Get Paid For Things You're Already Doing - Ep. 5

Discover how to get paid for things you're already doing. In episode 5 of the Magick Manifesting Mindset Podcast, your host, Monica, talks on how you can easily get access to free cash-in-hand or gift cards by utilizing company reward programs, apps that like to know what you do with your time or money (purchases), and affiliate/referral programs. 

We go over some of my favorite programs to use and how they work. 

But then I present you with a question - Why are you so resistant to getting this "free money"? Do you believe that money can't come to you easily? 

If you start using affiliate links from a company, like Amazon, you will need to let your readers know that it is an affiliate link.

It is generally acceptable to put hashtag "ad." You can also just say that it's your referral code or affiliate link. 

If you're writing an email, at the top of the email, you can put something like "This email contains affiliate links. I may receive a small commission if certain criteria are met, at no additional cost to you."

For blog posts or Youtube videos, you can add something like "This post may contain links. Some but not all of these links may be affiliate links, meaning, at no additional cost to you, I could earn a commission if you click through and make a purchase." 

For a more serious tone, here is a good ones but not one I've used: "I only recommend products I would use myself. All opinions expressed here are my own."

I've also seen some funny or creative ones, like: "If you click on my affiliates/advertisers links, I am going to receive a tiny commission. AND… Most of the time, you will receive an offer. Win/Win!"  Or "This post contains affiliate links, which means I may receive a small commission if you click and buy. This helps fund my endless oracle card addiction!" Or " “Support my crystal buying habit! Click on an affiliate link, and I might earn enough to buy one rock.”

I mentioned that I would share some of my favorite apps or websites that had referral programs. Unfortunately, I had limited characters here, so I have added them to my blog  https://busylifehealthywife.com/blog/ 

Transcript

Monica. host 0:03

Hello everyone and welcome to the Magic Manifesting Mindset podcast. I'm your host, Monica, and today we are going to be talking about a practical money magic tip that can help you make money on things that you're already doing. Now, if you're new here, let me tell you a little bit about the podcast. So it's a little woo-woo, a little nerdy, and a whole lot of heart. The Magic Manifesting Mindset podcast is your space to shift your mindset, realign your energy, trust your innate gifts, and ultimately become abundant AF. Not only do we talk about the woo, but we discuss the science, the psychology, and the practical ways to manifest our desires and make that money. So I have found people seem to be so resistant on using programs and apps and things like that that will make them money on things that they're already doing. And it drives me wild. Like you guys don't even understand. I just don't, I don't get it. So let me break it down to three simple areas of this. So you can uh utilize a company's rewards program, and this will give you uh, you know, usually like points or dollars or stars or something like that. And after you get so many of those, then you can actually redeem those for something. It's usually a store credit of some sort or a freebie. Also, being part of a rewards program allows you to get access to certain coupons, bonus deals, things like that. And then the second thing is utilizing an app for things that you already do. So say you get gas, there are cashback gas apps where you just link your debit card or your credit card. You have to do it a little bit of work on the on the front end, like you have to claim which which gas station you're going to or something like that. And then they will pay you cash back as long as there's confirmation either from a linked card or an upload of a receipt showing that you have uh fueled at that gas station at that time. There are also apps that will pay you in usually these are like kind of like the rewards ones in points for uploading receipts. And some of them are better than other others, some of them, there's a lot of work that's involved ahead of time. You've got to like choose which items are on your receipt. So some of them are a little bit easier, a little more time consuming. But the best thing is that you can get these types of rewards. Also, depending on how much you're willing to provide more private information about your usage on your phone, your data usage, you can use apps that will pay you for sharing either like how you use your phone, as far as like the percentage of time that you use your phone, just sharing either like screenshot or a video of that, or there are apps that will record how you use your phone on a daily basis. Those I don't really like those as much because especially if you use banking apps on there, a lot of those basically allow you allow them to see like everything that you do. And I don't that makes me a little bit more uncomfortable. But just seeing how much I use this app or that app, I don't care. And a lot of those will allow you to cash out these points or gift cards, and the third type is being an affiliate. Now, there's two ways to being an affiliate. So sometimes this is also called a referral program. So a lot of companies will have it to where you can refer somebody to utilize their program, their service, whatever it is. And you get money back or an account credit or something like that. And the other person also gets a discounted rate for whatever it is, or they get a bonus money or what have you. And with those, there's no real sign up required for most of them. You just copy your link, paste it to the person, and once they've signed up, it's been confirmed that they've signed up, you get your reward. The other kind is where a company's main business relies on someone sharing more details about a product or service, and there's a little bit more on the back end. This is where a lot of times you will have to provide your name, your address, maybe even your social security number, depending. And that's where you have usually a lot more access to earn bigger amounts. Usually there's a bigger percentage of those. So let me break those down even further. So, and I may end up having to do individual podcast episodes for each of these, but I'm gonna try and make it as simple as possible for you guys. So let's talk about the apps or the websites that allow you to sign up for a rewards program. So one of my favorite ones is Starbucks. And I know some of you guys may be anti-Starbucks, but I love them, right? I love I love so many of their drinks. I know it's sad, it's sad, but I do. It's one of my guilty pleasures. And they have they have it to where you reward you get rewarded stars for loading your gift cards or loading the card that's on file, and then also your actual purchases. So if you don't feel comfortable with having either a gift card or an actual card that is linked with an amount, then you can just sign up for the program and just do a scan only, and then you can pay with whatever card you want to. But with those, there are bonuses that you get to where you can earn extra stars. And after you earn so many stars, you can redeem those for different things. So sometimes it's for an extra customization of a drink, sometimes it's a full free drink, or it's a bakery item. So there are a lot of different options. And if I'm already going to be getting a Starbucks, why not go ahead and get it either for free or for a reduced rate or you know, something like that, right? So I love that one. Now, one of the ones that I used to love is I'm really in existence anymore. So Win Dixie, they had a phenomenal rewards program. They would have so many different grocery items of items that I would actually buy that would earn additional bonus points and or bonus money. And they would also have where if you were part of their rewards program, they would have all of these specials. And now, if you didn't want to sign up for the rewards program, a lot of times the cashiers would still like scan this like generic code and you could still get those discounts, which was kind of nice. But it was really easy to know how much the money equivalent of that was, because I believe it was divisible by like 10 or something. So it would it was super, super easy to figure out, and I and then also on the receipts it would show you, and in the app it would show you. But of course, when Dixie got bought out, and so they don't really have those anymore, they don't have a program, but it was super nice. There's also a lot of gas stations that have this, and in fact, Circle K, they not only do they have an app where you can track all your rewards points and things like that, but if you put in your phone number at the pump, then you can get usually it's about three cents off of your gallon three, excuse me, three cents off a gallon for each gallon that you fill up. They also, if you use your uh phone number, whether it's at a pump or in the store, then you can end up saving even more money because you're earning these points, and they also have bonus coupons and deals, and they frequently have some sort of contest going on. I swear there's always some sort of contest. Some of the contests have games and some of them it's just like an entry. But I really like them. I try and go to them a lot of times when I am getting gas because I know that I'm going to be going ahead and getting usually a minimum of three cents off of my gallon of gas. And they're usually a lot cheaper than some of the other ones in the air. Not always, but a lot of times they are. So those are some of my top ones, and that kind of gives you an idea of how they work. Now, the next one is apps for doing things that you're already doing. So with one of the ones that I just re-signed up for. I had it before, but I didn't really use it right, is the upside app. This one will give you cash back for filling up your gas tank, which is so cool. So, what you do is on the app, you find a gas station that's near you. It will show you what percentage cash back you can get and also what the price of gas is initially before the cashback. You hit claim. Um, you will have already needed to link a card on there. You put it in your little wallet section. Then you fill up your gas tank, and I don't know how they do it exactly, but they verify that you used that card at that gas station, and they will give you the cash back. And what is cool is you can cash out right away. You can either do it to like PayPal or your bank account, or you can do it to a gift card. I just did this the other day, and I got$3.67. And you may be like, Well, that's not a whole lot. Well, it's not, but I wouldn't have gotten that before. If I wasn't using the Upside app, I wouldn't have gotten that$367. So that is a gallon of gas, you guys. So gas is so expensive right now. So yeah,$367 is about a gallon of gas. And sometimes when gas is cheaper, it may even be a gallon and a half, maybe even a little bit more than that, depending on where you are and the gas station that you go to. Yes, heck yeah, I want to get money for filling out my gas tank. Now, not all gas stations utilize this program, and especially things like Walmart and Sam's Club and Bucky's are not on this app. Sometimes some of the gas stations do allow you to upload a receipt instead of linking a card, and that's something that you can do. You can also add multiple cards on there. What I have to do is just wait just a little bit and you get that cash back. And like I said, as soon as it hits, you can cash out immediately. Now, another one that you may want to utilize, and that is the receipt uploading apps. So I've tried several of them, and I have two favorites. So the first one is Fetch. I love Fetch. So Fetch, you have 14 days to upload a receipt. You can also, if you want, if you feel comfortable with it, you can link accounts that you have rewards programs already with that will store your receipts for them. So this could be Amazon, Walmart, Target, some of the like warehouse box stores you might be able to do that with, or even things like Lowe's, Home Depot, something like that. Um, you may want to double check on those because I don't I don't have an account with those. Not really. And also you can link your email on there to where it will scan for receipts. Again, if you feel comfortable, if you don't, definitely don't. And so it will have all of those, and then you can scan your receipts. A lot of times it has bonuses where you can like spin for extra, extra coin like coins or points or whatever. And it will also have it to where they have certain items where you or certain situations where you can earn a bunch of rewards. Like I signed up for Sam's Club within the Fetch app. And at the time, they had it to where you could earn, I think it was like an extra 500 points or a thousand points. It was a larger amount, right? And so I was already planning on signing up for Sam's Club. I my mom had it, my sister-in-law had it, and I was like, you know what? They're able to get these really great deals. They're able to like is some of the cheapest prices on me in the area. And I was like, okay, so I'm already gonna sign up for it. I might as well get these bonus points. And with Fetch, you can sign up to get gift cards after you've reached so many points. It depends on what size gift card you want, and it depends on where. And they have so many options for gift cards. And then also, you can use some of your points to enter contests. Every single month, they have contests where you can either win extra points, or you can win gift cards, or you can win all sorts of things, and so you can take a portion of that and get so many entries into these contests, which are pretty cool. The other one that I like is receipt hog. So, receipt hog, you don't earn as many points as fast, but they do have the same kind of option where you can link your accounts. I have noticed their linking ability isn't as good as Fetch, but they do have this thing called the Hog Slots, and that's where there is like a kind of like a slot machine that you can get entries into to utilizing that based off of your receipts that you've uploaded. And when you do that, you can earn extra points, and these you can cash out, they don't have as many cash out options. I believe that it is maybe PayPal and Amazon. They don't really have a whole lot. I just have mine usually go to my PayPal, but you can win it, and I like the aesthetics of it, it's real fun, you know, it's all like pig themed, and so it's kind of like pig and food themed. So it's it's fun, you know. And so usually I just have both of those apps open and I just photograph the receipts for both of those, and they also have it to where it's a 14 days. Now, with receipt hog, they do ask you additional questions after you after you upload the receipts. So, but they're really short, it's usually like one or two questions, it's no big deal. So those are the types of apps that I'm talking about. So you're already you already have these receipts. Instead of just throwing them away or asking for no receipts, you can just upload them, get points, get gift cards. It's free money. So there's also another one. Like I said, this one you may not be as comfortable with, but it's called Viewpoint, and it's sponsored by Meta or Facebook and Instagram. So they have different things that you can sign up for, but their main one is they want to know your activity level on your apps. Like, what are you using your phone for most of the time? So I take two screenshots and upload that to them. Sometimes they will ask you to do other things, like they may ask you to help them with saying certain words. This helps like with their AI to understand different dialects. So that's something, but again, read all the details, make sure that you're comfortable with it, and you don't have to do each of these programs. But how all of these have been so far is you get 250 points for each one of these you do. And I know for the the activity one, for that one, you actually get it to where you can do those every three days. And once you hit a thousand points, you get a five dollar gift card. Now, there are very limited spots that you can get a live a gift card. It's either like an electronic gift card, I believe, to Amazon, Starbucks, and maybe PayPal. There may be a few others, but those are the ones that I know of. Normally I just get either Amazon or I get a Starbucks gift card. And I'm already using my apps. I don't feel like I don't do any of the things that I feel like is too invasive. And I'm able to do this often. Now, do I always do it? No, I forget, but I'm able to get these gift cards so often, you know, and that's nice. That is, it's so, so nice. Now, like I said, there are other apps that you basically allow it to track everything that you do. I don't have names for some of those because I don't use those. Those felt too invasive for me and too much of a risk, uh, especially because I do a lot of my baking stuff on my phone. So I just didn't want, I didn't want to do that. But you are welcome to look at that yourself. So, like I said, the third option is being an affiliate or part of a referral program. So I actually have it to where on all of my services, someone can sign up to be a referral or an affiliate, and they get a portion of the sales. So mine are usually pretty generous. Uh, so right now I'm doing 15%. So I'm not good at math, but so let's just say that you went through my self-paced 90-day manifestation abundance challenge. Right now, it's sitting at$111. You loved it so much, and you want to tell your friends about it. Well, instead of you just telling them and not getting any money for it, you could tell them, and at 15%, that's a little over$16 that you're gonna be making. Yes, you didn't have to give them that link. You could have just sent them the link normal, but if you're already gonna tell them about it, why not mention it? You know? Or something that I do a lot of times is I write a lot of, well, not a lot, but I write sometimes blog posts or you know, longer posts, and I want to share about the things that are working for me. So I will talk up, you know, these coaches that I've worked with, these programs that I've done. And I love it when there's an affiliate link for me because I'm already going to be talking about them. I am a hype person. If I like somebody or if they're doing well, I want to tell the world about it. Even if I don't get any credit for it, even if I don't get any kickback, any money, any any. Anything, like I'm going to just say it, you know. Like I'm the person who I have friends that'll come to me and be like, hey, can you please help boost this post? I'm like, yes. And then like I'm like hyping them in the comments, you know? Because I feel like that's what we should do. We should be hyping each other up. But that's the discussion for another day. So with those, you can easily make money. I know I have just started making a list of the affiliate referral programs that I have access to and the links. So Capital One does this. Let's see. Some other ones that do it. A lot of banks, a lot of banks will do it. You know, there's like Cash App, Cash App has one. There is the Upside app, like I told you about. Uh, they have it, uh, Starlink has it. And so I will even link my links to a lot of my referrals, my reform referral programs that I'm a part of. So that way, if you guys want to have the bonuses that come with using a referral link, you definitely can. And that way also you can kind of see how it works or see some of my favorite ones. So definitely take advantage of that. Like I said, if you're already going to be talking about it, go ahead and get money for it. Go ahead and get paid. You know, like I said, there is another type of affiliate. So that's the one where you have to really sign up. The biggest one for that is going to probably be Amazon. And I know a lot of people are like back and forth on whether or not they like Amazon, but a lot of people still use it, even if they don't like it, even if they don't like the policies. So with Amazon, they have a lot of different aspects of being an affiliate, but the main one is called Amazon Affiliates. Excuse me, Amazon Associates. And with Amazon Associates, you have a back-end website where you can look at all your reporting and all of that. You have to put in information about either your name or your business name, your social security number or your tax ID number, your address. You have to give them a lot of information because the thing is, is that in their mind they're going to be giving you tax documents. And then also they have to make sure that you know they are compliant with any sort of federal or international regulations. So with that, you will sign into your business or your whatever Amazon account that you have linked with your Amazon associates, and you will look up products. And whatever products you want to refer, you will get a specialized link. And then that link is the link that you're going to share with your friends, family, colleagues, whomever, or you can put them in blog posts. Now, the biggest thing is you have to tell people that isn't an affiliate link. You can a lot of times, like on social media, you can just do like hashtag ad and that counts. On a blog post, you have to have something, or on an email, you will want to have something like some of these links are affiliate links, which means that I may receive a small commission that will not affect you, or you know, something, something to that effect. Something to that effect. I will put in the description below on some of the ones that I have used, some of the phrasings that I have used, and they work perfectly fine. I usually make them a little bit smaller of a text than all of the rest of my text because it's not super important information. People have that there if they need it. I don't make it teeny tiny, but I definitely make it one to three, one to four points smaller than the regular text. And I usually italicize it too. So you can actually gain quite a bit of money from doing this. And some people actually they make whole websites where they are promoting these affiliate products and services. So just kind of like with mine, you know, my affiliate program where someone would have to sign up and give me more details with that. With these, you can sometimes only earn, you know, 1% of the sale. But sometimes you're earning 15, 20, 30%. I've seen some that are earning even 50% commissions depending on the product, service, and the company who's sponsoring it. So it can be very lucrative. There's definitely right ways and wrong ways to do it. What I have found is if you're going to have a website for it, most people will end up having a blog style website. And it's specifically ones where it's like the best XYZ, like the best camera for this. The like the best camera for streaming. And then it will give three camera options that I'll have like a winner, right? And so there are affiliate links for each of those. Now, how I do it in my blogs is I will be talking about something totally like not very specific to that. Like, I'm not gonna say, like, oh, the best cameras, right? But I might say, you know, I like how you are able to document your lifestyle and how you know, showing who you are and being authentic, how that can help you get more clients, more leads. And then I might mention in there just like as kind of like a more like a side note, like, oh, well, you can use your phone, I use an iPhone, and then like link to the iPhone that I have, right? Or you can use a camera and then link to the camera that I use, or I might even specify like I use this camera, I use this phone, and then I would link to it. And then at the very top, that's where I have that. This this is an affiliate link. So for me, it's real more subtle, it's not like out in your face, but you do what works for you, you know. I am very curious if you are going to utilize any of these easy, easy money making options. Are you afraid for whatever reason of just making money this easy? I often wonder actually if the part of the reason why people feel like they shouldn't do this, why there is so much resistance, is because they feel like money can't be easy, that that it has to be hard to make money. Money you have to put a lot of hard work into it. And I I really think that that might be what it is. Or they don't want abundance as much as they say they do. They they are making excuses. I don't have time. It probably a lot of these seconds, you can do that while you're gonna watch on TV, you can do that while you're on the toilet, you know, probably not the photo-taking ones, but like the screenshot ones or what have you, or a lot of times it's just plugging your phone number in, right? So I I really wonder why people are so resistant, and I think it's it's mostly those two. They are either not making abundance a priority, and so they're making excuses, and or they have a deep-seated belief about how money has to be hard. So, or it has to be hard to attain money, money can't be easy, and you know what? I think that the next podcast that I do that's my solo podcast, I think I'm gonna talk on that about how money can be easy, money can come to you easily. So we are out of time for today, where I would talk more about that, but I would love for you guys to take at least one of these apps, websites, programs for you to get extra money, and I would love for you to do that today and start earning money so so easily. So you have been listening to the Magic Manifesting Mindset podcast with your host, Monica, and I hope that you have a wonderful day and happy manifesting, babes.