2008 Summary

A while ago, I speculated on how many posts I would have completed by the end of the year, and I am pleased to find that I have exceeded expectations. I expected to have 935 posts under my belt in the two years I have been blogging, but can reveal that this is my 957th ever blog post (488th on Munny4Hunny)... and I have earned almost USD2000 from my blogs in that time.
I have reported my earnings every month since the first dollars hit my Paypal account on this blog, my other blogs are less blatant ;)
I run a separate internet enterprise and earn some Adsense from other sites which has generated more income which I do not include as part of my blog earnings. My philosphy is not merely to amass income, but to do so in a way which remains enjoyable to me. There are certain subjects that I will not promote even when the pickings are rich, and I am not a big fan of PTC sites even though many of my internet friends use this method (one even started a PTC site...).
I hope my observations and experiences have been useful to someone somewhere as earnings has never been the only motive for this blog even though sometimes the content does not seem to reflect those ideals.
It remains to say Happy New Year and happy blogging and browsing in 2009.

The lull before New Year

I am getting ready to write up my summary of 2008 and preparing for what 2009 has to offer. It is his time of year that has us thinking about how we are going to do things better in the future. Our New Years resolutions may well include some ideas about how we might work better, get fit or encourage healthy cooking in our homes.
A healthy mind and healthy body are effective for success in all walks of life and should be the starting point for future planning. We are usually indulging ourselves with left-over turkey and boxes of chocolates in the lull between Christmas and New Year - what better time to work out how we are going to sort ourselves out financially and physically in the next 12 months?

Christmas Survey

To get you in the mood for Christmas, here is a Christmas survey from dNeero. Don't forget you can earn money for completing surveys, and more money for posting them on a blog or social site. Just click on the survey below to take part...

Diet pills

I have taken a few days off to do my Christmas shopping and my brain is being taxed to the limit as my family have not given me many clues as to what they want for Christmas. I like to buy practical gifts, but prefer to be told what someone wants rather than waste money on something that is not going to be used. Some of my more imaginative presents would include diet pills which should be particularly useful at Christmas (or at least the new year!), fake snow because we rarely get snow where I live, and ear-plugs to ensure someone gets the rest they really need during the holiday season.

More Tech Advice...

One more tip for getting the most of your older PC set up involves your virtual memory or 'swap file'. Your PC virtual memory is a memory file set aside on your hard-disk (C:Drive by default) this memory is utilised by programs that you have running. I can offer no advice on the size of the file (something that can be configured within the virtual memory management), but I have come up with two good reasons why you might consider moving the location of this file.

1. You may be getting short of space on your main drive, moving what is often a very large file, can free up some vital room.
2. If you have added hard-drives (as I have) you may discover that later drives actually run faster, offering a chance to speed up the entire system a little. I checked this out on my PC and found that my original hard-disk was 5400rpm, whereas the disk I had recently added was 7200rpm.

You can even assign virtual memory to an external drive if you want, but I settled for this newer internal drive that I bought primarily just for extra storage. My computer/C: Drive/properties/hardware will give you the names of your hard disks. I Googled these names to get the spec. including the speed of the drive.
Control Panel/System/Advanced/Performance settings/Advanced/Virtual Memory/Change - gives you your current settings. If you decide to move the file, keep the settings the same just add the same settings to another drive and select 'set'. Don't forget to remove the settings from the previous set-up otherwise you end up with two swap files running at the same time (like I did! - don't worry, it doesn't do any harm...).
You will need to restart your system for the changes to take effect. On my XP pro installation, the virtual memory is identified as a 'pagefile.sys' file, on my previous Win 98SE installation, I think it was called 'swapfile'.

Home networks

More and more people are building or buying servers for home networks as IT begins to infiltrate the home. A few years ago, you would be one of the few if you had a PC and internet access at home, it is now the norm to have broadband and a wireless network. As more home users are added, more PC's will be in the home requiring a network to share an internet connection. Not many homes run a 'proper' server network, but with the advent of media-sharing and component sharing (ie. one printer shared by the PC's in a house) the more it is likely that homes will start to have their own dedicated servers like business networks. You can create a low-end server from an old PC, or a piece of discarded business equipment like a used cisco or blade server. To buy a dedicated network Operating System will cost several hundred dollars, but XP pro will run as a server O/S with just a few adjustments. Linux is another alternative for those who don't want to spend a lot of money, but you would be well-advised to join some linux forums first, as support for free software is in scant supply....

For the man who has everything

If you need a Christmas present for the man in your life, but his tastes are expensive and he has already bought himself everything he wants, consider his hobbies...
Does he need some of those mufflers he can put on his golf clubs? Does he need a silver spoon to eat his caviar? or some Ferrari parts for that yellow monstrosity gathering dust in his garage??
Even rich people need accessories that don't cost the earth, though admittedly a set of tires for a Ferrari would not doubt cost more than 6 months of my wages...

Dream Holiday

Holidays are not really on my agenda until we have dispensed with our frugal lifestyle (ie. when we finally find ourselves with some excess money!!), but we can dream...
I would love to go back to a few places that we visited when we were younger and a little more reckless with our money. Southern France calls me as do the many friends we should revisit in Malta, I would love to see more of the US, and my little one would be particularly impressed with any Disney vacations that might be on the horizon.
I have visited some of the Northern states of the US but have not yet had the good fortune to head for the beaches of Florida. there can be no more complete holiday for a child than one that features Mickey Mouse...

Still not want to go Vista?

I am one of those who is very happy with my XP installation and have XP Pro on my works laptop and both of the PC's that I use at home (one of those PC's is too old to run Vista anyway). Despite thinking seriously about Linux for some time, I still haven't had the courage to go down that route yet.
I am not yet ready to embrace Vista unless forced to and will be contect to wait for the next generation OS to come along from Windows. So how do we keep XP running in the meantime? There are a number of routine steps that you can take to keep your XP installation in tip-top condition and some of these are listed below:

• Have sufficient anti-virus and spyware cover - I use two free pieces of software to do this AVG FREE for anti-virus and SPYBOT S&D (Google for them if you want to download them) both of these programs are highly-rated and highly effective and offer free updates.
• Keep your disks uncluttered and well-maintained. If you have on board disk management so much the better, but there are some simple steps you can take to keep your disks running to their optimum. Use the Check-disk facility (my computer/right click on the disk/properties/tools) regularly - you may have to restart the PC for this to work. From the same tools tab, use disk defragmenter regularly too. To clear off unwanted files from your disks, try 'CCleaner' - this can dig out Megabytes of filespace and free it up for a cleaner system.
• Once you have been through all the maintenenace steps (scanned for viruses and spyware, checked and defrag'd your disks and cleaned out the redundant files - create a system restore point so that you can go back to those settings if anything goes wrong in the future. Having an up to date clean system restore point will means that recovery from errors will not be too much hard work. (Accessories/System tools/System restore).

These three simple steps will keep you ahead of the game and help to keep your XP O/S up to scratch pending a shiny new system from Windows. If you have to reinstall your O/S (which is a good way to 'clean' your system anyway..) it makes sense to create a new XP disk incorporating SP3 to speed up the process - there are other short-cuts you can introduce when creating your new start-up disk, but I will save the details for another day probably after I have tried it myself and can report on how easy this is to do.

Looking for work

Looking for a job in these financially tight times is a task for which you are going to need some help if you want to be effective. Firstly you need to sketch out your resume and have an idea of the job and salary that you are looking for. Next you should sign up with some job websites related to your specific field of work or geographical location. Many sites have an option for you to post your resume online to enable prospective employers to short-list for example from a list of Dallas resumes or engineers resumes etc...
The more specific area that the website is aimed at, the better chance you have of getting short-listed for the job of your dreams. If you have been out of the job-market for a while you may need to brush up on your interview technique too. get friends to help you. or some work agencies may be able to help you with that too.

Even more diet pills..

I am starting to get goggle-eyed over the many different forms of diet pills there are out there and ever more tongue-tied with their names. the latest one I have come across is called Ephedra eca stack and contains caffeine and aspirin (Ephedra Caffeine Aspirin - get it...??)
Now you know right off that some people are sensitive to aspirin, so it is as well to be informed about what these medications consist of. From what I know, caffeine is used as a stimulant to push drugs around the body quicker, so that explains what the caffeine is doing there. There have been restrictions on the use of ephedra/ephedrine in some places in the past so make sure you do your own thorough research before taking anybody's word for the effectiveness of this drug.

An unsafe world

If you have felt the need for some personal protection as part of your job or day to day life then there are a host of self defense products you can carry to help give you a little more confidence while roaming those mean streets.
You may have read about the latest stun gun disguised as a mobile phone, and thought about carrying a pepper spray or other self protection devise. If you decide to purchase a device of this nature, be aware of how it can be used safely and local restrictions on these products. In many countries you would not normally be permitted, and some US states do not allow carrying stun guns.

November Earnings

Earnings took a bit of a drop this month, but to be honest I put less effort into paid blogging and concentrated on other online projects. On the positive side I have been paid by Adsense again this month - the fourth payout in 2008, and that will help to see me through the Christmas period. I should just point out that I don't record Adsense earnings as blog earnings except where the earnings are directly attributable to blogs rather than other online projects.
This months' total earnings were just a little over $73, which is lower than recent months. The majority of earnings coming via PayU2Blog. I am working out a new blog project at the moment which is going to be considerably different to previous projects, I'm not even sure if I can monetise it as yet and it may be a while before I am ready to unveil anything. I am thinking of going 'Wordpress' for the first time and am researching the most cost-effective way of doing that. Most services seem to charge about $6.95 a month to host Wordpress, and I was disappointed to find that GoDaddy seem to be more expensive as they are my favourite domain-purchasing service. More about this to follow...

Diet supplement

Are you aware that 97% of diet supplement don't work? You have to look long and hard to find something really effective that is going to suit your body and lifestyle. You should get a lot of good advice before embarking on any course of treatment which includes supplements or medication of any sort. Don't forget that on 3% of what is available on the market is in any way effective, so there is a much better chance of being ripped off than there is of having good results.
How do they get away with it? Basically they exploit a weakness, they know that their clients won't make a fuss and will think it is their own fault if they don't lose weight, and they are happy to peddle useless pills and potions on a basis of empty promises.

dNeero surveys

With the demise of one fixed adverts scheme last week, it's going to be difficult to find a replacement - I am thinking of looking at some new affiliates maybe shifting out some old ones that don't work. One scheme that does provide a few cents here and there is dNeero surveys, they are mostly extremely simple to complete, and very easy to display on your blog (although you can still earn something for the survey without displaying it). It will not replace the type of income that fixed adverts do, but there is the advantage of earning from your downline up to three tiers and I am happy to say I have a downline that includes eleven individuals (of which three are active) which generates a few cents for me. I have not made payout yet, but I am getting there slowly. You can join the scheme by clicking on the survey below take a few surveys and see just how easy it is...

Site Maintenance

Well I finally got around to removing my 'matched.co.uk' adverts today and also am happy to report that they did pay my November payment after all a couple of days after the closing down announcement. I worked out that in the short time I was signed up to them, they paid out £175 (couldn't guess what that is in dollars now...). In the current economic climate, we are better off with dollar-paying schemes than UK£ payouts at the moment. I had got used to accounting for all my £ earnings at a basic $2=£1 rate, this is no longer the case.

Of course, as I was converting all my earnings to £ anyway, I am now getting a much better rate for the US$ payouts. This is welcome news as I await a Adsense payout next month, which will be the fourth one in a 12 month period.
My next task must be to find all the 'matched' affiliate adverts and remove those, I will them try submitting new pages to the other fixed advets schemes that I use - you can see more about monetisation for websites on my 'livewyre.net' pages. The end of the month is drawing in, and my paid to blog activity has been low this month compared with last month and the earnings will no doubt reflect that.

Holiday plans

I find Christmas holidays a difficult time of year where the winding up of the years business meets the endless list of parties, gatherings and performances to be endured or enjoyed. Suffice to say I get somewhat stressed over how I am going to fit everything in. Life has been hectic enough in the last few months, add to that a host of dates to cram into the first three weeks of December along with all the regular commitments and the whole thing is enough to make you succumb to whatever bug is currently doing the rounds.

The good news is that I have a week of holidays left over (not that I can afford to go away - although that would get me out of a whole load of obligations!), in which I will be expected to do all the odd jobs around the house that have been building up. The bathroom light fixtures need some attention, the woodwork in the hallway needs replacing after we had new floor tiles - there are a million and one other little tasks, but I find setting a realistic target of just a couple of jobs allows me to relax in the knowledge that I have at least got some of these jobs cleared off my 'to-do' list before the New Year kicks in and the 'to do' list starts again...

Christmas Present Ideas

I think I am easy to buy for at Christmas as I have always loved traditional man-gadgets ie: watches, pens, briefcases the sort of item that makes a subtle statement about who you are and what you are about. I like classic styling with a twist and I like certain brands:
Pens: Parker, MontBlanc or any other recognisable make
Watches: Swatch is my favourite
Briefcases or suitcases: Has to be Samsonite
These are the type of item you can buy duplicates of, never mind if your man has a watch, if it's more than 12 months old, he will be thinking about getting a new one anyway.. You can have as many pens as you like, and a new briefcase is always welcome. Those are my tips for man-gifts this Christmas - and... Please don't buy your man moisturizer whatever the TV adverts say!!

Matched.co.uk is no more...

What a shame, a nice little earner providing fixed adverts for fixed monthly payments has closed down this week - emails were sent to publishers, and I am gutted to have missed the last months' payment. This is what the email said, and is now posted on the matched.co.uk website:

It is with much regret that we announce that Matched.co.uk has closed.

Matched has been running as a beta experiment for some time and, after much careful consideration, it has been decided not to progress the project to the next stage.

I wondered if they are planning to sell the domain to matched.com?? but if that were the case, they would surely just move their operation to a new domain... These are not the only provider of this type of service, and hopefully this won't be the start of a trend. Having fixed adverts at fixed rates brings in a guaranteed monthly income which can easily cover any hosting costs a small site may have. Matched used to pay £3 per month for each advert hosted up to a maximum of £75 per month.

Spy Camera

When I was growing up, the world of secret spying, invisible ink and the spy camera were just fantasy play ideas. You could buy toy kits with plastic cameras and other spy paraphernalia, but now these things are widely available for real and at a price your average person can easily afford. Whether for industrial alarm systems or domestic surveillance/protection, you can easily pick up a quality multi-camera system for very little outlay. Not only that, but this type of equipment is not even difficult to set up. You don't have to be a security expert to have a system up and running in no time. Expanded memory avaialability also means that images and audio can be stored on hard-drives negating the need for endless piles of tapes lying around the place.
Todays surveillance systems are inexpensive, high quality and easy to install which accounts for why there are so many of them installed.