Search this site
Matching entries from CompareRewards.com
Reaction to Bing Cashback Closing, and the Latest Rumor
It's been an interesting couple of weeks, as news of Bing Cashback's closing has made its way around the internet and to the masses of fans and naysayers alike, as well as to competitors of the program. Some of the...
Bing Cashback to Close
Microsoft announced yesterday that it will shut down Bing Cashback. In a blog post entitled, "A Farewell to Bing Cashback," Bing's Senior VP of its Online Audience Business Group, Yusuf Mehdi, explained the reasoning for the decision and the technicalities...
Alice.com In The News -- Raises Second $4 Million in Working Capital
Techcrunch and TheAlarmClock.com are reporting that Alice.com (aff) has raised an additional $4 million in funding from investors (following an initial $4.3 million investment last November). This is the direct-to-consumer website founded by former Jellyfish (later Microsoft Live Cashback, now...
Bing to Double Cash Back Starting August 10th
Bing will be doubling their already-high cashback rates starting on 8/10, according to an email last Thursday from Bing to their participating merchants. This will be part of their back-to-school promotion, which will include a "broad marketing campaign" to raise...
Inc.com Interview with Alice.com Founders -- Business Model Explained
June's Inc. has a great interview (available online here) with the co-founders of Alice.com, Brian Wiegand and Mark McGuire. In it, they talk about their business model, which has some similarities to what they did with Jellyfish, but is also...
Need Alice.com Referral Bonus Link for $10 Off?
Alice.com (aff) is giving a free $10 bonus with a $50 order when you join with the referral link of an existing member. My referral link is here -- thanks! I reviewed Alice.com on the day of its launch, and...
Alice.com Review
The founders of Jellyfish.com (sold to Microsoft as Live Cashback, recently renamed Bing Cashback) are at it again! Today, Brian Wiegand and Mark McGuire launched a new shopping website, Alice.com (aff), which WILL revolutionize the way you shop for household...
Microsoft Live Cashback Changes Names to Bing Cashback; My Critique
First it was Jellyfish.com. Then it was Live Cashback. Now, yet another name change (though this time, there's no change in ownership -- it's still Microsoft but by another name), to Bing Cashback. The switchover happened around midnight, and while...
Microsoft Enters Toolbar Arena with MSN Toolbar's Live Cashback "Gleam"
It was announced way back in July of 2008 that Live Cashback would be getting a toolbar, but that didn't make the official announcement last week on Live Search's blog any less unsettling. The MSN Toolbar (available only for IE...
Jellyfish.com to Close
Update, 12:04am, 2/16: The last night of live chat was lively, with a rare appearance by Jellyfish co-founder Brian Wiegand, as well as several other employees (Heidi and Keith). It appears that the honor of Last Commenter in JF Chat...
2008 Shopping Rebates Comparison Chart and Analysis
The National Retail Foundation says that the average U.S. consumer plans to spend $832.36 on holiday-related expenses this year, up 1.9% from last year. A Forrester Research report released last week says that online spending, however, is expected to increase...
Earn 25% Cashback on Ebay BINs with Live Cashback
No coupon required! :) And while it's 25% as of this writing. I've seen it go as high as 30% on some days. But I'm getting ahead of myself -- let me explain: As you know if you're a faithful...
Microsoft Announces Plans for Live Search and Cashback
There was an annual meeting yesterday between Microsoft and its stock analysts in which the company announced a few upcoming initiatives to push its Live Search program (now integrated with Cashback, formerly the cashback part of Jellyfish.com). In this meeting,...
Stairway to Brand Heaven & Hell -- Creating Loyalty/Disloyalty
I came across a very interesting graphic today showing how a company can progress to either loyalty or disloyalty -- it can be applied to any brand, whether it's a rewards program or a specific merchant. It's nothing terribly ground-breaking...
Microsoft Live Cashback Rewards For Ebay
I read an article on Mashable about how Microsoft Live Cashback (formerly the cashback shopping side of Jellyfish.com) is now rewarding for Ebay BIN purchases. Pretty cool, I thought. So I went to try it out myself. Ebay doesn't appear...
Microsoft to Rebrand Jellyfish as Live Search Cash Back; 24 Hour Smack on Thursday
SearchEngineWatch is reporting that Microsoft will make an announcement tomorrow of the official launch of Microsoft Live Search Cash Back, their re-branding of the Jellyfish cashback shopping site. The switchover already started today, which I can attest to by virtue...
Jellyfish Shopping Now Part of Microsoft Live
In an email to members today, Jellyfish said that it had been assimilated by integrated into Microsoft Live, and that members would need to log in with their Microsoft Live accounts or create one if they didn't have one. I...
Jellyfish Fans, Take Note: Microsoft Expanding in Madison
Along with many others, I've been concerned about how Jellyfish's buyout by Microsoft would affect the company. There's a core group of employees at JF that have become like a second family to its members (okay, sometimes they're the "weird...
Jellyfish Schedules Downtime
According to an email sent out today, Jellyfish.com's cashback service will be down from 4/25 through 4/30 "to perform necessary service upgrades and enhancements." There will be another outage in May. The ever-popular Smack Shopping reverse auction section will remain...
Jellyfish Spring Smack Attack on Wednesday
Jellyfish announced that on Wednesday from noon to midnight Central time, they will be doing their Smack (reverse auction) live and hosted by Jellyfish employees, with the Smack Wheel (chance to win prizes) in-between deals, and with increased quantities and...
Jellyfish Co-Founder to Discuss Microsoft Buyout
If you're in the Madison, WI area: Brian Wiegand, co-founder of Jellyfish.com, will speak at the Fluno Center - Howard Auditorium on April 3rd at 6:30pm. "Microsoft Acquires Jellyfish: Tales by Entrepreneur Brian Wiegand" is sponsored by Accelerate Madison and...
CompareRewards.com Gets Book Mention
The December before last, I had the pleasure of talking with Gregory Karp, a personal finance reporter for the Chicago Tribune's family of newspapers on the topic of online shopping rewards websites. He was interested and enthusiastic about learning more...
Rewards for Valentine's Flowers
You're going to order flowers for Valentine's Day, you might as well earn the most rewards for it, right? I re-examined shopping rates for at 15 online florists for these rewards programs (click the program's name to join the site...
Rewards Programs Sued for Patent Infringement
Latest update on the case is here. On January 23, Source, Inc. (a California corporation) filed suit against 38 rewards programs for patent infringement. They say that several patents issued to a Patrick D. McCarthy of Louisville, KY (one in...
Jellyfish's Smack Daddy Pleads for Help
Very noticeably AWOL from Jellyfish's Talk'n Smack for two months, Smack Daddy appeared in the daily noontime chat with one lone plaintive request: "help me". See for yourself here (thanks, drewcp). The response from the chatters in attendance was simultaneous...
2007 Year in Review
It's been a year (and two weeks!) in the making, but here's my annual review of the big events in the rewards program biz from last year! It was a long and eventful year, and not a terribly good one...
Microsoft, Please Read Re: Jellyfish
This blog entry, from 2005, explains succinctly why it's important that Microsoft return Smack Daddy to Jellyfish. Another blogger's take on this, "Big vs. Small," also applies. Don't get so big that you don't listen to your membership. It's a...
O Smack Daddy, Where Art Thou?
I'll admit it. I've been slacking off on Jellyfish's Smack Chat lately. I've been using the site often for shopping and price comparisons, but my ability to keep up on the day-to-day chat drama has been impeded by, oh, I...
Scrooged by Retailers -- Rewards Programs Take Note
Christmas 2007 is over [insert sigh of relief], and as always, I used rewards programs heavily when doing my shopping online. This year was unusual for me, though, because I had multiple bad experiences with retailers not delivering on time....
Rewards for Last-Minute Holiday Gifts
"Procrastinator" is such an ugly word. You're not a procrastinator; you're just busy, and you let a few people fall through the cracks and now you're scrambling to find last-minute gifts. It's okay! I've been there! You don't want to...
Jellyfish.com Cyber Monday Event
Black Friday on Jellyfish was a lot of fun, and the excitement continues through Cyber Monday! Here's the scoop on what's coming up: Outwit pots will continue to be bumped up by $20 each game. The price drops in the...
Debit Rewards Programs Can Offer Higher Cash Back
My bank formerly had a debit rewards program offered through Visa Extras Rewards, but this year it switched over to a program run by Affinity Solutions. Affinity provides debit rewards programs to several banks including Regions and US Bank. The...
Black Friday on Jellyfish.com's Smack Shopping
Finally, Jellyfish is giving us word on what to expect in terms of their Black Friday Smack Shopping promotion! They announced by email today that there will be "Best of" themed shows around the clock from midnight on 11/23 'til...
UPDATE: CompareRewards and AdLib Corner Joint Chat Recap
Last night's chat was a huge success and I want to thank everyone, program owners and members alike, who spent their Saturday night with me and Ginger of AdlibCorner! For a recap of the evening's highlights, please Continue Reading!...
Happy Birthday to Jellyfish Smack Shopping!
It was a year ago today that Jellyfish.com launched their Smack Shopping reverse auction feature. Initially, it featured an unknown quantity of one item per day, starting at noon central time. The first item ever "smacked" was a 2GB silver...
2007 Shopping Rebates Comparison Chart
Note: this analysis was updated for 2008 here. It's October again, and with Black Friday just weeks away, it's time once again to take an in-depth look at rewards programs' online shopping rebates. A Gallup poll conducted the first week...
Jellyfish.com Bought by Microsoft
It was bound to happen...the guys at Jellyfish have created such an internet buzz about their site, it attracted the attention of not just ONE of the big guys, but the biggest guy: Microsoft. The purchase price is reported to...
Convert Jellyfish Guru Points to Cash by 2pm Central Tomorrow!
If you participated in "Smack Daddy's Quest," a referral contest on Jellyfish.com, and you accumulated 50 Quest Points or more (by 2pm central yesterday), you can turn your GURU points into cash! Guru points will remain in your account, but...
Rewards Programs Fudge Membership Numbers
One of my favorite writers at SmarterTravel.com is a guy named Tim Winship, who co-authored a book called Mileage Pro -- The Insider's Guide to Frequent Flier Programs (buy it through my Amazon link here). He's written a lot on...
Current Jellyfish.com Smack Deal
var jf_api_key = "072d86a4f0307db2391dec2490ab4e4a"; var jf_color = "blue"; The price you see is the price you pay, tax and shipping included! Remember, tomorrow night they'll be reverse-auctioning a Toyota Prius!...
Jellyfish.com to Sell a Car by Reverse Auction
Update, 9/5: Congrats to tbase, Jellyfish member and super-nice guy, on his winning purchase of a new Toyota Prius during tonight's Smack reverse auction! At 28.06% off, the car's selling price (excluding tax) was $18,781! Last week the details were...
Busiest Rewards Programs -- Revised for August 2007
Last September, I put together a little list of how some of the popular rewards programs stacked up traffic-wise, according to their rankings at Alexa.com. Alexa ranks websites based on the number of site visits they receive, on average, in...
Comparison of Office Supplies Prices by Forbes
There was an interesting article on Forbes.com yesterday called, "A Penny Pincher's Guide to Office Supplies". Forbes put together a shopping list of commonly used business supplies like toner, paper and pens, envelopes, stuff like that, and then compared prices...
Recent Earnings From Rewards Programs
It might help folks new to rewards programs to know which programs the veterans are doing and how well they pay -- to give you an idea of which sites to focus on. These are the sites that have paid...
BountyZoo Sending Members to Jellyfish
Visitors to BountyZoo.com this weekend were in for a surprise -- the "page not found" error was gone and instead, members were immediately forwarded to Jellyfish.com...without any kind of explanation, "we're sorry for bailing on you," "screw you, we're keeping...
Jellyfish Eliminates Cashback on Smack Purchases; Makes Savings Instant
Yesterday, Jellyfish.com announced that on all purchases made through its Smack Shopping reverse auction, savings would be immediate -- in other words, the final price is what you pay. Before this change, Smack purchasers would pay full price for the...
CompareRewards to Host Portion of Jellyfish Anniversary Smack on Tuesday
In honor of Jellyfish.com's one-year anniversary on June 26th, the site will be having a 24-hour live Smack Shopping Smack-a-Thon hosted by chat admin Smack Daddy and co-hosted by various members of the Jellyfish community. I will be co-hosting...
Jellyfish to Offer College Debt Repayment
In an update on yesterday's story regarding GradGold: In another press release on Tuesday, this one by AES (the loan servicer themselves), AES mentioned not only partnering with Upromise and Grad Gold, but also with Jellyfish, through an AES website...
Stats on Jellyfish Membership From Site Founders
If you're a regular CompareRewards visitor, you know that I'm very stoked about Jellyfish.com and particularly their Smack Shopping reverse auction. Today there was an article about Jellyfish (and two other recent internet startups) on Investors.com and in it were...
Bank Debit Rewards Programs More Popular, Study Says
According to a study released on Saturday, 64% of the top 50 financial institutions -- those that account for 67% or more of debit signature spending -- have adopted at least one debit rewards program, up from 40% last year....
Jellyfish.com to Unveil 24/7 Smack Shopping Today at 2pm Central
Fans of Jellyfish.com's Smack Shopping will be pleased to know that starting today, Smack Shopping will be offered on a 24 hour basis. Here are the details: These will move along slower than regular hosted shows (which will continue on...
Jellyfish Announces New Game, "Outwit the Smack"
Last night, Jellyfish.com unveiled a new game played among members during their Smack Shopping show, "Outwit the Smack." In this game, a member is chosen at random to play against other members of the viewing audience for points and prizes....
Jellyfish.com Announces Partnership with Channel Intelligence
[Last updated, 5/2] In a press release today, Jellyfish.com announced a strategic partnership with a company called Channel Intelligence. CI has a product called SellCast Online, which will enable CI's current merchants to become Jellyfish advertisers -- integrating their product...
Jellyfish to Beta-Test Smack Shopping v2 on Tuesday
A new version of the Jellyfish Smack Shopping show will be unveiled tomorrow at 3pm Central. There are said to be changes to include multiple chat rooms, personalizable blog-type member pages, and much more. Tune in tomorrow to see if...
Google To Compete With Jellyfish's Model
There's more to Jellyfish.com than Smack Shopping...not that you'd know it, as much as I chatter about the Smack. But at the heart of Jellyfish is its comparison shopping engine -- search for an item and see how cheaply you...
Jellyfish Founder Sells Other Company
Brian Wiegand, co-founder of the Jellyfish.com rewards program, was called a "serial entrepreneur" by the Wisconsin Technology Network, as they announced today that he had sold his second internet startup. NameProtect, founded in 1997, was just sold by Wiegand to...
Jellyfish Wednesday Primetime Smack Tonight!
Can't get to the Jellyfish Smack of the Day during the day because of work or other obligations? Tune in tonight for a Wednesday Primetime Smack which will get cranked off at 8pm Central time. It looks like the first...
Interview with Greg Kaldor of Jellyfish.com
There's an interesting interview up with Greg Kaldor (VP of Merchant Services at Jellyfish.com) on GetElastic.com. He talks about, among other things, Smack Shopping (how it got its name, the psychology of chat, themed Smacks, etc.). You all know I'm...
Jellyfish.com Has First $500 Winner!
I know I post a lot about Jellyfish.com and their Smack Deal of the Day, but it's so addictive, I find I plan my day around being at my computer at noon central time so I don't miss a minute...
Smack-a-Thon Underway at Jellyfish!
Jellyfish.com's popular reverse auction, the Smack Deal of the Day, is doing a smack-a-thon today, with multiple deals all day long! So far, some of the deals have included a Circulon 10-pc Cookware Set for $104.85 after rebate (the auction...
New Features During Jellyfish Smack Deal of the Day
During yesterday's regularly scheduled Smack Deal of the Day on Jellyfish.com, members were treated to a sneak peek of the new features that will officially be unveiled on Tuesday's Smack-a-Thon. Members will be allowed to vote, from the end of...
Update: Jellyfish.com Smack-a-Thon All Day (?) Tuesday, 1/30
Updated, 1/17: Beginning at 1pm ET on Tuesday, January 30th, Jellyfish.com will be offering an extended version of their weekdaily reverse auction, the Jellyfish Smack. "Dozens" of deals will be available and the site will also be unveiling some new...
2006 Year in Review
Wow, 2006 was a busy one in the rewards program biz. Not a lot of new programs last year, but we saw a lot of old ones fail... and a couple of big ones change ownership. How well do you...
UPDATED: Standard Shipping Deadlines Near
My friend Rebecca at the Ebates Blog made a great post last week that detailed the standard shipping deadlines for Christmas arrival for 16 popular online merchants. I wanted to supplement it for my readers here. Please note: you can...
Jellyfish Smack-a-Thon All Day (?) Starting at 1pm ET
Update, 11:45pm ET: It's over! Almost 11 hours of deals, including white gold .5K diamond earrings for 65.5% off, an Xbox 360 core system for 51.3% off, a Kitchen Aid Artisan Series 5-qt mixer for 46.6% off, a digital picture...
Welcome, New Site Visitors!
I'm seeing some new folks visiting the site, thanks to two nice mentions in Gregory Karp's Spending Smart columns, today and last Sunday, in the Tribune family of newspapers (the Chicago Tribune, Baltimore Sun, Orlando Sentinel, Hartford Courant, Stamford Advocate,...
Jellyfish.com Upcoming Promotions
In chat today, Jellyfish.com announced that we could expect two big promotions coming up: This Wednesday night at 7pm ET will be Smack Shopping After Hours, where all items for sale will be non-tech products. Tuesday of next week will...
Jellyfish.com Black Friday 24-Hour Smack Fest
Update, 12/3: Because the Black Friday Jellyfish promotion was so successful, they'll be doing a new 24-hour Smack again before Christmas! Details are promised this week and I'll share them with you as soon as I get the scoop! Tomorrow,...
Cyber Monday Promo at Jellyfish.com
Late yesterday I got word from my source at Jellyfish.com that they too will be doing a Cyber Monday promo of some kind. They're still hashing out the details, and when I hear more I'll pass them along!...
The Full Scoop on the Jellyfish.com Smack Shopping Deal of the Day
I've mentioned the Jellyfish.com program here before -- they're an online shopping rebate site with fantastic rates, and they also have a built-in comparison shopping search engine that is really cool and could be the topic of an entirely different...
Jellyfish Smack Shopping Deal of the Day
Jellyfish.com yesterday started a new promotion called the Smack Shopping Deal of the Day (it turns out that a group of jellyfish is called a "smack." Who knew?). Every business day (no weekends or holidays) at 1pm Eastern, a new...
2006 Shopping Rebates Comparison Chart
Note, 10/07: This analysis was recently updated for 2007. Please click here to see the 2007 Shopping Rebates Comparison! "What's the best rewards program?" This is a question I hear a lot, and of course, while there are many ways...
Jellyfish.com New Rewards Program Review
Jellyfish Review - Updated 11/06 Please click here to join. Jellyfish.com launched in beta on 6/26/06. It's open to U.S. and Canadian citizens 18 years or older. There are currently over 1,000 merchants participating in the program, and although there...
FatWallet
FatWallet FatCash Review - Updated 10/07 Please click here to join. Date Launched: Cashback portal in/around 2002, website itself in 1999 Reward Per Dollar Spent: Varies Minimum to Cash Out: None for PayPal, $10 for check Cash Out For: PayPal...
MyPoints
MyPoints Program Review - Updated 10/07 Please click here to join MyPoints! Date Launched: 1996 Reward Per Dollar Spent: Varies Minimum to Redeem: 500 for charity or $5 Juno/Netzero code, 750 for other $5 GCs Redeem Points For: GCs, Hilton...
Ebates.com Review
Ebates Review - Updated 10/07 Please click here to join. Date Launched: 1998 Reward Per Dollar Spent: Varies Minimum to Cash Out: $5.01 per quarter, sent automatically (if minimum not met, earnings roll over to next quarter). Referral earnings do...
Feed Subscription
If you use an RSS reader, you can subscribe to a feed of all future entries matching 'jellyfish'. [What is this?]
