Earn Money for Shopping With This App

Earning money for your personal shopping sounds like it would be a big scam, right? But with a new gaming app from a Denver-based startup, you can legitimately get cash when you buy certain products.

The Ibotta app fits into the gamification of shopping space. Ibotta (free for iOS and Android) lets you earn real money for specific item purchases at participating retailers.

In a nutshell, here's how it works:

• Before shopping, you can choose offers for certain products in the app and complete tasks (e.g., learn a fact, take a poll, play trivia, post on Facebook or watch a video ad). You could be eligible to earn, for instance, $0.25 or $0.50 for engaging with each item.

• You can also see if there are any retailer-specific offers.

• The fun part: You actually go shopping in one of the participating retailers.

• After actually buying the item(s) you had previously selected, you take a photo of the receipt and scan the barcodes of those specific products.

• 'Cha-ching': After verification, you get real money from the completed offers added to your PayPal account. Read more...