Friday is always one of the most anticipated days of our week. Here's some random mayhem to check out. Monetizer promises to get back to moneymaking soon :)
TMZ.com has revealed the contestants for "Celebrity Apprentice" run by Mr. Moneybags himself, Donald Trump. Check out the celeb gallery at TMZ. (Hint: contestants include a UFC fighter, a sidelined WWE star, a former boxing champ and a former queen of mean from the Apprentice) You can also read about the cast here.
Also TMZ reveals that the sock from the foot of the paparazzi guy that Britney ran over is up for auction on Ebay. View the auction here, which benefits the Children's Defense Fund. Upon last check the sock was at $1,025.
John Chow and Shoemoney continue their battle over who can get the most RSS subscribers this month. Since Chow was already running a contest with several prizes on his blog, Shoemoney has joined in with a TON of sponsored prizes including cash, free site reviews and much more. Check it out here to find out how to enter. A great lesson to take away here is blog competitions can help your subscriber base, as do prizes..
10/20/07
Miscellaneous Monetizer Mayhem
10/19/07
How to Use Cash Crate.com
The Monetizer is a big fan of Cash Crate for making a bit of extra online money. It provides a laid back system where you can complete free trial offers, take 2 daily surveys or shop online to receive percentage rebates of your purchases.
Here's a more comprehensive look at how to use Cash Crate to earn money online.
1) Sign up for Cash Crate - Cash Crate is free to sign up for and use. It will ask you for information such as your name and address (to send your check) and email address. You may want to create a special email address just for using Cash Crate. You can create free email address accounts at sites such as inbox.com, myway.com and Google's G-mail.
You can sign up for Cash Crate here.
Once you are a member you'll become familiar with the easy 3 tab system, seen here. Select from Cash Offers, Point Offers, or Daily Surveys. 2) Complete Cash Offers - this is the area you want to exercise caution with. As you can see in the picture below there are plenty of offers to choose from. Some will want a credit card at signup so you may want to avoid those. Also beware of those with fine print at the bottom of their screen saying "complete 3 silver level offers and 2 gold level offers".
Although the pic below is blurry, you can see offers are listed on the left hand side, details next, payout and then "SUBMIT" button. Make sure when you go to do an offer to click the offer title. After you are done signing up or completing that offer you return to this panel (below) and click "SUBMIT". Cash Crate will credit your account within several days (if you completed the offer as described).
3)Complete offers for Points - You may decide to pursue points rather than cash rewards. This seems like it would take longer to do, so you may want to stay away from this option. However, this is similar to step #2 in that you are signing up for offers, surveys or completing free trials. Points can be accumulated and redeemed for Amazon, Best Buy, Starbucks, Staples, iTunes and WalMart gift cards or prizes like the iPod, Sony PSP and the Xbox 360. Again use caution here as some offers may ask for a Credit Card at sign-up or your home address/phone number.
4) Complete up to 2 daily surveys - This is the third tab you see on your account, "Daily Surveys". This is probably the safest option for making money on Cash Crate. These won't require you to give your address or phone number or credit card number, but they can take anywhere from 10 minutes to 30 minutes to do. You have the option to complete up to 2 daily surveys, each worth 80 cents. Make sure you complete 1st survey, then 2nd survey. You will have to prequalify for most surveys, which can test your patience, because often you will answer a few questions then be told "you do not qualify". You can keep trying to "Take Another Survey" though and attempt to qualify for more opportunities. If you were able to complete just 2 surveys a day, you'd rack up a possible $48 per month from Cash Crate.
5) Go Shopping and Earn Rebates - This option obviously involves spending your own money, however it makes sense if you were planning a purchase at any of the sites such as Apple Store, iTunes, or Walmart to make the buy through Cash Crate. To do this you'll need to go to the top menu of your Cash Crate account and select "Go Shopping". The Apple Store option offers you 1 percent return on your purchases, so if you were planning to buy an iPod or computer, etc it makes sense. iTunes offers 5% back, which may not seem like a lot but adds up. There's about 20 total stores to choose from, so it's something to keep in mind as a member of Cash Crate.
Monetizer racked up close to $30 using Cash Crate last month. The minimum threshold to receive a check by mail is set at $10. You will need to confirm your account by phone once you reach that threshold. This is done by requesting Cash Crate's automated system to call your home and give you a special code. You then enter the code at your account online and you're good to go!
Give Cash Crate a try if you're looking for a bit of extra cash each month. The referral program is also nice as it provides you 20% of whatever your first level referrals make and 10% of whatever your second level referrals earn.
10/18/07
Make Money With Associated Content
Hey folks, I'm back with yet another moneymaker to add to your income stream. Associated Content is "The People's Media Company", a site which publishes high quality content such as member-submitted articles and pictures. The Monetizer had heard rumblings about it from various members of other sites here or there, but never really gave it a second thought. At first, Monetizer hadn't done the homework to check this site out and figured it only payed you money for page views of your content. Then, Monetizer read about it over on DayJobNuker.com and decided to give it a try. What a pleasant surprise this site has been so far!
The Monetizer decided to submit eight old blog entries that seemed high quality enough to present for "upfront payment". This means if the editor approves the article they will make you an immediate offer for it. Six of the eight entries were approved within several days with a payment of about $3.50 each or over $20! Knowing the Monetizer has other blogs with different topics and around 1,000 entries total, it looks like a great idea for a continual money maker.
The best parts of the Associated Content site are:
1) Your published content can be used elsewhere. Therefore, you can take an older blog entry you've done, submit it for approval at Associated Content and profit from it. You will need to select this option when you publish an article (you can choose between articles "exclusive to AC" or articles you "may have published or will publish elsewhere").
2) Payment is alot faster than other moneymakers online. There's no waiting for the following month or for a buildup of your money to a minimum threshold. PayPal payment is typically done within 3-6 business day to your PayPal account. Not a bad deal at all. Fast, easy money straight to your PayPal.
3) Once you accept an offer on the site, the payment doesn't stop there. For every 1,000 views your article gets (by others, not just your IP), you will receive $1.50. It keeps going on and on. Theoretically if you had 100,000 page views of your article, you'd receive $150.
4) Other offers will be presented to you for the taking. For example you may have submitted gardening articles that were accepted. AC may display relevant opportunities for articles with upfront payment. They may want an article about specific gardening practices and will present those opportunities to you for payment should your new article be approved.
5) You don't need a website or blog to make money. You don't need to be a blogger or own a website to qualify for this free site. Perhaps you enjoy writing or have some material already prepared on your computer. This site is suitable for just joining and providing freshly written content to.
Aside from these benefits, AC offers templates to make your publishing of content even easier. For example there are "How To" and "Town tour" type templates which allow you to publish articles very specific in nature. The site will take a little getting used to and you will need to make sure to provide articles with no spelling errors or poor grammar. Once your articles get accepted though it's money in the bank!
Surely you can see the benefits with using Associated Content's site if you're a blogger. You're using material that you either have blogged about, or will blog about in the future. It's a win-win for you, because you may have 20-100 plus blog entries to choose your article material from. You may need to tailor the piece slightly for the site, but once several of your articles are accepted, you will see new article opportunities. Yet another win for you because many of the opportunities may match your blog topic, giving you new material. The Monetizer quickly took 5 new opportunities worth $4 each and figures why not earn some extra money here? So if you like to write, need blog ideas, or have plenty of past blog entries to choose articles from, give Associated Content a try. A little extra work might provide you a nice extra income!
Head over and check out www.associatedcontent.com to get started.
10/17/07
What Sells on Ebay?
In the Monetizer's recommended reading list there is a book written by Cameron Johnson who began businesses as a kid and eventually became very successful and rich. One of his first businesses involved latching onto the whole "Beanie Babies" craze that was sweeping the nation. He basically set up shop in his parents' home and had boxes of the stuffed animals he ordered in bulk and sold to hungry customers. His parents' lovely home basically became a warehouse for the supply and demand of Beanie Babies and the kid was making serious money from it!
Of course that craze has pretty much died down, with only a few of the stuffed toys really being worth any decent money these days. However, eBay used to be a vehicle many people used to buy and sell them and make good money from. The online auction site is still used very very heavily as well all know for buying and selling all sorts of items, even food items that look like Jesus or Elvis. Now this post won't tell you how to use or sell on eBay, because that could be a 10-20 part blog series on its own. There's a lot involved beyond just uploading a pic and making a catchy description to sell your item. This post is more to talk of one type of item that always seems to sell.
One thing the Monetizer has learned is that "one man's trash is another man's treasure". While working at a previous job as an IT project manager, the bosses wanted to move to a newer and nicer office down the hall. Due to this, a lot of "junk" needed to be liquidated or thrown out in the process. Junk = electronics and computer equipment. Some of that junk was still of value though. So in the process, nearly $5,000 in sales were made on eBay! Now this money didn't go to Monetizer, it went to the bosses, but the lesson here is there is a great market on eBay for used, new and even broken down electronics or computer items and gadgets. Some of the items that sold were really old MAC computer equipment, old video and audio editing equipment and even old cables. It's amazing what other people want to buy these days!
Take a look around your room, your garage, your basement, and your attic. Is there some old piece of electronics you just held onto for the sake of it? Maybe you bought a Palm Pilot because it was the "thing to have" but now its more of a doorstep or dust collector. Maybe you have a shortwave radio, an old mp3 discman or even old stereo equipment. It's stuff you're not using, and it could bring you some money. There seems to be someone out there that wants it and usually it will get snatched up on eBay. Another idea or plan is to hit up the garage and yard sales or even if your neighbor tossed an item out. Don't become a garbage picker, but keep your eyes peeled for electronics. Even a broken iPod or other electronics item can fetch interest from those who like to take things apart or use the parts to build things.
Monetizer won't make any big guarantees here. You need to do your homework. Research the item before you put it up for sale. See if other items of that type or brand or make/model have sold on eBay so you can gauge what yours might sell for. To do that, do an Advanced Search for "Ended listings" of your item only. See what the sales prices have been if the item has sold on eBay. Or try searching for your item new or used online at other sites. Also, don't expect to make thousands off some old PDA or MP3 player, but overall there's money to be made with electronics on eBay. This isn't to say that other items you have won't sell, but if Monetizer had to select one consistent eBay seller, it's been electronics gadgets, devices and accessories in all conditions.
(Friendly Monetizer tip #514376: If you don't have an eBay account, consider signing up for CashCrate first. CashCrate has an offer that pays you $8 just to join eBay and place a bid on any item. In effect, you can sign up, make a bid on an item that you won't win (such as a $1.99 iPod) and earn yourself an easy $8!)
