Feeling Windy?

Latest survey from dNeero, my favourite survey people...
This survey looks at some of the practical aspects of alternative power sources and wind power in particular - get paid for completing and posting this simple seven-question multiple-choice survey (click below to start).
Like all of the recent dNeero offerings, you need to get your thinking cap on to think up a related question of your own right at the end of the survey.

PayPerPost too fussy?

Since PPP were no doubt the market-leaders about 12-18months ago, there was no problem with them making their 'posties' jump through hoops to get approved. You had to have a ninety-day old blog, there had to be so many posts and you could not have more than a 1:2 paid to non-paid ratio etc.. etc..
They seemed to relax their rulings a little after the great 'google slap' where, let's face it, having PPP on your blog was the main reason for losing PageRank. Presumably at that point PPP lost a lot of blogs and relaxed the rules to try to pump the numbers back up. I doubt whether many of the blogs that left have yet gained their PR back, but that's another story...I have found it a lot easier to complete PayU2blog opps in the meantime, they come thick and fast, and are very easy to complete and have very quickly proved to be at least as good at income generation as the slightly jaded PPP - plus they pay in two-week slots so you get paid a lot quicker than with PPP.
Due to the rate of paid posting on this blog generated by PayU2blog, PPP have deemed this to be against TOS and munny4hunny is no longer a PPP participant. Is this fair? Yes...why not their money, their rules. In the words of a well-known UK comedian: Am I bovvered? Well, I was a bit put out, but I am making very little from them and now at least I don't have to worry about their TOS and about placing the IZEA rankings code on my blog signalling to Google loud and clear that I am a paid blogger and don't deserve any PR!
Talking of IZEA, I don't know what you have found, but I have not found it to be a welcoming experience more of a totally confusing one, and couldn't even be bothered to do the one opp I was offered which was to post about how great IZEA is... I can see how they are trying to combine a social experience with paid posting opportunities, but the result is a site which honestly does neither thing terribly well - I have found other paid posting sites to be easier to use, and I have found other social sites to be better for finding like-minded acquaintances.

No holidays for a while....

In the current economic climate, and since we have decided to survive as a family on my income alone, we have not been even thinking about taking a foreign holiday for a few years. There is every chance that the holiday industry could be a casualty of both the credit crunch and the hike in oil prices, but for the majority of people the family holiday still remains a priority.
There was a point where we spent at least one holiday a year abroad in sunnier climes, and we have a list of friends abroad that we have promised to visit in the future.
I look forward to when we are financially strong enough to afford such a holiday in the future, and particularly look forward to one of those luxury cruises I have promised myself at some point...

Longer lasting vacuum cleaners

Sebo are marketing their vacuum cleaners as environmentally friendly because they last longer and therefore use less resources and produce less waste. This is a refreshing change from the 'throw-away' society that should be maturing into a 'greener' frame of mind.
There are many many consumer goods produced in the last four or five decades which have been made with an element of 'built-in obsolescence' which is no longer an acceptable way to produce goods if we are serious about preserving life on this planet in the longer term.
With this type of thinking, Sebo vacuum cleaners are showing the way froward for other producers who should take responsibility for producing better quality products that will lead to less waste and a better environment for all of us.

More diet pills?

I wonder if you can actually get fat by eating too many diet pills??
The prime factor in using a weight-loss product is that it be confirmed as safe and that it comes with well-defined instructions and a full diet-plan explaining how it should be used just like alli diet pills. I would urge folks not to just listen to hearsay and then go online to make a purchase based on rumor, but to do some proper research and get some good medical advice before putting any medication into your system.
The Alli diet pill system website is clear about when NOT to take their pills and even gives a full run down of the side effects that you might experience.

Letter to the Bank Manager

This made me laugh so hard...an elderly lady actually wrote this letter to her bank. The bank manager thought it amusing enough to have it published in The Times:

Dear Sir,

I am writing to thank you for bouncing my cheque with which I endeavoured to pay my plumber last month. By my calculations, three 'nanoseconds' must have elapsed between his presenting the cheque and the arrival in my account of the funds needed to honour it.

I refer, of course, to the automatic monthly deposit of my Pension, an arr angement which, I admit, has been in place for only thirty eight years. You are to be commended for seizing that brief window of opportunity, and also for debiting my account £30 by way of penalty for the inconvenience caused to your bank.

My thankfulness springs from the manner in which this incident has caused me to rethink my errant financial ways.

I noticed that whereas I personally attend to your telephone calls and letters, when I try to contact you, I am confronted by the impersonal, overcharging, re-recorded, faceless entity which your bank has become. From now on, I, like you, choose only to deal with a flesh-and-blood person. My mortgage and loan payments will therefore and hereafter no longer be automatic, but will arrive at your bank by cheque, addressed personally and confidentially to an employee at your bank whom you must nominate.

Be aware that it is an offence under the Postal Act for any other person to open such an envelope.

Please find attached an Application Contact Status which I require your chosen employee to complete. I am sorry it runs to eight pages, but in order that I know as much about him or her as your bank knows about me, there is no alternative. Please note that all copies of his or her medical history must be countersigned by a Solicitor, and the mandatory details of his/her financial situation (income, debts, assets and liabilities) must be accompanied by documented proof.

In due course, I will issue your employee with a PIN number which he/she must quote in dealings with me. I regret that it cannot be shorter than 28 digits but, again, I have modelled it on the number of button presses required of me to a ccess my account balance on your phone bank service.

As they say, imitation is the sincerest form of flattery.

Let me level the playing field even further. When you call me, press buttons as follows:

1-- To make an appointment to see me.

2-- To query a missing payment.

3-- To transfer the call to my living room in case I am there.

4-- To transfer the call to my bedroom in case I am sleeping.

5-- To transfer the call to my toilet in case I am attending to nature.

6-- To transfer the call to my mobile phone if I am not at home.

7-- To leave a message on my computer (a password to access my computer is required. A password will be communicated to you at a later date to the Authorised Contact.)

8-- To return to the main menu and to listen to options 1 through 8

9-- To make a general complaint or inquiry, the contact will then be put on hold, pending the attention of my automated answering service. While this may, on occasion, involve a lengthy wait, uplifting music will play for the duration of the call.

Regrettably, but again following your example, I must also levy an
establishment fee to cover the setting up of this new arrangement.

May I wish you a happy, if ever so slightly less prosperous, New Year.



Your Humble Client

.....Even better when you know it was written by a lady who is 98 years old ! I pray that I will have half as much wit should I ever reach her age...

Pimp my ride

19However sad it might seem, I have to admit that one of my favourite shows on TV this year has been Pimp My Ride where some banged up motor is turned into a dream machine by a bunch of custom professionals. I often browse over to TMF to see when the next episode of Pimp my ride is going to be shown and love to settle down to watch the tansformation.
There are UK versions and US versions of the same show and both have pretty much the same format. The presenter starts at the door of the unsuspecting car owner with the news that their car is to be pimped, and their reaction is the first bit of entertainment especially as some of them don't hold back on expressing their delight!!
Then the presenter (Westwood in the UK Xibit in the US) drives the car back to the 'shop where they are greeted by whoops of derision from the mechanics. then the car is stripped to the chassis and totally rebuilt an repainted, reupholstered and has a whole load of gimmicks installed. Sometimes they get an airbrush paint job in a theme suited to the owner, they have some huge gleaming wheels fitted and maybe a games console or DVD player or mini PC fitted just for good measure. the show is rounded off by the resulting re-build being revealed to the owner and here is another chance for the owner to express their glee with various whoopings, quite a few choice expletives, some dance moves (one low-slung individual lost his pants in his celebratory dance...). The ecstatic owner then gets to drive his car back to show his friends who in turn express their disbelief - good wholesome entertainment with great feelgood factor..

Dreaming of rivers of wine...

I seem to be constantly reminded of the things I am missing since we have been living frugally, and the one thing I have been allowing myself as a treat now and again is a bottle of wine..
I got into wine at a late stage really, as I have never been a drinker in my younger days. I started off by trying white wine and finding it quite refreshing, I then graduated onto red wines. I began by working my way through French wines and finding them a bit 'hit and miss' when it comes to consistent quality. However, I then broke into New World wines and was converted on the spot, firstly by Californian wines and latterly by the wines of South East Australia. Now I am no wine buff by any stretch of the imagination, but I find Australian wines not only really tasty, but to be of supremely consistent quality. I have never yet found an Australian red wine that I disliked, even the relatively cheap ones...
One of the things I have promised myself when I am better off, is that I am going to join one of those wine of the month club schemes and have at least half a dozen wines delivered to my house each month - as long as I can find one that specialises in Australian wines, though I will take Californian if push comes to shove.

Bookworm

Recently I seem to spend a lot of my spare time taking my 'spare' PC apart and trying to make it better, or 'Googling' for articles that hep me understand how I can 'fix' it. I am one of those that like to badger away at something, so I will not be satisfied until it is the best I can make it.
This has a detrimental effect on other things I should be doing, such as the long list of DIY tasks for the house and garden.
What also suffers is my reading, I take a similar approach to reading as I do to any other task, once I start I like to devour the book as quickly as possible and generally get really caught up in the story. I also like to find the books from a single author and try to read them all. In this way I have read pretty much everything by Charles Dickens, Thomas Hardy and by John Grisham. I read them so intently that I am always disappointed when they end (apart from the Thomas Hardy ones, they are so depressing that I often want them to end sooner but I persevere nonetheless...).
Despite the fact that I was really bad at English Literature at school, at least a grounding was provided so that I could get 'into' books later in life when I had become a bit more patient. I believe there are therapeutic properties in calmly sitting down and reading a good book too.
In truth, I probably haven't read a book for more than a year - How about you? What sort of books do you read? Does it say something about you?

Ebaying

I have been doing a lot of eBaying lately selling of some stuff the little one doesn't use any more, and some stuff that I don't use any more... I like to take as professional approach as I can with my eBay sales. I email all purchasers to tell them that their goods are on the way. I always include some paperwork in the package, and I always pack the goods as well as I can.
I figure that I get a good buzz from a package that has been thoughtfully prepared, so I assume my clients will feel the same. I always use clean packaging where possible, and always try to find the original box and instructions for the item as that always gives the impression that you have looked after it well. All my sales go out in shipping boxes that give the right impression to make sure I keep that all important 100% satisfaction rating.

Earnings August 2008

If nothing else, earnings are steady for me month in - month out at the moment. I am averaging about $100 a month and this last month brought in $99.60. In a change of pattern, much more of these earnings are now attributed to adsense and I have reached payout again this month. I would still stress that the majority of my adsense earnings are NOT from blogs, but that balance is beginning to change and it seems that a decent niche blog may be able to yield reasonable adsense earnings - it's not going to make me rich unless I can manage 1000 good niche blogs at the same time, but I am seeing much better results even if Google are no longer including 'blogger' hosted 'dot com' blog keywords in their search results.
Earnings were scattered around paid blogging, adsense and surveys in that order. Surveys just come along when they are suitable so there is not much you can do about increasing activity there, so my focus will be to try to maximise paid posting (blogsvertise sprang back into life again for me this month having ignored me since December) and having a little PR on some of my blogs will help (but for how long??). Adsense is the real aim for me as there is nothing as pleasing as passive income, though to be fair the amount of work you need to do to even make a cent with adsense hardly qualifies as passive...