About MakeSomeCashOnline

An independent sign-up bonus tracker built on one rule: tell people the real return, not the headline number.

Why this site exists

Most "best sign-up bonus" lists rank offers by the dollar amount printed at the top of the page. That's a misleading way to compare. A $5,000 bonus that requires you to lock $100,000 in a checking account for 90 days is a worse deal than a $300 bonus that requires a one-time $500 direct deposit — and there's no way to see that from a bullet list of headline numbers.

MakeSomeCashOnline ranks every bonus by effective APR — the annualized return on the capital you have to commit. That's the only number that lets you compare offers across categories and capital tiers on the same yardstick.

How we curate bonuses

To appear on this Site, a bonus must:

• Have published terms. If we can't link to the partner's official terms page, we don't list it.
• Be broadly available. We exclude regional-only offers (e.g., "open only to residents of three states") and invite-only flash offers.
• Meet an effective-APR floor. We exclude offers with effective APR below 5% unless the capital commitment is unusually low (under $100). The current high-yield savings rate is the floor — below that, the bonus is worse than doing nothing.
• Be verifiable. Each listing links to the partner's official page so you can confirm the terms haven't changed since our last verification.

We do not pay-to-play. No partner has any influence on whether they appear, what we say about them, or where they rank. See our Affiliate Disclosure for how our commercial relationships work.

How we calculate effective APR

The formula:

effective_APR = (bonus_amount ÷ required_deposit) × (365 ÷ hold_days) × 100

Some notes on how we apply it:

• Bonus amount. For range bonuses (e.g., "$5–$200 free stock"), we use the realistic average — typically the geometric or weighted mean, not the rare maximum. We disclose the assumed average on each per-bonus page.
• Required deposit. The minimum capital required to qualify, treated as the capital "tied up" for the hold period.
• Hold days. The longer of (a) the explicit minimum-balance period in the terms or (b) the typical time-to-payout. If no balance is required after the qualifying action, we display "Instant" instead of an APR.
• Opportunity cost. Our calculator compares effective APR against a 4.0% HYSA baseline (top-tier high-yield savings as of May 2026). We update this baseline quarterly.
• Tax treatment. Effective APR is shown before taxes. Sign-up bonuses are generally taxable income; at a 22% federal bracket, post-tax APR is roughly 78% of the displayed number.

Update cadence

• Monthly: full database refresh on the third week of each month. Every "last verified" date updates.
• Weekly: any offer with an expiration date within 14 days gets re-verified.
• Ad-hoc: if a reader reports an offer has changed, we verify and update within 24 hours.

What we don't do

• We don't give investment advice. We're a publisher that tracks publicly-available offers. Whether any particular bonus is right for your situation depends on your finances, taxes, goals, and timeline — talk to a CPA or fiduciary advisor for advice on those questions.
• We don't broker accounts. All sign-up flows happen on the partner's website. We never see your financial information.
• We don't game the rankings. Our table sorts by effective APR, not by commission. Where we can earn more from one program than another, we still rank by what's best for you.

Contact

Feedback, corrections, missing offers, or partnership inquiries: contact@makesomecashonline.com or our contact form.