Making Money Online - the scams...

I started this blog a few years ago to find out if it is possible to make some money on-line. My conclusion can be summed up as 'Yes, you can make money on-line... but it is not easy'. At least it is not easy to make a significant amount, it is very easy to make small amounts.

In today's post, I am highlighting some of the schemes that will confirm your worst fears that anything that appears to be too good to be true... generally is - The Scams:

Pyramid schemes are the king of all on-line scams - you appear to be getting something, but you only get something when you can persuade two, three or more others to sign up for the same thing. They only get something when they get others to sign up...and on...and on. Inevitably, there is no actual 'product' and the whole scheme works on the chain-letter principal where sooner or later there is no-one else left to be suckered.

I have seen them in all sorts of guises - in one, you appear to earn 'precious stones', but I strongly suspect that beauty is very much in the eye of the beholder here, and the stones will prove to be nothing more valuable than Cubic Zirconia. To be honest, the scheme makes no sense at all, and if you apply the reasoning 'where does the value come from?' there is very little value in the scheme therefore there can be very little value in the 'rewards'. This principle applies to all Pyramid Schemes, if there is value going in (ie. $10 from each contributor), the average value across the scheme per person CANNOT exceed $10 per person... it is a lottery where the only winners are the people at the top of the pyramid - ie: those that started the scheme.

I have also seen this same principle applied to the selling of web domains - the selling of '.WS' sites began very much like a pyramid scheme, you buy your site with (relatively pricey) hosting with the idea that you can use this site to sell... that's right... more .WS sites with hosting, which can be used to sell... you get the idea? There is no actual 'value' other than for the web host who sells more and more hosting packages. all of the individual sites in the scheme are cloned 'splash pages' offering the same thing.

I believe that the .WS domain is not ONLY restricted to this type of pyramid, but it is true to say that an awful lot of them are, and if I am honest, I will admit that this is one of the most ingenious pyramid schemes that I have come across.

Although not all online scams are pyramids or 'ponzi' schemes, they are one of the most prevalent and prey on the gullibility and (let's not shy away from it..) avarice that tends to cloud judgement a little.

Also in this series:

The minnows - easy money, in very small amounts...

The starters - relatively easy and close to being worthwhile

The big fish - don't pack in the day-job, but nice little earners

Side Effects

Taking non-prescribed medication is always a risk, and the best advice is always seek the opinion of a medical professional before taking any course of medication even when taking supplements.

Any effective medicine will have an impact on your body, however you may not be aware that some of the resulting changes may be potentially harmful. For instance you may not be aware of colonoxy side effects, or the potential harm even in taking vitamins in doses that are higher than your body requires.

Doctors and healthcare professionals will be able to give you solid advice on the medications that will be effective for you, the proper doses, and the best places to get the medication from.

Check your spam..

Symantec have issued a warning that 'short URL' spamming is on the increase. Short URL's are those handy cut-down URL's that are particularly useful for using in twitter, or for concealing an affiliate link. Obviously they can also be used for something far worse than an affiliate link and they can be difficult for spam software to pick up.

Always check a link that arrives by unsolicited email, and if you think it is from your bank or Paypal etc.. always log on in the usual way (eg. via your 'favourites') rather than clicking on the link within the mail.

On the other hand, short URLs can be very useful, and I use a service called 'Tiny.cc" who allow you to use a custom URL within their shortened framework - all for free too!

Summer is here (in small doses)

A typical British summer is well under way, it is either deceptively hot or very wet with a lot of humidity thrown in just to make sure the heat is not actually enjoyable. Insects are abound, the annual rise of the flying ants is under way around here, a particularly unpleasant experience if you happen to get caught in it...

The nice weather has not been sustained enough for planning a barbecue, and the Citronella spray doesn't seem to have any effects on the wasps (other than they gather around the dispenser to get a better sniff of it...). For my part, I have found the perfect antidote for inquisitive insects as I have found that they are not at all partial to cigar smoke. My tip for the summer is to take a pack of Black and Mild into the garden with you if you want to be left well alone.

I also recommend a good book and a glass of something red and not-so mild just to round things off nicely. [None of the above recommendations apply to you if you are child, asthmatic, alcoholic or a professional athlete... or any combination...]

How to make a blog post

It is a while since I have posted any blogging tips, and I guess I am qualified to give advice after producing 814 posts on this blog over the last few years, not to mention the myriad posts on the four other blogs in the 'portfolio'...
My advice for writing a post is simple and to be fair, might not be applicable to those operating in a different 'sphere', but for what it's worth here are my tips:

• On the whole, keep it short and simple - where you feel led to write in excess of 500 words or so, my advice would be to split the post up into separate posts to form a series.
• Link similar posts together - like for the 'series' posts above, one one of my blogs (not so much with this one), I often put a 'similar posts' section at the end linking to related posts within the blog. To an extent this can also be done with tags, but I think if you take the trouble to link in two or three closely-related posts, your visitors are fairly likely to look at them.
• Keep it positive - in general, readers will tolerate a differing view from their own as long as you remain positive, unless you have a 'rant' blog, I would steer clear of airing your more contraversial views, and also of negative views that you might have. It is fine to talk about your love for Manchester City, but not advised to say how much you despise Manchester United unless you deliberately aim to alienate those readers who might disagree.

Those are the first three tips that spring to mind, if any more ocur to me, I might even take my own advice and start a series...

Back in the groove

I have recently got back into the groove of DIY (Do-it-yourself) after having done very little since replacing the bathroom door that got kicked through (Yes, I got locked in the bathroom..). It's always hard to find the time and energy to get into the DIY groove after getting home from the day-job, and once the dinner is eaten and the requisite family time is endured enjoyed, the impetus to attack the next DIY task has waned somewhat.
Nonetheless, I have fired up the heat-gun and begun to strip off ancient layers of paint this weekend, last weekend I put some architrave around the loft-door... All this is part of a plan to fix the hall, stairs and landing prior to the plaster coming to transform our ancient walls into gleaming new facades hiding nearly 100 years of grime, glue and tasteless wallpaper.

I find the best way to do DIY is split large tasks into manageable chunks - the sort of thing you can complete in about three hours or so. This enables you to feel some sense of satisfaction after each stage even though there is still so much to do.

The cost of living

Having recently decided to try and release myself from a company car that costs me a lot of tax every year, I am now starting to look for a replacement car on a limited budget. The process has been a finely-tuned weighing of pro's and con's - on the pro side of the company car, I don't pay for repairs, servicing, road tax or insurance - on the con side, the car is tied up during the day when my wife could be using it, and it costs about £1000 as a taxable benefit.

The major expense (after buying the car itself), is probably going to be insurance, so I am particularly interested in locating the cheapest auto insurance network that is available. Of course, if I am really unlucky, it is quite possible that repair bills could easily overtake all other costs. Any car that I am likely to buy will be in the region of six years old which is about the time they start to generate expensive repair bills in my experience. I am still hopeful that I might be allowed to buy my current company car although I am some way short of being able to afford the market value. On the other hand, I have had a lot of fun browsing through the cars for sale websites and seeing what I could end up driving for the next few years.

SEO plug-in

I have been using Google Chrome recently, and although I am not really one to get loaded up with plug-ins, I starting using two straight away. The first plug-in I installed was a googlemail plug-in which is very useful. The googlemail plug-in lets you know by sounding an alarm when mail arrives, indicating how many unread emails are in your inbox, and even popping up a preview of the mail when it arrives.
The next plug-in I discovered was an SEO plug-in - this gives an SEO overview of the currently-displayed page. The overview includes Google PageRank, backlinks for Google, Yahoo and others, Technorati and alexa rankings, whether the site is in DMOZ etc... I have found this plug-in to be extremely useful for overviewing my own sites, and also those of others that compete for the same keywords and markets.

Similar stories:
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Don't miss it!

This is a Sponsored Post written by me on behalf of SeeSaw. All opinions are 100% mine.

As a 'dyed in the wool' fan of online TV (especially as it means I can watch what I like without hogging our one and only TV), I have been watching SeeSaw for some time now, and am often tuned in to the Comedy Section which now features 'Summer Heights High'. I started watching this program on Freeview TV, but missed a whole load of episodes (in fact most of the series). I can now watch eight complete episodes at my leisure. Ali G, Marion and Geoff, Jack Dee and a host of really diverse shows are available to be viewed at any time.

Not only that, but all these shows are absolutely free to watch - there is some paid content, but there is far more free content. Only a few premium shows carry any cost, and even then, the cost is far cheaper than renting a DVD. If you're stuck for something to watch, just visit the 'most popular' page and pick out one of the top offerings.

By now, everyone knows that all the major TV stations offer time-limited replays of their shows, but where SeeSaw is different is that they offer shows from the major channels all in one place - where else can you get to watch something from the BBC and then an offering from MTV?

I have long believed that the future of home entertainment would involve the amalgamation of TV and internet. I also believe that this has yet to come to complete fruition, but a service like SeeSaw is really pushing the boundaries.

One last thing, there's no complicated sign up, you don't need credit card details to start watching free shows, just visit the site, select your favourites, click and watch....

Pagerank for Munny4Hunny

I did not quite believe my eyes the other day when trying out the Google Chrome SEO plug-in - I have been using this to run quick tests on my sites. the SEO plug in showed a pagerank of 1 for this blog - it has been a long long time since I have had any PR at all, so at first I was a bit skeptical. Since then I have tried a pagerank checker: http://www.prchecker.info/check_page_rank.php and sure enough, that also says I have regained pagerank on this blog...

I have not been pursuing PR at all for quite a while, so it is quite a pleasant surprise to see it return even though I doubt whether it makes any real difference except for prospective advertisers. I have long begun to disregard PR as having any real value, especially as I have (in other experiments) been able to have sites ranked very highly (ie. up to position 1 locally and position 2 globally) for keywords on sites that have no PR whatsoever. The main focus of SEO has to be search position alone, and if you can get search position without PR, why bother going to the trouble of trying to gain PR?

As to the return of PR, I can only surmise that finally the effects of all the viral linking between blogs has finally faded away to nothing. Out of curiosity I have been checking Technorati ranks too (as this is included on the Google Chrome SEO plug-in). I used to have a huge 'authority' ranking for Technorati due entirely to viral links, but on all my blogs but one, I now have an authority of 1 - My creditcruncher blog has authority of 105 for some reason, but this also was something of a surprise, and Technorati no longer seem to show you the links that endorse your 'authority'...

It's interesting how PR and Technorati 'authority' were two things that drove my blog a few years ago, but now, they are merely incidental. what it comes down to is this:
Just do your thing the way you want to do it, follow your own goals rather than following the crowd - at least that way, if you don't make a breaktrhough, you will be at least doing what you want. Following the crowd however, is never going to result in individual success.

Associated links:
Looking for PageRank
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Be yourself

Free anti-virus software

It is a fairly well-established fact that much of the everyday software we use is free for home users. Years ago we used to have freeware and shareware which to be frank, was a bit clunky and amateurish, but nowadays, often fully-fledged professionally tried and tested software is available to all and sundry - and the price... is borne by the commercial users.

In many cases, it is a cut-down version of software that is available for free, and this is the case for many anti-virus software packages such as AVG, who offer 'AVG free' to home users. This is the first of my recommendations for anti-virus programs - it is free, self updating and trusted by many many users worldwide.

Those in the know understand that anti-virus need to be supplemented with anti-malware too, and my offering for this is Malware Bytes, again a cut-down free offering, and this program needs updating manually. Finally, Microsoft themselves have stepped into the arena with Microsoft Security Essentials - and the beauty of this system is that it is not only fully-functioning, and self-updating, it is also equipped to fight viruses AND malware all in one package.

So that's my three offerings:

1. AVG Free
2. Malware Bytes Anti-Malware (MBAM)
3. Microsoft Security Essentials

'Google' them to find a reliable download site (for the Microsoft program go direct to Microsoft) - Although some software of this type can conflict, I am happy to report that I run all three of these together on several PC's with no ill effects. Why have more than one? you may ask, and my answer is the old 'belt and braces' argument...two ways to attack viruses and malware has got to be better than one. These software options all have different priorities and different ways of detecting problems, so relying on just one may be too much of a risk.

Health Cover

Health cover has become a political hot potato in the US recently with plans to bring in a level of cover for everyone in a similar way to the UK national health service. Traditionally, many US citizens have used private cover such as Blue Cross Blue Shield NC to look after medical matters. The worry is that the level of service offered by the US government scheme may not offer such a high standard of service, and will be a drain on national resources at a time when national debt is at unprecedented levels.

Google Chrome

I like to keep Munny4Hunny readers informed of internet relates issues and software, and having long championed the Firefox cause, I can report that I have had my head turned by Google Chrome.

This browser is great to use, has some really smart features and is noticeably faster that other browsers I have used. I love the 'open a new tab' feature that opens with snapshots of recently browsed pages, more often than not, you click on a snapshot rather than having to finding it in 'favourites' or typing a URL. I haven't gone a bundle on add-ons in Firefox, but have already installed two add-ons into Chrome - I have one that checks my googlemail for me, and even pops up a little preview of emails as they arrive... and another that gives an instant SEO overview of the page I am viewing.

I have been using Chrome for about a week, but although I haven't actually marked it as my default browser, I think it won't be long before I do...

Depression

Depression is a very serious problem for many, and should not be treated lightly either by the sufferer or their friends and family. Once diagnosed, there are many forms of depression treatment available, but as always with medical conditions, the help of healthcare professionals should be sought. In some cases, symptoms of depression can be alleviated through diet, meditation and counselling rather than with medication.

Depression can have far-reaching effects, not only for the individual but also for family and friends. The best thing you can do for someone who is suffering is to listen to what they have to say, and guide them towards an effective treatment.

Term life insurance

Having the right type of insurance that meets your needs is vital, understanding all the terms is often a bit of a maze for the uninitiated...

For instance term life insurance is the type of insurance you have for a predetermined period, for example, during the term of a mortgage. This kind of cover pays out if the insured individual dies before the mortgage has been paid off, and provides mortgage protection for partner and family who might otherwise not be able to afford mortgage payments.

There are a number of points to consider before signing on the dotted line, namely:

• Before signing the insurance cover provided by your mortgage company, you should check if similar cover is available from a third-party insurer at a better rate.
• Consider whether you also need protection against critical illness and losing your job.
• Check whether other policies you have would provide sufficient cover.

Having more insurance than absolutely necessary may not be a bad thing, but for short term cover, it could be a waste of money.

Earnings June 2010

Profit in June was pretty much soaked up by my purchases when I bought my NAS (Network Attached Storage) from eBay. Not a bad month for blogging, in fact the second best so far this year.. and some welcome earnings from turning cassettes into CD's meant that I made enough to cover my eBay activity plus £2.73 profit!
I already have some paid to post blog earnings under my belt for July, and a few more cassettes done, so if I can keep off eBay, I should do alright this month!! I have a new project waiting to come online which may need an extra 'income' column. I am just finalising the website for this project and am working on marketing in the meantime - I am hoping that this will bring in some income that once complete, will allow me to just collect fees on an annual basis - more on this later...
I still have several other projects to iron out, hopefully they will all prove fruitful in their own way...

What's in a name?

Phentirmene, Phenylethylamine or Phentermine 37.5? How do you know the difference? and how will they affect you? In short, my internet searching tells me that Phenylethylamine can stimulate the central nervous system and is thought to promote pleasure. It can be combined with other substances (such as Phentirmene) to make them more effective.
On the other hand, Rx Phentermine is an appetite suppressant with some fairly risky side effects. If you are looking at self-medicating for dieting - make sure you find out a little about what you are introducing into your body.

Adult Acne

One of the most effective way in which the internet can be used for marketing products is when the prospective customer may require a degree of privacy or anonymity not provided by High Street shops. Certain medical conditions that may cause embarrassment, are ripe for this kind of marketing. For instance, it is probably far easier to sell adult acne treatments online than it is over the counter. However, the privacy issue can also give rise to other problems such as not wanting to cause a fuss if the product does not work as advertised.
For instance, if you bought a remedy for an embarrassing condition, the seller may feel safe to supply a bogus product because they assume you will not want to attract attention by taking legal action. My advice is to only deal with reputable companies online - preferably companies that have proper contact details and are properly certified to operate in their chosen field.

Late posting June earnings

My current projects are keeping me from compiling figures for June, and I have yet to compile a list of outgoings as yet.

My network attached storage device was the biggest purchase, but I am disappointed to report that some of the negative press I read about it (after I had bid on it!) have proved true. When I first had it, it would occasionally go 'missing' from the network, but just lately it seems not to want to appear on the network at all. My conclusion is that this particular model will be fine for occasional back-ups, but I would not trust it to host network files as each time I need to access it, I am needing to re-boot all the PC's on the network... I had attached my two USB drives to it, but now I am considering attaching them to single PC's where they will be available all the time...

In general, Paid to blog has continued to provide a background level of income leaving me free to concentrate on some of the many other projects that I hope will become long-term earners. Cassette to CD conversions have been scarce over the last few months, but there has been a bit more activity lately. I hope to be able to add to this income with some more projects that will come on line in a short while.

Slideshows

Whether you want to show off your holiday or children on Facebook or on a DVD to give to relatives, slideshows can be a geat way to do it. The latest software available for this comes from Smilebox.com - they provide a copy of their software for free download. You can then upgrade to the full-featured version later if you find the software useful and want to explore the additional features.

Marketing a software product this way is becoming increasingly popular because it allows the user to test a lot of the functionality without having to part with any money. The alternative limited trial period is sometimes not so effective because it assumes that you will have 30 days to play with the software, whereas in reality it may be only occasionally that you get the opportunity to try the software out properly. However, with the Smilebox slideshow software, you can still cancel the transaction up to 14 days after downloading the fully-featured version.

Getting on...

As I get older, I am finally starting to take a little more care over the things that I consume. I am not affected by weight problems in the slightest, which means that I have always been able to eat whatever I want. Unfortunately that probably means I have consumed all the wrong things without any obviously visible side effects.

I have had episodes where I have eaten more fruit, but in truth this is not a habit I have been able to sustain, however I have managed to ensure that I take more water and less coffee - which has to be a good thing.

I have yet to go down the route of natural protein powders or supplements, but if I don't make sure my diet is properly balance, I may even have to consider that sort of remedy.

I have always considered exercise as being more important than diet, and continue to get regular hard exercise a couple of times a week. It is the combined effects of bad diet and lack of exercise that gives us the real problems.

UK Weather

The reason that we British like to talk about the weather so much, is that it is always changeable - there is always something to say about the weather over here... Recently the nights have been too warm to sleep comfortably and no doubt sales of fans and sleep aids have responded accordingly.

I quite often leave windows open to allow a refreshing breeze in, but unfortunately, it also allows in the loud voices as people tumble out of house parties in the wee small hours. Shouts and laughter are all very well when you are being bundled into the taxi nicely inebriated after an evening with friends - not so amusing when you have just dropped off to sleep for the fourth time at 2am with the prospect of being woken by a small child just a few hours later...

Scanning software

I have long been running a 'paperless' office at home running the scanning software that came with my combi-printer. If you don't have suitable software for organising scans, then I can thoroughly recommend doing an internet search and seeing what is available. Using this software, I am able to record every document we receive and happily get rid of the original, safe in the knowledge that I have an electronic copy at my disposal 24 hours a day (fully backed up onto my new NAS network storage of course).
Due to privacy issues, we tend to destroy anything with personal information on it (even merely our address) making it essential that we are able to recall important documents at a couple of mouse clicks.
We actually burn all scanned documentation in an open fire, and if you think that is a bit extreme, my wife and I have been attempted victims of identity theft even before it was fashionable! Our data was taken from the electoral role - they were able to guess our age somehow, but importantly did not know our actual birth dates, so their information did not tie up properly. This is why I never give my correct date of birth except for things like tax and driving licence, insurance etc... If a website asks for my date of birth, I use a bogus date because they don't NEED to know, and I do NEED to keep that information private.

Streeeetched

'Stretched' certainly describes how I feel at the moment, not only by the demands of the day job, but by all the 'projects' that I have on the go...

I have an SEO project that I wanted to develop, I created the first site, but my intention was to develop 'sister' sites too in order to guage the impact of combined SEO techniques over a group of sites effectively 'supporting' each other... This is on hold due to pressures of other projects, plus the site I created is kind of self-sustaining now and will make a small profit even if I don't touch it... I still feel that I will come back to this at a later date - but even if I don't, I have definitely learned a few things.

I have some updates to do on older sites that I am still trying to make my mind up on - primarily this is a face-lift for the site, but I have used the opportunity to make some strategic changes which could see me split the site over several domains. The truth is that domains are cheap, and splitting a site up and cross-linking could give an SEO boost. Added to this, I have lost page-rank on this site in the past, nothing I have been able to do has restored it, so I may resort to just using a totally different domain and re-thinking the whole project. Linked into this, is a new project that I want to pursue (when I have the time) which will involve selling some open-source software and an associated PDF guide.

I have yet another project that is almost ready to launch (this is the one that has been occupying my time lately). It will be a service for building and hosting websites which I am going to aim at local businesses. If this attracts some interest, then it could potentially take up a lot of my time which will once more prevent me from pursuing the lapsed projects....

What it is teaching me (or maybe re-teaching me, as I have talked about this before) is to carefully discern which projects are worth spending time on, which projects are not working, and which projects could work if a totally new approach is taken. There are a couple of blogs that I have been blatantly neglecting - this tells me that they are off my radar a bit (and therefore I am justified in trying to sell the domains...)

Car Insurance

It is quite a while since I have been in the market for car insurance as I have been the grateful recipient of a company car. However, the emphasis of my work has shifted and I have less need for the car than I used to, in fact it would be more helpful for my wife to have use of a car during the week.

I am contemplating putting in an offer for my company car, so have been frantically looking for the cheapest car insurance that I can find. Unfortunately, they all seem to be incredibly expensive, but that could be because the car is probably in a high insurance group. Our alternative would be to spend the money on something a little more economical, but having the car we have had for the last few years seemed like a good idea.

Making Money by Saving Money

It has long been my motto that the fastest way to make money is to save money and I recently took to trimming my hair rather than pay for it to be cut by a barber. The results are a bit drastic, but I reckon I have used it about five times now saving me around £40 or so. The trimmer cost about £25 so I have already saved quite a bit and am looking at serious savings in the long term...
Munny4Hunny is mostly about making money from various internet activities, but it is worth making the point that a few good savings can be more effective than a couple of hours hard work..

World Cup updates

It has not been a great World Cup so far in that we have seen very few good performances, and some teams have really not lived up to expectations. England were expected to win all the games in their group, yet have only managed two draws. Spain have lost to Switzerland, Germany lost to Serbia and many of the teams have underperformed. Maybe it's the altitude, or maybe it's an indication that the 'lesser' teams are catching up.
Whatever the reason, I hope the games become a little more memorable, that some real stars emerge and most of all that somehow, England make it through at least the group stages....

TV on your PC

This is a Sponsored Post written by me on behalf of SeeSaw. All opinions are 100% mine.

I have been watching TV on my PC for a while now and I have used three different methods:

• The first was through a 'Freeview' box which is fed through a SCART to composite lead, and then a Pinnacle 'Dazzle' USB video converter. This works, but the solution involves some relatively expensive hardware, and the results in terms of picture quality are not really that great...

• The second way was through 'peer-to-peer' services which don't cost anything, but do involve downloading software (and seeing as the service is a bit on the 'dark-side' you wonder whether the software is trustworthy..). Once you have your software, there is quite a good choice of stuff to watch, but the time it takes to get a feed and the widely varying quality of broadcast can leave you very frustrated.

• The third way is a service called SeeSaw which offers both free and 'rented' broadcasts from broadcasters like the BBC and Channels 4 and 5 along with other independent studios. SeeSaw has a stunning Comedy Section with the likes of 'Only Fools and Horses', 'Men Behaving Badly' and 'Alan Partridge' on offer, they even have some World Cup content too.

Watching SeeSaw is perfectly safe and legal, which is more than can be said for peer-to-peer broadcasting, not only that, but the quality is far and above much of TV content that you can currently access online.If you are already using 4oD and Demand5, you can also pick up that content for free on SeeSaw, and you can then share what you watch with your friends on Facebook and Twitter. Suffice to say, that the Freeview box has been put to better use, and the peer-to-peer software has been uninstalled, as they are not a patch on the quality of viewing offered by SeeSaw.

Latest Gadgets

I am still playing with my new NAS that I bought from eBay, and so far have found that it works pretty much as I hoped. Access speeds are hardly blistering, but I only really want to use it for back-ups anyway...
I have installed to hard drives (400GB each) and set them up to be seen as a single disk. I am currently moving my current back-up files from my USB drives onto this new 800GB drive. Once these are safely done, I can wipe to old USB drives and then add them onto the NAS as extra storage space available to the network. My next task will be to configure my backup software to carry on backing up the various files that I need - I am also considering moving all my pictures onto the NAS so that they are available across my network and maybe backing them up onto one of the USB drives - I have already moved my music files (which I will also need to back up).

So as it stands, I have found two distinct uses for the NAS, firstly to back up files that I want to keep, and secondly to make certain files available across my network - where this has been done, another back-up will be required for which I will use the USB drives that the NAS has replaced. I have found the free back up software 'SyncBack' from '2brightsparks' to be perfectly adequate for my needs, so I will control most of the back-ups using this software, although I do have the option of the software that came with my Packard Bell external drive - this software is a lot quicker to set up, so I may try to see if it will work across the network.

The final task that I want the NAS to do for me is to provide a folder for other to access remotely with a password, this should be possible using the FTP server, but I haven't tried his yet and am not sure how it will work out.

Toys for all ages

At the weekend, we will be attempting to make room for new toys and making money to buy new toys by attending a car-boot sale. We are combining eBay and car-boot sales as a way to turn our old stuff into cash - mostly to buy new stuff!
We have done well with things such as stair gates and baby clothes, but have noticed that VHS tapes do not sell at all, although a few CD's have been sold.
For my own 'toys', I am completely reliant on my internet earnings - if there is something I want (such as my new NAS system - see last entry...) then I have to get stuck into some paid blogging or wait for an Adsense payout. On that note, I am due another payment now as I have just crossed the payment threshold again. I am keen to develop passive earnings, but am concentrating more on some other projects at the moment - the good thing about passive earnings is that even if you do nothing - they can just keep earning for you....

Latest Purchases

My quest for improving my PC set-up never ceases...which ends up costing me a bit, at least I rarely have to use my 'own' money as my internet earnings cover most of my purchases...
It's not like I have the latest CPUs and Motherboards, but I do like to build new systems from scratch using old components, then add big hard-drives and plenty of RAM... currently I have two socket 939 board systems, one with a 2.2GHz single core, and one with a 2.0GHz dual core. I have a USB back-up hard-drive on each machine, but they are both pretty much full now. There is a 250GB backup drive on one, and a 150GB backup drive on the other.
I spotted a NAS (network attached storage drive) system some time ago, and have been interested ever since. The NAS works as extra storage just like a USB drive, except that it is connected via the network router and is therefore available to the whole network. Not only that, but some of them have USB ports so that USB drives can be added, plus many of them offer options for remote access. I tracked some on eBay and ended up with the IcyBox (pictured) this one takes two SATA drives (I also got 2 x 400GB drives from eBay), plus it has two USB ports to accomodate my existing USB drives which will give ne a total storage solution of 1.2TB. You can set up the IcyBox to RAID settings so that one drive is backed up by the other, but my intention is only to use the system to back up my PC's, so I don't really need to back up my back up!
I intend to use the system as a server for some files that I want to share over the network, so it will be interesting to see if that will work as I want it to. I am also quite excited about the internet access features, particularly if I can use it to host files that I use for websites - in theory, I could place all my blog pictures on there which would mean that I no longer needed to upload pictures...
I will post about how this new 'solution' works out in practice, so far I can only report that the 'refurbished' model that I bought looks cosmetically pretty much perfect, and the English version of the manual is not the best translation I have ever seen - hopefully the product itself and it's associated software will be fairly intuitive and I won't need to refer to the manual much..

Online business

With the phasing out of older forms of payment like checks, one can't help wondering how far we are away from the truly cash-less society.
Suffice to say online businesses cannot really operate without some form of dedicated online credit card processing, and although there are other online payment services available, they do not really give the right professional impression - not only that, they can be a pretty expensive way to complete transactions online.
I am branching out into a couple of extra online ventures in the coming months, and will have to choose whether to team up with a dedicated online credit card processing service rather than continue to rely on the more common online transaction service used by bloggers and online auctions...

Earnings May 2010

Not a huge profit again this month, evidence of the squeeze on internet earnings and the need for new revenue streams. I am close to scoring another Google Adsense payout though and have managed £63 ($100) worth of blog postings. Had I not invested in some CD's and renewed some domains, the profit for the month would have been doubled. I have already completed a decent amount of PU2B posts and one from 'blogsvertise' to be paid for during next month, and anticipate fewer outgoings for June. I am also developing a new project which will demand another domain and will make good use of my new unlimited hosting package - this on top of the other projects that I still have in the back of my mind...
The good thing about my latest project is that it requires me to complete some of my outstanding website updates first - so pursuing this new project will force me to complete a lot of work which has been on my 'to-do' list for quite some time. If I can get it launched within the next month or so, I will certainly post about it here. In the meantime, I am not getting many cassette conversions to do which leaves me free to mine other revenue channels.

Hairloss

Loss of our hair is something most of us have to come to terms with at some point - hopefully later rather than sooner. I am fortunate to have retained much of my hair, but even so, there is no doubt that it is waning and definitely on a path to rapid decline... You can spend your time worrying about what causes hair loss, but there is always the razor to fall back on if you are a man...
I bought myself a trimmer last year and have given myself a severe trim three or four times already, but for some, this is a step too far.
Nevertheless, it is far preferable to buying a wig - I am sure there are a range of products that one can cover ones balding pate with, but I am too mean to spend any more than the cost of a trimmer - and of course I don't have to pay anyone to cut my hair any more...

Favourite TV programs

I am missing some of my favorite late-night viewing on TV... it has been a while since MTV has even given us any re-runs let alone new series of 'cribs' or 'pimp my ride', two of my favorite MTV offerings perfect for late night viewing.
The appeal of these two shows just never wears off for me, however many star's houses with their private pool and private cinema with home theater seating that I see, I still want to see more. However many outrageous car 'pimping' episodes that I see, I just want to see more...
I don't know whether that says anything about me, but I am really missing these shows and hope they come back soon.

Dieting

There are, no doubt, some diet pills that work, and there are, no doubt, plenty more that do not...
The whole question of dieting is a perplexing one, and in most cases, it has to be said that diets are only a short-term fix. If you cannot rein in the propensity to eat the wrong TYPE of foods, and step up your weekly exercise regime, then dieting alone can really give you no long term benefits.
Realising that your body needs proper sustenance and a proper workout, is the first step to a healthier lifestyle. Trying to medicate your way to fitness is a non-starter...

A change for the better

It is never too late to start a fitness regime and get some fitness equipment installed. I am a big believer in 'lifestyle change' for weight-loss and general fitness, I do not believe in crash diets and certainly would never take 'medication' of any sort in an effort to get into better shape.
The only real long-term solution for being out of shape is to get a mind-set that is determined to make the right lifestyle changes to promote fitness and well-being.
It is a great idea to make an investment in this change by buying some fitness equipment of your own or taking out a gym membership to demonstrate your willingness to make a change. The demonstration has to to be more than just mere gesture... it has to mark a change that you can commit to for the rest of your life.

Cheap webhosts and domain registrars

During this month, I am going to be posting about the domain services I am using, this is mainly because I have just gone through a period of changing all my hosting around so that I am getting a better deal.
My new strategy is to treat domain registration and webhosting as separate things because webhosts (even though they sometimes offer one domain for free) are not usually the best people to offer cheap domain registration, and the best domain registrars do not offer the cheapest webhosting.
I have had a couple of UK hosting services because I started with UK domains, then discovered that the best service for registering gobal domain names (.com, .info etc...) is GoDaddy, the best service for registering UK domains is 1and1, and the best webhosting package is from Webhostingpad.
These individual companies offer the best value for money for those who aready have multiple domains, or are thinking of adding domains to their portfolio.
I have been able to save myself a lot of money by taking steps to ensure I have the best cost-effective solutions, and would encourage all my readers and friends to do the same. Click on the links above to find the individual posts about each company.

Acne in Adults

The basic elements that cause acne in teenagers can also combine to produce acne in adults. It is basically hormonal activity in puberty that is the main cause of acne, but hormonal imbalance and / or stress can promote acne in adults too. Surprisingly, causes of adult acne also include birth control measures and even the wrong type of makeup.
Teenage acne can also have a lasting effect in our adult years if the problem is wrongly treated and pock-marks remain on the face primarily, but also on other parts of the body.

SAT tests

I have recently discovered that UK students wishing to study at a US University will probably need to take a standardised written test called the SAT. The test is intended to measure critical thinking skills, testing the subjects' ability to analyse and solve problems in maths, critical reading, and writing.
Naturally, there is something of an industry built up around this vital test and you can go online to get sat prep courses to ensure that you are ready to take the course. Knewton.com even have a sample questions page which kept me amused for quite a while - I took four questions and got three of them right... now, which University shall I apply to .....??

My new hosting plan

I am delighted with how my new hosting package is working out at the moment. I have managed to get an unlimited package which allows me to host as many sites as I like all for a single price. I can also add subdomains which makes it easy for testing sites before buying a domain name - I have even found that it is relatively easy to get a subdomain listed in Google results, so I can test out SEO techniques on my subdomains too. The whole package is administered via a Cpanel dashboard which gives me full control over domains and subdomains, MYSQL databases (also unlimited) and FTP and file handling.
[note the screen-shot showing a bandwidth of 100000MB, disk space of 10GB, and databases, suddomains and FTP accounts etc... all going up to infinity...!]
I was previously paying about £25 a year for site hosting (per site) I have moved two domains to my new package which will save me £50. The costs for my unlimited hosting package will not cost me anywhere near £50 a year, and I can just keep adding domains as I feel like it.
I am using 'livewyre.net' as my main domain, and have found it ridiculously simple to add sub-domains for site testing, I also plan to add domains for my friends who are only using the email part of their domains and have not constructed a website as yet. I am now contemplating extra domains to support the various projects that I am working on at the moment.
I wrote about the services that I use for hosting and domain registration on livewyre.net, if you want to find out how you can get a similar deal, visit the link above...or the banner below:

Ferrari parts

The internet is a truly wonderful thing, it brings knowledge to the masses through wikipedia and millions of informative websites, but it also brings massive savings. Online purchases are growing despite the general economic slow-down for two reasons.
The first reason is that stuff on the web is just cheaper, online retailers have far less overheads that high-street retailers and that is generally reflected in the price.
The second reason is that due to the economic decline, activity on sites like eBay actually increases as half the population look to liquidize some assets whilst the other half seek to grab a bargain. Even if you're looking for Ferrari parts, it pays to use the web to do your shopping and save yourself a fortune.

Acne

Acne can be a serious problem in our formative years as well as sometimes in later life. In general, we tend to think of it as a problem for teenagers as the adverts for acne lotion are pretty much exclusively aimed at youngsters. Acne is caused when the substance sebum, a natural moisturising oil, gets trapped in hair follicles. The natural 'good bacteria' which is supposed to be protecting the face, then causes the sebum to become irritating and inflamed. The production of this oil increases in puberty, and tends to slow as we leave our teenage years behind us.

Weightloss

It seems to me that there is a modern preoccupation with the speed with which weight is lost. Hence the rise of sites such as quickweightloss.org. I am personally of the opinion, that whilst quick weight loss is fine for a special occasion or event, a far healthier approach is to implement some basic lifestyle changes to achieve longer-term goals.
Where a 'quick-fix' is needed (for getting into the wedding dress or swim-suit..), then caution should be exercised to ensure that any medication taken is well tried and tested, and more importantly approved of by an independent health-care professional.

Doorbells and home security

In times past, the only alarms on a house would be doorbells, however home security is now a very well-established market and the modern home may have many sophisticated security measures including CCTV and motion detectors.
The kind of gadgets reserved for the rich and famous, are now available to anyone who cares to have them. Motion detectors and garden lighting are commonplace in the most humble of modern homes. CCTV powered by a home PC costs little more than the price of a weeks shopping...for one!

Becoming a 'wrinkly'

Age is all relative of course, and coming to terms with getting older is something that most of us struggle to do well. In fact, before reaching for the hair dye and wrinkle cream, many folks go through a small crisis and display some odd behaviour. Only today I saw a man in his fifties driving an pale blue open-top Ferrari down the street, an action which screams 'mid-life' crisis (or possibly says more about my envy...). Anyhow, I have taken a good hard look at myself and given myself a kind of audit around the clothes I wear to make sure they are appropriate for my age. On the whole think men are a bit better at this than women, but I think it's an exercise worth doing once you have reached 'the hill' and are on your way 'over' it...
I have replaced jeans and combats with corduroys and chino's - I haven't actually thrown all my jeans and combats away, but I have got rid of the most worn-out ones. I bought myself a smart jacket (in the sale) too, and I have a good supply of shirts and ties from previous clerical jobs.
I don't plan to wear ties very often, but I do think that I need to wear shirts more often, and t-shirts less often. I suppose it's a bit conformist attitude (and I am not really 'into' conforming..) but I really don't want to suddenly find myself looking silly in jeans and a T-shirt - I am happy to embrace the more mature me (at least when it comes to clothes).

Domain registration

When you start your first website, it is quite natural that you will have a combined domain registration and webhosting package, especially as many hosts will include domain registration for free. As you develop your ideas and branch out and experiment with new sites, you quickly discover that this can be a very expensive way of operating.
My preferred method is to see domain registration and webhosting as two entirely separate services and buy them from different sources. I have written about the services that I use on this blog and on Livewyre.net - I created a new page all about the cheapest webhosting and domain registration packages (click on the link). Besides the unlimited webhosting package that I am now using, I also have two domain registration services that I use, GoDaddy for iinternational domains, and 1and1 for UK domains. If you are using UK domains, you could do yourself a favour by having your domains hosted by 1 and 1 - my .co.uk domains are costing just £2.99 a year!

Apple Gadgets

There is little doubt that since losing out a little in the PC market, Apple have taken strides in the gadget market securing the top spot as one of the most innovative firms on the planet. Microsoft may have the largest chunk of the computer market, but when it comes to phones and music/video players, ipods, and iPhones are the first brand-names that spring to mind.
It remains to be seen whether Apple can extend it's popularity that it has founded with these little gems, back into the laptop market with the iPad. The jury is out on whether this has been a wise move for the recently crowned kings of the gadget...

Television

Television is still in the throws of establishing itself in the modern market. It has been around for sixty years, and for fifty years the most striking improvements have been 'colour' TVs followed decades later by 'stereo' TVs. The demanding gadget-oriented market has dragged the humble TV through many many changes in the last decade. We have seen:

• flat-screen
• plasma
• wide-screen
• massive 40" (and bigger) screens
• HD
• 1080p
• digital TV receivers

...and more all in just the last few years, recent TV innovations are struggling to keep pace with technology and our TVs (which used to last for 20 years) are now defunct after about 4 years.... The price of each new innovation has turned the TV into a major investment, which is where modern manufacturing techniques and a highly competitive market can help out. If you hunt around for decent tv deals, you can get yourself a thoroughly modern entertainment centre (we used to think a record player and a radio was an entertainment centre...!).

International domains

I have posted a lot recently about mu new webhosting and domain regsitration services that I am using. The reason is two-fold, firstly I am committed to bringing you the best information I can to help my visitors make money online, but secondly because each of these services have affiliates!
Having said that, I would also add that I am genuinely supportive of each of these companies as I truly believe that they offer great value for money which is why I use them...
The company that I have been using the longest is the one that this domain (munny4hunny.com) is registered with, and in fact ALL my blogging domains are registered with GoDaddy.
Now, to be absolutley clear, it is their domain registration service that I am praising, I do not think that their webhosting is particularly cheap. The domain registration is second-to-none, and the only reason that I ever use a different service is that GoDaddy are not really set up to handle .co.uk domains. Their control panel is comprehensive and allows you to change DNS records, configure your email and re-direct your domains wherever you want them. Added to this, the prices they charge for .info domains are crazy, often no more than a few pence a year....
They are constantly coming up with offers and cheap deals, sometimes even including free hosting as part of a package. nevertheless I think it definitely pays to treat hosting and domain registration seperately - having control over your domains in the way that a good domain registration service offers, means that you can always redirect to another host with very little disruption. If you want to check out Godaddy's pricing, feel free to click below:

New tips and tricks

Anyone who has read this blog before will probably know that I am a big fan of free software.
My latest software 'toy' is 'JING' - a great little application that makes screen-shots and screen-movies for you at a click of a button. Do a search for 'Jing Project' and download it from a trusted site.
Once up and running, it sits on your desktop and when you hover on it, it pops up a little cross-hairs icon. You click on this and drag the cross hairs over the part of your screen that you want to highlight. Now you have the option of saving or sharing a screen-shot (PNG format), or making a screen-movie (up to 5 mins) in SWF (flash) format - you can do a voice over through your PC microphone. I have just used it to demonstrate to a friend how you can change the 'swap' file to a faster disk in Windows XP. I have plenty of other uses lined up for this great little toy...

Life skills

If you learn to play piano at a young age, it is a skill that stays with you throughout your life. I certainly wish I had paid a little more attention to my piano teacher when I was younger. I am quite sure she found me a very frustrating pupil.
Of course, the learning experience can be started at any time of life, and often you find time for learning new skills later in life when you may have more time on your hands, and have acquired some patience along the way..
I know people who learned the piano after having children and seen them through the early years of school. Piano playing can be a way of relaxing, or a challenge, or a means of entertaining or even part of a job such as a teacher or dance instructor.
Learning the modern way may include learning in your own time with CD's and interactive video or website tutorials as well as traditional lessons. Whatever stage you are at, or time that you have to spare, there is a lesson plan ideally suited to you.

Invitations...

Where does the time go?
My diary is full of extra-curricular activities already and the events keep popping up, I am already taking one day off work each week for the next three weeks to make sure I get to all the events I am supposed to attend, and then birthday, engagement or baby shower invitations drop onto the mat, and the diary is full again....
However I can't complain, it is really nice to be busy and also very nice to receive an invitation, especially if food is being provided! I have also been recently 'invited' to a speed awareness course by the police...and it's certainly the type of invitation that you don't turn down. I have been invited to pay £80 for a half-day course in return for which they won't give me more points on my licence... I don't think they're providing food!

The plan is coming together

I am so pleased with my new hosting package that I am planning all sorts of changes including a new Livewyre.NET button badge... Livewyre.NET is my main domain which all my projects will link back to. This badge will effectively be the trade-mark that appears on all my sites. My long-term plan is to move all the content onto a Wordpress platform - I don't plan to move my blogger blogs at all, but the option is always there...
I now have a comprehensive package for domain registration and webhosting which I believe is a world-beater in terms of pricing, and I will post about these separately over the next few days. In the meantime, I am clearing out some defunct affiliates and will be replacing them with affiliates for my hosting & registration services - the beauty of these affiliates is that I am confident that they genuinely offer great value - which to be fair, is not always the case with affiliates (especially the better-paying ones).
Major changes (including moving domains and hosting packages) always come with their fair share of problems and traumas and I will be also talking about how I have overcome the problems of uploading (via FTP) to a new host that requires Secure Shell encryption (SSH) when your copy of Dreamweaver doesn't use SSH...!

Crash Diet

Are there any crash diets that work? Whilst the answer is yes... things are never that simple...
Short term solutions such as a crash diets may give you a result for a target date, ie. for a holiday, or for a special event or occassion, but longer-term results can only really be achieved by a change of attitude and lifestyle.
Even surgery can have short-term effects that may be counter-acted by a lack of will power in the long-term. All too many people suffer serious illness before they acknowledge the wake-up call to introduce a proper healthcare regime of sensible exercise and a balanced diet in their lives.

Fit for purpose

Fitness becomes an issue as we get older, and starting a fitness regime at an early age is the best way to address fitness issues later in life. Lifestyle is the primary concern when it comes to health and although there are a host of quick trim solutions available, long term plans for regular exercise and sensible eating are probably more effective.

One of the issues with using supplements or medication is that unless you plan to use it permanently, when you stop the course, you will probably revert to how you were before. So the main reason for using this type of remedy is for a short-term result.

April 2010 Earnings

I made a net loss this month, but not a very large one considering what I have in return. I have taken on a mega-hosting deal for four years that will hopefully allow me to host as many domains and sub-domains as I want. Not only that, but I should also be able to create Wordpress blogs and add databases at no extra cost. This four year deal has only cost £64, which for me is a no-brainer as I pay more than that for a single year for three hosted domains at the moment.
Actual earnings this month have been low, a total of about £57 all-in. I have already completed a bunch of paid posts which will be paid out in the next week or so, so hopefully May will be a bit more profitable.
I will post more about the new hosting service when I have managed to migrate more domains onto it.

Latest developments

I should be posting my earnings today, but I am in the (long-awaited) process of changing my web-hosting plan. So far, I have moved my main domain (Livewyre.NET) to a new server, and am waiting for additional domains that I own to come over to the same host. The beauty of my new plan is that I can host multiple website through a 'cpanel' configuration tool at no additional hosting costs!! Not only that, but I can also set up as many subdomains (of my main domain) as I need - at no extra cost!!
This is going to revolutionise the way I have been operating on the web and will allow me to add domains for fun!
I will post more about this as I progress, in the meantime I will post April earnings shortly, although offsetting them against my setting-up fee for the hosting has actually reduced by earnings to a negative amount in April!

Sorting out the debts

One of the major concerns that has arisen since the onset of the recent financial crisis is the amount of debt not only in the public sector, but also in the private sector. The burden of debt carried by individuals in the Western economies has risen out of all proportion and needs some serious regining in.
The good news is that the slow economic recovery is actually a result of people being less willing to spend and get into debt once more. People are now seriously considering their financial committments. This is familiar territory for me as I have been practicing frugal living for the last five or six years, and have been using 0% interest credit cards to help me pay back a mounting debt.
I got a shock when I applied for my first 0% card, only to find I was refused... I looked into the reasons and discovered that having too many credit accounts open but unused was having a negative effect on my credit rating. I had a credit report done to find out exactly how many accounts were open in my name, and then went and closed all the ones I wasn't using.
It's obvious when you think about it, lenders are not going to be willing to lend to someone who has a lot of dormant accounts open (as I did) because potentially, one could access all that credit in one go. Suppose you had four dormant accounts with credit limits of $7K, then potentially you have $28k at your disposal already, a cautious lender would be foolish to extend more credit unless you have assets or income that matches that type of debt.
So, my advice is to routinely close dormant accounts, and periodically get a credit check to make sure that dormant accounts aren't still affecting your credit score.

Sales Techniques

It is a sad fact that many high street retailers have been hit by mega-stores and online retail. The high street shop of today has to work that much harder to keep customers calling. Retailers need to offer a high level of personal service, a pleasant environment for shoppers and effective point of purchase displays in order to generate add-on sales.
Retailers need to engage with customers in the way which they want to be engaged, many customers will use the internet in preference, so having an online presence, even for a small local retailer is a serious consideration. Collecting data on clients is also vital, every retailer whether they are high street or strictly online, should be collecting data on clients. Contact details are the very first layer to be collected, but also having some indication of client demographic or buying patterns is not too difficult even for a small shop to work on. In short, if you can't beat them (and you can't...), join them by doing the same sort of things that the big stores do.

Content Management

There is no doubt that CMS (Content Management Systems) are the way to go especially where you are hosting a site for someone who has little technical internet know-how. Of all the CMS software out there, Wordpress is one of the very best - but setting a site up is where all the hard work comes in. My new hosting service should give me the option of setting up multiple sites in Wordpress format, I hope to work out how to get a WP site up and running and then get a domain to point at it. Once I have mastered that art, I might be tempted to move all my blogs to this format.
Having said that, although I believe WP is a better, more flexible system, the most important thing for a blog in my opinion is content. Combining content with an aesthetically pleasing layout is a great combo, but placing appearance over content is a non-starter.
I have also had a look at Joomla as an alternative to WP, and honestly can see very little difference between the two. The deciding factor for me is the fact that there are so many bloggers using WP, and so many plug-ins available, I reckon there is a better support structure for this platform.

Life Insurance

When looking for the best term life insurance rates or rates for any other insurance, the comparison websites are a great place to start. Not only can they offer insurance from a variety of providers, they can also provide advice on the best insurance to suit your needs. The internet has provided us with comparison sites for just about every type of expense, and insurance is just about the most competitive industry there is. Insurance is no longer a mysterious product worked out by people behind closed doors and smoked glass, nowadays it shouts from the rooftops and is accompanied by bright colours and loud music...

Night Creams

How can you know which is the best night cream? Effective beauty treatments are few and far between, and products reviews by independent reviewers are the best tool for determining the best product. Often these products are reviewed in magazines and television programs, where effectiveness and price are compared to see which product gets you the best 'bang for your buck'.
One thought to bear in mind is that more often than not, beauty products do not live up to the claims of the manufacturers, although they are often very careful about the way in which they word their claims.

Getting rid of Blackheads

The internet is the perfect tool for learning how to get rid of blackheads or any other medical-related issue you may have that you don't want to discuss face to face. The world-wide-web is an extremely useful research tool, if you know how to use it.
The web offers us research, personal reviews and online forums all of which can be utilized to research an effective product, service, or other solution to whatever your question may be. However we all know that even renowned sites like Wikipwedia can contain bogus information, so my advice is to get several opinions on a solution and use a little common sense to determine the best course of action.

Worrying trends

I am continuing to see a general drop-off in Adsense clicks and earnings in the last month of so, I would estimate that earnings could have as much as halved recently. I do not track earnings closely enough to be absolutely sure at this stage whether I am losing out in terms od clicks, traffic or CPC - I know I should be on top of this, but I tend to concentrate on working at the coal face when I have time, rather than analysing the results.
My main worry is that this is where I want to concentrate in the future, ie. passive earnings through contextual advertising and affiliates. What this tells me is that I need to track trends a lot better than I do if I want this to work for me in the future. In other news, I am on the very cusp of moving to a new hosting service which will allow me to move domains onto a single hosting package - for now, I am happy to maintain blogs on the 'blogger' platform, but I do also plan to experiment with Wordpress too for some other sites.

Looking for work

This current economic climate has meant that the numbers of jobless folk are higher than we have seen for many a year - a result of the economy growing too quickly and then suddenly deflating. The longer-term prospect is good, but in the meantime, there is a scramble to get back into work as quickly as possible, some workers even moving hundreds of miles to look for work. Moving to find work is all very well, but it can be expensive at a time when expense is unwelcome.
The voice of reason tells you that you should first explore every avenue closer to home, and that's where a local job site such as Tampa job search comes in. There are local job opportunities in every region, so it pays to initially keep your search local, otherwise you could end up with having to change schools, change friends and having to start from scratch again. Local job searches are equally useful if you find yourself in a new region with no network of friends and acquaintances.

OnLine Learning

You may be surprised to discover that some online college degree courses offer genuine learning opportunities and result in genuine qualifications that future employers will take seriously. The real online colleges do not offer instant certificates for a fee, they offer real distance learning opportunities for those who are not able to physically attend a college for whatever reason.
This type of learning is perfect for those that are house-bound, or those who want to learn whilst working and therefore need to fit their learning around other commitments.

Diet advice

Whether you are looking for that top diet pill or advice on slimming aids, getting independent information is a good way to start.
Diets should be tailored to the individual and take medical history into account. There are two things that should be seriously considered before venturing into a course of treatment:

• Testimonies from independent sources
• Professional opinion from your doctor

It is well-documented that the vast, vast majority of so-called 'slimming pills' do not work, but even worse, some could do serious long-term harm. The best course would be to consult a medical professional and take on a whole lifestyle change that includes regular exercise and healthy eating.

Eye Cream

There are a plethora of beauty products hitting the shelves and online stores, but which ones are effective at doing what they claim? Whether the product be an eye cream for dark circles, or a product to promote weight-loss or remove wrinkles - How can we know how effective they are?
The first thing to consider is that as a rule, products often do not live up to their claims. It is always a good idea to get some feedback from someone that you know has used the product, check for product reviews from independent websites, and in the case of products taken orally, to check for side effects and get the advice of a medical professional.

Effective Supplements?

One way to find out about supplements and weight-loss medications is to check out the supplement reviews online. It is never wise to take any kind of supplement or medication without having fully researched it first, or without seeking the advice of a medical professional.
The truth is, that there are far more ineffective products on the market than there are effective ones. Researching products thoroughly ideally through independent reviews, is a good way of determining which products are going to be effective. It is also wise to thoroughly research what the possible side effects of each product may be.

Life...

Age brings responsibility, marriage brings more and then having kids takes it to a whole new level. At least I believe that's how it should be, and if that means having a suitable level of life insurance, taking steps to keep debt down to a manageable level or sacrificing your 'me' time for family time, then it's a small price to pay.
The adage: 'no-one ever says on their death-bed "I wish I had spent more time at the office" ' can equally be applied to many and various activities that we become engrossed in. Here are a few more things we won't be saying on that fateful day:
"I wish I had spent more time playing World of Wordcraft"
"I wish I had spent more on cigarettes, and less on investments for my family"
Instead, I can suggest some more likely last words:
"I wish I had shown them how much I love them...."

More seats than Broadway

Boasting more theatre seats than New York's Broadway district, Branson Missouri is one of the leading entertainment destinations in the USA. There is something for everyone at Branson vacations - the range of shows and attractions seem to go on and on.
There are over 17,500 rooms available in hotels dotted around the resort, many starting at less that $40 for a night, but it is the special deals that will hook you in. Currently there are offers for a 3-day stay (2 nights) from $49 (including $50 attraction tickets) for hotel or cabin accomodation or $99 (including $100 attraction tickets). Restrictions apply, so visit their website and get all the details online.

These no longer work for me...

PPP - sorry, they are dead in the water - 'offering' jobs for $1.50 which you are not guaranteed to be accepted for is not the sort of level I want to be operating at after three years of paid blogging - anything from the IZEA stable now falls into this category - their systems are flashy but not really geared towards serious revenue for participants.
I would also venture to suggest that the re-birth of dNeero was indeed the false dawn that I started to suspect - a fourth conversation received today exactly the same scenario as the previous two... basically someone using the service to try and get dNeeroites to plug their referral codes for a 'paid to' site for precisly no repayment. There must be some mugs who are doing this...but really...why would you??
I have kept two surveys on just until I reach payout - these are decent services but still take too long to reach payout - I do every survey I can for these two, but honestly they are all throwaway at the end of the day - too much time, so little chance of getting any rewards...
...and that brings me finally to MyLot (note. I am not putting my referral in here), this is a great service if you like to chat, discuss and even argue! but at the end of the day very low earnings that take an age to build up... It's no scam by any means - it's a very enjoyable site, but the time could be better spent promoting sites or doing more or less anything to be honest. I have learned valuable things from MyLot friends and will miss them, but not enough to go back...
So these are some of the decisions I have come to lately, I will no longer participate in time-consuming, low-yield sites and services - cutting these out will free up my time for the projects that I want to push forwards once my hosting issues have been sorted out.

Economic Resurgence

So the worst of the ecomomic depression is behind us and the surviving companies are out looking for work once more, having borne the brunt of the downturn. Several industries have been affected (especially those linked to motor vehicle manufacture) but the surviving companies can come back stronger and possible pick up some of the contracts previously serviced by competitors who weren't lucky enough to survive.
Economic downturn tends to work like a forest fire, it can devestate the visible forest, but when it is over, new life flourishes and soon visible signs of the disaster are few and far between. This recovery situation suits small firms that find it easier to adapt to changing markets, whether the market be stainless steel drums, software or in the service industry - small flexible firms will be able to benefit from a situation where new markets can be serviced and exploited.
In a few months we will probably almost be in a position to forget about the hardships as jobs are created and industry rolls on.

The Aging Process

Age brings both positive and negative effects to bear on the individual - on the plus side there is the confidence and experience that comes with age, on the other had, there is the wrinkly skin and hair-loss.
For men this is not such a great problem as men tend to age well and can always shave their heads (I bought a hair trimmer last year...), however for women, this can be a distressing experience to go through. This is why there is such a robust market for skin care products and hair loss shampoo, not to mention the dreaded BOTOX...
My own view is that aging gracefully is a more attractive attribute than plastering yourself with creams and potions - but that is easy to say when you are aging a gracefully as me...!

Adsense trends

I don't know if it is purely as a result of me not promoting my sites enough, but Adsense clicks are not yielding the kind of returns for me that I had got used to, which just goes to show that you cannot rely on an established revenue stream on the world-wide-web...
I am immersed in trying to move a domain to my super new hosting service at the moment - we are currently falling at the first hurdle as the service that is supposed to get the transfer authorised is not sending the emails to the right email inbox so I can't authorise the transition - should take 24 hours, so far we are up to about five days..... still the weather is good, so all is not lost...
I have a number of plans that I want to implement which involves new domains and sites, but I really need to sort out my main domain first and then build on that. The plans are part of my rationisation of internet activities which is the theme of this year for me. I am basically looking at what is working and what isn't - then concentrating on how I can expand what IS working for me whilst cutting off the branches that bear no fruit... I have found that for someone stubborn like me, it is all to easy to keep flogging a dead horse in case it should suddenly wake up and start pulling the cart.
More on dead horses that I will no longer flog later...

Diet plan warnings

The obsession with dieting can lead to all sorts of misuse of chemicals and additives unless strictly controlled by medical professionals. Typically the diet promotors will come up with a combination of products that, whilst medically proven to have an effect on weight, actually have little or no effect in the combination that is being promoted. This is true of products such as in the sensa scam where products of known medical value were prescribed in a way that would be inneffective for fighting weight gain.
My position is that if you must take medication to lose weight, get advice from your doctor, and before you start filling yourself full of pills, or depriving yourself of vital nutrients...try a little exercise...you never know, you might enjoy it.