I want to tell you about two websites that I am loving right now. They are turning out to be great resources for saving (and even earning) extra money this holiday season.

SwagBucks

Just last week I installed SwagBucks as my online search engine. All I do is use it to search for things instead of Google. I’ve already accrued enough SwagBucks for a free $5 Amazon gift card, or a bunch of other rewards and all I did was search like I normally would. You can cash your SwagBucks in for free MP3 downloads, gift cards, and lots of other prizes. This will definitely come in handy for doing online Christmas shopping. Signing up for SwagBucks takes just a minute and you’ll be on your way to earning free prizes!

Ebates

Last week my dad asked me to buy his plane ticket for him for coming to visit me this Christmas. I bought it on Travelocity through Ebates.com and I ended up getting 1% cash back. It’s not a lot but it’s something! Ebates is basically a shopping portal and when you access hundreds of online stores through Ebates you can easily earn cash back. And they’ve got lots of stores that have doubled their cash back rates for the holiday season. Here’s a sample of what I mean:

Lancome- 12% cash back

Victoria’s Secret- 4% cash back

Walmart- 4% cash back

Macy’s- 5% cash back

Old Navy- 10% cash back

Shutterfly- 15% cash back

Sephora- 8% cash back

The Body Shop- 10% cash back

Piperlime- 10% cash back

You can even combine Ebates cash back savings with coupon codes to make the bargains even better! Signing up for Ebates takes just a few seconds and soon you’ll be on your way to awesome deals for Christmas shopping.

Posted under Extra Income, Good Deals, Holidays, coupons

A few weeks ago I filled out a form I spotted at CVS offering Crest Pro Health for free. I had to send the form in along with a receipt that showed I purchased a tube of Crest Pro Health and in exchange they sent me a coupon good for a free tube. This week is a great time to cash those in because when you buy Crest Pro Health you’ll receive $2 in Extra Care Bucks. I’ll be donating my moneymaking Crest to a local homeless shelter.

Posted under Extra Income, Freebies, Good Deals, Holidays

Starting today you can list five items on eBay for free every 30 days. You will pay no Insertion Fees on your first 5 qualifying Auction-style listings when you use the eBay Sell Your Item or Simple listing form. The best part about this is that it’s not a short-term promotion. This is a permanent change to eBay pricing. You won’t pay anything if your item doesn’t sell. If it does sell, then eBay takes its cut which is 8.75% of the sales price, or $20, whichever is lower. I just sold a dress I wore in a wedding last summer for $40. I’m glad I didn’t just sell it at our yard sale!

Posted under Extra Income, Freebies, Good Deals

There are lots of great freebies this week to add to your own stash and to donate to others. First stop, Walgreens.

Great Freebies This Week

This week score a bunch of great freebies at Walgreens. Pick up a Colgate Max White or Max Fresh Toothbrush and you’ll get $3.49 in Register Rewards to use on your next purchase. While you’re there grab an 18-pack of Scunci elastics for $2 and you’ll get $2 in Register Rewards.

Next stop CVS for some more freebies. Grab a bottle of Softsoap Spa Radiant body wash and take this$1 off coupon with you and you’ll receive $4.99 in Extra Care Bucks.

You can also get a tube of Colgate Enamel Protect or Sensitive Whitening Toothpaste and you’ll receive $3.99 in Extra Care Bucks. Take this coupon with you for another $1 off to make this deal a money maker.

Get free Sobe Water

Finally, get four bottles of free Sobe water at CVS. They are buy one get one free this week and if you take two of these buy one get one free coupons you’ll get them completely free. Be sure to hit your browser’s back button to get two coupons. It’s regularly $1.79 per bottle which means you’re getting $7.16 worth of beverages for free!

Posted under Charitable Giving, Extra Income, Freebies, Good Deals, Style, Uncategorized, coupons

Are you on Twitter? Perhaps pretty much all day? Try putting your Tweets to work for you with a company called Magpie. Here’s how it works: You create an account (it’s a painless process that takes less than two minutes.) You determine the frequency that ads will be automatically distributed through your Twitter account. You can have an ad displayed every time you send out a Tweet of your own, or after every 50 Tweets. But the more ads you allow to be distributed through your account the more money you will make. You must make at least 50 Euros (about $75) before they’ll give you a payment through Paypal.

You can also try getting advertisers to sign up through the Magpie referral program. For instance, if an advertiser clicked on this ad and signed up for an account, I would then earn 30% of commission fees for the whole first year of the advertisers’ account.

For companies looking for affordable viral marketing, it seems like a neat tool. You set the cost by defining daily and total budgets for the campaigns. Your ad is matched up with a Twitterer that is using keywords you’ve determined. Pretty cool, huh? I’d love to hear from anyone who is using this service as an advertiser or as Twitter user. How do you like it?

Posted under Extra Income, Uncategorized

WYFF4 Report

Weeks ago WYFF4 reporter Tim Waller showed up in my dining room and interviewed me about how to make money online. Last night the story aired and I think it turned out pretty well. Take a few minutes to watch it online. Here are the four ways Tim delves in to:

1. Starting your own blog

2. Writing for websites and blogs (this is my segment)

3. Selling arts and crafts online

4. Selling items on EBay

You can also read Tim’s story at WYFF4.com.

Posted under Extra Income

Photographer John Hendon and Me

A TV crew just left my home. They were here interviewing me about how to make extra money by contributing to websites. I left my job as a TV news reporter to focus on freelance writing. Granted, I have a journalism background, but there are plenty of sites out there looking for writers where that is not a requirement. Here are a few places to check out:

www.FreelanceWritingGigs.com– This is my personal favorite. When I’m in need of new jobs I visit this regularly. There are a wide range of job listings and most pay pretty well.

www.AboutFreelanceWriting.com– This is another great source with lots of listings.

www.DemandStudios.com– When I was first starting I wrote for this site. They pay $15 per story and they are written in a very simple “how-to” format. It does’t take much time.

Craigslist.com– I like to check out this site every once in a while to look for local writing jobs.

Freelance writing has turned into a great career for me. But it could be a great way to earn extra money for just about anyone.

Posted under Extra Income