fulllife

This is something I have been wanting to tell you about for quite some time. But there was always something else to do, so I postponed it time and time again… which is not always a good thing.

It’s about holidays. And making cash at the same time. So living your life to the full and home business. Two birds with one stone.

How would you like… to get discounts on all your travel and vacation plans for you and your family? Sounds good, huh? I knew you would like that! Did you know we spend over 7 billion dollars on vacations? Just imagine that: 7 billion dollars. A year! And that figure might be increasing dramatically with the new economies rising like crazy; China, India, countries with billions of people and economies that grow with 10 percent or more per year. That means more and more people will be able to spend money on other things than just housing, food and clothing.

And you can make money off these growing figures. The website I am talking about here is one that gives you the discounts on your travels. PLUS, if you like, you can earn money by referring the website to your friends, family colleagues and neighbors - why not?

If you check out this site you will see that the income you can make is recurring. It will come back year after year, since everybody renews their membership because of all the benefits it offers. You pay your membership once; next year you pay it from the money you made by it!

Sailing the seas, dreaming away on a coconut beach, visiting cities you had on your shortlist for a long time… airplane tickets become even more affordable and the places you want to visit just within reach…

Furthermore, if you really want to make this work: if you market the site once you are a member you can get a real income that makes life so much more enjoyable, you work from home like you always wanted to do, not for * points* or *shares* or anything like that, but for real cash…

Now what are you going to do with that cash…. how about…. some travelling?

Yes!! I good my first rating of 5 stars at oDesk after doing a few writing jobs for the same company. The guys who own the company apparently like my work… My workload is finished right now, as I am taking a few weeks of vacation, but in the meanwhile I did some re-writing about Search Engine Marketing as well, so I know now ALL about SEO, ha ha. Just ask me!!

Actually it is quite nice to work for different companies, as you get informed on a load of things you didn’t know much about before, or you just never realized how it worked… I am a great believer of life being one permanent education, and this woman here is getting educated lately…. wow!

As of my earnings: I now have about $85 in my account, $30 still have to come to me (the SEO rewriting thing) so that makes $115 in total. Slowly I am making some nice pocket money here. And as I said before, I only work about 10 hours a week for this website, since my life is full with other things as well… very full actually. And that $115 was for just 4 weeks of work. So you do the math if you are a bit of a writer, a data entry person, a web designer, a transcriber, a virtual assistent, or anything else to do with computers, internet, and so on… there might be some earnings in there for you as well! I give you the link again: www.odesk.com/referrals/track/etaverne (uhum, I get some dollars after you made your first $1000 with them)

Now I am going to rest for a while during my vacation, dreaming of how to spend those $115

I might or might not get back to you soon. In the meantime, have a good summer, all and for those of you on vacation: enjoy!!!

Back here to inform you about my oDesk experiences…. see previous post.

I’m on a roll!! Two weeks after I subscribed to the website, I got my first assignment! Writing short articles about unemployment and layoffs in the USA, based on facts but furthermore to be ‘creatively’ filled in by myself. Got paid $5 a piece (5 pcs) for it, not a big deal, but hey, you gotta start somewhere… Shortly after that I was hired to do some transcripts from tutorial videos on Forex, but since I know next to nothing about forex trading, I had to give the assignment back after two videos. Took me too much time and my work had too many flaws, I thought. My so-called buyer, the one who hires me, was quite happy with my work, called it ‘awesome’, but I wasn’t…

Since one week I am doing a third job: re-writing articles in a certain niche. Wrote about 25 articles on the same subject… OMG the last 8 or so were really getting to me, and although I am in a different niche now, I am not sure the “old” niche is already finished. I get pennies for that work, but the bulk does bring in some dollars… Twenty dollars this past week…

So all and all I can tell you I am earning money at the moment and people are happy with my work. I used this whole blog as a reference as to how I write… My customers actually like my writing, even though I am not a native English speaking and writing person! How about that, huh?

If I would be available 40 hours a week or so, I could apply for many more job openings and maybe get the assignment. But I am only available 15-20 hours at the most, so I have to keep in mind I am doing this “bulk re-writing” before bidding on anything else. The forex-customer throws some work at me as well, ’cause although I gave back the transcription of the video training courses, he still wants me to work for him…. How do you like that?

This rookie is getting things done, two weeks after my previous post… Still on a small scale, for a small pay, but unless I get a feedback from customers with 5 stars all the time - and I now have ongoing customers, who haven’t rated me yet - I will be working for pennies. As soon as I settle a good feedback score, things might look up a bit.

Now I can imagine you want to know more about this work-broker… A place where you can get work without paying anything to get it. Feel free to ask me anything you like, or check out the site by yourself www.odesk.com/referrals/track/etaverne . Somethong not quite clear? I am here for you! It’s not just for writing or re-writing, but also for web design, data entry, SEO submitter, and many tasks all having to do with the computer. Don’t let your talents go to waste… Use them!

As promised a few posts ago, I will get you some more info about a homebusiness I got involved with lately… Being a journalist and writer, it is only too natural for me to do this thing. Point is, you gotta stumble upon it! And I did… I subscribed to a program where you can present yourself as a writer, editor, blogger, webdesigner, researcher, data typist and many many more things. Take a look here http://www.odesk.com/referrals/track/etaverne  Needless to say I choose the writing part…

So I set up a nice profile with all my experience listed and described and started to react to job offers that are on the site or you can get emailed daily. All you do is write a short letter, add existing work if you have any and submit. The system automatically gives the so-called buyer access to your nice profile… Great system, used by many, many people and it free to use for us, the so-called providers. The buyers pay a percentage on top of the hourly or fixed price that is arranged between the two parties.

Such a great site… no buts? Yes, there are buts…

As a newbie, it is very hard to compete with the oldies who have done a lot of work through oDesk and thus build up a nice reference status. Those references are to be found in your profile. Who would you choose: someone with an empty ref.list or someone with a lot of stars on his list? There you go… it’s hard to get a foot in.

Second but: I am from the Netherlands, therefor not native speaking English. Even if I would write impeccable English I still am not a native speaking person. Nothing can change that. Even the oDesk free tests on all kind of skills (like English spelling, which I passed with 9.2) can’t really help me (yet). So if you want an English text written, who would you choose: … There you go… see my problem?

Third but: a lot of Asian people apply as well, and the wages in Asia are substantially lower than in the USA and Europe. I don’t even ask the question… see?

If you can overcome these three ‘buts’ or only meet one or two, oDesk is a great way to earn an income based on your skills, instead of all kind of opportunities that promise you paradise, but turn out to be the Garden of Eden for only some. I respond to buyers who want text translated into Dutch, or the other way around, to some writing jobs I feel I would do well and to some video jobs where I have the same feeling. I am very picky with responding, thus keeping the level of disappointment low. Plus I am going to take more English tests on the site, to show prospects that I am worth their while. This blog also helps, ’cause prospects can read it and see how I write. Just too bad I don’t have many comments on my blogs, but getting traffic and submitting to SEO’s are not my strongest points! I don’t respond to those job offers!

So if you feel oDesk be something for you, use my link on top of this entry and check it out. By using my link I make $50 everytime someone who joined the site makes his or her first $1.000. So if you subscribe, start earning soon…

I will keep you posted on my adventures there, so check in at fulllife.today.com regularly (that’s right, spelled with 3 l’s) If you have any questions regarding oDesk, feel free to ask here. There is a lot of information on the site, which might be a bit overwhelming at first - I felt exactly the same. Good luck to you!

Another aggrevation for the daily surfer who tries to make some money on line:

Sound.

Sound? Yes, sound! Oh, I know it is very sophisticated to have audio or video on your website… Makes your site so much more attrative, they say. Is that so? I doubt that. Here is the reason why:

I do a lot of surfing in the living room, on my laptop. That way I am still part of the family, being sociable. While surfing I watch the news with my husband, chat with him about this or that, have a nice evening… But suddenly this thundering voice comes out of my computer: “Welcome to XXX” and it goes on for minutes. Sometimes you really have to search for the pause or turn off button, they may be hidden in the video itself, or someplace else on the page. Fact is that websites in Traffic Exchanges must have a pause of off button so that the surfer can switch the sound and/or video off and still look at the page. But the advertisers don’t make it easy for you…

So imagine us sitting together and suddenly this high pitched girly voice tells us that Oooweee!! she’s so happy with this or that… My husband, who does not like all that surfing too much, looks at me as if I am crazy, but I think the website owner is crazy. The real professional sites have an audio or video gadget that you, the surfer, can turn on if you so wish! Now that’s the way to do it! No gloomy music to introduce this or that “killer” or some video game, no instructive voice that drives you up the wall, and no “Hi, welcome to my program” stuff from people you never met, never will meet, so get out of my living room!

Why not turning down the volume?

Good question… but I need the volume to hear my email come in (very soft tinkle) because I have to act on emails quite promptly if I want to make some money out of them, and besides that, the volume function on my laptop is not state of the art. My fault? Dunno, my laptop is half a year old, so pretty up to date, I would say…

No, the courtesy should be with the advertisers. Don’t bother us with sounds, and if we want to hear some audio or see some video, we are very well capable to turn the thing on, especially if a red flash is pointing to the button, don’t you think? Yeah? So act like it. thank you soooo much!

Don’t you just HATE it??? Those links you click on the internet that have been shortened or cloaked, or whatever they call it and you have to WAIT for 10 to 15 seconds before the actual site is downloaded??? AArgghh, I use Traffic Exchange Programs and sites like Vinefire to earn credits and to promote my online programs, and get v-e-r-y frustated when those covered links turn up. Especially on Vinefire and TrafficNowFire. A lot of ‘fire’… ha ha. It is costing a lot of time and aggrevation, and the people using those kind of links are making money with it as well. Now that is fine, of course, but I just refuse, I REFUSE to make money out of something that irritates me so much.

As one online worker to another: give me a break and just give me your URL right away. I don’t want to wait and look ad an advert at the same time - jeez, imagine - while I am busy busy busy… Cloaked URLS are fine, they don’t let you wait, but those programs that keep you in the waiting room… I do not like them… I repeat: I do not like them! How about you?

Recently I told you about my hard life regarding making some money through the internet. Spent hundreds of dollars on worthless programs, that only make the owners rich, and certainly not us, the dumb subscribers who believe there is some hope to get some income from them. How stupid can we be…

Now the last few weeks I have been busy with an amazing new program, totally FREE, which is basically an affiliate program for both fantastic digital products in all areas of everyday life, and the program itself… meaning that the subaffiliates you generate will also bring you money in your pocket. Advertising the program and its products is really easy, you can do it for free as well, and the response is great. So finally you might be able to earn yourself some money from home without paying an arm and a leg first. You sell products through your affiliate link, and get a big commission. Your sub-affiliates sell through their links, and you get an override commisson! How cool is that? An no fees to pay, not upfront, not later.

So you might wonder, Elisabeth, what is this program? Can I join it too? Of course you can… just ask me in a comment, and I will give you my link (still don’t know if I can post links in my blog… gotta find that out at some point!). Spend half an hour to an hour per day posting your links here and there - and I can give you pointers on how to do that) and there you go… not getting rich overnight, of course, not sitting back and watch the money rolling in, you gotta do a bit of work to make some money. But then, all those programs that promise you the world doing nothing, what did they bring us? Nothing but aggrevation, burnt money and desillusions…

Another word on Working At Home Businesses…

There is a lot of trash being sold on the internet. And the people who desperately are looking for some (extra) income are easy victims. So they are being scammed and scammed again. See my past entry, I am one of them. Already lost hundreds of dollars this way.

So you do your due dilligence. You google the site by putting in the name and the word “scam”. You usually get page after page on this subject. The silly thing is that a lot of people put so-called reviews on their blog, usually raving about the one of a time product, but the end of the tale is that they are affiliates of the same program you are doing research on. As an affilliate they want to sell the program, so no bad words about it from their mouth. Therefor, beware of these so-called reviews in the Google results!

Another way to do your research is to go to websites like scam.com. Here you can search for your particular program and read what others have to say about it. Is the program a scam or is it not? Again, this is a bit confusing. The members of these kind of forums are usually scam victims, so not a 100 percent open minded, to say the least. There are other people voicing their opinion, or even put in a good word for the program of which they themselves are a member and they are making (good) money with it. But still most of the entries are screaming ’scam, scam’ just out of habit, it seems. Their reasoning: if you have to pay for a program, it’s a scam. Now this doesn’t have to be true, of course. You pay for tools, training and a website (sometimes), not to do the work. Granted, the prices the programs set are no pocket money, so again, you are in doubt. And you wonder and sigh: why can’t I just find something useful and it’s money worth? What is it with all these people scamming us with their programs and all their members giving them a hand, wanting a piece of the pie as well?

Should you feel re-assured by the fact that some programs offer you a money back-guarantee? Yes and no. No, if the program is not paid through Clickbank, which has the 60 days money back-guarantee embedded in its terms of service. Yes, if you indeed pay through Clickbank. Don’t get impressed with personal promises of the owner of the program on the sales page, flashy guarantee-seals on the site near the ‘buy now’ button. They mean nothing, if they are not backed-up with a real cash back action. Usually, when you ask for a refund, the email is never responded to. Again, you can check that on the scam-forums. You will not be the only one with a desillusion…

So, what to do now? Sit back and forget about making money on the internet? Forget about spending some more time with your family, or making those few hundred bucks extra that make family life just a bit more fun? I don’t. I keep on searching and researching… there’s one thing I won’t fall for anymore, though. If any program promises me cash overnight, thousands per day or even week… I think: mmmm, that sounds too good to be true. and you know what? It is.

I am a sucker for internet business opportunities….. There, I said it!

My source of income being an invalid pension, I would like to make some money on the internet. If you bear with me, I will tell you what works best for me and is totally scamfree. But first I want you to read my sad tale of paying to all kind of home business sites that promise you the world and deliver nothing but empty shit. I tried several data entry programs, because I figured that is the one way you and you alone determine what you earn. If you put in some work every day, earnings should be coming to you. Right? Wrong! Scams, all of them. Take my advice, don’t go near them, ever.

I also signed up for programs where you “only” have to have 3, or 5, referrals under you to start making money. Market on the internet, post your affilliate ID everywhere you can and there you go. Can’t go wrong. Yes it does.. I can’t find any referrals who are willing to pay and the promised so-called spill over never spills in my direction. Kiss your money goodbye.

I tried some HYIP’s, where you make quick money, but they were quicker gone taking a walk (with my money) than I could flick my eye… I tried some doublers and cyclers, they went well for some time, but then got problems with payment processors, or hosting companies, or whatever, or their kid got sick, and that was that. Not all of them real scammers, but still no money in my pocket.

Now before you start thinking that I want to get rich overnight, that’s not true. I just want to make some extra money. Hell, 400 - 500 dollars per month would be great… I am not after those promised millions, I have sense enough to understand that those sites are phoney and hyped. And I do do my due dilligence. Amongst others on the Money Maker Group Forum (MMG), and with Google. Every time I google a website, there are always people raving about a program, and people screaming ’scam’. I guess the raving ones are paid to do so…

Now there is ONE cycler site that makes me a little money and is - as far as I know and experienced - fully to be trusted. Before you get exited, do understand that a cycler is not an investment, but a game, and that the game keeps running thanks to active team members. This program has a hard core of active members, we cycle, make some money and have fun on the MMG Forum as well. The admin is great in his support, great in thinking up contests, games and new earning lines, it is really a fun site. Best part of it, you only literally need a few dollars to participate. Sunday 17th of May the program starts a new line, so if you want to get in, this is the time to do so, you will be in top of the new line and start cycling pretty soon…

I am not sure if I can name websites in my blog, I am pretty new to these bolgging things, so I won’t mention the site here. If you are interested, leave me a comment, and we will take it from there. In the meantime, I will go on having fun with this website, and earn me a few dollars at the side. My chance for some real money is not here yet, but who knows? Maybe one of you has a great idea for me….

Although I spend a lot of time behind a computer, I am not a compjuter wizzard. I can download, upload, copy, paste, browse, write, edit, send emails with attachments…. but as soon as a problem occurs I cannot solve in 3 to 4 minutes, I am at a loss. It’s like driving a car: the car should drive, period. I pump gas, go have maintenance in the garage, so the thing should drive whenever I want it to. Same with computers.

Picture me browsing the internet, and suddenly I seem to have 1001 worms, even more Trojan Horses and other bugs in the computer… At least, that is what a pop up from Windows (mind you) tells me. But I have this fantastic anti virus, anti horses, worms, bugs, and whatever program, that updates every day, so how can this be. The pop up window does not let me close it (I don’t like pop ups anyway) keeps getting back to me the whole time… what is this? Is this for real or is this a scam to let me download some dangerous stuff (the pop up suggests I do a anti virus download, but I HAVE an anti virus program….). To be sure I let my own anti virus program do a quick scan of my computer… no problems detected. Then I go for the full scan…. so far no problems detected, scan still in progress. So again, what is this? Husband not home, so no way I can consult him (he’s the wizzard here)

Don’t you just hate those people that try to mess with your computer??? Arrgghh…. Do they act like I have all these trojan horses and worms, so that I panic and download some stuff??? Why don’t they just leave me alone? Why don’t they leave us all alone? Damaging other peoples data and computers…. don’t let me get my hands on them! I was so effective working on the things I have to do, and now I am totally distracted. But I don’t fall for their stunt…

Husband comes home, I tell him about the issue, and he agrees with me: don’t download anything you did not ask for, don’t let them get under your skin and drive you crazy…. Ha ha, I feel proud I did the right thing. I knew I did, but a little confirmation from the expert is ever so nice.