Money Matters

noreply@blogger.com (The Sun from The East) — Sun, 12 Nov 2006 02:03:00 +0000

According to DealUniveristy, you can get a free PUR On the Go water bottle by filling out a very short form, including your name, address, email address, month and year of birth, and three multi-selection questions. I just filled out the form and it seems the bottle is still available. The whole process takes about 2 minutes and it says at the end that the bottle will be delivered in 4 to 6 weeks.

For this kind of free stuff, I always print out the confirmation page in PDF format for a record.

Money-Making Idea: Blogging

noreply@blogger.com (The Sun from The East) — Fri, 03 Nov 2006 22:20:00 +0000

Ever since I started blogging, like many fellow bloggers out there, the idea of monetization is always with me. Having tried many different ways (such as AdSense, Text Link, Ontok, PayPerPost, and YPN) to generate some side income while blogging, I found that by far the most successful one is with PayPerPost. No hassle, easy to deal with, and on-time payment. Best of all, there are dozens of opportunities every day, so you can easily find one that fits the general contents of your blog.

To start making money, go to PayPerPost and use my email address thesunsfinancial@gmail.com in the referral field when signing up. Once approved, you can use their referral program to refer your readers to sign up with your own email address.

$10 off $30 Promotion Extended

noreply@blogger.com (The Sun from The East) — Fri, 03 Nov 2006 22:18:00 +0000

Got an email from Buy.com yesterday, saying that the $10 off with an order of $30 or more and Google Checkout has been extended till November 6th.

Here's the 1GB flash drive that you can get for almost free. List price $30.95, price after rebate $15.95, price after Google Checkout $5.95. If you register your Citi card with Google Checkout, you can get another $5 statement credit from Citi. All these combined together will make the cost of a 1GB flash drive at only 95 cents!

Mortgage Refinance Made Easy

noreply@blogger.com (The Sun from The East) — Fri, 27 Oct 2006 21:44:00 +0000

Three years ago, when we bought our currently, we chose a 5-year ARM over fixed rate. The mainly reason was a favorable rate the ARM offered: a percentage point lower than 30-year fixed rate. At that time 5-year seemed far away and interest rates could only go lower. We were wrong on both.

With a little more than one year left on our ARM and interest rates headed nowhere but north, we started to think of refinancing our current mortgage and locking in a good rate before the high rate knicks in. During the research, one of our favorite places to get comprehensive information on mortgages, mortgage refinancing, and mortgage loan is Personal Home Loan & Mortgage, where I can get a instant rate quote, locate a broker in my area, calculate monthly payment for types of mortgages, fill out a quick application, and find useful discussion in their forums. Best of all, the information I provid is protected by SecureTrust which guarantees compliance with FTC regulations.

Personal Home Loan & Mortgage really makes my refinancing process easy.

Free Trade And Dividend Reinvestment From Zecco

noreply@blogger.com (The Sun from The East) — Sat, 21 Oct 2006 17:40:00 +0000

It seems that Zecco not only offers free equity trade for an account with a balance of $2500 or more, but they also have free dividend reinvestment. The following is from Zecco's FAQ section:

Does Zecco Trading allow account holders to automatically reinvest dividends for equities and exchange traded funds?
Yes, dividend reinvestment is a feature that is available to our clients and can be setup during the account opening process. If you would like to add this feature after the account opening process is complete, you must submit the request in writing to our customer service department.

Anyway, now we can be assured that they do offer dividend reinvestment. And the best way to use this service is setting it up when getting a new account.

Vimo Makes Shopping For Healthcare And Health Insurance Easy

noreply@blogger.com (The Sun from The East) — Thu, 19 Oct 2006 02:51:00 +0000

As we entered the last quarter of 2006, many of us will soon face the deadline of renewing the healthcare plan. I am not sure about you, but every year at this time, I had to spend days to go through all the paperwork to find the right plan and right doctor for my entire family, as my employer kept changing healthcare provider almost every year. This years, however, things could be a little easier, not because I get a straightforward plan, but a website Vimo that makes healthcare buying a simple and pleasant experience. At Vimo, I can compare a wide range of health care plans, get fees and ratings for different Health Savings Account providers, search for doctors and dentists in my area, and, best of all, see what other people said about a doctor before making my selection.

If you ever feel confused by your healthcare and health insurance choices, be sure to check out Vimo.com for a second opinion.

Virus Found In iPod

noreply@blogger.com (The Sun from The East) — Wed, 18 Oct 2006 16:09:00 +0000

Reuters reported today that a small number of Apple's iPods shipped last month may carry computer virus:

since September 12, less than 1 percent of Video iPods -- pocket-sized devices that can play music files and video clips - left its contract manufacturer carrying the virus RavMonE.exe, which affects computers running Microsoft Corp.'s Windows operating system.

For more information, check Apple's tenical support website.

For Every Successful Website, There's A Reliable Server

noreply@blogger.com (The Sun from The East) — Fri, 13 Oct 2006 03:14:00 +0000

So you got your own website, whether it's your online store or simply a weblog. You work hard to build your content to attact visitors. And you are happy to see tens of thousands visitors coming to your site everyday. Then all of the suddent, it seems taking forever to load your webpage and, sometimes, you can't even log in to update your site.

What happened?

Apparently, your server failed you and can't handle the traffic any more!

The solution to your problem is a new technology from called "clustered failover hosting" developed by Hosting Zoom. This revolutionary hosting technology distribute traffic among multiple servers to reduce network down time. For more information about Hosting Zoom and their services, go to HostingZoom.com and see how they can help you build a reliable, high performance website.

Free iPod Nano From Bank Of America

noreply@blogger.com (The Sun from The East) — Fri, 13 Oct 2006 03:04:00 +0000

n addition to the 1GB Nano, Bank of America has a credit card offer that also include

$50 Statement Credit after qualifying transaction(s)
0% balance transfer for one year

To receive the free iPod, you have to

use your new account within 90 days of the date the account is opened by Bank of America to make any combination of purchase or cash advance transactions (includes balance transfers) totaling at least $2,000.

Since balance transfer is considered as qualified transactions, meeting the $2,000 spending limit shouldn't be a big problem. While the deal looks generally OK, the only catch I found was the balance transfer fees. According to the offer:

Balance Transfers and Cash Advance Checks are subject to transaction fees in the amount of 3% of the transaction (minimum $10).

Get Your Website In 48 Hours

noreply@blogger.com (The Sun from The East) — Thu, 12 Oct 2006 14:21:00 +0000

Yes, in 48 hours, you could have your own website up and running!

For people who have brilliant ideas that they want to market but with limited knowledge about internet, building their own websites pose huge challenges. Often times, the dream of owning their own online business was put off because of the seemingly unsurpassable obstacle of website design.

Now, help is on the way.

WebsitesIn48Hours.com is a website that can help you realize your dream. Specializing in website design, marketing, consultation services, WebsitesIn48Hours.com guarantees your own website in 48 hours, or you get full refund. With as little as $99, you can have a website with up to four pages, five email accounts, 100 Megabytes of Hosting, 300 Megabytes of Bandwidth, and website traffic monitoring system.

Don't let website design stands on the way of owning your website. Go to WebsitesIn48Hours.com and get it done in two days!

30 Free Trades per Month from BoA

noreply@blogger.com (The Sun from The East) — Wed, 11 Oct 2006 17:43:00 +0000

Bank of America is now offering $0 equity trade for customers with $25,000 or more in all asset across BoA deposit accounts, including checking, savings, and CDs.

Offer available with an individual or joint Banc of America Investment Services, Inc. (BAI) Self-Directed Brokerage account. If you have a combined total of $25,000 or more in your deposit accounts at Bank of America N.A., BAI waives its commission fee for as many as 30 online equity trades each month. When you make an online equity trade, BAI determines whether you meet the balance requirement to qualify that trade for the commission fee waiver. BAI adds the average collected balances in your checking and savings accounts as of the prior month to the balances in your CD and FDIC-insured IRA accounts as of the prior business day. If this calculation reflects a combined total of less than $25,000, BAI then makes a second calculation to see if the trade qualifies by adding the balances in your checking, savings, CD and FDIC-insured IRA accounts as of the prior business day. Offer applies only to online equity trades, including stock and exchange traded fund (ETF) trades. Standard commission fees apply when the balance requirement is not met, or when you exceed 30 qualifying trades.

While a minimum opening balance of $10,000 can earn 5.00% APY for a 7-month CD, the rate for money market savings account is only 2.40% APY for a balance of $25,000, which is quite low.

Google Introducing New Ping Service

noreply@blogger.com (The Sun from The East) — Fri, 06 Oct 2006 03:58:00 +0000

Google today introduced its own ping service:

Today we're launching the Google Blog Search Pinging Service, which is a way for individual bloggers and blog platform providers to inform us of content changes. Blogging providers who syndicate RSS/Atom/XML and want to be included in our Blog Search index can now ping us directly.

Click here to manually ping Google and click here to see if Google can find your latest update.

What Is VoIP And Why Is It Popular?

noreply@blogger.com (The Sun from The East) — Thu, 05 Oct 2006 01:15:00 +0000

Simply speaking, Voice of Internet Protocol, commonly known as VoIP, is a technology that can carry voice signal over the Internet rather than traditional telephone lines. Though the technology was originated from a technology developed in the 1970s, it became commercially available only in recent years. Now big players such as Vonage and SunRocket are promoting heavily their products and services.

What attracting people most about VoIP services is cost. Since it utilizes existing infrastructures, the service can be offered at much lower prices than what traditional telephone services could cost, and VoIP phone to VoIP phone calls are largely free. Even though the popularity of VoIP has increased dramatically and more and more people abandoned their landline phones and swithed to VoIP, many people still feel confused not just about the technology itself, but also various features offered by VoIP service providers. To learn more, check out VOIP, where you can find all information you need about the technology.

A New Record For The Dow

noreply@blogger.com (The Sun from The East) — Wed, 04 Oct 2006 13:35:00 +0000

I don't know if there's anybody celebrating, but we had a new record for the Dow at the close, 11,727.34. The old record was 11722.98, set on January 14, 2000 at the peak of the Internet bubble.

They Got Coupons!

noreply@blogger.com (The Sun from The East) — Tue, 03 Oct 2006 17:15:00 +0000

I am a hardcore couponer and love to search through weekend newspapers for coupons that I can use at my local grocery stores. Since I will do the shopping anyway, why not use coupons to keep a couple of more bucks in my pocket? A little bit here and there, the savings add up!

When it comes to online shopping, the idea of e-coupon works even better: no cutting and easy searching. I shopped a lot at Amazon.com and Buy.com, but I never went directly to their sites, the same as I never went to the grocery stores without going through the newspapers first. Instead, I will check places like Coupon Chief for coupons of the online merchants. Best of all, there are also great deals on Coupon Chief that make online shopping even more rewarding. Try Coupon Chief and see how much you can save.

INGDirect Reference Code

noreply@blogger.com (The Sun from The East) — Tue, 03 Oct 2006 16:28:00 +0000

INGDirect isn't the leader in online saving interest rates now as it used to be. With current rate at 4.40%, it's not as attractive as other banks such as HSBC and EmigrantDirect. But if you still want to open and INGDirect account, you can use the reference code CK921/gheaeriz to get $25 bonus if you have a minimum deposit of $250.

To open an INGDirect Orange Savings account, go to ingdirect.com and get rewarded.

Reminder: Free Financial Advice This Friday

noreply@blogger.com (The Sun from The East) — Tue, 03 Oct 2006 16:26:00 +0000

This is just to remind you that Kiplinger's Personal Finance and the National Association of Personal Financial Advisors (NAPFA) will hold Kiplinger's Jump-Start Your Retirement Plan Days on October 6. Members from NAPFA will be available to answer your questions on retirement planning for free via the toll-free number (888) 919-2345.

A Tool To Boost Your eBay Sales

noreply@blogger.com (The Sun from The East) — Tue, 03 Oct 2006 02:30:00 +0000

Becoming a eBay seller is easy, the difficult part is how to attract buyers to your eBay shop and buy what you're selling. If you are a casual seller who only wants to turn those stuff no longer needed into cash, you may feel overwhelmed by all the details of getting your item listed: find a category, write a description, set a price, etc. Now, there's a great tool that can make listing on eBay as easy as 1, 2, and 3.

List'd Express is a web site that provides easy templates for sellers to build their eBay inventory. It has tools to help sellers select the right keywords for their items, add images to make the description, and put the items into the right directory. Next time before listing your item on eBay, check out List'd Express see how it can boost your sales.

EmigrantDirect Lowers Its Rate To 5.05%

noreply@blogger.com (The Sun from The East) — Sat, 30 Sep 2006 18:52:00 +0000

Last night when I logged into my EmigrantDirect account, the savings rate was still at 5.15%, the same as the past four months. However, when I checked again this morning, the rate dropped to 5.05%, matching the offer from HSBC.

Though the rate is not attractive as it used to be, it's still one of the highest rates out there with low minimum balance requirement. There are other banks offering higher rates, but they all require a minimum balance from $5000 to $25000, which is too high to justify the 20 basis points higher rate.

My First Payment From PayPerPost

noreply@blogger.com (The Sun from The East) — Thu, 28 Sep 2006 14:45:00 +0000

I started to take the paid-to-blog opportunities provided by PayPerPost last month. Yesterday, I received my first payment via Paypal from PPP for an entry I wrote a month ago. Yes! Actually, at the beginning, I was a little skeptical about PPP. My feeling is much more positive now, however, as I believe it is real and they mean what they said. Though there are dozens of opportunities every day on PPP, I only took those suitable the overall content of my blog. True, you won't get rich by writing a short story, but you can definitely use a couple of more bucks.

If you haven't started yet, go to PayPerPost.com and take a look at their open opportunities. Besides, don't forget to visit their blog, where you can find your fellow bloggers' experience with PPP and see what they have to say about PPP.

Write A Testimonial And Receive A Gift From Newegg.com

noreply@blogger.com (The Sun from The East) — Thu, 28 Sep 2006 14:04:00 +0000

If you're a Newegg.com customer (yes, you have to have an account with them), now you can get a free gift by writing a short testimonial. Here's how to get your gift:

Login to your Newegg account;
Use this link to write your testimonial;
Submit your testimonial.

I wrote my testimonial on Sept. 26th and was notified yesterday that my free gift is on the way, though I don't know what exactly it is.

Microsoft Offers Free Domain Name and Web Hosting

noreply@blogger.com (The Sun from The East) — Tue, 26 Sep 2006 19:24:00 +0000

Microsoft is offering Office Live Basics for free. What this free service offered includes:

A company domain name
A hosted Web site with 30 MB of storage
Five free e-mail accounts with 2 GB of storage each
10 MB E-mail attachment limit
10 GB/month data transfer (bandwidth)
Basic Web site traffic reports

If you want to take a look, follow this link.

Free McAfee Security Software

noreply@blogger.com (The Sun from The East) — Tue, 26 Sep 2006 19:22:00 +0000

Buy.com is currently having some McaFee security software for free. Though the McAfee Internet Security Suite 2007 is not available any more, some other items are still in stock:

Hurry up before they are all gone!

One Stop Shop For Your Financial Needs

noreply@blogger.com (The Sun from The East) — Thu, 21 Sep 2006 02:06:00 +0000

Did you ever feel confused and somtimes tired when shopping for financial products? If you run a search on Google, you are going to get thousands of offers. However, unless you already have in your mind what you are looking for, going through these offers one-by-one will become an endless process. Last time when I shopped for my car insurance three years ago, it took me nearly a week to do the research and I felt it would be nice to have an integrated place which give me comprehensive quotes and comparisons . If this is also what you are looking for, maybe Financial One is the place.

Financial One is a one stop shop for your financial needs. It offers a wild range of fiancial produects, from life insurance to mortgages to annuities. At Financial One, you can get instant quotes from more than 140 companies that offers insurance products. Their annuity quotes are updated on a daily basis and they will shop mortgages for you from multiple providers. Next time when you are in the market for life insurance, mortgate, or annuity, give Financial One a try.

Free Financial Advice Tomorrow

noreply@blogger.com (The Sun from The East) — Thu, 21 Sep 2006 02:00:00 +0000

Need help with your retirement plan? How about some professional assistance?

Kiplinger's Personal Finance and the National Association of Personal Financial Advisors (NAPFA) will hold Kiplinger's Jump-Start Your Retirement Plan Days on Thursday, September 21 (that's tomorrow) and Friday, October 6 (only these two days). Members from NAPFA will be available to answer your questions on retirement planning for free via the toll-free number (888) 919-2345.