Fun4TheMoney

While researching all this money-making stuff, I found this site: Honest Information It looks pretty good. Suz

I'm a freelance writer and web content developer. Until Friday, my only revenue-generating program was Google Adsense. I'd looked into a few others, like NetBux and Dollar Buddy, but they were disappointing, so I moved on. Then, one of my clients asked me to research this info about making money online, and report back by Monday. That really got me scrambling. The more I look into it, the more I learn. When I start answering other people's questions, or sharing what I've already found out, people ask me more questions. Right now, nobody is paying me for any of this work. If I can find some really good programs to promote, it will subsidize the time I spend doing the research and writing the articles. I'm trying to slowly build a good reputation and following, with a high-quality website, sponsored by reputable affiliate programs. This Monday deadline forced me to scream HELP! Thanks for the ClickBank idea. I'll check into that one right now. Suz

It looks like my new career field will be helping other people make money online. The problem is, I need to make money, too. It's hard enough finding anything out there that works, but now I need programs that will also pay me when I get others to sign up for their affiliate programs, not just when they sign up for products. I'm not sure this is possible, but I'm just dumb enough to try it. If any of you know of any really good, high-quality, legitimate $$-making 2-level (or more) affiliate (or other) opportunities--must be free to sign up--please PM me with your affiliate links, so you'll get credit when I sign up. I'm already a member of LinkShare and Commission Junction.Just to make things more interesting, I need these by tomorrow. Ah well, if nothing else, this post should be good for a laugh on me.Suz

I went back to using Netbux, forgetting about their nasty habit of opening new ad windows behind my search screens. Today, one of them started talking to me about singles junks. I tried to close it, but couldn't. Tried CTRL-ALT-DEL--nothing. I finally had to shut down. I WAS FURIOUS. It takes me forever to get all my programs set up the way I want them. I thought I was so cool with my popup blockers, but these nasty things have found a way around that. Is there any way to block these things? TIA,Suz (still fuming a half hour later)

After wasting an hour at StormOfCash (made $.013) I realized that Netbux isn't really that bad, so I signed up for StormPay (I really wanted to get in on their affiliate program ). I read this post and figured I'd better read the fine print again. Sure enough, they went from bad to worse. Here are a couple of quotes. So they've cut our earnings potential in half, while tripling the amount we need to get paid. The worst of it is that this miserable program will still probably make my top 10. That's how bad things are out there. Suz

I'll post it here and also on my emagazine. Fun4TheMoney I have a client who wants this info ASAP, so I'm already on it. Consider me an Expert-In-Training on this topic. Suz

Yes I did and no it didn't. I was also warned not to use those things more than once a month, cuz most of them submit to the same search engines, which could be considered spam. That means they could do you more damage than good. Again, I have no way to verify that info, but I figured it wasn't worth the risk, so I now just plod along, submitting my sity manually to good quality sites and directories. At this rate, it will probably take a year to get any traffic, but I don't know what else to do. Suz

Thank you. That nice reply made it worth the dollar. As a P.S., I'm even more disgusted, today, after thinking about it some more. With all the great, free ebooks available, there's absolutely no excuse for not putting out only a top-quality product. It would only take them a week or so to clean up that mess and give us something that would make us proud to pay our money and help promote them, besides. I've just been given a terrific opportunity to pick the 10 best money-making sites out there, review them, then list them in an exclusive directory with my affiliate links. I can tell you, old Dollar Buddy WON'T be on that list. Suz

To show my dedication to bringing you the highest quality news about online money-making programs, I have dug deep into my own PayPal pocket and squandered a whole dollar to sign up for DollarBuddy. I WOULD NOT HAVE DONE IT OTHERWISE. This does NOT look like a good program, but I?ve been wrong before (unfortunately, not about something like this). If there?s any way to make this puppy pay, you?ll be the first to hear about it. Right now, I?m waiting for my ?welcome? email. Since I?ve read horror stories about their communication skills, if my email doesn?t arrive, I?m probably out a dollar and this will be a very short article. The confirmation notice went straight into my spam folder?so much for AOL?s confidence in this program. Okay, my account is now active. What did I get for my dollar? Not much. My profile has no links to my real website, and neither does my ?Profit Page? so this program will not generate any traffic to my real website. It appears that my dollar just bought me a perpetual raffle ticket. My "Profit Page" goes into a hat with the other 500,000 members. When somebody wanders in off the street, DollarBuddy picks a site at random, and, if mine comes up, and if the happy wanderer signs up, I get a dollar. The bigger this program gets, the lower my chances of having my site come up. [The only possible way I can see this program generating any revenue, would be if we can submit this ?Profit Page? link for free to some of those traffic-generating sites where people just click around, because they don?t have anything better to do. I?ve never tried it, so I don?t know if it would work or not.]Next, I chose the ebooks tab. They do have an impressive list of titles?at least in the number of titles offered. Unfortunately, you can?t tell what you?re getting until you actually do the download. It looks like I?ll be busy for the rest of the day. Ah well, that?s all there is, folks. No matter what tab you click on?Free Traffic, Banners, More Profit?all you get is Google ads. Sad to say, Dollar Buddy is all smoke and mirrors. My search for a decent way to make money online will have to continue?without that hard-earned dollar from my PayPal account.OTOH, if you?re in the market for ebooks, with full resell rights, you could sign up, here, and consider it the best deal in town. As of this writing, there are over 150 titles listed. The bad news is that they?re mostly junk. It appears that webmasters copy off their folders, add an optional ?readme? file, if they?re feeling particularly generous, then zip up the whole thing and market it as an ebook. Evidently it?s considered free advertising. For the reader, it would be like hacking into someone?s website?without even seeing it, first?then copying the whole mess to your hard drive and trying to make sense of it. BLAH! I?ve downloaded 2 real losers. I?m going to give it one more chance then move on to something more productive, with a resounding Thumbs Down for Dollar Buddy.YEE-HAH! I found a good one?a real ebook, properly laid out, with a table of contents and everything (HealthierYou). Okay, maybe this goofy program is worth a dollar. I will get to work evaluating and reviewing the ebooks, now, but it will probably take me forever. I will put my affiliate thingy in my sig, in case anybody else wants to sign up for the ebooks. WARNING! Something in the download process shut my monitor down. I had to do CTRL-ALT-DEL, then Cancel, to get my screen back. I have no idea what that was all about, but it is making me a little bit nervous. Suz

Boy, I wish somebody who knows something would answer you. The way I undersand it, too many links on a page discount your rating because it isn't really "original content". I also have a link directory site, but I stopped working on it when I heard that. The problem is that Google won't tell all the details about how they do their PRs, so it's mostly guesswork and trial & error. I decided to do only reviewed links, but I don't have the formula for how much text needs to go with each link before it gets to be "content". Yes, meta tags are definitely important. They're also so easy to do it's not worth even considering not doing them. There are free programs all over that will help you with them. If you don't have Web CEO, download that. It's a great program with no hype. All they ask is that you help spread the word about them so they can sell upgrades. Here's a link to my Web Developers' page. Click on the Web CEO banner at the bottom to download the software. I think maybe you'll find all your answers, there. Fun4TheMoney Webtools Page The short version with keywords is to put your most important ones first and don't repeat any more than 3 times. If you use too many, I think the robots just ignore the overage, but, again, I'm not really sure. WHERE ARE THE EXPERTS? I'M DROWNING, HERE. Suz

I went to GetPaidForum.com and checked it out. It appears that they do pay, but have absolutely NO customer support, so if things don't work the way they're supposed to, you're outta luck.It looks like most people figure what-the-heck, it's only a dollar or two, so they give it a try. I'm tempted, and I'm probably the cheapest skate on Xisto. Suz

Sorry, I can't answer about the robot stuff, but make sure you have lots of high-quality ORIGINAL content on your pages. I know Google isn't interested in just links or canned stuff. I wish I could be more specific, but I'm just learning all this, too.Suz

I'm not getting any PR info, today. No matter where I go, the PR says "no info available." Anybody else getting this is or has my Google Toolbar gone senile?Suz

You'll probably think this is boring, too, but I research virtual tours. I love going to museums, and this is the next best thing. I have a pretty good list going, and I'm always adding more. It's absolutely amazing what's out there. Here's a link to my page: Fun4TheMoney Virtual Tours Suz

I don't know the answer to that, so I don't take any chances. All I do is forward and delete. eBay works the same way. Send to SPOOF@EBAY.COM and delete. It doesn't matter if you have an eBay account or not. You'll be doing your part by turning the creeps in. Suz

I've been getting those stupid scam emails for years, where they tell you to update your security info. I hope EVERYBODY knows those are a scam and NEVER click through. The proper response is to forward them to SPOOF@PAYPAL.COM, then delete the message without going to the site.Now there's a new one--at least this is the first time I've gotten one. This time they tell you that you've added a new email address and they want you to confirm. Again, the answer is to forward to SPOOF@PAYPAL.COM without clicking through or going to that site, then delete the email.If you have any concerns about your account, go straight to PayPal the way you always do. NEVER follow an email link to get there. These people are really good at what they do, and what they do is steal account passwords from unsuspecting members. I know most of you are aware of these scams, but I've read several posts from younger members, talking about applying for a PayPal account. Unfortunately, most people don't read the warnings until it's too late.Rest assured that none of this compromises PayPal security. Your PayPal account is safe unless YOU fall for one of these scams. PayPal will NEVER ask for your password in an email or give out that info to anyone else.Suz

IMHO, if it's single sheets, stapled together, it's a newsletter. A zine would be laid out on large-sized paper so it can be folded and stapled down the middle. More expensive, more work, more difficult to lay out. These are not laws, however. With desktop publishing, you can do pretty much anything you want and call the result whatever you please. Suz

The same rules apply to a zine as to a website. Your first 2 considerations should be content and layout. Neither of those need fancy software. Until you hit the big time, you can do it all on Word and keep your money in your pocket.Concentrate on your current subscribers. Find out what they want, what they like and don't like about your newsletter, then make it better and better and better. When you're satisfied that your product is EXCELLENT, then start offering incentives to increase circulation. You need numbers to make it successful. 40 isn't nearly enough for a zine, unless you're running one of those super-pricey stock market insider $200 a year subscription price kind of things. If you're a top expert in your field, and people will pay anything to read what you have to say, then disregard this whole post--you can do anything you want.Remember that turning your newsletter into a zine involves a whole lot more than just new software. The quality of your paper must improve. $$The quality of your printing must improve. $$If you're going to produce it at home, it will go slower and use up more toner if you add glossy full-color photos, which I assume is what you mean by the difference between a newsletter and a zine, so that's still more $$. Same if you take it to Kinko's--color, photo quality, and glossy paper cost more.All of this means raising your prices. Better poll your existing subscribers to find out if they'd be willing to pay more for a zine. If your newsletter is now free, it can be a big leap to get them to pay anything at all for your publication. If you discover that your costs have gone too high, you may have to start selling advertising to offset your expenses. Selling ads is not easy, and, for most people, it isn't any fun, either. Ask yourself why you're doing this. If your motivation is writing, sharing info with like-minded indivuals, or making easy money because you've found a nice little niche, maybe you have a good thing going and should leave well enough alone. While I'm being the voice of doom, don't forget that paid magazine circulation is way down because of all the free ezines available online. I used to subscribe to at least a dozen mazazines. I actually had a mag broker who called me once a month to sell me more and I looked forward to hearing about anything new that I might like. Now, thanks to the Internet, I don't have a single paid subscription to anything. If your dream is to publish a full-blown zine no matter what, unless you have deep pockets, ease into it gradually. You have lots of time-consuming, expensive surprises ahead. Sorry to be so negative. If you go for it, I wish you the best of luck. If I've scared you off, you can always start your zine online. That's what I'm doing. You can have all the fun and creative outlet, free. Then let Google Adsense generate the revenue so you don't have to sell ads, yourself.Suz

Mine are set up that way for the reasons you stated. If they don't have to sign up, they'r more likely to post something.The only down side I can think of would be if someone gets offensive. If they aren't members, you can't block them. OTOH, that may never happen, and if it does, you can change the setup, then.I think regular members will want to register, so they can have an identity. My boards haven't seen enough action yet to make any of this matter, so I haven't had enough experience to be of much help, but I think the nature of your boards will make a difference. Mine are very tame--all about writing, knitting, making money online, gardening, that sort of how-to stuff. I don't expect any trouble from my visitors. If you have the kind of site that might attract hecklers and troublemakers, you might want to make them register, just so you'll have control right from the beginning.Suz

So where's Google? I only saw 3 search options and Google wasn't one of them.Suz

UPS, absolutely. One hint--if you sell it for just a little bit over $100, only insure it for $100 (which is automatic with UPS) and take your chances. They're very good about paying insurance claims within that $100, but if it's more, and something goes wrong, it gets complicated and takes longer. Naturally, if you sell it for a lot more than $100, you'll want to insure it for full value, but it's just not worth the hassle for $5 or $10 unless you couldn't cover that much if you had to make up the difference yourself. Suz I was an eBay Power Seller for years. First I had a contract with FedEx. They screwed up my bills--overcharged my by 40%, 3 months in a row--then they destroyed 3 large, well-packaged shipments--looked like they threw them out of the truck, then ran over them. They put me through the ringer on the insurance claims and took weeks to pay the claims. Never did I go through a whole month without some kind of problem with FedEx. Even the drivers griped about what a horrible company they were and how badly there were treated. I switched to UPS for the last year we were in business and the difference was night and day. They were nice, friendly, efficient, and a total pleasure to do business with. They handled all problems promptly and always to my satisfaction. Our 2 drivers had been with the company for over 20 years and always had a smile for us. Our rep and our drivers surprised us with services above and beyond the call of duty. (FedEx drivers were a passing parade of disgruntled employees with nothing but complaints about their own company.) We also used USPS on occasion. Our granddaughter shipped us a laptop. She paid an extra $5 to have the post office package it up--the guy griped about it the whole time. It arrived with the disk drive broken. It took a couple of weeks to find out that it wasn't broken when she shipped it, but I did something stupid with the shipping box, so I couldn't make an insurance claim, which really made me mad because I have heard that they NEVER pay out on an insurance claim, and I really wanted to find out for myself if that was true. They are also very expensive. The first $100 of insurance, tracking, and delivery confirmation come free with UPS and FedEx, you pay almost $3 extra for that at the post office. Also, they open a lot of packages for inspection (especially Media Mail) and they don't repack them properly. That could get you a negative feedback on eBay. Suz Notice from jlhaslip: Merged 2 posts

You can customize the size, shape, and look of your Google ads, so don't let that stop you. You do need a good website first--they will check and they don't accept everyone. If you cheat, you will get thrown out of Adsense. Don't expect anyone to post exact earnings--it's in violation of the Adsense agreement. Sorry, I can't help more, but I'm new to this, too. Suz

It's probably not worth much. Paper money doesn't appreciate like coins. We had some awhile back that were only worth face value. Luckily, that's all we paid for them. OTOH, don't take my word for it. There might be something special about it that I don't know. Your best bet is to take it to a serious coin dealer and ask the owner. even then, you could get another opinion if you don't like that one. Just be prepared for bad news. Suz

Great! Thanks. I'll go play with it right now.Suz Notice from snlildude87: Removed the huge quote

I stumbled onto this while doing my daily Super Search. Anybody know how I can get this feature for my site? Unfortunately, it has to be free, not too technical, and no baggage (banners, popups, or other distractions). Kitty Babies I have my own kitty babies, so I don't need any photos, just the program. TIA, Suz