Earn Money Online With Rakuten and InboxDollars

Make Spare Change in your Spare Time: My Review of Rakuten and InboxDollars

Earn money in my spare time? Like a Bigfoot sighting, having spare time (and money) could be rare event. Who has it?

Think about time spent waiting at the airport, riding the train into work or how about arriving at your doctor’s office on time for your appointment but having to wait over an hour anyways?

What are you typically doing during this time? Playing games, watching videos or even shopping?

Why not get paid to do some of these activities?

I am not promising millions of dollars but if you are like me and wouldn’t walk past a penny without picking it up (maybe pre-Coronavirus?) – this info is for you.
After doing some research, I found a two sites that I am currently using and wanted to share with you.

Rakuten – Easy Money

Rakuten, formally known as EBates (rhymes with “REBATES”), is a company that offers cash back rewards for on-line shopping.
This isn’t a new concept. My grandma would find rebate offers in the newspaper for different products she would buy from the store. She would spend time cutting the offer from the paper, buying the product from the store, cutting out the UPC from the product packaging which was required to send in with the rebates offer.

Of course, she would spend the time to address the envelope, affix a stamp to it, walk it to the mailbox and wait for the check to come in the mail. She would then take the  check, deposit into the bank (this is when I would get the lolipop from the nice Teller). When she had enough, she would save and buy savings bonds. She was a smart cookie.
I did not inherit her patience, but Rakuten allows me to practice the same frugal habits.

I prefer to shop on-line for groceries, hotel reservations, travel stuff and other things that we need. Therefore, it makes sense to receive a cash incentive for purchases we need to make especially when they are retailers we already use like Petco, Amazon and Target.

Given the current pandemic situation, some of us are using these on-lines services more than normal and now is no time to leave money on the table.

How it Works:
By clicking on the links that Rakuten provides (also known as affiliate marketing), they receive a percentage of that “sale” in which they will share a portion with me. You are probably clicking on affiliate links all the time and not realizing that people are earning money through your purchases.
Rakuten was just brilliant enough to offer an incentive for using their affiliate links.
Why didn’t I think of this??

Tip: On top of earning cash back for everyday purchases, if you use a credit card that also offers cash back or travel rewards, the savings can become significant.

How to Get Started:
1. Start by signing up using my Rakuten referral link (see what I did there?)
By doing this, I get $ after you get $ – like pimping you out except legally and less invasive.
You can use your email address, Google or Facebook account to sign up.

Side note: I don’t use my main email account for InboxDollars since I always fear a lot of spam which I have not encountered yet, but just in case.

2.Complete your profile and be sure to set up your “Account Settings”. After that, choose how you want to be paid (via PayPal, check or American Express Rewards).

3.Search for your favorite products or stores to find the best cashback deal which range from 2% up to 20%.

*Be sure to check out the links under “Hot Deals”.
As an alternative to searching, you can install a Chrome or Firefox browser extension which is what I use so that I don’t have to make an extra effort to search for the store or product to see if they are a Rakuten participant.

The browser extension alert will pop up in the top right corner of my browser to let me know a deal is available and I can either activate it or decline.

Rakuten nifty pop-up browser extension

I earned $5.13 in January for simply buying groceries. This may not sound like a lot but why leave free money on the table?

InboxDollars – OnLine Rewards Club – More Money

I’ve tried a few sites that offer payment for taking surveys, providing product feedback and for watching videos and InboxDollars is the easiest to use and is actually kinda fun.

They offer various ways to earn such as “Scratch & Win” tickets, answering trivia questions and even sometimes just playing a game. Who knew Mahjongg was so much fun???

You can even get paid for watching, or in my case, playing videos for background noise while I am working.

Payments range from pennies to dollars and sometimes over $20 bucks if you sign up for specific services. I recently signed up for StashInvest.Com which is an on-line savings and investment app and received $20.

How it Works:
Similar to Rakuten, InboxDollars earns their revenue by driving potential consumers to different products and services. There are also companies who need feedback either by collecting it through surveys or product samples. They pay InboxDollars who in turn, share a portion with you. Recently, I earned $1.25 by watching an ad and providing feedback.

How to Get Started:
1.Sign up! Please use my invitation link: InboxDollars.

2.Complete your full profile especially the interests and household section. This way you are matched to surveys that are within your demographic.

3.Get familiar with the site and figure out your favorite activities so you can start earning! Personally, my least favorite activities are the surveys but they can be big earners.

Super easy. If you are using other sites and recommend them, let us know by submitting a comment below!

People in My Pictures – Italy

People in My Pictures – Italy

I love people. For the most part. Sometimes I prefer them to be far away instead of “all up in my personal space” like on a seat next to me while on an airplane ride or subway. What I don’t mind are having people in my travel pictures as I feel it captures a part of the everyday “life” and is a bit different than the typical building or landscape pictures.

So, here are some of my people pictures from my first time in Italy around 2007. I suppose this is my attempt at a photo essay??

People in my Pictures

I caught this jolly group walking down the stairs from a Univeristy and it seemed this nice, slightly tipsy gentleman was having a grand time. You can see he caught me taking a picture and right after I put the camera down, he yelled out, “Ciao, bella!” because of course, this is what men do in Italy. This picture makes me smile.

Italian Men at the University - GGA
Ciao, bella!

I call this one: “Newstand Man” not to be confused with “Candy Man” and don’t say it 3 times!  One of my favorites because of all the colors and lines of the magazines. Then we see this man pushing his glasses up…

Newstand Man
Newstand Man

Random snapshot of a group while we were exploring the ruins in Pompei. It seems every time they walked past me they were having some spirited debate.

Group in Pompei
Group in the ruins of Pompei

This lovely lady was surprised that I wanted to take a picture of her. I asked if I could “make” a photo of her in my broken Italian and she responded by pointing to herself and confirming it was her I wanted to take a picture of. I suppose no one takes random pictures of bathroom attendants, by why not? I do. And she was lovely.

Bathroom Attendant - Italy
You want to take a picture of me?? Yes. – Italy

I have no idea what this random conversation was about, but if you have ever been near Termini Station in Rome, it can get a bit crazy.  I can’t think of a caption for this….other than…get back in your car because you are in standing in the middle of traffic?

Men in Traffic
You going that way? No…I am staying right here.

No set of pictures are complete without the mom and the baby and of course, the lost tourist, the nun and other randomness.

Mom and Baby
Mom and Baby

Vatican Museum – two workers having a chat while I waited in line.  I strongly recommend doing a group tour if plan on visiting the Sistine Chapel which is part of the Vatican Museum. You can get to the front of the line much faster.

Vatican Museum
Vatican Museum

See the line? The Vatican Museum gets TONS of visitors each year and it’s definitely worth it. You don’t go to Rome, without going to the Vatican to see the museum plus the Sistine Chapel. If you take a tour, you can get to the front of the line and take pictures of everyone else standing in line.

Line at the Vatican
Line at the Vatican

And for the love of God, go to church.

Go to Church, Rome, Italy
Go to Church, Rome, Italy

…because if you don’t, you might wonder where your salvation went. In your purse, the sky or hell…you have no clue?

Purses
Purses

The End.

 

 

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