LVI56

Survey Updates

noreply@blogger.com (LVI56) — Sat, 17 Oct 2009 08:07:00 +0000

Updated Survey Earnings, now over $300 for the year! Received my $50 check from Global Test Market, with a few checks from other sites on their way.

Took a break from writing for a while to focus on other things. Lots of writing for school to do, plus looking for a job daily. Seems like there are more places hiring, and hiring for positions I qualify for. Re-wrote my resume again, and again. It’s good, always has been, and gets better with every rewrite. No problem with employers looking at it, problem is there are thousands of other people to fight through. Really difficult when my sister, a high school drop out (got her GED after nearly 7 years), lands a steady job. Doesn’t even have a resume, missed most of her second week, and still is doing very well.

No idea how often I’ll update. Can’t think of much to write with so much focus elsewhere. Just getting through school, applying for jobs and doing surveys.

Don’t Forget About Upromise

noreply@blogger.com (LVI56) — Mon, 28 Sep 2009 02:35:00 +0000

I’ve been a member of UPromise for a few years. Most of the time I forget all about it, because of that I have a low balance. This weekend I have been exploring it a bit more to see what I can use to save some money.

First, there is a promotion that ends September 30th to install the Turbo Saver and receive $3. The Turbo Saver is installed into your browser, existing as a small Upromise logo. Everytime you enter a website that is part of the Upromise network it will notify you that you can save and tell you how much. It will also give you a link to various coupons so you can save even more.

I am going to start using Upromise even more. There is a Mobile gas station across the street from my house, that’s 1 cent per gallon into Upromise. Of course their terms are you have to buy 20 gallons within a calendar month to get your money. That’s easy to do for most people.

Many have said that Upromise is more hyped than it deserves. I would have to agree. Many promote the site as a way to earn a ton of money for college, when in reality you earn very little. Of course for a student paying off loans, every little bit can make a difference. That’s why I am a member. Even after a few years I have only earned $8, that’s with all my cards registered. I don’t have any family attached, I’m sure if I did my earnings would go up a bit.

They are always adding more companies to the program. As well as increasing earnings, for example Ebay went up from 1% to 2%. And don’t forget e-rewards, a survey site run by Upromise. Signing up for e-rewards will get you $2 and after earning $100 in e-currency you can get $50 in your UPromise Account.

Survey Earnings Update

noreply@blogger.com (LVI56) — Sat, 26 Sep 2009 17:40:00 +0000

Just updated my Survey Earnings page. Still awaiting the $50 check from Global test market. Also a few other pending payments. Did a product test for Pinecone Research, they continue to be me recent top earning company. Many have slowed down and/or are offering sweeps only incentives. Should hit the $300 mark at the end of the year, maybe even $325.

Is Quicken Online The One?

noreply@blogger.com (LVI56) — Thu, 24 Sep 2009 16:49:00 +0000

Maybe I over looked something, but it looks like you can split transactions in Quicken Online. This is a feature that only existed on Mint.com. For a while I’ve been waiting to see who would be the first to get all of the features of a money management site into one. Quicken looks like it’s about to take over. It still lacks the ability to create manual accounts, something that I use on Money Strands. Mint does not have this feature either. And now with Intuit, owners of the Quicken brand, acquiring Mint.com, but still keeping Quicken Online, it’s looks as if by next year there will be a clear winner.

Right now, I’m not holding my breath. With no job and virtually no spending, it doesn’t matter to me. Hopefully that will change soon. I will be keeping an eye on them to see what happens next.

A Few Updates Plus Moving

noreply@blogger.com (LVI56) — Mon, 21 Sep 2009 03:54:00 +0000

As I had said earlier, this week I will be moving. Something came up and I will be moving a town over. What this does is ads about 20 minutes to my commute time to school, but brings me closer to more populated areas, meaning more job opportunities.

Once settled in the goal will be to find a stable job and continue focusing on school. At the same time I am still committed to surveys, sweeps and my blogs. I will still continue to build on my affiliate marketing, as well as continue to build on my tech blog rebuild.

Affiliate Marketing Update – Commission Junction

noreply@blogger.com (LVI56) — Thu, 17 Sep 2009 22:30:00 +0000

I’ve been sick most of the week, but still working at affiliate marketing. I’ve got a good list of advertisers over at Linkshare, and today I’ve been working on Commissions Junction.

What Linkshare does not have, Commission Junction probably has. I’ve got a few advertisers approved with a ton pending. Some companies like Citi, Upromise, Newegg, Intuit, Dell, HP and a host of others.

The sign up process was similar to Linkshare, as is applying to advertisers. They have to review your sites(s) and you have to meet certain criteria. The few I have approved were immediate. In the advertiser list, they give a nice bit of info. Not only the commissions numbers, but also the EPC:

What is EPC (average earnings per 100 clicks)?
EPC is an exclusive metric of the CJ Marketplace given for publishers, advertisers, and individual ads, and is a relative rating that illustrates the ability to convert clicks into commissions. For publishers, an advertiser's EPC shows how well that advertiser converts traffic into actual sales or leads. For advertisers, a publisher's EPC shows how well that publisher sends relevant traffic to advertisers' sites. EPC is published in two forms, 7-day and 3-month.

What I’m doing now is gathering a good list of advertisers across these two affiliate networks, along with Amazon. The plan is to continue building on my tech blog by providing product reviews and price comparisons from various sources which I link to as an affiliate. From there, it’s all about waiting. I already have my blog set up with various networks and search engines, they rest is up to readers.

Intuit Buys Mint.com

noreply@blogger.com (LVI56) — Tue, 15 Sep 2009 16:13:00 +0000

Press Release

Intuit, the company that owns Quicken, Quickbooks, Turbotax and Quicken Online, Has agreed to purchase Mint.com. This just might be a turning point for Personal Finance websites. I have been keeping an eye on three of them, Mint, Quicken and Moneystrands, waiting to see who will be the first to deliver all the features we seek. Those features are currently spread among the three. All three of them have also promised to expand and bring the features we have been requesting.

The deal is expected to close at the end of this year. Both Mint and Quicken Online will still be around. Mint will take primary focus as the free personal finance management software, while Quicken Online will still be available for those who have the desktop version. It is uncertain the exact changes this will have on the functionality of each site. It’s my hope this move will allow each of them to adopt the others features to create the single all-in-one free finance management we all seek. For now it’s wait and see on the exact details.

Affiliate Update – Tiger Direct Approved

noreply@blogger.com (LVI56) — Mon, 14 Sep 2009 06:26:00 +0000

In my last post I talked about signing up for affiliate marketing through Linkshare. This week I was approved by Tiger Direct. I still have a few other companies that are pending. I continue to work off and on with a few ideas for generating income with affiliate marketing. If anything clicks I will share here.

Meanwhile, a development is forcing me to move within the next two weeks. A long story, One which I may share here one day. Due to that development, my posts here will be somewhat sporadic until I settle down. At the same time, my unemployment has run out…perfect timing huh? I’m currently awaiting an extension, which may take from a few weeks to a few months.

Linkshare For Making Money Online

noreply@blogger.com (LVI56) — Wed, 09 Sep 2009 20:34:00 +0000

While continuing to be unemployed, I have been researching and exploring new ways (at least new to me) of making money online. If you follow my blog, the most effective ways have been surveys and sweeps. I am finally exploring the world of affiliate marketing. This brought me to not only Amazon, but also Linkshare.

Linkshare allows you to partner with a number of companies and post links and banners on your website. From there, if anybody clicks through and purchases a product or signs up for a service, you receive a commission. It’s essentially the same as the Amazon affiliate program. It’s not so easy, you have to apply to the company (Via Linkshare) and they have to approve your site. This is done using the information your signed up with on Linkshare.

When signing up you are asked for tax information. First your SSN among with phone, address etc… then you have to put in additional tax information. If you are an individual, simply select form W-9, fill in the information, entity type as individual, and the company name as your full name. Then near the bottom you put in your SSN as your tax ID. All in all a quick sign up process. Find some advertisers your interested in and apply. It will probably take a bit to be approved, I’m still waiting to be approved from a few. As I learn more and begin using this program I’ll post about it.

I have a plan for using this along with Amazon and Adsense to start generating some revenue from web pages. Unlike many other websites that claim results but never show how, I will tell you exactly how. If anything I hit on starts generating a good cash flow (not just a few cents) I will post exactly how I did it. So keep an eye out here for some good tips, hopefully.

BOINC – Put Your Computer to Work

noreply@blogger.com (LVI56) — Tue, 08 Sep 2009 20:01:00 +0000

Just think about it, nearly every household has a computer. Most of them only use a fraction of their resources for everyday computing. Much of the processor is not used at all, and sits idle for a large portion of time. Just imagine the computing power you can have if you combined all that idle processing power.

Boinc Graphics view on my Laptop – Astropulse (SETI@Home)

BOINC is an application that allows you to put your computer to work for various projects. It combines computing power from your computer with thousands of others to analyze data. It’s called “Volunteer Computing”. You install the BOINC application and sign up for a project or multiple projects you are interested in. Packets of data are downloaded to your computer and then start processing and analyzing. Once finished, the data is uploaded and a new set of data is downloaded.

There are various options you can change. You can specify how much of the processor is used, when it is used, etc… When you sign up for the project, the set of data assigned to you is based on your computing capabilities, so your computer will not be overwhelmed. After a while you can go to the project websites and view your credit, ranking and other statistics.

There are various project to sign up for, here are a few I do or have done:

SETI@Home: This is a project I have been a member of since 2007. SETI (Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence) is a scientific area whose goal is to detect intelligent life outside Earth. One approach, known as radio SETI, uses radio telescopes to listen for narrow-bandwidth radio signals from space. Such signals are not known to occur naturally, so a detection would provide evidence of extraterrestrial technology.

MilkyWay@Home: Uses combined computing to create highly accurate three dimensional model of the Milky Way galaxy using data gathered by the Sloan Digital Sky Survey.

Cosmology@Home: Search for a model that best describes our universe.

ClimatePredication.net: Produce predictions of Earth’s climate and test accuracy of climate models.

Einstein@Home: Uses your computer's idle time to search for spinning neutron stars (also called pulsars) using data from the LIGO gravitational wave detector. It also searches for radio pulsars in binary systems, using data from the Arecibo Observatory in Puerto Rico.

Orbit@Home: A Project to study Solar System dynamics and analyze data relating to NEA’s (Near Earth Asteroids); NEA search strategies and NEA impact hazard monitoring.

World Community Grid: A project that focuses on benefits to humanity, researching and finding cures to diseases and viruses and much more.

For the most part I focus on SETI. You can run multiple projects but only one will process at once. You can set a time for it to switch between projects, right now I have mine set to switch every 30 mins.

Boinc Stats and BAM:

The website BoincStats provides information and statistic to your credit, teams and projects. If you sign up for BAM, you can link it to your Boinc client and manage all your projects online. This is great if you run Boinc on remote computers or on multiple computers.

There you can also get a sig of your stats, here’s mine:

For more information visit the FAQ’s and user guides as well as forums on the Boinc website and on BoincStats. You can also ask me via comment and I’ll help you as best I can. Happy Computing!

CultLotto Review – Looking Good

noreply@blogger.com (LVI56) — Sat, 05 Sep 2009 22:21:00 +0000

So a while back I started playing at CultLotto. It’s a free lottery site, simply view some ads and you get your tickets. They have a daily instant lotto, daily lotto and weekly progressive lotto.

First, How it works. Unlike some other sites, this lottery site is not based on real lottery. Their numbers are computer generated. However, they offer many chances to win. I have already won $0.88 in the progressive lotto, they payout (Via Paypal) at $15. It’s not much, but hey, I won something. Plus daily I win points in the instant and daily lotto, which I then convert into progressive tickets. For more detail on the lottos:

The Instant Lotto:

Simply choose 7 numbers and proceed. You get 10 chances per day (resetting at noon every day). You can use the same numbers each time, or change them each time, or any combination. You also have the option of saving your numbers. You can see the prizes on the right, the highest I have gotten so far is 4 matches. I recommend turning the high quality draw off, as it goes a bit quicker.

When you proceed the numbers will be drawn. If you get two or more matches you can claim them. Claiming them takes you to a page of ads, click one and it will open, wait 15 seconds and you can continue with your next ticket. If you don’t match any, you don’t have to view any ads.

The Daily Lotto:

Here you pick six numbers, you get 3 tickets per day. For each ticket you must view ads. Again, you can save numbers and load them or just quickpick. The highest I have gotten here was 3 matches.

The Progressive Lotto:

Cash prizes, now that’s more like it! Simple six numbers, they draw every Saturday at noon. You only get 3 tickets per week. The prize pool is ever changing based on how much was won last week and tickets entered this week. Like I said above, I have won this one, the 3 matches which at that time was only $0.88.

What to do with points?

So you have all those points form the daily and instant lotto, what do you do with them? Head over to the point center. You have the options of entering your points into raffles, a $25 weekly raffle and a $100 monthly raffle. Or you can save up 10,000 points and get free tickets in either of the lottos. I always go for the progressive tickets.

So that’s it. Once you reach $15 you can request a Paypal payment. I’ve yet to read any bad reviews of this site, and so far they have been very good. Very minimal advertising, no gimmicks, just a chance to win some money. Enjoy and Good luck!

Survey Review – Who’s Good and Who’s Bad

noreply@blogger.com (LVI56) — Sat, 05 Sep 2009 04:33:00 +0000

I thought I’d try to do something like this every month or so. A review of what survey sites are working for me and which are not. I’ve been a member of a bunch for at least 3 months, some nearly 2 years. So I have a good idea of who is good and who is not.

This is my opinion based on my experience. Your experience may vary as your household information will be different. Also, this is based on activity within the last month, some were very good earlier in the year, then cut back. You can view my earnings for each of these by looking here.

Sites Paying Well:

SurveySpot
Opinion Outpost
Pinecone Research (currently not accepting new members)
Toluna
Greenfield Online
GlobalTestMarket

Sites Still Good:

Lightspeed Panel
SurveySavvy
SayNation
E-Rewards
Palm Research

No Good Sites (On the Chopping Block):

HCD Surveys
NFO-Mysurvey
American Consumer Opinion
Vindale

Sites To Try Next:

SurveyHead

The no good sites, I will probably deactivate my account and remove the links from my site. Each of them has sent very little or no surveys. Vindale is good if you are willing to sign up for programs online, but I don’t like the idea, and the incentive could be a lot better.

September Updates – Check It Out!

noreply@blogger.com (LVI56) — Thu, 03 Sep 2009 02:33:00 +0000

Surveys:

Reformatted my survey earnings page, makes it a little easier to read. Today I reached the payout for Global Test Market, so $50 on it’s way.

Sweeps:

Above I added a link for sweeps. It will lead to a page when I explain exactly what I do and who I do it. I wanted to do it this week, but it may take a few more weeks. I’m waiting for the new OLS website to come up, once it does and I learn the new features, I will write all about them.

Also, today I cashed in on my 3-month ClubPogo win, been playing Scrabble and Monopoly all day. Best part is thanks to OLS I got some links to get additional tokens, which along with those I win in games I use to enter the Pogo cash drawings.

Website and Twitter Work:

For the blog here, to the right I changed up some of the buttons and added some Javascript to them. To the left I added a space for my earnings stats with Sweeps and Surveys. On my Twitter page (See button link to the right), I added a cool background. It all took me and entire day to do, that’s why I spent a majority of today playing games.

Sweeps Picking Up

noreply@blogger.com (LVI56) — Tue, 01 Sep 2009 00:17:00 +0000

With almost nothing else to do I’ve been focusing on more Sweeps. This week alone I have had 4 wins, 3 of which occurred the same day. They were small, instant wins, but a win is a win. I now average 250 sweeps entered at a time.

Tomorrow, OLS (Online-sweepstakes.com) gets a major update that will make sweeping much easier and more efficient. I’ve used OLS since 2007 and it has been well worth $30/year membership. Though you can join for free, you have to pay for some of the more advanced features. It’s a really fun hobby.

If you join, please include my user name “lvi56” as a referral during sign up. I don’t get anything for it other than a note that I referred someone.

Click here for my wins list.

GLTA! Also, I’m working on another post that will go into more detail of the sweeping hobby and OLS. Should have that up later this week!

SurveySavvy Check Arrives

noreply@blogger.com (LVI56) — Sat, 29 Aug 2009 19:56:00 +0000

Just got $18 from SurveySavvy. That puts me at $46 from surveys for the month. I’ll be updating my survey earnings page in a bit with the latest payments.

Also, got my second instant win this week. A Bag of M&M’s, earlier this week I received a 30 day subscription to Zagats. The wins are slowly increasing.

RepairPal – Track Car Maintenance and More

noreply@blogger.com (LVI56) — Sat, 29 Aug 2009 05:50:00 +0000

For a while I have been using RepairPal to track repairs for my car. You can track everything other than fuel mileage. For that I use Fuelly. They also have a great car info section to look up reviews and common problems with cars, from the people who drive them. Here’s some more of what you can do:

Track repairs and mantenance
Research estimates for common repairs and services
Find, review, and add shops/dealers
Upload documents associated with services
Keep notes of your car, services and shops
Track multiple cars
View and encyclopedia of all sorts of hints and information

It’s fairly simple, and puts everything right in front of you. I like being able to review shops and keep notes on repairs.

Speaking of repairs, I had my car towed to a shop (One I haven’t been to) to troubleshoot the electrical problem I had been having. They ran tests and narrowed the circuit and found a blown fuse. Fuse looked good to me, but was blown. That sucks, all that for a damn fuse. I was able to confirm the speed sensor works and the speedometer gear has broken again. I have to go to the shop that redid my transmission (Hate the place) next week. This new shop was very good and had very nice people.

Survey Updates

noreply@blogger.com (LVI56) — Tue, 25 Aug 2009 23:46:00 +0000

Updated my Survey Earnings Page.

Received $7 check from SurveySpot

Requested another payment from Opinion Outpost, plus the $19 check from a few weeks ago.

Requested another $5 from Lightspeed Panel.

Nearing Cash-out point for Global Test Market and Greenfield.

News: Greenfield offers $0.50 incentive for each survey if you click the link in their invite email. Applies to every survey. Also, Surveyspot starts Paypal option.

The Hidden History of My Car – What I’m Learning

noreply@blogger.com (LVI56) — Mon, 24 Aug 2009 20:55:00 +0000

So a few days ago I posted about the newest in a long line of problems with my car. I have been troubleshooting and learning all sorts of stuff within the last two days.

Here’s a little run down of what’s happened with me and my car:

May 2008: purchased the car for $3500 (thanks to my Mom’s tax return)
1 week later: Loose a corner light, other corner light is loose.
September 2008: Got rear ended on the freeway in heavy traffic. Also got ticket for tinted windows.
Two weeks later: Went to CHP station to get accident report, got ticketed in the parking lot (Cop was clearly having a bad day) for tinted windows and modified exhaust.
Day later: Took tint off windows (yeah…i get it, no tint in California…)
October 2008: Finally get bumper repaired from accident
Two weeks later: Had to take it back twice to get my exhaust tightened back in.
January 2009 (I think): Got stock mufflers put on, passed the noise test for my exhaust ticket, mailed in paperwork.
Two weeks later: Had to pay $40 for the exhaust ticket, though I fixed it and it was a fix-it ticket. Damn state…
Feb 2009: Car won’t start, towed to a shop, fuel pump replaced.
March 2009: New tires and assorted other things
June 2009: Transmission died, rebuilt plus new clutch
July 2009: New starter, repaired broken speedometer gear on transmission
Ever since: speedometer not working, took it back, repaired, then died again…ugh
August 2009: Still diagnosing… read below.

Lots of stuff huh? No wonder I’m gaining weight, too much stress!

So I’ve been diagnosing and troubleshooting this latest problem. I’ve been twittering about most of it. Got some wiring diagrams, schematics and using some youtube videos and forum discussions I dove head on into my instrument cluster. Oh how I should NOT have done that. While using a multimeter to check the resistance and continuity across the wiring harness, my hand slipped and the negative lead slipped accross the harness and there was a small spark. Right then my car went from no speedometer and no check engine light to that and much more.

Now, the electrical indicator, transmission indicator plus the MIL won’t come on. I try to start the car, and the same thing happens that happened when my fuel pump went out. Listening closely the fuel pump does not kick on like it should. So back to the Chilton library to view the wiring diagrams. Oh what I have learned about automotive electrical systems. So simple yet so complicated!

I came across a Youtube video about finding shorts in cars by Scotty Kilmer, I emailed him from his website and he got back to be with an answer (quite quickly too), says I may have fried my computer. http://www.scottykilmer.com He answers any car question for free.

So I checked the diagrams and traced the paths of everything thats wrong and not coming on, all goes back to the PCM. Now just so you know, that’s the computer of the car. The PCM (Powertrain Control Module) and ECU (Electrical Control Unit) are the same thing. Luckily it is a single unit that can be replaced quite easily for about $100.

Now this is where it get’s interesting. While working under my dash to take off the kick panel to get at the PCM, I notice some papers. Lodged under the dash, behind the glove box and entangled in wiring were a bunch of papers. No doubt the slipped out from the glove box and were lost and forgotten until now. To my surprise there was a repair receipt, a registration receipt and and insurance card. Each with different names. My car had at least 4 different owners before me! The repair receipt was the most surprising, It matched my VIN so I knew it was for my car. The surprise detail was the car was listed as white, leading me to believe my car was repainted at some point. But wait, it gets better! The service was from 2004, the car was towed in as a no-start. After some tests it was found the fuel pump was dead and had to be replaced! Same exact thing happened to me! Except their service was $200 cheaper.

So my car has had a history of owners and issues. By the way, that receipt has the full information of that owner, plus credit card receipt information. Lucky for them their credit card has expired. Major identity theft risk right there.

The plan right now is to try to confirm it’s the PCM. If I can I’ll order a new one and replace it. If not, take it to a shop and see what they can find. I fear it’s an electrical malfunction deep within the car. I’m also looking at cars on craigslist. I certainly don’t have the money and am hoping I can borrow.

Failed Smog Test Functional Check

noreply@blogger.com (LVI56) — Fri, 21 Aug 2009 18:10:00 +0000

It comes as no surprise that my car failed the biennial smog check. It passed all the emissions tests, but failed the functional check. The VSS (Vehicle Speed Sensor) malfunctioned…I knew that already. And the check engine light failed to come on.

So the saga of my car continues. It’s is the biggest financial pain in the ass I have had to deal with. Can’t live without it while at the same time can’t live with it! So it cost me $51 to find out I failed…the wonderful state of California inserts fees everywhere and doesn’t give a damn if you fail, you still have to pay, plus retest, plus registration and associated additional fees…and you might as well kill yourself if you miss the registration deadline. We’re talking well over $200 already in just fees and registration, that doesn’t count whatever it takes to repair the problem.

I took out my dash to check the light for the check engine (or they like to call the Malfunction Indicator Lamp). The bulb appeared good, and I went and switched it with a known good bulb, and it still didn’t come on. I also found that two bulbs were missing (wtf?). With everything back together I found that I inadvertently fixed a problem I didn’t know I had, a backlight for the instrument panel. With two weeks off from classes, I’ll be continuing to troubleshoot the problem. For the Speed Sensor, I assume the sensor it dead. If that’s the case, it needs to be replaced. I’ll have to borrow a jack, buy a new sensor and replace it. I do not think it would be covered under my transmission warranty like the speedometer gear was. For the check engine light, I’ll take the instrument panel apart again and use a voltmeter to track down the problem.

By the way, anyone who is having car trouble or troubleshooting an issue, this site helps: http://www.chiltonlibrary.com/Index.aspx Provides online manuals, electrical diagrams and how-to’s. Plus Youtube and other video sites help. Don’t forget forums and answer sites, which by the way told me that a non-function speedometer would pass, and it didn’t, so don’t believe everything.

Keeping up on Surveys and Expenses

noreply@blogger.com (LVI56) — Mon, 10 Aug 2009 20:48:00 +0000

Been a while since I posted. Not much has been going on. Surveys seem to have cut back quite a bit the last few weeks. The few I did get I did not qualify for. I did get a product from Pinecone Research to test, and just completed the evaluation. They have been very good about qualifying for studies and send payments via check right away, I have two checks on the way.

Received $12 from Opinion Outpost a few days ago. Still have another check coming from SurveySavvy. Big help.

Apart from surveys, money has been hard to come by here in SoCal. Seems like the state is raising taxes and fees all over. Got my car registration due, $78, that’s up from $54 last year, plus need a smog test, that’s another $40. Add to that all of my car repairs from earlier this year, still over $400 on credit cards to pay off. The job market here is absolutely terrible, very few places hiring. I’m hoping some things will open up for the fall, and from what I’m hearing there will be an increase in IT jobs this fall. I’m watching for a new medical complex in town to finish up. By far the biggest source of IT jobs around here is in the medical industry, especially with everything going digital.

As far as the expenses go, Quicken Online has been a big help. Been able to schedule expenses for the month to see what’s left after each. Mint has a beta program going on, I’m hoping that will include for goes updates. Money Strands, which I started using a few weeks ago, has yet to do any updates, though they promise to add a few things soon.

Going back to jobs, the big jobs sites of Monster and Yahoo have been terrible lately. Very few jobs posted and tons of unemployed overwhelming the system. Craigslist has been very good at finding jobs in the area. I have talked to and have had interviews with quite a few from there. Biggest problem with that is sometimes you don’t know who’s posting. I avoid any ads which the company name is not given at the least. Too many people out there post fake ads to get people’s information. Just think about how much about you people can find on your resume, name, address, phone…easy identity theft at that point. There’s also the problem of employers low-balling employees when it comes to pay. $10/hr for technical support is absolutely terrible, especially when I’m paying $84,000 for my education. I’ve seen job ads for warehouse workers and forklift drivers (jobs requiring no education, and not even citizenship) starting at $15/hr. There has been someone on my local craigslist who will basically attack IT ads that pay anything below $15/hr. No idea who it is, but hopefully it will make some difference. Remember, you get what you pay for.

Meanwhile, I have talked about starting up my own IT/consulting/PC repair business. I have decided not to post any details of that online. I will though, post anything that comes along that might help others with starting their own business. Let’s just say it’s a shaky start, but things are moving along.

Greenfield Payment Received from Toluna

noreply@blogger.com (LVI56) — Tue, 28 Jul 2009 20:43:00 +0000

Today I received a Paypal payment from Greenfield online, my first payment from them. But as you can see below…the payment wasn’t exactly from Greenfield:

After a little research, it seems that just last month, Toluna bought Greenfield from Microsoft. I never noticed a change, but thinking back over the last month there have been more paid surveys from Greenfield. Hopefully this will continue.

Survey Payments on the Way!

noreply@blogger.com (LVI56) — Sun, 26 Jul 2009 22:00:00 +0000

Been requesting some survey payments and have them on the way.

Greenfield Online: $5

Greenfield has been great lately sending some good paying surveys. Choose the Paypal option (says 2-3 weeks).

Survey Savvy: $18! Awesome! (check)

Opinion Outpost: $12! Yay! (check)

I’ll add the amounts to My Survey Earnings page once they arrive. That’s $35 this month.

Survey Updates - Again

noreply@blogger.com (LVI56) — Sat, 25 Jul 2009 23:12:00 +0000

Updated My Survey Earnings, Added Pinecone Research to the list. Each survey completed is $3, and they send the check as soon as you finish the survey. No waiting to cash out. They are not always open to new members so you’ll have to watch their site to see when they open for new people.

Opinion Outpost has been great to me the last few days. I earned $5 today and have another survey waiting. I have $12 in my account right now, they are defiantly the best survey site right now.

Meanwhile, SurveySpot and Lightspeed have only sent a few this week, and I didn’t qualify to any. Trying out PalmResearch and Saynation, they are slow but getting there. Palmresearch has two $1 surveys every day, but they are kind of lengthy and you don’t always qualify.

Continuing to build earnings everyday.

Free Lottery Sites

noreply@blogger.com (LVI56) — Thu, 23 Jul 2009 20:28:00 +0000

This is something you have to be really careful of. There are many website out there offering a “free lotto”, most are scams or fake to get advertising. I have two sites I have been a member of (on and off) for a few years. No SPAM, and they have paid.

The important thing to remember here is that it’s all about advertising. You select your numbers and are directed to view an ad for 15-30 seconds, then you click a link to return and select more numbers till your tickets run out. That’s how these sites make their money. Good news is, this gives you a chance to win money, without ever having to pay for tickets. Of course, you have to take a little time one a week to enter.

The first is Free Weekly Lotto. I never won a cash prize, but have won free tickets. You get 19 free tickets. Lowest winning is 3 matches for 3 tickets, highest is 6 matches for $5000. The winning numbers come from the Virginia state lottery, they do this to ensure fairness in the game. You are not actually playing the state lottery, that’s just where the numbers come from. If you win a cash prize you have to send in a photo of yourself and fill out a W-9 before receiving your prize.

BoxLotto.com is a similar site. You get 30 free tickets. The lowest win is 3 matches for 3 tickets and highest is 6 matches for $250,000. Again, the number are based on a real lottery, in this case the New York State Lottery. I have won and received a cash prize from them, $2 and 6 free tickets for 4 number match. They do not mention having to fill out tax forms, but I’m sure if you win the grand prize you will have to (Anything over $600 must be reported to the IRS). They do make an interesting note in the rules, that the grand prize will be paid in “40 annually installments”, That’s around $6000 per year for 40 years. Another note, they list all contact info, name, address, email and phone on the rules page…Infact their address isn’t too far from where I live. For the heck of it I mapped the address, it’s a residential address. So you can assume it’s the address of the owner of the site. Also, the jackpot is insured.

When visiting the sponsors, watch out for many “get rich quick” schemes. Just wait for the next ticket link to appear then move on.

There is a third site I will also mention, CultLotto. Unlike the two above sites, the number here are based on a number generator. But here you have 3 different lotto games to play.

The first is an instant lotto, you can play this every day. Lowest prize is 2000 points for two matches (I’ll explain the points bellow) on up to $1 million (awarded as $3000 monthly for 28 years). The instant win also has a cool stats page to see the frequency of numbers drawn since you started playing.
The second is a daily lotto, drawn at the end of the day. The prizes are the same as the instant lotto.
The third is a progressive jackpot. This is a weekly draw every saturday. The prizes change according to number of tickets played. Currently as of writing this the lowest prize is 3 matches for $0.98, highest is all 6 for $1681.

Anything won over $1000 you have to show photo ID and sign affidavit. Lower winnings will be collected until you reach $15 to request payout, which can be done by Paypal. Points can be saved to play more instant lotto tickets, or be used to enter to enter a weekly and/or monthly cash drawing for $25 and $100 respectively.

Good luck.

Money Strands – A New Online Money Management Site

noreply@blogger.com (LVI56) — Tue, 21 Jul 2009 21:39:00 +0000

I stumbled across this site when browsing Networth IQ. It’s Money Strands, a similar style site to Mint and Quicken. I have to say, so far I love it. The site is only a few months old and is still being developed, and they are requesting any and all feedback.

First, What I really Like. Manual Accounts! If your account isn’t listed, you can manually enter it. You can upload an exported file from your account or type it in. With that comes Manual transactions! The manual transactions only work with manual accounts. These are two things that have been missing from Mint and Quicken. Update: I found you can put custom accounts in Mint. Quicken Online still does not have this feature.

Second, It’s very simple. The front page lists all your accounts, how much money is in them, and the total at the bottom. It lists everything in dollars and cents…never rounding to the nearest dollar.

What I don’t like – No custom categories. Mint and Quicken have been great about this. But I’m sure they will take our feedback and update that portion. In the mean time, they have tags you can apply to each transaction. Also, no investment section. Mint has been the best at this and it something Quicken and Moneystrands needs to incorporate. Update: They are working on adding these features.

The rest of the site is what you expect. You have an analysis page to view a graph of all your transactions, customize by date and account.

The three together have everything you ever need. Problem is, there are three of them. Great investment information on Mint, simplicity on Quicken, and account customization on MoneyStrands. Question is, which one of these or any other site will be the first to incorporate everything we want to manage our finances?