Fat Fingers - Misspelled bargains at eBay?

I'm more of a browser than a searcher at eBay, but my wife says finding misspelled items can be a good way to find a bargain at eBay. She also recommends checking the listings that don't have gallery photos, poor descriptions, etc.

Anyway, SearchEngineLowdown has a link to FatFingers.com, a search engine for finding misspelled eBay items. You type in the word you're looking for, and it checks a whole heap of possible misspellings, and returns any results that it finds.

Might just be a handy tool for anybody looking to profit from the mistakes of others. Who said spelling doesn't count?

Free Game -- Poom!

Just what I needed when I'm supposed to be working on the new template, but I accidentally came across a link to Poom while reading my MetaFilter feed. Ooops!

It takes a bit of practice to get the hang of it, but I like it! Poom it, baby!

Categories: freestuff , games

Cuban and Searls on the growing problem of Splogs

Doc Searls pointed to Mark Cuban's post about splogs (spam + blogs --> spamblogs --> splogs). Mark defines a splog as any blog with a creator who doesn't add any written value. I think that may be a little too harsh -- some blogs add value just by linking to sites of interest, acting as a sort of information filter in a way that search engines can't. Those kinds of blogs aren't necessarily splogs.

But there's no doubt that splogs, and blam (blog spam -- the term 'blam' coined by Ryan of CommunistDanceParty fame) are a problem. And one that's likely to get worse if measures aren't taken to stop them.

There are tons of websites, blogs, forum posts, etc. devoted to giving advice about how to make 'easy money' with a splog or three (or 300) and an Adsense account. It's ridiculous, and it needs to stop. Blogspot is bad, but it's not the only site that needs to clean out the splogs.

Filed in: blogging , scams

Webmaster Radio

Reading Jensense this morning pointed me to what looks like a very promising resource for webmasters -- webmasterradio.fm.

They've got live shows, as well as archives which can be downloaded normally or as podcasts. They've got shows dealing with affiliate marketing, search engine news, content creation, search engine optimization, traffic conversion, and all sorts of other stuff.

While I usually prefer to read rather than listen, there are times when listening is going to work better. I think I'm going to have to get serious about this podcasting stuff -- not just as a source of entertainment, but as a learning tool.

Categories: webmasterinfo , podcasts

Blogging Software -- Oh, the possibilities!

I just read Jason Calcanis' latest post and found out that he's created a new company called BlogSmith that lets customers use the same blog software used to create all the Weblogs, Inc. blogs. Their first client is Razor magazine, and I think their website is a pretty damned impressive example of what can be done with a blog. As Jason points out in his post, the Razor site looks nothing like a blog, but it looks good, and it works brilliantly.

Categories: blogging

Blog Directory Submissions

I know I should be focusing on the template re-design and not worrying about traffic. But after looking at 2,753 blog templates trying to decide what I'm after, I needed a break.

I just added FreeCashSpace Blog to Blogdex.

And Popdex.

And Blogstreet.

And 2rss.com.

Just some of the Blog directories, RSS submission sites, etc. that are listed at RSSTop55.

Categories: blogging

SiteProNews -- The 10 Best Resources for CSS

If I'm going to build my own Blogger template, I've got a feeling I'm going to need some good reference sources for info on CSS. Luckily for me, SiteProNews has a great list of The 10 Best Resources for CSS.

Categories: blogging , css

Free Photos -- I Love Creative Commons!

Still working on the '7 Mistakes for Your First Week Blogging' and I've already finished the Day 5 Advice -- Make your own header image. Turns out there are plenty of photos available from a number of sources, including:

• Flickr -- hundreds of thousands of photos available under Creative Commons license.


• YotoPhoto -- a search engine indexing over 100,000 high-quality free photos.


• The New York Public Library Digital Gallery. -- over 300,00 digitized photos, maps, prints, ephemera, and more from the NYPL.


• Aarin Free Photo -- a small (~1000) but growing collection of excellent photographs.


• FirstGov Graphics and Photos -- public domain images made available for the United States government.


• Image*After -- over 10,000 free images and textures available.


• MorgueFile -- thousands of free stock photos.


• NASA Image Access -- lots of really cool photos of planets and other space-related stuff available from NASA.

I found a great panoramic photo on Flikr and after a bit of work in Photoshop, I think it's going to look really nice at the top of my new template.

Categories: blogging

Time to Change the Blog

A great post at Thirty Stories Up called '7 Mistakes for Your First Week Blogging.' Too bad I didn't read it in my first week of blogging. Or even the first six months! Oh well, better late than never, and Kurt's advice fits in nicely with a lot of the stuff Darren blogs about at ProBlogger. Plus a lot of it is just common sense -- which can easily go out the window when you just want to getstartedanddosomethingNOW!!!

I'm starting off by changing the template. I've been trying to decide whether I'd stick with Blogger, or switch to WordPress, and for now, I've decided to keep using Blogger. But the Blogger template has got to go. Even though I've modded it a bit, it's still not what I want.

Of course it would be too easy to just find some ready-made alternative. I don't know if there are a lot of Blogger-specific templates out there -- I found a few -- but even if they are, I doubt they're going to be what I want. So I'm checking out a bunch of free blog templates, and I'm going to have a go at creating my own template. How hard could it be? Heh.

I found some great free blog templates at Open Source Web Design. With a little luck, I'll be able to combine enough elements from various designs to get something close to what I want.

Categories: blogging

Credit Card Scam Alert

David Weinberger posted at Joho the Blog about a credit card scam that's making the rounds. Like Dave, I figure I might fall for this one if I hadn't heard about it first, so I thought I'd pass it on.

Basically, the scammer calls up pretending to be from the credit card company and tells you they're going to give you a refund for something or other. Then they tell you your card number, and ask you to verify by giving them the 3-digit security code.

DON'T DO IT!!! Credit card companies never ask for that number, but the scammers will love you for it.

Categories: scams

Blogger Toolbar for Microsoft Word

I keep tossing up whether I want to keep using Blogger or switch over to another blogging tool - probably WordPress. I think about the features Blogger is missing, and make up my mind that it's time to move on, and then Blogger announces a new feature. In this case, it's a toolbar that lets you type your posts in Word, then hit 'publish' and send them to your Blogger blog. That's pretty damned cool.

Read more about it at GoogleBlog.

Categories: blogging

CompareRewards.com

I found a blog today that looks pretty cool if you're into Reward Point programs like MyPoints, Memolink, etc. It's called CompareRewards.com, and it's got news about over two dozen programs, plus a lot of helpful information about things like how to maximize your rewards, the dollar value of the points used by different programs, and a whole lot more.

Free Games at Orsinal

Thanks to the Download Squad for pointing to a load of free Flash games at Orsinal. The games are fun, clever, have excellent graphics and music, and from the half-dozen or so I played, are fairly non-violent.

I've been creating shortcuts to a lot of these online Flash games and putting them in a special folder for my kids. They love 'em! And the more time they spend playing these FREE games, the less time they spend hassling me for a new Playstation or Gameboy game.

Categories: freestuff games

Free Stuff

Over the last 10 years or so, the Internet has become a huge, glogal marketplace where you can buy or sell just about anything. And that's cool. But what's even cooler is that the Internet has also become a huge, global opportunity for people to share things without requiring payment.

I've been posting links to some free online games I've come across because some of them are a lot of fun, and because they're great when you really need to take a break and kill 10 or 15 minutes (or two-and-a-half hours!!!). I'm also going to start posting links to other cool free things on the Net -- like free music, free software, etc. And these things aren't 'free' because you're stealing them. They're free because the people who created them want to share.

Two sites that have some great free stuff are Connexions and the MIT OpenCourceWare sites. Both of these websites have free college courses. The courses from MIT include the course syllabus, reading list, lecture notes, and assignments, while the courses on Connexions are complete online classes with everything you need made available in your browser.

I don't know how many FreeCashSpace readers are likely to be interested in that kind of thing, but I thought I'd share just in case. Personally, I think both sites are really cool. But then, I'm one of those people who's always 'taking a class' of one kind or another. Now I can take 'American Foreign Policy: Past, Present, and Future' at MIT and 'Sound Reasoning -- Interactive Music Appreciation' from Rice University. Sweet!

Categories: freestuff

Is It Worth It?

Among some of the common reactions I get to this blog, and to my efforts to make money online, are questions like 'Is it worth it?' and comments like 'You're wasting your time.' Often, these sorts of comments are followed by a link to a website that'll show me how to make some REAL money online.

But 'Is it worth it?' is a question I not only hear from others, but one that I ask myself a lot as well. So far my answer to myself is 'yes.'

Since I started this blog, I've made about $175 for 'working' approximately one hour in the morning and one at night. I got ripped off for around $5, and I've probably got another $150-200 sitting in various accounts accumulating enough to request payment. Sure, it wouldn't be a good idea to give up my day job, but it's an easy way to earn a bit of extra 'pocket money.'

And hopefully the monthly totals will gradually increase. How? Not by joining more Paid To Read programs, that's for sure. I think I'm fairly maxed out on the amount of time I can spend reading email ads, and in fact, my plan is to slowly decrease, not increase, that time.

Instead of PTR, I'm looking at things like affiliate sales, more paid content writing, and maybe something like Google AdSense. But before I do that, I need to keep working to build an audience -- to bring more traffic to the blog. I know that's not going to happen overnight, but I work at it a little bit every day -- well, almost every day. Submitting to search engines, adding it to blog directories, but mostly by trying to post stuff people might actually be interested in reading.

Categories: paidtoread blogging

Payments This Week

Not a big week for payments, but I suppose every little bit helps.

BannerFoxAds $0.15
PolarPTR $1.92
Classical-Mail $0.50
Total $2.57
Monthly Total $13.89

All three payments were a month's worth of earnings, except for the 50 cents from Classical-mail; I had about 98 cents when I requested payment there, and if I'd waited another day until I had over $1, I'd have been paid $1. Now I have to wait until next month. It's important to check the payment rules before you hit the payment request button.

Categories: paidtoread

Catagories for Blogger

Usually I try not to geek out too much in this blog, but sometimes I just can't help myself. I've been contemplating moving the blog from Blogger to WordPress or some other blogging software because Blogger doesn't have categories. I like categories. A lot. But I also like Blogger, so I've been looking at various hacks and work-arounds ever since I started FreeCashSpace Blog.

There are a number of ways to add pseudo-categories to Blogger, including OldCola's use of multiple blogs and Gmail (link), and Karl Bunyan's XML + ASP solution (link). For a while I was using del.icio.us tags but then got out of the habit of adding them in. But now I've found a way for them to be added automatically! You can read about it here at Freshblog.

The script ads a form to the Blogger 'Create Post' page automatically generates the HTML code to add the tags that you type in to the form. Then all you have to do is add those bookmarks to your del.icio.us page. Still a bit more work than I'd like, but I think it's a pretty good solution until Blogger adds categories.

What does this have to do with making money? None, I suppose. But it's always important to have the right tools to do any job.

Categories: blogging, webtools

TV Audio/Video Selector

OK, maybe everybody else in the world has already figured this out, but just in case they haven't, I figured I'd post about this. Last week I finally got fed up with fighting with the mess of cables that connect my television to all the things it needs to be connected to -- a VCR, DVD player, and two different console game systems.

It seemed like no matter how things were hooked up, somebody wanted something else hooked up, which meant finding the right cables, getting in behind the TV set, unplugging something and plugging something else in. A total pain-in-the-butt.

So finally I decided to do something about it. I went down to the local electonics shop and had a look around and sure enough, they sold something that would take care of the problem -- a 4-way audio/video selector switch. It's a little box with lots of RCA connections on the back. You plug all your devices into the box, then plug the box into the TV, and you're done! The kids want to play Playstation? They just the button for that device. Now you want to watch a DVD? Click the button and you're ready to go.

I bought this one at Dick Smith Electronics:


You can find similar boxes at Radio Shack in the U.S.
Fantastic!

The ESP Game & PeekaBoom

I like to find, play and share free games, and these two are not only a lot of fun, but they're actually good for something besides killing time.

The ESP Game has been around for a while. It's a two-player game where you're randomly paired with another player. You and your partner each view an image, and type in words you associate with that image. When both of you type the same word, you get a new image. Why? It's part of a project by Carnegie Mellon University, funded by the National Science Foundation, to label all the images on the web.

PeekaBoom is newer, and it's done by the same people. In this one, one player (Boom) views an image, but the other player (Peek) can't see it. The Boomer clicks on the image to reveal parts of it to the Peeker. Then the Peeker tries to guess what word has been used to label the image. When the Peeker guesses correctly or passes, the players swap roles and a new image is shown to the new Boomer.

Give 'em a try, have some fun, and help do some serious scientific research.

BugZooka

My wife doesn't like bugs. To be more specific, she doesn't like bugs in our house. She wants them gone. But she doesn't want them dead. She also doesn't want to have anything to do with making them either dead or gone. That's my department. But she doesn't want me to kill the bug, just make it gone. Most of the time, I kill it. Except crickets. It's bad luck to kill a cricket in the house. I don't know why.

But now I've found a way to easily deal with the bugs without killing them. It's possible that with the BugZooka, my wife might be able to deal with the bugs herself. Hopefully she'll still keep me around.

Apparently it sells for $30 at Amazon.com, Sears.com, and elsewhere, but I found it for $19.99 at Shop.com

So how does it work? It's easy. No batteries. No dead bugs. No squished bug mess to clean up. You just cock it, point it at the bug (within an inch or so), thumb the trigger and WHOOSH! the bug is sucked, alive and unharmed, into the collection chamber, ready to be released back into the wild. Or at least over the fence into the neighbours backyard.

The $20 gets you the BugZooka unit, two collection chambers (one is clear so you can check out your 'catch' and one is smoky gray if you'd rather not see), an extension tube, and a wall-mount bracket (which I'll probably never use). The only thing I haven't decided is if I need to order an extra one for the kids so they won't steal mine.

Yeah right, they'll steal mine anyway.

Payments This Week

Not a bad start for August. PTR payments weren't much, but a payment from a survey company more than made up for it.

Mesmerizing-Mails $0.28
BeeHiveMails $1.04
Keynote Panel $10.00 (Amazon.com gift certificate)

Total $11.32

The payment from Mesmerizing was a monthly payment -- there's no minimum at that site.

The payment from BeeHiveMails wasn't requested, either. The owner regularly pays all members with more than $1 in their accounts. This time she charged a 10-cent fee which is against the Terms of Service. For this reason, I'm not recommending BeeHiveMails at this time.

And the payment from Keynote was for completing a survey where I evaluated the Amazon website. It took 15-20 minutes and in return I received a $10 Amazon GC, which I consider just as good as cash. Paid surveys, if you can qualify, are a great way to earn a bit of extra cash.

Recommended Paid to Read Programs

Based on various things that happened last month, there have been a few changes to my List of Recommended PTRs. A few added, a few removed.

5StarPromotions -- I joined 5Star at the end of June and so far I've got $1.07 in earnings. Everything's done on-site, and sometimes I forget to visit the site, so my earnings could be higher. It's not a fast earner, but it has some interesting ads, and it only takes a few minutes a day, so I think it's well worth it.

EmailCash -- Any Australian who is interested in making and saving money online needs to be a member of this program. That's all there is to it! The free rewards are great, but the real reward comes from doing business with some of their awesome partners because not only can you find some great deals, but you also earn Rewards Points when you make a purchase.

MyPoints -- Another great rewards program. If you live in the US and you shop online, you should be a member. Just like at EmailCash, the free rewards are nice, but the points you receive after shopping with their partners is where the real rewards are. They don't pay in cash, but have lots of great gift cards and gift certificates available. And if you can't find one you like, you can always get a Webcertificate, which is like a virtual MasterCard.

Update: This list was last updated on 22 March 2007.

DestinysDollars Update

Just a quick update on the new PTR program I joined called DestinysDollars.

This is the first PTR I've ever joined and promoted at launch, and so far I've spent $11.96 on a membership upgrade and $5.06 advertising it. Unfortunately, the site where I spent over half of my advertising money ($3.03) had server problems right after my ad was sent, so it didn't do very well. I'm trying to get the owner to either re-send the ad or give me a refund.

But even without that ad, I've got 4 referrals so far. Plus another 4 given to me randomly because of the membership upgrade. And one of those referrals has 9 referrals as well, so that gives me a total downline of 17 members. Not a bad start (at least for me).

And the earnings? So far I've got $0.16 in personal earnings and $0.0667 in referral earnings, for a total of $0.2267. That's an average of nearly 3 cents a day, which I think it a pretty good start for a program that just started and still only has around 500 members.

As an upgraded member, in addition to the free referrals and the lower minimum payment requirement, I also get some 'free' ads. So far, I've gotten one referral for the site I advertised, Avant-Cash.

So far my 'investment' of $17.02 has returned about $0.07. Not a bad start, lol.

Avoiding Scams

One of the negative sides of earning money through 'Get Paid' programs is dealing with all the scams. Unfortunately, it's a fact of life. By knowing what to look out for, plus a bit of luck thrown in, I've managed to avoid getting ripped-off -- mostly.

One thing to keep in mind is that most scams work by tageting two things -- gullibility and greed. That old saying 'If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is.' comes in handy, but sometimes the scammers are soooooooo convincing. And in other cases, it's possible the person isn't trying to rip anybody off -- but at the end of the day, if you don't get paid, it amounts to the same thing, doesn't it?

Getting scammed by being greedy is probably easier to avoid. The best approach is to just take a look at the offer and ask yourself a few questions:

• Is this too good to be true?
  
• Does the payment make sense based on the work being done?
  
• Where does the money ultimately come from?

Sometimes these questions can be hard to answer because there's not enough information provided. Ask. Email the owner and ask for more details about how it all works. If the info isn't on the website, and the owner can't or won't explain it all in a way that you can understand, forget about it.

Payments This Week

The end of the month has rolled around, and it's time to total up my earnings for July. I received two payments this week:

HeavenlyEmail $3.25
Random-PTCs $1.16
Total $4.41

Monthly Total $35.36

A big chunk of that was the payment from PureProfile, so the total in PTR payments was $9.61. So I ended up a few bucks ahead of my goal for PTR payments, and I would've hit my overall goal if I'd finished and been paid for the content writing. I really need to get that done!

I pretty much spent 1-2 hours a day reading emails, visiting websites, participating in surveys, etc. so that confirms the average of 50 cents an hour I estimated in an earlier post. If I want to earn more, I'll have to work on ways of increasingly that hourly rate, because honestly, I just don't think I'm willing to put in any more time.