surviving the recession

Is it possible to earn much from pay-per-click sites? Well, you can earn a little, maybe enough to add a small amount to your Paypal earnings so you can cash out without paying a fee. Most of the good earners with these sites have a ton of referrals who make them money. The rest of us use these sites when we urgently need to earn a few dollars to make up the minimum withdrawal from Paypal without incurring a fee. Whatever, here are the best pay-to-click sites:

Donkeymails They pay to read emails and also click banners. Have earned over $10 with this site., and they pay reliably

Jillsclickcorner Another pay-to-click banners site that definitely pays

GlobalCashClicks   Another pay-to-click website. I confirm that they pay, but they no longer use Paypal, which means you have to open an account with AlertPay or similar alternative site.

Hits4Pay - this is the best paying site - usually at least 1 cent per advert banner viewed.  They usually give you $10 for signing up and now pay by Paypal. Have received $25.68 so far from them

Is it worth usiang pay-per-click sites? Sure, if you have some time to spare and a tabbed brower which means that you can let the timer for viewing various banners run down while you are doing something else. It makes you a little money (more if you can get referrals), for doing not much, and lets you monetarise “dead time”.

Most of us spend thousands at supermarket grocery stores, so it’s worth using reward cards to get a little cashback on your purchases. Over the course of a year, this tends to be enough to pay for petrol on several occasions at the supermarket petrol stations. See this Guide to Reward Cards for details of the reward cards on offer.

Another way to save is to use a cashback site when shopping online. These sites normally give you money back if you click through to a retailer from their site and make a purchase. The best way to use them is to scout online for what you want to buy. When you’ve found it, clear all cookies from your computer. Then log into a cashback site and click through to the retailer from that site and make your purchase. The cashback site will then refund you the cash-back. See this guide to cashback sites for a list of sites doing this.

Many people while away tons of time browsing the social bookmarking sites like Digg or Reddit and posting links and comments and arguing with like-minded people.  In fact if you are unemployed it’s quite likely you will spend hours on these sites as displacement activity that allows you forget your troubles while filling up the day with apparent busy-ness.

If you do happen to be addicted to these sites, consider switching to Newsvine, which is a social bookmarking site that shares advertising revenue with you for all the links you provide and allows you to write articles as well (though they have no referral program). Newsvine is a reputable organisation that is owned by MSNBC. To find out more how the Newsvine system works, click here.

If you are intending to spend money on Black Friday, it’s worth checking out DealStop, which collates bargain and coupon information for internet retailers.

DealStop  is a community site that relies on members to tell them about bargains and coupon offers from various retailers.

They cover most retailers, and their site is fully searchable.  

Initially they were simply a community website that members posted deals on. However, they now allow members to set up storelets, to get a little commision back for spotting deals.

Here’s how it works. Create an account with them (this is free). You can then start posting deals that you’ve spotted online. If someone purchases via one of the deals you have posted, you get 50% of the base commission that the affiliate merchant offers. They pay via Paypal once you have earned $25. Obviously it’s worth posting the keenest deals you can find to encourage people to buy.

As this is an active community, there is plenty of scope to interact with other members, commenting on their deals and generally chatting.

Please note that you can only earn with DealStop if you live in the United States, and they do not have a referral program.  

Apart from being a little earner, it’s also a great source of deals and bargains and is worth searching before you make a purchase.

If you are short of money and trying to stretch it,  it’s always worth hearing about any discounts that are on offer. But trawling the net for them can be time consuming. Fortunately a number of websites have sprung up that collate information about discounts and post coupon codes:

FixtureFerrets is a British website that specialises in posting information about supermarket bargains. They cover all the main supermarkets (ASDA, Sainsburys, Tesco, Morrisons and Waitrose). They list any discounts, buy-one-get-one-free offers, 3-for-2 offers and so on. If you are one of those who is happy to shop around for their groceries, check out their site first. 

HotUKDeals is a UK community website which encourages users to join free and post any deal they find on the site for the benefit of the entire community. It’s pretty much like an online forum in that users can comment on deals posted by other people and add information

MadAboutBargains is a site run by a woman called Jeanie, who has massed information and posted it all online.