Aaron's Take

BuzzShed - Get $1 per Referral (and $0.30 for watching a video)

noreply@blogger.com (Aaron) — Wed, 20 Feb 2008 00:47:00 +0000

I found an interesting little site today. It's called BuzzShed. You sign up for free, tell them some of your interests, and every once in a while, they send you a link to a short video. You watch it, and get paid $0.30. Once you reach $10, you can request a payout via PayPal. I'm not really sure how often they send out videos, though, so I don't know just how long it will take you to reach that $10 threshold.

There is another way to make some money with the site, though, and that is with referrals. You see, for every person that you get to sign up, you get $1. It's real easy to join, and they don't require any personal info like you address. Refer 10 people, and you've reached that $10 payout.

I'll let you know how BuzzShed works for me. In the meantime, sign up here.

Update (2/24/08): Looks like they made a small change to the referral system. You get $1 for the first 5 signups you refer, $.50 for the next 10, and then $0.25 after that. So you need to refer 15 people to reach the payout. Still a pretty good way to make a little money, though, if you can get some people to join.

Make Money with Firefox Downloads

noreply@blogger.com (Aaron) — Sat, 12 Jan 2008 05:44:00 +0000

Did you know that Google will pay you to get people to download Firefox with Google Toolbar? It's a pretty good system. The download is free, and you get up to $1 per new Firefox user you refer, based on their location.

You need to have a Google Adsense account to sign up. Then go the referal products section to find the Firefox referral link that you can use to get people to sign up with.

Most people will agree that Firefox is a better browser than Microsoft Internet Explorer. But over half of the visitors to my site use IE. So if you haven't used Firefox yet, why not give it a shot?

Blog Directories

noreply@blogger.com (Aaron) — Thu, 10 Jan 2008 20:25:00 +0000

When I first created my blog, one of the first things I did was submit my blog to some blog directories. These are basically just sites that list tons of blogs, usually by topic. I guess you could receive a few visitors this way, but the main purpose of submitting your sites is to get some links pointing back to your blog. This can help get your Pagerank up, and help get you indexed by search engines.

Here are the blog directories that I'm signed up for:

Blog Directory

If you're interested in submitting your blog to some directories, you might want to give some of these a shot. It can't hurt.

By the way...some directories might cost money to join. I'd forget about those. Could they help your pagerank? Eh...Maybe. But it's probably not worth it.

NetAudioAds - Pay Per Play Advertising

noreply@blogger.com (Aaron) — Wed, 09 Jan 2008 03:06:00 +0000

Here's an interesting way to make money: NetAudioAds. It's kind of like having Google Adsense ads, except that instead of text ads on your website, audio ads are played out load. Every time someone goes to your site, a 5 second ad is played, and you get paid each time an ad is played. Like Adsense, the ads are related to the content of your site.

They say that ads will probably pay about 1 to 3 cents per listen, as long as the visitor stays on your website for at least 2 seconds.

The site is currently in beta, and says that they will begin paying the first week in February. They also say that they'll pay every week, which I love.

I was a little concerned about this opportunity after I did a quick Google search for 'netaudioads'. There was some pretty negative stuff said, but this post seems to clear things up.

I don't really know how this will turn out, but I think I'll try putting these ads on a few webpages, and let you know the results. If you want to check it out for yourself, click here.

Traffic is Going Up!

noreply@blogger.com (Aaron) — Sun, 06 Jan 2008 02:58:00 +0000

It's kind of cool to see the slow increase in traffic that my blog is getting. Back when I first started blogging, I was lucky if I even got one visitor per day. Now I'm consistently getting over 40 unique visits a day! I'm pretty pleased with the traffic I'm getting from Google. About 70% of my traffic now comes from searches. It's good to see that my blog got indexed pretty quickly, and even has some very high listings in Google. As I write this, my post about Linkreferral is the 3rd listing in Google for the search "linkreferral"! Hopefully I'll see my traffic continue to grow.

I think it helps that I try to update pretty frequently, at least a couple times per week. Google knows that I'm active, and checks and indexes my blog pretty often.

I'd be interested to hear about how you found my blog, if you want to leave a comment below.

Commission Junction – A Solid Affiliate Site

noreply@blogger.com (Aaron) — Fri, 04 Jan 2008 03:23:00 +0000

After a little research, I've determined that Commission Junction (a site that I mentioned in one of my previous posts) is one of the best sites to sign up for if you're into affiliate marketing, and want to sell real, tangible products. They have a listing of a ton of companies whose products you can promote, ranging from clothing to ringtones to electronics, and everything in between. And these are well know companies, like Old Navy, NewEgg, and Apple. The interface of the website isn't the easiest to use, but it gets the job done. It's easy to find good banners and links for your site. You can see a couple that I added in the sponsored section on the right hand side of my blog.

You first need to submit your website, which they check for quality. If it's accepted, then you can apply to individual merchants (like Apple), and if they accept you, you can add links to their products on your site, and get paid when people purchase them through your link. It's easier than I probably made it sound.

The only thing that I don't like is that they don't pay through PayPal. They do offer direct deposit into your checking account, though, in addition to check. They pay monthly.

If you want to try your hand at affiliate marketing, and are looking for some good, reputable products to promote, then give Commission Junction a look.

Happy New Year!

noreply@blogger.com (Aaron) — Wed, 02 Jan 2008 04:03:00 +0000

Hey there everybody, Happy New Year! I'm really excited about this upcoming year, and I've got a few projects and ideas in the works. I'm not a big fan of making resolutions, but I will strive to continue to provide you with helpful information this year. I guess my goal is just to make this blog better than ever, and increase my earnings each month. If there's anything, any topics that you'd like me to check out, research, or blog about, be sure to drop a comment and let me know.

Affiliate Marketing

noreply@blogger.com (Aaron) — Sun, 30 Dec 2007 03:25:00 +0000

So I'm looking into a new way to make money with my blog: Affiliate Marketing. Basically, companies pay you to refer customers to them. People click on links from your site, which contains a special code that lets them know who referred the customer to them. If the customer buys something, you get paid. Sometimes you get a percentage of the sale, like 5%, or a fixed amount of cash per customer that you refer, like $5. A lot of popular sites have these kinds of referral programs, like Amazon, eBay, and Google.

I recently just signed up with a site called Commission Junction, which allows you to easily sign up and apply for many affiliate programs. I got accepted by eBay, and you my ad for them under the sponsored section on the right hand side of my blog.

Simple techniques like including affilate links in product reviews on your blog can be very beneficial. It provides an easy link to the product for readers, and if they purchase it, you'll make a few bucks.

I'll keep you posted as to how well I earn any money using this approach, and let you know if there are any programs that I recommend.

Pagerank...Blah

noreply@blogger.com (Aaron) — Thu, 27 Dec 2007 23:34:00 +0000

So in the short time that I've been learning about blogging, I've come to both realize and despise the importance of something called Pagerank.

Basically, Pagerank is a score, between 0 and 10, that Google gives your site based on a number of factors, such as links pointing to your site, and the Pagerank of the sites that link to your site. When you first make a site, your Pagerank starts at 0.

Unfortunately, it takes a while for your Pagerank to go up. Google apparently only updates it every few months, so new sites will be ranked 0 (or N/A) for a while no matter what. At least a couple months it seems.

So why does Pagerank matter? Well, there's one big reason that I've found so far, and that involves advertising. It looks like advertisers, including companies that pay you to post, depend heavily on Pagerank. Rather then just looking at your content, they decide how good your site is based primarily on your Pagerank.

I guess I'm just a little bitter at the moment that Google hasn't updated my Pagerank yet...let's hope that that comes soon.

Merry Christmas!

noreply@blogger.com (Aaron) — Tue, 25 Dec 2007 00:12:00 +0000

Hey everybody, just wanted to wish you all a Merry Christmas. This is probably my favorite time of the year. I hope you have a great holiday, no matter what you are doing. It's a great chance to go help some people too, and just be sure to remember the true meaning of Christmas. Take care.

Quick Bloggerwave Update

noreply@blogger.com (Aaron) — Sat, 22 Dec 2007 01:30:00 +0000

Add Bloggerwave to your list of paid to blog sites. I just received my first payment from them, via paypal, today. Unfortunately, I've only been given that one assignment, so it doesn't look like they're that active. I can now confirm that they pay, though, so go ahead and sign up. You'll get $10 for your first post, which is about Bloggerwave.

Global Test Market - Get Paid to Take Surveys

noreply@blogger.com (Aaron) — Wed, 19 Dec 2007 05:12:00 +0000

Global Test Market is probably my favorite paid survey site, if only because I've received the most money from them. Most surveys pay about 50 points, which is $2.50. You can cash out when you earn 1000 points, or $50. A really cool thing that they do is give you 5 points ($0.25) even if you don't qualify to take a survey; most companies wouldn't give you anything. They also recently re-did their website, and it looks better and is much easier to navigate now.

I actually received my second check from them today, for $100, so I can confirm that they do indeed pay. You'll get your check about a month after you request it. All-in-all, I really like Global Test Market, and recommend it to you survey fans.

Stuff - School and Blogs

noreply@blogger.com (Aaron) — Sun, 16 Dec 2007 22:54:00 +0000

Yay! School is finally over for the semester, so I'm taking a break and enjoying the time off. It was a fun semester, and I'll probably be ready to go back in a couple weeks, but it's good to have some time off to enjoy the Christmas season.

Here's a couple recent updates on my blog. First of all, I applied to PayPerPost, and was accepted. You can see my first post for them here. Your blog has to be 90 days old to be accepted, but they gave me $20 for my first post! They supposedly pay you after one month, so I'll keep you posted. I also tried to apply for Smorty, another pay you to post company. However, they rejected my blog because it currently has a pagerank of 0, and doesn't have enough pages indexed by Google. I thought I had quite a few pages indexed, but, oh well, I'll try again next month.

Until next time, Merry Christmas!

Blogsvertise Update #2

noreply@blogger.com (Aaron) — Sat, 15 Dec 2007 03:17:00 +0000

I just wanted to update you on my experiences with Blogsvertise, the paid to post company. You can read my 2 previous entries here and here. I wanted to let you know that I have received my first payment from them, so I can confirm that they do pay (even though it took just over a month). I have only been asked to make 2 paid posts in the last month, both of which were about online insurance companies. Here's my overall feeling about them at this point: they're a decent pay you to post company that doesn't hand out too many jobs, but can be trusted to pay you. They're also willing to give new blogs a shot, something that most sites won't do. So while they're certainly not the best, I would give them a shot...just don't expect too much.

SurveySpot - Free Paid Surveys

noreply@blogger.com (Aaron) — Wed, 12 Dec 2007 18:26:00 +0000

SurveySpot used to be my favorite survey site, but I'm not so sure anymore. They send out a mix of surveys that either guarantee you will be paid upon completion (usually $3-$5 for about 15 minutes of time), or just enter you in their monthly drawing. I never do the surveys that just give me an entry into the drawing; they're a waste of time in my opinion. The ones that you do get paid for, though, are great. I don't like that it takes up to 4 to 6 weeks to be credited for taking a survey, but you only need to reach $5 to cash out. The main reason that I don't like them as much as I used to, is because it seems that they are sending out more surveys that just give a drawing entry, and not as many that actually pay. I have received a payment from them, and can confirm that they do indeed pay. Overall, this is one of the better survey sites out there.

PayPerPost - Making Money With Your Blog

noreply@blogger.com (Aaron) — Tue, 11 Dec 2007 22:02:00 +0000

I've been waiting for this day for a while...I am finally signed up with PayPerPost! I've heard a lot of buzz from bloggers about them, and now that my blog is finally old enough, it's been accepted into their system!

Basically, they pay bloggers to post about certain sites. You give your opinions, include a link and maybe an image, and after they approve your post, you get money! This gets the advertisers some publicity, so everybody wins. Plus, you'll get $20 just for making your first post! From what I've seen and read, PayPerPost seems to be the most reputable paid to post company on the net.

I like that they have a full disclosure policy. They require you to inform your readers of paid posts, which helps you to maintain credibility. They also have a ton of opportunities, so you should be able to find something that relates to your blog. If you're an advertiser, you can use PayPerPost to drive traffic to your site.

Oh, and one other thing: their customer service is called "Customer Love." That makes me smile.

I hope to use PayPerPost as a way to earn some cash while going through college, since I can post pretty much whenever I want. It's tough to balance both a job and schoolwork, but this is a perfect fit for me. I'll keep you updated on my success. And don't worry; my opinions won't be swayed by the fact I might be doing some paid posts. Because that wouldn't be cool.

Thanks to PayPerPost for sponsoring this post.

IrfanView - Best Graphics Viewer and Lite Editor

noreply@blogger.com (Aaron) — Mon, 10 Dec 2007 04:18:00 +0000

IrfanView is one of those sweet little programs that I keep on every computer that I use. It's a simple, quick graphics viewer that can open almost any file type that you throw at it. I use it often to take screenshots, do a little cropping, resize images, and save them in a couple different formats. It's a great program to optimize images for your website.

I love the fact that it opens very quickly. You can open and save in a ton of formats, both common ones like jpg's and uncommon ones like pcd's. Everyone should have a copy of this program on their computer, in my opinion.

Hulu - Watch Free Clips, Shows, and Movies

noreply@blogger.com (Aaron) — Fri, 07 Dec 2007 19:36:00 +0000

Hulu is a site run by the folks in Hollywood, and allows you to legally watch TV show episodes, some movies, and lots of clips from various shows. Some of the clips are even in HD, and they are really pretty. Right now, they seem to have a lot of shows, including Family Guy, House, and The Office, which are available on their respective network's sites as well.

The site looks pretty and works pretty good, but it is still in beta. Thus, you have to sign up with your email address, and wait until the contact you when they're ready for more beta testers. I'm not sure if it will be a successful site or not, but I like what they've done so far.

ThinkFree - View/Create/Edit MS Office 2007 Documents Online

noreply@blogger.com (Aaron) — Wed, 05 Dec 2007 19:13:00 +0000

I was in a bit of a predicament the other day. I had an Office 2007 Word document on my computer, which I needed to edit, but I didn't have Office 2007 on that computer. And, unfortunately, OpenOffice doesn't work with Office 2007 documents. ThinkFree.com came to the rescue.

This is a site that claims to be the online alternative for Microsoft Office 2007. It has Word, Excel, and Powerpoint editors, that let you create and edit files of those types. You get 1 GB of free online storage, and the ability to share your documents with whoever you want.

As of now, it's still in beta, and understandably has a few bugs. But if you need to view or edit Office 2007 documents, and don't want to go out and buy it, give ThinkFree a look.

Meebo - Instant Message From Your Browser

noreply@blogger.com (Aaron) — Mon, 03 Dec 2007 18:59:00 +0000

Meebo is a cool little site that lets you IM people from anywhere with an internet connection. No longer do you need to download programs to send someone an instant message. Instead, just head to Meebo, enter in your login information for your IM network of choice (it works with AIM, Yahoo, Google Talk, MSN, ICQ, and Jabber), and you're in.

The interface is pretty clean. You get a window with your buddy list information, with who's signed in and who's not, and the option to add or remove buddies if you want. From there, you can start IM'ing people, all from the comfort of your browser. It's a pretty cool site overall, and if you're ever stuck without an IM program, or don't want to download one, then check out Meebo.

Bloggerwave

noreply@blogger.com (Aaron) — Fri, 30 Nov 2007 19:29:00 +0000

Bloggerwave is another site that will help you make money with your blog. You can sign your blog up and check out their opportunities, and then they pay you to post. They'll ask you to blog about a certain site, and maybe include some links, images, or videos. After they make sure that you've included all the necessary elements, they approve your blog, and you get paid!

Bloggerwave is great for bloggers, since we get paid to do what we do best: write. It's also great for the companies that want to be blogged about, since they get some exposure. The minimum pay for a single post is $1, but there is no upper limit. In fact, I made $10 with my first post!

If you want to try to make some money with your blog, then check out bloggerwave.

The Ultimate Steal - MS Office 2007 (and now 2010) Cheap for College Students

noreply@blogger.com (Aaron) — Fri, 30 Nov 2007 00:30:00 +0000

I wrote in my previous post about a free alternative to Microsoft Office 2007. But if you really want MS Office, and you're a college student, then Microsoft has a pretty good deal (actually, a fantastic deal), which they call "The Ultimate Steal." If you have a .edu email address from your college, and are taking at least .5 credits, then you can get it for only $60! And it's the ultimate version, too, not the student version.

Check out the deal here, and here's some more info from Microsoft (if you're concerned about it being legitimate). I'm not a huge fan of the new Office, but for only $60, that's a nice deal.

August 2008 Update: Microsoft had stopped offering "The Ultimate Steal" for the summer, but they're now offering it again for the 2008-2009 school year...so check it out if you're interested.

2010 Update: Some of you might be thinking about waiting to purchase "The Ultimate Steal" until the new 2010 version comes out. Well, turns out that if you purchase and install Microsoft Office 2007 between now and September 30, 2010, you'll get Office 2010 free when it comes out. Nice! Check here for more info, or go to the Ulimate Steal site to get your copy.

2010 Update #2: Now that Office 2010 is out, Microsoft has changed the deal a little bit. The cost is now $80 (still an great deal), and now they're calling it "Office Professional Academic 2010".

OpenOffice - Free Microsoft Office Like Program

noreply@blogger.com (Aaron) — Tue, 27 Nov 2007 19:13:00 +0000

As a student, I have to write papers, make presentations, and do stuff like that, so I need an office suite like Microsoft Office to work with. But it's pretty expensive, especially for a poor student like me. That's why I love OpenOffice. It's completely free, and allows you to create documents, presentations, and spreadsheets that are compatible with Microsoft Office. It's not dumbed down at all, and actually includes some pretty advanced features. You can even open Microsoft Office files with it (except for the latest Office 2007 edition files). If you want to save some cash, check out OpenOffice.

I Got Tagged

noreply@blogger.com (Aaron) — Mon, 26 Nov 2007 23:57:00 +0000

Looks like I was tagged by Lifeonthemoon...that means that I'm supposed to share 7 random things about myself. Then I have to find 7 more bloggers, and they get to do the same. I'm in the holiday spirit, and I'd like to let you get to know me a little more, so why not? I'm not that interesting, but here it goes:

1) I love baseball.
2) I have been inside the Weinermobile.
3) My favorite fruit is the banana.
4) I love the TV show 24.
5) I have never been on a roller coaster.
6) My favorite cereal is frosted mini wheats.
7) I enjoy playing foosball.

Now I need to find some people to tag...

Gottadeal - Find Deals and Helpful Forums

noreply@blogger.com (Aaron) — Sat, 24 Nov 2007 04:19:00 +0000

Since it is the day after Thanksgiving, which is known for people going to extremes to pick up good deals, I thought that it would be a good day to tell you about one of my favorite deal sites, GottaDeal. On their homepage, you'll find a bunch of bargains that they've picked out from across the web. You can also personalize the results, choosing what types of products you want to see, if you want free shipping, and stuff like that. As helpful as the homepage is, my favorite part is the forums. You can post deals that you find, and even ask others to help you find the best deal on a product. They also have a really good forum related to paid survey information, if you're into that type of thing.