GoDaddy is a Scam!
Do NOT use GoDaddy for anything!
Why?
First, their customer support is awful. They won't answer my questions and give me canned responses that don't even make sense.
Second, they're hosting sucks. I spent days trying to get a site up because of all the glitches. I even had a web building savvy person help me and even she couldn't believe how horrible GoDaddy's hosting was. After a few days of trying, I gave up and asked for a refund. Customer service informed me that I couldn't get a refund because I didn't ask within 48 hours. So, they're saying I should have given up sooner, I guess. Plus, they won't give me a refund for the domain name, even though I asked for a refund within the five day limitation. They won't tell me why on that one.
Third, they won't let me use what I paid for. I bought a year of domain use and three months of hosting. Yep, I'm locked out of the system because they told me to cancel my services to get a refund.
They get to keep my money and I don't get to use the product. What a scam.
I'm not the only one that thinks GoDaddy is a scam. Check these stories out:
GoDaddy Gives Away Personal InformationGoDaddy Scams Beware! Why GoDaddy Sucks RipOff Reports Is GoDaddy Trying to Rip People Off? Complaints Board Don't Use GoDaddy, They are a Ripoff Company! GoDaddy Ripoff
Update
I gave my customer service rep a rating of zero in his review and low and behold a manager contacted me within hours:
Hey Alina!
My name is Ryan Phillips, I am a supervisor here at GoDaddy.Com. It has come to my attention recently that you had a less than positive experience with our company, and I would like to speak with you to see if there is anything that I can do to make this right.
I tried calling the number listed on your account, but I didn’t get an answer so I am writing you an email instead.
I will continue to try to reach you throughout the day, but if you can send me an email with a good time to reach you as well as the best contact number I would love to speak with you further.
Thank you!!
Ryan Phillips
Customer Care
GoDaddy
I told Ryan my problem and this is the response:
Hey Alina!
Thanks for taking the time to write me back. I am more than happy to help you get this taken care of, and I am sorry to hear that the experience was less than pleasant.
I see that most of your interactions happened through email. This may be why there was some delay in the response times and some confusion as to what can and cannot be refunded.
Domains are refundable if canceled and requested within 120 hours of the original registration time. Unused time on hosting plans are refundable as well, I am unsure why you were told differently.
I want to make this right by you. If you would like, I am happy to refund the cost of both the hosting and the domain in full. That being said, I would also like to help you get things up an running! I don’t know why you were having a hard time using the Plesk hosting, but I would like to know more about it, as well as help you get things setup and running, should that be something that you are interested in at all. I would also like to do this at no cost to you.
I firmly believe that we are one of the industry leaders when it comes to the performance of our hosting products. When I hear customers like yourself have experienced issues, I like to take the time to see if there is something that I can do on my end to change the experience that they have had. With your permission, I would like to speak with you about this further to see if there is a way we can make you happy.
Again, thank you for your time, and I hope to hear from you soon.
Warm Regards,
Ryan Phillips
Customer Care
GoDaddy
Bottom line? If you are having trouble with GoDaddy, give them a poor performance rating. The link to the performance survey is at the bottom of the support emails.
How to Get Free Decor, Fashion and DIY Magazine Subscriptions
Do you drink Coke, Diet Coke, Sprite, Fanta, Minutemade, Gatorade or any other Coke products you can get free magazine subscriptions. I do this all the time using MyCokeRewards.com.
All you do is save the lids from your soda bottles or the codes on 12, 24 and 36-pack boxes. You enter the codes into your rewards account and they add up, little by little.
Once you get a little over 100 points you can pick out the magazine you want from the site and it is mailed to you. They have some great decor, DIY and fashion magazines available.
Some choices are:
Better Homes and Gardens
Country Living
Redbook
Glamour
Allure
Lucky
Cosmo
GQ
Self
O
Marie Claire
Veranda
Good Housekeeping
Now, if you don't drink a lot of soda (Dasani water counts, too, folks!) there's a little trick to getting your points balance up quickly. Collect soda caps from friends and family and keep an eye out for discarded caps on the ground. Before you know it you'll be enjoying your magazine.
My Office Makeover: Paper Pom-Poms DIY
how to make pompoms
Bright and cheery decor!I am a Pinterest addict. I recently saw a pin for tissue paper pom-poms and I pinned it right away. I'm redecorating my office (here is the before and after I redid my filing cabinets) and thought, why not?
You can follow Toni's pom-pom instructions on her site, but the way I did it differs just a bit because I used two colors of tissue paper to match my color scheme. The whole project cost under $10, but made a big impact.
Here's how I did it:
Take four sheets of tissue paper and lay them on your work surface.
Accordion fold the sheets like you would to make a paper fan when you were a kid. If you never made paper fans as a kid, check out the how-to video, below. The first few seconds will show you all you need to know.
Next, tie the center of the accordion with a piece of string. Make sure to cinch the string really tight.
Cut the ends of the accordion into points.
Repeat step 1-4 with a different color of tissue paper, then tie the two accordions together at their middles.
Gently pull each piece of tissue paper out from the others until the whole thing looks like a ball.
Tie a ribbon to the center of the ball where it is cinched with string and tack to the ceiling with a silver upholstery tack.
What do you think? I love them! They add so much color to my boring office. :)
My Office Makeover: Chic, Retro Restyled Filing Cabinets
Yesterday, I told you that I was redecorating my office and will be posting the results throughout the month (Click here to see the before photos). Today, I am going to show you my first project. My office contains two rusty filing cabinets that I decided to restyle in a funk, retro way.
I've seen other projects where people have restyled filing cabinets with paper and paint. Well, I did mine with paint and vintage fabric I got for free on Freecycle.
My office decor colors are a perky yellow and a cobalt blue. So, I painted the cabinets with Rustoleum Sunny Yellow, as you can see.
I gathered my tools which included wax paper to protect my work surface, Elmer's School Glue, fabric scissors, a paper plate to pure my glue into and a paper plate cut into a wedge to smooth the glue with.
Next, I covered the drawer fronts in my vintage print fabric. I started by covering cutting the fabric to the size of the drawer front. Then, I covered the fabric in white craft glue and let it dry.
Then, I smeared glue all over the surface of the drawer front and stuck the fabric panel to the drawer. I let it dry completely, then I trimmed the excess fabric from the edges of the drawer and cut a slit so the drawer handle would be accessible.
James Martins Secret Shopper Scam
Want to make money shopping? Well watch out my lovelies!
Many of my readers have probably heard of secret shopping and would like to know more, so I thought it would be good to alert them to a scam that is going around. You sign up as a secret shopper, the guy, James Martins, sends you a check and this email, below. Of course, the check bounces and your account gets in the hole. I didn't cash the check he sent me, so don't worry. There were too many warning signs. If you look very closely at these checks in the light it will have the words "Void" printed across it. Here is the email:
Attn Esteemed Shopper:
Thanks for the Heads Up; we have prepared your first payment for the mystery shopping assignment and it will be delivered to you through USPS courier Service TODAY Tuesday,July 30, 2013,Please confirm to me with the delivery ASAP.Once you receive the payment ( TAKE IT TO YOUR BANK AND HAVE IT CASHED).If you can't get the funds instantly at your Bank, you are require to make a special deposit for it and wait till tomorrow for availability of the funds to complete the assignment.
Note**You are require to evaluate a Wal-mart store and Western Union outlet in your City today as soon as you receive the package today. The payment you received covers all expenditures including evaluation, shopping, transport and your compensation for these surveys. You are to make a purchase of any electronic item worth $50, at any Wal-mart store close to you and also you will be using Western Union services to send the balance to another Mystery shopper to carry out another Assignment,we want to observe all the services of western union around the world and also the Wal-mart shopping.
PLEASE NOTE** IF YOU ARE ABLE TO COMPLETE THE FIRST ASSIGNMENT TODAY,IT WILL ATTRACT $50 EXTRA BONUS FOR YOUR SECOND ASSIGNMENT.
FIRST ASSIGNMENT.
Below is the breakdown of how the payment will be spent and you are to take note of the following activities.
You are to deduct $200 survey fees from the total payment received which is $1950, after completion of first assignment.You are to make a purchase of any electronic item worth $50 (to be kept by you) at any Wal-mart store close to you and also you will be using Western Union services to send the balance to another Mystery shopper to carry out his own Assignment.
As a secret shopper, you should go there and study how to send money and memorize all you see at the outlet. We want you to report back to us with the following information:
GUIDELINES FOR BOTH ASSIGNMENT
-How long it took you to get services.
-Ambiance/Outlook of the Shop/Outlet
-Smartness of the attendant
-Customer service professionalism
-Sometimes you might be required to upset the attendant, to see how they react to clients why they get tensed.
-Reaction of personnel under pressure
-Information that you think would be helpful
-Your comments and impressions.
Below is the expenditures breakdown:-
Money Received ....$1950
Salary .................$200
Wal-mart ................$50
Required fund to be sent through Western Union to the next shopper..............$1700
Note :Send Money to be available in Minutes and the western union transfer charges should be deducted from the funds you are sending not from your commission.
As a secret shopper your job is to observe any thing useful going on in the outlet. Make sure you observe everything you see in there because you would be asked some other questions when you return. So then you would go ahead and make a western union money transfer to another mystery shopper for another assignment.
We want you to deduct your weekly payment of $200 and have the remaining funds (minus the western union charges and also $50 for whatever you will be buying at Walmart) sent to the information below for proper preparation of our next Mystery Shopper.
TRANSFER THE REST OF THE FUNDS THROUGH WESTERN UNION TO ANOTHER SURVEY AGENT (Mr Leo Powe )WHICH INFORMATION IS BELOW.
RECEIVER'S NAME.: Leo Powe
RECEIVERS ADDRESS:605 PARKER AVE
RODEO, CA 94572
Our Finance department has just established a new system which you might have never heard of and it is called Alert pay. And this service is been Privately owned and established under our management since 2007 With many competitors we have a very low rating and few customers and we want to develop and upgrade our service to the best and fullest. So we only need the report you provide so we can work on our service.Please try as much to be discrete when doing your work as a mystery shopper, just observe all you see and report back when you get back home.
Also to finalize this Assignment, you have to get back to us with the Necessary report of Walmarts and also with the below western union transfer information for the money you sent to the other mystery shopper:
MTCN CONTROL #
SENDERS NAME AND ADDRESS
RECEIVERS NAME AND ADDRESS
TOTAL AMOUNT SENT
WESTERN UNION SERVICE CHARGE .
This project shouldn't take you more than a couple of hours to execute and the time limit matters to us, with that we can also determine your efficiency and the commitment you show towards working with us. Do get back to me with the Reports and Transfer information.
Looking forward to work with you on this project .And remember to pretend to be a client who wants to Shop and send money so they wont detect you are a secret shopper.
Your Second assignment commences as soon as you complete your first assignment depending on your efficiency.
We hope to have a long lasting business relationship with you.
Get back to me with a reply to show that you are in Receipt of this message.
Yours sincerely,
James Martins.
Secret Shopper®
7736093168
Saying the Right Word Can Get You More Clicks Through Social Media
How much sway does one word have when it comes to getting your followers to read your articles? Turns out one word can mean everything and even more words work even better according to Facebook research. This article on Huffington post is a good read if you are looking to get more readers through social media. Do you agree with the article? Do you have any social media tricks that you use to get followers to read your articles?
How to Fight Mold-Related Winter Depression
Winter Depression by Ramzi Hashisho
Winter is often a time of sad feelings and depression. This widespread phenomenon has been widely diagnosed as seasonal affective disorder, which comes from the lack of light during the winter solstice. As a writer, I get seasonal affective disorder because I'm indoors all the time. Or so I thought. Research suggests, though, that there may be another, overlooked, cause for winter depression: Mold.
The Findings
Edmond Shenassa, Brown University epidemiologist, who led a study on data collected from eight European cities, said that there was a link between depression and living in a home that had mold. According to the study published in the American Journal of Public Health, a mold score was created from resident and inspector-reported data. Depression was scored using an index of depressive symptoms. Shenassa’s research team found that people with moldy homes were 40% more likely to be depressed than those who did not have mold in their homes. This finding is not surprising since household mold has been found to be toxic to humans, causing neurological disorders of many different degrees.
The wet, stagnant air in winter months can bring about an increase of household mold, making winter the prime time for mold-related depression. The best way to avoid this type of depression is removal and prevention of mold throughout the home.
Avoiding Mold
Avoiding mold growth in your home during moist winter months can be a challenge, but it can be done with a little perseverance.
First, keep the rooms in your home well ventilated. Use the ventilation fan in your bathroom during baths and showers or use the heat lamp to dry up any steam. Turn on the over-the-stove vent when cooking cold weather stews and soups to rid your home of the steam from the pots.
Eliminate all standing water. Condensation on walls and windowsills should be wiped dry on a regular basis to prevent mold growth. A dehumidifier is a good investment if you often find condensation around your home. It will bring humidity levels below 60% and eliminate the problem.
Carpets are an ideal home for mold. Clean up spills on carpets immediately, getting the area as dry as possible.
Getting Rid of Mold
Mold is usually identified as black, green, or dark discolorations on objects. It can be powdery, furry, of slick in texture depending on the type of mold and where it is growing. If you already have mold in your home, it can be removed with simple household products.
I asked Michael Dooley, the Vice President of the New Mexico chapter the American Society of Home Inspectors, for help. He suggests making a hydrogen peroxide solution to kill mold on non-porous surfaces. Combine one part hydrogen peroxide and three parts water in a spray bottle. Spray the mixture on the mold and wipe with a dry, disposable cloth.
Another household solution to mold, says Dooley, is to make a paste with borax powder and a little bit of water. Use the paste to scrub the surface infected with mold and rinse away the residue.
One chemical to avoid that is commonly used to battle mold is bleach. “Bleach does not kill mold,” says Dooley.
This winter, don’t let depression creep in with the cold and affect your freelance work. Make mold removal part of your winterizing routine to feel your best.
Suite 101 Payment Changes
After months of being in read-only mode, Suite 101 has its writer system back up and running...along with a new payment structure. Here is what their support page says:
To qualify, you must be in good standing, and have accumulated at least 25 readers in the past month. As a rule, if you write meaningful, engaging pieces, your audience will grow – and as it does, so will your fee.
Regular readers Payment1000+ $1000
500 $500
250 $250
100 $100
50 $50
25 $25
Unlike many sites, we don't track (misleading, manipulable) vanity metrics like uniques, pageviews and impressions. Instead, we look at visitor behavior to filter out hit-and-run traffic and form a more sensitive understanding of what people are really reading.
The results are interesting, and ring true: visitors from search engine results, while more numerous, seldom actually read articles – and even more rarely return. Success in search engine results rarely correlates to actual readership.
This fee, devoted solely to readers, not traffic, therefore favours great writing over SEO copywriting.
They had this payment structure when I first started writing for them back in 2006, and I prefer it to the many incarnations that came after. I no longer write for Suite 101 because of their poor management and waffling over how they are going to run the site, but at least this is a step in the right direction.
Ozio Media Sends Spam
In my last post, I talked about how writers should avoid Ozio Media because they have a tendency not to pay their writers. Now they are in the spam business, too. I've been getting emails from them like this gem:
There's no easier way than by creating a
content-rich money-making website on a topic you
love.
Why?
Low-risk (This is the 'slow and steady' approach).
Get started for as little as $50-$100.
Takes only 3 hours a week to do.
Don't need a product to sell.
Make money doing something you love, living
anywhere in the world you choose to be.
Last month Nick Usborne made $4,447 with one of
his own money-making websites. Not an amount that
would impress Warren Buffet, but for us "regular"
people it's nothing to shake a stick at. Learn how
you can create your own money-making websites,
writing about something you love.
I took out the sales link, but it goes to their site. Each email I've gotten from them is a sales pitch, trying to get me to purchase some magic item that will make me a super successful freelance writer. Haha. Avoid this company like the plague.
Writers Should Avoid Ozio Media
Ozio Media is a company that hires writers, as freelancers, to complete copywriting projects for their clients. The projects are usually pretty easy and the pay is around $3 per 100 words. It's a fair side job. That is, if they pay. Ozio is known for not paying their writers. Currently, they owe me over $500. Ann, who runs the payment section of the company, doesn't reply to emails unless she feels like it (almost never) and then doesn't pay you even after many promises.
Here are some others that have had problems with Ozio Media:
Ozio Media AVOID THIS UNPROFESSIONAL RUN COMPANY Baltimore, Maryland Scam Alert: Ozio Media Ozio Media- Scam? Blackhat World WAHM Forums More Complaints on WAHM Forum
I used to do a search on companies before I did any work for them. I didn't with this one and now I'm paying the price. Always do a search, my writer friends! Since they didn't pay me for my work, I will be selling the articles and ebooks I wrote to bloggers that need content. Ah, well.
Quick Ways to Find Errors in Your Writing
I use Grammarly for proofreading because bad grammar makes the comma chameleon cry.
I honor of National Punctuation Day, I thought I'd write a post on how to quickly catch errors in your writing. Here are just a few:
Read your text backwards. Read your text out loud. Run the text through Grammarly's proofreading system. Have a friend read the text out loud to you or record yourself reading the text and play back the recording. Don't be afraid to turn on your word processor's spelling and grammar checking tools. It's wrong a lot of the time, but when it's right it can save you some time.
Do you have any tips for proofreading your writing?
Disclosure: Post sponsored by Grammarly.
"Free" Clients for Your Writing Business
Lately, I've been getting what I like to call "free" clients. These are clients that you don't have to look for. They just fall into your lap. No cold calling. No emails. Nadda.
So how did I get these clients?
My website. These clients found my website and from the information on it, and nothing else, they wanted to hire me. That's the power of a great writer's website. Want to know my secrets to a great site that draws in free clients?
No ads. If your website has ads, that's a sure sign you're a novice because you can't afford to buy a domain name and a proper site. Google Sites offer free hosting and low-cost domain names, so there's no excuses! Make sure your site has content. It shouldn't just have a couple sentences about what you can do and your email. Fill that sucker up with your resume, quotes from happy customers and plenty of information on why a client should hire you. Search engines need words to figure out what your site is about so it can present it to people who are searching. No words, no visitors. I like to offer a range of services. I know some will tell you to find a niche and stick to it. That's not my bag and it works for me. I offer business owners text and image content services and I offer writers editing and critique services. My point is, don't be afraid to present all of the services you're qualified to offer. Keep your site clean and organized to make it easy for potential clients to find the information they need quickly and easily. Don't bunch all your information together on one page. I break my site up into sections for easy navigation. There's a Hire Me page, a page for my resume, a page for my editing and critique service, a page for my clips and a page for my illustrations. Add a photo of yourself. This helps you come across as a real person and not just some faceless entity that wants money on the web. Make it a professional looking image. No selfies!
Need a visual? Feel free to visit my site to get a feel for what I'm talking about.
Tips for Making More Money as a Writer
The other day, I was visiting one of my favorite forums and found a post by a writer that is down in the dumps because he can't seem to make more than a few dollars per article. All he does is do work for content mills. I gave him some tips on how to make more money, and it occurred to me that some of my readers may like to read the tips, too. Here they are.
Apply, Apply, Apply!
What I do to make more than a few bucks per article is to apply to writing jobs. Gathering real life clients will earn you much more than writing for content mills.
Set aside one day per week and apply to as many writing jobs as you can find that fit the type of writing you do well. I've found many repeat clients doing this.
Here are three lists of writing job sites and other places that pay writers:
30+ Sites that Pay Writers for Articles
15 Places Where You Can Find Freelance Writing Jobs
20 High Paying Magazines Looking for Pitches
.
The jobs listed on these sites often pay much more than $5 per article.
How to Apply
Applying for writing jobs is easy. All you do is write yourself a good resume listing your experience and send it along with links to your clips.
Even articles on your own blog are good clips if you don't have anything else. It's always good to show potential clients
something
.
James Martins Secret Shopper Scam
I know many of my readers are also secret shoppers, so I thought it would be good to alert you to a scam that is going around. You sign up as a secret shopper, the guy, James Martins, sends you a check using express mail and the email, below.
Of course, the check bounces and your account gets in the hole, but he gets the money scott-free. I didn't cash the check he sent me, so don't worry. I knew it was a scam, and even if I didn't, If you look very closely at these checks you will see the words "Void" printed across it. See in the scan?
Attn Esteemed Shopper:
Thanks for the Heads Up; we have prepared your first payment for the mystery shopping assignment and it will be delivered to you through USPS courier Service TODAY Tuesday,July 30, 2013,Please confirm to me with the delivery ASAP.Once you receive the payment ( TAKE IT TO YOUR BANK AND HAVE IT CASHED).If you can't get the funds instantly at your Bank, you are require to make a special deposit for it and wait till tomorrow for availability of the funds to complete the assignment.
Note**You are require to evaluate a Wal-mart store and Western Union outlet in your City today as soon as you receive the package today. The payment you received covers all expenditures including evaluation, shopping, transport and your compensation for these surveys. You are to make a purchase of any electronic item worth $50, at any Wal-mart store close to you and also you will be using Western Union services to send the balance to another Mystery shopper to carry out another Assignment,we want to observe all the services of western union around the world and also the Wal-mart shopping.
PLEASE NOTE** IF YOU ARE ABLE TO COMPLETE THE FIRST ASSIGNMENT TODAY,IT WILL ATTRACT $50 EXTRA BONUS FOR YOUR SECOND ASSIGNMENT.
FIRST ASSIGNMENT.
Below is the breakdown of how the payment will be spent and you are to take note of the following activities.
You are to deduct $200 survey fees from the total payment received which is $1950, after completion of first assignment.You are to make a purchase of any electronic item worth $50 (to be kept by you) at any Wal-mart store close to you and also you will be using Western Union services to send the balance to another Mystery shopper to carry out his own Assignment.
As a secret shopper, you should go there and study how to send money and memorize all you see at the outlet. We want you to report back to us with the following information:
GUIDELINES FOR BOTH ASSIGNMENT
-How long it took you to get services.
-Ambiance/Outlook of the Shop/Outlet
-Smartness of the attendant
-Customer service professionalism
-Sometimes you might be required to upset the attendant, to see how they react to clients why they get tensed.
-Reaction of personnel under pressure
-Information that you think would be helpful
-Your comments and impressions.
Below is the expenditures breakdown:-
Money Received ....$1950
Salary .................$200
Wal-mart ................$50
Required fund to be sent through Western Union to the next shopper..............$1700
Note :Send Money to be available in Minutes and the western union transfer charges should be deducted from the funds you are sending not from your commission.
As a secret shopper your job is to observe any thing useful going on in the outlet. Make sure you observe everything you see in there because you would be asked some other questions when you return. So then you would go ahead and make a western union money transfer to another mystery shopper for another assignment.
We want you to deduct your weekly payment of $200 and have the remaining funds (minus the western union charges and also $50 for whatever you will be buying at Walmart) sent to the information below for proper preparation of our next Mystery Shopper.
TRANSFER THE REST OF THE FUNDS THROUGH WESTERN UNION TO ANOTHER SURVEY AGENT (Mr Leo Powe )WHICH INFORMATION IS BELOW.
RECEIVER'S NAME.: Leo Powe
RECEIVERS ADDRESS:605 PARKER AVE
RODEO, CA 94572
Our Finance department has just established a new system which you might have never heard of and it is called Alert pay. And this service is been Privately owned and established under our management since 2007 With many competitors we have a very low rating and few customers and we want to develop and upgrade our service to the best and fullest. So we only need the report you provide so we can work on our service.Please try as much to be discrete when doing your work as a mystery shopper, just observe all you see and report back when you get back home.
Also to finalize this Assignment, you have to get back to us with the Necessary report of Walmarts and also with the below western union transfer information for the money you sent to the other mystery shopper:
MTCN CONTROL #
SENDERS NAME AND ADDRESS
RECEIVERS NAME AND ADDRESS
TOTAL AMOUNT SENT
WESTERN UNION SERVICE CHARGE .
This project shouldn't take you more than a couple of hours to execute and the time limit matters to us, with that we can also determine your efficiency and the commitment you show towards working with us. Do get back to me with the Reports and Transfer information.
Looking forward to work with you on this project .And remember to pretend to be a client who wants to Shop and send money so they wont detect you are a secret shopper.
Your Second assignment commences as soon as you complete your first assignment depending on your efficiency.
We hope to have a long lasting business relationship with you.
Get back to me with a reply to show that you are in Receipt of this message.
Yours sincerely,
James Martins.
Secret Shopper®
7736093168
Easy Ways to Make Money Online
Today I'm going to take a break from freelance writing and share a few sites that you can make money on. These are great breaks when you get burnt with your regular clients.
There are a lot of online scams out there on the web, but there are also legitimate, easy ways to make money online.
These free ways to make money online are companies that usually have the user perform small tasks for predetermined amounts of money. This money gradually adds up and is deposited into a PayPal account or bank account. Here is a list of sites that are legitimate ways to make money online.
MTurk.com Has Free Ways to Make Money Online
MTurk stands for Amazon Mechanical Turk and is run by the Amazon.com. It is a website that provides HITs or Human Intelligence Tasks for users to do for money. Examples of the types of tasks that are listed on MTurk are:
Categorizing products Finding sentences with proper grammar Finding information on websites Each task takes a few seconds and then the user can move on to the next task.
For the inside scoop on MTurk from MTurk members, lurk the Turker's Nation forum.
Make Money with Art and Photographs with Zazzle.com
People who love to draw, paint or take photographs will enjoy Zazzle for making money online.
At Zazzle, users upload their art and photography and place it on shirts, cards, hats, shoes, umbrellas and more. Each item that the user makes is placed in a customized online store. When items sell from the user’s store, Zazzle gets a cut and the user gets royalties. The user can predetermine how much of a percentage of royalties each sell will bring.
Student of Fortune.com Pays for Answers
The Student of Fortune website offers a place for students to ask questions and get answers. If a user answers a question, they get paid. Users can make around $.25 to over $100 per question.
Here’s how the site works:
A student posts a question to be answered. Users create answers and provide prices for their answers. The student chooses the best answer that fits within his price range and the person who gave the winning answer earns the money.
Mahalo Answers Rewards Good Information
Mahalo Answers is another site that pays for answering questions. On this site, users ask questions and other users answer the questions. The user that asked the question then picks the best answer. Questions can have rewards or “tips” attached to them that are awarded to the user who gave the best answer. This can be a good way to make money online for those that love sites like Yahoo Answers.
With these sites, a person can make some quick cash from home.
Spatan Kelvin Scammer
Watch out for a scammer named Spatan Kelvin, aka melissawci@gmail.com, aka spatan03@gmail.com, if you use Craigslist. I was just contacted by him. Here is the email:
Hello
Thanks for getting back to me.. and I am sorry for getting back to you
so late.. My name is Sharon Kelvin I'm 25 yrs old.(FEMALE). I Am a
Native of Usa...Born Delaware. I'm fun loving,clean, caring and a
respective of others.
am very okay with the description as stated in your advert, i am a working
class, i work as an evaluator for one of our local recruiting organization,
So I Will Like To Be Your roomie Throughout My evaluation work.
I wil love to let you know my duration but,Now the company never told
me yet.They only told me to find a
suitable room for myself.But i Know it will be a Long term commitment.
Please let me know the total payment For the first month + the
security Fee, So I can inform them i got a
room and you will be paid instantly today with, via US cashier,Usps
Money Order or certified check from a reputable bank, the secretary of
the recruiting organization will mail out the payment for the rented
room via Fedex courier Next day Air service.It will take Within 24
hours For the payment to redeem into your bank account.
So Kindly get Back With The Below To Facilitate The Mailing Of
Payment To you Asap.
Full Name:---------
physical mailing address:--------------
City:-------------------
State:--------------
Zip Code:----------------
Cell Phone Number:--------------
Home Phone Number:------------------
Total Amount for the deposit or charges:------------
If you have any AGREEMENT FORM for me to fill out,i will do that
on my arrival to your house because i don't want to fill any form online
For my physical signature will appear,But you can send it for
my review and i will get it filled physically on my arrival.
Note:.. The secretary to the organization will issue out the payment
for the deposit today as soon as you can get back with the above
info, So that i can be rest assured i got the
room..And Please Remove the Advert Because You i Am Renting the room.
Thanks. Cant Wait To Meet You.
Sharon.
Titan Escrow Group Inc. Scam
Here is another scam
you all should be aware of. I got an email this morning offering me a job and I decided to do a little research on it before I replied.
Turns out, many people have gotten this email and at least one person has been the victim of fraud. According to the person on this forum, she handed over copies of her identification and the scammers used it.
Now, there
is
a legit company named Titan Escrow Group Inc., but they have nothing to do with this scam as far as I can tell. They are located in California and the "job offer" is for a Canadian office, which doesn't exist.
Before you answer any email for a job offer, make sure that you check the email address. This email was sent from BernettsyaGaobstejelum@hotmail.com. The fact that it was sent from a Hotmail account and not a company account is a dead giveaway. Someone named Olivia Wilson is also sending out these fake job offers. Here's what the original email looks like: "Greetings from Titan Escrow Group Inc. !
Hirer: "Titan Escrow Group" Titan Escrow Group is conventional escrow. Our reputation as one of the world's advanced escrow agents has been accrued by convinced group, which can provide your deals close accurately.
Job appointment: Receiving Clerk Position area: Canada Job information: $700/week for 20 hours/week.
Your responsibilities Will consist of: - Check and keep reporting on incoming and outgoing shipments. - Check receipt of shipments against bills of lading, invoices or other record. - To keep the record of our Clients and Sellers - Guide Clients
You should acquire the following skills: - Self-starter - Have good communication skills - Have good organizational skills - Basic computer skills Word, Excel/Social)
We're looking forward to your answer. We'll contact you as soon as possible. Sincerely, "Titan Escrow Group" HR office"
Freelance Writing Jobs: Gravytrain Isn't a Gravy Train
I stumbled upon a forum post over at WAHM.com about a site that hires writers called Gravytrain. This lead me to a disturbing article at BCBusiness about the site. It seems that any writing ethics are thrown clean out the window, at least that's what the owners fessed up to.
Not only that, but do you get paid well for all of this debauchery? Nope. It looks like they named themselves in a misleading fashion because a gravy train it is not. They claim you make around $25 to $40 per hour. You get around $12 per 500 word article according to research by BCBusiness.
Don't lower yourself. Find work elsewhere!
Grab a Writer Does Have Jobs
Since I wrote my blog on
a few days ago, I've seen many writers claim that Grab a Writer is a scam and doesn't have any actual jobs. Well, I beg to differ. Today I was emailed a job opportunity for one of their clients. Here's what the job looked like:
Take a look at that price for 10 articles! I would get a whopping $2.50! Wow, somebody catch me because I'm about to faint at my good fortune.
As a writer, you can click on the magnifying glass to see the details of the project:
Sorry, I'm going to need to pass this up. Decline! Hopefully not all of Grab a Writer's projects are like these.
11/29/12 ETA: Yup, my rate was wrong in my profile. They want a rate per 100 words, not per word. I changed it just now. Click on the link at the top of this blog post to go to my original post about Grab a Writer and look in the comments. There is a post from a writer that got ripped off because of this.