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If you are a finance news buff like I am, you probably enjoy the Wall Street Journal.  If you have ever spent time looking at articles on WSJ.com, however, you might have hit the subscriber wall more than once.  This trick works on most news websites, but not all.  The format of the URL may also be different on other websites.

I learned a sweet trick about getting through the subscription wall, and thought you might enjoy it.  Just follow the steps below to see the entire article for free.

1. Copy the article URL (web address) from the address bar in your browser and paste it into a Google search.  Click on search.
2. When the search results appear, look for the question mark after .html in the address you pasted into the Google search.  Delete everything after .html including the question mark.  Press search again.
3. Click on the result for the article you want to read from the Google results.  That should take you to the full, unabridged article.

Why does this work?  In order for Google to give the website search results, news sites allow the Google bots to crawl the entire contents of the article.  If you click through within the website, you are given the truncated version with a subscription advertisement.  If you come in from the search engine, which is given full results, you can read the entire article for free.

Enjoy!

Jeff is a delivery guy bloggingabout his successes and failures in personal finance.  To honor his six month blogversary, he is giving away three copies of the eBook about “Unautomating Your Finances” by Adam at Man vs. Debt.

Jeff keeps a great blog and I suggest you visit the giveaway and try to win a copy of the book.

Lending Club gave me $50 when I signed up.  It turns out I got the bad end of the bargain.  Lending Club is giving out $64.62, because the banks made $6.462 billion in fees last year, they are giving $64.62 to anyone who signs up for a new Lending Club account through a referral link.  As a current member, I can happily send you an invite, but you have to let me know you want one through the contact form.

Once you sign up, you can take your $64 and run or invest it into Lending Club loans.  I have written about Lending Club a handful of times in the past.  My loans are paying me every month.  I am getting somewhere in the 9-10% range.  Pretty good ROI for a 3 year loan.  There are risks though.  Fortunately, it is not hard to risk free money!

Anyway, contact me for an invite.  You can make money like a bank!

I jumped on the bandwagon.  I joined Swagbucks.  A series of posts by Fabulously Broke inspired my jump into the search rewards program.  A week in, I thought I would share my thoughts.

So far, it seems that the program works as advertised.  I use the Swagbucks search engine, which is a Google/Ask.com mash-up, and I am awarded randomly with Swagbucks.  You can also get Swagbucks using Swagcodes from “code hunts” on the site, Twitter, Facebook, or MySpace.

For your Swagbucks, you can get almost anything.  The Swag Store has a long list of gift cards, collectibles, music, entertainment, or even a $5 cash through your PayPal account.  I am saving for the Amazon.com gift card, because I love movies, books, and games.

My only complaint: finding the Swag codes on code hunts is a pain in the ass.  Other than that, I switched my default search in Firefox to Swagbucks and get a few bucks a day.

If you have any questions about the site, I am happy to answer in the comments. If you do decide to sign up, please use my referral link so I can get a few bonus Swagbucks.  You can also learn more about how Swagbucks work through my personalized Swagbucks site.

Wise Bread tipped me off to two offers too good to keep to myself. We all love free, artery clogging goodness such as root beer floats and doughnuts, right?  Follow the links below for details.

Tonight Only – Free Root Beer Float at Sonic from 8pm-midnight.
Friday Only – Free Doughnut from Krispy Kreme 

Like all of the college students and recent grads out there, I have a tough time turning down free food.  Enjoy!