May 30, 2009 Mommy Discovers QuickRewards

I signed up for QuickRewards in late January or early February. So far, I've been paid $12.64 with an ability to earn much more available. QuickRewards is a sort of potluck site. By this I mean they have more than one method of earning money available. QuickRewards has a survey section, a paid to click section, a paid to sign up section, cash back shopping, a few games, a daily trivia question and sends out paid to click emails. I don't do half of what is available. I answer the trivia question, click on the emails and do the clicks section of the site.

There are only three penny clicks (which can be found on the home page), but unlike most paid to click sites, QuickRewards does not require you to wait for a timer to count down before clicking the next ad. So, even though you receive less than a cent for a click, you can click on several ads in the same amount of time other sites would have you staring at one ad.

If I had more time, I enjoy completing surveys. The unfortunate thing about survey sites is that you can spend a lot of time and not qualify for the survey. If you don't qualify, you don't get paid. What I've been told by several sites, and it seems to be true, is that moms are more likely to qualify for surveys because our opinions are considered highly valuable. I just don't have time right now. If you do have time, though, I would recommend QuickRewards as a possible survey portal. From what I've seen, they offer generally fair pay for completing surveys. QuickRewards also has a bonus for people who complete a lot of surveys: the ability to convert tokens earned on the site to gift cards.

I especially appreciate that there is no minimum payout level on this site. I've started requesting payment towards the end of the month, regardless of the amount, and have never had to wait more than 24 hours for the money to hit my PayPal account. Definitely a site I like.

~Beth~
mommyclixtoo.t35.com
yourfreewebsitesystem.com

May 29, 2009 Mommy Rejects GetPaidToTry.com

GetPaidToTry claims to pay members for trying offers through their site. Like most sites that pay for offers and signups, some of the offers are absolutely free and pay pennies while other offers have you sign up for trials which will charge your credit card if not cancelled in time, but pay significantly more. Supposedly they pay out at $20. I don't know. I never reached pay out level because some offers never credited to my account and customer service was less than helpful.

One of the offers that I tried was for Video Professor. I received three lessons on HTML and only had to pay the shipping and handling. At the end of the trial, I canceled and returned one of the discs as per the agreement of the trial. GetPaidToTry agreed to pay me more than $30 for trying Video Professor. Not only should this offer have guaranteed I reached the payout level on the site, I would have pocketed $20 after paying for shipping the lessons both ways. The offer was never credited to my account.

Of course, I contacted customer service. A few days later, I received a response asking for the proof that I had completed the offer with no return email address. I had to submit a second ticket to customer support. A week later, I was finally emailed again and was able to send the info requested. I never heard from them again. I tried contacting the customer service representative that had replied the first two times, but didn't get so much as a form letter. I stopped doing offers while waiting for a reply because I had actually spent money on the offer and I wasn't going to do that again if I wasn't going to get paid. I kept receiving their offer emails. I just didn't complete any of them. A week ago I decided to click on one of the ads only to find out that I can't even log into the website because they have moved my membership to inactive status. That's how long it's been since they responded to any of my emails. I can't even log in, but they are still sending me regular junk mail. So now I've unsubscribed from the emails at least. But honestly, I wouldn't do any more offers with them even if I could. There are a million and one other sites that pay for completing the same offers as are on this site and some of those other sites actually have a working customer service department. I'll use one of those.

~Beth~
mommyclixtoo.t35.com
yourfreewebsitesystem.com

May 21, 2009 Mommy Updates Her My Online Income System Progress

Just wanted to update everyone on my progress through My Online Income System. I've reached day eighteen of the sixty day course. Since I pretty much got nothing done yesterday, it means I've made it through seventeen lessons in three days and will go back to studying after I finish writing. I do have to say I've done a lot of reading, but there is a benefit to ebooks over paper print books: they aren't as long as their page numbers would make you think. Ebooks are written in larger font and with a lot more white space. Getting through them is a breeze. I've read four so far this week (and done my PTC sites and skimmed through my email and worked on this blog). I'm still not to the point of earning money, but I'm not to the point of doing any advertising either. As far as going through the course is concerned, I'm still in the learning phase and there's no point putting a lot of effort into doing what I don't know how to do and then getting poor results. So, I'm trying really hard to be patient. The only advertising the course recommends at this point is emailing friends and family about the program in an effort to get the money you invested back out, but I'm not willing to do that until I start making some decent money. (I'd hate to recommend everyone I know join and then turn around and return the program. I'd look a little foolish.) I still don't think it's a scam. Like I said before, I searched all over and couldn't find a negative word about My Online Income System or its creator Kimberly Hoffman. And the course is everything it was advertised to be: step-by-step instructions for getting started and being successful as an affiliate marketer. Assuming I have anybody who actually reads this blog, I'm sure you're still waiting to see how it all turns out for me. Still fine with me. I don't blame you. I would probably be doing the same if I were you. My referer showed me results before I got inspired to look around and then signup. But if the money back guarantee (and remember, it's an online course so you won't even be out shipping) is enough of a cushion to let you explore a little for yourself, here's the link again. Good luck!

~Beth~
mommyclixtoo.t35.com
yourfreewebsitesystem.com

May 20, 2009 Mommy Discovers Yuwie

So I have to admit I didn't think I would be writing a discovery blog tonight, but then I ran across Yuwie while I was doing the usual stuff. Yuwie is a social networking site. I'm not sure what to compare it to. It's different than MySpace or Facebook. The concept is ad revenue sharing. Update your profile. Do some looking around. Invite your friends to join. When Yuwie divides up the earnings for the month, you get rewarded for your activity. Obviously I have no way of knowing how well this will pay, but it's one of those "it can't hurt anything" sites. Cashout is at $5 to either Paypal or Alertpay.

Yuwie does have one downside: the advertising. In an effort to generate even more revenue, Yuwie is plastered with banners everywhere. There are even some parts of the site that put up a full page ad before you get to the page you clicked on. It's to the point of being annoying. Recognizing this problem, Yuwie is beta testing the option to complete surveys and offers in exchange for a number of days without advertising. I tried completing the initial survey to get rid of the advertising, but nothing happened yet. So we'll see. It is in beta.

~Beth~
mommyclixtoo.t35.com
yourfreewebsitesystem.com

May 19, 2009 Mommy Discovers My Online Income System

MOIS: My Online Income System. After scouring the internet to find out if this program was a scam, I finally decided to give it a try myself. Honestly, I couldn't find a negative word about it. I sent my husband searching and he couldn't find a negative word about it. I tried searching with the word scam and still couldn't find anyone who called it a scam. I went to sites that have consistently called other programs scams or said they were overstating their benefits and still nothing. So, yesterday morning, I signed up and started going through the materials. The major benefit of this program is the "Action Plan". By that I mean it has step by step instructions for you to follow each day for 60 days to make sure you get it right. If you follow these instructions, the author, Kimberley Hoffman, guarantees you will make money. If you don't, or if you just decide you don't feel like doing the work, you can get a full refund any time within those 60 days. It's a pretty sweet deal. I personally like that the program does not pretend it won't be any work or that you will be making tons of money over night. It does promise to teach you everything you will need to know in order to do online affiliate marketing. Since the sixty lessons are intended for people who only have a few hours each day (like moms with crazy busy schedules), it is actually possible to get through more than one lesson a day. I spent the afternoon with my MIL and had the tv on all evening and still managed to get through the first four lessons yesterday. Am I making money yet? No, but I promise to post it here as soon as I do. All I've done so far is read a short book and signup on a few websites. I'm really hoping that this will be the program that pays for my internet and much more. I've been good about avoiding paying for programs up until now, but I think this one is legitimate and the worst that will happen is that I return it having wasted my time. Since Hoffman is teaching how to get started without spending any money (other than buying her instructions), there is no risk to trying. Personally, I think you might as well try it yourself, but if you want to wait until I see results, that's fine too. Of course, if that's the case, I'm going to have to get back to work.

~Beth~
mommyclixtoo.t35.com
yourfreewebsitesystem.com

May 18, 2009 Mommy Discovers YouData

So it's been a while, but I found another program worth looking into. It's still in it's initial phases so the earning is limited, but I signed up Thursday and was paid on Friday, so here it is. The site is called YouData. While I will list it on the PTC page when I update my website, it really isn't a paid to click. It's direct consumer marketing that happens to give consumers a small cash incentive.

Think about how normal online advertising works: A company wants to put some ads out there for you, the consumer to see. They go to an advertising company for this service. The advertising company sells them advertising space, often in some sort of package, where the company either pays for guaranteed impressions (the ad appears on a page so people can see it) or for guaranteed click throughs (customers click on the ad for more information). More expensive advertising companies try to match the ads to what they believe will be the target audience (e.g. They believe Site A attracts single women and Site B attracts stay-at-home moms. Based on this belief, they are more likely to place an ad for dating services on Site A because it will probably be viewed by a more receptive audience.) Regardless of targeting, the advertising company gets paid for showing you the ads and makes even more if you interact with the ads. On a paid to click site, the advertising company pays you part of what they are paid to guarantee you will interact with the ad and view the site for a minimum duration, but will pay you nothing for just reading the ad. These companies can guarantee a specific number of click throughs to their clients, but cannot guarantee the audience. The average consumer is often not interested at all in the product advertised and will click through multiple times before the sold quota is met, resulting in much of the advertising money being wasted on the same uninterested consumer. As I said, YouData is not a PTC.

On YouData, you will complete a profile with several mini surveys (usually less than ten questions). The more information you give, the more likely you are to fit into a target group. It takes ten to fifteen minutes to complete all the questions. You are making a MeFile. The MeFile does not contain information like your name and address. YouData does collect your email and cell number so they can verify you're a real person, but this information does not go into your MeFile. The purpose of the MeFile is for companies to be able to choose their criteria for members of their target audience. If your file matches the criteria, you will be given the opportunity to view their ad. Instead of paying an advertising company to show you the ad, you will be credited $0.05 for each banner impression you view, up to five at one time. If you are further interested after reading the actual ad, you will be paid the stated price for going to the advertisers website (I have received anywhere from $0.09 to $0.16 for interacting with the advertisement).

Now, I'm sure there are two thoughts going through your head right now. First, how can they pay so much? It must be a scam. Well, it's not a scam. By eliminating the advertising company and going directly to consumers from a very exact target audience, companies can afford to pay the consumer a significantly higher incentive than they are usually offered while still paying less than they might pay a decent advertising company for the same quality of results. Second, how is this any different than PTC? Aren't you just going to the site because they pay you? You might think this would be the case, but because of your MeFile, you are much more likely to be interested in the ads you see. You wouldn't be shown the ad if they didn't think that you specifically would be interested in their product. My husband can attest that I was shown twenty ads last Thursday, was actually interested in all twenty ads and had to refrain from spending money at eighteen of the websites. (If only I was made of money.) Talk about good advertising. When was the last time you wanted to buy something from every company that placed an ad during your favorite TV show or on a Facebook page? There is also no requirement for viewing duration to be paid. The company is really counting on you to navigate their site because you're interested and will only pay you once to visit their site. After that, well, I hope you remembered to bookmark it (because you'll probably wish you had), although I did find links to the sites I clicked through on the history page.

Now let's talk payout. As I've said, you will receive $0.05 for allowing them to make an impression on you. After that, I've seen from $0.09 to $0.16 for a click through. I have no way of knowing how common these price ranges are because I just started out. Because I am in one of the two main target groups for this still expanding site (I'm a mommy, the other one is people from Texas), had twenty ads the first time I looked for a total of $3.40. I easily spent an hour looking at these ads because many of them were for companies I had never heard of and I had never been to any of their sites. I basically went window shopping at a mall built just for me and am still debating a dress on one of the sites. I didn't have any new ads to look at until this afternoon when I made $0.20. YouData will pay you (by PayPal) every Friday, regardless of how much you made that week. There is no minimum amount to cash out and no requirement to request a payment. While payouts start Friday afternoon, they do warn that your actual payment may not arrive until sometime over the weekend depending on a handful of factors. They also take out any fees they incur associated with PayPal. It looks to be about 2%. So on Thursday I earned $3.40 and on Friday I received $3.33 into my PayPal account as well as finding several new shopping sites I may go back to when I earn more money. Unless I qualify for more ads during the week, I will receive $0.19 this Friday. I personally am really loving the fast and consistent payout schedule. As they attract more companies, I expect to see the frequency of ads increase.

So, I would say to give it a shot. There's no financial cost to join YouData and the worst that could happen is you decide to buy something from one of those really well-targeted ads. I was really impressed that I actually made $3 and have already been paid. There are sites I've been working on for months and have still not reached those kind of earnings (or their payout level). This one seems to be worth the effort.

~Beth~
mommyclixtoo.t35.com

May 15, 2009 Mommy Tries Blogger

So, I've decided to give Blogger a try. As much as I'm learning making my own website, manually archiving posts is becoming boring and uneventful. For now, I'll keep copying posts to the website and manually archiving, but I'm hoping to figure out how all this works and link the two together. If I can do that, my archiving days will be over.

For those of you reading this post on Blogger, my website is http://mommyclixtoo.t35.com/. It's only been up for about a week and it's still a very rudamentary work in progress, but I'm learning. I've copied the posts from the last week into Blogger so that I can eventually delete the archive off my site, although it will probably be a while. Feel free to take a look at my site. I'm working on posting different money making strategies that I've tried and what companies I trust in those different categories.

~Beth~
mommyclixtoo.t35.com

May 14, 2009 Mommy Discovers eHow

Another great online writing site is eHow. The whole site is based on being the online database of how to do everything. If you know how to do something, you can write an article on it. When you look through the site, you'll notice that all the articles are in step-by-step format. When you write an article on eHow, you just type it into a numbered template. You can add pictures, tips, supply lists and pretty much anything else you could possibly need to help people follow your instructions. Payment on eHow is based entirely on residual income. There are no upfront payments, but there is also no requirement to remain active on the site. You will be paid whenever you reach $10 or at the end of the year (whichever comes first). If you make less than $10 by the time they clear their books at the end of the year, they do subtract $1 from your earnings, but they emphasize you will never owe them money.

A good way to get started is to look through their suggested titles. Every title is supposed to be unique and in "how to" form. I'll admit it can be a little difficult to come up with an original title when the same topic is already written on. At least you know the suggested titles haven't been used. The suggested titles also have a tendency to earn more because somebody is interested in the information and eHow knows it. Concrete example: I've only had time to write two articles, both of which I wrote mid-March. The first one was my own doing and I've now made $0.22. The second article was a suggested title which I just threw together when I saw it because it seemed easy enough and I've made $1.22. I know neither of these amounts is impressive, but remember that these articles will sit on the site earning money as long as the company continues to exist, so their eventual earning is unknown. What is important to notice, though, is that I've earned a whole dollar more on the suggested title, despite the dozen or so articles on the same topic. eHow suggests titles based on what they think people want to know and will be looking for in order to keep the site relavent to users.

Overall, eHow is another good writing site for moms who don't have a lot of time. Any writing site that pays decent residual income is probably worth it in general, but since eHow is based on what you know instead of research, it is very easy to just sit down and start writing. While you may not earn a lot, just knowing that someday you'll get a small surprise payment when you weren't even thinking about it makes it worth the initial effort, especially if you enjoy writing.

~Beth~
mommyclixtoo.t35.com

May 13, 2009 Mommy Discovers Helium

Helium is not a recent discovery; but, as promised, I am going to begin discussing different programs I've tried in more detail. Helium is a writing site. The goal is to reward good writing through peer review. Thus, there are two parts to the site for its members: writing and rating. Writing is supposed to be done to professional standards. While some members can't seem to remember that, this rule means works should be fairly free of errors and written in the third person. Helium gives an upfront payment for all articles in addition to residual payments for your articles. The upfront payments range from $0.50 to $2.50 depending on how many articles you have published and how well they are rated as a body of work (you can still get paid for a poorly rated article as long as your average rating stays high). Upfront payments are added to your Helium account on the first of the month for articles published up to the 24th of the month. Credit is conditional upon the rating system. Residual income is calculated daily and is also dependent on the rating system.

The rating system is a little difficult to understand. To remain active on the site (and thus be eligible for payments of any kind) you must complete at least ten rates every thirty days. Using some kind of computer algorithm, Helium decides the quality of your rates and assigns a percentage, just like they do for your writing, and then gives you stars based on this percentage and the number of rates. They keep stats for both thirty and ninety days, so your stars are based on whichever stat gives you the most stars as long as you have your ten rates in the last thirty days. If you have at least one star at the end of the day, you will receive residual income. If you have at least one star on the last day of the month, you will be credited all your upfront payments for the payment period. The best way to keep your stars is to read the rating guidelines and rate a few articles on a regular basis. My first month, I was just enjoying reading other people's articles so I rated a large number in a short amount of time. As a result, my percentage dropped, I lost all my stars and I did not get paid any upfront payments. The next month, I rated at a more consistent pace and had no problems. Reading through the forums, the rating stars are a constant source of problems, especially for new members, but if you keep from going rating crazy and follow the site guidelines, you should be fine.

So, what do you write on Helium? Whatever you want. Find a title you like, then write an article to match the title. If you don't think your article matches the title after all, sugget a new title. If Helium accepts it, you'll get $1 for being the first person to write to a new title. Also, check out the Marketplace. These titles have been submitted by publishers and have specific instructions. The publisher will read through all the submitted articles and pay the stated amount to the "winner". Everybody else will have their articles transition to the website and get paid at normal rates. Helium also sells article publication rights for stock content. What this means is if a publisher likes an article you've already submitted to the site, Helium will give them permission to print it and you get paid $5. You still own your article and it can sell over and over again. It doesn't sound like much, but it also takes no work on your part and is more than you were originally paid when you submitted the article to Helium.

Helium is a great option for the mom who wants to write. While there is a minimum time commitment just to stay active on the site, the upfront payments allow you to have some control over how much you make in a month. I admittedly haven't written an article since my second child was born (almost eight weeks), but I figure I'll go back to writing when I get back into my groove. Payout is $25, which is really attainable when you think about it, just make sure you look at the Help section (formerly User's Guide) before getting started so you don't get surprised later. Good luck!

~Beth~
mommyclixtoo.t35.com

May 12, 2009 Mommy Works on Getting Her Site Indexed

So, I was looking into the earnings of this site (which are none so far) and stumbled across some tools for webmasters on the Google site. Apparently, my website hasn't been indexed yet. For those who don't know, which included me until last night, indexed means your site is on the list of sites that can possibly come up when people do a search, such as with Google. According to Google, their spider program "crawls" the web looking for new sites or changes to existing sites and reports back. Theoretically, it should eventually find my site, but from time to time it misses a site because it isn't connected enough to the rest of the web. That's probably what's wrong with this site, since I've just started it and it still is a little short on content. Thankfully, you can submit your URL for consideration. While there's no guarantee that my site will be indexed, if I keep working on improving this site, I've got a better chance it will happen. I'm also going to submit a sitemap, so I'm sure my odds are good. For anyone else who has a website and wants to register it with Google, here's the link to their Webmaster Tools.

~Beth~
mommyclixtoo.t35.com

May 11, 2009 Mommy Discovers PeopleString Paid Email

So, I have another program for everyone to look into. It's called PeopleString. The concept behind this one is that you already get junk mail in your email, but you don't get paid for it. PeopleString will send you a limited amount of junk mail based on the maximum number of advertisements you are willing to receive and you will get paid for looking at them. I know what you're thinking...Why would I want even more junk mail? Won't they just end up in my spam folder anyway? The great thing about this program as far as I can see is that these emails are sent to an email account on the PeopleString website. You will receive a few emails from the company when you first sign up until they confirm your account (which does take a few days), but all the advertisements will go to your @peoplestring.com account. No extra spam to your personal email account. And, of course, there is a referral program. My guess is that this part is where most of your earning potential lies. (Isn't it always?) I figure, what can it hurt though. I'm still looking for ways to earn "big bucks", but I'm not a real believer in the get rich quick concept. Some day this site might bring in a decent income, but I think I'm going to have to work on it a long time to reach that point. The basic account with PeopleString is free (the premium account is really expensive) and it can't hurt to spend a little time doing some free advertising for referrals while I advertise for everything else I've got going right now. I have no idea what the real earning potential on this site is without referrals, but I'll let you know when I start actually earning.

~Beth~
mommyclixtoo.t35.com

May 10, 2009 Mommy Discovers The Solutions Network

First things first: Happy Mother's Day! I hope everyone enjoyed it. Now, let's get onto business. In my search for better money making opportunities, I'm still doing paid-to-click sites. Last night, one of the ads was for The Solutions Network. I have to admit that the site contains the messiest looking pages you could possibly imagine, but it seemed worth checking out since it was absolutely free to sign up and receive my free website. The basic concept is that you complete offers through your own site and shop store affiliates (such as Walmart) through your own site and earn either points or commission for your efforts. When other people sign up to receive their own free website from your website, they become your downline and you earn from what they do also. Or, if people don't sign up at all, but just use the services available on your website, you get paid too. I also found, in my member area, a list of free advertising websites that I need to explore. As far as I can see, there are no downsides to signing up. Since I have no investment in the program, the worst that could happen is that I make no money and am left exactly as I started. It does seem as if the services available are more useful than most ones I've found while trying to make money online. You're not being paid to give away your contact info a million times like a paid-to-signup site. You're getting a kick back for referring people onto legitimate companies and there just happens to be no rule against referring yourself (it's actually encouraged). Anyway, I would suggest checking it out for yourself. Maybe you'll find some services on there that you were meaning to look into and might as well get paid to use.

~Beth~
mommyclixtoo.t35.com

May 9, 2009 Mommy's Money Making Machine

Okay, so I'm probably over stating it a little, but let's call it a goal. I have decided that Google AdSense is awesome to say the least. I had absolutely no problems using it and now my website is technically a money making machine, be it ever so humble and meager at this point. I didn't write anything about my work yesterday, which I'm learning is a major no-no if I intend to ever show up in the searches. It was not my intention. It was just one of those days where everything seems to take longer than intended and everyone gets in your way (read: the kids did not want to take their naps). While I didn't blog at all, though, I did make great strides in the evening on the whole site building process. All four pages of the mommy site have content and all the links work. I call it a major triumph. I was a little disappointed to figure out one of the disadvantages of having free web-hosting is not being able to use some shortcuts without ending up with unrelated ads smack in the middle of the page. It's a little annoying, but I'll just stick to doing it the hard way (not that copy and paste is hard, just messy to look at in code). On a side note, I learned while doing some research that an easy way to start a blog is blogger.com. I'm still going to stick it out with my site if for no other reason than I'm learning so much and I enjoy playing with the code, but it's there for anyone else who wants to give it a try. I might look at it later if I have some free time. Keep checking back and I'll let you know what else I figure out. Eventually I intend to write more detailed entries in this blog about the other items I have on the site. For now you can look at what's there. I do have some description for each of the sites. Happy exploring!

~Beth~
mommyclixtoo.t35.com

May 7, 2009 Let's Get It Started

So I figure I better take a break from website building and do some introductions. My name is Beth. I'm the proud mother of two under two and the wife of a young physics teacher. I had always planned to be a stay-at-home mom and truly love being able to spend the day with my kids, but was not prepared for the feeling of helplessness I would experience every month when I looked at the budget and realized how long it will take us to save for...well...anything big. So my husband and I agreed back in January to see if I could actually make money online. I really don't want a J-O-B. Let's be honest. I already have one. I would, however, like to figure out some way I can cover the cost of internet with my playing around online and maybe even contribute to the purchase of a few other luxuries. This website is my latest attempt. For now it's painfully rudamentary, but I'm learning fast and hope to make big changes as the weeks pass. I know it would have been easier to just use a free template, but then I wouldn't learn as much. I'm building this site from the ground up and enjoying the trial and error experience. The goal for this afternoon: figure out how to put those Google ads practically every website has on my website. Hopefully, the next time you visit, I'll be making money for it.

~Beth~
mommyclixtoo.t35.com