Blockbuster Better Deal Than Netflix

I just got my first assignment as a member of the LinkyLoveArmy, and it's one I'm very happy to participate in.

We're promoting the Blockbuster Online Total Access Trial deal.

When you sign up for Blockbuster Online, you get the first month for $9.99, and then $17.99 each month after that. Your membership fee entitles you to have up to 3 DVDs at a time. That's similar to Netflix's most popular plan, with one added bonus -- with Blockbuster Online, instead of returning your DVDs through the mail, you can put the DVD in the postage-paid envelope and take it to your local Blockbuster store and exchange it for a free rental DVD.

How freaking cool is that?

Of course the trick to all these sorts of DVDs-through-the-mail things is to make sure you watch enough DVDs to get your money's worth. For me, that means watching and returning 7 or 8 movies a month. For families like Julie's, watching 10 to 20 movies a week, a Blockbuster DVD rental subscription is a no-brainer. We don't watch that many, but we watch enough that it makes sense for us to join a DVD service like that.

Another bonus with BlockBuster Online is that you get a printable coupon for 1 free in-store DVD rental every month. So if you work it right, you can get order 3 DVDs through the mail, watch them, then return them to your local Blockbuster store, where you get 3 free in-store DVDs. And as soon as the kid at the Blockbuster store punches your return into their computer, the next 3 DVDs in your queue go into the mail. If you do that once a week, that's 25 movies a month. For $17.99. If your turn-around time is faster, you can get even more DVDs for your dollar.

IF your family watches that many DVDs every month, then I think this Blockbuster thing is a hell of a good deal.

Tags: BlockBuster, Netflix, bargains, DVD, LinkyLoveArmy

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Saving Money and Eating Healthy

A lot of the posts on this blog, especially lately, have been about making money, but I try not to forget that one of the reasons I started blogging was because I wanted to talk about saving money as well. Because when you think about it, saving money is the same as making money -- the end result is more money in your wallet.

When I was a kid, my family didn't have a lot of money, so the whole "frugal living" thing was pretty much just normal life for us. When I got older and started making money, it felt good to be able to spend freely, without having to worry about pinching every penny. Unfortunately, I started spending a little too freely, and ended up in debt. But that's another story.

Things changed when my wife and I found out we were going to be parents. Up until then, we'd been focusing a lot on creating the life we wanted as a couple. And since the life we wanted (or thought we wanted) cost a lot of money, we worked a lot to get the money to pay for it. And we were happy. But when we started thinking about what kinds of parents we wanted to be, we decided we wanted a more balanced lifestyle. We did NOT want to be workaholic parents who didn't know their own children. So we started making changes.

And we're still making changes. Over the past nine years, the way we think about money, success, and happiness have changed a lot. And so has the way we live. And one of the biggest changes we've made (and are still continuing to make) is the way we eat. Which is why I enjoyed reading Trent's post at The Simple Dollar called How The Farm Bill Affects Your Wallet And Your Health - And Ten Ways To Eat Healthy and Cheap Anyway.

Nine years ago, we weren't doing any of the things on Trent's list. We ate out a lot, and yet we were also spending a fortune on groceries -- mostly on junk food, instant this and microwave that. But not any more. Now we cook a lot of good, healthy, cheap meals from scratch.

We buy most of our fruits and vegetables from the farmer's market instead of the supermarket.

We're getting better about buying foods in season.

We've been cooking in bulk (including "instameals") and freezing for years, and now we're thinking about getting into canning and preserving as well.

We got a great deal on a crockpot in an after-Xmas sale last year, and we're discovering more great crockpot dishes all the time.

We "repurpose" a lot of our leftovers, and use them in soups, stews, wraps, pies and pastries so that very little food goes to waste.

I agree with Trent that one of the keys to making healthy foods taste good is to learn how to enhance the foods' flavours with the right herbs and spices. We've grown our own herbs in the past, but not for the last few years. That's something we'd like to start doing again. We'd also like to do a bit of microgardening (container gardening) and try producing some tomatoes, radishes, carrots, cucumbers, beans, bell peppers, etc.

I think the "food exchange" idea is a good one, and I'd be interested to find out if anybody is doing anything like that in our area.

It amazes me how many people devote so much time and energy to making money, but don't seem to think much about how they spend that money. I think that's a very dangerous way to live -- especially when it comes to things like health and nutrition.

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50 Blog Directories

Over at MikesMoneyMakingMission, Mike Perry has a big list of 50 blog directories, organised by PageRank. The weekly traffic and earnings reports he posts show that he doesn't get a lot of traffic from blog directories, and neither have I. Does adding your blog to a directory with a higher PR help increase your blog's PR? I have no idea. But since FreeCashSpace has been sitting on PR3 for a loooooong time now, I'm willing to try and see if these blog directories can help. Over the next week, I'll submit the FCS blog to all 50 directories, and see if it has an impact on traffic or PageRank.

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Only 19 Days Left to Save Internet Radio

If you enjoy listening to free music that is completely legal and supportive of the artists who created it, then please visit the SaveNetRadio.org website and find out what you can do to help

Technorati Tags: freestuff, music, SaveNetRadio

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LinkyLoveArmy

Brett Bumeter, aka "Colonel Love", has launched a new blog monetization site called LinkyLoveArmy. The idea behind LLA is that bloggers can work together rather than compete for advertisers, and they can reduce their dependence on "middle men" like Text Link Ads, Adsense, or PayPerPost.

The kind of collaborative blogging LLA has in mind works something like this. LLA launches a CPA campaign, with one or more of their members acting as "wedge bloggers." These wedge blogs are chosen because they're most likely to get the best results for the advertiser, but the collaborative part comes in when other LLA bloggers then link to the wedge bloggers' posts, hopefully increasing the effectiveness of the campaign.

Then all the bloggers involved in the campaign split the proceeds -- with 70% of each conversion going directly to the wedge blogger involved in the sale, and the other 30% being split by all the participants in the campaign.

Will it work? I have no idea! But I think it's cool that new models and methods for monetizing blogs are being tested.

Technorati Tags: problogging, LinkyLoveArmy, LLA, blogging, blog monetization, advertising

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Making Money With Paid Surveys is NOT a Job

Deborah Ng at WorkFromHomeMomma posted about paid surveys today, and I suspect her experience with them sounds very familiar. I totally agree that doing paid surveys isn't a job, or even an employment opportunity, and it's a shame that they're often marketed as such.

Deborah makes money online as a freelance writer. She says she has more work than she knows what to do with, and she's being paid to do something she loves -- writing. So it makes sense that she wouldn't want to use up any of her writing time to spend it doing paid surveys. But that doesn't mean paid surveys are a waste of time for everybody.

We've all got to decide for ourselves how we can best use our time, and I know that there are people out there who've managed to turn their participation in paid surveys (and especially the promotion of paid survey programs) into very lucrative businesses. But for most of us, paid surveys are at best going to bring in a bit of extra money. Maybe a few hundred bucks a year. That's not a job, and depending on your other options, it might not be the smartest, or most profitable, way to use your time online.

But if you enjoy spending a bit of your time doing these sorts of surveys (personally, I like the ones where I get to find out about new products before they're launched), and you feel like the money you're being offered is a reasonably fair exchange for that time, then paid surveys can be a nice way to make a few extra bucks.

Some of the paid survey programs that I recommend these days include:

MySurvey
LightSpeed Panel
ePoll
American Consumer Opinion Panel
SurveySavvy
SurveySpot

Technorati Tags: paid surveys, wahm, work from home

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Mike Perry Questions Wealth Toolbox Scam

Six Questions to Ask About Wealth Toolbox is a follow-up to Mike's post called Money Making Test: A Warning About Wealth Toolbox. Both are worth a read if you're thinking about handing over your hard-earned money to Wealth Toolbox or any kind of similar online investment scam.

Of the 6 questions, I think my favorite is Question Number 4:

If they are so clever at making money, and getting 237% returns on investments, why do they need to start up a dodgy looking website and tout courses on investing? Wouldn't it be a lot simpler just to make money for themselves, especially as it is supposedly so easy?

To me, that pretty much sums it up. If they've got such a fool-proof method for making money with all their fantastic forex trading skillz, then why aren't they spending all their time becoming gozillionnaires instead of running a shady online ponzi scam? Not to mention trying to con people into buying into Day Job Killer?

The sad part is that despite the fact that Wealth Toolbox is such an obvious scam, I'm sure there are plenty of people who are more than happy to cough up $500 for the chance to get rich quick.

Technorati Tags: wealth toolbox, scam, ponzi, fraud

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Why Not Start a Side Business?

Personal Finance Advice has started a great series of posts called "Starting a Business With Pocket Change" that is well worth reading. Tina Parcell talks about starting up a side business, and so far she's included a lot of excellent information and advice.

And speaking of side businesses, Trent has a great post at The Simple Dollar talking about his experiences starting and running two side businesses -- a computer consulting business and blogging. It's awesome when people share their honest experiences, warts and all, and Trent offers some good advice, particularly about the importance of networking and providing great customer service.

Technorati Tags: money, sidebusiness, business, home business, side business

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Save Pandora.com! Save internet radio!

I got an email from the owner of Pandora.com the other day, and I thought I'd share. I've been a member at Pandora for a looong time and I really enjoy their site and their service, and I hope we can do something to keep it all going. If you're not familiar with Pandora.com, they "help you discover new music you'll love." You type in the name of a song or an artist that you like, and Pandora starts playing songs it thinks you'll like. You give each song a thumbs-up or a thumbs-down, and it uses that info to refine its recommendations. It's great! And according to the email, it's in trouble:

Hi, it's Tim from Pandora,

I'm writing today to ask for your help. The survival of Pandora and all of Internet radio is in jeopardy because of a recent decision by the Copyright Royalty Board in Washington, DC to almost triple the licensing fees for Internet radio sites like Pandora. The new royalty rates are irrationally high, more than four times what satellite radio pays, and broadcast radio doesn't pay these at all. Left unchanged, these new royalties will kill every Internet radio site, including Pandora.

In response to these new and unfair fees, we have formed the SaveNetRadio Coalition, a group that includes listeners, artists, labels and webcasters. I hope that you will consider joining us.

Please sign our petition urging your Congressional representative to act to save Internet radio:
http://capwiz.com/saveinternetradio/issues/alert/?alertid=9631541

Please feel free to forward this link/email to your friends - the more petitioners we can get, the better.

Understand that we are fully supportive of paying royalties to the artists whose music we play, and have done so since our inception. As a former touring musician myself, I'm no stranger to the challenges facing working musicians. The issue we have with the recent ruling is that it puts the cost of streaming far out of the range of ANY webcaster's business potential.

I hope you'll take just a few minutes to sign our petition - it WILL make a difference. As a young industry, we do not have the lobbying power of the RIAA. You, our listeners, are by far our biggest and most influential allies.

As always, and now more than ever, thank you for your support.

Tim Westergren
(Pandora founder)

So I'm passing this message on, and I hope that anybody who enjoys Pandora, or internet radio in general, will do whatever they can to help save it.

Technorati Tags: Pandora.com, music, radio, netradio, petition

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Free Books From inBubbleWrap

I thought I had blogged about this before, but apparently not, so I'm gonna do it now. It's a site called inBubbleWrap and they give away a free business-related book every weekday.

inBubbleWrap is run by 800-CEO-READ, who sell business-related books. So giving away a book a day is a bit of gimmick to showcase books and encourage more sales. Clever.

Some of the cool books they've recently given away include:

• The Real Toy Story: Inside the Ruthless Battle for America's Youngest Consumers by Eric Clark
• Planet India: How the Fastest-Growing Democracy Is Transforming America and the World by Mira Kamda
• Confessions of a Serial Entrepreneur: Why I Can't Stop Starting Over by Stuart Skorman
• The Machine That Changed the World: The Story of Lean Production-Toyota's Secret Weapon in the Global Car Wars that is Revolutionizing World Industry by James P. Womack, Daniel T. Jones, Daniel Roos

And if those books aren't your cup-o-tea, they also give away books like Rich Dad, Poor Dad and CrazyBusy, etc. that can help you in both your personal and professional lives.

It's a cool little website, and even though I haven't won a book yet (oh, before I forget -- they'll only ship the free books to addresses in the US), it's been fun to try, and they've shown me a lot of great books to read . And I haven't had any problems with SPAM or anything after giving them my email address when I enter to win a book.

Technorati Tags: freebies, free, freestuff, free books, books, business books, inbubblewrap, 800-ceo-read

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Doing More Paid Surveys

After reading a blog post about paid surveys (that I won't link to because it was basically trying to con people into paying to join a paid survey scam site), I've been making an effort to increase my survey participation. And in just a week or so, it's really starting to pay off.

I've joined a few new programs, updated my profiles at some older ones, and I've made sure when I got a survey invitation in my inbox that I took the survey as soon as possible.

The results? I've been paid around $55 in Amazon gift certificates so far this month. $30 from ePoll, $10 from LightSpeed, and $15 from KRI Panel. And I've nearly got enough points for another $10 AGC from LightSpeed, and $10 cash from NFOMySurvey.

My advice for making money from paid surveys includes:

• Use two dedicated email addresses -- sign up with one address, then when you've determined that a program is legit, move it to the other address
• check those email accounts every day, and respond to any survey invitations as quickly as possible
• fill out your profile as completely as possible
• never pay for access to a list of survey sites

The thing I like about surveys is that not only do you get paid for doing them, but some of them are a lot of fun. I enjoy finding out about new products before they're released, and I looooooove telling companies what I think they're doing right and wrong (especially telling them what they're doing wrong!). Some of the surveys can be tedious and boring, and it drives me nuts when I spend 10 minutes answering questions only to be told I don't qualify for the survey, but mostly doing paid surveys is an enjoyable and rewarding (financially speaking, that is) experience.

Tags: paid surveys, get paid, surveys

Two New Sites for Bargain Hunters

A post at ShoeMoney led me to a new "deal site" called Dealighted. Dealighted pulls all the deals from Fatwallet, Slickdeals, Anandtech , and GottaDeal, and puts them all together on one site.

The deals are submitted by real people, and you can choose to see the most popular, or all the deals that have been submitted. And there's also a price comparison function that's very handy. But I have to say that I agree with Jeremy's criticism; it would be nice if users could vote on the deals, or set preferences to filter out the deals they see (I don't want or need to see a "deal" for a free sample of the latest tampon technology, especially if they'll only ship to a US mailing address).

And the other new site I discovered (thanks to ProBargainHunter) is CouponLooker, a search engine for coupon or promo codes. CouponLooker collects coupon code info from a bunch of different coupon sites and lets you find them easily through their search engine.

These sorts of aggregator sites could come in real handy for those of us who like a bit of online bargain hunting, since it could mean we need to visit a smaller number of sites to get the same information.

Technorati Tags: bargains, bargain hunting, CouponLooker, Dealighted, shopping, price comparison, free stuff, coupons, coupon codes

LuluTV Drops Subscription Fee

Last year I blogged about revenue sharing at LuluTV, and described the subscription-based plan they were using -- where you paid $14.95 to become a "shareholder", and then all the shareholders split up an 80% share of the revenue generated from the videos on LuluTV.

While that model apparently worked out for a few uploaders (LuluTV's top money-maker made over $10,000 in 3 months), I think a lot of people would've struggled just to break even, or would've been put off by the whole "subscription fee" concept.

So it's great that Lulu has come to their senses and dropped the subscription fee. Now people can upload their videos and get paid a share of the revenue based on the traffic they send to the site.

I think this is a good move for LuluTV, and good news for people who want to make money uploading videos.

Technorati Tags: LuluTV, money, videos, get paid

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CrazyRefund -- Buy Stuff and Win Your Money Back

Yan at ProBargainHunter blogged about a new shopping rewards program called CrazyRefund. Of course there are already hundreds of shopping rebates/rewards sites out there, so CrazyRefund is doing something a little different. Instead of giving you reward points, or a 5% rebate or whatever, CrazyRefund gives you the chance to get a full refund on your purchase. That's right, you get get all your money back.

You have a different chance to win with each of their participating merchants. For example, if you make a purchase at BookCloseouts, you've got a 1 in 12 chance of winning a full refund. At Dell Home Systems, the odds are 1 in 120. And at Magazines.com, your chances of getting a refund are 1 in 4.

It's an interesting twist on the rebates/rewards idea, and I think I'll give them a try.

Technorati Tags: shopping, rewards, mypoints, crazyrefund

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ImgRed Image Redirection Service

Wow, I saw this on Lifehacker and it looks like an awesome service -- image redirection! It's must faster and easier than saving an image to your hard drive then uploading to your server or a free image hosting service.

With ImgRed, when I add an image to a web page, blog, or forum post, I just add the ImgRed URL to the code, and ImgRed automatically fetches the image, stores it on their servers, and even makes a thumbnail that I can use as well.

Sweet!

Technorati Tags: blogging, blogtools, imgred

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New Earning Opps: Winzy and MegaBuzz

I came across a couple more online earning opportunities today.







Winzy is another search and win search engine, like Blingo and SearchChips. You can either win instant prizes, or you can earn points and use them to enter sweepstakes and raffles.



It looks good, but since I'm only 9,663 Chips away from getting my iPod Nano, I think I'll stick with SearchChips for now.



But since I could win a Nano instantly by doing a search at Winzy, I've added them to my Firefox Search Bar (which makes it more likely that I'll remember to use them, plus it made me an "upgraded member" -- double points for each search, more chances to win an instant prize, more than triple the max number of points I can earn each day, an automatic entry into a monthly raffle to win...wait for it...an iPod Nano!!!!...and as if all that's not enough, I also get a gold star by my name.  Woohoo!









MegaBuzz is another super-groovy Web 2.0 "community" and what makes this one a little different is that you can win prizes for arguing. You can earn points by participating in BuzzPoll's (a recent one was "Should the U.S. abolish the penny?", or Buzzpicks (unlike polls, these have right and wrong answers, for example "Will Al Gore Run for President in 2008?").



I've tried a few, and it's kinda fun, but so far I haven't seen a lot of arguing. But with under 500 members, there's still hope, lol.



So how do you make money? There's a weekly drawing where one lucky member gets to exchange their points for cash ($1 per point, max. $1000). And there's also a special "Daily Challenge" BuzzPick, where if you pick the winning outcome, you go into a draw to win a $50 Amazon gift cert. And if you create a BuzzPoll or BuzzPick that gets 500 or more participants, you automatically get a $20 Amazon gift cert.



I like to argue. I like doing polls. And I like to bet. So I've signed up and I'll have a bit of fun. And maybe I'll get lucky and win a gift certificate.



If you'd like an invite, email me at moolanow at gmail dot com and I'll send you one.



Technorati Tags: Winzy, MegaBuzz, Get Paid

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Keywords and Categories for eBay Sellers

I was looking at our eBay Store traffic reports last night to see which search keywords our visitors were using to find our products, and got a little side-tracked. But not necessarily in a bad way. I ended up looking at some of eBay's keyword tools, and thought I'd share just in case some sellers don't know about them.



First, there's eBay Keywords, a big list of the most popular keywords used by eBay searchers. You can browse (they're organised alphabetically) or search, and eBay will show you the best matching categories and items for your selected keyword, related and alternative keywords, and the top eBay stores associated with your keyword.



eBay's Common Keywords is similar, but is browse-only. You can check common keywords and choose to see everything related to that keyword, or limit the view to only products, categories, or eBay Stores.



Both of these tools can be very handy in helping you make sure you've included the right keywords in your titles and descriptions.



Of course not every eBay shopper finds what they're looking for by searching. A lot of people browse their favorite categories looking for bargains. Which is why it's important to make sure you've got your items listed in the right categories. My advice:

• find similar products and see what categories they're in (and save them as favorite searches, sellers, or categories in MyEbay so you can check back occasionally)
• browse through categories occasionally looking for new ones
• if none of the existing categories really suit your item, suggest a new eBay category

Using the right keywords and product categories can have a serious impact on your sales, so don't just "set it and forget it." It's always good to periodically stop and take a look at what you're doing, look for new opportunities, tweak things a bit, or maybe even take off in a completely new direction.

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BidPay -- A Paypal Alternative

Skip McGrath blogged about BidPay today, asking if it's a real alternative to Paypal for eBay sellers. If you've been around for a while, you might remember BidPay from when they were launched by Western Union way back in 1999. I never thought that Western Union ever really got serious about BidPay, and their business model -- requiring the buyer to pay the fees -- never really worked for online auctions. A lot of buyers didn't like the idea of paying extra fees in addition to the selling price, and sellers didn't like waiting for BidPay to send them a money order for the payment. Western Union, a 150-year-old dinosaur of a company, didn't seem to get the concept of online payments.



But all that's changed now. Western Union shut BidPay down at the end of 1995. At the time, it looked like another one of the many "PayPal alternatives" to crash and burn. But then, about a year ago, BidPay was acquired by CyberSource, a credit card payment service provider. For buyers, that means they can make their payment with their debit card, and BidBay sends the money to the seller's bank account (must be a U.S. bank account), minus their fee -- 2.5% + 50 cents for domestic (U.S.) transactions. And one thing that a lot of sellers will really appreciate is BidPay's Seller Protection. Seller Protection means BidBay, not the seller, accepts the risk associated with chargebacks.



So is the new and very-much-improved BidPay catching on with US-based eBay sellers? Apparently so. According to a survey conducted by AuctionBytes, as of March 2007, BidPay is accepted by 12.6% of sellers, up from 9.7% in Sept. 2006. Of course Paypal is still way out in front, at 94.3%. And now that eBay is requiring new sellers to accept Paypal or another "preferred safe payment form", more sellers may be looking for Paypal alternatives.



And BidPay just might be the alternative they're looking for.



Technorati Tags: eBay, Paypal, BidPay, auctions

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Who's Making Money From Your Web Presence?

Howard Reingold has a link to Trebor Scholz's post at Collectivate.net called "What the MySpace genereation should know about working for free." It's a good reminder that much of the value of sites like MySpace, eBay, YouTube, StumbleUpon, etc.is created by the people (us!) who use them. And that value comes with a pricetag. News Corporation paid $580 million for MySpace. Google paid $1.6 billion for YouTube. And eBay's market cap is currently over $46 billion.

We, as users/creators at these sites, need to keep those numbers in mind, and ask ourselves if what we're getting in return is worth it. Collectively, we create the content and the data (much of which we are completely unaware of) that makes these companies worth billions. Are they giving us enough in return?

It's an interesting question, and definitely something we need to take into consideration when we decide to create our own web presence. And I also think it's important to think about how things might change in the near future as envisioned by KirkH in his comment for Jeff Jarvis' Who Owns the Wisdom of the Crowd? The Crowd. post at BuzzMachine. How will things change when everybody is connected to the net all the time? When we don't need an ISP or a web hosting company or a webmail service, and all the software we need is available for free? Will we still provide billions of dollars worth of content, data, and attention to a bunch of big companies, or will we each get our own slice of that gigantic pie?

Technorati Tags: sociable web, web 2.0, cyberculture

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Starbury Sneakers -- Shoes at a Fair Price

I don't follow American basketball (or Australian basketball or Croatian basketball, for that matter), and I don't follow sneaker news, so I hadn't heard of Stephon Marbury or the Starbury basketball shoes before.



In case you haven't heard about them either, the basic story is that Marbury is endorsing the Starbury line of shoes, which retail for around $15. Yep, that's right. $15 instead of the $100 to $200 a lot of shoes endorsed by high-profile sports stars cost. The Starbury fits in perfectly with the Steve & Barry's "big idea" -- that people should be able to buy good clothes at reasonable prices.



According to the LA Times (BugMeNot), we live in "a world where parents are pressured to shell out money for expensive
sneakers while struggling to pay rent and buy groceries; a world where
kids get robbed, shot and strangled over the latest styles." I don't know if that's true, but if it is, it's crazy. And if these Starbury shoes can help change that, then I'm all for it.



From what I've read, the Starbury One hasn't gotten great reviews as a serious basketball shoe, but compare very well when compared to other cheap sneakers. The Association (a basketball blog) says:<blockquote>Biggest notable is the sole. It's thin. Real thin. It's like walking in a padded slipper.</blockquote> and Basketbawful says:<blockquote>If you want something that looks cool to walk around in, then the Starbury Ones are a damn good shoe for $15. You could probably even use some gel inserts to make them more comfortable. BUT...if you expect to play basketball in them, you're going to be tragically disappointed.</blockquote> I suspect most people who'll be buying them won't be playing a lot of basketball in them, so maybe they'll be spared the tragic disappointment. Jerry, at  Frugal Thoughts, bought a pair of low-tops for $9.95, and says "Surprisingly, the shoes don't feel cheap."



With everything getting upscaled, upgraded and/or supersized, I like the Steve & Barry's concept, and I hope we see lots more companies and individuals embracing the idea a business can be successful by selling good products at fair, reasonable prices.



Technorati Tags: starbury

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Will AdBrite's BritePic Change the Way People Share Their Photos?

TechCrunch has a post about AdBrite's new BritePic service, that lets people add extra interactive features to the images they put on their websites. By using a bit of javascript (BritePic creates the code for you, so all you have to do is cut and paste) instead of a regular tag, BritePic let's you add captions, your logo, zoom, and even an RSS feed for the images. And it lets people email the image, link to it, or even embed it in their own website. And since it is AdBrite offering this, of course you can also choose to include little ads, and you still get a share of the revenue even if the ad is clicked after someone else has embedded your image on their site!

Wanna see an example? Well, here's a BritePic I found and embedded here:



It's a shame the ads aren't contextual, but I think it'll be interesting to see if this catches on. With more and more people creating blogs, MySpace pages, and whatever else, I can see two possibilities -- either everybody ends up with some sort of monetized web presence and makes a few extra bucks (maybe enough to pay their ISP bill, or for all the ringtones, music downloads, online game fees, etc.), or all that monetization means there are ads everywhere and everybody ends up ignoring them.

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Technorati Tags: AdBrite, BritePic, revenue sharing, advertising

Payments for March 2007

eBay: $210.01

PecoMail: $0.29

PayPerPost: $5.50

Your2Cents: $15.00

NFO MySurvey $20.00

Total: $250.80


Year-to-date: $510.20

March was a good month in terms of eBay sales, and a few other payments came in here and there -- a bit from PayPerPost, the Your2Cents paid surveys, and even a little micro-payment from PecoMail (one of the few Paid to Read programs where I'm still a member).

I'm going to launch a couple of new blogs this month, and hopefully within a few months they'll be adding a bit to the monthly totals as well. Otherwise the plan is to continue to tweak the eBay thing and try to increase sales (we made half our profit in the first 9 days this month, then kinda fizzled out towards the end of the month.

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Updated on 8 April, 2007.

Tags: money, make money online, get paid