Not everything is DIY...

When I first moved into our current abode some 12 years ago, I had a go at ‘smartening up’ the bathroom, but honestly didn’t do a very good job. I have given the walls a lick of paint (now peeling off again) and ‘personlised’ the walls with some sea-creature shapes. I made a new façade for the side of the bath and boxed in some pipes. The whole effect was somewhat better than the original décor, but still a little shabby. Since then I have changed the bathroom taps or as you might call them in the US bathroom faucets . I fully intend to fit a shower at some point, but I think I am going to need professional help at some point in the near future. This goes to show that although you can save a lot of moneydoing your own decorating, some jobs may require professional ‘assistance’….

Social Survey

It's all about social interaction - who do you trust for views and reviews? Have we stopped giving, sharing and asking for opinions? Do you Google for everything? - what are your answers??

Golf - the gentle sport

I am pretty active despite my advancing years and like to play football twice a week, but am aware this cannot go on forever as sooner or later I aa not going to be able to keep up with the pace and my aches and pains will be just too severe… So what to do when that happens? Well it has always been my intention to take up golf when I am just too far gone for soccer… and the great thing about this is that I will be able to play golf with my wife (she is not that keen on soccer!!). As I will be a bit older and have a few more debts paid off (maybe even clear the mortgage by then) I will hopefully be in a position to invest in some equipment such as golf bags, golf clubs and all the other associated paraphernalia..

Treasure Trooper

Continuing with the theme of exploring other ways of raising a legitimate income online, I want to highlight 'get paid to' sites, and particularly the most popular one 'Treasure Trooper'. Treasure Trooper promotes a fun atmosphere and on the serious side of things is happy to demonstrate proof that it really pays out. You can be paid by cheque or via Paypal and Treasure Trooper is 100% free. There is no membership fee.
There is a whole subculture to get involved in, you can team up with other treasure troopers and of course they have a referral scheme that can earn you a passive income in it's own right. The premise of the scheme is that you get paid for signing up for offers that are being promoted. The companies promoting the offers pay up and then it's up to you whether you take that offer any further or just take your money and run...
Whether you want to dabble in the offers to make a bit of extra cash or you are interested in signing up hundreds of referrals to make a passive income, Treasure Trooper may well have something to offer you.

New Cashback site

Saving money and making money go hand-in-hand. For me, I decided to make sure that I was saving as much money as I could before I embarked on my making money projects. The return from saving money is immediate whereas making money takes a little longer. There are schemes set up to help you save money with everyday purchases and WePromiseTo Cashback is one of those schemes that has a radically open approach to saving you money. They say that they pass on 100% of the commission they get for referring you to a service, just taking the initial £5 (this is a UK service) that you save as their one-off fee. They can pay you directly into your bank or send you Amazon vouchers (with a 2% bonus) as payment.
You can get cash back on your car insurance, betting with paddypower, Amex or Goldfish credit cards, but opportunities to get cashback are not limited to online buying, off-line purchases can qualify for cashback too.
Looking at some of the offers I might be interested in, I was particularly interested in the 3% cashback on Tesco wines by the case, and even better 5% cashback from Majestic wine. Right next to those offers are some for chocolate retailers, so I’m pretty much covered…
With a little work, you should be able to shave some money of your regular bills by searching through the site to find the best offers on goods and services that you are already using anyway… It’s free to join, so nothing to lose.

Making money

Lately I have been looking into more schemes to achieve what many of us are aiming for ie. to make money online. I have posted about the sort of things that I do personally, but there are a whole load of other types of schemes that although I don't do them myself, are equally viable ways to make money online. There are the schemes that pay you to sign up for something and those that offer cashback incentives for products that maybe you were going to buy anyway. I have said before that saving money is equally as important as making money, there is no point making loads if you are not careful what what you have.
So keep an eye on future posts for schemes that are available for making legitimate income or genuine savings online..

Selling your business

If you are the owner of a small business and have considered selling or have been offered money for your business, you really should have a proper Small business valuation. Even if you don’t plan to sell your business, a valuation will give you an idea of whether your business is growing at an acceptable rate. Protect yourself by being aware of what your business is actually worth including all the liabilities and assets that you may not even be aware of.

Fitted Bedrooms - I wish...

I am immersed in decorating at the moment, we have been decorating (and renovating) our house for the past twelve years so this is not a time-limited task in my long drawn-out experience.
The nice stage is the planning, but we don’t have much money available, so I have to get my hands dirty doing most of the work myself (hence the length of the task…). So far, in the twelve years I have re-wired the house, and gutted and rebuilt the dining room and my daughter’s bedroom, had a little go at the bathroom and got a professional in to do the kitchen. I am currently working on the hallway, stairs and landing, but am longing to get into the bedroom!!
Whilst getting lost in the current task, it is all to easy to dream about how you want the next project to work out, so now I am starting to think about how the ‘master’ bedroom should look. Like the kitchen, this is a room which has be done right so I have considered getting in an expert in bespoke fitted bedrooms which sounds very grand and reassuring…
I have visions of a beautiful wooden floor, simple but finely finished furniture with crisp linen and maybe topped off with a gorgeous sleigh-bed… I can dream, but wouldn’t it be great to get someone in while you were on holiday and come back to a brand new sumptuous bedroom?

Online earnings

It is becoming harder to legitimately make money with blogs and on the internet generally, so I will offer an update on the schemes that are working for me at the moment on various websites and blogs. First off, Adsense is about to pay me out for the second time this year which I am quite happy about, my average earnings with Adsense have risen steadily over the months and I hope to be able to make this work for me in the future. I have used a couple of fixed advertising schemes such as The Ad Network and , and am buildinging a small but regular income from these. Small amounts are available from dNeero surveys, low payout at $20 which I hope to make soon - this is a much better return that other survey schemes that I have used. I am using PPP and smorty as well as payu2blog and Creamaid, but this type of scheme is becoming harder to exploit.

Another use for Botox

OK, we all know that Botox is basically for those who want to look more beautiful that they have a right to, but today I discovered that there has been a helpful side effect for those who have had Botox injections around the eyes. Of course when you think about it, there is some logic... Botox relaxes the muscles that cause the lines around your eyes, and can also relieve tension in those muscles, alleviating headaches and migraine. The new discovering is that Botox for migraines is a viable treatment and is now been offered by the medical profession.
Thankfully, I hardly ever get headaches and I am already quite beautiful...!

Scarlet??

Who is Scarlet? seems to be the question on the lips of those with their ear to the ground for breaking news on the latest TV shows to be hitting your screens soon. David Nutter, producer of such TV classics as Smallville, Sleepwalkers, Terminator: Sarah Connor Chronicles ... to name but a few is THE TV producer of the moment bringing his midas touch to our living rooms via the medium of television.

More Storage

I bought myself an external hard drive more than a year ago, and it has been invaluable for back-ups. After about a year, I discovered that I had used about 80% of the capacity, so I spent a few hours archiving all the material that I could onto DVD’s and now am back to just 30% capacity used. Having the external hard-drive has allowed me to free up a lot of my internal hard-drive space. Currently I have a 160GB and a 300GB drive on-board and a 250GB external drive.

blog to earn

If you are someone who blogs to earn, you can post a link to your favourite articles over at the blog to earn carnival. The same organisation gets involved in carnivals for ALL types of blogs so whatever floats your boat, these guys have a blog carnival going. At the very least it's a free link - and someone may even visit your blog as a result of the carnival. Check out the link and submit some of your posts for the very next carnival...

Spring Cleaning

It's that time of year again..time to grab your microfiber mops and sweep the place clean. In fact I am also decorating at the moment, so the mops, brooms and dustpans are seemingly following me around the house as I create the mess for others to clear away...
Spring heralds new life, more daylight hours and a new willingness to create change and cleanliness all around us. On the other hand it snowed quote a bit today, so maybe hibernation is not such a bad idea after all...

New Laptop

I badly need to get a new laptop for work. Every time I fire up my current laptop, it makes a noise like a tumble-drier (and actually gets about as hot as a tumble-drier). It is about two years since I had this laptop, and that seems to be about the lifetime of a laptop (I still have a desktop that is 10 years old). Laptops naturally do not last as long as desktops and besides, there is so much technological advance in two years that it is almost a necessity to get a new one.

Bidvertiser?

For those who have fallen foul of Google Adsense TOS and had their accounts closed, other schemes such as Bidvertiser and Adbrite are mooted as replacements, but how do they compare?? Well I can't use Adbrite because as far as I am aware, they only relate to US sites, and am UK-based, but I have tried Bidvertiser.
I got frustrated with supposedly contextual ads from Adsense persistently showing non-related ads, so I removed my main Adsense banners probably about a year ago and replaced it with Bidvertiser. Initially earnings were extremely slow and then just were non-existent bringing in a total of about $1.30 in 12 months. I left a single Adsense banner at the top of my blog during this time which has brought in nearly ten times as much.

I have found Bibvertiser awkward to use, each ad has to be constructed for each different site in a way that does not lend itself to be widely used across a number of sites in the same way that you can with Adsense.
The upsot is that I have forgiven Adsense for showing non-contextual ads and reinstated them as my advertising banner of choice in my sidebar. there was no way I was ever going to reach the $10 payout with Bidvertiser, so they can keep their crummy $1.30 and I for one will bid them Adios!
I am about to be paid out my second adsense payment for 2008, so I am more than happy to put my advertising eggs in a single basket (please note that the vast majority of my adsense earnings do NOT come from blogs!!). If you're considering an alternative, my advice is only do it if you have been dumped by adsense. Once again, Google is the Daddy...

Which acne cures work?

Acne is a problem for people of all ages, and can occur in various degrees of seriousness. Fortunately there are acne treatment options available for those that require them. Ever wondered what the best five acne treatments might be, how they are assessed and how they compare to the hundreds of products on the market? My research revealed the following five options:
Zyporex
Acneticin
Orovo Acne Kit
Oxycerin
Asso Gold Cleansing Bar

Major house price falls predicted

A leading economist and industry expert has predicted that house prices in the UK could fall by as much as 20% over the next two years, which would take the average house price to £160,000 from £200,000. The bold but gloomy prediction has been made by Professor David Miles, who is a senior economic adviser and Morgan Stanley and was a former advisor to the government. If his prediction comes true then many homeowners in the UK could find themselves facing problems.

Whilst homeowners across the UK will not be happy about the latest prediction relating to house price falls, industry professionals have stated that not everyone will be unhappy – first time buyers, for instance, who have not been able to afford to get onto the property ladder since property prices boomed, will now be able to consider purchasing if house prices fall to a low enough level. This move would allow easier access to mortgage loans.

Professor Miles also spoke about the situation, stating that whilst homeowner could be seriously affected there were those that could benefit from the situation. He said: 'I am at the pessimistic end of the spectrum, but I don't think it should be seen as the pessimistic end because there are as many gainers as losers.'

In addition to predictions such as the one made by Professor Miles, recent reports have also shown that many homeowners that are trying to sell their homes are having to accept offers that are way below asking price in some cases, as buyers are too wary about paying too much for a property that could plummet in value very quickly. This situation has increased the use of credit cards that then add to the problem of bad debts. Many homes have been stuck on estate agents' books for some time as a result of this reluctance to buy, as well as due to tighter lending conditions.

Positive thinking

I have found a lot of those who are using the internet to be either ‘followers’ of the ‘Law of attraction’ or at least familiar with it’s concepts. It is about visualising your goals and of course, the perfect place to do that is on the internet where you can almost literally be anybody you want to be. You can read more about it in The Secret by Rhonda Byrne.If you are a positive thinker then you’re half-way there anyway…

dNeero Surveys

'In The News' is the latest dNeero survey - why not check out my answers and have a go at the survey yourself - if you sign up for these really simple surveys, you get paid for each survey and even more if you place them on a blog...
Positive points about dNeero:
Low minimum payout $20
Really really easy surveys, often just 4 or five easy questions
Good referral program
You get paid just for doing the survey, you can earn even more by the impressions that your survey widget gets on your blog.

Laptop upgrade

Some time ago I upgraded my desktop with additional memory, a bigger hard-drive and a new internal DVD writer. Although hesitant at first, I now think nothing of opening up the PC and sticking my screw-driver in there (disconnecting the power first of course). I have not as yet tried to fit laptop memory in my laptop yet, but I definitely need a new hard-drive, so maybe I’ll upgrade the memory at the same time. More memory allows your computer to work faster and do more tasks at the same time.

Looking back on March 2008

All-in-all a much better month for blog earnings this month. Not quite the giddy heights that I have been able to reach in the past, but a fair return.
Actually, this is the third best month I have had and mostly due to earning $55 with a single opportunity.
In the main opportunities remain hard to come by and few PPP tasks have come my way. Sponsored reviews have been more active, one opp in particular turning into quite a bargaining match. My prospective sponsor offered me a much reduced fee, I countered with a new proposal, which was countered again before we finally settled on a figure (I'm glad I didn't settle for the first counter-offer).
New tactics must be sought and tried with the new blogging environment in which it is becoming harder to make cash with blog posts. I have already begun a new blog which when it is sufficiently 'aged' will hopefully be suited to an earnings niche. I am not ready to reveal it as yet, but will announce it properly when it is matured enough to make some earnings.
Here are my tips for doing something similar. Pick a niche that you know something about and with which you can enjoy writing/researching. Find a keyword-linked domain name. Start writing good content and register with all the paid post schemes and social blogging sites you can find. Alternatively buy an 'aged' domain (as long as you don't pay too much) and you may be able to sign up for some schemes straight away...
In case the spreadsheet makes no sense to you... I 'made' $93.18 in March, and got paid out $71.75 - The biggest individual earner for me last month was Creamaid.

Website Review : Scrap Therapy

If you are looking for scrapbook supplies Canada then Scrapbook Therapy is a website which will help you. They sell a huge range of scrapbook supplies and are based in Canada. They have everything you could need from albums and paper, to pens, stamps and stickers. They also have embellishments, brads and cutting tools. They even have books and magazines so you can learn all about the craft and get new ideas for designs. You can get further ideas for designs by looking at their gallery section which has many examples of scrapbook pages. As well as selling scrapbook supplies Canada they also have details of classes and they even have a blog and a newsletter so you can get a host of information too. They have a club which you can join too. The club allows you to get a discount on the products that you purchase online so it is well worth joining if you are likely to be a regular customer.

Recyling for our future

Like me, you must have wondered what happens to the recycled plastics that we send away each week. Today I found out a little about what that plastic becomes, apparently the HDPE plastics (carrier bags and bottles and the like) can be turned into HDPE 'regrind' or Virgin HDPE Granules. When that plastic is re-used the granules are more sought after due to their more consistent quality and color, you can see what the granules look like from the photograph.
Recycling will have to become our way for life for the future as landfill sites become fuller and more real estate is needed for housing. In the future, landfill will become more expensive as sites will have to be created further and further away from towns and cities. If homeowners take care over segregating their waste, better use can be made from the scrap, and better quality products can be produced. If you are not already recycling, bear in mind that every time you throw something away, that piece of rubbish has to end up somewhere. Once it has been taken away, it doesn't disappear....

Shopping cart software

Getting the right shopping cart software is a key part of prospective internet earnings. The market is competitive so you can look for a great package at a reasonable price. here are some key pointers that might be worth investigating:

• Does the service offer monthly payment rather than a large up front payment?
• Does the service offer a free trial period so that you can get to grips with it before you start paying?
• Are pages fully customisable to fit in with your style and theme?
• Is full reporting available as standard?
• Can the service host your ecommerce pages on their own secure servers?
• Is the system simple to use?

My investigations have led me to ASHOP ecommerce software as being a leading world-wide provider of shopping cart software that is both simple to use and feature packed with stuff you didn't even know you wanted!
For instance, did you even stop to consider whether your ecommerce pages were optimised for search engines? (thought not...) Did you consider the uptime and how secure the servers were that will host your pages?? ASHOP even have 24/7 free technical support should you require it.
Making mistakes can be very costly, so get it right first time with ASHOP...

Got a problem?

We probably all know someone who has a problem with drink or drugs, even though we would probably never address the issue with them face to face, we should probably try to point them in the direction of some good drug treatment. Problems of this nature can be personally devastating but also have serious consequences for friends family and colleagues too. Everybody benefits if you have the courage to confront somebody about their problems.

Website Review : Best Real Income

If you are looking for a home based business then Best Real Income is a website which can help you. They have a whole host of ideas for how to run your own business from home with ideas such as home staging business, VOIP home business, toy rental, home typing and many other ideas. Sometimes it can be hard to make ends meet and working from home can be the only option if you have small children or other dependents needing your constant care. This site is useful as it will allow you to find out the type of job that is available to someone who is working from home. It will help you to be able to fit your skills with the available work that it out there and enable you to be able to earn a few extra dollars or make a good living depending on how much time and effort you are prepared to put into it.

Make Money From Home

Many of us are looking to make money. Whether it is to pay bills, pay off debts or a mortgage or to be able to afford a holiday or luxury items, it is always great if we can get a little extra coming in. Most people go and get a job in order to do these things but there are some people who would rather work at home. This could be due to having children or elderly relatives at home to look after or just because you would rather not go out to work or because you want a second job in the evenings to supplement your income. It can be tricky, however, knowing how to make money working at home. This is where the website Make Money – Work at Home can help. It has articles explaining all about setting up a work from home business as well as tips for earning and explanations of how you can make money from blogging.

Website Review : Make Money with Paid Surveys

There are many ways to make money online and some are more difficult than others. Many people enjoy doing surveys and like to make money online with paid surveys as it is fun and can pay quite well. It can be difficult to know which companies to use to do this. Make money with paid surveys is a website which can tell you exactly how to do this. They have a list of companies which offer paid surveys as well as articles about how to make money from doing surveys online. There is information on how surveys work and you can make money from them as well as policies when doing surveys and the benefits of earning money in this manner. There is quite a lot of money available for filling out surveys online and it is certainly well worth finding out more about the best way to make money doing this.

Free Web Domain Hosting

Many people choose to use free web hosting rather than paying for a hosting service. There are advantages and disadvantages to doing this. If you do not have much money or are not prepared to pay for this service then free domain hosting is a good option for you. However, many businesses choose not to use free web domain hosting as they feel that it looks more professional to have a site which they have paid for. It makes it look as though you are prepared to invest some money into your business and hosting is not really that expensive compared to many other business costs. If you are an individual with a personal web site then it is well worth having a free hosting company as it does not matter what other people think. So it is important to think carefully about who your website is aimed at before you choose whether to use free domain hosting or not.

Website Review : Top 100 Web Hosts

The Top 100 Web Hosts is a website which has lists of top web hosts. The top 100 hosts that they list are split into ten categories : top ten Windows hosts, top ten Unix hosts, top ten reseller hosts, top ten VPS hosts, top ten dedicated hosts, top ten Wordpress hosts, top ten PHP hosts, top ten ecommerce hosts, top ten business hosts and top ten email hosts. There are also useful articles about how to choose between the top hosts for your site. There are a number of articles on the subject of web hosting – giving you enough information to calculate what criteria you should be using when deciding on a top web hosting company, what questions to ask your potential hosting company and how a good web host can help improve your search engine position. They have even nominated a best hosting provider for 2007/2008 so you can find out which company they rate above all others.

Website Review : Web Hosting Geeks

If you are looking for a new company to supply you with web hosting then it is a good idea to look around and see which company might be the best. You may be just looking for a cheap company or you may be more interested in the services that they can give you for your money. It is a good idea to take a look at several companies and compare them to see which can give you the best value for money. This is where Web Hosting Geeks can help you. They are a company which review sites which provide hosting. They have a list of their top ten hosting companies and have a hosting review for each company so you can learn more about the company before you decide which to join. You can even sign up to the company directly through the website if you decide to sign up to one of them.

Work At Home With Paid Surveys

Every day internet users are looking for ways to work at home. Whether users are looking for extra money or a whole new way to make their income, a method for them to look into is paid surveys. Paid surveys is considered to be one of the easiest ways to make money online. One of the best things about paid surveys is that users can work at their own pace and make as much money as they want. This is great for people who may be in debt as they can quickly knock down debt by doing paid surveys. There are many different sites that offer the chance to work from home with paid surveys including sites that are free for use or sites that offer access to higher paying surveys after receiving some kind of pay. With that type of selection, users can be sure they site they chose is a real moneymaker. This website will help users select the survey site that works best based on what kind of income they want and what their needs are. If you're looking to make an extra shopping trip each month or you want to quit your old brick and mortar job, this site will make sure you've found the site you need to make your monthly income. Whether you want to get paid up to $150 per Paid Survey or $250 per hour in focus groups, this work at home with paid surveys site will make sure you've found the site you need to make your monthly income.

Did you know what Hoodia is??

I keep getting these spam emails which are only too eager to discuss the size of certain body parts (sometimes with pictures..), or to sell me viagra or hoodia…
Now up until today I had no idea what hoodia was, but apparently it is an appetite suppressant obviously for those who take their slimming seriously. My advice to anyone who thinks they need to shed a few pounds is to consider doing more exercise before thinking about taking steps like this. However there are those who are seriously overweight and for whom vigorous exercise is not a viable option, in cases like that there is probably a need for some drastic intervention.
Either way, don't ever reply to or click o those spam emails even if you want to try viagra or hoodia, go see a medical specialist..

Enjoy Cooking Games With Your Kid Today

There are numerous cooking games for children on the World Wide Web these days but are they even near to the real thing? Does it actually matter if it’s still pleasurable for your child? Kids like to copy grown-ups’ everyday chores such as mowing the lawn, driving a car and you got to bet cooking is one of them too! Of course we don’t actually find it pleasurable doing them but they are out of the ordinary experiences for children who may be “checking” them out for their very first time. And of course parents don’t usually permit their kid to do the original thing for obvious reasons but rather use replacements such as toys to simulate these activities for him or her. Place your child in front of the PC and watch him or her turn into a little chef!

There is a variety of cooking games available on the Net which are often free to play. The ones with the least hassle are directly played on your browser. Interaction is derived from using the mouse, keyboard or a combination of both. As some games can get rather large in size, broadband is certainly recommended for a more speedy loadings.

One cooking game that caught my attention is about making breakfast- the most critical meal of the day. In the game, the player must beat the eggs by dragging the egg beater with the mouse in a circular motion. He or she then proceeds to churn out an omelet out of it on the cooking pan. This is one excellent of what a kid could learn- “Now I know how mum makes them!” Another sort of cooking game worth mentioning integrates the fundamentals of managing a café. Players have to cook and serve the food to the customers in a timely manner and also satisfy a preset sales requirement for the day.

Playing cooking games prepare a child deal with the actual thing when he or she gets to an older age. He or she could even help you out in the kitchen. Some kids find it amusing to cook a meal for themselves and ultimately would be more eager to finish up their food. Psychologically, it’s the sense of satisfaction that they are looking for. This method is great for parents who have kids that are very selective with their food or have poor appetite.

Most often, these cooking games are in Korean or Japanese - Only God knows why these people make very good games. Luckily, it’s not a problem at all as most of these games are generally easy to understand that your child will be baking a cake in no time.

Make this an enjoyable experience for you and your child today.

Funny streaming video clips

Topyoutubevideos.com is a website dedicated to finding the best youtube videos on the internet. They search through thousands of videos and only upload the best onto the website. They include the funniest and strangest videos on youtube. They update the content all the time so you won’t be bored when you're watching the videos because they're always new. They also include information and news from around the world on the Youtube Corporation this is ideal for marketers using youtube because they will know what the company is always up too around the world. It’s a must see website if you're into utube videos or business.

All about Facebook

Palhajs.com is a website that provides information about Facebook.com. Face Book is the leading the social networking race. With Palhajs you can learn the basic information for opening an account to many advanced features. Using a proxy helps to keep your identity private. So there is much less possibility of your information being traced by anyone. Social networking is the favorite topic being used at the moment. Many schools and companies have blocked Facebook to ensure their students and employees don't waste their time in these sites. But this can be easily overcome by using the proxy network.

Website Review : Essay 911

If you are looking for a custom essay, research paper, report or term paper then Essay 911 can help. They can provide you with your article in only 4 days at a cost of $10.55 per page. If you want it quicker then the price is more expensive, for example for a two day turnaround the cost is $18.55 per page, for a 24 hour turnaround the cost is $24.55 and for 12 hours the cost is $34.55.

Essay 911 has a range of experienced writers and editors specialised in many subjects such as literature, geography, history, art, advertising, business, accounting, communication and media, education, sociology, psychology, politics, religion, English, finance, government, computer technologies, philosophy, marketing, management, business, education, law, Internet, economics, health, environmental issues and many more. They will provide you with custom essays so there is no chance of plagiarism and they are available all the time so that you can get the work done even at the shortest notice.

Need a Contractor?

I found this really handy site that helps internet users find home remodeling contractors right online. Users can search by entering their zip code or by clicking on a map. After doing this, the site searches their database and digs up the best contractors in your area for the job you need done. Then on the search results page you can use the site's nifty contact form to contact a local home remodeling contractor. If you want a quick and fair estimate, this is definitely the way to go especially if you're looking into kitchen or bathroom renovation. This clean, friendly ad-free website is the way to go when looking for a contractor who is qualified to do remodeling work the correct and safe way. Forget the old method of picking a contractor out of the phone book at random and find the right person for the project whether you're looking for a Yonkers contractor or an Anaheim contractor.

Website Review : Top 10 Webhosts

If you are looking for a new web hosting company but are not sure where to start then it is useful to look at some reviews of various companies to find out which suits your needs the best. You will need to example what services each provides and whether these services are things that you need from a web hosting company. Top 10 web hosts is a site which could help you with this. They have reviews of various top webhosts and have a list of their top 10 webhosts with a small amount of summary information and a link to the web hosts main page containing all of the information about the company and the services that they can provide. The website will give you a start in deciding which web hosting company would be best for your needs and whether any of the websites that they feature can provide a service that is suitable for you.

Website Review : Best Website Hosting

Best Website Hosting is a site which helps users to select the best hosting company for them. They have reviews of a selection of the best web site hosting companies. They even have awards for the best web hosting sites. The award categories include best budget hosting, best blog hosting, best forum hosting, best Unix hosting, best email hosting. Best reseller hosting and best ecommerce hosting. They also have some useful webmaster resources such as information on domain hosting and web hosting deals. The home page also features ten web hosting companies which best Website Hosting have named as the best companies of 2007. These have a summary on this page so that you can easily compare them but there is also a more detailed review of each one and a link to the main website of the hosting company. Each of the companies has a rating which has been given by webmasters and companies.

Gas prices on the rise - a survey

Of course 'Gas prices' means something different in the UK than it does in the US, so a survey entitled GAS PRICES ON THE RISE might seem more poignant for those of us who have just received our gas bill!! aaarrgghh
However we can all relate to fuel prices of all types going up, what they don't realise in the US though is just how much we pay for car fuel...They don't pay anything near the prices that we pay over here. Have a go at the survey and earn a few cents for your trouble...

Make Money Online

More and more people these days would like to work at home. This could be due to people wanting to stay at with their children but also get some income at the same time. It is also better for the environment to work from home as there is no traveling involved. Many employers still do not let their employees work from home so many people doing this are running their own businesses or are self employed. A popular way to do this is to make money online using the Internet. There are a huge amount of online opportunities – it just depends on your skills and interests as to what you choose to do to make money. There are many blogs and websites which can teach you how to work at home and make money and so it is easy to find out where and how to start your online career.

Website Review : Biofuel Guide

Biofuel Guideis a website which has articles explaining what biofuels are with specific reference to ethanol and biodiesel. With many of us wanting to have less impact on the environment then it is useful to read guides such as these to find out what biofuel options are available to us, how they are produced and whether we can use them. This guide explains all about the chemistry behind bio fuel and how it is better for the environment than alternatives. It also puts forwards some advantages and disadvantages of using it as well as having a lot of information about controversy surrounding it and a list of misconceptions about it. It has all of the information you need to understand all about biofuel. If you are looking for a more environmentally friendly fuel then it is certainly worth taking a look at this guide and becoming fully informed about these alternative options.

How to Choose Web Domain Hosting

If you are looking for the best web hosting company it can be pretty difficult to know which company to choose. There are many companies offering this service and all offering different features and prices so it is hard to know where to start. The best thing to do is to identify what you need from the company. Perhaps you want to find the best domain hosting or you want a company which is very cheap. You may need Unix hosting or just something from email. Whatever services you need, it is important to identify this before you start looking for a web hosting company. Once you have identified what you need, you will then be more easily able to decide whether the company that you are looking at can meet your requirements. Make sure that you read some reviews to find out what other people think is the best web domain hosting company and you will then be sure to pick a suitable and reliable company.

Website Review : Web Hosting Rating

Web Hosting Rating is a website which reviews web hosting services. This means that if you are interested in changing your web host then you will be able to have a look and see what top rated sites that they recommend. This will help you to make a decision about which top web hosting service to use out of the huge amount of sites that are available. The website has a top three list of websites and they have a list of the main features, a screenshot and the price for each of them, so at a glance you can get an idea of what company can provide you with the best web hosting. When you have decided which you like the look of you can click the link in order to go the website of the hosting company and find out more details about the service they can provide for you.

Google follow-up

Rachel left a comment on my blog post entitled 'Google is the daddy' which I replied to, but my answer started to get so long that I thought I would turn it into a new 'post'...

I agree with you on most of the issues you raised. I am not sure about Googlenet but I know what you mean about them having such a big hold on the Internet. I do think that alexa is trying to compete with their ranking system but it would be great of there was a real competitors

Thanks Rachel
Alexa rankings are all very well, but it's the search engine position that most people are after - traffic monitoring is no doubt a consideration, but PR (I presume) is more complex... PR alone does not get you SERP, but a combination of PR and on-page optimisation - Google could decide tomorrow to use Alexa rankings (which are an indication of traffic) instead of PR - that's the problem for SEO 'experts' the formula keeps changing as trends change and people try new tactics to 'black hat' their way to high SERP. The more you try to 'fool' the system, the more complex the system becomes as it reacts. The problem is that no-one regulates the reaction, Google have only to answer to themselves. Right now I honestly think they do a good job and they are not really exploiting their global domination, but I do also feel that the loopholes are there if there was a change of heart and policy. This is why Monopolies are investigated and surely it can't be too long before Google oversteps the mark and gets broken up into separate entities?
I don't have any insider knowledge about these matters, these are just my observations as an internet user and specifically someone who has used Adwords and Adsense and uses Google search all the time.

Roofing in Cambridge MA

Fixing a leaking roof is one of the most frustrating repairs for homeowners. Simply finding the leak may prove virtually impossible and once the leak is found it is often difficult to know where to go next. Recently I was visiting a friend in Cambridge and his house had a roof leak. It turned out to be a missing / damaged shingle. We looked online for roofing Cambridge MA and gutters Cambridge MA found Dave Ness. He was fast to respond, and fixed the problem for a good price.

Caring for the Environment

There are many options available to us to help to reduce our carbon footprint and become more environmentally friendly. It can be tricky, however, to implement a lot of changes as they are expensive, time consuming and sometimes impossible. However, even small changes can help and so it is well worth having a look at our daily lives and see whether there are just a few things we can do to improve the impact that we, as individuals, are having on the environment. One way to do this is to look at the way that we are heating our house. It is expensive to install solar panels and wind turbines but there are other things that can be done. If you have an open fire or log burning stove you can replace what you are currently using with wood pellet fuel. The wood pellets fuel is made from biomass and so is much better for the environment than alternatives such as coal or wood. There are many companies that sell pellets fuel so it is easy to get hold of and is not too expensive.

Website Review : Bill Consolidation Direct

Bill Consolidation Direct is a company which can help you to combine your loans or bills in order that you can have just one monthly repayment. You can reduce the amount of money that you pay each month to make it easier to manage your loan repayments. All you have to do is to fill in your personal information including the amount of debt you have and the payment status on your credit card with your contact details and you will be contacted by them with a possible solution to your financial concerns. They will help you to plan an organized repayment plan in order that you know exactly how much you will be paying each month and how much the total amount to be paid will be. This means that you can more easily plan your future knowing what how your finances stand and relax in the knowledge that you can be debt free in the future. So if you are having financial difficulties then look into the option of bill consolidation to see whether it is something which can help you.

Website Review : Top WP Themes

Top WP Themes is a blog which features wordpress themes. You can view and download a huge variety of wp themes free of charge from the blog. The blog is updated with new themes regularly so it is well worth checked back often to see if there are any new ones to look at. The themes are sorted by category such as two columns or three columns and right sidebar and left sidebar, so you can easily find a theme which suits the requirements for your blog. Each blog post contains a screenshot of the theme and a brief summary of some of the features. There is a button that you can click to see a preview of the wordpress theme being used as well as a download button. So if you are starting a new Wordpress blog or want to change the theme of your existing Wordpress blog then it is well worth taking a look at what is available on this website.

Google is the Daddy

Reading through the new Adwords TOS and thinking of the position that Google occupies in the internet 'market' got me thinking again about how the Big G has far too much control in what 'should' be a democratic trading environment.
I don't wish to incur the wrath of Google since they host my blogs and occasionally send me a few dollars (especially since my account is up to about $110 at the moment...), but equally there is a lot of unjustified moaning aimed at Google which maybe we can also address.
The power of Google lies in the domination of Google as a search engine - there can be no doubt that it is the biggest and best, the problems only come when you start looking at all the other pies that Google has it's fingers in and you can't help but think about possible conflict of interests.
I can't see any problem with the social side of Google, Googlemail, Google Groups, Google Calendar and all the other apps that it has are a great idea complementing it's position as the top search engine provider. Adwords are a natural add-on to the search-engine business, we are beginning to get into conflict-of-interest territory now, but I think Google handles it well, with paid search results being easy to spot and the fact that you can get yourself highly listed without paying shows that the system basically works well.
The nitty-gritty of this post is, as you will have guessed, Adsense... How does that fit into the equation and is it fair??
First off, Adsense is the contextual ads that you can show on a website or blog and be paid by Google when the ads are clicked by your visitors. Naturally there are all sorts of rules about traffic exchange which I (now) understand, and obviously overtly encouraging visitors to click on the adverts is a no-no... I do have an issue however with the way an account is shut down. You hear of many instances of an account having amassed a half-decent amount before the account is closed for whatever reason - personally I have not had an account closed, but can see how this might happen to an innocent party who has been targeted by a competitor (for instance). In these cases, Google takes the spoils ie. the contents of the account. It's in the terms I am sure, but terms must be 'fair' for a contract to be valid. Does Google lose out if someone fraudulently clicks on adverts - Well no, because presumably the advertiser still pays Google per click? I am willing to re-think if someone can show me that they refund the advertiser for clicks identified as fraudulent...
So not only does Google have paid links within the search engine results (yet they reduce PR on a website identified as using paid links...), but they can show text adverts on sites that will also presumably show up in search engines too - all of these adverts are paid links. Here then is the dilema: Paid links are a means of making revenue for Google, yet Google (via Pagerank which is part of the hysteresis used to work out SERP - Search Engine Results Position) punishes any site that appears to accept or trade in paid linking. Once the PR of a site has been reduced (many blogs are now operating with a PR of zero...) there is seemingly no question that Google will continue to use that site for continuing to host it's own adverts (Adsense), and apparently in the case of blogger, they take a cut by rotating the adsense code with their own...
Now don't get me wrong, I am really not that concerned as long as I can continue to get my sites ranked with the keywords that I want for free and can make a bit out of Adsense here and there and can have my blogs hosted for free - I think I am getting a good deal especially when you consider all the site-stats and search-engine help that they provide for free. My concern is that here is a potentially huge monopoly that will surely not be able to sustain this hold on the internet in the longer term otherwise we are going to just end up with the Googlenet.

[follow-up post here]

Wood Pellets

Many people are looking for more environmentally friendly way to heat their homes. Some options are very expensive and take a lot of upheaval to incorporate. However, if you have an open fire or wood burning stove, then it is worth considering buying wood pellets to use a fuel. These are fine wood particles (basically sawdust) which have been compacted to make pellets. The sawdust used to make them is a by product of the wood industry so the fuel is being made from something that would otherwise have been thrown away. They have very low water content which means that the pellets burn more efficiently than wood or coal. As the woodpellets are made of compacted material they take up less storage space than wood and so are easier and cheaper to transport. They are also considered to be a biofuel so as well as not using up valuable resources and cutting down on the environmental damage cause by transportation you are also using a more environmentally friendly product.

Effective Home Heating

If dealing with rising heating costs each month is getting harder and harder, you may want to consider wood pellet stoves as a way to heat your home at a lower cost. You're probably thinking that this is no environmentally friendly, but it actually is. Pellet stoves are actually one of the most reliable, cost efficient, and environmentally friendly ways to heat your home. Pellet stoves have electrically controlled blowers which helps the pellet stove release as much energy as possible from pellets. Pellet stoves also have a feature which minimizes any smoke that may be created from the pellet burning process. Wood pellets used to fuel pellet stoves are produced from recycled sawdust. This sawdust would otherwise have been dumped in landfills, which is one of the things that makes pellet burning stoves environmentally friendly. Being easy to clean and easy to take care of, wood pellet stoves are becoming a more and more popular way to heat homes without the cost and worry of other home heating methods.

Home Equity Loan Information

Loan Guru is a website which helps its users find a loan that's right for them. With several different articles on everything from a how-to on getting home loans to tips on how to find out which home loan is right for you. If you've got bad credit and are still looking for a home loan, this site has a great article for you which includes consequences for not repaying loans on time. Want to know what a home equity loans are? Loan Guru has all the information on that too! A really handy part of the site is the article about online mortgage calculators which explains that you can find out how large of a mortgage you can qualify for without having to enter personal information. The best part is that you can do this right online and see in seconds how much you may qualify for. With handy tabs and categories to help you navigate around the Loan Guru site, you'll find all sorts of information that pertains to home equity loan needs that you may have. If you are looking for home equity loans that suit your needs, then Loan Guru is the one stop place for all the information you'll need to make an informed decision on one of the most important loans of your life.

Pesquisando por Cosmetico?

Um site interessante que nós pesquisamos é o www.cosmeticosinfo.com, um site legal para encontrar informação sobre Cosmetico. Tudo que você precisa saber sobre Produtos Cosmeticos pode encontrar neste blog: , que publica textos atualizados diaramente sobre cosmeticos e publica as noticias para Cosmetico. Achar dados sobre Cosmetico na internet é complicado pois a maioria dos sites não publica asuntos como cosmeticos. Você pode procurar mais e acompanhe as notícias diariamente para conseguir assuntos novos Produtos Cosmeticos. Fique à vontade para deixar comentários a respeito dos artigos que diponibilizamos neste blog, a respeito do assunto: cosmeticos. Por Final, queremos dizer que o www.cosmeticosinfo.com é um website muito interessante e o recomendamos a todos que se identificam com Cosmetico.

Website Review : Free Ring Tones

Free ring tones is a website where you can download free mobile ringtones in many different formats including key press, composer and rttl. All of the ring tones have full previews so you know exactly what to expect from your download. They can all be downloaded directly to your mobile phone from their WAP site or alternatively to your PC where you can then transfer the free MP3 ringtones to your phone using Bluetooth, data cable or infrared transfer methods. There is choice of mono or polyphonic ring tones so you can choose something which suits both your needs and the capabilities of your phone. There is a massive choice of tunes to choose from so you are bound to find one which you will love and as soon as you want a new one you can return to the site and choose another. The site is very simple to navigate and to use with a search bar so that you can more easily find a tune of your choice. So whatever phone you have and whatever your taste in music you are bound to find something suitable from the Free Ring Tones website.

Website Review : Credit Cards Club

Credit cards club is a website which rates and reviews credit cards. It is useful if you are looking for a new credit card, as you can read the reviews and find out what type of credit card and which particular credit card you want. The credit card reviews tell you all about that type of credit card. For example a review about no interest credit cards will tell you exactly how this type of credit card is different to other cards and the advantages and disadvantages of this type of card. They then have a list of cards which fall into this category all with a separate credit card rating so that you can see which one they consider to be the best. The categories of credit card that they review include no annual fee credit cards, business credit cards, cash back credit cards, bad credit credit cards, prepaid credit cards, student credit cards and instant approval credit cards.

Getting out of Debt

I have posted on debt and controlling your finance on several occasions as it is a subject that I feel quite strongly about. In many cases a few adjustments to spending patterns should be sufficient to bring finances under control and make them manageable. However, the longer we go on spending without budgeting, the worse the problem can get until an exterior solution is required. When things have reached the point where even with strict self-imposed controls, the interest you are paying is pushing your spending beyond the reaches of your income, it may be time to consolidate debt. Debt consolidation is basically a loan that will cover your existing debts under one account. This loan effectively pays off the individual debts that you have leaving you with a single payment which is hopefully within your budget. If you are considering this route, please note that this does not mean you can carry on spending more than you earn otherwise you will end up in even worse trouble. This type of step must be only undertaken if you have reached the point where you are ready to change your spending habits for the better.
Using a service like No Debt Today allows you to get a free consultation to discuss your debt problems and find the best way out of them. This website is clearly laid out, easy to understand and provides helpful advice about debt. Any expert can tell you that you need to pay off the most expensive debt first, but how do you work that out? No Debt Today will take care of working out the best approach to get you debt free at your pace.

Wood Pellet Stoves

It is becoming more popular to have wood pellet stoves in your home. They have advantages over central heating systems as they look very pretty and can form a focal point in a room. They are much more efficient then ordinary wood burning stoves and come in many elegant designs. The wood pellet stoves can even have a boiler integrated into them so they can heat hot water and run the central heating system. They are very easy to light – just a touch of a button and you can even program the stoves to come on at off at set times in the same way that you would program a normal central heating system. They have the added bonus of being environmentally friendly as the fuel has low carbon content. So if you are looking for a new clean, effective and efficient way to heat your home then it is worth taking a look at what wood pellet stoves can offer

Home equity

Home Equity Loan Store is a website where you can shop for a home equity loan that suits your needs. With different loans to choose from including home refinance loans, refinance loans, a mortgage, and second mortgages, this site has all sorts of options for those looking for the perfect loan. Besides viewing different loans to choose from, Home Equity Loan Store also offers articles packed with information about different loans to help you learn all about each type of loan so that you can be sure that you are getting what you bargained for. Also included are different tips including questions that should be asked when choosing home equity loans, and an article about the benefits and drawbacks of debt consolidation. If you want low rates on a home equity loan, there is a section listing places where you can get equity loans at loan rates in a very handy location on the site. Toward the lower section of the website is a very handy list of all the articles about loans that you can read to learn all about the different types of loans that are important for your life no matter what type of loan you need.

Make Money Online - then spend it!

I find myself using eBay again lately - it seems to go like that for me, I go a bit mad, use up all my PayPal funds and then take a rest. When funds are back up I'm back on eBay and I can't just restrict myself to one thing I usually have to buy a couple more things to go with it.
One of the great things about making money online is being paid by PayPal and being able to spend that money without it ever being 'real' money in your pocket....
Lately I have been buying Hi-Fi equipment on Ebay, really nice kit for very little money which is always great. Last year I spent a load of my paypal earnings upgrading my PC.
I have also been using my PayPal account for other purchases too. I have bought two domains recently (one for this blog and one for another which may be revealed later...), I bought them from GoDaddy as they have good prices, and they accept PayPal...! GoDaddy (no they don't sponsor me...yet!) also throw in free hosting with some domains, so you can actually get a really good deal - I have another idea for a site that I want to develop and I was thinking of buying a domain from GoDaddy, and the hosting from my regular hosting service. I am now considering using GoDaddy for my hosting too as their free package if you buy a dot com for $9.99 is an extremely attractive deal.

PayDay loans

I have been fighting my own battle against the credit bubble for a little while now, first of all by cutting out all extraneous spending that was not essential, and then by trying to raise a little income from the internet. Alongside these tactics, it is vital to find a way to reduce the cost of credit card debts and missing a payment through having a pay-check come in late will cost you dear…

If you have a cash-flow problem, one way to make sure you can pay on the due date is to get a short-term loan from payday loans.

The advantages of this system is the speed of response: if you fill in the on-line application, you can find out almost immediately if you have been approved (within a minute), you then enter your bank details and the funds will be transferred on the same day in many cases. You can borrow from £80 to £750 depending on your circumstances, the interest rates are fairly high, but clearly indicated and simple to understand (still not as expensive as missing a payment on your credit card or going overdrawn)

Please note that this is not a recommended tactic for reducing debt per se, but a way to avoid paying more for your credit than is necessary. I have always maintained that the quickest way to make money is to save money….

Procurando por credito para estudante?

Um site interessante que nós pesquisamos é o www.credito-educativo.com, um site legal para encontrar informação sobre credito para estudante. Tudo que você precisa saber sobre Emprestimo Educativo pode encontrar neste blog: , que publica textos atualizados diaramente sobre credito educativo e divulga o que é novo para credito para estudante. Dados sobre credito para estudante na internet é complicado pois a maioria dos sites não publica asuntos como credito educativo. Pesquise mais e registre-se no RSS para ter mais novidades Emprestimo Educativo. Você pode deixar sua opinião para os textos que leu neste blog, desde que seja sobre credito educativo. Para concluir, afirmamos que o www.credito-educativo.com é um site completo que vale a pena a todos que se identificam com credito para estudante.

Vocé também pode se interessar por outro portal que publica informação de credito para estudante, que e sobre Tributario!

Faça uma pesquisa noutro site sobre credito educativo que nós achamos ser interessante também consorcio contemplado.

OTC medicines and prescription drugs online databases

If you are looking for more information about pharmaceutical OTC and prescription drugs then drugs-about.com could help you. This site have information on various drugs such as Naldecon which oral capsules and suspension contains phenylpropanolamine as an active pharmaceutical ingredient; Obenix phentermine weight loss diet pills or Oxybenzone a lot of cosmetics and health products with mono- and many oxybenzone components. Drugs-about.com describes how the drug is taken, what its brand name is, what ingredients are in it and what companies sell it. It also has a list of the most recently added and updated items in the database which is great for people revisiting the site to see if what they are looking for has changed. The site is basically a huge database of drug names so if you are looking to find out more information about a particular item then this would be a good place to start.

IZEA rankings

I have had trouble with my IZEA ranking since I changed to a dot com, initially my IZEA rank was zero, which admittedly is a nice low number (??!!) but not one that was any use to me. I tried re-registering for IZEA rank, but kept getting an error from the URL in the confirmation email.
I then had to take the drastic step of completely removing the PPP script from the HTML of the blog (I tried this before but put it back after three days with no change...). This time, after a couple of days, my ranking went meteoric up to beyond 22,000 - not much use to anyone, but at least something was happening. I put the script back in and after a couple more days I am back with a respectable rank again... This has been a long hard struggle during which I have been relying on other sources of income and have even started a new blog...

Missing In Action?

Missing in action or 'Missing.... inaction??'. I admit that I may have been 'missing' for almost a week, I would like to say it was for a holiday but sadly, it wasn't...I certainly have not been inactive, just not blogging.
The task I have been so heavily immersed in, was one of backing up all my files, though to be truthful, I have actually been backing up my backup! I set up a 250GB external hard-drive a little more than a year ago to automatically backup selected folders on a daily basis. I watched it like a hawk for a week or more (when it was registering about 10GB of used space), before leaving it to silently get on with its' task, occasionally needing to kick it into life when it went off-line.
However, I noticed a few days ago that about 80% of the drives' capacity was full, it had been diligently backing up huge amounts of data in the background - out of sight, out of mind. I do a bit of work with large audio files and have been playing with video files, which accounts for large files in the backup, and means that I need plenty of free file space. A lot of the files that were backed up were duplicates or 'first drafts' or 'edits' that I no longer required, yet a large chunk of that data needed to be archived in case I needed it again. It took me TWO days of deleting masses of files before all the duplicates and files that were not needed were finally purged.
I hit on a plan to get the important files onto DVD's for storage, but it was the complexities of the plan that I thought would be worth exploring. These are the things that struck me that I hadn't really considered before I started backing up:

• Make sure that you have not backed up any 'temp' folders as these may take up huge amounts of file space whilst all the data in them is probably stored elsewhere
• Tidy up your hard drive AND your backup on a regular basis BUT make sure you clean the files from your PC hard-drive first because if you just clean up the backup, all the files that are still on the hard-drive will reappear as soon as the next routine backup takes place...

• Once you have cleared all the 'junk' from your backup, you need to catalog the contents of the drive before you end up with a load of compressed archives that give no clue as to what is in them.

For this final task, I googled for 'freeware to print folder directory' and came across 'PrintFileListPro' from James River Software. I was able to quickly print out a hard-copy of the files that I was about to archive, straight from the backup drive. Once the list of files has been printed, I would then be able to mark on the list which files were on which DVD archive - this proved essential as I managed to fill NINE discs each with over 4GB of compressed data.I recently bought an internal DVD writing drive which had NERO bundled - this has a backup facility which allows you to select files from any drive and back them up in compressed format onto DVD or to another drive. It is nearly 40 GB and another TWO DAYS later before and I am finally in a position to clean off the archived data from the backup external drive.
My backup drive now has a healthy 70% free space, and I have a healthier attitude towards backups, this includes the idea of routinely cleaning and archiving the backup, and ensuring that non-essential folders do not take up valuable backup space. In the days of cheap storage devices and excellent free software, there is no excuse for not having a backup system in place. My next step will be to see if I can find decent free 'mirror' software so that I can keep an up-to-date 'redundant' copy of my main hard-drive. Any ideas??

Confused by new Adsense TOS?

Well to be honest, I was kind of keeping my head down about this one, one of those things where you don't have to do it now, so it doesn't get done. Sometimes it's better to give things a shorter deadline if you want to see a difference...
Anyhow, I bit the bullet to day and went to see what it was all about - seems the main crux is that if you want to use Adsense, you will need a publicly viewable privacy policy. Well, I do use Adsense, only a tiny bit on this blog, however I don't want to jeopardise my Adsense earnings elsewhere so I'm, going to place my brand new privacy policy courtesy of Jensense right here:

Privacy Policy for munny4hunny.com

The privacy of our visitors to munny4hunny.com is important to us.

At munny4hunny.com, we recognize that privacy of your personal information is important. Here is information on what types of personal information we receive and collect when you use visit munny4hunny.com, and how we safeguard your information. We never sell your personal information to third parties.

Log Files
As with most other websites, we collect and use the data contained in log files. The information in the log files include your IP (internet protocol) address, your ISP (internet service provider, such as AOL or Shaw Cable), the browser you used to visit our site (such as Internet Explorer or Firefox), the time you visited our site and which pages you visited throughout our site.

Cookies and Web Beacons
We do use cookies to store information, such as your personal preferences when you visit our site. This could include only showing you a popup once in your visit, or the ability to login to some of our features, such as forums.

We also use third party advertisements on munny4hunny.com to support our site. Some of these advertisers may use technology such as cookies and web beacons when they advertise on our site, which will also send these advertisers (such as Google through the Google AdSense program) information including your IP address, your ISP , the browser you used to visit our site, and in some cases, whether you have Flash installed. This is generally used for geotargeting purposes (showing New York real estate ads to someone in New York, for example) or showing certain ads based on specific sites visited (such as showing cooking ads to someone who frequents cooking sites).

You can chose to disable or selectively turn off our cookies or third-party cookies in your browser settings, or by managing preferences in programs such as Norton Internet Security. However, this can affect how you are able to interact with our site as well as other websites. This could include the inability to login to services or programs, such as logging into forums or accounts.

May I encourage you to do the same, and don't forget to provide a link so that the Google bots can easily find it...

Survey on digital photography

Today is another survey day...dNeero surveys are quick and easy to complete and designed to be shared on a blog. The surveys give visitors the chance to participate in the survey and the chance to learn a little more about the blogger. Today's survey is all about digital photography, which I must admit is something I really do enjoy...
Here's an example photo:
Taken in our local park with my mobile phone camera...

Spring is in the air

The sun is shining and I will be spending some time in the garden this weekend (my little one reminded me that I promised we would plant some potatoes...). Things are looking good and all is well with the world... things always look good on a Friday!
I visited feedburner the other day and was pleasantly surprised to find a good number of feeds were being read (well I thought 33 was good anyhow - last time I looked it was about 4...) so I placed the reader widget in my side bar so I don't have to keep visiting feedburner for my reader stats.
Pagerank also seems to have returned, so there's another reason to be happy - although I have had a lot of problems with trying to get an IZEA rank for this site since I changed to a dot com. I may have to delete the account and start again, otherwise I may not be able to do the PPP opps that I should be getting.
My livewyre.NET site has had a small PR hike from PR1 to PR2 and another blog that I have has gone from PR0 to PR2, on the other side of things my cassette to CD site seems to have dropped a rank from PR3 to PR2. Nonetheless, all in all, everything in the garden is looking rosy (today at least)

Internet for $10 – for life!

OK, so maybe you won’t actually get lifetime internet for $10, but you can bid auction-style to get the highest speed internet in your local area for life from 'Charter'. Bidding starts at just $10, there’s no knowing how high it will go – and there is no reserve, so technically someone could get internet for ever for just $10.00.

(see site for rules of participation)

The bidding starts on March 12^th, and will end on March 26^th.

Not only that, but registering on this site will allow you to be in with a chance to win a Wii, and not just a wii, but 5 games, and all the kit you will need to be up and running straight out of the box – there is no need to bid for the internet auction to take part in the sweepstake.

So there’s two things to do, visit the link and get your details registered in order to win yourself a Wii, then between 12^th and 26^th March, get over there and bid for a lifetime of internet – this even includes a router – nothing else to pay ever! What would it be worth you? I reckon I will be paying $250 this year alone for my broadband internet connection.

Looking back on February

February has been another slow month as far as paid postings go, with PPP dropping my IZEA 'realrank' to zero when I submitted my new 'dot.com' domain to replace my 'blogspot' domain. This has made the site ineligible for any opportunities from the best income generator. Hopefully, when the domain is a bit older, the realrank will be reinstated. I have had no opps from blogsvertise since pagerank was reassessed, but smorty allowed me new opps on the new domain, and I had another 'sponsored review' opportunity. These opps are the bulk of 'blog earnings' for this month, the total being: $38.66. Fortunately, my online earnings are not limited to blogs and adsense earnings alone are not far behind the paid postings... On top of that the Christmas and New Year lull on other internet revenue seems to be over and I am starting to pick up other 'jobs' which are helping to swell the coffers - I am starting to consider more revenue lines to maximise passive earnings, but nothing comes without some hard work and there is always ongoing maintenance on existing sites to see to. This internet earnings lark can take up a chunk of your time - don't listen to those that say you can earn thousands for a few hours work per month - if you could, they would be putting in full time hours and making some serious money....
Well I've been earning for about 12 months using blogs and did not quite make it to $1000 - Grand total for a years blogging has been $826.29 - let's see what can be done in another 12 months, I'll need to be back up and running with PPP first though...

My navigation buttons

One thing I tend to look for on a site whether it be a blog or a standard website, is the navigation. Of course, a blogspot 'blog' does not have 'pages' in the sense that a standard website has, so there are no navigation buttons provided in the templates. So how and why have I included them on my blog. Let's start with the 'why'... You can quickly direct your visitors towards the answers to the questions that they may first have when they arrive at your blog. These are some of the things you should consider providing for your visitors:
'About' - an introduction to you and your blog.
'Contact' - a way for your visitor to send you a direct message.
Some sort of link to your 'best posts' - admittedly I have not done this yet...
'Home' - for easy navigation for those unfamiliar with blogs (regular bloggers know you can just click on the banner).
If you think of each post as a page with a unique URL, make posts to fulfill your requirements and publish them (I posted mine as 1st January 2007, so that they would not appear in the regular posts - there may be a way of posting them without dates, but I have not been diligent enough to research it...) - See 'post options' in the create post window for making posts appear on different dates.

And now the 'How....'
It's embarrassingly simple really, webmasters even at a low level will easily figure it out, but sometimes even the simplest solutions may help someone when clearly explained.
In short, we are going to use Dashboard/layout/elements/add a page element/HTML-javascript. And simply add HTML navigation exactly as you would in a standard website. The HTML for a navigation button requires a destination URL, a source for the graphic and may carry extra tags such as 'alt' and 'title':

Depending on the in which space you are placing the code, you may place all your navigation into one element, or separate them out. In order to save valuable space, mine are all placed in the same element.
Naturally you will need to be able to create the buttons in graphical software, I use 'Fireworks', but you could use 'Photoshop' or 'Gimp' or any other half-decent software to get nice results.
The graphic elements were designed to fit in with the colours and styles I was already using. Arguably, a better example of design to fit a theme can be seen here:


These designs can then be simply uploaded to a website somewhere and linked into the HTML as the source. If you don't have any spare web space, you could upload them into a post in blogger and then view the properties to see where blogger has stored them - however blogger has a nasty habit of compressing image files.... If you don't want the post with the images to be seen, you could then edit the post and 'save as draft'. (I have not tried this method of storing graphics, but I think it should work...)
For navigation within a website, there is no need to open in a new window, so a straight link will be fine.

Security features on Blogspot Comments

Coupled with the do-follow movement, comes the need for added security features on comments allowing you to easily deter spam commenting and to easily delete unwanted comments. I have observed in the past how pro-bloggers allow negative comments, and would point out that how you deal with negative comments may actually play in your favour. I would however delete spam comments as there is no point replying to them.
It has been observed by me and others, how John Chow and Problogger have not removed negative comments and even replied to them even though the comments were particularly crass. There is a common theme in these comments which actually does something to enhance the status of the blogger - they usually say something like 'you think you're so clever...', but of course the reality is that the commenter is acknowledging the popularity/celeverness of the blog by being there in the first place and bothering to comment. 'All publicity is good publicity' rules apply here...
Having 'do-follow' status is an invitation to bloggers with it's own reward (ie. a free backlink) that is why a level of security needs to be in place. There are two forms of security in 'Blogger', each with it's own pro's and con's.
First off then, let's go to Blogger Dashboard/Settings/Comments , our first option to consider is 'who can comment' (see above). Unless you are only running a blog for a limited exposure, then you will probably want to select 'anyone - including anonymous' allowing any visitors to at least attempt to engage with you. The security features that we can add to these comments are further down the page:

The higher-security option would be to select comment moderation (see above), the down-side is that your visitor does not have the satisfaction of seeing his/her comment immediately appear on the site. I choose verification which at least should make sure that your comments are from a real person, after that, I select to be notified of every comment. This means that I can check for new comments regularly without logging into Blogger, and then login to respond or 'bin' the comment. For either option, it is advisable to have email notification of comments to ensure that the delay between comment and either approval or response is as short as possible.
This is the last option on the comment section:


Place an email address that you regularly use in here and click 'save settings' and your new security settings will be up and running.

Competiton for $1...!!

I know it sounds crazy, but I had to have a go at this one. It's more a commenting competition than a blogging competition, in fact I'm not required to post about it to enter. Entry is far simpler than that...
One Dollar Jackpot give a way a dollar every day, here's what they say:

OneDollarJackpot.com is an online competition that's open to anyone with an email address.

A simple competition, all you need is a brain, some creativity and 25 words to win it with.

Each day the winner is drawn and written about on the blog. A tip for the daily competition is also given along with the greatest help - how many people entered yesterday.

You can see the winners and some of the entries by visiting the blog, and if you're wondering what you can do with your dollar, the site helpfully points you in the direction of 'Dollar Hot Dogs', a site offering to cook you a hot dog and mail it to you for a dollar paid via paypal...!!
This site carries a warning that actually eating the Hot Dog once it has been mailed to you may actually cause sickness or death so you mustn't actually eat it...

All that remains is to say thanks guys for helping to make the internet a funnier place... and if I get a dollar, I'm gonna keep it!

Ashop the complete eCommerce solution

Since the opportunities for paid blogging appear to be diminishing, many will be looking for a new way to make money on the internet, and some will be considering an ecommerce site. However setting up your own ecommerce site is more or less impossible for the ‘casual’ website builder as your e-shopper will demand credit-card compatibility, high-security encryption and a flawless browsing and shopping experience.
To build your own ecommerce solution would involve complex front-end and back-end programming with product and customer databases which may well even require you to upgrade your web hosting package.
Once this realisation has become apparent, your budding entrepreneur is starting to think maybe a car-boot or garage sale is about as hi-tech as he can manage, unless he comes across off-the-shelf ecommerce software that will expand with his business.
One such solution is Ashop, one of the leading software solutions for start-up ecommerce sites. Not only does it have a low-cost entry-level solution to suit the tentative business-person (less than £25/US$50/AUS$70 per month), they host the ecommerce pages on their own dedicated servers, so there is no need to upgrade to an expensive web-hosting package, and you can fully customise the pages so that the shopper will have a seamless browsing experience between your main site and the ecommerce pages.
Couple this with safe encryption, compatibility with major banks and credit cards built in as standard and there’s no reason why you can’t start using this system tomorrow… especially since there is a free introductory period.
The features of this package, even at the entry-level stage add up to a staggering list, and there is a handy video presentation on the Ashop website which outlines how this software works to provide the complete ecommerce solution that you are looking for.