Make Money Online

It takes a unique twist to separate a dating site from the plethora of matchmaking sites that are online these days. If all a site has is the typical "I am a [Insert your gender] seeking a [insert your desired gender] between the ages of [much younger than me] and [still much younger than me]" then it’s doomed before it starts.

Person.com cuts through the muck and offers a refreshing twist to the online dance that seems to be just about browsing photos. Yes, it is a place where you can meet new people for dating, friends (or whatever else you may want), but the way in which they go about having you interact with other people on the site is much different.

Most unique is the ability to watch (and host) live video shows broadcast by other members of the site. If you have a webcam, you can either choose to broadcast publicly or to only a group of people you want. This tears down the walls of "Ice breakers" and chat/email typically found on other sites, and lets potential couples interact live over the web before meeting up for the first time.

You are also able to see more than one webcam broadcast at once, although you must be registered to watch more than 10 minutes of the webcam feature.

Don’t want to watch video? Person.com also has a cool "Play and Flirt" game that pits three woman against three men in a series of questions and back&forth, after which point each person picks a member of the opposite sex that they most connected with or would want to meet.  If you match up, you get more detailed contact information.

Of course, there are the more traditional ways to find people through the site as well, including personals, search, chat, forums, and you can always have flashbacks to your high-school years with the always-popular "Hot or Not" competition.

All in all, the online dating scene is not for me.  I am, after all, happily married with three children.  But I have friends who have tried them all (two of whom actually found their spouse online), and would say that Person.com offers the most unique avenues to connect than any of the other services I’ve heard about.

Here’s a quick rundown from my first month Blogging for Money.  I don’t know if this is a lot or a little for the first month, but hopefully will prove to be the baseline in moving forward.  Please let me know how it has compared to your first month as well.

$20.32 - Google AdSense
$80.00 - Affiliate Revenue
$53.01 - Pay Per Post

$153.33 - Total April Revenue

Now, of course there are some costs associated with all the activites as well:

$99.00 - Blue Host Hosting Package (Yearly)
$14.95 - TypePad Premium Blog Account (Monthly)
$50.00 - Design Fees (One-time)
$90.00 - Domain Registration Fees (Yearly)

$253.95 - Total April Costs

So, of course for the month I’m in the hole, but only about $100.  How does the old saying go, "You have to spend money to make money?"  We should definitely see a turn-around in May.

IDrive-E offers a free Online Backup service that provides you with 2GB of free encrypted data storage, and also offers unlimited storage and backup for only $4.95/month.  Online back-up services are a must-have to safeguard yourself against accidental data loss due to hard-drive failure.

Signing up was quick and easy.  There is a medium-sized application (6.9MB) you must download to get started.  The download took a while to complete, but I’m on the road this week and my hotel’s connection was probably to blame.

The install went very quickly, and was easy to use.  I wanted to start backing up my photos right away, as we have over 3,000 digital photos with no backup other than a res’d down version on Snapfish.  Selecting files in Classic mode was easy, and you can either start your backup immediately, or schedule it for a time when you are not actively using your computer.  You can also setup a mapped drive to make drag & drop copying to your archive even easier.

Your data is encrypted both during transmission as well as while it is stored, with either a 128-bit or 256-bit encryption. The site and the application itself each stated different encryption levels, so maybe it is based on your account level. Regardless, I am looking forward to getting my pictures backed up to start with, after which I will strongly consider an upgrade to unlimited storage to protect other valuable information on my computer.

There are a small number of opportunities available to new bloggers within the PPP network.  By this, I mean people who are just getting started in the blogosphere who have not yet achieved a Page Rank of 3 or above, a low Alexa score (a general rating measure of how many Internet users visit your site – the lower the better) or a low Technorati rating (a measurement of how many blogs are linking to your site – again, the lower the better).

But this should not get you discouraged about PPP.  On the contrary, you should view it as an incentive to establish (and continually improve) your blog as a valuable resource on the web.

So what can you do while you are waiting for more available opportunities in PPP?  Focus on these six blogging activities to make your blog better naturally, and you will start seeing more PPP opportunities available to you as your page rank rises, more readers and rss subscriptions come to your site, and your Alexa and Technorati rankings improve.

My current digital camera is close to 5 years old, and the last time I went in to buy an additional memory card, I was almost laughed out of Best Buy as the 20-some year old sales rep managed to blurt out "That camera must be a dinosaur… that kind of memory hasn’t been sold for the last year!"

Needless to say, I hit the web looking for some advice on my upcoming purchase.  A new site called Test Freaks offers a rundown of digital camera reviews (along with camcorders, cell phones, mp3 players as well as an abundance of other digital devices).  Test Freaks does not yet offer their own original reviews, instead linking to an average of 10-12 industry resource for each device.  Original reviews are set to become part of the site when they come out of beta release.

In absence of their own reviews, I did find the site useful as they include an excerpt of many of the reviews.  This allowed me to get an overall feel for a camera based on the overall average tone of the excerpts without actually having to read each review.  I passed on more than one camera based on the "hard to recommend" and "price-rich but feature-poor" comments on many of the models.

Be sure to check out Test Freaks or the Test Freak blog regularly to see when they launch.

There are a number of online resources that will give you ideas and approaches about how you can increase your blog’s exposure and visibility.  But before you start pro-actively attracting readers, make sure that your blog has a properly-laid foundation so that your readers don’t visit once, never to be heard or seen again.

I consider these six approaches vital to my future blog(s) success:

1. Post frequently with original content about topics related to your blog’s focus.
   This one seems like a no-brainer, but it can be very difficult to actually do.  I’m not saying that you need to make daily posts, but try to publish at least 3 to 4 posts each week as you are starting out.  This will help make your blogging efforts a habit, will improve your writing, and will increase the total amount of related content on your blog.  Frequency of site updates and the total amount of related content are two key measures to Search Engine Visibility and Page Rank.
   &nbsp
2. Keep each of your posts focused on one major topic.
   Don’t go off on a tangent on your individual posts unless it is truly warranted.  Your readers will appreciate you staying on-topic to your post’s headline, and the Search Engines will be better able to categorize and rank your entry.
   &nbsp
3. Find other related blogs and start interacting with their creators.
   Spend some time on Technorati searching about your blog’s content.  Chances are you’ll find a number of blogs that already exist in your niche.  Don’t worry though!  Each blog is the expression of it’s author, and there is always room for new, good resources.  Take the time to read other blogs to get ideas, see how other author’s interact with their readers, and what types of stories generate the most interaction (comments) with their audience. 

   When you find a post on a topic that interests you or is related to your blog, take the time to post a comment.  You may also take it a step further, and write a post on your blog about the same subject, but with your own unique take.  Be sure to give original blog some link love by including a direct link to their post in yours, and also be sure to post a trackback to their original post. 
   &nbsp

4. Get the word out about your blog among your friends & family.
   Send an email out to your entire group of friends and family with the link to your blog, and be sure to include a description of what your blog is about.  Ask them to check it out from time to time, to give you constructive feedback and to forward it to any of their friends who they think might be interested.  Depending on the web-savvy of your family, it also wouldn’t hurt to request a reciprocal link in the blogroll for any family members who might have their own blog.
   &nbsp
5. Include your blog address in the signature of your personal email.
   &nbsp
6. Submit your site to Yahoo, Google and dmoz.org to get the Search Engine love going.
   There are also a large number of Internet Directories you can submit to for free. Yahoo and DMoz.org are notoriously slow about posting sites to their directory, so by the time your site is accepted, your foundation should be ready for the visitors.

There are certainly many more activities that you can (and should!) undertake for your blog(s), but by taking care of these six core activities, you’ll lay a solid foundation for the future of your blog.

Getting your AA or Bachelor’s Degree can really pay off, resulting in average increased lifetime earnings of over $300,000. But for many would-be students, living and tuition costs are impossible to cover without getting a Student Loan.

But understanding  the confusion around College Student Loans can be difficult, and a new online resource is now avaliable to help you navigate the research and application process. Premier Student Loan offers expert advice and guidance to help you find the loan programs and services that will best meet your unique needs.

Their website is easy to understand and offers handy tools for students, including active forums and a student loan calculator. They also break out loan opportunities by State.  For example, Nevada Student Loans will list your city, and then after a quick online application (basic information, no commitment), they will start you on your way to financing your college dreams.

Inspired by a recent microsite I uncovered this morning,  I just went and registered http://www.waterheaterinformation.com/ based on the inspiration from this site, and will be setting the site up over the next week or two.  The PPC profile on Google and Yahoo is similar, with a rate of approximately $1.50 to $2.25, and a similar number of estimated clicks/day - in the low to mid hundreds.  I will report back and let you know how building this site has gone, both in terms of costs/time/effort and revenue results.

For many Americans, drug or alcohol rehabilitation options are limited to going "cold-turkey" on their own or committing to a lifetime of weekly meetings to treat what they have been taught is their "disease".

Stone Hawk Rehabilitation center in south central Michigan is an alternative way out for many addicts who are ready to face their drug detox or other substance abuse affliction head-on.  Located about 1.5 hours west of Detroit or 1.5 hours east of Chicago, the 58,000 square foot facility is surrounded by rolling hills and large oak trees and sits on the private St. Mary’s Lake.

Stone Hawk follows the Narconon Drug Rehabilitation Program, and uses no drugs or medication to resolve the myriad issues caused by drug and/or alcohol addiction.  Through a combination of proper nutrition and supplements, students at the center are taught new skills for taking back control of their lives and how to live without substance abuse.

This holistic approach to rehabilitation produces a rehabilitation success rate that the program states as 4 times as effective as others, reaching a success rate of 80%, where most other programs succeed less than 20% of the time.

If you or your loved one is considering (or needs) rehabilitation for a drug or alcohol addiction, take an online tour of Stone Hawk Rehabilitation Center or contact Stone Hawk Rehabilitation center at 888-227-9193.

I came across a website this morning through PayPerPost - Humidifier Information.  It is a great example of how to use a microsite to create a targeted niche content site that will successfully attract readers and provide extremely targeted contextual ads.

The site already ranks well in the naturalized search engine results (#1 under "humidifier information", and #11 under "humidifier"), and has some good general content about the benefits of humidifiers, different types of humidifiers, and the various different manufacturers.  In addition, it’s well written, has a well-presented template, and presents the contextual ads very cleanly.  Check it out, and consider creating a microsite in this mold.

(Please note that this is not a sponsored post, as this blog did not qualify for the opportunity)