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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.
Freelance Opportunities
The internet has long offered marketplaces where freelancers/employees can offer their services. Unfortunately it can be hard to get your first few assignments as you have no track record. This month I've come across a site that not only comes up with a solution but also covers more than just the usual programming and design projects.
Like similar sites, the oDesk Marketplace lets buyers search and hire providers from across the globe and as a provider you can apply to job openings posted by buyers. As an oDesk Provider, you create a Profile listing your experience, skills, education and set your hourly rate. As you complete jobs for oDesk Buyers, your profile's work history will grow.
Unlike other sites, when you apply for a position, along with your profile, you can submit a cover letter explaining your qualifications. Additionally, to prove your ability there are 113 Qualification Tests available. You can take any test for free, and can usually retake a test after 30 days. Each test takes around 40 minutes to complete.
Rather than simply picking an applicant from the profiles received, the buyer then has the opportunity to interview possible candidates, just like a "real world" job application. Buyers typically interview several providers before making a decision. Interviews usually take place over instant messenger or VOIP. The interview gives buyers a convenient way to evaluate the skills of the provider, while giving the provider an opportunity to impress the buyer with their expertise. The interview gives you the chance to discuss relevant work samples, time estimates, daily schedules (what hours will you both be online), and availability (how many hours per week are required).
Areas covered include:- Web Development
- Audio / Video & Multimedia
- Software Development
- Networking & Information Systems
- Writing
- Graphic Arts & Design
- Administrative Support including categories for: Data Entry, Personal Assistants, Research, Accounting/Bookkeeping, Online Order Processing and Other Administrative Support
Get Paid to Add Banners To Websites
Money4banners is a banner network which offers £5 per month if you put 3 468x60 banners on your site. Your site can be
large or small, with a high or low traffic count, but you'll continue to receive £5.00 every month for as long as you
retain the ads. You'll receive an additional £10.00 when you first set up the ads.
You can get further details and apply at http://www.homeworkinguk.com/banners.htm
New Survey Site
panelbase.net was first launched in 2004 and has become one of the fastest growing research communities on the internet. For every survey that you complete, you will be rewarded in one of two ways. Some questionnaires will carry rewards between £0.50 and £3, which is added to your panelbase.net account. In addition to receiving cash, other surveys may include entry into prize draws where you could win anything from a case of wine, to an iPod or a plasma TV. As soon as you reach the redemption threshold of £10 (you get £3 just for signing up) you can withdraw your money or convert it to high-street vouchers.
Alternatively you can donate your cash to charity. Currently you can choose from the following charities:
- World Wildlife Fund
- British Red Cross
- Oxfam
Anyone aged 16 years or older with access to the Internet, a land line or mobile phone can join the panelbase.net research community. As they conduct research in a variety of ways (via the Internet, telephone, SMS, product testing, focus groups or postal) you can participate in a range of surveys that are not solely reliant upon you having access to the Internet.
Sign up or find out more from http://www.homeworkinguk.com/panelbase.htm
2. Featured Publication
Google Snatch
If you've been trying to get traffic to a website you'll know how easy it is to pay a small fortune to advertise on Google or other PPC advertising or to spend hours every week trying to optimise your site for search engines. New guide Google Snatch offers a real alternative, explaining how to get traffic from Google without spending any money, and no this isn't the recent scam which claimed you can get free advertising but was actually only giving you a possible method of offsetting your costs.
Google Snatch makes use of the Google measurement, Page Rank (PR) which is largely based upon the number and quality of back links a webpage has. It's an important factor to how well a particular webpage ranks within the Google search results. High PR sites tend to stand for authority and have a huge number of back links, and since Google awarded the Page Rank in the first place it sends its spiders to visit them very frequently; some get crawled every couple of hours as these "Authority sites" have such rapid activity that Google doesn't want to miss any new information to present to the their search engine users.
Unfortunately getting onto high PR sites by paying for a link is (very) expensive, especially since the recent re-evaluation of page ranking has reduced the number of higher ranking sites. It can cost anything up to $5,000 a month depending on the advertisement.
Google Snatch gets around this by showing you how to give them content which is worth reading. About.com, for example is an authority site, with a PR8. It's within the top 100 sites visited worldwide according to Alexa.com which could translate to masses of visitors. If you learn to get listed there, you can reap thousands of visitors literally within seconds. There are other ways to earn from these sites and be able to get an incredible number of visitors within seconds, depending on the quality content you give them. Google Snatch gives you over 500 authority sites to choose from.
For more details or to get your copy of the guide visit http://www.homeworkinguk.com/gs.htm Available for immediate download, and as usual there is a no-strings guarantee.
3. Featured Business Resource
Advertising Package Special Offer
I've long been a fan of traffic exchanges where you get visitors to your site when you visit the sites of others. Whilst everybody using these sites is primarily interested in promoting a business or opportunity of their own, I've yet to meet anyone who isn't still looking for an additional opportunity or service to generate further income, so the vast majority of surfers are your target audience.
Whilst almost all exchanges offer you the chance to generate visitors at no cost, most offer an upgrade which offers considerable advantages in the way of increased visitor ratios (you need to visit fewer sites to get the same number of visitors) and often includes other benefits.
Of course, just viewing sites can get a little bit boring so the best sites add extra twists to keep you alert and interested. WebCentreSurf has always been one of my favourites as they throw in bonus credits at random intervals (but only if you're paying attention) and after every 50 sites you get a general knowledge quiz with the chance to earn 1000 credits, along the lines of "Who wants to be a millionaire?". For once the questions have a strong British theme but I tend to chicken out at the 125 credit mark so I don't know how tough the later questions are.
This site has always offered one of the best upgrade packages, especially since they increased the packages to include the chance to send a solo ad every month to every member of the program, currently around 22,000. This is in addition to free credits, free referrals and other surfing perks. Every member who reads your solo ad and visits your site earns 10 bonus credits and they are reminded that your message is waiting every time they surf so you are guaranteed a large number of visitors. With upgrades starting at just $5 a month, I didn't think the package could be improved, but I've been proved wrong. Annual upgrades have just been launched for the price of just 9 months, which means you can send 12 solo ads and get all the other upgrade benefits for little over £20. Payment options allow you to pay in the currency of your choice and through paypal, credit card or other online payment options.
Full details available from http://www.homeworkinguk.com/wcs.htm
Seasonal Giveaways
Whether you're already earning online or just thinking about starting, this month you don't need to spend any money. Several companies have launched their seasonal giveaways with hundreds of free ebooks, downloadable software, free access to membership sites etc. available just for visiting. Just choose the ones you want and request a download link - all completely free.
Most are only open for a few days so don't leave it too late to check out. Current offers, or starting shortly, include:
- EbiZ Launchpad - http://ebiz-launchpad.com/ebiz/?aff=2259
- The Great JV Giveaway - http://www.greatjvgiveaway.com/jv/members/349
- JV Giveaway - http://www.jv-giveaway.com/index.php?id=873
- Merry Christmas Giveaway - http://christmas.aec.nu/jv/go/95 (opens 1st December)
Free Survey Directory
Regular subscribers will know that in addition to the homeworking sites, I also run http://www.whichsurveys.com a free
directory of over 200 paid survey sites. Of course it simply isn't possible to sign up with that many companies at one time,
so to make it easier to systematically work through the list, I have now collated details of all sites, still sorted
geographically, and put them into a free ebook and then added a collection of articles to help you get the most from
paid surveys. If you'd like a copy you can either subscribe at http://www.whichsurveys.com or if you don't want to
receive updates by e-mail, you can download the guide directly from http://www.whichsurveys.com/surveys.pdf
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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