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.

The MyPoints program is one of my favorites. It used to give me a free ticket about once a year (until I switched to obtaining free Home Depot for my points), for doing virtually nothing, with almost no inconvenience. You usually earn 5 or 10 points per click, sometimes more. And then there are much larger points offers for signing up for free things, visiting web sites, and actually buying stuff through the huge MyPoints shopping portal. That shopping portal is becoming one of the better ones.

You can convert points to United Airlines at a ratio of 5,000 points for 2,500 miles. There are other travel awards, including some from large hotel chains like Marriott, plus a huge list of merchandise for which you may trade your points. (My favorite of these is the $50 Home Depot card for 7,250 points.) 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.

• You can use this link to receive 250 United Airines miles if you join by May 4, 2008 and remain a MyPoints member for a minimum of 30 days. I probably cannot refer you to this offer.
• You can ask me to refer you. You get 125 MyPoints for joining and filling out your profile, and 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.

e-Miles Members earn e-Miles miles through earning opportunities for the Member's time spent viewing marketing or advertising messages and answering questions about the messages. The amount of e-Miles miles that can be earned will be stipulated with each earning opportunity. Miles can be earned with your choice of major U.S. and international airlines, including their charter sponsors Continental Airlines, Delta Air Lines, Northwest Airlines, or US Airways.

• The program is up and running, and looks quite promising.
  • 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.
• This Flyertalk discussion provides more information. Note that although the press release says 250 miles are offered for joining, Flyertalkers are reporting receiving only 150 miles.
• Miles can be earned with your choice of major U.S. and international airlines, including their charter sponsors Continental Airlines, Delta Air Lines, Northwest Airlines, or US Airways. However, if you wish to change your selection to another e-Miles Sponsor airline, you may do so for one (1) of the following reasons.
  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.
• The above condition is worrisome. Note the mention of not yet named international airlines on the front page of e-miles. This implies to me that more airlines are coming, to which you may not switch after your first enroll in the program. e-miles is run by e-rewards (which I describe below). e-rewards gives American Airlines miles. This indicates to me that those miles might be available in the future to new members of e-miles. You might want to wait awhile to join this program if it does not currently list your favorite airline.
• Miles are deposited into your airline account quarterly in 500 mile increments.
• 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. e-Miles miles earned in calendar year 2006 will be considered and treated as 4th quarter 2006 earnings. 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.

   

The e-rewards program offers mega credit for doing surveys, so I put full information about it in the Surveys section of my Other Programs I Like page. However, it would be possible to earn credit towards miles by simply clicking on the Earn More links at the bottoms of the emails they send you, and by taking advantage of easy credit opportunities listed in the "Earn Now" section of your e-rewards homepage. So I mention it here.

Credit earned can be used to buy miles on Delta, American, Continental, Northwest, and Air France/KLM Airlines, and U.S. Airways miles, possibly on Virgin Airlines (its logo appears on the front page, but no redemption offers are listed), Hilton HHonors points, or discounts from various merchants.

Note: e-rewards will terminate its relationship with American Airlines. The final date to redeem the eligible portion of your e-Rewards Currency for AAdvantage miles is June 11, 2008. Details.

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."

You can earn up to 4 free units per dollar spent at the Phone Hog Shopping Mall. Lots of familiar vendors, including GiftCertificates.com at 1 unit per $2 spent. Find the link on the left menu after you log into your account.

You can convert Phone Hog units to Aeroplan, Alaska, America West, Asia Miles, Midwest, orUS Airways miles, or Priority Club points, via points.com. At the ratios offered, the units are worth more than the miles, but only if you can use them for phone calls. If you have more units that you can possibly use, converting them to miles may be a useful option.

By signing up through this link, you give me some free minutes, too, at no cost to you. Thanks.

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

Here is a comparison of the programs as of September 7, 2004. I think all of them are worthwhile.

• The most paid email is coming from Hits4Pay and Inboxdolars.com.
• Deals'n'Cash is also sending me lots of paid email. They are just getting started, and are run by the same outfit as is Hits4Pay. Deals'n'Cash holds great promise in my mind.
• Hits4Pay is now paying me almost monthly, when they are supposed to. I have more payments from them mainly because I have been with them the longest and have done a large number of successful referrals.
• Inboxdollars.com, has paid me four times, The payout for referrals is good.
• PaidEmail.com has paid me three times, when they were supposed to, then stopped paying at all, even though they continue to send me emails. They owe me money, which they refuse to send.
• MailBling has paid me once, then stopped paying. They owe me money, which they refuse to send. They are owned by the same outfit as owns PaidEmail.com.
• If you have a website or other means of referring lots of people, Hits4Pay, Deals'n'Cash, and InboxDollars would be easy money. Hits4Pay pay and Deals'n'Cash pay the most for the usage by the people you refer, which really adds up. Hits4Pay pays you for activity of the referrals of the people you refer (i.e., two deep), which is very nice extra money, especially if one of your referrals has a popular website. (Thus I hope you do.) Inboxdollars.com requires that you wait until the people you refer earn $30 and request payment before you get paid the promised $5 each for the referrals, and pays a very small amount for clicks by those you refer. But once the person you refer requests payment, the payment of $5 per referral is very worthwhile.

• A $10 credit is offered for signing up.
• Then you choose categories of emails you want to receive (be sure to chose 25 of them), and click on them when you receive them. This brings you to your login page. Log in, then click on a link at the bottom of the ad you see, then wait for the message at the top to tell you you received money. Note that the ad does not always tell you to do this. But you must to receive credit. Do something else on another screen while you wait. You get 2 cents per email. After you accumulate $25, they send you a check. Easy.
• Also, if you refer others, you get 1 cent per ad read by them, and 1 cent per ad read by anyone they refer. This really ads up.

Some hints for this program:

• After you sign up and select your categories of interest, go back and edit them. Not all of the categories I originally chose were checked when I went to the edit page.
• All of the categories in the Money & Employment section of the Interest Categories page have been particularly active in sending me emails.
• Special note: Recently my Earthlink spam filter service started filtering out emails form Hits4Pay. Be sure to check to see if yours is doing the same, and if so
  • Check the file of filtered out spam daily, and
  • Repeatedly tell them this is not spam until they get it.
  • Put the email address from which the ads are sent on your list of addresses to be trusted.
• Of the many people I have referred, none of those with Hotmail or MSN accounts have clicked on any emails. This leads me to believe that Microsoft is completely barring Hits4Pay emails. So I strongly recommend you do not sign up via a Hotmail or MSN account. Yahoo email works fine - the mail goes in your bulk mail folder. If you travel in foreign countries, you will want both Hotmail and Yahoo email accounts, anyway. Sometimes one works well where the other doesn't.
• The ads you see no longer say you have to click on them to earn money. But you do. Click on the ad. You should see in a frame above the new ad you get from the same merchant a sentence that says "Please View The Advertiser's website below while we Credit your account. Please wait...". Wait about 30 seconds for that message to change to tell you how much you earned and to click on a button to see the next ad.
• Recently the first ad I click on in any session does not produce the wait message after clicking on it. No amount of waiting produces any payment. The solution to this is to click on your back button, then click on the initial ad again. I then get the wait message on top. Subsequent ads in this session do not have the same problem. Nor do ads in the "Not validated messages" section.
• Regularly check the "Not validated messages" link to see if there are any ads you missed, perhaps due to the above problem.

This program is paying me almost monthly. Its checks have not bounced.

• A $5 credit for signing up.
• Then you choose categories of emails you want to receive (be sure to choose 25 of them), and click on them when you receive them. This brings you to your login page. Log in, then click on the bottom of the ad you see, then wait for the message at the top to tell you you received money. (Do something else on another screen while you wait.) You get 2 -5 cents per email. After you accumulate $30, they send you a check. Easy.
• If you refer others, you receive 2 cents/ad they view. This can really add up.

Some hints for this program:

• All of the categories in the Money & Employment section of the Interest Categories page have been particularly active in sending me emails to my Hits4Pay account. I suspect this may be the same for Deals 'n' Cash.
• Special note: Recently my Earthlink spam filter service started filtering out emails from Hits4Pay. Be sure to check to see if yours is doing this for deals 'n' cash, and if so
  • Check the file of filtered out spam daily, and
  • Repeatedly tell them this is not spam until they get it.
  • Put the email address from which the ads are sent on your list of addresses to be trusted.
• Of the many people I have referred to Hits4Pay, none of those with Hotmail or MSN accounts have clicked on any emails. This leads me to believe that Microsoft is completely barring Hits4Pay emails. They may do the same for Deals 'n' Cash. So I strongly recommend you do not sign up via a Hotmail or MSN account. Yahoo email works fine - the mail goes in your bulk mail folder. If you travel in foreign countries, you will want both Hotmail and Yahoo email accounts, anyway. Sometimes one works well where the other doesn't.
• The ads you see no longer say you have to click on them to earn money. But you do. Click on the ad. You should see in a frame above the new ad you get from the same merchant a sentence that says "Please View The Advertiser's website below while we Credit your account. Please wait...". Wait about 30 seconds for that message to change to tell you how much you earned and to click on a button to see the next ad.
• Recently the first ad I click on in any session does not produce the wait message after clicking on it. No amount of waiting produces any payment. The solution to this is to click on your back button, then click on the initial ad again. I then get the wait message on top. Subsequent ads in this session do not have the same problem. Nor do ads in the "Not validated messages" section.
• Regularly check the "Not validated messages" link to see if there are any ads you missed, perhaps due to the above problem.
• Deals'n'Cash will send you additional emails for which they do not pay you. You can deal with this unsubscribing at the bottom of one of these emails. This will not cause your account to be closed or stop paid emails from coming to you, but it will stop the unpaid emails.

• A $5 credit is offered for completing your profile after joining.
• More credit is offered for receiving their emails and then clicking on the link that opens a web page, and then clicking on the link on the web page. (So do something else while the page downloads.) I am averaging 3 cents per email.
• You are offered a $5 credit for referring someone after the person referred requests a check, plus credit for their clicks. (Which is why I hope you will click on one of the links in this writeup, so I receive referral credit at no cost to you. Thanks.)
• There are many offers on their web site which offer credit. Check out all of the links in the left menu after you log in. For example, on November 11, 2006, I found $374.50 worth of free trial offers. (Click on Trial Offers in the left menu.) Some were truly free, others had a shipping and handling fee which was less than the amount of the offer. Offers ranged from $6 to $18, with most being $10. Be sure you understand how and by when you must cancel before you sign up for any of these.
• Money is offered for surveys via CASH SURVEYS.
• After $30 of credit, you request a check for the money ($3 fee).

The notes for Hits4Pay above regarding SPAM filters may apply here, also. You should probably use a email address other than Hotmail or MSN, and you should check your bulk mail or SPAM folders regularly.

As of November 24, 2007, this program has paid me 7 times. Its checks did not bounce.

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.

PovertyFighters.com. Provides micro loans to help start tiny businesses in developing countries. Two clicks per day permitted. There is also a college competition in which you may participate. (But you don't have to sign up for this to contribute your 2 clicks per day.) I love this concept. If this program does what it says it does, it is my favorite.

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.

Ett klick för skogen. Old growth forest, in Sweden, I think.

The Environment Site.org. Currently your clicks support the Surrey Wildlife Trust in England.

Land Care Niagara. Land Care Niagara is committed to creating a healthy and sustainable rural and urban environment in the Niagara, Ontario area.

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

Tree4Life. Help to plant a tree in the Brazilian Rainforest.

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 32, 2008, include

• 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.