Hits 4 Pay

Hits4Pay is a company which pays you to read e-mails which display in their browser. You log into your Hits4Pay account, and load the e-mails, and after about 60 seconds or so, a "confirm this paid e-mail" link appears in the top right-hand corner of the page.

Three prong test:
1 - Do we have proof of payment?
2 - Is there a non-internet contact for the company?
3 - Online complaints

Results:
1 - YES
2 - YES
3 - Few & far between.

1) Proof of payment. I myself have been paid, via PayPal for using Hits4Pay. Once your account reaches $25, they clear it (around the 1st of the month) and around the 20th of the month - you see the money appear in your PayPal account. See the image - to see proof of my $26.45 sent to me today! :-) ... I usually make around $25 every 6 months or so. I receive around 25-30 e-mails a week from Hits4Pay. When signing up - make sure to pick as many interest categories as they allow - so that you get the most e-mails per week.



2) What makes this company more near-and-dear to my heart, is that they are local to me, in the Great State of New York! The parent company is call Multiple Stream Media - and they have a lovely "About Us" if you want to read all about the company founders, plus it will give you a mailing address for them too. But more importantly, right at Hits4Pay, they provide you with the company phone number. 845-383-1275. Same area code as mine!

3) There does appear to be one complaint from a Jeremy from Oklahoma in RipOffReport - but overall, most folks seem happy, and have received their money. One thing that Hits4Pay does make sure to point out is that YOU, the original user must read and confirm at least 1 e-mail in order to be paid. You cannot just have $25 of referral e-mails.

The only thing that DOES look kinda of scammy about Hits4Pay is their "Affiliate Builder Program" - where you pay them $5.99 per month to have users who are not referred to the site signed up under you - so they become your referral.

PROBLEMS - 1) you are not guaranteed any given number of new referrals each month. So you could pay them for a whole year and not see a single referral and not have any way to get your money back... because they warned you!

2) There's this little link that TODAY says "Only 500 189 Subscriber Spots left! (Updated every 24 hours)" - I have a problem with this because in May, when it started, there were only "86" spots left, then a little while ago in June, there were ONLY "93" spots left. Seems KINDA funky... right? And right below that little link, in the further info, about the APB program, it says there's only 86 spots left again. Tricksy hobbitses.

So overall - as long as you do not PAY for their APB program, you should be able to make $50-$100 with Hits4Pay each year, provided how into it you get. Definitely not a scam.

MyPoints

MyPoints is a company that gives you points for doing various things through their website. Shopping, reading e-mails, searches, completing offers, etc.

Three prong test:
1 - Do we have proof of payment?
2 - Is there a non-internet contact for the company?
3 - Online complaints

Results:
1 - YES
2 - YES
3 - There definitely are some. But not enough to make you worry TOO much.

1) I myself have redeemed dozens of gift cards from MyPoints. I've gotten Amazon gift codes, airline miles, Visa gift cards, etc. My only complaint is that sometimes it takes awhile to get the gift card. They will say the order (using your points) for the gift card has been fulfilled, but then you wait about 8 weeks (sometimes more) for it to show up.

2) MyPoints has a Google maps listing complete with phone number and address. You can find it with this LINK!

3) There are some complaint out there that it takes awhile to get enough points to get a gift card. But even if you JUST do the searches and confirm the point e-mails, you should rack up enough points to get a $10 gift card in 4-6 weeks. If you use the site to purchase things from amazon.com or overstock.com or even flowers from Telefora or FTD - you can rack up points even more quickly. Some of these sites offer 2 or 3 points per dollar, but sometimes they offer as many as 20 per dollar.

Other complaints are that it's hard to get off their e-mail list once you've signed up. But I'm not sure why folks would want off the e-mail list - you earn 5 points for every e-mail you click on.


Overall, MyPoints is not a scam. Nor is it a "get-rich-quick" ... so if you're looking for that, it's not the place to go. But if you're looking to just pick up some extra goodies for making one extra click before doing your online shopping, it's not a bad way to go.

E-bates

E-bates is a company that gives you cash when you do your online shopping by clicking through their site. You name it, you can get e-bates with it. Travelocity, Entertainment Books, Amazon, Target, Telefora, Sears, Sephora, Home Depot, Macys, Dell, Expedia, QVC, Verizon, etc. etc. etc. You also get paid for making referrals.

Three prong test:
1 - Do we have proof of payment?
2 - Is there a non-internet contact for the company?
3 - Online complaints

Results:
1 - YES
2 - YES
3 - There are some, but not enough to totally avoid the company.


1) I was first paid by E-bates on May 25, 2011. I was paid for shopping with both e-bates & Teleflora - plus there's a $5 bonus for signing up! They pay you directly through PayPal - and the minimum payout is ONLY $5 - not like many programs that insist you get $25 or $50. Here's my PayPal image.


2) E-bates is pretty good with responding to e-mails. I had to hound them to get credit for one of my referrals - but their "Customer Care" link on the bottom right of the page is great. They respond to inquires in a timely fashion, and are good about getting folks credit when it's due.

Barring that you can also find them on google maps with a mailing address and a phone number. See this LINK!

3) The BBB (Better Business Bureau) shows that E-bates has 89 complaints in the last 36 months. And there are various complaints on the web where people did not receive credit.

The trick is - keep TRACK of who you click through e-bates to, what date it was, and how much the total was. It also helps to jot down the e-bates confirmation number they show when porting you through. Many of the folks who complain online seem to think that e-bates should look up all of this information for them, instead of being prepared when they contact customer service. E-bates has thousands upon thousands, if not millions of users - so giving them all of the info up front exponentially increases your chances of getting credit for your purchases in a timely fashion. If you're not particularly good at this - E-bates has even made it easier recently - providing each user with a list of their tracking tickets!

Inbox Dollars

Inbox Dollars is a company that offers pays you for clicking on e-mails they send you, watching their videos, completing offers, referring folks, etc. etc.

Three prong test:
1 - Do we have proof of payment?
2 - Is there a non-internet contact for the company?
3 - Online complaints

Results:
1 - YES
2 - YES
3 - Few & far between.

1) I have been paid by Inbox Dollars many times. Here is a photo showing the checks they've sent me, as well as my current earnings. I find I usually make $50-$70 per year with Inbox Dollars. If you are more aggressive about getting referrals than I am, you might be able to make even more.


One thing I make sure to do every year with Inbox Dollars is purchase my Entertainment Book through them. They usually offer $8 back on that purchase. And I usually save HUNDREDS each year with my Entertainment Book.

2) Inbox Dollars is a CotterWeb Enterprises company. They can be located on the web - and provide a mailing address and phone number, as can be seen at their Google Maps Listing. You should always be leery of any company that does not provide an alternate form of contact, other than a "contact us" form on their website.

3) Most of the online complaints about Inbox Dollars revolve around the fact that it is slow going. True, it is not a "get-rich-quick" scheme. You'll probably max out at somewhere around $100-$150 per year. But hey, any extra money is good money right? Right! Other complaints state that folks weren't compensated for an offer. Some of the offers are tricky - you have to fill out a bunch of different stuff OR make a purchase to qualify. Always read the fine print. I have always found the Inbox Dollars support team helpful and great about crediting me for an offer, if I did all the steps correctly and they somehow missed it (which is rare).


The one thing I would advise against with this program is trying to make any money with the "cash tasks" ... they usually take at least a half-hour to complete, and the most I've ever been paid for one is $2. Which values my labor at $4/hour. Which is just kind of sad. Sure, if you're sitting in front of the TV with nothing better to do it might be worthwhile, but there's usually surveys out there with other programs that you can do in the same amount of time that pay a bit more than that for that much time spent.