(ETA: After I posted this and reread it, I thought “wow! It sounds like I must spend all day on the computer!” I can assure you I don’t. As I said in the post, evenings after the kids have gone to bed, that’s it. Some people like to watch youtube or play online games…I don’t. My online time is spent doing these things. I don’t want anyone to think that this will take a great deal of time, it doesn’t.)

Edited to add, 3/9/11: since I began doing surveys, last summer, I’ve been putting half of the money away and keeping half for walk around money. That is, the checks I receive. Some do not offer checks, only amazon codes. But, I have recently purchased four season passes to Sesame Place with the money–so it does add up!

I was reading a recent issue of Woman’s Day. What caught my eye was a cover story teaser about making money from home. We’d all like to make money from home, wouldn’t we?

I don’t mean to sound like a know it all, really I don’t. But the article didn’t tell me anything I didn’t already know. And, I think I was doing all of the activities she listed. She gave it a title–Mash Up Mom. Sounds very corny to me, hopefully it won’t catch on. I like what I do (details to follow) and it works for me and our lifestyle……….I’d hate to be introduced a few months or years from now, and have the person say “You know, she’s one of those Mash Up Moms.”

Briefly, a Mash Up Mom (which I will call Mum, thinking of my friends across the pond) is one who is largely a stay-at-home mom, maybe works part time. But does lots of little things, bit of this, bit of that, to earn or save money. Which, well, is exactly what I do.

You all already know that I wear the label ‘supercouponer’ and that is one of my means of saving money. I also do a few things here and there and everywhere that earns me a few bucks. Today I’m just going to discuss survey sites and online stuff.

Surveys

Many of the super coupon moms do online surveys too; we even have a whole forum dedicated to it on hcw. Weeding through the sites can be tough, so I’ve done some of it for you. A few tips: You will be asked, frequently, to give out all sorts of demographic information-age, sex, income, birthdate. This bothers my husband at times, as he looks over my shoulder he says “I can’t believe you’ll put all that out there.” The sites claim they have security, info is safe, blah blah blah. Fwiw, I assume that have zero privacy on the internet anyway. If an identity thief wants my info, they’ll get it. And probably not from a survey site. Or maybe from a survey site. Or maybe from my mailbox at the end of the driveway. Who knows?

Each survey takes me about 5-15 minutes. I don’t mind it, I don’t know that I’d say I like doing it, but don’t hate it either. I’ve watched tv commercials, movie trailers, evaluated product packaging, detailed my shopping habits.  I’ve given my opinion on products from all the big name companies-Post, P&G, Huggies, Pampers, car makers, you name it. I do it after the boys go to bed, while hubby is watching tv, it’s how I unwind, because it’s pretty mindless work.

Opinion Outpost: This is my favorite site. They invite me to do lots of surveys, probably 10-15 a week. I qualify for about half of them. When you accumulate $10 or more in credit, you can cash out and a check will be mailed to you. I always get them in under a week from cashing out.

Valued Opinions: This is my second favorite site, only because they don’t pay in money, but in gift cards. Amazon is one of the options so that works for me, but hey, I’d rather just have money.

Most weeknights, after my kids have gone to bed, I grab the laptop and watch tv in my bed and do a few surveys. Just doing that has earned me about $50 a month. Not get rich money, but a decent sum, especially if you want to stash away a vacation fund, Christmas gift money or something like that.

Sites I did not like:

MommyTalkSurveys-I really disliked this site. Some moms raved about it, I hated it. I would supposedly qualify for a survey, answer several questions, then be told “Sorry, this survey is full.” I think they could have determined that prior to asking me which brand of paper towels I prefer and why. It just really felt scammy to me.

I’ve read online that Panda and NPD or whatever it is, that they don’t pay well or in a timely manner.

Pinecone! Everyone raves about Pinecone and how great it is. I joined several months ago, have yet to get even one survey from them.

There is a website called SurveyPolice that you’ll want to check out prior to joining a site. Make sure you are aware of exactly what their rewards program is. I joined one, took a few surveys and each survey gave you a “chance” at winning the monthly jackpot. Essentially, you did a survey and got a lottery ticket in return. Lottery tickets are hardly a sure thing–I want a check or a gift card, thanks. Survey Police also ranks it’s Top 10 of survey companies, and Opinion Outpost and Valued Opinions are always on that list.

A few other tips–fill out all the demo info and intro surveys when you join. I know it’s time consuming and it doesn’t pay anything. (You’ll see what I mean if you join.) But I found that once I completely built our household profile, I got many more invites to surveys. When you do get invites, always do them within a day or so of getting them, or they expire. If they expire it’s no big deal, but if you want to maximize the cash you’ll be earning, you have to do them fairly quickly or they do fill up.

Other Online Earnings:

Bing Rewards: Very similar to swagbucks and other search engine rewards programs. My hubby’s preferred search engine is bing, so when bing rewards was developed, it was good for us. Especially since we caught a virus from swagbucks.

Swagbucks: Swagbucks is a search engine that pays you in points (or swagbucks) for doing your online searches. I don’t have it set as my homepage, just as the toolbar. Just from using the toolbar for searching, I earn about one $5 Amazon gift card per month. They also offer surveys, polls and other things to earn more swag. I don’t even do those, as I don’t want to be online all day! But the opportunity is there. (edited on 3/9/11: I got a virus from swagbucks, so I disabled all of it! So be careful.)

Bzzagent: I’ve been doing Bzzagent for years. You don’t get paid in money, you get paid in MyPoints. Bzzagent is “Word of Mouth” marketing. You sign up, then get offers for products. You agree to use the product and tell all your friends about it. When you complete your online reviews and other things, you get MyPoints. MyPoints is very similar to swagbucks. I’ve gotten tons of free products from Bzzagent–cosmetics, shampoo, even vodka! (edited 3/9/11: I just posted the other day that bzzagent has put out a call for minorities. Part of the goal of bzzagent is to help companies test & develop new products, and apparently they don’t feel they have enough minority opinions. Good time to join, because if they need your participation, you’ll probably get invited to all the best campaigns!)