We’re talking cash back people- if you haven't heard of it yet, you've been missing out on loads off free $! The basic idea is that by activating an online shopping trip through an affiliate site, like Ebates, Retail Me Not, or DiscoverDeals (by Discover card) they will pay you a percentage of that purchase back to you.

For example, you find something on Gap that you want to buy. Instead of buying that item right away, open another tab, go to Ebates.com and click on the Ebates GAP link, (or like me, install a browser extension so you can do it from the actual Gap website) which will automatically reopen GAP. However, now that you have activated cashback, Ebates will give you 4% of your total purchase back in the form of a real check they send to your home after a few months' time. Pretty sweet - and pretty easy too.

Well pretty quickly you can accumulate a fairly significant amount of money so you can buy those Iron Rangers you’ve seen so much of on my Insta-feed (@the.mensch). I have tried to “stack” cashback websites (like Ebates and Discover Deals) so you could get returns from both on one purchase, and noted they did not allow me activate both simultaneously.

An important tip is that the percentages of cashback for websites fluctuates, so often I will keep my eye on a product and wait for an Ebates promotion with extra cashback. For example, right now Levi’s has 2.5% cash back, but on black Friday, it was 20% cash back. On Valentine's Day they had a ton of online stores giving 14% cash back for the 14th of February. You can see now how this can be a powerful way to drive sales up for online retailers. 

But what about getting cashback while shopping in stores? People still do that? Oh yeah, people still do that. Well, now you can even link your Ebates account to a credit card (Visa or AmEx only as of now)!

Before you create your account just remember, you need to make sure you activate your Ebates link so Ebates (and the place you are shopping at) knows you are going through them. This is the only way you will get your free money.

Also, Ebates has an awesome referral system so you actually make $10 by using my unique link after making your first purchase over $25- so please help support this blog by using my link. We will each make money and be happier for it! (https://www.ebates.com/r/GAVDEC?eeid=28187)

Cashback is essentially affiliate marketing, where influencers you're all familiar with, like Jose Zuniga or Alpha M. will give you a unique link or code to enter which lets the retailer know who's sent you. There seems to be a lot of these types of cashback so comment what you know that may not!

Do you think this is a good system and a good way to make money? Or just a gimmick that isn't worth the extra effort?  Comment below!   

Note: This is no way sponsored by Ebates just a great way I save money :)