Get Paid to Fart

Online Earnings: December 2011 and 2011 Total...

2012-01-20T06:49:00.013Z

Hey, peoplez :-)

How are yee? How's your year been so far?

I was looking back on my earnings post for 2010 and one of the things I said was:

"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."

Well, I don't think I quite managed that, not as much as I should have - I don't think I explored anywhere near my potential, online and offline - not even 40% of it, and that's me being generous. Fear continues to play a HUGE part in the decisions I don't make, in the actions I don't take. It's something I've struggled with for some time, year on year. I almost don't want to think about what I want to achieve this year for fear of disappointing myself. You see? The fear thing again.

Anyhoo, on a better note, I made more money online in 2011 than I did in 2010 :-)

...but first, DECEMBER 2011'S EARNINGS:
(any figures in pounds means it's how I was initially paid.)

- Blog writing: $203.51

- GPTs: $47.11 (Swagbucks: $20.00; UniqueRewards: $20.00; Cashle: $6.51; QuickRewards Network: $0.54; FreeUKpounds: $0.06 (£0.04))

- Surveys: $45.20 (£29.00) (MyVoice: $31.19 (£20.00); Pinecone Research UK: $14.01 (£9.00))

- JackpotJoy (playing slots): $31.13 (£20.02)

- Blog commenting: $21.21

- Amazon.com Associates: $13.11 (this is Amazon's affiliate program. I decided to request a gift card instead of waiting to reach the $100 minimum required to request payment by bank transfer)

- Forum posting: $11.23

- Article writing: $7.31

- Squidoo: $1.20 (Create single pages of info. Range of topics. Each single page is called a lens. I only have one lens there for now.)

- CloudCrowd: $0.33 (well and truly is over for me & CloudCrowd. Was cool while it lasted though.)

TOTAL --- $381.34

My earnings were a bit more varied in December which I was quite happy about: the new blog commenting gig, couple more survey and GPT payouts, Squidoo, article writing. Plus my main blogging client gave me a $50 bonus for the holidays - was super surprised and chuffed with that. :)

Aaaaaaand Total 2011 Earnings...

- Writing: $1,548.42 (blog writing - $1176.93; web content - $207.09; forum posting - $97.46; article writing - $33.31; blog commenting - $21.21; other, incl squidoo - $12.42)

- Playing bingo/slots: $1,496.75 (£925.70) (JackpotJoy, Paddy Power, Ladbrokes, Tombola, Costa Bingo, Sky Vegas, Victor Chandler)

- CloudCrowd: $336.84

- Surveys: $141.32 (£89.16) (Pinecone Research - $57.47 (£36.00); Consumer Intel - $33.12 (£21.00); MyVoice - $31.19 (£20.00); GfK - $8.03 (£5.00); Crowdology - $6.69 (£4.16); MySurvey UK $4.82 (£3.00))

- GPTs: $111.33 (Swagbucks - $60.00; UniqueRewards - $20.00; Cashle - $18.78; QuickRewards N'wrk - $10.22; FreeUKPounds - $2.33 (£1.47))

- Adsense: $97.52 (£60.83)

- Affiliate programs: $83.36 (Amazon.com, Freelancer.com, Lucky Pacific, Affiliate Future)

- Appenscribe (transcription): $80.36

- SEO (of some sort): $38.34

- Kooday: $28.29 (site no longer exists)

- PTCs: $15.97 (Clixsense - $11.91; Neobux - $4.06)

- Amazon UK: $11.64 (sold some of my used books. Diff from the affiliate program.)

- Toneaday: $8.72 (paid for rating words. Pay structure has completely changed, so I don't use it anymore.)

- MyLikes: $1.54 (paid to advertise on your twitter account)

TOTAL --- $4,000.40

So that's my 2011 :-)

Ebele.

UniqueRewards Pays: Proof of Payment...

2011-12-22T04:50:00.005Z

UniqueRewards is a GPT site I joined in early September. Now I'm not a huge GPT fan, but I thought since I hadn't tried this one before, ah what the hell.

(**for anyone that doesn't know, GPT means 'get paid to'. You complete a number of tasks such as doing a survey, joining a site, reading an email, and get paid for it.)

I hardly completed offers at UniqueRewards. Most of what I did was read emails and do the daily cash clicks (both pay a cent a pop). Daily cash clicks earned me an average of 8-9 cents a day. I didn't get that many emails to read, about one every couple of days.

The $20 minimum payout was the highest I'd seen for a GPT site, so it was just as well they offer $5 upon signing up.

I also had a referral which helped me a quarter of the way.

I can now officially say that, yup, UniqueRewards pays!

Took about 3 months to reach payout. However, if I'd completed more offers, my ass probably would have reached it sooner. I hate doing offers though, so I just stuck to clicks and emails.

Proof of Payment...
(click image to view larger size)

Feel free to read my more detailed write-up of UniqueRewards OVER HERE, aight?

Peace outty,

Ebele.

November 2011: Online Earnings...

2011-12-02T19:43:00.004Z

My aim for November was to make more than I did in October ($187.95) and I did just that, not by a huuuuuge amount, but an improvement by about $45 is a good thing, no?

I made $232.81 in November. On the last day, I thought it’d be just under $200. But then my client came through at the last minute and paid me, pushing it over $200.

I’m happier with these earnings than the previous month’s --- actually, going all the way back to August when I made a pitiful $75.64. I know there are people out there who’d be happy to make that amount a month, but with the amount of time I’ve been making money online, and with the experience I’ve gained, and the opportunities out there, I know I can do better. I’ve just gotta find something that fits ‘cos I hate doing things I don’t enjoy.

Anyhoo, here’s November’s breakdown...
(any figures in pounds means it's how I was initially paid.)

- Blog writing: $156.42

- Forum posting: $47.62

- Swagbucks: $10.00 (get paid to search, do surveys, complete tasks, etc.)

- Consumer Intelligence: $9.39 (£6.00) (survey site – this was from referral earnings)

- Cashle: $7.77 (similar to Swagbucks, but with its own flavour)

- FreeUKpounds: $1.58 (£1.00) (paid to complete offers – very new site)

- CloudCrowd: $0.03 (get paid to write, edit, review, translate, searching, data categorising, etc) (more about CloudCrowd)

Forum posting: I’ve gone back to forum posting, one of the things I used to do when I first started freelance writing. I have a private client I’ve been posting for. He’s cool. Great to work with. He also gave me a $30 bonus to say thank you. Was super chuffed with that.

The other forum posting work I do is for a site called PaidForumPosting.com. Worth joining if anyone’s interested. Pays 20 cents a post. I think it’s open to just about anybody with a PayPal account. I’ll do a little write-up about it soon, but if you wanna join in the meantime, go here.

Swagbucks/Cashle: I’m happy with the way these two sites have been going for me lately. I usually don’t make $10/month on Swagbucks and I don’t earn that frequently on Cashle either. That’s because I don’t like doing offers. But thanks to the tasks I discovered there, I’ve been earning more than I ever have with them. It’s the first time I’ve earned $10 in one month on Swagbucks this year. And it’s the first time I’ve earned anywhere near $5/mth on Cashle.

FreeUKPounds: Though I earned more on this site than I did in October (£0.43), the site’s somewhat dead. Admin doesn’t communicate to questions in chat apart from putting a new offer up. Not impressed. I’ll continue to earn my few pennies there as long as the site’s functional or as long as I can be enthused to, but yeah, my impression of it has gone down somewhat. /// (UPDATE - 30th Dec: not much happening on this site apart from offers being posted up. Very low chat activity. Admin unresponsive. Plus some offers aren't resolving. Really not using the site that much at all anymore.)

CloudCrowd: CloudCrowd, CloudCrowd. Me and CloudCrowd used to have a blast in the past. I earned about $335 from it this year. Last year I earned double that. However, round June/July, I’d been thinking I was becoming too dependent on the site so decided to loosen my grip a bit. It’s just as well because come July or so, I made a boo-boo on one of the tasks and lost a sizable chunk of my point credibility, which meant there were a whole lot of tasks I was exempt from doing. I wasn’t in the mood to claw my way back up to a higher point level, plus I’d partly moved on anyway before the point cut, so I well and truly moved on after that.

Recently, I’ve been looking at CloudCrowd again, attempting the odd task, massaging my points level up slowly. So that’s where that cute lil 3 cents came from. /// (UPDATE: Ah well, my re-acquaintance with CloudCrowd didn't last very long. Lost my credibility again. I think I'm well and truly done now.)

Anyway, that’s me for November. :-)

Last month of the year. Make it a good one, y’all.

Aight?

Ebele.

Mama's Got a New Blog-Commenting Gig :-)

2011-11-30T17:46:00.001Z

I nabbed myself a blog commenting gig via Digital Point forums. Decided to apply for it ‘cos it was in the celebrity niche and I already blog in that area. The pay’s OK, $7 a week for 7 comments a day (min 30 words per comment). That works out at about 14 cents a comment.

The client comes across nice enough, friendly, polite. The comments don’t take too long for me to make 'cos I’m responding conversationally.

Getting this gig gave me an idea, though: to explore other ways of making money in the celebrity niche. I already blog in the niche and have been doing so since May. I’m now blog commenting. So it might be an idea for me to explore the different services I could sell in that one area:

- blogging
- blog commenting
- forum posting
- tweeting
- writing articles on HubPages and Squidoo
- writing Build My Rank posts

...etc.

Something for me to seriously look into doing, methinks.

...aaaaand in other news...

I also got a writing gig. It’s only for three pieces, but I hope it turns out to be long-term as it’s something I definitely wouldn’t mind doing because of the subject matter. It’s about acts of kindness, writing stories about it. The pay isn’t great, less than $0.01/word, but it doesn’t matter that much to me. I really believe in the beauty of what the client’s trying to do. Plus personally, I tire of hearing bad news all the time. I’m not trying to close my eyes and ears to all the drama going on in the world, but I also know that there’s beauty. I wanna see some of that too. His site focuses on that, so I’m all for it.

So I’m chalking this particular gig down to giving back; a low-paid gig for something worthy.

Ebele.

21st and 22nd Swagbucks Payments on Their Way!

2011-11-26T11:32:00.002Z

I just requested my 22nd $5.00 Swagbucks payment. I made a previous request on the 15th.

So that's two $5.00 Paypal payments winging their way to me at some point (hopefully next week).

Hurraaaaaaah!

That's my month's hosting covered. (which reminds me, I still ain't moved this blog right here to its own hosting. Tut tut.)

My Swagbucks payments are now becoming more frequent for a number of reasons:

- I do a task on there almost every day - answering a few questions about a website (for UK residents only). It's under Earn---Tasks. Each time I complete it, I get 20 swagbucks.

- I receive a message in my inbox each day to watch a video. If I watch it and answer a question, I get 3 swagbucks.

- I very recently found a very quick survey to complete every day that pays me 55 swagbucks upon completion. It's under Earn---Special Offers---Payment Wall.

So that's 78 swagbucks a day, *546 swagbucks a week. This doesn't include the swagbucks I get for searching and for doing the daily poll.

(*I need 700 swagbucks to request a $5.00 paypal payment)

I'm not expecting those swagbucks to be guaranteed every day; things could change. But while I'm able to earn that, big mama will be making the most of it, sugar. ;-)

Have a good weekend, y'all.

Ebele.

I Discovered a Way to Speed Up My Earnings on Swagbucks, Cashle and Treasure Trooper!

2011-11-15T05:22:00.012Z

(img credit: laRuth)

I recently found out there are these recurring tasks you can attempt daily on Swagbucks, Cashle and TreasureTrooper. It’s probably been there for a while, but I didn’t really notice it before.

On Cashle, it’s called 'Recurring Tasks', on Swagbucks it’s called 'Tasks' and on TreasureTrooper it’s called 'Cash Tasks'.

The tasks include things like testing software, categorising deals, searching for phone numbers, searching for certain terms about sites and making a note of the results, or answering questions about a site. The ones I’ve been attempting are the latter three.

These tasks are the same on Swagbucks, Cashle and TreasureTrooper because they’re sourced by one company: a crowdsourcing company called Crowdflower.

How Much Do the Tasks Pay?

It depends on the task and which site you do it on. It's from 18 cents to $1.20 on TreasureTrooper, from 2 to 25 cents on Cashle and from 2 to 20 swagbucks on Swagbucks.

It's adding up though. Over the past few days, by doing some of these tasks I've earned an extra $2.10 on TreasureTrooper, an extra $1.99 on Cashle (of which I recently cashed out $1.41), and an extra 108 swagbucks on Swagbucks. I’m now quite close to my next minimum payout on Swagbucks, and I should be able to cash out again on Cashle soon. TreasureTrooper’s gonna take longer to cash out 'cos the minimum payout’s $20, but I'll reach it. I've never reached payout there before. I had about $5 sitting in there for aaaaages 'cos I wasn't enthused to do any offers. Thanks to the tasks I've come upon, things look set to change.

Below are screenshots of the tasks I've completed along with the rewards (click each image to view a larger version):

(TreasureTrooper)

(Cashle)

(Swagbucks - the tasks are the ones I've marked with a block square)

(Swagbucks)

How Long Does It Take?

I didn’t try all the tasks because they either rewarded lower or I didn’t quite get the requirements or I simply couldn’t be bothered. But of the three tasks I did try, this is how long I felt it took (didn’t time myself so these are guestimates):

Searching for phone numbers: you have to search online for phone numbers of several businesses, then paste it into a box. It felt the longest to complete on TreasureTrooper (about 15-20 mins). I don’t think I’ll be attempting it again because I think it paid about 30 cents or so. On Cashle and Swagbucks, the same task didn’t feel as long, so I’ll give it a go there again. Will time myself the next time, though.

Answering questions about websites: I preferred this task. Though I didn’t time it, it definitely didn’t feel as long to complete. Felt like 5 mins.

Searching for certain terms about sites/noting the results: I timed myself for this one. On Treasure Trooper, it took me 24 mins to complete. I earned $1.20 for it. The same task is on Swagbucks & Cashle, but there isn’t as much to complete, so it doesn’t take as long and pays less (16 swagbucks and 20 cents respectively). Update: I attempted this task again on Cashle. I timed myself and it took me 5 mins per page (20 cents per page). // The reason TreasureTrooper took longer was because it was given as a batch, so I had a collection of 10 pages or so to do before I was rewarded $1.20. With Cashle, you get rewarded after every page you complete.

p.s.: Apparently, you need to get the tasks fairly accurate to be rewarded. If you don't, you get nada.

In conclusion, ya majesty...

The recurring tasks are something for me to do if my mind needs a break, or if I can organise and allocate 30-45 mins of my day to it. Though the pay’s not wooohooo-break-open-a-bottle-of-champagne, I can think of less productive ways to spend 30-45 mins. Plus, so far, I’m enjoying doing the tasks, so hey.

Anyway, just thought I’d share my recent discovery, y’all. :-)

Yo’ mama’s so beautyfull, she makes flowers hopscotch...

Ebele.

October 2011: Online Earnings...

2011-11-10T06:39:00.002Z

I did no worse or better than I did in September, y'all. In Sept, I made $186.31. In October I made a titchy bit more than that: $187.95.

Though my earnings haven't dipped from last month, it's not a whole lot of improvement.

I could be all positive and say at least I'm making SOME money online. That is true. I am making some money online. But, I could do better.

On a good note, I've made more in total this year ($3473.49) than I made last year ($2711.67), or the year before ($3369.53), which is cool.

Anyhoo, here's a breakdown of my earnings for October...

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

- Blog writing (private client) - $100.85

- Gambling (slots) - $47.04 (£30.00)

- Forum posting (priv client) - $23.55 (yep, I've gone back to forum posting. Haven't done it in a long while. This one's for a gambling forum. I figured since I dabble in slots, it'd be an interesting gig. Pay's not bad. 15 cents a post/80 cents a thread.)

- Swagbucks: $5.00 (paid to search) (more about Swagbucks)

- Surveys: $9.61 (£6.00) (MySurvey UK - £3.00, Pinecone Research UK - £3.00)

- Cashle: $1.06 (GPT site) (read review here)

- FreeUKpounds - $0.69 (£0.43) (new UK-based GPT site - read review here)

- QuickRewards Network: $0.15 (GPT site) (more about QuickRewards)

Total --- $187.95

Plans for November...

Forum posting: I've taken on a couple more forum posting gigs in addition to the gambling one. I don't plan on making forum posting a major source of my income - it would drive me round the bend - but I wouldn't say no to making around $50 a month from it (as long as the pay's good).

Blog writing: For now, I only have one client. I write three posts a week, but I'm gonna see if I can up it to five a week. If so, that'll bring a minimum of $80 extra a month.

Article writing: I've been toying with the idea of writing BuildMyRank articles for pay. For those who don't know, BuildMyRank.com is a site that owns a whole conglomerate of blogs with a variety of page ranks. You write and submit short articles and embed a keyword-rich link to a site you'd like to promote. These articles are then disseminated by BuildMyRank amongst their blogs. The idea is that, in time, this massages your ranking in the search engines favourably.

The reason writing BMR articles appeals to me is 'cos they don't require a lot of brainpower or research. As long as the article is coherent, free of typos and is relevant in some way to the keyword used, then it's all good. The going-rate isn't superb, but it doesn't take long to write either. I think if I decide to offer it as a service, I'll write around niches I'm familiar with.

So, yeah, those are the three places my head's at for this month. I think that's enough for me to be getting on with. :-)

I'm out, I'm in, I'm a pink rainbow doing a jazz solo...

Ebele.

20th Swagbucks Payment Received :-)

2011-11-09T07:04:00.004Z

It's only been a couple of weeks since I received my 19th Swagbucks payment...and now I get another one?

Ooooh, I could get used to this!

On average, I earn $5 a month on Swagbucks if I do the bare minimum there (when I can be bothered to!). The reason this payment came this soon after the last one is because, in addition to what I normally do there, I've had one or two active referrals (thank you, whoever you are!)

Anyway, here iz zee proof of payment...

(Click on image to view larger size)

Will post my October earnings next. Soon...ish.

I iz...

Ebele.

Review: FreeUKPounds - New GPT Site...

2011-10-26T02:55:00.010+01:00

Free UK Pounds is the new sister site of PrizeLive.com. Both sites pay their members to complete offers, surveys, etc. But the difference between the two is whereas Prize Live is for international members, Free UK Pounds is specifically for UK members.

I found out about Free UK Pounds via an email I received from Prize Live. (I have a Prize Live account, you see)

So, being the curious so-and-so I was, I decided to join and see what it was about for myself. So far, this is what I know:

- anyone can join, but only UK members can complete offers

- though non-UK members can't complete offers, they can earn money by referring new members (UK members, I'm assuming)

- UK members can also earn by referring

- the referral commission is 10% of referrals' earnings

- minimum payout is £0.01 (via Paypal)

- the first time you request payment, it's done manually by the owner, so it takes a bit of time. I got mine within hours of requesting it.

- after your very first request, subsequent requests are paid automatically. I've tested both processes and it's true (in my experience, anyway). The minute I requested payment, I checked my inbox and the Paypal notification of payment was already there.

- you can only request payment once every 24 hours.

- for UK members: some offers pay in points. Each point is equivalent to £0.01; the points can be converted to cash. Minimum to convert is 1 point.

Proof of Payments...
(I'm not that into GPTs, so my earnings are reflective of that. I avoided doing surveys or downloading stuff. But signed up to a couple of sites, searched on a few others, which was pretty quick and painless.) (Click on images to view larger size)

I've never joined a GPT site in its infancy, so it'll be interesting to see how Free UK Pounds develops over the coming months. As it's an offshoot of Prize Live (which has been around since 2008), I deem that to be a strong advantage to its growth and sustainability. We'll see. For now, the site's relatively quiet, but I suspect it'll get busier as word gets round about it.

So far, So OK...

Free UK Pounds pays. Compared with several other GPTs, it has a very low minimum payout, plus it pays instantly.

Since the site's very new, it only has just over 100 offers for its members to complete. However, saying that, there aren't a lot on its offers list that I haven't seen before on one GPT site or the other. The main difference though, is that this caters wholly to UK members, which some might think is great as some GPTs tend to cater more to US members.

Another pro is the fact that the site pays in pounds. Some people prefer getting paid in pounds as it converts to more in dollars.

UPDATE - 21st Nov: I noticed some offers I'm attempting aren't converting. It goes into pending, then disappears. Also, the admin hasn't been very communicative in the chatbox over the past week or two. Some members are asking questions in chat that admin isn't answering. /// I'm still earning a trickle. I tend to do the ones that take less than a minute to complete - a penny here, a penny there.

Not overly impressed with the comm side of things and offers not converting --- but not hugely disappointed either; I never joined the site believing it was going to inflate my bank balance beyond all recognition.

Conclusion: Zzzzzzzzzz...

As at Dec 30th, and at least for a month before that, not much has been happening on FreeUKPounds apart from offers being posted up (presumably by admin). There's a chatbox, but chat activity is very low. Admin's still unresponsive to questions in chat. Plus some offers aren't resolving. I did two offers recently, which went into pending, then POOF, disappeared into thin air. I'm really not using the site that much anymore.

Verdict: Maybe it'll pick up next year, but for now it's very boring, inactive, with unresponsive admin. What more could you not ask for.

Ebele.

Cashle Payment Received...Again :-)

2011-10-22T19:55:00.005+01:00

Hello my bee bopa loobahs :-)

It is I, Big Mama, aka Ebele, aka MissEb, aka Mrs Brad Pitt, aka Ms Mango, aka What the Hell is She On About?, aka The Woman's Obviously Lost Her Damn Frikkin Frickified Mind, aka You Won't Be Infected With What She's Got By Reading This Post Right Here, aka Or Maybe You Will - WO-HA-HAAAAAAAA...(lights flicker, thunder booms, phone goes dead, I'm behiiiiind yooooooooooou...)

Ahem. So Here's My Recent Cashle Payment...

Got this one on Thursday. I don't use Cashle that much, but I do earn through my referrals from time to time, so that's where this payment came from.

(click on image to view larger size)

You'll notice at the bottom that it says 'Points2shop'. Well that's because Cashle also owns Point2Shop; the two run side by side in a way.

Anyway, I'm out. Have a gooooood weekend, all.

Ebele.

19th Swagbucks Payment Received :-)

2011-10-20T23:22:00.006+01:00

Big Mama declares her 19th Swagbucks payment officially received. Got this $5 baby on the 18th.

Sooo, Swagbucks says it takes 10-14 working days from the time you order your payment. I got mine in six working days, which is cool, no? I am all powerful. All commanding. I willed them to send it to me in that time.

$5 ain't gonna buy me a house. Nope. But that's half my monthly hosting fees covered right there.

Proof of paymentozification...

I'm outtie...

Ebele.

19th Swagbucks Payment on Its Way :-)

2011-10-11T18:25:00.005+01:00

(img credit)

I remember hearing about Swagbucks a few years ago and assuming it was only for US residents.

Duh. How wrong was I?!! Found out UK and Canadian residents could join too.

Swagbucks pays to search, complete surveys, view videos, etc. I joined in January 2010 and since then have earned $90. Not a whole lot in the grand scheme of things, but I really don't do that much to reach payout - I search, do the daily poll, attempt a survey every now and then (verrrry rarely).

There used to be a time when you'd get rewarded for finding codes on Swagbucks, but they don't do that anymore; that used to be fun.

Sometimes I have active referrals, which makes it easier. But I'd say, of the $90 I've earned to date, a good chunk of it has come from what I've been doing myself.

I cash out every time I have enough points to order a $5 Paypal payment and recently made my 19th $5 order. :-)

(Click image to view larger size)

Should be getting that within 10-14 working days.

(The image below shows the total number of orders I've made to date)

Will put a tiny bit more effort into using Swagbucks, methinks. I used to earn $5 every month there... effortlessly too...but I haven't been particularly consistent over the past few months, which is why I haven't cashed out since August or something.

To learn more about Swagbucks, read my Swagbucks review.

Laters...

Ebele.

September 2011: Online Earnings...

2011-10-06T23:54:00.008+01:00

Hello peoploids :-) How's it going? How's it haaaaaanging?

Well September was kinder to me than August was. August was plain adamant on being remembered for the month in which I made less than $100. But still, that was cool'ish 'cos I was doing OK offline, so there was less pressure to work my keyboard to the bone.

SEPTEMBER EARNINGS...

I made $186.31 online in September, with most of it coming from the celebrity blog writing I do. I'd also been chasing a former blog client for payment for some time, and was eventually paid. I wasn't owed much, but it was the principle of it. I've done the work, so pay me.

Breakdown:

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

- Blog writing: $171.93

- Review writing: $5.00

- Pinecone Research (survey): $4.74 (£3.00)

- Cashle: $3.44 (GPT site) (read review here)

- QuickRewards Network: $1.09 (GPT site) (more about QuickRewards)

- CloudCrowd: $0.11 (not doing CloudCrowd anymore. Earned this from referrals.) (more about CloudCrowd)

Total: $186.31

ONLINE PLANS FOR OCTOBER...

I have none. Gonna go whichever way the wind blows this month, to be honest. My heart's not totally in the online-earning thing, but that's OK, I get like that sometimes, and this is such an occasion. I'm cyclical like that.

Anyhoo, hope y'all have a lovely October. We had a couple days of amazingly hot weather in most parts of the UK from like Thursday to Monday, but it's back to cold, wet and miserable now, just the way I like it :-) Just kidding. My feet are fer-reezing. You wouldn't think the sun was so bold some days go.

Ah well.

Ebele.

Trying Out: Minute Workers...

2011-09-18T00:25:00.010+01:00

I've just recently joined Minute Workers. Pays you to do little online tasks, from $0.10 per task upwards. Not sure what the tasks involve yet, but will update when I find out. For now, I can see a scrolling thingymejig showing some of the tasks that have been completed by members, including:

- a download and install task for $0.72

- a posting task for $0.90

- a sign-up task for $0.09, which is basically less than the minimum they advertise on their site. I quote:

"These tasks will pay a minimum of $0.10 per task".

Anyway...

Minimum payout...

...is low: $2.00.

Payment method

Well on the homepage, it mentions Paypal, but when I went into the forum, it mentioned Paypal and AlertPay.

Pay frequency...

...weekly, as long as the minimum payout's been reached of course.

Signing up...

...was quick - took me a minute or two. I was then sent an email to activate my account, which I did. So I'm in now.

note: for anyone who plans on joining, your log-in details are in the activation email so don't delete it.

They also pay for posting on their forum...

$0.01 a post/thread, but you have to create 50 posts as a tester first. Hmm. Not really feeling that amount of posts. I’d understand if it was 10 posts, even 15....but 50?

100,000+ members...

Minute Workers boasts over 100,000 members (it says on the home page), so I'm hoping it's an indication of how good the site is. I guess I'll find out soon enough, good or bad.

Will keep y'all posted.

UPDATE: So far, I'm not terribly impressed with MW. A lot of the available tasks on there seem to have been created by 'employers' looking to earn from referrals once you complete them. Of these, several are download tasks, sign-up tasks and survey tasks. I guess there's nothing wrong with that per se (as long as it's not against the rules of the site they want you to join), but it's not what I was expecting when I joined MW - I thought there'd be a wider variety of tasks. For now, sign-ups, surveys and downloads seem to be a running theme.

Some tasks ask you to click on ads, which I'm not comfortable with. Other tasks, I noticed, don't seem to be paying enough for what they require you to do (in my opinion).

I've completed one task worth $0.54 so far (currently pending), which was a sign-up to a GPT site I've heard of before and know is legit. I then had to complete one offer once I joined the site.

Minute Workers apparently add new tasks every 4 hours, so I hope there'll be ones I feel like doing over the next few days.

UPDATE 2: The task I did has been approved. I noticed it was initially $0.60 not $0.54 and wondered why I got less. Turns out for every task you do, 10% admin is taken off. I don't know if there's also a fee incurred when you request a payment, but if so, then I won't be feeling the whole double-charge thing. Saying that though, Fiverr charges 20% for every service you sell through them - quite a significant slice. Anyway, I've completed one more task on Minute Workers, plus I've a few more I might do. Will keep you posted.

UPDATE 3: The 2nd task I attempted has been approved. I've now earned a total of $0.63. Onwards and upwards. Gonna look for another task to do.

Ebele.

September: How I'm Doing So Far?

2011-09-17T20:41:00.004+01:00

(img credit: Spec-ta-cles)

Hey :-)

How do?

In terms of earnings, September's looking better than last month. I'm at $94.27 at the mo', which is about $20 more than I made last month.

With roughly 2 weeks of Sept left to go, I have time to make more. Where that's gonna come from:

- well, the blog writing I'm doing for a client will bring in the chunk of the money.

- Swagbucks: I'm inching closer to reaching a $5 payout (Paypal). I need 700 swagbucks to request it and I'm currently at 549.

- I might look into doing a bit of forum posting, though it's not really one of my favourite things to do. I mean, I don't really mind it, but it doesn't make me go "Oh gee, I can't wait to snap out of the wet dream I'm having about Kermit the Frog so I can forum post". You know what I'm saying?

Also gonna spend what's left of the month looking into what else I can do online to earn money. Something that's creative, enjoyable.

Anyway, hope you're having a productive month, y'all. If not, you're human, it happens, forgive yourself.

I'm out. I'm pink. I'm a cookie.

Ebele.

Review: UniqueRewards...

2011-09-10T22:07:00.038+01:00

It's been a while since I reviewed a site, so I thought I'd try out this one: UniqueRewards.com.

UniqueRewards is one of a truckload of GPT (get paid to) sites I've seen out there, so in that sense the site's not that 'unique'. You get money for doing a variety of things including reading emails, taking surveys, checking out sites, shopping online and trying out products.

Who can join?

Only folks in the UK, US and Canada can join, unfortunately. Maybe they'll open it wider in the future. Cashle used to be open to the UK/US only, then it opened its doors to all countries, so you never know.

Registering...

Registration didn't take me longer than a few minutes. When you register, UniqueRewards gives you a $5 sign-up bonus.

Note: When you fill in the registration form and get to Step 2, you don't have to complete the offers on that page. I unchecked any checkboxes that were checked, clicked on FINISH and that was that. Also, on the page after that, I was asked to complete one of 2-minute offers in order to receive the $5 sign-up bonus. I didn't. But I still got the $5 bonus in my account.

Minimum payout/Payment methods...

The minimum payout is $20, which I think is quite high. However, the $5 sign-up bonus helps.

Payment methods are via Paypal and cheque. I’m obviously gonna opt for Paypal.

When do they pay?

Once you reach minimum payout, you're paid the following Monday. I'm not a big GPT person, so if I manage to drum up the patience to reach the minimum, I'll keep y'all posted on how long it actually took from the time I requested payment. They do have a referral program so that might help me reach the minimum quicker. We'll see.

Their referral program...

- you earn $1 when your referral completes his/her first offer

- $5 per active referral. ‘Active’ in Unique Rewards land means for every $20+ your referral earns.

- you also earn 10% of all your referrals' earnings

- there's no limit to how many referrals you can have

Anyway, now I've joined the site, I'm gonna take a look around, see what's up. Will update soon.

UPDATES...

10TH SEPT:

- I went to a section of the site known as Cash Clicks. There were 9 sites for me to view. For every one I clicked on and viewed for at least 30 secs, I got a cent. New balance: $5.09.

- Went back to my account and saw there were a group of Hot Offers for me to complete. I only did one worth 10 cents involving a travel site.

- Went to the Cash Offers section - completed one offer (joined Maximiles) - worth $0.50+ 10%. Not sure what the 10% means though.

- Offers take 12-48 hrs to be approved, so I'll give it that and see what happens.

There are lots of offers available, but there aren't many I really wanna complete, which is probably why I tend not to do that great with GPT sites. Some of the offers also look familiar as I've seen them on other GPT sites before. I'll probably stick to the cash clicks, maybe try a survey or two every now & then aaaaaaand look out for the odd offer that I actually wanna join.

12TH SEPT:

- The offers I did (worth $0.60) were approved yesterday. That's pretty quick and is in line with the 12-48 hrs UniqueRewards says offers usually take to approve. I also received an extra 10% on top of that (6 cents) 'cos they're doing a promo for two days where you get an extra 10% on top of every offer that's completed.

- There was a fresh batch of Cash Clicks to view - 11 this time - worth a cent each. So that's an extra 11 cents.

New balance: $5.86.

14TH SEPT: Clicked on more cash clicks. I've done enough to notice that a fresh batch of clicks tend to appear every 24 hours b/w 12am-1am (GMT) ((scratch that - I assumed wrong)). I've also had a few cash emails to view (1 cent per email). Apart from that, nothing new to report.

New balance: $6.12.

17TH SEPT: Haven't been doing anything else really but cash clicks and viewing a few cash emails. Might attempt one offer or survey today.

New balance: $6.51.

23RD SEPT: I'm at just over $7.00 now. Cash clicks, the odd cash email, that's it. I've earned $1.32 in cash clicks since I joined, so that averages about $0.12 a day. I wanna speed things up, so I need to look at completing some offers.

New balance: $7.05.

28TH SEPT: I was at $7.50 or so yesterday. Then I logged into my account today and it had jumped to $8.76! Mama got an active referral, that's what! (thank you, whoever you are - hope you earn good change).

New balance: $8.76.

5TH OCT: Edging closer to the halfway mark. I noticed I now have an image that appears in my account, showing someone walking towards a bag of gold - a measure of where I am regarding payout. Cute lil touch. :-)

Another thing: once you receive your first $20 payout, you automatically earn more from completing offers. I think it's something like 40% more. Will double check that and confirm.

New balance: $9.49.

10TH OCT: Halfway mark reached!

New balance: $10.00.

22ND OCT: I'm at just over $11 now.

New balance: $11.03.

30TH OCT: Surprise $5 bonus for an active referral!

New balance: $16.62.

16TH NOVEMBER: Getting there!

New balance: $17.79.

11TH DECEMBER: Just under 50 cents to go now til I can cash out!

New balance: $19.51.

18TH DECEMBER: $20.00 MINIMUM PAYOUT REACHED!

(Click image for larger version)

Payout requested. Paypal. From reading UniqueReward's FAQ, it looks like they pay every Monday, so I should be receiving it soon.

19TH DECEMBER: Got paid!

Ebele.

I'd No Idea I Had Money in my Cashle Account :-)

2011-09-08T18:52:00.002+01:00

Cashle's one of many GPT sites out there: get paid to complete offers, do surveys, watch videos, yada yada yada. I've been with Cashle for a bit, but haven't logged in for a good many months.

Anyway, I logged in recently and to my surprise found $3.44 sitting in my account! Had no idea.

As Cashle's minimum payout via Paypal is only $1.00, I cashed that baby out quick time!

$3.44 ain't much - it's not exactly gonna solve a debt crisis, is it now? But it's a nice little surprise. Here in the UK, $3.44 converts to £2.14. That's a local bus or train fare and some change. Or it can buy me a generous portion of chicken and a can of tomatoes I can use to make myself a mean spicy stew. Enough for two or three dinners. Orrrrr I can use it to treat myself to some tiramisu!

Anyhoo, here's the proof of my Cashle payment (click on image to view larger size):

I've started checking all my accounts I haven't visited in a while. You never know, there might be some money sitting there waiting for me to cash out! No harm in checking, methinks!

Ebele.

August 2011: Online Earnings - Didn't Do Too Well...

2011-09-03T05:27:00.000+01:00

{img credit}

I really didn't do well in August in the online earnings department. Not well at all. Made less than $100.

But, ho hum, that's the reality of making money online - it comes with its peaks and dips. Or maybe I'm just telling myself that.

Also, things were quite good for me offline, so I guess I didn't put myself under as much pressure to work online.

Plus, I'm not doing CloudCrowd anymore, so that had an impact on my earnings.

August Earnings: $75.64

Breakdown...

- Blog writing - $74.24

- Squidoo - $1.10 (Create single pages of info. Range of topics. Each single page is called a lens. I only have one lens there at the mo'.)

- CloudCrowd - $0.30 (more about CloudCrowd)

...and that's it.

On a more positive note, my August earnings pushed my total online income for this year to over $3000, plus my total earnings are better than last year's by about $330 ...and the year's not out yet!

My offline funds are steadily decreasing so I need to get back on top of things online. Every little really can help.

September's a new month so we'll just see how it goes. :-)

I'm out,

Ebele.

July 2011: Online Earnings...

2011-07-31T15:21:00.013+01:00

{img credit}

Since I don't see myself making anymore dough (doe, a deer, a female deer/ ray, a drop of golden dim summmmmm/ Big Mama, a name I call myself/ far, a long long way to ruuuuuuuun...)

Ahem.

Reeeeewind. Come again, selector.

Since I don't, I said since I don't, I said since I don't, fi-ki, fi-ki, fii...

Reeeeewind. Drop it again. Yey, boy-iiiiiiiiiiii.

Since I don't see myself making anymore online dough'iness today, I thought I'd write up me earnings for July.

All in all, it came to $298.88.

Not over the moon with that. Buuuut, it is what it is, I guess. Can't change what's done.

So zis here iz zee breakdown...

- Blogging - $183.82

- Ad hoc work - $65.57 (for bits & pieces I did for a client - blog promotion, design tweaking, etc.)

- CloudCrowd - $37.08 (my credibility recently dipped from 100 to 25 after I failed a task I hadn't tried before. 25 means less tasks available. The $37.08 I made was before I took the hit. Putting CloudCrowd on the backburner for a while.) (more about CloudCrowd)

- Crowdology - $6.69 (£4.16) (survey site)

- Swagbucks: $5.00 (paid to search) (more about Swagbucks)

- QuickRewards Network: $0.72 (GPT site) (more about QuickRewards)

Plans for August...

Even though I made just shy of $300 this month, blogging accounted for over half of it. So in August I'm gonna be focusing on that side of things. The plan is to create more weekly posts for one of my celebrity blog clients. And for the other client, I'll ask if he wants me to start creating an x amount of posts a week for his celebrity blog as it's currently not being updated that much. If he says yes, then it's fresh content for the blog and extra regular income for me.

Would like to add one more client to my blogging roster. I'm mindful of giving myself too much work as I have offline things I'm working on. However, it would be good to secure one more blogging gig. I'm still sticking to my two niches: Celebrity and Paranormal. Would prefer a new paranormal gig as I'm already covering the other.

My mind's thinking of a 3rd niche, but that's all it is for now.

I've lost two income sources: CloudCrowd and the other celeb/film blog that wasn't paying that much. So August is going to be the month of focusing on what works.

Hope y'all had a super July. If not, August is a new outfit just waiting to be worn. Tailor it to suit you.

Here's to an orgasmic August, people!

Ebele.

Sloooooow Month...

2011-07-28T00:09:00.007+01:00

{img credit: grinapple)

I was aiming to make $500 this month, but with a few drops of July left, I’ll be lucky to make $300, let alone anywhere near $500.

I’m on $235 at the mo’.

Ah well, ‘tis zee way zee cookie crumbles at times.

I think I took my mind off the ball somewhat this month. I haven’t been looking for additional celebrity blogs to write for, neither have I been on the lookout for paranormal ones.

I decided to let go of one of the celebrity blogs I was writing for – the film/celebrity one - the one where the pay wasn’t that great. Though it’s a polished site and the staff are really friendly, the low pay was starting to eat away at me. I didn’t feel good about it. So I let it go.

The other two celebrity sites: SITE 1 - well, first I was meant to write a handful of posts/articles (which was what was advertised). But then it progressed to getting other parts of the site up and running. I didn’t mind doing the latter as it’s all experience. However, I only charged for the writing, so over time I was effectively doing stuff I wasn’t getting paid for. I did a couple of things for free, but after a while I was doing more than what I initially charged for, so I had to speak up. Lovely client. He had no qualms and paid up.

Not sure where I am with that particular site at the mo’. Doing a little bit every now and then, but I’d hoped that regular income would come from the blogging, which ain’t really happening.

SITE 2 – My favourite blog, the one where I get to be as sarcastic and opinionated as I like, well that’s kinda slowed down too. I tend to put posts up in draft, then the client does what he needs to do before he uploads. However, because he’s been so busy over the past month, he hasn’t been doing that. I therefore don’t create as many posts as I could.

So, yeah, it’s been a bit of a slow month. Need to kick my ass into touch and find an additional blogging gig. As well as that, I’d really like a non-writing gig that pays fairly well, one that doesn’t require too much brain power. CloudCrowd could possibly fall into that category, but I don’t wanna rely on it as tasks aren’t always available, plus there’s a chance I might one day whoopsiedoo spectacularly on a task, get a slap on the wrist credibility-wise and not be able to work on particular tasks, which would mean less potential to earn there. (UPDATE: 29th Jul - That 'one day' has unfortunately arrived. I attempted a task I'd never done before and received a huge credibility hit (100 down to 25), which means there aren't that many tasks I can now do. I shouldn't have attempted it if I wasn't 100% sure - I can't wholeheartedly say that I was. I should have stuck to the tasks I was good at. But ah well, no point deliberating over a past I can't change. One door closes, another one opens and all that.)

Onwards and upwards, methinks...

Misseb.

Kooday.com: Avoid...

2011-07-20T02:08:00.014+01:00

(img credit: basibanget)

Just a quick post to warn anyone who's thinking about joining Kooday. Don't. It's turned into a big ole scam. Hasn't paid its members in months.

Kooday is (was?) a site where you could buy and sell keywords with a minimum $5 investment. The idea was the site would eventually build a search engine of some sort which would make the exchange of keywords all the more lucrative.

I joined (in August last year I think) because I was curious, wanted to have a snoop around.

Kooday developed teething problems soon after I joined - I think they'd been around for a few months by that time. It started with the minimum payout being increased from $1.00 to $5.00, then the payment method was switched from Paypal to AlertPay. Payments were then stalled for some months, apparently due to the switch, but then payments resumed and I got paid consistently.

Two or three months ago, the payments stopped, but I really didn't notice 'til June. When I did notice, it didn't bother me that much as by then I had more than made my money back on my $5 investment ($60 profit in total - cashed out in increments every time I reached minimum payout).

Several excuses were given by Kooday for the delay in payments...one excuse after the other. But you can only give so many excuses before they start wearing thin and the penny finally drops.

I lost nothing. Some members weren't so lucky.

Some are trying to see if they can get their money back by filing a dispute through AlertPay. I think others were considering getting the law involved.

Kooday has bitten the dust and seems to have scammed thousands of dollars off people in its wake. If you see it coming towards you, run the other way, even if it looks and smells like a chocolate effigy of Angelina Jolie.

You've been warned.

Scams'ta la vista, baby...

Ebele.

Total Online Earnings: June 2011...

2011-07-11T15:33:00.021+01:00

{img credit: kyle simourd}

Right, I’m just gonna go straight into my total earnings for June, then add my commentary afterwards. :-)

Any figure in brackets means that’s the currency I received my earnings in (i.e., in pounds). I’m a UK resident; however I tend to show everything in dollars because that’s how I initially used to get paid when I started making money online. I got used to reflecting my earnings in dollars. Here goes:

- Slots win: $908.65 (£560.01) (Jackpotjoy - $646.41 (£400); Ladbrokes - $246 (£150); Sky Vegas - $16.24 (£10.01)) (will post up proof of my winnings later.)

- Freelance writing: $390.67 (you can view my writing breakdown in this previous post)

- CloudCrowd: $27.58 (more about CloudCrowd)

- Pinecone Research (survey): $4.78 (£3.00)

- QuickRewards Network: $1.65

Total earnings --- $1333.33!!

Chuffed :-)

Very pleased with my earnings in June. Really wasn't expecting it. I was OVER the frikkin moon at my slot winnings! Couldn’t believe it. It’s the most I’ve ever won – ever! It pushed my total online earnings to over $1000 - never made that much online in one month before --- EVER! The only other time I made anything close to that online was in October 2008 when I made just under $800 --- that’s when I used to do a huge amount of freelance writing.

For those who don’t know, slots are those games you get on gambling sites, the ones you spin and if you get a certain pattern, you win some money. It’s basically similar to the slots you get in casinos except these are online versions.

I won the £400 on Jackpotjoy with a £10 deposit. Actually, I won £500 or so, but I cashed out £400 and played with the rest. I didn’t win £400 in one go – it happened in increments, over some hours, but my balance just kept going up. (***Jackpotjoy promo: If you join Jackpotjoy through me, when you deposit & play £10, we both get £10 each! Email me - me[at]getpaidtofart[dot]com if you're interested. // p.s.: Jackpotjoy's only open to the following countries: UK, Australia, New Zealand & Spain.)

At Ladbrokes, with my £150 win, I can’t remember how much I deposited – whether it was £10 or £20 - but it wasn’t more than £20 because I set a weekly deposit limit of £20 a week.

And the win at Sky Vegas (£10.01): well, I received a £1.00 bonus for a deposit I’d made the previous week. I played low with the £1.00 and managed to get it up to £11-£12. Then, when I dipped to £10, I cashed it out.

The dark side :-(

The winnings have come in handy as my bank account was severely parched. However, I recognised I’d developed a gambling dependency over the past few months that was increasing sharply. Whilst I was spending nowhere near what I noticed a lot of people choose to gamble with, I was spending money that really would have been wise to use in other ways. I didn't like where I was going.

As a result, I decided to sign myself off for 6 months from most of the gambling sites I’m with (Ladbrokes, Sky Vegas, and a handful of others) --- a term commonly known as “self-exclusion”. It means I can’t log into any of these sites even if I tried.

I've now curtailed my spending to £10 a week (which I'm proud of) and that's on Jackpotjoy. It's the one site I enjoy using the most: I like the range of slot games available, it has a friendly/funny chat community, plus it has free games I can play for cash.

I don’t want to paint a one-sided picture, which is why I've highlighted the not-so-fun part. I don’t want you or anyone to only see the wins. Yes, I’ve won. But I’ve also lost too. And I’ve also spent more than I should have. It started with me having a good time and genuinely enjoying myself, but over time, it became more than that. But now I've gone back to simply enjoying it. More importantly, I'm more in control now.

I’m thankful for the wins. I don’t know how much I’ve spent, but I feel I’ve made most if not all of my money back. Some people don't get that chance.

If joining these or any other gambling sites interests you:

- be very careful if you choose to go down that road, especially if you feel you tend to get wrapped up in things really quickly.

- If you do join, look around the site the moment you log in for where you can set a weekly deposit limit, and set it before you start playing any games. Of course, you can change the limit, but I found that once I set a deposit limit, rarely did I change it (perhaps because it takes at least 24 hrs for it to go through and I didn’t have the patience to wait that long).

- A lot of these sites offer you a bonus when you make your first deposit. Some have wagering rules attached to the bonus, meaning there's a minimum you must deposit and play through before you can cash out (that's if you win anything). So read the terms and conditions of the bonus thoroughly and make sure you understand them before accepting. Another alternative is to not accept the bonus - you have that option too - because then you won't be bound by the bonus wagering rules.

- Make sure you're aware of what a site's minimum payout is.

- There's something referred to as "beginner's luck" where it seems as if new members to a site win a lot. Having played on quite a few gambling sites myself, I don't believe it's true, or always true, but that's just my personal opinion.

- If you lose, do not deposit more money in the hopes that you’ll make back your losses (as tempting as it may be - and I’ve been guilty of it myself in the past)

- If you win, consider cashing out at least 50% of it if you can

I know this post might seem rather long to some, but I thought the gambling side of my earnings was really worth going into in order to inject some realism into it.

My Plans for July...

Well, I don’t expect to make anywhere near what I made in June, or not in the way I did. Last month was unique.

If I end the month at $500, I’ll be happy with that. Apart from last month, rarely do I make $500 a month. I do come verrrrrrry close at times, but it would be good to reach it this month, so that’s my target. I’m at just over $170 at the moment, so we’ll see.

Anyway, hope everyone’s having a great July so far and the rest of the month pans out well for y’all.

I’m out...

Big Mama Ebele.

Online June 2011: Freelance Writing Update & Writing Earnings...

2011-07-02T14:39:00.008+01:00

{img credit: aless&ro}

June’s been a fairly good writing month for me:

- I found another client to write for ...in the celebrity/music niche....at the rate I wanted. Not sure if it’ll be long-term but I’m working on making myself indispensable! Would be good if the gig was regular as I like the person I’m writing about, someone who’s genuinely talented, is young and very new to the scene, so it would be interesting to follow their growth.

- The other celebrity/film blog I mentioned I was on a trial for, but hadn’t gotten back to me in some time --- well, they eventually got back to me and offered me a position. Like I mentioned in a previous post, the pay’s really not that sexy, but I applied for it at a time when I wanted to get into the celebrity niche and thought it would be good for experience. I feel I kinda owe them as I used the posts I wrote there as a basis for other celebrity work I secured. I also still think it’ll be good for experience. They’ve asked me if I’d like to attend and review a new film that’s coming out, so that’s a great perk of the job that I didn’t know was on offer when I applied.

- The other celebrity blog I write for is going well – it’s my favourite as I get to be as sarcastic and opinionated as I wanna be, plus the pay’s good, plus the client rocks. :-)

The slightly bad news...

...is the food blog I mentioned I applied for. Rate was agreed. A 50% deposit was sent. I wrote and delivered two pieces on time, and never received the rest of the money that was due ($26). Sent an email. Skype’d him. Received an apology, a promise to pay, but it never surfaced. Sent another email, sent another, gave him a piece of my mind as professionally as I could, then I let it go. Karma will take care of the rest.

Thinking back, he did offer to pay the full amount before I started, but I declined as I felt he needed security, so a 50% deposit was OK with me. I should have taken the full amount when it was offered, but hey, I wasn’t to know how it would turn out. More than anything, I was disappointed by his chosen action as he really came across professional when we were Skyp’ing and trying to finalise details for the gig. I even stayed on longer than I should have as we started talking about other things (he’s achieved a lot for his age and I was inspired by it).

Based on those two articles I wrote, I was hoping to be taken onboard for his food blog – it was a reeeeally cool blog, really cool – but things happen the way they do, so that’s that - it comes with the territory, unfortunately. However, it sort of balances out because whereas he didn’t pay the rest, one of my other clients overpaid me by about $35 and told me to keep it! And then another client actually paid me in full before I even started, even though I only asked for half. So, yeah, though I would have preferred to be paid what I was owed, it balances out.

Writing Earnings for June...

(this is just for writing – will do a wider earnings update in my next post)

Writing-wise, I made $390.67 in June, over $300 more than I made in May.

Breakdown:

Blog writing - $297.37

Web copy - $60.76

Article writing - $26.00

Forum posting - $6.54 (been doing a bit of forum posting - will write about that in another post for anyone who's looking for that type of work)

Total: $390.67

I’m happy with that and I’m aiming to top that this month. No reason why I shouldn’t.

If I'm to Offer Any Advice...

If I'm to offer any advice from my experiences in June, it's this:

- Always ask for a deposit before you commence any writing work. I guess the same goes for any freelance work, really. There may be times when that's not possible - for example, some companies don't pay that way, or some individuals may not pay that way either and may refuse to when you suggest it. In which case, you've got to go with your gut over whether you feel they're kosher and whether it's worth the risk.

- Stick with your rate. However, if you're going to accept anything lower, think of other ways it can work for you. Also, consider prioritising your workload accordingly - push the less-paying writing gig lower down your to-do list and concentrate on the completing the ones that pay you better first.

- Not every potential client is out to scam freelancers. There are some really lovely people out there. Just exercise some caution.

Right. I'm done here.

Toodooloo,

MissEb.

Online Earnings: May 2011...

2011-06-02T04:12:00.002+01:00

{img credit: normanack}

I haven't done too badly this month. I made just over $400 - $407.66 to be precise - which is a marked improvement on April ($71.58). Three things that really pushed it up were:

- a slot games win I had on a bingo site (not likely to happen very often)

- doing more tasks on CloudCrowd (steadily doing more work there, but not relying on it)

- the freelance writing I've gone back to doing (via the celeb blogging gig I got, which is going great! The other one I was on a trial for isn't looking promising - haven't heard from them in a while, but that's OK, you win some you lose some, plus the money really wasn't that sexy)

My Earnings Breakdown...

(Any figures in brackets means that's the currency in which I received payment.)

- Paddy Power Bingo (slots win) - $177.85 (£110)

- CloudCrowd - $83.73 (mostly reviewing written content) (more about CloudCrowd)

- Freelance writing - $78.07 (Blog writing - $69.55, Forum posting - $8.52)

- Affiliate marketing - $42.35 (Affiliate Future - $36.35 (£22.20), Lucky Pacific - $6.00)

- Surveys - $22.94 (£14.00) (Pinecone Research - $14.70 (£9.00), Consumer Intel - $8.24 (£5.00))

- Swagbucks: $5.00 (paid to search) (more about Swagbucks)

- QuickRewards Network: $1.55 (GPT site) (more about QuickRewards)

- Appenscribe: $1.07 (transcription)

Total --- $412.56

Plans This Month...

I'm gonna concentrate on the paid writing side of things. Really enjoying the celebrity blogging gig. Hope, in time, I get to write more posts than I currently am, but at the mo' it's 8 posts a week, but it can be up to 400 words a post which isn't bad at $0.07/word.

I also put myself forward to write a few pieces for a food blog. Not my intended niche, but I liked the topic so I applied. We'll see how that goes. That's also at $0.07/word. I'm hoping I'll be able to make a more regular contribution towards that blog, but if it doesn't happen, it doesn't happen. Means it wasn't meant to be.

I'm happy with the way things are going with the writing in terms of only going for a handful of topics, going for ones I'm interested in and upping my rate. Should have done it sooner, but nothing happens before its time, I guess. Wouldn't have tried this strategy if I hadn't dabbled in and packed in freelance writing twice before, so everything happens for a reason.

If you consider yourself to be a fairly good writer, and you're either not happy with your current rate, or wonder if you could possibly make more, try it. I'm not saying it will always work; there were people I quoted my new rate to that I never heard back from again.

I'm not even saying it'll work at all, but isn't the possibility of getting paid more for what you do worth the try? Or rather, aren't you worth it?

I shall now take off my Oprah wig.

Have an uber delicious June. Lick it guuuuuuuuuuud...

Ebele.

Freelance Writing: Third Time Lucky?

2011-05-24T06:13:00.006+01:00

{img credit: aless&ro}

Hello, my little chickpeas! How are we all doing? Cool?

Sooooo, erm, since my last post, I've decided to go back into freelance writing. AGAIN!

First time I dabbled in freelance writing, it was cool, but then I got a bit, I don't know, I just felt the need to move on.

Second time I revisited it, it was short-lived; I stopped a few months after I started.

This time, I've decided that if I'm gonna get back into it, I need to be doing topics I really enjoy talking/writing about. The last two freelance writing stints I did, I was writing about all kinds of things, and perhaps that was part of the problem. I do like variety, but maybe there was just too much variety.

I'd rather specialise.

I've gone for two niches: Celebrity and Paranormal. Celebrity, because I often seem to have an opinion about one celeb or the other; I'd also rather like to tap into my sarcastic side and I think blogging in that niche would be a good vehicle for that. :-)

I chose the Paranormal/Horror niche because I grew up watching horror films (Evil Dead, Hammer House of Horror, Salem's Lot, etc.) and reading horror books (mostly by Stephen King and Dean Koontz). I love Blade, Fright Night, Paranormal Activity and Francis Ford Coppola's version of Bramstoker's Dracula. I used to watch Most Haunted and Ghost Whisperer. In Nigeria, my cousin would tell me superstition-ridden rules, like if you spill salt, you need to sprinkle water on it, or it's bad luck to step on a tuber of yam, or you shouldn't let someone step over your legs when they're outstretched, stuff like that. And I found it fascinating.

When I was younger, my brother who was an avid Elvis Presley fan, and my other older siblings, held a séance to summon the spirit of Elvis. The candlelight flickered, there was a noise outside our window and the glass on the table broke. It turned out it was the landlord's kids, but I was so scared by the sudden noise that I developed a fever which stayed with me for days.

Anyway, I digress.

My Freelance Writing Progress So Far...

I'm writing for two celebrity blogs! One I found on Gumtree; the other on Digital Point forums' Content Creation section. The first doesn't pay that great - £1 per post – and I'm currently on trial. If I do get it, I'll use it for target practice, plus it'll look good on my portfolio, plus the posts can be a minimum of 150 words.

The other one pays better - $0.07/word - so it kinda balances out.

I'm hoping that by specialising in a couple of niches, I can charge more as I go along. Actually, scratch the hope, I WILL charge more.

Things I've Learnt Recently...That I'd Like to Pass Onto Whoever It's Relevant to...

- I believe it's possible to write about things you enjoy writing about and get paid for it

- you CAN get clients willing to pay you what you believe you're worth. They are out there.

- although there are several $0.01/$0.02-a-word gigs on Digital Point, you CAN get clients willing to pay more – sometimes much more

- consider raising your rates. I upped mine from $0.05/word to $0.07/word for the second celebrity blogging gig I got and that's the rate I'll charge for future gigs for now. It's not as easy as I might make it sound. When I was applying for the gig, I did worry. I did fear I'd price myself out of something I really wanted. I offered a safety net by saying my rate was open to negotiation, but then the client came back and said he was OK with my rate.

I might not be able to get as many clients at what I now charge, but then charging a higher rate means that I don't need that many clients or need to write as many posts as I would if I was on $0.05/word.

(*p.s. to the above points: you obviously have to be a fairly good writer to start with.)

With the frequency in which I'm allowed to create posts on each blog, I'll be making roughly £200-230 month. I'd like to get that up to £500/month, so I'm keeping my eyes, ears and belly button open for more gigs. :-)

Have a good week, all.

Too-doo-loo,

ebele.

Online Earnings: March and April 2011...

2011-05-04T00:10:00.005+01:00

{img credit: Shandi-lee}

I hadn't really been keeping track of my payments for the past few months. I stopped updating my spreadsheet towards the end of March.

Anyway, I've now tracked and gathered all my payments.

(Any figures in brackets means money was originally rec'd in pounds)

March...

- Adsense - $97.52 (£60.83) (yay, my first ever Adsense payment! About time too!)

- Bingo - $83.74 (£51.75)

- Clixsense - $11.91 (paid to click/view ads)

- Kooday - $6.24 (Not really active on this site anymore, but I still cash out every month or so from their profit share)

- Swagbucks - $5.00 (paid to search)

- Pinecone Research - $4.81 (£3.00) (survey site)

- Neobux - $4.06 (last payment – I've stopped using Neobux. Got bored.)

- CloudCrowd - $3.92 (paid for doing tasks incl. writing, editing, reviewing, etc.)

- QuickRewards Network - $1.83 (gpt site)

- ToneADay - $1.29 (paid to rate words - paid rating on invitation only)

Total: $220.32

April...

- Freelancer.com - $27.90 (made this on their affiliate program)

- CloudCrowd - $22.74

- Amazon UK - $9.28 (£5.56) (sold one of my used books)

- Kooday - $6.36

- Pinecone Research - $4.81 (£3.00)

- Appenscribe - $3.76 (transcription)

- MyLikes - $1.54 (paid to promote campaigns on twitter/facebook)

- QuickRewards Network - $1.40

Total: $71.58

As I've been concentrating more on offline pursuits, I've been making less and less money online. In order to make more online, I need to organise myself (which I'm sooooo good at. Not.) so I can make the best of both worlds.

I'm also not sure how I wanna make money online from now on, so I might spend some of my time this month thinking about that and exploring my options.

Right, that's me for now. Have a great week, y'all. :-)

Ebele.

Hellllllooooo....

2011-05-03T23:04:00.002+01:00

{img credit: smemom87}

It's been a while. How y'all doing? :-)

For the past couple of months, I haven't been sure what to do with this dormant blog. There've been times ('til quite recently) when I've really wanted to sell it and move on. In fact, I'd drafted a post to make it official.

I spent today trying to come to a definite decision: either sell it or start posting up again.

I could do with the money I'd hopefully make from selling it, but something's stopping me from doing so.

Sooooo, I guess it's the other option, then!

With that in mind, this blog is definitely moving soon (I've said that before, haven't I?, and haven't moved it!) /// I'd love to see it preening its feathers in its own hosting space. It already has its own domain, and I already pay for hosting, so it's way overdue.

Once I move, for anyone who currently reaches me via getpaidtofart.blogspot.com, I suspect (I hope) it'll redirect you to GetPaidtoFart.com.

Anyway, just wanted to say I'm back. Not sure how frequently I'll be updating, but it'll be more than how it's been over the past few months.

Peace and cheese,

Ebele.

Total Online Earnings: February 2011...

2011-03-02T05:17:00.004Z

(img credit)

Didn't feel the enthusiasm to update this blog last month. Whenever that happens, I tend not to force myself to do it.

But the moon must have coughed or something 'cos TA-NAAAA, here I am!

What has Big Mama Been Up To...

Errrrm, can't remember. Didn't do much of what I planned to do (whatever that was, which I don't recall, unless I read one of my previous posts where I think I listed it).

Aha, I know I did SOMETHING:

- Moved my survey blog to its own host: I used it as a test run for when I move Get Paid to Fart. Thank God I did. There were one or two teething problems, but I now feel more confident about moving this blog when I'm ready.

- Been playing bingo online: Been doing it for about a month. Won about £150 altogether (on two sites: Paddy Power Bingo and Tombola). New members get a certain amount of free bonuses. I got a free £10 bonus (or was it £20 – can't remember) when I joined Paddy Power Bingo with my first deposit of £5 --- and a free £20 bonus from Tombola with my first £10 deposit. And that's what I won with. I think the wins are mostly beginner's luck 'cos I've hardly won since. I've come verrrrrry close, though. This month, I'm gonna stick to the free games on those sites. I might make a very rare (small) deposit. We'll see.

- Been thinking about selling this blog: Couple of times last month, I thought about calling it a day on this blog. I'm kinda still interested in making money online, but not in keeping a blog about it. I feel myself growing away from that. I eventually wanna sell the survey blog as well. I might sell this blog in the future, but for now, me and it are joined at the derriere :-)

OK, Now Onto February's Total...

(Any figures in brackets means money was originally rec'd in pounds)

- Tombola (bingo): $131.89 (£81.75)

- Paddy Power (bingo): $116.45 (£72.17)

- Appenscribe: $75.53 (transcription work)

- CloudCrowd: $35.25 (reviewing content)(didn't make as much as I usually do - was intentional. CloudCrowd used to make up for a lot of my online income - I didn't want that dependency so I toned down on my work there while looking for other income sources)

- Surveys: $12.86 (£8.00) (GfK WISAD, Pinecone Research UK)

- Kooday: $5.54 (buy/sell keywords – I'm not doing much of that anymore, just earning off the weekly profit share & cashing out everytime I reach min payout)

- Swagbucks: $5.00 (paid to search)

- My Social Jobs: $4.50 (did a small writing gig)

- Amazon UK: $2.36 (£1.46) (sold one of my used books)

- Bukisa: $0.62 (not active on this one AT ALL. Paypal'd me whatever was in my account when they switched to adsense. End of.)

- QuickRewards Network: $0.62 (GPT site)

Total --- $390.62

Marked improvement on Jan ($202.85).

This Month...

I'd like to think I would have moved this blog to self hosting by the end of this month. Apart from that, I think I'm gonna just go with the flow. See where the wind takes me.

Have a great month, everyone. Rock it out. :-)

Ebele.

Total Online Earnings: January 2011...

2011-02-03T01:09:00.008Z

(img credit)

Made a total of $202.85. Not enough to feed my imaginary friend for a month, but considering in January last year, I made $17.15, I'd say it's an improvement and that, hell, all toasted marshmallows are on me, on the house! :-)

Zee Jan '11 bweakdown iz az followz...

- CloudCrowd: $125.77 (last of the biggies as I'm trying to wean myself off the site. Don't like its major contribution to my online income, so until I find something else to match or exceed it income-wise, I'll be taking a breather from it. Working on CloudCrowd has become somewhat of a habit for me, though, so it'll be a challenge not to pass by it as often as I used to.)

- SEO gig: $38.34 (private client)

- Consumer Intelligence: $15.49 (£10.00) (survey site - read more about it on my survey blog)

- Kooday: $10.15 (money's made by trading keywords & sharing in the site's profits. Back in Aug, I invested $5 which was the minimum req'd. Have made & been paid $45.74 since Nov. Kinda passive now - all I do these days is check my total & cash out when it reaches min payout.// I used to have a Kooday blog, but I'm streamlining my virtual real estate, so I deleted it. Will make it available via ebook. On my list of things to do.)

- ToneADay: $7.43 (more than likely to be my last payment from this site. Read why.)

- Swagbucks: $5.00 (paid to search, do polls, surveys, etc. Read my Swagbucks review)

- QuickRewards Network: $0.67 (GPT site) (QuickRewards review)

Total --- $202.85

Plans for February...

Haven't completely decided yet. I know I wanna make one final promotional push in the hopes of making some money from Valentine's Day. I was quite focused for some time, then my attention wandered.

I'd also like to have found another income source by the end of the month. Two, if possible.

Apart from that, my mind's kinda percolating over definite to-do's for this month.

Here's to a fabulous February...

ebele.

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

2011-01-22T19:01:00.004Z

(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.

---------------------

Related posts...

- Toneaday Review

- CloudCrowd Review

2011: Year of the Big Mama...

2011-01-11T14:32:00.013Z

(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...

2011-01-03T07:01:00.014Z

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.

Total Online Earnings for November...

2010-12-05T07:22:00.011Z

(flickr.com/photos/asaph70)

I aimed to make more than I did in October and that's how it panned out; Big Mama made $302.24.

Breakdown:

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

- CloudCrowd: $201.40 (paid to complete tasks incl. translating, writing, editing, reviewing)(read my CloudCrowd review)

- Surveys: $36.55 (Panelbase: $16.23 (£10.05); Consumer Intelligence: $15.59 (£10.00); Pinecone Research: $4.73 (£3.00)) (Consumer Intelligence is a UK-based site. Surveys are short and sweet just the way I like it. You can read more about it on my survey blog)

- Kooday: $23.92 (make money by buying & selling keywords. Requires a minimum $5 investment.

- Clixsense: $11.89 (yay!, Clixsense, yay! I was previously using my Clixsense earnings to buy ads there, but since the ads weren't all that successful for me, I decided to just aim for payout.)

- Techdoctordeals: $9.60 (as I don't plan to continue with this site, this is my very last payment)(read my Techdoctordeals review)

- eBay UK: $6.29 (£3.93) (didn't do a lot of selling on eBay)

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

- ToneADay: $4.61 (for the work I did the previous month - not using ToneADay that much these days - no particular reason why.)(read review)

- Cashle: $2.47 (GPT site. read review here)

- QuickRewards Network: $0.51 (GPT site)(read review)

Total --- $302.24

I'm pleased with that. Not only did I want to make more, but I was partly hoping I'd break into $300. I did that only by two dollars, but psychologically, $302.24 feels better to me than $299.99; it's just a little extra gust of feel-goodness.

Anyhoo, my plans for December...

My focus is changing. This time though, instead of fighting, ignoring or questioning it, I'm just gonna go with the flow and act on it.

This month, I'll be looking at making money from the upcoming Christmas holidays. This is part of a wider interest I've recently developed in taking advantage of different holidays and other celebratory occasions to make money. (e.g., Black Friday, New Year's, Valentine's, Easter, etc.)

I'll primarily be using Hubpages to create hubs targeted towards Christmas and looking at ways to build backlinks to them so they're (hopefully) more prominent on Google. I understand the logic behind backlinking, but the challenge will be in the doing.

I don't know how successful it'll all be, but I'm treating this Christmas as a test-run and learning tool for future campaigns.

Ultimately, I'd like to have hubs, blogs and sites over time that tie into different hols/occasions and earn residually from them. I want to move away from an active way of earning. For example, if I don't work on CloudCrowd, I don't earn money. I want to change that; I want to be able to put in the work on a blog/site or hub, build momentum, and then reach a stage where it runs itself.

I know it's easier said than done, but I'm up for giving it a go.

Have a great month, people...

Ebele.

Making Money Online: the Dream That Won’t Leave Me Alone...

2010-11-27T02:51:00.004Z

(img credit)

I've been making money online since 2007 and have found the experience fascinating, exciting, and at times, frustrating (actually, more times than I care to mention).

The most I've ever made online in one month was just under $800 (Oct 2008). The least, under $20 (Jan 2010).

I don't wish to go back to my highest-earning month if it means I'd be doing something I don't really enjoy. On the other hand, I don't wanna go back to a 20-dollar month either.

My ideal scenario is to marry interest/passion/creativity with a comfortable amount of online income (this is a balance I'd like to achieve offline too).

To me, the internet represents freedom and an endless ream of possibilities.

However, I've created a ceiling for myself.

I feel that, by now, I should have achieved more than I actually have.

When I see how much some people make online, how well they're doing, I'm happy for them (and somewhat envious. I ain't gonna lie!), but I also feel annoyed at myself because it reminds me that I should be doing better than I am.

On the one hand, I have this self-created ceiling. But on the other hand, I can't shake off this dogged dream I have of making a comfortable living online (actually, I wanna go a bit beyond that, but 'comfortable' is a good start).

I'm stuck between having a dream and not believing in it.

It's not that I can't make it; it's that I don't believe I can.

And that's the truth.

And it's a truth I can apply to pretty much most areas of my life.

Ebele.

My Blog's Back! Happy, Happy, Happy!

2010-11-12T16:02:00.007Z

(img credit)

It's guuuuuuud to be back.

Long story short. Google deleted my blog. Labelled it as spam. I'm like WHAT?

When I first got the notification in my inbox, I thought it was a joke. 'Til I re-read it, then went to my blog ...and my blog wasn't there. :-(

My blood pressure danced the salsa.

After doing some research, I learnt that it happens to quite a few blogs that aren't spam at all. From what I've learnt, Google has an automated system in place to detect spam blogs. Unfortunately, things can go wrong sometimes and innocent blogs can get caught up in the spam wave.

It's been five loooong days and I've missed my blog.

I braced myself for the chance that Google might decide "Yep, it's spam alright" and not restore it. Part of me dreaded not getting my blog back, but another part was resigned to that fact and was ready to start afresh elsewhere if need be. In fact, I'm really not comfortable with the idea that my blog can get deleted just like that, whether by mistake or otherwise. It's a vulnerable position to remain in, especially with three years worth of content.

So, I'm gonna seriously think about self hosting. I already own the domain: getpaidtofart.com, and I already pay for hosting. I could move it to WordPress. Self hosting means I'll have more control. One of the reasons I've been reluctant to move my blog to Wordpress is 'cos of all the stories I've heard about people having their blogs hacked into. There's also the learning curve; all the things I have to install in order to transfer the blog, set it up, secure it, update it. Blogger, in that sense, is so much more straightforward. I'm also wondering if all the comments on my blog can transfer over, and all the post images. It feels like major work.

I think I have to weigh up two things:

- moving my blog to WordPress (self hosted), to its own domain, and the chance that it might one day get hacked into

against

- the chance of my blog being pulled down again on Blogger for whatever reason and the vulnerability & inconvenience that that presents --- and the possibility that if it's pulled again, it might not get restored.

Hmm...

How I Got my Blog Restored: the Process...

I'm gonna outline the steps I took from the time I was notified my blog had been deleted 'til the time it was restored as it might help someone:

- at first, all my blogs were deleted, not just this one. I also lost access to my dashboard. I had to verify my Google account by filling in some personal details when I tried to log in. A verification code was then sent to my mobile phone which I used to verify my Google account. Once I did that, I had access to my dashboard. All my blogs were then automatically restored almost immediately, apart from my Get Paid to Fart blog.

- I didn't know how to get the remaining blog restored, so I did a search on Google and came across the following blog post which I found extremely useful.

- I followed the steps outlined in the post (request restoration, make an appeal, create a thread in Blogger's 'Something is Broken' forum)

- I also browsed the Blogger 'Something is Broken' forum and came across an official process outlined by one of Blogger’s top contributors (nitecruzr). I found it incredibly helpful as there was a crucial step I'd missed (which I then went and updated in my thread). You'll see the process outlined by nitecruzr in: this thread.

- My blog was deleted over the weekend; I had to wait two working days to see if it would be restored. I gave it ‘til early Thursday. When it still wasn't showing, I updated my thread on the Blogger forum stating I was still waiting for an outcome. It was then escalated by one of the top contributors and my blog was restored later on that day.

I'm real grateful to the contributors that helped the restoration process along (Katney & DarkUFO). I don't think they're Google employees. They just try and help people out, which I think is really good of them.

Tips for you if your blog's been deleted (and you feel it's really not what Google's accusing it of being)...

- follow the steps exactly as outlined by nitecruzr

- once you create the one thread, do not post another. Just bookmark and update it when you need to.

- I know how shocking and frustrating it can be when a blog's deleted, but do try and be civil when posting a thread on the Blogger forum. I felt I was being accused of something I hadn't done, then I was angry that it happened at all (even if it was a mistake). I felt helpless. Years of work potentially down the drain. My way of coping was through the use of humour in my thread, focusing on providing the information that was required of me, and then just getting on with other day-to-day things in my life.

I've missed my blog. If anything, the lockdown made me realise how important it is to me.

Big Mama, over and out...

Ebele.

Total Online Earnings for October...

2010-11-04T05:31:00.003Z

img credit: pinksherbert

Definitely happier with my October earnings. Made $278.31 (a $114.86 improvement on September).

October Breakdown:

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

- CloudCrowd: $116.09 (paid to complete tasks)(read my CloudCrowd review)

- Amazon UK: $41.78 (£26.54)

- eBay UK: $25.99 (£16.37)

- Proofreading: $23.93

- Triviala: $23.82 (£15.00) (games/trivia site) (read review)

- Techdoctordeals: $19.19 (didn't really take off for me. The admin couldn't seem to make his/her mind up about the rules (was real schizo like that), so I split.) (read my Techdoctordeals review)

- Swagbucks: $10.00 (paid to search, do polls, surveys, etc. To find out more about Swagbucks, read review)

- ToneADay: $9.86 (for the work I did the previous month)(read review)

- Pinecone Research: $4.79 (£3.00) (read review)

- Neobux: $2.01 (paid-to-click site)

- QuickRewards Network: $0.85 (GPT site) (read review)

Total --- $278.31

My aims for October were to:

- put up one item on eBay or Amazon every day

Outcome: Didn't do it every single day, but was very frequent for a good 3 weeks. Glad I pulled my finger out and put stuff up. I'm around £45 richer for it.

- sell off an unwanted domain of mine if I can

Outcome: Didn't manage that, but it's OK.

- get as close as I can to breaking even on my $10 Clixsense investment

Outcome: Made over $12.95. Should be getting that by Nov 10th.

- open an AlertPay account (to receive payments from sites like Clixsense that pay that way)

Outcome: done.

- make at least $50 on CloudCrowd

Outcome: achieved. /// CloudCrowd's starting to account for a significant chunk of my monthly earnings. Though I appreciate the extra income I make there, I want to find one or two other sources of income that pull as much weight. That way, if my income dwindles at CloudCrowd for whatever reason, I can lean on those.

- make at least $10 on ToneADay

Outcome: goal not reached, but I did make around $5.00. Couldn't really get into the flow of it for some reason. Should be getting October's earnings in November some time.

- reach min payout ($20) on Weegy (q & a site)

Outcome: goal not reached. Hardly used it.

- reach min payout ($20) on CashCrate (gpt site)

Outcome: goal not reached. Didn't really feel up to doing the offers.

I made $163.45 in September. Money's money. However, I was disappointed in myself 'cos I knew I was capable of throwing better fireworks than that. It boiled down to whether I was happy with me....and I wasn't.

So I'm glad October was better.

In November, I'll be looking to beat that.

Have a fabulous month, pee-pole. Go all disco on its ass.

I'm outtie'oh...

ebele.

October Update: Week 4 (22nd-28th)...

2010-11-01T19:32:00.077Z

img credit: kekremsi

Week 4 was much better. Made $107.59. I'm happy with that.

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

- CloudCrowd: $47.07 (Read my CloudCrowd review.)

- Triviala - $23.82 (£15.00) (games/trivia site) (read review)

- Proofreading: $22.56

- Amazon UK: $8.73 (£5.54) (Sold a book I didn't want.)

- eBay UK: $3.40 (£2.17) (Sold another item at auction.)

- Neobux: $2.01

Total --- $107.59

PROOF OF PAYMENTS
(click images to view larger versions)

CLOUDCROWD PAYMENTS

TRIVIALA PAYMENT

PROOFREADING PAYMENT

AMAZON PAYMENT

EBAY PAYMENT
(this is the amount made in the past 31 days. The £2.17 is include.)

NEOBUX PAYMENT

Not sure if I'll continue with weekly earnings updates as I find it a bit cumbersome doing the screenshots. I mean, it's not as if someone forced me to do the updates. But it did help keep me motivated, though, so I might do it again this month. We'll see.

Anyhoo, I'm out.

Ebele.

Aww, Neobux, You Shouldn't Have (Blush, Blush)...

2010-10-24T03:40:00.006+01:00

I am overcome with flattery, emotion and monetary attention.

I'm about to cry....for I's not worthee of 2 dollars and a penny.

I'm about to...to...to change my name to Ebelebux, the Buxnificent Buxom Lass.

I'm about ta take my Denzel out on a date. With mah 2 dollars, we can share two packets of marshmallows and tap water by candlelight.

NEOBUX PAYMENT
(click on image to view larger version)

NEOBUX: a paid-to-click site I rejoined out of boredom and something-to-do'ness. Click, view an ad, earn. The end. Average 1 cent per click. Minimum payout's $2, then $3, then $4 and so on 'til $10. Pays via PayPal, AlertPay & NETELLER almost immediately after you request it.

Until next time (take care of yourselves...and each other. Jer-ry. Jer-ry. Jer-ry.)

Ebele(bux).

October Update: Week 3 (15th-21st)...

2010-10-23T04:39:00.010+01:00

Big Mama done a bit better this week than the last. Week 3 pressed $67.14 into my palm.

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

Amazon UK: $33.05 (£21.00) (Very pleased I made the decision to start decluttering by Amazoning my unwanted books and CDs up there. I get a bit more breathing room, plus a bit of money too.)

CloudCrowd: $23.11 (I've passed the $50 target I set myself for this month ($28 (wk 1) + $9.66 (wk 2) + $23.11 (wk 3) = $60.77 // Read my CloudCrowd review.)

Swagbucks - $5.00 (2nd Swagbucks payment of the month. Reason: Along with doing my own swagging, one of my refs has been fairly active, plus Swagbucks were giving 2 points instead of 1 for a couple of things for about a week. // Read my Swagbucks review.)

Pinecone Research: $4.79 (£3.00)

eBay UK: $1.19 (£0.79) (Not as much as last week, but I don't care. I'm getting rid of stuff.)

PROOF OF PAYMENTS
(click images to view larger versions)

AMAZON PAYMENT

CLOUDCROWD PAYMENTS

PINECONE RESEARCH PAYMENT

SWAGBUCKS PAYMENT

EBAY PAYMENT
(this is the amount I've made in the past 31 days. The £0.79 is in there somewhere.)

My plans from now til the end of the month:

- more eBaying, more Amazoning

- since I've made $50 on CloudCrowd, my new aim is to hit $100

- take part in domain-naming contests. // I recently joined a site called Squadhelp where you can take part in a number of contests including domain-naming, SEO and viral video contests. I'm particularly interested in the domain-naming aspect and have taken part in a couple of contests so far. I don't know what the chances are of me winning, but a sure way of not winning is by not taking part, so what the hell. I like the creative aspect too.

- play around with Hubpages. Lately, I've been feeling a pull to create content on Hubpages, so I might just do that this week.

Anyway, that's moi for now.

Ebele.

(img credit: hownowbrowncow)

Pssst. I've joined Neobux. Again.

2010-10-21T14:53:00.011+01:00

Yep. I have.

My mind was going: "gurl, what the f*ck are you doing?"

But my body was going: "Mmmmmm, Neobuuuuuux".

And so I joined. In the dead of night. With nothing to stop me. Except "gurl, what the f*ck are you doing?" going off in my head. Which I soooo drowned out with tacky pop music, chocolate and mantric repetitions of "Mmmmmm, Neobuuuuuux".

I've almost reached the minimum payout ($2.00).

It's just a dream.

It's just a dream.

I'll wake up and it would all have been a dream.

Correction: I'll wake up next to Denzel Washington and it would all have been a dream.

Join Neobux today. I promise I won't tell anyone. Your secret's safe with me... and the milkman...and my best friend...'cos I tell her everything... except when I broke her favourite cup and blamed it on the cat.

Ebele.

Big Mama has a do-follow blog list. Want it, sugar?

2010-10-20T15:47:00.007+01:00

I did a gig some time ago where I had to look for do-follow blogs to comment on.

For anyone that doesn't know, commenting on do-follow blogs is a good thing for your blog/site as it gives your blog some much-needed link juice and makes the search-engine gods smile down on it. It's like a dog on heat. Search engines get high on it. And so does your blog.

I have a list containing the URLs of 10 do-follow blogs. They're in the Finance niche with a blog-homepage PR ranging from 1-4 (three PR4s, four PR3s and three PR1s).

Some of these blogs accept keywords, or a mixture of a name plus a keyword. However, for guidance, do check posts where comments have been left.

Most of the blogs are also moderated. Approval time can also vary.

When you get the list, you might notice that there are a few of the blogs that haven't been updated in a while. Comments are still being approved on them though, so it's worth leaving one of your own.

I cannot guarantee your comments will be approved as I do not own these blogs. However, if you leave good comments, and study links/keywords others have left when making their own comments, it might increase your chances of yours being approved.

I've also added the URLs of three do-follow forums (homepage PR: 4, 3, 2) and a do-follow link-manager site (PR 3). They aren't in any particular niche.

I checked all sites on the list today (20th Oct), and they're are still do-follow. The PRs are also still the same. These might change in the future, but again, as I don't control the owners or Google, there's nothing I can do about that.

If you'd like a copy of the list, please send a PayPal payment of $2.00 to:

me[at]getpaidtofart[dot]com

Big Mama over and out.

(img credit: Artotem)

Clixsense: Minimum Payout Reached!

2010-10-17T18:47:00.011+01:00

Big Mama's hit the big time. Well, erm, in so far as $10 or so goes.

I was sashaying my big ol' hips towards the $10 minimum (was at about $9.25) - and then next thing I know, I glanced up at my Clixsense toolbar and it was reading $11-something!

My Clixsense Balance (click image to view larger version)

I don't have that many referrals (actually, three), but one of them upgraded (thank you, you!), pushing me over the $10 minimum!

I spent some minutes looking around to see how to request my payment before realising Clixsense automatically sends payments out on or before the 10th of every month (as long you've earned the minimum by the 1st of that month). I expect I'll be getting mine next month, then.

I have a couple more weeks to work up my Clixsense earnings a bit more before payout. I'd like to get it up to around $12.50 if I can as that would then cover the £1.50 (grrr) my bank charged me when I used my debit card to pay for my $10 premium upgrade. If I can do that, then I'd truly have broken even and anything else I make from then on ('til next Sept when my upgrade expires) would be profit. Whether I'll maintain my interest in the site 'til then is another thing, but at least the opportunity to earn a bit of money is there.

UPDATE - 23rd Oct: I'm over $12.50 :-)

Ebele.

October Update: Week 2 (8th-14th)...

2010-10-16T01:00:00.017+01:00

Didn't make as much as I made in Week 1.

Big Mama made $38.32.

It's all good, though.

BREAKDOWN:

eBay UK: $17.67 (rec'd in pounds - £11.06)

CloudCrowd: $9.66 (Read my CloudCrowd review)

Techdoctordeals: $9.62 (was paid $10 Canadian dollars, but was automatically converted to $9.62 USD /// Read my Techdoctordeals review)

Proofreading: $1.37

EBAY SALES
(summarised by month. The £11.06 I made is in there somewhere!)

CLOUDCROWD PAYMENTS (click image to view larger version)

TECHDOCTORDEALS PAYMENT
(click image to view larger version)

PROOFREADING PAYMENT (click image to view larger version)

I'm fine with how things are going so far this month. I'm steadily decluttering and selling off more of my stuff on eBay and Amazon (uk). I've made two sales on Amazon (£21.00); should get the money for that next week or the week after.

I'm getting into a routine now and making sure I put something up on Amazon or eBay every day. If I miss a day, I make up for it by putting two items up the following day.

I'm also getting quite close to the $10 minimum payout on Clixsense; I'm at $9.25. I thought it would take 'til next month to hit the minimum, but it looks like it might just happen this month.

What I've found really useful is the Clixsense toolbar. I downloaded it recently. It's visible at the top of my browser and notifies me when there are ads available. Since I've been using it, my earnings have been creeping up quicker.

$10 won't make me rich, but I'm enjoying the challenge of trying to reach it on Clixsense.

I also opened an AlertPay account, so I'm looking forward to receiving my first payment there (kinda like a brand new shiny toy that you get to test out).

Have a grrrrreat weekend, people. Shimmy-shake it.

Ebele.

Wanna Win Some Money, Honey?

2010-10-14T16:24:00.012+01:00

Whenever I pay for something with cash and I get some change back, I usually pick out the 1 and 2 pennies (if there are any) and save them in a jar. Sometimes, I pick out 5 penny pieces too. Then, when the jar's full, I'll either use it to treat myself or give it to a charity.

This month, I'm giving away all the pennies to one of you guys and gals. It's not much, but it's something: £2.99 (equivalent to $4.69).

On Oct 31st, I'll pick a name at random as the winner.

To gain an entry and be in with a chance of winning the money:

a) you must have a Paypal account

b) you have to join one of the following sites as my referral:

- Cashle (GPT site. Open to UK, US, Canadian residents only. // Read my Cashle review.)

- myLot (paid forum-posting community. Open internationally as far as I'm aware. If you join myLot, you must create or participate in two or three discussions there.)

(n.b.: do not join any of the above sites if you're already a member.)

c) Once you've joined, send me the username you used, with the subject "PENNY JAR ENTRY" to:

me(at)getpaidtofart(dot)com
(remove the brackets. Replace 'at' with '@' and 'dot' with '.')

That's it, mon amie! If you're the winner, I'll let you know via email on Sunday, Oct 31st. Kapisch?

ENTRIES CLOSE SATURDAY, OCTOBER 30TH (MIDNIGHT – GMT).

Good luck :-)

New Earning Opportunity: Techdoctordeals...

2010-10-13T13:30:00.032+01:00

Techdoctordeals is a new forum. Though my assumption is that it's a technology forum, hence the 'tech' in their name, there appear to be other topics apart from technology --- so you don't necessarily have to be tech savvy to participate.

The forum is free to join.

Posts...

- any post you make cannot be less than 250 characters. On the forum, that's about a line and a half. If it's less than 250 chars, a message will display notifying you that you haven't reached the minimum. If you really get into each post, reaching 250 chars won't be a problem at all.

- I'm not sure what the position is on creating threads. I don't know who and who can't create them. I'd say just stick to replying to threads as there are plenty to go through.

Pay per post/thread...

When I joined in late Sept/early October, it was 75 cents per post/thread, then it dropped to 50 cents, then around 30 cents, then threads went up to 40 cents each and posts down to 15 cents each. As of today (2nd Nov), posts/threads have been changed to 3-5 cents each. Yes. Not a misprint. 3-5 cents.

Minimum withdrawal...

Used to be $10 Canadian dollars, then they changed the rules. Two memberships: free and premium. Free members could only withdraw $10 a week. Premium members could withdraw as much as they managed to earn.

Then it got changed. Only premium members could get paid. Free members could withdraw a one-off $10 payment which they could use to upgrade to premium. Minimum payout for premium members was changed to $100. Yes. $100. And you could only request payment once a month.

As of today (2nd Nov), minimum payout has been reset to $20. I don't know if this applies to free and premium members.

You must have a verified Paypal account. (Alertpay's recently been added as a payment option)

Premium membership...

This was introduced around mid October. Was $9.99 a month, then some weeks later, it was changed to $14.99 a month if non recurring payments were made. Now it's $5.99/month (as of 2nd Nov).

As well as being able to withdraw as much as they'd earned, premium members were also able to take advantage of Techdoctordeals' referral program (which used to be available to free members). I say 'was' because as of Nov 2nd, free members are now privy to it too.

The whole idea behind introducing premium membership was because some members had unverified Paypal accounts and apparently Techdoctordeals was finding it very problematic. I don't completely get why it was a problem. I also don't get why they considered monthly payments of $9.99 to be a solution to that problem. Does $9.99 a month automatically make an unverified Paypal account verified? For me, it felt a tad opportunistic and exploitative.

When are payments made?

Used to be every Friday, then it changed to once a month, then to twice a month. When it was every Friday, I received my first two payments on time, in fact days before. My 3rd payment took longer - almost two weeks (before it was changed to once/twice a month).

PROOF OF 2ND PAYMENT

PROOF OF 1ST PAYMENT

If you log in and you're taken to a message...

Right, Techdoctordeals do a number of updates throughout the day. These are messages they consider to be important and that every member should read. Therefore, every time you log in, if there's been a new update, you'll automatically be taken to a box prompting you to read it. Once you read the message, you can continue on to the forum. However, if there's more than one message, when you click to go to the forum, you'll automatically be taken back to the box prompting you to read the next message. There's no way around it - it'll keep on looping you through the box and onto the next message until all updates have been read.

I definitely won't be upgrading...

Techdoctordeals is a relatively new forum trying to find its feet and adapt to more members joining every day. I get that. But I feel the admin's made a mess of something that was working OK. The sheer rate at which the rules change is head spinning. First, premium membership was introduced, then the referral program was only available to premium members, then the posting pay rate was changed, then pay-request limits were phased in for free members, then free members could only make a one-off withdrawal, then the minimum payout was increased for premium members... the list of changes goes on.

I don't think I'd been a member there for more than a month, and in that time, all this (and more) had happened.

I must be special.

They didn't have to put on a show for me. Really. They didn't.

Whereas I was toying with the idea of possibly upgrading once the forum found its own groove and settled, it's now looking veeeeeery unlikely that I will.

I really can't, in all honesty, recommend this forum. I think it's too volatile. It doesn't foster trust and loyalty if the rules change so frequently. Also, at 3 to 5 cents a post, I hardly think it's worth upgrading to premium (at $5.99 a month).

If you really are gonna join Techdoctordeals, I'd advice that you stick to being a free member. Whatever you do is totally your choice, though, so if you do decide to upgrade, good luck.

This is the last update I'll be doing about Techdoctordeals as I don't plan on using it much longer. For any future changes/updates, please visit the forum.

Ebele.
(Updated: 3rd Nov.)

October Update: Week 1 (1st-7th Oct)...

2010-10-07T23:55:00.015+01:00

img credit: Baddog

Well, so far, I've made just under $55 ($54.90, to be precise):

CloudCrowd - $28.00

ToneADay - $9.86 (it was $11.00, less the 10% charitable contribution of $1.10. Actually, I upped it to $1.14.)

Techdoctordeals - $9.57 (new paid forum-posting site. Free to join. Pays from around 20 cents a post. Minimum payout: $10 (Canadian dollars). Via Paypal. Payout request limit of $10/week for free members unless you upgrade. Will write more about this forum in my next post.)

Swagbucks - $5.00 (read my Swagbucks review)

eBay UK - $2.47 (£1.56) (the items I put up are starting to sell - not for a whole lot, but it's something and I'm clearing out the clutter)

CLOUDCROWD PAYMENTS

TONEADAY PAYMENT (also known as Lymbix)

TECHDOCTORDEALS PAYMENT (site owned by swiftgamers.com)

SWAGBUCKS PAYMENT

Every month, I try and make more than I did the month before, so if that happens this month (where I make more than the $163.45 I made last month), then I'll be OK with that. I'm just gonna aim to do that. Don't get me wrong, if I end up making $500 or more this month, then that'll be cool. But for now, I just wanna focus on making each month better than the one before it and work my way up that way.

Ebele.

October Plans...

2010-10-06T11:28:00.013+01:00

img credit: pink sherbert

I can't believe it's almost a week into October...

Anyway, Big Mama's been thinking about what she wants to achieve this month. I'd like to:

- put up one item on eBay or Amazon every day (so far, so good. Been doing this every day.)

- sell off an unwanted domain of mine if I can (depends on interest)

- get as close as I can to breaking even on my $10 Clixsense investment (I'm over halfway there - $8.16)

- open an AlertPay account (to receive payments from sites like Clixsense that pay that way)

- make at least $50 on CloudCrowd (depending on task availability)

- make at least $10 on ToneADay (depends on word availability)

- reach min payout on Weegy (min is $20 – I'm currently at $17)

- reach min payout on CashCrate (yes, I'm giving CashCrate a second look-in. Min payout: $20. I'm @ $9.42 at the mo'.)

I think these are doable. All I have to do is, erm, erm, do them :-)

Have a grrrrreat month, people.

ebele.

Online Earnings: September 2010...

2010-10-01T18:05:00.009+01:00

img credit: rosmary

I'm not too happy with my earnings for Sept, especially as I was aiming for $500.

I made $163.45. :-(

Though it's not the least I've earned in a month this year, I don't think it's that great either. I'm not in the mood to comfort myself by reasoning that it could have been worse or "ah well, there's always next month".

It could have been better. Period.

Thinking about it, it's not really the earnings I'm disappointed with. It's more me.

Silver lining: I've been making more on CloudCrowd every month, with last month being the highest at $102.20. :-)

Earnings breakdown:
(any figures in pounds means I was originally paid in that currency)

- CloudCrowd: $102.20 (paid to complete tasks) (read my CloudCrowd review)

- ToneADay: $16.87 (read review)

- Blog commenting: $15.27 (£9.94)

- Surveys: $12.45 (MySurvey UK: $7.86 (£5.00); Pinecone Research: $4.59 (£3.00))

- myLot: $10.16 (busy, busy forum-posting community covering a multitude of topics. Pays once a month via Paypal. Min payout: $10. I'm not super active on the site, so only get a payment a very long once in a while.)

- Lucky Pacific: $6.00 (affiliate network)

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

Total ------- $163.45

Though I'm not feeling how last month panned out, what's done is done. I can't roll back time. All I can do is learn from it and move my butt forward.

I'm out...

ebele.

Triviala, I Could Kiss You :-)

2010-09-28T19:50:00.018+01:00

I won another £15 at Triviala! My 5th this year. Total of £75 so far this year for doing something that's fun (playing games) and doesn't take much of my time.

The timing's cool as I haven't been too happy with my online income this month (not that I'm getting my Triviala payment this month, though. I get it next month, but still...)

Earning is nice, but there's something about winning something that's way sweeter :-)

Proof of winnings...

[click image for larger version]

To learn more about Triviala, read my review about it.

Ebele.

Clixsense Update...

2010-09-26T03:25:00.057+01:00

(Clixsense pays you to view ads – on average, 1-2 cents per view though it can sometimes be more. Two membership levels: Standard (free) & Premium ($10 a year). Min payout: $10. Pays via cheque or AlertPay.)

I upgraded my Clixsense account yesterday. Why?

Because my imaginary friend told me to.

And I always listen to my imaginary friend.

Always.

We're married, you know? But when I show people the marriage certificate, they pretend they can't see it.

This hurts me deeply.

The whole world's gone mad if you ask me.

Anyway, so I upgraded my Clixsense account to premium again. Couple of (other) reasons why:

REASON 1: Upgrade equals more ads. The amount of initial ads you get when you upgrade depends on your location and profile. I'm in the UK so I've been given 461 ads (worth $4.61) to start with. Last year when I upgraded, I got an initial 270 ads, so 461's a significant improvement. /// Going on my past upgrade experience, after you've clicked on all the ads, you don't get the same amount of ads to click on. So, for e.g., I'm not gonna get another batch of 461 ads. Rather, I'll get a smaller amount throughout the day, everyday. Last year, I got up to 18 ads a day, plus a one-off 100-200 ads. Not what I expected, but it was still better than the amount of ads I'd get if I was a standard member.

(click image to view larger version)

REASON 2: the upgrade lasts a year which gives me more than enough time to hopefully breakeven and move into profit (especially as I don't plan on using any of my Clixsense balance to buy advertising, which is what I used to do).

(click image to view larger version)

REASON 3: Clixsense now pays via AlertPay. They used to pay via cheque only, which wasn't a problem for me as sites have sent me cheques and vouchers in the post before. However, the problem I had was that Clixsense charged $3.00 for cheques to be sent out. I mean, you did/do have the option to change your minimum payout from $10 to $20, $50 and so on to cushion the blow of a $3 charge, but $3 still seemed a bit much.

The fact that there is now an option to receive your money via AlertPay is great. Plus, there's only a 50 cent fee on that. I'm more encouraged to aim for a payout.

REASON 4: Clixsense has a good referral program that I've never really taken advantage of. Wanna see if I can change that. The program extends to standard members, but has more benefits with a premium upgrade.

Cost of an Upgrade:

The premium upgrade is $10 a year. OK with me. I don't like the extra £1.50 bank charge I'm probably gonna get for using my debit card to pay, though. Got that the last time, so I don't see it changing this time round. I might change my minimum payout on Clixsense to $20 because of that. I'll decide when I reach $10.

Potential Clixsense Earnings: Doing the (very rough) Math...

Well, before I did the recent upgrade, I was at $3.08. The upgrade's given me $4.61 worth of ads. Once I get through those, I don't expect I'll get as many, but it'll still be more than if I was a standard member.

So, $3.08 + $4.61 = $7.69

When I upgraded last year, after I got through the initial 270 ads, I was getting up to 18 cents a day.

So let's say $7.69 + (10 cents a day x 365 days) (**I'm being very prudent here which is why I've done 10 cents instead of 18) = $44.19

Also, there was a time when, several months afterwards, a large batch of ads was added (like 100 or 200):

So, $44.19 + $1.00 (100 ads – again, being prudent) = $45.19

There's more to Clixsense's referral program, but basically it's $0.01 or $0.10 per referred member (depending on if you're standard or premium) and $2.00 per member who goes on to upgrade.

Let's say I really suck at referring people, that I suck so much that a couple of people join through my referral link out of pity:

So, $45.19 + 50 cents (5 referrals) = $45.69

...then, the Tooth Fairy threatens a few of them to upgrade:

So, $45.69 + $4.00 (2 upgrades) = $49.69 total potential Clixsense earnings for the year.

Not much, but not bad on a $10 investment. I don't know how many more ads I'm actually gonna get, or how many referrals, so I could potentially make more than I'm guestimating. Or possibly less. Who knows?

Anyhoo, we'll see how it goes. Not gonna spend too much time on the site. An initial 5-10 minutes a day; then once I've gone through all 461 ads, I won't need to spend up to that.

Too-doo-loo...

MissEb.

[img credit: migraine chick]

ToneADay Tips...

2010-09-22T20:26:00.016+01:00

For those that don't know what ToneADay's about, it's basically a site that pays you to rate the emotional content of a preselected group of words. (for more info, read my ToneADay review)

For the past couple of weeks, the following has been a common trend on ToneADay:

When you go to rate words, you get a message that more words are being fetched, to be patient, to come back in a few minutes or later.

Several times, it really has been more 'later' than 'a few minutes'.

I wouldn't recommend that anyone rely on ToneADay for a significant (or only) source of income; ToneADay has said as much in their forums, and I totally agree. However, if you want to make the most of ToneADay, I have the following tips:

- log into the site and leave the window open for the duration of the time in which you're online. If there are no words to rate, refresh the window every 15 minutes or so until (hopefully) words become available.

- when words become available, do what you can while you can

- even though there's no telling when the current words you are rating will become unavailable, don't rush through them. Do what you can, but take your time rating them. I try and spend 10-30 secs rating each word. If you rush it, there's a chance ToneADay will not pay you and all the work you put in would have gone to waste.

If you're using ToneADay and can offer additional tips, that'd be grand.

My ToneADay Earnings...

I've been paid $18.66 to date (1st payment of $1.79 in Aug; 2nd payment: $16.87 in Sept). Proof below:

(click image to view larger version /// p.s.: ToneADay's owned by Lymbix - hence the name in the proof of payment)

I'm approaching the $7 mark in current unpaid earnings. Going by how unpredictable word availability has been on ToneADay, there's no telling how much further my earnings there will creep up. However, as long as my ratings get approved upon verification by the staff, then I'm good with whatever I make.

MissEb.

Not Doing Too Good This Month. Houston, Do You Copy?

2010-09-13T05:50:00.021+01:00

img credit: just taken pics

I've made $87.00 online so far this month. Not bad for a small bill or two, but if I'm looking to hit $500 by the end of the month, then I'm not doing terribly well. At this rate, I need to be making at least $22.94 a day for the rest of the month to hit that target.

Writing...

I haven't done any freelance writing this month and there's a part of me that's relieved about that. I only have the one client because that's as much as my senses can take. Crazy about my client, but while he's thinking about the next batch of titles, I'm enjoying the hiatus.

I packed in freelance writing at the end of last year, moved on from that one client; he was cool about it. In May this year, I revived my working relationship with him 'cos I missed writing for him – missed the freedom of expression I had. The money wasn't bad, either.

However, the excitement has settled and the feeling of dread I used to experience has since returned, the "I'm not looking forward to writing this piece" feeling, the "let me do the vacuuming, the washing, the cooking, call Obama, ask him and Michelle how they're doing" feeling.

It's not that the pieces are that hard to write. It's just that...oh, I don't know...

Maybe I'll never be able to get to the root of why freelance writing does what it does to my psyche, but I think it might be time to accept it for what it is and move on (once and for all).

Hmm. I see...

I've realised it's not really the writing that I missed with the client, but our working relationship. I mean, I've been working with him for a few years. /// If the writing's the problem, then I might ask him if he has any other projects I could work on that aren't writing related. He does work for a web agency, so there might be other online stuff I could do. Might be worth asking, but I feel I'm well and truly done with freelance writing. Blog commenting, fine. But not content writing. I'm done.

(Update: the world looks a lot different at 3.45 on a Monday afternoon. I'm not feeling quite as anti-freelance-GRRR-writing as I did several hours ago. My feelings about it at the time were and still are valid. // Still wanna move on from it once and for all towards the end of the year.)

$500 target, Mama's coming for yo' ass...

If I manage my time better (she says), stick to a schedule (which is SO unGemini of me), I think I can do it. I really do. Whether I actually will is another thing, but I wanna prove to myself (and my imaginary friend in the corner) that I can (yes I can, yes I can, can, can).

Oooh, I love brackets. Evidentally :-)

Wish me luck.

Will update on my progress.

E. / Over and out...

August 2010: Online Earnings...

2010-09-01T16:50:00.014+01:00

Right, I'm gonna jump straight to it. I made $496.44 in August. Grateful for the money, but slightly frustrated it was a few dollars short of $500. I'm no longer aiming to make $1000 a month for now; need to go back to the drawing board. Actually, there wasn't a board to start with, or a marker, which was parto of the problemo.

Another part of the problem was...at the start of every month, things tend to look more achievable, don't they? So I thought, "hey, why not shoot for $1k this month?" I just sat there and plucked a nice round thousand outta my head like the frikkin tooth fairy was gonna tuck a wad of dollar bills under my pillow.

Anyway, August's earnings (breakdown):
(any figures in pounds means I was originally paid in that currency)

- Writing: $249.13 (blog writing - $230.64 ...and blog commenting - $18.49 (£11.87))

- CloudCrowd: $80.88 (paid to complete tasks) (read my CloudCrowd review)

- Research work: $47.75 (last pay from the research gig I packed in)

- ebay: $36.13 (£23.34) (still getting rid of stuff)

- Surveys: $27.82 (£17.73) (MySurvey UK - $11.67 (£7.50); Crowdology - $6.90 (£4.23); Pinecone Research - $4.63 (£3.00); LightSpeed Panel UK - $4.62 (£3.00))

- Proofreading: $24.24

- Triviala - $23.37 (£15.00) (games/trivia site) (read review)

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

- ToneADay: $1.79 (read review)

- QuickRewards Network: $0.33 (GPT site) (read review)

TOTAL: $496.44

$500: a new obsession...

This is the second time I've been sooooo oooo oooo close to making $500/month this year. In June, it was $492.96. Because I've been so close, because it's eluded me TWICE, I can feel it becoming something of an obsession this month. Maybe that's the extra ingredient I need.

Here's to a kick-ass September (for you, too). Grrrrrr it.

Ebele.

CloudCrowd Review...

2010-08-28T16:41:00.018+01:00

(For updates, please scroll down to the bottom)

CloudCrowd pays you to complete a number of tasks including:

- looking for email addresses and business profiles

- evaluating images

- editing and reviewing content

- translation work (usually German/French to English and vice versa)

- writing summaries

- singing songs (yep!)

Payments are made every business weekday via Paypal.

What You'll Need...

CloudCrowd doesn't work on a *Mac. You will need a PC (Windows platform). (*my bad - apparently you can use CloudCrowd on a Mac. To do edits/reviews, you'll need the Mac version of Word.)

You will also need a Firefox browser (preferably --- not sure it works on other browsers).

If you plan on doing any editing, writing, reviewing (and, I think, translation), you will also need Microsoft Word.

Credential Tests...

To do most tasks, you must first complete and pass a test (known as a Credential Test). The ones you have to sit an initial test for pay more (9 cents to $15.00 each). However, for a few other tasks, a test is not required (for now) and you can jump straight in (pays mostly 2 cents each).

You can only take a particular credential/translator test ONCE. CloudCrowd might change this in the future.

Pay-rate variance...

The pay isn't always the same on CloudCrowd; sometimes it changes every few days or so - it can go up or down.

Task availability...

Tasks and credential tests aren't always available. To know when they become available, you can either make frequent visits to the site or you can request that you be informed when they do become available.

Task checking...

Often, when you complete and submit a task, someone will look over your work to make sure you've done it properly. If you ever submit a task and its status is 'Awaiting Approval', then that's what's happening there.

Other times, when you submit a task, it's automatically approved. However, a reviewer can still go back and check it.

Upon checking, if he/she thinks you haven't done it well, your task will be rejected, you lose some *credibility (explained below) and you won't get paid for it.

If you feel it should have been approved, you can appeal it (exception: you can't appeal a credential test). The appeal process can take some time and you're only allowed to appeal one task at a time. Though that's the way to go, some members sometimes choose to forgo that and post a thread on the support forum instead. I've noticed a lot of the time, it gets dealt with. Though you can't appeal credential tests, I've seen a couple of people take the support-forum route.

Credibility...

What this means is how well you do each task. The credibility level starts from 30, I believe, and goes up to 100. The more tasks you do correctly, the more your credibility creeps up. However, if you do one task wrong, it can go down pretty quickly, so be careful. If it gets to a certain low, you can be put on probation. You can still do tasks, but it means that you're being monitored more closely until your tasks prove you're doing the job properly.

Credibility loss and probation periods happen to CloudCrowd workers frequently, so don't be too alarmed if it happens to you. It's happened to me a few times and is part of the learning process. Just be careful and do the job as thoroughly and attentively as you can.

Your credibility is important because it can often determine the tasks you're entitled to do. Also, if you dip to a certain level (beyond probation level), you can get suspended. It doesn't happen to a lot of people, but it has happened. If you read the rules thoroughly, make sure you understand what you're required to do, read the support forum and ask questions if you don't understand something, then you should be OK.

Some pointers...

- just to make it clear, you don't earn with Facebook, you earn with CloudCrowd. However, you need a Facebook account to join CloudCrowd as its application is Facebook-based.

- you need a VERIFIED Paypal account to receive payments from CloudCrowd

- before attempting your first task or taking a test, read CloudCrowd's rules as thoroughly as you can as well as the support forum.

- keep your credibility level healthy

- your tasks are checked by other CloudCrowd members. Who does it depends on their credential and credibility

- though CloudCrowd standards are quite high, rejections have been known to be wrong. If you're adamant your task shouldn't have been rejected, appeal it.

- when you get a task, it's up to you if you wanna do it or skip it. If you skip it, most of the time, a new task will appear (unless CloudCrowd runs out of tasks). If you get a task that you're unsure about, you might want to consider skipping it altogether rather than run the risk of attempting it, having it rejected and losing some of your credibility. It's up to you, though. Everyone works differently.

My Experience with CloudCrowd...

When I initially joined CloudCrowd, I wasn't really that active. I did a few of the low-paid tasks just to test things out and got paid overnight which was cool. After that, I didn't use it for a while.

About a month ago, I decided to revisit. I wanted to earn more and decided to take the editing credential test. I'd been putting it off for a while because I was nervous about it. The rules seemed overwhelming. But I guess on that day, I was feeling less fearful and more willing to just go for it without worrying about how it might pan out.

Few days later, I got an email informing me that I'd passed. I'd kinda forgotten I took the test. I think at the time I took it, it was more important that I conquered a fear.

However, saying that, the extra money is definitely appreciated. I tend to do more review work as I enjoy proofreading, but I've also done some editing work. I was nervous about doing the editing work too, but glad I gave it a go. It's not quite as daunting anymore.

If you see tasks on there that you feel you're skilled to do, try taking the test. The worst that could happen is that you don't get in. That's it.

Help...

If you have any questions, I don't consider myself to be a CloudCrowd guru, but I'm willing to help if I can with what I know. However, your first port of call should be the support forum.

Good luck...

If you plan on joining CloudCrowd, good luck. It's a site that's still in beta so it's not without its faults, but it has potential.

Update - 5th Sept:

There are currently two new translation tasks on CloudCrowd. They mightn't be new, but I haven't seen them in the time I've been a worker there. Anyway, they are:

- Spanish to English, and
- Chinese to English (actually, it says 'Chinese Simpl. to English'. Not sure what the 'Simpl.' means)

Payment's currently $5.00 per task to review the above translations. You have to take a translator test first.

Update - 28th Aug:

The credential test for English editing is currently available and has been since 14th Aug. I don't know how long it'll be up for. If you feel you'd be good at proofreading/editing, consider giving it a go. If you pass it, it means you'll be able to:

- edit documents (current rate: $2.00 per edit)
- review edited documents (current rate: $0.37-$0.62 per review)
- grade editor credential tests (current rate: $0.09 per grade)

...as well as other paid tasks.

What I've Been Up To...

2010-08-22T14:32:00.011+01:00

img credit: striatic

When people ask me what I've been up to, I usually don't have a frikkin clue 'cos my mind draws a blank.

Does it happen to you too?

Anyway, I'm asking myself the same question, trying to think about what I've been up to, so I'll start from the most recent and try and work my way backwards (she says).

i) Mama's got a brand new blog

I set it up a few days ago: My Kooday Diary. Been hearing about a site called Kooday on the lips of many for a while. I was curious so I thought I'd check it out. The main premise of Kooday is that you make money by buying & selling keywords. There are a few other ways to earn too.

The site requires a minimum $5 investment to get started, so I paid up. I had no problem investing that amount. My curiosity was stronger than the worry that I might lose my investment. Plus, it's an amount I'm prepared to lose. However, I ain't investing any more than that.

Within 2 days, I'd made back my initial investment, plus a couple extra dollars. Well, in theory, I have. It's one thing to 'earn', it's another to actually receive the money in your Paypal account. I've requested payment, so we'll see if they pay up. I've seen a couple proofs of payment, but I wanna experience it myself to make sure.

ii) Actually, erm, Mama's got two brand new blogs...

The second one's How to Make $35 Online in a Week. I set it up after coming across a discussion on myLot. There was this guy who needed $60 in a week to pay for something. He already had $25 and needed $35. I gave him a couple of suggestions and ended up setting up a blog to demonstrate.

There are obviously other ways to make that amount, but I suggested ones I have personal experience of using.

iii) Packed in the research job...

Tried the gig for a month or so, but decided it wasn't for me. I'm glad I gave it a go. Worked for a really lovely client - was a great mentor, patient, cool, genuine, friendly. Would love to work with him again in the future. He's open to it too.

iv) Other stuff...

- CloudCrowd: So far this month, I've made over $50 on there. Last month, it was under $20. The reason for the jump this month is 'cos I stepped outside my comfort zone and started editing documents. Usually, I stick to reviewing edited documents and grading English Editor tests. It's what I generally prefer to do. However, now, sometimes I'll also edit a couple of documents. Those pay more.

I'm gonna post up a CloudCrowd review soon.

- Freelance writing: The writing's going OK. Written four pieces this month. Not as much as I planned to, but I should be less busy this coming week.

I like...

Having created the two new blogs, it's revived my interest in writing in that vane. I really like investigating stuff and feeding back on my findings (or setting myself a challenge and doing updates on it). I did it with Neobux where I tried the site out for a few months. I don't know why I get a kick out of it, but I do.

It can also be a great way to get referrals, but I tend not to insert referral links 'til I've seen a significant amount of proofs of payment and/or made some money myself.

Anyway, so that's what I've been up to. There's probably other little bits & pieces, but if they don't want to be remembered, ah well...

How about you? How's your online month been?

New Earning Opportunity: ToneADay...

2010-08-08T17:06:00.043+01:00

(UPDATE - JAN 22ND 2011: ToneADay has changed its payment structure. It now only pays its top raters. Read my post Toneaday Changes for more info.)

I heard about ToneADay quite recently. I read mixed reviews about it - was sceptical but very curious, so I joined.

It's an unusual site. Owned by a company called Lymbix.

How it Works...

You're given a random word (or words) and, using slides, you have to choose how the word makes you feel. For each word you rate on, your account is credited with 2 cents. That's it in a nutshell, really, as I understand it so far.

100 words or so...

You're given around 100 words to start with (mine was 96).

For each word, you're asked how you feel about it. You choose however you feel about the word from a list (as below):

- Affection/Friendliness
- Enjoyment/Elation
- Amusement/Excitement
- Contentment/Gratitude
- Sadness/Grief
- Anger/Loathing
- Fear/Uneasiness
- Humiliation/Shame

So, for example, and this is just an example, if the word 'toothpick' appears, you have to choose how that word makes you feel. Does it make you feel affection, contentment, anger, fear or nothing at all?

Here's a screenshot:

There's a slide (a face) under each emotion. For any emotion you choose, you use the slide to indicate the level of your emotion. So, if the word toothpick makes you feel anger, you use the slide to indicate how angry it makes you feel. If it makes you feel anger AND fear, you use the corresponding slides for both.

Accessing the emotions & slides...

You have 3 options when you're given a word/words. You can either rate it, skip it all together or deem it as unrateable. If you choose to rate a word, choose the 'Rate This Phrase' Button. It will then give you access to the emotions/slides.

How long did it take me?

It didn't take too long for me to get through the batch of 96 words. I wasn't clock watching, but it didn't feel longer than 30-35mins at the most. It was interesting to find out how I felt about certain words.

So I rated the 100 or so words. Then what?

I requested payment ($2.00). First though, 10% of it was held as a charitable donation. I don't mind - think it's cool. There were two charities to choose from. You can also adjust the donation up if you want. I changed mine to 21 cents as I have a luck thing about the number 7 (21's divisible by 7). Don't ask. It's just a thing I do.

The remainder ($1.79) I requested via Paypal and got it instantly. No fees. Payment proof below:

UPDATE - 11th Aug: From what I've been reading on myLot, it seems payment is no longer made soon after you request it; it's now made after it's been reviewed and can take up to a week. I quote below:

"We've been notified of your checkout request, however to protect against fraud (no one likes spammy data) we need to verify your contributions. Once your request is approved you will be able to redeem your earnings.

Due to the high volume of user data being processed, it may take up to a week before your checkout request is approved. Please be patient as we work to improve our process."

Payout Thresholds...

There used to be five payout levels. There are now two. One is the $2 payout at the Qualifying level; kinda like a taster, a token payment so-to-speak.

You then go on to the next level where you can rate much more (up to 500 ratings a day // Sometimes there are no words to rate at all and you have to refresh the page after a few minutes or just come back later. There have been times when it's seemed like days before words have become available and when they have, it's been nowhere near the 500-word quota. However, there's definitely been a marked improvement this month (Oct)).

When are Payments Made?

Once a month. Via Paypal. I'm not sure if the same rule applies at the qualifying level.

Tips for Ya...

- Take your time, concentrate on each word. You'll enjoy it more and are less likely to notice how many you've gone through.

- Break the ratings up into manageable chunks over a period of time. It also stops monotony from sinking in.

- ToneADay has a support forum. Read it. Use it (if need be).

- They're also on Facebook.

Inevitably, there'll be those who'll try and buck the system by going on a hyper-clicking frenzy without paying much attention to the words. I say good luck to them.

I plan on using ToneADay as something to do when my mind needs a breather. I'm finding it interesting at the moment. But, knowing me, I'm likely to tire of it sooner or later.

UPDATE - 22nd Jan '11:

Toneaday has reopened its doors. However, it's now only paying its top raters. More info - read my post: Toneaday Changes.

UPDATE - November '10:

You now have to sit (and pass) an English competency test to continue rating at ToneADay. The test is set for 10 minutes. Very important: do not leave the test window while taking the test. If you do, you have to start the test afresh. You're given three chances to retest if you leave the test window or mistakenly refresh it. However, once you've completed the test, that's it, you don't get another go.

I took the test and found it relatively easy. Took me about 3 minutes. However, I appreciate that everyone's at different levels.

Tip: Read the words out to yourself if need be. Sometimes, your voice can catch what your eyes miss.

UPDATE - October '10:

ToneADay is currently not accepting new members. However, they do invite people to still register should positions become available in the future. Might be advisable to do so.

UPDATE - 31st Aug '10:

It's a bit of mess, y'all. There now seem to be as many people waiting for payment as there are those who've been paid. I don't think the company reckoned on just how many people would join the site.

UPDATE - 14th Aug '10:

Things seem to be moving now and people are starting to get paid. If you read through the following:

- ToneADay (Lymbix) on Facebook

- WAHM forum: (ToneADay) fun little job

...you'll notice some people have been confirming they've received payment.

UPDATE - 11th Aug '10: a few people have been waiting for their payment for a while, some for over a week, some pushing on 2 weeks.

Without anything official (like an FAQ) on the site to indicate just how long payments should take, and considering most people were paid at the initial level pretty quickly, people are naturally making the understandable assumption that the 2nd payment should follow a similar pattern. I think there needs to be something concrete on their site regarding payment turnaround times so everyone knows what's what.

Have a good week/end, y'all...

Miss E to the mother-choclating B.

July 2010: Online Earnings...

2010-08-01T16:47:00.026+01:00

img credit: Niffty

I made nowhere near the $1000 I hoped to make. I'm not too disappointed, but I was hoping I'd surpass $500. In fact, I made less in July than I did the previous month.

So what happened, m'lady? Pray tell.

Well, everything was going great in the first week of July. I was actually skipping through the week thinking if things continue this way, then Donald frikkin Trump, you better watch out.

And then leading up to mid-month, things seemed to stall.

I was also extreeeemely busy offline one other week; I ran two workshops in a school. So there I was thinking I was Superwoman and could juggle the workshops with research work that week. Looked good on paper, but the reality was I was sooooo tired preparing for & doing the workshops that I just didn't have the physical or mind energy to then plough into online stuff. I mean, I could just about remember Denzel Washington used to be my man in a parallel world where everything's made outta chocolate.

Along with life throwing stones anyhow and any time it damn flippin well pleases, I managed to make $455.95.

Breakdown is as follows:

(any figures in pounds means I was originally paid in that currency)

- Research work: $248.66 (private client) (it's bloody hard work)

- Writing: $115.62 (private client)

- Surveys: $37.94 (£25.00) (Hi-epanel - £16.00; Pinecone Research - £9.00)

- Triviala - $22.80 (£15.00) (games/trivia site) (read review)

- CloudCrowd: $18.86 (pays for completion of tasks including searching, editing, translating & reviewing. Need a Facebook account. Pay varies from 1 cent to $5 per completed task. Pays every weekday via Paypal.)

- Proofreading: $6.52 (private clients)

- Swagbucks: $5.00 (I'm getting $5-$10 a mth for what doesn't feel like much work. I search a few times a day, do a poll, maybe do a survey every now & then and that's it. The more you do there, the more you earn, but I'm happy just doing the bare minimum. / To find out more about Swagbucks, read my review)

- QuickRewards Network: $0.55 (GPT site. read review)

TOTAL: $455.95

So, yeah, that's been my month...

It would be good to make $1000 this month, but I'm not gonna sweat it if I don't. However, it would be good to have one month this year in which I do. Means I have 5 times to give it a go before the year's out.

Anyway, I hope y'all have had a relatively good July online. Do share your achievements and misses if you want.

Here's to a wonderFULL August. Bite into it.

Ebele.

Frikkin Hell, I Won 53 Swagbucks!

2010-07-16T12:59:00.036+01:00

I must be on a winning streak. First my £15.00 Triviala win yesterday --- and now 53 Swagbucks?

It's all downhill from here :-)

[click image for larger version]

I've never won that much on Swagbucks before! Had to blink twice.

Super chuffed.

Never heard of Swagbucks.com? Weeell...

- it's a Google-powered search engine

- when you use the search engine, you sometimes win what they call 'Swagbucks'

- 'swagbucks' can be exchanged for gift cards, products and money (700 Swagbucks equals $5 Paypal cash)

- there are several other ways to gain swagbucks: complete offers, do surveys, answer a daily poll, hunt for 'swagcodes', etc.

I am a mango - a mango that goes 'oh'...

I am a woman who's updated her blog 2 days in a row. Oh.

I am a hungry mango woman blogger who reeeeally doesn't fancy having tuna pasta for lunch.

Luke Skywalker, I am your mother. Now, go get mama some sushi and a diet Coke, sugar.

but I digress... (I am - therefore, I digress. Becauze I am zee sexzee digress chick. Beautifully digressologically unsound ...which means I taste better. Scienterrifically proven.)

Ahem.

To find out more about Swagbucks, read my review

...or go right ahead and join.

**UPDATE - 30TH JULY: MAYDAY, MAYDAY, I WON 47 SWAGBUCKS TODAY. YAY!

I'm out...

Ebele.

Wooohooo, I've Just Won Another £15.00 on Triviala.com!

2010-07-15T16:13:00.030+01:00

(Read my review about Triviala: HERE)

I'm not usually one to win stuff. I hardly do the lottery and I don't really do competitions.

But Triviala's starting to prove me wrong! I won £15 on there last month and now another £15?

[click image for larger version]

Y to the A to the Y - Yay!

That'll make it a total £60 won so far this year (£15 x 4 wins).

Proof of payment: exhibits 1, 2 and 3, your honour...

[click images for larger versions]

Too-doo-loo...

MissEb.

June 2010: Online Earnings...

2010-07-05T00:52:00.024+01:00

(img credit: Zaggy J.)

June's seen a marked improvement in my earnings. Made $492.96; about $350 more than I did in May. Yay!

I was hoping to hit the $500 mark as I was waiting on a couple of payments, but that didn't happen. Got them eventually, so that goes into my July kitty.

MY BREAKDOWNEY'OH FOR JUNEY'OH:
(any figures in pounds means I was originally paid in that currency)

- Writing: $369.63 (private client - $346.56; Work-Online - $16.16 (£11.61); forum posting - $6.91/ **re: Work-Online - I'd had about £8 sitting there for a good while. Went back & wrote enough to reach the £10 min payout.)

- Advertising: $67.32 (I can't believe it, but I was approached to sell some advertising on one of my blogs. Schweet!)

- Getaslogan: $23.62 (You suggest a slogan. If yours gets selected, you get paid $25 for it (it's now $15). One of mine got chosen! /// Two levels: basic & premium. If you progress to the premium level, you get paid more. I got paid at the basic level.)

- Proofreading: $11.02 (private work)

- CloudCrowd: $8.70 (You get paid to complete a variety of tasks including editing, translating, reviewing & data entry. Facebook-based. Have to take a test to do most of the tasks.)

- Swagbucks (paid to search) - $5.00 (read review)

- Pinecone Research (survey site): $4.46 (£3.00) (to read more about my survey meanderings, visit my survey blog)

- ebay: $2.93 (£1.96) (I've started decluttering. My flat could do with the detox.)

- QuickRewards Network (GPT site) - $0.28 (read review)

TOTAL: $492.96

Hey, July - How Are Ya?

Over the past couple of days, I've been flipping this round in my head:

$1000 this month, $1000 this month, $1000 this month...

It's been a statement as well as a question. A mixture of confidence, curiosity & excitement on the one hand --- and "who're you kidding?" & "you sure you wanna aim that high? In public, too, fool?" on the other.

But, what the hell, I'm gonna shoot for it, dammit.

Making $1000 doesn't seem as important as the EFFORT to TRY and do it.

So, I'm gonna give it a shot :-)

WHAT ARE YOUR PLANS/GOALS FOR THIS MONTH?

MissEb.

What Big Mama's Been Up To: an Update...

2010-06-29T18:57:00.027+01:00

img credit: Flowery *L*u*z*a*

Erm...darn, now I've created the damn title, I can't quite remember what I've been up to.

What have I been up to...what have I been up to...breathe, breathe woman...

1) Well, I'm a Year Older...

Was my birthday on June 9th. Big Mama's a whole lot bigger now! She's 36.

Had a laidback day which was just the way I wanted it. Did some blogging work during the day (and suddenly, a million squirrels stop in mid-motion and say "she worked? On her birthday? Diggidy hot damn").

Yes, I'm still in shock (not at the squirrels); I worked on my birthday...and I enjoyed it!

Then I went to a close friend's for dinner (which tasted absolutely GORGEOUS), had cake and watched Sex and the City: part 1. Felt pampered and loved.

2) The Freelance Writing...

Has been going well. Written more than I did last month. Still get the squirms if I spend more than 30-45 mins writing; so I take breaks, do something else, then come back to it. What I try to focus on is how it feels when I finish writing a piece: the sense of achievement, pride, relief/weight off my shoulders.

3) Working on CloudCrowd...

CloudCrowd pays you to complete a number of tasks including editing, reviewing, research and translation. Payment can vary from a cent to $5 depending on the task.

Pays daily (weekdays only) via Paypal. You need a Facebook account too.

I joined CloudCrowd a while ago, but wasn't that active on it. Got paid for a few tasks and from time to time, I'd get a surprise referral payment.

Recently revisited the site. Been doing more tasks. The money's not gonna have your wallet bursting at the seams, but there's something about getting paid every weekday that feels...well...nice and uplifting.

4) Updated my ebook...

Some time ago, I created an ebook called 'Writing Online: 3 Ways to Make Money'. Primarily aimed at beginners and based on the experiences I'd gained at the time.

Since I've gone back to freelance writing, I've been motivated to comb through the ebook with more tips and insights.

I think I'll keep on adding things to it as I go along. Already, I have a few more ideas I wanna add at some point.

5) Mama's got a brand new gig! (play it for me, guitarist - finger that frikkin guitar, you beauty!)

Thought I'd leave this one 'til last 'cos it happened very recently and I'm super excited about it!

I got myself a research gig. Saw it advertised last week on Digital Point forums. Thought I'd pass on it 'cos I didn't feel I was qualified. But curiosity brought me back to it the following day. So I thought, what the heck, and applied. I was really honest about my experience, but also mentioned I was keen on the opportunity as it sounded really interesting. I did a trial assignment. Worked extreeeemely hard at it. Got very little sleep. Handed it in. Thought I'd done a crap job, but at that point had done the best I could do and had worked incredibly hard at it.

Didn't get a reply that day...or the day after, so I thought, "yep, I fucked up; I'm gonna go change my name now".

Then, I got a reply yesterday asking me if I was ready for the next assignment!

I GOT THE JOB! Me? Happy? Relieved? Ha!

Plus, my client (ooh, that sounds good - let me say it again: my client) seems like a genuinely nice person. Really cool. He was kinda like a mentor through the first assignment, offering tips and advice.

The pay's not bad either. I get $50 per assignment.

I'm really excited about this new gig. It's different. Interesting. I have a feeling no two assignments will ever be the same. Satisfies my natural curiosity and the need to be doing different things all the time. Whatever I research is whatever I learn is whatever I teach.

June has been an interesting, busy, challenging, rewarding month.

Looking forward to July.

How's your month been?

ebele.

Triviala: Another £15 Won!

2010-06-08T17:05:00.019+01:00

Was starting to wonder when my next win on Triviala would be. I never doubted I'd bag another cash prize; it was just a matter of when.

Soooo, I was kinda chuffed when they sent me an email today letting me know I'd won! Did a lil James Brown shuffle (could have gone all out, but I have laminate flooring, you know, and they don't come cheap. Plus, I love my neighbour. I don't think he deserves to see me flying through his ceiling...well, not yet).

(click image for larger view)

Anyway, takes up to 30 days to receive payment; will more likely go into my online kitty for July.

READ MY FULL REVIEW ABOUT TRIVIALA: HERE.

OR JOIN: HERE.

Right, haven't eaten all day. Only two cups of tea; that's it. So, I'm off to go give my tummy some good ole loving :-)

MissEb.

May '10 Online Earnings...

2010-06-02T16:50:00.012+01:00

img credit

What an interesting few weeks it's been. If anyone told me I'd be back freelance writing, I'd have felt their forehead for a fever. But, yes yes yes, here I am writing again.

I handed in an additional two pieces yesterday; met the deadline AGAIN. Yay, me! Yay sooooo not me - but, erm, it would appear that it is (or can be) if I focus and pace myself.

MAY EARNINGS...

I made $142.29 in May - about $50 more than April.

BREAKDOWN:
(any figures in brackets means I was originally paid in pounds)

- Writing (private client) - $57.66

- Proofreading (private client) - $33.33

- Pinecone Research (survey site) - $17.55 (£12.00) (I've never received this many surveys from Pinecone in one month (4 surveys). Definitely not complaining. Keep 'em coming, Pinecone.)

- Freelancer affiliate program - $10.88 (formerly getafreelancer.com. Minimum payout's $30. I'd had about $11 sitting in that account for months - so what I did was Paypal $20 across so I could reach the $30 min payout, then I withdrew the whole amount.)

- Swagbucks (paid to search) - $10.00 (read review)

- Forum posting (private client) - $6.43

- Crowdology (survey site) - $5.97 (£4.16)

- QuickRewards Network (GPT site) - $0.47 (read review)

TOTAL --- $142.29

So how'za June looking?

I expect that, with the renewed writing, June will be a better online-earning month for me. I might have a fairly-sizable proofing gig on this month (fingers crossed), plus I have some forum-posting work. I'm also gonna start reaching out for a blog-commenting gig or two. I have enough to be keeping busy with. Just need to apply myself.

This month is all about action for me; curious about what I can achieve. I'm my own lab rat...

Here's to a super-duper month for all of us. Make it purr.

ebele.

What I've Been Up To...

2010-05-23T15:09:00.023+01:00

img credit

Hey. How do? :-)

Ok, so where do I start?

A lot has happened since my last post; the most significant is...

I've gone back to freelance writing.

I thought about it. Thought about it long and hard...and decided (after much inner kicking and screaming) to revisit that part of what I used to do.

Soooo, I approached a former client I used to write for. My best client ever. The coolest.

Started writing the first line of my email to him, thought I sounded STOOPID, so saved it in draft.

Then, hours later, I decided to just go for it, damn it - wrote the email asking if I could come back for 6 months to a year, then pressed 'Send' before any hint of psychoanalysis could kick in.

The next morning, I get a real friendly email welcoming me back and asking me if I could start immediately!

Chuffed and relieved? An understatement.

I'm even getting paid a bit more than I used to. :-)

My weak points...overcoming them...trying to...

Meeting deadlines has been a problem for me. If I had a deadline to meet by, say, Friday, I'd spend all week worrying about it rather than actually doing the damn work. I'd put off the writing for as long as I could, 'til Thursday or so. Then, come Thursday, I'd start to really panic and get properly stressed out.

I now know (well I've known for a while) that the 'deadline syndrome' was based on fear: pure and simple. Fear of the sum of what I had to do. Fear of opening myself up to my work being looked at. Fear of taking action.

This time round...

This time, I decided there was little point going back into freelance writing if I wasn't willing to make some changes.

Bearing that in mind, I'm happy to say I recently wrote a piece for my client and met the deadline!

How I did it:

- I started doing the research 3 days before the deadline (trust me, this is a HUGE improvement on my part)

- Instead of focusing on the whole piece, I broke it up into small manageable chunks and just dealt with each chunk at a time.

- I'm your typical Gemini; I have a short attention span, bore easily and thrive on variety. I can't sit down and spend more than an hour or two writing an article without some serious squirming. So what I did was intersperse my day with other work I had to do, alternating between them.

- I had a daily to-do list which really helped.

So, yeah. So far, so goody oh.

Felt really good handing that piece in; a sense of achievement.

Ermmm, other things I've been up to...

- proofreading...

I've been getting more proofreading work. One's an existing client who's been making more orders. The other came after I created a thread advertising it as a service. I'd love to add more clients to my workload, so we'll see how that goes.

- forum posting...

I haven't done paid forum posting in a good good while, but I've been giving it a dabble recently. Got one that's fairly long term. New forum – good to be a part of it from the start. Doesn't feel too tasking as I find the topic cool. The pay on offer was initially 10 cents a post, but was upped to 15 cents/post. I wouldn't mind joining an additional forum; I have to find it really interest, though (very important) and it has to pay better.

I wouldn't mind doing a bit of blog commenting work too (tends to pay better).

Sooo, that's what I've been up to.

Hope y'all have had a good weekend :-)

I'm out...

Ebele.

I just won 33 SwagBucks. Am I a happy bunny or am I a happy bunny? :-)

2010-05-14T15:11:00.008+01:00

Swagbucks is going real good for me; thank you for asking (I know you asked even if you don't THINK you did; it just means the question was so deep deep deeeeeeeep down inside you, that only I can see it. Because I am Jedi. And I know. Ah-so.)

Anyway, enough revelations about my schuper power...

Briefly, Swagbucks is first and foremost a Google-powered search engine. Everytime you use it, you stand the chance of winning points (i.e., swagbucks). I've been earning $5-$10 with it every month since March (Mar: $5; Apr: $10; May: $5).

Ok, ok, ha-ha, so let's break open a bottle of flat frikkin champagne, you might say sarcastically (sarcasm turns the teeth yellow, you know), but I'm earning $5-$10/mth for veeeeeery little effort. All I do is do a couple of searches a day, go through the daily offers (I get 1-3 swagbucks - takes about a minute), and do the daily poll (I get 1 or 2 swagbucks for it).

That's it, really. I know there are other ways to earn on SB (for e.g., by completing tasks), but this is the way that suits me. Round 5 minutes a day and I'm done. Schuweet.

To read more about Swagbucks, hop along to my review.

Have a great weekend, y'all. Ride it.

Ebele.

April '10 Online Earnings...

2010-05-03T12:57:00.016+01:00

img credit: meddygarnet

Well, it would seem the less enthusiastic I felt in April about making money online, the more I seemed to have made. It's not a whole lot, but it's near-enough twice what I made in March.

I made $87.04 in April.

BREAKDOWN:
(any figures in brackets means I was originally paid in pounds)

Mutualpoints (cashback site) - $30.72 (£20.00)

Triviala (games/trivia site) - $22.79 (£15.00) (read review)

Swagbucks (paid to search) - $10.00 (read review)

Pinecone Research (survey site) - $9.21 (£6.00) (read review)

Crowdology (survey site) - $6.60 (£4.23)

Proofreading - $4.63

wisad (survey site) - $3.09 (£2.00)

TOTAL --- $87.04

Soooo, how's May looking???

Well, I'm starting to wake up a bit - the fire's coming back slowly - couple of online interests I'm thinking about: some are dormant ideas that are starting to poke me in the ribs lightly - and others are new ones. Will write about some of those in future posts.

Have a grrrrrrrrrreat month, people. Do you.

ebele.

March '10 Earnings...

2010-04-08T00:52:00.008+01:00

(img credit: tm_lv)

I haven't had much enthusiasm for this blog or making money online lately. Not sure why, but that's the way it's been over the past couple of weeks. Am I changing? Are my priorities and interests changing? Maybe. I don't know. All I know is that making money online doesn't seem quite as important to me as it used to be.

Maybe the enthusiasm will return. Maybe not. Doesn't seem to bother me either way for now.

Anyway, despite that, I have been making bits of money online here and there. I still managed to make more than I did in February which was my aim. February, I made $36.52. March, I made $47.62. Breakdown is as follows:

Crowdology (survey site) - $6.14 (£4.16)

MyVoice (survey site) - $30.10 (£20.00)

Swagbucks (paid to search) - $5.00 (read review)

Pinecone Research (survey site) - $4.51 (£3.00) (read review)

QuickRewards Network (GPT site) - $1.87 (read review)

TOTAL --- $47.62

Have a good month, people, whatever your plans are.

I'm out...

Ebele.

Swagbucks: Sooo, Erm, You're Gonna Pay Me to Do Something I Do Anyway? Cool, Where Do I Sign?

2010-03-23T16:57:00.027Z

Swagbucks is...

...a mini search engine. It sources all its search results from Google. (I say 'mini' 'cos there's a limit to how many pages come up when you do a search; usually no more than four.)

I heard about Swagbucks some time ago, last year in fact, but...

...you see when the word gets out about something, I usually tend to wait it out for a bit (whether it's to my detriment or not). I don't know, call it rebellion. Everyone goes left, I drill down to Australia.

I eventually joined this year...

...in January, but didn't really use it 'til the following month.

Can anyone join Swagbucks?

Unfortunately, no. Only open to those in the US, UK or Canada ('xcept Quebec). You've gotta be over 13 too.

Cut to the chase, woman. Where does the 'Pay Me to Do Something' come in, huh?

Well, whenever you use Swagbucks to search for something, you can sometimes win points (also called swagbucks). As the points build up, you can exchange them for prizes which vary from Amazon gift cards and Paypal payouts to MP3s, DVD players and iPhones.

What do you mean 'sometimes'?

Well, exactly that. Sometimes when you search, you win swagbucks. Sometimes you don't. You can't win all the time, can ya, unless you're a direct descendent of Dumbledore.

10, 20, 30, 40, 50...

When you search and win, the swagbucks you get are in increments of 10.

You can win up to 50 swagbucks at a time. The most I recall winning at any one time was 30.

Say, any other ways I can build up my swagbucks?

Yep, you can:

- complete special offers (you also get a couple of swagbucks for searching through the 'no obligations' special offers section everyday)

- download the Swagbucks toolbar (you get 1 swagbuck everyday for using it - sometimes you get nothing though, but most of the time I've gotten something)

- find swag codes (update: they don't do this anymore, as far as I can tell.)

- take part in the daily polls (pays 1 swag a day)

- trade in your mobile phone/vid games

- invite people to join (everytime they search & win swagbucks, you get the same amount they do. The most you can earn per invite is 1000 swagbucks, though.)

- submit an idea for one of the several polls Swagbucks frequently runs. If yours is chosen, you get a certain amount of swagbucks for that (think it's 100).

- do surveys

How many swagbucks do you need to request a prize?

Depends on what you want. With loads of prizes up for grabs, the swagbucks you need for each prize varies. For example, to redeem:

- a $5 Amazon.com giftcard, you need 450 swagbucks

- $5 Paypal = 700 swagbucks

- a $15 iTunes gift card = 1850 swagbucks

- 'Lovely' fragrance by Sarah Jessica Parker = 2700 swagbucks

- a Nintendo Wii = 19,080 swagbucks

Lots of other prizes. Just depends on what you fancy. Here's my Paypal payment from them:

Also, thanks to their Paypal sale, I was able to request my 2nd payment yesterday (22nd Mar)...

What else, what else, what else, erm...

- how long it takes to receive your prize depends on what you've ordered. Electronic gift cards take 10-14 working days and physical gifts take about 14 working days.

- Some prizes are only deliverable (or only work) within the US/Canada, so keep that in mind if you're in the UK.

- On certain days, you're given the chance to win more swagbucks than usual.

- Don't go overboard with the searching. Winning swagbucks is cool, but if you get none after your first 3 or 4 searches, let it go and leave it for a couple of hours --- or just keep on using it and forget about the bucks 'til next time. There's no particular rhythm to how I use Swagbucks, but I find that I win something two or three times over the course of the day if I leave a considerable gap (of hours) between my bunch of searches. The trick is to get used to using Swagbucks as a search tool. If something comes to mind and you wanna find out more about it, go to Swagbucks first, then Google for more extensive research.

The ways I sees it...

Vouchers and gift cards are cool, but I prefer cash, so I'm glad Swagbucks have the PayPal option. However, it's great they have a wide range of prizes to choose from. A handful of swagbucks here, a few there, it all adds up.

There's more to Swagbucks, but I think I've covered enough to give you some idea of what the site's about.

Right. I'm off to go play hopscotch with my imaginary friend. His name's Harry. He's a poet. Wears pink shorts and a pink headband. Heart of gold, but hairy as f*ck.

MissEb.

Am I Scared of Money?

2010-03-17T12:55:00.018Z

img credit: edvvc

I was in the bathroom the other day (erm, as you do) and the above question came up. I didn't think it, I didn't ask it - it just came.

Since then, it's been floating round my head --- and as recurring as the question has been, I don't have an answer.

That's ok for now.

Me? Scared of money?

I know the answer isn't 'No' 'cos if it was, I feel I'd have a better relationship with money and have more of it.

Well if the answer ain't 'No', then, duh, it's 'Yes' then...

...well, for some reason, I'm reluctant to go with that even though I know that's the likely answer.

Am I asking the wrong question to start with?

Well, if I asked it, then maybe. But I didn't. The question, erm, asked the question.

One thing I do know...

...is that the question is important. I feel/think it is. To me. (for some reason, I've got this image of a question mark wearing a feathered hat tipped to the side like a pimp).

--------------

I wanted to put the same question out to y'all. Are you scared of money? Do you think you are? It's cool if you've never thought about it or can't answer it. I can't at the mo'.

Ebele.

Free Tea? For Moi? Aww, You Shouldn't Have (Blush Blush)...

2010-03-09T01:19:00.012Z

Got two free bags of tea in the post the other day courtesy of Twinings. Think I found out about this offer via MagicFreebies.com or some other freebie site. Anyway, there were a range of flavours to choose from and OF COURSE I chose the Strawberry & MANGO! Like, my name wouldn't be Ebele if I didn't pick the one with mango in it. Other flavour I picked: Green tea with Apple and Pear. Sipped that the night before last. Green tea ain't usually my thing, but this was fragrant and tasted quite nice with a teaspoon of honey.

Will do tongues with the Strawberry & Mango soon. Probably tonight.

Oh and a '20p off' voucher was also enclosed in case I have the urge to skip out my front door to go buy some.

Great thing about freebies is that I usually forget I requested them. When they eventually arrive, it's a pleasant surprise, kinda like a lil gift.

Laters...

MissEb.