Mintvine minitip - I can't verify my mobile number!

In order to get your first cashout from Mintvine, you need to verify your phone number, but it seems that many of the members of our Facebook group dedicated to Swagbucks, Mintvine and other survey sites and apps are running into issues when getting to this step.

The problem, it seems, is that Mintvine simply cannot verify UK mobile numbers in the usual way by sending you a text message with a code that you then put into the website.

There are 2 things to try to get around this:

1) Try putting in a landline number - many members have found that this works and verifies immediately. It doesn't send a code or anything, just ticks off the verification.

2) If this doesn't work then the only option is to contact Mintvine. Their customer service is usually pretty good and they verify you manually within a few hours. You can contact them via the Help tab on the website menu.

Once you're verified you should be able to cashout with no problem.

Let us know in the Facebook group if the landline trick worked for you!

Not on Mintvine? Regular, easy surveys, offers and videos to watch, cashout at 1000 for $10 in a variety of ways including Paypal & Amazon. Join me there now!

I can't log in to Prolific - what should I do? (minitip)

Recently, Prolific updated / upgraded the front page of their website and it seems that since that has happened, a number of people are having problems logging in, especially on their smartphones.

Having read a number of these posts in our Facebook Group, here are a couple of things to try:

1. Go into your email and find an email from Prolific - click through to the site from there and then click 'Account' - this should take you to your account page without you having to login.
2. Go direct to the login page - prolific.ac/participant/account - and login as usual - this should redirect you to the old login page.

If neither of these things help, the best thing to do is contact them via support@prolific.ac and explain the issue you're having.

Hopefully it's going to be a short lived thing and everything will be sorted out soon.

Not on Prolific? I make around £100 a month from the site when I check in regularly - join up here.

On Prolific but not getting any studies? Read our Prolific checklist here.

Not in the Facebook Group? You're missing out on a whole host of helpful hints, tips and support - apply to join here.

Please share this post in relevant Facebook Groups or on your profile to let others know how they can get back into their Prolific account.

Facebook minitip - How to search in a group

You may see the same questions being posted again and again on a large group: a good way to be sure your post isn't the 15th time that question has been posted today is to quickly search the group first. To do this on a laptop/PC, there is a search field on the left of the group:

 To do this on the app, click the search icon (1st pic below) and ensure that you are 'searching within the group (2nd pic below):

Type in a few words that relate to your question:

• prolific payment
• vypr steers
• swago board
• getting referrals
• can't login on prolific

or whatever your question is, and see what the results are - the chances are that your question has not only been answered but expanded upon and you can join in the conversation in that thread.

There's not always someone around who can help, so this is usually the quickest way to find what you need.

If admin are around, they may well refer you to a previous post rather than typing everything out again :) 

Of course it may be that your question hasn't been asked before, or you can't find that it has, in which case post away! And in our Facebook Group we always want to hear your successes (and woes!) and about new apps and sites you find, and a hello if you're a new member.

Searching the group, rather than scrolling through it, may also introduce you to some posts you'd never even see too!

Happy searching :)

Swagbucks minitip - How do I get my 300sb bonus from my referrals?

Most month, Swagbucks has a bonus scheme whereby if your referrals earn 300 qualifying sb in their first calendar month (eg the calendar month in which they sign up, not their first 30 days) both you and they get an extra 300sb around the 5th/6th of the following month. (If they also spend £25 via Shop and Earn, you'll both get an extra 200sb, making 500sb)

This is why I always say it's better to get your referrals as early on in the month as possible!

However, this does not mean that if your referral has earned 300sb, that's enough - the points have to be qualifying points.

The sign up bonus that they get does not count.

Swagbucks say:

How do I Earn SB from Referrals?

For each new person referred to Swagbucks.com, the referrer will earn 10% of the referrals earnings. The earnings eligible for the 10% referral program include the categories along the top menu bar: Shop, Search, Watch, Play, Answer, Discover.  This includes everything found in the drop down menus such as Daily Poll, Activities, Coupons and Tasks. Every earn on a mobile app contributes too.
 

You will continue to earn 10% for as long as your referral is active on Swagbucks.com, with no maximum limit.

Categories that do not count towards 10%: Sign-up bonus, Swag Codes, Daily Goal Bonuses; others may be added.

So, the more that they earn in their first calendar month, the more likely you are to get the bonus - so help them out where you can!

Not a member of Swagbucks? Join up as my referral now and I'll help you as much as possible via Facebook chat :)

And read my minitip about referrals to get started on finding them.

Swagbucks minitip - video app welcome screen

A few people on our Facebook group have mentioned that the video apps  welcome screen tells them that they have earned 10sb but these aren't showing in their activity.

Here's an example of the welcome screen:

It's easy to see where the confusion arises, but all that screen is doing is telling you that last time you ran the app (01/08/2017 in this example) you earned 10sb. It's not extra sb and won't show up as 10sb in your activity tab, it's just a reminder that you have earned and the last date on which you did.

There's also a prompt to rate the app - it's up to you whether you do this or not but it's nice to give some feedback :)

If you don't want to give feedback, or have already done it, all you need to do is click the X in the top right hand corner and carry on with your app as usual :)

Not on Swagbucks? I made £240 in August 2017 alone! Join me now.

Facebook minitip - searching a group

You may see the same questions being posted again and again on the Facebook group, a good way to be sure your post isn't the 15th time that question has been posted today is to quickly search the group first.

To do this on a laptop/PC, there is a search field on the left of the group (circled).

To do this on the app, click the search icon:

 and ensure that you are 'searching within the group:

Type in a few words that relate to your question:

prolific payment
vypr steers
swago board
getting referrals
or whatever your question is

and see what the results are - the chances are that your question has not only been answered but expanded upon and you can join in the conversation in that thread.

There's not always someone around who can help, so this is usually the quickest way to find what you need.

If admin are around, they may well in future refer you to a previous post rather than typing everything out again :) Of course it may be that your question hasn't been asked before, or you can't find that it has, in which case post away! And we always want to hear your successes (and woes!) and about new apps and sites you find, and a hello if you're a new member.

Searching the group, rather than scrolling through it, may also introduce you to some posts you'd never even see too!

Prolific minitip - What can I do if my survey is rejected?

Prolific - a few comments recently that studies have been rejected - here's what Prolific say on the subject:

A researcher may reject your work if they believe that some answers you gave are wrong, the study was not completed correctly or that the instructions were not followed. If you believe that your submission was rejected in error, you may decide to contact the researcher directly. You can easily do this via our messaging system. Under "Manage Studies", just click on the researcher's name to send him/her a message.

Sneak preview: We are currently developing certain mechanisms to make Prolific a fairer platform. In the future, researchers will have to go through a rejection justification process, i.e. they will need to specify (in a message to the participant) why exactly a submission needs to be rejected. Also, we'll introduce partial payments, so even if a submission is not entirely satisfactory to the researcher, he/she can still choose to pay a partial compensation.

So what to do if your study is rejected? In the first instance get in touch with the researcher via the messaging system and find out why you were rejected. If you disagree, argue your case politely and courteously and you may find that the researcher changes his/her mind. If all else fails and you're sure you shouldn't have been rejected, go direct to Prolific and plead your case.

Not sure whether you have a point or not? Come and tell us about your situation in our Facebook group where there are plenty of people to help.

Referrals minitip - it's not just your family and friends

Don't forget that if you can get referrals on sites such as Swagbucks then you earn 10% of their earnings for life.

Not only that, but if they earn 300sb in their first calendar month (not their first 30 days) then both you and they get a 300sb bonus at the beginning of the following month, so it's worth having a think about how you could be getting referrals.

It's not just about people you know, I didn't know ANY of my referrals apart from my partner, and it doesn't mean hassling your family and friends, which I know is what some people worry about.

My referrals on all of the survey sites have come from:

- local and not so local selling pages on Facebook
- other groups I am a member of on Facebook (check their rules on posting referral links)
- 'make money online' groups on Facebook
- 'work from home' groups on Facebook
- Listings on Craigslist and sites like Craigslist
- Business cards I leave on trains, in supermarkets, on notice boards etc
- Adverts I place in local shops (I don't do this so much now but it worked well when I did)
- Local 'real life' notice boards (church, visitor centre, community centre, school etc)

Think about it as advertising a business, not getting your mates to sign up, and you'll probably find a whole host of ideas I've not thought of!

Still struggling? Join my 30 Day Referrals Challenge and you'll be watching those referrals roll in in no time at all!

Prolific minitip - your Prolific score

Some people on our Facebook group  have mentioned their Prolific score - here's what Prolific say in their FAQs:

The Prolific Score is a a score that's based on the quality of your submissions. The better and more accurate your submissions are the higher your Prolific Score will be and the more studies you'll receive!

Everybody starts off with a clean score of 100/100. However, if there’s an issue with your submission and it gets rejected, then your Prolific Score will go down a bit. But do not worry! We have designed this new mechanism with care. For your first 10-20 submissions your score won't get affected strongly by rejections. Also, time-outs or returns won't affect your prolific score in any way.
With this step, we hope to increase the quality of our platform, so more researchers have an incentive to use Prolific.

You can find your Prolific score under the 'manage studies' section of your Account and it should look like this:

Facebook minitip - getting notifications of posts in groups

It seems that some people are missing out on notifications from the Facebook group - in order to be alerted every time a new post is put in the group, the best thing to do is edit your notification settings.

On the Facebook website, this is under 'notifications' at the top - simply tick 'all posts'.

On the Facebook app you need to click where it says 'joined', then 'edit notifications' and tick 'all posts'.

This will ensure you get alerted whenever a new post is put in the group.

Be aware there are a LOT of posts during the day so you may not want to see them all, but getting them all will mean you see swagbucks instant survey alerts, prolific survey alerts and any offers and promotions that are running on various sites / apps as soon as they are posted, rather than coming across them long after they've disappeared.

Not in the Facebook group? Come and join us!

Swagbucks Swago minitip - ticking off those boxes

If you're having trouble ticking off Swago boxes, here are a few tips:

- if it's the 'attempt a survey' box, remember you have to be actually disqualified from a GOLD (not peanut labs) survey - not just told it's not suitable for you. You need to have started the survey, answered a few questions and then disqualified. I don't know for sure, but I don't think a 'we've hit max capacity' counts

- If it's the 'get a referral' box, search the group for 'referrals' - there are a few threads that will help you, including one I posted that gives a list of searches to do to find Facebook groups you can post on and an example ad

- If it's the 'earn money from your referral' - it doesn't have to be the new referral you get for the above square, it can be any referral - they have to earn 10sb for you to get 1 from them. There is sometimes a delay between them earning and you seeing your 10% and ticking off that box so if you've referred someone you know has done 10sb, be patient :)

- If it's the 'gold survey on a mobile' box, be aware it's a GOLD survey you need, not a peanut labs one and you have to complete it and get your SB. I struggled with this one myself but it ticked off eventually

- If it's the Discover box, read the thread we have for discovers - start from the bottom upwards as they are the most recent. Be aware not all credit instantly (the toro wall ones at the bottom can take up to ten minutes). Make sure you've followed the instructions properly too.

- If it's the swagbutton  one - you need to d/l the swagbutton on a browser, here http://www.swagbucks.com/extension

If it's a different one, post in the group and we'll try to help!

Swagbucks minitip - autorun nCraves

Swagbucks nCraves - if you have a laptop / PC you can get a few extra SB by running nCraves. I tend to only run the ones that autorun and either leave them running in another window (hovering my cursor over them in between doing other stuff to keep them running) or leave them running with the cursor in the window while I make coffee / have breakfast etc. The images here show you:

1) Autorun ncraves to choose

2) Another autorun ncrave

3) Tick this box to activate autorun

4) you should see this

Then just let them run!

Sometimes the autorun ones only show up once, sometimes they show more than once. Not going to make you hundreds of SB but it does add up and you can run alongside Watch and the phone apps.

Want more tips? Come join us in our Facebook group!