Month: December 2015

12 Best Cash Back Apps that Reward You for Shopping

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Cash back apps are the digital version of rewards cards, which give you points or rebates on your purchases.

And it works as easy as 1-2-3.

1) Download an app, 2) scan a receipt, 3) get cash back.

But why would these apps essentially pay you for shopping?

In some cases, the apps are managed by marketing firms that want to know what target customers are purchasing, in what quantity, and through which retailers.

As a thank you for sharing your purchase history, companies will compensate you.

Today, you’ll learn more about how cash back apps work and know which ones are worth downloading.

How to Get Cash Back for Receipts

Finish shopping, then take out your phone and take a picture of the receipt.

It’s that easy.

This information is highly sought after by consumables manufacturers, large grocers and retailers, and other marketers.

In exchange for your shopping information, you can earn money or gift cards.

In some cases, you might also be asked to fill out an accompanying survey about your purchase; doing so will earn you additional cash. Other apps will request that you show that you purchased a given item in exchange for a small after-purchase discount on that item.

It’s up to you how much information you’re willing to share.

12 Best Cash Back for Receipts Apps to Install Today

Here are the 9 best cash back apps that you should check out.

Starting with the first, the best, and the most highly reviewed:

1. Ibotta

Special offer: Get a special $10 welcome bonus when you create your account!

This was one of the first rebate apps on the market and offers cash back on grocery, apparel, electronics, restaurant, pet, etc. purchases.

The rebate amounts are fairly high (as much as $1.50) and work across a number of stores. Many qualifying rebates are brand-independent (e.g., $0.50 off any orange juice), while others require that you purchase a given brand at a certain store.

Ibotta

Ibotta has been reviewed over a million times on the App Store and on Google Play.

On top of that, it holds an average rating of 4.6 stars. If there’s one program on this list you join, make it Ibotta.

2. Fetch Rewards

Fetch Rewards partners with plenty of the brands you shop for when you do your grocery shopping.

Whether your receipts are on paper or eReceipts, you can earn Fetch Rewards. Keep the deadline in mind, though; you only have 14 days to submit those receipts.

With over half a million 5-star reviews, this is one cash back app you won’t regret downloading.

3. ReceiptHog

ReceiptHog

With this app, you submit receipt photos from stores that sell consumable goods like butter and toilet paper, as well as stores that sell non-consumables like clothing or tools.

With the former, you earn coin rewards that can be redeemed for money or e-gift cards. With the latter, you enter a slots game that can earn you up to 100 extra coins.

ReceiptHog holds an impressive 4.5 star average rating with nearly 200,000 reviews between iOS and Android.

Their stellar ratings make this one of the best cashback apps out there.

4. ReceiptPal

With this app, you earn points for your receipts, which can be exchanged for gift cards to Amazon, Walmart, etc.

There’s also a weekly $250 sweepstakes that you can enter.

Any receipt from any merchant can be submitted through this app.

It doesn’t have the same volume of reviews as ReceiptHog, but almost all of them are positive.

5. Shopmium

For everyone in the UK and France, there is Shopmium.

This app enables you to purchase consumables at a given price point (e.g., $1) or at a certain percentage off.

That can mean big savings for you if you purchase something that is normally $4.99, for example, and the app offers the item to you for only a dollar.

Shopmium also offers rebates on items that you might not normally see with other shopping apps, such as lip balm or cleaning products.

Perhaps best of all, you don’t need to wait to redeem your cash. Shopmium connects directly with your PayPal account, and redemptions are sent to your linked account as soon as you scan your receipt.

6. Checkout 51

Checkout 51a

This app functions much like Ibotta and offers you cash back on receipts that you take pictures of and submit.

Checkout 51 is one of the few cash back apps that offer cash back on gas, so if you drive, this may be a good option for you.

Specific rebate items vary week to week but typically consist of grocery items, which can be purchased at any store.

You need to have $20 in your account before you’re allowed to cash out.

7. Paribus

Paribus is a cash back app that takes advantage of the fact that many online stores have price adjustment policies.

First, grant access to Paribus to scan your email for online purchases.

The website monitors all the purchases you’ve had and then notifies you when there’s a price drop.

This is when it gets exciting:

When there’s a price drop, Paribus will automatically refund you the difference.

It seems a bit unsettling for an app to have access to your email address, so read up on their Privacy Statement and decide whether you’re willing to give them access to your information.

8. Coupons.com

Connect your store loyalty cards or scan a receipt on your Coupons.com smartphone app and get automatic cash back.

You can also print out coupons on their website, but they recommend using their digital coupons.

There’s no minimum balance to get your cash back on Coupons.com, the money will go straight to your PayPal.

9. GetUpside

GetUpside carries cash back offers from grocery stores, restaurants, and gas stations (though there are few gas stations that partner with this app.

Similar to the other apps on this list, you download the app, select your offer, make the purchase, check in or scan the receipt for the purchase, and earn your cash back in the app.

You can cash out your earnings through PayPal, e-gift card, or mailed check.

10. CoinOut

If you’re a fan of the show Shark Tank, you probably known about this app.

Once you’re registered on the app, you can start scanning paper receipts right away. No need to check for offers.

However, to get cash back from online stores, you need to start your online purchase from the CashOut app.

They give out bonus rewards just because, and you can boost your earnings by referring other users to download this app.

Most of all, they don’t collect your financial information, so that might make you more comfortable sharing your receipts with them.

11. Shopkick

Shopkick gives you points or “kicks” when you scan in your receipt in the app. But it also rewards you for simply walking into select stores, as well as scanning barcodes of certain products, even without purchasing anything.

They also reward you for watching videos of their partner brands in the app and making online purchases from the app.

12. Makeena

If you regularly shop for eco-friendly, healthy products, Makeena will reward you for it.

Simply scan in your receipts or scan product barcodes right in the app and earn cash and rewards. You may even be sent freebies and samples just for buying healthy choices.

How to Get the Most Cashback for Your Receipts

When it comes to apps that pay you for your receipts, keep in mind that you can double-dip and upload a photo of the same receipt to several different apps.

This is especially true if you submit your receipt photo for a generic item like milk or bread.

Also, because these apps require timely receipts, you may have only one to two weeks to upload your pictures.

So don’t delay when submitting your receipts.

The Bottom Line

Getting cashback for your receipts isn’t challenging at all. Simply shop, snap, and save.

Just remember that you are giving up some personal information and giving retailers direct access to your shopping habits. If that’s not a problem, go crazy! All of the above cash back apps have stellar reviews on top of years of operation.

While you’re out and about, did you know you can get paid to become a personal grocery shopper? If you’re spending so much time at the store anyway, consider getting paid for doing and delivering an extra set of groceries.

Combined with these cash back apps, you might be able to earn some decent side cash.

Do you already use cash back apps? Which one is your favorite? Did miss any cash back apps worth mentioning? Share your knowledge with us in the comments below!

Our Review of Autoresponder Madness by Andre Chaperon

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If you’ve been developing your email marketing campaigns and are wondering how to best approach your subscriber list and generate sales from it, please read through our review of Autoresponder Madness.

In a nutshell, Autoresponder Madness is a product offered by Andre Chaperon and has been around since 2009. So, there is quite a bit of history to this product, as well as content. As for Andre, he is and has been an online marketer since 2004.

What is Autoresponder Madness?

Autoresponder Madness (ARM) is an 18-lesson email marketing course designed for online and affiliate marketers who already have products to sell and have an email list of at least 1,000 subscribers. Granted, that shouldn’t stop other folks from signing up to ARM and benefiting from it, but the assumption here is that you are ready to go with subscribers and are looking to improve your Earning Per Subscriber (EPS).

Incidentally, if you are still in the process of list building, Andre offers the following free resource here.

Andre notes that many marketers make an average EPS of $1/subscriber/month. That’s a good earning rate if the marketer has a huge subscriber list; however, for those marketers with just a few thousand, or just around a thousand, this earning rate is too low to make a decent living.

Andre proposes that you can significantly raise your EPS if you emulate his email creation and broadcast tactics.

What are these email tactics?

1. Create customer personas.

Andre teaches you how to create customer personas, or avatars, in order to better identify your target customers and what they are looking for. This requires some general emailing (known as manual broadcasts) to your entire list- at least at first. Based on who responds to your emails, you immediately go into step 2.

2. Segment your list.

As your subscriber list clicks on your broadcast emails, you immediately segment those clicking individuals out of the general pool of subscribers. Those segmented individuals are channeled directly to step 3.

3. Create Soap Opera Sequences (SOSs).

Once you’ve collected enough individuals for your segments, you weave what Andre calls Soap Opera Sequences, or SOSs, to hook them into buying your product. SOSs are specialized emails that tell a story but leave the ending of that story for the next (and then the next) email. In this way, a soap opera-style email sequence is launched that keeps readers coming back to your emails as they are sent out on a regular basis.

As readers continually click on and open those SOSs, they become comfortable with you and your (eventual) offer. You are seen less and less as a marketer and more as a trusted resource.

Incidentally, SOSs are not for those email marketers who are reluctant to write- Andre holds up an example SOS that consists of 27 emails!

4. Create splinter SOSs.

Those subscribers who follow along your initial SOS and who eventually click on one of your offers are segmented into a new SOS. At this point in time, you know you are dealing with highly motivated buyers who are very likely to purchase your offer. Andre states that one of his splinter SOSs resulted in a 31+% conversion rate.

So, you direct these highly motivated buyers to a new SOS that focuses on the product they clicked on. That’s where you’re most likely going to get your amazing conversion rate, and even if you have just a few hundred subscribers.

What else does ARM offer?

1. Customer persona insights.

Having been in the online marketing field since 2004, Andre provides lots of insights into how people buy online and the psychological process they follow when doing so. He presents lots of examples here and how to take advantage of consumer psychology.

2. Product Launch Sequences (PLSs).

For one-off products that aren’t sold as a series or by subscription, Andre provides a blueprint on how to sell them via the Product Launch Sequence or PLS. He also teaches you how to intersperse your SOS with a PLS so that your subscribers are slowly drawn into wanting your offer.

3. Loads of case studies and example emails.

If you’re not sure just how to construct your own SOS or what content you should include, don’t fret: Andre fleshes out his 18-lesson course with numerous examples of how other marketers generated their SOSs and what copy they used. It’s very easy to see how this copy can be repurposed into your own emails and offers.

The Bottom Line

For online and affiliate marketers who already have an email subscriber list and want to squeeze more money from it, Andre’s ARM is an ideal fit. To be fair, the course does require significant effort from the marketer in terms of generating several detailed auto-responder emails and segmenting the audience. You will need to have an auto-responder program like AWeber, for example.

However, if you are looking to increase your EPS, then the ARM course may be just what you need.

7 Ways to Build a Community & Increase Repeat Visitors

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Often, internet marketers tend to look at their traffic numbers and focus solely on one metric: how many people are visiting the site.

Sure, some people are analytics demons and monitor their stats in fine detail, but I’m pretty sure a lot of people out there don’t.

One juicy bit of information that you may miss is the New vs. Returning visitor metric.

This statistic tells you how many of your visitors in the current time segment have been on your site before.

While it’s not a 100% accurate figure due to people clearing cookies etc, it does give you a decent idea on your returning visitor figures.

Why do I need to know this?

It’s simple: it’s easier to sell to people who know and trust you and your website.

If the vast majority of your traffic is a first time visitors, then you are not doing everything you can to retain your audience.

This should be a revelation and if you metrics are like the ones below, it should be a cause for concern too.

building a community example website stats

These stats are not from I’ve Tried That!

In fact, websites with a low number of repeat visitors, that actually turn a profit, are rare. It’s also likely that your bounce rate may also be fairly high as a result of having such a high volume of new visitors.

A lack of repeat visitors means a lack of a community.

Sometimes we forget that the stats in our analytics system are in fact people: living and breathing, with wants and desires (OK there’s some bots too!).

Actual people are looking at your site and saying to themselves “Nope. Nope, nope, nope!” and clicking the back button.

nope

That is, if they even give the site a second thought before delving elsewhere to find their answers and spend their money.

Causes

There can be multiple reasons why your returning visitor count is low:

Poor Quality Content

If your content does not meet the needs of those visiting, then they will abandon your site, and find somewhere else to frequent.

Inconsistent Posting

You may have the best content in the world, but if you rarely post anything your site will begin to die a slow but quiet death, with new visitors failing to see the value in a repeat visit.

Incorrect Targeting/SEO

If you’re targeting the wrong keywords or market, you could be bringing in a bunch of visitors to your site that have no interest in the content, thus inflating your new visitor count dramatically.

Poor UX/UI

If people cannot find the information they need because the User Interface (UI) and User Experience (UX) of the site are poor, then they simply won’t return.

You Ignore Your Audience

If your audience talks to you, reply! Ignoring them is a great way to bleed away your fledgling or existing community.

7 Ways to Build a Community

Building a community around your website often brings to mind things like forums, and while they can be used, you need to think of community in a broader sense, covering several areas.

Forums

Well, since I mentioned it! Barring IRC (Internet Relay Chat) forums are one of the oldest community structures on the internet.

They can be used for many business types, especially for things like support and discussion. However, unless your site is built around a forum, I don’t think these are a great addition to a normal blog style website.

Comments

With WordPress and other CMS style websites, having the ability to comment has greatly increased engagement.

Default WordPress comments though are a bit sucky, and you should definitely consider “upgrading” your comments system by using something like Disqus. This type of commenting system not only makes it easier for people to comment, but facilitates the conversation as well.

Engagement

No matter what form you want your discussions to take place, you, yes YOU, must be involved.

Actively monitoring the discussions is key, and you should not only be replying to comments and ideas, but provide even more value where you can.

Sure, on a busy discussion you can’t answer everyone or even every post, but you should keep abreast of them and answer the interesting and valuable ones.

As a bonus for this, you also get to see into the mind-set of your visitors, allowing you to modify your Content Marketing Plan to better target your repeat visitors.

Social Media

For me, there are only three social media networks you should consider using for community building: Facebook, via a Facebook page, Medium and Google+.

These three networks make it easy to share content and discuss it.

You should of course, follow your audience. If you know that your audience shares to Facebook more than Google+ or Medium, then use Facebook.

Networks like Twitter don’t really facilitate a conversation; though it can be useful for sharing links to content and discussion son other networks.

Content Quality & Consistency

Mentioned earlier as possible causes of low return visitors, these two aspects can and should be reviewed and worked on.

Review your analytics to see what pages people are landing on and viewing. Is this content up to date? Is it the highest quality it could be?

Compare it to similar content across the web, and check out their social metrics too (if someone is not interested in your site enough to never return, why would they bother sharing your content?).

If your content seems thin in comparison, you know you need meatier, more informative articles.

Make sure you start building a Content Marketing Plan, and be consistent with your posting, as people will be more likely to return to your site if they know there’s a good chance of new, and informative e content.

Go Forth & Communicate

You can do this both online and in the real world, but head out there and join in the conversations with other communities, via website comments, forums, events and conferences.

Get to know the people in your niche, the movers, the shakers and just the people in general.

Reach out to other bloggers and websites, not necessarily in your niche, whose audience you think might be a good fit, and offer guest posts etc.

This is more to try and grow your audience, by bringing in visitors who potentially might find your content awesome enough to grace with repeat visits.

Offer Value

Your content, your business, must offer value. This could be in the form of intelligent and information articles regarding your niche.

It could be bringing news to people. Perhaps you have the best product in your niche that would greatly benefit people.

All that is great, but guess what? You need to keep providing value, week in, week out.

You need to come across, through the various parts of your site, that your site is worthy of peoples time.

The Bottom Line

A site without engagement is dead in the water, or dying. A lack or low percentage of repeat visitors is a good indication of this.

The way to combat it is by slowly but surely building a community around you, your site and your brand.

Only by having a core, solid group of “regulars” who trust you and the content your produce, can your business and site grow.