Friday, October 17, 2008

Get Paid to Drive a Car.

If you read the title of this blog and thought it was a scam, you are wrong. You can actually get paid to drive your own car or even get a new car and just pay insurance and maintenance for it. Well, who would be ready to pay you for driving a car and why do they do that? Simply put, it is a method of advertisement in which the companies advertise their business on your car with either a small decal or a complete car wrap. Advertising on a car is a very innovative method of advertisement, because how many times have we got stuck in traffic, having nothing to do but stare at the rear windshield of the car in front of us or at our side? Imagine if an advertisement is put up in that window, how much exposure would the advertising business get?
Who can apply for this scheme? There are certain conditions like age limits, mileage driven, location where car will be driven and so on. Usually anyone above 18 years of age may be allowed to apply for this. Some companies require that you drive atleast a 1000 miles per month to qualify for this program while others just ask you to drive the usual routes that you drive everyday. Is there a catch? Not much. Some companies may reject people who do not meet the requirement criteria, others may make you wait for a few months till a suitable advertisement for your location comes up. You just have to remember that the advertisement should be constantly displayed on your car wherever you drive. You cannot remove the decal just because you are going to your friend's house or to the church!
How much you can earn from this varies from company to company. A few pay as low as $50 per month, while others may pay upto $300 or even $400 every month. You can also be paid for referring your friends or other advertisers to this scheme. Some companies also provide you with a free car wrapped with advertisements and require you to maybe pay for insurance and general maintenance. Some come equipped with GPS systems so that the mileage covered by you could be kept track of.
How do you find companies who will be ready to sign you up for this scheme? Well, you can go to a search engine like Google and find out, or to make your work simpler, you can subscribe to directories which list a number of such companies. Some of the few directories which I am aware of is surveryscout.com, Thefreecar.com, freecarindex.com and freecarsouce.com

Thursday, October 16, 2008

Get paid to surf the internet and read emails.



Is it possible to get paid to read emails? Can you get paid for just surfing advertisements? Yes, you can. Now, who will pay you to read their emails? Businesses which want you to know about their current offers, online business, companies offering work from home opportunities are a few of them. Why do they pay you? Well, it is simply an attempt to entice you, they believe that when you read their email or see their advertisement, you'll get interested in their offer and you'll purchase the product or sign up for their offers.
Free Money at FusionCash!
To complete such offers, you need to sign up with recruiting companies. Once you sign up, you'll start receiving emails and offers to surf websites. A few companies even offer signup bonus of maybe $5, and for each email read or website surfed, you'll be paid anywhere from a cent to 5 cents or more. Some credit your account with points, and when you reach a certain number of points, you can redeem it for gifts or gift certificates. If you see an offer which you like, and you sign up for the offer, you will be credited with even more money like $50 or even $75. Before signing up for any offer, free or otherwise, be sure to read through all the terms and conditions to make sure there is no catch. These companies even pay you for each referral that you bring to them.
How much can you earn from these ways? If you thought that you could earn hundreds of dollars every day, you'll be very much disappointed. Each email read or website surfed will earn you a few cents, and by the end of the day you could have earned $10 or $20. If you complete offers, you could earn more. but even $10 per day adds to $300 per month, which could be utilised for a car loan payment or a credit card payment! A few of the websites I use consistently are Fusioncash.net, sendearnings.com and tiktikcash.com among others. Surveyscout offers a list of many more companies with which you can sign up and start receiving emails and surf websites.
Scam Alert- If you read that you could earn $25 for every email read, be assured that it is a scam!

Friday, October 10, 2008

Affiliate Marketing- Who can do affiliate marketing?

Who can do affiliate marketing? Are there any necessary qualifications to become an affiliate marketer? Do you have to earn a degree in business, finance or management to become an affiliate? Do you have to be rich? The answers for all the above questions are no, no and NO. Anyone who is interested, who is ready to put in some hard work, learn the successful methods used by superaffiliates, and follow a proven business plan can become a successful affiliate. That would include all people from stay at home moms, at home caregivers, college students, retired people, employed people trying to make a part-time income and many more.
Do you have to know business or management to become an affiliate? Ask Rosalind Gardner, successful superaffiliate and author of 'The super Affiliate Handbook' and she would emphatically say NO. When she started experimenting with affiliate marketing back in 1999, she could barely surf the internet. All she had was a motivation to escape from the 9 to 5 rut and become her own boss. So, the basic qualification to become an affiliate would be motivation, hardwork and willingness to learn from successful affiliates.
Finally, do you have to be rich and have substantial money in your bank account to venture into affiliate marketing? Definitely no. The most attractive factor about affiliate marketing is that it requires no upfront huge investment to become an affiliate. Becoming an affiliate for clickbank, commission junction or stores like Amazon etc are free, the only expense would be for promoting your products.

Making money with affiliate marketing.

If you are a newbie to making money online and are just starting to research methods to achieve this, you would have definitely heard the term 'affiliate marketing' all over the internet. What exactly is affiliate marketing? Well, maybe you want to start a business of your own selling goods online. But you do not have your own products to sell. No problem, this is where affiliate marketing steps in. Rosalind Gardner, established super affiliate and well known author of 'The Super Affiliate Handbook', defines affiliate marketing as follows- 'affiliate marketing is an arrangement between an online merchant and affiliate (you), in which the affiliate earns a commission for generating sales, leads and/or clicks for the merchant's web site'. So, basically, the affiliate is like a salesperson for the company whose product he is selling. The product can be a physical product like bags, furniture, electronics, books, home decor items and much more, or it can be a digital product like ebooks which the buyer can directly download after purchase.
Affiliate marketing has been around for about a decade now and most companies including big named retail stores and electronic stores also promote their products through affiliate marketing. The most common company with an affiliate program would be Amazon.com. How much commission can an affiliate earn? Well, it depends on the percentage of commission fixed by the company, the price of the product and most importantly, how many products the affiliate is able to sell. There are affiliates who earn a few hundreds, to the super affiliates who earn thousands of dollars each month, just by promoting other's products.
Is it easy to become a super affiliate? Definitely not. Statistics shows that only about 5% to 10% of affiliates are able to gain status of superaffiliates while many get burned out after a year or 2 of affiliate marketing. What is the major difficulty in achieving success? It depends on the product selected, method of promotion and the amount of hard work put in by the affiliate.

Friday, September 5, 2008

Getting Paid For Your Opinions- Mystery Shopping

The term 'mystery shopping' may sound mysterious, but there is definitely no mystery behind it. Mystery shopping or secret shopping refers to the technique used by stores, restaurants, corporations etc wherein they send shoppers to their own business place and ask them to evaluate the service rendered by the employees. Employers cannot always be at their business and hence cannot fully assure whether their employees meet the service standards. By using mystery shoppers, employers can assess the standards of their employees and utilise the response given by the mystery shopper to improve their customer service.
Mystery shopping is used by restaurants, retail/grocery stores, automative industries, services, hotels etc. Generally, anyone can apply to become a mystery shopper. They then have to undergo training and complete certification to qualify for mystery shopping. During the training process, the shopper would be taught what to observe at the store or restaurant, how to interact with the staff and how to report their findings. The shopper would need to report their exact findings without giving way to their own personal prejudices.
Generally, mystery shoppers can decide what places they want to visit and report. They will be given detailed instructions as to what they need to buy at the store, what they need to observe for and how the store employees react to certain situations. They will shop or dine like regular shoppers and then need to report their experience to the company which hired them in a prescribed format provided to them. After they complete their report they will be compensated for their work. Generally, this work may take up about an hour and compensation differs from company to company.
Mystery shopping can be fun and rewarding as you get to shop or eat for free and offer your unbiased opinions which will help in improving customer service. But you need to be aware of some scams in mystery shopping where you may be asked to wire money by moneygram or where you spend your own money at the store but then are not refunded after you submit the report. So, always research about the company before accepting to take up an assignment. Even though you could search for such companies online, surveyscout.com gives a compiled list of many such mystery shopping companies. For a small fee, you could get not only list of mystery shopping companies but also survey opportunities. You could earn back this small fee within no time.

Thursday, August 28, 2008

Getting Paid for Your Opinion-Surveys and Focus Groups

Majority of people looking for an online income probably would have started by taking surveys and attending focus groups. What is a survey? It is basically a list of questions or questionnaire prepared by market research companies hired by large corporations, seeking our opinions about their products. It is very simple and also gives us a satisfaction that the corporations would seek the opinions of customers like us. As compensation for our time and opinions, these companies will pay us either in cash, gift cards (like Amazon.com gift cards) or they will enter your name in sweepstakes or contests. A few companies will also send products to us asking us to evaluate it and in return, you get to keep the product and also a small compensation. Not all surveys would suit a person. For example, a survey about feminine products cannot be answered by men. Similarly, if the survey is for men aged 18 to 35, older people would not qualify for the survey. Generally, the market research companies would get details about you while registering with them and surveys that suit your profile will be sent to you. There are many market research companies and once you register with them, invitations for survey would start pouring in to your email box.


While a survey asks for individual opinion, a focus group will consist of a group of people who meet the eligibility criteria and they will discuss about a product, health issues and other ideas or sevice. Generally, focus groups take up more time like maybe an hour or more and compensation is also better like $50 for an hour or so.


There are many market research companies and you could find them by searching on google. But it would take forever. To make the job easier for you, there are compiled lists of research companies available on the internet for a small fee. Surveyscout.com is one such list which provides you with the names of hundreds of research companies and their details. Although there are many such lists available, from my experience, surveyscout.com is the best and gives plenty of information for a small fee. Once you start taking surveys, you can earn back this money within no time.

Earn With Your Computer


Have you decided to make use of your computer to earn money? Well, you're not alone. Millions of people are making a part-time or even full-time income using a computer and internet. Everyday, we hear and read about people who work in their pajamas from the comfort of home and earn thousands of dollars. If this makes you think that earning online is a very simple task, then you could not be MORE WRONG!! Making money online needs plenty of research. It requires hard work and persistence. If you begin with the expectation of earning thousands of dollars in your first month, you may be very much disappointed. Of course, we see all these "earn 100,000 in 30 days" or "I earned 5 million in 6 months and so could you" banners in each and every corner of the internet. But any person who has been successful online would tell you that it is not so easy to do it. You have to read so much information and then learn by trial and error method. There are so many scams out there that it could take quite sometime for you to realise which program is scam and which is not.
But, don't think I'm discouraging you. If done properly, your computer could be a life-saver. Do your research, be patient and persistent and you could see the fruits of your hard work within a short span of time. Whether you earn part-time or full-time depends on the amount of effort and time that you put into it. If you want to be lazy but earn tons of money, then, sorry, this place is not for you.
So, why would you want to listen to my advice? Simply because, I've been there and done that. I've spent months researching each program, lost hundreds and even thousands of dollars in scams and learnt precious lessons in the process. In my blog, I'll be writing about the various means of earning income online, beginning from the most simple ways to the few complicated ones and most importantly highlighting which ones are scams that you need to keep far away from. Making money online is an ocean and I would like to share with you the few things that I've learnt from my experience. If in the process, I can help you profit online, I would be blessed. So, keep reading my blogs.