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!!!

Turn your blog into a Viral Widget

If you're on the quest to make money at home, it's likely you have a blog. If you're posting away, diligently, at least 3 times per week, you're doing great! Keeping fresh content in your blog will help attract people looking for what you have to say, and people who share your common interests.

Of course, when you begin to get visitors to your blog, you'll want ways to earn money from that blog like Google Adsense ads, affiliate links, and other targeted advertising. If you've got all that, great! Now it's time to make that blog into a viral widget, that anyone can grab and post on their MySpace, Facebook, blog, or other pages. It makes it easier for people to keep track of what you're doing, saying and writing.

Widgetbox has a great little feature that is SUPER EASY to use! This feature creates a very attractive widget with your picture or logo, your headline, your most recent posts, and a GET THIS WIDGET button at the bottom. That means whoever sees your widget and likes it, can grab a copy of the code and paste it wherever is most convenient for them. Let's say JimBob 'grabs' a copy of your widget. He posts it to his MySpace. 14 of JimBob's friends notice it and really like what they see. They grab a copy as well, also to post in the most convenient place. Keep going with those numbers and suddenly you're popular!

The other great thing about Widgetbox is they have a network. You can sign up your blog to be part of that network, in your chosen category, and for the simple price of displaying the network widget on your own blog, you've got free advertising wherever someone else in that category displays the widget.

Example: you display the network widget on your blog. All blogs from your network cycle through this widget, meaning yours shows up randomly. Your blog will also show up randomly on everyone else's blog who has the network widget.

So here are the instructions to get your own viral widget from Widgetbox; called a Blidget.

1. Sign up for a free account at Widgetbox
2. At the home page, on the right side about mid-way down, there's a box that says 'Make a Blidget, turn your blog into a widget and attract more visitors'. Click there.
3. The next screen will ask for your blog URL. Example: my blog url is http://at-home-money.blogspot.com. Click continue.
4. You'll be able to see your widget already at the right hand side. From here you can customize colors, images, text, description, and other exciting details.
5. Click 'Save Blidget' at the bottom and scroll back to the top, read the guidelines and check the box. Click 'Save Blidget' again and you're done. You are now the proud owner of a fancy Blidget containing your blog!
6. A pop up window should now come up inviting you to join the Widgetbox Network. From here, if you'd like to join, and I highly suggest it, you'll click join and select a category on the next screen. Make sure to select the most appropriate category for your blog. You'll get better targeted readers that way.
7. Once you've selected the appropriate category for your blog, you'll generate your network widget and post it to your blog for the world to see. Remember! Everyone else is displaying this widget on their blogs and now your blog will show up all over!

Congratulations. You should receive more traffic now. Plus you still have that fancy Blidget of your specific blog to post at MySpace, Facebook and other places that allow this type of code. (There's a great list inside the Widgetbox code when you click to get the code for your widget. It includes places like Bebo, Wordpress, Blogger, iGoogle and more.)

Here is an example of what my Widgetbox Blidget looks like. Feel free to grab it for your page:


You will also see the Widgetbox Network Widget near the bottom at the right-hand sidebar. This is the widget that allows your blog to be displayed on hundreds of other blogs in your network.

As always, if you have any questions, leave me a comment!

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.

A.W. Surveys - Scam from the get go!

Ok, so this blog is all about LEGITIMATE ways to make money at home. I usually like to simply avoid anything negative, as you might already know from following My personal blog, Bloomdrop's Zany Zodiacs. In avoiding anything negative, I like to provide all the legitimate ways to make money, but I prefer not to bother writing about anything that might be considered a scam. My biggest reason for that choice is that I really don't like to outright call someone else's business idea a scam. We are here to make money and not necessarily to please everyone with our practices. However, I began this journey by starting a website of only legitimate survey companies. In locating legitimate companies for my survey directory, A.W. Surveys was one of the survey companies that kept popping up.

These people are certainly making the money to market themselves. I see them advertised everywhere. How are they making sufficient money to advertise so much? By promising top dollar for people to refer friends, and then not paying anyone for referrals. Oh, wait! From what I gather from all my research and reading, they apparently pay a 'chosen few' and the assumption can be made that this is done so that there will still be a few people who sing the praises of this scam, scam, scamming survey company. From my research, it has been concluded that their favorite reason for denying payment is by saying that referrals were gathered fraudulently and therefore are not valid.

According to Survey Police, another legitimate directory of online survey companies, there are 5 unresolved complaints. I refuse to even list AW Surveys at surveymoneymakers.com. And the only reason I decided to post this now is because the first person who decided to leave a comment on this blog was trying to push A.W. Surveys on me. HA!

I have even had a personal run in with A.W. Surveys. And if you don't want to say that this is a scam red flag, then I don't know what is. I signed up, just to see what would happen. I did the initial $28 worth of surveys, which automatically sounds too good to be true. I had a question about one of their processes, being that I was starting a directory of legitimate surveys, so I sent them an email through their online support system. I already had an idea of what these people were about. My ticket was mysteriously 'closed' with no response. I reopened it and replied 'LOL' to which that was closed with no response as well.

AVOID AW SURVEYS LIKE THE PLAGUE! You won't usually see me posting negative things about money-making opportunities, even if they are scams, but this scam is just too juicy to pass up. If you are blindly referring people to AW Surveys without knowledge, just stop. There's a really slim chance of your getting paid, so waste your time on something that's actually legitimate like ClixSense or just go to the right of this blog page and sign up for a survey company that is actually going to pay you for surveys and referrals!!

myLot

So I have to say that myLot is really starting to grow on me. For those of you who haven't heard, myLot is a community where you can discuss issues, ask questions, view blog posts, news articles and read about people's personal experiences. The best part of myLot is you get paid for all your contributions to this site.

Each time you make a post, comment or submit a blurb, you are paid for your entry. Talk about the weather, get to know people, raise a complaint, get some information, a question answered, or post your thoughts. Each contribution earns you a little more money. There are some people who spend the better part of their days writing on myLot.

You can also use myLot to promote your business. Though, like any site, myLot disapproves of directly spamming and entering your network links anywhere and everywhere, if you're crafty, you can get word for your products and services out there. Technically, it's not considered spam if people are interested in what you have to offer. Just be careful about where you put links to your affiliate programs and such. Private messaging is the safer way to go, and always be conscientious of what you're pushing. If you know it's a scam, please don't try to get a million people involved!

Further, myLot allows you to post HTML code on your profile page. This is the PERFECT place to enter your affiliate banners, website links and network referral URLs. Then you can simply respond to posts by people looking for your time of services, and point them to your profile. myLot is a social networking community. Use that to your advantage, plus get paid! myLot also has a referral program. You can't go wrong. Spend all day, or even just a bit of time, posting and reading and having fun and you'll be bringing in some money in no time.

Sign up for myLot now

Promote Your Links Using Social Networking

The difference between spam and self-promotion is sometimes hard to decipher. Many of us on the internet are looking for ways to tell people about what we're doing, and seeking to share valuable information with those who are like-minded. Some just want to get as many referrals as possible, but others are genuinely seeking people who might be interested in articles, webpages, e-books, blogs and more.

Social Networking has become very popular and there are so many ways to make friends and exchange links with others who share the same interests as you. Some social networking and bookmarking website work better than others, depending on what it is that you have to advertise. I've created a Squidoo lens that outlines some tips on social networking and gives some great resources on where to find friends. Enter your profile information in each corresponding section and sit back as people find you and you can begin to get support for your great ideas, articles and internet creations.

click here to Self Promote using Social Networking