Get Paid to Search: MySearchFunds Pays You for Using Google

are you still using Google, Yahoo or Ask.com for your searches? Are you trying to make money online but yet are not getting paid for your Internet searches?

If so, I have good news for you: yet another way to make money online is to sign up to MySearchFunds and install their very unobtusive search box. When I first heard about this I thought this would be a search engine with only a few websites but to my big surprise I noticed that they work with Google, Yahoo and Ask.com so when you search through the MySearchFunds searchbox, you are taken to the Google search page; the only difference is that you get paid for searching!

I did a few searches about the site and so far it doesn't seem to be a scam, as a few MySearchFunds users have confirmed that they got paid. The only complaints I read about the website was that they are a bit slow to pay (45 days after the end of the month, once you have reached £20).

Good news also for Dollar and Euro users as you will be paid in pounds sterling, a currency that is strong at the moment (you get more dollars per pound).

If you haven't done so yet, I recommend you to sign up to MySearchFunds; use it as you would use Google or any search engine you like to use: it doesn't require you doing any extra work and will make your bank manager smile!

I Am Convinced (at last!?) that Numenmail is a Scam

A few months ago I joined Numenmail, a Get Paid to Read Emails/Get Paid to Click program and even though it took me a while before I decided to expose them (I just wanted to be sure!), I can now say this loud and clear: Numenmail is a scam!

Of course it was not realistic to hope that I could earn more than a few cents per day on a PTR/PTC (Paid to Read/Paid to Click) program so when I joined a program like Numenmail that gave me a $800 sign up bonus and $80 per email that I read, I should have known that this was a scam.

Numenmail were very generous with their emails (I got 3 or 4 $80 paying emails plus a good few links to click at $5 each every day) but when I reached the $8888 payout after just over a month reading emails I requested the money to be paid onto my Paypal account and of course it never came!

I gave them the benefit of the doubt and sent them an email enquiring about my money but I was not surprised to get no answer from Numenmail.

It is now 61 days since I have requested my $8888 payout (it would have been nice to get it!) and the website states that payments are sent within 30 days of being requested so I can now safely say that Numenmail is a scam.

If you would like to have more details about this website and follow my progress on Numenmail, visit the Squidoo lens I have created especially for this purpose: Can I Really Make Money Reading Emails?

P.S. I may never get paid by Numenmail, but at least I will make sure that I earn indirectly from them, with my Squidoo lens (wicked, I know!); it is time for me to start spending the balance of my Numenmail earnings (about $20,000) on advertising on the site!

What a Smart Way to Drive Visitors Out of my Blog!

For a while now I have had a Hunger Site banner at a prominent place in my blog. While I like the idea of my blog's visitors helping a good cause, I don't like the fact that I may be losing potential readers by displaying the banner on top of my blog posts.

This blog is supposed to be about Smart Ways to Earn Money Online but let me be the first to admit that placing the Hunger Site banner on top of my posts was everything but a smart move, this is why I have decided to move it to a less prominent location.

It wouldn't have been too much of a problem if the Hunger Site opened in a new window after someone clicked on it but it doesn't; once you click the banner, you are taken to a different website where you have to click on another banner if you want to help fight poverty, which means that once you have done your good deed, you have to hit the back button twice if you want to come back to Smart Ways to Earn Money Online with Internet Junkie, and that's assuming that you don't do any more browsing around the Hunger Site!

I have nothing against the Hunger Site, in fact I love the idea of being able to help fight poverty online and I want to keep their banner on this blog, but until they make one that opens in a new window and make it easier for the Smart Ways to Earn Money Online's visitors to come back and read my content, I will keep the Hunger Site banner under my blog posts.

P.S. Once you're done reading, commenting and bookmarking Smart Ways to Earn Money Online with Internet Junkie, please don't forget to visit the Hunger Site; it's free to give, all you have to do is click!

Top 5 Get Rich Quick Schemes and Why You Should Avoid Them like the Plague

Whether we like to admit it or not, we would all love to find a way to get rich quick.

A few months ago I read somewhere that Oprah Winfrey had been talking about an online chain letter that could make you $800,000 richer in about 90 days! I almost got sucked in but a few online searches saved my wallet and my Paypal account.

If you want to know the truth about chain letters, MLM, HYIPs, gambling and work-at-home programs that claim they will make you rich quick, read Top 5 Get Rich Quick Schemes and Why You Should Avoid Them like the Plague.

Freebie Alert: Article Submitter

You may remember an older post on this blog saying that it was a good idea to convert your blog posts into articles to submit to article directories.

Article writing and submitting is a good way to get good-quality free backlinks from article directories but unfortunately I must admit that I haven't been one to take my own advice and I think I have just about 3 articles so far published on free article directories other than Associated Content.

The reason why I haven't been so active in submitting articles to those directories is that even after an article is written, it still takes a long time to submit the same article manually to just 10 or 12 article directories.

Well today one of the newsletters I subscribed to sent me a link to download Article Submitter for free so of course I took advantage of this great opportunity.

Article Submitter is a software that allows you to submit your articles to about 700 article directories easily and thus saves you a huge amount of time; all you have to do is write your article (no, unfortunately, it doesn't do that for you!), fill in the required fields in the software, indicate the directories you want to submit to and click to submit.

I toyed with the idea of using a free article submission service before but never actually downloaded one and I can safely say that this is the best thing that happened to me in a long time!

If you are interested in downloading the Free Article Submitter, click here!

Viral Marketing and the New Cinderella

Sophie Merry, an Irish girl and complete stranger who posted a few videos of her dancing on YouTube was picked by an advertising company to represent the French clothing line Etam and is one of the best examples of successful viral marketing.

This modern-life fairy tale has been widely publicized (I heard of this on the televised Irish news) and now the company is running a contest for other girls to show off their dancing skills and the winner will get a year's supply of Etam jeans for the winner and 10 of her friends.

This is an example of viral marketing used by a clever company: a video showing Sophie Merry and her Groovy moves is being shown on a mini-site that is heavily linked to Etam's main website.

By spreading the Groovy Dancing Girl video and attracting young girls to their website (which offers contestants the opportunity of dancing to a slowed soundtrack and then producing a fun video of their dancing; once the soundtrack is being converted back to its normal speed, the results are amazing!), Etam is trying to modernize its image (they were one of those clothing lines that I would have considered as "For Grannies" before now) and so far, it looks likes their attempt at viral marketing is working!

So Much to Do, So Little Time!

A few months ago, I published a post about organization and the way I intended to work on this blog but of course, the very next day something came up and I forgot all about it!

Being a single mum with children who are only attending school in the morning, I often get sidetracked; whether it's a child getting sick, a day off school, the realization that my house needs cleaning, clothes need ironing, a family member visiting or simply the need to take a break, I recently realized that I would be lucky if I could get 4 hours online a day.

I have decided to list everything that needs to be done:
Writing blog posts;
Writing articles;
Updating Squidoo lenses;
Posting on Morachat, Squidoo and Associated Content forums;
Visiting blogs, Squidoo lenses, Associated Content articles;
Commenting on blogs, Squidoo lenses, Associated Content articles;
Participating on BlogCatalog, Facebook and other social bookmarking websites.

Since I can't do everything in only 4 hours a day, I will have to slow down on some of these activities, at least until school starts back next September; I have noticed that it doesn't make much difference whether I post here every day or twice a week so I will try to keep this last frequency (although I can't guarantee that this won't slow down to once a week especially during the summer holidays).

When I started with this blog, I never knew that keeping it afloat would be so time-consuming. At the beginning, I tried to do everything I read in the articles I read about blogging advice but now I realize that it is impossible to do everything, so before I start suffering from burn-out I need to slow down and enjoy the time I have with my children.

After spending a little over 6 months trying to earn money online, I realize that it is not difficult; the only difficulty in making money online resides in the fact that it is so damn time-consuming!