There is a trick to using these programs without getting annoyed by them. Most of them take a little time (a few seconds to half a minute) to down load anything after you click on something that gives you miles or money. If you simply stare at the screen waiting for the down load to happen, you will quickly conclude that it's not worth your time to do so. The trick is to always be doing something else while the down load is happening. I do all of my clicking while reading and acting on my e-mail. I have at least two screens open. I go the site and click, then instantly go to my e-mail. After doing something there, I instantly switch screens and click again. Etc. So the clicking costs me virtually no time, and I earn a free ticket or a few dollars every once in a while.

You can convert points to United Airlines at a ratio of 10,100 points for 5,000 miles or 5,200 points for 2,500 miles. There are other travel awards, including some from large hotel chains like Marriott and Hyatt, plus a huge list of merchandise for which you may trade your points. You can also use points to get Amazon.com gift cards, Visa gift cards, or even cash to your Paypal accounts. To look at the rewards offered, travel or otherwise, click on the Rewards tab on the MyPoints site, and choose the category the interests you.

There are lots of very easy ways to earn those points:

• The easiest is to sign up for their BonusMail program and tell them you want to receive advertising e-mail for as many categories as they list, and as frequently as possible. I receive about 7 - 20 mailings a week. Simply click on the button at the bottom and you are given 5 points. Many of the offers are incredibly good and offer hundreds or thousands of points in addition to the points you receive for just accepting the email and clicking on the button.

• Shopping sometimes offers very good offers, like mega points for first time purchase, or double points for certain periods of time. There is a very large list of merchants on this very successful shopping portal. Sometimes the best or only deal for a merchant is found here.
• The Easy Points section is particularly lucrative. Many points are offered for simply registering at a site.
• New August 2005: Log into your account and update your profile in 12 categories for 5 points each. This may be important for receiving the maximum number of Bonus Mails.
• MyPoints has a travel center page wherein you can receive points for booking flights, hotels, and car rentals.

• Join via this page to receive 750 United Airlines miles.
• Join via this page to receive 500 United Airlines miles.
• You can ask me to refer you. I get some points at no cost to you. After you join, you can start referring, too. But first read the items below:
  • Before sending your request, check my What's New page to see if I am traveling, so you will know when to expect a response.
  • I need your first and last names, and your email address.
  • In the past, some people I have referred have attempted to defraud MyPoints, probably by enrolling more than once under different email addresses. MyPoints is very good at detecting this. Alas, they have threatened to close my account because too many of my referrals have tried this. So, in order to refer you, I must have your written promise that you will sign up for MyPoints only once.
  • I have only a limited number of referrals. If you ask for one, and then don't sign up and participate in the program, a referral is wasted. So please ask me to refer you only if you are certain you will sign up and participate. You must earn 125 points (easy) for me to receive credit. Thanks.

• The system works quite well and is easy to use.
  • Links to ads are posted on the page you get when you go to your home page. This is automatic if you accept cookies.
  • Clicking on each ad gives you a pop-up after you click on the link. But the original page changes to a list of a few questions at the same time. You must always answer the questions to get the miles. The questions are easy and few. I consider this worth my time.
  • Sometimes an email is sent to you telling you that you have earnings opportunities, sometime not. I recommend checking the site frequently to see if you have an earnings opportunity.
• You receive 100, 100, and 75 miles for joining, confirming, and profiling, respectively, for a start of an easy 275 miles.
  • Special Offer: 500 United Airlines miles for joining by by June 30, 2013. (Via Miles Momma.)
• This Flyertalk discussion indicates that 1 e-mile = 2 HHonors points (post #7).
• You choose the progam when you join, and you may not change it unless one of the following conditions applies:
  1. You move fifty (50) miles or more from your current address.
  2. There is a significant reduction or elimination in service to your city with your selected Sponsor airline.
  3. Your selected Sponsor airline is no longer an e-Miles participating sponsor.
  4. Other conditions could apply on a case-by-case basis, subject to e-Miles Member Agreement.
  5. You may cancel your membership at any time and then re-enroll in the program with a different miles or points partner. However, any e-Miles miles earned that have not already been deposited to your preferred frequent flyer or sponsor account would be lost. So if you do this, be sure you empty your account first and wait for the miles you have sent to an airline to actually arrive.
• e-Miles miles not deposited expire one year from the month in which they are earned.
• Miles are deposited into your airline account in 500 mile increments whenever you request them to do so.
• e-Miles miles will expire if a member does not reply to one (1) or more earning opportunities each month.
• e-Miles miles not deposited into the Member frequent flyer account expire one (1) year from the quarter in which the e-Miles miles were earned. For example, e-Miles miles earned in January will expire in April of the following year if the e-Miles miles have not been deposited. Of course, the reason miles would not be deposited would be that you haven't earned 500 of them. Presumably miles are moved out on a first in - first out basis, though they don't say this.
• Carefully read the Member Agreement before signing up for this program.

   

This looks like a very good program, but I have no way of monitor it, since I do not live in the U.K. So you are on your own with it.

On February 27, 2008, a reader wrote:

"I see you still have Eurmiles shown on your site. They are a disingenuous company who does not provide what they say at all, NEVER provide the additional points for any transaction, and take 4-6 weeks to respond to any e-mail to customer services. All comments I have seen about them are very negative. I have canceled my account with them. It was a waste of my time and I strongly suggest you remove them from your site."

Please use the links I provide to join the programs, as I get some money for your doing so, at no cost to you.

• $25 Travelocity Hotel Promotional Card for 299 swagbucks
• $25 Restaurant.com e-Gift Card for 400 Swagbucks.
• $5.00 Amazon e-Gift Card for 450 bucks.
• Cat and dog stuff starting at 349 bucks.
• $50 Southwest airlines e-Gift Card for 5700 bucks.
• $20 Target e-Gift Card for 2350 bucks.
• $10 Barnes and Nobel for 1250 swagbucks
• $15 iTunes for 1850 swagbucks
• $50 REI for 8400 swagbucks
• $50 TicketMaster for 8400 swagbucks
• $50 Lowes for 8600 swagbucks
• Please tell me if any of the specific prizes I mentioned disappear, or if a good one of general interest is added. Thanks.

Not all searches result in bucks. This seems to be random, with some limit on how many successful searches will give you credit each day.

• 20 Swagbucks per day gets you (about two successful searches), for example, a $5 Amazon.com certificate every 23 days. Easy. Just do the searches you would do anyway via Swagbucks.
• I seem to regularly be awarded 10-20 bucks for my second, third or fourth search in the morning and again at night.
• Frequently clicking on page two or three of a search result gets me a swagbuck. So now I automatically do this for every search.
• Searching, clicking on a result, then clearing out my cash and clicking on my back button almost always results in bucks.
• When you see the usual notice of award for a search, sometimes you must enter a 3 letter code to actually receive the buck. You must do this promptly, or the offer of the Swagbucks will expire. The code is case sensitive.
• SwagBucks will deactivate your account if they think you are doing "unatural" searches. I suggest you just open a separate window for SwagBucks and simply do your normal searches there.

SwagCodes are codes provided by Swagbucks on its Facebook, Flickr, and Twitter pages, in its emailed newsletter for which you may sign up, on its toolbar which you may download, and on its blog. Sometimes the code comes in the form of an interesting puzzle which you must solve.

• Fortunately you do not have to read all of these to get the codes.
  • Swagcode Spoilers reliably lists swagcodes. It now has a nifty code checker page that gives you a drum roll whenever there is a new code. I simply open it in a separate window whenever I am online and look at it whenever I hear drums. Easy.
  • Some enterprising Canadians post them on a RedFlagDeals.com thread. The codes last for only a short period of time. So it is best to sign up with RedFlagDeals.com, then subscribe to the thread. You can chose to receive instant notice of new posts to this thread via email or cell phone. After you receive a notice of a new post you must visit the thread while you are logged in to receive another notice. I just stay logged in and click on the link to the thread in the email. Please carefully read the instructions at the top of this thread. It is for posting SwagCodes and their expirations only. No thank yous, no discussions, etc, because every time you post something on that thread it gets emailed to everyone subscribed to it, thus forcing us to visit the thread to get the next email.
  • SlickDeals has a similar thread, but it does not have the level of cooperation of RedFlagDeals, as people post thank you's, comments, duplicate information, etc. You may subscribe to the thread and opt to receive a emails for any new post.
  • Flyertalk has a similar thread. You may subscribe to the thread and opt to receive a emails for any new post.
  • SwagCodes usually earn about 5 -20 easy bucks. To get credit for a code, enter the code in the Enter your SwagCode field on the home page, and click on Gimmie.
  • Please do contribute your finds of SwagCodes on these threads.

A reader provided me with a list of many other easy ways to earn Swagbucks. He says he gets around 20-25 bucks/day from these.

• Click on Daily Polls, answer the single question, and receive 1 SB.
• Click on Trusted surveys - 1 SB even if you don't do any.
• Click through the NOSO link - decline everything [between 3-6 pages] - get 2 SB [currently requires a code that they provide on the final page].
• If you have the SB search bar you get 1 SB per day automatically for just using it at least once.
• Click through 'Special offers'. They have several sites to try in turn to play videos.
  • Ad Rewards gives you 5 videos per day to watch. Watch for the numbers and key them in. You get at least 1 SB per video, often more
  • Click though the other sites and press videos, or free. Click on any videos. You get 1 or 2 SB per video. You do not need to watch these; just let them run.

There is a useful general discussion of Swagbucks on the afore mentioned RedFlagDeals.com. This is where you read and post comments other than finds and expirations of SwagCodes, say thank you if you must, etc.

Whenever you successfully refer someone, the bucks earned in that person's account from searches are matched in yours, to a maximum of 100 bucks per referral. This, of course, is why I hope you will use my referral link to join the program. Thanks.

I have not checked out the validity of any of these causes. Presumably the businesses financing the causes have done due diligence.

I also list a nifty way to contribute your unused computer power to do some very useful research.

Free Rice. Answer multiple choice questions on vocabulary as often as you like. Whenever you get a correct answer, 10 grains of rice are donated through the United Nations World Food Program (WFP) to help end world hunger. A caution from personal experience: My S.O. found this website. Now I must use it regularly, or soon I will not be able to understand a word she says.

Care2. Marine wetlands, rainforest, American prairie, oceans, big cats, primates, pets in need, breast cancer, violence against women, children. My link takes you to the first three. Use the tabs on top for the others. Be sure you are logged in before you click.

• New: Buy 1 pound of Carbon Offset per day with one click per day. Click the "Offset 1 Pound of Carbon" button every day to remove a pound of CO2 from the atmosphere. Care2 will then make a donation to pay for the removal.

EcologyFund.com. Save rainforest, coastal habitat, and Wilderness, protect endangered species, and reduce pollution (2 pounds of carbon dioxide per click). Click on a brown button. Click on an ad on the page you get to increase the contribution. Then go back and click on the next brown button.

The Rainforest Site. Rainforests, Animal Rescue, Literacy, Breast Cancer, Child Health, and Hunger. My link takes you to the Rainforest page. Use the tabs at the top of the page to the other causes.

The Sloan-Kettering Institute. Help the The Sloan-Kettering Institute conduct research to fight cancer.

Red Jellyfish. Click to save rainforest and feed chimps. Also very nice e-cards.

The first and most famous of the projects was SETI (Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence), but currently there is a huge number of them. Categories on March 31, 2008, included

• Science (22 projects)
• Life Sciences (22 projects)
• Cryptography (7 projects)
• Internet (9 projects)
• Financial (2 projects)
• Mathematics (44 projects)
• Art (4 projects)
• Puzzles/Games (5)
• Miscellaneous (2)

I have been using this type of software since 2001 and have had no problems with it. It is a very smooth, easy way to contribute to valuable research at no cost to you.

Click here to read about the process and find the links to the various programs.