Monday 30 April 2007

Person.com


Dating sites are not a new concept, so the new ones have to be better than what’s already available.. Check out 'Person.com' – a new concept where you can make a ‘live show’ with your webcam and have prospective dates to view online. Hundreds of webcams are online (nearly 400 when I viewed the site), and thousands of viewers are watching – the most popular ‘show’ had 125 viewers. You don’t need a webcam to take part, but it sounds like a lot of fun for people who want to get noticed! This site is feature-packed with interactive games like ‘hot or not’, ‘play and flirt’ and chat rooms (97 of them when I visited). Check it out to see why so many people are using this site.

Person.com - webcams, chat, personals

Update

Good News today! Not only did I get a referral for a conversation in Creamaid, but I got TWO referrals... More about this when I post earnings for this month. On top of this I have been accepted for PayPerPost, which is great news - I have yet to find a suitable offer, but I hope to get more active with PPP soon. As you will be aware from the buzz, Page Ranks have been allocated - I have a PR of 2 on this and my other blog, and the rank on my website has gone from 2 to 3. Overall, I was not disappointed until I realised how many more opportunities I could have blogged for in PPP if I had one more Page Rank point...
I have spent the last weekend devising a new heading banner for Munny4Hunny (hope you like it!), adding a search list at the top of the sidebar, a new time-widget, and general tidying up - I also did a quick mini-banner, but it really needs some work...
Next post will be earnings, then the quest to make May profitable begins in earnest...

On a different tack, if you need a laugh today......take a look at this (If only all mankind could have as much fun today as this little fellah is having!)

Friday 27 April 2007

Looking for a home in Florida?




Easy way to compare and find information on South West Florida Home Builders

South West Florida sounds an idyllic place to live and South West Florida New Homes does nothing to make me think otherwise!
This site lists all the ‘new-builds’ going on in this area. The interactive front-end of the site allows you to locate new homes by just hovering the cursor over the builders logo. There is a South West Florida map that highlights the location and offers information on the available homes. There are also lists of builders who will build on your plot, click on these to see examples of the type of home they can build for you.
The design of the site is really pleasing to the eye and easy to navigate with sections with information about the local area, a ‘home finder’ section where you fill in drop-down menus with your requirements. There is information about all the builders listed on the site – and there’s more than a dozen of them... If you are thinking about a new home in South West Florida, this is a ‘must-see’ site.



LinkyLove - a review


LinkyLove serves two purposes as far as I can see. There is an element of service blog about this site as discussed in a previous post . The site is also packed with lots of valuable information for bloggers wanting to make money or simply raise their profile on the internet.

LinkyLove whilst in the business of building up lots of links through reviews like you would expect, also offers some really good advice, not only about linking but also about general SEO, Page Rank techniques and word-press plug-ins.

The site is neat and well-written, the information you find here is the kind of thing that every blogger is going to find useful – I strongly recommend visiting and even bookmarking this page. While you are there, why not swap reviews and increase the linky love?

Tuesday 24 April 2007

Cash money from TheHotDogTruck


If you've read previous posts here, you may be aware that I am a fan and regular visitor to the HotDogTruck.
The big news is that the Hot Dog Truck Operator Relief Fund (or at least half of it), is up for grabs...
Rob is running a competition to guess the contents of the relief fund bucket, in his own words:

"There is a CASH MONEY CONTEST going on at the Hot Dog Truck, the place with the best hot dogs online. Click to enter the Cash Money Contest NOW!"

I'm gonna email him now with my guess - why not have a go (I hope he's gonna pay by paypal...)

Update

Munny4Hunny is nearing two deadline dates, first the 90-day minimum period that many paid to blog schemes require, and secondly the end of the second months activities. I have been stumped a little by the lack of opportunities available this month, but I did have notification yesterday that I earned a 'passive' $1 for a referral from a creamaid 'conversation' - although I can't collect it until the end of the promotion...
In other news, my website has passed the $100 adsense landmark, so I am hoping for a payout soon there (not to be included as Munny4Hunny earnings, although this means that I should be paid out for the dollar or so that Munny4Hunny has earned from adsense as it all goes to the same account). I really hope earnings will reach a new level next month, and have plans to develop with maybe a domain and a crisp new wordpress template - that's a whole new learning curve. At the same time I have plans for cassette2cd.co.uk and seeing as I get more earnings there I must apportion my time appropriately...

Sunday 22 April 2007

Blogsvertise - investigation


One scheme I have been able to make use of is Blogsvertise. Like Creamaid, they have offered opportunities to younger than 90-day-old blogs, but the number of opportunities seems limited. No doubt if this blog had been older or other criteria had been met, more opportunities would have been forthcoming. I completed a couple of assignments and cash was allocated to me and then paid out a month later. However, the last post that I completed is still awaiting acceptance after three weeks…. The post has not been rejected, yet it remains in limbo and unpaid as yet.
I have received newsletters from Blogsvertise about lots of new opportunities and better payments, but so far I have received no new opportunities whilst this last entry remains ‘unapproved’.
My overall impression of Blogsvertise is that it pays moderately (better than Creamaid if we ignore the unproven Creamaid referral fee scheme), and that the system is easy to use. Unlike Creamaid, but like most of the rest of these schemes, you login to your account with a password and see if there are ‘offers’ waiting for you. You have a few days to accept or reject the offer (if you should feel that you can’t do the task for some reason). Once the task is complete, you submit the URL of your post and wait for your entry to be approved – normally this is done within a day or so…
As far as rewards go, you can see the earnings in my monthly earnings review – March is here… April will be done soon.
To be specific, the Creamaid posts pay one, two or maybe three dollars in the main with varying amounts for referrals. There are exceptions, but this has been my experience so far – you will have to follow future posts to find out if the referrals amount to anything at all, but I have not noticed a huge amount of posts being submitted AFTER mine, so I can have very few if any referrals at all. I learned later that you can have offers emailed to you. To get in right at the beginning of a big campaign would be the best way to get referrals, and the best way to discover new campaigns is to get email notification.
I will have more to say about Creamaid in the fullness of time.
Blogsvertise pay from around four to six dollars in the main, again better rewards have been mentioned, but in my experience, the offers I have received have been in the four to six dollar region.

Friday 20 April 2007

Creamaid - investigation


I have been prompted to do what it says in the title and talk about my investigation of paid to blog, these are my interim thoughts which will be gathered together and updated at the end of the month... I am going to talk about different schemes in different posts
You can plainly see that there are a number of Creamaid posts on the site, and my reportings on Creamaid are as follows:
The payout for a post that is accepted into the 'conversation' is relatively low...however they DO pay more or less immediately, which I feel is a very nice touch. In addition, there is the added bonus of payments made if another blogger joins the conversation via your post. These additional payments are only paid out at the end of the promotion (and so far there is no end in sight for any of the promotions I have taken part in - they seem to last for months).
On the down-side, some of the promotions which appear to be running, have no posts and when you investigate, you get a message saying that this conversation is over-subscribed... even though there are no posts! Thus you have to conclude that maybe some advertisers are seeking some free publicity simply be being on the list?
Overall I have found this service relatively painless to use, and the instant payout (even though earnings are low) is very welcome, especially if you have earnings targets to meet...
You don't need to go through a registration and qualification process with Creamaid, which means from the time you first visit the site, to the time you see some cash dropping into your paypal account, could be just a matter of hours.

Tuesday 17 April 2007

Service Blog


Helping the Spiders find your site

I have noticed a growing trend for ‘service blogs’. Service blogs are basically rank- boosting blogs that provide links in return for reciprocal links. Many do this by reviewing your site and/or providing a link. In return, you may be required to review them or provide a link-back.

Why participate? Well you can boost your technorati rankings and maybe even improve your page-rank, and it costs nothing to take part.

The lastest ones I have come across are BlogBait and A Links Blog, my tip: pay them a visit, get your blog reviewed, get the benefit of the reciprocal linkings and watch your rankings climb. These work along the same lines as Greg Statz’s OurBlogReview . The majority of people who are authoring these blogs, have their own personal blogs, they have realised that having a service blog running alongside their regular blog can help not only their own rankings, but everyone that gets involved.
These sites may not be favoured by advertsising programmes or paid-to-blog schemes, but then, that is not what they are intended for. They are purely as the name suggests, a service to help promote those that get involved. One wonders whether the spidering web bots will one day become so dizzy following all these links, they’ll all end up stranded on someone blog somewhere?? They’re welcome to stop by here for a breather for as long as they like!

Going on a trip?


Hotel Reservations.com
Hotel Reservations.com already boasts 70% savings available on their site and now they are offering up to $100 off by just printing out an online rebate coupon. They offer a world-wide service with versions of the website available in many different languages and currencies. They don't JUST offer services for hotel reservations, they have deals for family holidays, golfing holidays, beach holidays, gambling and spa holidays, cruises…just about every sort of trip you might contemplate. You can book hotels, motels, resorts and rentals. Even without the special coupon, the rates available to the visitors to this site are very competitive.
Many of us will be planning trips within the next few months and it pays to shop around, you may find you can stay in the places that you regularly stay, but at a better rate. Even better, you may find that you can afford to stay somewhere nicer than where you usually stay, and maybe afford to take someone special with you!
In short, if you’re looking to book a hotel, a flight a car rental or a package deal, you should pay a visit to Hotel Reservations.com first, get a good deal and then print out the rebate coupon to make the deal even sweeter. This applies to any ‘local’ as well as international trips you are making, there are deals for every kind of trip at Hotel Reservations.com.


Saturday 14 April 2007

Affiliates or Adsense?



Unlocking the earnings potential with Affiliates.


You get visitors to your blog and you hope that your targeted adsense will inspire your visitors to click on something that will earn you a few cents. My tip: There is a better way… Affiliates offer a list of potential advertisers with specific products to sell – they want you to post their URL and you can get commission on sales or paid per click depending on the scheme. The beauty of the system is that if your blog is targeted towards a particular market, you can find an advert which suits your demographic, thus ensuring some results.
For example, I saw a really good advertising opportunity for a blog or website which features mobile phones. This advertiser is offering to give away phones so is bound to attract attention! I believe the rewards for this scheme were something like $50 per visitor partaking in the ‘free’ offer. Now, each scheme will have it’s own requirements and reward scheme so it is difficult to discuss specific earnings. I tried this type of specific advertising on a website of my own a few months ago and forgot all about it, out of curiosity I checked back last week and I have personally earned $17.50 (payout at $50). I will be checking more regularly now and selecting some new affiliate programs to get involved with – I hope to be able to report increased earnings next time….
I have been using shareasale.com
And they provide a complete package service where I can browse a variety of offers from a wide range of categories, there are currently over 2000 offers to choose from.

Although I'll happily admit that the link above is a referral link, I genuinely believe that this type of promotion may be a good earning tool for the right type of blog. There are even those who have developed web sites BASED on this type of advertising.

Friday 13 April 2007

Sueblimely Discovering - Blogging & Tagging


Here is a good source of handy tips for bloggers, this author (Sue) has about five or six blogs on the go, most of which deal with the areas of blogging and web design.


As far as 'Sueblimely Discovering - Blogging & Tagging' goes I can report that Sue’s manner is friendly and helpful, I was particularly struck with the idea of ‘altruistic link love’ and I have made it todays’ priority to get something up and running on this blog - and I have chosen 'tear fund' as my charity. Sue’s idea is to get people to promote their choice of charity on their blog.
Sue deals with lots of issues that bloggers will be interested in such as photo gallery services and audio playing on your blog. If you are looking for some blog enhancements, you can’t go wrong with visiting this site.


Sue has also been reviewed on OurBlogReview


Tuesday 10 April 2007

Mobile Soft Market


Mobile Content for the Mobile Generation

Primarily for Blackberry users, but incorporating products for other mobile equipment, Mobile soft market offers software solutions such as:

· Foreign language dictionaries
· Video generators
· Wallpaper software
· Games

As well as the above, there is a library of ebooks ranging from personal development to history books and classic literature.
If you have a Blackberry, Palm, PSP, Smartphone, Symbian or pocketPC, visit their store to see what enhancements are on offer. Prices seem really keen ranging from about $2.50 up to $20 - what’s more… you can get an extra 15% discount on all products by using the code ‘ONGKAE’ when you visit the checkout.


Monday 9 April 2007

Routine Browsing

The blog community grows and you can lose touch and forget to touch base just like with a regular community. To help prevent me do this, I am going to try and list all the places I try to touch base with and some that I usually forget or just haven’t got to grips with.
I used to regularly correspond on MyLot, but lost interest a bit as cash accumulation is just too slow when I could be earning more doing other things online. I recently got interested in MyLot again when they started to incorporate blogs into their forum. After registering this blog, I very quickly picked up a couple of subscribers much to my surprise. I will shortly register my other blog on MyLot to see if it gets any response.
I regularly touch base with OurBlogReview and the blogs of my fellow-reviewers Greg and Rachel, I check on the progress of the ‘pass the pen’ game on Matt’s site, and check my other site where I don’t post as regularly.
I often forget to check spicypage for messages, but they do send reminders by email, I also regularly take a look at Technorati. There are other sites that I browse to when looking for inspiration when it comes to optimising my blogs. John Chow, Ja kel daily, Sids blog and the HotDogTruck for entertainment.
To keep up with the paid for blogging, I have to regularly check in to Blogsvertise to look for offers, and Creamaid. At the Creamaid homepage, it always LOOKS like there are plenty of offers to get involved in, on closer investigation though, the majority of them are oversubscribed and won’t accept new posts, which is frustrating. In the future I would hope to be doing the same for Payperpost, Blogitive, and Loudlaunch.
I have registered on Feedburner, but haven’t really got ‘into’ it in any great detail.
I regularly check to see how my Adsense earnings are going, but the majority of these earnings are from my website NOT a blog, I occasionally check in with Bidvertiser (alternative to Adsense) which is featured on munny4hunny.
That just about sums up the places I browse around, though I discover a lot of new sites when I do reviews for OurBlogReview, so the list gets ever longer. I leave comments on blogs that I visit, and try to remember to revisit to check responses. If you have any suggestions about other sites you think I should be regularly checking, leave a comment…

Saturday 7 April 2007

LoudLaunch

The latest scheme that I have registered for is LoudLaunch. So far I have registered and submitted my blog for approval. All schemes have their own way of doing things, and the LoudLaunch approach is that your are paid based on the Page Rank of your site. This seems reasonable, I just hope I can get some PR for munny4hunny....
I await approval and will report on what happens. My impresson so far is that it was not hard to sign up and responses came quickly via email

Thursday 5 April 2007

The LOWEST bid wins!


OK, so we all know how ebay works…you bid on what you want and the highest bidder wins – simple. So how can you make an auction into a game? BID4PRIZES have the answer – they are offering some mouth-watering prizes like the Apple I-phone, HDTV’s, vehicles, designer stuff and cash prizes to US residents. You can bid via text-message or using the internet, and the lowest unique bid wins – That’s right… the LOWEST BID
Working like a sweepstake, you are attempting to guess which low bids (from one cent!) are not going to be chosen by another bidder.
Free gifts could come your way as your bids can automatically enter you for a periodic prize draw for auction participants.
The site is well laid out, bright and cheery, easy to navigate, easy to use and this playable user-friendly game will no doubt become addictive after only a few plays – especially with the easy to use text-message bidding service.

Monday 2 April 2007

March 2007 earnings


Well, here it is then, the truth about paid to blog...

My first report has included income from MyLot, this took a long time to accrue, and is NOT a recommended way to make decent amounts of money... I managed to get three jobs from Blogsvertise , but no new jobs for a while now... and one job from Creamaid - I completed two jobs for them, but the latest one has not been accepted as yet - after I had done all the hard work, I think the job got over-subscribed and they may not have needed my offering - this is the down-side of Creamaid... the upside is that they pay more or less instantly, hence I have been able to cash out US$2.00..... All the rest of the payments should get processed on the dates above, so next months 'cashed out' should look a bit healthier. I have some more schemes to check out and am working my way up to the magic 90 days which is a requirement for a couple of different paid to blog opportunities to kick in.

I will keep a running total and post a link to it on the blog for future reference, and I plan to diligently report every month so that visitors can get an idea of earnings. I really hope to make some progress on the earnings front over the next couple of months.

I kicked off Adsense as the adverts it was showing were irrelevent to my site and went with bidvertsiser instead - big news here is that they will pay out at $10 rather than $100, so there is just a chance that I might earn something - I reinstated Adsense as a link bar at the top of the page, but it remains to be seen whether this is a viable way of advertising. I did earn a little from adsense before I removed the 'skyscraper advert', presumably on the odd ocassions when the adverts matched the content...