Perk!!!

This is not my nephew.  My nephew has not been born yet.

My apologies for taking so long to write the next blog entry.  Our family got some SUPER HAPPY news - my sister & brother in law are going to be adopting a newborn baby boy!!!! - so that has switched my focus from blog life to baby shower planning.  But I'm back to share with you my absolute favorite site for extra earning - Perk!

Now, I can hear you thinking, "If it is your favorite, why didn't you tell us about it first?"  Well, I'll tell ya.  Perk is a super lucrative way to earn (I am making between $120-$140 a month from Perk), but it has a fairly steep entry curve - you have to do a ton of work up front to maximize Perk.  Once you've done it, it is smooth sailing, and you can just sit back and earn.  Swagbucks is much easier to jump in and start, so that was why I started there.

Can I just pause and say how much I love the word "perk"?  Think of all the wonderful images it conjures up - feeling better when you've been down, coffee brewing, a special bonus that not everybody gets.  I love the word "perk."

Okay - back to money making.  Perk is an earning site that pays you to watch short videos (or run them on your phone, whether or not you are watching them), similar to SBTV or EntertaiNow.  Perk has NO LIMITS, unlike those other two, so you can run them 24/7.  And Perk allows you to use up to 5 devices per account!

Here's how to do it:

1.)  Sign up with this link:  Get started with Perk TV!

2.) Download the free Perk TV app onto your smart phone.  Note: Perk only runs on iPhone 3GS or better or Android 4.0 (ice cream sandwich) or better. Old phones are fine but ancient phones are not.  The Perk app looks like this.

Further note: you do NOT have to activate these phones with a cell phone company.  As long as you have wifi at home, you are good to go.

3.)  Press play on the videos (they are trailers for either apps or videos, unless you are using an iPhone.  More on that later).

4.) Earn points - 4 points for every 2 videos you watch.

5.) Cash points in for gift cards.

6.) Freak out because that was so easy.

7.) Call/email/message Angie and thank her for sharing her wisdom with you.

8.) Go find more phones to run Perk on.

THE END!!!

It really is that simple.  What's the catch, you say?  No catch.  But there are some things to be aware of as you start your Perk journey.

Awareness Item A: Obviously, to maximize your money here, you need to have 5 phones running.  So, how are you going to get 5 phones?  You can ask around and see if any friends or family members have phones they aren't using anymore that they would be willing to loan/give you.  I tried this method, and lots of people were super nice and gave me phones, but all of them were too old to work with Perk.  My husband had better luck, so we got a couple of start up phones that way.  Remember - you are NOT using it as a phone, so things like cracked screens or messed up SIM cards are A-OK.  Think of those phones as inhabitants of the Island of Misfit Phones, and just like Rudolph, you are coming to rescue them from their sad existence by giving them love and a life of purpose as one of your Perk machines!  Or something like that.

You can also check Craigslist or eBay to see if you can find some phones for cheap.  I got 2 more phones there for fairly cheap.  Two decent choices to get started are Kyocera Hydros or Samsung Rushes.  They aren't the greatest phones ever, but they are inexpensive and run Perk well.  I have one of each, and in my experience, the Hydro is slow but a good little plodder - it runs constantly with no need to babysit.  The Rush is faster but occasionally gets hung up on an ad and freezes.  I have to pay closer attention that one.  As a general rule, the better the phone, the better your earning with Perk, but there is an exception to that - iPhones.  Apple has recently changed their rules, and they do not allow one app to advertise for other apps.  I don't understand why, but there it is.  That means that app trailers are not available on iPhones - just movie trailers and some other kind of video that I haven't even paid enough attention to adequately describe.  Both of these videos are LONGER (sometimes much longer) than the typical app trailer.  So since you are being paid by the video, Apple products are a bad investment for Perk.  They cost more up front and they don't earn as fast.

Once you are convinced of the awesomeness of Perk, and find yourself willing to pay a little extra money to get a better phone (trust me, this will happen!), I HIGHLY HIGHLY HIGHLY recommend the LG Fuel.  Walmart.com has them for $30.  So stinkin' worth it.  They are lightning fast and run without interruption.  They pay for themselves in about 3 weeks, and after that, they become your own personal ATM.  Here is the link to that phone.

Awareness Item B:  Phones that run videos on your wifi use data.  Fact.  Depending on your internet service provider, this might be something you want to keep an eye on.  Many ISPs give you unlimited data at home so if you use a company like that, Perk away and don't give this a second thought.  But I know I have lots of Tulsa peeps reading this blog, and many of you are in the Cox Communications boat with me.  Cox DOES have a data cap - 250 GB a month.  Based on all my reading and my personal experience, they don't seem to enforce it. (And honestly, why should they???  It does not cost them one extra penny if I use quadruple that amount of data - it's greed and what happens when there is a virtual monopoly in a geographic area.  Okay, rant over.)  Anyway, with 5 phones Perking, plus normal data usage (computers, video games, Netflix, etc.) you will likely run right up to the limits.  Be prepared to get an occasional nasty-gram from them about it.

PROOF!!!  (That's me on the right.)

Awareness Item C:  This is really the biggie.  Perk is an unsustainable business model.  (Did you know I teach MBA classes occasionally?  Okay, so they have nothing to do with economics, but I'm still counting it.  A BUSINESS SCHOOL PROFESSOR is
writing this blog!)  I have been around the block a few times with these earning sites, and with the exception of Swagbucks, who seems to have figured out the balance, all of them either completely close shop or drastically change their reward structure so that they are no longer worth doing.  (Anybody out there use Viggle?  You know what I mean!)  All of that to say, don't count on funding your retirement with Perk. It will go away eventually. But try to enjoy it while it is still around!

That's all, folks.  Perk is the best!  As always, feel free to ask questions in the comments section.  And next time I really, really will explain how to flip all these Swagbucks/Perk gift cards into Disney cards.