Certified Blogaholic

With income a little tighter than usual due to the current economic crisis, I find it necessary to increase my online earnings. An important tip I picked up from web experts to increase earnings is to maintain multiple blogs or websites. Of course, it eats up more time. But if you can spare the time, it can prove to be profitable. Some make a killing from Adsense alone with this strategy.

Then again, you have to minimize your costs in maintaining multiple websites. As this is my long term plan, I have been scouting around for the best web hosting plan for multiple websites. WebHostingGeeks.com turned out to be my best companion in this endeavor. Web Hosting Geeks is a website that provides users with a list of the best web hosting plans available in the internet. When I say best, it could have different definitions to different web site owners. As such, the website provides a ranking of web hosting plans depending on the type of service that a potential web site owners need. Aside from a general ranking on top web hosts, they also provide a list for those that offer multiple domains, free domains, free yahoo marketing, or free google adwords. They also provide lists of those that have garnered awards.

However, what I find very useful with Web Hosting Geeks are their web hosting reviews. Once you have found a potential web host, you can make a further assessment by getting an idea about their uptime, bonus features, customer support, user-friendliness, and even customer feedback.

Before choosing your web host, visit WebHostingGeeks.com and get more value out of your hard-earned money. It could also mean more money for your website.

Friday morning trading in Wall Street was chaotic. The Dow Jones industrial average dropped by more than 330 points. If it drops by 1,100 points before 2 pm, the New York Stock Exchange will activate “circuit breakers” that will temporarily shutdown the market to minimize losses. This is something that hasn’t been done since 1997. Before it opened, Dow futures had dropped 550 points which already triggered a trading halt in stock futures contracts to slow the decline.

Stock markets worldwide already plummeted Friday with oil prices taking a nose dive to the lowest levels in more than a year. Even the more stable gold prices fell sharply. Amid fears that worldwide financial markets are declining, many fear that governments and banks are not capable of resolving the deepening global recession.

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Despite the $700 billion bail-out plan by the government, the financial crisis is still not showing signs of slowing down. Many people are still losing jobs, the stock market has been unstable, and everyone is still jittery. But most people don’t just leave everything to fate. Do something about it.

Cyberspace has become my best resource for extra income. And it has yet to fail me. Now, I discovered another online opportunity that I am taking advantage of. Ciao was recently acquired by Microsoft — an online community supported by multi-million members who review millions of products over the web. Members review products and rate reviews to determine how helpful the review will be to consumers. Aside from doing reviews, members are likewise given an opportunity to showcase their creative writing skills and other tips they can share with other members.

Ciao pays its members for each published review and provides bonuses whenever another member reads and provides a positive rating for the review. They also pay for every review that you read and rate. For a limited time, Ciao is giving $1 for each new standard product review, 1 Cent for each reading of the review by other members, and 3 Cents for every positive rating given by other members. You may think this is a small amount. But considering how easy it is to make a review of a product you are familiar with, it’s very easy to make 50 reviews in a week. There are members who have already made hundreds of dollars in Ciao. Unlike other get-paid-to (GPT) sites, you don’t have to grab opportunities, compete with other members, or wait all day to make money. I already made $10 in 2 days with just a few hours dedicated to the site. You also make a dollar for each member that you refer and a 50% commission on your referral’s earning for the first 6 months of his membership. Your earnings are sent through PayPal a few weeks after a requested cash out.

Join Ciao and find out how you can make money and augment your income now.

Beyonce had to stuff herself and gain 20 pounds when she took the part of Etta James in the movie Cadillac Records. I was trying to look for a good pic of Beyonce in the movie to see how far she went. The closest pic I got didn’t look bad. She still looked voluptuous and sexy . . . darn it!

According to the sexy singer, gaining weight was so much fun (really?). The irritating part was having to lose it when she landed a role in the psychological thriller Obsessed. She had to go on a strict diet — no junk food, no chips, no candy and nothing fried. No wonder it was hard. Still, she managed to lose it to prepare for the role.

Beyonce also claims she is done being a pop star. Her goal is to be an icon like Diana Ross. It’s a tough act to follow. But with the way her career is moving at the moment, it is a possibility.

The blogosphere is getting bigger and bigger lately as more and more people discover the opportunities open to bloggers worldwide. I get jittery sometimes that there may not be enough opportunities to go around for everyone. As a matter of fact, opportunities at major get-paid-to-blog sites have now come few and far in between. If there were any, the competition is harsh. A slow internet connection will not stand a chance among the hungry bloggers out there.

Fortunately, like most business environments, the blog advertising industry not only has more publishers, get-paid-to-blog sites are also growing. More entrepreneurs are venturing into the business of matching advertisers with bloggers or publishers. The latest newbie in the field is iHype.com and already has good-paying advertisers.

iHype functions similarly to other GPT sites for blog advertising. A blog can subscribe to opportunities that it qualifies to which depends on Page Rank and the Alexa Rating. Upon subscription to an opportunity, the blogger has 7 days to complete the task and payment will be completed upon approval of the task. IHype shows a lot of potential at the onset and hopefully will be a reliable source of oppotunities for bloggers. Go check it out and take advantage of the continuous growth in the blogosphere.

Blogging started as a hobby for Dr. Arnold Kim. His blog, MacRumors.com, features gossip and facts about Apple. Although it was a time-consuming hobby, he kept at it while earning his medical degree. He completed his medical degree and began to diagnose kidney problems for patients. With his website attracting 4.4 million people and 40 million views per month, he decided to hang up his stethoscope this month and become a problogger full time. According to Quantcast, it has become the one of the most popular technology website to date.

Now that he has decided to focus his attention on his blog, Dr. Kim believes the potential to earn more from his endeavor will grow further. As with all other people who are unaware of a blog’s potential, his colleagues could not comprehend how he could make more money from blogging than pursuing his medical profession. He sums it all up in two words, “build traffic.” In the internet, traffic equals power, which in turn translates to money.

Dr. Kim started blogging about Steve Jobs’ company in 2000 writing about rumors on future Apple products he collects around the web. Being a secretive company, Apple has become the object of speculation and interest over the years. With a computer science degree from the Columbia University, his skills in programming and technology has added value to the blog and made visitors keep coming back for more. He also knew that everyone wants to know in advance what Steve Jobs is up to. If the midnight vigil during the market release of the IPhone 3G is any indication, Dr. Kim has indeed found a niche that was worth more than the degree he is giving up.

MacRumors ranks No. 2 on a list of the “25 most valuable blogs,” just behind Gawker Media and ahead of The Huffington Post, PerezHilton.com, and TechCrunch. Among those on the list, 2 tech-oriented blogs, Ars Technica and PaidContent, were sold earlier this year for alleged sums in excess of $25 million. Ars Technica has over 3 million visitors per month while PaidContent and its associate blogs reach approximately half a million people. Considering that MacRumors attracts a far bigger audience, valuations indicate that he has a gold mine in his hands. That is one piece of real estate that no crisis can topple.

Initially, he hesitated to make it a full-time job since he enjoyed medicine and had invested almost $200,000 for his education. However, when he saw the figures, it had become an easy decision to make.

When asked how he figures out the rumors from the real thing, he claims that its all a gut feel. He is aware that most of the images of future Apple products in the web are fakes. He does enjoy this fun part where he sometimes posts suspicious images with hints on their authenticity.

At the moment, he is planning to go beyond the horizons of MacRumors. He is currently cooperating in a spinoff Web site, Touch Arcade, that tracks the new games for the iPhone and iPod Touch. Though he keeps mum about his other expansion plans, one thing is certain — he plans to go where no blogger has gone before.

It seems the blog advertising industry is continuing to grow by leaps and bounds. Another newbie in the blog advertising scheme has entered the industry hoping to connect more bloggers with advertisers in the internet. Unlike some of the older get-paid-to-blog sites, BloggersReview already has a decent amount of advertiser support and I already found a few opportunities in the panel. Though most of them are still unavailable to me, I intend to prove my skills and get a chance to qualify for these tasks.

The platform is not that different from other similar sites other than the layout and design. However, you get a chance to set your review price but will still be allowed to make reviews for opportunities that offer a lower value. I set mine a bit higher than usual considering that only 65% of the total pay will be paid with the balance set as a fee to BloggersReview. Though it can be discouraging for some, it still works for me since I have a pretty clear picture of the income-sharing with the disclosure. Some sites probably even get more as fees without the knowledge of the blogger since the net amount for payment is the only one displayed in the task panel.

Upon approval of your blog, you get to write your first review on the site at a minimal fee of $5. This is not bad with other sites making the requested initial post almost a pre-requisite to getting other opportunities without payment. There are still minimal advertisers compared to the a few other get-paid-to-blog sites, but it’s even better than the others I have joined who had zip advertisers for the past 2 months already.

To all the bloggers out there, add BloggersReview to your portfolio and get paid blogging for products and services. The potential is definitely worth the time and effort since it will only continue to increase your earnings and facilitate in the continuous growth of the industry.

Have you had enough of YouTube? Maybe it’s time to find something fresh — a video upload site that provides equal opportunities to all its members. Don’t let your video get buried beneath bigwig videos. It’s time to find a new website that isn’t overcrowded with litter. Join Viddiction.com and get a better chance of showing your video to the world.

At Viddiction, you earn cash for videos that get high viewership that ranges between $50-$500. Earning cash is easy. Join Viddiction, click “Regular Monthly Competition” prior to upload, and send your video to friends and family. Each click on the email sent means a Popularity Point. Get the highest Popularity Points in a month and you win cash sent directly to your Paypal account.

Promotion of your video will not be limited to emails. You can post it on your blog, message boards, or word of mouth. Each click on your video means a viewer and additional points for you. You can even bribe friends to pass on your video to get more viewers. Aside from the popularity contest, you also get a chance to earn more through referrals. Refer a friend to Viddiction and at the end of the month, the most number of referral wins.

I’m glad that YouTube now has a legitimate competitor that will give more value to its members. Join now and encourage your friends to become part of the community. Your video deserves more than obscurity.

There are currently numerous get-paid-to-blog sites in cyberspace. I have joined the best ones so far and I am making so much more additional income than I anticipated. However, there are dry periods that make me worry sometimes. Although new gpt sites crop up, some of them are not at par with the rest or hardly have any advertisers to support them. Meanwhile, there are more and more bloggers trying to earn income from blog marketing opportunities that crop up. Will advertisers and gpt sites be able to keep up? Or is there enough room for all the bloggers who want to make more income?

I believe the opportunities will always be there for those who are diligent enough to take them. I Just joined a new gpt site that provides bloggers extra income to post on their blog. Snapbomb is fairly new in the business but they have already earned the support of several advertisers. I am part of some sites that have been in the industry for a year or two, yet advertisers seem to shy away from them. With Snapbomb, I have an opportunity at the onset. Here is another site that may provide a lot of potential earnings for bloggers like me.

There are a lot of bloggers out there but I believe not all of them can achieve the quality of ads that most blogs like mine can deliver. With another site like Snapbomb, I can almost here the sound of the cash register ringing and imagine all the green bucks coming into my Paypal account. If your blog has the quality and reliability, try Snapbomb and widen your horizons.

There are a multitude of online earning opportunities in cyberspace. Aside from blog marketing, there are affiliate marketing and website ads. Then there are those where you get paid to write surveys. The difficulty with writing surveys is that there are so many scams out there. You are even lucky if you just find one that will keep on spamming your email. There are those who ask for registration fees and many have been victimized by these scammers. As such, it is important to be vigilant and cautious with these kinds of programs or opportunities.

Nevertheless, there are those who legitimately pay people for their opinion like GetPaidToTry.com. I recently joined and got myself a bonus $20 in less than 30 minutes. All I did was sign up and complete the first task. I was wary though while I was doing it because of the number of times I had to give out my email address. I understand that for marketing purposes, I would indeed get emails. However, I just hope they don’t send me too much.

After signing up and accomplishing my first task, I am now ready to get my regular surveys and earn more bucks from the internet. Can you believe it? I am making decent income from the blog. But it doesn’t hurt to earn more. Maybe contributing my opinion on the web will not just be part of a marketing scheme. It could actually serve to improve cyberspace or even products that we use on an everyday basis. I get even paid by telling others about GetPaidToTry. Why don’t you give it a shot?

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With the continuous increase in computer literacy worldwide and the internet draws in more people, Izea capitalized on the technology, bringing advertising to new levels. While advertising on print and the airwaves remains the most popular choice for advertising, there is no doubt that advertisers are now seeing the potential of blog marketing. Besides being relatively inexpensive, it manages to be effective with the blogosphere expanding significantly on a daily basis. These means that blogging is becoming a worldwide phenomenon that encourages people to read and write via the internet.

Why is the blogosphere expanding? Other than the continued increase of internet surfers worldwide, blogs sometimes prove more informative than your local newspaper. As a matter of fact, news and reports are more updated in blogs than it is in print. You get the news in real time, while it will likely be a day late in print. And the truth is, the internet is now more accessible to more people rather than television or radio. Every progressive company now provides its employees with computers and access to the internet. By the time you reach home to watch the news, you’ve already read it in cyberspace. Read the rest of this entry »

After almost 9 months of blogging, I think I am finally getting the hang of it. Sometimes I worry that it is taking too much of my time. However, at the moment, it is as important to me as water. Writing helps me cope with difficulties. My blog somehow gives me a sense of purpose — I know I am still where I am meant to be. One day, I look forward to reassuring myself that it is what I was intended to do.

Though I still have a lot to learn and professional bloggers out there may crinkle their nose at my work, I believe I will be able to fine tune everything in time. For those who love to write, I am encouraging you to try it. Some do it for the extra income, and yet there are those who do it simply because they love words and the way they dance together.

For newbies, you can try a free blog to get the feel of it. But sooner or later, it would still be best to get your own domain and website. Only then will you be able to call it your own. It would also be good to join blogging communities. Nothing in any blogging book or literature can teach you about blogging than those who have been there for years — those who genuinely love writing.

Blogging is no longer just a hobby for me now. It is a passion I intend to pursue even after my laptop surrenders from exhaustion. For now, it stays strong and steady as I write on until the wee hours of the morning with only the sound of my fingers on the keys to comfort and accompany me.

There is nothing more I envy than those work-at-home moms who have the opportunity to stay longer hours with their children and still make their own income. This can’t be more true for blogger moms who do paid blogging. I have met some of them and really look forward to being one of them. Of course, some friends feel it is a waste of my abilities or competence. But whenever this issue is raised, I keep telling myself, so what? Why do some people think that writing in blogs is a lower form of ability than making a financial projection? It is not. Writing is gift that is not given to everyone. And no matter what people say, it is a gift. Go ask JK Rowling.

With this in mind, I encouraged my sister-in-law to try blogging and join paid blogging sites. She spends all day at home taking care of my cute nephew and niece. Why not earn with some of her extra time? And probably the most conducive paid blogging site for blogger moms is SocialSpark. At SocialSpark, you don’t have to watch the monitor all day waiting for opportunities to get ahead of the competition. If you miss an opportunity the first time it is available, you just get on queue and wait for Social Spark to send you an email once you get your turn. And what’s more, you get 12 hours from the time the opportunity is reserved to make your post. That is more than enough time to either take the kids to school and go back to do it or even to give them a bath or feed them.

The set-up is perfect for stay-at-home moms because there is no pressure to make the posts in just a few hours. I bet I can even pass by the grocery to get supplies and still have enough time to do a few posts before the 12-hour deadline expires. It has been a little over 2 months since SocialSpark was launched and yet the number of advertisers has not dwindled. Even while I am employed, I have already made close to $200 from SocialSpark. Imagine how much more a blogger mom with no office work can do.

So, for those stay-at-home moms out there, may be it’s time to put your writing skills to use instead of spending hours worrying about the kids, the laundry, and dinner. Maybe it’s time to prove that you can do more than house chores. Make your own money and you will not have to beg hubby for extra funds to buy that nice blouse or bag. Blog with SocialSpark and show the family that you are worth more than a housekeeper and a nanny.

Online casino sites are growing fast daily. As more and more users discover the game, more webmasters are taking advantage of the opportunity and playing the game with numerous players nationwide who have their eye on the big jackpots.

Before playing in any online casino site, it would be best to increase your odds by learning as much as you can about the game. Unlike the actual games in Vegas, there are more facets to playing online. While there is virtually no risk of not getting paid in Vegas, it is possible with online sites. Thus, it is important to find a reputable and credible casino review site before you sit on the table and jump on the game. One of the many casino review sites in the web is onlinecasinolinks.com. Read the rest of this entry »

After over a month writing for SocialSpark.com, I have made decent income from blogging and learned so much from the endeavor. More than the money I have earned, I also learned from the subjects and the companies that I have written and blogged about. I realized the importance of edu and gov links to site rank, affiliate marketing, and other websites that may prove useful in everyday living.

In this endeavor, it is fulfilling to know that both advertisers and bloggers benefit and help each other out. Thus, it would help the industry further if there are more advertisers in various businesses who would take part in the process. I am a person who loves to learn about new things. It would be good if we find more advertisers involved in renewable resources, new technology, and advanced research. I would love to know more about mankind’s efforts to reduce wastes and emissions complemented with new technologies that will utilize other sources of energy. With the current crisis in fuel prices, I’d love to see what companies have committed themselves to in finding an alternative source of energy. I know there are companies now that are pursuing the manufacture of hybrid engines, cars that run on compressed air, electricity, and solar energy.

It would also be great to find out more about advancement in the field of medicine and alternative ways of healing. I practice yoga and I am aware that the world is now realizing that there are better ways to heal the body and soul instead of popping pills in your mouth. New technologies are also a source of wonder and amazement for me. I love those small gadgets that can almost do anything and everything.

Overall, the variety of advertisers in Social Spark is not bad. However, it would be great if the doors are opened to an even wider variety of businesses that make the world such a unique and wonderful place to live in.