Under Eye Creams

Whether you are looking for the best under eye cream, or the latest piece of electronic kit in your quest for the perfect Christmas present, a combination of online and offline shopping will probably get you the best deals.
Online shopping usually gets you the best prices and provides a lot of additional information, but offline shopping (in your local mall or shopping centre) carries less risk and enables you to actually touch the product and maybe even 'try before you buy'.

With online services, there is always the risk that the product may not be quite what you expected, and you should always use reputable retailers.

eBay Partnership

I had a go at eBay affiliates a long time ago, but didn't really get anywhere with it - I recently signed up again, this time directly with the eBay Partnership. I had an idea for a website that would be suitable for this type of advertising, and sure enough in a very short time, got some returns. Since then the goal-posts have been moved a little, firstly a minimum payout was imposed (£25 - or 25 of whatever your home currency is), secondly there was a patch when earnings flat-lined. I am not sure what the glitch was, but it inspired me to change the existing flash-adverts that I had, and within days the earnings came back online... I have lost a couple of months earnings with this glitch, but at this stage it is nothing too dramatic.
This is a revenue stream that I would like to exploit in the future, so getting to grips with it now is helping to form my future plans.
In short, the scheme allows me to place contextual, graphical eBay ads directly into my pages - the site I have built assumes that the visitor will be interested in the eBay adverts, and sure enough, they seem to attract enough interest to prove worthwhile. Again, like the paid to post schemes, given time, this is a model that I could repeat using similar themes with slight variations to capture different search terms/keywords. Right now, this site on which I use the eBay partnership ranks extremely highly for it's niche keyword - this keyword when used as an eBay search shows adverts which interest the visitors, some pages in the site have more specific keywords and again, the adverts shown on the page match perfectly with the page content.
I wouldn't necessarily recommend this for bloggers, but if you think your site could be used to drive traffic to eBay, it's worth thinking about signing up.

Creatine

The trouble with creatine powder is that you need to keep taking it to benefit from the effects. Like a lot of medications, it provides short-term results which substitute for a lifestyle change. To get longer-term effects, a proper exercise and diet regime needs to be worked out.

This applies to medications for weight-loss or muscle-enhancement. Another concern is that taking any medications over a long-term may introduce side-effects. It is always advisable to read up about any possible effects especially when the medication has not been prescribed.

Male Enhancement

One of the most common themes of spam email is male enhancement. This indicates that there must be a large market for such products especially online. It is fairly obvious that the 'discreet' nature of purchasing goods on the internet is ideal for products of this nature. However, it is always advisable to seek proper medical advice over any medical condition you might have before simply purchasing a remedy online.
You should also ensure that your online retailer is reputable, check that they are a properly registered company with a genuine address and contact details.

Medical Assistant School

Adult education is often carried out on-line nowadays anything from theological college to medical assistant school can be found offering online courses to willing students.

The advantages of this type of education are obvious, studies carried on at your own pace and at your own convenience suits those who are already working, and may have significant financial commitments.

The more traditional model of the teenager leaving home to study has been augmented by this more practical alternative that resonates with older individuals who may have families and a mortgage to support.

Paid to post

Right back in 2007, the aim of this blog was to investigate possible earnings from the internet, and primarily the various paid to blog programs that are available. Whilst various companies have come and gone, there are still a couple of companies that offer decent earnings purely from paid to blog opportunities.
Please refer to my monthly earnings for a breakdown of how much can be made this way. I would say that if I had more blogs (and considerably more time), I could probably multiply this several times over (and in fact, information on how to do this is often 'sold' as part of an internet money-making package - don't buy it - read my blog instead..). I often mention the services that I use, so a quick intelligent search through my posts will tell you all you need to know. I spread posts around a few different blogs at the moment, and sometimes get specific offers to create a post for a particular niche. On the whole, I will do posts for as little as $5 where the requirements are simple, but will look for $10 to $15 for more demanding posts. I do not do posts for less than this (everybody has a limit right?)...

Dark Circles

Well Hallowe'en may almost be upon us, but dark circles of another kind may be the bane of your life if you are looking for eye creams to correct your facial flaws.
There seems to be a bewildering array of face creams on offer, and at vastly differing prices - all of them claiming to make radical improvements to your face. However on the 'face' of it, the majority of products seem to be little more than glorified foundation cream to cake over the top of the offending dark patches.

Other products offer remedies that go a little deeper, so look very closely at the ingredients if you plan to buy anything that you expect to dispel those dark circles.

Christmas Garland

October is not yet finished, but I saw my first Christmas decorations this year through a living room window on my way home from work this evening. I have heard of families who are already getting their Christmas trees ready for assembly, and others are no doubt preparing the christmas garlands and Christmas candles.

I have long been of the opinion that Christmas should really start with Advent, so I won't be getting the baubles out until December starts...

At least none of those really garish house adornments have hit the streets yet, but it wont be long I'm sure before the flashing Santa's are out!

Affiliates

Affiliates can be a good way to make some extra income, and you can read more about effective affiliate marketing on Livewyre.NET. I have had some success, but earnings have been very sporadic. I remember when I started, I had nothing for months and months, then got two 'sales' within hours of each other and got paid about $70... this encouraged me greatly, but I have never really got into a groove with affiliates and I do regard it as something of a missed opportunity.

I have tried a few in my time, never had much success with clickbank, and never really understood their reporting... The one service I have found effective is 'ShareASale', although I tend to have long periods of inactivity with affiliates, this is the one service that has come up trumps for me - and again, it's passive income so why wouldn't you?

I have never really got into using PPC to generate leads, and so have never really tried to exploit this market fullly, but nonetheless, affiliates can generate earnings if you can find affiliates that are closely linked with your niche. ShareASale have an extremely wide range of affiliates available with very wide ranges of earnings. I have earned from ones that pay a couple of cents to others that pay in tens of dollars - each one has it's own payment matrix.

If you think this is something that could work for you, check out the article on Livewyre.NET linked above, and then sign up with ShareASale and see what they can offer that fits in with your niche - you have nothing to lose, they provide a variety of banner you can place on your pages, if you get sufficient traffic, and the affiliates is well in line with your visitors interests, you may well start a new revenue stream.

Barcode Scanners

My boss has been talking about getting a barcode scanner for work. He thinks it will help with stock control with new products that we are selling.
In the main, we have sold large high-cost instrumentation in the past, but recently we have expanded into smaller low-cost items that may lead to high-volume turn-over.

In order to speed up the system and allow the sales team to know exactly what we have on the stock shelves, we have been thinking about a barcode system that will be used to scan deliveries coming in and out to keep everything up to date. We are also considering implementing an online e-shop, so having 'live' stock level figures would be very helpful in informing clients how long it will take for them to receive their orders.

Even though the company is only small, technological developments allow even the smallest companies to have a big market presence, and this type of automated stock control could then be implemented into our other product areas - which could make things a lot easier to control!

It's coming...

As winter rears it's head, thoughts turn inevitably to... Christmas, and it is my intention to start my Christmas shopping as early as possible. I will no doubt be blogging about various present ideas, some will be conventional, but many will probably be a bit off-the-wall...

My gift idea for the day is the chair slipcover perfect for protecting your chairs from the ravages of small children and pets.. or even larger children and clumsy adults. We have had covers on chairs since our little one was born - it does give you considerable peace of mind.

You can use covers not only for protection, but to spruce up a 'tired' chair or sofa, maybe your old suite does not fit in with your newly planned colour scheme? Chair covers are an inexpensive way to transform your living space.

Oooops!

The picture here is my printer scanner in bits... stupid thought he would print off some sticky labels even though one of the labels wasn't properly affixed to the paper.. within seconds it was not attached to the paper at all, but it was well and truly attached to the inner workings of my printer!

Quite prepared to chuck the thing if my 'repair' didn't work, I set about the printer with my screwdriver and a certain amount of misgivings.. After about 10 minutes or so, with about a dozen screws lying around my feet, I finally removed the paper, but not before inadvertently removing a ribbon cable that did not look like it was going to easily slot back into place..

I battled with the ribbon cable eventually forcing it home, gathered up my screws and put it all back together again. it's a testament to Hewlett Packard that the whole thing went nicely back together, and worked! Hats off to HP, not all manufacturers are bothered about making repairable goods nowadays, and although HP did not exactly make it easy for me, a bit of determination and invention was all it took to correct my stupidity, now where did I put the rest of those sticky labels....?

Surveys

I used to do a few of these, but mostly have become a bit disillusioned with them - I am left with just two that I use now;
YouGov: Payout of £50, will take a long time to reach - at least you get paid small amounts for 'non-qualified' surveys which is better than how 'Ciao' treats its surveyers...
PureProfile: This has a lower payout at £25, but it will still take time to reach this level - again, you are rewarded even if you turn out to be not suitable for the survey

Both the above are decent honest schemes, but you will have to put a lot of work in to get anything out of them - I don't really intend to carry on with them once I have reached payout, as I can probably make better use of my time. I have also used dNeero surveys in the past and Ciao, both of these started well, but have turned into useless schemes after a while - having said that I have been paid out by them, but I wouldn't go back...

Reward Cards

reward cards can be a big help in the drive to save money, however you should be careful about how you view the card. Firstly, there is the danger of the 'spend more to save more' philosophy - you must ask yourself: 'in taking advantage of this extra reward point offer, am I going to spend more than I normally would?'. In essence, by being attracted to offers that involve gaining points on your reward card, has your weekly expenditure increased? or can you forfeit another purchase? the biggest rewards are offered on luxury goods, ie. stuff you don't need!

Secondly, you should be aware that using the reward card helps the shop to build up a profile of what you buy. You will get vouchers for more expensive dog food if you tend to buy a cheaper brand - all clever tactics to get you to increase your spending.

Reward cards are great if you can take advantage of them without unwittingly increasing your spending.

Work Experience

Nowadays it is not at all unusual to find yourself having worked for several employers half-way through your working life. I 'spoke' to a friend via Facebook the other day, he has been working for IBM for his entire working life (30 years) whereas I have had seven employers in that time. I have worked for the family firm, large utility companies, companies with only three employees, have had two healthcare industry jobs, and now work for a small firm again...
I find that the experiences gathered in all these completely different environments make me better at what I do. Being able to draw on an array of experiences equips you for most eventualities that working life throws at you...

Google Adsense

Many bloggers have a fairly negative attitude towards Adsense, mainly because it is very difficult to make anything from Adsense on a blog.

Before you consider using Adsense, you should understand that you will probably only get any results if your blog is sufficiently specialised (niche), and the niche is one that is profitable.

In my experience, it is easier to get results from a good niche website than it is from a blog, but Adsense on a website has it's drawbacks:

An Adsense click on your site means that you 'lose' your visitor - you are effectively paid (sometimes a lot, sometimes a little) to drive your customers to another site. If you are in some sort of business, that may well mean that you have sold a potential customer to a competitor for the price of a click.

You can 'filter out' competitors from your site, but I take the philosophical view that the price paid for the click is 'passive' earnings meaning that you didn't have to lift a finger to get the money - entering into a transaction with a visitor involves effort and investment on your part. When you compare the amount earned with the effort expended, Adsense clicks are infinitely 'better' because they involve no effort on your part whatsoever.

If I earn passively from a competitor, then I am happy to regard that as income every bit as valid as income earned from a direct transaction with a client of my own.

YouGov Surveys

I have not been over-enthusiastic about surveys recently, as reaching payout on and of the 'half-decent' survey sites is hard going. However, I had a fairly long survey to complete for YouGov last week, and the reward was almost immediate (well, it took about a week...) a £5 amazon voucher was enough to restore a bit of faith in surveys at least temporarily...

The voucher has already been spent, but it was very gratefully received. YouGov offer surveys for amounts that vary from £0.05 to £1.00 on the whole, (£0.05 is the usual payment for a survey that you start but get filtered out...). They also do 'prize draw' surveys where you don't get a set payment, but you get entered in a draw. I don't do those as a rule, and the main drawback is the time it takes to reach payout for the 'normal' surveys. However I always say that it pays to have many 'strings' to your internet earnings 'bow', and surveys could well make up one of your sources of cash.

Bad Back!

I have been seeing a chiropractor for years now to help me to live with back and neck problems. The problems are not very severe, but do give me uncomfortable nights on occasions. Fortunately, the chiropractor is a good friend and charges me 'mates rates'. The last time I went to see him, we started to talk about memory foam mattresses because I had been waking up with considerable back pain.

Now, the problem is that you always think that memory foam mattresses are very expensive, but he suggested a couple of options:

• Look around for a promotion, there are always promotions for these products if you take the time to look
• Try just a memory foam layer on top of your existing mattress as a compromise
• Most companies offer a no quibble guarantee that allows you to try the mattress for a month or maybe even longer, then return it and get your money back if not entirely satisfied.

I am actually due to see the chiropractor tomorrow, no doubt, we will continue the discussion then...

Disability Insurance

I have been reading up on how disability insurance works in the US. There is a process for applying for Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI), and often, applicants need help to take them through the process.
There are organisations that are set up to help potential applicants to complete paperwork and get the award that they are properly entitled to under the US social security system. Allsup.com are one such company who only charge a fee if the claim is successful. The awards eventually received are paid for through taxes, so the recipients must have paid into the 'FICA' tax system.

Orlando

For years now I have been thinking about a Orlando vacation, especially when the nights draw in and the temperature drops to the zero mark as it is threatening to do now in the UK.

Even the best of our summers pales into nothing compared to the Florida sunshine and East Coast scenery. Of course, the attraction of Orlando is not limited to the weather and the scenery, theme parks are what Orlando is famed for, and the reason that this region makes such a good vacation spot for families.

I look forward to the day when our dreams of such a vacation an start to become a reality...