of course this is good news, not only because I have opened up another revenue stream, but also because I have now confirmed that the company is legitimate and not a scam, which means that I can promote the site in good faith and collect referrals.

Treasure Trooper is one of the largest GPT (Get Paid To) websites currently in existence and pays you for completing offers, filling out surveys, doing product trials, and signing up for various memberships and subscription services. They accept members from all countries, although there is a tendency for members based in the USA to receive more offers. The site is recognizable by its “Indiana Jones” theme where members try to collect treasure such as coins, gems, and pearls as shown at the bottom of this screenshot of my account:

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The paid surveys and offers program SendEarnings is now confirmed as paying, as I have now received my first check from them for my previous earnings:

This first payment has also qualified me for the Gold Membership, which means more earnings from referrals, additional sweepstakes entries, and the chance to receive free referrals from the pool of unreferred members who join the program. Meanwhile, SendEarnings has also begun sending out monthly newsletters, the latest of which I have reprinted below:

Spring is synonymous with new – a new season, new beginnings, and for SendEarnings™ members, new offers and prizes! This April, you can earn extra cash and win great prizes just by trying new products and services through Cash Offers. Check out the latest and greatest choices at SendEarnings!

Cash Offers

Enjoy new offers everyday with Cash Offers! There are a wide range of choices that can enhance and simplify your life. You can find holiday specials, educational opportunities, credit information, home business offers and much more.

With such an extensive selection, your search is made quick and easy with our search tools. You can search by keywords or sort by the latest offers and payout amounts. New choices are added daily and payouts range from $0.25 to $15.00.

Whether you are interested in complementing your life with great products and services or with extra cash, you are sure to get what you need with Cash Offers!

Enhance and simplify your life with Cash Offers!

Sweepstakes

Enhance your life even more by winning in April Sweepstakes! When you are rewarded with cash for trying new products and services, you’ll also receive Sweepstakes entries for each dollar you earn through Cash Offers in the month of April.

Earth Day is recognized this month and to celebrate this 38 year tradition, SendEarnings™ is giving away eco-friendly Sony gift packages. Sony’s socially responsible commitment and eco-friendly designs truly make them For the Next Generation.

The first place winner will have the choice between a Sony Cyber-shot digital camera or a Sony widescreen LCD portable DVD player paired with the Discovery Channel Planet Earth DVD set. This four-time Emmy® Award winning DVD set takes viewers on an incredible journey exploring our planet from the frozen poles to the dense jungles and everywhere in between.

Learn how you can win by trying Cash Offers and go green this Earth Day with SendEarnings!

Fantastic Facts

Observe Earth Day on April 22 and remember to check out the eco-friendly offers on SendEarnings™ everyday! There are several options including an offer to recycle your ink with 00InkJets and you’ll get a chance to win free ink for a year. You can also save up to 75% on your purchases and earn $10.00 from SendEarnings!

Member Story

“I would just like to thank you. Today I completed two offers and received credit on the same day. I would even go as far as to say that it was less than 30 minutes. Bravo SendEarnings! This makes me feel as if my participation is appreciated when credit is swift and prompt! Again Bravo!”

Yvonne J.
Newark, DE

Share your Story

Do you have an interesting, funny, touching or cheerful story to tell about your experience with SendEarnings™? We would like to hear from you! Simply submit your story and it could be selected as a feature in our monthly newsletter.

Please send your story and picture to mystory(at)sendearnings.

If you have a question or would like to learn more about a service provided by SendEarnings, please review the detailed information at our Support Center.

AdBux, the popular GPT (Get-Paid-To) program that appeared to be heading into recession and slow payouts back in February has released a relatively long newsletter today in celebration of its first anniversary since the initial launch. In addition to touting its continued presence and success among a plethora of copycats and clone sites, AdBux has also announced several significant changes to its business model that are designed to improve the program’s sustainability and provide members with more earning opportunities.

The most important of these changes is the move toward a revenue sharing model similar to what has been implemented by Take the Internet Back. Instead of promising to pay X amount per click (or offer, survey, etc.), members earn shares for each action, and the tally of these shares can be converted to cash at a rate that is determined by the actual revenues of the company. This model is more sustainable because the administrators can vary the amount paid per share according to real current profits as opposed to promising fixed payments to members at some future date and risking the possibility that actual revenues will be insufficient to make the promised payments.

AdBux is also planning to add a few other interesting features to the program, such as a question-and-answer section similar to Yahoo Answers that will allow members to earn shares for providing information to other users. Also in the works is an in-house search engine that will attempt to generate revenues from advertisers based on a PPC (pay-per-click) model. Games, charity donations, and the possibility of new payment processors are other ideas that are scheduled for future implementation. For the full details on the upcoming changes, you can read the actual text of the latest AdBux update below.

Updates and Announcements

On this day, AdBux celebrates its 1 year birthday. In one year we have surpassed everyone’s expectations and we plan to be here for years and years to come. Our last newsletter that we sent out back in February discussed our plans for a future re-launch and a pause on payments. That re-launch was originally planned for today but because of certain specifics regarding the new incentives and changes coming, we decided to postpone the launch until May and payments will be restarted (or just starting for some) in June.

In the past year we have gone through many trials, troubles, and issues. We’ve been accused of scamming people, other sites infringed on our copyrights (*cough* Bux.to *cough*), multiple server issues, payment processor problems, security issues, cheaters, and more. But everything that we have been through only made us stronger.

AdBux will continually be the forefront of everything it creates. WE created what you see all over the net, the assortment of PTC sites, the copy cats and the clones. We were the first of our kind. The upcoming incentives and changes you will see take place over the next quarter will be originated by us and guaranteed to be copied by others. But, that’s the way business is. We have to try to keep a competitive edge or else!

Just to give you a taste of what you can expect:

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The program called Take the Internet Back (TIB) is expanding beyond its usual email routine to include paid offers and surveys similar to sites such as SendEarnings and Treasure Trooper. As a paid email site, TIB has been one of the easiest of this genre of programs for me to accommodate. All of the mails that are sent have a nice, conspicuous confirmation link at the bottom that can be clicked on for immediate credit. There is no timer, nor is it necessary to log into the account to receive the mails, so the time cost is practically negligible.

The program is free to join and is open to all registrants. Points are earned for each mail that is credited, after which the points are converted to cash earnings based on the company’s advertising revenue. Extra points are awarded for referrals; surprisingly, I have not collected any of these yet, perhaps because too many visitors have already signed up. Nevertheless, the latest admin update that arrived over the weekend explains the new features and is posted after the jump.

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After pulling out the old scanner and fiddling around with IrfanView, I finally got some suitable pictures of the last two paid survey checks saved, along with some other images for use with later posts. The first check was from Opinion Outpost, which lately has rivaled GlobalTestMarket for being the highest paying survey company currently in my repertoire. This time I saved up $50 worth of points before cashing out.

Additionally, I have received $10 PayPal payments recently from Lightspeed and Creations Rewards, along with two more $5 payments from Pinecone Research.

Meanwhile, check payments are beginning to arrive from my relatively recent discovery of Livewire. This company works somewhat differently from most of the others that I have had experience with so far. They do not have any kind of system for members to log into accounts or accumulate points. Instead surveys are sent by email on a first-come-first-serve basis, and if you manage to complete a survey, the incentive amount is sent to you as a separate check. After initially receiving a $4 check from them that I have since deposited, this $10 payment arrived a few days ago and gave me a chance to scan the image.

Livewire accepts a broad range of demographic profiles but is geographically limited to United States residents. Unfortunately, they do not seem to have any kind of referral or affiliate program. However, their “projects” as they call them are easy to complete, and I have not had any problems with them regarding crediting or payments. Yes, for curious searchers out there, this means that they are not a scam. Meanwhile, if you happen to live in the USA and want to sign up, you can do so here.

With February coming to a close, MySurvey.com has released their monthly edition of Opinion Matters, a newsletter that reviews the latest happenings in their corner of the survey world. For this month, they have announced the winners of several recent sweepstakes and giveaways, a few of whom asked that their names be withheld or have apparently forfeited their prizes, perhaps by not responding to the notifications in time.

Also included are a few examples of merchandise that can be redeemed for with our reward points, followed by the usual monthly survey results. This time members were surveyed about what they thought was important when dealing with the customer support departments of their favorite companies.

Meanwhile, if you would like to make some extra money by completing paid surveys and are looking for some other companies that are free to join, you can check out Survey Savvy, Opinion Outpost, or Creations Rewards.

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Today I received an unexpected email from MySurvey.com saying that I have been “ReApproved” for their affiliate program. I’m not sure exactly what triggered this - I have been an affiliate for several months and was not aware of any issues going on with the program. It’s possible that there has been some slight change in the rules, or perhaps they are simply reviewing the websites of affiliates periodically to make sure they are still extant and complying with their terms.

Nevertheless, MySurvey is a good program to have in your money making repertoire because it is free to join, easy to use, confirmed as paying, and does not waste your time with overly long surveys or pointless offers like many other survey companies do. If you’re a webmaster and want to join as an affiliate, you’ll need to join the panel as a member if you have not done so already. You can then apply for the affliate program after you log in to your Member Center. The approval process may take a few days, but as long as your website complies with their terms (most of our websites probably do), it will be approved for at least 6 months and you will have access to the promotional materials.

Since it is free to register with the program, referrals are relatively easy to come by. As my re-approval email text below states, there may be somewhat of a delay between the time that referrals sign up and the actual crediting of points to your member account. If you are also taking surveys as a member, any points earned from referrals are simply added to your regular survey points. Once your aggregate total reaches at least $10, you can request a check.

Hello KARL,

We have reviewed your website at Karlonia.com and are pleased to let you know you that you’ve been re-approved as an MySurvey.com website affiliate in good standing. Thank you for your continued interest in the program. You’ll earn 150 Reward Points for every eligible household referred from your site that joins the MySurvey.com interactive panel.

For banners, text ads, logos and links to use on your website,

1. Log into http://www.mysurvey.com with your username and password
2. Go to the Referral section and click on Website Affiliate Program (left menu).
3. Banners, text ads and logos will appear on the website affiliate page along with the appropriate links.
4. Please use these links to ensure you get credit for your referrals.

If you wish to recruit new members via email, instructions are also provided on this page. Due to recent and ongoing legislation governing email, you must following the instructions provided on the Website Affiliate Program page to include the MySurvey.com offer in any emails.

We provide new banners & other media periodically for our affiliates so be sure to check back. Please use only the creative materials (banners, graphics, logos, text links) that we provide.

There are three other important things to keep in mind as an affiliate:

• You must be an active member of the MySurvey.com interactive panel to continue as an affiliate. That means that you need to take surveys occasionally - at least 5 surveys in any 6 month time period. Surveys are generally short (10 minutes or less).
• If/when you earn close to 60,000 reward points, we’ll contact you to ask for your social security number. The IRS considers anything over $600 earned from one source as taxable income and requires that we send you (and them) a tax form for each tax year, with social security number referenced.
• There is a delay between the time your referral joins and crediting of points to your account to allow us to determine new member eligibility. Please see the Referral Program rules in the Referral section of MySurvey.com for details about eligibility. (You must log in to access the Referral section of the website.)

Just a reminder: As an affiliate you have agreed to abide by all the MySurvey.com Referral Program Rules and the Affiliate Program Terms of Service. Our rules periodically change; please check the Referral section of the MySurvey.com website routinely for any changes. If the Terms of Service change, we will notify you via email about the changes, where to find a copy of the new Terms of Service and indicating whether recertification is necessary. Your continued membership and affiliate status depends on your adherence to the most recent version of the rules and Terms of Service.

Like your membership, your participation in the website affiliate program is always voluntary. If you have any questions about the affiliate program, please contact our tech support staff via email affiliates(at)mysurvey.com or by calling our toll-free number 1-800-537-4097.

Many thanks for participating in our website affiliate program.

Carol Adams
Director of Member Services

In addition to the Internet-based surveys that can be taken from within our member accounts, MySurvey also allows us to opt in for receiving occasional surveys by traditional postal mail, also known as “snail mail”. Any completed surveys that are mailed back to the company are eventually credited to our online accounts, awarding us with additional points that can be redeemed for cash after we have accumulated at least $10.

Yesterday I received one of these postal mail surveys on the topic of communications. It is an eight-page questionnaire that spans several areas related to cable television, satellite TV, telephone, and Internet services. Although this may seem long at first, it is actually not as time-consuming as it looks because many of the questions can be skipped over if they do not apply to our household and there are only 5-10 questions per page.

Before I get into the text of the introductory letter, I would like to take this time to thank those of you who have signed up with MySurvey.com or Top-Dollars.com through my strategically placed affiliate links. As you may have noticed, this site is sparsely monetized at present; the small commissions generated from your signups and purchases help to pay for necessary hosting expenses and keep this site financially viable.

Now we return to our regularly scheduled survey letter:

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One of my favorite paid survey companies MySurvey.com released its first newsletter of the new year yesterday. The company is in the process of restocking rewards merchandise after experiencing a higher than expected number of redemptions by survey participants in the last quarter of 2007. In addition to including a few testimonials, MySurvey has also released the results of the most recent member survey regarding New Year’s resolutions.

Reward News

As promised, we have begun restocking our merchandise shelves! Many of you are aware that we ran into some logistical problems at the end of 2007 with our Reward Point Redemption options. Members were redeeming faster than we could keep up, and unfortunately many merchandise options were temporarily removed. Most of our usual redemption options are now available and more are coming in every day. To view our current selection, login to MySurvey.com and click Rewards on the top menu.

Remember, each day you log into MySurvey.com you earn an entry into our Rewards Extravaganza Daily GiveAway. A new winner is selected every day to receive 10,000 MySurvey.com Reward points (cash equivalent $100). Take a look at what a recent winner had to say:

January 14, 2008 Rewards Extravaganza Give-Away Winner:

“I joined MySurvey.com because I want to have my opinion heard! Winning and rewards add to the great appeal of this site.”
Lakeesha B., Chicago, IL

You’ll also get an entry into the MySurvey.com Sweepstakes each day you login. One lucky winner receives $10,000 every other month. Here’s a recent winner:

September/October 2007 MySurvey.com Sweepstakes Winner:

“I was amazed and shocked that I had won anything! This is my first ever sweepstakes win. I am so happy to be associated with MySurvey.com. I love giving my opinion as a consumer and being involved in products and services that we use every day.”
Judith F., Tustin, CA

Each time you complete a survey you’ll be entered into our Survey Completion Bonus Sweepstakes. Each month we offer a different prize. This month 4 winners will receive $500 each! This winner received a $500 gift card:

October/November Survey Completion Bonus Sweepstakes Winner:

“Just a small amount of time has just made a very large impact on my finances. Thank you, MySurvey.com!”
Mark C., Port Charlotte, FL

Congratulations to all our winners!

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