Get Paid for your Designs with CafePress

CafePress is a great site if you are imaginative or creative.

It gives you the opportunity to display your items and sell them with no up front costs. It took me about 15 minutes to upload the image I created, and then create my shop. If you are interested my shop address is http://www.cafepress.com/bytemi.

I figure this way, you will know that I actually do try the programs and things I list on my blog. Let me know what you think. :D

How it works:

Each product has a Base Price that includes fees associated with selling and producing your product. You simply set your retail price above the Base Price. When you sell an item, CafePress keeps the base price and then they send you the markup.

For example: Value T-Shirt has a base price of $8.99 You decide to markup the price to $13.99 When you sell one shirt, you generate earnings of $5.00 CafePress sends a commission check for your total markups once per month.

You can sell Merchandise you design including t-shirts, posters, mugs, bumper stickers and much more; Books printed on-demand; or Audio and Data CDs

CafePress.com will give you a FREE online shop to promote your products, produce each item when ordered, handle all payment transactions including major credit cards, ship your products worldwide, manage all returns/exchanges, offers customer service via toll-free phone and email.

A Message from my Step-Mother on TransAm

Hi Everybody!

After reading the posting that Adele had put on her blog yesterday to all of us, I really was inclined to write this follow-up message to all of you out there in search of the opportunity to work from home.

I only wish that I had let Adele know before I had signed up with and purchased software from TransAm who I was going with for transcription. It was after doing all of this that Adele even realized the company that I was dealing with. There has been much discrepancy in their “so-called training program,” but we had already invested the non-refundable money and chose to continue giving it a try.

I am conceding with these people, but not on my quest to work from home. If you read Adele's blog a couple of weeks ago, you would have seen that I am now working with Ver-A-Fast, a customer service company. I really am very impressed with the support that they give their staff. As I said then, it will not pay the mortgage nor is it what I consider to be a career but, it is a legitimate company that is offering legitimate opportunities to earn a part-time income working from home.

Neither have I given up on pursuing my goal to work from home as a transcriptionist because there are legitimate companies offering opportunities to do so. One just has to be very, very careful and be thorough in making sure that they are a legitimate company. Go for it, just be careful and good luck to all of you.

Good Luck and Don't Give Up!

TransAm Transcription from Home

My step mother has been working with TransAm for about 4 months now trying to pass their tests using their training program and she has failed repeatedly. Yes, this is the same step-mother that wrote an article for this blog about Vera-Fast and how she found that job. After the 3rd failed test I started wondering if she was really failing or if it was them. She paid about $400 for equipment and training and so far has not made anything back. I tried to warn her after her last test that she should just stop, she is not going to pass. Today she failed another test so I did some research, as I am getting really good at that. All of the home transcription sites say the same thing about TransAm, "Stay Away" they are just trying to steal your money.

TransAm will do no more than rip you off money by making you buy their MT software and never putting you into a real work situation. The only thing they care about is your MONEY from your purchase of their equipment(total of $490).

This is obviously a SCAM. They want the money upfront and they offer NO refunds for any circumstances. They make their program especially attractive by offering live chats with representatives who answer your questions online. Their tests are unpassable, you will never pass, they do it that way on purpose in hopes that you will just give up and walk away.

If you are interesting in transcription work from home check out http://www.transcriptionessentials.com/, they are a service that helps freelance transcriptionist find work and earn a living from home.

Virtual Vocations - Work at Home Service

I received an e-mail asking me to check out Virtual Vocations from a friend of mine. So I started my usual research and did not find anything bad about the site other than the fact that they just post things found on craigslist. Why pay a membership fee if the information is already available on craigslist?

If you are looking for a service to help you find work at home, I would suggest that you check out one of these two sites:

http://www.flexjobs.com/ - it's cheaper and includes quality, non-scam job listings, some of which are listed exclusively on Flex Jobs.

or

FreelancePulse.com - you will be able to find all the work at home jobs posted at Virtual Vocations but you can try it for 95 cents for one days access. There is no huge investment to make sure that it will work for you. They post 100 top paying work at home jobs each month. The only think that Virtual Vocations has that FreelancePulse does not have is a resume service.

I hope this helps.

Google Money Scams Shuts Down by Google

I’ve written several posts about working at home with Google scams and I have always wondered why Google allows these companies to use it name to scam people.

Most likely they got away with the use of the name by adding a tiny disclaimer at the bottom of the page that stated that the company was not associated with Google in anyway. I do not feel that make it right, but loopholes are loopholes and now we have all these scammers stating you can make thousands of dollars with Google.

Google has finally decided to take action, enough is enough, if you submit an ad for a Google scam to AdWords, you account will be suspended. GO GOOGLE! Here is a copy of the e-mail that you will see if you try to advertise for one of these scams:

"It’s come to our attention that you have submitted ads that promote Google Money Tree or ads that promote a misrepresented affiliation with Google. Due to multiple complaints from our users and publishers, we’ve made the decision not to accept these ads.

This is a notification that your account has been suspended due to the submission of these ads and your ads will no longer run on Google. Please note that future accounts you open will also be suspended."

The best part about this decision from Google for me, is I post Google ads on my site, as you can see, just look around. Now you won't read my post that tells you that Google Money Tree is a scam and is going to start charging you a monthly fee in one breath and then see their ad on the side of my page.

I am sure that some of these ads are still going to make their way to web sites and be advertised, but I think this is a great step in stopping the people that are taking advantage of honest hard working people that just want to find a way to earn a living.

I hope that sites like mine are the cause of Google's crack down on these scammers, but most likely it is because of people like you, that research programs and scream from the rooftop when you get scammed by a product that is suppose to be Google, one of the most trusted names on the Internets.

Avoid any of these Google Work At Home opportunities, typing, data entry and rebate processing opportunities. Do your research there are plenty of sites out there just like mine, that want to help you fulfill your dream of finding an honest way to work at home or earn extra money.

Earn Big on eHow.com in July

I receive this e-mail from e-how and I wanted to share it with anyone that is looking to earn money writing.

Calling all eHow members! We are looking for some Summer themed "Home and Garden" articles!

Publish your Summer themed "Home and Garden" articles between 7/20/2009 and 7/31/2009, and if they appear on the homepage between 7/21/2009 to 8/1/2009 in the "Today's Top How To" or "Featured How Tos" section, you will receive $75!

Submission Instructions:

1) Be a writer currently enrolled in the eHow Writer Compensation Program.

2) Submit only Summer themed "Home and Garden" related articles. All articles submitted must conform to the eHow Article Submission Guidelines. For Guidelines, visit: http://www.ehow.com/about_us/FAQ_ehow.aspx#q69.

3) Make sure you only publish new articles between 7/20/2009 and 7/31/2009, 11:59 p.m. Pacific Time.

4) Before publishing your article on the site, please make sure to do the following things:
a) When categorizing your article, place your article in the "Home & Garden" category.
b) Include the following URL in the "Add Additional Resources" section of the publishing wizard: http://www.ehow.com/home-improvement/

Then, name the above text link to "eHow Home and Garden Topic Guide."

5) Articles submitted for this promotion must be exclusive to this particular promotion.

When submitting articles to eHow it's helpful to follow these recommendations:

-Check your articles for spelling and grammar.
-Provide thorough how-to steps-
- submitted articles should be easy to read and follow and should give readers a clear action plan for how to succeed.
-Add your own photos (424x282 pixels) to your articles.
-Make sure your eHow profile is up-to-date -
- our readers like to know about the eHow writers.
-Most importantly: Write multiple articles-
- the more quality articles you submit, the better your chances of getting on the homepage.
-Remember, eHow articles are like instructional manuals-
-readers must be able to read from the first step to the last step of the article and be able to complete the task being asked in the title.

If a person is not able to complete a task by reading the article, then it's more than likely not a suitable How To for eHow.com. There shouldn't be any room for guess work.

For example, when you're reading an instruction on how to make a crane origami, you should have a crane origami built when you get through the last step. When you read an instructional manual that comes with your VCR, you rely on that manual to help you setup the VCR, so think of it in those terms when you're writing articles. An eHow article should perform the same way any time you finish reading an article, you should be able to complete a task.

Instructions need to be clear and precise.

Please note, eHow does not publish plagiarized material. If your submitted articles are found to be taken from another source, articles will not be published and your eHow account will be closed.See additional terms and conditions below.So what are you waiting for? Start writing today and score extra money!

Click here to contribute an article now.

Not signed up for the Writer Compensation Program? Just click here to fill out your information and start earning money today!

Get writing!
The eHow Team

Can you really earn money from home

This question has been posed to me a lot lately and I am very happy to tell everyone that my step-mother has received her first paycheck for work at home and can't be more happy. I asked her to write her story for me so I could post and show everyone that it is possible once you get past the scams. So without further ado, her is my stepmother's story about success with working at home:

Hi Everybody!

I would like to share this little bit of my ongoing quest to work from home. Some months back, I set out, determined, to find the perfect work from home opportunity. Since sometime around March, I entered into training to do medical transcription from home. I am still in training but getting closer to my goal every day. Transcription is not just a matter of easy typing by any means. At any rate, living on one income for a period of time now and no matter how close I am to completion of my training in transcription, I felt the need to acquire something to do even for just part-time.

Thanks to my wonderful stepdaughter, through her blog, I started some serious digging to find that part-time opportunity that would fit into my day, still allowing me the time I needed for other things. I checked into the opportunities that were available in most sites that Adele has listed on her blog. Going into Staffcentrix, Ver-A-Fast Corporation was listed.

I filled out the little form they requested and didn't hear anything for about two months. Then one day the call came. What a wonderful opportunity! The first lady to call me was so pleasant, as I have found them all to be. She fully explained what the expectations would be, which really isn't much at all. What they do ask of you is a commitment of 15 hours per week to do make some simple phone calls. For the first week that I had worked with this company, of which they only required seven hours in the first week, I received a check for $63.25! I was more than satisfied with that (figures to $9 per hour from the comfort of your own home).

I was compelled to share this story with all of you out there seeking the opportunity of your dreams. It has taken a lot of persistence, but I have believed in my quest all of the way. And of course, make sure that you fully check out whomever it is that you may be thinking of contracting with that you can be assured that they are reputable. Don't give up! You can make it happen. That $63 check won't pay the mortgage but it is another important step to reaching a very important goal and I am very grateful for it.

Good Luck to Everybody!

Go For It!

Columbus Herald Tribune - Work at Home?

Sometimes the websites look so real it is hard not to buy into what they are saying. I came across the Columbus Herald Tribune today it told the story of a single mother that was supporting herself and her child using the Instant Google Income program. It is a heart wrenching story about the struggle that must of us are facing in these economic times. As I was finishing the story a couple things struck me as being off.

First she said that Google sends her a paycheck every day for post their links. The only think I can figure is she is using AdSense like I do on this site and I can tell you that Google sends monthly checks no daily checks, so now I was wonder about the validity of the article. But I continued reading.

At the end of the article there were two steps that you had to complete to start making real income:

1. Purchase the Instant Google Income Program for only $1.95
2. Follow the step by step directions

WOW really it is that easy. NO! its not. I have posted a lot these days about being careful about the only pay $1 something for shipping and handling and get the program free ads. Like all the rest, this one follows the same scam. The $1.95 is for a free $7 day trial after that you will start getting charged monthly to use the program.

I know that I am skeptical now, but I just want to find one program that works the way it says it does and explains the costs up front. No more games, just sent me the truth!

I actually found a program that sounds really good it is $77 which I don't have right now, I have to wait for my monthly google check and then I will be purchasing it. Hopefully I will have some good news for everyone by this time next month.

Job Opening as a Mystery Shopper

If you receive the following e-mail, please read this before sending your personal information:

"----- Original Message -----
From: "David Smith"
To:
Sent: Sunday, July 12, 2009 7:42 AM
Subject: Job Opening as a Mystery Shopper


> We are company that conducts surveys and evaluates other organizations. We are hired to go to other companies and act like customers in order to rate their service in relation to their customers.
>
> You will be directed to the company or outlet, and you would be given funds to either purchase items or services, after which you would write comments on the staff's activities and give a detailed record of your experience.
>
> Examples of comments:
> 1. How long did it take to get your service
> 2. Knowledgability of product or service
> 3. Professionalism
> 4. Sometimes you might be required to aggravate the attendant and
> record their responses.
>
>
> We in turn give the information to the company executives so they improve their customer service. Most organizations employ us when they experience a high volume of customer dissatisfaction.
>
> Your identity will be kept confidential. You will be paid $200 for every survey you complete and receive a bonus that can be used for transportation costs and also receive a monthly salary of up to $2000.
>
> No commitment is required or this job, your hours will be flexible. If you are interested please send this
> information:
>
> Full name
> Address (No P O Box)
> City
> State
> Zipcode
> Telephone number
> Cellular number
> Age
> Occupation
>
> You may contact me via email address at davidsmith7@rediffmail.com
> Regards.
>
> David Smith"

The sender may change and the e-mail address may change, but this is a scam and you could lose thousands of dollars by responding to this e-mail.

The scammers use this type of e-mail to get people into paying a small fee – usually less than $100 – for information that is readily available for free. In addition they try and steal your identify. Avoid this scam at all costs.

Earn Money with your Photos

Shutterstock wants your photos! Submit your photos to Shutterstock and get paid every time one of your photos is downloaded. Web designers, magazine editors, and other graphic artists purchase monthly subscriptions to Shutterstock to download photos from this site.

Shutterstock is different than other stock models. Buyers subscribe on a monthly basis and can download up to 750 images over the course of 30 days. So what is your cut? Shutterstock will pay you 25 cents every time one of your images is downloaded. Once you reach $500 in earnings, your commission goes up to 30 cents per download.

The subscription model that Shutterstock uses encourages buyers to download a large volume of images.

Current Payout $0.25 (US) per download. That means that at just 2000 downloads a month, you can earn $500 (US) per month! Many of the photographers at Shutterstock earn this and more every month.

There are three ways to make money with this program: refer photographers, refer Stock Buyers (make 20% off their subscriptions), and submit photos for sale!

To learn more about Shutterstock Click Here.

Claim Your Free $197 Gift!

As I am sure you can all image since I do research on ways to earn extra money and join so many work at home programs, I get a lot of spam. I consider this spam to be a good thing though because it gives me a heads up to the kind of spam my readers are getting about work at home programs which allows me to research them and report on them before anyone gets ripped off. So I received an e-mail with morning with the subject line of "Claim Your Free $197 Gift!".

I followed the link and looked for the terms and agreements, but I didn't find any so I filled out the form with my name and e-mail address and on to step two to look for terms.

At step two there were still not terms, just asked me for my mailing address and phone number. OK, so I filled it out. On to step three which asked for my credit card, still no terms, there wasn't even a button to click on to accept terms just enter your credit card and click next. Wait what is that at the bottom of the page in really small letters, let me enlarge it for you:

"* THE FIRST INCOME ACCELERATOR CD IS FREE* WITH A PAYMENT OF $7.95 FOR USA ORDERS ($11.95 OUTSIDE OF THE USA). THE INCOME ACCELERATOR CD PURCHASE AUTOMATICALLY RENEWS TO A RECURRING CHARGE OF $97 A MONTH FOR THE INCOME ACCELERATOR MILLIONAIRE CD OF THE MONTH CLUB. "

Unless you scroll down you would never see it and end up getting charged monthly. So what is the name of this great program that wants to charge you monthly but neglects to share that information with you in an obvious place?

Accelerator Millionaire, I have not been able to find any information about the company on the Internet so I really can't tell you what is included for the $97 a month, but if it was something that was worth the money don't you think they would place this information where you can make a well informed decision.

The created of the program is Justin Blake and I found the following information about Mr. Blacke while searching the internet:

"Justin Blake and Chris Ryder are currently promoting an affiliate program with the catch phrase "make $1057 every month" I got sucked into this story and signed up for $47 with a monthly payment of $47 thereafter. When I received the download I realised that all this was a scheme to promote their website , get people to join and I'd receive a commission. If I sold 30 - 40 /mth I'd make $1057! I immediately replied to them that I did not want to flog a membership site and asked for an immediate refund.

Dianne thought this was rude and berated me for several emails. Realising I was getting nowhere I apologised and she informed me that a refund was done. I'm still waiting. After quering this with her, she now tells me that I'm not getting a refund. This is inspite of their site offering "an iron clad guarantee" and you can cancel at any time statement. Several times I've asked for phone numbers etc but they won't respond. BEWARE of promoters who don't supply phone numbers. I've contacted Visa and lodged a complaint but feel others should be warned about this operator. These are my experiences and others should make their own judgement based on their own research. I personally will never do business with Justin Blake again.

Regards Greg Reed
Success Creates Freedom!"

Work from Home Information

The Most Popular Home Jobs are:

1. Running a home-based business (these would be programs that you have to purchase)

2. Computer work

3. Data entry

4. Word processing

5. Telephone research/sales

6. Customer services

7. Proof reader

8. Market research

If you are going to work from home you need good a reliable mobile, landline, fax, email and instant messaging program. That way if any one of these services fail you can still communicate. Technology has made working from home a much more realistic option for many people. If you’re self-employed or starting your own business, working from home is also a good way of reducing your overheads.

It becomes more difficult if you are trying to break into the work from home job market as people tend to guard their positions fiercely once they have them. There are always plenty of advertisements, both on and off the Internet, for people to work from home but the majority of these are scams. Generally, if the company you are applying to requests money (and you are applying as a employee and not business owner, beware!

Top Three Homeworking Scams to Avoid

1. You send off your registration fee to receive details about earning a good income from homeworking. You receive a letter instructing you to put an advert in your local shop or paper, asking people to send you a registration fee! A similar online version of this are e-books which promise to reveal the secret of 'how to get rich quick' - the 'secret' then turns out to be instructions on how to resell copies of the e-book you've purchased!
2. You answer an advertisement for a position, such as a freelance proofreader. With the application is a piece of text for you to correct any mistakes. On submitting you will be then be sent an Information Pack, which you are charged for and then you find out the information is ready available on the Internet for free.
3. You apply for a position doing simple assembly work at home, such as: greeting cards, toys or crafts, and are asked to pay up-front for materials. The materials will be worth much less than you've paid,and often the assembly work you complete will be rejected and returned to you as 'sub-standard' and of course you will receive no payments.

There are, plenty of valid jobs you can do from home, you just need to be careful when first starting out.

Working from home can bring huge benefits, allowing you to balance your family and work time, work more productively and reduce day to day stresses.

Twitter Profit House - Follow Up

A couple weeks ago I posted about the Twitter Profit House (click here for the full story) and I also submitted the post to a number of article sites. I am getting a lot of feedback about the article from those sites and I wanted to share the information from other people that have tried it and lost their money.


July 2, 2009
Alicia @ 3:30 pm

Thank you for this invaluable information. I just read a news story from a local newspaper in Cleveland, Ohio that says a college drop out is making over $10 grand a month using this service. What a hoax!

July 4, 2009
Jacob @ 4:22 pm

Thanks a lot! My mom signed up thinking she would receive the CD, but instead she would have been charged $99/mo! but i sent them an email for cancellation, so hopefully all is well.

July 6, 2009
Teri @ 6:01 pm
How did you send an email for cancellation? the link does not exist on the twitter house page.

Adele @ 6:13 pm (This one is mine)
Yes I know, that is part of the problem. The terms and conditions tell you to call the number, when you call the number they tell you to go to the site. I don't see a way to cancel at the membership.

My only suggestion is to call your credit card company and dispute the charge, it is the only way you are going to get your money back.


July 7, 2009
Erin @ 6:46 pm
They also sell your credit card information to other companies. I got charged from a "united benefit advantage" 3 days after signing up. I had to cancel my credit card just to be safe.

Please if you take anything away from this site it should be don't trust the Twitter Profit House, you could lose hundreds of dollars.

BidVertiser - Earn Extra Money with Your Web Site

If you are like me, one of the ways that you earn money online is by running a blog or a web site and having AdSense on the site. I found a nice site call BidVertiser. BidVertiser posts ads on your site and pay you for displaying them and when those ads get clicks.

There is one huge difference between AdSense and BidVertiser:

AdSense has a $100 minimum payout via check or direct deposit

Bidvertiser has a $10.00 minimum payout via paypal

I prefer to get paid via paypal, I don't have to go to the bank, I don't have to give a company my private information like bank account numbers and stuff like that. If you are looking to make money using a blog or web site, try BidVertiser, if it free to join and you can control the ads they show on your pages.

Click below for more information

Show text-ads on your Website or Blog with BidVertiser.

Increasing Traffic to your blog

One of the best ways to increase traffic to your blog is to ping your blog and let the search engines and other blogging site know that you site exists and that it has been updated.

I use Blog Pinger 2.0 by Joseph Tierney to ping my blog and let everyone know that updates have been made. The hardest part about using this software is find the search engines and the blogging sites to ping, so after a couple weeks of research here are the top 50 sites that you should ping your updates too:

http://1470.net/api/ping
http://api.feedster.com/ping
http://api.moreover.com/ping
http://api.my.yahoo.com/RPC2
http://api.my.yahoo.com/rss/ping
http://bblog.com/ping.php
http://bitacoras.net/ping
http://blog.goo.ne.jp/XMLRPC
http://blogdb.jp/xmlrpc
http://blogmatcher.com/u.php
http://blogsearch.google.com/ping/RPC2
http://bulkfeeds.net/rpc
http://coreblog.org/ping/
http://mod-pubsub.org/kn_apps/blogchatt
http://ping.amagle.com/
http://ping.bitacoras.com
http://ping.blo.gs/
http://ping.blogmura.jp/rpc/
http://ping.cocolog-nifty.com/xmlrpc
http://ping.exblog.jp/xmlrpc
http://ping.feedburner.com
http://ping.myblog.jp
http://ping.rootblog.com/rpc.php
http://ping.syndic8.com/xmlrpc.php
http://ping.weblogalot.com/rpc.php
http://ping.weblogs.se/
http://pingoat.com/goat/RPC2
http://rcs.datashed.net/RPC2/
http://rpc.blogbuzzmachine.com/RPC2
http://rpc.blogrolling.com/pinger/
http://rpc.icerocket.com:10080/
http://rpc.newsgator.com/
http://rpc.pingomatic.com
http://rpc.technorati.com/rpc/ping
http://rpc.weblogs.com/RPC2
http://topicexchange.com/RPC2
http://trackback.bakeinu.jp/bakeping.php
http://www.a2b.cc/setloc/bp.a2b
http://www.bitacoles.net/ping.php
http://www.blogdigger.com/RPC2
http://www.blogoole.com/ping/
http://www.blogoon.net/ping/
http://www.blogpeople.net/servlet/weblogUpdates
http://www.blogroots.com/tb_populi.blog?id=1
http://www.blogshares.com/rpc.php
http://www.blogsnow.com/ping
http://www.blogstreet.com/xrbin/xmlrpc.cgi
http://www.lasermemory.com/lsrpc/
http://www.mod-pubsub.org/kn_apps/blogchatter/ping.php
http://www.newsisfree.com/RPCCloud
http://www.newsisfree.com/xmlrpctest.php
http://www.popdex.com/addsite.php
http://www.reader.google.com
http://www.snipsnap.org/RPC2
http://www.weblogues.com/RPC/
http://xmlrpc.blogg.de
http://xping.pubsub.com/ping/

Copy this list into your pinging software and watch visitors find your site. To learn more about earning money from home by blogging please check out this Beginners Guide to AdSense, which has a number of helpful hints. (As usual, you will not asked to provide an e-mail address or sign up for anything, just click the link and select Download File.

Get Paid to Blog with Yuwie

Yuwie is a community much like myspace where you create a page and make friends. The great part about Yuwie is that you will earn income whenever someone visits your Yuwie Profile or your Yuwie blog.

If you are a blogger, they also have create clubs, like a blog exchange or just a place to ask question and increase the visibility of the blog. You may have heard a lot of stories about people that are getting rich from blogging. Honestly, I have not seen it, but I enjoy sharing my findings and my opinion so I continue blogging.

The fact that Yuwie allows me to make money, from the comfort of my home and have fun, makes this site a thumbs up!

What is Yuwie? First off, Yuwie is 100% FREE. Yuwie is like any other "connect with friends" or social networking site. But with one major difference. Use Yuwie - Get Paid! Yuwie pays you to blog, upload pictures, refer friends, chat, hang out, etc.

If you are interested in making money online, this is a great site to join click her to join.