My Points ~ Rewards for Reading Your Email

The husband and I subscribed to My Points a billion years ago (okay a few years ago) and I never really understood why the rest of my web addict friends didn’t as well. And then an affiliate marketing genius friend of mine says “Oh, stay away from My Points. They’ll spam you to death.”

And then I realized the misconceptions that were out there about My Points so I thought I would share.

First of all, I get spammed to death anyway. Or I get a healthy amount. I don’t consider the My Points emails to be spam. I choose the categories of emails I am interested in receiving. I don’t have to receive emails about auto repair or do it at home dialysis if I don’t want to. Personally, I have the floodgates on their filter wide open, I’ll take their surveys, I’ll open every single one they send.

Why?

Because each time you open of their emails and hit the click through link embedded in the email, you earn Points. The points can then be cashed in for gift certificates to a multitude of retailers. I just received a $25 gift certificate to Bath and Body Works because I read a bunch of emails over the past six months.

The husband and I used to eat out twice a year for free courtesy of My Points. Macaroni Grill, Red Lobster, places like that are among the many you can find on their site. When Hurricane Katrina struck, they gave us the option of donating out points which they turned into cash and donated ours to the Red Cross. It wiped out our points but it was a nice thing for a e-company to do, we thought.

Some people really don’t want the extra email. But for those of us just goofing around at the PC most of the time anyway, I have five minutes to open a couple of emails, and visit a couple of sites. Sometimes it’s stuff I would even buy and if you do buy stuff through the links they send you, or through the My Points website, they give you TONS of points. Don’t get me started on how many points they’ll give you if you launch Lending Tree via My Points and get your mortgage via Lending Tree.

It’s a lot of Bath and Body Works, let me tell you.

If you don’t mind a couple of extra emails (or a bunch of extra email depending on how you set the filter), My Points is a pretty good deal.