That sold for $760?!!!!!!!!

You truly can buy and sell just about anything on eBay. I've seen some weird things, corn flakes in the shapes of states, baby clothing for adults, empty Olive Garden bags, and this tic tac mint pack which sold for $760! You've got to be kidding me!

Of course you can also buy and sell things that people will actually use. Selling on eBay is a great way to earn a little cash from the items in your home you are no longer using. You can list the items yourself, but sometimes you just don't want to take the time involved in the transaction.

That is where companies like iSold It have stepped into fill the gap. iSold It has stores across the nation You take your item to the store, and they do all the work for a commission of the sale. The take the pictures, write the listing, and handle any communications. When the item sells they collect the payment, and ship to the buyer. Then they write a check and send it to you.

There certainly are some weird things that sell on eBay, but there are a lot normal items too. You can earn a little extra cash by selling the things that are just collecting dust in your home. If you don't want to take the time to sell them yourself let iSold It do the work for you.

Social Spark; Open for Business

SocialSpark is up and running? Have you checked it out? I signed up a little over a week ago, and have since been exploring the huge number of features on this site.

There is the social aspect of the site. You can find other liked minded bloggers out there to build some community with. Check out my profile on SocialSpark. I am Stephanie A. Be sure to put in a friend request and to give me a prop. Let me know if you've given a prop and I would be more than happy to return the favor.

The site also offers many resources to bloggers. You can find stats including your traffic and real rank. You can also see the demographics of your readers. You can build traffic through sparks. A spark is an opportunity to create buzz for your site by asking fellow bloggers to blog about one of your posts or topics. You can create sparks for your site or take them for another site or topic you find interesting. In many cases they will share the link love and link back to you.

Of course there is also the business side. Advertisers created opportunities. Bloggers choose the opportunities they are interested in, and get paid. Much like the PayPerPost system. There are also blog sponsorships available. These create a pop-up screen for the advertiser when readers visit your site. These pay by the day.

So many options and features to Social Spark. It is like one stop blog shopping. So stop by my profile and say hi and check out all the Social Spark has to offer.

Another Paid Post Option

Blogging is such a wonderful tool for mommy bloggers. It helps us connect without the outside world in the midst of all our responsibilities. It is a place to share ideas and tips, and just to know that there are others who are dealing with the same issues you are. Blogging can also be a tool for those mommy bloggers who need to create a little income.

I've shared with you the frustrations I've had recently with my page rank and paid posting. Now there is something new, SocialSpark. Social Spark is multi faceted. There is a community aspect where you can meet like minded bloggers and advertisers, create friends and leave messages for one another. There is the marketplace where you can find or create opportunities. Some of them are paid, but some are just blogger to blogger. I blog about you, and then you link to me.

Paid posts at SocialSpark are Google bot friendly. Sponsored posts use no-follow tags. Apparently, Google doesn't care if you get paid to blog, but only if you are throwing off their search rankings. Using no-follows tags fixes the problem.

Mommy blogging has been good to me in so many ways, but I wasn't sure how I was going to handle the page rank issues that paid blogging has created. Now there is another option. Don't despair mommy bloggers, help is on the way. You can earn a few bucks, and keep your page ranking too.

Page Rank and Paid Posting

It didn't take much research to find why my page rank dropped. It is because of the paid content on my blog. I do remember reading a few months back about blogs that were taking page rank hits because Google changed the algorithm to penalize blogs with paid links. This was around the time when my rank dropped from a 4 to a 3. I figured a drop of one was no big deal, and there were still plenty of PPP opportunities, so who cares. Well a drop to 0 doesn't leave me feeling so blase.

Like I said yesterday page rank doesn't mean that much to me. If Google wants thinks I don't have a quality blog because I do paid links that is their choice. I know paid blogging is sometimes controversial, but earning money is a big part of why I started this blog. So let Google rank pages how they like. Problem is PPP advertisers still want to use page rank to determine a blog's quality.

IZEA (parent of PPP) has developed what they call Real Rank as an alternative to page rank. From waht I could gather at the forum boards, PPP wants to phase out page rank, but the advertisers are still demanding that it be used. Hello. If I advertise for you, my page rank will drop, so what does the page rank mean? Can we follow the logic here?

Some, like Court's Internet Marketing School, say that Real Rank won't solve the problem, but just may push Google to stop indexing blogs with paid links. That I care about. If I'm not indexed then Stop the Ride will not show up in Google searches. That means less traffic. Not a good scenario.

So what to do? I'm not sure. I can go on as is and wait to see what happens. As long as PPP is still using page rank as criteria for opportunities, I will have little available there. I can look for alternative ways to generate income from the blog. I have seen mentioned selling links with no follow tags. That would be an option, but I'm not sure how to get that started. I'm going to have to think about this!

Earning 1099's Online

Part of the purpose of creating this blog was to use online earning opportunities to help pay down our debt. For the past six months or so I have averaged about $200 a month in earnings from a variety of online sources. Though I was aware of this average, I had lost track of the cumulative total, and of the running total from each source. I was surprised to see those totals when the 1099's arrived in my mailbox. A little bit here, and a little bit there really adds up over the course of the year.

There are so many places out there that you can work with to earn money online. I do not pretend to be an expert, but I am happy to share with you some things I've tried. Here are the sources that I have used, listed from the highest earnings for 2007.

1. PayU2Blog
With this company you are given a keyword with a link to incorporate into a post. Each assignment is worth $5. There also are product review assignments available periodically.
+ Easy. Consistent. Not dependent on page rank.
- Can not choose assignments. Low payout per post.

2. PayPerPost
You choose your assignments with this company. Each assignment is different in terms of requirements and compensation. The assignments that are available to you are largely based on the page rank of your blog.
+ Choose your assignments. Potential for larger payouts.
- More time consuming. Less flexibility in post content. Page rank is important.

3. Ad space
Creating the "Featured Sponsors" section on the sidebar generated a fair amount of income last year, and will generate even more this year. This space has been used in several different ways. It has been rented out for a monthly rate. It has been used to trade advertising for goods, and I have placed buttons there for companies in whose affiliate programs I participate. Currently it is rented out long term for a pilot program with IZEA.
+ Passive income once established.
- Finding advertisers. Limited control over content with some programs.

4. Affiliate Programs
I've had mixed results with affiliate programs. Affiliate programs pay you referral fees or commissions when readers click through your site, and sign up or make a purchase from the sponsor company. There is no payment just for the space as in #3. Some affiliate programs are direct, like Amazon, and others work through networks such as Link Share and Commission Junction. Most of my earnings that fall in this category are for referrals, such as for Ebates.
+ Pick and choose what fits your blog.
- High traffic needed to produce much income, especially for commission based programs.

5. Paid surveys
I have yet to find a good place to get paid for just taking surveys. I think this title is a bit deceptive for the site I use that falls in this category, Fusion Cash, but I use it because that is how the company describes itself. It really is a place to get paid to sign up for trial memberships. I posted a little more detail about this in $200 Toward Debt.
+ No blog needed. Get paid to try products.
- Time intensive.

6. Freelance Writing
I do a bit a writing for a couple of different websites. These jobs came purely from knowing someone who knew someone who was looking for a writer. I am still quite clueless about the world of freelancing, and still don't really consider myself a writer, but it is something I am interested in pursuing. Recently I was given a membership to Writers Market, a site that helps writers find freelance gigs. I'll let you know how that works out.
+Write about what you love.
- Low pay rate. (at least for newbies like me)

7. Blogsvertise
Blog posts for these assignments require three links, but allow a lot of flexibility with the content of the post. Assignments pay between $5 and $10.
+ Ability to decline assignments. Easy.
- Few assignments.

Of course earning money from your blog (or other online sources) also means paying taxes on those earnings. Keep track of the expenses associated with online earnings. Consult your tax adviser for details, but some expenses that may be deductible are hosting and design fees for your blog, promotion or giveaway costs, or the cost of internet service or other computer fees.

I am very much a part timer in the world on earning money online. I have a limited amount of time to invest, but am pleased with the earnings I do have time for. The main goal for those earnings is to pay off debt, but they have also helped make ends meet in some tight times. I hope sharing some of the sources that I've used is helpful for those of you who also are also looking to earn a little extra money from home.

Photo credit: vindochattergee

A Quick Online Earnings Update

It has been awhile, quite awhile, since I last updated about earning money online. I've been averaging about $200 a month from online sources. So instead of giving you all the details since then, I will just highlight a few things. There have been a few eBay sales, but most of the earnings have come from other sources.

Obo Pay - A Free $10 just for signing up. Easiest $10 I've ever made.

Blogsvertise - $28 in the last thirty days.

Fusion Cash - Received $47 from them for participating in trial offers. (Don't forget to cancel them before the trial period end!)


Almost $100 earned in the last thirty days from PayPerPost. Right now they are offering new affiliates $20 for their first post. With this company you can pick the paid posts you do.

$5 at a time. Earning about $25 a week at Pay U 2 Blog. With this company you are paid to incorporate links and keywords into your posts. You must do all you are assigned, but can set profile preferences to help get assignments that fit you and your blog.

I know advertising on your blog is a bit controversial to some, but earning money to pay off debt is one the reasons I started this blog. If you are looking to earn a little extra money, I am happy to share what is working for me, and happy to have you share what works for you too!

Get $10 Free

Have you seen the new program that Citi Bank is offering? It is called Obopay. It is a new way to send and receive money. You can use it online, kind of like Pay Pal, or you can also use it with your cell phone to send and receive money via text message. Money in your obopay account can be transferred to your bank accounts.

The fees are low. A flat $0.10 fee to send money (any amount) and no fees to receive or transfer money. Right now you can Sign up and get $10. I know it sounds too good to be true, but I signed up and there is now $10 in my obo account that I can transfer to my bank account. No further requirements. You can sign up and get $10 too. Please use my links so I can get the referral fee! Thanks!

I first saw this offered at FusionCash, where you also got $5 for using FusionCash, but I am not sure if the offer is still available there.

Customer Service Pet Peeve

I've been doing a little mystery shopping lately, and it has been fun. I've worked in so many jobs requiring customer interaction, that I just naturally evaluate the service I receive when shopping or dining. It is kind of nice to get paid a little something for it now.

I am not overly critical of employees. I try to take into account if they are busy or other circumstances. I've been there. I remember what it was like to get your section slammed while waiting tables, or to have to deal with a grumpy customer while a line of other customers are steadily becoming grumpy. It happens, but there is one thing I can not stand, ever.

I can't stand when employees are having their own conversation when they are supposed to be providing service to me. You know the scenario. You walk up to the reception desks at a local business and the employees are chatting. Employee one looks at you, says hi, starts your transaction, and then turns to employee two to continue the chat. Meanwhile you are standing there twiddling your thumbs listening about employee two's troubles with her boyfriend. Or better yet, they are complaining about their supervisor or the new rule at work. It drives me nuts!

Am I the only one? Does it bother you when employees are chatting while waiting on you? What are your pet peeves about customer service?

In case you are interested, here are some links for mystery shopping companies:

Insite

Shop'n Chek

Service Sleuth

Best Mark

Thirteen Things I've Been Paid to Write About - TT#12

I work with several different companies to earn money from my writing. (To see which ones click on the "reducing debt with" tab in the side bar.) Sometimes people ask how much I may make using these companies. I periodically give an update on my online earnings. If you are interested check the "make money on the web" label. I certainly haven't made a fortune, but have made enough to make some small dents in our debt, and to get us through some tight times.

Sometimes readers want to know what kind of things I write about that earn money. Here are thirteen subjects that I've gotten paid for:


1. Shrimp

2. Sugaring to Remove Body Hair

3. Coupons

4. Online Dress Up Dolls

5. drug rehabilitation

6. Ways to Make Money Online

7. The Police

8. Vacation

9. Pet Food

10. My Plaid Couch

11. The Simple Life

12. Beauty Supplies

13. Teaching Kids About Money

As you can see there are a wide variety of topics to post about. Some companies allow you more flexibility in picking topics than others. Some allow more flexibility in the way you post about the subject. The companies are all a little different, but the opportunities are there to earn money from your blog in a way that you feel comfortable with.

Online Earnings Update

Since my last update, June 19, we have earned almost $650 from online sources. About $200 of that was from eBay sales, but the rest was earned from our blogs. Click on the label "make money on the web" or on the side bar "Reducing Debt With" to see what we are using to earn money from our blogs.

So, what are we doing with all this money? Going out to eat? Buying fancy clothes? Purchasing Miami real estate? Uh. . . no. The goal is to use our online income to pay off debt. The reality is the summer months are very tight due to the nature of Tim's job. This income has helped us pay the bills this summer. Next, it will help us bring our savings back up to par. Then, it will be used to pay off debt.


This post brought to you by:

What?! Where can I sell them?

Well I posted this about 4:30:

I've listed some of my small sized diapers and wraps on Ebay. You can see them by looking at items for sale by stkappleto. And if you are wondering, selling the diapers is my way of admitting that we are done having children; barring some unforeseen dramatic change of heart or intervention. Can you tell I am still having a hard time committing to no more babies 100%? *sniff, sniff*

At the time I already had bids on two items. Then about 5:15 I went to check on them again. My listings were disappearing. What is going on? My alerts informed me that it is a violation of eBay used clothing policy to sell used cloth diapers or wraps. UGH! I spent most of my afternoon on those listings! Does anyone know I a place I can sell them? They are far from perfect condition, but are too good to just toss. Help!

Pay Per Post Hints

I do not claim to be a PayPerPost expert. There are people who make far more money with PayPerPost than I do, but Milehimama asked for a little help in her comment on Summer Debt Disappointment. I am happy to share what I know.

1. Be sure to specify categories for your blog. After you sign in, click on the tab "my blogs." Then click on the link that has your blog name. Then you can pick up to four categories.

2. Now that you are back to your blog page in PPP. Be sure that you have PPP tools installed. This will make more opportunities available to you. You should have a green thumb for "marketplace." The "direct" program is if you want advertisers to be able to directly offer you something. It enables you to have a button like the "Hire Me" one in my side bar.

3. To see what is available to you, click "open opportunities." Opportunities are available to you based on your categories (step 1) and your Google page rank. My page rank is not high, but there are always opportunities available to me, although not always ones that I want to take.

4. Start checking for opportunities in the afternoon. It seems the new ones usually come out between 2:00 and 4:00 EST.

5. If you see one you want, jump on it! Click on the opportunity for a more detailed description, and click "Take this Opportunity."

Very important : The good opportunities go very fast.Take the opportunity before you write the post. Take it even if you don't have time to write about it right this second.

By clicking "Take This Opportunity," you hold your place for that opportunity for six hours. So once you take the opportunity, you can tend to the kids, the laundry or whatever else you need to. If you don't complete the post and submit it within six hours, it will go back in the pool for others to take.

6. You may want to include an affiliate button like the one below on your blog somewhere. I have another small one under "reducing debt with" in the sidebar. Referrals are worth money.

I hope this was helpful. If you have any other hints or questions, I'd love to hear them!



ppp, online income

Summer Debt Disappointment

In my grand plan of paying off our debts with money earned online, I forgot to figure the dip our income takes in the summer. My husband works mostly with band teachers, so school being out means less hours and less commission. Combine that with increased summer expenses of travel and visiting, and the money earned since Over $300 Earned Online, has not gone to debt, or even to our savings. It has gone to keep our monthly bills caught up.

Since that last post, we have earned over $200 online. Here is a rough breakdown:

Freelancing - $15
Direct advertising $125
PayPerPost - $55
Ebay - $20
Payu2blog - $20

is a new one. I just started blogging for them a few weeks ago. Click on the graphic for more details, but in a nutshell you are assigned a keyword and a link. You must use them once in a post. There is a sixty word minimum, but you can use the keyword in just about any context you'd like. You must take all assignments, but you can pick some preferences to help get things that are a better fit for you and your blog. Most I have been able to work into things I would normally post about. A couple, like poker tables, have pushed my creativity. That isn't necessarily a bad thing though.

Each post is worth $5. You are paid every other week via Pay Pal. The work is steady with this company. I started at the end of the last pay period. I've only been paid $20 so far, but have earned $70 in the current pay period already with posts here and on Tim's blog.

It is a little frustrating and disappointing to steadily be earning extra income, but be unable to use it for its intended purpose. I love reporting that we are making strides in our debt reduction, but I'm keeping it real here. I can say though, that I'm thankful to have that extra income and though progress on the debt has slowed, we have not moved backwards. We have not added to it, and sometimes that is about as much as you can do to become debt free.


online income, personal finance

Over $300 Earned Online

Since my last post about the money we've earned online, we've earned about $360. I wish I could say it was going straight toward debt, but it has been a lean month. We've dipped into our savings for expenses, including purchasing animals and fixing vehicles. The online income is going to the savings account.

Some may argue the logic of keeping a small savings when there are debts to be paid. It may not make sense on paper, perhaps it is just physiological, but it feels better to have a little savings to draw on when times are tight, things are needed or unexpected expenses occur, rather than to fall back on credit credit cards. We've spent too many years trying to pay off debt while using credit cards as our emergency fund. It didn't work! This also helps to train us to live on what we have and save for things we need. Must break the debt cycle!

$113 was earned from Pay Per Post. The rest of the money came from items sold on eBay!. Tim still has a few things listed, and I need to clean out a few closets and get some more things for him to list!

After the savings account gets back to par, we will be able once again apply online earnings to our debt. Until then we will keep plugging away at the debt on the normal budget.

online income, personal finance

Mash for Cash

No, not the potatoes, but you might be able to do that too. Mash is another term for embedding into your site. It was new to me too. The News Room is a site that allows you access to news stories that can be mashed into your site. This allows you to have current and quality news feeds on your site, but it gets better.

You also can earn money by doing this. How? There is advertising that comes with these news stories. You earn a portion of the advertising dollars each time a mashed story is viewed at your site, and you earn even more if someone mashes content from your site.

I decided to give it a try. I went to the reference section, just to see what was there. I chose the video below because caffeine is near and dear to my heart.

Signing up is easy and it is free. You can embed images, articles or video in a wide range of categories. It was easy to embed the video too. I browsed in the categories I was interested in, and when I picked a video to use, I simply had to click the "mash" button and click a couple options, then copy and paste the code. It was very simple.

Mash for cash, this is a pretty interesting concept. I only scratched the surface of what The News Room offers in my browsing tonight. I plan to check this out more. Always looking for more ways to earn money to pay off our debt!

A Brag or Two

How much do you think this cost?

Need more info to make a guess? Almost everything is Limited Too brand. The large blue thing is in the back is a sleeping bag, the thing in the middle is a ATM savings bank, and the purple thing on the right is a bed canopy. There are socks, hats, gloves tights, underwear, journals, a MP3 player, a digital camera, an umbrella, and much more.

Yesterday was a good shopping day. Not only did we shop for free with gift cards, a friend told us about a fantastic sale at Gabriel Brothers. And it was fantastic. What did you guess for the things displayed on the table? Anything close to $15? Yes, all that, $15! That's better than a yard sale!

They were having a bag sale. Every item is $1, or fill a bag for $10. Things were all just piled in big boxes. Finding things that weren't damaged required a lot of digging. We were there for over two hours. A few of the things I got for the girls and their room. Many of the items went into my gift closet.

I couldn't find if this sale is at all Gabe's locations or just the one near us. If you have a store near you, and you shop for young girls, it may be worth a phone call or a quick trip to see if the sale is there too. Had I been thinking I probably would have picked up some items to resell, but I didn't.
____________________________________________________________________

I don't think my shopping adventures were what Phelan had in mind, though, when she was asking me to brag a little. I think she may have been asking me to refer you to this article at BeNaif.com. If you read the article, you may notice something familiar there. There are more to come. There also is a blog associated with this website that I will be contributing to soon.

Thank you to Phelan who basically handed this gig to me.

$200 Toward Debt

Paying down debt is such a slow process! It can be frustrating at times. Today, though, is not one of the frustrating days. We put another chunk toward becoming debt free.

As I've mentioned before, in addition to our normally budgeted amount, we use money earned from extra sources, like this blog, or ebay to pay down debt. The money to accumulates in Pay Pal, and then we pay an extra payment to debt when the amount reaches $200. Today, was that day.

Where did that money come from? About 1/2 of it came from Pay Per Post. The rest came from a paid survey site called Panda Research. If you are not familiar with these types of sites, they term "survey" is a bit deceptive, in my opinion. You actually get paid to accept offers, mostly to try products. Often you have to pay shipping or another small fee, but you do come out well ahead after you are paid. Through this site, I made money to try Netflix, Blockbuster, Hydroderm, and a few other things.

It was fun to get paid to try things we normally wouldn't buy, but making money on these "paid survey" sites requires a bit of time and organization on your part. The offers are almost all for a trial period. After that period is over, you are charged full price. When I completed an offer, I'd immediately write the cancellation date on my planner. Then a day or two before that date, I'd call or get online to cancel the service.

If you are interested in this kind of thing, I'd recommend Fusion Cash over Panda Research, just for the simple fact that Fusion Cash lets you cash out at $25. Panda Research makes you wait until $100. Fusion Cash also has a lot more selection.

It feels great to be able to make an extra payment toward debt. It is a slow process, but we are making progress. A little saving here, a little earning there, and one day we will be debt free!

Technorati Tags:paid surveys, debt

A Little Push Ahead for Debt Reduction

Tim and I finally sat down to do the budget a few months ago. We looked at what we had been spending, and were happy with most of the areas. We discussed a plan to address those areas we weren't happy with. Then we got frustrated.

Tim's salary just covers the bare minimums. There is not much to put toward debt reduction. It is frustrating to have your budget down to bare bones, and still not be able to make real progress on debt. There are a few things in our monthly budget that are not true needs, when you define need as something essential to survival, like food and shelter. I call these things "high priority wants." These are things that we could survive with out, but are important to us. We are not willing to cut the high priority wants that remain in our budget.

What to do? One thing is to try to increase our income. Our monthly budget is based on Tim's salary and the income from a rental unit. Any money made on our blogs, Ebay or Tim teaching music is extra. The online income all goes to a Pay Pal account. The plan is to let it build a bit and then make an extra payment on a credit card, and keep doing it until the debt is gone.

How much have I made on Pay Per Post? My first post for Pay Per Post was Dec 27th. I've posted ten posts and made about $90. No, it isn't huge money, but it also involved a very small time commitment. It won't pay off our debt in one big swoop, but we also didn't create the debt all at one time. It grew a little at a time, and that is also how it will go away.

Higher Page Rank = Paying Off Debt

Scribbit has several posts, geared to us non-techies, about increasing your blog traffic. When she does these, I always think, "I really should do that." but then never do. I am feeling a bit more motivated right now.

Have you seen Pay Per Post, the blog ad network, opportunity board lately? There are opportunities there now for up $1000! (Yes, that is three zeros) Of course, you need a higher page rank to qualify for those higher paying opportunities.

There are lots of opportunities, with smaller payments, available too for bloggers, like me, with microscopic page ranks. That is what is nice about Pay Per Post, there is something for everyone. That and they only take 35% of the ad money as compared to the 50% taken by some other companies.

It makes me wonder, if I followed the advice on Scribbit, would my page rank would grow? If it did, what high paying opportunities would be available to me? If I were able to take those higher paying opportunities, then how much sooner could we pay off our debt? Paying off debt, now, that motivates me!



When you write a post for Pay Per Post, you are required to disclose that the post is sponsored. Which is what this little button is for!

PPP - Review My Post

Pay Per Post has announced a new program that pays you to review blogs you already read. Review My Post is open to most bloggers. You can even participate if you are not interested in writing any other sponsored posts. It is a great way to try Pay Per Post if you have been thinking about it, but are unsure about reviewing sites you don't know.

If you aren't part of Pay Per Post, why not review one of my posts? Get paid to write about a place you already visit, Stop the Ride! Just click on this button



Pay Per Post will guide you through the rest. Once you get your review up, let me know and I will link to it too. Be nice please! *grin* More traffic for both of us!

If you are already part of Pay Per Post, I encourage you to add Review My Post to your blog. From the "affiliate tools" menu, simply place the Review My Post button into your blog. Mine is at the bottom of every page. Your readers will be offered the chance to get paid to review your post in their blog.

Everyone wins. Your readers earn a few bucks to do a quick review of your post. You earn a few bucks too, while generating links and traffic to your site. It also helps Pay Per Post build their page ranking. I love it!