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...

Backups

There should be no need to stress the point that backups are a necessity for anyone using a PC for anything other than playing games, the debate should only be about HOW the backups are made. I have two external drives that I use for backup, but I find that they seem to fill up awfully quickly even though the two combined add up to over 400GB of hard drive space.
I have just spent most of today moving data from the backup drive to DVD's so that I can erase the files and start again.
There is another methods of backup that I have been considering, online backup not only offers me a flexible alternative, but gives me access to the files from any PC on the internet.
'Better safe than sorry' is a good philosophy when it comes to backup and there are good reasons to have an online remote backup even if you have adequate space on local hard-drives. If you have a fire, or your PC and peripherals are stolen, then your local backups are lost along with your PC equipment, but an online solution remains intact.

Financial Terminology

PPM is a term that I have just learned a bit about. It stands for private placement memorandum and refers to a document prepared for investors who are making a private investment in a company as opposed to an investment that you might make in a publicly quoted company. Public investments are considered relatively safe and are regulated, the PPM is a document that is intended to extend a level of security to the entrepreneur and presents the opportunity for the risks for the investor to be plainly laid out.

Reviewing Finances

It may well be, that like me, you have recently reviewed all your outgoings and things like life insurance have come under close scrutiny. But before you make the rash decision to dump all your insurances to save some money, check to see whether you can improve on your life insurance rate so that you can have a little extra but your dependents can still be covered if the worst were to happen.
Every year we coampare rates for insurance for house and car cover because they come up for renewal, however we tend not to do the same for long term insurances such as life or illness cover.

July Earnings

It is what it is, a means to an end - I am guilty of using munny4hunny for generating income often at the expense of style and content. Guilty as charged...

However, as I have said before, the earnings potential of blogs has reduced in recent years and new lines of revenue must be found. My recent forays into Adsense and affiliate earnings have started to bear fruit, but are still in their infant stages as yet.
In the meantime, a trickle of earnings continues mainly from PayU2blog, and the occasional review from 'sponsoredreviews.com'. This month I have had to adjust the ratio that I had been using to convert £earnings into $earnings which has made my survey earnings look like they have taken a bit of a tumble. On that note, Adsense have requested that I have my earnings reported in £UK rather than £US, once again making it harder to compare earnings as I have previously preferred to use the 'universal' dollar to record revenue.
I will probably overhaul the way that I record earnings and also plan to amalgamate all my internet earnings together in one account and keep a record in £UK for tax purposes, although I am not certain whether I will continue to post specific details of earnings here.
A slow month, generating about $68 in earnings, but a healthier $95 in actual payouts - My Paypal stash is building nicely , though I may have to raid it for the Summer holidays...

Acne Treatment

It's the Summer Holidays and you had better make sure that your teenagers are kitted out with the latest mobile phone, some top acne treatment and enough magazines and DVD's to keep them out of your hair for six weeks or more. After all, you don't really want them around the house getting under your feet and hanging on your phone all day.
I have a good few years to go before we have a teenager in the house and it is not an experience that I am looking forward to... the only aspect I do welcome is that chance of having a lie-in as there is little chance of a teenager getting you up at 6 in the morning...

House renovations

Renovations are still on-going in our house and will no doubt remain in that state for a good few years. We have completed a few rooms to quite a pleasing standard, but the house is probably less than half-finished (at least it feels that way...). If I have learned anything about renovating a house whilst trying to live in it, it has been the following:

1. Know when it is time to 'get someone in'
2. Only take on a task that you know you have the time to complete
3. Have friends that are a good source of advice when it comes to houses...

My final tip is to use good fixtures and fittings like Murray Feiss Lighting, IE. don't skimp on the quality of the finish. If you can't afford the fitting you want this month, wait a month and get what you truly want rather than compromise on price.

Laptop or Desktop

As the laptops of today are considerably more powerful than their predecessors, I have been contemplating replacing my 'spare' PC with a laptop. Compared with a few years ago, current laptops are miles ahead of the previous generations, yet still lag a little behind desktops in terms of speed and memory capacity.
There are so many good laptop deals, that a laptop as an alternative is becoming more and more attractive.
I have a dual PC set up at home, where the second PC is my 'back up' in case of failure of my main system (a 'redundant' system for those who like jargon..). The PC's are used for different jobs, but in the event of failure, I can do everything I need using either one. For the future I would seriously consider a reasonably priced laptop as my back-up, whilst it may not be as fast as an equivalent-priced desktop, it would certainly provide me with my core requirements which are email/internet and FTP access.

Bank foreclosure sales

Everyone is surely fully aware that the Credit Crunch started with bad mortgage selling and has resulted in a ton of foreclosures on properties that now have to be sold off. What I hadn't fully appreciated is that there are Realtors out there who actually specialize in Outer Banks foreclosures. This is a new phrase for me, but actually represents a potential considerable investment opportunity in times when it is difficult to get a good investment return. You may be concerned about benefiting from what could be perceived as someone else's misery, but if the property has already gone to foreclosure then the deed has already been done so to speak. The real culprits in the Credit Crunch were the agents that sold mortgages to those that were in no position to buy. This error was then compounded when the big banks started buying up the bad mortgages.
The reality is that if you have spare cash, then this could be a good time to buy property, the best property buys are cheap and not involved in a chain of buyers - and foreclosures certainly meet this criteria.

More PC dramas

After having built my new PC almost entirely from bits bought from eBay, I have encountered a couple of problems. Firstly my monitor (bought some time ago) started to play up, then the PC kept showing a 'Windows has recovered from a critical error' message (which is NOT encouraging..), so I did a Windows 'repair'. After my repair, I noticed my AGP graphics card was not working properly - that, and the monitor being on the blink makes for an odd combined experience. So I bought a new monitor (well a 'previously enjoyed' one anyway) from eBay (again!) and that was two problems fixed, but the graphics card refused to work as the high-end card that it should be. I tried borrowing another card and putting into my AGP slot, but that one worked no better indicating that maybe I have a problem with the Motherboard.
I ended up buying a new Mobo (from eBay - no surprise..) and am waiting for it to arrive now - I am hoping that I can seamlessly replace the old board, but am not silly enough to be confident that I won't have to start from scratch again with a new installation of the Operating System...
I really really need to try and get rid of my growing collection of Mobos, CPU's CD drives and power supplies - eBay calls again, this time to actually make some money and clear some attic-space..

Diet Pills

There are many diet pills on the market and Apidexin is one of the more popular. After a little research, it emerges that this product is made up of some decent quality ingredients including fat-burners and other ingredients that appear to be genuinely health promoting. This comes at a price though, this product is not the cheapest out there, but it could turn out to be good value compared to other similar products. As always, it would not be sensible to embark on a course of medication without proper advice and preferably input from a health professional with access to your personal medical history.

Appetite suppressant

'BonAppetite' is one of my favourite phrases, so I find it hard to imagine that there are people who are actually concerned with sourcing an appetite suppressant. It turns out that there are a huge range of appetite suppressants on the market each with their own list of pro's and con's making each one suitable for different types of people. As always, it is imperative to get excellent advice not only about the most suitable suppressant for you, but also to find out all about the possible side-effects of taking such medication in the long term.

Monthly earnings

Sometimes you sit waiting for a bus, sometimes they all come at once... today was one of those all coming at once days. I got paid by Sponsored reviews, and Blogsvertise today not only that, but I had a payment for fixed ads (non-blog) making a total Paypal haul of about $55 today! This will have considerable influence on my eBay activities... I may just take a punt on a better CPU and motherboard than I had previously intended to purchase (although it would be nice to pay something into the bank account too...).
On the credit card front, I have just one payment to make on my 0% card which will see an end to my 'large' CC debt - but unfortunately I have been forced to use my regular card for some purchases which sees me facing a small bill that I cannot pay off immediately, but I hope will be disappearing over the next few months. In fact after writing this, it does seem a bit silly for me to be considering spending on a new mobo, so I may have to review that particular desire and put it on the back-burner. After all, there will be more money to be made and I am half-way towards another Adsense payment having receieved a payment at the start of this month. I am getting a bit more business through my non-blog internet dealings too, so all-in-all despite the economic down-turn, earnings are certainly there to be had for those prepared to work for them.

Another slow month..

I am not the only one to comment on the slow-down of paid post and associated earnings recently, this on top of the drop off in paid post earnings over the last year or so in general. We seem to be hitting a real dry-patch lately and getting opps is seemingly becoming more difficult.
This could be a result of a number of factors, the first of which is the ongoing effects of Google's reaction to paid posts which has been to lower the PageRank of posters and advertisers alike. Another reason could be the general down-turn in the economy which has left many companies looking for ways to cut costs dramatically. For those with several 'strings to their bow' it just means a shift in emphasis to other sources of income. I have been lucky in that another of my online activities has been much busier this month, and I have been actvely pursuing other income avenues anyway. I have always been interested in passive earnings through adsense and will continue to pursue ways of building income with a combination of SEO and Adsense and affiliates.

Latest survey on what matters to you

To take part in the survey, click the widget below:
This one looks at what sort of things are important to you as an individual and is particularly focusing on whether global events interest you or if local events are more important.

Fat Burners

Whilst products such as Stimerex ES make all sorts of claims that include both fat-burning and energy boosting abilities, it should be noted that if the claim of the strength of this product are true, then professional medical advice should be sought before embarking on a course.
This product contains both Ephedra and Synephrine this is because there are restrictions on how much Ephedra can be included in a dose. This information alone should serve as a warning that if indeed you decide that this product is worth trying, that it should be treated seriously and the best medical advice should be sought before-hand.

Making a mark

We all like to put our personal stamp on the things that we have whether they be our houses, our cars or our clothing.
We view a new home with an eye for all the changes we are going to introduce to make it our own, and even if we don't realise it, we usually buy the same sort of clothes from the same sort of shops establishing our own style.
I remember when I got my first car, I got busy painting all parts of the car and adding a set of fog lights, moving the number plate around and generally making it look unique. I think nowadays people are less inclined to paint their cars and will, instead fit a high-end music system, a DVD player or hid lights, those high-definition lights that appear blue rather than white.
There was a trend to have lights beneath the car which seems rather superfluous and hopefully this trend is now subsiding.
Whatever it is we choose, it is important that we are able to express our individuality, of course, bloggers are able to do this via the internet...

What do you care about?

Click on the widget below to take part in the latest dNeero survey. Turns out that I don't care too much about the specific items in this survey as they are not things close to my heart - you get the chance to say whst you care about too...

Earnings June 2009

Not a bad month in June, steady earnings from a few different sources giving a total of around $90 from blogs. The last few days offered up a few dollars from Adsense, and this has continued today. I should actually be getting a payment from Adsense about now anyway... I have said this before, but it bears repeating, that the majority of my Adsense earnings do NOT come from blogs, but increasingly, my blogs are adding to the overall earnings. This month has seen a bit of an upturn in non-blog earnings too, plus someone has pointed me in the direction of a ludicrously good deal for web hosting which I may well be posting about soon. In essence this hosting deal allows you to host multiple domains for one payment which is equivalent to what I am paying for each of my hosted domains - This certainly bears investigation although it may mean having to go off-line for a day or two to get 'A records' pointing in the right place etc... With this deal I could even switch all my blogs over to Wordpress for no extra charge - a claim again which bears investigating!
OK, back to the earnings then... Good result from sponsored reviews once more, this is turning into one of my favourite sources of paid blogging opps. Some revival of earnings from Blogsvertise - some time since they had any opps for me... PayU2blog continue to provide decent revenue, and a good few dollars from contextual advertising adds nicely to the pot. Before you start to believe I have done a one-dollar post for PPP, this was a correction from an amount I had wrongly declared previously....

Finding the right supplier

Having a good industrial equipment supplier is the key to making a good job both in the workplace and in the home. I spend a lot of time in the 'off-line' world sourcing all sorts of equipment for different purposes, and I extensively use the internet to find suppliers.
I have found that there is a distinct knack to using Google to find what you need and have built up some good working relationships with suppliers originally found via search engines.
Often a little research is needed to find the equipment that you need, then the ideal scenario is to locate a local supplier and establish a working relationship.

New Survey from dNeero

Another survey to keep the cents trickling in...
This one is on endurance athletics and the possibilities of long-term benefits or long-term dangers. I think it is possible to go too far, but for the majority, any exercise has to be a good thing.

Update

I am happy with my new (secret) SEO project so far, I still have quite a lot of content to put on the site, but is getting search results already and a couple of ad clicks have been generated. I have monetised with eBay partnership and some affiliates, this will hopefully yield something in the long-term. I will also try registering some of the URLs with fixed advert providers to see if I can get some regular income from that direction. Right now, I would be happy if I could show that the site will break even - if I can reach that goal, I will invest in another similar site and see if I can use the good results from the first project to generate some PageRank for the scond project and so on... I think I can repeat this about four or five times from slightly different angles. Just getting the site accepted for some fixed adverts would be enough to show a decent profit.
This month I have been lucky enough to pick up another sponsored review for one of my sites and this time I should get paid $26, which is a pretty good rate for a single review. There are a few other opps coming in from blogsvertise and PayU2blog, so this month should be reasonable although in this climate, you can never be sure where your next opp is coming from...

Preparing for the Sun...

It is this time of year in the UK when we start to look at the sorry state of the garden furniture and wonder if there is enough money in the kitty to start afresh with a new patio set.
So far this year, I have already put some new planters around the patio, repaired some broken patio slabs, attempted to repair our 'spare' patio table (the 'best' one got damaged and I chopped it up for firewood in the Winter...) and even refurbished our outside toilet. The next job on the list is to fix the broken security light which provides some light on the patio for warmer evenings...
When all the repairs have been effected, I would really like to look around for a new table, the 'old' chairs are OK and may just need some treatment although I have been tempted by outdoor chaise lounges and some more exotic plants and planters. Our parasol also falls apart on a regular basis so I am hoping to find a bargain set including a decent sized table and parasol.

Car Insurance

Everyone surely knows by now that Comparison sites can take a lot of the leg-work out of searching for comparative quotes for insurance. I heard someone say recently 'Where do we go to compare the best comparison sites?' so maybe the next phase of web sites to come along will include sites that can compare the comparison sites, and the next phase can compare the.... well you get the idea...
Comparison sites can of course get us the best auto insurance quotes or home insurance quotes or travel insurance quotes. My strategy is to find the best deal from the comparison sites and then double-check by trying some insurers direct. The comparison sites have often worked out a deal so that they can offer at least the same rate as if you go direct, but it's always worth checking. In these financially sensitive times, the best deals need to be hunted down...

New Survey

I am losing interest in surveys as a way of earning, however dNeero surveys are fun to complete and you can post them in your blog, like this one...
The latest survey is another music one, click the widget to join up and take part:

Software Solutions

Once a small company has outgrown the limitations of MS Outlook and Excel/Access as tools for keeping track of business, they will need to focus on some serious software not only for datafile financial systems, but also for customer tracking and enquiry-tracking. I recently spoke to a retailer who was selling CRM software and he told me a story which admittedly was designed to put his product in a good light, but even so is probably true.. He was looking for a specific item and emailed three suppliers whilst browsing the internet. Two of the three did not even acknowledge his email, the third (and successful) supplier whilst in conversation revealed that he used one of the more professional CRM tools such as 'Goldmine' or act 6. This is the tool which enabled him to successfully keep track of incoming enquiries.

One of the most required functions of CRM & financial system nowadays is intergration between packages. For instance ACT is now marketed by 'SAGE' who are most well-known for their accounting software, Goldmine and other CRM's can also be cajoled into interfacing with SAGE through SQL database queries. Some programs are designed to work together or can liaise via a third-party software interface.
Interestingly, Microsoft have also come up with a microsoft crm which of course integrates with MS Office products. There are a host of soultions out there and it is worth sitting down with a retailer who knows a lot about their products. I have seen CRMs come and go in my place of work - we had three in about five years, and the best advice I can give is try and get it right first time by working out exactly what your existing and future requirements are likley to be...then talk to a company that can offer you the perfect solution.

Slow start

Last month started at breakneck speed with lots of opps completed in the first week, but opps have been few and far between so far in June, early days admittedly...
Other projects have been more successful and I have another 'keyword' success to report. The success in getting my new site (sorry still a 'hush hush' project) a decent SERP for it's main search term was compounded by another success, this time for my much older Beckham News blog.
I was checking Google analytics for visitor stats by search term and noticed the term 'Beckham News' had sent me some visitors. I googled and sure enough, my blog comes up as fifth position at the moment. I don't know how long I have been ranked for this phrase, but it came as a big surprise to me.. I must be doing something right! I am not sure if I can improve on the SERP thatI am getting for my new project, but if the longevity of my Beckham blog is the reason for my high position, then it could take me about two years to get higher than position six...
This has been a good reminder to keep checking the analytics on sites that you don't expect to perform well just in case Google suddenly decides that you are OK after all..

Keeping active

Even though I am some way past what might be considered my physical prime, I do keep fairly active playing sports. I play football (soccer) twice a week with friends and the action is usually fairly frenetic and often reasonably painful.
Despite the negative effects, I am banking on the positive effects outweighing them, although I have to acknowledge that at some point, the balance will be tipped and I will have to pack it in and find something less painful to keep fitness levels up. I am fairly competitive and do not respond to gym-related exercise or jogging/running, I am more interested in team sports or one-on-one sports that help to bring out my competitive nature. My long term plan is to think about taking golf lessons when I am too old for football and though I don't expect to be winning any golf trophies, I think I will be competitive especially if my wife also joins in as she has threatened to do... When we are retired or at least semi-retired, we have this plan to join a golf-club and get some lessons. Whether we will ever get round to it is an entirely different matter.

Weight loss ideas

If you want to look your best on the beach this Summer, you may be thinking about starting a new fitness regime popping some diet pills or having some surgery...
Of those choices, I think the one with the most beneficial side effects is the one to go for, and without a doubt the side effects of getting fit are far and away the most desirable.
Fitness breeds self-confidence and gives you a healthy glow and releases natural feel-good chemicals into the brain. Whereas surgery and medication can have some pretty unpleasant unexpected results if proper research is not done beforehand. There is a recklessness which drives us towards 'quick-fix' solutions rather than the hard graft of push ups, bench presses and running hard miles.
If the quick fix is your chosen route, then make sure you get as much information about the process via an independent review of surgeons or a weight loss pills review before you embark on a idealistic solution that may turn out to be less than ideal.

Results for May 2009

This month has been a truly puzzling month for me. I had plenty of PU2Blog bonus opps at the start of the month, but they have quickly dried up - when that happens you think you are in for a good month, then nothing comes in for a few weeks and the average earnings start to drop. A few opps have dropped into my lap from other sources and I thought I had some link sales, but nothing came of it. All-in-all a month of expectations more than actual results. On the 'up' side, I enjoyed doing the 'intenet money makers' feature and have been fairly successful in getting a new website ranked for it's main keyword - all I need to do now is sort out how I am going to monetise it...
This new project is hopefully going to be a site that I can set up and leave - I am hoping that a combination of Adsense and eBay affiliate ads will provide enough to justify it's upkeep - If it works out I may well be building several other sites on the same model. The last thing I need is a host of extra sites that need constant updating though...
Earnings for May 2009 have been just over $65 with about $136 being paid into my Paypal account from previous months. The drop in blogging earnings seems set to continue which is why other projects are becoming more important - I hope I have opened up a new stream of revenue, but the monetisation is the key, and it remains to be seen whether I can convert SERP into traffic, and then traffic into revenue.

Money Maker Interviews...Overview..

I hope you were able to get something from the Internet Money makers Interview feature that has been running here for the last week or so. There has been three very different interviewees giving some great advice on the different ways that people are using the internet to boost their income.
We started with Rachel who is a real inspiration to those who are looking to make a living whilst looking after youngsters at home. I hesitate to use the term 'Mummy blogger' as that maybe implies an air of happy amateurism. Rachel is not blogging for pin-money, she makes some serious dough through hard work and determination.
Next we saw Greg who is a real live internet entrepreneur in the making - I have always used that expression in a slightly jokey way about Greg, but in a very short time he has shown how vision and bravado can bring you a real income from the internet. Greg is a visionary and has used the tools that he has to carve out some real income - one of his greatest skills is to get people on board who can help him to bring his dreams to reality.
Finally we met Linky Love who always strikes me as an enigma, a mystery you never know quite what Linky is going to get into next, but you do know that it is going to be clever and well-done. Linky very kindly attributes some inspiration to me, but to be fair Linky has ploughed furrows that I would never even have thought of.

Sincere thanks to all three contributers, I may add to this feature but right now, I think these three have given enough ideas to encourage anyone to explore their internet earning potential.

Internet Money Makers #3

Name: Linky Love

Main projects: French Swear Words, Linky Love, Asian Dating and new: Make fast money online

Start of Internet earnings: April 2007
Current rate of earnings: Above $400 (above $1000 before the global crisis and before starting my steady day job)

How did you start off your online earning capers: After reading how Jay earned money writing posts, I started linkylove.net. Idea was 'without spending a dime' attract as fast as possible:

• a high PageRank
  
• lots of inbound links
  
• lots of unique visitors

Writing for money paid well until Google slapped PageRanks. Meanwhile I had met lots of other online money makers and learned from each of them.

What money making ideas have you tried:

• Paid to blog (see Jay's list in his monthly earnings)
  
• Contextual Advertisement (Kontera, Infolinks, Adsense, Bidvertiser, Adbrite, Local Malaysian Advertisers)
  
• Paid in Advance Advertisement (TextLinkAds, Linkworth, Projectwonderful, Scratchback :-)
  
• Affiliate Programs (Paydotcom, DealDotCom, Moreniche, Clickbank, CJ, Shareasale, LinkSynergy, Clixgalore, Friendfinder, VirtuaGirlHD)

The best way to make money for newbies

• First read my Trade Secret Tips On SEO That Gurus Do Not Want You To Know.
  
• Then start a blog and put Adsense on it:
  
• a blog doesn't need any advanced planning
  
• adsense is easy to setup, almost everybody can join
  
• adsense contextual ads will show you which of the topics you write about make money: so you learn what to write about in future :-)

• Make online friends: 2 know more than 1, 2 can do more than 1
  
• Never invest more than 100$ on Ebooks, unless that's less than 10% of your revenue
  
• Once you buy an Ebook: do what it says. Only when your Ebook didn't make as much money as you paid for it, ask your money back.

See what others are doing: learn, copy and improve their strategy. Personally I like to learn from people like Jay who show both their spending as their earnings.

The best way to make money for 'oldbies':

• Plan your next move
  
• Put your eggs in more than one basket
  
• Improve:
  
• climbing the make-money ladder (from Adsense being the lowest, selling ad space, being an affiliate to letting others sell your products)
  
• your level on the ladder (many Adsense earners do make an easy 4 figures $$$$)
  
• your Return On Investment where time is an issue (although I no more make 4 figures online, the time I gain making less I re-use for both a day and a parttime job)

What are you working on next?

• Make fast money online where I will re-park all my make money posts from Linky Love
  
• Look for more ways to earn money both offline and online. Online that will be:
  
• try out new possible earnings at linkylove.net
  
• make linkylove.net what people expect from reading its name: a site about love.

Thanks Jay !... for showing your way of making money online.

When you feel we should do any new project together, feel free to contact me...

Thanks Linky for helping me out with this feature and continuing to be both an inspiration and an encourager - I like the way you always come at things from unexpected angles... Jay

dNeero Surveys

I have actually been paid out by dNeero surveys this month, I always said I would do a survey for charity once I had been paid... this is it a survey on Memorial Day - in the UK we call it 'Remembrance'...

Internet Money Makers #2

Name: Greg Barnaby
Main projects: FreeCashMoneyGifts, SurveyTube, and long term project RewardKingdom

Start of internet earnings: January 2007 I believe was when I decided to put my foot forward.
Current rate of earnings: right now my company Barnaby Media is doing $6k USD a month in revenue.
How did you start off your online earning capers: I first started with Payperpost and other pay per post sites, as well trying with Adsense.
What money making ideas have you tried:
Well Adsense, Paid Posts, Plus now I am a GPT site owner, PayPerLead and Forum owner as well.
What would you say now is the best way to make money online for newbies and for those who have been around a bit? Tough to say. ..if you can refer people to sites then I would say that GPT sites can earn you a bit of money and win prizes. For newbies the fastest way to earn I would say is through GPT sites.. Otherwise making sites with content that would build up over time and earn Adsense one day. Never do the PTC sites. you earn pennies at a time and never worth it.

What are you working on next? I am working on surveytube which will be launched in the next couple of weeks. Once that is done and running I have planned a bigger project... RewardKingdom. That will be a bigger site with a more targeted audience, with hopefully bigger earnings. I wouldn't say I have arrived yet. Still not hit the 10k a month in revenue. 2009 looks to be on pace for a 60k in revenue year - the economy is definitely slowing my growth down. Though I do have plans once the 2 sites are up and running which would eventually become a full time gig if it plans out. Right now it looks like I am in the GetPaidTo field and here to stay for now. The competition is tough like in anything online now that you are trying to make money with.

A highlight of my career so far online is finally getting freecashmoneygifts.com up and running. A low-light was screwing up an auction on sitepoint for MyLOL.net had agreed to Buy it now with seller for 5k but forgot to hit the 'buy-it-now' button instead I just bid.. so hours before we were to finish the deal some b@$tard doubled my bid and the guy screwed me over and sold it to him. Yes I am still bitter about it....

Thanks to Greg for participating in this feature and best wishes with your future projects, you are certainly developing into the entrepreneur that you always threatened to be...

Interview with a money maker #1

Name: Rachel Henderson
Main projects: http://www.turnonepoundintoonemillion.com and http://www.losingweightandgettinghealthy.com and http://www.bowbridgepublishing.com and http://waterproofmemoboards.com
Start of internet earnings: January 2003
Current rate of earnings About £1500 ($2500) a month at best
How did you start off your online earning capers: selling books on eBay and my own website
What money making ideas have you tried:
paid forum posting, pay to click, doubling, blogging for money, selling links on my websites, selling links and blogposts for other people, blog post, ebook and short article writing, selling artists prints, publishing books
What would you say now is the best way to make money online for newbies and for those who have been around a bit? If you have some established websites then link sales are easy and quick writing sponsored blog posts is also good but you need to have a high page ranking blog.
What are you working on next? Article writing is bringing in a lot of money at the moment but I am always looking for new ways to make money
Comments : Do not invest too much money in projects, take the advice of others but do not be talked into expensive investments and advertising without thinking it through hard first. The worst investments I made were in advertising and trying to sell things which other people told me there was a market for but there was not.

Thanks Rachel for being so willing to share your experiences, you remain a great example of how a decent online income can be made with a bit of effort and drive.

Internet money makers..

Starting on Monday, I am beginning a new feature about making money via the internet. I have contacts with some internet earners who I have watched build up their internet businesses for the last couple of years.
I have asked them a set of questions including the schemes they have tried, how much they are earning and what their current projects and plans are. My idea is to demonstrate how real earnings can be made using the internet if you are prepared to put the work in. Make no mistake, the people who will be featured here have a common trait, they have exceptional work ethics...
What will become clear is that to make good money online, you will need determination and a pioneering spirit. The first post in this feature will be published on Monday (18th May) and followed up with a second post on Thursday (21st) - make sure you read the posts to get an insight into how some regular folk have built up the sort of earnings that would justify leaving the rat-race and working for yourself at home.

New Ideas...

In the world of internet earnings, one often discovers that something works well for a season and then over time, becomes less effective - such is the nature of the internet as the only true democracy...
New ideas are the life-force of an internet venture, and if you don't have them, you may as well give up now. I do get the occasional idea, however seeing them through to fruition is a whole different matter - I am stuck into a new project at the moment, but am finding it difficult to give it the attention it requires. On the other hand, the 'old' online money making ideas are making less than they used to so some fresh impetus is required.
I am forming another idea about how to open up some new possibilities for munny4hunny, so watch this space...

I am not a big fan of tattoos..

The latest survey from dNeero is all about tattoos, and whether you think they are attractive. Personally I think that it is rare that a tattoo looks nice, and will never have one of my own. Sadly I believe that tattoos are largely a fashion item, and unless you want to be wearing the same fashion when you are seventy years old - I wouldn't recommend having one...
On the other hand henna tattoos can look attractive and can easily be removed (not that I plan to have any of those either).

Equestrian equipment

I found the perfect site for a friend of mine, her husband has a penchant for riding breeches, and I must say the aforementioned clothing does look becoming on a shapely posterior... (I should say that he likes to observe than rather than wear them).
Horse-riding is of course popular all around the world, and the hobby requires a range of specialist equipment, not least a safety helmet. Most learners will rely on a stable or club to provide equipment, acquiring the proper kit as the interest deepens. We have a riding school surprisingly nearby even though I live in a busy city - if it's not too expensive, I would like to take my little one to try it out when she's old enough.

North Carolina rentals

The very sound of North Carolina conjures up images of sunshine and beaches, and there is something about American homes, such as in the picture of this Outer Banks rentals property that give an impression of space and light which our drab brick buildings in the UK sadly lack. Of course having the climate helps...

Rentals are a great way to become absorbed into the culture of the place you are visiting and can be very cost-effective if you have a group of family or friends traveling with you..
Living in the community rather than in a hotel gives you a unique insight into that community and brings you into touch with locals rather than fellow travelers.

Twittering

Love it loathe it, twitter is making an impact, and this time celebrities are catching on - like they don't have enough exposure...
Latest dNeero survey is all about celebrities on twitter - click on the widget to get involved - get paid to answer surveys, posting surveys on your blog and for answering dNeero twitters...

Weight loss

I have never had need of weight loss pills due to my high metabolic rate. In fact I do vigorous exercise twice a week, but I believe even if I didn't do the exercise I still would not put on any weight.
Most people are not so fortunate and have to consider carefully their intake of calories and their exercise regime. Even if you use medication in the short-term, you don't want to use it for ever, so a sensible lifestyle is the ultimate solution to maintaining a good body-shape.

Rubber Stamp Champ

To give your office-work that professional look, or to help with categorising your paperwork, nothing works better than custom rubber stamps. In the office that I work in, we use a stamp to indicate that a document has been scanned - this prevents confusion over whether we have an electronic copy of that document.
In the last place I worked, they used a stamp to put a circulation list onto a document - so that the circulation list was stamped right onto the document itself rather than relying on post-its that might get detached.

Advancement in diet technology

Apparently Phenphedrine is a suppressant which stimulates the natural signals within the brain to tell you that you have had enough to eat. this type of medication whilst powerful and effective should only be used very carefully and within strict guidelines. I would encourage anyone who is considering diet medication of this type to gather as much information as they can and to get some professional medical advice.
Our bodies need food for nutrition and there are obvious reasons why this type of remedy should only be used in strictly controlled conditions.

Summer is coming..

We have already had our fist barbecue of the season to make up for the fact that we hardly used the barbie last year at all. However this has highlighted the fact that our patio chairs and table are in need of renewal. Someone leaned on the table a little too hard and there was an ominous cracking sound which does not bode well. I have tried to look after this patio set really well, painting them every year with patio furniture treatments, but I guess it is time to bid farewell to the table at least..

I'm thinking the seating in this picture probably doesn't need painting?!?

Sadly we are also going to need a new parasol, I have patched this one up so many times it is looking very sorry for itself, with concerns about exposure to sun rays you can't afford to skimp on a decent shade.

Earnings April 2009

Some last minute PayU2blog opportunities have helped to prop up earnings for this month, earnings which are very welcome at the moment. I have had two lots of bonus opps in the last few months which has given me a boost of about $60. Along with other earnings for the month, a total in the region of $130 has been generated from my blogs this month, and payouts have been good too. I have reached my third payout for MyLot, and am fairly close to payout for dNeero. Other survey schemes are still a long way from payout and I am having to think seriously about avenues that I want to pursue and avenues that should now be dropped.
I have some ideas I want to develop which will be designed to bring in some adsense earnings, but as ever, success or not remains to be seen... I was going to buy a specific domain for this project, but I am uncertain whether the interest that I THINK is there is really there at all. This is a very specific niche that I want to exploit, and a '.co.uk' domain is available now, however I am going to develop it as a URL on an existing domain instead and see if I can get traffic to it. If it gets any SERPS positioning, then I will probably get a domain and develop the project further. I will try to document the project as I go and post about it on my web development blog which has not had any fresh content for a long time.