Hope you all had a great weekend. Did you watch the 60th Anniversary Emmy Award Show? I missed it. I am told it was one of the most boring in memory; which helps. What does the term “Emmy” stand for anyways? Well I am glad you asked (well you might have if you were here with me). The name “Emmy” is a female version of “immy”, a nickname used for the image orthicon tubes used in early television cameras.
VA part II
Success with the homepages friends websearches, surveys or GPT all take a wee bit of persistence. For the amount of time it takes to do 20+ searches a day is minimal. Going through the surveys sent to you and finishing them is a drop in the bucket and the GPT games, offers and read email sites fly by. You just have to sit down and make it kind of a ritual. It is good to have a hobby mindset so that it does not become too much like work. You can do it while watching TV or at a time of day you want to relax. If you are the type that always has a computer nearby you can do it throughout the day. Many times I hear an odd name or interesting person mentioned on TV or the radio and I check it out on homepages friends search engine. It is all about working the system; it is the only way the system works out. (It you are not a member of our intrepid group yet; get to it. Email Dan at http://www.blogger.com/tenorman8@ymail.com%20). We want to make this thing work for everyone. We hope to expand and grow our group to the benefit of all. Most of all we are always open to suggestions.
Last issue we introduced the concept of being a Virtual Assistant to add to possible resources of extra money. It would require a more serious commitment of time. The possibility of greater earning potential is also there. If you already have some basic office supplies, phone, computer, printer, and possibly a fax machine you could be in business in no time. To review, "A Virtual Assistant or VA is an independent contractor/freelancer and entrepreneur who assists in taking care of the administrative and technical side of someone else’s business or life. They assist with clients business on a contractual basis from a remote location. While most VAs performs administrative tasks they can be more than just a home-based secretary. Depending on the qualifications you bring to the job, the skys the limit.
Being a VA is a reasonable way to make extra money while still staying at home. It allows you to pursue even more extra money by being able to keep up with your other streams of income without the time constraints of a regular 9to5. Here is a link to start some research
http://www.vanetworking.com/what-is-a-va.htm
The plan to have multiple streams of income is a basic tenet of business. Even big business practices it. So here is to making it. We all can do it. Never give up.
Tuesday, September 23, 2008
Friday, September 19, 2008
Virtural Assistant Part I
Hi to all. If any of you were in the wake of Hurricane Ike, I hope all is well. I know it is not over yet with rebuilding and getting back to whatever normal you can. All our best thoughts and hopes are with you. On an aside, if you were fortunate enough not to have ever been caught in an emergency such as Katrina or Ike you will never know how needful relief can be. If some of my suggestions lead you to some extra money, please consider making a donation to the Red Cross or some other relief organization. The need is great and the funds are running low. Do what you can.
Now if you will forgive me for getting back to our pursuit here. Making some extra money without spending a ton in return. As many of you know we are coming along nicely with the corner stone of this project. The myhomepagefriends GPT surf the net program. Dan is building s for our members and things are coming together. If you haven’t signed up yet go to tenorman8@ymail.com he will give you all the facts and run downs.
With paid surveys being another avenue towards extra change in your pockets I went ahead and started another blog to concentrate on that area with reviews and tips on all things surveys at surveylowdown.blogspot.com . Any suggestion you have on how we can improve our intrepid project just chime in. This is a work in progress and we intend to try and help as many people as possible become wealthier and have some fun in the process.
Now this week’s idea is a bit of a challenge, but one that might pay great dividends. Market yourself as a Virtual Assistant. This has all the buzz going for it these days and is considered a growing field. With the nature of business changing every day, the way business is conducted must also change. Many a small business have an urgent need for help but don’t have the funds for full time staff such as a secretary or assistant.
In a nutshell a virtual assistant (VA) is an individual who provides services for businesses or professionals over the Internet. Communication is generally done online although there may be phone conversations. Files are sent back and forth via email or fax, and completed work is returned the same way. Virtual assistants can have clients in their local area or across the country, sometimes halfway around the world. VA’s can work anywhere depending on what services can be offered. VA’s often never even meet their clients face to face.
VA’s need not limit themselves to working for only one business or professional, instead they may work for numerous clients, whether long-term or a project at a time.
As a VA, you can offer wide-ranging services. Think about your strong points. Are you an experienced secretary? Is desktop publishing your passion? Do you have a law background that would allow you to offer legal assistance? The possibilities for the services you can offer really are endless. You can offer as many or as few services as you’d like. Just make sure you are strong in the services you are going to offer. It’s obviously better to offer one service in which you excel rather than a handful of services in which your expertise is only marginal. Lets take a list of the services a VA can offer that is by no means complete.. .
· Accounting
· Bookkeeping
· Data entry
· Desktop Publishing
· Dictation
· Event Planning
· Internet Research
· Legal
· Mailing
· Marketing
· Phone support
· Proofreading
· Secretarial
· Transcription (medical, legal, etc.)
· Translation
· Travel Arrangements
· Web site design and maintenance
· Word Processing
How much you earn will depend on what you have to offer. Some VA’s charge about $10 per hour while others as high as $50. So depending on what you want to charge it is what the market allows. You can find out what others are making. You can find this out by Googling virtual assistance or possibly checking with you local Chamber of Commerce.
Your level of experience will also have a bearing on your fee. Remember, this can be life experience as well as office experience. A beginner won’t want to charge as much as someone with ten years of solid experience in a fortune 500 firms. As you gain so will your ability to demand a higher fee.
Start up costs for a VA business could be virtually nothing, especially if you already have most of the equipment you’ll need. A computer, Internet connection, a phone with an answering machine and a fax and your ready to go.
Most computers already come equipped with some sort of fax program, and you can usually find a printer/scanner/copier combination for around $100, a worthy investment. Do you already have an office in your home? If not, is there an area you can designate specifically for your virtual assistant business? This is an issue for an accountant but treat what you do seriously and keep records.
In part 2 we will go over more of the fine points and some extra resources.
Now if you will forgive me for getting back to our pursuit here. Making some extra money without spending a ton in return. As many of you know we are coming along nicely with the corner stone of this project. The myhomepagefriends GPT surf the net program. Dan is building s for our members and things are coming together. If you haven’t signed up yet go to tenorman8@ymail.com he will give you all the facts and run downs.
With paid surveys being another avenue towards extra change in your pockets I went ahead and started another blog to concentrate on that area with reviews and tips on all things surveys at surveylowdown.blogspot.com . Any suggestion you have on how we can improve our intrepid project just chime in. This is a work in progress and we intend to try and help as many people as possible become wealthier and have some fun in the process.
Now this week’s idea is a bit of a challenge, but one that might pay great dividends. Market yourself as a Virtual Assistant. This has all the buzz going for it these days and is considered a growing field. With the nature of business changing every day, the way business is conducted must also change. Many a small business have an urgent need for help but don’t have the funds for full time staff such as a secretary or assistant.
In a nutshell a virtual assistant (VA) is an individual who provides services for businesses or professionals over the Internet. Communication is generally done online although there may be phone conversations. Files are sent back and forth via email or fax, and completed work is returned the same way. Virtual assistants can have clients in their local area or across the country, sometimes halfway around the world. VA’s can work anywhere depending on what services can be offered. VA’s often never even meet their clients face to face.
VA’s need not limit themselves to working for only one business or professional, instead they may work for numerous clients, whether long-term or a project at a time.
As a VA, you can offer wide-ranging services. Think about your strong points. Are you an experienced secretary? Is desktop publishing your passion? Do you have a law background that would allow you to offer legal assistance? The possibilities for the services you can offer really are endless. You can offer as many or as few services as you’d like. Just make sure you are strong in the services you are going to offer. It’s obviously better to offer one service in which you excel rather than a handful of services in which your expertise is only marginal. Lets take a list of the services a VA can offer that is by no means complete.. .
· Accounting
· Bookkeeping
· Data entry
· Desktop Publishing
· Dictation
· Event Planning
· Internet Research
· Legal
· Mailing
· Marketing
· Phone support
· Proofreading
· Secretarial
· Transcription (medical, legal, etc.)
· Translation
· Travel Arrangements
· Web site design and maintenance
· Word Processing
How much you earn will depend on what you have to offer. Some VA’s charge about $10 per hour while others as high as $50. So depending on what you want to charge it is what the market allows. You can find out what others are making. You can find this out by Googling virtual assistance or possibly checking with you local Chamber of Commerce.
Your level of experience will also have a bearing on your fee. Remember, this can be life experience as well as office experience. A beginner won’t want to charge as much as someone with ten years of solid experience in a fortune 500 firms. As you gain so will your ability to demand a higher fee.
Start up costs for a VA business could be virtually nothing, especially if you already have most of the equipment you’ll need. A computer, Internet connection, a phone with an answering machine and a fax and your ready to go.
Most computers already come equipped with some sort of fax program, and you can usually find a printer/scanner/copier combination for around $100, a worthy investment. Do you already have an office in your home? If not, is there an area you can designate specifically for your virtual assistant business? This is an issue for an accountant but treat what you do seriously and keep records.
In part 2 we will go over more of the fine points and some extra resources.
Wednesday, September 10, 2008
GPT sites 101
Welcome back, I hope you are moving forward and you are starting to see some small successes and a little extra money. I know it takes some time and you might not have seen your first payout yet but hang in there. Give it time, if you are putting a little extra time into this each week it will start to show results. So here we go again, this week GPT.
My teenage son works at an outlet mall in Las Vegas. Well as I am sure you are all aware the outlet concept is to sell inventory at a deep discount. Being this is Las Vegas, people come there from literally all over the world to get these great bargains. Well this week they were running an even better deal than usual. You buy this duffle bag and anything that you could fit into it was an extra 30 % off. So simply put, you spend money in an effort to save money. My son got some really great running shoes and he was very ‘stoked’, as he would say, about it.
Which leads me to this weeks foray into making extra money. GPT, which stands for Get Paid To. Get paid to do what you might ask; I’ll tell you. Get paid to just about anything. Get paid to read emails, listen to and review music, surf the net (as in issue #1), take surveys (issue#2) play games, shop(issue#3) or test new products.
Our focus will be what is arguably the most common and financially beneficial type of GPT site. Get paid to complete offers. This type is also some of the fastest growing and often misunderstood of all the GPT sites. It is also the most potentially tricky.
These sites are paid by advertisers to reach consumers like you and me. The money these sites are paid in turn is shared to their members for the activities you opt into doing.
For example. Inbox Dollars http://www.inboxdollars.com/?r=cv1964
A well known site which has a good reputation for being legit. Suppose you want to join eMusic. Instead of joining on eMusic’s website for free you use Inbox. By joining through their site Inbox will credit you with $8. It is that simple, well not always. Some sites are quite complicated. They will make you jump through hoops to get the prizes or money they are offering. You must complete multiple offers, one form a silver list and two from a bronze list and another from a list you sometimes can’t even find. It is like trying to read a bad Chinese Menu. So be aware.
A word of warning, some offers require credit cards, and some change there terms of sales when sold through GPT site. So check things out before signing up to buy and for goodness sakes don’t buy things you were not going to get anyways. We are trying to make extra money not waste it. Because as with my son's aforementioned running shoes, he has 6 pairs, he didn't need them. Don't buy just because it seems like a good deal. It has to be a good deal for you.
Here are some legit sites you can check out for now. We will be going over more of these sites and differing varieties of them.
Hits4pay: http://hits4pay.com/members/index.cgi?photomom04
Uniqpaid: http://www.shareasale.com/r.cfm?B=8505&U=157333&M=2861
Treasuretrooper: http://www.treasuretrooper.com/397225
Mermaid emails: http://www.mermaidemails.com/pages/index.php?refid=photomom04
Clixncash: http://www.clixncash.com/index.php?ref=photomom04
So for now have some fun and start socking that money away.
My teenage son works at an outlet mall in Las Vegas. Well as I am sure you are all aware the outlet concept is to sell inventory at a deep discount. Being this is Las Vegas, people come there from literally all over the world to get these great bargains. Well this week they were running an even better deal than usual. You buy this duffle bag and anything that you could fit into it was an extra 30 % off. So simply put, you spend money in an effort to save money. My son got some really great running shoes and he was very ‘stoked’, as he would say, about it.
Which leads me to this weeks foray into making extra money. GPT, which stands for Get Paid To. Get paid to do what you might ask; I’ll tell you. Get paid to just about anything. Get paid to read emails, listen to and review music, surf the net (as in issue #1), take surveys (issue#2) play games, shop(issue#3) or test new products.
Our focus will be what is arguably the most common and financially beneficial type of GPT site. Get paid to complete offers. This type is also some of the fastest growing and often misunderstood of all the GPT sites. It is also the most potentially tricky.
These sites are paid by advertisers to reach consumers like you and me. The money these sites are paid in turn is shared to their members for the activities you opt into doing.
For example. Inbox Dollars http://www.inboxdollars.com/?r=cv1964
A well known site which has a good reputation for being legit. Suppose you want to join eMusic. Instead of joining on eMusic’s website for free you use Inbox. By joining through their site Inbox will credit you with $8. It is that simple, well not always. Some sites are quite complicated. They will make you jump through hoops to get the prizes or money they are offering. You must complete multiple offers, one form a silver list and two from a bronze list and another from a list you sometimes can’t even find. It is like trying to read a bad Chinese Menu. So be aware.
A word of warning, some offers require credit cards, and some change there terms of sales when sold through GPT site. So check things out before signing up to buy and for goodness sakes don’t buy things you were not going to get anyways. We are trying to make extra money not waste it. Because as with my son's aforementioned running shoes, he has 6 pairs, he didn't need them. Don't buy just because it seems like a good deal. It has to be a good deal for you.
Here are some legit sites you can check out for now. We will be going over more of these sites and differing varieties of them.
Hits4pay: http://hits4pay.com/members/index.cgi?photomom04
Uniqpaid: http://www.shareasale.com/r.cfm?B=8505&U=157333&M=2861
Treasuretrooper: http://www.treasuretrooper.com/397225
Mermaid emails: http://www.mermaidemails.com/pages/index.php?refid=photomom04
Clixncash: http://www.clixncash.com/index.php?ref=photomom04
So for now have some fun and start socking that money away.
Wednesday, September 3, 2008
Shop to some extra cash
Welcome back. As always I hope you have taken a step or two forward on your journey towards earning extra cash. Dan (first issue) is working like a crazy man building down lines for those enrolled in Homepages Friends. [Get paid to web surf] If you haven’t emailed Dan yet; what ya waiting for? tenorman8@ymail.com I would also hope you have signed up for a survey company or two (second issue). Give that a bit of time, but the surveys do come around. Those of you, who emailed me for the large list, you see how long it is. Take your time with them, you can burn out. [This is supposed to be fun as well as lucrative] Today we are going to take into the world of mystery shopping.
My daughter loves to shop. She is not quite obsessed to the point of going into debt or breaking up her marriage. It is just that she gets this gleam in her eye whenever someone mentions needing anything that might necessitate a trip to Target or anywhere else with a cash register. A while back I told her if she was going to be such a connoisseur of the shopping arts, why not get paid for it. In short work we both set to researching how being a mystery shopper (aka: secret shopper) would work and she has been getting paid for it ever since. Just like surveys, you will not get rich and it takes a little time to get established but it is legit and it pays.
Mystery shopping is a tool for business to track and improve service quality, which ensures a familiarity known as brand recognition that corporate America desires for their businesses. Using anonymous, regular folk spies (secret shoppers) has always been a popular tool to get a real boots on the ground evaluation of how things are going for multiple types of businesses. Be it in an in-person visit to the local Mickey D’s or a simple phone call to catalog company or call center, a test drive at a car dealership a customer service review by a secret shopper is a little known but growing tool for Corporate USA.
This is not hard work, you might walk into a local shoe store, and you are tasked with measuring certain behaviors and looking for certain practices or décor/cleanliness. You might have to notice if the associate greeted you as you came in. How long did it take to be served? Where the items you were looking for there and how knowledgeable the sales person was. There are many other scenarios, but they are always laid out for you when assigned.
Many companies not only shop themselves but also their competition. The allusion to being a spy is not that far off? You must be discrete and you are not supposed to discuss your assignments with others. These shop can be of a general nature or a pinpoint accurate search for a certain act or procedure.
There is an off shot of this called merchandising, you know, those folks in stores or conventions handing out free samples in front of displays for a certain company or product. I will cover this in a bit more detail in another issue.
Now for a few warnings.
Scams abound in the Mystery Shopping game. Just follow a few rules and some common sense and you should be okay.
NO legit mystery-shopping site will send you a check out of the blue for thousands of dollars. This happens way to often, sometimes using a name of a legit agency. These are check-cashing scams and should be reported to the US POST OFFICE.
You don’t need to pay for a list of companies that use secret shoppers. There are multiple sites across the web where you can find this information. I will be giving you a few good places to start at the end of the blog. I have also got a very large list of legit copies I will send to you free, just drop me an email with Mystery Shop/blog in the subject line to request yours.
Never pay to be a mystery shopper or merchandiser. No legitimate opportunity requires a fee. (The MSPA offers a certification process that is optional, not required, to get work.)
Pay attention to distance. Don't accept an assignment that pays $10 if you have to drive 20 miles each way to complete the task. The gas will eat up your fee.
Stick to the facts and leave your opinion out of your reports. Unlike surveys where they want your personal opinion, here you want to be Who, What, When Where and How long. Whenever you apply at a mystery-shopping site there is an application process to determine what kind of shopper you are. It would not hurt to have a resume on line but not required. Similar to the survey companies from last issue they have a question that gives them a picture of you as a shopper. Often you are asked to write a short paragraph about the best and worst shopping experience you’ve had.
TIP: Go ahead and write this ahead of time, you want this paragraph to be sharp. They check for proper spelling, grammar and punctuation, since your proof-of-completion reports are submitted in writing. Poor spelling won’t help you get in the door. Don’t let that throw you though. Its not 9th grade English Class.
Once the company accepts you in general you wait for an invite. When they need you they almost always send an invite email; you apply for that particular shop, if you are chosen you are on your way. They will explain how a shop will work. There is sometimes training involved, sometimes not. When you complete the shop you fill out your report, if you have done your job correctly and covered all the information they wanted you to gather your report should be accepted. Your report accepted you can expect your payment to be on the way. The more experience you get and the happier they are with your report accuracy the faster the better paying jobs will come. Most mystery shopping assignments pay between $8 and $10. Merchandising is generally in the range of $13 to $18. Some assignments offer free meals and/or groceries either as a form of compensation or in addition to a small fee. More complex assignments pay more — up to $30 or so per assignment. If you're being offered a lot more than that it should be a warning to you that something just might not be legit.
So are you ready to get started. Let’s start with some of my favorites.
Start with:
Customer 1st http://www.customer-1st.com/shopper/default.aspShoppers
Confidential http://www.shoppersconfidential.com/
Beyond Hello http://www.beyondhello.com/secure/index.htm
If and when you want more drop me an email and I will get it right off to you.
Talk to you all next time,
Eileen
My daughter loves to shop. She is not quite obsessed to the point of going into debt or breaking up her marriage. It is just that she gets this gleam in her eye whenever someone mentions needing anything that might necessitate a trip to Target or anywhere else with a cash register. A while back I told her if she was going to be such a connoisseur of the shopping arts, why not get paid for it. In short work we both set to researching how being a mystery shopper (aka: secret shopper) would work and she has been getting paid for it ever since. Just like surveys, you will not get rich and it takes a little time to get established but it is legit and it pays.
Mystery shopping is a tool for business to track and improve service quality, which ensures a familiarity known as brand recognition that corporate America desires for their businesses. Using anonymous, regular folk spies (secret shoppers) has always been a popular tool to get a real boots on the ground evaluation of how things are going for multiple types of businesses. Be it in an in-person visit to the local Mickey D’s or a simple phone call to catalog company or call center, a test drive at a car dealership a customer service review by a secret shopper is a little known but growing tool for Corporate USA.
This is not hard work, you might walk into a local shoe store, and you are tasked with measuring certain behaviors and looking for certain practices or décor/cleanliness. You might have to notice if the associate greeted you as you came in. How long did it take to be served? Where the items you were looking for there and how knowledgeable the sales person was. There are many other scenarios, but they are always laid out for you when assigned.
Many companies not only shop themselves but also their competition. The allusion to being a spy is not that far off? You must be discrete and you are not supposed to discuss your assignments with others. These shop can be of a general nature or a pinpoint accurate search for a certain act or procedure.
There is an off shot of this called merchandising, you know, those folks in stores or conventions handing out free samples in front of displays for a certain company or product. I will cover this in a bit more detail in another issue.
Now for a few warnings.
Scams abound in the Mystery Shopping game. Just follow a few rules and some common sense and you should be okay.
NO legit mystery-shopping site will send you a check out of the blue for thousands of dollars. This happens way to often, sometimes using a name of a legit agency. These are check-cashing scams and should be reported to the US POST OFFICE.
You don’t need to pay for a list of companies that use secret shoppers. There are multiple sites across the web where you can find this information. I will be giving you a few good places to start at the end of the blog. I have also got a very large list of legit copies I will send to you free, just drop me an email with Mystery Shop/blog in the subject line to request yours.
Never pay to be a mystery shopper or merchandiser. No legitimate opportunity requires a fee. (The MSPA offers a certification process that is optional, not required, to get work.)
Pay attention to distance. Don't accept an assignment that pays $10 if you have to drive 20 miles each way to complete the task. The gas will eat up your fee.
Stick to the facts and leave your opinion out of your reports. Unlike surveys where they want your personal opinion, here you want to be Who, What, When Where and How long. Whenever you apply at a mystery-shopping site there is an application process to determine what kind of shopper you are. It would not hurt to have a resume on line but not required. Similar to the survey companies from last issue they have a question that gives them a picture of you as a shopper. Often you are asked to write a short paragraph about the best and worst shopping experience you’ve had.
TIP: Go ahead and write this ahead of time, you want this paragraph to be sharp. They check for proper spelling, grammar and punctuation, since your proof-of-completion reports are submitted in writing. Poor spelling won’t help you get in the door. Don’t let that throw you though. Its not 9th grade English Class.
Once the company accepts you in general you wait for an invite. When they need you they almost always send an invite email; you apply for that particular shop, if you are chosen you are on your way. They will explain how a shop will work. There is sometimes training involved, sometimes not. When you complete the shop you fill out your report, if you have done your job correctly and covered all the information they wanted you to gather your report should be accepted. Your report accepted you can expect your payment to be on the way. The more experience you get and the happier they are with your report accuracy the faster the better paying jobs will come. Most mystery shopping assignments pay between $8 and $10. Merchandising is generally in the range of $13 to $18. Some assignments offer free meals and/or groceries either as a form of compensation or in addition to a small fee. More complex assignments pay more — up to $30 or so per assignment. If you're being offered a lot more than that it should be a warning to you that something just might not be legit.
So are you ready to get started. Let’s start with some of my favorites.
Start with:
Customer 1st http://www.customer-1st.com/shopper/default.aspShoppers
Confidential http://www.shoppersconfidential.com/
Beyond Hello http://www.beyondhello.com/secure/index.htm
If and when you want more drop me an email and I will get it right off to you.
Talk to you all next time,
Eileen
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
