As well as all this you also have a chance to win free fuel for a year - click below to find out more.
Wednesday, February 25, 2009
Win CASH prizes with Just Rewards
With Just Rewards you have the opportunity to win a variety of prizes including cash. It is a UK based company but is open to people all over the world. Just by filling in the consumer survey you have the chance to win £5000! Once you become a member you have the opportunity to complete more surveys and enter competitions with the chance to win money or prizes such as Hotel breaks, ipod, Amazon vouchers, TVs, and more!
As well as all this you also have a chance to win free fuel for a year - click below to find out more.
As well as all this you also have a chance to win free fuel for a year - click below to find out more.
Wednesday, February 18, 2009
Blog Contest: Win FREE Advertising on Extra Cash Challenge
Well I thought it is about time I had a go at a blog contest. Firstly, what can you win? Unfortunately I don't have large sums of money or an Ipod to give away. But what I am able to give away is eight 125 x 125 ads on Extra Cash Challenge. Here are the rules - I have decided to keep things simple:
- The first 3 people to write a post that includes a link back to Extra Cash Challenge and leave a comment to let me know that they have done this will be allocated an ad for a period of 14 days. The ads will be placed consecutively and allocated strictly in the order that I receive the comments.
- Posts and comments received after the first three will be entered in a draw. Two entrants will be selected at random and each will be allocated an ad place each, both will run for seven days and will run after the first three ads have expired. The random selection will consist of the highly technical process of printing out the names, cutting them out, putting them in a box and asking each of my two children to pick one at random!
- The post that I judge to be the best will receive an ad spot for free for 30 days!!! This will be entirely my judgment and will be based on the post that I think features the best writing that I judge to be of most interest. If the best post happens to fall within the first three received then the fourth post will receive a free ad.
- Any posts that contain inflammatory or offensive material will not be considered.
- My decision is final!
- This contest finishes at 23:00 GMT on 8th March 2009. Entries received after then will not be considered. I will contact the winners during week beginning 9th March via their blogs, or if you prefer you can provide your e-mail address via my "Contact Me" tab. Winners will need to provide me with an image to use for the advert or for Entrecard members I can use their EC image if preferred.
Enjoy and good luck!!!
THIS CONTEST IS NOW CLOSED!
Saturday, February 14, 2009
Time to Buy a New TV
Our current television is really on its last legs. I don’t know if it is because I have been watching other people’s TVs that I have noticed how poor the picture is on ours. It is at its worst when you are trying to read text, such as football scores, which seems to have become increasingly fuzzy. Or maybe it’s me getting older! My favourite thing to watch on is films, and on our ancient TV with its fuzzy picture and crackly mono sound, I think I am missing out on something.
So I have looking into a new TV. Soon, of course, the analogue signal will be switched off, so it would be better if we are buying to buy a digital TV rather than buy an analogue TV and continue to use our somewhat temperamental digital box.
The latest digital televisions have amazing picture and sound quality compared to what I have become used to. My preference, I think, is for LCD TVs such as the Samsung LE37A436T which has a 37” widescreen and is HD Ready. It has lots of good features including a high definition picture and stereo surround sound. It is certainly not top of the range, but in the current climate we need to think about what we are spending. The price of these high definition tvs has come down considerably recently and there more savings to be had by using price comparison sites. I think we will spend more time browsing though before we decide for definite what we will buy.
So I have looking into a new TV. Soon, of course, the analogue signal will be switched off, so it would be better if we are buying to buy a digital TV rather than buy an analogue TV and continue to use our somewhat temperamental digital box.
The latest digital televisions have amazing picture and sound quality compared to what I have become used to. My preference, I think, is for LCD TVs such as the Samsung LE37A436T which has a 37” widescreen and is HD Ready. It has lots of good features including a high definition picture and stereo surround sound. It is certainly not top of the range, but in the current climate we need to think about what we are spending. The price of these high definition tvs has come down considerably recently and there more savings to be had by using price comparison sites. I think we will spend more time browsing though before we decide for definite what we will buy.
Extra Cash Challenge is Now a Do Follow Blog
I have been aware for a little while that Blogger defaults to the "no follow" format for backlinks and comments, so I have decided to do something about this. Following the instructions on Tips 4 Blogspot, I have managed to remove the no follow, so this is now a do follow blog.
So, if you have a blog or website, your comments here will assist your ranking with Google and other search engines. Go ahead - get yourself a free backlink. I will still be moderating comments though, so you still need to say something of worth about the post you are commenting or the blog in general. A certain amount of self-promotion is just fine (we all need to do it), but blatant spam is not!
Friday, February 13, 2009
Track Your Directory Submissions and get FREE SEO Tool
If you have a website or blog then you will know that your biggest challenge is actually getting traffic to your site. Of course, most people find what they want through search engines, but actually getting the search engines to find you is the tricky part. Two key features in increasing your chances of the search engines find you are Search Engine Optimization (SEO) and getting backlinks to your site on other sites.
Submitting your site to free web directories is one way of getting links back to your site. However, finding the right directory for your site and keeping track of your submissions can be challenging to say the least. You can trawl your way through Google looking for directories, submitting your site at random, only to find that they have no effect on the ability of search engines to find your site. Freewebdirectories.org is a FREE service which has literally hundreds of directories listed sorted by Page Rank. But it is not simply a list, you can also track your submissions, which is a huge help.
The site includes a free SEO tool to help you choose a good mix of directories to submit your site to maximizing the effect of each link. In addition, signing up allows you to access their "5 Powerful SEO Secrets" which should further help increase your site's rankings and increase your traffic. Freewebdirectores.org is a completely free service and a very good way of tracking your submissions to free web directories so is certainly well worth signing up for.
Wednesday, February 11, 2009
Squidoo Alternatives #6 - eHow
My series on Squidoo Alternatives has concentrated on Web 2.0 sites that allow you to submit your own content, provide useful backlinks to your own site or blog and also provide the opportunity to make money. EHow looks and feels completely different from Squidoo, but the essential premise is very similar. The main difference, however, is that eHow concentrates entirely on How-To type articles which are very structured point by point type. This structure makes the articles very easy to read and extremely easy to write, as much of the work is done for you. Some might find this structure a little restrictive. You do have the option to add pictures to your articles.
The articles have a resource box in which you can place a link to your site, or indeed affiliate or referral links. EHow is a highly rated, high traffic site, so links here are valuable.
In terms of earnings, eHow allows you to opt-in to the Writer Compensation Program where you receive payments according to how popular your articles are. Payments are by Paypal and the payment threshold is $10. However, the big, huge drawback of this program is that it is only open to U.S. residents!!! So for people like me (I live in the UK) the only earning opportunities eHow offers is through placing affiliate links in the resource box.
In conclusion, eHow is extremely easy to use and the structured format make the articles very direct. The articles provide useful links to your blog or website and certainly help to enhance your reputation as an expert in your subject. I have read that many people have made good money on eHow, but unless eHow intend to extend their program to non-U.S. residents then a large proportion of internet users will not be able to participate.
Saturday, February 7, 2009
Take Your Small Business or Affiliate Marketing to Next Level with Site Build It!
If you are looking to take your small business or work at home business, or affiliate marketing to the next level, then Site Build It! offers a complete website solution, offering the most complete system of integrated tools and applications for building and marketing successful Web sites. It is easy to use and affordable and includes the website building application, web hosting and domain name registration. Take the video tour to see what Site Build It! can do you for you.
It has a huge number of features including:
Included in the package is on-going customer support and if you are not completely satisfied with the product then you can get 100% of your money back!
Here are some SBI! Case Studies where you can find out about what success you can achieve with SBI!
It has a huge number of features including:
-Keyword Brainstorming | -HTML Uploading with Full Integration -Forms -E-zine Publishing -RSS/Blog It! -Image and Link Libraries -Link Fix It! -WebMail -E-commerce Compatible |
| -Automatic Search Engine Optimization | -Newsletter Subscription & Delivery (HTML+Text) w/ Spam checking and Open Rate -Traffic Stats, Analysis -Click In and Out Stats and Analysis -Advanced Link Exchanging |
| -Step-by-Step Action Guide -SBI! Xpress E-zine -SBI! Forums | -Unlimited One to One Customer Support -Tips 'n Techniques Headquarters where SBI! users share their most effective strategies |
Included in the package is on-going customer support and if you are not completely satisfied with the product then you can get 100% of your money back!
Here are some SBI! Case Studies where you can find out about what success you can achieve with SBI!
Tuesday, February 3, 2009
Squidoo Alternatives #5 - Zimbio
Regular readers of Extra Cash Challenge will know that my Squidoo Alternatives series focuses on sites where you can submit your own content including backlinks to your own website or blog, and where there are opportunities for making money. Those people who are already familiar with Zimbio may wonder why I am including it in this series when there is no intrinsic way of making money from it. But more of that later. I will also tell you about neat trick you can use with Zimbio to promote your Squidoo lenses.
Zimbio is a site which describes itself as an interactive magazine the readership of which is apparently around 15 million people per week. It is broken down into hundreds of "wikizines" based around a wide variety of themes. All you need to is write an article about anything you like (including a link to your website/blog if you wish) and submit it to one of the many wikizines. The interface is fairly basic - no modules or anything fancy, but very easy to use.
If you have a blog, a further option to you is to submit your blog RSS feed to Zimbio, which then gives you the option to submit your better posts to one of the wikizines - this will automatically feature a link to your blog and increase exposure for you and your blog!
A word of warning though - if your blog is on one of the paid blog networks (such as Today.com) then I suggest you do not do this. The reason for this (as I have learned recently to my cost) is that your original blog post is likely to be flagged as duplicate content and you will not be paid!!!
Now - for the Squidoo trick......what you can do to increase exposure for your Squidoo lenses is to submit your Squidoo profile RSS feed to Zimbio. You have to submit it as a blog - Zimbio doesn't differentiate. The result of this is each time you publish a new lens, the Introduction module will find its way through to Zimbio which you can then publish to a relevant wikizine. As you can only publish your introduction you need to make sure it's a good one to grab your readers' interest enough to click through to the actual Squidoo lens. You could, I guess, do the same for you HubPages or Bukisa profile, but I wouldn't recommend it as you are likely to be penalised for duplicate content.
In terms of earning potential, there is no revenue directly attached to Zimbio, but you can use affiliate and referral links within your articles. This includes your blog posts that you re-publish to Zimbio wikizines (i.e. your original links remain intact). You could, therefore, use a Zimbio article as a landing page for an affiliate marketing campaign.
In summary, Zimbio is really easy to use for publishing articles, but its strength for me is in re-publishing blog posts and potentially gaining a larger audience for your blog.
Zimbio is a site which describes itself as an interactive magazine the readership of which is apparently around 15 million people per week. It is broken down into hundreds of "wikizines" based around a wide variety of themes. All you need to is write an article about anything you like (including a link to your website/blog if you wish) and submit it to one of the many wikizines. The interface is fairly basic - no modules or anything fancy, but very easy to use.
If you have a blog, a further option to you is to submit your blog RSS feed to Zimbio, which then gives you the option to submit your better posts to one of the wikizines - this will automatically feature a link to your blog and increase exposure for you and your blog!
A word of warning though - if your blog is on one of the paid blog networks (such as Today.com) then I suggest you do not do this. The reason for this (as I have learned recently to my cost) is that your original blog post is likely to be flagged as duplicate content and you will not be paid!!!
Now - for the Squidoo trick......what you can do to increase exposure for your Squidoo lenses is to submit your Squidoo profile RSS feed to Zimbio. You have to submit it as a blog - Zimbio doesn't differentiate. The result of this is each time you publish a new lens, the Introduction module will find its way through to Zimbio which you can then publish to a relevant wikizine. As you can only publish your introduction you need to make sure it's a good one to grab your readers' interest enough to click through to the actual Squidoo lens. You could, I guess, do the same for you HubPages or Bukisa profile, but I wouldn't recommend it as you are likely to be penalised for duplicate content.
In terms of earning potential, there is no revenue directly attached to Zimbio, but you can use affiliate and referral links within your articles. This includes your blog posts that you re-publish to Zimbio wikizines (i.e. your original links remain intact). You could, therefore, use a Zimbio article as a landing page for an affiliate marketing campaign.
In summary, Zimbio is really easy to use for publishing articles, but its strength for me is in re-publishing blog posts and potentially gaining a larger audience for your blog.
Sunday, February 1, 2009
Earnings for January
From this month I have decided to limit what I am posting on these monthly totals just to earnings from the internet as I think that other earning are not particularly interesting to anyone else except me. January was not a great month for online earnings, although bear in mind that I personally only count what I have actually received and not what is sitting in a review panel or affiliate account somewhere until I reach the payment threshold. So here are my earnings this month:
Surveys - £32 (£30 - Ipoints, £2 - GfK)
Ebay - £4.98
Total = £36.98
Not exactly impressive really!
I have spent this month concentrating primarily on increasing traffic to my blogs and I am pleased that work is already starting to pay off as previously most of it was from Entrecard, whereas now I am gaining a good proportion of my traffic from search engines and other sources. From here I need to build on that and look at finding more ways of converting this traffic into cash!
Surveys - £32 (£30 - Ipoints, £2 - GfK)
Ebay - £4.98
Total = £36.98
Not exactly impressive really!
I have spent this month concentrating primarily on increasing traffic to my blogs and I am pleased that work is already starting to pay off as previously most of it was from Entrecard, whereas now I am gaining a good proportion of my traffic from search engines and other sources. From here I need to build on that and look at finding more ways of converting this traffic into cash!
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