Introducing: Money Mondays

So while the original (and still primary) purpose of this blog was to, simply, rant about everyday annoyances, I've gotten a surprising amount of email and Twitter feedback on my posts regarding random things to help make or save a bit of money. So every few weeks, I figured I'd post a little update about some of the stuff I've mentioned in the past, and how it's working out for me.

Paid Surveys
Hey, I've been paid. Twice now. As in, the money is in my PayPal account. So here are my results so far, and how a few others are shaping out:

1. Lightspeed - I racked up enough points to make $10 in my first month. Note that the lowest payout is $5, so I even beat the minimum here. I've been the happiest with this panel - they send a few surveys a week, most of which I qualify for and complete, and most of which are 20 minutes or less.
2. I wrote a review of some of the survey sites I use and a website paid me $10 for my article. Sweet!
3. MyPoints - I'm a measly 20 points away from a $10 gift certificate. I get 5 points for every email I read from them, so I should be placing an order for that thing the day after tomorrow.
4. InboxDollars & SendEarnings (click links on the right to help me out, mkay?) - essentially the same company, they also pay you to read emails and take a few surveys. I'm approaching $10, and the payout is $30...I should cash out sometime this summer...and all just for reading a few extra emails each day.
5. A sneaky trick for those of you who are dealing with the whole Toluna / Greenfield / Your2Cents merger - if you're sick of the low point yet way too long surveys, just log in everyday and take the paid polls. You get anywhere from 15 - 150 points per poll. Not a lot, but that's a good way to inch towards your payout while they get the survey fiasco fixed.

Free Stuff
It's too early to have received anything...but spam. As expected, a few of the things I've found have resulted in an influx of spam to my email. Good thing I'm already using a bogus email address! So be prepared if you start doing this.

Here's a few neat things I've found this week:
1. Free Book from Crown Publishing - they've got three to choose from, just pick one that looks interesting to you!
2. Free Cologne from Swiss Army - free sample of Swiss Army (yes, the people that make those watches and knives) cologne.
3. New website to add to the watch list: MySavings.com. Again, you have to register for this to get the links, but it's worth it. Lot's of stuff added daily on this one.
4. Save the Date(s): February 5th - get a free KIND bar at Starbucks (their new granola bar). February 23rd - get a free short stack of pancakes at IHOP.
5. Prilosec OTC Sample - mmn, free heartburn medicine...for those of us who just can't stay away from the spicy food.

Again, I'll let you know if/when I actually receive any of this stuff. Keep your fingers crossed, or go ahead and give it a go with me and sign up for some of these things now.

In the next Money Mondays edition: getting paid for your junk mail? Sounds too good to be true. Hopefully I'll find out soon...

Et tu, Craigslist?

As someone who is self-employed, I've always been a huge fan of Craigslist. But if you've visited the site recently, you've been bombarded with warnings about the recent scams plaguing the site. And if you're looking for work, you've been bombarded with the resulting spam.

I've spent a good deal of time over the holidays planning for upcoming work, and no matter how good I think I've become at spotting a phony posting, I'm still receiving about five spam replies a week, asking for me to buy my credit report in order to 'proceed with the hiring process.'

First of all, in case anyone is wondering, I have heard that occasionally some employers want to check your credit report, but I have yet to meet anyone where that's actually happened. Secondly, any company who is going to do that is going to do it themselves, and would probably have a business account with their preferred agency to do that very thing.

But moving back to the original problem - how to eliminate applying for bogus jobs? Unless Craigslist starts to implement paying for posting for all of it's cities, the spammers are going to continue to undermine the site. But there are a few things you can do:

1. If there is an actual email address posted, do a Google search for that email. Most of the spammer emails are showing up on a site called flakelist.org which maintains a database of confirmed spammers. If the spammer is relatively new, you can still spot a fake by pulling up multiple posts in different regions by the same email. Also, just a hint: firstnamelastnamerandomnumber@gmail.com is probably not real.

2. If the posting is using the Craigslist default emailing system, try grabbing a section of text and doing a similar Google search. But, by nature, these might be harder to weed out.

3. Help a brotha' out. If you determine a posting is illegitimate, then flag the posting as spam. If everyone helps monitor the site, maybe at some point these spammers will get tired and move on.

In the meantime, good luck in that job hunt.