Thank you iRazoo and SwagBucks

I finally used my iRazoo and SwagBucks Amazon gift cards for a bit of Christmas shopping. I ended up with a total of $20 off my order... If I had all my iRazoo cards, my order would have been almost free haha

Little T will be pleased to see that Santa brought him two Lego Indiana Jones playsets, and I'm pleased that it only cost Santa $14.99 thanks to iRazoo and SwagBucks!

I only wish that I had gotten involved with these sites earlier instead of snubbing SwagBucks for so long!

November Digest and December Goals coming today or tomorrow at the latest!

SeeHere Update

Well, I finally got around to taking advantage of those codes, and I realized that there is really no reason in the world for me to get 100 cards printed up...

In the end I used the 100 free prints code, but I did more than 100 prints so the extras were 12¢ each and I used one card code for 50 Christmas cards. My total for shipping and the excess prints was $15, less than $7 of that was actually shipping.

This certainly made Christmas a bit easier this year. Now I don't have to spend $50 on Santa pictures so everyone can have one!

LiveWork

For those who have followed the blog for a while, you know that I did the 64¢ LiveWork query questions and was paid for them roughly two months ago.

Since then I've been waiting for a new set to be posted, and it appears that new ones have. They are only hiring up to 1000 workers for the project so if you are interested in signing on with them, you should visit the LiveWork site, sign up and apply now!

Best of luck!

((Today the SwagBucks deal card is the $10 Barnes and Noble gift card, it's on sale for 99 SBs instead of 125.))

Happy Thanksgiving Everyone!

iRazoo, SwagBucks and TrekPay

I finally got the gift code for my second $5 Amazon card from iRazoo. They're a bit slow, but considering the minimal amount of effort it takes, I can't really complain. I had requested it on November 1st and I got it on the 24th so it took just under 3 weeks.

I still have two more on the way and another one 1/2 way completed. Over all I've earned $20 worth of cards with them since I signed up 5 weeks ago, although I haven't received them all yet ;) (Proof of Payment)

For those of you have joined up with SwagBucks, remember to keep your eyes peeled for the next few weeks. Starting on Black Friday, different gift cards will be on sale each day so you might be able to snatch up a good one at a discount.

Since I've been saving I have only cashed out $10 worth of Amazon cards with them instead of the $30 I could have, but I have over 175 SwagBucks stocked up and I'm crossing my fingers that I didn't save them up for no reason haha

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TrekPay also paid out today, an all time low for me personally... I only got 49¢ BUT it brought me up to $5.57 from $5.08 so I can now cash out if I choose to! It took about 7 weeks to get there, so it's definitely a bit slow going, but every little bit helps. If that pace is steady I can cash out 7 times a year and make around $40 from them annually.

It won't pay my bills but it'll buy a video game every Christmas!

Soap Box Post

If you're reading this blog, even as a day one new comer, and you are thinking about working from home to help supplement your family's income - start now.

I had this discussion with my significant other just the other day, and I felt like I should share it here as well in hopes of encouraging those who may scared or doubtful to jump in with both feet and get started.

I started this blog because our savings had been depleted and we were just barely making it from check to check on his income and I needed to figure out how to contribute, and I needed to do it quickly.

Now every time I think about our financial woes I kick myself for not taking action sooner. Here I am approaching the two month mark and I can see what a difference this is making in our lives. We don't have the same worries we had before, we're not stressing over money as much and we're talking about building up a savings again.

This month my focus has been a bit off target because I'm still getting a grip on freelancing, but I've made well over $300 from private clients alone this month...

Don't let fear or doubt hold you back. You CAN do it, even if you have small kids or a disability, it IS possible.

YouData, Trekpay and Wanelo...

...sent me payments this week. I received other payments as well, but those were all from private clients. I actually have a new goal for the month, to stop finding new clients! I'm addicted to looking for work though haha

I'm really enjoying it though. It feels good to not be unemployed anymore and if I had known it was this easy to work from home in this sort of manner before, I would have started sooner.

Anyways, on to the important stuff!

YouData sent me a payment for 16¢ which reminded me to check for new ads and I actually had some! This one definitely adds up slowly, but they pay promptly which is nice. (Proof of Payment)

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TrekPay updated on the 18th and I'm up to $5.08 with them so I should make the cash out next week! It was a really big leap from $3.74 to $5.08 so I'm not sure what happened, but I'm happy. That's $1.34 this week!

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And of course I got my $10 from Wanelo. I'm sad to see their paid reviews program go but I'm really crossing my fingers about the new Super!moms program. I think I've gotten a few nominations, and I've nominated people as well, so I'm crossing my fingers! (Proof of Payment)

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I also cashed out for my fourth iRazoo gift card yesterday which brings me up to $20 worth of gift cards from them... I could cash out for another $15 through SwagBucks as well, but I'm still crossing my fingers for some good sales through them so I'm stock piling my SwagBucks for now.

Holiday Pictures

All right, hopefully this will go better than the CSN fiasco did! SeeHere is a picture site that seems to be offering quite a few gifts at the moment. They've been all over the blogs I've seen today so I'm going to continue to spread the word in hopes of saving everyone a few this season.

1. 100 Free Prints for New Customers: As per p0ptarts blog, sign up through that link, select your prints and use the promo-code prints. Just pay S&H, roughly $5-6, which is like paying 5-6¢ per print! Expiration date unknown.

2. 50 Free 4x8 inch Photo Cards (with envelopes): Login and design your cards and use the code freebies4mom-1109 to drop your total to $0.00. Just pay S&H once again. Expires November 30th. If you have problems check out the FAQ here: Freebies 4 Mom

3. Another 50 Free 4x8 inch Photo Cards (with envelopes): Login and repeat #2 with the same or a new design using the code newbaby and watch your total drop again! Just pay S&H once again. Expires November 30th.

Now please note, I haven't tried all these codes out for myself yet, but I will be this weekend and I'll post as soon as I see what happens! I'm planning to have my mother in law take a few family pictures and then do some solo's of our son for the holidays.

I personally have never been into holiday photo cards, but this is a bargain that I can't pass up, especially since I'm so far away from my family now!

One Time Opportunity for $25

Do 10 reviews and earn $25!

This was originally posted on the WAHM boards, I wanted to be sure it was legit before I posted it.

It was a bit of an ordeal for me to actually hear back from them because apparently they manually respond to people who fill out the job posting and they don't respond on weekends - so fill this one out ASAP and if you don't hear back from them visit AroundMe.com and email them through the contact link.

Once I actually got directions from them on what to do, the process was simple. Just write 10 original and detailed reviews on different types of places of 60+ words. Then follow the rest of the directions in the email they send you.

It's a quick $25, the only thing that I don't like is that the reviews actually show your FaceBook picture which makes me a little uncomfortable. I mean seriously... who wants to give a bad review (in a tiny town like mine) when their pic is attached to it? You can remedy this problem, by going to your Settings page and selecting not to show your picture though.

(Proof of Payment)

An Apology for my CSN Post

As it turns out this site isn't the saving grace that I thought it would be for our shopping needs this holiday, and I want to apologize for posting about it.

If ever I create a Blacklist on my blog, they'll be on the top of it.

I just received my email letting me know that my order had been canceled, as have others - because they are now saying that you have to spend $50 to use the credit and are claiming that it was in the "terms and conditions" that do not exist anywhere on the welcome emails that we all got. Even worse, they are still allowing members to refer people (thinking that they will get credit) and then the referrals are being informed that the program is no longer running.

I plan to fight them on a personal level to get my free gift, and I suggest that everyone else does that as well.

I also intend to lodge a complaint with the BBB because I really feel like the shady nature of this whole shenanigan should be brought to light. They currently have an A+ record, but I'm not seeing anything A+ about what they've done with this referral program.

Overall I'm very disappointed, and very sorry for the waste of everyone's time.

Greenfield Online and Pinecone Research

Two quick updates on these two fine companies:

I got a screener for another $30 Interactive survey from Greenfield online last night. They were a little later than usual to let me know that I made the cut since the survey is tonight at 8pm and I just found out, but woohoo none the less. This will be my 3rd $30 survey with them since October.

I also received a package from Pinecone Research. I was expecting a check, but it looks like I actually get to test the product that was associated with the last survey first and then I get paid! I'm not complaining at all, I actually think that's super awesome! I can't discuss it, but anything that is free is awesome to me haha

No sooner did I write than I got another check from them for another $3. After comparing the survey numbers, it seems that the product testing is a separate thing from the survey, and I actually get paid for both! Pretty awesome overall! $3 for the survey, some products to test, and then another $3 for that as well (I assume). (Proof of Payment)

If you haven't signed up with Greenfield and Pinecone, I'd highly recommend it.

Wanelo Super!moms

Consider this an out of the ordinary plea - but Wanelo recently announced that they are opening nominations for "Supermoms" and this is an honor that I would really love to have.

I've been with Wanelo since September when I first found out about the site through a craigslist job posting and I absolutely love it. I've put up over 130 reviews of products and I've pointed a lot of people towards the site for a little extra income :)

If any of you readers who are members there could nominate me, I'd really appreciate it. The more the better I'd assume. I'll also be sorting through folks to nominate people as well, so if you nominate me or if you are a member of Wanelo, leave a comment with your profile so I can check it out!

View my profile. Feel free to add me as a friend on there as well if you'd like.

To nominate someone you simply email stephanie @ wanelo.com (minus the spaces) with a link to your profile and a link to the profile of the mom you'd like to nominate.

Thank you so much, whether you do it or not!

PS: Be sure to get your paid reviews in by midnight on Thursday and email Reviews @ wanelo.com (minus the spaces). It looks like that project is coming to an end this week, so you better do it while you still can!

Recap of CSNStores.com

It seems like I may have over explained the CSNStores deal and scared a few people off so I decided that I'd readdress this deal in a simpler fashion instead of rambling on like last time ;)

Right now (I'm not sure how long it will last) they are offering new users who are referred to the site through special links a $15, no obligation, credit with their site. As soon as you sign up, the code loads up directly on the page after you register and it also gets emailed to you as well.

You can use this $15 for anything at all on the site and the variety is really impressive.

Carson Booklights: 3 styles available at $9.00 each
Wall art like Starry Night: They have tons of pieces for under $2 each
27 Piece Toy Dish Set: $9.95

There's a lot more than that as well.

With the economy still in shambles, and Christmas right around the corner, every little bit helps - even if you just grab a toy for one of the children on your shopping list it's well worth the couple of minutes you'll spend to sign up and get that $15 free gift credit!

If your friends or family join under your referral link, you can earn even more from CSNStores, up to an extra $150 to use on their site!

Proof of Payment Update

All right, I've had a lot of payments come through recently so bear with me while I get you all caught up!

Pinecone Research is a survey company that I haven't talked about here yet. They don't openly recruit, however p0ptart happened to have saved a registration link she'd gotten in her spam box from them! I'll include it on my side bar when I make my next update and add Pinecone, until then you can use the link here to sign up.

Either way, if you see their banner, sign up immediately! They pay $3 per survey or product review that they give you. The money is sent automatically upon completion by check. I did my first survey on 11/5 and received my check on 11/9! I'm expecting my second $3 any day now. (Proof of Payment)

Special thanks to p0ptart for the registration link!

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I also finally received my SurveyHead payment, $25.50 to my Pay Pal account. I had requested it on 10/21 and I got the payment on 11/11 so it took about 3 weeks. It definitely feels like it was a lot longer though lol As it happens, by the time it arrived I was practically ready to cash out again! I'm actually going to request another $20 cash out right now, which will leave me with $8.20 towards my next request. (Proof of Payment)

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I got my weekly $10 from Wanelo on Friday, right on time as usual. I'm up to $125 with them now I think. This is really a great program, if you haven't gotten involved yet you should do it. You can earn $40 a month off of reviews, and there are bonuses available as well. (Proof of Payment)

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I also got paid for the interactive survey I did with Greenfield Online on 10/20. I requested the pay out on Friday and got it today! I had also done a couple of $1 surveys so the total payout was $32 taking me up to $62 total with them. (Proof of Payment)

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My second gift card came in from SwagBucks today as well so now I've received $10 in Amazon cards from them total. I also have enough SwagBucks saved up to have requested two more, but I'm holding off in case a good card goes on sale during the end of the year sales. Even if they don't, no harm done, I'll just buy a bunch of them at once haha (Proof of Payment)

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Last but not least, is a peek at my eLance account. Naturally right after I finished editing the picture, I received an additional payment but since I'm stretched for time I didn't redo it. My total there is about $10 higher now than what it actually shows. (Proof of Payment)

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I've also had some deposits to my PayPal from my private clients this month on top of all that. Overall I'm really thrilled right now. If I can do it, you can do it too! Get out there and start earning!

$165 from CSN Stores

I got this lead from another blogger and I couldn't help but pass it on because it has such amazing potential at such a crucial time of the year... Christmas!

This isn't necessarily "earning" money but it is earning credit towards a site with some really great prices for Christmas gifts. Just for signing up with CSN Stores, you get a $15 credit to use on their site! If you refer people to their site, and they make a purchase, then you'll earn an additional $15 credit with bonus potential...

Here's a break down on the earnings:
$15 to sign up
$15 for each referral who signs up and makes a purchase (up to 5 people totaling $75)
$75 for reaching the goal of 5 referrals who make a purchase!
Total: $15 + $75 + $75 = $165

I don't know what you can do with $165 dollars but I can certainly do a lot through their site and I bet you can as well.

I snooped around on the site before signing up, just to make sure they had things worth buying and I found quite a few nice looking toys for my little one (and myself hehe).

Melissa and Doug wooden food play sets for $15.99
Wild Republic Toy Dogs set for $10.99
Wild Republic 33 Pc Zoo Bucket for $11.99
Proctor Silex Blender for $24.99

There are a ton of great things on the site so I think this a great opportunity for anyone with Christmas presents to buy, whether it's for children or adults.

My plan is to buy one of the inexpensive toy sets for my son so that my $15 sign up credit will cover most of the cost and shipping charges and the wonderful person who referred me to the site can get her $15 referral credit from me making a purchase :)

Then I'll let the rest accumulate so I can grab a whole load of gifts all at once with the extra earnings. It looks like their shipping fees are pretty reasonable and orders of $69 (such a random number) or greater seem to get free shipping according to the info.

Be sure to sign up through my link above though - the $15 automatic credit is by referral only. When you click the link, you can just close the two popup boxes that come up, they have nothing to do with the offer. If you want to be sure that you're getting credit, the "Your Friend's Email Address" box should pre-populate for you with Mod***Sur***der @ yahoo.com (asterisks are substituted here for privacy purposes).

If you have any problems and the full email doesn't populate when you click the link, just leave me a comment here and I'll get back to you to see if I can help :)

Once I reach the maximum payout with them, I will be changing this post to reflect someone else's referral link as well! Be sure to check back frequently and leave a comment below once you've used my link and purchased something with your $15 credit. I'll change the link on a first come first served basis and will respond to your comments with info on how to send me your link privately when I need it.

Warning: Their welcome mail may go to your spam box, so keep your eyes on your spam once you sign up. I received my welcome on my yahoo account spam box in less than 10 minutes.

Update

Hey guys! It's been another one of those types of weekends. My little one seems to have come down with a cold so I haven't been around as much this weekend as usual to update.

Tomorrow you can expect to see a proof of payment update that will include a previously unmentioned survey company, Wanelo and finally SurveyHead as well. I may also include a peek at my Elance profile and earnings page for the folks who are interested in checking out the freelance sites.

Friday the 13th

What a day! I don't know about you, but I've been experiencing issues all over the place today. I'm blaming it on the date even though I'm not superstitious... I can say though that the WAHM forums must be because they are definitely in hideout mode today!

I've been busily chugging along for all of my private clients this week which is taking up a pretty fair chunk of my time, but I don't mind because they pay is adding up decently. I've already accumulated about $82 in my Elance account this past week from two clients. I'm also finishing up another $50 worth of content work tonight that I'll be submitting. In total I've done $100 worth of work for one client in 4 days. I'll be sad to see this project end, whenever that day may come.

If you haven't checked out any of the many freelance sites available, I really do think that it's worth it. Sign up for a free account, fill out your profile information and add a picture (if possible) so they will think of you as a real person. Find something you really think you have a shot at and go for it! The worst that will happen is that you won't get it and will be out a bid for the month.

If you sign up for multiple freelance sites you can just start bidding on a new one when you run out of free bids on one for the month ;)

Don't get discouraged if you don't get selected. You'll have a lot of competition including some outsourced that works for well under standard prices, but with some dedication and effort there's a good chance that you'll find something and once you get a little good feed back under your belt everything will get easier.

I personally have also learned a lot from this client about SEO and content writing in general from this client which is giving me a boost in confidence overall. I'm pretty sure that with what he's shown me on this project I can start writing for Associated Content or any other free topic residual income site and do decent in terms of keywording.

My next step will be to find a higher paying content writing gig. This one is decent but it could be better. I'm willing to sacrifice a bit of pay for a boatload of experience though!

Update on IMShopping

So yesterday I posted that I thought my pay amount from IMShopping was off by a couple of dollars right? Well, I wasn't overly concerned, but when I logged in yesterday I found that it had been corrected! Their community manager had actually gone in and updated the information so that I'll get it with my next deposit!

How great is that?

They really do go above and beyond to help their workers out and I'm looking forward to things settling down at home so that I can start doing more on their site.

What I really love are all the little bonuses that they offer, like $5 for the best answer in a certain time frame, or getting paid to ask questions etc... it's really great.

If you haven't signed up you should definitely do it now - the sooner you do, the sooner you'll have a chance to become a paid Guide. Remember to ask or answer a question after you register to get the ball rolling also :)

(Proof of Payment)

A few quick notes

I completely forgot to post on TrekPay last week! The conversion took place on Wednesday and I think around 250ish credits became 69¢ (bringing me to a total of $3.74) for me which is an all time low in terms of the weekly amount. I think I might have missed a day of credit collecting though. I also haven't been checking throughout the day as often as I was before for extra chances at credits.

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My first iRazoo $5 Amazon card arrived in my email this morning... just in time for me to request my third one haha (Proof of Payment)

I had ordered the card on the 10/24 which means it took about 17 days to arrive. I still don't understand why it's not instant since it's a gift card but at least now I know about how long they should take.

At this point I've earned $15 with iRazoo in less than a month.

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I also have enough points to request my 3rd $5 Amazon card from SwagBucks (which means they're just about neck and neck with iRazoo) however I'm holding off because of the supposed blowout sale that's going to be going on.

I'm hoping that I'll be able to find a good bargain on Amazon cards or Southwest Airlines cards (of course that would have to be a significant price cut for me to afford those). Only time will tell, either way it can't hurt to save them up for a few extra weeks.

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Wanelo also paid me my $10 right on time last Friday as usual. (Proof of Payment)

Please note, that you have to complete your reviews and send them an email with your profile linked by midnight on Thursday to get paid on Friday as of last week. All reviews have to been done in a full increment of 10 during that week to get paid as well.

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IMShopping paid me on Tuesday as well! I got a deposit of $34.85 in my paypal account (Proof of Payment) from them yesterday. Monday is usually the pay day, but the woman in charge of their payroll had a bit of an emergency so it was a little late.

I honestly don't think that the amount is correct though because they had a lot of issues with the new changes they did to the system, but I'm not going to argue it because I'm really impressed with this little egg. I had already mentioned it once in passing when we were starting to notice the issues from the site update, so I'll wait and see if things go smoothly this week or not. It would only have been a couple dollars more so I'm not stressing over it.

I've been super busy so I haven't been able to pay as much attention to IMShopping as I'd like, but I'm going to try and put more time into them this week and at least answer a handful of questions a day.

A quick note for Swaggers

If you don't read the SwagBucks blog, you may want to hop by their blog and check it out. To paraphrase the latest entry, starting on Nov. 27th (black Friday) through the end of the year they'll be picking random gift cards and slashing the prices.

It sounds like it will be one card, per day, and some cards may be discounted on multiple days and to different degrees. You can get a max of 5 at the discounted rate, I don't know if that's total, per type or per day.

If you're like me and do gift card prizes only, then I'd suggest holding onto those bucks until you see your favorite go on sale. I'm due for a cash out today, or tomorrow at the latest so I'm really glad I caught that post when I did!

See their blog post here.

((Edited - it's only been a few hours and they've already adjusted the max down to 2 instead of 5, still a nice deal, but less motivating to actually save up.))

Clients

I know that if I were reading my blog I'd be wondering where all those freelance clients came from. The answer is simple, freelance message boards and posting sites.

There are oodles of both out there and they are well worth sifting through on a regular basis.

Forums
I'm currently pretty cut and dry. I stick to Wahm, and that's more or less it. I do plan to branch off to other forums as well eventually - but I've been part of Wahm for a while now and no matter what some folks may say or think, I think it's a pretty top notch community.

Freelance Sites
This is a whole other world... I've signed up for so many that I don't even remember them all at this point. Most of them will offer a free version with a very limited number of bids available for jobs on a monthly basis. They also offer the ability to upgrade your account so that you can apply for more jobs, add more info to your profile, etc.

I honestly recommend sticking with the free versions of all of them until you feel like you absolutely must upgrade. Of course this means that you'll have to be very careful when bidding on jobs since your bids will be limited.

Here a few I'm fond of:
LiveWork - You've all seen me mention this site before, and it does fit into the Freelance posting category so I figured I'd add it here as well. The great thing about LiveWork is that there is no paid account option here and there is no limit to how many jobs you can apply for. However, there aren't many active jobs on this site at the moment either.

Guru - I signed up with them a week or so ago and went through several of their job pages. They seem like a decently set up site but I haven't really utilized them yet. None of the jobs really caught my eye the couple times I checked, but I plan to revisit them regularly anyways to see if I can dig up any good gems there.

ELance - This has proven to be my favorite so far. The site is really well designed and there is a certain degree of quality mandated from the moment you sign up. They actually test you on your comprehension of the site before you can begin bidding on jobs.

Their free version is significantly limited and only gives you 3 bidding credits (some high end jobs require more than 1 credit to bid) but if you're really careful with those three they can serve you well.

I will admit that I already upgraded my account with them... That was actually brought on by a job I was offered elsewhere that offered to pay me through paypal or Elance. I was interested in gaining the experience and feedback on Elance so I upgraded my account so that I could bid into multiple job categories. They do take a cut of the money you make (6.75-8.75%) but I'm generally all right with that at the moment.

Bukisa

I just signed up with Bukisa. I've heard a lot of positive things about them lately, and they seem like they could be a decent residual income source...

They don't offer any upfront payments which is a bit of a draw back, but they do pay your for page views and also for your referrals page views as well which is an interesting twist. They also don't require original content, you can use content you have posted on other sites with them as well. (Meaning you can republish your blog content there if you wanted to. I'm not sure if I'll do that, but it's an interesting idea.)

I'm planning to give it a good looking over in the morning, for now I'm just wrapping up a few of my night time projects!

Progress and my new signature!

We're a week into November and I'm chugging along to the best of my ability. Here's a summary of my non monetary goal progress (or lack of in the case of one of them):

1. Create (and consistently utilize) a daily schedule. I'm still trying to figure out a good way to schedule things for myself - but because so many of my eggs require random attention through out the day it's made it difficult to actually create a normal hour to hour schedule.

Instead I've decide to schedule a certain number of tasks per site to accomplish with those sorts of eggs and I'm working that out. My goal is to have a solid number for several sites set up by the time my head hits the pillow tonight.

2. Sign up with a freelance writing site and write at least 4 articles during the month to start getting my feet wet. Like I said when I posted this goal, I'm signed up with TextBroker which technically takes care of one part of it... so far I've written two articles with them totaling up to $6.60. I could do more, but I'm still trying to warm up to it all. It can be a lot of research for each topic, but it really can be a decent earning project if you put the work into it.

3. Find a new private contract freelance gig. I think I may have this one taken care of which is exciting. I miss counted earlier I'm actually up to 4 or 5 private contracts right now, not

• One ongoing forum oriented ($40-50 a week earning potential).
• One week to week VA position (earning potential kept private).
• One ongoing ad posting job ($15 a week earning potential).
• One trial content writer job... this one is a lot more work than the others and a low per word rate, but it has a higher overall earning potential which makes up for it. I'll be doing the trial this week to see if I can continue on. If so it will last 1-2 months minimum with $100+ weekly earning potential.
• I also need to touch base with a prior client that I never collected payment from because it was a very loose spare time job, it's similar to the first job on this list with the same earning potential.
  

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In other news, I've finally found a program that will let me tinker around with graphics, and so I used it to create a signature for my posts! I know, it's nothing major or amazing, but I'm really happy.

What's crazy to me is that there are people out there who charge $15-25 for a tiny little image like that they probably spend less than 5 minutes on - talk about overkill! I'll admit that it took me a little while to figure out how to get it to work, but that was because the program was brand new to me hehe

I'm considering offering a service like that as I figure things out, only I'd offer it at an affordable rate... Like $3 for a signature or something like that.

KGB, iRazoo, Shopping.com

I heard back from KGB, apparently because they felt two of the questions I answered "could have been answered better" I have to redo the simulation. It is good that they give you that option, and it didn't actually take me long to do the sim, but I'm still a bit annoyed haha

I'll redo it tomorrow most likely, and update on my status after that!

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Unfortunately I missed my first day ever on iRazoo on Friday! I realized it at half past midnight and I was so annoyed. I'm still just a couple of days away from another card - but I'm not pleased that I forgot to do my searches and set myself back a day. It's because I moved from a morning task to evening, and was still adjusting. Hopefully that won't happen again!

I'm still waiting on both of my gift cards from them as well.

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I came across a nice little egg on the WAHM forums the other day as well. It's another review writing project, but the pay is a little lower that I'd like. That's more so because I tend to be a bit wordy though, but I'm sure you all know that by now!

The site is Shopping.com and the general pay layout is below (the full information can be found here):

Reviews written between November 1, 2009 - November 30, 2009, will be deposited in your PayPal account on or before December 16, 2009.
Reviews written between December 1, 2009 - December 31, 2009, will be deposited in your PayPal account on or before January 16, 2009.
Payment Table for Reviews
First 5 Reviews will earn $5
No additional payments for 6-14 Reviews
15-29 Reviews for $10
30-44 Reviews for $20
45-59 Reviews for $30
60-74 Reviews for $40
75-89 Reviews for $50
90-104 Reviews for $60
105-119 Reviews for $70
120-134 Reviews for $80
135-149 Reviews for $90
150+ Reviews for $100
To qualify: Your Reviews must be submitted on a product or service in Shopping.com's database and comply with the Shopping.com User Agreement.

Overall, for $100 I'm willing to shell out 150 reviews, even if the per word rate will be poor for me personally I feel that overall it will be worth it since I do reviews really quickly.

As far as I've been able to tell there are no clear cut requirements for length on the site either, so for folks who don't have overactive, long winded fingers, the per word rate would probably end up much better ;)

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I've also decided to tinker with the layout here a bit (as previously mentioned) so I downloaded some free graphics software by the name of Gimp that I'm going to be testing out.
If you see images and posts popping up and disappearing, don't be alarmed, it's just me trying out different things!

PeopleString and SwagBucks (again)

Just a quick note to mention two things:

1. I got my first real mail from PeopleString! A 50¢ reward for receiving a postcard in the mail, viewing a website, and then typing in a code from the card. I can't wait for the next piece hehe

2. SwagBucks has a new page up offering SwagBucks in exchange for participation in different offers. Typically I'm not a fan of offers but HOLY COW they make it look so worth it that I'm really considering doing it.

Example: FreeCreditReport.com offer
CashCrate - $5.00
MyPoints - 250 points (which is roughly $1.69 worth of points to put towards an amazon card)

CreditReport.com offer
SwagBucks - 115 SB (which is enough for two $5 gift cards, and leaves you with 25 SB left over!)

Granted it's two different sites, it still seems clear that SB is paying heavily. They even have some that pay you just to download or sign up to play games.

If you do offers though, remember to cancel them before they charge to you! That is the key. It means you'd have to keep a super careful eye on the 7 day free trials and call up as soon as you get credit on SwagBucks to cancel. I'd also call again the next day just to be sure everything was properly canceled.

KGB, IMShopping, Maintenance

I did my KGB Simulation yesterday, a few of the questions came back with remarks that they could have been answered better, but most of them came back saying they were good.

I should hear back soon about whether or not I'll be accepted. I'll let everyone know as soon as I do.

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A lot of you know that I had IMShopping training earlier this week, I've accumulated some info so that I can spread the word for them in regards to being a Paid Guide with them.

Requirements:

• 16+ years old
• Answer 25 questions

Pay Information:

• 35¢ per Answer
• +65¢ for a Thumbs Up (=$1.00)
• +1.00 for a Best Answer (=$2.00)
• Cut off for pay roll is Monday 9AM, payments are processed around 6PM EST
• Lots of bonus contests as well!
  

They also have some merchants that they work for with higher pay scale and are making constant updates to make the site and work better for everyone. If you're interested in signing up with IMShopping, I'd say go for it! If you already have (because of something you've read here) please let me know here!

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Also, just as a side note, you may notice a few changes occurring on the blog over the next week or so. I'm going to be tinkering with the layout and hopefully my tinkering will be an improvement (lol).

If you see something you do (or don't) like, feel free to comment and let me know!

Swagbucks

Woohoo! I just requested my second $5 Amazon card from SwagBucks.

So far I've been using them since 9/17 and am up to $10 worth of cards with them once this one arrives. Not bad at all! If you haven't checked them out yet, you really should - especially if you've found that you enjoy iRazoo. The reverse applies as well haha

The two of them combined will double (or nearly double) your Amazon card earnings which can be handy for gifting occasions.

SurveyHead and Opinion Outpost

All right! Two quick notes -

First of all I had requested my payout with SurveyHead back on 10/21 I requested my first $25.50 payout from them (after being with them less than a month) and I just heard back today that my request has been approved! So that part took about 2 weeks.

Unfortunately, they said it can take up to 4 wks for the deposit to actually be made, but I'm assuming it will be quicker than that.

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The second note is about another survey site that I've come across. Opinion Outpost is a pretty good site, but I've found that I'm not really receiving a lot of surveys. I've been with them for about 3 weeks now and I've only earned $4.30, but their surveys are really enjoyable and different from those featured on other sites.

They also offer a referral bonus of $2.00 for each referral who completes a survey with them which is pretty great.

The other great thing about Opinion Outpost is that they only require a $5 minimum to cash out. I'm hoping that the longer I'm with them the better they'll get about sending surveys.

SwagBucks and IMShopping

Just a quick update I just received my first $5 Amazon gift card from SwagBucks! I had requested it on 10/28 and I got it last night (11/3) so it took about a week to get to me. The great part is that I'm already at 32/45 SwagBucks for my next one! Here's the Proof of Payment!

I had my very first 3 SB search reward earlier also and I thought I took a screen shot but apparently I hit the wrong button in my supreme state of sleepiness. Regardless, it was a good start to a very chilly morning!

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Also, I know this may be a bit intrusive, but if you've signed up with IMShopping because of what you've read in my blog, I'd really like to know (I understand if you're not interested in telling me of course).

I had my Guide training with them yesterday and I'd like to be able to show them who I've referred to the site. I also want to add you guys to my "Fans" list so I can check out your answers and give them a thumbs up here and there ;)

Starting on Friday they will be utilizing regular referral links (I think) so that the info will be tracked automatically and rewards can be given out to people who help increase the activity on the site by referring someone who signs up and asks a question.

I'll be doing a more detailed post on IMShopping (including pay info for Guides) sometime this weekend!

November Goals

Phew, what a day! I haven't even made my goals post yet, and I've already accomplished some of them - that's what I call a good start to the month. This month my goals are more multifaceted than they were for October since I was just starting out at the time. I'm still taking baby steps though to make sure I don't bite off more than I can chew.

So here they are, my goals for the month of November:

1. This is the obvious one, predetermined at the birth of this blog - to earn $300 worth of spendable cash by the end of the month. That means that only money that makes it to my bank account or PayPal account will be included in the tally.

2. Create (and consistently utilize) a daily schedule. I've taken on a lot of little eggs, and now it's time for me to focus more on nurturing them while still adding a couple to the stash. Each egg requires a certain amount of attention and it's time to find out how much so I can maximize my earnings.

3. Sign up with a freelance writing site and write at least 4 articles during the month to start getting my feet wet. Technically I've already started working on this one with Textbroker - I signed up and was accepted yesterday and I submitted my first article. I'm waiting to see if it makes the cut or not. I'm toying with the idea of setting up with a residual income sight like Associated Content as well though.

(Oh! They accepted my article - the acceptance email mentioned something about revising and rating the article in 2-7 days, but they seem much quicker than the estimates they give from what I've seen. Regardless, I've gotten $4 in my account for my 400 word article, which is great since they allow you to request payouts at as little as $10.)

4. Find a new private contract freelance gig. Technically I've accomplished this as well and am doing a trial run today, but I don't think I want to count it for this goal because even though it was already on my mental goal list, the job came into existence before I officially made this post.

All right, I think that was all of my goals for the month, or at least I hope it was! Time to get busy working on that schedule - too bad I'm better at making them than I am at sticking to them hehe

What are your goals for November?

TextBroker

TextBroker is one of the sites that I've seen that comes highly recommended to new writers. As part of my goals for the month (coming later) I decided to go ahead and apply with them yesterday to see what would happen.

I applied in the late afternoon, was accepted and told to write a sample for them. I did that and figured it would take 3-4 days to hear back but I actually heard back from them within a few hours which was a nice surprise.

Their pay varies by the ranking they give you as follows:
2 Stars = .7¢ per word (yes .7¢ which means less than 1¢)
3 Stars = 1¢ per word (this is where I got rated)
4 Stars = 1.4¢ per word
5 Stars = 5¢ per word

Clearly, unless you're ranked at 5 stars, the money is minimal, but I'm ok with starting out at 1¢ a word to get some experience under my belt.

I will warn anyone who is considering signing up now though, that there really don't seem to be a lot of 3 or 5 star articles. As a matter of fact I'm going to have to stalk the page to even find a subject that I'm comfortable writing on at the 3 star level. (Right now the only articles up are about rifles!)

I was really excited but now I'm a little iffy.

More feedback coming as I have it!

Thank You!

I wanted to say thank you all (again) for sticking by me and keeping me encouraged on my journey. Not a day has gone by this month where I haven't gotten at least one message telling me that my site has helped someone in one way or another and it's a really great feeling to know that I'm capable of doing that.

The November Goals post will be up tomorrow most likely, it will be a bit more detailed than October's was since the goals are going to include more than just monetary metrics. Now that we've gathered our eggs we need to learn to nurture them properly while still adding more, and that will be the tricky part.

I also wanted to mention that I requested my second $5 Amazon Card from iRazoo (still waiting on the first to arrive) so that puts me at $10 in 17 days which is pretty great!

I'm also half way to my next Amazon card from Swagbucks and I just requested my first one 5 days ago, so that seems to be going pretty smoothly now as well.

KGB sent me information to access the simulation portion of training so as long as I do well there I should be earning with them and passing on some words of wisdom on that little egg.

IMShopping training is tomorrow afternoon as well (busy busy) and I'm really excited about it. The community manager has asked us to spread a bit of info around so I'll be writing up a post on that tomorrow including the hiring metrics and pay rate.

If you are interested in getting started with them, I've linked my profile so that you can get a look at my answers that have won "Best Answer" and see what folks like to see in a response. My understanding of it is that as a paid guide you get paid per answer, and you get a bonus if you get a thumbs up or best answer so there are plenty of ways to increase your earnings!

(Also remember, if you've requested an invite to Lockerz and haven't gotten it yet, double check in your spam folder. They say they're a bit backed up in the system so it can take a few hours to get sent out, and I've had reports of it going to spam folders especially on Gmail. If you don't see it within 5 hours let me know and I'll resend it!)

October Round Up

Well, October has come and gone, and boy was it busy - especially there at the end! Everything started to blur together for me, hopefully it will slow down a bit now.

Time to add up my earnings and show you all the proof!

When it's all said and done, in October I earned $239.23 worth of PayPal deposits from the sites that I've been working with. Previously I had calculated it to be $241.52, but there was a a $2.29 fee that had been deducted from one of my payments that I forgot to figure in.

Still that's not a bad overall total considering that it only takes into account the money that made it to my paypal account, not pending payments, checks in the mail, gift cards, or cash that is still accruing on my accounts. (I did also get $50 worth of gift certificates, with another $10 on it's way.)

Here's a link to October's over all proof of payment total.

And here's the earning breakdown:
Wanelo $105 Proof of Payment
Livework $66.19 Proof of Payment
CloudCrowd $35.49 Proof of Payment
Greenfield Online $30 Proof of Payment
YouData $2.55 Proof of Payment

Did you meet your goal for October? I certainly hope that you did, but if you didn't don't give up - every little bit counts!

Next month this list will be much much longer and will include SurveyHead, LightSpeed Panel, KGB (hopefully), IMShopping and more!