Looking back on July 2007

Well another month comes to a close and bloggers everywhere are eagerly awaiting the latest pagerank figures... none more so than me...
I have hardly generated any revenue at all this month with paid blogging, and am hoping that a raised pagerank will help to open up some opportunities on that front. So what have I been doing? being helpful of course and reviewing free software that I have found invaluable (you might say 'priceless' ha ha). And what will you be doing next month? I hear you ask - Well I think next month I am going to post about blogging competitions. I have done a few this month and am hoping that I can find a month's worth of blogging copy by bringing some competitions to your attention (whilst of course partaking in a few myself....).
This month, I am also planning to launch a new website which picks up some of the themes of my helpful blogging month - watch this space...

Hijack this - free software

HijackThis log file analysis as recommended by LinkyLove

Hijack this is a free program that I used to use more often when I was using Windows 98 Operating system. It is a program that scans your system and reports on all the processes that are running. It scans selected zones of the registry and hard-drive to detect any settings that might not be as expected - reporting all findings in a list. This list can be saved as a log file, to be opened in a text editor. There is a guide on how to use the program online here.
I found it easier to take the contents of the file and post them here. The 'HijackThis.de' website is not officially part of the software, but is a service provided by a third party. This site is able to automatically analyse the contents of the text file, giving you a report that you can examine for malware. If you find setting that need removing, go back to the original anlaysis screen and check the boxes next to the items you want to remove. Be aware though, that this is a powerful tool and you should be really sure you want to alter these settings - if you're not sure get some advice from one of the many HijackThis forums - I found a good one here...

I should say that I advise everybody who uses free software to abide by the rules of use, and if you find something really useful, you should support the product or service by donating where appropriate.

Kuanhoong dot com - a review

I am being helpful today, by pointing you in the direction of a VERY helpful blog (and I am helping myself by taking part in a competition!). The helpful blog is Kuanhoong dot com which is a Make Money at Home blog with lots of good information not only on money-making but SEO and other general information that every blogger and webmaster needs to know.

Kuanhoong has posts under the following categories: Adsense, Blogging, Google, Make money online, SEO, Technology, Wordpress and the Net. There's bound to be a category that will interest the readers of this blog, and from what I have seen, the posts are well-written, authoritative and informative.

This blog is geared towards providing valuable information and hints to bloggers, so I will be back to see what I can glean from the 100 or so posts that are available.

What you can find here...

It's sometimes difficult to ascertain the flavour of a blog from the first few posts, and I am aware that in the last week or so, in my efforts to be a helpful blogger this month - my blog looks more like a free software review site...
So for newcomers (welcome!), Munny4hunny is a site which has reviewed and signed up to a selection of different paid to post schemes (see 'quick-search' in the side-bar). I pursued maximum paid to blog earnings in May, and managed $184 on my PR2 blog. My aim since then has been to raise PR so that I can try for higher earnings. Consequently June was my 'increase popularity' month where I dragged my Technorati Authority up from 23 to it's current level of over 340. This month (July) is my helpful blogger month, where I will be posting tips and hints, answering questions and pointing the way to some excellent free software for PC users everywhere. If I find any good competitions, I will post about those too. When pagerank has been updated, I will be in a position to blog for maximum earnings again, and I for one will be interested to know how much more can be earned with extra pagerank (assuming my rank goes up!!).
I have not blogged for cash for a while now, and that is mostly down to the lack of opportunities open currently. PPP opp's are snapped up really quickly nowadays, and I can't be bothered to wait around for the juicy adverts. Other schemes seem dismally quiet and have remarkably few opp's, and even then I find some of the opp's are not the sort of thing I want to support anyway. I don't promote gambling or plastic surgery... I have even seen opp's for escort agencies, which I won't do either... there was decent offer from Creamaid, but the subject was female fashions and I couldn't get in touch with my feminine side sufficiently to bring myself to create a post for it.
I wonder if the thrill of being paid to blog is wearing off for me?
I am sure a new improved pagerank will change all that - leave me a comment if you have the inside track on when page rank will be updated.

Spybot - Search & Destroy

Spybot is one of my favourite pieces of free software, it is an anti-spyware program with loads of extra features. Like all my favourites, it offers free updates and is really easy to use. I should add here that I recommend using two anti-spyware programs, as I have not yet found ONE that finds absolutely everything... This does not mean that the software doesn't work properly, only that the different programs on offer, place different emphases on types of spyware intrusion, and will come up with different results. I have used all the major ones and I have concluded that the 'belt and braces' approach of two programs tends to cover most of the bases most of the time. Keep reading the posts as I will probably recommend three anti-spyware programs at least, all of which I use in different combinations on different computers. I always use two, and I always use Spybot!

AVG anti-virus

AVG is one of the worst-kept secrets on the internet today... almost everyone who mentions anti-virus on the internet will probably be using AVG from Grisoft.
Why? because it's the best you can get for free and probably as good as anything you would normally pay for. I started using it years ago when I had trouble upgrading my copy of Norton Anti-Virus, and have not looked back since....
If you choose just one piece of free software from the series on free software that I will be posting this month, this is THE ONE to get...
It has an easy to use front panel, and best of all, it can be set to automatically download updates and automatically run an anti-virus scan. Once you have installed it, the chances are you won't have to touch it again and it will always be up to date with the latest virus alerts.
Not only does it scan your PC for viruses and detect viruses in Windows Explorer, it will also automatically check all of your incoming and outgoing emails for viruses too. As far as I am concerned AVG rocks! and I am only too happy to give them a free advert...

$2,500 prize

Apparently for the 'price' of merely posting this on your blog:

Over at some con artists blog, you will find one crazy blog owner!! You can win $2500!! To enter just copy this text and paste it in your blog!! But hurry, this competition will not last long! So get posting!

You will be entered into a draw for $2500... I can't think of any reason why not to, but there are about two and a half thousand reasons why you might... Just in case he is crazy, I take no responsibility for anything that might happen if you decide to take part as well....

It has now been fairly well documented that this was indeed a con... c'mon what did we really expect???

8 Random facts about me

I have been 'tagged' by LinkyLove and required to give some random facts about myself... this could go anywhere...

1. I am a trained and experienced shoe repairer.
2. I have quirky eyebrow hairs, every so-often one will grow a couple of inches, my wife wants to pull them out - I don't let her....
3. I have only vomited on about 3 occasions in my adult life.
4. I have worked in an administrative role on Blood Donation sessions
5. I was a scout and have obtained the Queens Scout Award
6. When I was at school, Computer Studies was a brand new subject.... This was in the days when a home computer was a Sinclair ZX81 (I couldn't afford one)
7. I eat all the wrong things and never put on weight (sorry)
8. I usually play football (soccer) twice a week

There you go, that's my life in a nut-shell, now who am I gonna tag...

Greg - my friend the internet entrepreneur in the making...
Jon - a link partner on the same wavelength (he even likes soccer)
Rachel - fast becoming an online money making guru...
Stephen - smart cookie with an interesting blog
Bob - newest 'net friend with a jam-packed money-making blog

OK, over to you now.....I will be interested to learn some new facts about my friends... ordinarily I am reluctant to 'tag' people like this, but I am sure that this will be a great way to get some insight into those people who I really only 'know' via their blog postings...

A prize with a difference

Contests are always good for driving visitors to your site and Alex Noriega has come up with a really unique prize.
Alex is offering an original painting shipped to you for free if you win the 'raffle' on his blog... To take part, you just have to link to his blog... Most people offer a few bucks, a nice gadget (MP3 player, Pen drive) or even a games machine - all these things are very nice to have, but in comparison a piece of original art is the type of thing you will keep for ever. Alex is an artist who designs T-shirts for a living, why not visit his blog and take a look at his designs, read his blog and enter his competition. I did!

Helpful Blogger!

I noticed a little while ago, that there was a new option in Blogger layout 'add a new page element' which interested me, and today I tried it out. The new page element offers to list your post labels so that your readers can navigate to posts with a topic that interests them. The downside is that is lists ALL your labels (in my case, it looks like about 250 different tags...which has added two hundred and fifty lines to my sidebar!). I even had to change my settings... I now list 24 posts on a page so that the posting side and the side bar are still in some sort of balance (I don't like to see blogs where the sidebars are empty half-way down, it's a waste of free cyberspace...).
Then I thought of a fix.... If you can't define, say your twelve top labels, you CAN go back and remove the pesky single-use labels or swap them for your more popular ones... I like the way that Blogger have offered something that I not only want to use, but has actually made me think more about how I am going to blog in the future. My blog will be tidier because rogue labels will have been removed (when I get round to it), and in the future, I will just use previously existing labels except in special circumstances.
Of course if you use Wordpress, you can get plug-ins for 'categories' which is nice, I am glad that Blogger are now in a position to offer something similar and no doubt there is plenty more stuff in the pipeline??

Mailwasher

In an effort to be helpful this month, I am posting about different free software that I have used. Todays useful free software is 'MailWasher' from Firetrust which intercepts your emails to filter out spam mail. I have only been using it a couple of days, but have noticed that it's really easy to set up and seems to work very effectively. Since my proper website has been getting more traffic, I am also getting a lot more spam than I used to...I just see it as a measure of success in a way, but having a piece of software protecting my inbox is now becoming essential.
The free version has limited functionality, but is a good indication of how the proper version works - Mailwasher Pro is able to automatically filter and flag up spam, delete or bounce it back. Even the free version is able to flag up mail from known spam domains. If this sounds like something you would find useful, why not give it a try, like all the software I will be posting about in the series - it's free!

The Prize Blog

Hurry, hurry, hurry... Over at the The Prize Blog, Brian is having a 6-day blogging competition for cash prizes, MP3 players, blogroll back links, Bloggeries Blog Directory listings and complete site reviews.
Note that along with conventional prizes, there are some link-love prizes on offer too.. I would be more than happy to win any of the prizes on offer, cash is always good, but the MP3 player sounds like a good prize too... The Prize Blog publicises bucket loads of competitions on a regular basis, so it is always worth a visit to see what the latest competitions are offering - Everybody like something for free, so make this a regular stop on your daily blogging schedule...

Directory Submitting

Last month at Munny4Hunny was a frenzy of 'off-page' optimisation if not 'on page' activity. The bulk of my rise in the Technorati Authority rankings was down to the viral tag and favicon schemes, I built up some link-love with a couple of reviews and commenting (on 'do follow' blogs). The other activity I busied myself with, was using a free directory submitting tool called (unsurprisingly) 'Directory Submitter'.

This software allows you to submit your URL to a maximum of 350 web directories.
You set up your project by filling in the data that will be common to each submission eg: your URL, your description, your name and email address etc.. The main screen is split horizontally, with the list of directories at the top and the bottom half behaves as a browser.
My advice would be to start by sorting the directories by 'page rank' first, that way you will hopefully be getting the biggest benefits right away. Double-click on the first directory and their submission page or home page will appear in the browser. For some directories you may have to browse to an appropriate section and then submit your link information, others will allow you to submit straight away. You should find that when you are ready to submit your URL, all the relevant sections are filled out from the data you previously stored. It just remains for you to complete the submission either by entering an encrypted anti-spamming code, or simply clicking on the submit button.

Many of the sites will have similar formats and templates that you will soon get used to, some of the things I learned the hard way were:

Some of the sites will not accept an entry without a reciprocal link though most will. One or two of the sites appear to have stopped offering free links. Some sites have errors on the submission page (a couple of them didn't display the required encrypted code, so submission was impossible). Aside from these quirks, this remains a hugely valuable tool, only slightly overshadowed by it's big brother Directory Submitter Gold.

Directory Submitter Gold

Exactly as above, but this time more than 2,200 links on offer... this is for those who are really serious about building a very significant amount of links to a website. Completing this program should really drive you into the search results and boost your page rank. This version will cost you a few dollars ($67 at time of publication), but compared to the free version you will be able to boost the links you have by up to six times! If you are going to spend any money on getting links, then I seriously doubt that you will get more bang for your buck than investing in Directory Submitter Gold

To learn more about Directory Submitter, click here

You Comment, I Follow

You may have noticed the 'Ucomment, IFollow' banners in variuous forms on various blogs and wondered what all the fuss was about. I ignored this for a long time, but I think that it's right that the 'no follow' tag should be removed from blog templates.
Why? It allows a proper link to those who leave you a comment. I comment to get links (not spam comments but meaningful ones) and I would hope that where I leave my comments, the 'no follow' tag has been removed.
How? You can get 'do follow' plug-ins for Wordpress and Blogspotters can edit their HTML and remove the tag themselves. (more on this if needed)
It is only right to add a note of caution, it is possible that spam commenting may result, and you are encouraged either to use validation or moderated commenting so that you don't become a victim of this type of activity. Moderated is probably the safest way to go, I chose validated so that my visitors could see their comments on my site straight away..
I even made my own banner for the UCOMMENT/IFOLLOW movement which is largely based on others that I have seen.

Good blogging

How can I help my fellow bloggers today?
Some good blogging guides are needed, to see if you are a good blogger answer the following questions: (my answers included)
1) Do you blog EVERY day? (errrr...well...No, although I am trying to keep up)
2) Do you blog under your own domain? (errmmm... No, not yet...)
3) Do you provide well-written, quality content? (Well, I really hope so)
4) Do you regularly comment on other blogs? (Yes, it's a lot easier than blogging!)
5) Are you using a nice Wordpress or equivalent template? (No, you got me there...)
6) Do you have a page rank of three or more? (Not yet!)
7) Have you removed 'no follow' from your comments? (YES!!)
If you can answer yes to all 7 above then you are at least on your way to pro-blogger status... if not then you may need to make some changes. Let me know if you think I need to include some other questions here...

PureProfile - a survey site

Get paid to complete surveys online at Pure Profile, oh yes and get paid a referral fee for sending them new members (It's not ALL about the referrals, but if you are interested please click...)

I have only just joined up for this service so I can't really give a proper review of the scheme as yet. I plan to login later to see if there are any surveys for me to do, and then compare them with the Ciao surveys I am already signed up for.

Survey sites are simple to use on the whole, it doesn't require the same skills as paid to blog for example. Sometimes the Ciao surveys can be frustrating if you have to spend 5 minutes finding out that you are not a suitable candidate for the survey. My argument is that they have access to my profile so why not provide the basic info (age, sex etc.. to their clients, as that might prevent them from wasting my time).

I should point out though that Ciao is much more than a survey scheme as they provide opportunities to do paid reveiws of products that you know something about (eg. your car or digital camera, mobile phone etc...). I have completed a few of these to see how they go and will report on them in due course.
Let's see what PureProfile can offer, if you have tried them already, drop me a comment.

A new month, a new theme...

Apologies for being a bit slow out of the blocks with this month's theme. I had pursuit of maximum earnings in May 2007, raising blog 'popularity' in June 2007, and for July...I am going to be helpful..!
I am reminded that I set up this blog to investigate paid to blog schemes, so my target 'audience' are those who are interested in blogging and specifically paid to blog. By happy accident I may get other visitors as part of the viral tagging and icon schemes, but I am primarily geared towards providing information for paid to post bloggers.
So I will be researching stuff that I think will be helpful and posting my findings. As I am committed to being helpful, feel free to ask questions and I will be obliged to try and help you out...!

domain or no domain?

I am aware that having a blog domain eg: www.myblog.com is preferable in terms of being taken seriously by readers and paid to post schemes alike, but having a free domain is central to my study of what can be earned via the web without investing a cent.
I have sites that I have considered using, and if I get to the point where I thought it was really possible to earn a decent second income (or even a primary income) from this type of activity I would certainly use a domain. So far this is an experiment, if I find that I can achieve PR4 and that I could make let's say a regular $500 a month, I might switch from the 'hobby' approach. Right now, my hosting on blogspot is free so I don't have to justify any investment.

So, how do you blog on your own domain? One easy option would be to enter your URL into the blogspot dashboard (settings/publishing/custom domain). The better option would be to go for a wordpress blog. Why use wordpress? There are a whole host of very nice free wordpress templates available to you to use. These templates are instantly recognisable as being the sort of template that pro-bloggers use, and can give your blog a bit of extra 'kudos'.
The templates have a nice 'clean' look and have a whole host of plug-ins available to customise your blog just the way you want it.
Although you can host a wordpress blog for free on their own domain, if you are going to combine it with your new domain, it would make sense to find a hosting service which already offers wordpress on their servers. Many hosting services do this, check the specifications of the service to see what options are available.
How to choose a domain name? Many people just use their own name which is fine if you are going to use that as a kind of brand name, alternatively an SEO-friendly option would be to use a name which contains keywords that you would like to use to bring visitors to your site from search engines. It is worth noting that SEO for blogs is only really important if you are intending to drive visitors from search engines. Personally I think social bookmarking and social sites are probably a better way to gain traffic.
(more on this later...)

MMMtalk - new contest

Greg Stratz has launched a new contest for mmmTALK this month. The participant who makes the most posts in the forum threads will be getting a prize of $25 with a $10 runners up prize.
If you haven't already signed up, get over to mmmtalk blog for details of the competition and visit the forum to sign up and start posting. You are not limited to existing threads, you can start your own, just play nice and no spamming...
Subjects on the forum are mainly around the themes of making money on line, SEO and the like, but you can talk about anything you like... and maybe even get $25 for doing so!

Mini-banners part 5

These are the latest mini-banners that have rolled of the production line so far as part of the free mini-banner exchange scheme.
I received a little criticism of my designs from someone who had a blog with a grand total of one post on it - the criticism said:

You throw a border, a gradient overlay, and different color text into a rectangle and call that a mini banner?!

For your information YES of course ? What else do you expect (for free) to get in something which is 80 by 17 pixels....dancing dogs? performing geese?? a running AVI file??? I freely admit that all these things are outside of my scope. So if you are looking for something more than just gradients, overlays, borders, and tiny logos along with coloured and textured text, you might have to give me a clue.....
Anyhow for those who have been more gracious and have joined in - many many thanks, I will continue to grow this to see how far it can go.

Please take a look at the original post for rules and the banners that I am asking you to host.

What have you got to lose? Nothing...

What have you got to gain? Free guaranteed link and a fresh new banner that you can use to promote your site or blog.

So here is the roll of honour so far...

I have also created a few larger banners like the one promoting this scheme at the top of my side bar, so if you want me to put my mind to something different, but in a similar vein (sadly limited to gradients, overlays, borders along with coloured and textured text) then just leave me a comment...

Related posts:

free mini-banners - part 2

free mini-banners - part 3

free mini-banners - part 4

June 2007 earnings

For me June was not about earnings but about getting links and boosting popularity. I continued to do the odd paid post just to keep my hand in, but actual earnings are very much lower this month. On the other hand, my PPP opps are paying out this month so my Paypal account has been boosted with the fruits of last months labours.
To spell it out then, I earned just $62.28 this month, and I received a total of $125.51 from previous work which had not been paid out. PPP is still the run-away leader and will continue to be the focus for the future. SMORTY have started to email opportunities now, so I watch for emails from them and from Creamaid. I also had a job emailed to me from blogsvertise. This job was especially interesting as it promised an additional $5 per month for a permalink. However, the next day another email came out to say that it was a mistake. I was assured that I would get paid for the original post even though I was then requested to remove it....

Now, if you are interested to learn how the link-love month went, I can report a resounding success via the following methods:
Viral Links - MASSIVE, MASSIVE boost using the tag links and the favicon link schemes
Reviews and comments - The more 'traditional' methods proved time consuming in comparison.. Although I did manage to get a piece of the action in a paid post that appeared on 40 blogs (I hasten to add that I didn't pay myself as that is against my extremely strict principles!! ha ha). I also spent more time than I normally do in social sites such as Spicypage in an effort to do some socialising, but inevitably got side-tracked on some interesting blog or other...
Directory Submitting - slightly tedious, but a large amount of links accrued - more about this in a later post.

View blog authority
And my Technorati Authority??
I was rated a mere 23 at the start of the experiment, I aimed to double it to 46 but rather overshot the mark and am currently standing at 277...!!(the widget above displays the current authority figure, as you can see, it is still rising)
I have posted my thoughts on viral linking here and elsewhere, but I am confident that I have used a mix of tactics which will stand me in good stead and hopefully achieve the intended result of a raised Page Rank next time around...