The Money Blog

Is Bux.to a scam or not? That is a question that quite a few money bloggers have asked. The quick answer is that no it isn't, but it is probably the most inefficiently run company that I have ever dealt with.

The basic idea is pretty straightforward. Join Bux.to and watch adverts. For every 30 second advert that crosses your screen you get 1c. Life should be simple, and although you will never get rich this way, it is an easy money maker - especially if you build up a referral string. That way for every advert your referrals watch, they get 1c and so do you.

However, the problems start when you have reached the magic figure of $10.00 and want to collect your money. When I signed up the deal was that payments were made by PayPal after 30 working days. This was then changed to 60 working days quite arbitrarily.

To make matter worse, Bux.to then changed their payment system from PayPal, which we all understand, to an outfit called AlertPay which I will bet few people have ever heard of. So, I had to join AlertPay to get my money - and AlertPay charge their punters 50c per transaction. Thanks a lot, lads.

If you are willing to wait three full months for a payment and navigate the AlertPay hurdles, then I can report that Bux.to is an honest company. They have paid me, which is fair enough. However, I have my doubts as to whether I want to wait three months for every payment.

Is it time for your business to go on-line? If the answer to that is yes, then you need to start thinking about the right shopping cart software for you. Ashopcommerce.com is one of the premier suppliers of ecommerce software and has the perfect shopping cart just for you.

What are the advantages of using this shopping cart software? The first benefit is that everything is completely web based. That means that they is not software to download and install.

That said, you can customise the appearance of your shopping cart to suit your business's identity, so you get the best of both worlds: no software to have to fiddle with, but a design that you can customise to your heart's content.

With features like that I suppose you think that it will cost you and arm and a leg? That's not the case, because Ashopcommerce.com has a variety of payment plans to suit all sizes of business. Not only that but they offer you a free ten day trial - if you don't like what they offer then it doesn't cost you a penny.

That strikes me as a very good deal indeed.

Have you ever considered that maybe one of the reasons why so many money bloggers abandon their blogs is the sheer loneliness of the activity? Blogging is by definition a solitary activity and it needs a particular - not to say peculiar - type of mind to be successful at it.

I suppose that I am lucky in the sense that I have almost always worked alone, no matter what my job actually was. For many years I was a cinema projectionist and jobs don't get much lonelier than that.

Today I money blog and, unlike people who work in the traditional media, I don't have anyone that I can sit down with and discuss matters of mutual interest. I would go further and say that living in Mexico I am surrounded by people who barely understand what a computer is, never mind what a blog is all about.

The only advice that I can give to anyone in this situation is to remember that postings = punters = pounds. If you are not the type of person who can force himself to sit at a computer in the middle of the night, tapping out a posting, then you will not succeed as a money blogger.

So keep the postings coming, folks. If you do that your blog will succeed. If you can't, then find yourself another activity.

Best of luck to you all!

Had you ever considered becoming a Certified Nursing Assistant? As the baby boom generation moves into old age, opportunities at nursing homes will become more common, so now is your chance to make that career change and get in on the ground floor. You will need full CNA training at one of the registered CNA schools. Just hit one of the links that I am giving you to find which of the many CNA courses is the right one for you.

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What a careless young lady, Emma Watson has become. Flashing an upskirt like that - anyone would think that she did it deliberately to get some free publicity.

The British economy is set to follow the American into a severe downturn, says the financier George Soros.

I have blogged about the political ramifications of all this over at The Exile, and I don't want to repeat that here. The Money Blog is aimed, at least in part, at the money blogging fraternity, so let's consider what Soros says and try and apply it to us.

He argued that a major credit squeeze was on the horizon and that this recession will be just as much an "historic event" as the one in the 1930s was. His conclusion is that once the dust settles, the era of cheap money from easy loans will be over, probably forever.

However, Soros also believes that the major institutions will not come under threat in the way that they did in the '30s. He seems to be saying that this crash will effect only those companies and individuals who get caught with their arses hanging out the window, financially speaking, when things go pear-shaped.

Looking at this coldly, I honestly think that the money bloggers could be facing a boom ahead. We took a hit earlier this year, but now things are starting to bounce back as companies realise that advertising dollars are more cost effectively spent with us, rather than with the traditional media.

As things stand, it looks as if our incomes will fall compared to what we were able to rake in as recently as December and the first two weeks of January. However, and speaking just for myself, the amount of work that I am getting is picking up. I am doing a lot of work for loan companies and gambling outfits. Just the type of organisations that you would expect to boom when times are bad.

That suits me down to the ground and I hope that the same goes for you.

The credit squeeze is on us and for Americans in particular it looks like a bumpy ride is ahead. Many of you have already suffered a bad credit loans hit and you don't need me to tell you how difficult it can be to regain your former credit rating.

Luckily for you, there are lenders around who will give people another chance, so let's look at BadCreditOffers.com, a site which puts people like you in touch with those companies.

If you need to refinance your home loan, or need an auto or personal loan, then they can find you the perfect loan company who will give you a decision literally in seconds.

You don't believe me? Let's take credit cards as an example. Did you know that you can get not just a Mastercard, but a Mastercard Gold card in less than 60 seconds? Even if your credit rating is bad, one of these companies which specialises in bad credit credit cards is eager to do business with you.

Then, once you start making your payments regularly, you will see your credit rating start to climb to the level that it was before. You are entitled to a second chance, and you can now get one, thanks to BadCreditOffers. com.

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When you positively, absolutely, definitely must let rip, all you have to do is raise yourself up and let her blow. It might be a good idea not to screw your face up otherwise every cameraman in town will realise what you are doing and will want to grab a shot. Then your farting moment will end up all over the web. . .

See you next week!

I don't know if this get paid to host audio adverts idea will take off or not. I got involved with it late last year, but it has only just started playing adverts over at the Exile. The Money Blog hasn't received any as yet.

In return for sticking this company's code up at your blog, you will get $3.50 for every 1,000 plays. Each advert runs for a maximum of only ten seconds, so they shouldn't irritate too much. Oh, and the advert only plays once per punter.

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