Surveys and Sign-Up Forms...

When did "survey" come to mean Sign-Up form? Everywhere you look on the internet theres something saying "Complete this short survey and be entered to win...", "Complete this survey and be paid...". It seems like anywhere you see "survey" it pretty much means "enter your personal information, and be signed up for something you didn't really want". I'm just so tired of it.

I'm more than willing to complete a survey, if it really is a survey; with questions that are used to help a person/company better their products/advertisements, or something of that nature. Not, your first and last name, email address, home address, phone number, date of birth, credit card number. It should be illegal to call that a survey...

'Tis The Season Of Emilie...

AUTUMN!!

That's off our back porch, by the way.

CashCrate? More Like Spam-Crate!!

I'd heard a few things about CashCrate.com, including the story about the teenager that makes over $200 a month. So, I thought I'd give it a try. I signed up for free and got a little notification that I can make $1.00 if I complete my profile, so I clicked it. "Completing your profile" includes sharing your marital status, date of birth, your gender and ethnicity, how many children you have, the ages and genders of your children, whether you live in a house or apartment, your annual income, the total annual income of your entire household, and a few other things. Seems a little intrusive to me. I filled it out anyway, hoping to get started making money. When I got to the list of surveys and things you can do for cash, I clicked a few different ones to see what you have to do. They all include sharing your first and last name, email address, home address, phone number, and in some cases a few more fields. In the intro video when I joined the site, they say that if you enter fraudulent information, or information other than your own that you won't get paid for the offer. I really don't want all of these companies to have that information, so I have not completed any of the 'Offers'. Furthermore, in order to make a decent amount of money you would need to do several, if not hundreds of these per week. Well, after seeing all this and being a little irritated that they can ask for that much personal info, I had to leave the computer for a few minutes to help my children. At this point it had been no more than 10 minutes since I had signed up for CashCrate, and my phone received a text. It was from a random 5 digit number, and it was an offer to "Make money online! Go to whateverwhatever.com". That angered me quite a bit. I replied 'STOP', and as I was typing that text my phone alerted that it had received another. I sent the 'STOP' to the first text and went to read the second. Again it was a spam offer to "Earn your degree!", or "Make Millions!". Again I replied 'STOP'. So far I have not received anymore. The moral of this is; Do not sign up for CashCrate if you do not want spam being texted, emailed, and probably physically mailed to your home. Again, I had not completed any of the offers. The text resulted solely from me signing up for CashCrate. I'm cancelling my membership right after I write this.

I Guess I Should Talk About Hubpages

I joined Hubpages.com about 2 months ago, hoping to make some money. Shortly after joining and exploring the site a bit, I discovered that one of the oldest user's great achievements was that he now makes about $45 a month... yeah. So, I now have 5 hubs and I'm not even sure I want them up there anymore. They were a little forced, and I don't like feeling pressured to write at least a certain amount of words. There are no guidelines for how many words a hub has to be. But, If I'm going to write something that's meant to be read by as many people as possible, then I want it to be good, and full of as much information as I can gather on the subject (at least 500 words IMO). While I like the idea of the site, it's kind of a downer knowing that someone who's been there much longer than me, and has put much more effort into their writing there than I have, is only making $45 a month. I can make more than that on Mturk in a week, easy. So, in conclusion; hubpages.com is a fun place to go if you feel you can write several articles on subjects people want to read about. Also, it's good for placing Adsense.

My Hubpages.com Profile

Adsense is Nonsense

I don't have any idea how Adsense decides what to pay you for what. The other day I made seven cents without having any clicks that day. One day I made 32 cents for 2 clicks. I just don't get it. As long as I'm making something, I don't care to question it. Although I suppose it would be helpful to know how it works. Maybe I could figure out a better way to earn more. Eventually I'll take the time to decipher Adsense's mysterious ways...

Some Are Meant To Be Free...

I truly believe that some people just can't be satisfied with a normal job. Unless your one of those lucky people that really, really wanted to be a "Whatever", went to school for it, and got your dream job. Most people's career dreams never come close to coming true. When you have to make the choice between feeding your children or spending time with them, it just doesn't seem right. When you find yourself thinking about money literally 24/7, the sight of it makes you sick. How will we pay this? How will we afford that? How will we eat today? You know there must be a better way. There is, I believe that. I haven't perfected it for me just yet. I will...

A Great Inspiration!

One story that keeps me believing in the whole, "making money online" thing, is the story of Markus Frind; creator of Plentyoffish.com. The first free online dating service made over $900,000 from Google for 2 months worth of Adsense ads showing. That is an amazing possibility for any average person. That you can take an idea, just an idea. And without buying anything, physically producing a product, without getting out of your seat; you can be happy and thrive. But, not only that, you too could possibly get really, really rich!

For more on Markus Frind's success visit: http://www.workhappy.net/2006/06/interview_with_.html