Boomertowne is Fun and Rewarding!

About a week or so ago the Monetizer had heard through another social media site that Boomertowne is the place to be. You may say "not another site to join", but this one clearly offers fun and value, with an easy way to rack up points. While Boomertowne doesn't give out money online per se, they do offer a great array of rewards including Target, Best Buy and Visa gift cards. The beauty of those sorts of items is they translate into great, free prizes you've earned that you can buy things with or use for blog contest prizes.

The way Boomertowne works is simple and almost similar to Myspace. You sign up for the site and create a profile. Once you're a member the points begin to accumulate immediately. Filling out your profile is an automatic 100 points. Every new page you view on the site gives you 1 point each day. Friend requests you accept give 10 points. Reading the daily newsletter is 100 points, participating in the sites various Flash games is 25 points, and so forth. As you can see accumulating points on the site is not only easy, but fun as well. Among the games offered are a Wheel of Fortune variation, a hangman style game and more.


(Above: A glimpse of the stylish Boomertowne landscape)

There is a cap on daily points at 1,500. So choose activities wisely and don't over-exert yourself. And to illustrate the points cost of some rewards, a Best Buy or Target card will run you 12,500 points. It sounds like alot, but with the way points add up quickly, it would take 10 days or so to do. A $75 Visa gift card is 32,000 points, just to give one more example.

The biggest way to earn points is to refer 5 friends within 1 calendar month. Once you're a BT member, you can go to the referrals section and easily email 5 or more friends the invite. If you get 5 friends to join in the month, you're awarded a bonus of 10,000 points. Technically if you do that and earn 1,500 points a day, you could get that $75 Visa card in no time.

There is also a Scavenger Hunt offered on the site which gives special clues and will award winners a nice prize of $1,000. Yet another way to play and get payed for participation..

If you're interested in becoming a Boomertowne member, use this special referral code: 1264246176 when you sign up! Remember, the Monetizer sent ya ;)

Be careful, with many sites like this as they become extremely addictive and can consume time quickly!

Make Money Online Without a Website!

Since moving to a new state I've been reduced to using dialup for a bit of time, making it more of a challenge to post to blogs and complete other tasks. That said, I wanted to provide a bunch of ways for people to make money online without having the stress/complication of running a website or blog to do it. So here are just 10 ways you can profit online without owning your own website..

1) eBay - Since moving to a new place I've been putting a lot more items on eBay. The key factor here is you really need to evaluate the items you just can't get rid of. It's easy to say that about a lot of things we own, but if you can part with things that just aren't being used, there's extra money. I also am starting to investigate the local consignment and Goodwill type stores for electronics. These can be gold mines for resale of items.

2) Associated Content - With AC you are paid for your unique written articles. These are upfront payments or performance payments. Sometimes AC will accept your articles for upfront payment and you'll see money to your PayPal within a week. Depending on your article you can see from $3-$4 for your articles. Other times you will only be approved for performance payment, meaning you get $1.50 for every 1,000 views your article gets. AC also provides you with topics you can write if you choose and some pay from $5-$10 each.

3) Cash Crate - It's a "get paid to" and "paid survey site" but I've found it very easy to earn with and reliable for payouts. It's all about the time you're willing to put in to either do things on the site yourself, or get others to signup who will earn you referral money. Cash Crate includes paid surveys at 80 cent a piece, various sign up offers which pay you, as well as points offers where you can earn prizes such as gift cards and electronics.

4) Gather - A social media type community. You start out earning points for uploading content like articles, images and videos, as well as getting and giving comments and more. If you earn 3,000 points in a month on the site you may be invited to their cash program, where 3,000 pts = $50. The gift cards are nice from Borders, Macy's, Home Depot, and Omaha Steaks among others.

5) Squidoo - I can't recommend this site enough because I like it's look and feel. It is a free place to make a lens page about any topic you choose and you can make as many as you want. So the possibilities are endless for specific topics you can make a page about. You then earn based on performance of your page as you receive a cut of the Adsense revenue. You also earn royalties should you put Amazon, eBay and any of a variety of other products on your page that someone buys.

6) HubPages - I've used it less than Squidoo, but it follows the same concept with revenue share. The difference here is Hub Pages will allow you full commission of Adsense money from your pages. You just need to be signed up with Adsense first and supply your Publisher ID.

7) Ximmy - A newer site I've found which is alot like Digg, but it pays you for votes, comments and hitting the front page. 1,000 points = $10. There's also a great affiliate program paying out 50 cents per member you refer, with minimum payout at $25.

8) Amazon Mechanical Turk - It's a site where you are paid to do tasks that computers can't easily do. Everything from locating maps or contracts online to creating javascript code or transcribing MP3 lectures to text. Some tasks give very low payouts of a few cents but allow for you to do them 1000's of times. Others pay $1-$10 and more for completion but require tougher work.

9) CafePress - If you've got that fashion designer or artistic knack, this site could be for you. Cafepress allows you to create your own custom designs on an art program then upload them. The designs are put on mugs, shirts, moues pads and other clothing items/accessories.

10) Image/photo sites - There's quite a few of these going on on the internet. Some are sites where you flat out sell your original digital photos and interested buyers pay to download and use them. Other sites will pay you per impressions or views of your photo. Copyright applies to most of these sites, so make sure the pictures you upload belong to you.

Out of the above listed items, my biggest moneymakers have been eBay followed by Squidoo, AC and then Cash Crate. Associated Content is also the fastest payer of any online money making site I've found, as you are paid within a few days of your article being approved. Try the above ideas out for additional sources of income, but remember often times the money you make is closely related to how willing you are to put in work and effort.

Finding a Web Host

The following is a sponsored blog post. If you currently use a free blog platform, the biggest recommendation someone might tell you is to purchase a domain and hosting. It sounds like a broken record, but you'll have more control over your blog than if you are using someone else's service. It may also sound hypocritical as this blog runs on blogspot.com. The Monetizer has several blogs in the work and is looking to decide on a good web hosting choice for 2 or 3 of those blogs.

Many people will be quick to recommend GoDaddy or HostGator as the best hosts to move your blog to, but there may be another that fits your site needs better. You can easily check for hosting sites that fit your requirements at Webhostingchoice.com, which provides an easy to use search to find the best hosting for your needs. You simply enter the monthly cost you'd like to pay, the Diskspace storage you'd like, Bandwith needed and your setup costs. The site then gives you several options for web hosting sites which fit your requirements.

As mentioned above, Hostgator is a popular choice amongst bloggers and webmasters. The Monetizer did a quick search on Webhostingchoice.com with the requirements of a $10 per month fee, 2500 megabytes storage, 3 gigs bandwith and $0 setup. And presto! Hostgator was the recommended choice with plans at $7 and $10 available.

So if you're still in need of a place to host your blog online, give webhostingchoice.com a try to determine which hosting service might work best for you.

Money Considerations when Moving

Hey friends, fans and faithful blog readers...The Monetizer was recently involved in a big out of state move. As you know there's a lot involved when you make a move to a new residence. If it's an apartment setting you may have a lot of loose ends to tie up back home. Here's some tips on things to think about when moving..

1) Bank - This has been the biggest challenge so far. My bank located back home doesn't have branches in the new state. The challenge comes because I used to be able to move funds from PayPal or other sources on a day's notice. Now there's a new stumbling block in automatic withdrawals, etc. So the bank is one thing to consider first and foremost when moving.

2) Utility/Bill companies - The beauty of most companies these days is that you can do things online, such as pay the monthly bill and if you need to, cancel service. I've been successful in cancelling Eletric so far, but the Cable and Phone/DSL will require phone calls. A lot of these services require a certain amount of notice to cancel, or you will get billed for another month. The gym I belong to either wants you to cancel in person, or send a certified letter of cancellation. So there's a bit of a process involved in quitting a health club, although it may differ for different gyms.

3) Apartment lease - Apartments are very different in lease policies. Some will allow month to month renting, others do it by the yearly lease. There can be fees involved for breaking the lease and then any problems that the apartment may have. It's something to consider before leaving that you do your best to leave the place how you first moved into it. This isn't always cost effective at the time, but it can save you money for damage fees. Often the security deposit can aid with this.

4) Change of address - This one actually costs you a whole dollar by credit card should you choose to do it online. It's smart to do this as quickly as possible to make sure you get that mail, bills and of course checks from various companies! You can use USPS.com to make the change, and it works pretty well. Beware though, they put you through a ton of extra as you go along such as "would you like to subscribe to any of these magazines?"

5) Internet work/Blogging - Until I get hi-speed here, I am forced to work with the old school dialup. That can be tricky with just one phone line and roommates, but I will manage to get my work in when I can. It's probably the biggest stumbling block so far, but these things can be overcome.

There's a ton to think about and do when you move, and the above things can be financial difficulties, only if you let them. It's always good to plan in advance, otherwise you will be throwing away that hard earned money you're making online!