E-Currency

If you're going to make money online, it helps if you can get paid online. In some cases, you can just have money deposited directly to your bank account, but in others, its easier to be paid using an online payment system, or e-currency.

Some of the most popular e-currencies include PayPal, E-Gold, and MoneyBookers. There are countless others, but in most cases, one of these three will do the trick.

PayPal is owned by eBay, and is available in 47 countries . Different rules apply in different countries, but in many cases you can link your PayPal account to your bank account, so if someone sends money to your Paypal account, you can move it to your bank.

E-Gold works a little differently. It's an e-currency that's backed by real gold. Earning it and spending it online is easy, but converting it into cash can be a bit more difficult, and not practical in small amounts.

MoneyBookers is a little more EU-centric, but is expanding rapidly and allows members in over 30 countries to withdraw funds to their local bank accounts, in their local currencies.

Many companies still pay with checks, but bank fees can get expensive, so having these options available can really help out sometimes.

How to Use Gmail as a 1Gb Hard Drive

Online hard drive services (like Xdrive -- 5Gb storage for $9.95/mo) have been around for a long time, and can really come in handy as a backup drive, or as a way to access files from more than one computer. But if you don't need all the features of a service like Xdrive, there's another option. Gmail.

Google gives Gmail members 1Gb worth of storage. For free. One way to use that space for files is to email them to yourself as attachments. A cooler and slightly geekier way to do it is to use GmailDrive. This little program adds a GmailDrive folder on your computer. Then whenever you want to send a file to your Gmail account, you just drag and drop it in.

If you've got GmailDrive installed on another computer, you just open it and drag the files from Gmail to your desktop. And if you don't have GmailDrive installed, you can still access the files by logging into Gmail the normal way and downloading the files.

I think Gmail membership is still invitation-only at this point, but invitations aren't hard to come by. You can get one at iSnoop.net or from just about any current Gmail member.

GmailDrive only works on WindowsXP, but Mac OSX users might try looking at the MacOSHints forum for some possible Mac options. Linux users can use GmailFS -- read about it at Richard Jones' Google Hacks blog.

Also, there's another program for WinXP called RoamDrive that does the same sort of thing, but works with HotMail and MSN accounts as well as Gmail. I haven't tried it since GmailDrive is doing the trick for me, but anybody considering it should know its free (ad supported) and requires version 1.1 of the .NET framework (if you don't have .NET installed, RoamDrive will automatically download and install it for you -- that's a 23Mb download).

Thanks to Barb Dybwad for her post at Engadget -- HOW-TO: Use your Gmail account as a personal file server -- for bringing GmailDrive to our attention. You can read her post for step-by-step instructions for setting up GmailDrive -- with screenshots and everything!

Categories: Gmail, software, freestuff

Online Price Comparison Services

After reading Sean O'Rourke's review of the new MSN Shopping (beta) site at Organized Shopping Blog, I thought I'd mention a few other comparison shopping services that are available. There are literally hundreds of them, including some for very specific product niches. But for general shopping, try these:

• Froogle - owned by Google (still in beta)
• InStore - owned by AOL
• Shopping.com - DealTime + Epinions = Shopping.com
• PriceGrabber - shopping services for US, Canada, UK, Mexico, and Brazil
• MySimon - part of the CNet Network

The primary feature of these services is to compare prices at different online stores. They also often provide product reviews and reviews and ratings of the different merchants. Using one or more of these services can help you find the product you're looking for at the best price, available from trustworthy online shops.

I put several of the comparison shopper services to the test today, and was quite happy with the results. A CD that I could've easily paid $18-20 for, I found for $13.50. A book that would've cost me over $20 at Amazon.com was available for $17.40 elsewhere. And a possible $100 savings on an 40Gb iPod was enough to convince me that comparison shopping is absolutely essential if you want a good deal.

I'll try to put together some reviews, and maybe talk about some of the more specialized shopping services some time soon.

Categories: shopping

For Aussies: EmailCash and PureProfile

Australians interested in saving money should definately consider joining two excellent Australian websites -- EmailCash and PureProfile.

EmailCash is a rewards program that gives members points for reading emails, visiting websites, answering surveys and shopping at EmailCash Reward Partners. And the best part is, not only do they reward you for shopping, but you can find some great Australian websites. My favourite is ClickDVD for music, movie, and TV series DVDs, and my wife loves Alt(Everything) for all-natural body products. EmailCash has been around since 1999 and has over 400,000 members!

PureProfile was originally owned by AustraliaPost, and pays members for participating in surveys. The surveys usually take less than 1 minute to complete, and pay between $1-3. I've been a member since 2002, and not only have I earned a bit of extra cash, I've enjoyed quite a few offers from PureProfile marketing partners.

Categories: rewards, shopping

Cool Game: Alien Hominid

This doesn't have anything to do with making money online (unless maybe you're an aspiring game developer), but if you spend as much time in front of your computer as I do, a little diversion can come in handy sometimes.

A post at MetaFilter led me to the Newgrounds flash gaming website to play a free game called Alien Hominid. This game's been around for a while, but an all-new console version has just been released for PlayStation2 and GameCube. The Flash version is hard, but a lot of fun, and if you decide you want to buy the console version, you can order them online at the Alien Hominid website.

Play the free Flash version of Alien Hominid.

Oh yeah, there are a lot of other cool games at Newgrounds, but a lot of them aren't really for little kids -- some are pretty violent, and others have nudity.

Categories: games, freestuff

MyPoints

Joining MyPoints is a great way to save money online. It's a rewards program that's been around for nearly 10 years and has over 10 million members.

MyPoints members earn reward points for shopping at hundreds on online stores -- like OfficeDepot.com, Overstock.com, Avon.com and many more. You can also get points for signing up for free trial offers, and even for just reading email ads sent by MyPoints. Then once you've earned some points, you can spend them to buy gift certificates at many of your favorite stores.

I've been a member for over 5 years now, and I love it. Not only have I found a lot of great deals online, but I've been rewarded for every dollar I've spent. I've earned thousands of points, and traded them for for gift certificates, magazine subscriptions, and even used them to help charities like the Red Cross.

Another way MyPoints members can earn reward points is for telling their friends about the program and encouraging them to join. So if you're interested, please email me at joinmypoints at gmail dot com and I'll send you a special invitation.

Or if you just can't wait, go to straight to the MyPoints website and sign up now!

Categories: rewards

Starting the Blog

This blog is about ways to make money online. Not "create the next eBay or Google" kind of money, but more like the "pays the ISP bill every month" kind of money.

A lot of the info I post here will have to do with various "incentivized advertising" programs. This is where you get paid a small amount (often a fraction of a cent) to read an ad and visit the advertiser's website.

I'll also talk about things like selling stuff on eBay , building your own website, doing a bit of freelance writing, and whatever else comes up.

This isn't going to be about any "get rich quick" schemes. If I post about them at all, it'll most likely be to point out why they're scams, announce an indictment, or just encourage people to stay away from anything that sounds too good.