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1. News
Welcome to the latest issue of the Homeworking Ideas newsletter, the monthly publication which gives you all the latest news from the UK on ways of earning money from home.
ScamWatch
The Office of Fair Trading have been running a scam awareness month and some
interesting facts have emerged. Contrary to expectations those most likely to
be targeted aren't the young or the elderly but adults in the 35-54 age group and
1 in 10 of these have fallen victim to one or more scams. In all 20 million
people in the UK have been targeted by scams and around 2 million have responded
to a scam by phone. It's hoped that by making everyone aware how widespread
the problem is, that we'll all feel less embarrassed and more willing to report
any scams we come across.
They also reminded us that you don't need to send money. You could end up a victim of identity theft by simply confirming your name, address, telephone number and in certain circumstances, your bank details. Remember also that if you genuinely are a winner of a draw, lottery or competition you won't be expected to pay so much as a postage stamp to claim your prize.
There were however a couple of pieces of good news. Western Union, so often used by scammers for receiving money, now warn customers of potential scams before they wire any money, and you'll be expected to sign a form to confirm there is no chance you're being defrauded. This can only increase levels of awareness and reduce the number of victims. In addition the OFT have just completed the national rollout of Consumer Direct, a telephone helpline which offers clear, practical and impartial advice on consumer issues. In addition to explaining your rights in regard to any problems you may be having with traders they can also advise you if you're not sure whether a product or service you're being offered is legitimate or a likely scam. You can phone them on 08454 040506 or you can visit the scam section of the OFT site at http://www.oft.gov.uk/Consumer/Scams/default.htm
Recommended Survey Site
If you enjoy getting paid to complete surveys but hate waiting months to qualify
for a payment then Valued Opinions is definitely worth a look. They generally pay
at least £1-£2 per survey, and you can claim your reward when you reach just £5, in
the form of vouchers for Amazon or a selection of high street stores. At the moment
I'm getting a voucher nearly ever month usually for little more than watching draft
TV ads or planned product ideas and giving an opinion. Sign up before the end of May
and you also have the chance to win an iPod Nano, just for registering. Full details
are available from http://www.homeworkinguk.com/opinion.htm
New Rewards Site
Rewards Central is the latest rewards program for the UK offering you the chance
to earn when you shop online or sign up for various free offers. This one however
is the best I've seen for a long time. Not only can you earn for shopping and signing
up but you also earn for receiving e-mails, SMS text messages, completing surveys
and simply visiting selected sites. Every day you can earn points just for visiting
their site and answering the single question survey of the day, with further points
for clicking on a banner to visit the site of the day. You can even place your points
on deposit and earn interest while you're saving up! What I particularly like
about this site are the payment options. Not only can you opt for payment in cash,
vouchers or charity donations, but you can also use your points to bid in auctions.
As you can only bid using points earned, and as the program is still new
with relatively few members, this gives you a real chance of picking up a
bargain, particularly if you regularly shop online. Details are available from
http://www.homeworkinguk.com/rewards.htm
2. Featured Publication
Blogging to the Bank
Rob Benwell has gone from zero to up to $516.53 per day within just a few months
from a network of blogs (a sort of online diary) - all of that earned through
affiliate commissions (using free software and without buying domain names,
web hosting or advertising.) What is so impressive about this is that he's not a
longtime blogger. He has only been blogging for a few months, and is completely
self-taught. Despite only having a handful of sites linking to him, his blogs are
outranking sites with hundreds and even thousands of links, for his chosen
keywords in search engines.
When this first happened, he spent hours trying to figure out why this was happening, looking at everything different he had done with his blog that others were missing. He set up others blogs which included ads for affiliate programs and followed this method with a few little tweaks here and there. He now claims to have "cracked the secret code" to getting a ton of free traffic and keeps setting blogs up on a weekly basis and expects his affiliate checks to double or even triple in the next two months. Rob has put together an exact blueprint of his system that takes you from zero to huge affiliate checks like him. You don't even need to know anything about blogs. It includes screenshots and examples all the way.
You don't need to worry if you feel you can't write perfectly. Rob's blogs are littered with typing mistakes, grammatical errors and poor design yet they work and he shows you the results to prove it. As usual there is a no-strings money back guarantee. You've got 60 days to make up your mind. One point I haven't mentioned in the past is that with most of the recommendations I make, including this one, you don't even need to worry about the author ignoring your refund requests. The guarantee is backed by the payment processor who will process the refund if you have any problems. Full details are available from http://www.homeworkinguk.com/blog.htm
3. Featured Business Resource
Topsurfer
It's a well known fact that in the vast majority of cases you get what you pay for,
and despite the huge amount of free resources available on line. spending a small
amount of money can often generate far greater returns. The problem is knowing which
products and services are worth paying for, and which testimonials to believe.
In business, you won't succeed unless people know about you, so this month
I thought I'd test out some paid advertising that had been receiving very impressive
testimonials from users.
Topsurfer is a traffic exchange, whereby you get visitors to any website you wish to promote - your own or simply an affiliate link - in exchange for visits you make to the sites of other members. They offer a very attractive upgrade package, entitled wholesale membership, which includes thousands of free hits, newsletter ads, free software and the option to bribe other members to sign up to anything else you might be promoting amongst other benefits. You can upgrade from just $10 for a month, but I opted for an annual upgrade for $109 because not only did I get an incredible 74,400 hits added and 120 newsletter ads as well as loads of other benefits, but for this month only they are offering a free incentivised solo ad to all active members. The ad alone normally costs $80. Well my solo ad went out to members yesterday morning, and within 2 hours I'd made 6 sales of the product I was advertising and had received 103 leads. It's now just a little over 24 hours later and I've made an unbelievable 19 sales and 273 leads, generating way more in commission than the cost of the annual upgrade. And this was just an affiliate link I was promoting - no website needed. I really can thoroughly recommend this traffic exchange and particularly the current special offer on upgrade packages. The free ad promotion is due to end today, but I've spoken with the owner and he has said that he will be extending it until the end of the month. You can find out more from http://topsurfer.com/getws.cgi?referer=oconnors and even if you aren't in a position to purchase an upgrade I would still recommend you sign up as a free member at http://topsurfer.com/newuser.cgi?referer=oconnors . You'll get 100 hits just for signing up and there's a range of surfing options where you can earn cash or bonus hits as you surf.
4. Featured Freebies
Free DVD - no postage required.
This month's freebie doesn't require you to sign up for any offers, refer friends
or make any contributions to delivery costs. Just for completing a straightforward
survey you get this month's DVD completely free. If you do want to tell your
friends about it, then you also get a chance to win a £5,000 villa holiday in
Rhodes for you and up to 5 friends.
The free offers don't stop there though. They will also send you an email as soon as the next DVD is available. Sign up at http://www.homeworkinguk.com/freedvd.htm
Free Bingo Tickets
How about a few free games of bingo to wind down after a hard day at work? Virgin
Bingo are offering you 10 free cards just for registering - no deposit required.
And if you download their free alert button, which reminds you when the next game
is starting, size of jackpot, number of players etc. you get an extra 20 free
tickets. You can play the traditional way, marking off the numbers as they are
called, or if you want to really relax, you can opt for the numbers to be marked
off automatically. Find out more at http://www.homeworkinguk.com/freebingo.htm
I hope you've found something of interest this month. I'll speak to you again next month.
Lynne O'Connor
newsletter@homeworkinguk.com
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