Editing the blogger HTML

Admittedly I was initially reluctant to do this, but found that unless I wanted a site that was identical to everyone else’s (or switched to Word-press) I was going to have to dive in there…

First off, you are offered the chance to download your template before you start messing around with it – this is a good idea.. click on the 'save template' button and then 'download full template' every time that you make a successful change, so that you can always take a step back and reverse a mistake by uploading a working template that you previously saved.
Try it and make sure it works…Once you have saved your template you can start experimenting to see what parameters can be changed, safe in the knowledge that you can always upload a default template.

Here goes then:
Log into Blogger dashboard/layout/edit HTML - Click on ‘download full template’ to save a copy of the HTML on your own hard-drive.
If you want to put your ‘description’ and keyword tags in, search for the 'head' tag and place them after this along with the other meta tags (NB the ‘title’ tag uses the variable: ‘data:blog.pageTitle’ – this is presumably linked to the entry that you make in the ‘title’ field in ‘Settings/Basic’) I suppose you could overwrite this, but I haven’t done(yet…)

I started by changing the pixel-width of my sidebar – I searched the term sidebar and changed width values until it looked how wanted it, then I decided that I didn’t like the dotted line… I noticed that the term ‘dotted’ in the code and simply took a guess that changing ‘dotted’ to ‘none’ would do the trick, and hey presto – line gone!

Your header can easily be changed in the dashboard, and I have used ‘layout/page elements/add a page element’ to include some HTML for navigation buttons which are very simple – I was pleased that some people have commented on the buttons so I may post about how I did them, but really they are very, very simple to do.

First steps in SEO

I have talked about simple SEO [Search Engine Optimisation] and practiced some SEO on other websites, even getting good levels of success doing just that in my day-job. I have not as yet, really got to grips with SEO on a blog. Today I took the first simple steps to rectify that and placed some meta-tags in my blogger template.
There is some debate over whether there is any value in 'keyword' since it has been over-used and abused in the past, yet the consensus is that when used properly, it may help and can certainly do no harm... If you don't believe me take a look at the HTML of the home page at eBay - they certainly know how to get a site noticed, and yes they use keyword along with 'description' and 'title'.
Now 'title' already exists in the blogger template and can be edited in blogger settings, but there is no 'keyword' or 'description', so why not put them in? I went to blogger dashboard, layout, edit HTML and just placed in the tags and saved the template. Simple huh?
If you want to know more about what the tags look like, there is an article on Livewyre.NET discussing tags and their format... feel free to click on 'view/page source' in your browser to see the tags in place on munny4hunny.

Get paid to blog with Smorty.com

Trying to keep a blog fresh every day is not the easiest of tasks, and it is all too easy to get side-tracked from your main themes.
For those who don’t know, this site started as ‘an investigation of paid to blog schemes’ and remains true to that aim, even though the remit has widened to include articles on software and blogging competitions etc..
Today I am right back on track reviewing Smorty.com a unique service connecting web advertisers with bloggers, providing an easy means of monetising a blog. Smorty.com is one of the prime movers in the blog advertising world, and there are a number of reasons why you should consider using them if you want to blog for money:

1. The process of signing up is quick and painless
2. There are regular varied opportunities to take and payments range from $6 to $10.80
3. They pay out within a week (via Paypal) and there is no minimum payout
4. You can register more than one blog

These are just a few of the reasons that you might choose to investigate smorty.com as a means to get paid for blogging. Smorty has rules like any other service, but I have found that their tasks are not difficult to complete, they don’t try to make you jump through hoops and they never insist that endorse a product against your wishes. You may be asking why I call Smorty unique? Well it’s all about point 3 above, they don’t make you wait 30 days before the money gets into your Paypal account…

EzMoneyOn.NET offers a $100 prize..

It's about time we featured another blog contest here, and this one comes courtesy of the ContestBlogger who continues to provide an excellent supply of information regarding internet contests and competitions.
I am particularly fond of competitions that guarantee at least something for taking part, and this contest is offering link love from his make money online blog to every participant. For the winners, the following prizes are up for grabs:

First prize: $100 cash (via PayPal or MoneyBookers)
Second prize: 1000 Entrecard credits
Third prize: Free 125×125 banner design

There are a few ways of taking part including writing a blog post and using the anchor text of 'make money online' along with the usual options of subscribing to the RSS feed in a reader or via email - click thru' to the contest post to get the full rules...

The contest will be ending on March 11th and the winner will be chosen using random.org, and announced on 12th March. To ratify your entry, please leave a comment against the original contest post.

myLot User Profile

PayPerPost opens up...

PPP is famous for having strict rules about your blog needing to be 90 days old with 20 posts etc.. etc.. Well the big news is that they are slackening off their rules and allowing blogs at only 30 days old with 10 posts to join the program.
They have had the 90 day rule for a long time and one can't help wondering if this is linked to the way that Google has treated paid bloggers by reducing their pagerank. Maybe PPP just needs new blogs on which to publish adverts to replace bloggers who have left the fold. Or maybe it is a way of adding more blogs to the IZEA pot so that there will be more bloggers appearing in the top half of the IZEA real-rank system...

The DOT COM experience

Having the Dot Com has concentrated my mind on trying to get the best I can out of this blog and consequently I have instigated some subtle design changes to reflect the new attitude I have towards the blog. If you choose to use your own domain within 'blogger' there is a warning that tells you that will need to be using a standard template. I must have made some changes to my header that did not conform to this standard template, and it took a lot of work to restore the header and it still isn't how I would want it - I have also noted that other 'edits' I have done to the template are now gone, so some 'fiddling' will be required. If I really want to take this any further and regain control over the blog, my next logical step would have to be to take the blog onto a wordpress platform.
To be honest I am not ready to move the whole platform, so I am going to tinker with the blogger site until I can get it as near to how I want it to be. If anyone else is thinking of going Dot Com, then I would urge you do do it now especially if you have dropped PR recently as I think this might be a good way of responding to the 'Google slap' and it's possible that the new domain might not attract the same negative response as the old one did.
With this in mind, it is pretty imperative that I spend some time 'weeding out' references to paid posts and sponsored posts and the like... so that this new domain has the best chance of being given a PageRank as possible. I am happy with the layout for now, so will concentrate on cleaning up the blog in an attempt to comply with new Google PR criteria as far as I can guess what it might be.
As far as the Go-Daddy hosting is concerned (thanks to the Hot Dog Man for the heads up on Go-Daddy), they offer a free holding page edit program and an advanced 'Website tonight' feature which is basically a free 5-page website hosting included with your domain - what a great way to start on the internet, a whole 5 page website for the cost of a domain - $7...
Having this feature has enabled me to make a page that redirects any visitors to 'http://munny4hunny.com' straight to 'http://WWW.munny4hunny.com' using a javascript redirect. NB. blogger doesn't allow you to point both versions of the URL at your blog and the received wisdom is that you should use the 'www' version on your blog and use a redirect on the version without the 'www'.
I now feel more inclined to post at least four or five times a week if not daily, and may even go as far as having regular features... all this fresh attitude inspired by having the dot com is the perfect antidote to losing the Pagerank - It's time to fight back....

Munny4Hunny goes DOT COM!

Finally I got around to buying a domain for this blog. We are now officially residing at www.munny4hunny.com. I have had the domain for a few days and I just got round to redirecting the DNS, and found it remarkably straightforward. What's more, I got the domain from Go Daddy for a little over $7 for a year - one step nearer pro-blogging for the price of a Starbucks...
The blogspot remains active for old visitors, but I hope to drive some new traffic and raise some new revenue with the 'dot com' status.
Thanks to Rachel for going ahead of me, blogger for the instructions and Glamumous for posting a great article to help those who are thinking about doing this.

A survey on gossip

I find myself quite enjoying these paid surveys from dNeero - this latest one is about celebrity news issues and how you feel about them - even though the questions were basically around news in the USA, I found that I did have an opinion, and in some cases I actually cared!!

If you want to complete the survey yourself (and get paid..) click on the widget to take part - you don't have to put the results into a blog, you can just take the surveys and get paid anyway...

Nice Contest Arun!

ArunTheAce has launched a new contest which offers some cool prizes such as a Deluxe Hosting Package at Godaddy for one year! including domain name is also included, a Sticky for one month at a Make Money Online forum and also get a Header Ad Spot at Aruntheace.com, and a Youtube Niche Video site with domain name. See the original article to get the details including the prize that EVERY participant will receive regardless of whether they win one of the main prizes....

To be the winner you must write a review about his blog.
I have some rules for the contest and the rules are as follows.

1. The review should be at least 100 words.
2. You have to link to the main page of my blog with the anchor text ?Earn money online?.
3. The contest page should be linked with the anchor text ?Link Love Contest?.
4. Porn or Illegal blogs are not allowed.
5. Only one review per blog is allowed.
6. A link to main page and the contest page is must.

The contest is open until 29th Feb. The winners will be selected from a random draw. The winner will be announced on 1st March.

Here is my review:

AruntheACE.com, is an attractive blog packed with ideas for earning money via the internet and with your blog... Right now he is running a Link Love Contest which offers a free gift to every participant. My main reason for participating is because the gift is worth having even if I don't win the main prize... Since I am reviewing the site, I am going to recommend one of his recent posts regarding making money with a blog.
Why not browse over to ArunTheAce.com, read some interesting articles and then take part in the contest giving yourself a chance to win a major prize, with the certainty of getting a reward whether you win or not?

When you finish your blog entry, contact Arun with the URL to the post.

Monetising with 'Matched.co.uk'

Everyone is familiar with Adsense and how you can monetise a website with Google Adsense adverts. UK users will also be aware that Google is withdrawing their affiliate scheme for Adsense so that users can no longer earn from referrals. All is not lost however, I stumbled across a new scheme which is UK-based (and therefore pays in ££££) which provides simple non-contextual fixed ads for a fixed price.

Matched.co.uk provide HTML or PHP adverts of various sizes for insertion into a website or a blog and pay a fixed £3 ($6) for each advert. Currently I have five pages accepted giving earnings of £15 per month, you can submit up to 5 pages per website, and up to five websites giving total potential earnings of £75 per month ($150).
You will need to submit the URL's on which you wish to place adverts, and if the page is approved, you will be allocated an advert. This advert is available in various shapes and sizes although the colours are fixed. When you have chosen the shape that fits an available spot on your page, you get the advertising code to insert.
When the code is in place, your page will be spidered to check that the code is active and after the alloted time, you will be paid straight into your bank account.
I presume that this service is geared towards the UK, and I am not sure whether blogspot blogs are acceptable (be sure there will be an advert in my sidebar soon if they are), I don't know the criteria for accepting pages but I do know that I am happy to allocate 125 x 125px of any of my pages for £3 per month... and they pay £5 per sign up... to the new recruit as well as the referrer.

Take surveys to make money

Today I tried out a new service called 'dNeero' - you can earn money by taking short surveys and posting the results on your blog. This is my first introductory survey, I will be taking more when I get into the swing of it to supplement earnings on this blog. Hopefully earnings will figure in the end of February report...
Payments are made via Paypal, and I was pleased to find out that UK bloggers are welcome to use the service - they sent me a very nice personal email when I asked them of non-US membership was allowed.
If you're looking for extra earnings, this seems like a good place to start.

Looking back on January 2008

It's been an interesting month, not a lot of blogging going on since Google removed PR, but still some earnings to report...
I am considering some changes, but I need to be sure that they will enhance income opportunities and that I can justify the time and effort.
All in all, I made just $30 this month from various activities, but mainly from a couple of $10 creamaid opportunities. Creamaid continues to surprise by occasionally coming up with the goods, and in case you don't know...they pay almost straight away, there's no hanging around for 30 days with creamaid. In order to reach $1000 for my first year of paid blogging, I will need to find just over $200 in February - I honestly don't expect to reach that target, but watch this space... Incidentally, having only earned $30 this month, as you can tell from the spreadsheet, I actually collected just over $58 including previous earnings.

Other earnings (not from blogs) include fixed adverts from and from The Ad Network if you want to earn regular income from a website, try these two schemes. Adsense for me is going from strength to strength , I reached my second payout in December, paid in January and have already over half-way to another $100 payout... I stress that the majority of Adsense earnings are NOT from blogs...

Blogger scam!

I had one of those scam emails today, you know a bit like the ones that say they are from your bank, but somehow they don’t seem to have put your name on the email? They want you to log-in to your account right now via the bogus hyperlink that they have helpfully supplied.

This time though it wasn’t from a bogus bank or even bogus Paypal, but from bogus Blogger. Supposedly there is a problem with the database and I need to log in to correct it…

Here’s the thing…. Google Blogger admin know my name… and my email address that I use to log in to blogger, so why didn’t they use my name, the name of my blogger account or my email address? (the email came into an unconnected email account). A scam, of course designed to lift important information from your Google account, maybe use your Google mail account or even substitute your adsense code for theirs… change the account details for where the adsense is paid or lift such banking information as is available.

If you have seen this email, [mine had a logo similar to the one shown in this post] and Heaven forbid, clicked on a link… change your log-on password right now, and go through all your Google account details to find out if you have been a victim of identity theft…

Slow start to 2008

Another month is drawing to a close and the final few dollars earned in 2007 have filtered through to my Paypal account. I have been busy spending money (mostly on Ebay) to upgrade my PC - seems only fair as the PC has enabled me to earn the money in the first place. I can now rearrange my home office as I have a slick new flat screen, and work faster with an extra 1GB RAM, work with more files on a new 30oGB internal hard-drive, and store more data etc.. on a new internal DVD writer (I bought an external one too, but it has not worked as well as I would have liked).
Earning patterns have shifted somewhat since November when Google took a stick to the PR of most bloggers that I know.
Outside of blogging earnings, Adsense has been steadily climbing to the point where I earned more from Adsense than I did paid blogging in December. I have also hooked up with another fixed adverts (non-contextual) service who have paid me about $15 so far and will pay me $30 next month if all goes well. This is added to the $30 a month or so that I get for hosting other paid ads (not on a blog though I should add...). This month I have been paid my second ever payout by Adsense ($120) and am already half way to another payout...
I do not include any of the earnings in the above paragraph as earnings via blogging, so they are not counted as munny4hunny earnings except where the adsense is from a blogspot blog (of which I currently have three active). I will report earnings more specifically (and I must remember to update the earnings graphic) at the end of January. My first reported earnings were in March 2007, so I figure I have to do an annual summary at the end of February... It would be nice if I could report blogging earnings of $1000 for the first year, but I think I may fall a little short of that figure since paid blogging is difficult with no PR...

$50 blog contest

Super-duper, easy peasy blog contests with plenty of cash on offer - what more could you want...?
Melbel has started a great new blogging contest for a $50 payout - the means of entry is simple, my choices will be to post an entry in a forum, leave a comment against the original post
See the original post here..
and post about it in at least one blog - so that's at least three entries for just 5 minutes typing...
For those that have not visited Mel's blog can I suggest that you take a trip over there to check out her new layout. It's a very cool template, nice and airy and quite different to the intense colours that used to be on her blog when I first visited.
Mel is recently married and has some bills to pay, her blog contains a mixture of personal posts on varying topics and some reporting of the ways she has been making money on the internet. Mel is a fan of sushi and is aiming to be an ebay powerseller. If you want to know any more, get over there and take a look yourself....
[competition now closed]

Negative comments

Occasionally, but happily not frequently.. a negative or rude comment is left on a blog - I was prompted to think about this when I saw some stupid comments on a very eminent blog just yesterday. I have one or two and at the time was disturbed by this approach in what is generally a very positive environment. I find the blogosphere to be generally full of enthusiastic and supportive people, often willing to help and give great advice. I guess like any walk of life, you sometimes come across the occasional idiot.
One comment I received had criticised my design capabilities which is always going to be a matter of personal subjective opinion. I was prompted to visit the site of the commenter and was greeted by a blog with a sum total of two posts clearly written by someone who was probably not old enough to drive. That's when I became more aware that of course there are some very young bloggers out there and, like the kids that might shout something rude across the street then run away if you turn to look at them... they do not always use a level of mature etiquette that the majority of bloggers do.
So the lessons learned are:

• Don't let it bug you if a 'kid' leaves a rude comment
• When commenting, be helpful even if you need to give positive criticism
• Even the best bloggers get idiots commenting on their blog, and are not afraid to leave the comments in place - why? because they are so popular, they can rely on at least four of their loyal readers to post indignant replies...

A comment is a comment after all...

Getting started with a blog

I wish I had been able to find more information about blogging when I started doing this about 12 months ago. It was really just a case of trial and error as a newbie blogger and doing lots of research to get to grips with the concepts of the blogosphere. A helpful guide to starting a blog has been produced and posted at Livewyre.NET. The guide talks about what a blog is and how to set one up, the idea of blogging for free, having your own domain and monetising your blog. If you haven't already started a blog and you are interested, why not take a look at the helpful article?
Other items of interest at Livewyre include free software, website designing and SEO hints and tips along with making money online help.

Rankrz - a review

There’s a new social site on the block and it’s called Rankrz – the idea being that you can rank anything that you’re interested in films, gadgets, operating systems, celebrities whatever…. You can start new listings, get involved in existing rankings and leave comments. There’s more to it than simple ranking sites because you can start discussions on your favourite subjects but it’s more structured than other chat/discussion sites.

Also, the other big bonus is that there appears to be the facility to enter your Adsense code to be paid out when Google Ads are clicked on the site.

I started a new heading (at least it didn’t appear to be listed elsewhere) under ‘making money online’, so if you want to get involved – get yourself registered (it’s a very simple process) and join my discussion – I am registered as ‘Livewyre’ on Rankrz. This is one of those sites that is bound to grow and it's always good to get in at the start...

Looking forward to 2008

Happy New Year!
It is difficult to predict what will happen in the blogosphere in 2008, many of us hoped that Google would not punish paid bloggers in 2007, but it happened all the same...
My December earnings were almost non-existent, but then I didn't really go looking for revenue, but sat back and was paid out for my hard(?) work in November. I made another $30 during December, but was paid out a huge (for me!) $240. I spent most of the money on PC upgrades and some equipment which will hopefully help me to make more online revenue in 2008.
Purchases:
Flat screen 17"(refurbished, ebay) $120
Hard drive 300GB (new, ebay) $80
External DVD writer (hardly used, ebay) $65
Extra 1GB RAM (new, ebay) $35
...and a few other bits and bobs which may help me to add another string to my internet-earnings bow.
I have a lot to be getting on with outside of my munny4hunny activities, hopefully this will not stop me posting here as I like to try to keep the ball rolling on as many projects as I can. I am currently applying a totally new template to one of my websites and attempting to add some meaningful content to another. I also am required to quickly get to grips with PHP for a commercial site that I am responsible for. That's enough for now, because I am on a strict regime of updating at least one page on my website every day (I haven't done todays yet) and I have to get up and go and do my 'real' job in six hours time...
The other good news I have is that my second ever Adsense payout is on the way and I actually earned as much from Adsense in December as I did by paid blogging!!

Happy Christmas

"Sticky until the Turkey has all gone...."

Well it IS that time of year after all, and I just wanted to wish any visitors that happen onto my blog a Very Happy Christmas. I am 'into' the real Christmas, it's not a time for getting fat, drunk and obnoxious, but a time to celebrate the gift of life that we have all been given. For some of us, that will also involve celebrating the birth of Jesus Christ. Even if that isn't your focus, have a very merry Christmas anyway.
I will be taking a few days away from the Internet to enjoy some family time next week as I tend to spend far too much time in front of a PC when I am at home. Batteries will be recharged for the new year, ready to drum up some serious traffic....

More about commenting

I realised today that I had said that commenting is good, but not really explored how the commenting might be done. So today's post will look at how commenting can be done in such a way that it might be effective in building traffic for your blog.
The first thing to note is that your blog must have content that will interest your visitors - might sound obvious, but what I am saying is that there is no point trying to drive masses of traffic to a blog that hasn't been updated for a month... also no point if you just have a stack of paid posts...
OK, that's the first hurdle out the way - make sure when you invite people to your 'home' that it is ready to welcome your visitors.

Next is the nitty-gritty of how to browse intelligently. I have two methods, both which I tried yesterday to good effect:
1) Visit a blog you are associated with (a friend, or favourite blog), look at the links in the sidebar and look for commentors who have left a URL to a blog - follow this and look for posts that you can usefully add something too in terms of a comment. Don't make it an advert, I would never follow a link from a 'spam' comment that says 'hey check out my blog for ways to make cash quick' in fact the chances are if you do that on my blog, I would probably delete it. Add something on topic and intelligent or - move on to another post. Leave one or two comments, then find another URL in the sidebar or from another commentor. One good reason for using a commentor URL is that you KNOW that they are in the habit of browsing around leaving comments - not always true of a static URL link.
2) Go to a social bookmarking site and look for blogs in a similar vein, then follow the advice above. It is vital that whichever tactic you use, that the sites you visit are on topic for your blog. If you haven't joined social networking sites then these are some that I use:
Technorati
MyBlogLog
SpicyPages

No excuses then, your traffic should be on the move tomorrow if you start doing this today.
Things to look out for:
Sites that follow 'do-follow' guidelines and sites that use a 'top commentator' or 'recent comments' widget are worth prioritising.
Here's an offer for you then 'IF YOU LEAVE A COMMENT HERE - I WILL VISIT YOUR BLOG' thus your traffic will go up by at least one today.... Remember traffic now carries more SEO clout for blogs, and backlinks carries less...

A lesson in commenting

The buzz is all about getting back to basics now that The Big G (Google - that's right, who's your Daddy??) is getting wise to the things that bloggers have been taking for granted. There were the viral links which were incredibly successful at driving the Technorati Authority through the roof.. Mine went ballistic, but is dropping almost as fast now. How can I retain the ranking? Commenting of course, that thing we used to do before we 'grey-hatted' our way around the internet picking up cheap undeserved back-links. Trouble is now that Google has got it's stick out, some bloggers have reverted to 'no follow', so be careful where you comment (you know who you are - ha ha...)
To make matters worse, the Big G is now tinkering with the PR calculating hysteresis to try to stamp out paid bloggers. What can we do about that? Well the daft thing is that the paid blogging will now have to be 'under the radar' - I used to stick 'paid post' after every advert - I'm not going to do it now am I? I might as well just ask Google outright to permanently remove my PR.
So, as I said, let's get back to basics and start commenting on each others blogs again, spread the love... follow your linky heart wherever your browser takes you and leave little droppings of love behind... and be a bit more subtle about the old paid blogging.

Big Cash Giveaway!!

Quick post for a contest closing today… Dec 17^th at Midnight PST (whenever that is!). The contest is run in conjunction with ‘NeverBlueAds’ the affiliate network people. Rather generously they have come up with $300 cash to spread over three first prizes. You enter the contest by simply mentioning it in your blog post (pretty simple…), and giving a mention to the sponsors (I’m with you so far…) – further entries can be obtained by signing up with NeverBlueAds and using your own referral link to link to them…(Well why wouldn’t you????).

So that’s full marks for simplicity and big bucks! Get your skates on though!!!

If you want to know more about this sponsor, why not read the following article: Affiliate Marketing with NeverBlueAds.
Other sponsors for the prizes on offer: Blogging4everyone, Nspeaks, Select Index, and A Links Blog.
They deserve a mention just for making this big prize contest possible.

$25 Blog contest

Another easy contest as reported on the new ContestBlogger forum:

All you have to do is tell your readers about the contest, link to the original contest post and link to the IBDinsurance.com homepage with a relevant anchor. In truth, I think the contest devisers have been quite cute because this seems like a cheaper way to get links than using a paid to blog service, but the chance to win $25 can’t be ignored….so I’m in!

And....if you happen to be looking for Health Insurance in North Carolina, then pay the site a visit.

Random draw to be made on 1^st Jan, payment via paypal or money order.

Get more for your endowment

There are a number of reasons why you may need to sell an endowment policy, for instance if you can’t keep up the payments, you lose your job or you need some capital for a major purchase.

In most cases, simply surrendering the policy to the issuer will mean that you will lose a lot of your investment, but there is an alternative.

Instead of surrendering the policy and returning it to the policy provider, there are a number of agencies who will be able to sell on your policy to a third party and may well be in a position to offer you a better deal. One such service offering to Sell Endowments is endowment express who say they can find buyers willing to pay up to 30% more than the policy surrender value.

The future for blogging

I firmly believe that the current drop in paid to post blogging could be a temporary blip during which time some of the poorer paid blogs will cease to be, and the better ones will continue to pick up in some form or other in the future.
PPP have shown that there is money available and you can rest assured that the people running PPP, Smorty, Blogsvertise etc.. will be working out a strategy to keep their market going via the bloggers that they have on their books. This month, I have to admit that opportunities have all but dried up (I'm glad I made the most of last month!), and I expect to make virtually nothing over December (althoughI will collect much of the cash earned last month).
The emphasis now must be on building traffic, which ironically seems to rise automatically during intensive paid blogging periods (basically because I am posting daily). Traffic seems to be up over all of my sites recently, and I haven't made much conscious effort in that department - I must put more energy into it and see if I can raise my 'RealRank' from the rather poor standing it has at the moment. Let's see what the future brings.

Good start to December

My first earnings for December have arrived in the form of a $5 prize (less the usual paypal fee) from a competition post completed in October (waterproof memo boards). I really hope some of the November contests are just as successful!!
Technically, you could argue that contests were a way of getting paid links, so perhaps I should keep quiet about winning anything in case Google turns up again to slap me... However seeing as I have no PR, I guess I can do whatever I want.
Of course, ironically Google own my blogging platform so I guess if they wanted to, they could pull the plug on me by kicking me off Blogger.... Ah well, I will continue to do contests in case that's the only way to raise cash via a blog in the future....

Looking back at November

This is how my earnings spreadsheet looks for the month just gone. The 'Total' is the earnings since March, and the 'This Month' figure is how much was generated in November (PINK for earnings, RED for actual money received via paypal, the rest will be paid out in the coming month). For comparison, I have shown the same table for October.

NOV - spreadsheet:

I will talk through some of the major points that have had an impact on earnings in November. From the top then, I think that I have pretty much given up on Creamaid due to them being less likely to approve a post for no apparent reason - I may use them again if I get desperate... Blogsvertise has actually been the biggest earner for me in November yielding $157 through their 'grab bag' system, this time I used my other blogspot blog to do most of these opps. PPP started well, and I made over $100 in the first week through PPP and Blogsvertise, leading me to speculate on a possible $400-$500 this month, but the Google effect kicked in and opps all but dried up by the end of the month - the same was true of Smorty, once the PR dropped, it wasn't long before the opps dried up. This was a shame particularly because I had only just regained my PR, and opps were flying at me from all directions. You may spot that I have tried a new service 'Sponsored reviews' which gained me an opp for $13, if any further opps arrive from this source I will be sure to post more about it.

OCT - Spreadsheet:

All the usual suspects are listed for the 'small change' earnings, I can see that I could combine the two survey sites (Ciao and Pure profile) for future spreadsheets, and I will combine some other sections to make the sheet easier to read for the future.
Despite the loss of PR, this month has been my most successful so far netting me nearly $324 - ironically this was entirely due to the fact that my PR had shot up at the end of October!! At least I was able to make a little hay whilst the sun was shining, and hold out hope for the future. Having seen my PR going up and down so much recently, I remain hopeful of regaining PR again in the future.

Free Business Cards

Trends shift and change, and some 'old skool' ideas re-emerge in a newer environment. Right now, 'Ooprint' are offering 100 FREE blogger cards for you to scatter around in the 'real' world in order to generate some traffic in the digital world.
Once you have posted your URL everywhere you can think of on the world-wide-web, why not carry some hard copy versions of your URL to leave in some strategic places or pass on to those you think may visit your blog.
I was particularly struck with just how suitable this particular card would be for me - what do you think?

Desktop themes...

I have been tagged by Ellie over at ThePinkC, and this time I am required to show the world my desktop.....
Now, my desktop is not as seasonal as hers, but there IS a story behind it. A lady I know has a cat called 'Bub', and this cat is quite a character on his own. Some time ago she took in a stray who is a little scruffier, (but somewhat mentally more stable..) than Bub. He has earned himself the moniker 'Scrub', so there you have Bub and Scrub.... Now I was playing with my little girl's 'etch-a-sketch' toy around last Christmas and came up with this cat cartoon which I named Bub, then went on to make some adjustments to make a Bub and a corresponding (slightly scruffier) Scrub. I developed the characters on Macromedia Freehand, and there we have the desktop (I think I must have imported into Fireworks to add the colour and text).

The intention was to come up with some stories for Bub and Scrub, but I never got around to writing any more than the first few lines... Nonetheless, the cartoon remains on my desktop in case I get inspired. I have developed characters for both of them: Bub is the mean one, and Scrub is the happy-go-lucky naive one who usually ends up in trouble for Bub's misdemeanors. I think that Scrub probably triumphs at the end of every story...
So err... that's MY desktop, what about yours, here are the folks that I am tagging:

• Rachel
• Greg
• Garion
• HotDogMan

The Hot Dog Truck revisited

Sometimes when we are busy looking for the next new thing to do, it is not a bad thing to look back and see what you did in the past. This blog has been through a lot of changes in design and emphasis and content and direction, yet I feel like taking a step back in time today and doing a review of another blog, something I haven't done for a long time (except where there was the lure of payment or a possible prize). I have become so 'sold out' that I have almost forgotten where I began. The PR changes will be turning the blogging world around and maybe that is no bad thing...

Today I revisited The HotDogMan, and am happy to report that he still has his PR4, not only that, but he has one of the most entertaining blogs that I have come across since I started blogging. Even those posts which may actually be...possibly...well.. in some way...sponsored... are just as entertaining as the stuff he 'dishes out' straight from his own thoughts and life in general.

After reading the tales from the HotDogTruck again, I am inspired once again to rethink the direction of munny4hunny, especially as there may be a dearth of chances to get paid to blog in the coming months.

Hat's off once again to the man who brings us laughter as he hands out the dogs, age-old wise advice as he fries the onions and the benefit of his vast experience as he lightly tosses a salad.

Pinoy contest for $25

Well, we are back on the contest track! Thanks to 'Millette05' at mmmtalk forum for this one...
This one is a 'must do' you can win $25 just for leaving a comment against the original contest thread here.
It is a Christmas theme too, just to get you in the mood for the festivities - all you have to do is complete the sentence:

If I had an extra P1,000 ($25) this Christmas, I would…

In order to be in with the chance of winning an extra $12, all you need to do is post about the contest and link back to it, leaving a comment with the URL against the original post. The contest is on the Pinoy Money Talk website which has lots of good advice not only for Pinoy bloggers and webmasters, but for everyone.
This contest is so easy, you have to ask: why wouldn't you????

PPP Realrank

The new order may take some getting used to, but the prince of all paid posting schemes PayPerPost has been severely 'slapped' by Google - the king of all things internet (King/Dictator -take your pick...). The method that Google has taken is to lower or remove PageRank from blogs left right and centre, many of them even without a PPP post on them, though the consensus is that PPP was the real target.
Before we all start whining,we should bear in mind that this will affect PPP far more than it will just one individual paid poster... Maybe you have a case if you earn a living by paid posting, but Google giveth, Google taketh away.... If you live by PageRank, you have to take the consequences, He that liveth by PageRank will die by Pagerank... Okay, I'm out of lame quotes now, no more honest...
Now PPP have devised their own ranking system based on traffic, the question everyone is asking is 'Is it good to have high RealRank or low RealRank?' The answer is apparently: LOW- why because it really is a 'rank' as in 'He is ranked number one in the world...' The rank only applies if you have PPP tools Now ITK (Izea Tool kit) on your blog, and will work like this:
Let's say there are 10,000 people with ITK on their blog, you are ranked 999, this puts you in the top 10% (like a PR rank of 9), if you are ranked 9,999, you're in the bottom 10% equivalent rank 1 - or maybe it's 1 and 10 or o and 9, not really sure, but you hopefully get the idea...
As yet, we are not told how many blogs have ITK, so you can't tell where your relative position is, but this will apparently become transparent in the fullness of time.

Motorhome holiday

I know of a few people who have motorhomes and the idea of having a holiday in one appeals to me. I took a look at some of the vehicular delights on offer at TravelworldRV.co.uk, and now I think I’d like to live in one…!
Where would you take one?
Well my ideal holiday destination is the South of France, I’ve driven down through France before, and having the motor home would mean that you would be able to cross the border into Italy and visit….
I have also driven through Ireland, although I don’t recommend it to anyone who likes to navigate by signposts, as signposts in Ireland are not like those anywhere else in the world. If you’re not a great map-navigator, satellite navigation is a must in Ireland!
My third choice of places to take an RV would be the home of the RV itself, the good ‘ol USA. In the US you can drive for miles on RV-friendly roads from east coast to west coast, north to south. I wouldn’t miss the chance of looking up friends in Canada, and seeing as I have never travelled west of Ontario, I would love to take a trip west to British Columbia.

Top tips for bloggers

If you have got your blog set up, are writing regularly, but are in the dark as to how your blog is performing, there are various ways in which you can gauge your progress.

1. sign up for Google analytics to check statistics on you visitors (FREE!)
2. sign up with Technorati to check who is linking to your blog or website (FREE)
3. check out the SEO tools at 'WeBuildPages.com' (FREE)
   

The tool I tried out today was the 'top ten analysis' tool - this online tool allows you to compare results for your site with the top ten sites for a particular keyword. It gives rankings for all the major search engines and checks out back-links etc.
It also lists the age of the domain, and includes a link to 'waybackmachine' where you can check out what was on your domain before you bought it.... (just for curiosity's sake...)
as you become more experienced at blogging, these type of tools and statistics become more and more valuable, helping you to become efficient at serving your chosen 'market'

Intelligent Marketing

Website Review:

When you get to the point where you require online marketing specialists you should check out ‘IOM’, that’s ‘Intelligent Online Marketing’

IOM offer a service not only to offer a package of measures to suit your marketing needs, but a service to train your own personnel in the methods that they themselves employ. If you go for the training option you will be in a position to build your own marketing department, and maybe even offer your services to others.

The IOM website offers advice on Rankings, PPC advertising, Driving traffic to your site and building a site that grabs your visitors and makes them want to buy your product and services. You may think that this type of service is primarily for large companies, but in my experience I would say that where a company is small and doesn’t have experts in marketing, this type of service is ideal. Many smaller companies don’t have the time to really do their marketing effectively and often this is left to an individual who is not specifically trained and experienced. This is the kind of situation where employing experienced marketing experts on a short-term basis can really prove cost-effective.

I watched the Search Engine Marketing videos on the IOM site and found them really easy to follow. The videos go through the steps of promoting a website in really simple steps. They are filmed as one-to-one interview-style segments with a list of the questions on the right – if you click on the question that interests you, the player jumps to that segment and you get a great answer. The questions cover anything from basic SEO to PPC, spidering, domain names etc. (There’s almost 50 questions in all)

Warnings about paid posts

Google are evidently clamping down on sites that do paid posts and are effectively offering paid links within those posts. Advice circulating around the paid post community suggests removing references to paid posts and sponsored posts from your blog. I have heard suggestions that titles such as 'sponsored links' are being hunted down and investigated by Google, the result being a drop in PR for those blogs that are deemed guilty of this practice.

The whole practice of paid posts will have to become far more subtle and posts will have to be made to look more like part of the blog. So much for those who have been upfront about doing paid posts, the practice will effectively be driven underground.

On the one hand Google is advancing blogging via 'Blogger', on the other hand, it looks like it going to try and remove the funding of these blogs by restricting Pagerank on the blogs that have paid posts and paid linking (such as sidebar links).

It looks like PR on the two blogs that I am currently using for revenue generation have been ranked down again (pagerank has been a bit like a Yo Yo for me this year!). On this blog alone I was firstly awarded a PR of 3, dropped to 2, raised to 4 and now dropped to 0 from what I can see today.... I think this could cause some aggravation in the blogging community over the next few weeks.

Shopping cart solution from under $50

If you have been trying various ways of making money online, it is likely that you will have considered e-commerce as a option. However experienced you are at developing websites, specialist knowledge for secure transactions is required for developing these features on a website. The quickest and most secure option is to go for 'off-the-shelf' Ecommerce Software from a company offering a good product at a good price.
One of the leading lights of customizable online storefront software has been 'MonsterCommerce' who have been market leaders since 1998. Network Solutions combined with MonsterCommerce in 2006, and are now launching the new Network Solutions e-commerce website.
As might be expected when there is so much experience already behind the project, this software offers masses of features and options.
From SEO support and optimisation to integration with Quickbooks financial software, and from free domain name registration to free Google Adwords campaigns, these features are included in the entry-level version of the software. The 'Pro' version includes even more in the form of advanced shipping features, support for coupons and offers and a WYSIWYG editor. The Standard package is well-priced at only$49.95 per month, and the Pro version is definitely worth considering at just $99.95 per month for the busier online retailers. Peace of mind, and good support in an ever-changing industry is worth paying for.

Earnings update

I will be updating earnings more frequently this month - see the figures in the sidebar. The total represents total earnings mainly from this blog since March 2007. In March I earned $28, and went on to earn another $26 in April. May was the month where I went all out for paid posting and managed $187. Since then I have not tried to maximise earnings until recently when I regained my lost Pagerank.
This month, I have started to use my other blog for a few paid opportunities (more about this when I post at the end of the month), and have earned a total of $165 so far with a potential $40 of posts waiting to be approved. I am hoping to make at least $300 this month, but would really like to at least double my previous record.
Like last time, I don't expect that I will keep up the frantic posting rate, but another benefit of the frequent posting is that it does seem to drive extra traffic to the site. A pro-blogger could take advantage of the spiral created by increased traffic, increased Pagerank and increased earnings potential. It remains to be seen whether I will be in a position to maintain traffic when I am not doing so many paid posts.

Mid-month

It's getting towards that mid-month lull where opportunities for paid blogging seem to be flagging a little so I have started to investigate some new schemes. If I have any luck with them I will post my reports later on, either at the end of this month or at the start of next month. I have signed up to a couple so far, so we will see if any of them are fruitful for the hard-working blogger with a PR4 and a PR3 at his disposal....
My other blog didn't meet Payperpost standards for the number of posts completed over the last three months, so I will have to work on it and re-submit later on. Payperpost have strict standards including minimum 90 day-old blogs with frequent posting, but infrequent paid posts (at least one standard post in between every paid post - and in case you thought you might get away with it, they can work out if you have used a post from another paid source as a 'normal' post - so somebody told me ...).

New Community Site

Here's a new social site 'iContactCommunity' that I'm just getting to grips with...

It seems to be a massive resource with thousands of online articles, some are newsletters, some are more like adverts. I am reminded initially of 'Digg' as you get to vote on your favourite articles, but it is also like 'sqidoo' in that your articles are hosted online rather than on your own website or blog. You also get to drop comments against the articles too. I think it would certainly be worth investigating as a place to promote a website or blog, or just get your opinion out there...

The articles themselves are wide and varied, for instance I am interested in Premier League football, so I entered the term 'Premier League' and the top result was a simple two-line post about the Man United Arsenal match last week.

I clicked on the art section and discovered something startling: an art event where 'Mr Matisse will be painting during the evening...'. Now as far as I can work out Henri Matisse should be approaching 140 years old... but it turns out his grandson Pierre does a bit of painting too!

All-in-all, this looks like a prime spot to promote a website, an event, a product/service or organisation.

Busy Blogging

They always say that busy people are the best people to ask if you want something done. Why? because they are already actively doing something, not sitting around waiting for something to happen. Successful bloggers tend to be busy too. most have several projects on the go, unless they really are highly disciplined...

I'm not! I am one of those with several projects on the go at any one time, and I like to push projects until they are successful rather than give up on them. I have found blogging to be good for discipline. It is desirable to post every day, and each paid post must be balanced with at least one post of my own. Even with just three blogs (some people have more than a dozen!), it is tricky to come up with the required amount of quality material.

New projects require nurturing , and I am aware that the balance between maintenance of existing projects, and nurturing of new ones leads to conflicts in time-management.
My first tentative efforts on the internet (website: Livewyre Studio) have thankfully flourished otherwise I would have probably given up. My next area of experimentation was starting up two blogs, the first for website building and SEO, the second this one to investigate paid to blog. More recently I have branched out into a second website for general internet topics, and experimenting with a different type of blog entitled Beckham News.

All of this can take up a considerable amount of time, so if you're thinking of starting a new project consider the strains on your time and whether it would be better to drop an old project first.

Paid to blog

I became aware recently that the anchor text 'paid to blog' was starting to have an effect in search engines sending far more traffic to this blog than any other search term. This has prompted me to re-write my 'about' post so that new visitors can readily access good information relating to paid to post specifically.

The 'about' post can be accessed via the button in the side-bar, and it is logical to assume that new visitors may well click on this button. Realising that this particular search term was actively driving new visitors to this blog, made me think that I really need to provide information on that topic immediately otherwise the newly found traffic may just drift away.

My blogging tip for today is to use traffic analysis (Google Analytics is free!) to establish the search terms that new visitors are using to find your site, and then make sure that there is something relevant for them to click on straight away when they arrive full of expectation.

Broadband from BT

There was a time when ADSL and ISDN were services that only big business could afford, nowadays broadband internet access is open to every household and prices are dropping due to the tremendous competition.There are all sorts of service providers offering broadband, but the one provider everybody in the UK will be familiar with is British Telecom.

BT still have the respect that they built up when part of the GPO, a nationalised business giving a vital service to the public. As a modern cutting-edge commercial company, BT retains that high brand image and is the measure against which many competitors still measure their own performance.

Like every other service provider, BT has brought it’s prices into the reach of most householders, and now offers broadband from as little as £8.95 per month. Not only do you get a great deal, but the backing of a huge global communications company which actually built the communications infrastructure in the UK.

Another advantage of the BT option is the chance to have Home Hub included for free in option 2 and the Home Hub phone in option 3. You can also get Home Hub in option 1 for a small additional charge from the leading communications and broadband isp in the UK.

Cash Contest $100!

Contest blogger has flagged this one up (check out the new format and get involved in the online contests and sweepstakes)

$100 up for grabs for a blog entry/RSS subscription entry by 3rd December.
1. Link back to the Making Sales Making Money homepage using the anchor text home based business opportunities.
2. Link back to the Contest Blogger homepage using the anchor text sweepstakes.

Well for $100, it's worth a look at the blog putting up the cash, so I popped over to have a look at the home based business opportunities that might be on offer... There are stacks of good ideas, I started off by taking a gamble on the 'top-spots' widget - if it pays off, I'll write a post about it - plenty of other good ideas on the Making Sales Making Money site - recommended reading...

Mobile Marketing

I reckon it must be 11 years since I got my first mobile phone and the uptake since has been phenomenal. The mobile phone has changed from simply being a means of communication to being nothing short of a tiny mobile computer. The latest phones bring more and more remarkable features from radio receivers and MP3 players to photography and video. Soon all phones will probably take the Blackberry route of combining phone and PDA, although the iPhone may provide a new direction.

The main events as far as I recall would be the initial emergence of the mobile from the 'yuppy' market into the mainstream. The second landmark would be the introduction of SMS text messaging. The third being the launch of pay as you go mobiles having a dreastic effect on mobile billing and bringing the phone into the hands of younger people. The latest landmark has been the increasing pressure especially amongst young people, to have the latest phone with all the latest features...

Marketing professionals have not missed the opportunity of exploiting the text-message as a powerful means of communication directly with the public, this is the subject of a well-written post called Mobilizing market by Jay Seaton. If you want to know the proportion of major companies that are employing this technique or you have views on mobile marketing, then take a look at this article to get a clearer picture of the future.

Recent Comments hack

I was browsing around the blogosphere today, when I found something that caught my attention, a 'recent comments' hack for Blogger. The in-built Blogger 'recent posts' widget apparently only allows a tiny snippet of the comment, whereas this one is user-definable.

I decided that I would like to give it a try so you should be able to see the results in my sidebar. the original instructions include script that cannot be included in a blogger post (at least not by an amateur like me...). So the original post can be found here and admittedly is a year old so maybe blogger have made some changes??

The hack is really simple and quick to install, I chose to have 7 comments each one to be 80 characters long. Please leave a comment against the original post comments if you found this hack useful.

Gift cards for Christmas

What to buy for the person who has everything, or for someone who may have tastes that differ from your own?? The obvious answer is a gift-card – so much more thoughtful than just stuffing cash into an envelope….

You can take care to make sure that the card you choose will suit the buying habits of the recipient. Shopping.Com have a range of cards that will suit just about anybody you will need to buy for. There’s the perfume emporium for that Aunt, you don’t know which perfume she uses, but Aunts are always using perfume….

There’s Home Depot or Brookstone shopping gift cards for the newly married or engaged couple setting up home together.
Whoever you are buying for, a gift card carries the advantage of being welcome to any recipient whereas that green vase that you were going to buy for Aunty Hilda, well…hmmm perhaps you should visit Shopping.Com

November 2007

I haven't tried maximising blog earnings since I made $187 for a month's paid posts in May 2007. I lost my pagerank shortly after that. My pagerank is back and suddenly the paid opportunities are there again... I will be attempting to at least double my previous efforts with my PR4 on this blog and another blog with a PR3 this month. I shall be using the following schemes:
Smorty.com - paid posts from $6 upwards
Payperpost.com - the king of the paid post schemes
Blogsvertise.com - who have showed renewed interest since my PR returned
Creamaid - the jury is still out on whether Creamaid's quirkiness is endearing or just annoying - I may have reached a conclusion by the end of this month...
I will also try and get myself signed up to more schemes so that I can offer reviews of these schemes for my readers. At the end of the month you will be able to see how much was earned from each scheme.

Plasma TV bracket from dekomount

I am really pleased with myself... I just brought myself a NEC 17" TFT monitor from ebay it was a bargain... Admittedly it's not brand new (it's refurbished) but at long last I can get rid of my old CRT monitor. I have decided I can pay for it from my internet revenue which I am hoping will be significant this month...
After finding a bargain monitor, I then looked at getting a wall-mounting bracket as I am thinking about completely re-organising my home office. I was suitably impressed with the inexpensive wall mounting brackets supplied by Dekomount, they have universal brackets ideal for my new monitor from just £12.94 (another bargain...). The service was excellent, good packaging and a super quick delivery. The instructions were easy to follow and I have freed up loads of desk-space, not only by getting rid of the bulky CRT monitor, but by mounting my new monitor directly onto the wall. I went for the model pictured above which gives you all-round manoeuvrability, even this highly-functioning model was under £23. Dekomount also have Plasma Wall Brackets for virtually every make and model.

$50 Blog contest

Thanks to ThePrizeBlog for todays contest. It's my favourite type of contest... easy to enter blog post with a cash prize - random winner, so as long as you stick to the rules you have as much chance as anyone of getting your hands on a $50 paypal prize...
There is a second contest for a sidebar text-link (12 months) for subscribing to RSS feed for the same site.

For the blog post simply write a 100 word minimum post with anchor text 'egg donation' linked to the blog home page (http://egg-donation-directory.blogspot.com/) and leave a comment against the original contest post include email address and post URL in the comment Deadline Nov 25th, winners announced on Nov 27th, here is my entry...

Now here's a blog the like of which I have not seen before, and it's all about egg donation, both from the point of view of the donor and the recipient. There are posts covering the procedure involved in egg donation and the potential monetary rewards. There are posts about fertility drugs and links to clinics in all 52 US states.
Equally, there are posts dedicated to egg donation in other parts of the world, including such diverse regions as the Czech Repulic and Asia....
Personally I was quite surprised to learn that more than $100 can be earned for egg donation, as I'm pretty sure that cash rewards for egg donation are not available in the UK. That said, it seems that the process of egg harvesting can be uncomfortable and quite inconvenient, so that's something else I have learned...
This website then, will no doubt prove a source of valuable information for those considering egg donation either as donor or recipient.

Coupon Chief for Christmas...

Christmas is coming and the goose is getting fat… and the smart people have started doing their Christmas present buying early. Those people that leave their present buying to the last minute can fall into one of two possible retail traps: either they end up buying the really expensive present that they were trying to avoid forking out for, or they end up buying some special Christmas rubbish (I know I used to be in retail…). Retailers bring out ‘special purchase’ rubbish at Christmas, it’s basically a whole line of cheaply made ‘tat’ that they know people searching for gifts will make a bee-line for…
So, how to avoid these traps?
Firstly make a list of those you need presents for and decide what they are going to get BEFORE heading out to make your purchases, like this:

• Mom: Something smelly because she doesn’t spend a lot on herself
• Dad: A book or DVD, something to do with model boats (his latest hobby) or planes
• Wife: Another Columbo DVD box-set, some fancy chocolates, maybe a handbag
• Daughter: Toys, Toys, Toys, Toys
• Sister: Speakers for her new Ipod
• Niece: some CD’s

Secondly – head on over to Coupon Chief and see how you can save yourself money on the presents you have decided to get.
So for my niece’s present – I can save some money at Music Notes deals, and I can get my sister's speakers at a bargain price from Circuit City coupons
How it works: Well, Coupon Chief is a one-stop destination for getting deals at online retailers, so if you go to the online stores for these companies via coupon chief, you get promo codes that you can use online to get your discounts..
So how much better is that? I now know exactly what I am going to buy, I have saved myself money and I haven’t even left the house yet – the stuff will be delivered, and in some cases, the shipping will be free too!

Website revamp

I have been aware for some time that I needed to do some sort of redesign of my website: Livewyre.NET. This has finally been completed and the whole site now has a totally different look. I used some Web 2.0 design principles with my own particular slant ie. choosing a black background rather than a white one. I have taken the risk of using 'png' files for the graphics, and this means that IE 6.0 users may not see them as intended (specifically the transparent features), but I take the view that if folks choose NOT to use the latest available browsers, it's really not something I can take account of. I am a staunch Firefox convert, so don't get me started on IE...
Please take a look and let me know what you think of the new design

Irish Mortgage Brokers

In recent years, financial advisors have had to adhere to stricter rules when it comes to who is allowed to advise an individual about mortgages and investments. Mortgage Brokers Dublin have taken steps to ensure that every one of it's advisors are suitably qualified with either a Mortgage Diploma, or Qualified Financial Advisor Diploma, some are even Certified Chartered Accountants or have a Law Degree.
Peace of mind, and trust and integrity are vital elements of receiving financial advice. Irish mortgage brokers have the customers best interest at heart and are in a position to give advice on not only mortgages, but also life assurance and pensions. They pride themselves on being able to cater for first-time buyers and experienced financial dealers with equal proficiency.
I visited their website and was really impressed with the personal graphical interface that guides you through the site, I have seen some buzz about this type of interface, and believe that for this site, it really works well - A figure appears on the screen and starts to talk to you introducing the company and the site (make sure you have your speakers turned on!). This made me want to stay and listen to what he had to say, and his Irish accent just made it more friendly...
If I were looking for the type of financial products that Irish Mortgage Brokers were offering, I would think that this easy-to-use website would be a great place to start.

Looking back on October 2007

I am very pleased to have regained pagerank for this and my other blog, at the end of October, this enable me to take part in far more paid-to-post opportunities than I have been able to do since about May 2007...
Having said that, I have not had my recent wave of posts approved by PPP yet (even though some of them have been up for two weeks). Even Blogsvertise wanted to get in on the act and sent me an opp for $10. Earnings then, are set to rise for next month as I aim to exploit my new PR whilst I still have it! I have registered another blog for PPP, if this gets approved, I will have two blogs available although I assume that I may not be able to do the same opportunity on both blogs...
I have also registered the second blog with Blogsvertise, and with Smorty which enabled me to immediately take another Blogsvertise paid post opp for a further $10. None of these recent opps have yet been approved, so they don't figure in earnings for October. You may note that earnings have been very low once again over the past month, but I guarantee that November will be a very different story. Watch this space....

New local business guide

There is a brand new local business directory for the UK. If you know of a business that would appreciate a free listing within their local town category, get them to include their details on this brand new uk advertising network it's easy to submit your details and have your free advert up and running in no time. The site is not simply a list of random businesses, there are local restaurant reviews, links to local places of interest and links for places to stay. In short, there is plenty to entice visitors to stay on the site and browse around.

Turn-around week

I've had a good few days this week, I picked up a couple of jobs on my website amounting to about $150 over a couple of days - that was good enough, but then a remarkable thing happened... I have been moping for about four months over losing pagerank on my two blogs, but now it's back and better than ever!!
I went from PR2 to PR1 on this blog and PR2 to PR0 on another blog in June. That's a loss of 3 PR points over two blogs. Imagine my delight at getting a new rank of PR4 on this blog and PR3 on my other blog, making a gain of 6 PR points, and a net gain of 3 over where I was before. This will enable me to pursue what I had always intended to pursue, ie. my investigation of paid posting on a free blogspot blog - what's more I have two healthy blogs to do it with!

Samsung Queue Jumpers

To publicise the Samsung G600 Camera Phone, Door security personnel from across the UK club scene have been provided with a free phone to take shots of their favourite ‘Queue Jumpers’.
Jump across to the Queue Jumpers Gallery and vote for your favourites, the top fifteen will get to win the fabulous G600.

If you want to get in on the action and haven’t been snapped jumping a queue, then get involved by taking part in the G600 Queue Jumper application poll on Facebook. Fifteen winners from the facebook poll will join the other fifteen to win a photo-shoot and model-book portfolio worth £10,000.

Samsung has also got a list of the top thirty clubs in the UK for you to peruse - No excuses then, have a look at the list (no doubt these are the ones with the bouncers armed with G600's), get down to a club and have yourself 'snapped' queue jumping. Win yourself a cool new camera, a photo-session and a model book - If you're on a roll, there's every chance that a modeling contract will follow... so that's this weekend sorted, what y'gonna do next weekend??

All this brought to you by the Samsung G600, the brand new sleek refined camera phone with a 2.2” LCD screen with 16 million colours, a 5 megapixel camera and FM radio. This phone also features a music player and internet connectivity.

So there's a couple of ways you can get one of these phones for free, amongst other prizes, but I guess if you really want one, you'll just have to go and buy it...

Being more organised

I really like the concept of blogging on specific topics on specific days of the week. However, I have not gone down this path as I anticipate the unwelcome pressure of a deadline looming without the requisite material having been finished ready for publication.
On reflection, I think having a rigid structure would actually enable you to focus a bit better (if you already know what themes are to be addressed), and would enable you to store up posts ready for future publication on a specific date. The advantages to your visitors are also obvious, they are more likely to come back if they know what they're going to get.
In conclusion, I could try this for a month in the future using the possible themes of a day for Software, a day for Contests, a day for Reviews, a day for Hints & Tips and a day for random stuff, leaving the weekends free for whatever comes along...
Having given this some further thought, probably the best compromise would be to be rigid about just three subjects for a Monday, a Wednesday and a Friday, leaving the other days free for random stuff and paid posts and whatever else comes along...
Have you tried this, did it work or not? let me know...

Hotels in the UK

If you have considered travelling to the UK, you may have wondered where you could get reasonably priced London hotels, Edinburgh Hotels or Glasgow hotels. These are three destinations that should be on your travelling agenda, but three places where normally you would find it difficult to find a hotel that didn’t break the bank. Surely anyone planning to visit the UK, would probably have London as one of their must-see destinations. Instantly recognisable landmarks such as Buckingham Palace, the Houses of Parliament, Trafalgar square and many more are here packed into busy, densely populated London. Nightlife to rival anything the rest of the world has to offer, museums and art galleries in every district, restaurants, clubs, theatres and cinemas of all types to suit every taste – all this and more in England’s capital. Moving north to Scotland’s capital, Edinburgh is graced with the Queens’ own Holyrood House right next to the new Scottish Parliament building. Cobbled streets and ancient buildings such as Edinburgh castle, are complemented by bustling nightlife stacks of culture a fantastic museum and impressive scenery. Venture across to Glasgow for a lesson in the art and craft of Charles Rennie Macintosh. Glasgow is a city famous for hosting festivals such as the International Jazz Festival and the Festival of Celtic Music and Culture, and was European city of culture in 1990, the only British city to have held that honour. All-in-all you will have a hard time finding time to visit all the best places, one thing for sure, is that you won’t be disappointed.

Waterproof memo boards

The waterproof memo board is a new product offering a way to make notes or keep scores in an environment where traditional note-taking methods are just not suitable. The concept is both simple and effective, both the pencil and the memo board are unaffected by water. Whether the water be due to adverse weather conditions or a body of water such as a pond, river or the sea, the waterproof memo board could prove invaluable. You are able to make notes with this memo board exactly as you would with a clipboard, but without having to worry about keeping it dry.

There will be many uses for this product ranging from construction sites to swimming pools to school sports day, why not visit the website for more ideas and more information about this new product.

If you have your own blog, maybe you'd also be interested in the blogging competition for prizes ranging from $5 up to $25

Your mobile number as an email address

Where your phone number and email address are the same

The people at RedInbox are launching a new idea to combine email addresses and mobile numbers. They are offering a free service to mobile owners comprising a '@redinbox.co.uk' email address that forwards to an existing email account. The email address will be your mobile phone number, making it easier to pass on contact information to friends, family and colleagues. You could simply hand people a card like this:
Both your mobile number AND a valid email address included in one simple line....neat!