Donald Mackinnon's Blog

NEW ADDRESS FOR THE BLOG

2010-04-30T11:05:00.000-07:00

THIS BLOG HAS NOW MOVED TO http://donmacsblog.blogspot.com

Donald Mackinnon's Blog is avaialable here:
http://donmacsblog.blogspot.com

Don Mac's Blog is avaialable here:
http://donmacsblog.blogspot.com

Don Mac

GfK NOP Television Surveys

2010-04-30T10:36:00.000-07:00

The GfK NOP Television Appreciation Survey is exactly what it says in its name, it is a survey about TV. But unlike other surveys where you only get to complete them when you receive an invite, with the GfK NOP Television Appreciation Survey you get to complete it every day. Unfortunately you don’t really earn anything directly for filling in the survey as you get rewarded with an entry into the monthly prize draw and you need to have completed 10 surveys each month to actually qualify for a chance of receiving a reward.

But before you get put off by this, in all honesty filling in the Television survey takes no time or effort and if you are lucky enough to win a reward it can be as much as £1,500, with lots of smaller prizes such as Amazon vouchers up for offer as well. For me this is enough to keep me filling in the surveys on a daily basis, plus of course the more you fill in the greater chance you have of winning.

Sign up

Becoming a panellist on GfK NOP Television Appreciation Survey is a case of popping along to their website and filling in the straight forwards registration form, giving a few details of your residency and viewing habits then waiting for your welcome email which contains your link through to the daily television survey. It’s important you keep hold of this, or add the link to your favourites as this is your individual tracking link through to the daily survey.

Scanning through the site information there is very little on any restrictions to becoming a panellist. What is important is that the site states “for the continuity of the research, it is essential that we are able to count on your participation for a minimum of 6 months” which is understandable.

Surveys

As previously mentioned, you don’t receive invitations to participate in the survey as your individual link will take you through to the day’s survey and each day a new survey will be available through that link. You can request a reminder service so that if you forget to fill in a survey for X amount of days they will send an email to you with your link again which is definitely worth setting up.

To be able to answer a survey you need to have watched at least 5 minutes of TV the day before and then you go through answering questions on what you watched, whether you enjoyed it, did you think it was original, boring exciting etc. Depending on how much TV you watch (or admit to) will determine how long it will take to complete the daily survey. Sometimes once you have completed your daily survey you will be offered additional entries into the prize draw by answering some additional questions on set programs or personalities.

Whist actual monetary rewards for each survey would always be preferable; the size of the prize fund does make this survey worth doing. Of course you could just do enough to earn the minimum 10 entries into the monthly prize fund but the more entries you have the greater chance you have of winning something. There is an added quarterly prize draw which rewards loyal members who have filled in 10 surveys or more per month for 3 months, which has a 1st prize of £4,000 in cash.

I have participated in the survey for a year now and have won £59 worth of vouchers so far, hopefully I am due the £2000 Win soon!

Payment

If you are fortunate enough to win you will receive notification of your prize and how to claim it via email and each month they publish a list of winners’ initials for the previous month so you can see that quite a few people do get rewarded for participating.

Site Details

Minimum Age: not stated
Countries: UK
Admin Fee: £0.00
Minimum Payment: Prize Draw
Payment Options: Prize Draw
Referral Scheme: No
Url: http://panel.gfkmedia.co.uk

JOIN THE PANEL TODAY - CLICK THIS LINK

Don Mac

McDonalds Monopoloy Rare Stickers 2010 - Have You Found One??

2010-04-29T13:12:00.000-07:00

I'm sure you'll have noticed that McDonald's are running their Monopoly Promotion again, here are a list of all the rare stickers or rare pieces that you should look out for:

Mayfair (Win £500k cash)
Bond Street (Win £300k to buy a home with)
Coventry Street (Win a Mini Cooper Car)
Strand (Win a Virgin Holiday)
Marlborough Street (Win a £1000 prepaid Visa Card)
Northumberland Avenue (Win a Nokia Mobile Phone)
Euston Road (Win a Kodak digital camera)
Old Kent Road (Win a £100 prepaid Visa card)
Liverpool Street Station (Win £1500 of home energy over the year)

Good luck in finding them!

Remember you can use the code at the bottom of each McDonalds Monopoly 2010 Sticker to have a chance of winning a £1000 Visa Card, just visit the McDonalds.co.uk website to enter your code.

Don Mac

Free Sims - Free Sim Card For Your Mobile

2010-03-18T10:20:00.000-07:00

Free Sim Cards are available from almost every network operator, and can be found using the links below. Most Free Sim Cards have special offers with Free Texts or Free Web Browsing. These Sim Cards can sell in your local shops for around £5 each, so why not save a few pounds and have them delivered to your home address for FREE:

Texts and Unlimited Internet Sim

Unlimited Texting and Talking Sim

Texts and Calls to Any Network Sim

Call and Text the World From The UK Sim

T-Mobile Free Pay As You Go Sim Cards

3 Pay As You Go Sim FREE From Three

Orange Pay As You Go SIM card with £5 free credit

Free Vodafone Pay as You Go Sim

Free Tesco Mobile Sim Card

Free Lebara Mobile Sim Cards

Low Cost International Calls From Your Mobile

If you know of any other Free Sim Card Offers that are not listed here, why not add your comments below and I will add links.

Don Mac

Free 0800 Number For Your Business or Personal Use

2010-03-18T09:40:00.000-07:00

I have just discovered NumberGroup.com- they offer 0800 numbers which can divert to your UK landline or mobile number far cheaper than anyone else I have seen.

They offer FREE 0800 NUMBERS and PRESTIEGE NUMBERS

The Free Numbers are great, and there is

No Set Up Fee

No Line Rental

No Hidden Fees

You only pay 1.5p per minute for receiving calls.

Should you wish to divert to a mobile phone, there is a 13p per minute surcharge

This is much cheaper than another service I am currently using, so I'll be switching over ASAP

They also do these Non Georgraphical Numbers 0845, 0870, 0871, 0844, 070

Don Mac

Flixya - Share Videos, photos, blogs and make money

2010-03-16T14:56:00.000-07:00

So, if you have never heard of Flixya before, it is basically an online service that allows you to:

Share your own photo's with everyone on the net
Embed videos from YouTube, LiveVideo Google Video, Break.com etc
Write blogs and share with the world.
MAKE MONEY

The last point is why most people are using Flixya. If you have a Google AdSense account, you can associate it with Flixya, so that all adverts that are clicked around your Flixya content - generates some money for you.

In fact, Flixya give you 100% of the ad revenue from your content.

Some people spend hours every day writing blogs, uploading photos and embedding videos to increase the amount of content they have online, and therefore increase their advertisement revenue.

There is a lot of talk about automatic submission scripts, and auto upload or auto embedding software, their names include

flixya auto , the Flixya Firefox Extension , and flixyauto 1.0

One of these tools was said to be available from http://flixya.2kool4u.net and generate $1800 per day for you.

Personally, I don't think these tools actually exist for Free on the net, because if I wrote software like that, I'd be looking for some money in exchange for the code, since if everyone could use it, nobody would make any money.

I may be wrong though, and would love for someone to tell me it really is out there somewhere.

Don Mac

Paradox Of Our Times

2010-03-11T11:34:00.000-08:00

Here's a poem / piece of writing / speech (don't really know what to call it)
that I heard somewhere, I think it sums up a lot of how the modern world lives:

The paradox of our time in history is that we have
taller buildings, but shorter tempers;
wider freeways, but narrower viewpoints.
We spend more, but have less;
we buy more, but enjoy it less.
We have bigger houses and smaller families;
more conveniences, but less time;
we have more degrees, but less sense;
more knowledge, but less judgement;
more experts, but more problems;
more medicine, but less wellness.

We drink too much, smoke too much, spend too recklessly, laugh too little, drive too fast, get too angry too quickly, stay up too late, get up too tired, read too seldom, watch TV too much, and pray too seldom.

We have multiplied our possessions, but reduced our values.
We talk too much, love too seldom, and hate too often.
We've learned how to make a living, but not a life;
we've added years to life, not life to years.
We've been all the way to the moon and back, but have trouble crossing the street to meet the new neighbour.

We've conquered outer space, but not inner space.
We've done larger things, but not better things.
We've cleaned up the air, but polluted the soul.
We've split the atom, but not our prejudice.

We write more, but learn less.
We plan more, but accomplish less.
We've learned to rush, but not to wait.
We build more computers to hold more information, but have less communication.

These are the times of fast foods and slow digestion;
tall men, and short character;
steep profits, and shallow relationships.

These are the times of world peace, but domestic warfare;
more leisure, but less fun;
more kinds of food, but less nutrition.

These are days of two incomes, but more divorce;
of fancier houses, but broken homes.

These are days of quick trips, disposable nappies, throw-away morality, one-night stands, overweight bodies, and pills that do everything from cheer to quiet, to kill.

It is a time when there is much in the shop window and nothing in the stockroom; a time when technology can bring this letter to you, and a time when you can choose either to share this insight, or to just hit delete.

Don Mac

Mother's Day is On Sunday ( 14th March)

2010-03-09T15:38:00.000-08:00

So, it's Mother's Day on Sunday....

Have you bought a gift yet, or even thought about it?

Maybe you'll be one of the people who are in the local Asda on Saturday evening looking for cheap gifts, flowers and cards, then complaining because there is nothing much left to buy.

I might end up being the person above, but I have put in a little thought and bought a couple of gifts so far. The Body Shop have a nice range of women's smellies, so I bought a Strawberry Delight Gift Set (or something like that) - They are offering 18% Cashback and Free Delivery at the moment when you visit via TopCashBack.

I'm always up for saving a few pounds so that was a good place to buy a gift.

A proper bouquet of Flowers always goes down well. TopCashBack are also offering great cashback rates on InterFlora and other online florists.

Check it out, and make sure you get something ordered quick!!

Cashback Websites - Get money back on purchases

2010-03-05T08:44:00.000-08:00

I recently found out about these Cashback sites that are all over the internet. Basically, log on to the cashback site, browse for a retailer maybe Vodafone, Moneysupermarket, Debenhams, Asda etc and buy sproducts from their site. You then receive a percentage of the sale back, as a reward for using the cashback site. An easy way to save money where its getting spent anyway.

Great offers are available:

a new Aviva Home Insurance Policy will pay you around £70
Switching Gas & Electricity Supplier could pay around £100
And switching bank accounts could easily pay £100
Capital One Credit Cards - £23 for being accepted

The site I use the most is TopCashBack, and also Quidco.com
You can sign up here for TopCashBack

Thats all for now

Cheap Car Parking in Glasgow for students + everyone else

2010-03-05T08:41:00.000-08:00

I used to park in the High Street car park. It was near my university, and it was pretty cheap (60p per hour I think)
But, the builders have arrived now and seem to be digging up the whole car park to make for flats or something...
I never noticed before, but just down the high street a bit is another car park (just behind Aldi's) and the prices in there are just as reasonable, and you can ALWAYS find a space. Plus you don't have to pay and display, you just pay on exit, which is useful when you don't have change for the meter.

View Larger Map
I would like to find somewhere cheaper still, but thats the best place I know just now.

Mystery Shopping Companies

2009-03-16T13:34:00.000-07:00

Looking to make some extra cash??

Work as a 'mystery shopper' and you can get food, drink and some shopping for free, in return for reporting on the service you recieve. Most companies also pay your expenses and a fee for completing the assignment.

Sign up to any of the companies below. Where you live will affect the number of jobs available. All jobs are first come - first served too, so if theres nothing available now, keep checking and your sure to find something!!

GAPBUSTER
https://www.xec.gapbuster.com/

TNS
http://apps.tns-global.com/apps/mercury/Login.asp?redirect=%2Fapps%2Fmercury%2FDefault.asp

Retail Eyes
https://secure.retaileyes.co.uk/uk/home/retaileyes_aboutus.php

GrassRoots
https://www.grassrootsmysteryshopping.com/msw_pnlExtWelcome.aspx

GFK
https://cybershop.gfk.com/Cybershop2Web/Public/Welcome.aspx

Customer Perspectives
http://www.customerperspectives.co.uk/default.asp

Centre For Customer Awareness
http://www.ccauk.co.uk/

Mystery Shopping Forum
Forum: http://www.mysteryshoppersuk.com/forums/

2009-02-03T17:55:00.000-08:00

This blog is still under construction - see my other pages for now

SAVE ON YOUR UTILITY BILLS AT HOME
www.lowerbillz.co.uk
Get the UK's Best Value Deals On Gas, Electricity, Home Phone + Broadband

ZOPA LOANs - Loans From People, NOT Banks
Great Rates for borrowing or lending - Have a Look
Click Here Now

I Should be adding my recommendations on Forex Trading (Foreign Currency Trading) soon!

I prefer to use the easy-forex trading platform, dukascopy.com and metatrader can be helpful, I will eventually put up lots of information on all forex currency trades ( USD/GBP pair, USD/EUR etc etc), but you will have to wait for now.

Also, some mystery shopping sites in the UK you can sign up to...

Finally, some Home Working Schemes to Avoid - Such as 'The Select' Dropshipping and The Kleeneze Catalogue

Don Mac's Blog

2009-02-03T00:12:00.000-08:00

Hello everyone, thanks for coming here to Don Macs Blog. Also known as Donald Mackinnons Blog until I can think of a more exciting name for it. Here at DonMacs Blog I intend to post as much random yet interesting material as possible, whilst generating some residual income for myself though carefully selected ads and affiliated links.

Donald Mackinnon's Blog is written from a small town called Stevenston, In Ayrshire - Thats on the West Coast Of Scotland, UK

Please leave me comments as they will help me improve the Blog.

That's it for now,

DonMac (Donald Mackinnon)