Many of my twitter followers and almost all the "mommy saver" blogs love sweepstakes, giveaways, and surveys. So I figured it was time to give readers anecdotal evidence of how well these work.
Giveaways and sweepstakes often involve filling out a web based form, becoming a Facebook fan, or some other rule based procedure. Sites that run them are interested in generating traffic and data mining (collecting email addresses).
I have never won anything! I entered Daily Dough and Tiger Direct religiously for 77 straight days, To get better odds, the wife also entered and came up empty. Bottom line ~ they are time wasters and appeal to people who have no understanding of the opportunity cost of time.
Surveys are marginal at best. I get surveys through InboxDollars and Swagbucks. They can pay anywhere from $0.50 for 10 minutes of work and up to $3 for 30 minutes of work. The problem ~ you must qualify to take a survey and frugal folks rarely do. My batting average is 3/10.
The programs in my sidebar are time tested and documented on this blog.
Until next time, much prosperity to all of my readers!