I put these two tips in my book, 107 Ways to Make Money Online, but they are worth sharing here. They are two ways to easily make money (or save money – depending on how you look at it) shopping. It’s shopping you’re already doing, so in a way, it’s like free money, right?
1. Rakuten!
Get Rakuten (formerly E-Bates).
If you buy stuff online, you get money back… plain and simple:
Coupon Codes Applied Automatically For You!Another, cool thing here is they even search for coupon codes online and apply them to your order!
I think someone who could really score is someone who does purchasing for their company (like a Purchasing Agent) online. They could really rake in a lot if they’re doing a lot of purchasing. Or any business owner who makes purchases online, too. Plus, just the average Joe.
And… if you’re buying things for your business, your receipts show the amount you paid (for expenses) and then you get your rebate later. Just saying.
It’s easy. Just join and run the plugin in your web browser and then make sure to activate it when you make a purchase at a website they’re connected with.
Join Rakuten Now!
2. PayPal Business Debit MasterCard
First, convert your PayPal account to a business account. This isn’t hard to do and nothing really changes except you get more benefits.
The slight downside is that the navigation within PayPal changes and when they send you instructions of where to go to find things, it’s all wrong. I really don’t get why PayPal has to totally change the navigation for a business account. That’s just silly. I’ve complained to PayPal a number of times about this. For myself (and you), I’m working on a PayPal Cheat Sheet with the links you’re probably looking for.
Next, sign up for their PayPal Business Debit MasterCard and you get 1% back on purchases.
Now 1% might not sound like a lot but it adds up. So it comes from your checking account. It’s like a debit card. The other nice benefit is that it typically takes like 2 days for charges through the card to hit your checking account. This is nice because when you go to the gas station and they charge your card $1.00 as an authorization or some gas stations now do an authorization of $100 (whoa!), that doesn’t affect your checking account at all.
For me, the amount that I can’t use isn’t an issue but I like to balance my checking account daily, so having those temporary charges in there just makes things messy. With the PayPal Business Debit Mastercard, you don’t see those authorizations hitting your checking account. I think that’s really nice.
Also, you can use the card for things like your health insurance and utilities. Getting 1% back on all that starts to add up. It’s like giving yourself a free night out every month – think of it that way.
They also have a promo right now where if you spend over $750 in a month, you get $20. So that’s like going to up almost 3%. I don’t know if they’ll keep that promo going or not, so check the website to make sure.
Bonus Tip: SwagBucks
Another one I like is SwagBucks where you can earn points/get rebates or get gift cards on shopping you already do. This makes me think… “Why would anyone not use this kind of website when shopping online?” I mean, you will look for deals and buy things anyway, so why not get it cheaper?
Find great savings and cash rebates on Swagbucks with online AutoZone coupons, QVC coupons, and coupon / promo codes to hundreds of other retailers. The signup process is easy and you can start saving instantly.
Conclusion
There you go – three ways to save or make money doing what you’re already doing.
If you’re not shopping online without one of these services, then… why? I want to know. Leave a comment below and explain yourself. 🙂
Want more ways?
Go grab 107 Ways to Make Money Online for just $7 where I have many, many more ways like this to get money back or make money doing things like:
- Taking pictures
- Watching YouTube videos
- Selling stuff you make
- Installing apps on your phone
- Clicking on links
- Losing weight (what?)
- Posting on Instagram
- Making videos
- Taking short surveys
- Shopping online
- Eating at restaurants
- Clicking on ads
- Searching online
- Watching TV!
And a lot more.
