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Monday, April 20, 2009

A BLOGGER SHOULD NOT BE MOTIVATED WITH GOOGLE ADSENSE ALONE

Blogging could be a boring activity to a blogger if he or she is not into it. Every blogger needs motivation to write because if not he or she may eventually quit. Many bloggers today are highly motivated with the monetary benefits of blogging like Google adsense earning. In fact new bloggers began to blog because of the monetary benefits. Blogging should not be like that because the blogger will get disappointed if he or she ends up earning nothing. Frustration and disappointment are the key ingredients for a blogging failure. The key ingredient of successful blogging is to write things that you enjoy about. Because you enjoy those things, you are motivated to write and write and write. I’ve noticed that the most successful bloggers in the internet (financially) are those that enjoy what they are writing.

Sunday, April 19, 2009

DEPPRESSED WITH MY ZERO EARNINGS WITH GOOGLE ADSENSE AND INFOLINKS

I’ve been blogging actively for less than 2 weeks now and my Google adsense & Infolinks ads are also less than 2 weeks old. I have checked my earnings with the 2 advertisement sites and I’ve saw a whooping zero earning. You may be laughing at me now because I am expecting earnings already despite the fact that I’ve already started blogging for less than 2 weeks. Hahaha…this demonstrates my lack of patience. I’ve already posted more than 20 articles that are getting 1-2 digit page views a day without ad clicks. I am now realizing that successful blogging is about hard work – writing hundreds or even thousands of articles to generate traffic and possibly to earn money through Google adsense and other blog monetization programs. I should not lose hope because I know I can do it.

CAN I COMPETE WITH eHOW.COM? HOW?

How to compete with eHow.com?

eHow.com is a good source of articles that teach us step-by-step on how to do almost anything. It is a very popular and very useful site. I am planning to write how-to articles in this blog but I am afraid if I can compete with eHow.com in the SERP (Search Engine Rank Page) considering that eHow.com is already an established website. Almost all “how-to’s” were already published in eHow.com so it will be hard to create new how-to articles. I cannot join the revenue sharing scheme of eHow.com because I think international writers are not eligible to the program. Even if I am eligible with the program, I will still be choosing to write my own how-to articles on my site because I would rip all the monetary benefits from the ads (e.g. Google adsense).

I am still enthusiastic to write how-to articles even though eHow.com and other how-to sites are there. Let the search engines decide on who will be on the top.
My main motivation to write how-to articles is not to compete with how-to sites but to learn as I write. The best way to learn how-to do things is to teach them to others –through writing.

I have already many how-to topics (in mind) that I am planning to write and publish. I hope that my future how-to articles will help others.

WANT EXTRA BUCKS IN YOUR POCKET? JOIN BRIGHT HUB $2000 STIMULUS PACKAGE GIVEAWAY

Brighthub is giving away 2000 USD worth of VISA gift cards in sweepstakes that will be held on May 15th and June 15th of this year. The submission of raffle entries has already started last April 16 and will end on June 15 (11:59 PM EST). Canadian and USA residents (21 yrs. old & up) are eligible to join the raffle whether they are writers of the website or not. To join the raffle, you just visit http://www.brighthub.com/win and fill up the required form their. You can only submit one raffle entry a day. After submitting your entry, you will be ask to refer ten people by submitting their email addresses. These people will receive emails that will ask them to join the raffle. If they do join the raffle, you will be having additional entries which will increase your chance of winning. The rules of the game are available in the website and I advise you to read them before joining the raffle.

Three winners will be drawn on May 15 and another seven winners will be drawn on June 15. Each of them will receive 200 USD worth of VISA gift cards. The winners on the May 15th are not eligible for the June 15 draw. These prizes are not that bad considering the recession we are currently experiencing. Unfortunately, the contest is not available in Asia so I am not that happy. But I am happy for you my North American friends so join now!!!

Friday, April 17, 2009

HOW TO OPEN A GMAIL ACCOUNT? Step by Step Instructions

GMAIL (Google Mail) is one of the most popular free web-based email services today. It is hosted by GOOGLE, the leader in internet technology. Many are switching to GMAIL because it offers a larger disc space, faster loading of messages, added security, and many more that other free web-based email services. The reasons why I switched to gmail is its professional look, fast loading of messages, and value added services that I did not find in other websites that offer free email accounts. It is not surprising that many internet users are asking the following questions: “How do I create a gmail account?” or “How do I sign up a gmail account?” or “How do I register a gmail account?” As an answer to these questions I made this article to teach you on how to open your first gmail account. As a gmail user, I can say generally that I am very contented on how gmail works.

It is very easy to create a gmail account. Just follow these steps:

In your browser type http://www.gmail.com or simply type gmail and press CONTROL + ENTER.



Look at the sign up button and click it. You will then be directed to a webpage containing a form which you will fill in.




Fill up the form correctly. Read the instructions thoroughly and do not rush.

You should register a gmail user name that you could easily remember. It should also be unique which means nobody with gmail account uses it. There is the “check availability” button there which you could use to check whether your desired user name is taken already or still available. If the user name is unavailable, gmail will suggest available keywords related to the unavailable username you entered. Although you can still enter another username of your choice just be sure that it is not being used by other gmail users.

In choosing your gmail password, make sure that it is hard enough for others to guess correctly. It is not advisable to use your birth date. You should enter a minimum of 8 characters in length. I would advise you to make a password made up of letters and numbers (alphanumeric). The most important thing to remember is NEVER FORGET YOUR PASSWORD.

Choose the best security question and NEVER forget the specific answer for that question. You will need the answer if in case you forget your password.


You should also enter a secondary email address (can be your old email account) where gmail will send your password if in case you forget it. If you don’t have other email account, just leave it blank.

Don’t forget to type the word verification and accept the terms of service (TOS) before submitting the form.

Congratulations, you’ve just created your gmail account.

HOW TO MAKE GMAIL DEFAULT TO SSL MODE?

Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) mode gives your gmail account added security. Your gmail account is in the SSL mode if the URL has the “https” protocol instead of the normal “http”. By default gmail does not load in Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) mode. What are the benefits of being in the SSL mode anyway? In my observation, SSL mode makes my gmail account as secured as PayPal. For example if you leaved your email opened after several minutes, it would automatically sign out. Also, after a gmail window(s) is closed, your account automatically closes and you need to log in again in order to access your inbox. So if you forgot to sign out your gmail account, you are assured that it will automatically sign out after several minutes or after you closed the opened gmail windows. However, techy people say that there is nothing hacker-proof. The following instructions/illustrations teach you how to make gmail default to SSL mode.

1.Type in to your browser the URL: http://www.gmail.com or simply www.gmail.com. Enter your username without the @gmail.com, your password, and press enter.



2.Click SETTINGS found at the upper right hand corner of your gmail window.



3.Under SETTINGS, click GENERAL.



4.Under GENERAL, scroll down until you find the BROWSER CONNECTION option. Choose ALWAYS USE HTTPS. Click SAVE SETTINGS and you’re done.

HOW TO SET UP YOUR PAYPAL ACCOUNT?

A PayPal account is a MUST HAVE to start your online business. Whether you are a freelance writer, an internet marketer, an eBay seller or buyer, you definitely need a PayPal account to perform financial transactions. Here are the basic steps on how to open a PayPal account. Follow them carefully.


HOW TO OPEN A PAYPAL ACCOUNT?


1.You can click this link for you to be directed to the sign up page or type the URL: https://www.paypal.com in the address bar of your browser- you will be directed to the PayPal homepage. Look and click at the SIGN UP button in the homepage for you to be directed immediately at the sign up page.

2.After doing the step above, you will be directed to the CREATE YOUR PAYPAL ACCOUNT webpage. Choose among three types of PayPal accounts: Personal, Premier, or Business. I advise you to choose the Personal account since you can upgrade to the Premier or Business account later on.




3.After choosing personal account, you would be given a form to fill up. Read the instructions carefully and check the spelling of the words you type in.



4.These are the guides on how to fill up the form:


email address: This is the email address that you will enter whenever you log in to your account. You don’t need to create another email account for this; you could just use your existing email address. Take note that all the notifications for your PayPal transactions will all be sent to this email address.

password: You will be asked to enter a minimum of 8 characters. It can be a combination of letters and numbers. Note the password is case sensitive – password1234 is different from PASSWORD1234. Check if your CAPS LOCK is activated when you’re typing your password. You will also be asked to reenter you’re password to ensure that you typed in your desired password. Don’t tell your password to anyone, immediately change your password if you have suspicions that other people already know it. DON’T FORGET YOUR PASSWORD to avoid hassles.

name: You should enter your real name because if you don’t, you will be having a problem verifying your PayPal account with a credit card that bears you’re name. PayPal verification with a credit card is COMPULSARY to start your online transactions. Note that a middle name is different from a middle initial.

birth date: You should enter your birth date in the form of mm/dd/yyyy. If you were born on September 19, 1988. Enter 09/19/1988.

nationality: Scroll down to locate your nationality.

address: Enter your complete address: street address, city/town, province/state, postal code, and you’re phone number. I advise you to use the address linked in the credit card that you will be used to verify your PayPal account.


credit card info:
Enter the credit card information asked: the credit card number, the card’s expiration date, and the CSS number or the 3-4 numbers found at the back of your card. Note that you can skip this step but your PayPal account will not be verified. Ultimate shopping and PayPal money withdrawing starts only after you verified your account.




submitting the form: Read the PayPal user agreement first before submitting the form. You can save the agreement in your computer so that you can read it whenever you have some questions in the future.

5. After submitting the form, you will be asked to check the confirmation message sent to your email address. In the email message from service@paypal.com, you will be given a link which you will click to activate your PayPal account. You will be directed to a page which will ask you to enter your PayPal email address and password. Click CONFIRM and you’re done. Congratulations you’ve just created your PayPal account.

6.The personal account you created is enough for you to shop online, receive payments from other users, and withdraw your funds to a local bank account. But if you upgrade to the Premier account, you will be able to receive credit card payments from people who don’t use PayPal. You can upgrade to a Business account, if you want to register your PayPal account under a business name instead of using your name. Note that PayPal may charge Premier and Business account members with service fees. Premier and business accounts holders have more benefits than Personal account holders.




CREATE YOUR PAYPAL ACCOUNT TODAY:


Sign up for PayPal and start accepting credit card payments instantly.

WHAT ARE THE DISADVANTAGES OF PAYPAL?

One of the disadvantages of PayPal that I usually hear from people creating PayPal account is the verification process that PayPal system implements to new registrants. The verification process involves linking of a valid credit card to ensure that you are registering your real name and for other validation purposes. The credit card must bear your name or else your account will not be verified. Since PayPal requires credit card for the verification process, it is impossible for new registrants without credit cards to verify their accounts. No verified PayPal account equals a terrible online business. Take note also that you will be charged 1.95 USD in the verification process which they promise to return back some time in the near future (but they do return based on my experience). Once you’re credit card is charged, you will wait few days for the EXPUSE number. What is the EXPUSE number anyway? It stands for EXPANDED USER NUMBER which you will use to totally verify your PayPal account. You cannot verify your account without this 4 digit EXPUSE number. It depends on your credit card provider to when will the EXPUSE number appear in your statement. IF you can’t wait for a month for the credit card statement to reach your mailbox, contact the customer service rep. of the credit card company and ask the EXPUSE number. If your credit card statement has an online (updated) version, you can also check there after few days. New registrants are complaining that they waited long for that precious EXPUSE number to appear in their statements but they still saw nothing. PayPal registration is as tedious as I write this article. This dissuades some people to register a PayPal account. Patience and self-control are highly needed to fight the disadvantages of PayPal. However, today’s people demand efficient, reliable, and faster online transactions – hope PayPal adapts to this customer demand.

Another disadvantage of PayPal is that you cannot sell your products in eBay to people who don’t have PayPal accounts. It is hard to persuade buyers to open PayPal accounts knowing yourself that PayPal registration is tortuous. It is disappointing to know that you lost potential buyers just because they don’t have PayPal accounts. It is an internet business theorem that the easier for your customers to pay, the easier for you to make a sale.

Some PayPal users have frozen accounts which mean that they cannot transfer or withdraw their PayPal money. Some of these users say that they did not do anything illegal or violation to the PayPal TOS. They appealed to the PayPal administrators, but they ended up having large amount of money frozen. I am not saying that these allegations are true but I heard people complaining about their PayPal accounts being frozen for unknown reasons. Luckily, as of the time I’m writing this article, I have no bad experiences on using my personal account.

Another disadvantage of PayPal that I personally noticed is that the service fee for withdrawing money from my PayPal account to my credit card is 5 USD which is already expensive for a 3rd world man like me. Fortunately, I found a cheaper way to withdraw my PayPal money; it is by withdrawing the money to a local bank account. The charge fee is approximately 1 USD, 4 dollars cheaper than withdrawing the money directly to my credit card. (Note that the service fees vary depending on the country you reside).

Another thing that I would like to add in the list of disadvantages of PayPal is that you will be charged 5 USD for every unsuccessful withdrawal you make. For example if your withdrawal to a local bank account has been denied you will be automatically charged 5 USD which is pretty big. If you’ve experienced this, I am very sad for you. To avoid this problem, check whether your local bank account is capable in accepting PayPal remittances. Also check whether you entered the correct PayPal bank code before you perform a withdrawal transaction.

PayPal is not yet available in certain countries, mostly African countries. The shoppers in these no PayPal countries are in great disadvantage. People in these countries cannot also apply to internet work at home jobs that require PayPal account before they could start to work.

James Maurer advised internet users to use Google check out instead of PayPal because of his bad experience with PayPal’s service. I quoted the following statement from his blog post:

“The Disadvantages of Paypal is that anyone buying a product using a strange looking email address may receive a full refund and keep the item they purchased as well.
If you create an email as in the example above, go to a site and buy something using paypal, chances are paypal will put the money back into your account automatically. In this case, the person didn’t file a complaint; Paypal’s automated security system simply kicked in and did the rest! By the time the investigation is completed, the buyer has received your product and you (the seller) just got scammed!
If you’re going to sell something on the net, do it with Google Checkout and skip paypal!”


You are free to add something to this list of disadvantages of PayPal based from your experience. You can leave a comment below.

Sign up for PayPal and start accepting credit card payments instantly.

LIST OF OFFICIAL PAYPAL BANK CODES IN THE PHILIPPINES

Good news to those who earn money online. You can now withdraw your PayPal money to your local bank account. PayPal has released the official PayPal codes of major banks in the Philippines. (Note that rural banks are not in the list, so you need to apply to major banks like BDO, BPI, LandBank, UnionBank and the like). Before you withdraw your PayPal money, be sure that your PayPal account is already verified because you cannot withdraw even a centavo if it is not yet verified. You also need to link your bank account to your PayPal account before you could perform the withdrawal transaction. In linking your bank account to your PayPal account, you will need the following PayPal bank codes:

OFFICIAL PAYPAL CODES OF PHILIPPINE BANKS

PAYPAL BANK CODE OF ALLIED BANKING CORP : 010320013
PAYPAL BANK CODE OF AUSTRALIA NEW ZEALAND : 010700015
PAYPAL BANK CODE OF ASIA UNITED BANK : 011020011
PAYPAL BANK CODE OF BANGKO SENTRAL NG PILIPINAS (BSP): 010030015
PAYPAL BANK CODE OF BANGKOK BANK : 010670019
PAYPAL BANK CODE OF BANK OF AMERICA : 010120019
PAYPAL BANK CODE OF BANK OF CHINA : 011140014
PAYPAL BANK CODE OF BANK OF TOKYO : 010460012
PAYPAL BANK CODE OF BANCO DE ORO (BDO) (& EPCIB) : 010530667
PAYPAL BANK CODE OF BANK OF COMMERCE : 010440016
PAYPAL BANK CODE OF BANK OF THE PHIL ISLANDS (BPI): 010040018
PAYPAL BANK CODE OF CHINA BANKING CORP : 010100013
PAYPAL BANK CODE OF CHINA TRUST COMML BANK : 010690015
PAYPAL BANK CODE OF CITIBANK N.A. : 010070017
PAYPAL BANK CODE OF DEVT BANK OF THE PHILS (DBP): 010590018
PAYPAL BANK CODE OF DEUTSCHE BANK : 010650013
PAYPAL BANK CODE OF EAST WEST BANK : 010620014
PAYPAL BANK CODE OF EXPORT & INDUSTRY BANK : 010860010
PAYPAL BANK CODE OF FUJI BANK : 010640010
PAYPAL BANK CODE OF HONGKONG AND SHANGHAI BANK : 010060014
PAYPAL BANK CODE OF INTL COMML BANK OF CHINA : 010560019
PAYPAL BANK CODE OF INTL EXCHANGE BANK : 010680012
PAYPAL BANK CODE OF JP MORGAN CHASE BANK : 010720011
PAYPAL BANK CODE OF KOREA EXCHANGE BANK : 010710018
PAYPAL BANK CODE OF PAYPAL BANK CODE OF INTL NEDERLAND BANK : 010660016
PAYPAL BANK CODE OF LANDBANK OF THE PHILS : 010350025
PAYPAL BANK CODE OF MAYBANK OF THE PHILS : 010220016
PAYPAL BANK CODE OF METROPOLITAN BANK & TRUST CO : 010269996
PAYPAL BANK CODE OF PHIL BANK OF COMMUNICATION (PBC): 010110016
PAYPAL BANK CODE OF PHIL TRUST COMPANY : 010090039
PAYPAL BANK CODE OF PHIL NATIONAL BANK (PNB): 010080010
PAYPAL BANK CODE OF PRUDENTIAL BANK : 010150018
PAYPAL BANK CODE OF PHIL VETERANS BANK : 010330016
PAYPAL BANK CODE OF RIZAL COMML BANKING CORP (RCBC): 010280014
PAYPAL BANK CODE OF SECURITY BANK & TRUST CO : 010140015
PAYPAL BANK CODE OF STANDARD CHARTERED BANK : 010050011
PAYPAL BANK CODE OF UNITED COCONUT PLANTERS BANK (UCPB) : 010299995
PAYPAL BANK CODE OF UNION BANK OF THE PHILS (UBP): 010419995
PAYPAL BANK CODE OF UNITED OVERSEAS BANK : 010270189

Sign up for PayPal and start accepting credit card payments instantly.

Wednesday, April 15, 2009

CARL OCAB's KIDBLOGGER'S MASTER PLAN ON MAKING MONEY ONLINE


I've just viewed the image of Carl Ocab's master plan on how to make money online. As you can see in the image, it is quite complicated and contains a series of steps. I am quite intimidated because I don't know if I myself could carry out the steps. But I am determined to follow the steps and hope for the best. Although the steps in the image were not yet thoroughly elucidated by Carl Ocab, he promised that he would further explain the meaning of the image through his newsletters. I promise to share with you whatever learning I would ever gain from Carl Ocab's blogging ideas.

If you want to receive Carl Ocab's newsletters on making money online, visit his site and submit your email address.

CARL OCAB INSPIRED ME TO MAKE MONEY ONLINE BLOGGING

While surfing the net looking for great articles on how to make money online, I stumbled upon this site of Carl Ocab, a very successful teenage blogger in the Philippines. It is very amazing that a 15 year-old Filipino kid created a name in the internet arena by just blogging and making money from it. His sites are in the top 100,000 of Alexa.com and his earnings can be higher than the usual earnings of business managers in the Philippines. This kid was also featured twice in the national newspaper and interviewed by top Philippine websites. It's a big WOW. My nose totally bled (figuratively speaking). I am very proud of CARL OCAB's success because he is one of the few Filipino youths who really explore their potentials in earning money. I wish that more teenagers will learn the success of CARL OCAB and follow his foot steps. There are many Filipino teenagers out there who spend a lot of money in online gaming and social networking but very few of them are earning money.

I envy Carl Ocab for his achievement as a blogger. He proved himself well. He is a PRIME MOVER in the blogosphere. He is a total IDOL! At an early age (14), he managed to build and maintain a very profitable website. Bloggers abroad are totally amazed. The Filipinos are very proud of him. He inspired me to explore my potentials as a blogger and to continue my quest towards financial freedom. I am very excited!!!

You may be interested in reading fantastic blog posts and interviews of top bloggers to Mr. Carl Ocab. Deant Hunt's Interview of Carl Ocab. Post of Rosalind Gardner. Jack Humphrey's Post..

I signed up on Carl Ocab's newsletters and waiting for bright blogging ideas from him.

Tuesday, April 14, 2009

WHY I RECOMMEND BLOGGING TO FILIPINO TEENAGERS ESPECIALLY THOSE WHO REGULARLY USE FRIENDSTER.COM?

I can say that friendster.com is the most visited website in the Philippines. You can hardly find an internet cafe in the Philippines without any surfer checking his/her friendster profile. Teenagers and even some Pinoy adults have friendster accounts that they check or open regularly. If I am going to make a friendster statistics based on my personal observation, I can say that 7 out of 10 Filipino teenagers have friendster accounts. Friendster.com generate millions of traffic from Philippine users. I think Friendster.com earns millions from the advertisements that they put in their website

I like friendster.com because it updates me about my friends- their activities, their latest pictures, their current locations, their birth dates etc. I can also meet new friends especially the friends of my friends. I agree that friendster.com and other social network sites like facebook.com and
myspace.com provides a way for people to connect with each other. But I am not happy with the obsessions of Filipino teenagers to friendster.com. Friendster users learned how to customize their Friendster profiles, edit the CSS codes of their friendster template, add new media to their profiles like youtube videos, beautiful graphics, background music, animations, and many more. What if they use these skills on blogging and earn some money through Google adsense (http://www.google.com/adsense) and other advertisements? Their friendster profiles generate thousands of pageviews without earning anything; it is the friendster website that earns from the advertisements. It seems that friendster.com don't have plans to share some of their income to the users. I am not that impressed with the changes or what they call as "improvements" in their website. I expect more because they earn more. Social network sites like yuwie.com share some of their earnings to the users.

So my "kababayan" (folks), I do recommend blogging if you want to earn some money to cover up your internet cafe expenses. If your blog becomes successfull, you may even pay your tuition fees, your mom and dad would be greatly impressed. (I've know some people online that finance their education through blogging). You can use your earnings from blogging to cover up your expenses to your "luhos" (leisure/pleasurable stuff). It would be nice for a person to have a friendster account as well as a blog.

Blogging would not only help yourself but would also help our country. For example, if Google Adsense pays you, it would be a dollar remittance to our country. Remittances increase our dollar reserve which helps our economy grow.

So what are you waiting for, create your own blog now and begin earning. If you are a beginner, I recommend creating you're first blog in Blogger.com.
With Blogger.com, it is easy to create and customize your blog. After publishing sufficient number of blog posts, you can now apply to the google adsense program in this link. Don't apply to the Google adsense program if your blog don't contain sufficient amount of textual contents or simply blog posts because you're application would surely be rejected.

I advise you to write about topics that interest you most. If you are interested with online gaming, you can write reviews about the games you've played already. If you're interested with movies, you can write a movie review for the latest movie you've watched. To enjoy blogging (while earning), write about things that you really enjoy because if not you would easily get bored and everything you've started will result to nothing.

Happy blogging. MABUHAY ANG KABATAANG PINOY!

FREE SEO KEYWORDS FROM WORDTRACKER

Are you looking for free SEO keywords that you want to incorporate in your blog articles? I recommend the free SEO keywords tool of wordtracker.com. The site allows you to enter a word/s (of your interest (e.g. paypal). After entering the word/s, wordtracker presents a list of specific keywords related to your search and the corresponding number of daily searches for each of the keywords. For example, if you enter the word "adsense" in the "keyword search tab", a list of keywords will be returned to you. (I performed it myself and I recommend that you try). I found out that the keyword "adsense" has a 256 searches a day. It is followed by the keyword "google adsense" with a 206 searches a day. The third in the list is the more specific keyword "google adsense account disabled" which has 28 searches a day. This means that there are at least 28 people a day searching for articles on "google adsense account disabled." Maybe these people are looking for articles that will tell them why their google adsense accounts were disabled or maybe these people are looking for articles that will give them information on what to do if their google adsense accounts will be disabled in the future, or maybe these 28 people are looking for articles that will tell them of the factors that could make their google adsense account be disabled by the google adsense administrators. Wordtracker has gave me the top 100 searches for "adsense", you can view the complete list at this link.

So if you are a blogger searching for free SEO keywords for your blog articles, I recommend wordtracker. However, using the keywords provided by wordtracker does not guarantee a low page rank (appear at the top 10 or top 20 in search engines) for your articles. It still depends on other factors that the search engines could only determine. But I advise you to use the keywords naturally in your paragraphs (at least twice per paragraph) and incorporate the keywords in your titles and subtitles. Never use your keywords in a "spammy" way because search engines would penalize you.

Saturday, April 11, 2009

Which Blog Platform Is The Best? Blogger or WordPress?

My Personal Answer

There has been so many debates in the blogosphere of which blog platform is the best. Is it Blogger or WordPress? As a new (and emerging) blogger, I found blogger as user friendly and with a touch of elegance. Creating a blog with blogger is not that hard, it is just like creating an account in a social network site like friendster, myspace, and facebook. The tools are easily to use. You can put a short but comprehensive profile about yourself; you can choose from a variety of templates that suits your blog's style; and you can choose from beautiful widgets that you can easilly put in your in your webpage. The instructions are clear and in a step by step manner. I highly recommend blogger for those who are new in the blogosphere.

What I really like with blogger is that there is a google adsense widget there (in the layout tab) that I can easily put to my webpage and customize its location in my blog. Google adsense (I believe) can be a potential income generating program for me as a blogger and for you also if you already have a blog. If you still don't have a blog but you have the guts to write then make a blog now and earn some money. I did not meet any problem "installing" adsense to my blogger blog after it was accepted to the google adsense program.

I tried Wordpress for a medical science blog that I planned to build; unfortunately it has not been successful because I learned that the site does not allow its members to put the google adsense code in their blogs and they require the bloggers to pay before they could edit the css codes of their blogs. For a newbie blogger like me, I am resistant to this program that requires me to pay knowing that there is a free service offered by blogger. Blogger allows it bloggers to edit the html codes and also allows them to add java scripts and css codes. Therefore blogger is truly a user friendly blog platform for bloggers who have little or no knowledge about html, css, and java - copy and paste would be a good start.

Below are additional comments that I've learned from other bloggers.

Blogger versus WordPress. What bloggers can say?

I've searched the internet and read articles comparing blogger and wordpress in terms of their advantages and disadvantages. I summarized them for you.

The Advantages of Blogger.Com Include The Following:

* It is simply easy to create a blog. It is just like creating an account in facebook.com or friendster.com. The instructions are easy to follow. There are also helpful articles made by the Blogger team to help you with your problems. Some blogging terms that are new to you have links that would lead you to a webpage that defines or explains that word.

* Because Google owns blogger, there is the tendency that the most powerful search engine (Google) crawls your blog regularly and "index" your articles. Some bloggers say that Google may even favor .blogspot.com sites in search results because of the main reason that Blogger.com is Google's property.

* It is very easy for anyone to manage the controls in Blogger.com such as the layout settings. There are cool widgets that could be easily added to your blog (e.g. youtube videos, news, clock, quote of the day, bible passage of the day, and many many more).

* I think the most popular advantage of Blogger.com is that it allows its bloggers to display adversisement in their blogs through the google adsense program. In this program, bloggers are able to monetize their blog - an alternative way of earnng money. It is very nice to think that you are earning money by just sharing what you know to the world.


The Disadvanatges of Blogger.Com Include The Following:


* It is hard for readers to leave comments on blog posts. Hopefully the Blogger team is doing something to improve their commenting system.

*The blogger cannot filter spams. It is important to rid off spams so that you will be safe from the punishments of googles to spammers.

* You need a considerale knowldege in CSS in order for you to create many pages. I am not good with CSS right now but I will surely study on how to make more pages for this blog. I need more pages to organize my posts.

* There are only few good templates to choose from and again, you need to know CSS to make your own personalized template.


ADVANTAGES OF USING WORDPRESS.COM AS A FREE BLOG PLATFORM


*One of the best features of Wordpress.com
is that you can import pages from your blogger to your WordPress blog.

*In WordPress, you can have extra pages like About, Contact, Archives, and the like.

*There are more blog templates to choose from in WordPress.com than in Blogger.com. Although there are other blog templates available in the internet that you can use in your Blogger blog (as well as in WordPress). You can just copy the css code of these blog templates and insert it to your blogs.

*According to bloggers, WordPress has a good commenting system. You can easily enter your comments below the blog post; you can even put comments to other comments for that blog post.

*You can also add few bookmarking sites to your blog without doing any "coding".


DISADVANTAGES OF USING WORDPRESS.COM AS A FREE BLOG PLATFORM


*Unlike Blogger blogs you can not automatically display advertisements or even Google Adsense in WordPress.com.

*You cannot use the plugins available in
WordPress.org to WordPress.com.

*You need to pay them before you could edit the CSS codes. In Blogger, you can edit the codes without paying anything.

*You need hardwork to master using WordPress.com. This is the reason why most bloggers recommend WordPress for advance bloggers.


CONCLUSION


If I will use a free blog platform, I will prefer Blogger.com mainly because I can display advertisements (e.g. Google Adsense , InFoLinks , Kontera ). Ninety percent of my motivation to blog is to earn money. If you are the typeof person that wants to blog but not "interested" in earning some bucks, then I recommend WordPress.com.

Is Blogging Lucrative? Is blogging for me?

A pleasant day to anybody who's reading this article.

When I'm writing this blog post, I am terribly confused whether I would continue my quest to do active blogging because I really don't know if I am gonna succeed. I'll be honest to you, I want to have a blog and earn money from doing so. But I know that if my aim/goal is just to earn money, I would not succeed in blogging; for sure I will easily lose hope if I will not earn some bucks through ads considering that I am a newbie. My mind is telling me that I should not lose hope and I should try because I would not lose anything anyways except my time (though I am not quite busy right now.

I know I can make it considering that I already earned hundreds of dollars writing science articles in a popular freelance writing website. I was paid upfront payments from the articles I wrote and earned some bucks from the page views. The upfront payment is pretty good with a moderate touch of decency. But I am not that happy with the pageview payment. Its about 2 USD for a thousand page view. Maybe its not bad for others but for a newbie like me it is very hard to get a thousand pageview in this time that millions of websites are competing for the same article topic or the same SEO keyword. The upfront payment makes me very happy and my sadness on the pageview payment is relieved.

One moment, when I was surfing the internet, an idea entered my mine. What if I will make my own blog and maximize the pageviews that my articles obtain. I thought that if I own a blog, the payment would not just be based on pageviews but I will earn from the "clicks" on the ads. Correct me I am wrong and you're free to leave a comment below.

I am still writing for that freelance writing website but I want to experiment with blogging and I am very excited to see the results of this experiment. Whether the results are good or bad, I am very ready. ( I am quite OK for dissapointments, I accept them as challenges).

I have read a plethora of articles online that blogging can be lucrative if you just have the guts to write quality articles and have the patience to create posts regularly. Moreover, a knowledge of SEO would greatly help to drive traffic in your article. Perhaps I have these qualities (moderately) :). I can write quality articles on topics that I really know or on topics that I don't know much but I can do research and write about them afterwards. I am a science major but I can write philosophy articles at some point in time (during those philosophical moments).

I've read from blogs that bloggers quit blogging because they don't have time to create posts regularly. Well I understand them but it is not a very good excuse. They can find time to write, if they really like to. Maybe a 30 minute break to write an article with 100 words would do. It is not hard to find time to update your blog, if you really want to. But if you're just a lazy type of person, then I advise you to update yourseld first before updating your blog.

SEO or search engine optimization can be a very powerful factor in the success of your website in terms of driving traffic. There are free SEO tips online that you can learn with. The idea behind SEO is that by using "highly searched" short keywords in your article many times and in a natural way, our article has the higher chance of landing top in search engine ranking. You're article can be at the top 1 or at the top 10; it depends how the search engine calculate the worth of your article. As a new freelance writer, I really appreciate the importance of SEO to compete with millions of articles online that aim for a high search engine ranking.

Thursday, April 9, 2009

How To Verify Your PayPal Account With UnionBank EON CyberAccount?

Once you finished your registration with PayPal personal account, PayPal will ask you to verify your account using a credit card (VISA, MasterCard, or any of the major credit card providers that PayPal accepts). The verification of your PayPal account is highly important because it demonstrates that you are a credible PayPal member and to show that you have registered your real name with PayPal. Remember that you can only verify your PayPal account with credit cards that bear your name. So you cannot use your mom’s, dad’s, or sister’s credit cards. If you are still a student or unemployed, it would be a problem getting a credit card of your own but if you are living in the Philippines you can get a UnionBank EON card to verify your PayPal personal account. If you could not verify your PayPal account, you cannot maximize the full potential of PayPal service. You cannot withdraw any money that your PayPal account contains. The number of transactions you could perform with PayPal will also be limited.

So what are the steps in verifying your PayPal account with UnionBank EON Card? First, log in to your PayPal Account and in your homepage click on the “lift the limits” tab. You will be prompted to enter your UnionBank EON Card Number and the CW number. And that’s it, you’re PayPal account is already verified. Please take note that you could only use your EON card to verify a PayPal Account once. Take note also that PayPal will deduct $1.95 in your EON CyberAccount during the verification process but this amount will be returned to you in full. If your EON card don’t contain any money, the verification process will not be successful. This is the major problem I heard from bloggers online who is having a problem verifying their account, only to know that their cards have zero balances. So make sure that you put at least a hundred pesos in your EON card before verifying your PayPal account.

Once you’re PayPal account is verified you will wait for another 3-5 business days for the EXPUSE number to appear in your UnionBank EON CyberAccount. The EXPUSE or expanded user number is a four digit code that you will need to enter in you PayPal account to lift up the limits of your account (e.g. increase the amount of money that you could withdraw and accept). It would take some time for the EXPUSE number to appear in your EON cyber account. It has been my problem but fortunately I stumbled into a blog saying that I should try calling their customer service (toll free: 180018882277) and get the EXPUSE number. I called the customer service 3 days after I linked my EON card to my PayPal account and that kind customer service lady gave it to me. She asked me few questions about my account (e.g. name, phone number, mom’s maiden name, birthdate, address, etc.) before she gave the EXPUSE number.

After getting the EXPUSE number I logged again to my PayPal Account and I entered the 4 digit EXPUSE number. And that’s the end of my long journey of verifying my PayPal personal account with UnionBank EON CyberAccount. It’s so dramatic but the experience is worthwhile. Now, I value patience. Hahahahaha….

Maximize the power of your business with Paypal.

Sign up for PayPal and start accepting credit card payments instantly.

What is the UnionBank EON CyberAccount?

UnionBank EON CyberAccount is an internet-based bank account. It allows you to perform your banking transactions online. You will not need to visit your electric/telephone/water/ companies to pay your bills because you can pay them online. (You need to check whether your billers are connected or linked to UnionBank). With UnionBank EON CyberAccount, you can also transfer funds to other UnionBank accounts or to other local banks in the Philippines. You can also make cyberchecks for different purposes. You can also shop online with the many websites selling almost everything – tangible and intangible goods.

I really like using UnionBank EON CyberAccount because I feel how the internet makes our life better.

How To Get a UnionBank EON Card? Step by Step Instructions

Enrolling to UnionBank EON Card Account is not that hard and it just like enrolling to ATM savings account in other banks. All you need to do is to visit a UnionBank branch near you and bring 2 valid IDs with their photocopies (examples of accepted IDs are postal ID, school ID, PRC ID, SSS Id, GSIS ID, and other valid IDs) and that’s it! But be sure that your IDs are not expired because they would not be accepted. Based on my experience, they did not require me to submit photos because (I think) the photos in the valid IDs (photographed) are enough for verification purposes. They customer rep. will give you a form to fill out. The annual service fee of PhP 350 will only be collected after you received your EON card after 2 weeks or more.

After 2 weeks, check the bank if your card already arrived from the main office. If your EON card is already there, you will be instructed to pay the PhP 350 annual fee on the teller. I advise you to already deposit an initial amount of at least 100 pesos (make it 150 if you can) because you will be needing that amount of money in verifying your PayPal account using UnionBank EON Card Visa Electron.

After the payment processes, you will be instructed by the bank customer rep. to wait for at least 3 business days for your EON card to be fully activated. After 3 business days, you are now ready to go online; you are now ready to activate your UnionBank EON CyberAccount. To do this, visit unionbankph.com and click the link for the UnionBank CyberAccount. You will see there a sign up link which you will click to load a form which you will fill in. The important info that you will note in this registration process are your UnionBank EON Card account number (the one below your name in the card); your UnionBank EON Card Number (The one above your name and printed bold); the three digit CW number found in the left side of the signature box at the back of the card. I hope that you will not be having a hard time learning how to find/locate the account number and card number of your UnionBank EON card.

Upon submitting the form in the website, you will then be instructed to wait for at least 5-7 days for your UnionBank CyberAccount to be activated. I know what you’re thinking. The waiting time is already horrible. But be patient you will not get anything if you lose your patience. Though I advise you to release that anger in any way that suits your style. So after 5-7 days try to login in the website. If you successfully entered your UnionBank CyberAccount, then I congratulate you. I know the joy!

What is the UnionBank EON Card?

What is the UnionBank EON Card?

The UnionBank EON Visa Card is a credit card with a debit twist. It is an ATM debit card because you can use it to access your savings account in ATM machines and perform balance inquiry, withdrawal, payment of bills, and among others. UnionBank EON VISA card is like a credit card because it can be used to buy things in online stores like eBay.com and to pay your electric, water and insurance bills online. EON is accepted by thousands of internet merchants that accept VISA cards. UnionBank EON VISA card can also be used to buy things in shops, grocery stores, etc. that accept VISA cards. EON differs from other VISA cards in that it is a debit card- which means you can only use it when it contains money and you can only spend exactly the amount of money contained in the card. UnionBank EON Card is a banking innovation because most of the ATM cards provided by local banks in the Philippines could not be used in online transactions.

Tuesday, April 7, 2009

How to Register in Paypal?

PayPal is a innovative website that allows people to do business transactions over the internet. People can use it to buy almost anything in the internet. They can use it to buy books in Amazon.com, buy electronic gadgets in eBay, buy songs and movies online, buy articles from freelance writers, and many more.

People with online business can also use it to collect payments from their clients or customers.

Freelance writer can use it to collect payments from customers who buy their articles. Almost all freelance writing websites require their writers to have PayPal accounts where they will deposit the earnings of the writers. PayPal is an ultimate MUST have for freelance writers.

PayPal is another option which internet merchants use to collect payment from their buyers. Merchants usually accept credit cards but they are now using PayPal as a safer option to receive payments.

PayPal uses sophisticated security software to ensure that your online transactions are safe from the "negative elements" of the internet.

It is very easy to have a PayPal account. You just visit their website and click the "sign up" link. You will be directed to a registration form where you will put the necessary information. To easily reach the website, there is this logo below (with built in link) which you can click to direct you to the website. You can also type in your browser their website address which is www.paypal.com.

Enjoy your online transactions with PayPal.



Sign up for PayPal and start accepting credit card payments instantly.

Freelance Writing Jobs

Freelance Writing Jobs

There are a lot of freelance writing jobs in the internet right now. Most freelance writing opportunities are offered by US companies but some are based in other countries. Examples of websites offering free freelance writing jobs is AssociatedContent.Com, Brighthub.Com, Constant-Content.Com, Helium.Com, MyLot.Com, Textbroker.Com, Demand Studio.Com and many others. An example of writing freelance website outside the US is Shvoong.com which is based in Israel. These websites have a lot of similarities and differences. Their major similarity is that they are willing to pay writers for writing articles of different topics. They differ in the way they pay their writers. Some of the freelance writing websites only pay their writers based on the number of page views that their articles earned. The payment would be X dollars per thousand page views. Some pay the freelance writers with upfront payment aside from the page view earnings. Upfront payments are the payment given to the writer for writing a particular article. Other websites act as mediator for author and article-buyer transactions. An example of website with that role is constant-content.com.

What is Constant-Content.com?

Constant-Content.Com is a website where writers submit their articles waiting for buyers to buy them. Writers can write articles of any topic; among the topics are Alternative Medicine, Gardening, Genetics, Trivia, How To’s, and many, many more. Authors should submit quality articles (no grammar and spelling errors) to avoid rejection by expert editors. The articles should also be unique because they punished writers caught plagiarizing. They use anti-plagiarism software to detect whether a particular article has parts that were obtained in other websites or whether that article has already been published elsewhere in the internet. Articles are usually approved by editors 2-3 days after submission. If the article is approved, the article is immediately moved to the site’s archive of thousands of other articles. The article can be viewed by article-buyers who are looking for articles that they could use in their websites or magazines. The buyers could only view at least one third of the whole article. The only way for them to view and use the whole article is to buy it. However, some writers don’t put any payment to their articles. They allow their articles to be published in different websites and print materials. They gain exposure through that way.

Buyers can avail usage purchase and full rights purchase. A usage purchase is when a buyer buys a particular article from the site for use (whether for a website or magazine). However, the article would still be posted in the website for other buyers to buy and use. The writer however cannot modify the article grammatically but he or she can put links into the article. If this rule is violated, the website will do the necessary actions. If the buyer buys the article for full rights, the article would be removed from the website and you could place your name as the sole author of the article. You could also modify the article and post it to all of your websites. You can even sell it to the websites that you own.

What is good in Constant-Content.com is that writers are the one who determine the prices of their articles. Usually, the usage purchase has lower price than the full rights usage. Constant-content.Com gets a third of every writer’s income. The website gets its earning from the sales of the writers, so expect that the website don’t need to put ads in order to earn money.

Constant.Content.Com also provides an opportunity for photographers to sell photographs of any kind. Buyers can avail these photos for usage purchase or for full rights.

How to Register in Constant.Content.Com?

To register in the website, follow this link. Registration takes just few minutes. The writer should provide a pen name but they need to register their real name. International freelance writers are welcome. All writers are required to have a valid paypal account where their earnings will be deposited. In the registration process, they will register their paypal email address. Writers can avail a free paypal account by going to this link.

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