Incentive Programs

Hi!

I wanted to invite you to join me on Gather. It's FREE. And best of all when you join and get five friends to join, you'll get a $20 Borders Gift Card! Gather is a social network where people like us can write about and share our interests. The content is great and ranges from politics to cooking, plus you can publish your own articles or photos and comment on others' contributions. We even earn Gather Points just for using the site! You can exchange your points for great stuff like books, CDs, wine, and vacations. Check it out! Hope to see you on Gather.

I love stuff like this.

You mean all you have to do is write and you earn free stuff? You can actually do something you love and get paid for it?

Sounds good to me.

Right now, besides My Coke Rewards, I belong to MyPoints. It's not a program geared towards writing, but it is a really good incentive program to join. I highly recommend it to anyone who likes these types of things. I don't know how many gift certificates I've earned since I joined four years ago but I know it's a lot. And, there's no strings attached.

All you do is register and visit the sites from the links they send you.

That's it.

That's all there is to it.

They send you links to websites, you click on the link and visit the website and you earn points. Of course, they'll try to get you to buy stuff, but you don't have to. And that's what I like about this program. You don't have to buy anything and you still earn points.

But, if you do decide to buy something, well, that's a double bonus because you earn even more points. I purchased my cell phone through a MyPoints offer (I earned LOTS of points doing that), I've joined book clubs through MyPoints and I've participated in surveys.

If you shop through the MyPoints site, you earn points as well. EBay, Amazon.com, Barnes and Noble, Bath and Body Works, Newport News - they're all affiliated with the program. These are places I shop and things I do anyway, so why not get something out of it?

I joined Gather last year when I heard about their FIRST CHAPTERS contest. It was a good contest and I was impressed (but I didn't enter). Now, they're holding a FIRST CHAPTERS ROMANCE contest, which is right up my alley, but I haven't entered that one either. Only because I'm not eligible. You have to have a completed manuscript to enter, which I don't.

I've been a member of Gather since last year, however, I haven't been much of a participant. This offer looks good, though, and I'm debating whether to get heavily involved or not. For some reason I'm not comfortable posting anything I've written on their site, and I don't know why.

Are any of you a Gather member, and, if so, what's your thoughts on this online community?