Happy New Year

A new year is about to unfold and I would sincerely like to wish any readers of this blog who happen by, a wonderful and successful new year. I have taken some major online business decisions this year and plan to expand operations in my chosen path in 2010 in order to build a continuing passive income.
I will naturally be reporting outcomes on this blog. My major decision this year is to do less blogging and build more websites, along with the plan to gather all my online earnings into a single report which will also be the basis for reporting my income to the tax authorities. This will replace the monthly 'blogging-only' earnings report that I have always posted on this blog.
I am not one for New Year resolutions, but I am resolved nonetheless to tidy up my online dealings and cut off some of those branches that have not borne fruit.
Happy New Year to you and yours, may the new year bring blessings and joy to you and your families.

One of the Good Guys

My parents have an RV and love to take it all over the country and on the continent too. I have discovered a new service today that I was not previously aware of. The good sam motorhome towing service offers roadside assistance specifically for RV's. These vehicles are becoming more and more popular all over the world and it makes sense that you need a specifically tailored roadside assistance package that offers more than the standard vehicle cover.
I will be checking to see if my parents have thought about this type of service when I see them tomorrow (they drove their RV down to visit us earlier today).

Insurance a necessary evil

Everybody hates having to pay insurance because not only is it an expense, it is an expense that already acknowledges that something is going to go horribly wrong at some point during the year...

New Year is as good a time as any to sit down and get the all important insurance quote for your vehicles, your home and contents and maybe even your traveling (should you be fortunate enough to be planning any travel...).
One of the huge advantages of the online world is that things like insurance are now ultra-competitive which means that most of us are paying less insurance than we were a few years ago.
My golden rules for insurance are:

• Do we really need it? (Home and car are no-brainers, everything should be looked at long and hard)
• Have we got the right level of cover? (there is little worse than paying out fpor an insuranec that doesn't actually help you out when things go wrong..).

Happy shopping

Christmas Eve

Relax!
I never mind working on Christmas Eve, because by then, it's really too late to do anything and we rarely receive any calls from clients other than to pass on seasons greetings...
I fact I took last week off work, and went into work for this week because I knew the pressure would be off.
So take it easy today, and just prepare for a day of food and fun, that's my advice. Make sure that you have whatever you need ready, in my case that meant chopping up a few logs this morning to make sure we have a festive fire running through the week... I also have a well stocked 'cellar' that will ensure there are enough bottles of red wine to see us merrily through the season.
If you are a regular or just happen by this blog today... MERRY CHRISTMAS, spend some quality time with the ones you love over the next few days.

On the Treadmill

As Christmas turns into New Year, how many of us will be taking to the treadmill in a desperate attempt to regain our usual trim shape?
Home gyms are increasingly popular especially since gym membership can be so expensive. I don't find the gym to be a great place to get fit, but I think I could be more enthused if the gym equipment were actually in my own house...
The reason I can't get on with a gym is that although you may be in a room with lots of other people, you don't really have any interaction with them, and have to be self-motivated to get any results - I prefer partaking in team sports where the exercise is just a positive side-effect of the game.

Still looking for PageRank?

I am starting to come round to the conclusion that PR is a bit of a self-fulfilling dream... after all, what is it's value?
Does it get you SERP (search engine results position)? seemingly not as I have several sites with little or no PR that achieve first-page results for specific targeted key-words.
Many of us were slave to PR when we started blogging, and the weeping could be heard from afar when Google slapped us all for trying to 'game' PR with viral schemes. Some desperately hung on, determined to show their contrite hearts to Daddy Google by refusing paid posts and removing 'do follow' from their blogs.
Did it make any difference? Did traffic cease or did our sites disappear from the search results? Maybe there were some short-term effects here and there, maybe Google has learned some lessons and maybe there is not so much money being thrown at paid bloggers, but not an awful lot has really changed.
I am promoting a new site at the moment, and have concentrated almost exclusively on 'on-page' optimisation - the type of SEO that doesn't rely on outside links and therefore is not affected by PR. My conclusions are that you can certainly get ranked on page 1 without PR- and most of the time, I am only held off the top-spot by Wikipedia... So I leave you with this... What is the value of PageRank?
And my answer is that you really only need to think about it if you are competing for a very highly sought after keyword. You may easily get SERP for a cleverly thought out associated phrase with virtually no 'off-page' optimisation at all. Of course, if many of those who sponsored posts took this view, they would stop paying for links except for those sickeningly 'popular' recurring promotions (I leave the themes of these to your imagination), so I hope sponsors will ignore my views and continue to send interesting and varied opportunities.

The goose is getting fat....

We are 'stocking' up already for Christmas, and I have already consumed a couple of packets of mince pies. I am looking forward to a very long break as I take all my remaining annual holidays in the next month - in fact I worked out yesterday that I was due to spend just eight days out of the next thirty one in work...
After all the indulgences of the coming festivities, a good supply of weight loss pills, headache tablets and hangover cures will no doubt be consumed too. Excercise is hard to come by as local sports centres and gyms seem to take extended yuletide breaks too. Nevertheless when five-a-side football resumes in January I will be raring to go, hopefully freshly kitted out with new Christmas socks...

Earnings for November

I almost managed to break the $100 barrier again this month would have been a much-needed boost. PayU2blog remain the best earner and I particularly like the un-demanding way in which they operate. I was disappointed with IZEA this month as I had my first ever offer, after I had jumped through all the many required hoops (including anchor texts, embedded video etc.. etc...) for a $20 opp, it took them ages to tell me they couldn't accept the post as it was adjacent to another paid post. Admittedly it's in the t&c's (terms and conditions) but really... who reads those???
Having been much busier with my other online exploits this month, I have seriously neglected my other blogs and need to catch up with posting (either that or get rid of the domains...)
I have even managed to flog some stuff off on eBay this month (a 'previously enjoyed' CPU and motherboard) and there is plenty more where they came from...

Notebook computers

Every so often I dream about buying a new PC and if I were buying one now, I would definitely consider a notebook computer to add to my current collection of desktops.
Notebooks or netbooks are like cut-down laptops offering the kind of features that you are likely to need on the road combined with long battery-life.
If you have a desktop PC to do your main computer-related tasks, then a netbook would be the ideal tool giving you portability and access to email and internet on the move. Those with very specific needs may find that a notebook actually fills all their computing requirements ie. youngsters or the elderly who may only require a browser and email access to stay in touch with friends and family.

Office Furniture

I recently completed a Health & Safety at Work course, and one of the first things we will need to do is to do workstation assessments with each employee. This assesment will take into account, the available light, the equipment used and the office furniture at each work station.
Posture can be critical where the wrong furniture or equipment is being used. For instance, I learned that an emplyee must not be alowed to work on a standard laptop computer if a significant portion of the day is spent doing computer-related tasks. It so happens that I use a PC most of the day, and normally have two laptops on my desk. I have now bought a separate keyboard and a laptop 'Elevator' which allows me to use the laptop at the correct height. I just need to get myself a new desk and then perhaps I should encourage my colleagues to get the proper equipment after all the course was not just meant to enhance my own working environment...

Hair Supplements

This Christmas, you can add another idea to the growing list of potions and creams for the lady in your life. Not only is there a dazzling array of anti-aging creams, shampoos and smellies, you can now buy your hair supplements separately instead of bundled with a shampoo.

We are all familiar with the adverts for hair products which not only offer cleansing but also vitamins, strengtheneing etc... well, now you can use your favourite shampoo and add the good stuff regardless of whether your chosen product has all the vitamins that your hair needs.

Free Icons for your posts or website

One of the things that can make your website or blog stand apart from the crowd in terms of professional apearance is the images that you use. Visual impact is important for a website almost as important as the content itself.

One of my current favourite free resources is the 'DryIcons' website where you can download free sets of icons for use on your sites. The standard of artwork is very high, and they have a vast catalogue of free icons. All they ask for in return is a name-check and link on the pages that you use the icons on. A sitewide link covers you for all eventualities and is a small price to pay for such a fantastic free resource.

They have icons for all occasions, and they come in sets which allows you to give a uniform appearance to your site by having a common theme throughout the images. I have used quite a few if these images on this blog and certainly plan to use them for future projects.

On Line Learning

I think we all recognise that all the modern innovations and technology introduced in the last couple of decades do not give us more leisure time. In fact innovations have raised expectations to the level where so much more is possible in the working day, that we spend even more time working to meet those expectations.
Speed of communication and transfer of data has increased exponentially over recent years to the level where there is little need to travel to work or even travel to learn.
Bringing together the ability to learn remotely, and the need for learning brought about by the technology itself, are remote learning courses that offer the same standard as the universities.

Despite the inbox full of spam offering bogus online qualifications, there ARE reputable institutions that are harnessing the power of the internet to bring a genuine online degree within reach of those that, for one reason or another, are not able to travel to a college or university. The courses are the same standard as those offered to a physical body of students, the method of communication is different, but the learning itself still requires hard graft!
Having said that, those who engage in this type of learning are usually self-motivated and therefore are likely to 'enjoy' the learning experience. Also being in an environment of your own choice is conducive to the learning experience.
Motivation for learning varies from person to person, there are those who simply enjoy learning to add to their own knowledge, others may be pursuing an online teaching degree or some other work or career-related qualification.
We can conclude that certainly since I was at school, both the methods and the motivations for learning have changed considerably. Traditionally remote learning was popular enough via correspondence courses, and bringing remote learning into the online world has actually made it less remote with the added ability to 'chat' with fellow students and teachers.
Western Governers University has a leading online education program which is both affordable and accredited - the two most important characteristics for online qualifications.
The university was created out of the desire of 19 Western State Governers to pool resources in 1995 and build their own academic institution, and in this respect is totally unique. The institution was set up with distance learning in mind and began accepting students in 1999. The university is a non-profit organisation serving 12,000 students.

The Year draws to an end...

I can't believe that we are close to December already, just a few weeks left to Christmas and time to sign off 2009. This has been a year of challenges in the paid to blog world, and one that has asked some questions and demanded some answers.
I have always felt that money making on the internet is never static, you can't keep to the same old formula because the goal-posts keep moving. Whatever worked yesterday is not guaranteed to work today. This is why the 'get rich quick' schemes cannot work, quite simply if it's arbitrage or something similar (and it usually is...) Google are too much on top of it to let it happen. In fact, most of the get-rich-quick schemes are mostly about selling the get-rich-quick scheme on regardless of whether it works or not. (I'm not saying that arbitrage doesn't work, but no-one can guarantee you a high return from Google Adsense).
However, if you are prepared to put some work in and look for the openings, there are small amounts and sometimes reasonable amounts that can be made. If you are pursuing paid-to-blog, then you must have a fair number of blogs to play with and a fair amount of time on your hands to complete posts. If you are prepared to push the boat out a little more, then are plenty of different directions you can go in. I know of people who have moved on to create their own 'paid-to' sites, those who are relying on revenue from Adsense and keywords, and those who are more or less full-time writing - having moved on from blog-posts to ebooks and larger writing projects.
The problem with the schemes for sale is that you are ineveitably ploughing someone else's furrow, the internet for me is all about trying to make your own way, it is the entreprenuers play-ground - just make sure that is is not you that is being played with!

Personal Heating

You may think that the electric blanket is a thing of the past, but in fact it has evolved into a plethera of new heated devices such as heated clothing, pet blankets and footwarmers. An electric warming device is the perfect gift for the female in your life as we all know that their thermostats are a little off-kilter...

If your devotions are towards a furry friend, then there are a whole host of heated devices for every shape and size of dog, cat or rabbit. Nobody needs to be left out in the cold this Winter...

Smokes for Christmas

The general trend over the last ten years or so has been against smoking in general, and cigarettes in particular are in decline. However, cigar-smoking is generaly seen in a completely different light. The cigar-smoker smokes for pleasure rather than habit, and is unlikely to inhale the smoke and tar. The majority of cigar smokers are occassional participants unlike cigarette smokers, and an occasion like Christmas and the New Year always brings with it, it's fair share of Swisher Sweets or Royal Coronas.

Started my present buying already...

I have a plan this year which will ensure my present list is whittled down as quickly as possible this. I reckon I will be buying about one-third of my gifts online (eBay), one-third will be some well-priced items from the local super-store and the final third will be made up of cash and gift vouchers - sorted!
I have bought the first few gifts today, will do my online shopping in the next couple of weeks and have booked a week off work prior to Christmas during which I will get all the vouchers.
I hate the last minute rush to get the last few gifts and am determined to be ahead of the game this Christmas...

Car Accessories

It amazes me how the world of car accessories has evolved since I started driving some twenty-odd years ago. At that time, a pair of fog-lights and some go-faster stripes were about as distinctive as you could make your vehicle without indulging in full-blown customisation.
Nowadays, there are a whole array of sophisticated ways in which you can personalise your own vehicle. From headlights such as the ones pictured here to special chips that can optimise the performance of your vehicle's engine without making any physical adjustments. If there is a boy-racer in your life, consider car accessories for their Santa-sack next month.

Not much blogging going on

This month has seen a bit of a slow-down in blog-activity for me, but I have recently had a bit of a flurry of activity in my other online pursuits. This reinforces to me the need to have several 'strings' to your bow if you are serious about making money on the interenet. It seems as if activity in some areas can go through very barren patches. Even though visitor figures remain steady, direct enquiries, affiliate sales and contextual ad clicks can vary for no apparent reason.
One of the strings I have is a service that converts cassettes into CD's, and it seems like there is always a little more activity before Christmas, and then in the new year, it often goes deathly-quiet.
Affiliate sales aften appear on flurries too, I will sometimes get a batch of high-yeilding commissions, and then nothing at all for months on end. Annoyingly, after I got paid for my latest affiliate sales commission, my bank lost my cheque... Fortunately shareasale.com, my affiliate partner will re-issue the cheque (after 90 days), and I got the bank to compensate me for the loss...

Coffee for Christmas

A few Christmases ago I won a lot of coffee beans in a raffle - so much so, that I still have most of them at home... I only have a cafetiere at the moment, and am really hoping that Santa will bring me a nice coffee machine this year, if only to clear the back-log of coffee beans in our kitchen cupboards.
There is a lot of choice when it comes to buying espresso machines and prices for the really snazzy ones can go into thousands of dollars. I will be more than happy with a reasonably priced one (assuming Santa or one of his helpers actually reads this blog..)

Locked in!

One of the recurring themes of this blog is my successes (and more often failures) with DIY projects in my home. Well, this week I noticed that one of the doors I had previously refurbished had a handle that was playing up. It had always needed to turn anti-clockwise to open, and suddenly it wanted to be turned clockwise...
If this happens to you, CHANGE THE MECHANISM!!
After a couple of weeks of this, I shut the door behind me today to discover that it would not open again... particularly 'inconvenient' as I was actually IN the bathroom. No amount of manipulating could persuade the door to open - I calmly went through all the options, but eventually I resorted to kicking in the antique door (see the broken panels in the picture) as there was no-one else in the house and I was going to be late picking up my daughter.
I got a cut hand and cut ankle for my troubles, but I learned a valuable lesson about taking particular notice of door handles that don't behave themselves. The next time I come across this, I will be immediately removing the door-lock.

Cleanse that Colon...

I must say, I have resisted the trend towards Colonic Irrigation and Detoxification with a passion - I really am not a fan of messing about with my body as long as it appears to be functioning reasonably well. However, I realise that I am old-fashioned and stuck-in-my-ways and some people actually thrive on this type of stuff.
I am about as keen as I am on Aromatherapy and Homeopathic medicine, which as you might have guessed is... Not very... Of course, if you are not keen on having a tube stuck where the sun don't shine, you can still apparently in the words of the Carlsberg Ad, have probably best colon cleanse in the world... by cleansing your own colon with medication. I would be hesitating to actually buy this as a gift... If you think buying someone soap might indicate that their hygiene isn't what it should be, what are you 'saying' if you buy them colon cleanser??

Addiction

Addiction seems to be a symptom of our 'over-successful' society in many ways... A few decades ago, addiction was seen as belonging to the down-and-outs of society. More recently addiction has been seen as a symptom of success. Although since the sixties, the world of Rock & Roll has been synomynous with addiction, this has now widened to include all of the entertainment industry and even the world of business and high-finance, trickling down to the high street and suburbia.
Far from carrying a stigma, a period spent in drug rehab is considered almost obligitary as part of the trappings of success.

Quiet November

November is quiet...I was thinking to myself, of course I am only referring to opportunities for paid posts and suchlike - there is no way that you could call November with the whizz-bangs of fireworks, and occasional torrential rain 'quiet' in the literal sense.
I am spending more time on my SEO projects at the moment and am happy to report pleasing progress in terms of SERPS achieved, and regular traffic figures for my latest project which I am hoping to turn into a regular earner...
Funnily enough, one of my other projects (turning cassettes into CD's) is turning up a few new clients lately, so that is all helping to add to the supplementary income - which I have promised myself I will be properly reporting at least by the end of this year. (currently I only report blog earnings on Munny4Hunny - I am revising my reporting procedure so that it will be easier to combine it with all the internet earnings that I declare for tax purposes).
I am honestly thinking of spending more time on SEO stuff than blogging although I will always retain a blog if only to keep the world informed of my latest schemes.
I currently have four active blogs and three websites to run, apart from the work that I do in the world of 'real work'. The reason I am leaning towards SEO and the resulting income from affiliates and adverts, is the more passive nature of the model - blogging necessitates a certain level of regular updating which, if you are not full-time, is difficult to fit in with other committments.

Are you ready?

November is all about burning... burning fires and fireworks for bonfire night, lighting fires to heat the house in the cold November weather and weight-loss for those that need to burn fat in preparation for the Christmas feasts ahead.

To be fair, most people indulge over the festive period and then begin the weight-loss program in the New year, but those forward-thinkers (those that had all their presents wrapped up in October) might be thinking about how they can be in good shape ready for Christmas.

I am not much of a forward planner, but equally, I don't like to leave things to the last moment either. I have a week booked off work 10 days before Christmas which should give me enough time to get all that I need done in plenty of time...

Online shopping

Whether you are looking for a new purse, a weight loss product or a car... modern man is turning to the search engine before the catalogue or the showroom. Basically, if you do not have an online prescence, you are not maximising your client-base.

Having said that, it is worth noting that not all online sellers are honest and reliable. Especially when deciding to purchase pills or medicines online, caution should be exercised to ensure that products are safe and properly reglated.

Online purchases are set to rise in response to the recession, and in turn this will lead to a major decline in the high-street shopping experience. Already the choice in major shopping centres is restricted to the high-end retailers who are the only ones that can afford to have a physical presence on the high street or shopping mall.

Catching up with web 2.0

Do you remember the fuss about web 2.0? Was it just internet snobbery distinguishing between sites that were up to 'the mark' and those that weren't??

To an extent, I am sure that was true, ie. if you didn't have the right stuff on your site, then you were branded old hat. Now that the fuss has died down, what was it all about, and will there ever be a Web 3.0?
Of course the danger of coining the phrase Web 2.0 which had vague and varying definitions, was that someone would come up with 3.0 and 4.0 which would be equally unhelpful. In essence Web 2.0 was more about interactivity than any other single issue, and the introduction of social sites such as Myspace and Facebook have proved the point about interactivity being where the future of the web should be focused.
However, this does not mean that sites that do not have 'whizzy' embedded applications and scripts are not just as valid for gathering information and advertising services. Those sites that were relatively one-dimensional were made to feel that they did not belong to the internet, and that was where the snobbery came in.
The internet is nothing if not 'democratic' in the truest sense of the word, and there is room for all types of websites within the framework of the worldwide web. Despite the hype, Google does not care if your graphics are flat or if there are no moving images on your homepage, in fact SEO and perceived Web 2.0 aesthetic requirements could be actually diametrically opposed to each other in many cases. SEO is still basically about content and links - if you don't get those right, you may as well stay off the web altogether.

October Earnings

October has been a good month for earnings, I have had some new avenues to explore and had some bonus posts to do for PU2B which helped to take me well over the $100 mark for the month.
Much of this may be 'one-off' earnings, but hopefully the revenue stream will continue. In the meantime, my 'under wraps' SEO project continues to take up a little of my time, and is now starting to look certain to cover at least hosting charges if not return a small profit at the end of 12 months. I am happy that this project is hitting targets in terms of SERP gained (I am usually in the top three results for my keyword), and am managing to gather a steady stream of traffic. Not only that, but my visitors tend to stay on the site and visit several pages indicating that they are discovering useful information. In essence most of the site is completed, I just have one more area to develop, then next year I plan to buy an 'unlimited' hosting package so that I can repeat the project for similar keywords.
The site in question is monetised through Adsense and eBay affiliates in the main, but I probably won't be able to talk publicly about the actual keywords I am targeting until the rest of the project is in place.
I am looking at how I can streamline my operations a bit and thinking about getting rid of some domains in order to free up some commitments (blogging can be quite a time-consuming commitment) and realise some cash for other projects.

New earnings from Linkworth

The banner advert sponsorship I sold last month, sadly did not continue into this month. However I had my first earnings with Linkworth (although not enough to reach the $25 payout). Linkworth now offer a very comprehensive range of products for you to use, as well as the 'normal' paid post opportunities, they can provide banners, rotating ads (if you can cope with the scripting), contextual ads, and 'in content' ads (the type that creates links from selected keywords in your site content). I am becoming increasingly interested in how to use Linkworth to maximise earnings, especially now I need a few more dollars to reach payout...
I have been fortunate to find a few more revenue streams this month, plus I have had some bonus opportunities from PayU2Blog which should put me beyond the $100 mark this month.

Work in the bathroom

You can tell a lot from looking at someone's bathroom, and there is not much good that you can learn from ours... We have been in the house for about 12 years and have hardly touched the bathroom. The little touches I did when we moved in are looking a bit sad now, and the bathroom remains one of those areas of the house that you want to be happy for visitors to use...
Aside from the new ceiling and the bathroom lighting that I fitted, I gave it a lick of paint (much of which is now flaking off) and made a nice tongue and groove bath panel. However I am more than conscious that this is one room that remains in need of a major overhaul.
At least I have renovated the outside toilet this year, so if I did start a major project in the bathroom, we would at least have some relief...

All you want for Christmas

The worlds most popular music player is no secret, the iPod is now synonymous with digital media in the same way that the Sony Walkman was with music cassettes. Christmas is coming and you can bet that the most visited sites on the internet will be those offering deals on ipods and iPhones and all the rest of the cutting edge Apple products.
There are so many variations of the iPod including the smaller 'nano' that they have been able to name a range as the 'classic' already... The product is so well developed, that it is already a modern classic in every sense of the word.
Technology and design are what makes the iPod so desirable, and to be honest I believe that the coolly under-stated design probably has more to do with it's popularity than the technology. After all, you can get media players that are more compatible with the all-too-common MP3 format at a much cheaper price. You can bet that Apple will be exploiting this brand-image with newer and better products for years to come - but for this Christmas, we salute the iPod - a truly modern classic.

New paid to post program

I have recently been pointed in the way of a new service which works in a completely different way to other paid post services. Rachel from the TurnOnePoundIntoOneMillion blog highlighted 'SeoBlogReviews' as a new paid posting service, but initially it is difficult to get to grips with.
I dutifully entered details of my blogs and the prices I would accept. A little later I got some emails which offered some lower prices, so I accepted some and rejected others that I felt were too low. At this point there were no actual opps., but soon after I was asked to accept a specific task. I duly did so, but for ages I heard nothing. Then with no warning, I was paid for the review, and only then did I get the specific requirements (Actually I had already spoken to Rachel about this and she clued me in that I would probably be asked to do 300 words and three links - this meant I had already written most of my review and saved it ready for publication later). There was a time limit attached to the conditions, but what impressed me was the fact that they were confident enough to pay out BEFORE I had actually published a word of the actual review.
Payout before publication takes some beating... I have had two more opps sent my way and have tentatively completed a draft post for each in the hope that I will be paid for those too...
Read my end of month review in about 10 days time for more details on this months earnings.

Bits and Bobs

If you have ever sold stuff on eBay, you will know that you will get the best price if you articles look good, have the original packing and all the plastic knobs that the item came with. I am in the process of placing numerous objects on eBay, but I like to make sure the goods are presented in the best possible light, sometimes that just means cleaning them up, sometimes it means a small repair or searching the internet for just the right knob or handle to bring the item right back into A1 condition.
I have some baby things to sell including a stroller and a lovely wooden high chair. The major drawback with the chair is that there are some wooden knobs that have come away from their plastic housing, and I think it will need a night in with some araldite or supa-glue before they are ready to grace the pages of eBay.
I have a 100% feedback record and I intend to keep it, attention to the bits and bobs and good packaging is the way to keep your customers happy!

Good posture at work

I have recently completed a Health & Safety at work course, and although your fist reaction might be 'how dull..' there was actually some very interesting things to be learned. One of the major topics was concerned with the individual workspace particularly in an office environment where the type of office chair used can be very significant, but would apply to a factory worker or even classroom chairs and desks.
I discovered that if you use a PC for a significant part of the day, then because of the positioning and the inflexibility of layout, you should NOT be using a laptop as your main computer. This is something I, and I am sure many others are doing on a daily basis.
One of the first things I am going to insist on once our new H&S policy starts to roll out, is a new chair, a new desk and an independant USB keyboard for my laptop, and maybe even a separate screen too. It is surprising how much your seat, your desk and your desk layout can affect both your long-term health and your day-to-day performance.

Rationalisation

I have been trying to consolidate my online life into activities that pay and those that don't and am coming to the conclusion that a lot of what I do is wasting time that could be more profitably spent.
I am seriously considering off-loading a couple of domains that do not yield very much to concentrate on those that are a bit more healthy. To this end I may be posting about domain-selling maybe in the New Year...
I am considering jacking in surveys altogether once I have reached payout on the main two that I do, plus there is a (low) paying forum that I spend too much time on. In fact my new long-awaited method of posting earnings should be able to demonstrate those projects that really are a waste of time. A big plus is that I have never sold a domain before, so that in itself may be a bit of an adventure.
My new regime should see me making more through passive earnings and doing more 'background' activities related to SEO. Rest assured. I will certainly retain munny4hunny and continue to post about my online earnings journey...

Christmas is coming

...And a frugal Christmas is will be, that doesn't stop me dreaming about LCD tvs and a blu-ray player in my stocking though...
What I particularly love about these flat-screened TV's is the way you can have them on the wall or in a place that your old cathode ray tube set wouldn't go because it was just so bulky.
I live in hope that we will end up buying a Nintendo 'Wii' for the family at Christmas, then realise we will need a new telly to play it on as our old one really isn't up to the mark...

Renew your filters!

There are certain jobs that get left and left, but once you complete the task, you get a great sense of achievement. The modern household is full of filters, furnace filters air-con filters, vacuum filters, water filters, oil filters and keeping track of them can be a tedious task. But when you get around to changing or refurbishing that filter, the air is cleaner, your appliances run better and more efficiently, in general your quality of life is improved just by changing that filter. My recommendation is that you place a marker on your calendar at the point when your filters should be changed, that way you don't have to walk around coughing and spluttering, wondering why the Hoover isn't picking up and dust, the furnace is cold and the air-con smells so bad...

Exercise!

So you want to get fit and have been thinking about (or even started) a regime of having a run every now and then... along come the chilly mornings and the foggy nights and somehow the attraction of going running gets less attractive by the day. Why not add to your home gym with a couple of treadmills??
If you like a bit of competition with the other half, his and hers treadmills has to be a great way to keep fit without either one of you disappearing over the horizon leaving the slower one eating dust..

Earnings September 2009

This month continues the trend of failing to break the $100 barrier and also the trend of PayU2Blog as being the best earner...
In fact I had nothing from other paid to blog schemes this month at all, the rest of the income coming from advertising in one guise or another. One of my blogs attracted the attention of a potential sponsor who paid for a post which I have categorised as 'miscellaneous', and also for a banner which comes under 'advertising'. Hopefully, this relationship will continue and the banner can earn me a monthly amount. I am (very) slowly building up my latest contextual ads project and hope to be able to report a small profit which will enable me to repeat the trick a few more times building up a residual passive income (not that websites are genuinely passive as they rarely stay entirely static..). I am happy with the 80-odd dollars I have made, and am continuing to think about a new way of posting results which will reflect money that I have received rather than earnings which are due. The new results will (if I ever get round to doing it) reflect all my online activities rather than being limited to blogging.

Car Insurance

Everyone is using price comparison sites to get an auto insurance quote, house insurance and even quotes for utility bills. It is a sign of the times, that we are always shopping around for the best offer to save some much-needed money. As bills such as insurances come up for renewal, it makes sense to try a number of vendors to get a better offer. What the comparison site does though, is gives you all those vendors, and allows you to compare without going to several different sites and having to re-enter the same set of data over and over again.

Appetite suppressants

I get a bit concerned when I see the term appetite suppressants as opposed to simply diet pills or fat-burners. These are obviously intended to interfere with the bodies natural craving for food and therefore need to be treated with caution and respect. Medications whether on prescription or bought over the counter or over the internet should always be accompanied with advice on how to use them properly.
Always read the instructions and take proper notice of recommended dosages, find out the likely or possible side-effects and above all get good professional medical advice. Most medications available are perfectly safe and well-tested, but many are very effective and should always be treated with proper caution and respect.

TV keeps evolving

As the UK spends the week frantically retuning their 'freeview' digital TV receivers, we are left to ponder the power of Television and the way it shapes our lives. It is a phenomenon that is ever-changing and all-consuming, providing entertainment and news often in a way that makes it difficult to distinguish one from the other. We have welcomed cable and satellite TV, and are now in the process of completely phasing out analogue TV altogether. We have seen the advent of the flat screen, the plasma screen and have plasma mounts specially designed to hold them. Having slimmer TV's and a way to keep them from hogging too much of our living area contrasts the way in which TV is becoming a bigger part of our lives. I reckon probably about 50% of our conversations are informed or inspired by TV, and most of us would be lost without it.

The best fat-burner

So which is the best fat burner available? Is it a pill or is it the sort of physical exercise that makes you sweat? Everybody has an opinion, and probably the best approach is a combination of factors:

• A diet of sensible food, cutting out 'silly' foods but still retaining a reasonable intake of healthy options (raw carrot replacing chocolate, a salad bowl instead of a 'fry-up')
• A good regime of exercise - walking instead of using the car, going for a run a few times a week
• Medication (in extreme cases and with professional advice) the key to using medication to burn fat is to get good advice about what would be best for you. Self-medicating may be a risky path to take.

The best way to start a weight-loss rogram is to have a 'buddy' who can accompany you when exercising, help you to exercise discipline and ensure that you get the best advice concerning medications.

Using affiliates

I am not a great advocate of affiliates like some people are, but I do see their value. I have cashed out twice from my favourite affiliate scheme, shareasale.com and just received a 'check' for $53. Actually cashing that cheque proved to be highly problematic and quite expensive. I had to drive to a branch of my bank and spent £3.50 on parking ($5), added to that, the bank charged me £8 (£11) to pay in a foreign currency cheque, leaving about $37 remaining from the original $53.
Never mind, next time I will take the option of a direct bank deposit which costs just $7 if I select the option from my Shareasale account.
ShareAsale have lots of different affiliates on offer, affiliates work best if they are very closely associated with the niche that you are working. Although I have tried a lot of different affiliates, only a few actually come to fruition - the more closely they are associated with your site visitors needs, the likelier you are to achieve some sales and make commission.

Fat burners

Whether you are looking for a fat burner or a 'performance enhancer', the world of internet purchasing is rife with unregulated medication. Whilst many providers of this type of medication are no doubt reputable suppliers, caution should be exercised. Only buy from sites that have a trading history and contact details that include a real address. Only buy products that you have researched and found to be suitable for you specifically - and best of all, get advice from a medical professional.
Don't forget that however good a product may be, there are always some side effects that make it unsuitable for certain people groups. Always check to make sure that you don't have a pre-existing condition that precludes you from using the medication in question.

When will I have the time?

I have been 'doing up' my house for more than 10 years at not too fast a pace... My lack of speed is not entirely due to my laziness, a lack of funds has also played a significant part. In that long time, I think we have managed to completely refurbish three rooms, leaving us four rooms and the hallway and landing to complete. The current project is the hallway, it has been stripped and we had some tiles laid down to replace the exisiting floor tiles.
The current project has been rudely interrupted when I got distracted by the renovation of our outside toilet which seemed to take up the best of the Summer months this year.
One of the major problems with my method of working is that I am too thorough, not content to replace carpets in our dining room, I ended up taking up the floorboards and replaced the flooring joists too - a task which took me several years to complete.
There is little chance that I will ever complete the house at the current rate of working, so I will need to either speed things up or become a lot more wealthy so I can pay someone else to do all the work.

OpenOffice

As part of my 'useful free software packages for a fresh PC install' CD that I have made and have given to a few friends, I included the OpenOffice package as an alternative to MS Office. I have just discovered a useful feature of OpenOffice which makes it even more essential. At work the other day a client sent us a MS Excel file which had been created in the latest version of Excel, and as you may know sneaky MS have added digits to their file extensions so that older versions cannot open the files. For instance, the file we were sent had the extension 'xlsx' instead of the old 'xls' extension.
As we have no plans to buy the latest version of MS Office, eventually I fired up OpenOffice which was immediately able to open the file. Not only tha,t but I could export the file as an older format so that my colleagues in the office who didn't have OpenOffice could open the sheet in their older version of Excel - another triumph for 'Open Source'.
This got me thinking, why would anyone even bother with these expensive software packages when free versions are so much more flexible??
For those who don't know, OpenOffice is a freely downloadable suite of programs that replicate all the functionality of MS Office and will seemlessly import most MS Office documents whether they be WORD, EXCEL or POWERPOINT etc... there are actually six programs in the suite including drawing and database programs.

College Degrees Online

Hold on... This is not a post that is going to replicate one of those dodgy emails that somehow find their way into your inbox - this is about real colleges that can offer a real Online masters degree from a real highly rated school.
The trouble with the culture that has grown up around online education is that very few quality colleges are offering online qualifications because of the association with scam emails offering qualifications for cash.
Gonzaga University is a real institution with a campus a football team, a student union and every other attribute that you would expect. They also have worked hard to be able to offer some of their courses in an online format for busy professionals who otherwise cannot make the commitment to study in conventional programs.
So if you had given up on online education believing that all online 'courses' are a scam, think again because there is at least one genuine institution out there which can offer you the real deal.

Online purchasing

Is it despite the current economic climate or because of it, that there seems to be more and more online trading and less high street trading. We are now well-versed in the fact that anything from weight loss pills to new cars can be bought online, but we need to take some precautions in the online trading world.
We are far more susceptible to all sorts of fraud in online trading than we would be using more traditional methods, here is a short checklist:
Does the trader have a good track record?
Is the product offered, also available on the High Street?
Are transactions taking place on a secure server?
Do you have the physical address of the organisation you are dealing with?
Online trading can save you a lot of money as long as you are aware of the potential pitfalls, and as with any purchases, get lots of advice before you buy...

Home-building

I have been very pleased with my latest DIY triumph..
I renovated our ancient outside toilet which had become more of a storage space. I was originally just going to clean it up and tidy up the wiring in there (I had previously put in a fuse box to supply electricity to the garden shed). After a bit of thought, I realised that it was no good having a working toilet unless there were taps and a sink for hand-washing. So I ended up plumbing in hot and cold water and a basin with outflow, making the whole job somewhat more complicated.

Of course, we are not talking about a chic stone sink as something very petite was required in order not to take up too much of the small amount of room available. I ended up using a 'hopper' from a rain collecting gutter-system as it was small and happened to have the right sized hole to take a bottle-trap. The end result would not win any design awards, but I felt that considering the small outlay, the finished article is very pleasing. I used tongue and groove panelling to cover all the pipework, and put all of the wiring into ducts and junctions into sealed boxes. The woodwork was stained a dark mahogany and I am pleased to say that the facility has been getting plenty of use as it is always handy to have a spare convenience...

I had one last trick up my sleeve... the hot and cold taps are both the kind of taps that you can connect a garden hose to - that way, when we have a paddling pool in the garden, we will be able to put warm water in there as well as cold water...

I now have three PC's!...

...and two laptops....
I was actually offered an intel PC last week for £25, which was tempting, but I already had two PC's at home, a third one in bits and two works laptops...
I have assembled my third PC just to test everything is working before putting the parts on eBay, and all went well which means I currently have three desktops on the go.... I must now break it down again before placing the components on eBay. Like cars, you can get more for your PC if you break it down than if you sell the whole thing as a working unit...
I will soon have a 1.8GHz AMD Athlon to sell and an ECS motherboard (both socket 939) I have loads of other components, but to sell them off individually would not be cost effective, so I thought I might advertise them as add-ons to the motherboard and CPU. For instance, I seem to have endless supplies of CD ROM drives and PC Power supplies which are individually not really worth anything, but might sell alongside another component.
I also seem to have a plentiful supply of network cards and modems, but I don't think there is much of a market for dial-up modems nowadays - if anyone has any ideas of where all this junk can be offloaded, please let me know!!

Losing fat...

I am always amazed at the endless advice on how to lose belly fat as I personally have always had problems increasing my weight... Although in latter years to be fair I have been known to look at 32" waist trousers to replace some of my tighter 30" pairs...
My preferred method of keeping belly fat off is to exercise like a lunatic twice a week when I play five a side football, although I do understand that for others, popping pills seems to be an easier route.
Using medication is all very well in principal, but this approach should be used cautiously - only buy from reputable sellers and get all the relevant safety information before-hand. Some medications should not be used by people with specific medical conditions, so advice from your doctor should also be heeded.

Cutting back

Even the wealthy are looking to save money on Ferrari parts and caviar in the current economic squeeze. If there is one people-group who know how to save money - it's the wealthy after all, how do you think they got wealthy in the first place??
If you check all your outgoings whether it be your regular food-shopping, your insurances or car expenses, there are sure top be places where you can make savings, and the Ferrari-drivers are just as likely to be looking for a bargain as you are... My motto has always been 'the quickest way to make money is to save money' - take a look at your outgoings, find the cheapest suppliers for all your needs and you should find that you have a few extra bucks in your pocket at the end of the month.

Personal Injury

Gone are the days when accidents just happened, modern society demands reparation for every accident and incident that impacts on our daily lives. Whether it is through a crack in the pavement or a whiplash injury in your car, every inconvenience can now be recovered by a personal injury lawyer.
There are national an no doubt even international companies that will deal with your case, but having a local lawyer within easy reach should get you a more personal touch. If you require a personal injury lawyer you would be well-advised to do an online search by 'Googling' for Seattle personal injury lawyer for example...

Get yourself noticed

Getting visitors to your site and backlinks makes up much of the 'back-room' work that goes into creating a successful website, and of course those 'in the know' have methods to make this process as painless as possible.
Posting comments (including your URL) on sites that allow commenting is one method that many bloggers use, getting a directory listing on a renowned directory is another.
There are plenty of directories around so it pays to look for the best ones rather than wasting your time adding your site to useless ones. There are free directories and paid directories, so which ones are best to promote your site?
I have used auto-submission software that can speed up the process by saving your details and populating the submission forms for you and I can recommend that method for getting yourself added to a lot of directories quickly. Also it makes sense to find directory sites that are specific to your niche market if possible - it's all very well having a back-link, but a quality back-link is so much the better.

August 2009 earnings

The diagram is pretty self-explanatory... PayU2blog remain ahead of the field for earnings for me, I have not visited Sponsored Reviews lately but plan to do so hunting for new higher-paying opps.
Contextual adverts have continued to produce a small amount along with surveys and other paid-to-blog services.
I haven't really taken all the opps that I could have done or really pushed my earnings at all this month as I am continuing to concentrate on other projects. I have continued to report earnings in dollars which means the reports are not as accurate as they could be, I am still considering a different way of reporting earnings which may incorporate all earnings (and maybe even outgoings) from other projects as well as blogging. If I choose to do this, it will probably be 'paid out' amounts rather than 'earned'. Many schemes wait about 30 days before paying out, so being able to report these as 'earnings' does not accurately reflect actual cash dropping into my PayPal account. One advantage of doing things this way is that Paypal will convert the dollars into UK£ for me, so I will only have to report one currency and there won't be any guesswork involved, the amounts will reflect actual earnings. The disadvantage will be that the survey companies typically take ages to pay out and the payments (when they come) will appear suddenly without warning.

Gifts for your clients

The time is fast approaching when those in business should be thinking about Christmas parties and corporate gifts and Christmas cards.
The developments in technology in recent years has meant that technology-related gifts are within the reach of even those companies with the smallest budgets. Only today I found a site that was selling a custom Imprinted flash drive with your logo/strapline for less than $4 each.
If you have a little more to spend on important clients, then there are custom printed MP3 or MP4 players available for just a few dollars more.
The custom logo providers probably will not have the largest flash drives available (ie. the 16GB or 32GB monster drives) but I have seen up to 8GB advertised and any customer would be happy with a gift like that. My first proper windows PC only had a 8GB hard drive and that cost a lot more than $4!!!

New dNeero Widget

dNeero are trying out new widget today, so this is like a beta test to see how the whole thing works. Why not click and partake - get paid for surveys and get paid even more for pasting them into a blog - what could be simpler?

Getting away

For the last few years, we have made do with short breaks and local holidays. I am really looking forward to when we can afford to venture further afield once more.
When we were 'Dual Income, No Kids' (DINKies), we gadded about the globe for fun - We are now Single Income with Kid (SIK??) and are duly broke... wouldn't have it any other way I hasten to add...
I long to cross the Atlantic to see friends in the US, and we've always talked about having orlando vacations particularly now we have a little one in tow.. We have friends further North in New York State and Canada who we would dearly love to revisit, not to mention some very close friends in Malta to whom we would love to introduce our daughter.
I am determined to clear all debts and start saving for things like holidays, but right now it is proving hard to clear off the last little bits of credit card debt because when you get close to paying off, the discipline tends to slip a little. Here's to being debt free and climbing aboard a plane bound for anywhere in the near future!

The PC saga continues...

In a mad moment yesterday I went and bought a dual-core CPU for my 'spare' socket 939 PC. Actually, it was not a bad deal at just under £40 for a 2.2GHz dual core including heatsink and fan. This should go straight into my recently purchased mobo, and the current 2.2GHz single core can replace the 1.8GHz CPU in my main PC. This should then give me a complete 'redundant' set-up of my old 'suspect' mobo and a 1.8GHz CPU plus heatsink and fan which I will combine with a spare hard-drive and some RAM to see if I can get the mobo working properly with a fresh operating system install. If it works I will take some screen-shots and flog the mobo and CPU on eBay in an effort to recover some of the recent spending spree... However I spent £2.88 more than I had in my PayPal account so will have to wait for more funds to come in before I can afford to by some thermal paste to do the CPU installs...
I really really MUST get some stuff onto eBay soon, I think I have something like three motherboards of historical interest up in my loft already each of them with CPU's, I have more CDROM drives than is entirely necessary plus a plethora of junk such as 56k modems, network cards and the like....

Holidays

We just managed a few days away on the Norfolk Broads and our little one got to spend a few days with Nanny and Grandpa in the static houseboat that they had hired.
Now they usually go off in their motorhome, or what some like to call a 'recreational vehicle', and they usually take it over to Europe. They always had caravans since we were kids, but the RV is a new thing since they retired... I learned recently that you can get aftermarket warrantees for your vehicles ie. one that continues after the manufacturers warranty runs out, and apparently there are also companies that specialise in rv warranty sales too.
The peculiar thing about the RV is that the manufacturers warranty can run out before you have got many miles on the clock because you don't tend to drive them for every day use. It makes sense to consider additional cover for motorhomes, RV's and caravans.

Vital Free Software

I have previously posted about my CDROM that I made comprising all the freely downloadable software that I would need to install onto a fresh install of Windows (should I EVER need to do this again...), and today I am going to share that list of free software with you:

1. Firefox - Mozilla's browser which I prefer over Microsoft's IE - this is the very first bit of software that I would select.
2. AVG free
3. Malware Bytes - the two best security programs that I have come across for combating viruses and malware.
4. Spybot
5. Stinger
6. HiJack This - the next three best pieces of software for combating an already infected system if it is a recovery task that needs to be carried out.
7. BCwipe - software that security-wipes a hard-disk
8. CCleaner - a great piece of software that hunts out all the bits of data that you really don't need and zaps them for you.
9. Easus Partition Magic - great for copying partitions and hard drives.
10. Syncback - great little program for creating automated backups.
11. Nero Burning - CD/DVD burning software always comes in useful.
12. Thunderbird - good alternative email software from Mozilla.
13. and finally
14. Open Office - real alternative to MS Office and fully compatible, the whole suite for free...

So that's my 'emergency tool kit' and new install CD, most of these are free for personal use (not commercial) or time limited/feature limited - I won't give out the links, just google for 'free download...' (insert software name).
What others would you have on your disk??

PC update

I have recently replaced the motherboard in my 'spare' PC as it seemed to be failing component by component... I am pleased to report my new eBay-purchased mobo seems to be working perfectly now although as ever, there were teething problems.
First of all the operating system on my existing hard drive wouldn't load, so after I had tried reloading the BIOS, I ended up doing a clean install on another disk and this worked fine. Secondly, the LAN socket and the audio output didn't work - so I visited the manufacturers website and downloaded all the drivers for the mobo. This recovered the use of the non-working components so everything was hunky dory...
Except... even after I reloaded the video software that I really needed this PC for in the first place...it wouldn't work!!
So it's good news and bad news - it works far better than my old PC for browsing the internet (I am sure I have a firewall issue with my original PC), but the software that I really wanted to run on it will not work. However I have a spare laptop from work that I have loaded the same software onto and I am hoping that being a dual core CPU, this might be a better bet... If not I will be browsing eBay for a dual core CPU for my socket 939 motherboard in one last attempt to get this software to run...
I am now becoming adept at Windows re-installs and have even made up a CD of most needed freely downloadable software, a list that I will post about at a later date.

Visual talking

Will visual talking be the next big thing??
The jury is still out on this one - it's kind of like texting/sign language/emoticons but takes a little longer to put together, so my feeling is that it might not be as popular as some of the established ways in which we communicate...
Click on the widget below to take part in the debate.

Half-way through the month

I am still considering whether I can continue reporting earnings in the same way or whether to amalgamate several strands of earnings together and report everything in £UK. This week I have seen some extra Adsense coming in from my new Adsense project which is encouraging, and in the meantime I have had a payout from PayU2blog and a few weeks ago discovered that I am due to get a payout of $53 from affiliates. I think that translation of everything into £UK will be problematical and would prefer to report it after it has been paid so that I can be more accurate instead of using an assumed exchange rate.
I have not had much response to the ebay partner affiliate widgets that I have placed in a couple of sites, but am hoping that this will still prove to be a worthwhile sheme in the long run as long as I can drive enough traffic to the sites. As a result I have been attempting to create a bit of traffic for one of the sites today, time will tell whether this was time well spent...
Placement for my new Adsense project is still high and seems to have settled between position 2 and position 4 in Google for the preferred search term depending on whether I search with Google.com or .co.uk, and whether I use spaces or not in my two-word key phrase. This in itself does not guarantee income, yet is very satisfying from an SEO point of view. I never expected to rank #1, but I am now beginning to wonder how easy it might be to achieve...