Last post of 2010

This will probably be the final post of 2010 as there are some payments due on the very last day of the year, it will probably be January by the time I am ready to total up December earnings.
I have reached almost 950 posts on the Munny4Hunny blog, and will have to do something special for the 1000th post next year. Admittedly, many of those entries are paid posts, but that is what this blog is all about after all. In total, I have posted over 1760 posts on blogger-hosted blogs over the last four years. I have also built a couple of websites to fill out my online 'portfolio' of money-making projects.
So far, I have failed to locate a goose that lays golden eggs, but I have both earned and learned during this time. It's probably fair to say I have learned more than I have earned, and my ultimate online project has yet to come to fruition. Using the adage 'do what you do best' I have formulated and nurtured ideas over the last 12 months - If only I can find the time, I have plans to create a group of websites that should give me increased 'active' and passive revenue streams - just that elusive resource of 'time' that seems to be missing...

All that remains to be said is 'HAPPY NEW YEAR' - I hope your new year will be fruitful, rewarding and joyful.

End of year trophies

It's the end of the year and I am planning a trophies and awards evening for our football team. I have put together a few ideas, a quiz, fish and chip supper and the award ceremony itself.
There is a lot to organise including putting a quiz together and finding some suitable trophies. We would have gone for a Christmas time event, but it gets so hectic at this time of year that we have put the event off to the end of January.
I'm not expecting any awards myself, but hopefully someone will propose a vote of thanks for the hard work of the organiser!

Merry Christmas

At last!

Time to put your feet up for a few days, get together with friends and family and just relax. If I have a message at Christmas it's this:

Try to make someone else's Christmas enjoyable, and you will be surprised how good it makes you feel.

We all have someone, a spouse, sibling, child or parent that we can give a boost to this Christmas - Forget presents, it's always the thought that counts....

Earnings Update

I am not far off finishing another year of internet earnings supplementing my normal wage, and I am going to make a slight change to my earnings report.

I have added another column giving me three distinct income streams and three distinct outgoing streams. I have added 'passive earnings' to my income, this is to cover contextual ads and fixed ads plus any affiliates that come in during the year. I have a few payments that didn't really fit into my previously rather 'narrow' descriptions of 'blogging income' and ' cassette to Cd conversions' - this additional column covers all other income including eBay Partnership which paid me recently, and Google Adsense which should pay me at the end of this month.

Outgoings remain as before

1. PC equipment and web hosting costs
2. paypal fees
3. postage

...make up the three basic outgoing streams - an amended graphic with the new column will appear by the end of December - I have taken the new column as far back as April the start of the financial year.

Cigars at Christmas

Christmastime is one of the few times that it becomes acceptable to smoke, at least to smoke cigars, it is rarely acceptable to smoke cigarettes at all nowadays.

However with the decline of the tobacco industry as a whole, you will often find better cigar deals online than on the high street.

This is true of many industries, and cigars are no exception. In the past, I am sure hotels and pubs used to sell a great deal of cigars, but again with the hostelry industry also in decline, online sales are probably out-stripping pub sales.

So, if you are thinking of adding a few cigars to uncle Albert's Christmas stocking, take a peek at online deals and have them delivered to the warmth and comfort of your home this Christmas.

Mens Clothing

I rarely get the chance to buy any men's clothing for myself nowadays as our income is always ear-marked for other more 'important' purchases. However, every so often I do splash out and when I do it is usually in one of two ways.

Either, I am looking for some quality items from a good quality clothing retailer (inevitably at 'sale' time), or I shop at the local supermarket for utility clothing which is cheap, but of reasonable quality.

Obviously it is the first type of clothes shopping that I prefer, and with new year sale time coming around again, I am sure to be on the lookout for a couple of new items to put into my wardrobe in the next few weeks...

Still looking for slide-show feature

Having given 'Lunapic' a positive write-up, I find that it no longer works!!

I checked and it seems that the images are hosted by photobucket, so I tried them too... Their system works well, but I noted that the show does not work in Google 'Chrome' - not only that, but I can't assign a URL to the show - if I click on it, it takes me to the photobucket site - which is NOT what I wanted...

Admittedly, I have only tried free services, but even so, I would be happy with a low level of self-promotion for the service - I certainly don't want the slideshow to 'take over' and drive a lot of traffic back to itself.

I will continue to look for an alternative, but might have to end up with a coded solution after all...

Affiliate payout!

I have spent a lot of time sowing internet 'seeds' that have not yeilded any fruit, as anyone else that has attempted to make some online cash will have done.
Every so often, these can suddenly deliver a huge unexpected bonus as has happened this month with 'linkworth'. Linkworth is a comprehensive package which caters for all type of web site monetisation systems. From simple paid posts to fixed banner adverts and imbedded keyword linking - Linkworth offers a whole host of monetisation tools.
I had taken a few paid posts, but had not yet reached payout and had more or less forgotten about my balance. However, I have also added some affiliate links in my 'Livewyre.NET' website and unbeknown to me, a few users have signed up via this method. When sign ups reach a certain level of activity, I get a payout $50... this took me straight over the minimum payout level and I scooped $74... which is a very nice bonus this close to Christmas... with any luck, I will get an Adsense payout at the end of December too...

Rubber stamps

Despite the technical innovations in the modern office, there is still a place for good old rubber stamps.
I know of two instances where this 'old school' technology is still being used. I work in a fairly 'advanced' office, but we still use a rubber date stamp to indicate when documents have been 'scanned'. In a much smaller business, I know of someone who has just bought a rubber stamp to mark invoices 'paid'. Another use that springs to mind, is a date stamp indicating when postal items were 'received'.

I am sure that the date stamp in particular will remain a useful item for the foreseeable future.

Cheap auto insurance

A new year is coming, and new ways to save money must be thought up... One idea I have been thinking about for a while, is to save on income tax by replacing my company car with a private vehicle.
If I were to do this, it would be essential to keep the running costs low in order to ensure a saving is make over all. I would need to secure some cheap auto insurance and ensure that the vehicle were not one that would need a lot of expensive maintenance in order to make the swap worthwhile.

I need to offset the potential savings (tax) with the potential costs (maintenance, insurance and road tax) to ensure that I will not end up spending even more money...

Headphones

I get through headphones on a fairly regular basis, as I use headphones a lot with some of the audio work that I do. I prefer the type of headphones that cover the ear and give a high degree of comfort during extended periods of wear.

When I am converting cassettes to CD's for a client, I can be wearing headphones for an hour or more, so as well as a need for good quality audio, the requirement for comfort is of paramount consideration when I am looking to buy a new set.

Winter Illness

The real big drawback to Winter is not so much the cold weather, as the propensity to get a really unpleasant illness on the run-up to Christmas, or even worse, over Christmas itself.

In the past I have been unwell as soon as the holidays start, this time I have got in early... I started with a heavy cold for just over a week, this then developed into raging flu (apparently likely to be a swine-flu variant) which I have now had for four days. All this would be bearable, if other Winter incidents hadn't come calling at the same time...

Burst pipes! I have never had a burst water pipe before, I have had joints that leaked or pipes that I accidentally nailed or screwed, but never yet a burst pipe.. That all changed a few days ago when I was virtually comatose in bed trying desperately to blank out the world to be alone with my flu. A hot water pipe in the kitchen ceiling burst and I had to drag myself out of my sick bed to rip down a section of the kitchen ceiling and isolate the pipe. Not a job to relish at the best of times, especially not when in the midst of a flu fever, raging headache and sundry other debilitating symptoms...

All fixed now, testament to what we can do when put to the test...!

DNA testing

I never would have considered dog dna testing, but yesterday, I came across a site offering this service to dog owners.
Primarily, this is useful for pedigree dogs to ascertain the quality of the breeding, but is also useful for providing possible inherited disease screening. Finally, the third possible use of DNA screening for dogs is to identify other inherited traits which may be significant if you are planning to breed your animal.
Of course, once you have registered the DNA of your animal, there is added security because the DNA trace of your dog will be unique and should your animal be stolen, a recovered animal would be easy to identify.

Roadside Assistance

It is important to have a roadside assistance plan that closely matches your needs. In many cases, insurers offer roadside assistance as part of an auto insurance deal to give the appearance of a value-for-money package. However, in may instances, the assistance offered is minimal, and may not suit your needs.

For instance, I know of someone who had such a deal, and their car broke down about 100 miles away from home and 120 miles away from their destination. The roadside assistance only offered recovery within 50 miles of the breakdown, so the traveller was left being able to neither get home, or get to their destination. In this case, the cover was inadequate - it is always worth reading the small-print if you buy a package in this way, otherwise go shopping for the deal which suits you best.

Free Slideshow

I have been looking for a free service that will host a slideshow for a website, I couldn't get to grips with 'flikr' and 'photobucket' insist on advertising their service alongside the slideshow. In the end, I looked up questions on yahoo answers and found a suggestion for a site I had not heard of before. If you need animations or a slideshow for a website, don't want to pay, AND don't want to advertise the provider... then you can try: 'Lunapic'

It worked great for me, although not all the transitions work as they should, a simple slideshow was easy to create. I pasted the code into my site, and was well pleased with the results. The photobucket results were better quality, but as this 'job' isn't going to earn me anything, I was reluctant to pay for the non-advert version. I reckon I owe 'Lunapic' a review and a link, so here it is...

Effective diet pills

It seems to me, that you can spend a lot of time and money looking into the most effective diet pills on the market - and in many cases, you could be wasting your efforts.
Not only that, but there are always risks associated with taking any medication, especially ones that claim to have a dramatic effect on your metabolic rate.

My advice is always to get solid medical advice from an independent medical professional before embarking on any treatment that has not been prescribed by your doctor.

Television Antennas

For decades there has been little technological advancement in television antennas. However, recently with the advent of digital TV and HD, antennas have been developed to keep up with the new technology. In many cases, the humble indoor aerial is now more than adequate for picking up digital channels in some areas.

I know that in my own region, I am managing to pick up all the free-view digital channels via indoor aerials hidden away in the loft of my house.

Compression Stockings

Not quite the type of stocking that you expect Santa to drop his presents into, but you may be searching for compression stockings online this Christmas if you know of someone that is suffering from Lymphedema, or similar condition.
Lymphedema is a lymphatic obstruction that can cause swelling, hence the need for compression garments.
Compression garments are also supposed to help prevent blood clots or DVT for those that are susceptible to such ailments - and may be particularly handy for those who frequent aeroplanes...

Earnings November 2010

This months earnings were heavily supplemented by paid to post income that was completed in the closing week of last month, and was paid at the start of this month - so despite the healthy(ish) profit, things have been quite quiet. Added to this, I had a £22 pay out from eBay partnership, even though they are supposed to pay out at £25... ( I added this to the 'blogs' total, but the earnings were not related to blogs, so maybe I am going to have to add a new column...)

Earnings from placing eBay adverts on one of my sites have not been great, but this site costs me very little now it has been built, so any income is good... Added to this, I am due an Adsense payout at the end of next month...

I bought some headphones, so that accounts for most of the outgoings this month. As you can see, my total profit for the (calendar) year has just tipped over the £1000 mark with a month yet to run - I think declared earnings for last (financial) year were about £800, so I think we are going in the right direction...

I have a spare 'pay as you go' mobile phone that I use as a contact number for various internet projects, I am thinking of moving this to a cheap contract and funding it from earnings - this would get me a much funkier phone, so I am quite tempted... maybe I'll treat myself after Christmas...