I Want A Free XBox

Just Say Hi

2007-03-13T07:56:00.000-07:00

This is a sponsored post

I have recently become single, and whilst I have no intention of changing that at the moment, should I that I fancy a piece of the action. I'd visit a free dating site, such as Plentyoffish.

However, it looks like there is new competition on the horizion.

Just Say Hi touts itself as a free dating site for all ages. I have yet to sign up, but it's a clean layout and not quite as messy as Plentyoffish. A quick search found numerous ladies in North Wales (a very difficult area to find people) however, who are all clamoring to meet yours truly. Apparently.

Anyway, should you feel a little lonely, need a soul mate, or just company, check out Just Say Hi.

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2006-12-27T01:47:00.000-08:00

Sponsored Post

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Blogging, Like Comedy, Is All About....Timing!

2006-12-06T15:38:00.000-08:00

One fact about blogging which I find is that I can write (what I percieve to be) brilliant posts - they don't get the interest I feel they deserve. Other times, I write posts that are just on a whim, and they get a lot of interest. Why is it? Well, I believe that a bit about blogging is not what you post, but when you post.

There are a number of directories, engines and feedreaders that read blogs in reverse chronological order. As such, if you post when 90% of your readers are asleep, there could be 5 or 6 hours of posts before they wake up. Of course, if you have a collection of regular readers, chances are they'll visit your blog regardless, but for new bloggers trying to establish a readership it's important to know.

First and foremost look for the obvious signs: timestamps. When are most users visiting and commenting? Comments are worth more than hits as they are definite readers, as opposed to google search. extremetracking has a free tracker that can give you totals and average visitors fairly quickly. Also establish what country they're from. Just because a UK person was commenting on your post at 3am when he comes home from a Saturday night out, doesn't mean he'll do it everyday.

Once you gathered this data, write your post as normal. However, don't post it until an hour or so before the "critical time to post", that way - it should get picked up by the major feed readers. Most of my readers generally read my blog first thing in the morning, so I generally post my blogs at around 8am.

Of course, don't go out of your way! There's no point in getting up at 3am just to post. But, when starting off, if you can delay postings to a more suitable time. It's usually better.

Same can be said for digging/bookmarking articles, but this is more constant. Most people on these websites are in the english speaking world, and generally America. So a good time to digg (to get the most readers) would be during American daytime. In fact, you don't have to digg straight after your posts.

Again, it's unessental, but it's a minor way of driving relevant traffic to your blog, and also a way of catering to your readers.

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Shop Around For Savings Sites For Savings!

2006-12-03T03:16:00.000-08:00

A wise man said once that "It's not how much you earn, but how much you save, that makes you wealthy." It is very true this, which is why I try and save as much as I can, without overstretching myself.

Alas, saving money at this time of year is a difficult process, which is why I was happy when I found this site. Hot Deals UK is a site which lists all major promotions offered by various websites, and how to get them. For example, they have an xbox premium on there for just over £200, but then it tells you ways to sell even more money!

Freefivers.co.uk lets you save money as you save. To begin with, you have £5 deposited into your account, and then depending on where you shop, there are discounts to be had. You earn either a flat rate cashback or a percentage purchase from top online stores. By completing offers, you earn either reward points or cash. After £25 is in your account, you get paid! It is a useful thing to have, especially in the run up to the Christmas Season!

Quidco is a similar service. It is a maximum of £5 per year, but it is taken out of your savings, as opposed to charged up front. There isn't really much of a difference between freefivers.co.uk and quidco, so my advice would be to sign up to both! Both don't charge anything for signing up and it could be a very thrifty move, especially with the run up to Christmas!

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A Change in Policy at Mylot Doesn't Change a Thing

2006-12-01T11:42:00.000-08:00

I logged into myLot earlier on today, and saw a message. Basically the message said that they changed the algorithm fo Mylot, so instead of rewarding visitors who post one word answers, it will reward visitors who post long thoughtful posts, promoting discussions. Right? Well. Not really.

You see, I can imagine their algorithm is based around length. I logged into myLot, and saw this discussion. A quick google search returned this site, with the same text. Seems to me that people are now resorting to copy and pasting text from a variety of sources off the internet.

Paying people for their opinions in this is very difficult to get right. I don't know exactly why myLot are doing it, as I cannot see any benefit for them (unless they get a lot of google ad clicks through their site). The whole process of algorithmically rewarding visitors to the site just seems a little flawed.

I'll be honest, I'm not very entrepreneural, in that I'm lazy in the persuit for cold, hard, cash. Luckily my interests in marketing and weblogging kind of hide the fact that - if I'm not interested - I don't make the effort. Mylot just seems like too much hard work to be honest.

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Blogs about Blogs!

2006-11-26T15:00:00.000-08:00

I have recently become a writing partner on Blog about your blog. The premise is simple - whore your blog out to as many readers as possible. I've only posted one post so far, but if you would like more readership - check it out and speak to Poet, if you have a blogger account I'm sure he'll add you!!

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Adsense Help: The Most Costly Mistake Bloggers Make

2006-11-25T11:59:00.000-08:00

Adsense can be quite profitting for blogs, the possible diverse nature of the topics, what with quick updating and large amount of links can mean that blogs are the first on the scene to discuss a topic, and usually do very well in search engines. However ,I see it time and time again that people are not protecting this most valuable of investments.

First off, let me just say this - Google are quite within their rights to take your account away from you. Harsh, I know - but if you don't play by the rules, then they can remove your account. It is part of their Terms and Conditions you agreed to when signing up. Whereas your $100 pocket money every few months is important to you, the business Google generates from that $100 is more important to Google. Fact. And time and time again I see people making the same mistake over and over again, when they post something like this on their blog: -

"Hi everybody - I have Google Adsense on my account, but I'm not getting enough funds, so I've added these ads, I hope Google don't mind."

Big mistake. Not only are you putting your Adsense account in jepordy, you're making it very easy for Google's crawlers to find that post! If you care about your Google Account, I'd take those ads down and do the following.

First of all, gather as much data about your new ad scheme. Usually, the blurb on the front page will tell you enough. If you see the word "contextual", forget it. Google don't allow competitive Contextual Adverts on sites with their code on it.

Now, the bit everybody forgets - speak to them. Google has a dedicated team of support staff who probably know the Adsense scheme better than you ever will. I should know because I was thinking about joining them. Trust me, they'd rather you'd clear it up rather than losing an account.

I know it sounds like this post was written by The University of the Bleeding Obvious, but it's the truth, and far too many people forget it.

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Mylot - Earn Money From "Discussions"

2006-11-22T14:56:00.000-08:00

Today, to see if I can make a little bit of money through myLot, a website where you can apparently earn money from participating in discussions. Now, I understand that the amount of money obtainable from this website will not be worth the effort I put in, but by god I thought I'd give it a shot.

FIrst thing that didn't impress me was the sign up. Okay, I had e-mail problems on one of my accounts, but the other one was fine and dandy and it still took me 3 days for the e-mail to arrive. I signed up eventually and was greeted by a basic messageboard like system, with a few discussions.

This is where I feel myLot falls down. myLot wants to promote discussions by paying them for posts, with the hope that better posts will be rewarded. However, it does the opposite. People basically spam the forum with nonsensical discussions (which is better - coke or cats. How the hell can you choose?), and spam the replies. The way forward seems to be that statements and "this or that", and replies such as "thank you". I tried putting a question that wouldn't produce a one word answer (have you ever met anybody famous.....it's at least two words - unless you've met Pele), and I didn't get any responses. I tried aiming higher with intelligent discussions, and no such luck.

Well, an hour or so as posting must've produce some earnings, right? Well. I checked my account early this morning for my hard earned cash: $0.15.

Makes you wonder why people go on it!

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Blogwhore

2006-11-19T05:52:00.000-08:00

From Martin I found Blogwhore. It seems to be a site whereby advertisers and publishers can get together to advertise on blogs. You can state what you're looking for, and what you are willing to post on your site. Hopefully advertisers will join and link up with bloggers. Fingers crossed it takes off though!

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If You Build It...They Won't Come

2006-11-19T02:57:00.000-08:00

Or so the old addage goes. You see, it's been a long time since I started a blog, and when I did all of 4 years ago, the blogosphere was a hell of a lot smaller than it is now. As such, starting a blog is a lot harder than it used to be - competiting for traffic and click throughs - until hopefully reaching my goal of a brand new XBox 360.

One thing I do have over a lot of people starting up is a well established blog already. On top of this, I also have a forum and a toplist which - given a week or so - I will be informing of this new blog. However, two blogs in particularly (Mike's Money Making Mission and My Quest To Make Money From The Internet, I've read extensively over the last couple of days, and have become a starting point to making money online (I have borrowed heavily from the former in layout style, as it appears to work. I hope he doesn't mind!).

I think also I am debating whether to use the money currently in my Adsense account towards the XBox. Sure, it's not a huge amount, but I could use it I suppose. What does everybody think, or is it cheating?

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Why I Want An XBox: Street Fighter 2?

2006-11-17T05:13:00.000-08:00

I suppose I should explain why exactly I want an XBox 360. It's really is a stupid reason (one I'm not exactly proud of), but I want to play Street Fighter 2 Online.

I grew up playing it, and became very good. Years spent in Colwyn Bay Arcade meant that I took no prisoners in this classic one vs. one beat-em-up. My life has been hugely influenced by this game, and they've released it now on XBox Live.

So, instead of kicking people's arse along the north wales coast, I can now kick people's behind all over the world. Fantastic!

This was the main (not the only) reason I decided to go with Microsoft's next generation console. Okay, there are other reasons - fabulous graphics, good line up of games, HD-DVD ready. But I hate to say that Street Fighter 2 is the main reason. Not withstanding a beating from my girlfriend in London a week ago, I reckon I could take on all comers at the game!

Welcome

2006-11-17T00:33:00.000-08:00

Hi, this is my new blog, entitled "I Want A Free XBox". It's simple really, it will detail my quest to get a free XBox 360. Okay, it's not exactly free. But I will be using revenue generated from this blog to hopefully reach my target of £299.99 - which is the current RRP in the UK of an XBox 360 Premium System. Should the price drop (which I expect it shall), before I complete my quest - then any money left over will be used to add bits and pieces to the system.

Why did I do this challenge? Two reasons - firstly there seems to be another of blogs out there who have been moderately successful with generating extra income. I'm not talking about people becoming millionaires overnight, but they have a fair amount of money they didn't have before.

Secondly, an XBox 360 is - what my Business Studies teacher used to say - is a reachable, definable and measurable goal, something all businesses need.

Wish me luck anyhow!

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