Archive for February 2, 2007

Incentive Programs

February 2, 2007 by Hawk.

I always thought they were crap. Scams to grab your email address and spam the hell out of you. But that changed a while ago when a friend convinced me to sign up at MyPoints.com. Now, granted, you’re not going to get rich participating in these programs but for the most part it’s a quick, easy and painless way to get a little extra every now and then. I won’t say it’s all gumdrops and lollipops (yay, Brady Bunch). For example I recently signed up (to get points at MyPoints) for free health insurance quotes and since then I’ve gotten at least a dozen phone calls offering to sell me overpriced insurance coverage. But that too has its amusing side as I tend to deflect the calls with random excuses like “Sorry, he’s left the country and won’t return until the warrants expire.” which get some amusing reactions.

On the bright(er) side, in the months I’ve been participating in these programs I’ve earned and/or won:

  • $10 Walmart gift card
  • $25 Home Depot gift card
  • $30 KB-Toys gift card
  • A Kodak Z650 camera complete with printer dock
  • 100,000 MyPoints points (approx. value $700)
  • Various magazine subscriptions

Not bad for reading some email messages, clicking on a few links and looking at some web pages. You can earn more if you do a lot of shopping online and link through to the retailer’s site from MyPoints. We also use our MyPoints Visa card to do the weekly grocery shopping and earn points for every dollar spent. I do recommend setting up a HotMail, Gmail etc. email address to use with these programs just to keep the program mail separate from the personal email. So… if you want to make a few extra buck now and then and have the chance to win some decent contest prizes I highly recommend giving them a try. You can always close your accounts if you’re not happy with them.

Recommended sites:
http://www.mypoints.com/
http://www.zoompanel.com/
http://www.mysurvey.com/ 

I do suggest signing up for the survey programs through MyPoints, that way you earn points for signing up as well as the incentives offered by the survey sites. I can (and so can you) earn points for referring people to MyPoints.com but the link above is direct to the site with no association to my account. Drop me a reply here if you’d be willing to let me refer you or just sign up and start earning points.

Enjoy,

Hawk

Posted in Rant and Rave | 2 Comments »

Tornados Hit Florida.

February 2, 2007 by Hawk.

Tornados slam central Florida

Not much more than a month after tornado’s ravaged Central Florida on Christmas day the state is again struck by disaster. At least 19 dead, thousands of building, homes and vehicles obliterated. Our area was spared, we got little more than some thunder and moderate rain. Others weren’t as lucky. Why do I feel guilty about that?

If you’d like to donate to the relief fund give the Red Cross a call at 1-800-RED-CROSS (1-800-733-2767) or visit their web site at http://www.redcross.org/.

Image above ©wftv.com visit their site for more images from these devastating storms.

Posted in Rant and Rave | 1 Comment »

Now what?

February 2, 2007 by Hawk.

Great, I’ve got a blog. I said to myself when I saw the hosting package had a built in blog “Yeah! I’m going to just vent my spleen every moment I get! There’s no end of shit to bitch about…” Of course now I’m just sitting here staring at the screen wondering what the hell to type. Ain’t life grand?

Well the domain’s up, the main page has been mildly reworked. The Camera section has been revamped to include a bunch of new images I’ve taken with the Kodak Z650 I won in a contest over at MyPoints.com. Man I love this camera. 6 megapixels, 10x zoom, it accepts any 55mm filter and even shoots tollerable video. Beats the heck out of my old 2 MP Kodak, though, that too took some amazing pictures.

Well it’s almost time for This Old House (I’m an addict) so…

More later… hopefully.

Hawk

Posted in Rant and Rave | 1 Comment »

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