Earn some cool items and more! Pt. 1

          Are you underemployed/unemployed/living on a fixed income of any type? Well, there are ways to enhance your life without too much "work" involved: these are just a few tips in regards to enhancing your life and even your social calendar at times.

          Though I do not cringe away from the idea of a hard day's work, I am physically unable to seek regular employment in the outside world due to a chronic condition that causes extreme pain known as Trigeminal Neuralgia.  However, since my diagnosis from six years ago, I have found ways to "earn" some cool items, a little bit of extra cash at times, and even gift cards to various stores---including starbucks, walmart, and more.

          My foray into this cyber-earn world has been a learning experience...especially when it came to using a computer on a day to day basis as I do now.  Yet, now that I am completely computer/internet literate (as much as I can be without college courses), I constantly try to improve the quality of my life by earning items over the web that normally would be hard for me to do on a fixed disability income.

          Some of my suggestions in this article are as time consuming as a job---albeit, they can be much more fun than the work an employer may have you do.  My first example---one that I am very fond of---is a place on the net known as Live Search Club.  Through Live Search Club, a user plays various games (word games, matching games, and the like) to earn tickets and exchange these tickets for various prizes.  The prize levels are determined by the amount of tickets one has to exchange: the more tickets you exchange, the better the prize.  Some prize examples:

        1 Ringtone---105 tickets; 10 song dowloads---950 tickets; XBox 360 Faceplate---1400 tickets; Xbox 360 games (usually offers 2-3 various games)---2500 tickets; etc, etc.

         In January 2008, I exchanged 30,000 tickets for a higher end prize---a Samsung Dvd Camcorder---and I received my prize delivered to my doorstep just today.  This does not cost any money to join/there is no shipping or handling charges on prizes...it is all "FREE". Are there a few drawbacks? Well, depending on one's definition of "drawback" ---yes:

         To sign up for Live Search Club, you must have an active hotmail account; higher end prizes (such as a Dvd Camcorder) require a higher ticket amount; it does take awhile playing the games to earn a lot of tickets (it took me 2 1/2 months for the camcorder, for instance); delivery of prizes can take up to 12 weeks, so long as your prize is in stock.

         The url:  http://club.live.com/home

          If you decide to sign up, you could just find yourself with a few cool items that otherwise, you might not have been able to afford. 

          Another little gem that everyone should know about: a website named MyPoints.  Here, one signs up to read advertising e-mails  and responding to these e-mails by clicking on a button within the e-mail.  Do you have to buy anything? No, you really don't have to purchase anything.  Just by reading the e-mail and clicking on the button provided, the reader earns 5 points.  Yes, this is another idea that it will take a little bit of time to actually "earn" something---especially if you don't purchase anything.  However, there are other ways to earn points other than reading & clicking; sometimes, you can earn points for signing up for information, surveys, etc.  This is a nice way to "earn" gift cards to stores such as Starbucks, Walmart, and more.  And, if you do decide to purchase through the My Points ads or through the website itself, you do earn the extra points in the offer.

          The url: https://www.mypoints.com

          If you decide to sign up, please let them know that peggy.sctt@yahoo.com referred you...it would help me earn 125 points! You can also refer your own friends to earn points as well!

          Drawbacks?  It may take awhile for points to accumulate, especially if one doesn't take advantage of surveys, signing up for information, and the like; also, you will receive offers in your e-mail quite a bit.  However, it only takes a couple of seconds to click on the respond button, and, within a few months, you will have earned your first gift card.  The gift cards do come in handy when you have a little need!

           These are just a couple of examples of how I am able to supplement my life with the little things---and, anyone on a tight budget will tell you that little things do matter.  For the sake of space, I will publish a second part to this article within the next week.  However...why don't you go check out these first two sites?