Happy Christmas

"Sticky until the Turkey has all gone...."

Well it IS that time of year after all, and I just wanted to wish any visitors that happen onto my blog a Very Happy Christmas. I am 'into' the real Christmas, it's not a time for getting fat, drunk and obnoxious, but a time to celebrate the gift of life that we have all been given. For some of us, that will also involve celebrating the birth of Jesus Christ. Even if that isn't your focus, have a very merry Christmas anyway.
I will be taking a few days away from the Internet to enjoy some family time next week as I tend to spend far too much time in front of a PC when I am at home. Batteries will be recharged for the new year, ready to drum up some serious traffic....

More about commenting

I realised today that I had said that commenting is good, but not really explored how the commenting might be done. So today's post will look at how commenting can be done in such a way that it might be effective in building traffic for your blog.
The first thing to note is that your blog must have content that will interest your visitors - might sound obvious, but what I am saying is that there is no point trying to drive masses of traffic to a blog that hasn't been updated for a month... also no point if you just have a stack of paid posts...
OK, that's the first hurdle out the way - make sure when you invite people to your 'home' that it is ready to welcome your visitors.

Next is the nitty-gritty of how to browse intelligently. I have two methods, both which I tried yesterday to good effect:
1) Visit a blog you are associated with (a friend, or favourite blog), look at the links in the sidebar and look for commentors who have left a URL to a blog - follow this and look for posts that you can usefully add something too in terms of a comment. Don't make it an advert, I would never follow a link from a 'spam' comment that says 'hey check out my blog for ways to make cash quick' in fact the chances are if you do that on my blog, I would probably delete it. Add something on topic and intelligent or - move on to another post. Leave one or two comments, then find another URL in the sidebar or from another commentor. One good reason for using a commentor URL is that you KNOW that they are in the habit of browsing around leaving comments - not always true of a static URL link.
2) Go to a social bookmarking site and look for blogs in a similar vein, then follow the advice above. It is vital that whichever tactic you use, that the sites you visit are on topic for your blog. If you haven't joined social networking sites then these are some that I use:
Technorati
MyBlogLog
SpicyPages

No excuses then, your traffic should be on the move tomorrow if you start doing this today.
Things to look out for:
Sites that follow 'do-follow' guidelines and sites that use a 'top commentator' or 'recent comments' widget are worth prioritising.
Here's an offer for you then 'IF YOU LEAVE A COMMENT HERE - I WILL VISIT YOUR BLOG' thus your traffic will go up by at least one today.... Remember traffic now carries more SEO clout for blogs, and backlinks carries less...

A lesson in commenting

The buzz is all about getting back to basics now that The Big G (Google - that's right, who's your Daddy??) is getting wise to the things that bloggers have been taking for granted. There were the viral links which were incredibly successful at driving the Technorati Authority through the roof.. Mine went ballistic, but is dropping almost as fast now. How can I retain the ranking? Commenting of course, that thing we used to do before we 'grey-hatted' our way around the internet picking up cheap undeserved back-links. Trouble is now that Google has got it's stick out, some bloggers have reverted to 'no follow', so be careful where you comment (you know who you are - ha ha...)
To make matters worse, the Big G is now tinkering with the PR calculating hysteresis to try to stamp out paid bloggers. What can we do about that? Well the daft thing is that the paid blogging will now have to be 'under the radar' - I used to stick 'paid post' after every advert - I'm not going to do it now am I? I might as well just ask Google outright to permanently remove my PR.
So, as I said, let's get back to basics and start commenting on each others blogs again, spread the love... follow your linky heart wherever your browser takes you and leave little droppings of love behind... and be a bit more subtle about the old paid blogging.

Big Cash Giveaway!!

Quick post for a contest closing today… Dec 17^th at Midnight PST (whenever that is!). The contest is run in conjunction with ‘NeverBlueAds’ the affiliate network people. Rather generously they have come up with $300 cash to spread over three first prizes. You enter the contest by simply mentioning it in your blog post (pretty simple…), and giving a mention to the sponsors (I’m with you so far…) – further entries can be obtained by signing up with NeverBlueAds and using your own referral link to link to them…(Well why wouldn’t you????).

So that’s full marks for simplicity and big bucks! Get your skates on though!!!

If you want to know more about this sponsor, why not read the following article: Affiliate Marketing with NeverBlueAds.
Other sponsors for the prizes on offer: Blogging4everyone, Nspeaks, Select Index, and A Links Blog.
They deserve a mention just for making this big prize contest possible.

$25 Blog contest

Another easy contest as reported on the new ContestBlogger forum:

All you have to do is tell your readers about the contest, link to the original contest post and link to the IBDinsurance.com homepage with a relevant anchor. In truth, I think the contest devisers have been quite cute because this seems like a cheaper way to get links than using a paid to blog service, but the chance to win $25 can’t be ignored….so I’m in!

And....if you happen to be looking for Health Insurance in North Carolina, then pay the site a visit.

Random draw to be made on 1^st Jan, payment via paypal or money order.

Get more for your endowment

There are a number of reasons why you may need to sell an endowment policy, for instance if you can’t keep up the payments, you lose your job or you need some capital for a major purchase.

In most cases, simply surrendering the policy to the issuer will mean that you will lose a lot of your investment, but there is an alternative.

Instead of surrendering the policy and returning it to the policy provider, there are a number of agencies who will be able to sell on your policy to a third party and may well be in a position to offer you a better deal. One such service offering to Sell Endowments is endowment express who say they can find buyers willing to pay up to 30% more than the policy surrender value.

The future for blogging

I firmly believe that the current drop in paid to post blogging could be a temporary blip during which time some of the poorer paid blogs will cease to be, and the better ones will continue to pick up in some form or other in the future.
PPP have shown that there is money available and you can rest assured that the people running PPP, Smorty, Blogsvertise etc.. will be working out a strategy to keep their market going via the bloggers that they have on their books. This month, I have to admit that opportunities have all but dried up (I'm glad I made the most of last month!), and I expect to make virtually nothing over December (althoughI will collect much of the cash earned last month).
The emphasis now must be on building traffic, which ironically seems to rise automatically during intensive paid blogging periods (basically because I am posting daily). Traffic seems to be up over all of my sites recently, and I haven't made much conscious effort in that department - I must put more energy into it and see if I can raise my 'RealRank' from the rather poor standing it has at the moment. Let's see what the future brings.

Good start to December

My first earnings for December have arrived in the form of a $5 prize (less the usual paypal fee) from a competition post completed in October (waterproof memo boards). I really hope some of the November contests are just as successful!!
Technically, you could argue that contests were a way of getting paid links, so perhaps I should keep quiet about winning anything in case Google turns up again to slap me... However seeing as I have no PR, I guess I can do whatever I want.
Of course, ironically Google own my blogging platform so I guess if they wanted to, they could pull the plug on me by kicking me off Blogger.... Ah well, I will continue to do contests in case that's the only way to raise cash via a blog in the future....

Looking back at November

This is how my earnings spreadsheet looks for the month just gone. The 'Total' is the earnings since March, and the 'This Month' figure is how much was generated in November (PINK for earnings, RED for actual money received via paypal, the rest will be paid out in the coming month). For comparison, I have shown the same table for October.

NOV - spreadsheet:

I will talk through some of the major points that have had an impact on earnings in November. From the top then, I think that I have pretty much given up on Creamaid due to them being less likely to approve a post for no apparent reason - I may use them again if I get desperate... Blogsvertise has actually been the biggest earner for me in November yielding $157 through their 'grab bag' system, this time I used my other blogspot blog to do most of these opps. PPP started well, and I made over $100 in the first week through PPP and Blogsvertise, leading me to speculate on a possible $400-$500 this month, but the Google effect kicked in and opps all but dried up by the end of the month - the same was true of Smorty, once the PR dropped, it wasn't long before the opps dried up. This was a shame particularly because I had only just regained my PR, and opps were flying at me from all directions. You may spot that I have tried a new service 'Sponsored reviews' which gained me an opp for $13, if any further opps arrive from this source I will be sure to post more about it.

OCT - Spreadsheet:

All the usual suspects are listed for the 'small change' earnings, I can see that I could combine the two survey sites (Ciao and Pure profile) for future spreadsheets, and I will combine some other sections to make the sheet easier to read for the future.
Despite the loss of PR, this month has been my most successful so far netting me nearly $324 - ironically this was entirely due to the fact that my PR had shot up at the end of October!! At least I was able to make a little hay whilst the sun was shining, and hold out hope for the future. Having seen my PR going up and down so much recently, I remain hopeful of regaining PR again in the future.

Free Business Cards

Trends shift and change, and some 'old skool' ideas re-emerge in a newer environment. Right now, 'Ooprint' are offering 100 FREE blogger cards for you to scatter around in the 'real' world in order to generate some traffic in the digital world.
Once you have posted your URL everywhere you can think of on the world-wide-web, why not carry some hard copy versions of your URL to leave in some strategic places or pass on to those you think may visit your blog.
I was particularly struck with just how suitable this particular card would be for me - what do you think?

Desktop themes...

I have been tagged by Ellie over at ThePinkC, and this time I am required to show the world my desktop.....
Now, my desktop is not as seasonal as hers, but there IS a story behind it. A lady I know has a cat called 'Bub', and this cat is quite a character on his own. Some time ago she took in a stray who is a little scruffier, (but somewhat mentally more stable..) than Bub. He has earned himself the moniker 'Scrub', so there you have Bub and Scrub.... Now I was playing with my little girl's 'etch-a-sketch' toy around last Christmas and came up with this cat cartoon which I named Bub, then went on to make some adjustments to make a Bub and a corresponding (slightly scruffier) Scrub. I developed the characters on Macromedia Freehand, and there we have the desktop (I think I must have imported into Fireworks to add the colour and text).

The intention was to come up with some stories for Bub and Scrub, but I never got around to writing any more than the first few lines... Nonetheless, the cartoon remains on my desktop in case I get inspired. I have developed characters for both of them: Bub is the mean one, and Scrub is the happy-go-lucky naive one who usually ends up in trouble for Bub's misdemeanors. I think that Scrub probably triumphs at the end of every story...
So err... that's MY desktop, what about yours, here are the folks that I am tagging:

• Rachel
• Greg
• Garion
• HotDogMan

The Hot Dog Truck revisited

Sometimes when we are busy looking for the next new thing to do, it is not a bad thing to look back and see what you did in the past. This blog has been through a lot of changes in design and emphasis and content and direction, yet I feel like taking a step back in time today and doing a review of another blog, something I haven't done for a long time (except where there was the lure of payment or a possible prize). I have become so 'sold out' that I have almost forgotten where I began. The PR changes will be turning the blogging world around and maybe that is no bad thing...

Today I revisited The HotDogMan, and am happy to report that he still has his PR4, not only that, but he has one of the most entertaining blogs that I have come across since I started blogging. Even those posts which may actually be...possibly...well.. in some way...sponsored... are just as entertaining as the stuff he 'dishes out' straight from his own thoughts and life in general.

After reading the tales from the HotDogTruck again, I am inspired once again to rethink the direction of munny4hunny, especially as there may be a dearth of chances to get paid to blog in the coming months.

Hat's off once again to the man who brings us laughter as he hands out the dogs, age-old wise advice as he fries the onions and the benefit of his vast experience as he lightly tosses a salad.

Pinoy contest for $25

Well, we are back on the contest track! Thanks to 'Millette05' at mmmtalk forum for this one...
This one is a 'must do' you can win $25 just for leaving a comment against the original contest thread here.
It is a Christmas theme too, just to get you in the mood for the festivities - all you have to do is complete the sentence:

If I had an extra P1,000 ($25) this Christmas, I would…

In order to be in with the chance of winning an extra $12, all you need to do is post about the contest and link back to it, leaving a comment with the URL against the original post. The contest is on the Pinoy Money Talk website which has lots of good advice not only for Pinoy bloggers and webmasters, but for everyone.
This contest is so easy, you have to ask: why wouldn't you????

PPP Realrank

The new order may take some getting used to, but the prince of all paid posting schemes PayPerPost has been severely 'slapped' by Google - the king of all things internet (King/Dictator -take your pick...). The method that Google has taken is to lower or remove PageRank from blogs left right and centre, many of them even without a PPP post on them, though the consensus is that PPP was the real target.
Before we all start whining,we should bear in mind that this will affect PPP far more than it will just one individual paid poster... Maybe you have a case if you earn a living by paid posting, but Google giveth, Google taketh away.... If you live by PageRank, you have to take the consequences, He that liveth by PageRank will die by Pagerank... Okay, I'm out of lame quotes now, no more honest...
Now PPP have devised their own ranking system based on traffic, the question everyone is asking is 'Is it good to have high RealRank or low RealRank?' The answer is apparently: LOW- why because it really is a 'rank' as in 'He is ranked number one in the world...' The rank only applies if you have PPP tools Now ITK (Izea Tool kit) on your blog, and will work like this:
Let's say there are 10,000 people with ITK on their blog, you are ranked 999, this puts you in the top 10% (like a PR rank of 9), if you are ranked 9,999, you're in the bottom 10% equivalent rank 1 - or maybe it's 1 and 10 or o and 9, not really sure, but you hopefully get the idea...
As yet, we are not told how many blogs have ITK, so you can't tell where your relative position is, but this will apparently become transparent in the fullness of time.

Motorhome holiday

I know of a few people who have motorhomes and the idea of having a holiday in one appeals to me. I took a look at some of the vehicular delights on offer at TravelworldRV.co.uk, and now I think I’d like to live in one…!
Where would you take one?
Well my ideal holiday destination is the South of France, I’ve driven down through France before, and having the motor home would mean that you would be able to cross the border into Italy and visit….
I have also driven through Ireland, although I don’t recommend it to anyone who likes to navigate by signposts, as signposts in Ireland are not like those anywhere else in the world. If you’re not a great map-navigator, satellite navigation is a must in Ireland!
My third choice of places to take an RV would be the home of the RV itself, the good ‘ol USA. In the US you can drive for miles on RV-friendly roads from east coast to west coast, north to south. I wouldn’t miss the chance of looking up friends in Canada, and seeing as I have never travelled west of Ontario, I would love to take a trip west to British Columbia.

Top tips for bloggers

If you have got your blog set up, are writing regularly, but are in the dark as to how your blog is performing, there are various ways in which you can gauge your progress.

1. sign up for Google analytics to check statistics on you visitors (FREE!)
2. sign up with Technorati to check who is linking to your blog or website (FREE)
3. check out the SEO tools at 'WeBuildPages.com' (FREE)
   

The tool I tried out today was the 'top ten analysis' tool - this online tool allows you to compare results for your site with the top ten sites for a particular keyword. It gives rankings for all the major search engines and checks out back-links etc.
It also lists the age of the domain, and includes a link to 'waybackmachine' where you can check out what was on your domain before you bought it.... (just for curiosity's sake...)
as you become more experienced at blogging, these type of tools and statistics become more and more valuable, helping you to become efficient at serving your chosen 'market'

Intelligent Marketing

Website Review:

When you get to the point where you require online marketing specialists you should check out ‘IOM’, that’s ‘Intelligent Online Marketing’

IOM offer a service not only to offer a package of measures to suit your marketing needs, but a service to train your own personnel in the methods that they themselves employ. If you go for the training option you will be in a position to build your own marketing department, and maybe even offer your services to others.

The IOM website offers advice on Rankings, PPC advertising, Driving traffic to your site and building a site that grabs your visitors and makes them want to buy your product and services. You may think that this type of service is primarily for large companies, but in my experience I would say that where a company is small and doesn’t have experts in marketing, this type of service is ideal. Many smaller companies don’t have the time to really do their marketing effectively and often this is left to an individual who is not specifically trained and experienced. This is the kind of situation where employing experienced marketing experts on a short-term basis can really prove cost-effective.

I watched the Search Engine Marketing videos on the IOM site and found them really easy to follow. The videos go through the steps of promoting a website in really simple steps. They are filmed as one-to-one interview-style segments with a list of the questions on the right – if you click on the question that interests you, the player jumps to that segment and you get a great answer. The questions cover anything from basic SEO to PPC, spidering, domain names etc. (There’s almost 50 questions in all)

Warnings about paid posts

Google are evidently clamping down on sites that do paid posts and are effectively offering paid links within those posts. Advice circulating around the paid post community suggests removing references to paid posts and sponsored posts from your blog. I have heard suggestions that titles such as 'sponsored links' are being hunted down and investigated by Google, the result being a drop in PR for those blogs that are deemed guilty of this practice.

The whole practice of paid posts will have to become far more subtle and posts will have to be made to look more like part of the blog. So much for those who have been upfront about doing paid posts, the practice will effectively be driven underground.

On the one hand Google is advancing blogging via 'Blogger', on the other hand, it looks like it going to try and remove the funding of these blogs by restricting Pagerank on the blogs that have paid posts and paid linking (such as sidebar links).

It looks like PR on the two blogs that I am currently using for revenue generation have been ranked down again (pagerank has been a bit like a Yo Yo for me this year!). On this blog alone I was firstly awarded a PR of 3, dropped to 2, raised to 4 and now dropped to 0 from what I can see today.... I think this could cause some aggravation in the blogging community over the next few weeks.

Shopping cart solution from under $50

If you have been trying various ways of making money online, it is likely that you will have considered e-commerce as a option. However experienced you are at developing websites, specialist knowledge for secure transactions is required for developing these features on a website. The quickest and most secure option is to go for 'off-the-shelf' Ecommerce Software from a company offering a good product at a good price.
One of the leading lights of customizable online storefront software has been 'MonsterCommerce' who have been market leaders since 1998. Network Solutions combined with MonsterCommerce in 2006, and are now launching the new Network Solutions e-commerce website.
As might be expected when there is so much experience already behind the project, this software offers masses of features and options.
From SEO support and optimisation to integration with Quickbooks financial software, and from free domain name registration to free Google Adwords campaigns, these features are included in the entry-level version of the software. The 'Pro' version includes even more in the form of advanced shipping features, support for coupons and offers and a WYSIWYG editor. The Standard package is well-priced at only$49.95 per month, and the Pro version is definitely worth considering at just $99.95 per month for the busier online retailers. Peace of mind, and good support in an ever-changing industry is worth paying for.

Earnings update

I will be updating earnings more frequently this month - see the figures in the sidebar. The total represents total earnings mainly from this blog since March 2007. In March I earned $28, and went on to earn another $26 in April. May was the month where I went all out for paid posting and managed $187. Since then I have not tried to maximise earnings until recently when I regained my lost Pagerank.
This month, I have started to use my other blog for a few paid opportunities (more about this when I post at the end of the month), and have earned a total of $165 so far with a potential $40 of posts waiting to be approved. I am hoping to make at least $300 this month, but would really like to at least double my previous record.
Like last time, I don't expect that I will keep up the frantic posting rate, but another benefit of the frequent posting is that it does seem to drive extra traffic to the site. A pro-blogger could take advantage of the spiral created by increased traffic, increased Pagerank and increased earnings potential. It remains to be seen whether I will be in a position to maintain traffic when I am not doing so many paid posts.

Mid-month

It's getting towards that mid-month lull where opportunities for paid blogging seem to be flagging a little so I have started to investigate some new schemes. If I have any luck with them I will post my reports later on, either at the end of this month or at the start of next month. I have signed up to a couple so far, so we will see if any of them are fruitful for the hard-working blogger with a PR4 and a PR3 at his disposal....
My other blog didn't meet Payperpost standards for the number of posts completed over the last three months, so I will have to work on it and re-submit later on. Payperpost have strict standards including minimum 90 day-old blogs with frequent posting, but infrequent paid posts (at least one standard post in between every paid post - and in case you thought you might get away with it, they can work out if you have used a post from another paid source as a 'normal' post - so somebody told me ...).

New Community Site

Here's a new social site 'iContactCommunity' that I'm just getting to grips with...

It seems to be a massive resource with thousands of online articles, some are newsletters, some are more like adverts. I am reminded initially of 'Digg' as you get to vote on your favourite articles, but it is also like 'sqidoo' in that your articles are hosted online rather than on your own website or blog. You also get to drop comments against the articles too. I think it would certainly be worth investigating as a place to promote a website or blog, or just get your opinion out there...

The articles themselves are wide and varied, for instance I am interested in Premier League football, so I entered the term 'Premier League' and the top result was a simple two-line post about the Man United Arsenal match last week.

I clicked on the art section and discovered something startling: an art event where 'Mr Matisse will be painting during the evening...'. Now as far as I can work out Henri Matisse should be approaching 140 years old... but it turns out his grandson Pierre does a bit of painting too!

All-in-all, this looks like a prime spot to promote a website, an event, a product/service or organisation.

Busy Blogging

They always say that busy people are the best people to ask if you want something done. Why? because they are already actively doing something, not sitting around waiting for something to happen. Successful bloggers tend to be busy too. most have several projects on the go, unless they really are highly disciplined...

I'm not! I am one of those with several projects on the go at any one time, and I like to push projects until they are successful rather than give up on them. I have found blogging to be good for discipline. It is desirable to post every day, and each paid post must be balanced with at least one post of my own. Even with just three blogs (some people have more than a dozen!), it is tricky to come up with the required amount of quality material.

New projects require nurturing , and I am aware that the balance between maintenance of existing projects, and nurturing of new ones leads to conflicts in time-management.
My first tentative efforts on the internet (website: Livewyre Studio) have thankfully flourished otherwise I would have probably given up. My next area of experimentation was starting up two blogs, the first for website building and SEO, the second this one to investigate paid to blog. More recently I have branched out into a second website for general internet topics, and experimenting with a different type of blog entitled Beckham News.

All of this can take up a considerable amount of time, so if you're thinking of starting a new project consider the strains on your time and whether it would be better to drop an old project first.

Paid to blog

I became aware recently that the anchor text 'paid to blog' was starting to have an effect in search engines sending far more traffic to this blog than any other search term. This has prompted me to re-write my 'about' post so that new visitors can readily access good information relating to paid to post specifically.

The 'about' post can be accessed via the button in the side-bar, and it is logical to assume that new visitors may well click on this button. Realising that this particular search term was actively driving new visitors to this blog, made me think that I really need to provide information on that topic immediately otherwise the newly found traffic may just drift away.

My blogging tip for today is to use traffic analysis (Google Analytics is free!) to establish the search terms that new visitors are using to find your site, and then make sure that there is something relevant for them to click on straight away when they arrive full of expectation.

Broadband from BT

There was a time when ADSL and ISDN were services that only big business could afford, nowadays broadband internet access is open to every household and prices are dropping due to the tremendous competition.There are all sorts of service providers offering broadband, but the one provider everybody in the UK will be familiar with is British Telecom.

BT still have the respect that they built up when part of the GPO, a nationalised business giving a vital service to the public. As a modern cutting-edge commercial company, BT retains that high brand image and is the measure against which many competitors still measure their own performance.

Like every other service provider, BT has brought it’s prices into the reach of most householders, and now offers broadband from as little as £8.95 per month. Not only do you get a great deal, but the backing of a huge global communications company which actually built the communications infrastructure in the UK.

Another advantage of the BT option is the chance to have Home Hub included for free in option 2 and the Home Hub phone in option 3. You can also get Home Hub in option 1 for a small additional charge from the leading communications and broadband isp in the UK.

Cash Contest $100!

Contest blogger has flagged this one up (check out the new format and get involved in the online contests and sweepstakes)

$100 up for grabs for a blog entry/RSS subscription entry by 3rd December.
1. Link back to the Making Sales Making Money homepage using the anchor text home based business opportunities.
2. Link back to the Contest Blogger homepage using the anchor text sweepstakes.

Well for $100, it's worth a look at the blog putting up the cash, so I popped over to have a look at the home based business opportunities that might be on offer... There are stacks of good ideas, I started off by taking a gamble on the 'top-spots' widget - if it pays off, I'll write a post about it - plenty of other good ideas on the Making Sales Making Money site - recommended reading...

Mobile Marketing

I reckon it must be 11 years since I got my first mobile phone and the uptake since has been phenomenal. The mobile phone has changed from simply being a means of communication to being nothing short of a tiny mobile computer. The latest phones bring more and more remarkable features from radio receivers and MP3 players to photography and video. Soon all phones will probably take the Blackberry route of combining phone and PDA, although the iPhone may provide a new direction.

The main events as far as I recall would be the initial emergence of the mobile from the 'yuppy' market into the mainstream. The second landmark would be the introduction of SMS text messaging. The third being the launch of pay as you go mobiles having a dreastic effect on mobile billing and bringing the phone into the hands of younger people. The latest landmark has been the increasing pressure especially amongst young people, to have the latest phone with all the latest features...

Marketing professionals have not missed the opportunity of exploiting the text-message as a powerful means of communication directly with the public, this is the subject of a well-written post called Mobilizing market by Jay Seaton. If you want to know the proportion of major companies that are employing this technique or you have views on mobile marketing, then take a look at this article to get a clearer picture of the future.

Recent Comments hack

I was browsing around the blogosphere today, when I found something that caught my attention, a 'recent comments' hack for Blogger. The in-built Blogger 'recent posts' widget apparently only allows a tiny snippet of the comment, whereas this one is user-definable.

I decided that I would like to give it a try so you should be able to see the results in my sidebar. the original instructions include script that cannot be included in a blogger post (at least not by an amateur like me...). So the original post can be found here and admittedly is a year old so maybe blogger have made some changes??

The hack is really simple and quick to install, I chose to have 7 comments each one to be 80 characters long. Please leave a comment against the original post comments if you found this hack useful.

Gift cards for Christmas

What to buy for the person who has everything, or for someone who may have tastes that differ from your own?? The obvious answer is a gift-card – so much more thoughtful than just stuffing cash into an envelope….

You can take care to make sure that the card you choose will suit the buying habits of the recipient. Shopping.Com have a range of cards that will suit just about anybody you will need to buy for. There’s the perfume emporium for that Aunt, you don’t know which perfume she uses, but Aunts are always using perfume….

There’s Home Depot or Brookstone shopping gift cards for the newly married or engaged couple setting up home together.
Whoever you are buying for, a gift card carries the advantage of being welcome to any recipient whereas that green vase that you were going to buy for Aunty Hilda, well…hmmm perhaps you should visit Shopping.Com

November 2007

I haven't tried maximising blog earnings since I made $187 for a month's paid posts in May 2007. I lost my pagerank shortly after that. My pagerank is back and suddenly the paid opportunities are there again... I will be attempting to at least double my previous efforts with my PR4 on this blog and another blog with a PR3 this month. I shall be using the following schemes:
Smorty.com - paid posts from $6 upwards
Payperpost.com - the king of the paid post schemes
Blogsvertise.com - who have showed renewed interest since my PR returned
Creamaid - the jury is still out on whether Creamaid's quirkiness is endearing or just annoying - I may have reached a conclusion by the end of this month...
I will also try and get myself signed up to more schemes so that I can offer reviews of these schemes for my readers. At the end of the month you will be able to see how much was earned from each scheme.

Plasma TV bracket from dekomount

I am really pleased with myself... I just brought myself a NEC 17" TFT monitor from ebay it was a bargain... Admittedly it's not brand new (it's refurbished) but at long last I can get rid of my old CRT monitor. I have decided I can pay for it from my internet revenue which I am hoping will be significant this month...
After finding a bargain monitor, I then looked at getting a wall-mounting bracket as I am thinking about completely re-organising my home office. I was suitably impressed with the inexpensive wall mounting brackets supplied by Dekomount, they have universal brackets ideal for my new monitor from just £12.94 (another bargain...). The service was excellent, good packaging and a super quick delivery. The instructions were easy to follow and I have freed up loads of desk-space, not only by getting rid of the bulky CRT monitor, but by mounting my new monitor directly onto the wall. I went for the model pictured above which gives you all-round manoeuvrability, even this highly-functioning model was under £23. Dekomount also have Plasma Wall Brackets for virtually every make and model.

$50 Blog contest

Thanks to ThePrizeBlog for todays contest. It's my favourite type of contest... easy to enter blog post with a cash prize - random winner, so as long as you stick to the rules you have as much chance as anyone of getting your hands on a $50 paypal prize...
There is a second contest for a sidebar text-link (12 months) for subscribing to RSS feed for the same site.

For the blog post simply write a 100 word minimum post with anchor text 'egg donation' linked to the blog home page (http://egg-donation-directory.blogspot.com/) and leave a comment against the original contest post include email address and post URL in the comment Deadline Nov 25th, winners announced on Nov 27th, here is my entry...

Now here's a blog the like of which I have not seen before, and it's all about egg donation, both from the point of view of the donor and the recipient. There are posts covering the procedure involved in egg donation and the potential monetary rewards. There are posts about fertility drugs and links to clinics in all 52 US states.
Equally, there are posts dedicated to egg donation in other parts of the world, including such diverse regions as the Czech Repulic and Asia....
Personally I was quite surprised to learn that more than $100 can be earned for egg donation, as I'm pretty sure that cash rewards for egg donation are not available in the UK. That said, it seems that the process of egg harvesting can be uncomfortable and quite inconvenient, so that's something else I have learned...
This website then, will no doubt prove a source of valuable information for those considering egg donation either as donor or recipient.

Coupon Chief for Christmas...

Christmas is coming and the goose is getting fat… and the smart people have started doing their Christmas present buying early. Those people that leave their present buying to the last minute can fall into one of two possible retail traps: either they end up buying the really expensive present that they were trying to avoid forking out for, or they end up buying some special Christmas rubbish (I know I used to be in retail…). Retailers bring out ‘special purchase’ rubbish at Christmas, it’s basically a whole line of cheaply made ‘tat’ that they know people searching for gifts will make a bee-line for…
So, how to avoid these traps?
Firstly make a list of those you need presents for and decide what they are going to get BEFORE heading out to make your purchases, like this:

• Mom: Something smelly because she doesn’t spend a lot on herself
• Dad: A book or DVD, something to do with model boats (his latest hobby) or planes
• Wife: Another Columbo DVD box-set, some fancy chocolates, maybe a handbag
• Daughter: Toys, Toys, Toys, Toys
• Sister: Speakers for her new Ipod
• Niece: some CD’s

Secondly – head on over to Coupon Chief and see how you can save yourself money on the presents you have decided to get.
So for my niece’s present – I can save some money at Music Notes deals, and I can get my sister's speakers at a bargain price from Circuit City coupons
How it works: Well, Coupon Chief is a one-stop destination for getting deals at online retailers, so if you go to the online stores for these companies via coupon chief, you get promo codes that you can use online to get your discounts..
So how much better is that? I now know exactly what I am going to buy, I have saved myself money and I haven’t even left the house yet – the stuff will be delivered, and in some cases, the shipping will be free too!

Website revamp

I have been aware for some time that I needed to do some sort of redesign of my website: Livewyre.NET. This has finally been completed and the whole site now has a totally different look. I used some Web 2.0 design principles with my own particular slant ie. choosing a black background rather than a white one. I have taken the risk of using 'png' files for the graphics, and this means that IE 6.0 users may not see them as intended (specifically the transparent features), but I take the view that if folks choose NOT to use the latest available browsers, it's really not something I can take account of. I am a staunch Firefox convert, so don't get me started on IE...
Please take a look and let me know what you think of the new design

Irish Mortgage Brokers

In recent years, financial advisors have had to adhere to stricter rules when it comes to who is allowed to advise an individual about mortgages and investments. Mortgage Brokers Dublin have taken steps to ensure that every one of it's advisors are suitably qualified with either a Mortgage Diploma, or Qualified Financial Advisor Diploma, some are even Certified Chartered Accountants or have a Law Degree.
Peace of mind, and trust and integrity are vital elements of receiving financial advice. Irish mortgage brokers have the customers best interest at heart and are in a position to give advice on not only mortgages, but also life assurance and pensions. They pride themselves on being able to cater for first-time buyers and experienced financial dealers with equal proficiency.
I visited their website and was really impressed with the personal graphical interface that guides you through the site, I have seen some buzz about this type of interface, and believe that for this site, it really works well - A figure appears on the screen and starts to talk to you introducing the company and the site (make sure you have your speakers turned on!). This made me want to stay and listen to what he had to say, and his Irish accent just made it more friendly...
If I were looking for the type of financial products that Irish Mortgage Brokers were offering, I would think that this easy-to-use website would be a great place to start.

Looking back on October 2007

I am very pleased to have regained pagerank for this and my other blog, at the end of October, this enable me to take part in far more paid-to-post opportunities than I have been able to do since about May 2007...
Having said that, I have not had my recent wave of posts approved by PPP yet (even though some of them have been up for two weeks). Even Blogsvertise wanted to get in on the act and sent me an opp for $10. Earnings then, are set to rise for next month as I aim to exploit my new PR whilst I still have it! I have registered another blog for PPP, if this gets approved, I will have two blogs available although I assume that I may not be able to do the same opportunity on both blogs...
I have also registered the second blog with Blogsvertise, and with Smorty which enabled me to immediately take another Blogsvertise paid post opp for a further $10. None of these recent opps have yet been approved, so they don't figure in earnings for October. You may note that earnings have been very low once again over the past month, but I guarantee that November will be a very different story. Watch this space....

New local business guide

There is a brand new local business directory for the UK. If you know of a business that would appreciate a free listing within their local town category, get them to include their details on this brand new uk advertising network it's easy to submit your details and have your free advert up and running in no time. The site is not simply a list of random businesses, there are local restaurant reviews, links to local places of interest and links for places to stay. In short, there is plenty to entice visitors to stay on the site and browse around.

Turn-around week

I've had a good few days this week, I picked up a couple of jobs on my website amounting to about $150 over a couple of days - that was good enough, but then a remarkable thing happened... I have been moping for about four months over losing pagerank on my two blogs, but now it's back and better than ever!!
I went from PR2 to PR1 on this blog and PR2 to PR0 on another blog in June. That's a loss of 3 PR points over two blogs. Imagine my delight at getting a new rank of PR4 on this blog and PR3 on my other blog, making a gain of 6 PR points, and a net gain of 3 over where I was before. This will enable me to pursue what I had always intended to pursue, ie. my investigation of paid posting on a free blogspot blog - what's more I have two healthy blogs to do it with!

Samsung Queue Jumpers

To publicise the Samsung G600 Camera Phone, Door security personnel from across the UK club scene have been provided with a free phone to take shots of their favourite ‘Queue Jumpers’.
Jump across to the Queue Jumpers Gallery and vote for your favourites, the top fifteen will get to win the fabulous G600.

If you want to get in on the action and haven’t been snapped jumping a queue, then get involved by taking part in the G600 Queue Jumper application poll on Facebook. Fifteen winners from the facebook poll will join the other fifteen to win a photo-shoot and model-book portfolio worth £10,000.

Samsung has also got a list of the top thirty clubs in the UK for you to peruse - No excuses then, have a look at the list (no doubt these are the ones with the bouncers armed with G600's), get down to a club and have yourself 'snapped' queue jumping. Win yourself a cool new camera, a photo-session and a model book - If you're on a roll, there's every chance that a modeling contract will follow... so that's this weekend sorted, what y'gonna do next weekend??

All this brought to you by the Samsung G600, the brand new sleek refined camera phone with a 2.2” LCD screen with 16 million colours, a 5 megapixel camera and FM radio. This phone also features a music player and internet connectivity.

So there's a couple of ways you can get one of these phones for free, amongst other prizes, but I guess if you really want one, you'll just have to go and buy it...

Being more organised

I really like the concept of blogging on specific topics on specific days of the week. However, I have not gone down this path as I anticipate the unwelcome pressure of a deadline looming without the requisite material having been finished ready for publication.
On reflection, I think having a rigid structure would actually enable you to focus a bit better (if you already know what themes are to be addressed), and would enable you to store up posts ready for future publication on a specific date. The advantages to your visitors are also obvious, they are more likely to come back if they know what they're going to get.
In conclusion, I could try this for a month in the future using the possible themes of a day for Software, a day for Contests, a day for Reviews, a day for Hints & Tips and a day for random stuff, leaving the weekends free for whatever comes along...
Having given this some further thought, probably the best compromise would be to be rigid about just three subjects for a Monday, a Wednesday and a Friday, leaving the other days free for random stuff and paid posts and whatever else comes along...
Have you tried this, did it work or not? let me know...

Hotels in the UK

If you have considered travelling to the UK, you may have wondered where you could get reasonably priced London hotels, Edinburgh Hotels or Glasgow hotels. These are three destinations that should be on your travelling agenda, but three places where normally you would find it difficult to find a hotel that didn’t break the bank. Surely anyone planning to visit the UK, would probably have London as one of their must-see destinations. Instantly recognisable landmarks such as Buckingham Palace, the Houses of Parliament, Trafalgar square and many more are here packed into busy, densely populated London. Nightlife to rival anything the rest of the world has to offer, museums and art galleries in every district, restaurants, clubs, theatres and cinemas of all types to suit every taste – all this and more in England’s capital. Moving north to Scotland’s capital, Edinburgh is graced with the Queens’ own Holyrood House right next to the new Scottish Parliament building. Cobbled streets and ancient buildings such as Edinburgh castle, are complemented by bustling nightlife stacks of culture a fantastic museum and impressive scenery. Venture across to Glasgow for a lesson in the art and craft of Charles Rennie Macintosh. Glasgow is a city famous for hosting festivals such as the International Jazz Festival and the Festival of Celtic Music and Culture, and was European city of culture in 1990, the only British city to have held that honour. All-in-all you will have a hard time finding time to visit all the best places, one thing for sure, is that you won’t be disappointed.

Waterproof memo boards

The waterproof memo board is a new product offering a way to make notes or keep scores in an environment where traditional note-taking methods are just not suitable. The concept is both simple and effective, both the pencil and the memo board are unaffected by water. Whether the water be due to adverse weather conditions or a body of water such as a pond, river or the sea, the waterproof memo board could prove invaluable. You are able to make notes with this memo board exactly as you would with a clipboard, but without having to worry about keeping it dry.

There will be many uses for this product ranging from construction sites to swimming pools to school sports day, why not visit the website for more ideas and more information about this new product.

If you have your own blog, maybe you'd also be interested in the blogging competition for prizes ranging from $5 up to $25

Your mobile number as an email address

Where your phone number and email address are the same

The people at RedInbox are launching a new idea to combine email addresses and mobile numbers. They are offering a free service to mobile owners comprising a '@redinbox.co.uk' email address that forwards to an existing email account. The email address will be your mobile phone number, making it easier to pass on contact information to friends, family and colleagues. You could simply hand people a card like this:
Both your mobile number AND a valid email address included in one simple line....neat!

Cash Contest at Romance Tracker

Well Phil Van Treuren has been showing his feminine side at Romance Tracker, and as you would expect from the contest blogger supremo., he has an awesome $100 hard cash prize contest running... True to requirements for the best contests, it offers hard cash and is easy to enter:

There are two different ways to get your name in the hat to win 100 bucks from Romance Tracker:

1. If you have a blog, link back to the Romance Tracker homepage using the anchor text "love“. It can be a mention in a post, a link in your sidebar, or whatever!
2. Subscribe to the Romance Tracker RSS Feed

If you do just one of the things above, you’ll get one entry in the 100 buck contest. If you do both of the things above, you’ll get two entries in the 100 buck contest. Easy, huh?

Funny thing was, the word 'dude' didn't appear once in any of the posts over at romance tracker - maybe it's a different Phil Van Treuren altogether.... you gotta love his style...

Great at coming second..

This has to be one of the most disappointing weeks in English sports history. On Wednesday the England football (soccer) team lost a qualifier which has all but denied them a chance of competing in the European Championships - only if they get a lot of good fortune can they possibly make it now, and we won't know until 21st November...



On Saturday, the England rugby team lost the World Cup final to South Africa, losing their title as the reigning champions at the same stroke. To be honest, it has been a roller-coaster world cup for England with no-one really believing that they would be in the final anyway - a superb achievement, but nobody remembers who came second in the World Cup do they?

On Sunday, Formula 1 golden boy Lewis Hamilton sadly failed to pull of one of the greatest sporting achievements ever. Two races ago, he was expected to take the World Champion title in his first ever season of racing in F1. The tenacious youngster had to pull out of the last-but-one race of the season, then had difficulties in the final race which saw him drop to 18th place. When the car appeared to have recovered, he managed to get up to 7th place and finish the championship on the same points as his team-mate Alonso, taking second place ahead of Alonso due to his better record of second placed finishes.


England expects, and sometimes expects a bit much from it's sporting heroes - I just wanted to take the time to say 'Well Done' to those that proudly perform for their country whether they come first or a creditable second, or even lower in the ranks. Hats off to the men and women that work so hard and make their countrymen proud.

Turning your photographs into art

In the age of digital photography, all of us have the opportunity to hone our photographic skills without having to spend a stack of money having films developed and processed. Producing the perfect image is within reach of all amateur photographers. That said, actually printing the images themselves for display is an art in itself and that’s where 'learn to dream' can offer a service. Learn to dream offer a quality printing service for the images that you have taken on your own camera, not just on standard glossy photography paper, but a host of exciting media that you wouldn’t be able to produce at home.

Learn to dream can also transform your photos onto canvas, textured art paper, acrylic blocks, silver finish, parallex or lusion – jump to the website to find out more about these finishes and techniques guaranteed to make your own artwork stand out from the crowd.

If you’re not sure what effect will work for your picture, they also offer a consultation service to ensure that your finished product meets or even exceeds your expectations. In my view, there are a number of reasons for using a service like this. A wedding present, house warming or significant birthday present, or even if you are planning to redecorate and would like to add a personal touch – maybe a favourite holiday snap or much-loved pet.

The website itself is easy to navigate and very well put together with good descriptions for each product choice and some examples for you to peruse. I recently took a family photo that I think would look good as an acrylic block, though I would really like to have it wall-mounted. Using my own printer, I can only manage A4 size, but for a truly stunning visual effect, A0 size (over a metre high) in canvas would be just amazing if only I had the room to mount it…

I'm no pro-blogger, but....

If you are serious about your blog, then you should post everyday.
I don't pretend or even aim to be a pro-blogger, but if I wanted to be, posting every day would be an absolute requirement.
I don't really have a niche theme - but if you want to be found by search engines, then you should gear up your blog for SEO and pick a niche theme.
I don't aim to be picked up by search engines - but I know a few bloggers who use the following tactic:
News, by definition is fresh every day, throwing up new keywords that people will use as search keywords - however quick webmasters are, they can't really use a lot of keyword promotion for a fresh news story, so you have as much chance of your website being thrown up as a search engine result as any other site if you pick on a hot news story for your latest post.
The best way to use these tactics (IMHO) is to combine breaking stories with niche, that way you get a better chance of getting visitors from search results.
I've not tried these tactics myself, though I am toying with the idea of a niche blog on a theme which interests me and may be newsworthy. This means I will be able to search for news on my niche subject and post fresh information and maybe pick up some passing traffic.
The essential element of course, is to have your site monetised so that you have something to show for all your traffic. For this you will need adsense, and depending on your niche, maybe amazon or auction ads up and running to maximise your revenue.
I hope I find time to slip this project in with all my other ones... I would like to try it on a free site and maybe transfer to a domain if the site got the traffic I was hoping for.
Leave me a comment if you have some hints and tips on this subject.....

Munny4Hunny update

When I started this project to find out if it was possible to make money via paid to post programs on a free-hosted blog, there seemed to be an array of different schemes for paid to post revenue. As the project has progressed, it has become clear that some schemes seem to be dead-ends and others are worth sticking with.
I am really only using three schemes at the moment:

Payperpost: By far the most active source of paid postings, if you don't have PPP, you will be struggling for income.
Smorty: A slow start, but gathering pace now. They are not high payers with each post worth $6, but the real advantage here is that once your submission has been approved (usually takes a couple of days), payments are made on a weekly basis rather than monthly as with PPP.
Creamaid: This works in a different way to most of the other schemes available, but they do have a bonus referral scheme that rewards you if other bloggers participate in the same campaign via your post. Rewards with Creamaid vary in the extreme with campaigns paying anything from $1 up to $10, but you get paid ALMOST IMMEDIATELY which is a really nice feature... The bonuses get paid at 'end of the campaign' which could be anything from a week to a couple of months...
There are more schemes that are worth investigating, and some limited schemes are still worth doing just because they offer some (limited) income opportunities. Overall, these are the three that I am using, though I haven't really pursued these opportunities with any real intent for quite a while. Of course, my PR is limited and this has a bearing on which schemes are worthwhile for this blog. Hopefully in the future, the PR will build back up and the opportunities will increase accordingly -this might make other schemes viable, that I currently have no joy with.

Shopping Cart solution

One of the things I discovered very soon after developing my own website, was that it is very difficult to be the marketing man, the webmaster, the site designer and planner all at the same time, never mind doing any ‘work’ as such.

In my experience anything that appears to be a bit ‘tricky’ just doesn’t get done, one of those tricky tasks would be setting up your site for e-commerce.

If you have been thinking about having a shopping cart on your website, then you don’t have to worry about coding and security if you employ the services of Ashop shopping cart software to do all the tricky stuff for you. No knowledge of HTML or coding is required, and you can pay for the service on an affordable monthly basis.

Not only will you get the front-end shopping cart, but also full sales reporting and marketing tools included in the package. Ashop even host the shopping cart on their own servers with full back-up and guaranteed uptime.

I was particularly taken with the video tutorials that can be seen on their website, they also have some demo websites that you can browse through to see how your site might look. Full technical telephone support is included and the software will even integrate with all major banks and courier services covering every angle and giving you complete peace of mind.

Stainless Steel Cabinets from the Car Guy

I was browsing a friends blog the other day when I came across an article about products from Car Guy Garage - this site has the coolest stainless steel cabinets I have ever seen, I honestly spent about 15 minutes browsing through the pictures and imagining where I could use these cabinets if I had some.
The obvious home for these would be in a nice big garage (if I had one) and they would certainly look the part in a professional garage. When I started thinking about the possible uses, it struck me that you could make a very hard-wearing kitchen from these products, and how fantastic would they look in your home office, or even in a really avant garde boardroom where you wanted to make a statement. I have to admit that we are basically talking 'boys toys' here and it might take some persuading to get anyone else in the house to agree with me, but we can dream and drool can't we??
The one I have posted at the top here is called 'diamond plate garage cabinet' and looks just incredible, but then how about the one below for an office environment? This is high quality heavy-gauge equipment too, not the sort of thing that will wear out in a hurry. So if you buy some, make sure you really like it, because I don't think it's a short-term investment....
One other touch I thought was really nice, is that they have a range of light switch covers and socket outlet covers to make the steel cabinets. Pay Car Guy Garage a visit and let your imagination run wild...

Blogging for the environment

When I registered approximately a week ago to blog about the environment today, 7,492 other bloggers were also committed to posting an environmental post on the same day (October 15th 2007) as part of Blog Action Day.
I am sure all of us are 'concerned' to an extent about environmental issues in general, but how many of us really strive to make a significant difference? If we all make a small step today, future generations can reap the benefit in the future - if we don't, well in simple terms our children, or their children or their children will certainly suffer. So what are some of the things we can be doing to help to keep the planet healthy. In simple terms add more than you consume... Think how much we consume in an average day in terms of food, water, packaging, emissions, fossil fuels etc... Then on the other hand think how much you are saving or contributing. Each small thing you can do to redress that balance helps to sustain the planet. For instance some of the things you could do would be to install a composter in your garden, or a water butt to collect waste and/or rain water. You can start a regime of recycling, or pledge to buy goods that are responsibly produced. Walk to more places, for instance pledge to not use your car just for one day each week. Of these ideas, I have tried the following:
Composting - I wasn't good at it and I am now contributing to a local composting scheme instead
Water Butt - I collect rain water and even bath water to water the plants in our garden.
Recycling - I am not the main instigator of this regime in our household, but am happy to report that much of our waste is recycled very diligently.
Walking to work - I did this once a week for several months and hope to get back into it, it's actually quite surprising how much better-prepared you are to start work if you walk a mile or two first...
Why not take up the challenge and help put something positive into the environment today.

Another win!

I'm a bit shocked to have won another contest, that's one last month and one this month - no big deal you might think, but I'm not one of those people that wins competitions. There ARE a kind of people who win competitions aren't there?? A tribe of winners who relentlessly work hard at winning all the stuff I would like to win, but never do... maybe not, or maybe I have just managed to get into a winning mentality. I won the prize over at Ellies blog ThePinkC, which just happens to be one of my favourite blogs and one of the best blogs out in the blogosphere IMHO- which is good news because my prize is a variety of prominent promotional positions on ThePinkC. I get a sidebar text-link and RSS text link and a 125x125pixel banner position for a full three months.
I joked about getting a banner designed ready for when I won the prize, but didn't actually do it... So I have been frantically working away at a new design today - I am quite pleased with the result, but then I am easily pleased...
Let's hope the winning streak continues, and I might be able to pass some more winnings onto others by having more competitions of my own.