My Life With IT

Frankly speaking, if I had been kicked out of the session after being idle for 10 minutes, I wouldn’t have been so bothered. But I was browsing the site and trying to get the best way to claim my reward dollars when I was told by the page that I wasn’t allowed to view the rewards page because I was logged out.

What in the world? How can that be? I was still browsing for the last 5 minutes! Therefore, I logged in again only to be thrown out of the session after 1 minute. Frustrated, I logged in for the 3rd time, determined to redeem my rewards and sign out. It seems to be third time lucky. I managed to redeem my rewards.

I only have the following questions for OCBC.

1. How long does a session hold?
2. If there is a time limit, is it possible to display a countdown timer so that I know how much time I have been inactive or active?

It’s very frustrating for multiple logins just to redeem the rewards. I never had such issues unless the sessions have been idle for quite some time.

Affiliate marketing can be as lucrative as you want it to be or it can be a total flop. What makes affiliate marketing works for some while it fails for others?

Buy and review the product – If you haven’t tried it, people will be doubtful about it. Take the Wordpress templates for example. If you are promoting a particular premium design that is so fantastic but you haven’t used it personally, will people want to buy from your affiliate links?

Not everyone will have overnight success, hard work is involved in affiliate marketing. Research, learning about SEO are all part and parcel of making affiliate marketing a success. You may have fears of the decline in affiliate sales over time but as long as you keep working on it, you will find a ways to make changes to keep up with the changes.

E-Junkie is one of the popular affiliate programmes because of the ease of use and the wide range of products that you can select from.

Amazon Stores allows you to create your own stores online without worrying about the logistics and shipping. You get to earn commissions for the sales.

Linkworth has a lot of different ways to make money with your site.

Zlio is another online store that allows you to sell products without worrying about logistics and shipping. You earn commissions from the sales. With up to 50 stores for each account.

Nobody said affiliates were going to be easy. Depending purely on one source of income is dangerous and this has been proven a few times. That’s why I have setup quite a number of ways online to have a variety of income streaming in.

Having blogging for quite sometime both to record my random thoughts and niche, I never knew that I needed to follow a set of bloggers’ guidelines. If one day, bloggers need to follow a set of stated guidelines, I imagine the following will happen.

1. All blogs look and feel like reading the newspapers online.
2. All blogs will have the same tone.
3. All blogs will have to go through numerous editing before being published.
4. All blogs will repeat what was said in another site.
5. All blogs won’t feel personalised; as in the blogger is not engaging the readers into contributors.

Frankly speaking, I might as well stop blogging now since it may happen. I can’t get myself published on the print media due to my unorthodox writing that isn’t even print friendly. That is why I am blogging on so many sites including random photo sites that are half developed.

The print media is already regulated. Those bloggers who are making money online are doing their own self regulation, stop trying to control the people’s thoughts! You wanted us to be able to think instead of depending on you, so stop controling the online world!

Blogging with a photograph of yourself as part of your “About Me” page will get you places. Even better if your posts contain photographs of yourself playing with gadgets. Check out what Nadnut, Sheylara, DK and Eastcoastlife have done.

You don’t even need to own your domain either. What PRs love is that you dare to post pictures of yourself with the product and not the product itself. Sometimes, I wonder if the product is the one being sold or the person itself. Sounds crude.

There have been incidents where bloggers have encountered rude PRs who simply don’t know how blogging works. Blogging about the product and blatantly stating just the product’s benefits are two different things. The product’s benefits are purely for paid advertising such as on TV and radio. The normal route to promote.

Blogging about the product means stating the pros and cons of the product so as to get the real feel. Not some fake “OMG!-THIS-IS-TOO-GOOD-TO-BE-REAL!” raves. Which turns off people who truly wants a personal review. If he website’s design needs to be improved, constructive critism will be given. That’s one main reason why I have given up on paid reviews despite the lucrative pay. There is no way I can lie to myself that the wesite colour truly needs to be changed and the review insists on “positive only”.

It has reached the point where self-regulation has taken place for my part. I try my best to be true to myself. Having blogged and tried various ways to earn some money by monetising my blogs, I have come to the conclusion.

• Real photos of self all over the site.
• Even better if you are thin, pretty and knows how to pose for the camera.
• It doesn’t matter what your blog is about.
• Traffic matters.

For me? I am being cynical because I am saying that the grapes are sour. I find it a pity to let someone review a tech gadget when the reviewer’s writing is horrible and full of text messages acronyms. I also find it horrifying if a review is purely positive with no negatives. Is there such a perfect product or service?

I have no idea what this is totally about until Louis Liem of HomeBiz contacted me via my contact form about Busby SEO Contest. Going through the contest details has me floored. The contest was started on 1st Oct 2008 and ends only on 31st Jan 2009. How long can one maintain the contest?

Is it due to the SEO to be built up online, hence the length of the contest? Oh well, since Louis is willing to share his prize with up to 10 people, I want a share of the money too. I love money. Who doesn’t?

Check out the contest details here.

Ever since I started selling my stuff online, I notice that potential buyers are often rude online. The most recent was sent via 88db requesting for my contact number when I have obviously linked to my Altec Lansing subwoofer. That’s not all, the user isn’t even registered with 88db, so how can I even send the contact privately?

Being online doesn’t mean you can’t be traced. If I have the resources and the energy, I can track you down. I just don’t feel the need to track down rude personas online.

How To Contact Sellers Online

• Check that an email or URL is provided before sending out queries.
• Be polite in your queries.
• Be specific about the product you are interested in.
• Be punctual if you decide to meet up. Inform the seller if there are changes as early as possible.
• Pay within the given time frame.
• Don’t send out one liner questions for more than 3 times, it’s an email, not a text message.
• Confirm your purchase and ensure that the seller has done the same too.

How to Respond to Queries Online

• Be polite in your responses, even if the queries are rude.
• Be sure to keep your word about the sale.
• Be punctual at the meet up. If there are changes, inform the buyer as early as possible.
• Ensure that the payment is clearly stated so that you won’t have to repeat the total cost again.
• Refund if the total sale is more than what was initially calculated.
• Send an email asking if the package has arrived if the buyer uses postage.

I know other sellers are facing the same problem, reading rude queries just because the stuff is posted online. Remember, the seller is also human just like you, the buyer.

Obviously, I have an obssession to be online. Money, what else makes it so easy to make more money than being online? Unfortunately, the real world doesn’t work that way, neither does being online. The online presence is a very important part in order to make more money online. So far, a few of my online ventures have worked while others simply flop.

What Works

• Putting up ads in relevant posts. So far, I have reduced the ads and despite that, they still help me to earn some money.
• Email Cash Pro does help to make some lunch money. It takes a long time since the conversion rates are dependant on the company and the number of emails to be read.
• Text Links Ads is something that I like since there isn’t a minimum payout to be fulfilled. The best part is that it pays monthly and on time too.

What Doesn’t

• Clickbank is a total failure for me. I have earned none so far no matter what. Until I realise that commissions can be stolen from you. What a pity. I hope it can be improved with options to put up banners and links.
• I’m lousy at filling up surveys no matter what. Therefore, the slow growth is putting me off.
• Linkworth worked for a short while but it suddenly died off. There are various ways to earn from Linkworth but perhaps my sites aren’t that suitable for utilising everything that is available there.

It is said that one man’s poison is another man’s meat. So true. When all else fails, try selling your handmade stuff, auction your stuff, set up an online flea market and go back to the routine day job. At least it pays.

I have known the following shortcut keys for all the Windows version.

• ALT + F4
• CTRL + A
• CTRL + C
• CTRL + V
• PRT SCR
• NUM LOCK
• CAPS LOCK

Hang on, the last two aren’t exactly shortcut keys. However, Windows has much more shortcut keys to offer than those that I have used frequently.

• Press Shift key 5 times to turn on or off the Sticky keys. No wonder I had this strange prompt the other time I accidentally pressed five times while contemplating the words that I was trying to type.
• ALT + ESC to cycle through the items in the order that they were opened. Wow.
• CTRL + SHIFT + ESC to show the task bar. No wonder I had to go through one more click when I use CTRL + ALT + DEL.

After looking through the MS Help, I realise how little of the shortcut keys I use. Now I know why my mouse died after a year plus, too much clicking.