Sites Like Etsy, But Free

www.driftwoodmall.com

In an attempt to look for sites like Etsy, but free, I had an inspiration. I love Etsy, and I still continue to sell successfully on the site, but like many people, I was looking to find alternatives. When you have handmade goods and interesting supplies to sell, there's no harm in listing them in more than one place, especially when they are selling on a regular basis.

I couldn't find any sites like Etsy that were free and suited my needs. I tried Bonanza and never had any luck. I do make handcrafted items, but I also like to sell natural supplies, like driftwood, shells and various cool and interesting things from the woods. So many other people are more creative than I am, and I like to provide supplies to those people and see what is created with them. I've had success in the past selling items like this, and I've often had people approach me to find out how they could become sellers of similar items.

This is how Driftwood Mall was born. The site is an online marketplace, very much like Etsy. It offers FREE listings, which is great since you never really know whether something is going to sell, until you list it and people come flocking. If you are a seller of handmade items, natural supplies, creative art or recyclable materials, you are invited to apply for a shop.

How Driftwood Mall is Like Etsy:

• online marketplace for buying and selling handmade goods
• seller payment goes to straight through Paypal upon confirmation of sale
• users can favorite items and share via Pinterest, Facebook, Twitter and more
• offers a blog (small at the moment) with related tips for buyers and sellers

How Driftwood Mall is NOT Like Etsy (but better...shhhh):

• no listing fees!
• seller payment is sent to Paypal immediately, and commission comes out of that payment. This means no monthly bills and no waiting for payment to be deposited based on certain conditions
• no added site shipping fees. This means that customers know exactly what they will be paying without being surprised by added shipping costs upon checkout.
• no vintage items that aren't handmade. I love vintage, but these items get in the way of the true spirit of creativity. 
• more specific categories that open up brand new markets and inspiration. Some of these include recyclable materials, natural supplies and half-finished projects.
• available sister blog where you can request one of your products for a feature post
• a small site at the moment (but we're open to changing that fast!) Smaller means customer service right now is fast and personal. If you have questions, we've got fast answers.
• viral contests available. Donate an item and watch traffic flood to your shop as people share your items on Facebook and Twitter to gain entries in the contest. (Email shop (at) driftwoodmall (dot) com to inquire now about donating an item for the contest...or contact us from the site.)
• sellers are encouraged to share links to their Etsy shops, as well as their personal websites. We believe in abundance. There's enough to go around and everyone deserves a piece.

How Driftwood Mall is NOT Like Etsy (and maybe not so good ways):
we are a growing site that launched in May of 2012. Started by one person in a living room, this was an enormous project that spawned entirely from drive and passion. We don't have as many cool bells and whistles in place yet, but if you join and help us spread the word, all that is listed in this section may fall right into place.

• Etsy just added cool functionality to accept credit card payments without using Paypal. Currently, Paypal is the only payment option available at Driftwood Mall
• No forum (yet!)
• Not as well known yet, but you can help fix that as well.

Online Sellers, Print Postage Online

There are so many ways to print postage online and if you're an online seller, having this option really makes online business life a lot more convenient. Recently, I was introduced to a cool product called pbSmartPostage from Pitney Bowes.

Here's what I like about Pitney Bowes. When I was 16, (a hundred years ago) I worked at an insurance agency as the administrative assistant. One of my jobs was to run bulk mail through a postage machine to get it ready for the Post Office. The machine I used was a Pitney Bowes and I was fascinated by the entire operation. So many companies nowadays end up going out of business because they don't flow with the changes. Pitney Bowes isn't one of these companies. They understand the need for individuals to print postage from home, not just large businesses. This is where pbSmartPostage comes in.

As a small at-home business owner, you'll be able to:
- Buy and print postage stamps online
- Print exact postage (so you don't overpay)
- Get discounted USPS rates on certain services
- Ship and track packages online
- Automatically verify address to reduce undeliverable mail
- Save time, gas, etc. by not going to and from the post office

I realize that there are a few great companies out there that provide similar services, but many of them haven't been in the postage business as long as Pitney Bowes. If you haven't yet selected your postage software, I encourage you to try out the pbSmartPostage 60-day free trial.

New Daily Survey from Palm

For all you survey lovers, especially those of you who love Palm Research, they have implemented another daily survey panel... meaning you can go here daily, fill out the survey and earn cash. Click the link below to signup for this daily survey panel.

Residents of many countries are eligible, including Australia, Austria, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, China, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Hong Kong, Italy, Japan, South Korea, Mexico, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Singapore, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, United Kingdom, United States

If you weren't aware, Palm Research is one of my favorite legitimate research companies that already offers 2 surveys each and every day. Now you can add a third to the mix, making this a great way to earn some extra monthly income. Go sign up for this new survey panel now.

Link: http://palmtrax.com/s/3/12345/20053/141

Our First Contest on Success Achievements

SuccessAchievements.com is having its first contest!

Success Achievements is a social networking site that offers information and exchange on ways to make money online. You can post articles, participate in the forum and find loads of information on ways to turn your passion into profit. As you meet your online business goals, you get cool achievements for your efforts. This way, not only will you be learning how to make money online, but you'll be getting badges and points to show off to your friends on your personal profile.

The first contest aims to give someone with a Squidoo account a long-term and prominent link to his or her Squidoo profile. This can result in many page views, hits and certainly referral bonuses! If you Squidoo, this is a don't miss opportunity!

To see the contest rules, register and click the link for Contests in the User Menu at the top right. Alternatively, you can follow this link.

Conditioning Your Mind For Success

I've read alot of material, and watched alot of videos, and actually done quite a bit of my own personal visualization in an attempt to condition my mind for success. Today, this video I'm about to share, really pulled alot of strings for me, and cemented some of my beliefs and commitments..

If you've ever wondered why you aren't successful, or why other people have something you don't have, or why you fail at the things you do, you MUST watch this video. This video pertains to making money online, as well as anything you want to do differently in your life. Basic concepts that elude most of us most of the time. Tony Robbins is interviewed by John Reese and Frank Kern.

It is in my opinion, that if you take the time to watch this interview, all the way to the end, and you listen carefully to the message, you're already over the biggest hurdle. Are you hungry? This is powerful, powerful stuff. Enjoy.

http://tonyrobbinstraining.com/320/interview-with-frank-kern-and-john-reese/

Sell Your Photos Online - Another Great Way to Make Money from Home

Sell Your Photos Online - Another Way to Make Money from Home

Do you like to take pictures? Do you like to make money? I've discovered several websites that offer free registration where you can sell photos online and receive royalty payments. Each of the websites listed offer different terms, and most offer additional ways to earn by referring your photographer friends!

For most, in order to sell photos online, you must register for free, and then take a little quiz. Basic stuff, really. They just want to know that you understand the basics of digital images, upload and how their system works. Also keep in mind whether or not you want to sell photos online exclusively with one website, or whether you'd like to take advantage of non-exclusivity and sell photos online to several websites at once.

If you're looking to buy stock photos, you can certainly do that as well, but if you're looking to sell photos online to make a little (or a lot of) extra cash, get out your camera and do your thing. You never know! With the internet living in most of our rooms these days, it's so much easier to turn your artistic flair into a comfortable financial living.

Try it out! For my list of more than half a dozen online websites to use to sell your photos, click the link below.

Sell Your Photos Online - Another Way to Make Money from Home

How to Manifest Money With More than Affirmations and The Law of Attraction

If you've heard of The Law of Attraction, you might currently be using it to try and manifest opportunities for your online money making success. I know I am! It's working, but sometimes I seem to hit roadblocks. When I discovered this REALLY interesting system that helps you speak to your subconscious through your dreams, I got excited. See, I sometimes need more than just the fluff to help me understand how this science works. Since I've been using my dreams to make requests, work through troubling issues and release energy blocks, my life has improved considerably and I'm seeing my online money making progress increase substantially!

These guys are now offering a FREE audio and links to several videos for your perusal. This is really interesting stuff, and if you're into the Law of Attraction and co-creating your own existence through awareness and meditation, or affirmations and positive thinking, this free audio and report is a MUST! Read below to see what they have to say and click the links to get your free info now.

As part of their campaign to help raise people's consciousness levels, the guys at Super Mind Evolution System have released a powerful free Alpha Mind Control audio.

Visit the link below to access the audio and see a video that explains more -

http://www.supermindevolutionsystem.com/page1/?11640

If you have difficulty winding down after a stressful day, listening to the track in the evening after the work day is very beneficial. Also, the Alpha track is very useful to use when you need to access a higher part of yourself to solve problems.

The research has found that listening to the Alpha track twice a day, at approximately the same time every day for 30 days, will yield extraordinary results creating cerebral hemispheric synchronization, sense of peace and well being, clarity of thought and significant reduction in the harmful effects of stress.

Not only can this help to improve your life, but as you'll soon discover, this could hold the key to the evolution of mankind...

"Be the change you wish to see in the world" - Mahatma Gandhi

http://www.supermindevolutionsystem.com/page1/?11640

The consciousness revolution has begun...

Make At Home Money Fast, Amazing 10 Dollar Opportunity

What a great idea! And what a fun and EASY way to make money fast. Here's a cheap MLM that works through viral marketing to make you over $30,000 a month with only a 10 dollar investment.

I've written articles, had discussions and created campaigns to understand why people don't get into the MLM business. It's a highly successful and lucrative way to make money from home, doing something fun and easy. And KISS makes it inexpensive to boot!

No one doesn't have 10 dollars. Countless people per day spend $49.95 for a phantom list of data entry companies to work from home, and countless people per day spend $39.95 for a phantom list of survey companies to make money from home. $10 is a fraction of this cost, and you actually GET SOMETHING in return!!!

CHECK OUT KISS

KISS is more like an affiliate program, but works like an MLM through viral marketing.

KISS will pay you $1 for everyone you personally signup who purchases KISS products. You also get 50c every time they buy a KISS and every time their friends buy a KISS, down 9 levels.

Some quick math on that:
You signup 3 people who purchase product (10 bucks) and they each signup three people who purchase product, going down 9 levels, you make $14,392.46 EVERY MONTH!!

You signup 5 people who purchase product and they each signup three people who purchase product, going down 9 levels, you make $23,987.44 EVERY MONTH!!

You signup 7 people who purchase product and they each signup three people who purchase product, going down 9 levels, you make $33,582.41 EVERY MONTH!!

CHECK OUT KISS

Here's the thing. I'm always careful about what I get myself into online. But, when it comes to my money, I'm super careful. As you'll see if you check out my blog below, I only offer legitimate opportunities. I know all about the survey scams, the data entry work from home scams, and even some of the MLMs that can be considered scams. I do my research before I get involved in things.

This make money fast opportunity is 10 bucks!

You've got 10 bucks. And you've got friends. And you like mints.

Get involved. How much fun could this be for all of us who have been manifesting abundance!?!?!?!?!?!?!

$14k to $30k a month, plus other bonuses!!

CHECK OUT KISS

New Social Networking Etc Site to Make Money Online

I've made a fun discovery this evening. It's a new site, in pre-launch, that plans to offer social networking, a place to sell your goods, advertise, create business ideas, and have fun, all while earning shares with the company. You get 100 shares for signing up and additional shares when you invite your friends. These shares aren't worth anything yet, but the company plans to advertise, market and bring in revenue so that in a couple years the shares may be worth 50c each or more! It's free so what a great new way to potentially make at home money while having fun!

Here's a little blurb about me2everyone.com

Something incredible has arrived!

I just became a shareholder in me2everyone and I never had to pay a single penny for the shares! It can only be described as the gold-rush for 2009. This company is going to be huge and shares will soar in value over the coming months! You can register for free and it never has to cost you a single penny!

me2everyone is going to be a cool new virtual world where you can meet friends, chat, shop, play, watch videos, create an art gallery, open a virtual newspaper, play the free inworld lottery and make money from your own online store! You and everyone you know make the decisions, shape the world, create real incomes and share in the profits. It’s a new place where you meet new people or invite your friends. Learn new skills or expand your business. Find the love of your life or help the planet.

Membership is free and every member automatically becomes a shareholder in me2everyone Limited. Personally I have 1000 shares in the venture I'm going to increase my shares very soon. This is an excellent chance for all of us to make some real progress in 2009 and beyond! Please don't miss it.

If you are looking for something really good in 2009: something that changes your view on the world, then you really have to spend just one minute and look at this website.

Please click visit www.me2everyone.com/377908 for the details

PS: More than 350 people signed up every hour during the first 2 days and the owners expect 100m+ over the next 3 years!! Be in now and get ready to share the wealth! :)

Joining me2everyone.com is totally free and they intend to keep it that way. They claim to have some big plans and expect to make enough money to share the wealth. I wasted no time signing up, considering it's free. I invite you to do the same. You never know...we could have stumbled onto something really, really exciting!

Join me at me2everyone.com.

Make Money Online by Joining an Affiliate Network

Whether you're seasoned at the make money online game, or you are brand new, one of the best ways to make money online is by joining affiliate networks. Affiliate networks offer you a centralized place to apply for and join tons of affiliate programs. Rather than having 'paperwork' for 40 different affiliate programs, you can join an affiliate network and get all your stats, tools, banners, links and payments from one place.

I found an affiliate network today that I really like. InstantDollarz is an affiliate network that offers hundreds of ways to make money online with links, banners and fun programs for your readers and website visitors to enjoy. InstantDollarz has affiliate programs for online surveys, ringtones, free credit reports, horoscopes, psychic networks, coupons and more. Hundreds of programs to choose from, and you can even earn money by referring other affiliates and publishers to the network.

InstantDollarz has a great system for tracking your stats. They also got some fun APIs for locking exclusive content until your visitors click a signup link, and they allow you to incentivize your content. Overall, I'm quite pleased with the affiliate network and affiliate programs that InstantDollarz has to offer. To sign up now and check it out for yourself, check out the banner below:

The Best Survey Affiliate Programs

If you're looking for the best survey affiliate programs to try to make money online, I've got a great list for you. BestSurveyAffiliatePrograms.com is a nice little list of some of the top survey affiliate programs online today.

It takes alot of time to research the best survey affiliate programs so this list should come in very helpful to you if using survey affiliate programs is one way you think you'd like to make money online. Telling all your friends, posting to Twitter, writing articles and posting these affiliate links on your websites will surely get you lots of signups and a good bit of money. Some of these survey affiliate programs pay one time for a referral signup and others pay a percentage over the lifetime earnings of your referrals. The survey affiliate programs that pay lifetime percentages are my favorite since you have the opportunity for unlimited and ongoing residual income.

So go take a look at this great page full of the best survey affiliate programs. Have fun signing up and spreading the word about all these great survey companies.

Get your websites and links Google indexed FAST!

If you guys haven't been by Garry Conn's Forum yet, I urge you to check it out. I have learned more in 2 weeks from being a member of this forum than I did in 8 years of doing it on my own. Well, let me rephrase that a bit. I learned a lot on my own in 8 years but being a part of Garry's forum for 2 weeks has glued ALL the pieces together!

One of the little tidbits that I got by being a part of this forum is a way to get new websites and links indexed by Google; maybe a little faster than normal. I've experienced a new URL indexed in under three hours simply by posting a short blog. There are two Wordpress blogs that have been created just for this reason. Visit each blog, sign up, and create a quick post. That's it! No funny business, or they'll delete your post, but you are welcome to advertise your new website and Google should come by and pick it up asap. Here are the links:

http://www.writers-block-unblocked.com/
http://www.unique-article-database.com/

Free Images for Commercial Use

If you guys are like me, you know to make money online you probably need to make use of images. But where do you find them? Most sites that offer free images don't allow them for commercial websites (ie: websites where you plan to make money) and if they do, there's usually a fee. Photobucket is a great site for using pictures, but the terms of service are so complicated that I never feel fully comfortable snagging a free image from there and using it on a commercial site.

It's also pretty difficult to find free images in a search engine as, for me at least, the only sites that come up are 'royalty free images' which generally involve a fee, and a hefty one at that. I finally found a great website that is 100% free and for use however you wish.

www.sxc.hu, stock.xchang, the leading free stock photography site, hasn't yet let me down. I can always find something near to what I'm looking for. They do have images that can be purchased as well, so this site is legitimately making money. stock.xchang has great photos for all sorts of scenarios and if you're looking for images to complement your websites, graphics and pages, I highly recommend this website for free images.

Awesome Affiliate Program for Video Gamers

I stumbled upon a fantastic affiliate program recently. If you like to play video games on your computer, or you have a site that attracts this type of customer, the Big Fish Affiliate Program might be what you've been looking for!

Anyone you refer to your page gets signed up under your friend space. Anytime they make a purchase, or refer friends, you get paid! And you get paid for a lifetime, or as long as you are a partner with the network.

Get paid 25% for your friends for a lifetime. And the best thing about this program is the games are FANTASTIC! They offer all the games you love, like Escape the Museum, Aveyond, Atlantic, Solitaire. There are over 1000 games to play. This is the real deal...not some faker website. They even verify that their games are virus and spyware free!

This affiliate program offers over 1000 video games available for free download. These video games are beautifully done, extremely popular, high-graphic, with loads of options, music and online stats. These are the $20 video games that you can download instantly with 1 hour of free play, but with the Game Club program, you can get the full version of games for $6.99.

This video game affiliate program has lots of options for linking as well. They give you text links, banners, and full color and specific graphics for any video game you wish to link to and offer to your customers. And the best part is they give you the stats for the Top Ten earners...the #1 is over $200,000. Now that's enough to get me motivated, how about you?




To get started with the video game affiliate program with Big Fish click here to sign up

Make Money Online Building Niche Blogs

If you run in MMO (make money online) circles, you've probably heard of Garry Conn. He is a brilliant internet marketer who shares his love of making money on the internet with anyone who's willing to take the time to read what he's got to say. Recently I stumbled across a post that he shared on building niche blogs to make money. I typically (in fact, ALWAYS) avoid buying anything that promises to change my online money making life, but something in my gut told me this guy was different. It turns out my intuition was dead on. Go intuition!

I got involved immediately by purchasing a 60-minute video that Garry was offering. Much to my surprise, and delight, Garry had his soon-to-be-famous 'lightbulb' moment and started a forum. Already this forum is full of TONS of great videos and documents with tips and tricks to make money online using the power of Wordpress to create blogs and static money-making webpages. Many great people have already signed up and we're sharing ideas and knowledge, and asking lots of questions!

Here's a little blurb from THE man himself:

When I first started blogging three years ago, I had a difficult time. Asking for advice or help from bigger and more popular bloggers was a challenge. It seemed like none of those guys would help let alone even give me the time of day. I am very competitive in nature and when I quickly started to see how things were in this little world we called the blogosphere, I felt more than happy to take on the challenge.

My goal was to make money blogging. It took me around a year to get to the point where I could say, "Yeah... I am making some money, but not a lot" and then about six months later things really started to take off. Fast forward to today, and I have been successfully making a very excellent living being a full time professional blogger. I own literally hundreds of blogs and sites and my monthly earnings have at times exceeded $10,000 / month.

I want to offer you an exclusive opportunity to learn from me. This offer gives you the ability to fast forward and bypass the mistakes I have made and learned from. If you are serious about making a career out of earning money on the Internet, consider joining my private membership site. I am confident that doing so will change your life.

Best Regards,
Garry Conn

I'm here to tell you, it would be of great benefit to you to sign up and get involved in this forum. I've made so many positive changes to my websites over the past few days; things I'd never thought of doing, and access to tools I didn't know existed. Check it out. Basic and VIP memberships available.

Visit Garry's Forum

Take Advantage of Social Networking Communities to Make Money Online

Life is always about give and take. You just can't take forever without being expected to give something back. And if you give and give, you can expect to get back automatically. Making money online works a bit like this as well. Since most of us have by now determined that the get rich quick schemes never actually work, we know that making money online takes some work and some time. However, you don't have to go it alone like you might have had to several years ago. There are whole communities of people online trying to make money using their skills. Get into one of these communities, help out a friend and almost always you'll get the favor returned.

One of the best places for returning the favor is Tagfoot. Tagfoot is a great social bookmarking community. Not only does Tagfoot share revenue from advertising sales, but you also join a group of people who love sharing and helping each other out. Many Squidoo lensmasters belong to Tagfoot, so lots of lenses are shared, rated, viewed and commented on. Whether you create great lenses, write superb articles, want to share blog posts, or some great news you discovered on the internet, friends are there to help you out, and as always with an online community, it's great when you return the favor.



Gather is another fun place to post articles, thoughts, questions, observations and stories. Gather also offers a money making opportunity by giving you points for all your contributions to the site. Points can be redeemed for Paypal cash or other great gifts. There are groups especially created on Gather for commenting and rating other people's posts, images, videos and more. You get out what you put into this social networking group.



Squidoo offers you the opportunity to make money creating webpages, called lenses. Any topic which you find interesting, or for which you have knowledge, you are encouraged to (easily) create a page with images, information, links, videos and more. You can earn money with ad revenue share, plus direct affiliate links with Amazon, eBay, Cafe Press, etc. There are many options to dress up your pages and Squidoo is just a fun place to be. Join groups or browse other lensmaster profiles to make friends. People on Squidoo are wonderful about supporting each other's work. You'll find many of the same people on Squidoo, Tagfoot, Twitter and in other social networking communities.



No matter what social bookmarking or networking group, or groups, that you choose to join - or for that matter, whatever other communities you decide to join - writing on eHow, answering questions on Yahoo Answers, whatever - it is sort of an unwritten rule in the world of the internet to return the favor. If someone leaves you a comment, go and check out their work as well. This kind of behavior establishes long-term internet friendships and you never know who you might meet. There are lots of people with lots of knowledge to share. Take advantage of the knowledge and return the favor to see your own page views, hits, and sales increase.

To add your profile names for a plethora of social bookmarking and social networking groups like Twitter, Tagfoot, Gather, MySpace, etc, visit this page. You will need to be signed into Squidoo to add your link. I look forward to meeting you and swapping stories!

SpotWinner - Get Paid to Watch Ads

Now, this 'get paid to watch ads' business is not normally the sort of thing I would go for. To me, there are different categories of 'making money online' and different ways to make money. Websites that make you do things like read ads for 10 seconds each for a penny are really not my cup of tea, though they may work wonders for some people. I think the way that those types of sites probably pay off well is if you can convince 90 of your friends to join. This site is not like that.

SpotWinner is not even a website that I would have tried based on the looks of the ad. To me, it does look like one of those sites that makes you do ridiculously boring things for very little pay. I wouldn't have looked twice. I did, however, hear about this from a friend on Gather, a social networking group that I have joined. She has apparently won a PSP and a digital picture frame, and a friend of hers signed up only recently and has already won a portable DVD player. Now, there's no need for fabrications, as the 5 bonus entries you receive for referrals aren't worth all that. So.....

I signed up, expecting to get an inbox full of spam, and be done with it before I even started. How wrong I was! Though this might not be for everyone, I'm finding SpotWinner to be a whole lot of fun. I stay very busy with all the writing of articles and updating of websites and blogs that I do. I like video games a lot, but I choose not to make the time to get sucked into playing something for hours on end. I have been looking for something that I could do for 10-15 minutes every day, just to give myself a break. SpotWinner does that for me. Basically, you have 5-8 TV commercials (not ads like you're thinking ads) to watch. These ads are super fun, well most of them, funny, original and enjoyable. You earn Spot Cash for watching. You just rate the ad at the end and you're done. If you want more prize entries you stick around and play the short, fun little games about the ads you just watched.

I seriously haven't gotten one piece of junk mail in my inbox. I have this setup on a different email account just for that reason. No spam. And though it could take around 3.5 years to earn enough SpotCash for a $100 Walmart card, (or you can cash out for the $10 Walmart card MUCH sooner!!!), you also get random bonus SpotCash, so it will be fun to see just how soon I can rack up enough for that $100 Walmart prize. I'll likely still be on the internet by then, so you gotta start somewhere. As for the entries for prize winnings, I already know two people who have won, so I'm guessing chances are pretty good. I play all the games I can, and refer anyone who might be interested.

Interested? Click the ad below. I promise it's better than it looks!!!

Gather - a Social Networking Grown-up

I LOVE Gather. I hesitated for a little while after joining because I have a tendency to overwhelm myself with too many things going on. As you know, I write a lot of articles for many different sites, as well as Zany Zodiacs horoscopes once a week, so my free time is limited.

Gather boasts the 'best conversation online.' Here is a blurb straight from their website: "Gather's different from other social networks. Instead of talking about "who's hot," members here discuss the day's hottest topics. You can have smart conversations about the world around you, and keep up with friends and family, too."

Gather advertises to the over-30 crowd. It's a great and laid back social networking community with a twist. For every contribution you make to the site, you get points. Points can be cashed in for gift cards to popular websites and stores, or my favorite thing ever...Paypal cash!

Post poems, blogs, thoughts, articles, suggestions, helpful hints, stories, dreams or whatever the heck you want! Despite the fact that I am very new, Gather has a great community of people and someone generally always comes along to leave a nice comment on something that I've written.

Whether or not MySpace or Facebook floats your boat, you'll probably love Gather. I really, really do. This is one of those places that I would enjoy participating, even if there were no points involved. I can post links to my articles, or say a quick goodnight. I can post poetry, random thoughts, ask questions or just chit chat. I can't stress enough how much fun it has been already.

SocialSpark Blog Marketing Sponsored Posts

After venting about the Smorty vs. Google scandal that I discovered recently, I had posted my findings on Gather, a super fun social networking community that I recently joined. I basically mentioned everything that I mentioned here on this blog; the fact that sponsored or paid blog posts = Google PageRank decrease, and that no matter how you slice it, it's bad for the blogger. I received a response from one Carri Bright, an employee of IZEA, the parent company of SocialSpark, another 'pay to blog' website in the mix. Here is a copy of what she wrote:

"I enjoyed your post and think that the decision to participate in sponsored posting is an important one for every blogger and I am glad to see some honest questions and conversation surrounding this decision.

As I work for IZEA, the parent company of SocialSpark, my view on this is a bit different. Obviously, we are firmly on the pro side of the Sponsored Posting argument. We believe that Sponsored posts do have a place in Social Media and that place is rapidly expanding.

If it is done correctly, Sponsored content should ALWAYS be disclosed, should only appear infrequently (a good sponsored to non-sponsored ratio is 1:10) and should fit nicely with the theme of your blog.

I also wanted to let you know that SocialSpark opportunities are all no-follow which makes them search engine (re: Google) friendly and will NOT cause your PR to disappear. In addition, SocialSpark has run campaigns for Sears, Ford, KMart, Dockers, Windows and Coke in the past few months, so big name companies are beginning to see the efficacy of this type of Marketing and we expect lots more in the new year."

I appreciate her response to this matter, however, I signed up for SocialSpark at the same time I signed up for the others. I honestly wasn't thoroughly impressed with what I saw, and therefore never made a post. I've read reviews on other 'at home money' blogs from people who really like this service, and have made quite a bit of money.

Personally, I am going to stay away from blogging for pay. The only thing I can think at this point, having lost PageRank on my other blog, is that if links have to be made 'no-follow' so Google doesn't know what's going on, it's still a scandal. (And I use the word scandal in order to refrain from calling this an outright scam!) It still seems scandalous to me, but I've included the post from Carri so that you may feel free to make your own decisions.

I will continue to gather more information on this topic and forward it along.

The Truth about Get Paid to Blog, Sponsored Posts Sites

Well, well, well... did I learn a thing or two yesterday! When I started this blog, I had signed up for, and had been offering links to sponsored blog post and pay to blog websites that were 'legitimate' and not scams. Well, that little word 'scam' just has a large array of meanings here on the internet, doesn't it?

Though not scams, and likely still a great and satisfying way for some to earn money online with their blogs, sites like Smorty, PayPerPost and Sponsored Reviews really irritate Google. I hadn't been using any of them myself except Smorty. Smorty expressly has a blurb on their website that ensures that Google PageRank will not be affected as they do not require you to admit that you are writing a sponsored post on your blog. Well, I suppose right there should have been my first clue. If you are hiding something, that's a lie, and lying has consequences.

Well, I discovered the consequences of using my other personal blog for Smorty sponsored posts, as well as their fun little feature of post exchange. Post exchanges allow you to write posts for other blogs, and in turn, another blogger writes a post for you. This creates a one-way link into your blog so that 'supposedly' your Google PageRank will increase. To me, at first glance, this didn't seem like anything that could possibly be against any rules. And maybe it's not, but more about that in a moment. Once your Google PageRank increases, you get more sponsored opportunities from Smorty.

Well, I own 3 other websites and the two blogs. I've been obsessing over Google PageRank since I began this journey back in September of 2008. I finally got a PageRank increase to 1 last night on every site, including this blog, EXCEPT the blog that I used for Smorty...which is now back to N/A PageRank. That's even worse than Zero, I think. So, it immediately occurred to me that Smorty was the culprit. Upon a bit of research from other great bloggers, I realized that what I had been doing, and selling to the world as legitimate, is actually a great, big, fat GOOGLE TOS NO-NO!

So, I have officially suspended links to any and all 'get paid to blog' links. I checked out Social Spark and I just wasn't impressed with how they operate either. I refuse to tell you that you can make money posting on your blog for any of these sites because the entire point, besides getting paid, is to raise your Google PageRank. If you start at 0, you can't get any rank when Google catches you, and if you start higher and get lots of paid posting opportunities, you'll lose your Google PageRank when Google catches you. It's a no win situation!

So, I'm back to simply writing articles for the sites that I know to be legitimate. These include Helium, Bukisa, Associated Content, eHow and others. Links can also be found to the right of this blog.

Also, I'm having a rather good time at Gather. Gather is a social networking community that boasts 'The Best Conversation Online.' Not only can you make great friends and find interesting topics on which to comment, but you also earn points for your contributions that can be cashed in for gift cards or Paypal cash. More on this shortly.