Bozarth dot org

It’s no secret that I bought a Mac. However, I’ll let you in on a little trick to take the sting off a purchase like that. It’s fairly painless, and it’s free.

The Internet is an interesting place to make money. I’m seeing all kinds of creative ways to make a buck, usually with either a lot of effort or hardly any effort at all. One way marketers can make cash is by affiliate marketing.

Affiliate marketing works by referring buyers to a particular product or place, and if the service or product is purchased, the referring party gets a commission, normally a small percentage like 5 percent.

Affiliate programs exist for all kinds of stuff. However, it is frowned upon to refer yourself to a product, purchase it, then make a commission off selling yourself the product. So, in other words, I couldn’t refer myself to buy a Mac and get some of that cost back.

However, there are ways to get around this, legally. The web site Ebates provides users with links to literally all major Internet retailers out there (Amazon, GAP, Wal-Mart, etc.). Once users go through the Ebates links to purchase, Ebates collects the commission earned by referring the buyer. But, instead of pocketing all of the money, Ebates will return a portion of that commission back to you! I do not expect Ebates gives all of the money back, but it’s nice to get something.

Ebates lists the percentages for cash back on each store. When I bought my Mac (from MacMall), the standard percentage was 2 percent. However, on Cyber Monday (Monday after Thanksgiving), Ebates was doubling the percentage all day long. I effectively earned 4 percent cash back on my purchase. When you buy a computer that is nearly $2,000, that’s not a bad rebate!

If you do a lot of online shopping, you might give Ebates a shot. It pays out every 3 months either by check or by Paypal (I used Paypal and it worked great). I’ve used it in the past when buying a LCD monitor, and again recently when buying extra memory for the new Mac.