Make Money Online

I for one am a cheapskate when it comes to buying electronics. I don’t want to pay retail, and will seek out the cheapest online price I can find. After all, a penny saved is a penny earned, right?

So imagine my joy when I found an auction site last month where the lowest bid wins! Even better, it’s not even an auction site… It’s a prize site where you enter fake bids on merchandise you’d like to win, and if you win it, it is completely free (although I would imagine you would owe either income or sales/use tax depending on where you live).

Signing up is quick and easy. They do have a “premium” account for $9.99/month that allows you to bid via cell phone up to 20 times a day. I just bid on the PS3 and BMW, but need to wait another 5 days before finding out if I had the lowest bid.

Here’s a new prepaid calling card affiliate program I ran across today through Pingo. Pingo pays you $15 for each customer you refer, and each new customer with Pingo receives four hours of free international calls just for signing up. And if any of your referrals sign up before June 18th, they can also take advantage of the Father’s Day special for a total of $10 in free international calls.

A quick look at their rates shows discount prepaid calling cards for India are only 7.3 cents/minute to land lines, which is quite reasonable. There are only two additional fees that you would pay as part of the Pingo program - a $0.98/month account maintenance fee, and a $0.65/call fee for any calls made from a pay phone. If you talk with friends or family for more than 10-15 minutes/month, this card is quite a steal.

So if your site has an international flavor to it, consider signing up for Pingo’s affiliate program and start earning money with a company you should feel comfortable standing behind.

I recently travelled to Boston on a Business trip, and had received a warning from a long-time friend not to rent a car.  Having grown up in Malden, he had numerous stories of friends getting lost in the maze of one-way streets fashioned on top of old Dairy routes and Carriage paths.

As a result, I ended up staying at a hotel out-of-town, and spent well over $350 in cab fare over the course of my 2-day trip.  Ouch!

In hind-sight, I should have probably done a little more research and made use of the great Public Transit system developed by the MBTA (Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority).  I’ll confess, however, that I usually get lost using any transit system, and didn’t want to be finding my way around with a meeting less than 5 minutes away.

But there’s a new site available that makes getting good directions a breeze.  PublicRoutes.com has developed detailed maps and directions for travellers unfamiliar with Boston to be able to utilize the available public transit system.  They also have the service available in numerous other cities, including Seattle, my hometown. 

A quick search on directions for a well-frequented trip I used to make from my house to the University of Washington resulted in a very clear set of directions, complete with a clear iconic representation of which portions of the trip were on bus vs. on foot.

The next time I travel to Boston, I’ll definitely make use of PublicRoutes.com to plan my trip ahead of time and save the $350 in cab fare that literally went out the window.

I’ll be on the road to Digital Hollywood in LA from June 11 through the 14th, as we will be exhibiting stashSpace.com’s high-quality in-network video-sharing solution for broadband providers.

Many of the cable & dsl partners we are exploring partnerships with will be speaking at the event, and we thought it would be a good time to expose more of the industry to our unique consumer offering in the personal video space.

If you happen to be attending the show, please stop by!  We will be in booth 11, and would love to talk with you!

Ad Volcano is a new internet advertising service providing a marketplace for bloggers and advertisers to come together to sell or purchase advertisements.  In looking at the site, it appears to already have signed up a large network of over 800+ publishers, including JohnChow.com, who has priced his banner ad at $700/month.

As a blogger, you have the ability to boost your earnings and price your own links coming from your site, and Ad Volcano passes 75% of the revenue along to you, keeping 25% as a management fee.

Advertisers get the benefit of purchasing ads on a Cost-Per-Term basis to bring predictability to the cost of their ads on this network without having to worry about the potential of click fraud which seems inherent to any cost-per-click advertising campaign.

All-in-all, it seems that Ad Volcano has done a good job in attracting publishers since their launch in January.  If they have done as good a job in attracting advertisers, then I think we have a welcome addition to the advertising scene for bloggers wanting to make money online.

So I just found out that PayPal has two levels of Accounts, and in order for your account to receive payments from PayPal Website Payments or Instant Purchase for Auctions, you must go through the process of verifying your account.

This process essentially means that you need to enter routing and bank account information for one of your bank accounts.  PayPal will then make two small deposits in your account, which you must verify by confirming the amounts of these two deposits (this can take up to three days to show up in your online account).

Payday cash advances are often an option of last resort for many people when facing an end-of-month cash crunch.  While I wouldn’t recommend cash advance payday loans to be used on a regular basis to meet budgetable items (especially if you can’t pay it back with your next paycheck), they can come in especially handy if you need to meet an unexpected or sudden cash need.

If you need a payday advance, you can go through an online service at http://www.paydaycashadvanceloans.biz, to request your loan, provided you are/can:

• Be at least 18 years old.
• Provide proof of identification and current employment.
• Have a current job for the last 90 days with a steady income.
• Earn at least $1,000 per month.
• Be a U.S. citizen or resident of the United States.
• Own a checking account.
• Provide your present home address, home & work phone number, and email address.

My first post through SponsoredReviews is completed and available here at my Online Video Sharing blog.  I have yet to be contacted through the Advertiser marketplace for a sponsored review.  Instead, this review for PhotoFrameShow was initiated by my bidding on the opportunity in a marketplace similar to PayPerPost, except that I was able to bid an amount for which I was willing to do the sponsored post.  We’ll see how it continues to go.  This particular blog is very niche-oriented, so I don’t expect to be doing too many sponsored posts there except as highly relevant opportunities present themselves.

I’ve had all my insurance with one company over the years - Home, Auto and Life.  It was simple and easy.  However, my company just dropped my HomeOwners Insurance, and for the first time I’m considering other companies for my Car insurance.  In my case, I visited SecureInsuranceQuotes’ insurance page for Washington State, filled out a quick form, and then received an email confirmation from the service.

I would have personally liked to have received immediate on-line quotes from the service, but the email I received indicated that additional information will be shortly forthcoming so I can receive “Instant Insurance Coverage” for my VW Passat.

SecureInsuranceQuotes is not an insurance broker, but rather a marketing service provided on behalf of insurance brokers.  They also provide information on other Insurance services including Home Insurance, Life Insurance and Health Insurance.

I read about it.  I laughed about it.  After all, how hard could it really be to find time to regularly post to your blog(s)?  But having just gone through a 12-day dry spell myself, I now know first-hand some of the issues that can arise and smash your best-intentioned schedule to pieces.

So what happened?  I would call it everyday happenings.  My wife’s schedule got busy with community volunteer events.  My personal work schedule got extremely busy as we are busy pushing our latest online video editing & sharing software launchlive later today.  Our kids’ baseball and softball schedule got extremely unfriendly, with practices and games on every weeknight, with no similarity between the two. Between all the driving, working and fathering, little (no?) attention was spent on my blogs, whether it be online research or writing. 

So I spent a little time this morning trying to figure out what I could do to resolve this issue to a) either have it not happen again, or b) if it does happen again, to keep the “down-time” as short as possible.  Here’s what I came up with:

1. Determine what your “Regular” posting schedule is for each of your blogs.
   Not every blog needs to have daily postings, let alone multiple daily postings.  Determine what is a proper schedule for your blog, and be realistic.  As I add new blogs to my schedule, I try to set realistic weekly goals.  This gives you some flexibility in when you post, and lets you feel good about meeting your goals.  After a 4-5 week starting period, you can adjust your schedule accordingly.
    
2. Spend dedicated chunks of time writing
   Unless you are a professional copywriter (and even then), writing can be a bit of a chore.  Writing good content can be even more difficult.  I’ve found two things to help me with my writing - spending dedicated chunks of time writing content, and writing about related subjects during this time.  This is especially handy if you have a number of blogs that have varied content.  Don’t forget to get everything setup prior to starting and try to avoid all distractions during this.
    
3. Write for posts 3 days from now
   Don’t feel pressured to get posts up “right now”, unless it is related to a breaking news story.  Many of your blog posts can probably be considered “evergreen”, and as such would be as effective 3 days from now as it would be today.  If you aim to have daily posts, write seven posts in one day (See #2 above) and then use your blogging platform to schedule the publishing of these posts over the course of a week.
    
4. Write shorter posts, followup later if needed
   Not every one of your posts needs to be a literary tome.  Quick updates, 50-word tips, a short review and link to a site of interest can all be ways to shorten your required “posting time” when you find yourself in a time-crunch.  If a post warrants a follow-up, you can always write it and reference your original post at a future date.
    
5. Use Paid Review sites or article sites to combat writer’s block
   Regardless of whether you participate in one of the Paid Review services such as PayPerPost, ReviewMe, or SponsoredReviews, or submit articles to a paid-article site such as Helium, I would recommend signing up for one (or more) of these services to serve as inspiration when your idea tank has run empty.
    
6. Review Press Releases for latest company information
   Press Release websites exist for many paid release services that companies use when launching new products or when they have news or information to reach the public.  You can review these press releases and search for terms relevant to your blog for ideas or to find news relevant to your readers.  PrNewswire, PRWeb and BusinessWire three of my regular stops.