Can I make it?: What I can n What I can't

Can I make it?: What I can n What I can't

Making Money

I am part of the blogger world now and I thought I should try to make some money with this. I was surprised to find so many different options to do just that. One of the most interesting came from a website named Pay Per Post (see link below). On this site, you can register your blog and choose to write about subjects that are provided by various companies wanting to reach an audience through new venues. You basically become an advertising outlet.

Some may consider this selling out, but it is far from it. You choose which subjects you want to write about and then get paid for it. Is there anything wrong with making a little extra cash? I say no. There are some bloggers who make thousands of dollars doing this. This doesn't limit what you can write about. You can still deliver your postings as usual, just add an additional post about one of the subjects you can make money from.

You can even make money by clicking on the bar at the bottom of this post and submit a review. People just want to give money away. It's up to us to take it.

I am a firm believer in doing what you want (within the law) and this offers us an opportunity to do that and more. If it's not for you, fine. If it doesn't fit into your values, okay. Just click on the link and check it out. You owe yourself that much; don't you?

T




ads on blogs

Join the Tivolution

I have always loved to watch tv. It is relaxing to me and I find plenty of entertainment and education in it. That's why I spent so much energy convincing my wife that Tivo was the way to go.

After months of dropping hints and educating her on what Tivo is, my wife surprised me on our anniversary with a Tivo box. This was over 2 years ago. It was a 40 hour, single tuner box, and it changed our lives. We began recording our favorite shows and before we knew it, Tivo had "learned" what we liked to watch. It would make suggestions of oteher shows, and it was right on the money most of the time.

We set up dozens of season passes and began watching tv when we wanted to, not the scheduled times. This allowed us to skip over the commercials. What a blessing that was. It is so user friendly that our daughter took to the new Tivo and taught herself how to program her favorite shows as well. We have even gotten to the point where we no longer say "fast forward' or "rewind", we make the Tivo sounds instead.

The only downside was that we couldn't watch anything else if it was recording a show. That's why Santa brought us a new 80 hour dual tuner for Christmas this year. Thanks, Santa. Now we can watch other shows while it is recording another or record two shows at once. This is a great feature, because we would sometimes have to choose between two shows on the old box.
We moved the older Tivo box into our extra room and use it to record shows that we can watch while exercising. My daughter likes it because she thinks of it as her Tivo.

There are many options for DVR's out there. All cable and satelite comanies offer an optional DVR, some are even powered by Tivo, but none of them have all of the features offered through the real deal. For instance, I can transfer shows from my Tivo to my PC and download them to our iPod Video or burn to DVD. I can also transfer them form one Tivo box to another. We can listen to music from our PC trough our surround sound hooked up to the Tivo box. We can view photos and home movies as well. These are just a few of the options available only through Tivo. Check them out at http://www.tivo.com/ and learn of the wonders you are missing out on.

Trust me when I say, Tivo will change your life.


T

Reservations on Travel Sites

My family and I recently decided to take our summer vacation in Oregon. It is a beautiful state with plenty of activities for everyone. We also have family that lives there. We decided to book the travel online through one of the many travel sites available.

While searching the various sites for the best deals, I noticed that not all airlines were being represented. In particular, Southwest Airlines. I had flown with them in the past and found there service, all though somewhat spartan, reliable and affordable. I decided to check out the Southwest website directly and found a significant savings over what the travel sites were offering. This led me to investigate more airlines directly through their sites. Surprise, surprise. The prices on the individual airline websites were cheaper than any of those offered on the travel sites. I compared a number of flights and found the exact same itineraries but at different prices.

I then decided to try to name my own price on Priceline.com. I did not request a ridiculous fare. I only lowered it by about $50.00. My request was not accepted and the response I was given were the regularly posted prices. Thanks, but no thanks.

I also noticed that many of the sites were offering prices at up to 40% off. This may be true if you are wanting to travel from a city other than your home and fly to one of only a few major vacation spots (Las Vegas, New York, etc.). Don't get me wrong, these are GREAT deals, if you have the are able to travel within the limited availabilty and can make it to the departure cities.

Saying all of this; will I ever use the travel sites again? More than likely. I have often found good deals on hotels and car rentals. They also use a variety of airlines when booking your trip. This allows them to mix the airlines to give you a good price overall. For instance, you may start your trip on Delta only to connect in Chicago on Continental then fly home on American.

So give it a try when booking your travel, but don't just assume you are getting the best deal because they say so. Take a little time to search other sites and you might just save some money.

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