Toneaday Changes: still paying...well kinda sorta...

(img credit: smemon)

Toneaday has switched things up again. It's moving more towards a community-based theme, and moving away from paying everybody for rating words.

Instead of getting paid to rate, you now get points instead. The points system was something they phased in some months ago. However, then, people were still getting paid too. That's changed. You rate, you get points only, no money.


Paid rating is still possible, but for a select number of people...

...and is upon invitation by Toneaday. To stand a chance of being invited, you have to be a top community member. Being a top community member depends on how much you rate and how genuine your ratings are. I quote:

"Be Invited Into Campaigns


In addition to weekly prize draws, top community members will be invited to join Campaigns and rate a group of words or phrases for a $0.02/word. Campaigns will happen on a regular basis, however they will be invitation only. Taking your time and providing sincere ratings will improve your chances of being invited into a paid campaign."

So, basically, if you're not one of the top raters, you don't get invited to rate for pay. And even if you do get invited, I suspect there'll be a cap on how many words you're given to rate.


Prize Draws...

The more careful consideration you spend rating words, the more Toneaday points you gain. The more of those you have, the more 'ballotts' you get in the weekly prize draw. The prize draw is a new thing.

"Win Prizes


Each week there will be a prize draw where winners will be drawn from participating community members that week. The more ToneADay points you have for that week, the more ballots in the draw you will have."

Ain't that Surprised...

I'm not entirely surprised by these changes - it's something I've become used to with paying sites in general: cutting pay, or not paying at all, or shutting down altogether. It happens. I'm just glad I wasn't relying on Toneaday for income. Sadly, a few people were, so it's come as more of a shock to them.


If there's any lesson in this recent development, it's that one shouldn't put all of one's cookies in the one jar. It's served as a reminder for me in regards to CloudCrowd. Although I have a handful of earners, CloudCrowd is my biggest one. I've got to find a couple earning methods that'll dilute CloudCrowd's level of contribution to my online income.



Anyway, onwards and upwards...

Ebele.


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Related posts...

- Toneaday Review

- CloudCrowd Review

2011: Year of the Big Mama...

(flickr.com/photos/smemon)

11 days in already? Sheesh. Where does all the time go? No, really.

Anyway, I've spent that time thinking about what I wanna be doing online this year.

Climbed up a mountain, crossed my legs, closed my eyes and ommmmmmmmmed 'til I grew a fine lady beard.

What Big Mama Wants to Do This Year...

i) Build independent sites...

My aim this year is to move towards building sites that run on autopilot. Sites, not blogs. I wanna work on making money with sites that don't need hand-holding. So, for example, I plan on turning my survey blog into a static survey review site. No updating content two/three times a week. No interaction. Just write survey reviews. Add new ones from time to time. But promote the heck out of the site. That's where I'm learning the money is: promotion, building lots of backlinks.

Content is cool, good content - but I'm learning that attracting traffic, relevant traffic, is just as important. Probably more important.

This time last year, I probably wouldn't have thought about earning in this way. It's not something that appealed to me at the time. But now, I've very much warmed to the idea. I know there's a lot of work involved in making it happen, but I wanna give it a go.

ii) Work more on Hubpages...

The more I use Hubpages, the more I learn about how the world of making money and the internet works. If I can use Hubpages to learn what topics/niches work, and how to attract the right kind of traffic to my hubs and so on, then they are lessons I can take with me and implement on any of my own sites I set up.

There's a real friendly Hubpage community too, hubbers only too willing to share tips about making the most of Hubpages.

I plan to write at least one hub a week.

iii) Reassess my domain/blog collection...

I have a handful of domains that I really need to take a look at. For each, I have to decide if I wanna work on it, or let it go.

I also have some blogspot blogs. For each, I need to decide whether I wanna take the self-hosting route, move it to Hubpages (if possible), absorb it into GetPaidtoFart.com (if it's a make-money-online topic), maybe change it into an ebook, or delete it altogether.

I basically just want a collection of sites and blogs that are working for me, earning me money, that aren't vegetating.

iv) Continue with CloudCrowd...

CloudCrowd turned out to be one of my top earners last year ($600+), so I plan on sticking with it this year and making the most of it. I've found my experience there mostly enjoyable and I love getting paid every weekday. They have plans in the pipeline which I'm curious about and look forward to being a part of.

(Update - 24th Jan: I've had a recent rethink. Though I appreciate my CloudCrowd earnings, the fact that it's my top earner is really starting to unnerve me. Therefore, I think I might take a bit of a break from it while I seek out other ways to earn that'll make as significant a contribution to my online earnings.)

v) Continue with ToneADay...

Rating words at ToneADay pays 2 cents a pop. Ain't much, but those itty bitty 2 cents can add up, plus they're relatively easy to do. While the opportunity is there for me to earn, I'll use it. I can't imagine myself sitting there for hours rating words, but I think I can put in a bit more effort than I have over the past couple of months. I can make it work for me without it building up into a drama of a chore.

(Update - 22nd Jan: Toneaday has changed its tune, so I've had to take a raincheck.)

vi) Move the GetPaidtoFart blog to self-hosting...

It has to be done. And it will be. I'm just taking a deep breath for now before I do.

There are more pros than cons to moving this blog to Wordpress. For one, I won't be in fear of Google suspending my blog again for whatever reason. I also wouldn't mind selling some advertising on my blog at some point. Self hosting means I'll be open to more opportunities.

I just need to breathe, put a weekend (or more) aside, have plenty of coffee and chocolate on standby, and just do it.

vii) Other Ideas...

Over the year, I'll be experimenting with other ideas online. I don't wanna just think about them anymore. No point in leaving it all boiled up in my head. If they bomb, they bomb. But, hey, what if one or two succeed?

Structure...

I'm a polymath. There's a whole city in my brain and it changes its name everyday. As much as I like to do things when I wanna do them, in order to achieve what I want this year, I think I need some structure. I've got to make the structure interesting and exciting though, or else I'll just get bored of it and slip.

Year of the Big Mama...

I wanna work for ME in the true sense of the word. And I wanna earn more than a part-time income online. I've seen people do it, everyday people, likeable people and assholes alike, so I know it's doable.

This year, I want more than just a taste of what's possible.


Ebele.

Happy New Yeeee-haaaaaa Year! + December 2010 Earnings + Total 2010 Earnings...

img credit: flickr.com/photos/sooey

Happy New Year, people! Didn't 2010 fly by? Now 2011's here, I wonder what it's hiding behind its back?

Whatever you do decide to do in 2011, people, grab the year by the frikkin balls and make things happen. Turn it upside down and let your dreams shake out its pockets.

This year, for me, is all about TAKING ACTION and CONQUERING FEARS. Life is shy; I need to stop waiting around for it to make the first move.

Anyhoo...my earnings for December...

I didn't make as much money online in December as I made in November. I'm fine with that as I really just went with the flow and wasn't particularly attached to the outcome.

I made $191.70.

As has been the case over the past four months, CloudCrowd was my biggest earner, followed by other bits and pieces of earnings from other sources.

Breakdown:
(any figures in pounds means it's how I was initially paid.)

- CloudCrowd: $128.83 (read my CloudCrowd review)

- Surveys: $16.84 (£10.83) (Crowdology UK - $8.31 (£5.33), Pinecone Research UK - $4.64 (£3.00), MySurvey UK - $3.89 (£2.50))

- Freelancer.com: $13.62 (earned from their affiliate program)

- Proofreading: $12.26

- Kooday: $11.67 (make money by buying & selling keywords. Requires a minimum $5 investment.)

- Swagbucks: $5.00 (paid to search, do polls, surveys, etc. To find out more about Swagbucks, read review)

- Neobux: $2.98 (paid-to-click site)

- QuickRewards Network: $0.50 (a GPT site - read review)


Dec Total --- $191.70

Total 2010 Earnings: breakdown...

- Freelance writing: $766.64

- CloudCrowd: $657.65

- Data research: $296.41

- Online surveys: $233.32 (Hi e-panel, Pinecone Research UK, MyVoice, MySurvey UK, Consumer Intelligence, Panelbase, LightSpeed Panel, GfK, Crowdology UK)

- Triviala.com: $116.18

- Proofreading: $115.93

- ebay UK: $71.34

- Advertising: $67.32

- Swagbucks: $60.00

- Forum posting: $52.29 (mylot, techdoctordeals, private client)

- Amazon UK: $45.52

- Kooday: $35.59

- Blog commenting: $33.76

- ToneADay: $33.13

- Mutualpoints: $30.72

- Affiliate programs: $30.50 (freelancer.com, lucky pacific)

- GetaSlogan.com: $23.62

- PTCs: $16.88 (neobux, clixsense)

- GPTs: $14.87 (cashle, quickrewards network, dollarclickorsignup)

- Misc. earnings: $10.00


2010 Total --- $2,711.67




Anyway, that's me done for 2010. Roll on, 2011!


ebele - over and out.