How Important is Social Media?
How Important is Social Media?
I've talked a lot about how to get readers get to your website through search engines. It seems like social media marketing is the latest buzz when it comes to traffic trends. Many people are reporting that social media is much more valuable for attracting people to your site. I decided to do a little research on my own. I posted an article and then tracked how my visitors found it. In my search for the truth I found something amazing.
Social Media Experiment Results
Only 25 (not 25%...just 25) people found it using Google Search after an entire month. How did the other 8,000 people find my article?
StumbleUpon and Facebook.
In fact, my article had been stumbled around 400 times. Others are reporting similar trends.
Don't Give Up on Google
What does this mean to me? To you?
It means social media is an important marketing tool. Does that mean we should stop fretting about SEO and Google's Panda and start dusting off our Facebook pages and Twitter accounts?
Hold on a sec. Don't do anything drastic.
Search traffic and social media can work together to get your site all of the traffic it deserves. After all, according to a report by Econsultancy, search engine traffic is still the way to go. 61% of people still use search engines research a product before a purchase.
Matt Cutts, of course, agrees. Take a look at this video.
Need help utilizing social media or boosting your site's traffic? Contact me.
Crappy Potential Freelance Clients
I've been really busy with clients lately. I love helping clients, but nothing gets me more steamed than potential clients wasting my time. This week I dealt with the all time, number one time waster.
First, he refused to look at my site to see what type of services I offer and wanted me to type it all out in an IM for him. Then, he told me that he had a budget of around $3,000. When I quoted him a price of $1,000 for my services, he changed his mind and told me that his budget was actually $400, but he could throw in an extra $100 if I could do the entire job. Plus, he wanted everything done ASAP and wanted an in-person meeting! Oh, and there's the charming fact that he said he wanted a local Texas writer, but wanted to pay Indian rates.
I told him what services I could provide him for $500 and that there would be no in-person meeting. I mean come on! There's no reason for an in-person when you can Skype. Besides, I'm not going to meet someone who randomly contacted me on the internet who has already lied to me.
After almost a solid week of him emailing me about how I need to help him and do his whole project ASAP, I got really fed up. I told him that instead of half up-front I required the total payment up-front. I mean if he's this big of a pain in the butt now, imagine what he'd be like during the project. After all of his emails, I didn't trust him to pay the other half, especially after he mentioned that several other writers disappointed him. Here was his response:
"Ok. Let's not start the work without any trust. If don't believe me, I don't need to believe your experience and trust.
Thanks knowing you and willingness to work with me.
All the best!"
Well, let's see, dude. I have tons of references and screenshots on my site, proving my professionalism and I have tons of publishing credits. What do we know about you? That you are super unprofessional in your IMs and emails and expect someone with more than 16 years of experience to work for chicken scratch.
I just can't get over his nerve.
Why I Hate Female Equality Toy Marketing
Today, I'm going to talk a little about marketing. I figure with the holidays coming up in a few months, this is a great time. Okay, I've been noticing a disturbing trend. Toy companies are coming out with "boy toys" painted pink and are branding them as "girl toys." Not only that, but they are claiming that this is an amazing step towards gender equality and they are happy to lead the way. Umm, huh? For example, have you seen the Nurf Rebelle toys? They are basically the same foam shooting toy guns Nurf has always had, but now they're pink. So girls can play with them.
Girls don't need pink!
Newsflash Nurf! We girls have been playing with the original orange and yellow guns for decades. I guess we weren't aware we couldn't play with them unless they were pink. Not only that, the f-ing name is Rebelle instead of Rebel. Isn't that cute? They made a tough boy name into a name that sounds more girly. Awe. (By the way, that's my daughter on the left. Note the color of her Nurf gun. She HATES pink.) Then, there is another big headline grabber called Goldieblox. This toy was designed to encourage girls to become engineers by giving them a lame building set that isn't near as cool or as useful as all the other building sets on the market. Oh, but wait! It comes with storybooks that have a girl as the hero. That will keep the recipients of this toy from tossing it aside for something more interesting, like, say, Legos or K'nex.
There are three major problems with girl toys that are designed to break down gender barriers. First, we girls have been playing with "boy toys" for decades! I don't think I have ever heard a girl, armed with a Super Soaker, say, "Gee, I wish they made these for girls." You know why? Because for most of us girls that were born after 1975 didn't think about whether a toy was meant for girls. If it was cool, we played with it. Period.
Second, you know why some girls don't play with Legos or toy trucks? Because they genuinely like dolls and pink things better. It's not that hard of a concept.
Third, the only people who create gender barriers for little girls are grownups. Thankfully, my
That's me with my race car. Notice how it isn't pink?
parents and grandparents didn't subscribe to the whole girls should play with this and boys should play with that bullhocky. One of my first toys was a yellow, metal Tonka dump truck that I played in the dirt with for hours. Note how it wasn't pink or targeted towards girls. I also had dolls, princess dresses, race cars, building sets and a science kit. Yup, that's me, in the early 80s, riding on my race car toyI didn't grow up thinking something had to be pink or named with a cutesy name before I could play with it. I guess that's my whole point. Girls don't need special toys. They need special parents that don't care what color a toy is or what an advertisement says. Throw all kinds of toys at your kids, both boys and girls, and see what THEY like.
And for Pete's sake, if you daughter picks up a toy hammer and your son picks up a Barbie, don't squeal about how progressive you are or how they are making great choices. Just let kids be freaking kids already and forget about labels.
How Not to Use Social Media: A Case Study Using Amy's Baking Company
How not to use social media!
Many business owners want to know how to use social media to build their business. I like teaching by example, so let's take a look at a company that not only did the wrong thing very publicly, they continue to do it.
How Not to Use Social Media for Your Brand
Back in May of 2012, on the reality show Kitchen Nightmares, Chef Gordon Ramsey visited Amy's Baking Company. The couple refused to listen to any advice he had to give, admitted to taking their server's tips and generally acted in a very unprofessional manor, which included yelling at customers.
Upset viewers posted their concerns on the business' Facebook page and the owners of Amy's Baking Company decided to let their crazy flag fly. They are the living demonstration of how not to run your Facebook page. Since most of the replies have been deleted now, here are some replies the owners posted on the page:
TO REDDIT. I FORBID YOU FROM SPREADING YOUR HATE ON THAT SITE. THIS IS MY FACEBOOK, AND I AM NOT ALLOWING YOU TO USE MY COMPANY ON YOUR HATE FILLED PAGE.
To all of the Yelpers and Reddits: Bring it on. you are just pussies. come to arizona. you are weaker than my wife, and weaker than me. come to my business. say it to my face. man to man. my wife is a jewel in the desert. you are just trash. reddits and yelpers just working together to bring us down. pathetic.
WE DO NOT NEED THIS. YOU STUPID PEOPLE. AMERICA IS ABOUT RESSLING, IT IS NOT A BIG DEAL. THE CAKES WE OFFER ARE EXPENSIVE BECAUSE WE HAVE TO REPACKAGE AND SHIP. DO NOT BLAME US BECAUSE YOU CAN NOT AFFORD QUALITY. THE YELPERS, AND NOW THE REDDITS, NEED TO BACK OFF. YOURE NOT RIGHT JUST BECAUSE OF SOME TV SHOW
This is Samy. I am keeping note of all names here. We will be pursuing action against you legaly, and against reddit and yelp, for this plot you have come together on. you are all just punks.
The Break Down
Let's break down the mistakes made here:
They call people names
They use all-caps
They misspell words
They don't capitalize words
They threaten to sue the thousands of people who have commented on their page, which isn't possible.
Even though they deleted a lot of what went on back in May, they continue to make these same mistakes. Currently, they are using their business page to discredit Yelp. If you have a personal beef with another company, please, for the love of Pete, don't hash it out on your business' social media!
They seem to be going out in like Cook Source Magazine. Remember them? If not, here is the skinny:
UPDATE: Then there was that time they chased a customer with a knife:
UPDATE: Amy's has gone out of business. No surprise, there.
How to Get Free Clients for Your Business
Make a note to get more free clients.
Lately, I've been getting what I like to call "free" clients. These are free 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 Free Clients?
My website. Yup, the one you're looking at right now. 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?
Nix the Hosting Ads
No hosting sponsored ads. If your website has ads that are place willy-nilly by your hosting service because you are getting free hosting, that's a sure sign you're a novice because you can't afford to buy a domain name and a proper site.
Get Good Content
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. Take a stroll around my site. Notice how each page is chock full of information?
Give Your Visitors Choices
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, consultations and classes. My point is, don't be afraid to present all of the services you're qualified to offer. I've had people tell me this is wrong and I should make separate landing pages for each offering. Hey, what I'm doing works. You can't argue with results.
K.I.S.S.
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 can't tell you how much I hate going to a site and scrolling and scrolling and scrolling to find the information I need. So, 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.
Post a Photo
Add a photo of yourself. The other day, I had someone make this comment about my site, "The Logo. Why do you keep your picture there? If you say you're a good illustrator try to make an illustration of yourself, and integrate nice with the wording (sic)." Why indeed? I feel using a picture helps you come across as a real person and not just some faceless entity that wants money on the web. The key is to make it a professional looking image. No selfies!
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New SEO Tips That Will Give Your Site Google Mojo
Get some Google love!
So your site was hit by Panda. Then it was hit by Penguin. Then, Hummingbird came along. Don't worry, all is not lost, my friend. It's just that the old SEO techniques that you've used over the past few years need to be thrown out the window and replaced with ones that work after these three major algorithms changes. The beautiful part about new SEO is that the changes will make your site look more professional and they will be more likely to weather new Google algorithms.
Go Long!
For years, people have been saying, "Only post content that is between 350 and 500 words. Search engines like short because no one will take the time to read longer pieces." This simply is not true! There are people out there craving in-depth information, and after Hummingbird, the sites providing large slices instead of little tastes are getting Google love.
Entrepreneurial genius Neil Patel recently did some research on this. He found that pages with over 2,000 words had higher page rankings. The higher the word count, the higher they ranked. You can read his entire post here: How Content Length Affects Rankings and Conversions.
Pretty shocking, huh?
Now, just adding words to your content isn't going to cut it, either. Each piece needs to be chock full of interesting, engaging and helpful information. For example, you could write a quick how-to blog post or you can give your reader the how-to, the whys, upkeep tips, advice on where to find supplies, etc. To keep it all engaging, use your voice. Talk to the reader like you would a good buddy. Stiff and business-like text is what bores readers, not long text.
Link Love
You used to hear that having people link to your site was the key to getting more Google love. This is still true, but giving others link love is almost as helpful, now. Add a couple of outgoing links to content to get search engine friendliness. These links will help add usefulness to your article by referring readers to information they need. That's why Google likes sites that offer outgoing links.
Grab the Mojo by the Tail
Another old SEO tip was to fill your content with short keywords that people may use to find your article. People took this to heart and created content so full of keywords it was a bunch of gibberish. Panda was almost solely created to wipe out sites that overused keyword stuffing.
Not only is keyword stuffing out, short keywords are also out. It is all about long-tail keywords now. That's right, the keywords that everyone told you not to bother with before are now the key players in the search engine game.
So from now on, don't think of keywords, per say, think of phrases. For example, one website I used to do a lot of SEO work for focused on drawing techniques. One of the most popular terms used to find articles on the site weren't "drawing" or "art," it was "how use oil pastels." The article I wrote to draw in people who searched for that term reaped over 100,000 views, which is a massive amount for art related content. Even back before Panda, phrases were a great way to draw in traffic for sites that typically weren't big traffic pullers.
Be Organic
Like I mentioned before, keyword stuffing is the death of website content. SEO should come organically, meaning, don't worry about jamming your article full of keywords. If a keyword ends up in your article, great, but don't plan to put a certain keyword in every hundred words or whatever. If it happens it happens. Search engines are smart enough to find your content without all the keywords.
Seize People's Attention
Bounce rates have always been important to search engines, now more than ever. A bounce rate is the percentage of people that leave your site after visiting only one page. There are plenty of ways to lower your bounce rate and encourage your visitors to head on over to other parts of your site:
· Separate your long content into two or three pages so that your visitor has to click to the second page to read to the end of the content
· Add a "For more information" box at the bottom of a blog post or article that links to content on related topics
· Add a list of your most popular content to the sidebar of your blog or site to entice readers to click
Google+ to Boost Google's Ego
Adsense google plus scorecard
Nobody loves Google more than Google. This is evidenced by the fact that using Google+ gives your site the green flag on the AdSense webpage. To get the full Plus experience:
· Add a Google+ badge to your site
· Make a Google+ page for your site
· Add your site to your links on your personal Google+ account
· Get Google Authorship (This was phased out.)
· Share new posts on your Google+ page Now that you know the new SEO rules, you're ready to make Google fall in love with your site all over again. Turn on some Barry White and get to work!
Businesses Shouldn't Burn Bridges
Don't set fire to business relationships!
I frequent many forums. I like to lurk, absorbing the knowledge that my peers type about companies and publishers.
Recently, though, I stumbled upon a thread full of angry writers. The writers all freelanced for a publication that I wrote for, as well. The publication had decided to essentially put all freelance projects on hold while they sorted out financial issues. I understood and was patiently waiting to hear if I would get to work with them again.
The group of writers in this thread didn’t feel the same. Many threatened the company with a smear campaign. Others posted hateful diatribes directed at the editors of the publishing company. Many declared that they would never write for the company again.
This company had been good to their writers. They always paid on time and offered extra incentives for hard work. I had to wonder if these angry writers were shooting themselves in the foot with this public display of angst.
You see, as a freelance writer for over 15 years, I have learned to take everything in stride. I know the value of holding my temper and not burning bridges.
When I first started my writing career I went to work for a small company as a freelance article writer. This company was bought out only months after I started writing for them. They told their writers that they would be handing out work again within a month’s time. I didn't hear from them (other than a "wait and see" letter) for more than a year. Instead of sending them a hateful I’m-Tired-of-Waiting email or ranting about them on forums, I took work with other companies.
Then, one day they emailed me out of the blue and offered me a fantastic opportunity. The job took me about thirty minutes and I got paid $100. Since then, I have worked for them consistently for two years and have made thousands of dollars.
Another time that I could have burned bridges was when a publication wouldn’t answer my emails. I had worked with this publication for around a year and they paid well. Plus, I loved the work. Suddenly, though, I stopped receiving emails from my editor. Did I send a heated email? No, I gave them the benefit of the doubt. Turns out, my email system was blocking their emails even though I had them on my safe list. After the problem was solved I continued writing articles for them and made a lot of money.
Even though that editor wasn’t the problem, many are. I’ve dealt with some real jerks in my time. One of my first editors, for example, was a piece of work. She’d rarely answer her emails and when she did she would give me one sentence answers that didn’t even address what I had asked in the first place. Then, when I emailed her again, she would give me very snotty responses. I remained civil and, though I was tempted, I didn’t go over her head and create a situation with her boss. Many writers will tell you this is a mistake. My theory is that no editor stays at a publication for very long. You don’t need to waste your writing time fighting the system, it will change soon enough. Sure enough, a few months later a new editor took her place and that publication is still one of my best sources of income.
Moral of the story? Making connections is hard. Don’t make your life harder by burning bridges. You may need that customer or B2B connection again and it is easier to keep a connection than to make a new one.
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.