A while back, Ebay started up their Ebay Bucks program. In a nutshell, this program allows you to earn credits called Ebay Bucks with every purchase you make on Ebay. These credits will then be credited to your Ebay account once per quarter, at which time you’ll be able to use their dollar value toward the Ebay item(s) of your choice.  So, the more qualifying purchases you make on Ebay during a quarter, the more Ebay Bucks you’ll receive to spend.

I’ve noticed recently that Ebay has now also begun offering other special offers for participants in the Ebay Bucks program. Basically, you earn Ebay Bucks not just from winning auctions and buying items on the Ebay site–you also earn Bucks for taking advantage of other merchant offers. At the beginning of September 2011, some of these offers included:

• signing up to receive your credit score [get $10 Ebay Bucks]
• registering for a 30-day free trial of a streaming video service [get $15 Ebay Bucks]
• Buy 1 PC or Mac game at Big Fish Games for $5.99! [get $10 Ebay Bucks]
• sign up for an online video game rental service. (costs $7.95 per month) [get $15 Ebay Bucks]
• register to become an ASPCA Guardian for about $20/month [get $15 Ebay Bucks]
• Print (and pay for) an online order of business cards, greeting cards, or postcards [get $15 Ebay Bucks]
• Join a paid service review website (cost appears to be $50-$75/year, according to what I saw) [get $15 Ebay Bucks]
• make an online order for business cards, postcards, greeting cards, etc. [get $15 Ebay Bucks]
• subscribe to a well-known weekly magazine [get $30 Ebay Bucks]
• Buy flowers online for $19.99 [get $10 Ebay Bucks]
• make an online order of chocolate-dipped fruit, candies, and sweets for $19.99 [get $5 Ebay Bucks]
• order PC Clinic service for $30 [get $5 Ebay Bucks]

If some of these goods are services are things you’d purchase anyway, than it seems like it would be a good idea to purchase them through Ebay’s site and earn Ebay Bucks at the same time. It’s like free money, right? This is doubly true when the offers are free, of course. Keep in mind that, when I checked, all these offers required that you provide current credit card information.

Timing-wise, Ebay Bucks earned through the month of September are particularly valuable because these are the Bucks that will be awarded to your Ebay account in October–in time to start making holiday purchases! (The next batch of Ebay Bucks won’t be credited to accounts until February–well after the holidays.)