Email Aliases

I've mentioned before about needing lots of email addresses for special offers.  Well, here's a trick that I failed to mention.  Email aliases.  Many email providers allow for aliases to be created for an already existing account.  One such provider is Outlook, formerly hotmail.  You set up your account then do to the cog up at the top and choose More Mail Settings.  There you will find where you can create up to 10 email aliases.  This is an easy way to have more email addresses without all the work of opening up a new account.  As always, attempt to have variety in the names.

arrows show where you're looking for the cog and alias adding.

here you  an see how easy it is to create the new alias.

I hope this information makes it easier for you to earn more by having more emails with which to complete special offers.

Hosting a House Party

I got selected to host a House Party from Nerf!
What is a House Party you may wonder...  Well, House Party is a site where you apply to host a party.  You agree to have the party on a certain day, or close to it.  If chosen for a party you are sent a party pack to help you host the party for FREE.  This party is sponsored by Nerf and Cheetos.  So my party pack had five Nerf water guns, 12 bags of Cheetos as well as coupons and temporary tattoos for the guests.




If you aren't signed up for House Party yet, you really should check it out!  This is the second party I've hosted.  The other party was for a Hot Wheels toy.  Now before you sigh and say it's only toy parties, don't!  There are other kinds of parties as well.  Friends of mine have gotten SodaStream house parties, and yes, they send you the SodaStream machine!  Others have gotten coffee makers, books, food and health and beauty items.  Really, check it out!

free samples!

do you take advantage of all the freebies you can get online?  oh, I know what you're thinking.  you're thinking what's the point?  all you get are those little single use packets.  well, sometimes, yes, that is very true as shown by the picture to the right.  lots of one use packets are very helpful though.  they make great additions to your diaper bag, glove compartment or purse.  the main reason they send them is to let you try it out and if you like it, then you buy it.  most come with a decent coupon for your first purchase too.  but trust me when I say that those little packets are not the only type of freebie out there.

sometimes you get them in little bottles too.  those are good for several uses each and these too come with coupons for a future purchase of the item!  you can get everything from body wash and shampoo/conditioner to lotion, lip balms and deodorant.  these make great guest items or travel items.  I know I'll be packing some of these in my hospital bag for my upcoming hospital stay!

there are also the full sized stuff you can get!  full sized shampoo, face wash, lotion and all kinds of other things too.  like foods products, razors, baby formula, baby bottles and bath poufs too!  yes, every bit of this was free.  I paid nothing except the time it took me to fill out the forms for them.  no credit card info was needed or anything.  companies give out their stuff to get you to try it in the hopes you'll start using their product!  it's just that simple.  sometimes instead of a product in the mail, you will get a coupon for the item free at a store.  I have gotten several of those as well.  I currently have two for head and shoulders shampoo or conditioner, a 20oz coke product and a jar of baby food.  good stuff I tell you!

so what are you waiting for?  oh, I know!  the info on how to find the freebies.  well, in all honesty, facebook is the best source of freebie info out there in my opinion.  I follow a ton of "deal bloggers" that post freebies, giveaways and product reviews and things like that.  I am also a member of a group on facebook where we share freebies as we find them.
two of my fave freebie bloggers are FreebieShark and Coupon Clipinista.  there are tons of others out there but I like those two for their speed on posting about the freebies.  some freebies are available for days while others are limited to the first set number like 5000 so speed in knowing when they're available or going to be available is important.

so, get yourself a designated freebie email addy (yes, you really do want one of these) and start hunting your freebies!  then wait and watch the things just start rolling in.

setting goals

for me personally to make the best of the GPT life I set goals.  sometimes it's a daily goal.  sometimes it's determined by a certain amount needed or wanted by a certain time.  sometimes it's something else.  I always have some goal that I'm working towards or with the way I work, working to surpass.  I don't stop when I hit my goal, I try to hit my goal and go beyond it!

currently my goal is $3 a day across all my sites.  this is very easily achieved for me so I made it $3 a day across the sites I use to get amazon money.  I need to make that much to be able to make a diaper purchase before the baby arrives.  I also try to make at least .50 a day on the sites I use for paypal.  there are days I don't make that goal but there are other days where I crush it.

so you're thinking along the lines of $3 a day not being much.  well, when you think about an entire year, it's not really chump change either.  if I make $3 a day for amazon every day this year (I won't because of a hospital stay and recovery after having a baby), I will have made $1095 at the end of the year.  now let's talk about the .50 a day for paypal.  again, that sounds like nothing.  but in a year it's $182.50.  no, it's not a life changing amount but it pays for netflix and a little extra here and there.  so it's worth it!

so do you have a goal for your earnings on GPT sites?  maybe you want to work towards getting a kindle fire?  or maybe you want all your holiday shopping done for free.  it can happen and setting a goal, even a roundabout goal, can help you get there!

maybe you're not a goal setter.  maybe you're not sure how to go about it.  well here's how I figure out my goals.

I need $50 in three weeks.  so I divide $50 by 20 days (one day shy to give me wiggle room).  that means I need to make $2.50 a day for 20 days.  easy as pie.  now you want a long term goal?  how about you want $750 by december.  here's my figuring for that one.  divide your wanted amount, in this case $750 by 300 days (10 months at 30 days average) to get your daily needs.  again it worked out to $2.50 a day.  couldn't you use an extra $750 for holiday shopping?  yeah, I thought so!  of course that amount does not take in to consideration anything being used for the entire time so if you have other things you want between now and then you need to figure all that in too.

bottom line is that goals can be helpful.  it helps you to see that at the end of a set period of time you will have something substantial, not just a few bucks.  of course your goal might be to make $5 a month and that's okay!  just get a goal and get to making that goal a reality!

a tasking I will go....

so let's talk a moment about yet another way to earn on GPT sites - tasks.  what are tasks you may be wondering.  well, it's just that, it's a little job that you're asked to do for points.  they range from way too easy to way too hard for the points offered.  some of the tasks I've seen recently have been things like doing a google search and recording the results, tagging images, moderating images looking for violations (it's a mature task), topic relevance and things like that.  some are sooo easy while others really try your patience.  I tend to stick to the very easy ones because let's face it, I have four children that are also taking my attention so I can't focus overly much on what I'm doing while tasking so reading an article to rate the tag given to it is not gonna happen for me, at least while the minions are awake.

so, where do we find tasks?  they're available on most GPT sites.  the most common places to find them are under a heading that says "tasks" or "crowd flower" but they can also sometimes be found under offer walls like Matomy.  another place to find tasks if you find them to your liking is on Mturk.  that is a site that is linked to amazon and is nothing but tasks.  there are way more there than you will find on any other GPT site.  other GPT sites have only tasks from Crowd Flower but on Mturk there's tasks from other companies as well as private people looking for info, opinions and statistics.  these tasks will sometimes be a short personality survey or things like that.  in general they pay pretty well for the amount of time spent on them.

with Mturk, since you're connected to your amazon account, you can move the money right from there to your amazon account once you have $1 in your account.  the other payment option is to have it sent to your bank account.  tasks are moderated so it's not instant.  it generally takes a day for the task to be approved and you to get paid.  I have never had a task rejected that I did.  some tasks also offer bonuses for good work which is always fun.

I don't do tasks every day but I do them at least a few times a week.  it's a nice way to pad your amazon account or any other payment option you may be interested in based on where you do them.  yes, I tend to do tasks on Mturk more than any other site mainly because it pays more there and there are so many more options for tasks to be done.  I like variety and will hop around on which task type I do.  remember, I'm a firm believer in every little bit helps.

why I earn...

here's what I was able to buy just the other day.  it was paid for totally by amazon gift cards I earned from various GPT sites.  this right here is why I try so hard and use so many sites.  I know plenty of people are perfectly content to use just one or two sites and I totally respect that.  for me, I like the variety of many sites to earn from.  maybe it's just my inability to sit and do just one thing.  but whatever it is, it works out well for me as seen below.  I earned enough for that car seat in less than a month!

now I'm working towards the matching pack n play, high chair and double stroller.  I should have the pack n play before baby gets here as well as diapers, some clothes and feeding needs.  the high chair and stroller will probably come after the baby and that's okay!  oh and fyi the baby is due in March so I have a little time but only a little....

instaGC

so, we've talked about a few things so far but let's talk about my very favorite GPT site now.  sound good?  I think so.  now you need to realize that everyone will upon using GPT sites find one that they love above all others.  for me, it's instaGC and here are some of the reasons why....
do you see all those gift cards I was able to cash out in a rather short amount of time?  it's a mix of amazon, walmart and one $25 papa johns card to spice things up.

so now you're probably thinking "how?" well, it's simple.  I do offers and lots of them!  there are offer contests that give you points too.  I've placed in several of those.  right now they have daily contests for the holidays.  normally it's just weekly and monthly contest.

as you can see by the pic to the left, I've been in the daily winners circle several times recently.  all those points really do add up and really do help.

so why haven't you signed up yet?  oh, okay, I'll keep talking and give you some of the goods on the site.

some great features this site has that make it unique are the chat box, active mods and admin and the coolest is the  instant money you get!  that's right, you cash out for your gift card and you have it right then!  it's yours to use immediately.  a lot of them can be printed for use in store or you can use them online (some are online only).  also they have a huge amount of cards to choose from!  some I've never seen offered from another GPT site before, some available at many but here they're INSTANT!  they're constantly updating and adding more card types.  have a suggestion for a card?  then tell them and they'll usually get it out there for you!  here's just a few of the many cards available from them.

• amazon
• bed bath & beyond
• buy.com
• disney
• ebay
• gamestop
• iTunes
• kholes
• microsoft points
• riot points
• starbucks
• steam
• target
• ultimate game cards
• walmart
• whole foods
• wii points

and that is just a portion of them!  lots of choices.  awesome site if you're a gamer or have children who like to game.  awesome site if you're an amazon junkie like me.  awesome if you're a walmart or target fan.  it's just an all around awesome site.

you've got to try it out!  really, it's so worth it.  I have been able to get so many things for my family because of this site.  check it out and see if it's for you.  I promise once you get the hang of it you will not be disappointed!  really, come check it out.  I'm " itsthecaffeine " in the chat box if you need anything I'm happy to help you out.  if I'm not there, there's usually plenty of helpful people there.

Ring Ring Ring

let's discuss another topic in regards to completing all those special offers on the GPT sites - giving out your phone number.  nobody likes to give out their number.  this is just a fact.  so, when completing offers, how do you do the ones that require a phone number?  well, there are several options.  some better than others.  here's a short list of some ways I've heard of people dealing with the sometimes unpleasant task of giving out your phone number for special offers.

• buy a prepaid cell just for offers
• google voice number
• give a false number
• give your real house or cell number

in all reality the only honest way of doing them is to use your real number.  I also think the prepaid cell is a good option too.  that way it's still your number but easier to screen calls and whatnot.  google voice is okay by some sites, other sites frown upon it.  I will say that I do not condone under any circumstances giving out a false number because that number probably belongs to someone.  how would you feel if someone gave out your number on a whim?  yeah, so scratch that thought from your head right now.  don't do it! 

so now weigh out your options and go and do some offers!  remember though that fraud can get you banned from an offer group and ultimately a site.  it's not worth it.  so think it through and get it done!

email addresses

I thought I'd take a moment and talk about email addresses.  we all have at least one email address that we use, right?  well, obviously.  it's rather hard to do anything online without at least one email address.  did you know that to get special offers on GPT sites to credit better it's important to have many many email addresses?  I'm talking a huge amount here.  personally I tend to make at least one new email address a day.  another important thing is to change the email provider and also to not use the same email variations over and over again such as puterpenny, puterpennies, puterpenny1 and so on.  while it does make it easier for you to remember them offhand, it also makes it easier for the offers to see a pattern.  this is not the case for all offer types but there are some that are harder to get to credit and using similar emails do not help in your attempts to get those points.

so you're probably wondering about where to get all these email addresses, right?  well, it easy to find tons of free email providers.  just do a quick google search and they pop up by the thousands.  here's a list of the ones I tend to favor for my own use though.

• mail.com
• hushmail
• yahoo
• inbox.com
• gmx
• muchomail

 one thing to remember about email addresses and special offers are that they will get slammed with spam.  that's the nature of it and yet another reason to have so many.  that keeps your real email inbox free from the spammy clutter caused by special offers.

once you're used to doing lots of special offers you will learn which types of special offers you can reuse emails for.  in the beginning though, it's best to use new emails for just about every single offer til you get the swing of it.  I could list them out but until you actually meet the offers yourself a list isn't going to help you.  well, it certainly wouldn't have helped me.  I would have spent the entire time going "wait, is this a so and so offer or a so and so?"

so go clear you cookies, cache and history and then make a new email and try a few offers and see if you have better crediting!  I know it worked for me!  have any thoughts or questions?  feel free to ask!

Swagbucks

so I figure it's time to start talking about the actual GPT sites.  this post will be about Swagbucks which is the site that I, along with many others started out with.  it's fairly easy to navigate and has a lot of help sites available as well as a very active facebook page to get real time help when you want or need it.

so what do you do on Swagbucks?  well, you search, play games, watch videos, take surveys, complete offers and shop too.  searches are random and you can generally win on them two to four times a day.  there have been rare occasions where people have gotten more but I've never done that personally.  the pic to the side here is what is referred to as a "mega win" which is really any win over 10.  these can happen any time but are supposed to be more common on Fridays which they've dubbed "mega swag bucks day" or MSBD. 

they've also added a daily bonus meter.  they give you a set amount to earn each day and if you do earn that amount then at the start of the following month you get a bonus for it.  the amount of the bonus increases if you get the goal for a set amount of days straight and things like that.  this is not something you are required to do but I find it fun and the extra bucks are always a welcome treat when they show up!  if you complete the daily goal every day for the entire month you're usually looking at a goal of close to 600sb.  that's more than enough to get a $5 gift card!  the amount you are required to get changes from day to day but is always lowest on the weekend.

the new thing that Swagbucks is pushing is the rewly revamped shop and earn section.  basically you click thru their link to shop at a store like walmart or drugstore.com.  you will earn a certain number of sb for each dollar spent before tax and shipping costs.  if you're buying online anyway, this is a very nice option!  I've used it a few times.  it does take just over a month to get the bucks in your account but that's to ensure you're not going to just return the items. they even have promotions where you get double or even triple the bucks for a store!  how awesome is that?  it's really hard to beat in my opinion!

so now you're probably wondering what types of things you're gonna be able to get with your newly earned swagbucks.  well the list is pretty impressive.  you can get electronic giftcards, paypal as well as physical prizes.  here's a small sampling of the things you can get.  awesome, right?  the most popular reward seems to be the $5 amazon gift card.  it's value priced at only 450sb.

so now that you know a little more, what are you waiting for?  go sign up and check it out!  earn some money for doing easy things you're probably doing anyway.  your wallet and I'm sure your family will be thrilled!

what is a GPT?

let's take a moment to talk about what exactly a GPT site is and isn't.  GPT stands for Get Paid To.  the premise is really simple.  you do things and you get paid in virtual currency.  cool, right?  well, yes it is.  but there's really more to it than just do it and get paid.  like, what exactly are you going to be doing.  here is a small list of things you may find on GPT sites.

• searching.  yes, some sites pay you to do searches.
• surveys.  doing surveys can be a good way to earn points but can also be a bit of a headache.
• watching videos.  this is an easy though time consuming way to earn points.
• completing offers.  there are such a variety of offers available on GPT sites.  from easy things like watching a video to signing up for a site or newsletter to paid subscriptions for things. 
• games.  many sites offer paid games.
• dailies.  these vary from site to site.  many sites offer a daily poll or CPC clicks.  these are really easy things you can do daily for points.
• tasks.  these are where you are doing certain things like tagging a business or putting things into categories or even tweeting articles.  some are easy, some are mind boggling. 
• coupons.  many sites offer points for printing and then using coupons.
• shopping.  there are several sites that have the option to shop thru them to earn points back.  the amount you earn back will often vary from store to store and there's almost always a wait time on the points but it's a really nice bonus when they come.
• referrals.  every site that I am aware of offers some incentive for having referrals.  some it's just a little like matching search wins for a certain amount.  other sites it's a percentage of all their earnings for life.  some have a bonus for them joining and some for the first time they cash out.  no matter what way they reward you, the rewards are awesome.

so now that you have an idea of what you're going to be doing.  how about the why.  well, you're doing it to earn virtual currency aka points or bucks.  you then take that virtual money and trade it for real prizes.  nearly all sites offer giftcards.  the most popular seeming to be amazon because honestly, you can buy just about anything there.  many sites also offer paypal too.  on top of giftcards there's usually also physical prizes you can redeem for.  I've gotten a pack of playing cards with special pictures on it from one site.  otherwise I stick to my giftcards.  but really, did I just answer why?  not really.  so here's why.  you can buy things you want or need for FREE.  yes, it does cost you time but when you're like me and a stay at home mom, you have some time to spend on earning some money.  obviously the amount you earn each month will be directly tied to how much time and effort you put in as well as how many sites you choose to use.  I have literally earned a couple thousand dollars just this year on them.  I suggest to start small with just one site.  do not overwhelm yourself!  do one site, get used to it then if you feel like you can do more, add another site.  I do an obscene amount of sites but I also don't do them all daily and I don't ignore or neglect my home life for them.  so, are you ready to start earning yourself some giftcards?  I thought so!

welcome

welcome to my new blog.  I have another blog that I post very random things on so I decided to make one just for my GPT (GetPaidTo) things.  so here you find yourself.  what will I be posting?  well, it will be more than just my referral links, I promise.  since I am always answering questions from friends on offers and the like, I plan on posting tips and tricks that I have found while using these types of sites.  this year alone I've made over $2,000 in gift cards and paypal money.  true, it's not as much as a real job but I'm making all this while sitting at home with my four, soon to be five children.  I'll talk about promotions that the different sites are doing, new sites that I may find and pretty much any relevant information I can think of regarding my beloved GPT sites.  I'm also a huge fan of freebies and free samples so some of those may be slapped in here as well because I'm all about helping people to get things for free and make the free money.  true, it will cost you your time but that's all it has to cost you!  I don't use every site out there because frankly there are some I am not a fan of for one reason or another and I just simply do not have the time nor the energy to do that.  so, to include other sites I may ask friends of mine to do a guest blog about those.  so that's that.  this blog I hope will be a blessing to others.