Andy Hough

Alternative Income: GPT Sites

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Using GPT(get-paid-to) sites is another way I make alternative income. The basic idea of GPT sites is that companies pay affiliates to get them customers. The affiliates bribe the customers by offering them some of this money for signing up for offers.

As an example, I signed up for a one month trial of Netflix. I paid $9.99 for the month but the GPT site paid me $23 leaving me with about $13 profit. The company hopes that enough people remain customers after the trial that the company makes a profit.

I haven’t done too many of these lately because it is somewhat of a hassle to call up the companies and cancel and make sure you keep track of when you need to cancel. My favorite GPT site is CashDuck (referral link) which is operated by fellow PF blogger Kira of PennyFoolish. She has a great guide on her site on how to make money on GPT sites. She made thousands from these sites before starting her own.

Other sites I have used are MaviShare (ref link) and InstantProfitz(ref link). MaviShare used to be good but they haven’t had many offers lately. InstantProfitz has lots of offers but it can sometimes be difficult to be properly credited. The only GPT site that I’ve had a bad experience with is DealBarbiePays. There are lots of other sites out there that I haven’t tried that might or might not be good.

If you would like to start doing GPT offers I would recommend first reading the how-to at PennyFoolish and then signing up with CashDuck(ref link). Do one or two offers at first and make sure they are properly crediting. If there are no problems with crediting then go ahead and do as many as you want. This can be a way to make decent money for those who put the time into it.

Another Dumpster Diving Score

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In yesterday’s mail there was a $10 gift card from Buca di Beppo. Apparently they were mailing them to all residents in my zip code. A quick check of the junk mail trash can netted me two more cards. I’ll be keeping my eye out for more of these. These weren’t packaged like most junk mail though so there may not be many of them thrown away in the junk mail trash can. My decision now is whether to sell them on eBay where they will probably sell for about $5 or treat myself to some fancy dinners. A $10 gift card doesn’t go too far there so I will likely only splurge for one dinner unless I find a lot more gift cards.

March Income

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My income was up slightly in March. This was a great result considering there is no Adsense income for this month. The increase was from the sale of a text link and lots of paid posts. (There are no paid posts on this blog.) Here are the totals.

Online Income

$198.15

Ebay

$57.35

Mystery Shopping

$7.50

Survey

$5.00

Total

$268.00

This is all alternative income. Next month my total income will be up but alternative income will most likely be down since I’m now have a job.

Snow in April?

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The forecast is calling for snow overnight. This isn’t the kind of weather I expected in April. After the pleasant temperatures at the end of March I decided that I would not heat or cool my apartment in April. These cold temperatures are making this more of a challenge than I expected but I’ve slept outside in below freezing temperatures many nights so surely I can handle this. Since I’m in an apartment the temperature stays well above the outside temperature even without using my heat. It is supposed to start warming up Sunday so I should be ok after that. Providing it doesn’t get too hot before the month is over.

The Economics of Sunk Costs

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According to to Wikipedia, sunk costs are those costs which have already been incurred and cannot be recovered to any significant degree. The example they use is the purchase of a non-refundable movie ticket. If you later decide you don’t want to see the movie an economist would argue that the fact you already paid for the movie ticket should not be part of a rational decision of whether or not you decide to see the movie. This is a condensed version of the explanation, if it doesn’t make sense refer to the Wikipedia entry.

Anyway, there is a reason I’m talking about the economics of sunk cost. I’m somewhat apathetic about going on to my third year of law school and finishing my J.D.  According to the theory of sunk costs the fact that I’ve spent two years in law school and accumulated $57,000 in debt shouldn’t be part of my decision of whether to finish law school. The accumulated debt and time spent are a major part of my decision process though. If I don’t finish law school it would seem like they were wasted.

Maybe the idea of sunk cost isn’t applicable to this situation. If I were to finish my degree I would have a much higher earning potential. To achieve that earning potential via other means would most likely require a further investment of time and money. Also, if I were later to decide I would like to get my J.D. I would have to start all over again. (Assuming I return more than one year after quitting.)  Then I would have to pay for my first two years again and have two years of limited earnings. Tuition would most likely be higher as well. It seems to me that the time and money I’ve already invested have to be considered.

Maybe I’m not thinking this through correctly. I would be interested in anyone’s insights or ideas of how I shoud evaluate this decision. If you have any suggestions please leave a comment.