Can you really make money from blogs?

I just reviewed this short but provocative article below in another blog.

It really defies all the hype about people trying to make money by having their own blog and linking it to Adsense, then contributing into other people's blogs and linking their blog to them, and driving traffic altogether to their blog using Google Adwords.

Maybe we should really think hard about this.

Is there really money to be made from blogs? Or should we just use the blogs as our own space and take whatever may come out of it.

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How would you like it if, every time you got a phone call, you had to listen to an advertisement as well? Have you ever asked, How do I make money with my telephone? Or, What's the business model of my telephone? Or, What's the business model of my water cooler? My front porch? My patio?

Doc Searls believes it's far more important (and interesting) to make money because of our blogs, rather than with them; just as we make money because we have phones rather than with our phones.

There are exceptions. Some of us make money by selling on the phone. If that's you, think about what trying to sell over your blog (instead of the phone) would do to your relationships with readers.

Of course, lots of people use advertising to defray the costs of blogging. But how interesting is that, once you're past describing whatever it takes to get going with Adsense or Blogads?

On the plus side, blogging and can bring high rates of return in authority and respect -- just starting with Google juice. In that context alone, blogging is at worst a small expense and at best a high-return investment. Advertising is gravy.

How can we make the most the innate value of blogging as an activity, rather than as a medium?

Be very careful of the make money items on Google Adwords. See why!

I have found the following article in another internet forum. It is really good - and I endorse it in every way.

Essentially, this reiterates the comment I made about Google Adwords - the tool that you will inevitably use if you want to market make money schemes.

Google Adwords, whilst revolutionary, is expensive for make money items.

I once spent $1,200 in one month only to generate $150 of sales.

I now market make money items on the cheap - i.e. without using Google Adwords. There are some affiliate links in the articles I post in my blog.

Instead, you are much, much better off making money in the short term on eBay. If you want to market make money items, make sure that you are not spending a fortune and you are not looking for a quick buck.

I carry on marketing make money schemes because 1. I want to share my experience of these with others and 2. I am passionate about it.

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ARTICLE REPRODUCED FROM ANOTHER BLOG:

There are a number good reasons why you should not go into the make money market. Below, I will give you ten of the more important reasons.

1. Your competition is highly skilled. If you think it is easy to compete in the make money market, think again. Your competition has mastered the art of selling, which means he or she will be an extremely tough competitor.

2. Other markets offer less resistance. The make money market is highly oversatured with sellers. For this reason, it is tough to claim decent positions on search engines. This is not so with all niches.

3. The learning curve is high if you're inexperienced selling make money products. Since your ability to train people to sell will be directly dependent on your ability to sell to them, many people will be reluctant to buy from you unless your presentation is far beyond average.

4. Even if you sell within the make money market, your target audience should be small, not large. You want to find a specific group that can be matched to a specific product you will produce or have already produced.

5. Other products are easier to market. When it comes down to it, people are highly suspicious of any type of make money product or service. If you're selling something else to them, chances are that they will be considerably less likely to worry that you are trying to rip them off.

6. Buyers in the make money market may be more likely to return products, as they perceive sellers to have tricked them if they do not succeed in making money with the product (which they usually don't, no matter how good it is).

7. Buyers wont judge your product on how it should be presented according to protocol that is normally used for make money products. Instead, they will look at the list of features you have provided.

8. You're better off in the long run if you pursue a field in which you are interested, rather than simply a make money field. If you don't have any serious interest in your product, you will more than likely do a poor job creating and marketin it.

9. Other markets can often be more profitable. Even though you've heard about those million dollar days, there are other industries which can be just as profitable, provided that you spend the time to select the right one and to cultivate profits.

10. If you don't have a background in making money with some specific system, you may be better off creating a book or product on some area in which you have specific expertise.To reiterate, there are many business models you can create; however, a business model that caters to the make money crowd is almost always a mistake.

Make Money From The Stockmarket

This is probably the most traditional form of investment pre-Internet. And has it gone away today? No! Quite to the contrary, it's alive, revamped and there is a lot more opportunity to make money...and lose money...from the stockmarkets.

Is it worth putting money on the stockmarket?

Classical question, to which I will give the classical answer. It depends how long you want to keep the money in there for.

If you want to, and can, leave the money aside for 5 years or more (i.e. you are putting some of your SAVINGS into the stockmarket), then definitely YES. Whilst past performance is not a guarantee of future performance, the stock market tends to outperform other forms of investments in the long term.

Then what if I want to make a short-term gain?

Once again, I will give a classical answer to this classical question. BE CAREFUL. You can also LOSE money on the stock market. Yes, it's very true.

Many, many people have lost money on the stock market. Some have become bankrupt, some have committed suicide over it.

But many people earn big money in the City and Wall Street doing just that, don't they?

True. But you cannot and should not aim to compete with them. First, you do not have the resources, database, training and time to research stocks as much as they do. Second and more importantly, you do not have the huge financial backing that the banks/funds have to leverage or hedge your positions. And finally, even they lose money. They just don't publicise it as much for obvious reasons. Click here to read an article on that matter.

Therefore, you should only play the stockmarket with money that you can afford to lose!

If you do want to play the stockmarket, please consider the following advice which, once again, is not exhaustive:

1. If you want the potential for higher gains, consider buying Contracts for Differences (CFDs). These are sophisticated derivative products that are now available to the public. You only put down a fraction of the money you want to invest on the stockmarket and borrow the rest. Obviously, you pay interest on the amount you borrow. This means that your investment is then geared. You stand to make stronger gains, but also more painful losses! I invested $3,500 in a CFD on a blue-chip company in August 2006. I am still licking my wounds!!

2. Bear in mind that you don't have to trade only in stocks/shares anymore. You can trade on gilt bonds, derivatives and commodities such as oil, gold and silver. If you feel you have some better knowledge about a particular market, go for that!

3. Research the market. For example, every day, I read This is Money. Every weekend, I read the Money and Business Section of The Guardian. I try to pick blue-chip stocks that are giving a relatively high dividend yield. This is interesting for 2 reasons.
(a) If, like me, you are buying stocks on a CFD, you will pay interest the longer you hold the position open. However, you will also be paid dividend. Hence, a higher dividend helps to offset the cost of keeping the position open;

(b) Such stocks may soon attract hot money hence pushing up their price;

Obviously, you need to take this with a pinch of salt, so ALWAYS research the company first to try to ascertain why this is the case. For example, has there been a profit warning issued recently?

My tips for stockmarket investments are:

1. Invest in currencies - the markets and less volatile and more predictable;
2. Invest in funds - they are less volatile and still offer good value;
3. Never act on inside information - you can go to jail for that!

Here are a set of useful ebooks that will help you achieve this. I have reviewed these myself and would recommend any of them depending on your preferences and budget.

1. An ebook on the Price Driven Forex Trading Method - a technique that is rewarding and not so volatile when dealing on the foreign currency markets;

2. An ebook on the Institutional Forex System - a complementary technique to the Price Driven Forex Trading Method, once again designed to limit your losses whilst profiting from currency movements;

3. An ebook on commodities trading - an absolute must if you are more passionate about trading in products like oil, gold, silver, coal etc.

4. An ebook on general stockmarket trading - if you feel that currencies and commodities are not for you!

5. An ebook on investing in funds - designed more for longer term investments;

Make Money From eBay

Anyone – yes, anyone – who is serious about making money online should know about eBay, the darling stock of the dot.com boom earlier this decade.

eBay is one of the very, very few online businesses that weathered the dot.com crash. You can guess why – as its CEO Meg Whitman puts it – eBay is “transforming the way in which e-commerce is being conducted”. And eBay has gone from strength to strength since it acquired Paypal, the world’s largest online payment services company.

Can you make money by selling on eBay? The short answer is YES, without a doubt! I have used eBay to make at least $1,500 profit every month over the last 9 months. And I know for a fact that many people earn more than that. For selling online, eBay stands out from the crowd for 3 reasons:

• Its aim is to make selling easy for you – ordinary people like you and I can sell to as big an audience as the Marks & Spencer, Walmart and John Lewis of today;
  
• Other than the main search engines (i.e. Google and Yahoo), eBay attracts more traffic every day than any other website. Yes, Ebay reaches out to more people than any newspaper and/or television company in the world;
  
• 95% of the users of Google/Yahoo still use them for one simple purpose – surfing the internet. However, with eBay, it’s quite the opposite. 95% of people who use eBay are doing so with the intention of spending money online. You can make money from eBay precisely because of that quality traffic it generates;

How can you make money from eBay?

There are many ways of making money on eBay. Don’t forget that eBay is like a shopping mall, a marketplace. So all the fundamental rules of demand and supply, pricing, economics, business and plain simple logic apply! Essentially, it boils down to buying low and selling high, like traders do in all walks of life.

If I am not convincing you, then please follow the link below to “This is Money” website where it states that 70,000 people in the UK alone now earn a 2nd income on Ebay.

http://www.thisismoney.co.uk/money-savers/article.html?in_article_id=406867&in_page_id=5

Here are various ways of making money on eBay. They are NOT exhaustive and I am sure that many people use other techniques. Also, you need to choose the technique that suits YOUR skills and lifestyle the best:

• Searching for misspelt items deliberately, buying them cheap and selling them at a higher price after spelling them correctly;
  
• Buying an item, then improving its listing and photo displayed, and reselling at a higher price;
  
• Sourcing an item that can be bought cheap in your area (e.g. in your local newspapers, at an antique fair, or in a developing country) and then selling on eBay;
  
• Buying in bulk from wholesalers and retailing on eBay;
  
• Buying and selling ebooks;

Personally, I make money on eBay selling ebooks. The beauty of an ebook is that it is not like a normal item. If you want to sell, say, mobile phones, you can only sell as many as what you have in stock. Whereas with an ebook, you can sell as many as the number of buyers prepared to pay for it. All you need to do is email the buyer the ebook once you have received payment.

For instance, I could have easily written all my blogs in an ebook, put a copyright on it, and listed the ebook on eBay for $10. With a catching title, subtitle and picture, I would sell about 4 copies every day. And if I sell 15 varieties of ebooks, I would easily make $1,500 profit every month.

However, you also need to be aware of the following pitfalls:

• eBay is only as good as how well you use it. If you do not master the listing techniques and, remember, apply the fundamental rules of economics, you WILL FAIL;
  
• eBay is expensive. It charges you a listing fee and a final value fee of 5.25% of the price you sold your item at. On top of that, Paypal, the online payment services company owned and used by eBay, charges 3.4% of the price you sold your item at. This means that at least 10% of the price you achieve will be paid to Ebay or Paypal. So if you are selling a low-margin item, this will get very risky;
  
• Both eBay and Paypal are trusted brands. Therefore, they invest heavily in ensuring trust and safety on their sites. They can – and will – punish any users who fail to comply with their listing rules and Acceptable Usage Policies. These policies can be onerous so I strongly urge you to familiarise yourself with them. Punishments from eBay/Paypal will range from removal of listings, temporary selling restrictions to outright suspension and lifelong bar for serious and/or persistent violations;
  
• Irritatingly, eBay and Paypal can sanction you even if you have not done anything wrong! You may feel that you have done nothing wrong, or more commonly, have been operating in a “grey area”, but for them, everything has to be black or white. If they do not see it your way, they will sanction you unilaterally and you will not be able to do anything about it.

Summary assessment:

Typical monthly earnings	$300-$10,000, depending on how well you use it. Ebay is very open-ended in this aspect.
Get rich quick?	Maybe, if you are generating $10,000 a month. But I think you should use it as a hobby to generate a 2nd income to start with.
Decent 2nd income?	Yes, easily.
All from home online?	Yes. But you may have to use the post for accepting checks, collecting recorded items and go to the bank to cash your checks.
Legal and ethical?	Yes, and it should remain so. If you fiddle the rules, you WILL be caught by eBay / Paypal. Remember that they invest millions in enforcing their rules!
Ongoing effort required?	I spend about 1.5 hours a day – 7 days a week
Initial cash investment required?	Variable – although I would recommend that you have about $300 of working capital to start with to cover your eBay fees. You may not use this at all if items sell fast and your buyers pay on time;
Initial time required to set up?	Max. 3 hours – but you will learn new things as you carry on selling

My Recommendation

I recommend that you try eBay if you are serious about making money online. Set yourself a budget, and start slowly. Do not act big at the outset. In order to maximise your chances of doing well on eBay, I recommend that you get yourself one of the following books. If anything, you should try eBay just for the eBay experience. How would you feel if/when you hear that people like yourself are earning extra cash every week on eBay and you aren’t? I have carefully vetted all these books and handpicked them from a list of over 200 ebooks on eBay.

• Wholesale Directory and Resources – for those of you who want to buy in bulk and retail on eBay. Even better, this book shows you how to “dropship”, i.e. sell on eBay first and then buy at a lower price and let the wholesaler deliver the item to your buyer. So you do not keep any inventory! Well worth the price and one of the best-selling ebooks around on eBay. Suitable for people all over the world;
  
• The Silent Sales Machine Hiding On eBay – a best-seller detailing many different techniques of making money on eBay. It’s only after reading THIS EBOOK THAT I SIGNED ON TO EBAY AND STARTED MAKING MONEY FROM IT.
  
• Make up to $11,212 a month on eBay – whilst I did not make anywhere near that amount, there is a lot of practical advice here on how to grow your sales. Useful when you have already acquired some experience on eBay.
  
• eBay Hidden Sales Engine – a very good ebook at a very reasonable price. Useful start if you are still wary about the whole thing – or are wary of spending too much money. It explains the various techniques of making money on eBay quite well;
  
• eBay Marketing Ebooks – that is the technique I use to make money on eBay. A must-read before you start selling Ebooks. Also at a very reasonable price.

Make Money From Football

I fondly remember those days when I tried to make money from football back in my University days. I thought I could combine my passion for the sport with my interest in making some money on the side.

I've had mixed results - I still think that I can "read" a football match in-running better than the average person. And it's fair to say that I made more money than what I lost.

However, I would not recommend anyone to bet on football. There is far too much uncertainty in a football match. If you are getting some buzz out of it, fair enough. But do NOT see it as a means of getting a guaranteed income.

As Sir Alex Ferguson, Manchester United Manager and keen racing fan states, "never trust a football match, it's a funny old game".

Instead, I've found another way of making money from football completely risk-free. It will NOT get you rich but will fetch a few hundred dollars risk-free.

It works as follows:

1. Telephone the Merchandise Shop of a big football club (we are only talking of the ilk of Chelsea, Barcelona, Real Madrid, AC Milan, Manchester United, Liverpool, Arsenal). You will find their number easily from their website;

2. Tell them that you would like to buy a signed football shirt from a specific player - normally, go for the much loved players, e.g. Steven Gerrard, Ryan Giggs, David Beckham;

3. The answer is more likely to be a "No". INSIST! Tell them that you really want it (either because you are a life-long fan, or that it would be your little brother's dream come true, or simply that you are an avid collector of football memorablia);

4. If the answer is still a no, ASK THEM WHAT PLAYER CAN THEY GET A SIGNED SHIRT FROM. Many people would love to buy football memorablia from top players who are not as loved as David Beckham, e.g. Paul Scholes, Ashley Cole, Peter Crouch etc.

5. BUY THE SHIRT THEY OFFER YOU. They will sell it to you for the cost of the shirt;

6. Now, guess what, sell the shirt on Ebay!

Read my blog on Make Money From Ebay to get the best advice. Essentially, if you take a good picture of the signed shirt, put the name of the player in the auction title and put a good description, you will sell the shirt for MUCH MORE THAN THE COST. For example, you will get a signed Wayne Rooney shirt from Manchester United Merchandise Shop for no more than £40. And these consistently sell for over £100 each on Ebay!!

You can repeat this process on and on. You do not have anything to lose. At worst, you will only be refused the football memorablia.

You can even apply this technique for signed autographs. Get a signed autograph from, say, Jose Mourinho. IF YOU WRITE TO CHELSEA FOOTBALL CLUB, YOU WILL GET A SIGNED POSTCARD FROM JOSE MOURINHO IF YOU ASK FOR IT.

FRAME THE AUTOGRAPH, TAKE A PICTURE OF THE AUTOGRAPH, AND LIST THE AUTOGRAPH ON EBAY. It will sell for at least £30!!!

As you can see, this technique will not get you rich, but you can make some decent profits every season from football memorablia.

Email me at pinoop411@gmail.com if you have any thoughts on this.

Paid Survey / Online Survey Schemes - The Truth Behind Them

Anyone who has been serious about making money online is bound to have come across these schemes – those market research companies that entice you to register with them and take part in online surveys that they will field on to you in return for some money.



Many sites boast that you can make up to $500 a week completing surveys lasting 15-20 mins each.

Is this statement true? The short answer is Yes! There are people earning such types of monies online doing exactly that.

Also, making such a second income is entirely legal and ethical in most jurisdictions or cultures. As such, you are unlikely to run into any problems with the law and/or into any moral dilemmas.

Do the surveys really take only 15-20 mins to complete? Yes.

How do I know? Well, I have tried such schemes for about 6 months and have made money with them too.

Are such schemes sustainable? Once again, yes. It is true that:

• The big companies (and I know that since I’ve worked for them for years) commission market research companies to conduct surveys about consumer tastes, habits and preferences in an attempt to profile their customer base and/or refine their products and marketing strategies;
  
  


• The big multinationals are diverting marketing spend from the conventional media (i.e. newspapers, radio, television, direct mail) in favour of the Internet. Don’t forget that Wall Street does not classify Google and Yahoo as Internet companies – they are full-blown media companies – i.e. they compete with BskyB, BBC, ITN, CNN, Reuters, NBC, TF1 etc. for advertising revenue;
  
  


• There are market research companies out there being paid to profile consumers and report back to their clients for a fee. Some of that fee is passed on to you – the consumer helping them shape the profile!
  
  


• Such online 2nd income schemes do not require any initial cash outlay. Yes, it’s zero cash investment!

However, here is also what you need to know:

• Each market research company you sign up with will field you about 1 or 2 surveys each month and pay you between $10 and $20 per survey. Those who field you more will pay you less per survey. THIS MEANS THAT YOU NEED TO SIGN UP TO MORE THAN ONE MARKET RESEARCH COMPANY IN ORDER TO MAKE SOME SERIOUS MONEY;
  
  
• How many should you sign up to? From past experience, IF YOU WANT TO MAKE $500 A WEEK, YOU WILL NEED TO SIGN UP TO 50 MARKET RESEARCH COMPANIES. This sounds incredible – but it is correct;
  
  
• Signing up to each of them takes some time – I would say between 15 and 45 minutes each;
  
  
• You will have to provide some very personal information about yourself and your household such as no. of kids, appliances you have in the house, no. of cars you have, how much you earn etc. AND THESE WILL BE STORED IN A DATABASE SOMEWHERE IN THE WORLD. Whilst I don’t have a problem with this since I have nothing to hide so nothing to fear, some people strongly object to that. Needless to say, paid survey schemes are NOT for them;
  
  
• You will only be invited to take part in a survey if, based on the personal info you provided about yourself and your household, YOU FIT THE PROFILE OF THE CUSTOMER BASE THE MARKET RESEARCH COMPANY IS LOOKING TO SURVEY. If not, tough! You will have to wait until the next survey comes round;
  
  
• Like most marketing campaigns, marketing budget is limited! This means that once the market research company has received the intended number of responses, YOU WILL NOT BE ALLOWED TO TAKE PART IN THE SURVEY EVEN IF YOU WERE SENT AN INVITE BY EMAIL. And such slots will normally be filled within hours, not days;
  
  
• Most market research companies will pay out only when you have reached a certain amount of money, e.g. $50. This can take time to gather with one market research company;

Does it therefore mean that it’s not worth joining online survey schemes? No, I think there is money in them. And some people gladly join such schemes because it suits them. I can make about $2,000 a month with such schemes when I want to.







Summary assessment

Typical monthly earnings?	$250-$2,000
Get righ quick?	No
Decent 2nd Income?	Yes
All from home online?	Yes
Legal and ethical?	Yes
Ongoing effort required?	15 mins per survey - 4 hours a week
Initial cash investment required?	Nil (or $40-$60 if you buy a catalogue)
Initial time required to set up?	30 hours

Do I have to pay to have access to such schemes?

The short, honest answer is No. The links to all the market research companies is freely available on the internet and you will find them easily by doing a Google search. However,

• Many of these market research companies will not be suitable for you – usually because they do not cater for customers in your region – and you will only find out after spending 15 minutes trying to sign up;

In my own humble personal view, it is better to pay a nominal amount (between $40 and $60) and have access to a good collection of such market research companies and an assessment of the countries they cater for as well as how they reward their surveyees (cash, prizes, or both);

If you are serious about earning a 2nd income through online surveys, YOU WILL RECOVER THESE $40-$60 in less than 10 days. TRUST ME!

Recommended Links

There are many links to paid surveys on the Internet providing you with such catalogues. Below are 2 catalogues which I think you should consider. I know that these are not wastes of space. Many others are!

If you are UK based or Europe based, Surveyhawk is the best book to buy!
If you are US based, Surveyscout is the best choice!
If you are based in the Asia-Pacific, you are better off with Paid Surveys Online.

1. Surveyhawk
   This is an excellent survey site particularly if you are UK based. A lot of survey sites don't have that many surveys for UK residents - surveyhawk has it's own large section of UK survey companies. Nicely designed with a great choice of surveys this is our No1 choice. Their database includes 450+ companies that are looking for people to participate in surveys.
   
   Click here
   
   
2. Survey Scout
   A nice looking site with a great range of paid surveys - nearly 450 at the last count. Once of the longest established survey databases. The site is well organised with rewards sorted into different categories which makes easy to see exactly what you are getting offered. SurveyScout.com is loved by its members and we have yet to hear anyone have a bad word to say about them. We've rated this number two because of the wide selection and the excellent service if you get if any problems. Surveys - 450 Rating - 9/10 Price - £18 / US$35
   
   click here
   
   
3. Paid online surveys
   This site might not look as nice as some others, but still does a good job. They have got a good selection of surveys to chose from and are always quick to respond to any little problem with great online support. An excellent feature we liked about this site is after members asked if there was any way they could fill out forms quickly - they developed their own software to help their members. You can now fill out forms quick as a flash! This site might not be pretty but sure is the fastest when you are looking to fill out surveys!
   Surveys - 300 Rating - 8/10 Price - £18 / US$35
   
   click here
   
   
4. Paid surveys at home
   Still in the top 5 is paid-surveys-at-home at number 4. Again a good selection of surveys with over 450 at the last count. They were charging nearly £30 to join but now have reduced that to about £20. Great value for money as you'll get that back in no time with a bit of effort. As an added bonus they have a section with over 300 ADDITIONAL work-at-home opportunities.
   Surveys - 450 Rating - 8/10 Price - £20 / US$40
   
   click here
   
   
5. Work online 4 pay
   About 400 surveys available for members in this survey site - more than enough. Not the best looking site, but design isn't everything. Again they have reduced the price of joining from about £30 to half that £16. They claim on their website you can get that back in half an hour and to be honest that isn't far from the truth. Good site with plenty of choice.
   Surveys - 400+ Rating - 8/10 Price - £16 / US$30
   
   click here

The Truth Behind Make Money Schemes Online

Welcome to my blog, a comprehensive and objective review of “Make Money” Schemes currently available on the Internet. Its aim is to provide people with an unbiased, well-researched and thoughtful opinion of the various money-making schemes currently available online.

I have spent over 2 years researching and experimenting with the various online make-money schemes and would like to offer my views on them to anyone who is considering spending time and money on them. I have spent over $2000 buying such info on the Internet and spent over 2,000 hours of my evenings and weekends putting them into practice, all with mixed results.

So are you interested in making some money online? And you are not sure whether the scheme(s) you are interested in are scams or genuine? If this is so, then you’ve come to the right place.

Here, you will find

• What each of the schemes marketed entail – and yes, this includes information that they do not tell you about. Where it’s useless, you will be told it’s useless;
  
  
• How much effort investment, in both time and money, does each scheme involve – let’s face it. All schemes will NOT fit everyone’s skills, lifestyle and financial goals. Some require 30 hours of work a week, some only 3 hours a week;
  
  
• What are the realistic earnings for the new, inexperienced starter;
  
  
• Other people’s assessments of the various schemes and their comments on the opinions given (see “Forum” section). If you are moved to comment on a particular scheme or share your ideas, feel free to use the Forum.
  
  
• Some schemes that I have carefully selected as “best in class” for that category, having purchased, used and assessed dozens of schemes in most of them. If you feel that this particular scheme suits YOU (and only YOU can decide that), click on the link provided to read more about and purchase; Where I have not provided any “best in class” link (i.e. under the Sex category), it means that I do NOT recommend any products in that category;

Remember though, only YOU can decide whether a scheme is for you. If you make a wrong decision, you WILL LOSE SOME MONEY AND EFFORT. If this site lets you make a more informed decision, then it’s been worth your effort and my effort.

About Me

My name is Ashwin. I am 30 years old and live in London, United Kingdom. I graduated in economics from Cambridge University and went on to qualify as a chartered accountant. Today, I still have a day job as a Senior Financial Analyst in a major Oil & Gas company and have previously held various blue-chip positions.

Why do I hold on to my day job? There are 2 reasons for this:

• Money does not buy everything in life. I think that most people would not be as happy as they think if they landed a large sum of money or a regular income for nothing. Career prospects, job profile, intellectual challenge and fun also do matter in life at all levels.
  
  
• It’s not worth risking everything on internet income. Remember the dotcom crash in 2000-01? Whilst unlikely, such an event may always occur. And I would extend this advice to YOU too. Do not substitute any money-making schemes for the more traditional ways of achieving any financial goals. Work harder, cut down on spending, refinance your debts. Treat internet income as a bonus – don’t rely on it to pay your rent or your mortgage!
  
  

Is there money to be made on the Internet?

The short answer is YES. There are no “ifs” or “buts”. There are thousands of people out there making money online. Just consider the following factors to reinforce this view:

• Google today is worth over $140 billion. And most of its revenue comes from internet advertising;
  
  
• “…the vast roll-out of broadband, which they claim has finally made the age-old promise of the internet - fast, cheap, universal connections - a reality.
  
  
• Online retailers are now seen as retailers, not as 'dotcoms'. And a new range of businesses selling downloadable products and services is taking off.” (http://www.thisismoney.com/, 8 November 2006);
  
  
• People are now more accustomed to the idea of paying with their credit/debit card online. This is due to several reasons:
  - The growth of card payments as a replacement for cash and check;
  
  - The growth of Payment Services Companies such as Paypal, Nochex that go at lengths to keep your card details safe;
  
  - Better fraud prevention and fraud detection techniques online. Did you know that it is safer to pay online with your card than to hand your card to a waiter in a restaurant who then goes away and swipes it? You are more exposed to fraud in that restaurant – FACT!

However, if there is one lesson that I want you to take away from this website, it is the following:

You will come across many, many schemes where people claim to be making thousands of dollars every day using their particular techniques. And they propose to share these techniques with you for, say, $30. The realities are that:

• It’s true, they do earn thousands of dollars every day as evidenced by their scanned copies of bank or Paypal statements;
  
  
• Their technique is actually useless – they make these thousands from selling the information to people like YOU AND I!!!!
  

You need to be really, really careful of such schemes. This is the hidden fact that they never tell you. And why should they? They would be out of business otherwise.

I am currently in the process of writing my reviews on the following. The links I have put on to some keywords are for illustration only and I would urge you not to buy any of these products until you have read my reviews in the other blogs I have under http://ecashmint.blogspot.com

• Paid surveys;
• eBay;
• Google Adwords and Clickbank;
• Football;
• Stockmarket;
• Miscellaneous "Get Rich Quick" schemes;

I look forward to your comments on my reviews too.

Another blog that, in my view, has a wealth of information on these matters is http://newbieprofitschool.blogspot.com/


Please feel free to email me at pinoop411@gmail.com

Thanks!