Tuesday, August 31, 2010

Places to look for work

Would it surprise you that there are many places online that list jobs that some people are unaware of. Of course most people are aware of monster.com and craigslist to look for jobs but what are some of the other major job search sites? If you are looking for engineering jobs and happen to live in the San Francisco Bay Area, check out the online classifieds for the San Jose Mercury news. The same thing for any local newspaper, go to their website where they often list their classified ads.

Here is a brief list of other job websites that you can search for work:
  • career.com
  • indeed.com
  • yahoo jobs
  • Your local state employment website, some are extensive and others non-existent.

What are you doing without?

The economy is still stagnant for millions of people. Going without is no longer a matter of figuring out to shut off the cable TV or cut back on the Starbucks coffee. Now it is a matter of doing without health insurance, letting the payments lapse on the term life insurance and deciding on if giving up meat in the diet would save money. People are cutting back on everything.

Just a few days ago I started to notice that our local Goodwill and St Vinnies were getting a lot more up scale donations. I asked why and found out that since many people have lost their homes and they could not afford to put their items into storage, those items ended up being donated. Those people are doing without not only their homes but most of their worldly possessions.

Watching our local news today, they have painted a dismal picture for the up coming Christmas shopping season. I am not sure of that since many local businesses have "help wanted" signs in their windows. They are gearing up for when the college kids go back to school and leave their jobs.

I am going to tell you what I have been doing without and then it is your turn. I have been cutting back on snack foods, my weakness is cookies, ice cream and donuts. I have not had a donut in at least 6 months, a cookie in 4 months but that ice cream habit is a little harder to break. At least it is the cheap brand bought at the Grocery Outlet.

Now it is your turn, what have you been doing without?

Saturday, August 21, 2010

Tips to increase your earnings with Adsense

Are you frustrated with your meager daily earnings with Adsense? You are not alone by any means. Do your websites or blogs have huge numbers of visitors but very few clicks on your Adsense ads? Then you are obviously doing something wrong. Below I have some tips and some insight what you might be doing wrong.



Let's first take a look at what people do when surfing the internet. They are either looking up information, shopping or just passing the time. If you have any one of those types of blogs or websites then you have half the battle done for you. Just personal ramblings just don't attract people to click on Adsense ads in those sites, they are just there to read and move on. So here is a list of tips to increase you earnings with Adsense:
  • Write crap - yes, you read it right, crap. How many times have you visited blogs and not find what you were looking for and clicked on an ad just because the ad sounded better than what you were reading. Google wants original content but their bots are not intelligent enough to know the difference between good original content and original crap.
  • Write about the item you want the ad to display. If you want an ad to appear about coach gifts then you have to mention that item at least 3 times in your post or article. 
  • Write about something that pays higher per click. If you are getting over 100 clicks a day but each of them are only worth .03 a click then you need to aim for higher paying words. You article does not have to be about lawyers, loans or medical devices but you need to mention the same phrase or word at least 3 times to trigger those ads.
  • Write a short (under 300 words) post with a title that claims to give an answer to a question.  Then do the unthinkable.........don't answer the question. That will leave the reader hanging and they will either leave via an Adsense ad that gives them their answer or they will click on something else.
What you have to keep in mind is the fact that most of those methods will have the effect of your blog or website only having one time visitors. People will not want to return. On the other hand there are billions of people on the internet so if they only visit your blog or website once, who cares, you'll would have made some money from each of them.

Tuesday, August 17, 2010

Why would you work for free?



First watch the video above then read my little rambling pissed off story.

This has got to be my biggest gripe as a blogger and freelance writer.....people who give away their work. There are plenty of online companies and websites that are just clamoring for unskilled and fresh out of college writers to work for them for ............FREE (or almost free, it is called peanuts).

Who are these content producing sweat shops? They are the new wave of the future my friends. They are big companies like Yahoo and AOL to the smaller ones that have a league of paid bloggers like IZEA. They either want you to produce a written work of art that will pull in readers and yet only cost them pocket change or they want you to post an article on your own blog touting the miracles of the "X" brand of toothpaste all for under a $1.

A few years ago, online writers could earn a decent part-time salary. I was earning about $200 a week just on paid blog posts. Not bad until the paid blogging companies got really cheap with their offerings. Then came the influx of non-English speaking writers who have admitted to eagerly snapping up writing assignments for $1 for 300 words because that is nearly a day's wage where they live. All I can say is.....where in the F*** can you go online, pay the electric bill and still profit at $1 a day? Of course they did not mention that they also grab 4 or 5 other $1 assignments at the same time bringing it to a whooping $5 a day.

That brings me to the fact that many people join content producing websites like hubpages and demand studios just to churn out as many articles as they can so they can get a few extra dollars here and there. There is nothing wrong with that.....BUT DON'T CUT YOURSELF SHORT. Just like he said in the video above, quality costs money. If you write quality articles, expect to be paid with quality numbers. Most well written short articles of under 800 words are paid at the rate of over $75..........NOT $5!! Find and locate those companies that will pay those higher numbers and quit giving your work away.

Sunday, August 15, 2010

Find out who I am

If you take a look at the top of this post, you will notice that I just added a new page to the blog, titled "Who I am." There you will find out almost everything about me. Why I write, my adventures in blogging and why I confess that this blog is my one a day prenatal vitamins, since I consider this blog my "baby." I get an energy boost just writing in this blog, even if very few people will ever see it. When I started to write the page I wondered where I would begin and just let my creative juices flow, and flow they did. So if you plan on taking a look at it, be warned, it is long, very long.......but I hope interesting.

Friday, August 13, 2010

Millionare resorts to selling her stuff on eBay

This has got to be the sign of the times. Self proclaimed, self-made multimillionaire, Ali Brown (her website is at alibrown.com) is now selling her stuff on eBay. Her eBay "store" is at http://stores.ebay.com/alibrowncloset and as of today only sold one item as seen in her feedback score. All of the proceeds are going to "Step Up" a non-profit, but if she is as rich as she pretends to be then why not just write the organization a check?

Why in the world would a multimillionaire being selling stuff on eBay? It just does not make sense. Her Twitter account may be the clue to it all (twitter account is http://twitter.com/alibrownla ) in that almost every tweet is a tweet to sell something. She has little or no interaction with her followers at all. So I did a bit more digging.......oh how I love to dig up stuff on people.

First up I could not find anything about this woman other then on her own websites. I did find lots of people that could not get their money back after joining one of her "programs."Of course there is lots of praise about her coaching (no doubt written by people who paid lots of money for it and hate to admit they were taken). But I could still not find out the following:
  1. Is she really a multimillionaire?
  2. Is she even mentioned on the BIG name websites like CNN or Forbes? Sorry Inc 500 does not count since I have never heard of that organization before today.
  3. Other than her "coaching" what is her real business? I mean where does she make her money? Surely not off the backs off all of those people that pay to hear her speak? All talk and no evidence!
  4. I did find a video of her on ABC promoting her book, yet another one on coaching.
The bottom line is that people can claim to be anything online and if they claim to be rich enough, then people want some of that action and then that person gets richer. Talk about a pyramid scheme based on ego! Ali's book, website and everything about her is just her reeking of positive outlook on life and that is it, nothing else just online therapy for those that want to dish out the money to read what she has to say.......even though she herself has only herself to sell.

I now wonder if people are finding out that she in reality has no track record of being successful herself and is just good at marketing her own self. If that is the case then her income would dry up as people wise up. Maybe she really can't afford to write that check after all.

Saturday, August 7, 2010

Forget using meta tags, Google does not read them!!!!

Are you shocked at the title of my blog post? Well you should be. How many times have you heard over and over again the you need to add meta tags to your blog or website so the search engines can do searches on those words? Well it is untrue. If you don't believe me then watch this video, made in May 2010, with Matt Cutts of Google saying exactly that.



That video is something that everyone who wants to their blog or website to be found online should watch. You will learn there are no big secrets about Google.

Friday, August 6, 2010

Why bloggers make very poor salesmen

Have you ever noticed that the great majority of of bloggers are not making any money blogging? Of course that is not from not trying, as many of them do, but do not succeed in the least. Bloggers are good writers but terrible sales people. They entertain and often have huge numbers of followers but not customers nor people that click on ads and buy things. Their type of writing is not what encourages people to purchase something.

A marketer on the other hand is often someone who knows sales inside and out and knows how to sway a reader to buy something that the ABC company is selling. They have a different style of writing. They don't plan or pretend to entertain......they sell, sell, sell. If their sales pitch about the ABC company doesn't work then they move on to the Abcbsnc company. They often don't look back and just forge onward.

A few months back I asked John Chow (a well known internet marketer) how he does it. His reply was that it just came naturally to him. He can write a blog post about anything and make thousands of sales in hours. He has a following that hangs on every word he writes, yet he is a marketer and not a writer. He was a salesman long before he became a blogger online.

If you know nothing about marketing online and you are a blogger wanting to make money blogging, you have got to learn how to write a good blog post that sells and does not entertain. There are plenty of resources out there, just go and look.

Thursday, August 5, 2010

A list of low paying adsense ads to remove from your website

I bet you have tried your hand at earning money with Google Adsense and have made only pennies so far.Your websites and blogs are getting lots of traffic and even lots of clicks but each of those clicks are only .01 or even less. You are thinking about flushing the whole idea down the toilet....but wait, before you think about toilets, flushing and giving up on the idea of Adsense on your website or blog have you thought about removing those low paying clicks?

I bet you didn't know that you could filter out all those .01 cent ads from being shown on your sites, did you? You can. All you have to do is add the URL's of the low paying ads to your Competitive Ad Filter in your Adsense account.

But what sites do I add? You can either add each one by hand as you find them through an internet search or you can use the list I have. Here it is as I have entered them:

10-bestsites.com
10-top-sites.com
101soho.com
12-bestsites.com
12-topsites.com
1click.com
1homeshopping.info
1s.md
1st-free-articles.com
1st-home-business.net
1st-lingerie.net
1st-portal.net
1step1.info
2020ok.com
21publish.com
25-bestsites.com
25-topsites.com
5-top-sites.com
50webs.com
7-bestsites.com
7-topsites.com
8-bestsites.com
8-topsites.com
8-topwebsites.com
8bestsites.com
8topsites.com
8topsitespro.com
9topsites.com
aavalue.com
aboutastro.com
acne.com
ad2006.com
advancedwebsearch.info
agematch.com
aish.com
all-about-puppies.com
all-free-info.com
allcoolmusic.com
allinformationabout.com
allpspgames.com
alltheautomotive.com
alltheindustrials.com
amazon.co.uk
amazon.com
answerstoday.com
aprido.com
aptmicro.com
arc99.com
arcaderockstar.com
ardice.com
articlescafe.com
ask.com
assortedinternet.com
atdmt.com
audioblog.com
be-healthy.net
best-download-sites.com
best-healthcare.info
best-price.com
best3websites.com
best4sites.net
best4solutions.com
best5online.com
best7sites.com
best8sites.org
bestautosites.net
bestcomputingsites.com
bestcraftsites.net
besthomegardensites.com
bestphonesites.net
bestpictures.org
bestringtonesoffer.com
bestsportingsites.com
bestwebdiscounts.com
bestwebpix.com
bestwebpix.net
big.com
bit.ly
bizjournals.com
blinkbits.com
blog-software-blog.com
blogexplosion.com
blogger.com
bloggerbusiness.com
bloggercrab.com
blogging-bonanza.com
bloggingbiz.com
bloggingequalizer.com
bloggingsecrets.com
blogharbor.com
blogidentity.com
blogigo.com
blogit.com
blogizm.com
blogjet.com
blogmysite.com
blogomonster.com
blogpulse.com
blogsource.com
blogspot.com
blogster.com
blogstogo.com
blogstream.com
blogware.com
business-wiz.com
buymp3music.info
buzzmetrics.com
camera.co.id
canaca.comcerado.com
caninepottytraining.com
chasingstuff.com
cheblogs.com
chiwawa.com
chosenresult.com
chrisabraham.com
click-here-4-best.info
cliqz.com
clobo.com
cohit.com
cohit.comcomputerweekly.com
commerce-database.com
compare-to-choose.com
compendianet.com
computer-offer.com
consumerincentivepromotions.com
consumersearch.com
coolringtones.com
coolstartpages.com
cornertheatre.org
correctmytext.com
cruiseshipjobs77.com
cv2006.biz
dailyseek.net
dbmoz.biz
dbmoz.com
dbmoz.net
dbmoz.org
dealsandoffers4u.com
dealtime.co.uk
democraticstuff.com
dexigner.com
dholmes.com
didakutz.com
digg.com
digg4it.com
digitalcamerareview.com
digitalearning.com
dirkw.com
discussit.biz
divavillage.com
dog-trainer-pro.com
domaindirect.com
donnamoderna.com
download-hub.com
download-it-free.com
downloadrings.com
downtown-internet.com
dreamhost.com
drift-kings.com
dry-skin-care-guide.com
e-isn.com
e-kazaam.com
e-nternet.com
e-softwaresource.com
eanimationschools.com
eantispyware.info
ebay.co.uk
ebay.com
ebay.com.au
ecomputerwallpaper.com
edigitalphoto.info
edigitalphotoalbum.com
editme.com
educational-online.com
effectivebrand.com
egoweblog.com
emotivationalvideos.com
enewsblog.com
englishcramschool.com
ephotoalbum.net
eretirementjokes.com
eroyaltyfreeimages.net
everyclick.com
everyrule.com
ewoss.info
ewossnewsbar.com
ewossuk.com
excite.co.uk
expert-expert.com
extreme-rides.com
ez-tracks.com
ez4search.com
ezsgblog.com
faces.com
factguide.org
faqsdirect.com
fastcoolrides.com
faster-results.com
fasterinfo.com
fatburningfurnace.com
faxingsoftware.info
feedzilla.com
filtersspam.info
findexia.com
findinfotoday.com
finditonline.ws
findmonk.com
findmoreinfo.com
findnot.com
finest4.com
flashingblinkielights.com
flexfinder.com
focus77.com
forum4bloggers.com
fotothing.com
free-crochet.com
free-lyrics-online.com
free-pictures-photos.com
free-quilting.com
free2select.com
freedigg.com
freeenterpriseland.com
freelanceworkexchange.com
freeusefulinfo.com
freshhunt.com
friendcircles.com
fullscalecommerce.com
futublog.com
gd-invest.com
get-free-reports-tips-and.info
getacoder.com
getbestinfo.com
getinfoon.info
getmusicfree-jump.com
getmusicfree.com
getworldpassport.com
giantexplorer.com
globalinfoexchange.com
go-2-shop.co.uk
go-4-best.com
go27.com
goodplace-on.net
google.com
gooyeep.com
gowholesale.com
gr8info.net
greatinfo.biz
growinglifestyle.com
gubaara.com
guide2biz.com
guideya.com
haohao99.com
he4lth.com
health-answers.org
healthquestlinks.com
homocon.com
hot4sites.com
hotelscombined.com
howtotrainyourdogs.com
idesktopwallpaper.net
igossip.com
imedicalanimation.com
imusicsearch.com
incentiveleader.com
incentiverewardcenter.com
indeed.com
indonesiancupid.com
info-on.biz
info-zap.com
info.com
infobeagle.com
infoforyourhealth.com
infoscouts.com
infosearch4u.com
infoworld.com
inhunt.com
instant-free-info.com
internet-downloads.net
ironpower.biz
ittoolbox.com
ivue.com
jobs77.ca
knowledgestorm.com
korea.net
ldsplanet.com
leapfinder.com
lensbaby.com
links-4-you.com
linxbest.com
livemocha.com
local.com
logo-lites.com
made-in-china.com
maximuminformation.com
mediataskmaster.com
medicalhelpers.com
medkuz.com
megasearch.biz
mingoville.com
monstermarketplace.com
morpheusultra.com
movieadvanced.com
movies-all-free.com
mozsite.com
mp3musiq.com
mpfree.com
mqsearch.co.uk
myipodownloads.com
mylot.com
mylot.info
mylot.us
myluxuryyacht.com
myluxuryyachtcharter.com
mymusicinc.com
mywebgold.com
nationalaperture.com
oceleb.com
oneinvestment.co.uk
oninformation.com
ontheweb-offer.com
op10-web-hosting.com
otelevision.info
pattisondogtraining.com
paydotcom.com
pcworld.com
pictures88.com
picturetoplist.com
pimpingyourspace.com
pimpmyride.com
popularq.com
pricetool.com
professionaladvices.com
prophecynewswatch.com
purebusiness.com
puredirectory.com
purityplanet.com
qckjmp.com
quotematch.com
rapvideos.info
ratedsolutions.com
rebrandsoftware.com
resourcemecca.com
reviewsbykrystal.com
richesse-succes-sante.com
ringringmobile.com
ringtonemusic.info
rockywoods.com
romingerlegal.com
ru2006.com
rw2006.com
savvygate.com
scholarshipnet.info
searchemu.com
searchguide.biz
searchignite.com
searchinaflash.com
searchscribe.com
searchtorpedo.com
searchwisp.com
seek4me.org
sempatiyun.com
seniorpeoplemeet.com
sentrotercumeceviri.com
shopica.com
shopping.com
simpli.com
smmsite.com
sneakyprograms.com
soft4kids.com
starware.com
successuniversity.com
sureresult.com
teachandtravel.net
teachatoz.com
thebabydepartment.com
thextremehosting.com
thinktarget.com
tipace.com
tntdownloads.com
tools4myspace.com
top-10sites.com
top-3-sites.com
top-articles-house.com
top-rated-mp3-sites.com
top10-web-hosting.com
top10mostexpensive.com
top10websites.net
top4search.com
top4search.net
top4sites.net
top8sites.com
topbeautysites.com
topbestsites.org
toptensites.org
toseeka.com
toy-offer.com
traveldiary.com
tripadvisor.com
trixy123.sitstay.hop.clickbank.net
truelocal.com
truthaboutabs.com
tunu.com
u-i-x.com
usefulfaqs.com
usnom.com
vertippdich.de
videosstreaming.info
webfinder360.com
website-savvy.com
webzsearch.com
wilddreams.org
wisegeek.com
woodworking4home.com
world-click.com
worldslastchance.com
xdope.com
xtraone.co.uk
zimply.com

The list is only a general one and is by no means all conclusive. By adding those URL's above to your filter you should see most of your clicks go up in price. It takes a minimum of 4 hours for the filter to kick in once you have added the URL's so don't expect immediate results.

I just got $25 for 15 minutes of work

I love quick money. I have used many methods in the past to get a few extra dollars here and there. Over time they have paid off a dentist bill, 2 store credit cards and helped pay for some extras. The type of money earning I like best is when I don't have to do that much work....doesn't everyone? Just this morning in my email in box I found several offers for surveys from this company and one of the payouts was $25. I did not qualify for the others but I did for the $25 one and completed the survey in about 15 minutes. I get offers from that company at least once a day in my in box. The payouts are pretty good. I receive a check from them at least once a month (I can cash out when ever I want to, there is no minimum). Of course I have never paid anything to sign up with this or any survey company. I mention that because there are several companies that charge people for access to a list of companies they can sign up with. They have a great little scam going on since those same survey companies also pay its members for signing up other people. If you are wondering if I have gotten paid for referring members, yes I have and those members do the same thing.

Filling out online surveys is great part time money. I never give out personal information like my phone number on the surveys and yes I have been asked for it. The only place that needs my name and address is the main survey company so they can send me my checks.

Doing online surveys for cold hard cash has spoiled me. I don't do surveys for contest entries anymore or for "points" they just don't pay enough for my time. In fact if the survey company offers me less that $5 I pass on those, they are just not worth it. I know I won't get rich from those surveys but heck they have paid for a bill once a month!

Wednesday, August 4, 2010

Experimenting with Adsense

I have never made that much money with Google Adsense so I thought I might start up 2 new blogs that were just geared to generate income only using Google Adsense. I found some great information online on how to do it. Most of the SEO I already knew but it is finding the right high paying keywords that I could wrap an entire blog around that stumped me. For example I love crafts and animals but none of the words I looked up in my own Adsense account showed that they were worth more than a dollar. As you know, the cost of an keyword has very little to do with what a publisher gets so I was aiming at words or phrases that would cost at least $5 or more. Next I tried the shopping angle and put in everything from video games and iphones to LED TV's - nothing over $1.40 Next I tried womens items and checked cosmetics to ecco shoes and still nothing. I did find out that expensive services are high priced keywords. Medical procedures, legal services, loans and even insurance were all in the high priced keyword area. So that gave me a brilliant idea. I would start up a blog devoted to one medical problem and another one devoted to expensive travel and see how each one would do.

The one beautiful thing I know about blogging for Adsense is that you don't have to have a lot of traffic for it, just the right words in your articles to show up in Google searches. I currently have one blog that gets a few cents a day with Adsense and get maybe 20 visits a day so it doesn't take many visitors to generate Adsense clicks. The ads are not large either, they are just a small list at the bottom of the blog post - not plastered all over the place. What makes the difference in the content, it is unique and Google loves unique content.

Another thing for those grammar hounds out there, guess what, lousy grammar makes no difference to Google at all. A blog with misspellings, wrong words or looks like it was written by a 6 year old will often show up high in searches along with the "perfect" blogs because of their unique content. I should know because several years ago my young daughter had a blog on Wordpress.com and she would get 150 to 300 visitors a day! Dumb me, thought I could monetize that blog so I moved it to blogger and added ads and started to write blog posts. My style of writing and proper grammar killed it. 

Back to my experiment, I did find out from the "gurus" that for a good Adsense generating blog you only need 12  - 20 in depth articles on your subject that are 500-1000 words long. I figured if I write one article each week then in about 3 months I should start to see some extra income coming in from those 2 blogs just from Adsense. I am aiming for at least $20 a day income from those 2 blogs in a few weeks. It should be easy to get just $10 a day from each of them. Let's see if this works out.