Earning / Shopping. Cool.

I recently purchased from one of the promos they give you on E-Miles and the airline miles did show up in my Northwest account, and on time to boot. So I wanted to give a Consumer Reports style shout-out to E-Miles. Sometimes I’m skeptical that I’m missing something in the fine print, but I needed this anyway, so it was a worthwhile experiment. If you haven’t heard of it – definitely sign up. They give you airline frequent flyer miles in exchange for your time viewing ad messages and quick 3-question surveys. Very worth it, even for just a break in the workday.

Secondly, I’ve gotten hooked on this website – Shop it to Me. A friend of mine met the guy who launched it out in San Francisco and it seems to be growing quickly and doing well. The premise is that you select the brands and stores you like up front, and then you get an email newsletter two times a week with links to individual products on sale. I’m not a big online shopper, but I do like it for one reason: gives you more visibility to what types of things are on sale if you do a little research (implication: a reminder that you should never really pay full price for things in the retail space). One setting I would adjust is the price ceiling for items they show you. I keep lowering mine, so I won’t be tempted by anything over a couple hundred bucks. And I invited enough friends to get a free $10 gift certificate to use on the site. Fun!

Time for Money

I became an E-Miles member not too long ago, and have been pleasantly surprised with the experience. Here’s how it works, you wade through marketing messages and respond to surveys so companies can gauge how interested your demographic will be in buying their products and services. They give you miles to be added to an airline account of your choice.

Do I feel bad about whoring myself out to consumerism, you ask? No. I am smarter than you, Company. I know what I want and what I don’t. You can’t convince me I need things. And I already have to wade through marketing messages so I might as well get some compensation for the hassle. Right now I have only amassed 320 miles (most surveys are worth 5-15 miles for your time) but I don’t mind too much that it’s filling up gradually. The surveys are fairly short and it gives me something arguably productive to do on those Friday afternoons at four when there is no way I’m going to be getting work done.

E-Poll or American Consumer Opinion surveys are two other resources you might want to try (compensation based instead of airline miles... cash or gift cards) in case you're into the concept.