Andy Coates Blog - a review

Andy Coates has begun what promises to be an interesting, informative and entertaining blog. Andy has previous web experience and has set out here to investigate how to make money online.
Posts are neatly laid out and well-written, I am sure this is going to be a blog to watch especially as he has set out to write between 1 and 3 posts a day.
To start boosting his traffic immediately, Andy has started a competition for bloggers to review his blog. He left a comment on my blog, so it would only be polite for me to try and win the 'tenner' off him - That's $20 in blog world money!
(Hey Andy do I get the second prize too if I win seeing as you referred me yourself?)
Just in case I don't win, I would like to get the second prize, so please visit his site and do a review and tell him that I sent you...

I blogged for a house!

Here's one for the big earners in the blogging world - what was that? you earned a new Ferrari? and new Mercedes? Well, my earnings bought me a new house....for my daughter.....she's three!

Yes folks, it's true - I earned more than $100 in paid to blog posts and that was how much this little beauty cost me on ebay...
On a serious note, I think that $100 per month is a realistic target for paid to blog, at least until you have a PR of more than 4. What you have to bear in mind is that for every advert post you submit, you should also post at least one 'quality' post. This month is going to keep me busy if I have to create quality copy each day whilst also keeping a high standard of advertising posts coming. I have already written more than I would in an average month and would actually not relish the thought of doing this every day again next month. I have devised a useful strategy though - I have submitted 'draft' posts up to two days before I need them, so that all I need do on some days is to just open up the 'draft' and publish it (remembering to change the date first!). I haven't done this with adverts, but when you know that offers will be open for a decent amount of time, you could do 'draft' adverts all in one go, then post them over the ensuing days. This would work with Payperpost and Bloggerwave, but not with Creamaid or Blogsvertise as their offers generally have shorter time limit.

Accounting Paradise for small business

Many small businesses suffer from the same problem, they are good at what they do, but don’t have time to keep up with the paperwork. Larger businesses can afford to employ qualified individuals to look after accounting, book-keeping and payroll – smaller businesses often fail because they can’t afford to do this. The remedy would be to use a service like Accounting paradise specifically set up with the small business in mind. The founder has started several businesses and has developed this service with his own experiences in mind. Accounting Paradise offer rates for their services tailored to small business needs, and do not involve commitment to lengthy contracts. The systems offered by Accounting Paradise are designed along simple lines and the work is done by individuals who use the system every day – this is far preferable to a small-business owner dragging out all his paperwork a few times a month and trying to keep up to date. If this sound like you, why not get in touch with Accounting Paradise and see what they can offer you. They can also offer a discount for QuickBooks on-line. Click here for payroll pricing.

The quickest way to make money - part 5

The quickest way to make money is to SAVE money - this has been the theme here for the last 5 days, you can see the previous posts here or by selecting the quick search term 'debt' in the sidebar:

Part 1, Part 2, Part 3 and Part 4

the final offering in this series will talk about other ways of saving money other than the major theme of the previous 4 days (abandoning the credit card).

My starting point for money-saving has been the Money Saving Expert website - this is geared towards UK money savers, but the content here is priceless to anyone. Martin has all sorts of advice to offer, and for the UK market, comparisons of all utility services (gas, electric, phone) to give you some pointers as to whether you should think about changing service providers.

You don't need to do too much research because Martin has teams of researchers doing it all for you. If you are not based in the UK, then you should take steps to investigate how much you can save on your current outgoings for these type of services (where there are alternatives). In the last 6 months I have changed my Gas and Electric provider, my telephone and internet services provider. I have continued to search for bargains and have found how I can cut in half my already very low website hosting bill.

The message of this series has been:

1) by all means seek out new income (from paid to blog or whatever scheme you choose) but

2) don't forget to make sure that you are not spending money that you don't need to as this could easily wipe out your extra income.

I may make $100 in May by blogging, but by changing four of my service providers I will also SAVE $100 in May, and by transferring my debt to a 0% credit card I will actually saved another $100 in just one month. there is no reason why you too, if you employ some of the priciples in these 5 articles cannot be $200 better off each month, and if you start blogging like me, you will easily be able to make it $300 a month.

The quickest way to make money - part 4

This post follows on from Part 1 , Part 2 and Part 3

(See all 5 posts by clicking on the 'debt' quick-search link in the sidebar)
The truth is this, there are a very significant proportion of people in the Western world who are simply overspending. When you sit down and calculate realistic income versus outgoings, too many households will discover they are literally spending more than they are making.
So how does this happen? Credit cards and loans are the simple answer, the solution is not to consolidate with more loans – the solution is to STOP SPENDING…. However, there is another closely related truth, the Western economies would be dealt a huge blow if everybody did actually stop overspending. This is not hyperbole, a downturn in spending on ‘gadgets’ and non-essentials would bring some industries to their knees. However, as long as controlling ones spending does not become a major trend, we can probably rely on the debt-ridden population to prop up the economy.
If you are seriously considering taking control of your spending, then I applaud you – you don’t need to take the exact steps that I have, just employ some resolve, take control of your outgoings and watch the debt fall. I was inspired to write this whilst reviewing another blog, and would like to suggest that you check out the tips and advice at http://financial-independence.net/

I also found some very revealing facts whilst researching this subject which I have copied here:

Total UK personal debt

-Total UK personal debt at the end of March 2007 stood at £1,318bn. The growth rate increased to 10.5% for the previous 12 months which equates to an increase of £116bn.
-Total secured lending on homes at the end of March 2007 stood at £1,104bn. This has increased 11.5% in the last 12 months.
-Total consumer credit lending to individuals in March 2007 was £214bn. This has increased 5.9% in the last 12 months.
-Total lending in March 2007 grew by £10.8bn. Secured lending grew by £9.9bn in the month. Consumer credit lending grew by £0.9bn.
-Average household debt in the UK is £8,833 (excluding mortgages) and £54,452 including mortgages.
-Average owed by every UK adult is £28,024 (including mortgages). This grew by £168 last month.
-Average outstanding mortgage for the 11.6m households who currently have mortgages is £95,170
-Average interest paid by each household on their total debt is approximately £3,525 each year.
-Average consumer borrowing via credit cards, motor and retail finance deals, overdrafts and unsecured personal loans has risen to £4,550 per average UK adult at the end of March 2007.
-Britain's personal debt is increasing by £1 million every 4 minutes.

Today in the UK:

-Consumers will borrow an additional £318m today
-The average household debt will increase by over £13 today
-300 people today will be declared insolvent or bankrupt
-Bank and building societies will hand out £1bn in mortgages today
-Citizen Advice Bureaus will deal with 5,300 debt problems today
-The average car will cost £15 to run today
-The average home will cost £30 today to run
-Raising a child to the age of 21 will now set you back £23.50 daily
-The price of a typical house will increase by £46 today
-24.3m transactions worth £1.3bn will be spent on plastic cards today
-£82m will be spent online today
-1/3rd of all groceries we buy today will end up in the dustbin.

read the full article by Richard Talbot on www.creditaction.org.uk here

(extract used with permission of Credit Action)


I plan one last post in this series for other money-saving tips just to round off the subject.

1-800- NODRUGS.COM

The non-profit drug rehab referral service.
If you, or a friend or family member has a problem with addiction, then 1-800-NODRUGS.COM offers a service to help you. You can call them now on 1-800-66-37847 (NO-DRUGS) or fill in a form online to get immediate help. 1-800-NODRUGS.COM offers advice on all types of drug addiction from alcohol to marijuana to crack-cocaine. They understand the need for long-term treatments and aftercare, and in some cases may offer a ‘work exchange’ scheme to recovering addicts who want to go on to help others to free themselves from addiction. If you know someone who could benefit from this service, please visit 1-800-NODRUGS.COM today or call them toll-free and speak to a counsellor.

The quickest way to make money - part 3

This post follows on from Part 1 and Part 2
This fundamental change in the way that we now view our finances (ie. get rid of credit cards and use a cash budget to control our weekly expenditure) has improved our financial status tremendously. When you consider that this change came about because our family annual income dropped by thousands (ie. my wife's wages), it is bizarre to find that our debt (well, to be honest MY debt) has more or less halved in less than a year. This is purely down to taking on board that all spending must be accounted for (a 'look after the pennies' philosophy) and controlling expenditure with cash. I have even walked the two miles to work on occasions to achieve 'non-spending' days and to exercise the discipline of only buying fuel when the cash is there to do it.
There is of course, a cost... My personal purchases have been severely curbed, I would like to have a nice new flat-screen for my PC at home, but for now, my ancient CRT will have to suffice. We have not been on a holiday for a long time, but I think we can live with that in the short-term. When you think of it, it is exactly this type of spending mentality that fuels debt: 'We must go on a foreign holiday...', 'I must have a flat-screen for my PC or wide screen HDTV' - these are the purchases which often end up living on our credit cards for far longer than a month...
In the next post, I will talk about the wider impact of this philosophy and provide some resources for those serious about saving money.

PPP - why do I love thee?

blog reviews
I am new to Payperpost as my blog has only very recently reached to 90 day minimum age. I have eagerly anticipated being able to take part in this scheme and have not been disappointed with my experiences so far. I am signed up for several different paid to blog services, but PPP offers a wider range of oportunities than any others I have seen. This post will be the third opportunity that I have been able to complete in just 11 days and I shall be receiving a total of $27 for those three posts should they all be approved (one down, two to go...). I have been fussy about the opportunities I have chosen to take, if I was less principled I could have blogged about gambling and earned another $15 from a single post (all this for a blog with a PR of 2!). You will see me blog about PPP with equal enthusiasm even when I am not paid to do so later this month. If your blog is 90 days old and you would like to blog for cash, then Payperpost is a must-try scheme - if your blog is less than 90 days old, mark the 90 day date on your calendar and get ready to advertise on blogs.

The quickest way to make money - part 2

This follows on from part 1 where I talk about reducing debt as the quickest way to make money.
Part 1 asked the question: How can we live without credit cards? For this you will need RESOLVE – ie. you need to recognise that you can no longer have the things that you don’t have the money for. This covers everything from a bar of chocolate to a new printer for your PC…if you don’t have the money for it in the bank, don’t have it! This is a tough lesson, but it’s also very logical and how everyone used to live before credit cards came along. Never do your food shopping on your credit card – use cash or a debit card instead (a debit card takes the money straight from your bank balance). In my quest to reduce debt, I devised a budget and put aside an amount every week for food and groceries. We take out this amount in cash every week and when it’s gone, it’s gone… we have halved our grocery expenditure by doing this (and we’re not starving either!). The amount we set aside is basically, the portion of my income that I can afford to allocate to our joint account less the monthly direct debits. All it takes to achieve this new manageable level of expenditure is RESOLVE (look it up…). If you don't employ reslove in large quantities, you will not escape the debt. In the next post I will talk about how this has changed our lives.

ESL jobs in Korea

Apparently getting an ESL job in Korea can be a difficult task – knowing which job will be the best one to go for can be a real minefield for the inexperienced. So what you need is someone on the ground in Korea who can scope jobs out for you. Restohof.com is basically a bulletin board which posts up a whole host of vacancies. There is a difference in that this site operates like a community in which you can mark up job opportunities as positive or negative after you have researched them so that other members of the community can benefit from your findings.The name comes from what amounts to a local name for a place where people meet to chat and drink emphasising the sense of community being built up. If an ESL job in Korea is a path you have considered taking, then this forum is somewhere that you must visit first.

The quickest way to make money

In my experience, the quickest way to make money is to SAVE money. If you plan to collect water in a bucket, first you should stop up any holes in the bucket…Last year we decided that our little family would try to survive on just one income. I embarked on a plan firstly to stem the overspend and then to generate additional revenue streams where possible. So how do you stop the overspend that is endemic in our society? Two words: ‘credit cards’. The single most important factor fuelling our over spending and keeping us poor is what we have in our wallet. My primary aim has been to reduce credit card debt, and this is how I set about doing it. Firstly I tried to consolidate my debt onto one 0% offer card – failed because had too many accounts open but inactive. I then took steps to obtain my credit report and set about officially notifying companies that I was closing the accounts that were inactive. I successfully applied for another 0% card and transferred all my outstanding debt onto it. No interest means that 100% of my payments go to reducing my debt, but there is one more vital step…. ZERO credit card spending…. This is the hard part, but if you want to see immediate results, it is the only way. Extra income from investments and bonuses has been put to good use reducing this debt and in less than a year, the debt has halved. My strategy will be to pay off what I can and then transfer to another 0% deal when this one expires – watching the debt drop month by month is very encouraging and has given me quite a buzz. So how do you survive without using a credit card? That my friends, will be unfolded here in subsequent posts over the next few days….

The month of May

This month, with the schemes that I already am signed up to, I will be aiming to maximise income from paid posts. My tactics will be as far as possible to intersperse each paid post with my own posts – and I will try to post every day until opportunities dry up. I am now enrolled in the following schemes:
Blogsvertise
Creamaid
Payperpost
Bloggerwave
These may not be sufficient to give me an opportunity every day, so I may soon be looking for new schemes – earnings updates will be more frequent this month as long as I can keep the ball rolling…

AIMing for the top..

Every business needs to manage it’s customer relations and most modern companies use Customer Relationship Management software from a simple database of contacts and correspondence, right through to a lead-tracking, fully-reporting, fully-evolved innovative CRM package such as AIM promote.
Software and hardware development moves at an alarming pace and the most forward-looking businesses will employ the most advanced technology to manage their customer base.
AIM promote. offers a package which not only manages contacts, tracks leads and opportunities, reports on campaign performance and return on advertising revenue spent, but will also collate data from your website offering web analytics and visitor tracking as standard features. If this sounds like an unwieldy tool, the plan is this: You allocate access to the parts of the system that the individual employee needs. Your sales people have their sales tools, the marketing people have their marketing tools and nobody has to wade through the whole system to find the tools they need.
On top of all these features of what seems to be a very reasonably-priced package with no hidden extras, Aim promote will let you trial the package for 14 days free of charge.

Keywords and hyperlinks for cash...

I guess, some visitors to this site may reasonably ask: What constitutes a good paid to blog entry?
My own strategy tip is to research to subject of the post as thoroughly as possible in about 5 or 10 minutes, copying relevant paragraphs from the subject website and pasting them into a single WORD document. I then print off the page and paraphrase the main points and look for an ‘angle’ (ie. work out the tone and direction of the post). I ‘compose’ my post in another WORD document where I can make use of the ‘word count’ feature (I like to post at least 100 words). I usually try to get at least three links in and I try to include a picture or logo, just to give it a finishing touch. I make sure every post contains good grammar and spelling, but is that important?
The short answer is NO. I have seen accepted posts which have bad grammar, bad spelling and sometimes barely making sense.
So what is important? Put simply. Keywords and hyperlinks will probably get you an accepted post almost regardless of the actual content.
So why make the effort? Well, all your posts say something about you, and I would rather my posts made me look like someone who takes care over their ‘work’.Don’t get me wrong, this is not a rant against badly written posts, just the opposite. What I am saying is that despite the fact that I have a bit of pride in my work, you don’t NEED to. Maybe there are some advertisers who will favour good style, but so far I think Keywords and Hyperlinks are what pays the bills.

Artificial Intelligence for your PC

Artificial Intelligence creating a personality for your PC is just something seen in science fiction films isn’t it?
Well hang on a minute, because right now you can get hold of software which will do exactly that! Ultra Hal Assistant is software that combines voice recognition, artificial intelligence and real-time animation to create your own Personal Assistant right there on your PC…You can ask Hal about weather forecasts on the internet, get him (or her) to load up any software in your START menu or do an internet search for you. Hal will chat back to you and learn from your ‘conversations’. You can tell Hal your dates and appointments so that alarms can be generated. Hal is animated on your screen, can talk to you via your soundcard and can be configured as male or female in a number of different characters. Why not download and try out Ultra Hal Assistant v6.1, this new ‘chatterbot’ software free from Zabaware today.

Payperpost - a review

Payperpost is a scheme that you can only take part in when your blog is at least 90days old. There are various opportunities open to blogs that meet certain criteria, the highest paying ones being those with the tightest requirements. For example, you will only be able to take part in some of the really high paying opportunities (some of them amounting to hundreds of dollars) if you have a Page Rank of 6, and many advertisers specify domains that they won’t accept such as ‘blogspot’ or ‘myspace’. That said, the lower end of the market (if I can call it that) offers at least $5 and it’s not unusual to see $12 or $15 opportunities on offer to those with a PR of 2, hosted on blogspot (that’s me!).
My first venture was a $7 offer, which was accepted about 5 days after being submitted, some offers require a declaration that the post is a paid one – I always state that anyhow, so that’s not a problem for me. Accepted offers are paid out a month later. Payperpost also offers a widget that you can put on any of your posts that offers visitors the opportunity to ‘get paid to review my post’ (see below). I believe that both reviewer and the reviewed author can both be paid $7.50 to do this but I will try it out and let you know what happens. Of course, you could take up the offer and find out for yourself…

Creamaid - update

On one of my visits to the Creamaid homepage, I noticed that there was an option to have notification of new ‘conversations’ (creamaid’s name for paid to blog opportunities) emailed in. I entered my email address and nothing happened for a while – Just recently activity seems to have increased and emails have been popping in regularly.
One advert in particular was quite well-paid at $10 with $2 per referral (bloggers entering the ‘conversation’ via your post). I got in early on this one, in fact I think I was even the first accepted post. This means of course that you have a much better chance of getting referrals. This proved to be the case with three referrals coming from this one post. When you add the ‘royalty’ and the ‘referrals’ together, I made a total of $16 from just that one post – a combination of finding a well-paid opportunity and getting in early enough to maximise earnings. If you are going to go the creamaid route, getting in early is the secret to maximising revenue.
This experience also highlighted that although most of the creamaid opportunities are not paticularly well paid, it is worth taking a look at what is on offer. There has been a flurry of activity and I think there are some open ‘conversations’ going now – I can’t take them all up otherwise my blog is going to look like a tribute to creamaid, but I will certainly be checking what they have on offer in the future.
If this review seems enthusiastic, then it is to balance out my less-than-enthusiastic feelings I have had about Creamaid up to now – I don’t earn anything from referring their service to you (unless you participate in a ‘conversation’ via a paid to blog post), so the links in this post are not crafty referrals.
One last thing, the great attraction of Creamaid is instant payment – the referral fees are only paid when an advert has ended (and they can stay open for months), but the royalty is generally ready for payment within a few days – this beats every other paid to blog service I have seen fair and square..

April 2007 - earnings

The graphic is getting more difficult to read and I am going to have to come up with a simpler representation...

In short, April has generated $26.41 in opportunities, and a total of $30.55 has been cashed out (a combination of last months earnings and some of this months 'instant' payouts).

Total 'earnings' are now at $54.45, and the amount actually received (paid into paypal) is $32.55.

There has been a period during April during which opportunities dried up, otherwise I am sure earnings would have been substantially better.. I am confident of better earnings in May and have started on the right track already. My first Payperpost entry has been accepted, and I have had much better results with Creamaid recently. I have had an email from Reviewme which I will need to look into, so that will give me a couple more schemes that I can investigate and report on. watch this space for a new updated report on Creamaid, and my first experiences with Payperpost. I will attempt to update the 'earnings' graphic in the sidebar on a more regular basis - this will indicate the Total amount earned and cashed out rather than the earnings for just the current month.

Person.com

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

Person.com - webcams, chat, personals

Update

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

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

Looking for a home in Florida?

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

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

LinkyLove - a review

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

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

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

Cash money from TheHotDogTruck

If you've read previous posts here, you may be aware that I am a fan and regular visitor to the HotDogTruck.

The big news is that the Hot Dog Truck Operator Relief Fund (or at least half of it), is up for grabs...

Rob is running a competition to guess the contents of the relief fund bucket, in his own words:

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

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

Update

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

Blogsvertise - investigation

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

Blogsvertise pay from around four to six dollars in the main, again better rewards have been mentioned, but in my experience, the offers I have received have been in the four to six dollar region.

Creamaid - investigation

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

Service Blog

Helping the Spiders find your site

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

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

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

Going on a trip?

Hotel Reservations.com

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

Affiliates or Adsense?

Unlocking the earnings potential with Affiliates.

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

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

Sueblimely Discovering - Blogging & Tagging

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

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

Sue has also been reviewed on OurBlogReview

Mobile Soft Market

Mobile Content for the Mobile Generation

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

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

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

Routine Browsing

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

LoudLaunch

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

The LOWEST bid wins!

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

March 2007 earnings

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

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

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

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

Urbanread - a review

I came across a new passive earning tool for bloggers today. Urbanread supplies code for your website which displays a new items. When your visitor clicks on the news they are directed to an Urbanread page with the news details. There is Google Adsense also included on this news page and the Adsense earnings from this page go into your Adsense account.
Minimum signup requirements are a blog with an Adsense account already in place, you submit your blog and Adsense ID, paste the code into your blog and away you go…even more potential passive earnings.
Once you have registered and activated your account, a single click eliminates the need to paste the code if you are using blogger.com, Urbanread will complete this step for you from within your blogger ‘dashboard’.

Pass the Pen Game

Here's something new, a community building exercise from Matt Jones. Matt received a John Chow pen along with some other goodies and wants to send it around the world. I now have the pen (see photograph) and am looking for the next person to pass it on to...
Read the instructions below and take a look at Matts' blog. If you want to take part, email me with your details.




1. The first person to comment on this post requesting that the pen be sent to them will be sent the pen! To be sent the pen you must have a blog and be a fan of John Chow. You must comment so everyone else can see, but email your:
Name:
Address: (remember to include your country!)
PostCode:
Blog address:
to the current pen holder so they can send the pen to you, and to Matt: mattjones@affiliatescamguide.com (Matt started the game)

2. When you receive the pen, take a photo of it and smack it on your blog! Copy and Paste this exact list of instructions on your blog (numbers 1-4), with Matts email address included.

3. Shoot Matt a quick email including a link to your post. He will then write a follow up post, including your site your name and your county, and we will be able to see where the pen has been! If you copy it to the current ‘pen-holder’ they may follow up on the story as well.

4. Matt will then continue to write a follow up post for every person the pen visits, until we have a list of different countries where the pen has been! If you took part in The official John Chow Fans - Pass the Pen Game feel free to write a follow up post as well about where the pen has been.
What’s the point?Firstly you will get several links from Matt, because each follow up post He writes will include you. That is not really the aim of the game though, it is community building and is a bit of fun. Who knows where the pen will end up! You may think there is a risk here, after all someone could ruin the fun and just keep hold of the pen. This would result in bad press for them and it's hardly worth anything, its a biro!

So who wants to play Pass the pen?

Too tired to blog!

I am aware that I have not blogged as often as I would have liked lately. It just seems like life is so busy. I have been away working for a couple of days (my ‘real’ work) and plan to do some work on my website although I have no idea when I can make time to do it. There are plenty of tasks lining up and time seems so short. While I was away, the ‘John Chow’ pen arrived – I am taking part in the ‘pass the pen’ game of which, more later….this will no doubt, be the subject of the very next post.
I have more ‘paid to blog’ avenues to explore and report on, so I am going to have to do some serious investigation on that front. I also have more reviews to get done for OurBlogReview. Right now I need to sleep, but am waiting for the soccer highlights on the TV, oh well, as the old saying goes ‘I’ll sleep when I’m dead!’

The Prize Blog

Everybody likes free competitions, and ThePrizeBlog searches the internet to bring them to you. The problem with competitions on TV or in a magazine or on TV is that you have to send a text or post your answer which costs money and takes time.

ThePrizeBlog searches free prize competitions for you so you don’t have to even leave your seat… These competitions are in the main for US applicants, and you will have to record your full contact details for most of the competitions.

The site has a neat layout and is easy to follow. You don’t have to wade through personal observations, this blog is just geared towards competitions. The site includes all the elements of a website, (contact details, FAQ, hints and tips etc..) there are even some free tools to help you with your competition entries. If you are US based and you like free stuff, give it a whirl…

Bad Language?

I left a comment on Rob’s TheHotDogTruck blog the other day, and it started a thread of thought which has led to this post. Now Rob is American and I am British, and making contact across continents is good for everyone and the internet is the best way to do it (if you can’t afford to become a frequent flyer). There is a ‘but’ here though…similar though our culture and language is, there are some vital differences. This got me round to thinking about a discussion I had in MyLot with a multi-lingual Italian (Luigi) – He was asking about slang expressions and the one I used on Rob’s blog is a brilliant example.
I told Rob he should name his new Hot Dog, the “Mutts’ Nuts”. OK it rhymes, but what’s the story…Now I am not completely sure I have got all the facts straight and it MAY be just a popular myth, but the story is certainly worth telling:
Some years ago, the makers or Meccano or Lego or some such toy, introduced a special set called the ‘Boxed Deluxe’. Now some wag with a penchant for Spoonerisms (prof Spooner was the guy who used to get his mords wuddled up) starting calling it the Dog’s Bollocks (apologies for the crudity to those who understand it - Bollocks is a quaint British expression meaning testicles…). Boxed Deluxe.... to Doxed Beluxe...to Dogs Bollocks, you get the idea?? From then on the Dogs Bollocks began to be used to indicate that something was top of the range…
More recently the phrase has transformed into the less crude Mutts (Dogs) Nuts (another quaint expression for testicles). So now you may know something new, for the British readers, the origin of a much-loved expression – for the non-British a unique insight into the living English language (and no doubt surprise regarding just how many quaint expressions the British can come up with to describe their genitals).
Apologies all round, I really am not given to publishing crudeness, but I hope you agree that the story justifies the use of bad language. So to Rob, I was trying to indicate that your Hot dog was indeed a top of the range item (Oh no...do I have to now go and find out where 'top of the range' came from...??)
Oh I remember the rest of the story now…. The OTHER boxed set that came out the same time as the Boxed deluxe, was the BOXED STANDARD – this then got mutated into the expression we now use to indicate something very ordinary and not at all special: BOG STANDARD…..

90 day count

The end of this month will bring with it an indication of the initial earnings of Munny4Hunny - now don't expect anything spectacular.... It has proved relatively hard to get earnings off the ground, but I am going to include the Mylot earnings as a one-off. I say this because I won't be attempting to earn any more on that particular forum, due to the low 'yield-to-work-rate ratio'...
The real earning potential cannot be accessed straight away as higher-yielding programmes like Payperpost require a blog to be up and running for 90 days - I am at around 64 days and still going strong, I hope I meet the rest of the criteria when the magic day arrives..! At the end of March I will place something in the sidebar indicating amounts earned and amounts actually cashed out. Only Creamaid offers an instant payout, so cashed out earnings can be counted on one hand, actually on two fingers.... I have been back to Creamaid only to find that all the campaigns they are running are fully subscribed - leaving me no chance to boost my earnings today. I have switched advertisers today, though. I noticed that Adsense frequently displayed only adverts for insurance - I have one paid to post entry for insurance, but this is hardly major content on my site, so I decided to dump them and try Bidvertiser - I'll let you know how I get on with them... One BIG advantage is that they will pay you via Paypal and will payout at $10 instead of waiting for the $100 mark to rack up (like at Adsense)

TheHotDogTruck.com

Every so often you come across a site that you want to share with everyone, well today it was The Hot Dog Truck… Rob owns a Hot Dog Truck and loves to talk about Hot Dogs… This is not his only subject matter though, interspersed with the Hot Dog Data are general observations all written in Robs distinctive style. Please pay this blog a visit to cheer up your day… Why not leave a comment (Oh, and if you’re a Yankees supporter – err… don’t bother…)

Is it possible to make money online?

When I first saw this question in a forum, it was actually phrased more like ‘Can I make lots of money online?’, and I guess the important question for a lot of people is ‘Can I make a living’, or more often: ‘Can I make a decent second income?’. My first reaction to the question of whether there was money simply waiting to be made online was ‘Surely not!’ I went on to say that if you wanted to make decent amounts online, you would have to really work hard at it. In the main, I think that this answer still stands up, but I am coming to the conclusion (I am one of those who has to see it work, before I will advocate it..) that actually there IS money to be made, and PAID TO BLOG is one of those opportunities. If you live in a place where the USD is very strong currency, and incomes are relatively low, then you probably can make a relatively decent income online, and if you live in the West, you may be able to make a small second income without devoting ALL your spare time…
I retain the view that if you want to make a legitimate living online, you will probably need to put at least as much effort into it as you would in a regular job, and I suspect that in reality, you would have to work harder. The upside is that if you do the groundwork, you may be able to establish a base that provides an income from less effort as you get better at it. The reality is though, if you have that sort of energy, you will be spurred on to achieve more and if spending more time with the kids was the plan, you might be better off with a 9 to 5.
How is the money made then? Simply by making a website that is very attractive to a lot of internet users and cashing in on it’s popularity… It IS that simple, but getting to the pinnacle of popularity is very hard work and you really need to know how the internet really works. In the recent past a site (at least in the UK) offering mobile phone (cell-phone) ring-tones would be the type of thing that would attract a lot of attention for example. At the moment, a blog well-placed in the blogging community can achieve phenomenal traffic – and can be put together for free!
How do you make money from your traffic? Tip: It’s all about advertising – there are several schemes on the internet that will offer you cash for hosting their adverts (Google Adsense, Ad-brite etc…), and there are schemes who will pay you fixed amounts for you to write an entry in your blog which promotes or at least mentions their product or service - this is PAID TO BLOG (payperpost, blogsvertise, creamaid etc...). One other legitimate way to raise revenue that may be worth considering once your site is up and running, is the selling of ‘e-books’. There are loads of e-books out on the web, these are basically home-produced documents in electronic format. If you have some good ideas that you think might be useful to someone, you can write it up on your PC in MS WORD, convert it into an Adobe Acrobat (PDF) document and offer it for sale again and again and again…The easiest way to do this would be through a pay-pal account accessed directly from your website, you can charge whatever you think the market will allow or you could offer them for sale or auction on e-bay.
Getting your site to be popular is the Holy Grail of internet activity, proving to be a moving target as Google and other search engines develop their search-bots to constantly prevent you from developing a formula which guarantees popularity. The best way remains developing networks and gathering ‘votes’ in the form of visitors and links to your site – all very time-consuming, but once you have it, the opportunities for your ‘non-active’ money-spinners (ie. stuff that doesn’t actually take you any time or effort to speak of) such as advertising revenue and e-book sales takes off…
In conclusion then – Can you make big bucks online? Yes if you are prepared to put the effort in – the majority of us will make do with the ‘pocket money’ earnings that are far easier to achieve.

John Chow

What can you write about John Chow that hasn’t already been written? Probably nothing as he has been actively encouraging bloggers to link to and review his blog since December 2006 in return for a valuable reciprocal link from his highly-rated blog. As I write, the 400th link is looming and at a rate of probably more than 200 words per review, I make that at least 80,000 words of review written this year…
As you browse around the blogging community, particularly if you are looking to make money online, references to this blog will bob to the surface left right and centre. John has lots of great ideas and tips for helping you to make money online, promoting your blog and getting the most out of money-making schemes. He is in the enviable position of being able to actually make a living from his internet activities alone, and I figure he’s not the only one who wants to achieve that!
John intersperses posts with entertaining YouTube videos, so there is always something to look at even if you are just looking to be amused. There is lots of interesting stuff on cars and fine dining etc. I was particularly intrigued with the lobster dish:

Update of paid to blog activity

It has taken a little longer than anticipated, but Munny 4 Hunny is finally doing what it should ie. earning (small amounts of) money from paid-to-post programmes. Currently money has been earned from MyLot, Blogsvertise and Creamaid. At the end of this month I will post details of actual earnings and proposed earnings (drawing a distinction between cash amounts I have ‘qualified’ for and actual cash paid into an account).
I am using the following principles:

To pursue the best available earnings from paid to blog programmes
I will not pay for any services (including web-hosting) therefore any revenue can be considered ‘profit’
I will not promote anything that is morally questionable

I don’t really expect to make anything other than ‘pocket money’ from these schemes, but all rewards will be recorded here so that the reader can judge for themselves. I won’t be posting ‘evidence’ of payment in the form of extracts of spreadsheets etc.. I have seen some questionable use of this type of ‘evidence’ and don’t wish to be associated with this practice – If you don’t believe my posts, I have no axe to grind, so it makes no difference to me – I may post the odd referral, but ‘paid to blog’ and honest reporting of activity in this field will remain the mainstay and focus of this blog site.

Creamaid - paid to blog service

The latest scheme I have tried out is Creamaid, this scheme differs from most other paid to blog programmes. Their ‘offers’ are called ‘conversations’, and you take part in a conversation by locating one in a blog, or visiting their homepage. It is remarkably simple to take part in this scheme with no necessity to have your blog approved. Payouts are on the low side, you get paid a small ‘royalty’ when your post is accepted, but earnings increase if another blogger participates in the conversation through your post (a bit like a referral). You can choose the conversations you want to take part in from the Creamaid home page, but I noted that some that appeared to be available turned out to be closed on further investigation.
On the plus side, this scheme is surely the fastest payer on the internet! - money was in my paypal account within hours… One last feature was that on the post that I completed , the advertiser left a personal message of thanks as a comment – Personally, I thought that was a really nice touch.

Winzy ‘Deal or no Deal’ – a review

Winzy is an entirely free site that makes money through sponsored search engine results. Sign up, use their search engine and take part in the competitions to win some great prizes. They have launched a new promotion called Deal or no Deal, a ‘just for fun’ game designed to demonstrate the fun you can have with Winzy.
You can play the ‘Deal or no Deal’ game and sign up for the Winzy search engine by following the links here or visiting http://www.winzy.com/deal-or-no-deal.html
Winzy.com have given away thousands of prizes already including ipods, Wii’s, Xboxes, gift certificates and cash – don’t miss out. Try out the just for fun game, then follow the links to find out how you can start to win prizes.

AGLOCO - a review

It is a fact that revenue is always earned by someone, somewhere, when YOU browse the internet. What AGLOCO propose is that they can return some of that cash to YOU for browsing and searching. Question: What is required? Answer: A very quick sign-up and a download of the AGLOCO Viewbar software. Question: How do I earn? Answer: By using the search facility, Responding to adverts, Online transactions, and basically just doing what you would normally do online anyway!!

Blogsvertise update

I logged on to my blogsvertise account to find that another 'offer' from blogsvertise arrived yesterday, I duly submitted my post and had it accepted (post on dating site below). This one should yeild $4 in the fullness of time (ie. in a month), my first payment from blogvertise is due on 7th April - marking the first fruits of Munny 4 Hunny...

JustSayHi - a review

Better than Yahoo Personals ? That's the claim, you decide! - it's Free Free Free and you can't say fairer than that... I am not that familiar with other dating sites, but my first impression of JustSayHi.com is that it is really easy to use, and oh yeah, and it's free...
Simply use the drop-down menus to select your desired date profile and you are taken straight to the 60 second sign-up page (which I am willing to guess only takes about a minute to complete!). Navigation is simple on this well-thought out site.
Newest members have profiles displayed on the homepage complete with photos and a short comment along with an indication of whether they are currently online or not. You can click on the profiles to learn more whether you are registered or not, so you can browse before you sign up. Having said that, it's free to sign up - no credit card details required so why don't you pay JustSayHi.com a visit today.

JA KEL DAILY DOT COM

Jason has an engaging style that makes you want to read his posts from beginning to end. He is frank and realistic about his aims to make money and blog achievements (apart from the Ferrari on the header!). His style is compelling and he deals with his subject matter in an intelligent manner – I wish I had more time, but I’ve got four more reviews to complete! Jason also does speed reviews for blog sites, on an exchange basis. I would thoroughly recommend a visit to this site to see what Jason is all about.

http://jakeldaily.com/

Making Money..

There are plenty of websites dedicated to making money online and most of them can teach you something you didn't know. I came across this one today: How to earn money blogging . Daryls' blog is well-constructed, evidence of the fact that this is one of a number of sites that he hosts.

This is a very active, busy site with lots of interactive linking to blogging communities and other similar blogs (like this one). Why not pay it a visit and see for yourself.

I will be posting a number of blog site reviews on munny4hunny fairly shortly, so please come back for more information on sites worth visiting (actually I can't guarantee at this point they they WILL be worth visiting, so come back to find out if they were!!)

Blogsvertise - paid to blog

At last! Accepted by a paid-to-blog programme and first one posted… I saw that a fellow-blogger had posted about ‘blogsvertise’. I visited their website at:
http://www.blogsvertise.com and can state that everything was very simple. I registered and submitted my site for assessment. I had a confirmation email, then visited the site a few days later and logged in to discover that my blog was acceptable – first hurdle then. I was not sure what should happen next and thought maybe I would receive instructions vie email. I had no subsequent emails, so I logged back into the site out of curiosity and clicked here and there until I discovered that there was an ‘offer’ sitting there to blog about an insurance company – second hurdle cleared. I submitted about 180 words including three URL links in three paragraphs (see below). I then went to my blogsvertise account and accepted the offer, submitting my blog to see whether my post would be acceptable. I checked back a couple of hours later to see that the ‘offer’ had gone, and when I chose ‘offers accepted ‘ from a menu, the insurance offer popped up, thus showing my post had been successful and I was up and running with my first $5 in the kitty – third hurdle cleared...
I have to say the entire process was very easy once I could see how my account page on the blogsvertise website worked. I haven’t worked out how or when payment will actually take place or how long it will be before I get another ‘offer’, but watch this space….

Insuranceportalonline.com – a review

Insurance is a necessary evil, and in the modern world, insurance underpins everything we do. Most insurers now offer a service to cover all your needs from one provider. One such can be found at: http://www.insuranceportalonline.com . I have long been of the opinion that brokers offer better deals than the big insurance companies, and now the world-wide-web has plenty of brokers offering across-the-board solutions.

Insuranceportalonline have developed their website at: http://www.insuranceportalonline.com in a way that makes it easy to apply for a quote. There are three basic areas of insurance on offer: Life insurance, Auto insurance and Home insurance, three large buttons guide you to the relevant quote application pages. You are taken step-by-step through the application process - nothing could be simpler. The life insurance section is particularly easy to use with minimal amount of information needing to be entered to get a list of insurance providers and premiums.

Insuranceportalonline are a small company operating throughout the United States and promising the lowest rates on all types of insurance. Why not give them a try at: http://www.insuranceportalonline.com

Review your Blog

Tip: It seems like there is still stuff to write about even while I am waiting to start the paid to blog programs. I wandered across a blog the other day which offers to review your blog and offers reciprocal links. Now if you read the stuff on http://www.livewyre.blogspot.com about reciprocal links you will know how valuable they are...
Take a trip to http://ourblogreview.com to register your blog by email, and you can join the list to have your blog reviewed for free. Of course, in the spirit of reciprocal links, you will place a link back to Ourblogreview on your own blog - Eveyone's a winner!! The founder of the site is Greg Stratz, you can visit his site at: http://gregstratz.blogspot.com , Greg is looking to make money on the internet, and I guess if you are here, you are too...!
Of course if you want a link from this blog and are willing to reciprocate, please email me: jay.bee@iname.com

In pursuit of paid to blog

Now I think this blog looks right and is indexed I will need to drive some traffic to it. There are some link-exchange shemes which I could get involved in but if I do that, I will have to remove my Adsense adverts or jeopardize my whole adsense account (which is active on two other websites) and since I don't get any clicks to speak of at this blog, I think that might be the sensible solution, at least for the short-term.
I am a member of mybloglog.com, a community site which allows you to list your blogs and websites, I'm not really active there, but at least the sites are listed and there does seem to be some activity - these community sites do not adversly affect adsense and it makes sense for a blogger to get their sites publicised in this manner. I have a bit of a chicken and egg situation here in that I can't write about paid-to-blog until I have got a paid-to-blog organisation interested in this site, so the content cannot be built up until I can actually do some paid blogging... slight flaw in the cunning plan, but the project will go on....

Website Indexed by Google

I note that my Google 'webmaster tools' now informs me that this blog has now been indexed by Google, though I note that the cache is not available as yet.
I judge that this has taken about two and a half weeks to complete since submission. A little more work and perhaps Blogitive will reconsider their decision not to use this blog??

Making your blog more interesting

Right now Google gadgets is my favourite source for stuff to make your blog look interesting. They offer calendars, maps, games... a whole host of little scripts to brighten up your day.
http://www.google.com/ig/directory?synd=open&source=asnd_pub1 I saved this in my favourites, and suggest you do the same. Tip: If you want to get people to mark your page as a favourite or even a home page, you will need to have stuff that makes your page look current and interesting. I use things like 'picture of the day' and 'joke of the day' on my other blog, that way it looks like you have updated your site content even when you have not touched it for a few days...
The gadgets can be configured a little to your requirements and then you are offered the script which you can paste into your own page.
One niggle though, I tried the mapping gadget and couldn't get it to distinguish between two relatively UK postcodes, I suspect that it doesn't recognise complete postcodes, just the initial part.
If you like games, have a go at the google gadget at the bottom of this page.....!

Blogitive

OK, I tried submitting this site to Blogitive, but they said it wasn't popular enough yet. I can see their point, the blog has only recently been started and hasn't been indexed by Google yet. Once the indexing is done, I will try again.
They recommended submitting the site to feedburner, which appears to be a service which uses RSS feed to promote your site. I blindly went along with the suggestion and hope to learn a little more as we go on, so that I can report my findings here. I have submitted both of my blogs to feedburner and will log back into their website another day to see how my blogs are doing and whether I can find out a bit more about how it works, and why I should participate. I was concerned that it might not be approved of by adsense, but I Googled and found out that they have been approved by Adsense for actually inserting adsense into their feeds, so I guess you can consider their service 'Adsense friendly'. I am paranoid about offending Adsense since I discovered (via an email from Google) that using 'Autohits' contravened Adsense rules.

Back on track

I have taken a few days away from this blog to complete some other work in other areas, but I am back on track now. The site has been submitted and is awaiting indexing with Google and other search engines. I will post here when it is finally indexed so readers will be able to judge how long this takes (it can be faster if you pay! but I like things for free..)
I have this site registered with Google Webmaster and Analytics so I can get an idea of how many visitors I am getting, and where they are coming from! All these tools are free, if you sign up once, you can just add extra websites to your account.
I shall be looking at 'blogitive' today and will report back my findings.