Saturday, April 23, 2011
Naked Dialog
I know it's not fair to use words like "naked," but I wanted to get your attention. I'm afraid that I have lost some readers, and I need some ideas that will get people excited about my blog again. I have to admit, I am starting to lose interest as well. I was really excited about this whole process of blogging and trying to make money, but it is not working out the way I hoped. Especially, the making money part. So, I am soliciting your help. I would like to start an open dialog for ideas to get us interested again. This might include some ideas for making money, and these don't just have to include online ideas. Or, it might include ways to better present information to you. Please comment on this post any thoughts or ideas you have. Don't be afraid. You won't hurt my feelings.
Tuesday, March 22, 2011
Online Surveys
I have been working on the online surveys for a few weeks now. I decided to sign up with the top five survey sites on the list from the Moola Days blog I wrote about in my last post. All these sites offer points for surveys done online. The point systems are different for each site. The bottom line is that after you accumulate the appropriate amount of points, you can redeem them for cash. This, of course, is sent in the form of a check.
At this point I am a little frustrated. There have been multiple incidents where I was working on a survey for 20-30 minutes just to be told that they have received enough responses. Plus, I have been screened out of more surveys than I have been a part of. I usually receive invitations for at least 5 surveys a day from various sites. I maybe get through one of the five surveys. More often than not, I am screened out of all of them. This makes it really difficult to make any money doing online surveys. In any case, I am going to keep working at it. I think there is potential if I can stick with it.
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At this point I am a little frustrated. There have been multiple incidents where I was working on a survey for 20-30 minutes just to be told that they have received enough responses. Plus, I have been screened out of more surveys than I have been a part of. I usually receive invitations for at least 5 surveys a day from various sites. I maybe get through one of the five surveys. More often than not, I am screened out of all of them. This makes it really difficult to make any money doing online surveys. In any case, I am going to keep working at it. I think there is potential if I can stick with it.
Related Posts
Wednesday, March 2, 2011
Another Idea
When I was originally doing research to figure out how I could make a little extra money, I stumbled upon a blog called 101 Ways to Make Money. The first idea on the list of 101 is to make money doing paid online surveys. It then goes on to talk about and suggest using SurveyMastermind. I looked into SurveyMastermind, and I got a little concerned. Everything I found online seemed to mention it being a scam. So, I decided not to include it as a part of my original plan.
Then, recently, I stumbled upon another blog called Moola Days. It is yet another blog with lots of helpful information as it pertains to making extra money. Most importantly, there are multiple blog posts in regards to paid online surveys. The most notable being A List of ‘Get Paid to Take Surveys’ Sites. This post gives information on many sites that pay individuals for doing surveys online. In fact, the one's listed are only those that the writer (Albert Fang) has received money from. He goes on in other posts to review many of the sites as well as give his favorites.
So, after some thought, I have decided to give this a try. I'm going to start with some of the sites on Albert's list. I will let you know how it goes.
If any of you have any insight on this or other ideas I could try, let me know.
Related Posts
Then, recently, I stumbled upon another blog called Moola Days. It is yet another blog with lots of helpful information as it pertains to making extra money. Most importantly, there are multiple blog posts in regards to paid online surveys. The most notable being A List of ‘Get Paid to Take Surveys’ Sites. This post gives information on many sites that pay individuals for doing surveys online. In fact, the one's listed are only those that the writer (Albert Fang) has received money from. He goes on in other posts to review many of the sites as well as give his favorites.
So, after some thought, I have decided to give this a try. I'm going to start with some of the sites on Albert's list. I will let you know how it goes.
If any of you have any insight on this or other ideas I could try, let me know.
Related Posts
Saturday, February 26, 2011
Will Hope For Money
Some of you may have noticed a couple of additions to the side bar. The first is a donate button from Paypal. This is for anyone who might want to donate to my cause. The cause, of course, is my family. This button idea reminded me of my original thought, which was to just ask for money. As I stated in my introduction, if one million people would give me one dollar I could easily become a millionaire. The difficulty, of course, is getting one million plus readers to this blog. I'm not thinking this will ever happen. Although, that shouldn't deter any of my current readers from giving me a dollar or more if they felt like it. So, if you feel like it, click the donate button.
The addition of this donate button was a suggestion of the book ProBlogger: Secrets for Blogging Your Way to a Six-Figure Income. It is by Darren Rowse and Chris Garrett. As you can see, this is the second add-on to the side bar. This book is a great resource for anyone trying to get started blogging. It gives you helpful tips for picking your blog topic/s, setting up your blog, writing your blog, and, obviously, making money blogging. If you would like more information on the book or more information on making money blogging, visit Darren Rowse's blog at ProBlogger.net. Or, you can just click on the link to the right and purchase this book at Barnes & Noble.
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The addition of this donate button was a suggestion of the book ProBlogger: Secrets for Blogging Your Way to a Six-Figure Income. It is by Darren Rowse and Chris Garrett. As you can see, this is the second add-on to the side bar. This book is a great resource for anyone trying to get started blogging. It gives you helpful tips for picking your blog topic/s, setting up your blog, writing your blog, and, obviously, making money blogging. If you would like more information on the book or more information on making money blogging, visit Darren Rowse's blog at ProBlogger.net. Or, you can just click on the link to the right and purchase this book at Barnes & Noble.
Related Posts
Wednesday, February 23, 2011
Words With Babies
Okay, I officially have a CafePress store. Now I can sell anything from t-shirts and sweatshirts to mugs and bags. All with various designs. I will make 10% commission on anything sold from my store. Please check it out at www.cafepress.com/wordswithbabies.
It took me a long time to figure what I wanted my store to be about. I went back and forth with different ideas, but I just wasn't happy with how it was coming together. CafePress gives you the option of using some of their generic designs for your own designs. All you have to do is personalize them with your own words or phrases. To start, I really wanted to use their designs instead of making my own, but I was having trouble thinking of words or phrases that would coincide to make a cohesive store. Now, I could have taken the time to make my own designs, but I was wanting to get my store up and running as soon as possible. So, I started thinking about words or phrases that I use in my daily life. Of course, since I have a baby, I use the words "poop," "playtime," and "goo goo ga ga" a lot. So, that's what I decided to go with. I then thought of the name "Words With Babies," and there you have it. I now have a store where you can buy a funny t-shirt, sweatshirt, or whatever with "poop" on it.
The process of making this store was fairly simple. If you go to CafePress.com, there is a link on the top right corner that states, "create and sell t-shirts." Or, you can just click here. This takes you to the page for creating your store. There is a box for your store name and one for your email. Don't worry too much about your store name, as you can change it later. Then pick your theme. Again, don't worry too much about this, you can change it later. Click create my store and you are taken to your store front. This is where you can add your designs. When you click "Add a design," you are given the option to browse their designs, upload a logo or photo, or build a design with clip art and text. I chose to browse their designs. When you click, a new window pops up showing their designs with the name of your store included in them. You can change the design by typing in the box at the top of the window. Then click update. Now you will see those same designs with the new word or words included. Click on the design you like and hit submit. Now, you have your first design that can be applied to any item in your store. You can have up to 12 designs unless you upgrade to the premium stores, but these cost money. When you are done, click "save store." That's it. Now you have a CafePress store.
If you want to get paid commissions though, there is still a little more to do. When looking at your store on the edit screen, there are 3 tabs. The first one states, "Settings." This is where you can change the name of your store if you want. The next tab is, "Appearance." I think you can figure that one out. The last one is, "Earn Money." When you click on this one, you are given the option to earn commission. Click "I want to earn commission." Then go to, "change payee details." Give them your information, and you're set to make some money.
So, how do you get your store noticed? To the best of my knowledge, you have to be your own marketer. Send your link to everyone you know and more. Furthermore, how do people find your designs on Cafepress? Unfortunately, I do not think it is possible for people to find my designs on CafePress. I would have to be able to tag my designs, and I don't think I can. If the designs have tags, then people can find them by doing a keyword search on CafePress. I think you can only tag custom designs you upload to CafePress. So, for me, and anyone else trying to keep it simple, it is all about word of mouth. So, start spreading the word about Words With Babies.
It took me a long time to figure what I wanted my store to be about. I went back and forth with different ideas, but I just wasn't happy with how it was coming together. CafePress gives you the option of using some of their generic designs for your own designs. All you have to do is personalize them with your own words or phrases. To start, I really wanted to use their designs instead of making my own, but I was having trouble thinking of words or phrases that would coincide to make a cohesive store. Now, I could have taken the time to make my own designs, but I was wanting to get my store up and running as soon as possible. So, I started thinking about words or phrases that I use in my daily life. Of course, since I have a baby, I use the words "poop," "playtime," and "goo goo ga ga" a lot. So, that's what I decided to go with. I then thought of the name "Words With Babies," and there you have it. I now have a store where you can buy a funny t-shirt, sweatshirt, or whatever with "poop" on it.
The process of making this store was fairly simple. If you go to CafePress.com, there is a link on the top right corner that states, "create and sell t-shirts." Or, you can just click here. This takes you to the page for creating your store. There is a box for your store name and one for your email. Don't worry too much about your store name, as you can change it later. Then pick your theme. Again, don't worry too much about this, you can change it later. Click create my store and you are taken to your store front. This is where you can add your designs. When you click "Add a design," you are given the option to browse their designs, upload a logo or photo, or build a design with clip art and text. I chose to browse their designs. When you click, a new window pops up showing their designs with the name of your store included in them. You can change the design by typing in the box at the top of the window. Then click update. Now you will see those same designs with the new word or words included. Click on the design you like and hit submit. Now, you have your first design that can be applied to any item in your store. You can have up to 12 designs unless you upgrade to the premium stores, but these cost money. When you are done, click "save store." That's it. Now you have a CafePress store.
If you want to get paid commissions though, there is still a little more to do. When looking at your store on the edit screen, there are 3 tabs. The first one states, "Settings." This is where you can change the name of your store if you want. The next tab is, "Appearance." I think you can figure that one out. The last one is, "Earn Money." When you click on this one, you are given the option to earn commission. Click "I want to earn commission." Then go to, "change payee details." Give them your information, and you're set to make some money.
So, how do you get your store noticed? To the best of my knowledge, you have to be your own marketer. Send your link to everyone you know and more. Furthermore, how do people find your designs on Cafepress? Unfortunately, I do not think it is possible for people to find my designs on CafePress. I would have to be able to tag my designs, and I don't think I can. If the designs have tags, then people can find them by doing a keyword search on CafePress. I think you can only tag custom designs you upload to CafePress. So, for me, and anyone else trying to keep it simple, it is all about word of mouth. So, start spreading the word about Words With Babies.
Monday, February 21, 2011
Squidoo Lens
I found an interesting Squidoo lens for the book. Otherwise known as, The Million Dollar Idea in Everyone. It is very insightful and helpful in understanding a little more about the book. There is nice question and answer section with the author, as well as an audio interview for your listening pleasure. I thought it would be very helpful to anyone who is on the fence about purchasing, but wanted a little more information. Please visit it here.
As a friendly reminder, if you are interested in purchasing the book, please click on the link to the right. Also, you may notice a couple of additions on the side bar. Stay tuned for more information on those.
If you are wondering what a Squidoo lens is, it is a free one page website. Squidoo.com offers anyone the ability to produce as many one page websites as they want, for free. They call a website a lens. According to their website, "Lenses are pages, kind of like flyers or signposts or overview articles, that gather everything you know about your topic of interest--and snap it all into focus. Like the lens of a camera, your perspective on something." If you are interested, please visit their website at squidoo.com.
Related Posts
As a friendly reminder, if you are interested in purchasing the book, please click on the link to the right. Also, you may notice a couple of additions on the side bar. Stay tuned for more information on those.
If you are wondering what a Squidoo lens is, it is a free one page website. Squidoo.com offers anyone the ability to produce as many one page websites as they want, for free. They call a website a lens. According to their website, "Lenses are pages, kind of like flyers or signposts or overview articles, that gather everything you know about your topic of interest--and snap it all into focus. Like the lens of a camera, your perspective on something." If you are interested, please visit their website at squidoo.com.
Related Posts
Sunday, February 20, 2011
Denied!
For the first time in this process, I have been denied. I was not accepted as an affiliate for Target or Kohl's. I got two separate emails last week stating that I was not a good match for either. Well, I actually got an email for Kohl's stating that I was not a good match. The email for Target gave me 22 reasons why I was not approved. Some of them applied. Some of them did not. Both emails were obviously auto responses. I hoped I would have been approved, but I understand why I was not. As the Kohl's email stated, I am not a good match. Now, I would think differently if I was reviewing and attempting to sell things on this blog. Especially, if it were items that Target and Kohl's sell. Then, I should have been approved, but this is not what I am trying to do. So, I actually agree with being denied. I just thought it would be fun to try. I also thought it would have been nice for me to make some money sending people to their websites through my links/ads. Target and Kohl's are big names and they sell lots of stuff. Oh well, I will have to look further at the over 900 possibilities on the Google Affiliate Network.
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