Payment Processors the key to your money

Payment processors such as PayPal, AlertPay, Moneybookers and e-gold are key to making money online.  Without them everything would be done with credit cards and things would get very confusing very quickly.  PayPal is probably the largest payment processor at this point with around 150 million accounts by my best guess.  They also are one of the oldest payment processors, being around since late 1999.  They also have operations in hundreds of companies.  PayPal is a great company to have an account with as you can do business with so many different people.

AlertPay is another payment processor based out of Canada.  AlertPay, according to DNS records, was founded on October 30th 2005.  Otherwise, their history is very difficult to track.  They have no Wikipedia article of anything about it on their website.  However, AlertPay is the payment processor of choice for many Paid to Click sites.  Paid to Click sites are no longer allowed to use PayPal as a payment processor due to PayPal’s Terms of Service.  While PayPal has blocked out this large source of income, AlertPay has welcomed it with open arms.  The disadvantage with AlertPay is that many of the bank transfers take a long period of time to get to and from your bank account.  In my experience, they have usually taken around 5 business days.

Moneybookers is a payment processor based out of the United Kingdom.  They offer a different twist on payment processing.  They allow many transactions considered to be “high risk”.  These include paid to click sites, casinos and pornography sites.  They have very stringent rules of money laundering.  Also, there are no fees to the person who is receiving money.  The downside once again with Moneybookers it that their support is not very good.  They also have fees for everything, sending money, getting a check, using a credit card, getting a deposit in the bank.  It is really overkill and if they would eliminate some of the fees it would be very nice.

Revolution Money Exchange or RME is a payment processor based out of Florida.  They are very new launching in 2007.  They offer $10 for every new account you get to sign up.  They do require you to give out your Social Security Number, therefore only U.S. residents can have an account.  They have very low fees with no send/recieve fees and free bank transfers.  A check from Revolution Money Exchange costs $2.50.  I have not had to call Revolution Money Exchange support, so I have no comment on their support.  They seem like a nice payment processors overall.

The one payment processor I would avoid entirely is e-gold.  They have been the subject of a federal investigation and nearly all of their transactions are considered to be high risk.  They have been caught doing some illegal activities and they company itself is not very ready to help you if you have any problems.  Use on of the four above, they at least have some policies in place to help you should you need it.  I hope you enjoyed this review of different payment processors.

ChaCha

ChaCha is an online people powered search engine.  They pay people to answer text message queries about nearly anything.  You get $0.20  per text query you answer and it can add up rather quickly.  You can either get paid via a EFT at the end of the month or via a special bank account that can only be setup through ChaCha.  This bank account comes with a Visa check card that you can use to buy things just like a normal Visa card.  The thing about ChaCha is that it is very specific about who it lets in.  You must be someone who is from the United States, knows a fair bit about the internet and able to legally work within the United States.  You have to go through the ChaCha guide academy, which consists of test queries that are analyzed by ChaCha and then it is determined whether or not you are allowed to become an employee.  Don’t worry, it is a simple enough process and ChaCha makes it clear throughout.  If you become a ChaCha guide it is a rather nice way to make a few extra bucks.  Their guide team is one of the best in motivating you to take on more work.  Don’t worry if you do not know how ChaCha works at first, they are there to help you and will make sure you get all the training you need to help people.  Have fun with a different job and help others at the same time.

Join ChaCha

Tips to save money on shopping

I love giving out tips.  Here are a few I can think of off the top of my head at nearly midnight!

• Shop at Walmart.  Seriously, you can save a lot by shopping there and people do actually try to get you the lowest price possible on items you really need.  Going there to buy clothes, groceries and even prescriptions is a very good idea because it will cost you much less than going to another pharmacy or grocery store.
• Coupons!  Coupons still exist and they are a great way to keep costs down while still being able to afford items that you either want or need.  The best part about coupons is that they are basically there shoving money at you.  Also, you do not need to get the newspaper to take advantage of coupons, they are online now too!  You can look at most stores flyers online and plan you shopping trip while saving energy at the same time.
• Shop around.  Do not shop at one store just because you can get everything you need there.  While this may be easy it is often times more expensive.  Look around in your coupons or online to see what stores have the best prices.  You would be amazed how so many people do not do this common sense tip and loose so much money!
• FREECYCLE!  This site is amazing with all the stuff you can get for free.  People just do not want it anymore and you can go and pick it up.  Enjoy all the wonders you can get with just a ride to some strangers house!
• eBay.  There are some great reasons to shop on eBay.  Let me give you one scenario I was in.  I needed another graphing calculator because I lost mine for the third time this year.  So I did some scouting on eBay and found one for $30, $70 less than what Staples wanted.  That just saved me so much money that it really is not funny!  Imagine all the good deals you can get on eBay.
• Coupon codes for online purchases.  I never do much online shopping outside of eBay or Amazon but if you are someone who does may I suggest that you look into finding some coupon codes for your favorite merchant.  More than likely they have one that will allow you to get some great discount on your purchase!
• Keep looking.  If you see a price that look to high for an item, it probably is.  You can just keep looking further online and find a merchant who is willing to sell you the item for less.  Do not give in the first moment you see a great price, make sure it is really the best price you can get so that you get the best bang for your buck.

Well, those are my tips for keeping more money in your pocket while you shop. Shopping takes money away from you to begin with, so use some good judgment and keep smart about where you money is going!

Watch TV Online

When you think about the Internet being such a large collection of information you should consider cancelling your cable TV service.  After all, most programs you watch on your television are now hosted on servers in countries with very relaxed laws that allow you to watch them.  You can watch anything from The Simpsons to your nightly news from the comfort of your 17 inch screen.  Even then, you could hook your computer up to your large TV to make it a truly high quality viewing experience.  Here is a list of websites that I found that have copies of frequently request programming.  See if there are all of your favorite shows on one of these nifty sites, if not, try typing “watch FAVORITE SHOW NAME HERE online”.  I bet you will find it somewhere online.

Watch Movies

Watch The Simpsons

Alternatively, you can watch news online at ABC, CNN, or FOX.  Each has extensive high quality video broadcasts that are for your legal viewing enjoyment.

Why NOT to use adSense to monetize your site

Adsense is a program used by millions of people to make a little extra money from their blogs. However, adSense is one of the worst programs to monitize your blog with. It pays horribly, and does not afford you the same earnings potential as some other programs. In my experience, adSense would pay around $0.50 per click. That is great and everything but I could earn more with the same amount of clicks. Let’s say I was getting 100 clicks a month, very feasible. That would be $50 if I used adSense to monetize my site. If I got the same amount of clicks and used an affiliate program for that site that was related to the site, figuring on an average conversion rate of 10% at $10 per lead. That would be $100. That is just one instance of how not having CPC ads really helps your bottom line. In fact, you could have even more clicks with affiliate links/banners because more people are likely to be interested in them. I have had sites that have had 500 clicks a month and with that conversion rate are real money makers. So do yourself a favor and dump adSense before they ban you. Plus it is apparent that you can make way more money with affiliate marketing! Enjoy your increased earnings and a better looking website!

TakeTheGlobe

TakeTheGlobe is the only Paid to Click site that I can recommend.  They make it easy for you to earn your money and they actually live up to their word.  With usually 30-40 ads daily for regular members and as many as 100 total for premium members they make it worth visiting.  You can also buy banner ad space and referals.  TakeTheGlobe is currently paying members on a 30/60 schedule.  30 business days after requesting cashout premium members are paid and 60 business days after requesting cashout regular members are paid.  All payment are made via AlertPay.  AlertPay is one of the best payment processors out there and you can register an account easily.  If you have any questions, I am a staff member at TakeTheGlobe.  Yes, I am a staff member but that doesn’t mean that hundreds of others haven’t said great things about TakeTheGlobe.  Join up today and see what TakeTheGlobe is all about.

Amazon Affiliate

If you have not heard of Amazon you must of been living under a rock. After all, it is in the top ten web retailers and handles thousands of transactions daily. Within a few years, you will be able to have all your groceries ordered through Amazon as well. They are a growing company, and you can cash in on it. They have their own affiliate program where you get 4% of anything people buy through your link You get higher percentages as you sell more items. I would recommend signing up for an account if you buy anything on line. Here is a little, dishonest, but still money making trick. Go to a public library and get on the computer open you Amazon link and start ordering. You are not “supposed” to order through your own link, but why not make yourself a little money back? Amazon is a large company and I am sure that they will enjoy giving you your money. The weird thing about Amazon is that they have NET 60 payout. Which means 60 days after the end of the month you made your money in you get paid. Strange idea isn’t it? Well, Amazon is a large affiliate for many people, they just deal with the payment lag. So if you are looking for a good affiliate program with different products that you can really get behind and promote, check out Amazon Affiliates today.

GoDaddy Discounts

While I am not going to do a whole hell of a lot of posts with discount codes in them I thought this was a good idea because I see just how many people are getting ripped off every single day and it ticks me off.

Enter these codes at checkout at GoDaddy to save a heck of a lot of money!

DSC1-10% off any order
DSC3-$6.95 .com registration/renewal

Affiliate Marketing

If you have never heard of affiliate marketing before, you do not know what you are missing.  Affiliate marketing is where you promote products for companies to other people.  Affiliate marketing is one of the best ways to make money online because the payout is much higher than doing article writing or something like that.  You can earn anywhere from $0.25 to $100 in affiliate marketing.  The most common way to promote your affiliate links is by putting them on a website.  You then use search engine optimization to get people to come to your website and if they are interested enough they will click on they will click on the link and make you some money.  If they are not interested it is one more set of eyeballs at your efforts, which is not always a bad thing.  Another way to affiliate market is to put up your links on a PayPerClick service such as Google AdWords or Microsoft adCenter.  These services promote your ad across their distrobution network and get many different eyeballs to look at them.  Those people then click on your link, which can cost a small amount, but in the end will end up making you money.  Sometimes clicks are fraudulent due to people trying to make money with their ads.  The best thing you can do for your site is to get some PPC ads.  PPC ads allow you to reach so many more people than you could do than by just regular web promotion.  You can also promote your affiliate links via email, but most users end up thinking that your emails are just another spam message and cause you trouble.  It is not worth the hassle to do email marketing as people just do not like getting information about new products sent to them via email.  The best thing you can do is either promote your affiliate links on a website or promote them through a PayPerClick search service such as adCenter or AdWords.

Fire Storm

I have been getting pretty active in the social media scene again.  I used to get annoyed at all the different social media quirks and such but I think it might be a real asset to gaining some traffic to my sites.  I have been using fire storm to promote my site on.  It has given it an extra push I think.  However, I have still not been able to see my stats so I will not know for sure until then.  I wish my darn host would make it easy enough to see my stats, they have been down since I setup the site yesterday.  Anyways, go and checkout firestorm if you are a blogger of any type because the amount of traffic that it is bound to direct to your site makes the small time investment well worth it.