Friday, June 29, 2007

Article Writer

Article writers are in demand nowadays. There are so many wanted ads for all kinds of writers online.

Writing articles could be lucrative if you are creative and fast. It could also be fun and educational. On the dark side, it could be stressful and mentally exhausting.

I've had my share of writing articles for web site content. I had no prior experience as a writer but I felt like I had the knack for it. In my opinion, I was able to write some pretty good articles, considering I was assigned topics I absolutely knew nothing about. My only problem is, I hate deadlines. I'd like to take my time and really get myself immersed into the subject matter. After all, it's not just simply writing but it also requires sufficient research.

Simply put, writing articles was not a good earning opportunity for me because I can only do at most 2 articles in a day. I was paid a little over $2 per article but there are others who write for only a dollar per article. However, I'll probably take up writing again if I run out of other earning opportunities.

Wednesday, June 27, 2007

Online Researcher

Being an online researcher is not easy and at times frustrating but it can also be fun and rewarding. With a computer and a fast Internet connection, the World Wide Web is yours to explore.

My quest to be an effective researcher has led me to new knowledge about search engines, "who is" queries as well as the use of reverse IPs. I'm stingy so I make use of free online tools to help me in my online searches.

Because I was forced to think out of the box in order to get good search results, I spent time knowing more about the major search engines. Being used to simple Google searching, it was a delight for me to know about Google's advanced operators which I can use to narrow down my search results.

There are lots of online sites where you can "who is" a domain for free, but there are only a handful of sites which offer free reverse IP services. Check out Webhosting.info, Domainsdb.net and Domaintools.com. You can also do reverse IP, sort of, using MSN search engine.

Tuesday, June 26, 2007

Data Entry Work

I nearly got myself involved in supposedly, data entry work being offered by an online company. I got turned off because I learned that I have to pay a fee in order to become a member. What? I have to pay in order to work for them and be paid?

After researching more about this online company, I found out that there are lots of disgruntled members although there are those who claimed to have been paid. What's so funny is that many who became members only aim to recover what they paid the company.

However, legitimate data entry jobs do exist. They just get buried under scams and deceiving ads. If you dig dipper, you can find for yourself of a good data entry work. Just don't fall for companies with promises of good earning and yet are asking for a fee.

Monday, June 25, 2007

Paid to Post in Forums

I had also experienced being a paid poster in forums. The least amount that I got for a post was $0.03 (3 cents) but you can also get paid from 10 to 20 cents, or even more, depending on how you got hired for the job.

If you get your job as a paid forum poster through an agency, you're likely to be paid cheap, although there are agencies who do pay well. You have a good chance of geting a better pay if you are directly hired by forum owners.

Forum posting is fun if you are well-versed with the topics, but some guidelines to follow, like posting at least 40 words per post or posting at least 5 new topics everyday can take away the fun from it. Strict rules (for the paid posters) also take away the smoooth flow of conversations. Imagine having a forum with lots of new topics but no responses.

However, there are still forum owners (and agencies) who have the good sense to allow the paid forum poster to blend in naturally with real members. It is in this situation where being a paid forum poster is less about work but more about having fun and being a positive contributor to the growth of a forum.

If you are the type of person who enjoys posting in forums, why not start earning from what you delight in doing?

Friday, June 22, 2007

Mail Decoy Agent

Working as a mail decoy agent, you get to receive catalogs, magazines, product samples and the like through the post. The mails you will receive are addressed to different persons and not in your name. Only your home address will be used.

I had tried applying as a mail decoy agent at Hausernet but I did not push through with my application. The main reason why I backed out was because I was not sure if the mails will reach me, considering the name on each mail is that of a different person. I did not really trust our postman at that time to deliver the strange mails to me.

I have read from different forums of people who were quite satisfied with their work as mail decoy agents. This is not a big earning opportunity though, but it could help pay the bills.

Online Survey Taker

Online survey taking is another thing I got myself into early on in my online adventure. I signed up with different survey outfits, having read from various websites that it is a good income generating opportunity.

I had actively participated in a handful of online surveys and most of them were unpaid projects. As compensation, my name was supposedly entered into raffles where certain cash prizes could be won. I never won any.

After some time I grew weary of waiting for surveys in my email and decided to just have my name removed from some survey sites. I don't get selected to be a participant anyway and I had started to read of many complaints from other persons who were not paid for taking part in purportedly paid surveys. Some survey sites turned out to be scams and I could attest to this:

One ordinary, boring day, I thought of googling my name out of curiosity. Lo and behold, I saw my full name online. I clicked on the url where my name was found and got into an "online survey" website. I then found out that I was a winner of $1000 in one of their monthly draws. I was pretty excited but confused as the month where I was supposedly a winner was 3 months ago at that time. It stated on the website that all winners were informed and a winner has 60 days to claim his or her prize before it is forfeited. I readily contacted the site and asked about it. After some time, I got an email stating that they made a mistake, that I was not really a winner and somebody else won the prize. Duh!

Paid to Click and Read

While I was into autosurfing and manual surfing, I also got myself involved in paid to click and paid to read programs.

As the name suggests, you earn from paid to click and paid to read programs by clicking on banners or links and by receiving emails with links from advertisers. If you have nothing else to be busy with then this could be fun but it's not really rewarding. It could take months or even years before you can reach minimum payout if you are just a free member without a hefty downline.

I have been paid by some of the paid to click and paid to read programs that I have joined but what I earned was not even enough to pay for my Internet connection. How can you really earn if you are paid one tenth of a cent for every ad you click? You would need to click 1000 links in order to make a dollar.

Most of the sites I joined are no longer in existence but there are still paying sites that I am currently active in. Finding a paying, reputable site is not that easy but there are still good programs out there.

Do I consider the time I spent clicking on countless ads wasted? Not really. The programs I joined did not make any promises at all and I became part of them partly because of boredom.

Earning from Surfing

The first time I searched for an opportunity to earn online, I was able to come across the idea of earning from surfing the web. There are 2 ways in doing this.

Manual Surfing
In manual surfing, you are expected to look at a site from 15-30 seconds. You will be tasked to click correctly on something (could be a number, button or symbol) in order for another site to be loaded. Some manual surfing sites do pay you in cash, while others will just give you advertising opportunities.

AutoSurfing
In autosurfing, all you need to do is to login to your account and click on a button that will enable you to start viewing different websites. The sites are automatically loaded, so there's nothing much for you to do but to just wait until the the desired number of sites have been loaded and you will be credited.

I got tempted in joining a number of sites promising me good earnings from surfing. Not contented with the earning I got from being just a free member, I had my accounts upgraded by spending some cash. Being fairly new to the online world at that time, I was naive enough to think that those programs would last.

I did make a profit in some sites but it was evened out by many losses in others.

There are still many paid-to-surf programs out there but I am no longer active in any one. Most, if not all, of these programs are ponzi-based and without new members they will eventually die.

I have learned my lesson well and would advise others to be wary of these programs.

Earning Online

This blog is about my quest to earn online. It will chronicle my experiences and the insights I gained in my online adventure.

I am not presenting myself as an expert, but I will just narrate things that actually happened to me. I hope this will help others who are also in search of a better online earning opportunity.