dNeero surveys

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

Site Maintenance

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

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

Holiday plans

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

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

Christmas Present Ideas

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

Matched.co.uk is no more...

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

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

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

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

Spy Camera

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

Travel Plans

In the current financial situation, there is little chance of me requiring any travel insurance for a while. Other related issues are that I have not bothered to re-new my passport, and have cancelled European cover on my car insurance as it's not likely to be leaving these shores any time soon..
It is important to take a good hard look at your financial situation and 'cut your cloth' accordingly. If you do plan some foreign travel, then it might be a good idea to get your own travel cover that will save you from having to pay the default insurance every time you book a flight or accommodation - you can save a lot of money by having your own cover and what's more, you get to choose cover which is appropriate to your own needs and circumstances. One of the problems with just ticking to box for standard insurance is most people never bother to see what the terms are until they need to make a claim!

Promotional Writing

It occurs to me that paid bloggers are similar to advertising copywriters writing adverts for radio, although I admit that the quality of the copy varies quite a bit...
When I started writing blog posts, I thought that I had to make them like little adverts promoting a product or service and saying how great it was whether I believed it or not. In recent times I have come to understand that it is really the anchor-text that is the valuable thing to the advertiser, not so much the text that surrounds it.
Many advertisers say that a neutral post will suffice, and the reason for that is that they are not expecting lots of your visitors to take a lot of notice of the 'advert', but they need a link for a specific keyword to push their site or a specific page up the SERPS (search engine results position).
My posts now are much more personalised, as long as I get the link in and it's not out of context, the advertiser will probably be happy. There is no need to 'promote' the link, but equally it would not be helpful to be overly negative. Placing an out-of-context link would be unhelpful as there is value in the surrounding text that search engines can pick up on.
Occasionally when an advertiser wants to create buzz around a new site, product or service they actually request that you log-on to a site and test it. In these cases you are given much more direction, but generally you can slip your link into a related, but not necessarily overtly promotional post. Where I have to say something positive, I often put myself in the shoes of a voice-over artist for a radio advert. They don't need to mean what they say and nobody has any problem over them being paid for their time - There is no need for me to feel cheap about promoting something I don't actually like or enjoy as long as I do a good job. That said, there are certain things that I won't do, hence on numerous occasions I have turned down lucrative opportunities for promoting gambling sites and will continue to do so.

Upgrade your laptop

It's coming up to Christmas and you need a new laptop - great!
It's coming up to Christmas and there's a global recession just around the corner - not so great!
There are plenty of ways you can lick that laptop into shape and have an upgrade that can take you through the next 12 months no sweat!
Here are the steps to take:
Think about asking for some laptop memory for Christmas
Maybe upgrade to VISTA if you feel brave
Ask someone to stick a bigger hard-drive in your stocking!
In my experience, laptop hard-drives need replacing every couple of years, and it would make sense while you have the precision screwdrivers out, to add a little memory in there too...

Losing Weight

Hydroxycut is yet another diet supplement available on the internet, and again we are obliged to ask readers to exercise caution when deciding to use unregulated medication. Note that this product advertises itself as a 'supplement' which indicates that medication alone is not sufficient to achieve weight-loss goals.
Good advice on medication, diet and exercise should 'supplement' your chosen medication, and you should strive to get all the information you can before introducing new chemicals into your body. Check that the medication is compatible with any medical conditions you may have and make sure you understand the effects that the medication will have.

Size Zero

I heard something said the other day which I feel I must address, the implication of the piece was that women pursued 'size zero' at the behest of men - As a man I refute this entirely, I know of no man who would specify a size zero on their list of attractive traits in a female.
So where does this idea come from? In a word 'fashion' - sometimes it is 'fashionable' to have curves, other times it is fashionable to look like you should be in rehab. My supplementary point is this...
Do you believe the fashion industry to be dominated by heterosexual males??
I thought not... so I rest my case, size zero is a preference expressed by the fashion industry and is demanded by fellow-females and men who are not especially attracted to the female form.
When we are looking for someone to blame for the proliferation of diet pill and diet plans, don't look at your average bloke. You will find more about this fascination with size in any womens magazine than you ever would in a mens publication, and I would say again Do you think your average bloke even reads a mens mag?
Now I would not refute that men might be more interested in enhancement than down-sizing, but I would refer anyone to those TV programs where women are considering enhancement procedures. In almost every case, their male partners did not want them to go through any surgery - so if not for their partners, why do they want to be a different shape? The answer in almost every case is for confidence, confidence in the presence of men?? No think again...
I don't wish to try to make out that men are blameless, but let's redress the balance of thinking a little here - I am happy to state that I believe that men are not responsible for the size zero phenomenen.

Fantasy Holidays

With a recession just around the corner, long distance holidays are a dream for me at the moment, but I console myself with dreams of the holidays we can take when our finances are more stable.
I would love to visit friends in New York and New England, take in the sights of the Mid-west and take a trip to vegas Apart from that, we have friends to catch up with in Malta and I would love to take another road trip around France, maybe taking in Italy along the way.
The reality is, with a little one now in tow, we are more likely to stay firmly on British soil, and our next planned holiday is a freebie on the Norfolk Broads..
Apart from that, we are only likely to be able to get away for day trips here are there, so the bright lights of Vegas will have to wait.

Progress in safety equipment

The world of functional safety clothing has evolved over the last few years as safety has become more prominent in everyone’s mind. With some type of safety equipment required for every type of work-based task, manufacturers have realised that safety supplies are in a market which will be expanding for the foreseeable future.
You will note that new safety equipment is designed to appeal to the wearer, rather than just been plain and functional. Safety glasses are constructed with the same design and flair as sunglasses, safety helmets come with zany designs instead of plain colors.
This trend has started with the more commonly-used items but is also spreading to the specialized areas such as fire resistant clothing. This type of equipment traditionally has had a few items on offer which had to cope with all tasks. Now you can even get fire-retardant fleece-jackets and sweat-shirts, along with several designs of fire-retardant cotton or ‘Nomex’ shirts to wear under your fleece. The offerings to this market have increased with demand and competition.

Weight issues

I can't believe that there are so many products available for weight loss nowadays. I have not come across alli weight loss before, but it's just one of a whole host of products available. Other products include names like NOXYCUT and OROVO, with so many on the market thorough research is needed before buying any of these products.
There are two areas which you will need to investigate:

• Do some research on exactly what is in each product and the possible effects/side effects that it might have - try Googling for 'effects of....' for a start.
• Ensure that you ONLY buy from a reputable vendor who is qualified to sell such products and can give advice on the best product to use in your circumstances.

Earnings Oct 2008

In attempting to keep my 'off-line life' on an even keel, I have not been blogging too much this week - and in fact, forgot to do my monthly update.
Some significant differences this month - I did a lot more PPP so that I could have enough posts completed to add another blog to my PPP profile. As it turned out, the blog was not added to my profile as it did not meet the criteria. The blog in question has an editted template to make it less blog-like, and one of the features I have 'turned off' is the automatic dating of posts. This gave PPP a problem, and I am still debating whether I want to put the dates back so for now I just have one PPP blog (not this one...). In fact I will probably put dates back, the blog is concerned with current news, so being able to follow the blog chronologically would be sensible.

PayU2Blog remains the best earner, they sent me some bonus tasks this month, but have been fairly quiet since then. Adsense and other advertising continues to bring in a few much-needed dollars, and I had a new sponsored review op this month for one of my blogs.
As can be seen from the diagram, this months earnings were $142.46 which is above my rolling average of around $100 per month lately - most of this was due to the increased activity in PPP and the sponsored review opp. Blogsvertise has recently come back to life since I have some PR on some blogs - it will be interesting to see how long that PR remains...

Making ends meet

As the recession starts to bite each and every household will need to make budgets and watch very carefully where each little portion of their income is spent.
A good place to start is all those monthly bills in your list of direct debits. Make sure you get the best deal for utilities for your home, and get some competitive auto insurance quotes to see if you can shave some money off your car insurance, the same applies to home insurance. I have always said that the quickest way to make money is to look at your budgets and see where you can save yourself money - instant returns!

Good Blogging Advice

Although admittedly, not ALL my blog posts have exactly been from the heart... many may lack finesse and prose and even sincerity...nonetheless, I was interested to find that this is my 873rd ever blog post in a little under two years. In fact I have already completed two posts that will be published next week, so I guess you could say that this is my 875th... I have no idea how many of those were paid posts, although I do know how much I have made through paid posting in that time, and I may be prepared to expand on that at the end of 2008.

My point is though, after all this time I should have come a long way from those first tenuous forays into the world of blogging - my first blog was about my experiences building a website, and is geared towards websites, SEO and related topics. It wasn't 'til March 2007 that I started to get into the world of paid blogging with this blog.
My intention for this post was to give a few pointers from my experience of a little under 1.3 posts per day over two years... at this rate I should have completed 935 by the end of 2008.
So here's my ten blogging pointers:

1. Unlike this blog, niche blogs get better traffic and can earn more from adsense.
2. It is not easy to get on-topic paid blogging opportunities for niche blogs - although you may get some decent paying offers if you can get a decent PageRank.
3. You may be throwing away your PageRank if Google detects paid posts or links.
4. Leave lots of relevant comments on blogs operating in the same niche.
5. Give your readers something good to read - opinion is fine, but how about helpful tips and useful links too?
6. Make sure your blog is good to look at, but don't change the look too frequently.
7. When starting a niche blog, make sure you pick a subject that interests you
8. When starting a niche blog, if you are blogging for money, make sure that you choose a subject that can be well monetised.
9. Resources are important for niche blogs, both physical and online magazines can be invaluable, but always do good research using several sources and write the article with your own angle.
10. Finally if you write paid posts, make them fit your niche, often the client is just looking for the anchor text in the link, the rest of the post should be well written but does not have to read like an advert, try to keep it natural...

Well, I hope this is useful to someone, please feel free to leave your own tips in the comments.

Free eBook for bloggers

Ellie from the PinkC has released a new eBook called 101 steps to becoming a better blogger. Ellie is an experienced blogger who is an expert on configuring a Wordpress blog to get it looking exactly right. She tags herself as the ultimate geek girl and has a wealth of knowledge that she is willing to share for free in her new eBook.

Not only should you be taking advantage of this free offer, you should also make regular visits to this blog especially (but not exclusively) if you are using Wordpress. Ellie has used a host of plug-ins and knows exactly how to tweak a blog to get it running smoothly. Not only that but she knows how to write a good blog - always something fresh and new at the PinkC...

Blogging tip

I have noticed that I go through a ritual when posting on a blog, and I wonder if enough people do this? I first write the article, and more often than not, go looking for a suitable image to post alongside the article - a picture is worth a thousand words and all that... If the blog has a themed look I will probably import the picture into fireworks and manipulate it accordingly - which usually entails cropping, applying a colour tint and shrinking it to an acceptable size. If the picture is crucial, I might then host it myself so that a reader can click on it to expand it - otherwise I let blogger host it for me.
I make sure that there are tags - on my niche blogs I only ever add a new tag if I really must, mostly I pick from the existing tags. On my latest blog I also add some links to similar articles at the end of the post - this achieves two goals; good practice for SEO to link similar articles on any website, and also it gives the reader somewhere to go if the subject interests them - after all, I am hoping to get some search-engine traffic and where one blog post has been picked up in the search results (rather than the home page) - it makes sense to draw the reader in with your closely -related content.
When all of this is done, I will post the content (often I have posted the content, and then decide to add some links to other pages), and crucially I will then proof-read the whole post, and this is the thing that I notice other bloggers have not done sometimes. I will correct all the spelling and grammar mistakes and maybe change something that doesn't scan properly, then post again and read again until I am happy that it meets my standards.
This does not mean that my posts are faultless, but it does mean I am careful to give a good impression. I am put off by 'lazy' posts that do not scan properly, have bad spelling or use text-speak and I would expect my readers to be equally critical. If I want to establish a style and demonstrate my writing skills, proof-reading will help to give me an extra edge.

Paid posts or non-paid posts

That stalwart of paid posting programs PayPerPost has definite rules about the ratio of paid posts to non-paid posts that you are allowed on a blog. The reason for this is fairly obvious; you are not likely to have a great readership if your content is all advertising. Everyone knows that if you buy a magazine or get one of those free papers posted through your door, that there will be a certain amount of advertising - and there should also be a decent amount of content otherwise why would you bother reading it at all?
I have seen blogs that are pure monetisation and NO other content, and I spend less than two seconds working out that there is no value in re-visiting. Other sites have an identifiable amount of advertising, but enough content to keep you returning. In light of this, PayU2Blog have also requested that bloggers do not use their blogs entirley for paid posts offering no content of their own invention.
In my experience readers return to a blog for a number of reasons which include:

• they like the style of writing, the humor or prose used to get a message across
• they find valuable information about a topic in which they are interested
• they 'connect' with the writer

If you are not actively trying to at least one of these things then your blog has little value either as something people would want to visit, or as a platform for advertising revenue.
This is not to say that a blog cannot be 'used' as a service site purely for generating links, but if this is the case, the content should still form part of that strategy and only having paid posts will not satisfy that criteria. I have seen some blogs that are full of widgets such as the Creamaid and the dNeero ones, these can take ages to load and if there are more than two on the homepage, there is every chance that a reader will immediately browse away rather then wait for the widgets to load.
Please note that PayU2Blog have stopped short of imposing any rules on this, but they have indicated that these 100% paid posts blogs are likely to get very few opportunities in the future.