blog.peoplequiry

Just found a cool new site called top20sites.com, which indexes web pages and directories according to their popularity based on a variety of factors.  You can check out the site at the link above, or read more about how their determine their rankings here.

As part of my money-making crusade (read: miserable attempt at), I’ve taken to doing surveys online. There are a ton of websites that offer such services. Basically, companies hire these sites as market research firms, and the sites then conduct the research online. The quality of these sites varies greatly, though most are pretty shite. Their links often don’t work, their redirects to surveys send you to a blank page, and they send you surveys that you don’t qualify for. These sites also vary in terms of their rewards. Some give you points, which can be traded in for cash or prizes (or either, at some sites). Other sites rarely offer cash rewards, but instead enter you in a ’sweepstakes’ where you can ‘win’ ‘$25,000′. I’m sure some of these are legit, but I have a feeling that most do one drawing a decade or something…

The best sites by far (in terms of financial reward, and not website quality nor stability) are those that offer either clear cash rewards, or are upfront about how points break down into dollars (i.e., at 600 points, you can get a $5.00 transfer to your Paypal account; at 1200, $10.00, etc.). With these sites, though, you often realize you’re only making a few cents per survey, and it hardly seems worth it. However, here are some reasons that I keep doing it anyway:

• It is mindless. Although the sites want you to really think about their questions–which are usually something like, ‘On a trip to the bathroom, how many squares of toilet paper, on average, do you say you use? Please give the exact number.’–but honestly, most of their questions are easily answered without much thought.  And hey, anytime I can get paid for not thinking, I am down.
• It is easy. It’s clicking buttons on the Internets, people.  Not to mention that you can be reading blogs and news and email while you do this.  I tend to just incorporate the surveys into my regular Interneting.

There are, however, a few downsides.  Namely, it is boring as all get-out. I have probably done between 50 and 100 surveys, and only one was even remotely interesting (about banks and environmentally-friendly products and services).  Most of them are awful.  Also, as someone who doesn’t watch TV, read magazines, nor consume pre-packaged non-alcoholic beverages, I seem to fall outside of their target demographic.  Go fig.

I will keep updating about my surveying as it continues.  After I have some more experience with the various sites I’ve been using, I’ll post a list of the best and worse here, no-holds-barred!  I will be very exciting.

As a part of my quest to make money with the Internets, I have taken up playing poker online. I hadn’t ever played hold ‘em until a recent trip to Georgia to visit my friend W. One of her friends there used to play poker all the time and make good money at it, too. When I decided to embark on my Internet money-making quest, I planned on poker being the backbone. I figured it was a way better shot that affiliate programs or surveys or convincing other people to sell some sort of juice that Deepak Copra likes. Maybe not right away, but hey, I was pretty good when I played in Georgia, I’m sure this will work!

Well, let me tell you about how it doesn’t. Granted, I haven’t lost a ton of money yet (only about $20, and I’ve been playing a lot), but I also am not consistently winning. I guess I need to spend more time with those poker strategy books I picked up!

I’m going to keep working at at the poker angle. I still believe it’s the best online money-making possibility (and, hey, all I have to do is play a game!) Plus, I am, by nature, kind of anti-social, so the idea of playing poker online, and not having to deal with any humans and their stupid human faces is kind of appealing. But I clearly have a LONG way to go before I get good enough to make even a few hundred dollars a month.

Below are the two sites that I’ve been playing on. I recommend them because they a) they are rather large companies and thus, to me, trustworthy and b) they have software for Macs (out of three total that I’ve found).

Full Tilt Poker

Play Online Poker

PokerStars

People, I am poor.  I am a graduate student in a field that provides no financial hopes, and will not even after I graduate.  I do, however, love what I do, which means I need to find some other way to support my lazy, academically-indulgent ass.  To this end, I have taken up the Internet.  Let me explain.

There are many opportunities to make money on the Internet (e.g., “Work from home!”, “Are you making $2oo,ooo$ a week?  I am!” and, of course, “10ng sh10ng!”).  These are, however, mostly scams.  But a few opportunities, I have found, are not scams.  They just require that you be really, really annoying, and try to get your friends to sign up for the same crap you stupidly signed up for cause they said they would give you $0.50.  Or else strangers instead of friends.  Or the creeps who read Craigslist.

Whatever.  The point is, they aren’t all scams.  Or at least, not exactly.

So I’m testing these things out, and I’m going to keep track of what works and what doesn’t, and tell you all. about. it.  You wanted to know about affiliate programs and taking surveys online?  I will tell you about those things!  You want to know what kind of assholes you will have to deal with then you sign up for a free trial membership to get three bucks and then try to call the 800 number and cancel?  I will tell you of those things, too!

I will also tell you about playing poker online for money, assuming I ever manage to make any money at it.  Don’t hold your breath for that one, though.

Important things to note about this blog:

• there are lots of advertisements.  These are part of my experiment, and will also help me to eat.
• please to note extensive use of non-capital letters.  This means my blog is cool.