Munny4Hunny

Does StumbleUpon work?

noreply@blogger.com (jay) — Thu, 17 Jul 2008 22:45:00 +0000

I have to say a resounding 'Yes' to that question, but this needs to be qualified by describing exactly what works and in what way.
I have previously stuck doggedly to 'Digg' as my preferred method of promoting blog posts, but have found StumbleUpon to be vastly superior in terms of vloume of traffic generated. Some blogs that I have that would normally get traffic that you can count on one hand, have had traffic rocket up into the hundreds overnight, but whilst this is nice to see - what value is it?
Certainly I have not seen a massive generation of income from this traffic, but nonetheless traffic has to be regarded as good and demonstrates that what you are writing at least captures the imagination of somebody somewhere. Also I have not as yet seen a huge increase in RSS feed reader subscriptions so maybe my blogs do not capture the imagination quite to the right degree...
Nevertheless the proof is in the pudding, and I have seen that immediately after submitting stories to StumbleUpon, traffic has been instantly generated. The fact remains that if I can write some posts that really capture the imagination, I could also increase RSS subscriptions and not have to work so hard promoting the blogs... So far, I have seen traffic fade away very quickly to almost back to the starting point 24 hours later, now I have found a means to effectively generate traffic, I need to devlop the skills to retain it.

A room for the Summer

noreply@blogger.com (jay) — Tue, 15 Jul 2008 22:29:00 +0000

I often tell people that the best room in our house is our garden, even now at least half the house has actually been decorated, I would still maintain that it remains the most pleasant place to entertain.

Just as you require a sofa, chairs and a table inside your house, if you entertain out of doors, you will require at least some elements of outdoor furniture. For most people that is going to include a decent parasol, plenty of chairs and a big table. In recent years it has been so hot on our patio, that we have bought a gazebo to try to shelter from the sun’s rays.

That in itself is an important point – whereas it use to be normal to try to get tanned to a crisp, we are far more conscious of the damaging effects of the sun nowadays, and having a good supply of factor whatever is essential. Which reminds me, I read recently that many of the sun creams marked as high resistance apparently don’t live up to their factor rating in independent tests, so make sure you read up on your sun-creams…. And let’s live in hope of a Summer in the UK at some point.

Colorpic free software

noreply@blogger.com (jay) — Mon, 14 Jul 2008 16:18:00 +0000

I like to highlight free software that I have found useful, and this little tool has proved invaluable lately when I am trying to match up colours to keep a consistent look across a website or blog.

Colorpic can identify the hexadecimal code attributed to any colour(color) that your mouse points to. This is particularly useful when you want to match up a widget colour with your already existing header image or some other element on your blog. Equally useful for a website, and becoming increasingly important to me lately as I seem to be creating widgets left, right and centre and it really helps if you can colour-code all the elements of your site to give a great over-all effect.

Colorpic is available from ICONICO as a totally free download - ColorPic runs on all Windows systems: 95/98/NT/2000/Me/XP, it's only 501K.

Adequate Insurance

noreply@blogger.com (jay) — Thu, 10 Jul 2008 12:20:00 +0000

Insurance is a necessary evil, no-one likes paying for it, but then who wants to be caught without adequate insurance?
Whether it be budget car insurance, low cost life insurance, or cheap holiday insurance it pays to get a good deal, but it also is vital to get insurance that will meet the circumstances that are likely to occur. Inadequate insurance is a waste of money and you would be better off not paying for insurance that is not going to meet your needs.

Latest Earnings

noreply@blogger.com (jay) — Mon, 07 Jul 2008 01:19:00 +0000

I was very lax with May's earnings report, and still a little tardy doing one for June, nonetheless the figures are in and are showing a general slow-down in paid to blog as expected. A little from PPP - there are still opps if you can get in quick enough....but I usually can't.
PayU2Blog is the main source of revenue for this type of earnings for me currently, but ideally I would like to be making enough passive earnings not to have to make forays into the paid to blog world...
I have made just about $80 in June from blogs, though I think I may have forgotten to include Adsense earnings, normally these are insignificant in terms of blog earnings, but lately I have been showing some results from niche blogs although nothing to get excited about. On the subject of Adsense I am on the verge of a third payout since December which I am pleased with, though hasten to repeat that very little of these earnings come from blogs.
I now have two blogs approved for PPP, and have added a new (90 day old) blog to my 'sponsored reviews' profile, one more blog is sitting in the wings awaiting the magic 90 day mark which should give me two strong niches for paid posts, but gaining PR will be an uphill struggle... and gaining PR is a key to being able to monetise any site and particularly a blog.

TV revolution

noreply@blogger.com (jay) — Sun, 06 Jul 2008 23:10:00 +0000

The tv is becoming one of the battlegrounds for the coming technological revolution, this and the 'phone and the internet. The newest innovations in the home will seek more and more to combine products which we have previously thought of as separate.
Why not combine your high-definition television with your Hi-Fi since they have some audio components in common?
Why not combine the television with internet surfing and other PC tasks since they share a common visual interface?
Why not combine your broadband connection with your phone or mobile phone and interactive television since they all require access to the telephone network?
Where will this all end? probably with something like the new media centres coming onto the market which will combine storage of digital audio and video with cable and satellite TV. It would be relatively simple to include a PC package and wireless network between the components and the future is virtually here...

Detox for weight loss?

noreply@blogger.com (jay) — Sat, 05 Jul 2008 11:30:00 +0000

There are more weight-loss remedies than you can shake a stick at lately, each one claiming to work in different ways.
The argument used by Orovo detox is that much of our weight-gain is due to toxic build-up and therefore an effective detox can help to lose weight. Like many treatments Orovo was discovered by mistake during research into methods of reducing aging symptoms.

Stumbled upon an SEO website

noreply@blogger.com (jay) — Thu, 03 Jul 2008 23:35:00 +0000

I have been getting into 'Stumble upon' lately and my findings will no doubt emerge in a later post, but today I stumbled upon a site worth reviewing. The site has been put together by Stephen an SEO expert who uses the motto 'SEO is a flair not a science - science always gets the same results!'.
The more I thought about that, the more it rang true. There are those who say that you can get SERP through following a set number of steps or will guarantee first position in Google search, but really SEO doesn't work like that.
The Google search hysteresis that determines your search engine results position for a given keyword or phrase is not written in stone like physics, it is subject to trends like fashion. What worked even 5 minutes ago may not work again... SEO has to be viewed as something fluid not rigid, almost having a life of it's own an existence fueled by Google geeks and shady back-office characters.
Not only does Stephen offer advice, often free on SEO, he raises money for cancer research in his spare time through charity races. He tells me he has raised £8,000 (that's $15,000) so far this year, and is planning to run at least 25 miles a week to reach a 1,000 mile target.

Moving

noreply@blogger.com (jay) — Wed, 02 Jul 2008 23:07:00 +0000

Everyone knows that moving home is one of the most stressful things you can do – complete upheaval of all you own, your family, pets and belongings, all moved from one district to another or even to another country. In this current economic climate most people will probably beholding onto their property if given the choice, but what about when relocation is not a choice. The solution is to get a team of professional movers, people who know what they’re doing. If you plan to move to NY, then you should be 'Googling' for mover NYC to find a trustworthy team of movers.

Adsense referrals programme to 'retire'

noreply@blogger.com (jay) — Tue, 01 Jul 2008 20:00:00 +0000

I received an important announcement from Adsense today regarding the 'Adsense referral' programme being terminated, or in their language 'retired'. I have two conflicting views about this:
Firstly I am disappointed because I like the referral scheme, it allows you to select specific graphical adverts in specific niches, you can select the adverts that look right for your website as some adverts have a number of different graphic blocks of varying sizes.
On the other hand, I've had a total of $1 from this programme in around 18 months, so it is not the best of earners for me....
I should probably have tweaked these a bit more than I have to find the best earners, it just remains for me to track these ads down and purge them from my sites... here is the text of the message from Google adsense:

Thank you for participating in the AdSense Referrals programme. We
will be retiring the AdSense Referrals programme during the last
week of August. After that time, AdSense Referrals code will no
longer display ads.

If you currently use referrals, either to promote Google products
or offerings from AdWords advertisers, we encourage that you take
the following steps before the product is retired:

* Remove all referral code from your site(s): Please take a
moment to remove all referral code from your sites before the last
week of August, so that you can continue to effectively monetise
your ad space.
* Replace your referral ads with AdSense for content ads: If
you have less than three AdSense for content ad units on a page,
we recommend replacing referral ad units with standard AFC ad
units. This will minimise the risk of decreased AdSense earnings
when the Referrals programme is retired.
* Run and save all referrals reports to your desktop: All
Referrals reports will no longer be available at the end of
October.

We appreciate your patience during this transition. If you have
additional questions, please visit
http://www.google.com/adsense/support/bin/topic.py?topic=14882.
Thank you for your support of AdSense Referrals.

Yours sincerely,

The Google AdSense Team

PageRank explained?

noreply@blogger.com (jay) — Mon, 30 Jun 2008 10:55:00 +0000

Each time I do about about Google and/or PageRank, I feel as though I have not gone into enough depth. I cannot gauge how much or how little a reader might already know, and it seems to me, with the confusion surrounding these two mystical entities, that some background might be helpful...
Pagerank was originally developed at Stanford University by Larry Page later aided by Sergey Brin. Most people think (myself included) on first hearing the term, that the 'page' part of it refers to a web page whereas in fact this refers to it's originator.
The concept behind pagerank is to predict the likelihood of a random click on an internet link finding a specific URL. This is determined by the amount of links pointing to the specific URL, and also the perceived 'quality' of that link. The point of the exercise was to develop a search engine, and Google emerged from this project in 1998.
Pagerank 'compares' pages on the worldwide web, so ranking is always relative, rather than absolute, ranking is dynamic changing each time new pages are added to the web or new links are added to pages.
Via search 'bots' (small programs 'sent' out to crawl the web), a link can be examined and the originator page of that link is also assessed. If the originator page is weighted under the Pagerank system, the page it points to benefits from that weighting. All links are taken into account and a value is eventually assigned between 0 and 10. The hysteresis used for this weighting is always a closely guarded secret, and the precise calculation is always subject to 'tweaking' as new trends come and go.
In order for a page to receive a ranking, it must at least be linked to another page that is already visited by the 'bots' otherwise they will never 'find' it...Hence the quickest way to get a rank is not to submit your site to Google, but simply get a link from another page (preferably one that is visted frequently). The most popular and frequently updated sites are re-visited by these web crawlers several times a day, more static sites may not get a visit for weeks...
The last point I want to address is that YES Google uses PageRank to ascertain a SERP (Search engine results position) for given search keywords, but this is only one of a number of factors taken into account. This means that it is still possible for low Pageranked sites to get high search positions for their niche keywords.
I hope I have turned some fresh ground here, I am aiming NOT to be too repetitive, but feel free to leave a comment if you think I bang on too much about Google...

More Memory

noreply@blogger.com (jay) — Sat, 28 Jun 2008 22:36:00 +0000

Wouldn't it be great if we could upgrade our brain memory and processor speed the same way that we can with a PC or laptop? Some time ago I went through the process of upgrading my PC with the proceeds of my internet earnings. I am currently looking to buy a new power supply now as the old one doesn't appear to be able to cope with all my upgrades(!!).
There is no doubt that you can seriously enhance your computer by adding in some upgrades here and there, though admittedly there is more you can do with a PC, you can also get laptop memory or a larger hard-disk to help your laptop to keep up with newer models.
The desktop offers better opportunities for upgrading, I even had to have a new motherboard at one point, in fact I don't suppose there's much of the original PC left at all now!

Firefox 3

noreply@blogger.com (jay) — Thu, 26 Jun 2008 20:53:00 +0000

Well I have been using this for about a week or so now and can happily report that Firefox 3 appears to live up to it's hype. I am sure that there are thousands of tweeks and tricks that I could use, but I am not one to spend hours customising a browser...
The hype was that it would be faster than the previous version, which from experience I would say is probably right. Certainly some sites now seem to load up far quicker than previously. It is also supposed to be more secure, but seeing as I have very few problems with Firefox 2 security, I am not the best user to make a judgment.
What I have noticed is that there is a nice fresh modern look to the new browser, there are new icons and I have noticed some enhanced features when it comes to displaying favicons - I notice that sites like 'Paypal' have added their name to the favicon which I think looks quite good.
I am a big fan of Firefox and the new version does not have me hankering after the previous version which is always a plus..

Short-term borrowing

noreply@blogger.com (jay) — Wed, 25 Jun 2008 09:02:00 +0000

Short-term borrowing can be expensive, but payday loans say that if borrowers pay off their debt before payday, they won’t have to pay any interest.
This sort of borrowing should be thoroughly costed before taking the plunge and should not be considered if you won’t have the means to pay it off quickly. Ensure that you are aware of all the fixed and variable costs.
Most of us would turn to savings or credit cards for emergency cash, but if these are not options open to you and ease of access and speed of processing are your priority, and cost is not so significant then this type of borrowing could be the answer.
All types of borrowing have their advantages and disadvantages, and all can be beneficial, but please also be aware that any kind of debt can become a significant burden.

Audio Racks

noreply@blogger.com (jay) — Tue, 24 Jun 2008 22:26:00 +0000

I am a self-confessed audio-phile I just love all things audio from Hi-Fi systems, cd players, tape decks, DAT and DAB. I even had a go at building speakers until I realised that they cost more to make than to buy - still satisfaction cannot be purchased...
Audio is still important to me as I run a sideline in turning cassettes into CD's. I am planning (always planning, never doing) to gut my home office and install some nice shelving, some decent office furniture and some audio racks so that I can listen while I work. I have already transferred my entire CD collection to hard disk, so once I link my PC up to my Hi-Fi I won't even have to go and find that elusive CD that I know is around the house somewhere.

Promoting your blog

noreply@blogger.com (jay) — Mon, 23 Jun 2008 00:39:00 +0000

Always on the lookout for ways to publicise my blog and raise interest in my posts, I discovered Zimbio last week and feel that it could be an interesting way to promote a blog especially in a niche category.
Firstly your register your URL or feed (I used my feed) and all your recent posts are uploaded into your profile. Each posts is listed and you can add your posts to existing 'wikizines' that might exist, or create your own niche wikizines in the hope that others might add content to them. I think the new wikizines do not go 'live' unless others add their content.
All your posts appear in a 'queue' and you can go through ewach one adding them to different exisiting content to publicise them, or deleting ones (paid posts maybe?) that you don't have categories for....
This seems like a great idea to draw readers to your content and also to do networking and easily find blogs within your niche. I think that this is a really well-thought out scheme that offers something useful to every blogger and qualifies as a 'no-brainer' in my book!
Not merely a good idea, but well-presented too in a professional looking site that appears to work really well. It was easy to add content and to attribute it to the right wikizines, and even starting your own wikizines was simplicity itself. I only hope that others pick up on my themes...

Property Market Report

noreply@blogger.com (jay) — Sun, 22 Jun 2008 17:54:00 +0000

With the property market in a state of flux, it is difficult to know whether there is any profit in domestic property acquisition or commercial real estate. The commercial and domestic property markets seem to move as one, with no real distinction. The buy-to-let market in the UK is a dead duck at the moment, and from what I can tell, the ‘buy-to-renovate’ enthusiasts are having a really hard time producing a profit for all their efforts.
I am convinced however, that property remains a good investment for the long-term, short-term is a very different matter.

Diet pills? me??

noreply@blogger.com (jay) — Sat, 21 Jun 2008 22:23:00 +0000

I for one am the last person to talk to about diet pills as I seem to be unable to put weight on whatever I eat. I have been the same weight for as long as I can remember and never have to hit the scales, if I do, I am delighted if I happen to be heavier than the last time I looked. I guess not many people can say that…
I eat plenty and all the wrong things, but recently I have tried to make the effort to eat less chocolate (as I can’t really afford to eat as much as I would like to!) and more fruit. I am always looking for something to do and relaxation does not come easily – that’s the down-side of burning off all those calories naturally.

I have been bad...

noreply@blogger.com (jay) — Fri, 20 Jun 2008 00:35:00 +0000

I have taken my eye off the ball completely through my own fault... I know that I have to try and rationalise my on-line activities to make them more manageable, but what did I do? I had an idea...
I set out with the intention of writing a post about credit cards and the credit crunch. This quickly turned into a 1500 word article which has taken on a life of it's own and miraculously turned into a website called The Credit Cruncher ... Just when I thought I should be pruning back some internet activity, I now have another project to take up my limited time.
The good thing is that I want to make the new site more of a static thing than a conventional blog so there shouldn't be the need for daily posts. In the meantime, I have written little for my other sites so I must make up for it now....
I am behind on all of my other projects to the extent that I haven't even posted about earnings for May 2008 yet...Suffice to say that earnings were reasonable at about $130, Payu2blog being the most profitable paid to blog system, for me at the moment. I am earning with a couple of survey schemes and hope to be able to take some cash earnings out of Dneero surveys soon (payout $20) I will be more diligent at the end of June!

Summer is here

noreply@blogger.com (jay) — Wed, 18 Jun 2008 00:45:00 +0000

It's time for suncream and ice cream, swimsuits and sunshine, I have already spent three glorious days on the beach this month and am looking forward to more... We have to take the sun whenever we find it in the UK as our Summers can be a little elusive.
I am fortunate in that I am only about fifteen minutes away from the sea, and only about half an hour from the nearest sandy beach, so when the weather beckons I can head on down to the sand dunes... the wonderful thing about the beach is that you aren't supposed to do very much other than lie there and occasionally paddle in the sea or build a sand-castle. Other places that you visit require you to do stuff and walk round looking at things - the seaside offers true relaxation as long as you don't mind real sand in your sandwiches.

Brand Loyalty

noreply@blogger.com (jay) — Sat, 14 Jun 2008 09:10:00 +0000

The latest dNeero survey is all about brand loyalty. What makes you buy the same brand every time? How loyal are you to the brands that you habitually buy? Are you more loyal to some things than others - take part in the survey and earn a little cash...

The Credit Crunch

noreply@blogger.com (jay) — Fri, 13 Jun 2008 21:27:00 +0000

Don't panic... the biggest impact of the credit crunch will probably be limited to the select unlucky 'few'. These few will be those that not only slip into negative equity, but also lose the ability to make their mortgage payments. If you think there's a chance of this happening to you then you should talk to a financial advisor or your mortgage lenders.
The knock-on effects however may be more widespread in terms of available credit - more people are being turned down for credit cards, and if possible, I would urge everyone to start to manage any credit card debt that you might have more effectively. If things get really tricky, you may find this debt becoming more of a burden especially in the current climate of rising prices and static wages.

Holiday Season

noreply@blogger.com (jay) — Thu, 12 Jun 2008 21:36:00 +0000

As the holiday season starts to get into swing, the trend to design and plan your own holiday is growing each year. Of course this is possible simply through the magic of the internet which opens up a world previously dominated by travel agents.
What you can miss when you 'do your own thing' is the expertise and local knowledge that is provided as a matter of course through local agents of the travel company. The internet once again can bridge this gap through the prominence of on-line travel guide and advice. It is important to gather as much information about your destination to make sure that you are not missing out on hidden treasures. Both online and hard-copy travel guides are an invaluable source for intrepid holiday makers forging their own way around the world.

Holiday madness

noreply@blogger.com (jay) — Wed, 11 Jun 2008 10:15:00 +0000

I have been away for a week and have just found it so hard to get back into the swing of things... My first day back at work and I was ready to go home at 2pm, I couldn't believe there was another three and half hours of the working day left!
We had a very relaxing week in an apartment - we prefer to go to holiday apartments rather than cheap hotels if possible, although hotels do have the edge when it comes to housekeeping! Out of the seven days away, we managed three days on the beach where we were able to really relax - unfortunately, the holiday is over and I now have a mass of 'catching-up' to do.
I have come home to a pile of work both of my own and from my 'real' job, plus I have a load of posts to make on three of my more active blogs to cover the holiday gap - not least of which is my 'May earnings' post which is going to be late....

A good fit

noreply@blogger.com (jay) — Mon, 09 Jun 2008 21:17:00 +0000

Merrell shoes are reputed to fit right out of the box... and few people appreciate how crucial a good fit is when it comes to footwear. I have had personal experience of shoe-fitting for some years, and I can't stress enough how important it is that children's shoes especially are fitted correctly.

You can do an immense amount of harm to children's feet since their bones are so malleable and will mold to whatever footwear you provide. You can disfigure young feet simply by allowing them to wear their left shoe on their right foot and their right on their left for too long. - Please DON'T try this at home!

Personally, even though I am not flush with spare cash, I will always have my child's shoes fitted properly, some things are worth skimping on...