Requirements

You must have a Google Adsense account in good standing and you must adhere to Google's policies concerning its consumer surveys program. If you have never worked with any kind of Google program, trust me when I tell you they take this very seriously. If you break their rules you will likely get banned for life.

How Much Does Google Pay?

The going rate at the time of this writing is 5 cents per question answered. The survey prevents users from seeing your content until they answer one or more questions in the survey. ​However, Google does allow visitors to bypass the survey and get to your content. If that happens, you want get credit for the question.

Similar to Fan Gating

If you are a Facebook user, you may recognize this kind of mechanism, i.e., blocking content until the visitor takes some action, as fan gating. What you may not be aware of is that Facebook no longer allows the practice. Google gets around the negative aspects of fan gating by allowing users to bypass the survey altogether.

Won't This Annoy Visitors?

It probably won't be on everyone's list of favorite website activities but you would be surprised how many people will participate. People don't mind surveys as long as they are not too long and too personally intrusive with respect to the questions.​

Does it Cost Anything to Join?

The program is entirely free. As mentioned you will need an Adsense account but you are not required to display Adsense ads on your website.

How Much Money Will This Make?

That really depends on how much traffic you get to your website and how targeted that traffic is. If you have a website about selling orchids and someone comes to your site looking for bicycle parts, they probably aren't going to stick around for very long.​

Why is Google Doing This?

Google uses the data from the surveys as part of their market research into consumer behavior. So they are effectively getting website owners who want to participate to do much of the dirty work for them. If you participate and are able to get decent traffic to pages that use this survey, Google gets the benefit. It's up to you if you believe that is worth 5 cents per question or not.​

Where to Go For More Information​

​Google Adsense Sign Up

Publisher Program Policies​

Google Consumer Surveys Sign Up​

Are There Better Ways to Make Money Online?

Getting 5 cents for people to click on your ads may not seem like much especially if it requires more than that cost to obtain those visitors. Therefore, you may want to pursue other types of money making (or get paid) programs that can bank a lot more. One of my favorites is Wealthy Affiliate. This is a recurring revenue program (monthly or yearly) where all you need to do is convince people to sign up for the free membership. When they upgrade to premium, you will receive a ongoing commission for as long as they remain a paying member.

See more with my Wealthy Affiliate Review.

The post Get Paid to Conduct Surveys appeared first on Get Paid Boot Camp.

Disclosure: Purchasing via the links or banners included in this article may result in a commission generated to the website owner.

Prerequisites: this article is specific to websites that have WordPress installed!

If on the other hand you don't feel that having your website load fast, you probably won't get much out of this. But if this is the case, let me ask you this:

If you made it past that last sentence, then you were either already convinced that the speed of your website is important or I managed to convince you. Good Job! It is important.

I had actually ignored speed for the longest time. But today that all changed when I came across a training session (free) that showed the exact steps to take to speed up my website significantly.

Bottom Line: It Truly Worked!

If you'd like to get started immediately without me telling you about the training, then by all means feel free to bypass this article. Otherwise, here is a summary of the training and how it made the difference that it made.

The trainer, whose name is Marcus, gives an overview why it's important to speed up your website - but I've already convinced you of that right? :)

Then he shows you a great utility that you can use to test your website. The website asks for the URL of your website and then runs a series of tests that takes about 30 seconds or more to run.

If you have never done any optimization for your website speed before you are likely to score badly from the tests. That's not a problem however because Marcus will continue with how to fix this to make your website much faster.

Marcus then proceeds describe how to install and run the P3 Profiler plugin to test which of your installed plugins may be causing bottlenecks. He goes onto explain that you should really evaluate which plugins you need and which ones you can deactivate and even delete.

After you have cleaned up your plugins and run the P3 profiler scan again to check for improvements, it's probably a good idea to run the utility that tests the speed of your website once again. You can check to see if there has been any significant difference from that.

For me, that particular step did help a little. But this was not as dramatic as the results from the rest of the training.

The training will then explain various plugins that you can install and activate on your website that will give you the gains in optimization or speed that you are looking for. But it's not just the installation that is important. Marcus goes over the correct settings for each of the plugins to ensure that they are working the way they were intended.

My suggestion is to retest your website after installing and setting each of the plugins. This way, you can see which plugins had the most improvement in speed. I believe all of them helped. The results you get may be different than my results due to the theme you have installed as well as the differences in plugins used.

Overall, I highly recommend going through the training and doing all of the tasks that are given. I truly believe you will see tremendous improvements in the speed of your website. That could be all the difference in the world in converting your website visitors to customers!

Cheers!

The post How to Speed Up a Website Dramatically appeared first on Get Paid Boot Camp.

Creators: Taylor Rizer, Tina Kane

Website: http://incomehacks.com/products/free-list-hack/

Price: Varies (Dime Sale)

Rating: 4.4 Stars (Very Good)

Summary

Overall, this is a very good product that has potential to increase you mailing list using totally free traffic.​

Claims Made​ From Sales Page

Buyers Easily Added to Your List

I believe that if you follow the steps in the case study and implement it, you will have the means to easily get buyers onto your list. The product creators also differentiate why this is important (as compared to getting freebie seekers on your list).

Free Traffic

Getting traffic for free has always been a challenge for any that has a website. But the method that the author shows in this case study has a pretty good chance of working.

Not only that, but the types of people that you will get to sign up on your list will be ones more likely to buy. You will be shown one tweak to make in your squeeze page that will catapult these types of buyers onto your list.

At the time of this writing I am currently in the process of going through the steps of the training and applying the techniques. So I have not yet seen results from this tweak. However, it made perfect sense when the product creators spelled it out for me and I really don't see any reason why it won't work!​

Implement in 20 Minutes

I touch upon this a bit below. Whether or not that actually happens is dependent upon your skills with respect to websites. If you are proficient at making changes or additions to web pages then this could be feasible.

Even if you aren't skilled at making up pages on a website, it is something you could easily get someone else to do for a little amount of money. Doing this, it will take you even less time than the 20 minutes as someone else will be doing all the work.

Features taken directly from the sales page:

As you can see from the graphic on the left, these features are what the authors believe you will get from the training.

Everything is true as specified although two of the items need some clarification:

Setting up in 20 minutes will probably only happen if you are fairly experienced with squeeze pages, etc. It is likely to take you longer if not. It shouldn't take more than an hour or two, however.

The other is the reference to the EXACT high-converting "squeeze page" which I did not find (other than referenced in the PDF document). So it's unclear how this could be copied and pasted.

Upsells

There are some upsells, a.k.a., one time offers. The first is for a video of the entire process. It wasn't overly expensive at the time so if you feel like you want the additional video, feel free to go for it.

The next upsell was for coaching. Anytime I have picked up the coaching session on products like these, I have been disappointed and have asked for my money back. I can't say whether this one is any good or not because I simply don't buy coaching programs from unknown people any more.

One gripe I often have about these is that the initial system that you bought in the first place was supposed to have everything you need to be successful. Why do you need this coaching?

The last upsell was intriguing and I decided to evaluate it as well (future post). It's called the Six Figure Formula. It is training on how to find the right niche, create products to sell to that niche, how to automate the process and getting unlimited traffic for free.

If you want to find out when I have completed my review of this as well as read my review, be sure to use the form above!

Bottom Line

I believe this system has all the necessary components needed to actually make you money. It does take some work but it's work that I feel will likely be rewarded. Also, as I mentioned above, I plan on implementing the system myself and then reporting back on my progress with implementing the techniques taught in the training.

The product is reasonably priced (as of this writing) and you will likely find it to be beneficial to your money making efforts if you too decide to implement what is taught!

The post How to Build an Email List Fast – Review of Free List Hack appeared first on Get Paid Boot Camp.

Seems like a rather silly question, doesn't it? But let me ask it another way:

Would you lose $10 in order to gain $100?

Once I introduce the word "lose" it takes on a whole new meaning. And that is exactly why people have a problem with a concept known as loss leaders. But if you want to make money, sometimes having an effective loss leader strategy can be exactly what's needed to earn money.

Loss Leader Defined

The concept originated with retail sales and it is essentially a product (or service) that is offered at below market value (or even free) that helps to stimulate sales of other higher end products.

The loss leader's role has expanded to include online marketing channels as well. You have likely experienced squeeze pages where you are being offered something, a report for instance, in exchange for certain information, like your name and email.

How this Ties into Online Marketing

I've already described how offering a free report can entice visitors to your website to sign up to your email list or newsletter. But is this effective anymore? The answer is yes, it can be but you need to follow some guidelines:

Keep the Report Short and to the Point

The best lesson I learned in this regard was to focus on only one area instead of trying to cover every aspect of the topic of the report. Make it something that the reader of the report can take action on let that be the only thing included. This let's the user see that the information can help them in some way without being too drawn out.

Offer Incredibly Valuable Information

I am not here to bash PLR in its entirety nor am I suggesting that it has no use in the process of including it as a loss leader. What I am suggesting is that if you decide to go that route, make sure you read the PLR report and enhance it significantly such that it becomes valuable. It could even be worth rewriting the entire report with your own spin. This way no one can accuse you sending out the same stale report that thousands of others are doing.

Be Sure to Include Some Calls to Action in the Report

As an example, if you are offering a tip on how to quit smoking, see if you can find some affiliate program that offers something that can help to that end. Try to ensure that the product claims are legit before doing this however. Other calls to action could be for products related to whatever the solution you are targeting. For the quit smoking niche, perhaps you could include offers for electronic cigarettes, etc.

One caveat in all of this is to not go overboard with too many offers in the report. This will backfire as it can be quite annoying to your subscribers and shows them that the only thing you care about is selling something. Offer great information in the report and having a couple of promotional items (as long as they are related in some way) will be fine.

Include Graphics and Images

Anytime people read anything, they often translate words into images. By including images within your report, you make it much easier to capture the message you are trying to get across. They have less translating that they will need to make.

You should make sure that you have rights to use whatever graphics or images you include!

Interactive Engagement

If you can, see if you include some elements of interactivity within the report that you send. This can include things like contents, polls, or surveys, or perhaps you can include some kind of fun quiz. By doing this you establish a higher level of trust with your subscribers.

Another way to accomplish this is to ask the people on your list to tell their story as it relates to your market or niche. Tell them that if the story is compelling enough that you will include it (with their permission) in your next blog post or as part of an email send, etc. You can also offer to include a back link to the person's website if they have one.

How Can a Free Report Be Considered a Loss?

One big misconception is that just because a report is free that it didn't cost anything to make. Now, if you simply grab a junkie PLR report and use that as your free gift, I would agree didn't cost any upfront money, but it will cost you losses with respect to your reputation.

To make it worthwhile for your subscribers you will have to spend a fair amount of time developing this valuable report.

Even if you have the luxury of working full time on your own online business from home, you still have the same 24 hours as anyone else. When you spend time working on one thing, this takes you away from spending it on something else. So the free report that you are working on could be taking you away from developing a blog post, a magazine article, a chapter in a book, etc., all things that have the potential to earn you money in the future.

It is a very real cost to create a report that is going to be useful to your subscribers!

The post Do you Have a Loss Leader Strategy? appeared first on Get Paid Boot Camp.

MySurvey has a free membership policy, and anyone is free to join by filling a registration form on their website. The free membership usually has restrictions. One of the restrictions is the discontinuation of membership once the person who had installed the application software in his or her device uninstalls it. It is therefore important for a member to keep this application constantly active on his or her computer to avoid such kind of incidences. However, Pinecone researchers, on the other hand, operate on an invite only memberships. Prospective Pinecone Researcher panelists are required to get invitations from existing members. Alternatively, they can find links that can help them join the site. However, the link can only be used by Americans and Canadians.

Pinecone Research, despite being new, ask for their members’ opinions on product ideas or even new products that may not be in the market yet. MySurvey also asks for opinions of product ideas that have already hit the market, hence soliciting for their feedback. Both companies are therefore able to provide accurate information to the manufacturers or producers. The information is vital in the improvement of the products for the betterment of the consumers. The research platforms are very useful in this accord.

MySurvey’s members can complete their surveys from anywhere and at any time using their personal computers, laptops, tablets, and cell phones or even using the mobile app. The members earn points upon completion of surveys. Unlike money, the points allow the users to get whatever they want. The members are, therefore, able to redeem these points for gift cards, cash, vouchers, e-certificates among other exciting products. For instance, when a member has earned 1000 points of which it is an equivalent of ten dollars, he or she can be in a position to request for cash out. Upon successfully redeeming their points, one can easily be paid through PayPal. This transaction could just take a week to be completed and the member will be smiling all the way to the bank. The e-certificates can therefore take a few days to be availed in member’s inbox. Pinecone Research, just like MySurvey, also offer points to their members that can be redeemed for cash or other prizes available on their website.

Pinecone Research requires their prospective members to sign a membership agreement before taking any surveys. The agreement requires them to be confidential in that the members who take the surveys are not to disclose any information they obtain from the interviews. The agreement is legally binding, and members can face legal action if they breach the contract. Some of the activities barred by the agreement include posting of product descriptions or even names on social media, chat rooms or blogs; selling products given to members as test products; discussions about the survey with third parties; copying product ideas; allowing third parties who are not of the same household as the Pinecone Research’s member to use a test product or watch the survey process; and registering multiple times as a member. The agreement also requires the members to assure the company that neither the member nor people in the immediate member’s household and family are employed by marketing researchers; consumer packaged goods companies or even by players of the advertising industry.

Pinecone research is very strict in its surveys. Even if one has obtained membership, there is no guarantee that he or she should receive any surveys. It is upon the company to contact the member only if he or she fits their required criteria and then the company would require a timely feedback from such member. The invitations for surveys may usually take a long period that ranges from many months to a shorter period like a few days.

Pinecone Research requires its members to fill the surveys that are sent to the using email. One has to complete the survey in order to be paid. The emails are usually loaded with the product information and their usage criteria. The survey may also involve video interviews that may last 15 to 30 minutes. The products may also be sent to the members’ homes so that they can use them thus providing accurate feedback. The product testing part sometimes is intriguing. This is because there could be no attempt to make the members informed about the arrangement beforehand. There could be a box dropped on the member’s doorstep after a few days upon completion of the research giving directions for the product testing.  For each survey completed the United States of America citizens earn at least US $3, the Canadians earn at least CAN $5 while the people of the United Kingdom at least UK£ 5. Sometimes the members may decide to be paid by means of a check. This would then imply that they should be able to catch it before the expiry day, which is usually in a period of 120 days. The payment process is made straightforward by the company. The company has simple directions that can easily be followed by each and every member. The payments are usually made for every meaningful effort that has been made by the member. It takes a shorter period of around 20 minutes to finish everything which is required. There are no problems whatsoever with payment. This can be seen through most of the reviews of people who have worked with this survey company.

MySurvey, just like Pinecone Research, also requires their members to fill survey as well as accept products and provide feedback on the products. MySurvey’s surveys, however, are shorter as compared to other companies’ surveys including Pinecone Research.  The surveys, earn the members points that range from as little as 10 points to 300 points. These points can be redeemed for money at the rate of 1000 points for US $ 10. MySurvey is well known for its steady stream of paying surveys throughout the year. At the moment, My Survey prides in paying out over US$ 32 million in the year 2014 to their members worldwide.

MySurvey prides itself as a community where consumers can feature products and services. They give consumers an opportunity to voice their opinions by taking surveys and trying out product tests. Pinecone Research, similarly, pride themselves in being able to “influence tomorrow’s products today”. Their members not only benefit from the points that can be redeemed for cash or other prizes, but also learn about the products in the market as well as influence the products that make it to the stores. Pinecone Researchers also offer sweepstakes to its members. It conducts a bi-weekly draw where the winner walks away with a prize of US $ 500.

Both of the platforms, Pinecone Research, and MySurvey have ranked highly amongst the people who make a living by taking surveys. Both sites are said to be honest and fast in processing payments. This is seen in the earlier parts of this article. The users have also recommended them to prospective members by terming them as reliable, consistent and fun. Most attribute their financial stability to the sites since many joined them upon losing their jobs during the economic crisis period.

One of the advantages of using Pinecone Research to take surveys is their prequalified surveys that are sent in the form of invitations to the members’ emails. The pre-qualifications mean that the member will not be disqualified in case they don’t match the criteria required for them to take the survey. Another advantage is that their payments are cleared within 24 hours. Despite having over 6 million members, they can process the payments within a day or less upon completion of a task. The members are also allowed to withdraw any amount from their accounts whenever it is convenient for them.

One of the advantages of using MySurvey to take surveys is that it is simple and can be conducted by anyone. For instance, they conduct video interviews just to watch the member’s facial expressions. The company also give their members a two year long period before the expiry of their accounts. The members, therefore still get the chance to access their earnings despite prolonged periods of inactivity.

Join MySurvey

Join Pinecone … Unfortunately we lose our invitation for this great panel soon. We work to get invitations again. We recommend their best company Nielsen. We have Nielsen invitations. Join Nielsen and make money no surveys.

Conclusion

The survey platforms play an important role in seeking financial stability. It is important for every prospective member to understand the requirements for enrolling in these platforms. It can be seen in this article that MySurvey boosts of free membership while Pinecone Research works on the basis of invite only membership. The payment criteria are also well set and can easily be followed. These include the redemption of points for cash and other merchandise.

The post MySurvey vs Pinecone Research appeared first on EliteSurveySites.

Do not give up, great opportunities are right around the corner!

Before we get started… “What is a Focus Group?”

A focus group is a type of study group, which consists of many people answering the same questions. The point is to get as much information as possible, while tying that information to a specific type of person.

Businesses arrange focus groups for research purposes. Both this and product testing are popular ways for big businesses to use their marketing research budget. This strategy works great, because they learn a lot about both their products and their target audience. But, it comes at a cost – and for the research company to fill the contract, they need to hire people.

Step up to the plate…

The thing about focus group opportunities is that they do not just show up in your inbox. If you are lucky, you will get an invite to one. But, the majority who get these offers are making every effort they can to get them. As many are hungry for these types of opportunities, things can get competitive when offers run dry.

You do not have to hold yourself back, so long as you know how to find the right offers.

What’s Holding You Back?

Focus groups are a great way for anyone to make extra cash. There are few pre-requisites, and sometimes even teenagers can qualify. But, you have to consider this when looking for paid focus group networks.

Here are a few factors:

• Your age: While teenagers qualify for certain focus group offers, most target young adults and retired individuals.
• Your location: While focus groups run worldwide, living in the United States will give you access to the best opportunities.
• Your income: There is no need to fib about what you make, but offers will vary by income amount. This is not proportionate, but rather, the types of offers are different.

You do not need an excellent job or a University degree to pull focus group invites. It is just a matter of being an active member with the right paid networks. A lot of that involves surveys, too, but there are opportunities everywhere. You just have to look!

Which Sites Should You Join?

There are many sites that offer focus group invites, although most are within paid survey networks. It is important you know which ones you should join, if you want to maximize the possibility of getting focus group invites.

Do not just stick to the current sites you use. Network out so you are available on as many trusted sites as possible. Even if you have no interest in surveys, it’s still worth getting onto their user database. You just have to keep your eye out, because some day you might make it into their paid focus group network.

Here are some sites to join…

Toluna

With an A+ BBB rating, a constant supply of paid surveys, and payments through PayPal, Amazon, and many other gift cards, Toluna is more than just a little convenient. You can always trust this network, and there is a nice little bit of earnings to make from their surveys. They also bought out Greenfield back in 2009, which specialized in focus groups. While existing Toluna users did take some spots, the site regularly gives new members focus group invites.

Harris Poll

Harris Poll (or Harris Interactive) holds an A- BBB rating, offers many different surveys, and has focus groups that pay as much as $50 to $200 a session. You will not struggle to make a decent chunk of change on here. Also, many survey takers received an influx in focus group invites within their first few months.

Inbox Dollars

Inbox Dollars holds an A+ BBB rating, has many unique earning opportunities, and they even do focus groups with Target and Wal-Mart. Many users that signed up for their gold membership found a sudden increase in focus group invites. Gold members also enjoy weekly payments instead of bi-weekly payments, plus many other benefits.

Why the Survey Site Obsession?

Whenever you try to research something about focus groups, you always get a lot of information on paid survey sites. That is because focus group opportunities are not marketed much by these companies. They know most online workers will be searching for surveys that pay, not focus groups. As it’s not a common term, the good opportunities sometimes get hidden.

What does this mean?

Even if your account stays dormant, you should register at a bunch of paid survey sites. Make sure it is a trusted website. Also, create an e-mail address that you will use just for these accounts. By signing up at many different sites, you stand a much greater chance of getting focus group opportunities.

And, we have only covered three of well over thirty paying survey sites that offer focus groups. Once you get past this list, you need to look at actual focus group sites. There are a few that focus just on this type of research. But, most are a bit unique – such as eJury.com, which is a “focus group” that acts as a mock jury.

Accept any focus group invite you get!

Many paid networks rely on the same users over and over. This is easy for the company, as they know the user is reliable. Focus groups often rely on live, face-to-face sessions, which means you must be dependable.

Even if it’s a bit of an inconvenience, do not skip out on your first invite. It might just be what you needed to get shortlisted onto the sites focus group user list.

$100 Is Peanuts!

Do not fret over your first $100 in earnings. That only takes one or two focus group sessions to earn. Make $500 or $1,000 your target, as $100 is more of a milestone.

Do you want more expert tips to get more focus groups offers? Get Paid Surveys Cash, it’s free. Hope that helps

The post How to Make Your First $100 with Focus Groups ? appeared first on EliteSurveySites.

eBay

We all have stuff lying around the basement or attic that we simply don't use or need anymore. eBay is a great means of getting rid of those items and getting some money for them too.

What's great about eBay is you can easily find which items sell be searching its Completed Listings section (you'll need to be logged in to do this). You search on the item in question and then check off Completed Listing option on the left hand side of the eBay screen.

In order to get the most out of your listing, make sure you specify the condition of the items your are selling and take several pictures of each item at various angles. Be clear on what your shipping policies are and also be available to answer questions that potential buyers may have.

You want to make sure that you level of customer service is top notch. Even though you may only be selling a few items, you never know when you may want to sell again in the future. Having a good seller's rating helps in a big way when it comes to sales.

Fiverr.com

​Fiverr.com is a place where people buy and sell services for five dollars. This may seem like a small amount of money to offer your services from but if you set up your gigs in the correct way you could easily earn more.

The key is to offer upsells or what Fiverr calls premium services. For instance, suppose you offer video creation services and you have a gig that offers a 30 second video. You can add additional time to the video for $5 for each additional 30 seconds, etc.  Or you could add voiceover services, etc.

You will need to have 10 successful gigs before you are allowed to include premium offers to your gigs so those first 10 gigs you won't be able to take advantage of them.

As with anything else, you want to make sure you deliver great customer service as your reputation can mean the difference of getting gigs or getting ignored. You want to keep your reviews as high as possible so do everything in your power to make your customers happy.

Bidding Sites like eLance and Freelancer.com

There are plenty of jobs available at these types of websites but the biggest problem is standing out from the rest of bidders when trying to get the gigs. Nevertheless, if you have a decent portfolio already built up you can have that displayed in your profile. This will serve to increase the visibility of your profile and get more gigs.

Sometimes, it may be worth it when first starting out to simply come in at lower bids and build up your reputation. As your reputation gains, so to will your ability to increase your rates.

Craigslist.org

It is possible to sell just about anything on Craigslist. Of course, there are much more possibilities for scammers to hit using a site like Craigslist. Your listing is bound to get some great visibility so you will likely get responses when posting on here.

Again, it pays to be cautious because Craigslist is still like the wild, wild west of selling stuff. With sites like eBay, Amazon, and eLance, the management tries to ensure a smooth transaction (as long as payment is made via PayPal on eBay, there are protections for purchasers). But Craigslist has no such controls in place. The buyers and sellers are matched up directly.

If you decide to go with selling your wares on Craigslist, it is always a good idea to include pictures of the merchandise whenever possible. Even services should include some kind of graphic as to stand out from the many of listings that don't include graphics.

If you find that the buyer and seller need to meet up to make the exchange happen try to arrange for the meet up to occur in a busy area where people will be (like coffeeshops, etc.) Beware of any meet ups that will be in remote locations.

Etsy.com

​Selling on Etsy.com is for those that are good with crafts and homemade types of items. Etsy allows its users to set up stores and that's why it's important to have a tightly focused theme for your store. If you are selling handmade, knitted clothing items, you should avoid trying to sell paintings unless you set up another store dedicated to paintings.

The key to success with Etsy is to have a fair amount of inventory built up before you even open your store. This will prevent you from having to fulfill orders in panic mode. It also gives you flexibility in certain instances, of offering bundles (where applicable).

As with many of the quick cash ideas of this article, displaying your item with several pictures can really help you stand out as people want to remove doubt in their purchase decisions. Excellent customer service is a must!

Sell on Amazon

People are often surprised at the amount of different ways they can use Amazon to sell their stuff. I've written a complete article on this that profiles all the ways currently available. Instead of reiterating that here, I will simply give you the opportunity to read that article (opens in new window).

Sell from your Own Website

Having your own website, whether free or paid, is generally a good idea. Even if you are using the other ideas to generate quick cash, it can't hurt to build up a web presence in order to increase traffic to your offers.

Although it's beyond the scope of this article, you could also create an ecommerce website if you happen to have products that you want to sell and are comfortable with such items as payment processors, fulfillment of orders, shipping, returns, etc.

Many people often start with Amazon (see above) and then as they grow, they branch out into developing their own website. In the end having your own website gives you full control but you will have to manage everything.

Arbitrage

It's not necessary to focus on one of the way to make quick cash online. In fact, there are plenty of people who are creating arbitrage opportunities and banking some good money in doing so.

Arbitrage is the purchase or sale of an asset and the simultaneous purchase or sale of that asset. If the first transaction is a purchase, the the simultaneous will be a sale and vice versa. The concept is very popular on Wall Street and serves to keep market prices at equilibrium. If a price on one market is out of whack, the arbitrageurs will step in to bring them back in line.

Luckily with respect to making money online, arbitrage is a much simpler concept than the one used on Wall Street although the dynamics are identical.​ Let me illustrate with some examples:

These are just two methods that people use arbitrage to make money online. I am sure you could try it with some of the other items from this page. As long as you can sell for more than you buy you have an opportunity to take advantage of arbitrage.

Next Steps...

Step 1 - Take Action

​The methods outlined in this article on how to make quick cash can all be started fast and in most cases, without shelling out a whole bunch of cash. But none of it will work unless you take action. Get started on one or several of the methods and just make it happen. Who knows, you may turn a quick cash situation into one that you make a full time business. It happens more than you think.

Step 2 - Share this Article

​If you liked what you saw here, could I ask you to share it with people in your network? I am sure they would get something out of this and you show you care about them by passing along good information. I very much appreciate it!

Step 3 - Leave a Comment Below

​I would love to hear what you thought about this article and if you have any of your own ideas, feel free to use the comments section below to tell me about them.

Step 4 - Sign up to My Newsletter

The post 7 Ways to Earn Quick Cash appeared first on Get Paid Boot Camp.

You can earn over $100 per paid focus group, in just 1-2 hours!

That is a mystical number in the paid survey world. The market research companies that pay for surveys are ordering them in high volume. Since they need so many turned in, the amount they can pay is miniscule.

Meanwhile, paid focus groups run in smaller group sizes. This means every contributor receives a bigger “piece of the pie” for their efforts. Meaning, your hour of time gets you a nice $50 to $100, versus the $5 to $10 that you would get from doing surveys.

But, let’s not skip too far ahead…

“What Are Paid Focus Groups?”

The paid focus groups definition is simple…

They are opinion panels, sort of like paid surveys, as you get paid for answering a lot of questions.It’s just a discussion.

Businesses pay for this information to get clear insight on what consumers think of their market, and their products. Many market research companies started offering online focus groups, as companies were more inclined to get globalized data. Now, many paid survey networks are also joining the hype and sending focus group invites to their users.

“Sounds like the best thing since sliced bread, what’s the catch?”

Here’s the problem…

Paid focus groups run with a lot less people, and they are sometimes rare.

Not to worry, EliteSurveySites offers it’s users insight on how to find focus groups, while also earning more. There are many little loopholes and tricks you can use, in order to get a nice volume of focus group invites. After a while, you might find yourself giving up on surveys and just banking off focus groups online.

To improve your odds of making a serious living off paid focus groups and surveys, make sure you read our Paid Surveys Cash e-Book before joining any panels! Just register and get it for free.

How Do You Find Focus Groups Online?

Focus groups reward you well for your time. In fact, many would see salaries close to $100,000 if they could do them 40 hours a week. But, the unfortunate truth is that there are not that many opportunities available. Therefore, many dedicated survey panelists never reach their full potential, just because they are unable to find focus groups they can join.

You can make upwards of $3,000 a month, but that’s not a number that most will see. This is because people do not always take the advice they are given. To make a living with focus groups online, you must know how to get invited for exclusive opportunities. We will give you the most important piece of advice now, but Paid Surveys Cash contains many other great tips.

Here Are The Top 10 Focus Group Panels to Join!

In no specific order, they are…

1) Toluna

After buying Greenfield Online from Microsoft in 2008, Toluna became a best brand in the online focus group world. Greenfield Online already specialized in providing focus groups online, so many spots opened up to the Toluna member pool. Seeing as Toluna is one of the biggest survey companies around, and they have many focus group offers, you do not want to ignore them.

Due to it’s size, Toluna has a wide range of surveys available for members all across the world. Many of these surveys pay upwards of $10 to $30 each, which is much higher than the going average. Toluna often invites members to focus groups after they complete relevant surveys. You can better your chances of getting invited to paid focus groups, while also banking off some of the best-paying surveys on the Web.

As a Toluna member, you can earn direct cash rewards or take sweepstakes entries. The latter does not pay as well, as most or all of your earnings come down to luck. But, it’s common for focus group invited to get issued to users who complete these surveys.

While doing more surveys on Toluna will greaten your odds, it can also work against you. If you are doing lengthy surveys that pay a lot of points, what’s left to tell? In most cases, a business will find the answers of a long survey to be as useful as the answers from a focus group session. To get more invites, focus your time on the smaller surveys.

No matter where you do join, do not skip out on Toluna…the others are not in any particular order, but this is the #1 paid focus group & survey site around! Join Toluna Now!

2) Ipsos I-Say

Ipsos I-Say founded in 1975, and now sees billions in revenues each year. The company bought out Synovate, adding around 50% to their annual revenue. This put them third in line for the top ranking market research groups, making it the largest focus group friendly network around.

Focus groups pay upwards of $120 an hour. Paid surveys do not earn near as much, but there are always a fair amount available. These surveys can also serve as qualifiers for focus group opportunities, so you should stay active. Plus, the site is pretty fun; you can earn bonus draw entries by guessing the right answer in their “poll predictor” game.

The only problem with Ipsos I-Say is that their website is sometimes buggy. You might get error messages from time to time, or your points balance might not adjust right. It’s easy to notice when a mistake is made, and their support is always willing to help. If you can get past the technological weaknesses, Ipsos I-Say is a well-paying and trusted panel to use. Join Ipsos Now!

3) My Survey

My Survey is a top-ranking paid survey network. In 2014, they paid out more than $32 million to their users. This amount came from completing surveys, focus groups, product testing, and more. Some complain about technical issues with the site, but overall it’s not a barrier. Plus, the high volume of focus group offers make up for it.

Most active survey takers on My Survey end up getting invited to at least one or two focus group invites each year. These often pay out with gift certificates and pre-paid credit cards. For example, in late 2014, My Survey ran a five-day long focus group panel that paid each panelist a $300 VISA card.

Something else that makes My Survey cool is that they let you withdraw your earnings through physical items. You can save up your points and cash them out for electronics, jewelry, and even kitchen appliances!

Another great thing about My Survey is that they always have a fair amount of interesting surveys on the go. This means you will have no problem keeping yourself busy as a survey taker. Though that may not be your end goal, each completed survey increases your chances of a focus group invite. It’s the same everywhere, but few sites can offer such a diverse amount of pre-qualifying surveys. Join MySurvey Now!

4) Focus Forward

Focus Forward is one of the lesser known online paid focus group panels. Yet, they might also be one of the best sites around for this type of work. Focus groups are their specialty, and their user count is not anywhere as high as the average paid survey network. So, it’s easy enough to pick up a few paid focus group invites a year here.

Focus Forward does things right. You do not have to complete endless surveys, in hopes that one will trigger a focus group invite. Though, there are a decent amount of online surveys available that pay upwards of $5 each. After you complete a survey, you might go through a phone screening process, then the focus group will get set up. From there, all it takes is talking about products and shopping habits to make you a nice $50 to $200 wealthier.

Being a part of the Focus Forward network can open the doors to many different types of market research gigs. They often advertise studies that pay in the range of $250 to $1,000, but these are often held in-person. However, some of the higher paying interviews are conducted from within the comfort of your own home.

When registering at Focus Forward, make sure to give as much information about yourself as possible. This will maximize your exposure to the available focus groups. To get an idea on what’s available, you can also check their job map. This shows you the focus studies, interviews, and online surveys that are available in your region.

5) Harris Poll Online

Harris Poll Online is the survey panel division of Harris Interactive, a highly successful market research firm that established in 1997. The company works with approximately three quarters of the companies on the Fortune Top 100 list. And, it’s not just a trusted survey network, they also have many focus group opportunities.

Paid focus groups through Harris Poll Online can run in-person, online, or over the phone. The amount of pay varies by study, but you can expect to earn at least $50 per focus group session.

When you first sign up, your profile information will determine your survey eligibility. You do not have to worry about whether you will qualify once you answer some questions. Both your profile info, and your completed surveys will influence your consideration for focus group studies. If you fit the right demographics, you could receive as many as 10 invites a week.

6) MintVine

MintVine founded in 2012, and now already boasts more than 5 million members. They are one of the most referred survey panels on the Internet. The majority of their paid surveys take just five to ten minutes to finish, and you get around $2 to $3 for your time. But, the focus group opportunities are the true hidden gem.

MintVine will reward it’s focus group members by paying at least $10 to $50 an hour for focus group studies. This can be cashed out through Paypal, or by other means, such as an Amazon gift card.

This panel has many other incentives, as well. Members get paid 10 cents for every poll answer they give. By referring your friends, you can earn 15% of what they make. And, you can cash out your funds through Paypal once you earn at least $10. Plus, you might receive an in-home product testing offer that pays just as well as their focus groups.

7) VIP Voice

VIP Voice is a company owned by NPD Group, which is a market research firm that established itself back in 1967. The parent company works with many Fortune Top 500 companies, as does its survey panel division.

VIP Voice handles more than 12 million paid surveys a year, as well as many paid focus group panels. While the surveys do not pay too much, each panel equates to around $25 to $100 in rewards.

The great thing about Vip Voice is that they do not follow the typical, boring rewards system. Instead, you can use your points in “BidLand” or “SweepLand” instead of cashing them out. BidLand lets you bid on merchandise, vacations, and more, and the highest bidder wins. SweepLand lets you convert points into sweepstakes entries, to win prizes like inclusive vacations and hot electronics.

8) Survey Junkie

An undermentioned name, Survey Junkie already has over six million paid surveys under their belt. These surveys were paid out at anywhere from $2 to $75 each. In the meantime, an undisclosed number of focus groups were also completed. With Survey Junkie, you can make up to $120 an hour doing focus groups online.

It’s unfortunate, but there are limited focus group spots available. Those that get a chance to become a focus group panelist through Survey Junkie should jump on the opportunity. No matter how many paid focus groups you get now, it’s irrelevant. If any large contracts get picked up by them, you will notice a steady influx of focus group invites. That’s when the rewards really come, as they are one of the best-paying focus group panels around.

The cool thing about Survey Junkie is that they are not really a focus group panel. In fact, they serve more as a lead generation company. They match survey takers with survey providers, which allows for the most accurate pairings possible. This means you can bet on a bunch of survey networks at once, making it a possible hidden gem in your paid focus group journey.

All you have to do is sign up with your e-mail address and answer a brief questionnaire, and the invites will start to come. To maximize your chances of getting focus groups from the affiliated networks, make sure to take advantage of the survey invites you get. In our Paid Surveys Cash e-Book, we explain how you can do this without sacrificing your average hourly earnings.

9) Engage In Depth

Few paid survey panels pay as well as Engage In Depth. Panelists can earn as much as $100 per focus group study through this network. Plus, this is a headache-free panel. You do not have to worry about converting points. As new offers come to your e-mail, you know what you will make if you accept them.

Engage In Depth is a company based out of Washington, DC., with worldwide reach. They run both consumer and healthcare panels. When you first go to their website, you get to fill out questionnaires to see which panel best suits you. But, don’t worry, Engage In Depth is one of the more trusted paid focus groups online.

10) Brand Institute

Brand Institute started operations way back in 1993. Ever since, they have helped many large businesses to figure out their brand. In essence, they are a market research company guised as a brand identity consultancy service. Their paid focus groups are managed through their opinion panel division, called Online Global Recruiting. This is a company that deals a lot with medical surveys, which are often ordered by larger pharmaceutical corporations.

Brand Institute is another panel with paid focus groups that do not work through a points system. This makes it easy to know what you get paid. You get a fixed amount, which factors based on the focus group or survey you take. Plus, payment is easy as you can get it by check or through Paypal.

Brand Institute eliminates the need to deal with extensive questionnaires. You no longer have to worry non-stop about whether you will qualify for a survey. Plus, if you get invited to one of their online focus groups, there aren’t so many hoops to jump through. If you make it into their VIP program, or you work as a medical care professional, you can earn a lot.

The post Top 10 Paid Focus Groups Online – Find All of Them! appeared first on EliteSurveySites.

My curiosity got the best of me, plus I like to report about stuff like this to make sure my readers are informed. Because of this sometimes I have to jump down a few rabbit holes. Although I've been doing this kind of thing for a while now so I have a good intuition on which rabbit holes to avoid. So I joined a few of these types of groups and my findings are what this article is about.

My Results from My Jumps

The results were dismal. People are selfish when it comes to sharing back. And trust me I wasn't selfish. I shared, liked, promoted other peoples' stuff until my fingers almost fell off!

Within these groups, there were several occasions when people have posted something that is known as Like Ladders. The way this works is you will see a series of posts on the group that link out to other peoples' Facebook pages. These pages form a kind of Ladder, hence the name. You scroll down to the last entry and add your Facebook page. Then you are encouraged to like the pages of everyone before your post.

In several instances, I participated and liked about 30 pages in one session. I also saw from my email notification that several others were posting below me, easily 10 to 15 pages at a time. And this was a common occurrence per session. So it should follow that for each session, I should get about 10 or 15 likes on my Facebook page right?

Actual Results

If I was lucky I would get one or two likes. Most of the time however, I would get zero.

I spoke to other members of the groups and they complained of similar results to mine.

So there you have it folks. If you are thinking of participating in these types of groups, my results should dissuade you.

Will Facebook View It as Gaming the System?

Another problem I have with this, it's quite possible that Facebook will eventually discover these types of groups and ban them. I no longer participate in them but I have to decide whether I want to unsubscribe to them (I am only in two or three so it won't take long). I like to see some of the pages that are being included as this helps in brainstorming for content creation. There are however, other ways to brainstorm that will not associate myself with these groups. It's likely that I will unsubscribe.

Like for Like is Artificial

When I did my little experiment with the groups, I admit that I didn't really read through the pages that I liked. In fact, when you post a link to another page in Facebook, it shows a picture of the page and a like button right within the post.​

Oddly enough, by placing this button directly on the post, Facebook is actually encouraging situations of Like Ladders to occur whether they know it or not. If you are able to like the page directly from a post without visiting the page, people will blindly like pages.

Are You Engaged?

No, I am not asking about your personal life regarding plans to get married in the future. The question is about engaging in the pages that you liked. If the answer is no, then even if these like for like groups were legit, the likes are going to be worthless under Facebook's EdgeRank system. In fact, idle likes may even hurt you from showing up in the search results. And if you aren't engaging in these pages, you can bet that the people that like your page aren't either.

Like Ladder Group No Longer Active

In doing research for this article, I searched for the term "Like Ladder" in Facebook's search box. The first group that comes up is appropriately enough, called LikeLadder. You can see it here:

http://FaceBook.com/LikeLadder

Then I went to look at the rules of the group. You can find that when you scroll down a bit and on the left in the Apps section, it displays a link, "Ladder Rules". When you click on it, the following message shows:

Like Ladder's Campaign is No Longer Active

Hmmm. That's interesting. Is Facebook already cracking down on these kinds of groups? Although, if they were banned the group probably wouldn't no longer exist. Perhaps this particular group only runs campaigns like these once in a while. I don't believe they work so for me, no harm no foul.

What Do You Think?

I would love to hear what your opinion about Like for Like groups or Link Ladders. Have you had any experience with them yourself? Let me know in the comments below what your thoughts are on the subject. I will respond to any valid comments.

The post Like for Like: Does it Work? appeared first on Get Paid Boot Camp.

It's all about giving readers what they want. I have researched the following topics which represents what people are looking for:

The above topics should give you plenty to work with for creating lots of brilliant blog posts. The best part is they tend to be evergreen so that you can use them again (just change the wording a bit). You could stop here and get started with your content generation. Or, you can continue where I describe each of these ideas in more detail (click on each arrow below to get details).

Do you have an idea that you like to use as part of your content generation? Share it with us in the comment section below. We'd love to hear it! Also, please feel free to share this post using the social buttons below. Your followers could use the information for their benefit.

Other Great Content from Get Paid Boot Camp

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Pros for Pro Opinion

1. Free to Join and Participate –There is absolutely no fee with signing up to participate in surveys offered at Pro Opinion. Join now!
2. More than Surveys – After you are registered there are many other things to do on the site other than just surveys. There are tons of interesting articles and survey results to peruse through. These are very interesting and on topics which are very relevant to what is going on in today’s business world.
3. Fair Rewards – The rewards for participating in the various surveys seem to be very reasonable and fair. It’s not like the old penny sites – where you take 20 minutes to do a survey for a penny. You are given a substantial amount of points for completing each survey.
4. Low Payout Requirements – Especially when compared with some of the other survey sites, the requirements for “cashing out” your earnings is relatively low. One survey gets you about one-third of the way to payout. That helps the process go a lot faster.
5. Choice of Surveys – You can choose which surveys you wish to participate in and are not obligated to do any particular survey at any time.
6. Can Cancel Membership – If you wish to cancel your membership at any time for any reason you can opt out.
7. Wide Variety of Surveys – There are numerous surveys that are always available.
8. Infographic  – Members are granted access to the vast collection of infographics gathered from around the web. They are located in one place and easily accessed by members.
9. Point Redemption Choices – There are many ways to redeem your points once you reach the minimum payout. You can get an Amazon Gift Card, PayPal deposit, or an iTunes gift card. You can also use your payout to make a donation to the American Red Cross.
10. Part of a Community – When you sign up for Pro Opinion, you become part of an entire community. It seems to be very relevant to daily life. You can connect through the site to the social media outlets like Google, Facebook and Twitter.
11. Run by a Legitimate Company – Pro Opinion is the same company who owns Opinion Outpost another legitimate survey site. Since it is run by a company that has already established its legitimacy, it is certainly a legitimate business site itself.
12. Provide Useful Feedback to Large Companies – Pro Opinion is connected with some large corporations that span many industries including car manufacturers and health care systems. By completing surveys you have a say about the direction these companies are going to take in the future.
13. Quick Turn Around on Payouts – There is not a large hassle when it comes to getting your payout. It’s simple and quick. They have one of the fastest turn around when it comes to getting your payout to you after you have made your request and chosen the method you wish to receive.

Cons for Pro Opinion

1. Takes a long time to sign up – The initial sign up process is rather lengthy. It’s understandable since they want and need to gather as much information as possible about you so they can match you to the most appropriate surveys. But it still takes a long time to answer all the questions.
2. US and Canada Only – The site is up for all to see but only those who live in the United States or Canada are allowed to register and participate in the surveys to earn points.
3. Surveys are Long and Time Consuming – The surveys are very comprehensive which means they cover the topic thoroughly. But it’s not likely you can sit down and complete a survey in just a couple of minutes. These are not simple surveys they are detailed and have multiple questions. Be prepared to sit at the computer for quite a while.
4. New Program – Pro Opinion is very similar to some other closely related survey sites, but it is one of the newest ones available. This makes it difficult to get information about the site to determine how legitimate the site is. There are lots of questions yet to be answered like how reliable they are to payout and are there any persistent complaints.
5. Very Business Minded – The site is geared to ultimately benefit the business community. This means all of the articles on their blog and site are geared to providing information for business professionals. If you are not a business person these can seem disconnected or unimportant. The topics include general business ideas and developments such as how increasing digital marketing budgets yields greater results. It’s great for those in some sort of business, but for the common consumer it can be uninteresting at best.
6. Enter a Large Amount of Profiling Information – The sign up process is a series of questions and as stated before it takes quite a long time to complete. But the questions are very profiling, some may not like giving out personal information online. It seems necessary so that they can send you relevant surveys. Many may find it downright obtrusive.

Overall the site is very professional, which is a reflection of the professional business environment they are trying to exhibit. Participating in surveys is free and you can opt out at any time. All you have to do is sign up online and start taking surveys that interest you. The site is totally legit and it is a good point that they payout using gift cards. The site is very business like and is very organized. Their blog contains many articles that are pertinent to the business community. The information on the site is geared to help enhance the business community and the surveys filled out by participants are designed to help businesses when it comes to making decisions. It is a unique way to connect the consumer with business professionals. Pro Opinion allows consumers a way to make a difference when it comes to products and services offered by a variety of industries. Surveys are developed to ensure a wide variety of industries are represented by the questions so participation is key to helping business professionals make effective decisions. It’s a win-win situation. Participants help develop new services, products or business concepts and industry professionals get insight into the way consumers think. It’s a great deal for everyone involved and you get compensated for your time.

Register Now!

The post Pro Opinion Review Panel: Is it a Good Panel or Scam? appeared first on EliteSurveySites.

What kind of rewards does Valued Opinions offer you?

Once you have registered on the site and have an active account, you are eligible to start earning rewards. Almost immediately you’ll start getting surveys in your inbox that is to your preferences, likes and interests. You will have to fill out a questionnaire so they can know what types of surveys are going to be a best fit for you. They use these to determine what surveys are going to work for you. Some people do not like to share this type of personal information; but it is just your basic info about what you like, the region you live in and general stuff. The more detailed you get in sharing your interests, likes and dislikes the easier it is for them to find surveys that match.

When you complete surveys you are given reward points. The good thing about Valued Opinions is that the points add up very quickly. Once you get $20 in rewards you can exchange it for gift cards at some of the best known brands. Some of the places you can get gift cards for include:

• Amazon
• CVS Pharmacy
• com
• Macy’s

If you request a payment an Amazon gift card you get it almost immediately in most cases. It does take a little longer if you are receiving your card in the mail.

What are the surveys like?

The surveys will ask a series of questions about a product or service in most instances. On average, they will take you between 15 to 20 minutes to complete them. Some of them are a little bit longer, but have a larger reward to compensate. An invitation to take a survey is emailed to your inbox and there is a deadline. If you don’t respond by the deadline you cannot complete the survey and be rewarded.

Surveys will start coming to your inbox after you sign up and complete the surveys asking you about our general interests. It’s important that participants keep profiles up to date since this is how they know what types of surveys are best for you. Once you finish a survey the reward should show as “pending” on your account. Soon after it will be rewarded fully to your account. You can either cash out at $20 or wait until you have a larger amount amassed before requesting your gift cards. You do not have to request a payout once you reach $20, it’s the lowest amount you can request against.

What are the pros for joining Valued Opinions?

There are several benefits worth mentioning. The best things about becoming a member include things like:

• No cost to join
• Earn reward points quickly
• Quick and easy payout
• Interesting surveys
• Great Customer Support team
• You become part of an online community
• Earn extra spending money
• Surveys on a variety of interesting topics
• Your opinion gets shared with businesses and can make a difference

Over time, Valued Opinions has been able to that they are a reputable company and they do indeed payout. They also have a sweepstakes that members can participate in to win various prizes. As soon as you sign up, you will start getting surveys. Participating in the different surveys can be a fun way to make a little extra spending money.

Are there any cons for joining Valued Opinions?

There are a few things we don’t particularly like about Valued Opinions even though they are reputable. Some of the negative aspects of the site include things like:

• No cash or PayPal payout
• Can’t make lots of money real fast
• Not many surveys (1-3 per month on average)
• Some surveys take a long time to be credited to your account

These are the negative things we found at Valued Opinions. They are not huge problems for the most part, but have to be worked around. You can ensure you get more surveys by completing the interest surveys when you set up your account. And periodically you will get a “hot topics” survey to complete. You don’t get compensation for it in particular, but it does let them know of your specific interests so they can send you appropriate surveys.

Would you recommend Valued Opinions?

Overall, Valued Opinions is a reputable survey site that does manage their payouts well. It’s been around long enough to prove its reputation. Even though you are not going to get a cash payout, you get some pretty cool gift cards of very common brands. The site can’t be used as a get-rich-quick plan, but over some time you can earn some extra spending money by completing surveys at Valued Opinions. Newbies can also earn some valuable gifts in the sweepstakes contests. We definitely recommend Valued Opinions as a reliable and safe site.

Sign up for Valued Opinions today. When you activate your account you will begin getting surveys and be entered into the next sweepstakes.

The post Valued Opinions Review – Are Their Surveys Legit or Scam? appeared first on EliteSurveySites.

4.75 out of 5 Stars

Analysis

Please note: this is a review for the base product only. I did not pick up any of the associated upsells or downsells. Please keep that in mind when considering the purchase of this product.

The methods described in this product are for services that you can easily learn and will be the basis for selling those services to other marketers. These services are in high demand and marketers often either have no time to create these services or they are not very good at it (or both).

It's important to realize that this is not a passive income type of product. You will be exchanging time for dollars. However, once you learn the services that you can provide (3 of them) you will be in a position to generate cash relatively quickly.

Although I won't get into what the services are, they are definitely services that product creators will be all too happy to contract you out to provide these services at a decent rate.

The biggest key when taking on this kind of work is to continue to practice. Mark Tandan gives you the tools you need but it is entirely up to you to put them into practice. They are meant to improve over time and as you get better you will effectively be increasing the amount that you earn.

Why Not Just Use Arbitrage?

You have probably seen many product creators that have touted the benefits of arbitrage opportunities. If you are not familiar with this concept, in a nutshell, you find people that are looking for certain services (clients) and at the same time you match them up with people who provide the service (service providers). You charge the clients more than what the service providers charge you, hence you profit from the difference.

While arbitrage opportunities can be lucrative, they are not without problems. You will be required to manage the projects and the parties involved. You will need to manage the client and you will need to make sure the service provider delivers exactly what the client was looking for in the time frame agreed upon. You will need to make sure that the client pays you on time so that you are not laying out ​your own cash in the interim.

Why This Product is Better Than Arbitrage

Because you control the work yourself (you'll be providing it for the client) you will know what you can deliver and for how much. You won't have to pay or manage service providers or outsourcing personnel. Because you will get better at providing the services, you will provide them much quicker over time. This is not likely if you relied on others to do this for you.

You are certainly welcome to outsource the services if you feel comfortable with the service providers you choose.

​What You Will Need

There is not much you will need to make this work for you. There should be some kind of web presence and this can be a simple Facebook page that you dedicate to the type of service you are going to provide. It may be worthwhile after you get started to expand further by setting up either a free website (Blogger.com or WordPress.com) or to create a self hosted WordPress site. But that is not required from the start.

The product creator (Mark Tandan) suggests that you start out with only one of the services so that you can hone in on the skills needed to command high rates. In other words, if you try to jump around between all three of the services, you may not become good at any one of them. If you concentrate on just one over time you will become expert on that one and clients will be more willing to pay a premium rate for that service.

There is nothing stopping you after you have mastered one of the skills that you will provide to start learning one of the others and then the last one after a while. But as Mark states, each service will have enough clients that you will never need to branch out to the others. It's nice to have choices when it comes to this.

Things I Didn't Like About this Product

No product is perfect. While this one is very good, it does have some areas that could be improved upon. For starters, it wasn't really clear to me how Mark decided upon $51 to $74 per hour. He describes how you can pretty much charge whatever you like (and whatever the market bears) which is also based on your own experience and expertise.

He also made mention as part of the description for Module 1, "Creating Long Term Passive Profits" which the methods describe are not passive at all. Anytime you are exchanging hours for dollars that is not passive. To be considered passive, it must be something that can generate income without interaction.

I do agree with Mark that you can generate recurring commissions with his methods and perhaps that was why he felt it should be labeled as passive. But you still need to perform work for you clients. Contrast this to creating a book on Amazon. This has the potential to generate passive income because you only need to create the work, i.e., write the book once, and then it can be sold over and over again for quite some time. Of course there are other factors in getting a book to the point where it sells itself but you get the general idea.

I Wrote a Book with Ideas that Are Similar to This Product

Make Money Renting Out Shovels

In this book, I describe some out-of-the-box ideas on how to generate income by pigging backing off the efforts of others. That is virtually what is going on with this product. Although Mark describes different methods, the general concept is the same. Therefore, after checking out this product, consider picking up your copy of my book where you were learn even more ideas for which you can apply this concept to.

The concept of renting out shovels comes from the days of the gold rush where people who rented out shovels made money regardless of whether the people who were mining for gold actually found gold (most people didn't). The idea being that it doesn't matter what marketers' do. By contracting your services out to help them, even if they don't sell anything whatsoever, you still get paid.

Get your copy here.

Bottom Line

I give this product a 4.75 out of 5 stars. The points that I felt were negative are not enough to dissuade people from picking up this product. It's up to you if you want to take advantage of the upsells/downsells. They didn't particularly appeal to me. I think the content of the book is good enough that nothing else is needed. The techniques described are easy to learn and apply and I truly believe they have the potential to make you money. I am currently in the process of implementing these techniques and will report back in a couple of weeks as to my progress and success. You can look forward to that in the comments section below.

The post The IM Goofball’s Guide to $51 to $74 Per Hour: Product Review appeared first on Get Paid Boot Camp.

What are the positive points about Quick Rewards?

There are really a lot of positive points members enjoy about this particular site. Here are just a few of the ones that stand out:

• Variety of ways to earn money and rewards
• Quick Payout
• No minimum required to cash out – cash out at any time for any amount
• More than one way to get paid
• Free to join

These are the most prominent positive points about signing up for Quick Rewards.

Are there any negative points about Quick Rewards?

Even though Quick Rewards is a legitimate site that does pay its members as promised, there are a few things that stand out as negatives on the site. Here are a couple of things that need to be changed:

• You won’t get rich overnight
• Takes time to earn a few cents
• May end up giving your email address out to a variety of companies
• Only available in the US, the UK and Canada

Quick Rewards is a way to earn an extra income or some extra spending money. You may not be able to earn a living to pay all your family expenses by taking a few surveys. But you can certainly earn some money for a few extras.

How many ways can you earn on Quick Rewards?

While some sites only offer surveys or product reviews as ways to earn money, Quick Rewards has several ways to earn. This is a very nice feature since it gives users some options and keeps it a lot more interesting. You are not stuck doing only surveys, or only reviews. There are choices such as: surveys, surfing the web, online shopping, taking advantage of different offers, playing games or reviewing videos.

Most people are very happy with the variety of ways there are to earn on the Quick Rewards site. But if you are looking for just a little bit more, then you can also sign up for their Loyalty Program. To be part of the loyalty program all you need to do is actively participate in lots of surveys. You will qualify for Elite status when you complete 75 surveys in a single quarter. You can also qualify for Elite status by placing more than five orders that total more than 10 dollars. There are a lot of bonuses when you reach this status. However, being an Elite member can have a couple of drawbacks. For example, Ebay and Amazon have some very strict exclusionary limitations. This is basically a bonus for those who actively and regularly participate in the program.

Are there different ways to redeem my earnings?

Quick Reviews has over 50 options when it comes time to redeem your earnings. Most sites have a few options for retrieving your points or money. Quick Rewards offers members a wide variety of ways to get their earnings in a spendable form. One of the most common ways to cash out is available, that is getting your pay through PayPal. This is very handy if you have a PayPal account already set up. But you can also choose a gift card from one or more of many popular online and offline stores like Amazon, Disney and Applebees. You may also choose to donate your earnings to a reputable charity called Project Linus. This is a non-profit group that is actively involved in providing homemade quilts and blankets to children who are ill, needy or traumatized.

How long does it take to get paid?

The length of time it takes to get your rewards and earnings will depend largely on what type of payment you are looking for. It is typical to get your paypal payment within 72 hours. It just takes a little bit of time to complete the transaction. If you want any type of gift card, you should have them within a week’s time.

Quick Rewards is a legitimate site and trustworthy. For this reason, we would like to recommend it for anyone who wants to work and get some extra cash. It’s free to join, easy to earn and you’ll have your choice of how you want to get your money once you have earned it. As far as survey sites and ways to earn on line, it is certainly at the top of the list of sites we recommend. Just remember that you will not be able to make a full living on a site but you can earn plenty of extra cash and spend them how you want.

When you are ready to start earning some extra income, just follow this link to sign up. It’s free and easy to sign up. IN no time at all, you’ll be surfing around making extra money.

The post Do You Want to Earn with Quick Rewards, Let’s Review it, Legit or Scam? appeared first on EliteSurveySites.

The big question is, how do you find successful people to follow? The internet is full of scammers and hucksters; it's truly a challenge to not get taken by one of them.

I can help you navigate the tricky waters of the internet and guide you to a team of successful people online.

Before I go there however, what is it you want to be successful in? If you are looking to be a successful car mechanic and you are looking to me for guidance, I can tell you you're barking up the wrong tree.

This article is about how to be successful in your online business and blogging effort.

Making money as a blogger has come of age and is no longer looked upon as a hobby. Although some people will use blogging as a hobby, if you are serious about making money through blogging, this is where I can step in and guide you.

How I Can Help

I am going to introduce you to a community of successful bloggers. I too am part of this community and have helped several people over the years and I can do the same for you. The community is dedicated for bloggers helping each other out in the quest to create successful online businesses.

It Takes Work

I want to take a step back before getting you started and caution that it takes a lot of work to run a blog. It's more competitive than it used to be (well sort of - I'll explain below) and you will have serious disappointments. But the success community, we can help you get through it.

Please note: the community of which I am referring to has nothing to do with network marketing (or MLM). There is no requirement to recruit people into the community (although you can if you choose and get paid for it). Plenty of members make serious incomes without ever recruiting a single person!​

Has Blogging Become Too Competitive?

The short answer is yes and no. There are certainly many blogs in existence with many more being added on a daily basis. With this information alone, you may be tempted to believe that the market for blogging is too saturated.

The real truth is that most of the blogs that are being created are junk or are being set up incorrectly and will never make any money. These wannabe bloggers are going to start up with excitement only to flash out and burn. So while there are many blogs in existence, most won't continue to exist (or will sit in a state of limbo forevermore). So in essence, blogging is much less competitive than people realize.

Here is another reason why you should not worry so much about competition: internet usage continues to grow exponentially. A look at the following table reveals this:

Source: Internet World Stats

Success Begets Success

Okay, so let's get back to how successful people can be of help to your new blogging business. The short of it is that they have been successful in making their blogs earn the money. Secondly, they initially joined the network of other successful bloggers with the intent of getting help when they first started. Now that they have seen success, they are willing to give back to others (you)!

No More Excuses

If you have been hesitating with getting started with a blog because you were unsure how to get started there is no better time to get started than now. You have within your reach a network of thousands (literally) of people that are available to help you on a moment's notice.

What Kind of Blog Should You Create?

That's really up to you but within the network, there extensive training on how to choose the type of bog you want to start as well as how to optimally set it up in a way that has the most potential for earning income.

Are There Any Costs Involved?

Blogs can be set up with little to no costs. In fact, my first piece of advice is to do everything at the start for free. As you become a more proficient blogger, you can use your earnings to purchase some useful tools when it makes sense to do so.

What is this Community of Successful Bloggers?

Finally, I get to share with you the community that I belong to that has helped me and countless others run a successful blog. Plus, now that I have had my own success, I pass along any tips that I have learned to help those that need it. The community of which I am referring to is called:

Wealthy Affiliate University

When you join Wealthy Affiliate (WA) or Wealthy Affiliate University (WAU), you immediately get access to that community of successful bloggers. Obviously, there will be members who have just recently joined who are not yet successful. Those members will not be of much help yet to new members (such as yourself). That's okay because there are so many more members that are available to help you when you get started (myself included).

What to Do Next

It's time for some action on your part. Here are the exact steps to take to ensure the highest probability of success when starting (and running) your blog.

The post Success Begets Success appeared first on Get Paid Boot Camp.

Airline miles and points can be used for a lot more than just flights.

They can be used for all manner of gifts — which makes them an attractive theft target for hackers and scammers. We’ll tell you how they do this in this week’s issue.

And if you use PC maintenance software, we have a warning about a new tech support scam aimed at accessing your computer.

Before we begin, you may want to spend a moment looking at this week’s most popular articles from our other sites:

The Implications Of Identity Theft: Identity theft is not a “it can never happen to you” situation so find out what could happen if you don’t pay attention.

Grilled Corn On The Cob: The Perfect Side Dish: Grilled corn on the cob is one tasty option that’s just a natural choice for the backyard griller.

Healthy Hair Myths: What to Believe — What to Avoid: If you would like to improve your chances of having healthy hair, learn the difference between truth and myth and follow these tips.

Caught Up In The Fast Food Frenzy? If you are concerned about heart disease, read on to find out why America’s obsession with fast food is hurting our hearts.

Now, here we go…

How Scammers Steal and Trade Your Airline Miles

The theft of millions of airline miles from accounts at two big U.S. airlines provides proof, if it were needed, that you should never use the same password on more than one valuable online account.

As many as 10,000 accounts at American and United Airlines were accessed by crooks — but not by directly hacking them.

They apparently got the usernames and passwords by hacking third party servers not connected with the airlines.

Then they used these to try to sign on to the airline accounts.

Where they succeeded, they stole the points, using them to buy gifts and book or upgrade flights.

If users had different passwords, this could never have happened.

The incident happened several months ago and the airlines say they will be notifying customers whose accounts were affected.

Even if you’re not one of them, it’s probably a good idea to change your password if you have a frequent flyer account with either airline and if you’re using one that is duplicated for other accounts.

For more information about password security, check out this Scambusters issue, 10 Keys to Password Security.

Fortunately, it seems that other confidential information attached to people’s accounts, including their credit card details, were not compromised.

However, the theft highlights the growing attractiveness of frequent flier miles to hackers, with one observer saying that points have become a sort of currency that is used and traded on black markets.

The fact that you can trade points for a wide range of products, not just travel, makes them extremely attractive.

Bogus Miles Awards

This isn’t the only tactic scammers are using to try to steal frequent flier miles.

In both the U.S. and Canada, they’re using robocalls to tell individuals they’ve been awarded thousands of extra points.

The calls claim to come from the Canadian company Air Miles, airlines Air Canada or WestJet, or online travel company Expedia.

The call invites recipients to press a key to proceed with the mileage points claim.

This connects them with an operator who asks for airline account details or other confidential information that might be used for identity theft.

Action: This scam has been running for several years and is ongoing.

It’s easy to tell if you’re being targeted.

None of the companies mentioned uses this type of robocall marketing — it’s illegal anyway in most cases.

So if you get a call, it’s a scam.

Phony Sales of Miles

In yet another airline miles scam, crooks pose as brokers of unwanted miles, which they offer for sale via sites like Craigslist.

Or sometimes, they claim to work for the airlines industry and have more free miles than they will ever need.

By suggesting, for example, that they’re senior crew, like pilots, they add an element of credibility to their con trick.

Often, victims are in a hurry to buy the miles, which makes them a perfect target, willing to either wire cash or use a prepaid debit card to pay for them.

You send the money and that’s the last you hear of the “seller.”

Action: Buying airline miles this way is highly risky. So, don’t.

In the cases we researched, one victim received phone calls and even copies of a driver’s license from the scammer.

This supposed proof of identity turned out to be worthless.

One clue to the scam is that the crooks usually offer the miles at extremely low cost — the first red flag.

But the key, as ever, is the request to wire cash or use prepaid debit cards, both of which are untraceable.

Airline Warnings

Several airlines have posted warnings about mileage / points scams.

For example, American Airlines has a whole list of phishing emails with a list of characteristics of bogus emails.

United offers a customer care inquiry form.

A True Urban Legend

By the way, on the subject of airlines miles, you may have encountered an Internet story about a guy who supposedly bought thousands of desserts, to score more than a million miles.

The frozen food producer of the desserts offered buyers up to 1,000 free miles for each product barcode they submitted.

The enterprising shopper spent $3,000 on desserts and offered them to a charity in return for their removing the barcodes and sending them to him for submission by the food company’s deadline.

He got his mileage points and, as a bonus, he achieved lifetime gold status with one airline.

Sound too good to be true? Not at all. In fact this clever guy also wrote off his $3,000 outlay against his taxes, saving a further $800 — because he had given his puddings to a charity!

Alert of the week

Software company Iolo Technologies has issued a warning about a bogus tech support scam that uses its name.

It’s a variation of the Microsoft scam in which victims are tricked into giving crooks access to their PCs after being told by a phony Microsoft tech that they have problems.

In this new version, the caller claims to be from Iolo, which produces the leading PC maintenance software System Mechanic, and says that the software has detected a fault.

But the request is the same — he/she wants access to the PC so they can “fix the problem” or, in reality, steal information from the computer.

Iolo doesn’t operate this way. So if you get this call, even if you have System Mechanic installed, just hang up.

That’s it for today — we hope you enjoy your week!

Phony business emails sent to finance department employees have cost firms $215 million by tricking them into wiring invoice payments to scammers.

We have the details in this week’s Snippets issue, along with warnings about bogus investment newsletters and shady house-flipping programs.

And if you use one of the most popular password management programs, we’ll tell you why you need to change your master password right now.

As always, we also recommend you check out the most popular articles from our other sites during the past week:

The Truth behind Carpet Cleaning Offers: If you receive a coupon in the mail for a great deal on carpet cleaning, think twice before jumping on it!

Debunking Certain Myths About Precious Metals, Part I: Gold, silver and platinum are more than just pretty things to look at, so join us as we debunk a few myths about precious metals in this two-part article.

Picture Perfect Wedding Shower Cake Ideas: Here are some simple tips for beautiful but simple bridal shower cake ideas.

How to Dispute Credit Report Errors: Credit report errors are a common result of identity theft so read on to learn how to dispute them.

Let’s get started…

Bogus Business Email Targets Employees, Costs Millions

What would you do, supposing you work in the accounts department of your employer, and you got a business email from your boss telling you to change the way you pay invoices?

Here’s hoping you’d check the instruction with the boss or another key figure in the business. Otherwise, you could be playing an unwitting part in a scam that could cost the firm a fortune.

According to law enforcement officials, scammers who have hacked their way into company computer systems have been sending these redirection emails to employees in the finance section of small businesses.

They tell the employees that, instead of sending checks to specified suppliers, they now have to send the cash by electronic transfer.

We all recognize by now that wiring money can be a dangerous payment method if you don’t know the person you’re sending it to.

But in this case, the victims think they do know who they’re sending it to, and with their guard down, fall for the scam.

According to the FBI, this scam, which they call the Business Email Compromise (BEC), cost one Tennessee company $850,000.

In another version, the scammers pose as a supplier to the company and simply ask for payment of invoices to be wired instead of being paid by check. The cash ends up overseas and cannot be recovered.

The scam, the FBI reports, is global, with victims in 45 countries and all U.S. states, and costing firms a total of $215 million.

Action: If you’re in a position to make payments for your company, be on the lookout for these scam emails and report them to manager.

It means not only that someone is trying to scam you but also that they most likely have hacked into your company systems and could put other elements of the business at risk.

And if you happen to be a small business owner, be aware of and alert your employees to the danger. Perhaps even have a system where more than one person has to approve changes in payment processes.

Employee Phishing

Another sneaky way that hackers target employees is by sending emails that pretend to be from the company HR department or someone with an HR function in a business.

The message tells the victim the firm is changing his/her employment status and they have to click a link for more details.

The message looks genuine — so who wouldn’t be desperate to click?

But the link takes victims to a spoof site that looks like the firm’s real site, where they’re asked to log on with their company email address and password.

It then provides some innocuous information that puts the employee’s mind at rest.

Meanwhile, the scammers use this information to sign on to the victim’s genuine company account and change bank details so that their wages are sent to the crooks’ account.

Action: Be immediately suspicious if you get this email; don’t click the link.

Most firms would be unlikely to notify you of changes this way, but you should either contact your HR people by phone or sign in to your account independently and check details from there.

Bogus Investment Newsletters

For our third Snippet this week, we switch to the world of investment, where, as ever, people with money to invest are always on the lookout for news and tips that will lead them to a profit.

A popular source of this type of information is a newsletter.

But beware. According to a U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) official, online newsletters that seem to be genuine may be touting dubious stocks and other investment vehicles.

“Fraudulent newsletters will claim to offer independent, unbiased recommendations, but fail to explain conflicts of interest (or biases), including financial incentives they receive that influence their investment recommendations,” says SEC education director Lori Schock.

If “newsletters” are being paid to tout particular investments, they should say so. If they don’t and they seem to be promoting just one stock, you should be wary.

And don’t be misled just because you saw the newsletter promoted on legitimate investment forums.

“What makes it even harder to spot fraudulent newsletters is that many are advertised on legitimate websites — including the online financial pages of news organizations,” says Schock, “(but) this does not make them any less fraudulent.”

Flip Flop

Staying with the subject of investment, watch out for a scam based on the popular tactic of home flipping.

Flipping is when an individual buys and then quickly resells a home for a profit, often after carrying out significant remodeling.

It’s fun for some and just profitably appealing to others — but it can be expensive to get into; you need the cash to buy your first property.

Crooks have come up with the solution: Invite people to invest just a few thousand dollars that supposedly will be pooled with others’ money, with the flipping conducted by “experts.”

All the investor has to do is hand over the money and sit back and wait for the profits to roll in.

Maybe this really does happen in some cases, but in others it’s an out-and-out scam, usually promoted at seminars.

Victims are persuaded by the promise of mouthwatering returns or high-pressure sales techniques to hand over money, which they never see again.

Action: If you can’t afford to do the flipping yourself, be very cautious about these pooled-money enterprises.

Carefully and independently check out the promoters and speak to a financial advisor first.

Unless it stacks up 110%, don’t do it!

Alert of the Week

If you use the Last Pass password manager and haven’t changed your master password in the past few weeks, then do so now.

The company says it was hacked in early June and, although there’s no evidence accounts were compromised or that any encrypted data was stolen, they’re recommending a master password change.

For more information, here’s the Last Pass announcement.

That’s all for today — we’ll see you next week.

Private Label Rights is a concept by which owners of products (usually digitally based) give holders of the products certain legal rights to distribute to others. The rights assigned depends on the product creators. Some creators are very liberal with what can be done while others are more restrictive.

Are Private Label Rights Products Worth Using?

Private Label Rights have gotten a bad reputation in the past several years, mainly because of the abuse that came about on how these products were distributed. Many people that acquired the rights to these products tended to flood the internet with copies of the product as it was published. This led to hundreds, if not thousands of copies of the same product littered all over the internet. As you could well imagine, a product's value is diluted when it's available everywhere (and usually for free).

Quality Issues with PLR

Another problem that has plagued PLR products is the quality of many of them are not as high as they should be. They tended to have very basic, high level information that anyone could easily get from doing a simple Google search. In fact, that is how many of these PLR products were created. The product creators would do a search on a certain topic and simply regurgitate whatever was returned from the search.

A Current Resurgence of Quality

There are still many PLR products that are low quality but recently I have noticed a small percentage of product creators upping the game, so to speak. The quality is getting which is good news for anyone who is responsible for content creation.

Some Tips when Considering Using Private Label Rights Products

The post What Are Private Label Rights Products? appeared first on Get Paid Boot Camp.

Ransomware, software that hijacks and freezes PCs until a ransom is paid, is undergoing a “meteoric rise” according to a leading security software company.

Now the malware is finding its way onto Android smartphones, with scammers demanding up to $250 to unfreeze them.

In this week’s issue we’ll tell you how the scam works and how to sidestep the ransom threat.

Before we begin, you may want to spend a moment looking at this week’s most popular articles from our other sites:

Debunking Certain Myths About Precious Metals, Part II: If you’ve ever wondered what other precious metal myths you’re misfiring on, then read on to find out.

Eat Healthy and Save Money Anyway, Part I: It really is possible to save money and eat healthy, especially with these tips we’re about to hand you in this uplifting two-part article.

Proper Gift Giving Etiquette For Health and Fitness Gifts: There are certain people you can give health-related gifts to and certain people you shouldn’t, so be sure to read on to find out which one is which!

Computer Tips to Protect You and Your Family: If you want to protect yourself and your financial information from identity theft, take these computer tips to heart.

Now, here we go…

Ransomware Holds Smartphones Hostage

It was probably inevitable, but ransomware — software that locks up your computer until you pay the “ransom” to scammers — has arrived on smartphones.

The malware that seizes control is targeted mainly at Android phones.

It flashes up a message claiming to be from the FBI, a government cyber task force or a security firm, claiming that the user has been accessing illegal websites and must now pay a fine to get access to their device again.

A typical message fills the full screen of the phone with text that includes “FBI Criminal Investigation – Prohibited Content.”

It continues, “This device is locked due to the violation of the federal laws of the United States of America,” and goes on to list the supposed articles of law that have been infringed.

Because it’s a crooked operation, payment, of course, must be made by an untraceable money wire or preloaded debit card, the number for which has to be provided to the scammers.

Ransomware has been around for years but mainly on Windows PCs, and we’ve reported on it several times.

— Special Issue on Ransomware
— How to Beat the Ransomware Crooks

These types of PC ransomware attacks are still in full flow, according to a new report from hardware maker Intel and security firm McAfee.

Meanwhile, a new “DIY” program that enables crooks to build their own ransomware is contributing to what the report labels a “meteoric rise” in this crime.

Cell Phones Bombarded

The attack on cell phones is relatively new, however, but it has already bombarded more than a million devices.

According to a report from the New York Times, some 900,000 users were targeted in just one month with a piece of malware called “ScarePakage.” Other variations of the malware have also been identified.

It’s easy for the unwary to be infected, either via a malicious app disguised as legitimate or by visits to certain “adult” websites.

The malicious programs are most commonly downloaded from app stores other than Android’s official Google Play store, though some have even found their way there.

Of course, it’s not just ransomware that threatens the safe use of smartphones. There are also malicious programs that can steal information, record calls for blackmail and extortion, send out spam, and wreak havoc with usability.

Leading security software company Norton recently warned against assuming that any app is safe.

“There are now hundreds of thousands of apps available,” Norton says.

“Even if your source for an app is legitimate, it can be impossible for the official stores to police every app. Always use good judgment before downloading an app.”

Actions you can take to cut the risk of getting infected include:

• Check an app’s trustworthiness on the free www.mobilesecurity.com website.
• Avoid visits to dubious/questionable websites.
• Be wary about using non-Google app stores.

If you know how to do it, uncheck the setting that allows you to download apps from “Unknown Sources.”

• Also be wary about downloading and installing brand new apps for which there are no user reviews, or apps that only have a few users.
• Use a passcode that will prevent anyone else from directly accessing your phone and downloading malware into it.
• Install security software that can detect malicious software. Again, this mainly relates to Android devices.

To find an app that suits your needs, simply do a search using the term “security” on Google Play.

Should You Pay a Ransom?

Should you pay a ransom demand?

No, say the experts. Your best course of action is to keep regular backups of your device setup and reinstall this — either yourself or with professional help if needed.

In some cases, you may be able to restart your phone in safe mode and delete the malware from there. If you’re not expert enough to do this, again seek help from a trusted tech professional.

If you do pay the ransom — usually around $250 — there’s no guarantee the crooks will give you the code to unlock your phone, assuming they even have one.

And if they do have one that you successfully use, the scammers will almost certainly still have access to your phone from which they can continue to steal information.

What’s next? We think wearable devices will be next to be targeted by the ransomware crooks. More on this another time.

Alert of the Week

Some good news for a change. As from late June, some banks have started using the suffix “.bank” (dot-bank) in their Internet addresses.

Since banks will be carefully vetted before they’re allowed to use this suffix, the hope is that it will add another level of security to online banking — in the same way that “.gov” (dot-gov) indicates a genuine government website (provided it’s at the end of the main address).

The switch will probably take many months to complete. Look out for the change from your bank.

That’s all for today — we’ll see you next week.

Inbox Dollars has been around for a long time, its longevity is representative of its reputation and reliability. Inbox lets users earn money through a variety of activities including reading emails, taking surveys, playing games, or redeeming coupons. Members also get rewarded when they make referrals for other members and they join. If you refer someone via invitation, and they join and become active then you are eligible for the reward. Members get rewarded for the variety of activities and accumulate their earnings. After users reach a $30 balance, they can request a payout. You get $5 for signing up with Inbox which is a really good way to start.

Swagbucks is also a site that’s been around for some time. You can perform activities like taking surveys, searching the web, completing special offers, watching videos, finding swag codes, voting on the daily poll, and trading in video games and cell phones. Instead of offering a cash reward, Swagbucks are offered. Once you collect enough Swagbucks, then you can shop at their online store for a variety of items and free stuff. You trade your “bucks” for merchandise. You get 30 Swagbucks when you sign up for the site which is another really good way to start.

These sites have some similarities. Of course, the first and foremost way they are alike is that they are reputable sites offering platforms on which users can take surveys, shop, watch videos or vote in exchange for earning points or cash. Neither site allows users to cash these out until they reach a certain balance in their account. And both sites have some very interesting prizes that can be exchanged for. Both of them also reward users for redeeming grocery coupons. This practice offers you two ways to save – you save on your grocery bill and then get rewards for saving basically. Both sites offer specials and bonuses for new members who sign up for the site. Inbox starts new members off by putting $5 in your account; Swagbucks puts 30 Swagbucks in new member’s accounts.

Their Apps:

Both Swagbucks and Inbox Dollars have mobile apps on android so that mobile phone users can earn Swagbucks or money even while on the go. The official Inbox app can be downloaded by members and earn cash by using the app. New members can sign up for Inbox after downloading the app and then use it to continue earning money. Inbox members can use the app to earn via searching the web, reading email, taking surveys, downloading apps or purchasing groupons – all from the convenience of the mobile app. The Swagbucks app is also a free download, and users can extend their earnings by using the app on the go. Users can earn gift cards by using the app to shop eCommerce sites, shop local deals, explore the web, watch fun videos, searching the web and answering different polls. The apps are just extensions of the online websites where users can use the platforms to earn.

Differences:

There are also some distinct differences between these two paid survey sites. Probably the most noticeable difference is that Swagbucks does not offer cash payouts, whereas Inbox Dollars offers an actual cash payout. Swagbucks offers users swagbuck dollars which can be exchanged for merchandise. These two options are very different and which works best for any person may depend largely on if they are okay with getting items or cool things for free; or want to earn cash money that can be redeemed when the account reaches just $30.

Payouts for these two online earning platforms are quite different processes as well. Swagbucks offers a rewards program users earn points and then they can redeem them for merchandise. Points can be exchanged for gift cards, visa reward cards or given to charities. Gift cards can be used at popular online sites to purchase merchandise or at popular stores like Sam’s Club. Inbox Dollars members can redeem cash after they have accrued the $30 minimum balance. Once you reach the $30, you may request a payment. Members can redeem their cash in the form of a check which is mailed via postal. There is a fee for a check request.

Conclusion

These are both reputable sites that offer ways to earn money online. Please take the time to read the requirements of any site prior to joining so that you have a full understanding of how it works. Both Swagbucks and Inbox Dollars are well founded and established sites. They have paid out literally millions of dollars to members over the years. They are well worth the time and effort for members who sign up and participate in the variety of activities through which they gain rewards and earning.

So which one are you going to sign up for first? Because of the different types of rewards on each site, it can be worthwhile to consider joining both platforms. Both of these online paid sites have proven track records and are trustworthy. Both of these sites have free sign up for members and new members get rewarded just for signing up. What are you waiting for? You can sign up now and start earning right away.

The post Inbox Dollars vs Swagbucks appeared first on EliteSurveySites.

The home-sharing site Airbnb has joined other accommodation service providers as a target for scammers.

Users are reported to have lost thousands of dollars by paying for non-existent accommodations advertised on the site.

Yet, as we report this week, by following one simply Airbnb rule, those users would not have been scammed. You can use it too, to protect yourself.

However, before we begin, we first encourage you to take a look at this week’s most popular articles from our other sites:

Busting Persistent Cell Phone Myths, Part I: In this two-part article on cell phone myths, we’ve collected six top myths regarding our favorite gadgets, and offer a heaping helping of reality to counteract each one.

The Gift of Cookies: How Sweet It Is: If you’re culinarily gifted, read on to find out how to start your own little cookie of the month club for your friends and family.

Meal Prepping for Freezer Meals: Here’s a helpful list of recipes that can freeze well along with other ideas for preparing ahead of time.

Eat Healthy and Save Money Anyway, Part II: We continue on from Part I of this article with a few simple ways to save money on good, nourishing food, especially veggies.

Let’s get started…

Scammers Target Home Sharing Site Airbnb

Reports have been rolling in during the summer of a succession of scams that have hit users of the home-sharing service Airbnb.

The organization is a sort of clearing house for people offering to rent out rooms in their own homes or even the entire home, and travelers or vacationers looking for cheap B&B accommodations.

It operates in 34,000 cities in 190 countries throughout the world — mostly, we stress, without fraud or other problems.

But when it happens, the main scam follows the old storyline of victims being tricked into renting and paying for accommodations that the scammer doesn’t actually own.

This is already a common problem for people using other vacation rental services and online classified ad sites.

It works in a similar way.

The would-be renter spots a suitable accommodation on the Airbnb website and clicks on a button to contact the owner, or “host” as they’re called.

If the host is really a scammer, they ask the renter to pay by money wire or bank transfer.

In the past, crooks have disguised the scam by using an email address that includes “airbnb” in it (but not simply “airbnb.com”) or even by spoofing legitimate addresses, though the organization says it has changed its email system to reduce the risk of this happening.

Scammers also use logos and other official-looking designs and wording to make emails and documents seem authentic.

And in some cases, they actually send an invoice, in PDF format, again asking for payment by one of these untraceable methods.

These invoices and emails often include phony “guarantees” and claims that the wired payment will be covered against scams by Airbnb.

They may say that using the money wire service will be faster or even cheaper than working through the official payment service on the website.

They may also request victims’ phone numbers so they can call and persuade them to wire the money, without using any traceable email services.

Sadly, all of this is phony. In one instance reported to an online travel forum, a victim lost $36,000.

Phony Confirmation

After receiving payment, scammers will often send a confirmation, with a phony reference number, to delay identification of the fraud.

This means the victim may not find out they’ve been conned until they actually make their trip.

The key issue here is that the transaction is being handled “off-site” as Airbnb calls it, which takes it outside the security provisions of the organization’s own on-site payment system.

Using the on-site payment method is critical and users shouldn’t be fooled into using any other process than paying Airbnb directly on the website, with a credit card.

The company never asks customers to send wire payments.

As Airbnb explained to one victim: “Airbnb protects hosts and guests by handling all transactions through our secure payment platform. Guests pay through Airbnb when they book a listing, and hosts don’t receive payment until at least 24 hours after guests check in.”

Also, don’t be taken in by hosts’ claims to have been “verified” by Airbnb. In at least one reported case a scammer was listed as having been doubly verified by the company.

In other cases, crooks even seem to have manipulated the site’s feedback system, giving themselves positive comments for their supposed reliability.

Sometimes, genuine hosts have had their Airbnb accounts hacked, usually via identity theft from other sources and by astute password guessing.

In this way, hosts are potential scam victims as well as the guests who try to book their accommodation.

Airbnb has responded to criticisms about how scammers have accessed its service and made some changes to tighten up security.

Guidance

It has also issued the following guidance to users:

• Never pay or accept payment off-site.
• Airbnb does not send out PDF payment invoices.
• Nor does it request payment by any wiring service, cashier’s check or money order.
• Pay and communicate only through the website.
• Beware of links in messages from other users, even those you know. Their accounts may have been compromised.
• Report users who ask you to work with them off-site.

The organization has several pages devoted to scams and security.

We’ll add our usual warning: Never accept at face value that a message truly comes from whomever it seems to be from.

Scammers can disguise email addresses so they appear to have come from Airbnb or any other organization they want to spoof.

And stealing logos and other official-looking stuff is a piece of cake for crooks.

These tips can help you avoid getting scammed if you use Airbnb.

Alert of the week

Are you, or do you know, one of the millions of government employees affected by the hacking of records at the Office of Personnel Management (OPM)?

If so, watch out for emails pretending to be from OPM or their security specialists, CSID, asking for confidential information that will be added to records already stolen for a potential identity theft.

Don’t click on links in any such emails. Instead, visit the official site for information about the breach and how it affects you.

If you know someone else who may be affected, please pass this on to them.

Time to conclude for today — have a great week!

Entering the Unknown World of Surveys

There are numerous sites that offer paid surveys these days and it can be a little overwhelming trying to figure out how to get started. We have put together this simple guide to help you get started. Once you get started, you’ll find it quite rewarding and beneficial. Here are a few basics that can act as a guide to get you started. Work through these steps and fine tune them to make them work for you.

Create a Separate Email Account for Surveys

There are several reasons setting up a separate survey email account can be useful. You’ll want to use this email account solely for surveys. This keeps them all in one place and keeps them from getting mixed up with business, personal or spam emails. This is also a very good way to keep surveys and related information organized.

Sign up for PayPal

Go ahead and sign up for a PayPal account if you do not have one. It is free to sign up for an account and it is a secure way to transfer money. Not all of the paid survey sites will use PayPal, but many of the top sites do. On some sites, you will be asked if you already have a PayPal site and then you will be asked to give the email address associated with it. If you are setting up a new PayPal, use your new survey email to set up your PayPal account. This will keep everything organized and be much easier in the long run.

Choose Several Sites

It is wise to register on several survey sites so you will have a steady stream of surveys. There are plenty of legitimate sites to choose from. Elite Surveys offers a guide to the top legit paid surveys. Joining several of them will give you a variety of ways to earn as most sites offer payment for different online activities even though they focus on surveys. These sites do not have any gimmicks or scams; they are reputable and have paid out for years.

This is perhaps the most important step in making money with paid surveys. Not signing up for multiple sites is also the most common mistake newbys make. In order to make money taking surveys on paid survey sites, you will need to sign up for several of them. There is no penalty for being on numerous sites. The only caution here is to sign up only for the amount of surveys you can realistically handle. However, most survey sites will be sending out emails sporadically, it’s not like they send them all at the same time so it’s not going to overtax you to keep up. Actually, they will come at intervals so that you stay busy completing surveys. There are plenty of sites that can provide surveys to keep you busy. Start with at least two of the reputable sites that offer a free sign up like IPSOS I-Say and My Survey and Toluna .

Time Management is Essential

Try to manage your time when you are doing surveys. You can do them during times when you have nothing to do, or while waiting in doctor or lawyer offices. You can also choose a time each day when you just work on completing surveys.

Working the Surveys

There are some things you will need to do to ensure you make the most from the survey sites you sign up on. First, most sites will send you a confirmation email that asks you to confirm the registration. This is important so that the survey site will start sending you invites for surveys.

Secondly, make sure you fill out the profile on the survey site. This is important and should be done prior to starting to take surveys. These shouldn’t take too much of your time since they are usually very short and to the point.

Thirdly, take the time to become very familiar with each of the sites you decide to sign up for. Check out their FAQs page and of course their Terms and conditions page. This will let you know when and how you will be paid, any minimum payment amounts, etc.

Complete the Surveys

Now you are set up and ready to start taking surveys to earn some money. It can take a couple of days or even longer sometimes to start getting invites for surveys. When you start getting surveys and panels start trying to qualify for all of them. There may be s few that you do not qualify for; but always try to finish the ones for which you qualify. When survey panels see that you are willing to participate, they will send you more surveys to take.

Key to Success

Many wonder if there are any keys to being successful at making money completing paid surveys. Yes you can! Using legitimate sites you can earn an extra income. The main key to success is consistency. Sign up for the sites, using a survey-only email address. Then make sure to check your inbox on a regular basis. Another huge key factor is to complete the surveys as soon as you get them. This is because many of them have limits as far as how many people they want to take the survey. If they are looking for 300 participants and you are number 301, you missed the cutoff. The way to avoid this is to check your email frequently and complete the surveys as quickly as you receive them.

If you have more questions check out our blog for some answers. Paid Elite Survey Sites offers educational materials and direction particularly useful for those who are ready to give it a go.

The post Guide to Making Money Online with Paid Surveys appeared first on EliteSurveySites.

Self-employed people and small firms face potential ruin in the latest wave of business scams.

Hackers are leading the attack, driving half the small firms they hit out of business, as we report in this week’s Business Snippets issue.

And even if you’re not in business for yourself, use our Alert of the Week to get a free financial Self-Defense Kit.

Before we begin, you may want to spend a moment looking at this week’s most popular articles from our other sites:

Can You Prevent Identity Theft Completely? Read on for more ways to prevent identity theft and reduce your chance of becoming a victim.

Easy Meals for the Busy Professional: Easy healthy meals are always welcome but they can cost an arm and a leg so let’s look at a few options for making sure you eat well without paying through the nose.

Terrariums Make Excellent Anytime Gifts: Terrariums are great gifts so find out how to get started on bringing a small piece of the wilderness into someone’s home.

Myths about Making Money Online: There are many myths and misconceptions about working online. Let’s look at a few of these and see if working online is for you

Now, here we go…

Small Firms & Self-Employed Lose a Fortune to Business Scams

Small firms are the backbone of the American entrepreneurial economy but they face a constant threat of being devastated by business scams.

Big firms can often take a scam hit in their stride, but small businesses can be wiped out by one criminal attack.

For instance, the National Small Business Association reckons that 44% — that’s not far short of half — have experienced a hack attack, costing them an average $9,000 at a time.

That’s before taking into account the reputational damage a hacked firm suffers, and the time devoted to trying to build the business up again.

Another organization — the National Cyber Security Alliance — says that one in five small firms experience a hack attempt in any one year and more than half of these go out of business within six months.

Sometimes, confidential records are compromised; other times websites are accessed and tampered with. Either way the result is devastating.

This is happening at the worst possible time — when more and more people are turning to self-employment.

If you don’t run your own business, you almost certainly know someone among your family and friends who does.

Anti-Hacking Actions

As some of the biggest corporate victims show, it’s virtually impossible to stop a determined hacker. But there are several actions you can take to significantly reduce the risk.

These include:

• Installing and maintaining up-to-date security software.
• Limiting employee access to confidential records.
• Banning the use of USB drives and external hard drives.
• Using complex passwords and changing them frequently. Check out this earlier issue: 10 Keys to Password Security
• Using two-factor identification for access to your systems. See our earlier report: How to Easily Enhance Your Password Security

More Threats

Sadly, hacking is just one of the threats small firms face.

We’ve written about some of them several times previously.

The 5 Most Common Business Scams

7 More Tricks to Snag Your Money and Data

8 Business Scam Tricks That Target Small Firms

Here are some new ones to be on the lookout for:

Bogus Debt Collection

Telemarketers contact firms offering to collect outstanding customer debts in return for a fee.

They collect the debt but then don’t sent a cent to the company.

At the outset, victim firms are also required to sign a contract agreeing to forward any payment sent directly to them to the “debt collection agency” to deduct their fee first.

Again, the balance is never returned.

In one recent incident, 600 firms were reported to have lost around $6 million to a single “agency” before its owner was put behind bars.

Action: Beware of cold-callers offering this kind of service and always check out the reputation of any firm, debt collectors or not, that you’re planning to do business with.

Phony Printer Supplies Invoice

A common small business scam that we’ve previously reported happens when crooks send an invoice for products they didn’t supply, hoping they’ll get paid without anyone noticing.

Now scammers have stepped up their game by making their payment demands seem more authentic by using the names of genuine employees and details of actual equipment on their invoices.

This has happened most recently with invoices for printer ink, paper, and other supplies.

First, the crooks contact the company pretending to be printer supplies specialists, saying they might be able to offer a good deal if the firm tells them what type of printers they have. They also ask for the name of the person they spoke to.

Then the scammers send in their invoice for supplies, naming the printer models and the person who supposedly ordered them.

If the invoice gets paid, the scammers will almost certainly send a repeat a few weeks later.

Action: Limit who can authorize and place orders, and query invoices with names on them with the individual identified.

If possible, physically inspect and maintain records of all incoming supplies.

Contractor Overpayment Scam

If you’re a contractor, watch out for emails from “customers” who say they can’t phone you because they’re hearing impaired.

They ask for an email bid on a home repair job and then send a dud check as supposed advance payment.

Yes, this is an advance payment scam.

The “customer” then claims to have overpaid for the job and asks the contractor to refund the balance (before the bank identities the check is bogus).

Action: It’s an old trick but one that still pulls in the victims.

Call the issuing bank named on the check to verify its authenticity and, as always, never wire money to someone you don’t know.

Fake FTC Complaint

Emails purporting to be from the Federal Trade Commission say that a customer has filed a complaint about you.

The message contains a link or an attachment that aims to load malware onto your computer system.

Action: The FTC doesn’t work this way, so don’t click the links. If in doubt, contact the Commission.

Protection Racket

Your business depends on your reputation, so what would you do if someone threatened to undermine that reputation?

That’s the dilemma faced recently by a photographer who was told by a supposed “reputation management” company that it had learned that severely critical reviews were about to be posted about his service.

The fake company said it could prevent the online publication for payment of a fee.

Photographers across the U.S. have been hit by this scam, and there’s no reason to think the crooks won’t move on to other service providers in due course.

Action: This, of course, is a 21st century version of a protection racket and, like all extortions and blackmail, the scammers will come back for more.

So don’t pay. Tell the FTC (see above) and set up a Google news alert in the name of your company so you’ll be immediately alerted to any phony critiques.

Alert of the week

The U.S. government has launched a Financial Self-Defense Kit to help consumers avoid scams, protect their rights, and invest wisely. It provides several downloadable publications, a fraud video, articles on money basics, and other information about financial scams.

That’s it for today — we hope you enjoy your week!

Disclaimer: Website owner may receive a commission on any products or services purchased via links or banners included on this page.

The truth is the demand for content is much greater than the supply of people able to satisfy that demand. This is indeed a good position to be in if you are considering freelance writing.

But before you go searching for the term "freelance writing jobs", be aware that most newbies start out wrong. This is why freelancing has gotten such a bad rap. Simply accepting jobs that are returned from the above phrase is likely to get you the lowest paying jobs out there. Oddly enough, there is more competition for those low paying jobs than the higher paying ones.

The market for content is exploding. There is simply no other way to describe it. It makes sense when you think about it. Thousands of blogs are created on a daily basis. People are becoming authors on Kindle at an alarming rate. Magazine publications on sites like Amazon and iTunes has taken off like gangbusters.

Text based content isn't the only avenue that people are looking to fill content for. Audio, video as well as slideshows are taking off at an alarming rate.

Won't People Simply Create their Own Content?

Suppose you are a business owner that sells plumbing supplies as an example. You know your business really well. But you also heard that in order to increase sales, you need to create a blog. You also have heard that you need constantly update your blog with frequent updates two or three times a week or more.

After about two or three updates, you realize you are neglecting your plumbing supplies business so you put the content creation on hold. You know you'll get to it eventually but you never actually do.

You still understand that you need frequent updates to your blog and this hangs over your head because you are unable to maintain the aggressive schedule needed create content for your website. This is the reason why people hire others to create their content for them.

It's not just for blogs either. There are plenty of people that want to author their own books either to sell the book outright or they want to use the books as a way of generating leads (they write a book about their business services and then give out copies at local Chamber of Commerce meetings). But time constraints exist for these people as well. Unless you are a full time author/writer, you probably won't have the time to create this book on your own.

As you can see from the examples above, demand for content creation is spectacular.

The pay is going to depend largely on how good of a writer you are, how deep you can go with research and what kind of angle you can provide that others aren't. It's also going to depend largely on what type of content you are creating. You should expect a lot more money for a 50 page eBook than you would get for a 350 word blog post.

Another major factor is the perception that you are giving to your potential clients. If you set your rate at $5 per article, you are going to be seen as someone cheap. You'll get a lot of requests for writing but you are going to be spending several hours a day for peanuts. And oddly enough, these clients will also be your most demanding. They figure if you are unwilling to meet their demands, they can easily pay someone else at that low rate to do it. So expect many revisions at this price level.

Why Competition is Actually Lower for Those Higher Paying Gigs

Think of it this way, anyone can write but most people cannot write well. Anyone who can write well will eventually figure out that the demand for them is even greater.

As stated in the previous section, there are many clients who are smart enough to know they get what they pay for. So if you are a great writer and they recognize this, you will easily get more repeat work from these high paying clients. It's always better to have a few great high paying clients than to have several low paying ones. You don't have to produce as much (in terms of word count) and you will get a decent pay rate.

One word of caution: these higher paying clients are going to expect much better quality than what they would get at say, the $5 level. But if you are a good writer, that shouldn't be an issue.

What if You Have No Experience?

It's typical when seeking freelance writing jobs, to be asked for examples of your writing, a.k.a., your portfolio. But it is kind of the chicken vs. egg argument. How do you show a portfolio if you've never written anything before?

You start by writing. Use article sites like EzineAricles.com, HubPages.com, WordPress.com, Blogger.com, and any others that may come up through an online search. Also, consider creating your own blog and start creating content on that. This is after all, what you are trying to get a job doing so it's not a terrible idea to have your own blog.

What else can be done to build up your portfolio? You could:​

Avoid These Common Pitfalls

Knowing about the following pitfalls can help you steer clear of them:​

What Kinds of Content Should
You Write About?

I am certain I won't cover every kind of content that exists in the world today. In fact, for a much more comprehensive list, take a look at the following:

​http://allindiewriters.com/ways-to-make-a-living-writing/

The following are some of the major types of writing avenues that can help you narrow your focus:

Obviously, there can be overlap in several of these. For instance, if you are contracted out to create a magazine, you will need to either create the articles yourself or find them from somewhere else. Also, with video scripts you may also be asked to create the actual video itself if you advertised that as one of the skills you can do.

What Are the Next Steps?

If you are new to the field of freelance writing and want a way to learn how to go about it properly, I can help you with that. I have resources that can show you how to do things correctly, right from the beginning. Specifically I can show you:

The post How to Get Paid to Write Online appeared first on Get Paid Boot Camp.

• Very flexible – can easily work it into a tight schedule
• Make extra money for school expenses
• Work when it works best for you
• It’s very easy
• Work from any place you have internet access (dorm room, apartment, library)
• Don’t need a prior work history
• Get paid in cash

The biggest struggle becomes finding legitimate paid survey sites. We all know that there are lots of scams out there; and they are designed to trip you up and scam you out of your money or information. So what we did is we sorted through the paid survey sites to find the best ones that will work for busy college students.

These paid sites have been around long enough to develop and maintain a good reputation. They are legitimate and they pay out just like they say they will. You do not have to spend your time trying to sort through tons of information to find the sites that are the best for college students. We’ve done all the work for you.

Make more money working on paid survey sites, you need to join as many as you can realistically handle. Sign up for several of them so that you will always have survey invites waiting for you in your email box. These are the top 5 sites that are reputable and have been around long enough to be tested and true.

1. I-Say by Ipsos

This site has a variety of ways to earn and payments are made via PayPal or Amazon gift cards. They use mobile sites and they have surveys in more than 100 countries around the world. Minimum withdrawal is set very low, $10, which makes it easy to reach payout and get money in your hands faster. Ipsos pays higher than other sites on average and they offer a lot of surveys. Click this link to sign up for I-Say for free.

2. Swagbucks

Swagbucks is another favorite site for college students. They offer a variety of methods for earning points and then the points can be traded in for gift cards that can be redeemed at very popular stores. Students can earn by watching videos, taking surveys, playing games, shopping online or just surfing the web. Click here to sign up for Swagbucks and start earning today.

3. Opinion Outpost

This site only has paid surveys for college students who just want to participate in them. Most like Opinion Outpost because they have a little higher rate than most survey sites and they have a low payout of $10. You can get paid through PayPal so you get your money fast and secure. Register for free by clicking here.

4. My Survey

My Survey is a very well established company and provides users with lots of surveys. You earn points depending on how long and involved the surveys are and then you exchange the points for cash. Students can choose to cash out through PayPal or exchange points for gift cards. They have a lot of different types of surveys so students are sure to find something interesting. Click here to sign up for free on My Survey.

5. Toluna

Toluna has been in existence for many years and has an exceptional reputation. They offer different was to earn money including surveys and product reviews; and payout can be in a variety of ways including gift cards or PayPal.  They also offer several different contests that are fun and engaging as other ways to win prizes and money. The minimum withdrawal is $20 but surveys pay liberally so it does not take too long to make payout. Click here to sign up for Toluna.

6. Nielsen

Nielson Digital Voice has been around for a long time and is a tried and true paid survey site. It’s one of the most popular paying sites and offer several ways for participants to get their payout. It’s free to sign up on the site and as with legitimate sites, it is free. One thing that makes Nielson so popular is that there are a variety of ways to make money on the platform. Participants can take online surveys, mobile surveys or use a browser add-on to make money while surfing the net. It doesn’t take long to reach payout on this legitimate survey site as the minimum balance is set at $50. Click here to join Nielson for free.

Tips for College Students on Taking Paid Surveys

Taking online paid surveys can be a good way for college students to make some extra money without straining their schedule. Taking surveys can generate some extra money and be a lot of fun. The reputable sites are totally free to join. Here are a couple of tips to help students get started on a successful journey of working paid surveys.

Sign Up for Numerous Sites

Make sure to register for several different survey sites. Depending on the specific platform, you should expect to receive a few surveys to complete every month. By signing up for numerous sites, you ensure that there will be plenty of surveys to complete along the way.

How to Get Started

Go to the survey sites and register. You should probably sign up for at least 5 to start with and more if you have time later on. Most survey sites will send you an initial questionnaire to get a general idea about your likes, dislikes and preferences. Filling these out completely will ensure you get surveys that cover topics you are interested in. It will also help make sure you get more surveys overall. You should start getting surveys in just a couple of days. Every six months update your profile so that it stays fresh with any new information.

Choose a Variety of Tasks

For some people just doing the paid surveys is fun enough, but it’s okay to sign up for sites that offer different tasks for pay.  Some of the sites have more than surveys to participate in. Some pay for surfing the net, product reviews, or watching videos for example. By participating in different activities you open up the opportunities available to make more money.

College students can usually use some extra cash coming in. Get started making an extra income today by signing up on paid survey sites today. Click here for a list of reputable sites to choose from.

The post The Best 6 Paid Surveys for College Students appeared first on EliteSurveySites.

Self-publishing of books and music may offer a shortcut to creative success but it also opens the door to copyright thieves.

In this week’s issue we explain how two individuals found their creative efforts had been stolen and what they did to get their work back under their name.

We also have links to a new document that explains the rules about robocalls and how you can exercise your rights to stop them.

As always, we also recommend you check out the most popular articles from our other sites during the past week:

Owning Pets Without Going Broke: You can save a lot of money on your pets by  following these tips.

How to Shop an Estate Sale: Read on to find out why an estate sale can be even better that a garage sale.

Baby Shower Music to Rock Your Party: Here are some tips for using baby shower music that will please everyone.

Funny Animal Myths You Should Know the Truth About: Join along as we check out these myths about animals and separate fact from myth.

Let’s get started…

Copyright Thieves Cash in on Self-Published Works

Self-publishing and self-recording have opened the door to fantastic opportunities for writers and musicians, slashing the cost of reaching audiences so that it’s easier to make a living even from modest creative success.

Unfortunately, the same digital transformation has also opened the door to thieves, frauds, and scammers — on the lookout to cash in on other people’s creativity.

You can hardly believe the ingenuity and barefaced cheek some scammers use in passing off others’ work as their own.

But they don’t care because they’re often hard to track down or out of the reach of law enforcement.

A prime example is the story of an acquaintance of one of our team members who found herself on the receiving end of a copyright thief.

This person, Chris, is a copywriting expert who runs a training program for professional writers all over the U.S.

In very general terms, copywriting involves producing text for things like web pages, ads, brochures, newsletters, and other promotional materials.

It’s a specialist writing area that calls for in-depth inside knowledge and Chris had produced a series of books on how writers should charge correctly for their work.

As she prepared for the launch earlier this year, she felt confident she had a winning series on her hands.

“The evening before the launch I was on Amazon feeding my book addiction when what do I see?” she recalls.

“One of my 4 Copywriters Pricing Bootcamp ebooks is being advertised!

“I didn’t just happen to see it… it was in my face, being heavily promoted!

“There, along the right side of the screen, was the distinct orange and black design I had worked on for so long, oversized, looking back at me.”

At first, she was confused. She had two other ebooks on Amazon but hadn’t planned to sell this new set on the site.

And then she saw it. Her name as the author had been replaced with another name, and the series brand name she had used — “Chris Notes” — had also been swapped out in favor of the new “author.”

“Searching the title of my book brought more alarm. It was being sold at virtually every bookselling outlet on the Web!” she explains.

“Barnes & Noble. Books-a-Million. Abe Books. Every Amazon site in every country that Amazon is in. And at all the smaller booksellers and even listed in the catalog for books, Ingram.

“It was being sold on Kindle. As an ebook everywhere. And as a hard copy (ridiculous as it’s only 47 pages!). My thief also had it on Amazon for a lower price as ‘used’.”

After the initial shock had subsided, Chris launched her own investigation, tracking down the copyright thieves — two names had been used — to Nigeria.

In order to win back what was rightfully hers, she had to:

• Formally register her copyright of the book. That’s more than just adding a (C) to the book. It actually has to be registered with the U.S. Copyright Office.
• Contact the legal department of whoever was selling the book and prove she was the owner of the copyright.

“While it was easy to prove my ownership, the process was tedious and it made me angry that I had to do the process over and over again, one by one, with each online bookseller,” she says.

“Amazon was swift in accepting my claim as true. However, they said it might take some time to take the book down, and indeed it took about two weeks to get them off of the Amazons in all of the countries they’re in.”

Chris doesn’t know for sure how the thieves got hold of her book but thinks they tracked down a downloadable version on a hidden site intended only for her clients.

She has switched to a more secure downloadable system now.

And because she spotted the scam quickly, she doesn’t think the crooks made much money off of it.

“But they’re probably making money off of other poor souls,” she adds.

“They have four or five other books out at the same time as mine (such a coincidence!), and they are almost surely stolen.”

The lesson is clear: Copyright your work; make sure it’s only securely downloadable; and monitor booksellers for any copyright infringement.

Facing the Music

But it’s not only writers who face theft of their creative work.

A short while ago, we came across the story of a New Zealand composer, Rhian Sheehan, said to be one of dozens of international musicians stung by a con artist.

He discovered that one of his compositions had been copied from a music sharing website and offered for sale under another name on iTunes.

It was also being played under this assumed name on several streaming music sites, which pay artists a per-use fee when someone listens to a track.

According to the entertainment section of the New Zealand website stuff.co.nz, the scammer subsequently issued an apology for his actions, admitting he had taken music produced by several artists and passed it off as his own.

The site quoted the victim saying: “The whole experience has been eye-opening… It’s very easy for any artists to upload their music onto every major digital store…

“As I’ve learnt from this experience, it’s also now very easy to upload other people’s music under their own ‘artist’ name.”

As more people take to the web to promote their music, this is a problem that’s likely to get worse.

If you’re a composer or musician, there may not be a lot you can do for now to stop that happening.

But by monitoring the relevant sites for thefts and infringement, you can take swift action to notify them and get these copies removed — before a con artist makes a lot of money at your self-published expense.

Alert of the week

Do you know your rights and the rules on robocalls — those automated marketing calls that drive us all crazy? And do you know how to take action to prevent them?

If you’re a regular Scambusters reader, you probably have a good idea.

But just to be sure, download the latest guidelines just released by the Federal Communications Commission.

That’s all for today — we’ll see you next week.

When you stop to refuel at a gas station, you could be at the mercy of any one of a number of scams.

Some of them are opportunist and happen in seconds and others are carefully planned and ingenious, as we explain in this week’s issue.

We also have a warning about a bogus refund email that aims to upload a virus onto your PC.

Before we begin, you may want to spend a moment looking at this week’s most popular articles from our other sites:

The Implications of Identity Theft: Read on to learn more about identity theft and how it can affect you.

A Few Automotive Tune-Up Tips: Take a look at these auto tune-up tips before getting your car serviced.

Tips for Getting More Clothes with Your Family Budget: This article will give you a few pointers on how to buy clothes and save a few bucks in the process.

Discover These 5 Acid Reflux Myths and Suffer No More! Learn which of these 5 myths about acid reflux are the truth and which aren’t.

Now, here we go…

Scam Risks You Face at the Gas Station

Most of us are regular gas station visitors and we drive in and out without giving the experience a second thought.

But the fact is that each time you make a refueling pit stop, you’re potentially at risk from a gas station scam.

And, as with most scam themes, new tricks appear all the time.

You need to keep your wits about you, and the first step is actually knowing what to look out for. So this week we offer you a list of the 6 most common gas station scams.

Skimming

We start with probably the most common trick — skimming devices attached to pump payment card readers.

They’re overlaid on the card slot of the machines and are often extremely difficult to spot.

They steal all the cardholder information including, with the aid of hidden cameras, their PIN numbers.

Action: Some gas stations apply stickers or seals over the edge of the card reader, so you can check to see if these have been tampered with.

Otherwise, examine the card slot to see if it matches the rest of the reader device.

Skimmers are often attached only loosely so a light pull on the mouth of the slot might dislodge it.

Cover the keyboard with your other hand when keying in your PIN number, so it can’t be read by a camera.

If you feel uneasy, either pay with cash or go inside the gas station office and pay in advance with your card.

Pump Switching

If you’re not vigilant, you could end up paying for refueling someone else’s car if you’re a victim of pump switching.

In this relatively new scam, crooks switch the hoses from one side of a pump to the other and then wait for a victim to arrive.

The victim puts the nozzle in his own car, pulls the trigger and watches the pump meter dials whizz around.

Nothing seems amiss. But here’s what really happened:

When the victim pulled the trigger, no fuel flowed from his hose because it’s attached to the other side of the pump where no fuel selection has been made. The machine is waiting for the selection.

In the meantime, the hose that really belongs to his pump is on the other side, delivering his gas into the scammer’s tank. The crook drives away before his con trick is discovered.

Action: A quick sight check is all you need to avoid this trick.

Look out for stretched hoses and make sure you can visually trace your hose all the way from your vehicle to your side of the pump.

Distress Scammers

Standing around while your gas tank refills makes you a sitting target for panhandlers who hang around the pumps and service areas with a sob story for anyone who will listen.

Usually, they say they need money for gas so they can visit a desperately sick relative, but, since most service stations also have a convenience store, they may say they need food.

The more sophisticated crooks might point to a car with kids in the back who, you’ll be told, are desperate to eat, and the victim may say they left their wallet at home.

Action: It can be tough to say “no” but that’s usually the best response. If you really feel you must help, offer to buy the gas or the food rather than handing over cash.

Purse Snatchers

While your attention is focused on the pump, or maybe you’re even inside paying for your gas, what’s happening to those valuables, like your purse, that you left on the passenger seat?

It only takes a few seconds for a thief to open a door or reach through a window and whisk them away.

Action: Don’t leave stuff on show inside your car. Close windows if the car is unoccupied and lock it if you have to go inside to pay.

Gas Swindlers

Dishonest gas station employees, and even some owners, get up to all kinds of tricks to overcharge or under-deliver on fuel.

These include pumps that have been “doctored” to deliver short-measure and phony readings — sometimes even adding up the cents when the nozzle hasn’t even been inserted in the tank.

In other cases, where gas stations offer a discount for cash, pump attendants may hit the “credit” button so cash-paying victims unknowingly end up paying the credit card rate.

Investigators who monitored this type of dual price pump at a gas station in Long Island saw this scam repeatedly pulled off without a single motorist spotting the trick.

Travelers in Mexico have also reported teams of windshield washers who gather around a vehicle so the owner can’t see the pump reading when it stops short of what they paid for (in Mexico, motorists usually pay a fixed sum in advance before they begin pumping).

Action: Keep a close eye on the pump throughout the refueling and request a receipt (which you should carefully check).

If the fuel and payment meter seems to be operating when the nozzle is not, report it to the gas station clerk and, if necessary, to your state’s department for weights and measures.

In some cases — and you’ll see examples of this on YouTube — motorists have actually made phone videos of meters racking up charges when the car is not refueling — valuable evidence if you make a complaint.
Short Changers

This scam is more common outside the U.S., especially where attendants pump the gas for you.

They’re quick-switch artists who will claim you gave them a lower denomination bill than you really did — and they’ll show you it to prove their claim, having pocketed your real money.

Action: Before paying in cash, hold the bill(s) up and state its value aloud before handing it over.

Alert of the Week

An email claiming that a refund you’re supposedly entitled to has somehow been blocked or failed delivers a nasty surprise if you click on the attachment that supposedly gives details of the problem.

The message is headed something like “Refund Failed” followed by an “ACH transfer” number. ACH is the organization that oversees transfers of funds between banks.

The message goes on to request recipients to “review the document provided here to have more details about this transfer.”

The scam may be particularly targeted at small businesses but in reality anyone could get it.

The attachment contains the “W97M” trojan, which downloads spying malware onto your PC — so don’t click it, ditch it!

That’s all for today — we’ll see you next week.

How to use Paid Surveys Cash

Once you download this file, hopefully you have already done that, you will find it to be a very useful tool. The goal is to help steer you away from scams and help you learn how to make money online using legitimate survey sites. It will help you find reputable survey sites that are totally free of cost to you and very legitimate online businesses. You will want to sit and read this handbook all the way through once you have downloaded it. Then you can keep it for a reference source and refer to it if a question arises.

What can you learn from this valuable resource?

You can learn how to complete online paid surveys and make money. You’ll find out that there are some basic guidelines to help ensure you find and work on reputable sites, and that there are many best practices to observe. However, there isn’t just one simple skill set that you have to develop to be able to be successful at completing online surveys. This guide is very useful for learning everything you need to complete surveys. One thing that stand out in this particular document is the fact that it is filled with tips that can be used to increase your earnings.

Paid Surveys Cash offers readers ways to find the best survey platforms. One thing readers appreciate about the guidebook is that information is presented in an open and honest manner. It will lead you in the right direction and assist your search for finding the specific sites that demonstrate the highest earnings. It breaks the ways sites pay down so that it is easily understood and helps readers find the sites that work best for them and that are compatible with their needs.

Overall this advanced guidebook will show you what you should do to start and continue making money with online surveys. The one advantage this book has is that it will also show you what not to do.

Valuable Points taken from Paid Surveys Cash

Readers appreciate the candid honesty that is presented in this guide. There are many people who have become frustrated with completing surveys and this topic is dealt with in this book. It’s not a secret that some survey platforms have strict guidelines and certain qualifications must be met. This is fully explained in the guide. You’ll find out how to avoid being disqualified from surveys that you are qualified to fill out.

The book serves as a valuable guide to help prevent some of the most common mistakes done by those who are just getting started filling out surveys for pay. And readers will be surprised to read all of the useful tips for being successful at taking surveys. The author thoroughly explains how you don’t need a specific skill set, but there are strategies that can be used to ensure a successful financial venture.

What makes this book so useful?

Practical Application – This guide is totally full of ideas, tools and strategies that can be implemented immediately upon reading them. Actually, as you are working through the chapters you will receive assignments of tasks that need to be completed before moving on to the next section. Some choose to read through the entire book before getting started, other readers prefer to go through the information more slowly and work through the details as they go. Either way readers learn valuable tips for making money online. It’s this practical use which allows readers to make quick application of the skills being taught. This step by step procedure is one thing that makes this guide so valuable to the person just starting out.

Consistent Advice – You will not want to read this guide one time and then put it away and never pick it back up. This is a reference tool to which you will refer back to again and again. Yes, it’s great for the rookie who is just starting out with surveys; but it is also beneficial for someone who has been doing surveys for a while. This is because it is versatile and yet very consistent with the information it contains. The newbie can use it to learn how to get started but useful enough for experienced survey takers to refer to on occasion like a refresher course.

Reliable Information – Experienced survey takers can affirm the fact that this guide contains the most reliable information on surveys available. The reference book offers readers information that they can take to the bank – quite literally. It contains very specific data pertaining to signing up to sites, how to make the most of your surveys and answer many of the most concerning questions many have along the way.

Honesty and Integrity – It is important to note that Paid Surveys Cash was written with full honesty and from a place of integrity. The intent is to truly inform readers with what they need to know to succeed. There is no attempt to delude or lie to readers just to get them to sign up for some scam site. Actually, the very opposite is true. The book is written to help readers discern between legitimate sites and those that are not. Its educational format is intended to inform readers about how to avoid sites that are just going to rip them off and find the sites that are reputable and doing honest business online. It is explained that this is not a “get rich quick” scheme but an honest attempt to explain realistically how to make money online.

It’s Free! – This is a very important feature of Paid Surveys Cash. Why? Because it once again shows that they are not scamming or tricking anyone into trying their product. It’s offered free to readers just as a way to help readers learn how to work surveys in order to make an extra income. While many sites are selling information as a way to make money off other’s ignorance, Paid Surveys Cash is not an attempt to make money from anyone – they offer it free as a service to help people learn how to make money rather than spend it.

Easy to Understand – Paid Surveys Cash is written in language that is easy to understand. It was purposefully crafted in such a way that allows an individual to sit and read it all at once. It’s a quick and easy read and is easily comprehended by even the casual learner.

Explains how easy it is to get Started – Readers will be surprised to find how easy it is to get started doing surveys even if they have never done surveys before. For those who have been scammed by some sites they will find out how easy it is to complete surveys for money when you find the legitimate sites.

How is the book organized?

Readers will find Paid Surveys Cash to be very organized and easy to follow. Each chapter presents concepts that are beneficial for those completing surveys for revenue. The sequencing is very effective so that one chapter’s topic leads into the next which makes the book easy to read, follow and understand. There are six chapters filled with essential information about how to make surveys work for you and then an extra bonus chapter. This bonus chapter is worth the time investment all by itself. After reading all of the tips and strategies for making an income filling out online surveys, the author reveals a list of the most popular, reputable survey sites available.

Every survey listed in the final chapter of this guidebook has already been tested and proven to be reputable and trustworthy. Anyone who has done any number of survey sites before will know how valuable this list is to their survey career. Having a treasured list such as this saves you so much more than just time. Not only do you not have to spend time searching through the vast number of survey sites, do a lot of research to see which ones are legit or not but you don’t have to worry about their validity because only the sites with the best reputation for paying out are included on this list.

The list of surveys can also save the reader lots of frustration. You will find throughout the book that many people quit too early on taking surveys due to simple frustration with finding which sites are going to really payout. Too many times, rookies start out trying to find sites that pay and end up getting cheated or scammed. This final chapter saves you all of that frustration and headache. The survey sites listed in this final chapter of the book are already proven to be reputable.

Who should read this book?

On one hand, the right answer to who should read this book is “everyone.” But that might not be true. Paid Surveys Cash is going to become invaluable to anyone who wants to earn money by taking surveys or joining panels online. For those who want a get rich quick scheme, they will have to go somewhere else less reputable. This book is an advanced guide that is designed for the honest person who is trying to earn some cash. It’s perfect for someone who is just getting started in the realm of online surveys and is designed to help you avoid all the pitfalls that so easily tripped many up when they are first starting out. But it is also beneficial for those who have been doing it for some time and want to hone their skills and work out a few kinks so that they can earn more money working online. So whether you are just getting started and want to learn the ropes, are very experienced, or anywhere in between this book is for you.

The information readers will find in this book is invaluable. It is especially beneficial for anyone who has either tried to make it with surveys but failed out of frustration; or someone who is struggling getting started just trying to figure out how to make them work. It can fill in all the gaps or tie up all the loose ends so that you can turn it around and start bringing in some cash for you and your family.

How this book helps you get Started

It can be disappointing when you start out doing surveys only to find out you are not making as much money as you thought you’d be making. Don’t get discouraged. Paid Surveys Cash takes readers through the step by step process of making a living by completing surveys online. If you do the survey sites right, you will start seeing a return on the time you invest. It is not all going to happen in a day, according to the guidebook, but it explains that it will pick up as you continue to follow the recommendations in this valuable guide.

One of the most beneficial aspects of this book is that it walks you through the process a little at a time. In each chapter readers are given a task to complete that will help them get started on the survey sites. These tasks are explained in detail and help you get your feet wet so to speak. Tasks are designed as a hands-on way to help you see how the sites work in real time. Each chapter finishes with a reputable site to sign up for. The reader is carefully guided through the sign up process and given specific tips on how to make the best decisions on that site. For instance, readers are told how to complete their profile so that they get surveys that will match their interests.

Importance of Key Tips

Readers will find that signing up for surveys alone is not going to be profitable. Each survey site has a different platform and you will need to learn how to navigate it. This advanced guidebook offers very important tips for the sites you sign up for in the daily tasks designed to get you started. Readers are then offered some specific information about that site that will help make it a more profitable experience. For instance, for one site your best bet might be to check your email frequently for alerts offering new surveys. Another site may require that users check in on the site daily to see if they have new surveys to complete. This guide is very good for helping you learn how to operate the sites effectively. The tasks give you valuable experience in setting up your profile and tips for ensuring your success on that particular site. This will make it all a lot easier once you start signing up for multiple sites, which is a recommendation of this book.

How important is Paid Surveys Cash to survey takers?

It won’t take long to realize that there simply isn’t any other comprehensive resource out there for those who wish to make money taking surveys. You might find a few tips listed here and there on sites around the internet. But until now there hasn’t been one single comprehensive guide that offers readers all the information they need to get started taking surveys and maintain an income through them. Plus, you won’t find a distinct listing of sites that are proven to be reputable. Most of those online just let you fumble around until you stumble on the “right” sites. This comprehensive guidebook is more than that. It covers just about anything you can imagine as it pertains to making an extra income by taking surveys.

Conclusion

Paid Surveys Cash is a top notch resource and is definitely worth the time and effort needed to complete the course. It’s a great hands-on tool to learn the basics about online surveys and since it is free the only investment is your time. The author understands the value of your time and therefore makes it short and to the point so that you can read it, do it and move on. There’s absolutely nothing else like this out there (especially not for free!). Once it is downloaded you will find yourself referring to it again and again. It’s a valuable resource you will not want to be without. After following the advice in Paid Surveys Cash you will be a pro at taking surveys in no time. Just follow the tips in this book and check out the list of trusted sites and you will be earning a monthly income just by completing surveys online.

The post Paid Surveys Cash Review appeared first on EliteSurveySites.

IRS scams are one of the fastest growing crimes in the United States, with hundreds of thousands of victims every year.

Basic steps can limit the risk of being caught out, but what should you do if you’ve already lost money or your IRS tax records have been compromised?

We’ll give you the answers in this week’s issue — together with a warning about credit card refunds.

However, before we begin, we first encourage you to take a look at this week’s most popular articles from our other sites:

Stop Periodontal Disease in Its Tracks with Omega-3: Read on for more info on the relationship between omega-3 and periodontal disease and to find out how much you need to include in your diet to get the full benefits.

What’s the Deal with Bulletproof Coffee? The trend of putting butter in coffee has been popularized lately so read on to find out whether it’s worth doing or not.

Surprising Chocolate Facts: If you want to be a real chocolate master, you have to know these chocolate facts.

Putting Together a Child Protection Plan: If you’ve got kids, a child protection plan is a must so be sure to check out these guidelines.

Let’s get started…

What to Do If You’re an IRS Scam Victim

IRS scams have become one of the fastest growing con tricks of the past couple of years.

The most common trick, which happens all year round, not just during the filing season, is an imposter scam in which the crook phones or texts victims pretending to be an IRS agent, often giving a fake IRS “badge number,” and demanding immediate payment of an unpaid bill.

Most recently, they’ve been emailing bogus IRS CP2000 Notices, saying the recipient has been audited and now faces a Final Demand for payment.

The crooks use threats of police arrest and jail to intimidate victims into paying up fast — usually by money transfer or prepaid debit cards.

Remarkably, the fraudsters have even tried scamming Canadian citizens in the misplaced belief that Canadians have to file tax returns with the IRS — that’s in addition to other scammers posing as officers of Canada Revenue Agency (CRA).

Today’s other big tax scam involves identity theft, in which crooks pose as individual taxpayers and file fraudulent refund claims.

This hits a peak in the early months of the year but victims often don’t find out about it until much later.

In total, tax scam complaints to the U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC) leapt twenty-five-fold — to 55,000 — last year, becoming the biggest single category of complaint.

The U.S. Treasury says more than 400,000 people filed IRS scam complaints in the past couple of years. And the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration (TIGTA) says 10,000 new scam calls are made every week.

Avoiding the Scams

So, what can you do to avoid these scams or put things right if you’re already a victim?

Avoiding the “pay-up” scam is simple.

The IRS does not use the phone or even email to notify people if they owe taxes — and it doesn’t request money-wire transfers or debit cards for payment.

Also it doesn’t threaten people with arrest or revocation of their driver’s license.

Furthermore, it doesn’t request payment of an outstanding bill without offering taxpayers the opportunity to appeal the bill.

So hang up on any callers who use these tactics, and ditch the threatening emails. If you’re worried the contact might be genuine or that you might owe money to the IRS, check with them on 1-800-829-1040.

Avoiding identity theft tax fraud is a more difficult matter.

Yes, you should protect confidential information like your Social Security number but there are so many instances these days of data theft from other sources, it’s impossible to be sure the crooks haven’t gotten their hands on your details.

The best you can do is to be alert to the risk.

What to do if you’re a victim

If the worst happens, here’s what you should do.

* If you’ve received threatening calls and paid a scammer, tell the police, the Federal Trade Commission and the TIGTA  (or phone 800-366 4484).

* If you receive a letter from the IRS saying two (or more) returns have been filed in your name or that your identity has been stolen, call the number in the letter.

But be sure the letter is genuine. You may have to give a reference number or some other identifying information but you won’t have to give your SSN — so don’t.

If you’re not sure if it’s genuine, call the number in the paragraph below.

* If you know or suspect you may be the victim of tax ID theft but haven’t received a letter, call the IRS Identity Protection Specialized Unit on 800-908-4490.

They’ll take details and tell you what to do next, which will probably involve downloading and completing an Identity Theft Affidavit.

That should be sufficient to straighten out your IRS record — it usually takes a couple of weeks — but since your identity details have obviously been stolen, don’t forget to take other precautions including checking with the credit reporting agencies.

For more on this, see this earlier Scambusters issue: What to Do if You Become the Victim of a Stolen Identity: A Scambusters Special Issue.

If you’re still concerned or you’re unhappy with the IRS response, or if you’re in financial trouble as a result of the scam, you can contact the Taxpayer Advocate Service, an independent unit within the IRS.

Your state should also have a Taxpayer Advocate who might be able to provide additional advice. Use this interactive map to find your local advocate.

The important thing to remember is that if you’re an IRS scam victim, repairing the damage is every bit as important as trying to recover the money you might have lost.

Alert of the Week

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) is warning Citibank customers about scammers who offer to help victims get a refund from the bank.

The con trick follows hard on the heel of news that the CFPB has ordered Citibank to refund $700 million to customers for what the Bureau calls deceptive credit card practices.

People entitled to a refund will get a check or credit directly to their account.

“Watch out for scammers claiming they will get you a refund,” the Bureau says.

“If someone tries to charge you, tries to get you to disclose your personal information, or asks you to cash a check and send a portion to a third party to claim your refund, it’s a scam.”

Time to conclude for today — have a great week!

The taste of honey won’t be sweet if it turns out you bought a scam product.

Even if you buy the genuine product from your local supermarket, it may not be as nutritious as you thought it was.

We explain the ins and out of honey scams and deceptive labeling in this week’s issue.

Before we begin, you may want to spend a moment looking at this week’s most popular articles from our other sites:

The Jury Duty Scam, and How to Avoid It: Let’s take a closer look at the jury duty scam and how to keep your credit card information safe.

Overcoming Popular Myths About Bullying, Part I: Watch out for these three myths about bullying in the first of an enlightening two-part article.

Fall Berry Growing for the Home Gardener: Find out about the advantages of berry growing in the fall – mostly for the dessert possibilities!

Healthy Snacks: Getting Nutrients Between Meals: Read on to find out if it is better to have 3 meals and no snacks, or 6 small meals a day?

Now, here we go…

The Not-So-Sweet Truth About Honey Scams

To many people, honey is a superfood with all manner of health-giving properties.

But to scammers, it’s a golden opportunity (literally!) to make money by selling fake products at inflated prices.

Not only that. Even legitimate products may not be all they seem, especially if you don’t read the label carefully.

Let’s take a look at that issue first.

Filtered Honey

Research from a couple of years back revealed that three quarters of honey sold at supermarkets and grocery stores has gone through a process called ultra-filtration.

The aim is to filter out impurities but, in the process, this type of filtration also removes pollen, which some people believe is a key ingredient of honey because of its antioxidant properties.

Sometimes, food experts believe the pollen is also being removed so the true sources of the honey cannot be identified.

Other important beneficial elements may also be removed during filtration.

Oftentimes, labels do not make clear that the honey has been filtered.

Chinese Imports

This is important because, as we reported in an earlier issue about food scams, Seafood Fraud: What’s Really On Your Dish?, cheap honey is being imported from China and then relabeled, rerouted via India or otherwise disguised in order to get around import restrictions.

Up to one third of the honey on sale in the U.S. may be from China, some of which is adulterated and often on sale at cut prices.

Indeed, some Chinese imports may be hazardous to your health, containing banned chemicals and antibiotics.

Other scams originating in China include the use of sugar water, corn syrup or other sweeteners, which are mixed in with real honey to “bulk out” the product.

Fake Manuka

One of the most sought after and costly types of honey is Manuka, which comes almost exclusively from the pollen and nectar of New Zealand’s Manuka trees.

It is said to have powerful anti-bacterial properties.

According to press reports, the islands’ Manuka industry produces around 3,000 tons of honey per year, yet annual sales are said to be around 9,000 tons!

That means that at least two-thirds of the Manuka honey on our shelves today is fake.

A one-pound jar of the genuine stuff sells for around $50 or more and fake products are not necessarily discounted — which means victims are paying quite a bit of money to be ripped off.

What to Do

The continuing flow of fake or impure honey from abroad demonstrates that existing government controls and restrictions are limited in their effectiveness.

And the limited disclosure of widespread filtering means consumers are not always getting what they think they’re getting.

So it’s up to individuals to do whatever they can to limit the risk of being caught out by a scam or deception.

Here are 7 things you should know or do:

1. Buy locally-produced honey if you can. Check your phonebook for honey producers or beekeepers, or use this state-by-state guide from the industry’s magazine, Bee Culture.

2. Read labels carefully. Beware of any products labeled as coming from China or India.

The label also likely won’t tell you if the honey has been filtered or strained.

It may even use words like “pure” or “organic” but if it doesn’t say “unfiltered,” assume it has been filtered.

Even then, read labels with a skeptical eye. There may be no way of knowing if it’s been swapped or if it’s just plain telling lies.

3. Recently, a certification program has been introduced to vouch for the source of honey.

It’s a voluntary program, operated by a private company called True Source Honey but still may be worth checking out.

4. You’re also more likely to find unfiltered, quality honey at farmers’ markets, whole food stores, and food co-ops.

5. The ingredients label should only name “honey.” If it lists syrups or additives of any sort, then it’s not pure honey.

6. If you’re buying Manuka, it has a distinctively different taste — so if yours doesn’t it’s probably not the real thing.

Note also that Manuka uses a grading system according to its antibacterial properties, with 2 UMF being the lowest and 20 UMF the best.

Sadly, you have no way of knowing if the grading is accurate (without getting it tested in a lab) — so buy from a reputable source that you trust.

Buying from online auction sites may be particularly risky. eBay has a Manuka scam page that’s worth checking.

7. Finally, of course, use the tried and tested rule about bargain prices. If a jar of honey is offered at way below what it should be, then it may well not be the real thing.

Alert of the Week

Are you planning to upgrade to Windows 10, launched in July/August?

If so, watch out. Microsoft opted for an unusual way of upgrading this time, by notifying users via their PC that their upgrade was ready to install.

Scammers have been mimicking these notifications via emails but if you click on a false notification, your PC will be encrypted with ransomware that you’ll have to pay to unlock.

Don’t click on links in these emails. Either upgrade directly via Microsoft’s website or wait for your PC to notify you that it’s ready. Microsoft is not using emails to upgrade.

That’s it for today — we hope you enjoy your week!

Sign up for a free sample of SunButter On The Go.

Thanks, The Freebie Blogger!

Through October 25, 2015, you can get 40% off the price of any Large Pizza Order from Papa John’s with coupon code BIBP40 at checkout. This code can only be used for online orders.

Thanks, Freebie Finding Mom!

Seeds Family worship is offering a free mp3 download of their Seeds of Courage mp3 album.

WinsteadWandering.com shows you how to make homemade buttermilk ranch dressing.

Do you have a fun and frugal DIY idea to share? I’d love to hear about it! Read the submission guidelines and submit it here.

Download free Hello Kitty Chore Charts when you sign up for the Life of a Homeschool Mom email newsletter.

NOTE: The price of these ebooks is currently $0.00, but that could change at any time. Be sure to verify before checking out that it is still free.

Unless otherwise noted, these ebooks are specifically for Kindles, but you can go here to download a free application that enables you to read Kindle ebooks on your PC.

Download a free copy of Flying With Kids: A Parent’s Guide.

Download a free copy of Journal and Doodle through the Bible (sign up for newsletter).

Download a free copy of The Smart First-Time Home Buyer’s Guide.

Download a free copy of How to Plan a Wedding on a Budget.

Download a free copy of The Ideal Pantry.

Download a free copy of 25 Easy Breakfast Recipes and Ideas.

Download a free copy of Crock Pot: 3-Ingredients Recipes.

Download a free copy of Homemade Laundry Soap & Supplies.

Download a free copy of Clutter-Free With Kids.

Download a free copy of A Travelogue of the Interior.

Download a free copy of She Is Mine.

Here are some of the best deals at Target this week, with thanks to Marcy from Stretching a Buck for her help in compiling them:

Annie’s Fruit Snacks, 5 pk – $2.50 each
Use $0.75/1 printable
$1.75 each after coupon

Chobani Greek Yogurt, 5.3 oz – $0.89 each
Submit $0.75/2 Ibotta Rebate
$0.52 each after rebate

Sabra Hummus, 10 oz – $2.50 each
Use $1/1 coupon from the 6/28 SmartSource insert
$1.50 each after coupon

Head & Shoulders Shampoo or Conditioner, 13.5 – 14.2 oz – $4.99 each
Get a $5 Target Gift Card wyb 4
Use $4/2 coupon from the 9/27 P&G insert
$1.74 each after coupon

Iams Dog Food, Mini Chunks, 15 lb – $16.99 each
Get a $5 Target Gift Card wyb 2
Use 10% OFF Target coupon
Use $5/1 printable
Use $3/1 coupon from the 9/13 RedPlum insert
Stack with 20% OFF Target coupon from the 9/13 RedPlum insert
$6.09 each after coupons and with gift card

See the full list of deals at Target this week here.

Did you find a great deal at Target? Just post about it on your blog and leave your link below. To make it easy for everyone to navigate quickly through the links, your link must link directly to your Target deals post. Links going to the homepage of your blog or any other part of your blog besides the direct link to your Target deals post will be deleted.

Here are some new printable coupons that are available today:

$10.00 off two Valvoline MaxLife Motor Oil
Buy 2 Gerber 3rd Foods Lil’ Bits, Get 1 Free
$2.00 off (1) Enfamil Gentlease product
$3.00 off (2) Enfamil Gentlease products
$2.00 off (1) Enfamil ProSobee product
$1.00 off ONE DG Baby Diapers mega bags
$3.00 off (2) Enfamil ProSobee products
$1.00 off DG Home Paper Towels 12 pack
$5.00 off (2) Persil Power-Pearls Detergent
$1.00 off DG Home Soft Bath Tissue 9 roll pack
$4.00 off ONE Schick Hydro Silk Refill
$3.00 off any 1 Schick Hydro Silk TrimStyle Razor
$2.00 off any ONE (1) Schick Hydro Silk Razor
$1.00 off any DG Health Protective Underwear

Download a free artist study bundle that contains printable fine art pages featuring 18 different famous artists.

This freebie is only valid through the end of today, September 30, 2015.

Thanks, Enrichment Studies!

Here are some of this week’s best grocery & household deals from Amazon.com, courtesy of Terry and Mandi from Jungle Deals & Steals. Many of these prices are higher than what you’d pay by combining coupons with sales, but they may be good deals for you if you live where there aren’t many stores or deals are scarce:

Baby Food & Formula

• Gerber: Here’s a HOT DEAL. Get 1-ounce pouches of Gerber Graduates Yogurt Melts for for as low as $1.61 each when you combine the available coupon with Subscribe & Save.

Diapers/Wipes

• Diapers
  • Pampers: Amazon Prime Members can get Pampers Swaddlers Sensitive Diapers Size N for as low as $0.22/diaper ($17.95 for the 80-count) when you purchase through Subscribe & Save with Amazon Mom & Amazon Prime
  • Huggies: You can still get Huggies Snug and Dry Diapers for as low as $0.11/diaper ($30.60 for the 276-count of size 1) when you purchase through Subscribe & Save with Amazon Mom & Amazon Prime.
• Desitin: Get a HOT DEAL on a 16-ounce jar of Desitin Diaper Rash Cream Rapid Relief – now as low as $7.42 when you combine the available coupon with Subscribe & Save.

Health & Beauty

• Alba Botanica: Pick up this HOT DEAL. Get Alba Botanica Unscented Very Emollient Body Lotion for as low as $7.41 for the 32-ounce bottle when you purchase through Subscribe & Save.
• Tom’s of Maine: Stock up on Tom’s of Maine Anticavity Fluoride Children’s Toothpaste with this great deal – as low as $2.25/tube ($6.76 for the pack of 3) when you purchase through Subscribe & Save.

Household

• Granite Gold: I use Granite Gold Daily Cleaner and love it. Right now you can get a 24-ounce bottle for just $4.47 – that’s a great deal and the lowest price to-date.
• Scrubbing Bubbles: 22-ounce cans of Scrubbing Bubbles Fresh Scent are available for $2.79 each ($8.37 for the pack of 3) – that’s the lowest price to-date.
• Clorox: Get a HOT DEAL right now on 32-count canisters of Clorox Glass Wipes – as low as $1.75 each $5.26 for the count of 3) when you combine the available coupon with Subscribe & Save.

Pet Care

•  Purina: Stock up now. There’s a HOT DEAL available on 3-ounce cans of Purina Pro Plan Wet Cat Food – as low as $0.44 each ($10.66 for the 24-count).

Snacks

• Kellogg’s: There’s a HOT DEAL right now on Special K Brownie Blondie Bites. Because of the 25% off coupon, you can pick up the 6-count boxes for as low as as $1.67 when you combine that coupon with Subscribe & Save.

Terry & Mandi are a busy mother-daughter team that look for ways to save money without sacrificing a lot of time, and they share their love for all things Amazon.com at Jungle Deals & Steals.

Top Cash Back is offering an $9.90 rebate on a jumbo pack of Pampers Baby Dry Diapers purchased from Walmart, making them free! This is for new Top Cash Back members only. If you are already member, you are allowed to sign up another adult in your household.

Here’s how to get your free diapers:

1. Sign up for a new Top Cash Back account here.

2. Head here for the special Pampers Baby Dry Diapers offer.

3. Order a jumbo pack of Pampers Baby Dry Diapers priced at $8.97. Select free in-store pickup at your local Walmart. Very important note: Do not order anything else. Only order the package of Pampers diapers or the deal will not be valid. 

4. Within 7-14 days of picking up your diapers from Walmart, your Top Cash Back account will be credited with $9.90 — enough to cover the diapers plus any applicable tax.

5. After you receive the $9.90 payment in your Top Cash Back account, you can choose to transfer it to your bank account or request a Paypal payment.

This offer is only valid through October 5, 2015 — or while supplies last.

Target is making some big changes to their price matching policy starting tomorrow, October 1, 2015.

In addition to price matching all of their store competitors, they will now also be price matching 29 different online competitor prices! That means you’ll be able to price match Amazon.com prices at Target both in-stores and online.

You can read this article for more info on Target’s new price matching policy.

Thanks, Freebies For A Cause!

Toys R Us is having a free LEGO Bricktober Build Event on Saturday, October 17, 2015. Children ages 5 and up can build a LEGO City Kayak at their local Toys R Us store from 12 to 2 pm.

This is on a first come first serve basis, so I’d recommend getting there early.

Thanks, For The Mommas!

You can grab Starbucks Iced Coffee for $0.50 at CVS this week:

Buy 1 Starbucks Iced Coffee at $1.50
Use $1/1 printable
$0.50 after coupon

Thanks, For The Mommas!

You can get a really nice deal on Kellogg’s Nutri-Grain Breakfast Biscuits at Target right now:

Buy 1 Kellogg’s Nutri-Grain Breakfast Biscuits at $2.65
Use 50% Off Target Cartwheel Coupon
Stack with $1/1 coupon from the 9/13 RedPlum insert
$0.32 after coupons

Thanks, For The Mommas!

Amazon has a few pairs of New Balance Kids Shoes on sale today, with three different colors to choose from.

Get the New Balance Classic Toddler Sneakers for just $13.66, regularly $44.95. Available in toddler sizes 4 through 10.

You can also get these New Balance Classic Little Kid Sneakers for just $15.64, regularly $54.95. Available in little kid sizes 11.5 through 3.

They even have New Balance Classic Infant Sneakers for just $14.21, regularly $44.95. Available in infant sizes 2 or 3.

This deal is valid today only, September 30, 2015. Limited quantities are available, so it’s best to shop as early as possible.

Thanks, My Frugal Adventures!

NOTE: The price of these ebooks is currently $0.00, but that could change at any time. Be sure to verify before checking out that it is still free.

Unless otherwise noted, these ebooks are specifically for Kindles, but you can go here to download a free application that enables you to read Kindle ebooks on your PC.

Download a free copy of Ultimate Garage Sales.

Download a free copy of DIY Household Hacks.

Download a free copy of The Art of HomeMaking.

Download a free copy of Get Organized.

Download a free copy of Natural Beauty Made Easy.

Download a free copy of Daughter of Joy.

Download a free copy of In His Steps.

ToWorkWithMyHands.com shows you how to make your own Christmas gift bags.

Do you have a fun and frugal DIY idea to share? I’d love to hear about it! Read the submission guidelines and submit it here.

More than half of all Americans use online banking — but all of us are at risk of theft of our confidential account information.

Now the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) has issued a set of basic guidelines on how to ensure crooks don’t get their hands on your bank cash.

We have their checklist for you this week, along with a phishing warning for customers of one of the big cellular phone networks.

As always, we also recommend you check out the most popular articles from our other sites during the past week:

Cranberry Treats: Think Tangy For Fall! Try these delicious berry treats this week to see which is your favorite.

Save Energy the Smart Way — Don’t Fall for These Myths: Check out these myths about energy consumption before you start on your energy-saving campaign.

What is an Optimal Breakfast? Great info if you want to focus on how to build the best breakfast that you can, given your circumstances.

Capsaicin for Controlling Hypertension: Can Peppers Lower Your Blood Pressure? Some researchers now believe we can use something called capsaicin for controlling hypertension — adding to a growing list of natural medicines that may help offset high blood pressure and its effects.

Let’s get started…

7 Tips for Safer Online Banking and Account Security

It’s fast, it’s incredibly convenient but is online banking safe?

As usual, it depends. That is, it depends on you and how you safeguard your privacy.

Considerably more than half of all Americans use their PCs, Macs, and mobile devices to transact business with their banks.

But, as we all know, we’re not the only ones who want to use our bank accounts. Hackers and scammers will also use them if they can only get their hands on our account details.

And even if you don’t bank online, the information you store on your computer or mobile device can still open the door to the fraudsters.

Mostly, we tend to think of credit card fraud as being the main target for financial fraudsters but non-card fraud costs financial institutions and their customers more than $5 billion a year.

As the financial website bankrate.com recently put it: “If it’s got money in it, someone is trying to steal it.”

That’s a good way of thinking about your bank account, whether you handle it online or not.

Now, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) has issued a list of computer security tips for bank customers.

The FDIC, which we mostly think of as the organization that insures our deposit accounts against bank failure, says: “While federally insured financial institutions are required to have vigorous information security programs to safeguard financial data, consumers also need to know how to protect and maintain their computer systems so they can steer clear of fraudsters.”

In fact, just a handful of basic computer/mobile security practices will go a long way towards keeping your account out of harm’s reach.

Here are 7 key actions built around the FDIC’s own checklist:

1. Protect your computer with security software including anti-virus and a firewall. These days, security software is built into most computer operating systems like Windows but not smartphones — and some smartphones and tablets (i.e. Android devices) are more vulnerable than others (i.e. iPhones and iPads). Invest some time in researching which is the best security software — free or paid for — for your device(s).

2. Safeguard your mobile device, especially when using it for banking or shopping. Use apps that come from official device stores, cellular providers or the official site of your bank.

Keep security and banking software up to date and don’t leave your device unattended.

“In case your device does get lost or stolen, use a password or other security feature to restrict access,” says the FDIC.

“You should enable the time-out or auto-lock feature on your mobile device to secure it when it’s not used for a period of time.”

3. Get to know and understand your Internet safety features according to the sites you use. Does your bank and other sites where you use sensitive information scramble or encrypt data when it moves between your device and the website? Do you see the padlock icon and “https” that indicate secure access in your browser address bar?

4. Be careful about where and how you connect to the Internet. Public or other computers that aren’t yours may not have up-to-date security. And don’t use public Wi-Fi for banking and other secure transactions in case someone is “watching” or recording your activity.

5. Be extremely wary about clicking on links or attachments in unsolicited emails, even from people you know (whose own devices may have been compromised). They could download malware that steals your banking information.

“Your best bet is to ignore any unsolicited request for immediate action or personal information, no matter how genuine it looks,” says Michael Benardo, Manager of the FDIC’s Cyber Fraud and Financial Crimes Section.

“If you decide to validate the request by contacting the party that it is supposedly from, use a phone number or email address that you have used before or otherwise know to be correct. Don’t rely on the one provided in the email.”

6. Use strong IDs and passwords and keep them secret. We’ve written on this subject so many times. For example:

Creating Computer Passwords

10 Keys to Password Security

Yet, despite all the advice from us and many others, people still use easy-to-guess passwords, fail to update them or use the same password on multiple sites — all highly dangerous behaviors.

7. Play it safe on social networking sites. Crooks scour sites like Facebook and Twitter for innocently-provided information like birth dates, addresses, and pets’ names (often misguidedly used as passwords).

People you don’t know, or imposters posing as someone you do know, may try to “friend” you and eventually persuade you to hand over confidential information or even money.

The FDIC has also produced an online video on how to guard against Internet thieves and electronic scams: Don’t Be an On-line Victim: How to Guard Against Internet Thieves and Electronic Scams.

And, of course, there are many other useful sources of information about online banking security.

Don’t forget though, that new hack attacks and banking fraud schemes are happening all the time. Make sure you read Scambusters to stay up-to-date.

Alert of the Week

Watch out, T-Mobile phone subscribers, for a text offering a $20 discount on your next bill.

The message, which appears to come from the cellular provider, has a link that leads to a bogus sign-on page that will steal your credentials — and you won’t get that $20 discount.

If you’re a T-Mobile customer, log on independently to your own “My T-Mobile” page for details of any genuine offers.

That’s all for today — we’ll see you next week.

Guest post from Carly of Happy The Home

Like me, I’m sure many of you would love a $1,000 shopping spree to your favorite clothing store. Truth be told, some of us would be happy to spend $50 or $100! But for most of us, we can’t spend a lot of money on a whole new wardrobe at the drop of a hat.

A few months ago, I began trying to simplify things in my life and home in an effort to spend more time doing things that are important to me. I wanted more time for Bible study, so I get up earlier. I wanted less laundry, so I minimized my kid’s clothes. Now it was my closet’s turn. But OH MY! It was not going to be easy.

I looked for ideas and found good blogs and articles for help with what to keep and what to get rid of. The What I Wore blog, and How to Build a Capsule Wardrobe were very helpful. Additionally, I texted my sister for her advice, as she always looks cute and we tend to like the same things! I also made some rules of my own.

My 6 “Rules” for a Minimalist Wardrobe

1. I won’t keep something if it’s uncomfortable or doesn’t fit me well.

2. I won’t buy anything new (at least not for a while).

3. I won’t feel bad keeping some of my favorite t shirts and gym clothes, but I will sort through them.

4. I won’t consider any “dry clean only” items except coats.

5. I won’t hang on to gifted clothing simply due to nostalgia.

6. I won’t keep anything because it “might fit if I lost a few pounds”.

With those rules in mind I also looked through my clothes by pulling EVERYTHING out of my closet and dresser. I decided to keep the following:

• 6 pants
• 8 blouses
• 8 sweaters/cardigans
• 4 skirts
• 4 dresses
• 3 vests
• 5 scarves
• 4 pair of shoes
• 2 belts
• 2 tights

I don’t think there’s a magic number to how many items of clothing one should have… and the pictures I took are merely to show how many things you can create with a few of these items.

What you see in the pictures are: 3 pants + 5 shirts + 2 jackets + 1 dress + 1 scarf + 3 pair of shoes

By no means have I exhausted the possibilities, but it’s exciting to think that I can do more with less. I want to simplify to make things easier and I don’t want my life to be characterized by “excess” and “disorganization”.

You might decide to keep way less than I did. But this is a start for me. Hope you enjoy watching a fashionably-impaired person enjoy a day of dress up!

Carly is a stay-at-home mother to four boys. She blogs at Happy The Home about faith, family, homemaking and all that lies between!

Kathrynne woke up yesterday morning and said, “I can’t believe we’re flying to South Africa today!”

I couldn’t believe it either!

I was a mixed ball of excitement and sadness and nerves. I was so excited that I get to go back to South Africa — I’ve been so ready to go back ever since I left! And I’m thrilled beyond words that I get to bring my family with me this time!

However, I feel sad because Joy and Lisa-Jo aren’t going this time. I will miss those girls so much. But I’m super, super happy that my other manager and good friend, Brian, is coming this time.

And there’s some anxiousness that I feel, too. Mostly about how my kids are going to do on the flights and with the time change and with all of the newness all at once.

I usually am fairly minimalist when packing. I mean, I’m the girl who can pack for 8 days in a carry-on.

But taking my family halfway around the world and being gone for 8 days made me set aside my minimalistic packing skills and go more for the Have Options & Prepare Well mode.

Because there’s nothing like (2) 15+-hour-long flights with 3 kids to make you want to make sure you have options!

Everyone got a backpack for the flights + a suitcase that we checked. Mom got the last say in what they brought (“Yes, you must bring an extra change of clothes in your backpack. Trust me, a LOT of accidents can happen in 15 hours!”)

Oh and you can see the final stack of books I opted to bring here.

South Africa may not be ready for us, but we’re coming for you… right before boarding our flight.

The best part of our flight to South Africa? They gave us Milano cookies (my very favorite)!

The worst part? The kids only slept a few hours and they DIDN’T have wifi (despite the fact that they advertised that they did and I’d kind of banked on it to get a few projects done!)

Oh well! I got to sleep (thanks, Dramamine!) and read a book and it was nice… Aside from some bad attitudes coming from the 10 and under crowd.

I have decided that if you want a good test of your inner character, take 3 kids on a 15-hour flight. I had quite a few prayers going up for extra patience during that last hour when it felt like we were on the verge of imploding.

15+ hours later… tired, but oh so thrilled to be here in South Africa!! Our kids were especially excited to have their very first stamp in their brand-new passports!

(Oh and it was amazing how the kids could barely seem to keep their eyes open and had all sorts of bad attitude going on the last hour of the flight, but as soon as we got off the plane, they were fired up and ready to go again!! They just finally all crashed and fell asleep 30 minutes ago and we’re hoping they stay asleep for a good, long time!)

We spent the evening with Lisa-Jo’s parents — eating, talking, laughing, and playing Bean Boozled. Tomorrow, we’re headed out to one of the communities where Take Action is ministering at. I’m so excited to get to go back and see the progress that has been made since I last visited!

We got our very own South African scarves, courtesy of Lisa-Jo Baker’s parents — who are so graciously hosting us right now.

Isn’t my scarf absolutely the perfect color?? I love it!!

Also, I’m grateful to be sharing this South Africa trip with these two guys (my wonderful husband, Jesse, and my business manager, Brian), both who gave up a whole week of their lives and flew halfway around the world because they believe so passionately in what God has called us to be a part of here in South Africa!

What You Can Expect Here While I’m Gone

In case you are wondering, my wonderful assistant, Meg, will be sharing great deals here, answering comments, and posting on Facebook. I’ve been training her to take over for me this week and she’s already been doing an AMAZING job!

If you want to follow along with our trip adventures, be sure follow me on Instagram. I’ll likely be posting there most consistently.

I also discovered tonight that the wi-fi may, indeed, be strong enough for me to do a quick video on Periscope each day. You can watch tonight’s video here. And then download the Periscope app and search for MoneySavingMom to follow the rest of my scopes this week.

I also plan to blog at least every day or every other day to get you a peek into what we’re doing and learning and trying. No promises, but I’m hopeful I’ll have a chance to check in and post at least a few times while we’re here.

Thank you so much for your prayers, your encouragement, and your excitement about this trip. It’s truly a dream come true to be here with my family!