Free Thinker? Speak your mind? How to make money or at least get lots of free stuff for telling people how you feel!

When I was little I remember my mother taking my brother to a few marketing surveys, one for a happy meal at White Castle and the other for a new concept at the time child proofing lighters. I was so jealous that my preschool aged brother was getting to try new and never seen before products and I had to sit in the lobby reading my Charlotte's Web. Scoot along a few years to my mallrat years and I loved being stopped by the interviewers around the fountains with clipboards, I sought them out. I didn't even care so much about the pay as much as I loved the concept of being in direct (indirectly) contact with large corporations telling them what you think about current products, products you need or flaws in areas of life without any product or the creme de le creme a new product that does what they claim and you now know before every one else. #hippiehappy

Since college I have been finding online surveys for pithily amounts, mostly you do thousands of surveys for little to no pay out. Then as I went on in my own life I found local places in Cincinnati that offer surveys onsite like J and R Coordinating or Various Views, or the Wolf Group.

I swear I am not digressing this time, winks. I love trying products and telling people my opinion on them and I love brainstorming in groups of strangers that I will never see again that is mainly what the local consumer panelists are centered around. When I could no longer get my fix from these groups, I started blogging to get out my opinions on things in between what me and my husband call "STRONGLY WORDED LETTERS" when a product fails to live up to what it claims and it comes with a guarantee on the side. My strongly worded letters are not rude and they are not demanding anything. I truly want companies to know when what they say and what their product does do not meet in the middle. I work, scrimp, save and plan where almost every dime in my budget goes and I expect what I buy to do what it claims especially if there is a money back guarantee. Okay, that was a little digression.

My blog started off as a way to help my writing, all authors have blogs so I started one years ago. I wrote like a blog a year until 2014 when I read a blog that talked about Tomoson a site that united bloggers and companies looking for people to review their products. Ding DING DING. Did I hear you correctly? You will send me things for free or pay me to write a blog for trying your product? Yes please. I signed up with Tomoson last year and slowly only did a few reviews last year mostly because my epilepsy meds kept my mind too foggy to put thoughts in order in a timely manner. The first few blogs for Tomoson took days to write and now without the L med I can write a blog in an hour. No accounting for taste.



Social Spark- Has a great set up. Once you complete the registration, there will be a part where you can bid on projects (twitter campaigns, blogs, etc) and when you click on the title of the project and see who the company is, what they are expecting, and when they will take bids till. I am still learning this one and I will continue to report on Social Spark and their partners in the weeks to come. I put in three bids, the amount a free account allows you (I don't pay anyone to make me money, seems counter productive.)
https://socialspark.com/r1GKQ


Tomoson-- Almost all of the reviews I have completed so far have been from Tomoson. I love this company and use it daily. I have received over thirty items so far to review and the application process it simple. Tomoson has a daily updated composite list of companies looking for product testers


Influenster-- I have received 2 boxes from them so far. They give you a voxbox with a product in it, for instance I got a pack of Carefree pantyliner's with the assignment to tweet, Facebook, and Instagram #freshisfierce for a month. It is two fold. You get free products and get to let brands know what you think about their products.

Use this link to sign up: www.influenster.com/r/921134


Boost Insider-- USing this one, have to make 10 dollars.  Use this lead http://bst.is/Rm7NW8
This one gives you assignments like Diet Combo: Garcinia Cambogia XT + Natural Cleanse Plus where I am asked to share a link like this http://bst.is/dnDPW8 and for each link that people click http://bst.is/dnDPW8 I will get a set amount of money like a cent to fifteen cents for a person to click on the link you have listed.  But you have to hit the $10 limit to cash out. So you are going to do some work for this money not out of the universe, defintely a light at the end of the tunnel and even easier the more work you put into this one.
The other great part of Boost Insider is that it some of the businesses are so super cool and give back to the greater good and not just for profit companies. The first assignment I got was a program called Kidstarter fundraiser site for STEM learning projects for kids.

BODY MERRY REVIEW Stretch Marks & Scars Defense Cream et al

I received for review Body Merry's Stretch Marks & Scars Defense Cream, Hyaluronic Dew Serum and Age Defense Eye Cream. Sadly my stretch marks are so old they have stretch marks of their own from weight loss, gain, loss, gain over the years and I did not even attempt to put the cream on my stretch marks because they are part of me. Freddy Kruger Marks up and down my belly from when I was pregnant with my daughter which is funny because I only gained 20lbs with her and got the most stretch marks. I could have used this cream then. What I did use this cream for was the scars defense part-- I seem to be getting little nicks and cuts easily on my hands. I guess I am becoming thin skinned in my old age of 38, I put the cream on the little cuts as they popped up to help prevent scars-- I hate scabs. Enough said. I know its gross. But I hate having them. So the cream helped, we don't need to go into more than that.

The Body Merry Hyaluronic Dew Serum and Age Defense Eye Cream just became part of my daily routine so I cannot say I saw much change in my skin in regards to these products but that is not a bad thing. I did not have any acne breakouts (which without a routine I would) and the eye cream gives me an awakened look within minutes of being up even if I have just rolled out of bed and there are days when the alarm doesn't go off and a quick face wash, eye cream, teeth brush and get dressed and we are out the door to a meeting that is already in progress.

The Hyaluronic Dew is Vegan, Made in the USA and Cruelty Free and comes with a 90 day 100% money back guarantee and you don't even have to send the Manufacturer the bottle back if you are not satisfied. So if it sucks ass, which is doesn't, but if you think it does. You can have your money back. I love products that are actually produced in the USA without animal cruelty and are not chock full of chemicals. And the name of that one kinda got me, Dew. It just sounds refreshing. Dew Serum.

Fun new ways to use my blog and get some free sh!t!

I am constantly reading other people's blogs where they get to give away cool shit and try out cool shit for free. So I was reading around on the Internet (lol, sorry funny to think of the Internet like a giant spread of newspaper or a giant book, think how big that would be) and I found a way to do what these other blogger are doing.

So some of my upcoming blog will be some cool giveaways! I will still write random blogs about Lisa Rayns and my adventure to get my ass moving towards publication of my back log of WIP to real life books.

But I have always loved doing surveys and trying new products and telling people what I think of them. I remember as a teenager, Forest Fair mall had a market research firm in the mall and would pay you to answer questions or try out a sports bra. Maybe I like be the first to see a new product or maybe I just love free shit. Either way, I will be doing a little of that in the near future.

If nothing else, it will be another way to hone my writing skills, adding another tool to my writer's tool box.  And maybe get two more followers on my blog. I think I am up to five now. Hi Gini and Lisa!