Total Earnings for October 2010

After last month's relatively decent earnings, this month has been rather disappointing. Let's start with the positives - my Adsense earnings have been growing steadily and I think this has actually been a record month. I am still a long way from reaching the $100 threshold every month, but things are certainly heading in the right direction. However, this is pretty much the only glimmer in a fairly bleak month.

I have made two Clickbank sales, but I have not yet received the payment for these, so not counted in this month's total. I have not made any Amazon sales, despite a growing number of people clicking on my affiliate links. I have made hardly any money on Ebay this month due to the fact that I have not been very good at listing stuff - although I am running out of decent stuff to sell.

My current focus is primarily to consolidate my existing projects, improving content and increasing the number of inbound links to increase traffic. It is tempting to keep creating more and more sites and Squidoo lenses, but actually I think I need to spend some time improving what I have already created.

Here is this month's total:

Surveys: $32.10 (My Voice)
Squidoo: $3.54
Swagbucks: $5.00
Ebay: $5.12

Total = $45.76

Pretty poor all in all. I hoping that the lead up to Christmas will bring some better results as I am hoping to benefit from all those people looking for gifts for the festive season. Let's see what next month brings!

Is a Payday Loan Right For You?

Payday loans are designed for people who are experiencing a short term lack of funds. They work by the lender lending the money to the borrower until their next payday when it should be repaid. Because of the immediate nature of the loan, they are generally agreed and paid out very quickly.

Due to the short-term nature of these loans the rates of interest tend to be somewhat higher than standard lending rates and there may be charges as well. The way in which these loans are operated and regulated vary from one country to another (and indeed in the US, from one state to another), but in some areas it is possible to roll over your loan to the next month. The danger here is that you can end up having to repay considerably more than you originally borrowed.

If you are in a position where you are continually running short of money before you get paid then a payday loan is probably not for you as you will find that in effect you are borrowing from your next month’s pay so with interest and charges you will find that you have less money each month.

However, if you are confident that your lack of funds is a short term problem (if you have an unexpectedly large bill to pay, for example) and you are certain you are not going to put yourself into a longer term debt, then a payday loan could be for you. It is important to shop around for the best rates however, and you should always make sure that you borrow from a reputable lender.

Payday loans have attracted a certain amount of controversy due to the danger of falling into unmanageable debt, but for certain people they can provide a much needed lifeline.

The Squidoo List Plan Part Two - Creating a Free Product

Time to look at the next stage in my Squidoo List Plan. To recap, the plan involves using Squidoo to generate a list to sell products. So far I have chosen a niche. The next stage is to create something of value to entice people to sign up to my subscriber list. I have no experience of this as such, but I do have experience of subscribing to other people's list. What I know is that the lists I subscribe to are those that offer an enticing free product, and those that I stay subscribed to are those that live up to the hype.

So, what I need to do is create an e-book to give away. This needs to be of a good standard so that my subscribers will consider me to be an expert in my chosen niche. However, should I make it extensive enough for it to be good enough to be a paid for product? Actually, I'm not sure about that. I suppose what I don't want to do is use up everything I know about the niche so as to rule out the possibility of creating a product to sell in the future.

To the technicalities - the e-book I am creating should be in a PDF format, but how can this be done without purchasing some software to create such files? Well, quite easily actually. All you need is Open Office which can be downloaded for free. This offers a range of applications including a word processor, a spreadsheet application, an application for presentations and one for drawing. All of these are compatible with Microsoft Office. Why would you want this? Well, all the applications have this handy little button:

This simply saves a copy of your work as a PDF document. Easy!




I am quite slow at writing and I am working on some other projects, so it may be a little while before my next instalment.

Make Bookmarking Your Sites (Blogs, Squidoo Lenses, Hubs, etc) Easy with IMAutomator

I have to admit, I have been slow at making use of social bookmarking for building links and traffic to my various projects. It can be a rather laborious process, having to create numerous accounts with the various bookmarking sites and then inputting your various links. Then, of course, there is the fact that some sites are not keen on you just submitting your own stuff, so you have find some other sites to submit as well.

With this particular mindset, you can imagine how pleased I was to discover IMAutomator. This site allows you to quickly submit your link to up to 15 bookmarking sites at a click of a button. You do not have to create lots of accounts either, this is all done for you. You have the option of your link being submitted to all sites at once, or gradually a day at a time, or even over a 45 day period. Having your links submitted gradually is good for search engines seeing your link count increase at a natural rate rather than all at once.

The best thing about this is that it is FREE! There is a pro version for which there is a monthly subscription, but access to this is strictly limited and at the time of writing there are no places available. It is intended that there will be more places released at some point in the future, but it is not clear when.

IMAutomator was created by Caroline Middlebrook who did have a well respected internet marketing blog. However, her blog has now disappeared and all traffic is redirected to IMAutomator. She has even gone rather quiet on Twitter - nothing heard from her since April 2010.

The key question though, does IMAutomator actually bring any traffic to your sites? Well, for me it is too early to say as I have only been using it for a couple of weeks. However, I will keep you posted!