Webhosting affiliate programs

Web hosting is a very competitive market and affiliate programs are often created by web hosting companies in a bid to obtain more customers. According to each web hosting affiliate program, you’ll earn a commission when you refer a customer who purchases a hosting plan.

For web hosts, there’s nothing easier than getting other people to promote their web hosting services for them. The returns in investment for each new customer is usually high as well, because each signup gives the web host recurring income over the long run.

For webmasters, bloggers and internet marketers, web hosting affiliate programs can be a rather lucrative source of income.

You’ve probably seen many web hosting ads on numerous websites all over the internet. These web hosting affiliate programs work well for almost all types of websites, particularly if you are offering a site-building or website consultation service for clients or businesses.

One particular benefit of affiliate programs for web hosts is that they offer high commission rates which can range from a minimum of $60 to over a hundred dollars just for referring a single customer who purchases a web hosting plan.

How do I Make Money with Web Hosting Affiliate Programs?

There are several ways to make some money of web hosting affiliate programs. You can create a website or blog solely dedicated to web hosting or simply include the affiliate links and banners on your existing websites.

I would recommend creating a pre-sell page instead of linking directly to the web host. An honest and objective review of a web host you are familiar with usually does wonders in webmaster referrals.

You can leverage existing traffic from your website or use PayPerClick advertising to send targeted visitors to any specific webpage. The goal is to get as many interested individuals to click through on your affiliate links as possible.

Dosh Dosh’s List of Web Hosting Affiliate Programs

Here is a list of web hosting affiliate programs I’ve found to be the most lucrative. There are a great number of web hosts and I’ve only picked the larger ones with established affiliate programs and tracking systems.

In terms of sheer monetary potential, I would recommend going with MidPhase, DreamHost and HostiCan. If you are looking for second tier earnings, affiliate programs you can use include LunarPages, HostiCan and DreamHost.

1. BlueHost

By driving customers to sign-up at BlueHost.Com, you will receive $65.00 per referral. Through your personal Affiliate login and their online administration you can view click-through ratios of your links or banner promotions.

2. Yahoo

Yahoo’s program structure is simple: The more customers you refer, the more you earn. You get $60 to $70 for each Yahoo! Web Hosting customer and based on volume, you can make up to $100 per referral. Yahoo also pays 20% of the total sale for each Yahoo! Domains customer.

3. Hostgator

Hostgator utilizes a commission scale. Referring 1 to 5 customers a month will make you $50 per sale and 20+ customers a month will earn you $125 per sale. Payment is monthly via Paypal.

4. LunarPages

You earn $65.00 for every new customer you refer to Lunarpages from YOUR website. Refer advertisers to sign up for LunarPages’s affiliate program and earn $5 for every new customer they refer to LunarPages.

5. IX Web Hosting

Sign up customers through their affiliate program and receive commissions starting at $50 up to $150 for each signup (varies depending on the hosting plan and billing cycle). Commissions are paid no later than the first week of each month following the first 30-days after the sale that achieves the minimum level was made.

6. MidPhase

MidPhase’s affiliate program covers four different webhosts (Midphase, Autica, Thrill host and AN Hosting) and commissions range from $25 to $85 per sale, depending on which host you promote. Payments are made every two weeks via check. Cookies are set for one year and premium rates exist for premium publishers who are able to send over 20 signups a month.

7. DreamHost

You can choose to receive substantial one-time credits for each of your referrals, or recurring credits for every payment that your referrals ever make to DreamHost. For one time payments, a new customer you send to Dreamhost will make you $97 and each customer your referral sends will earn you $5.

For recurring payments, You’ll earn 10% of every payment that your referrals ever make and 5% of every payment that their referrals make - for as long as they remain customers too. Credits can be paid out via PayPal or check, or applied to a hosting bill with DreamHost.com.

8. HostiCan

Affiliates will receive $70 for the first 4 successful sales and then $90 per successful sale. Commissions are only paid for qualifying and approved sales. You will earn $5 extra for every sale that a sub affiliate makes for HostICan.

Commissions are paid one time a month for all verified and approved sales. Payment is made via Paypal. Performing affiliates have the advantage of earning $250 bonus for 25 new referrals per month, $500 bonus for 50 new referrals per month, and $1000 bonus for 100 new referrals per month.

**Do note that affiliate links were used for DreamHost, HostiCan and LunarPages.

Future Web Hosting Affiliate Updates

This post will be updated to include other web hosting affiliate programs I come across in the future. I’m quite sure that I’ll add a lot more web hosts to this article so do feel free to bookmark it for reference purposes.

Venture Alliance Partners - Review

Today Venture Alliance Partners A/S (Venpar) is one of the leading providers of private equity, dedicated to helping entrepreneurs and investors build world-class companies. They have already managed to show excellent results for their clients, which is not surprisingly the core reason behind their list of partners and strong portfolio.
Venture Alliance Partners With a strong portfolio and continued focus on the venture capital marketplace coupled with strong and trustworthy determination for being an external financial strategist, headhunter, investment banker and corporate therapist for a wide range of different companies in continuous growth, it is no wonder that Venpar has achieved a growing reputation for exceptional return. Visit www.venpar.com to make the most out of your interests.

Masterseek-A Global Business Search Engine

masterseek is a business orientated international global search and directory engine that provides precise information for over 45 million companies in 75 countries worldwide. masterseek allows you to retrieve immediate profiles and information on international or local companies. The results will provide updated contact information, current company descriptions as well as specifications and literature on the products and/or services the companies offer.

You can also add your own company profile to masterseek proprietary search web engine to further increase your global presence. Whether you are simply looking for new business opportunities, looking for importing and/or exporting partners, whether you manufacture goods or offer an unique service, masterseek can immediately provide the search results you require.

You can also search in your own country or worldwide and find business partners, sales opportunities and new avenues to expand your business and increase your company’s profitability

Enter your company profile and showcase your products and services to the global community.

Bloggerwave - Monitize Your Blog

A relative newcomer to the get paid to blog scene, Bloggerwave is a virtual clone of PayPerPost in both its system and website look and feel. In the beginning, some bloggers even spotted a copy and paste job for some of their text.
Bloggerwave
By giving our feedback/opinions to advertisers with respect to their web sites, products, services, and companies, we will get paid for it. Will that be simple? I registred myself with Bloggerwave on Sunday and i got my account approved on Monday, and I’m now on my way to earn money with writing reviews.

So, what are you waiting for? Come and join me on Bloggerwave, together we earn some extra money for a better tomorrow.

10 Blog Traffic Tips

In every bloggers life comes a special day - the day they first launch a new blog. Now unless you went out and purchased someone else’s blog chances are your blog launched with only one very loyal reader - you. Maybe a few days later you received a few hits when you told your sister, father, girlfriend and best friend about your new blog but that’s about as far you went when it comes to finding readers.

Here are the top 10 techniques new bloggers can use to find readers. These are tips specifically for new bloggers, those people who have next-to-no audience at the moment and want to get the ball rolling.

It helps if you work on this list from top to bottom as each technique builds on the previous step to help you create momentum. Eventually once you establish enough momentum you gain what is called “traction”, which is a large enough audience base (about 500 readers a day is good) that you no longer have to work too hard on finding new readers. Instead your current loyal readers do the work for you through word of mouth.

TOP 10 TIPS

10. Write at least five major “pillar” articles. A pillar article is a tutorial style article aimed to teach your audience something. Generally they are longer than 500 words and have lots of very practical tips or advice. This article you are currently reading could be considered a pillar article since it is very practical and a good “how-to” lesson. This style of article has long term appeal, stays current (it isn’t news or time dependent) and offers real value and insight. The more pillars you have on your blog the better.

9. Write one new blog post per day minimum. Not every post has to be a pillar, but you should work on getting those five pillars done at the same time as you keep your blog fresh with a daily news or short article style post. The important thing here is to demonstrate to first time visitors that your blog is updated all the time so they feel that if they come back tomorrow they will likely find something new. This causes them to bookmark your site or subscribe to your blog feed.

You don’t have to produce one post per day all the time but it is important you do when your blog is brand new. Once you get traction you still need to keep the fresh content coming but your loyal audience will be more forgiving if you slow down to a few per week instead. The first few months are critical so the more content you can produce at this time the better.

8. Use a proper domain name. If you are serious about blogging be series about what you call your blog. In order for people to easily spread the word about your blog you need a easily rememberable domain name. People often talk about blogs they like when they are speaking to friends in the real world (that’s the offline world, you remember that place right?) so you need to make it easy for them to spread the word and pass on your URL. Try and get a .com if you can and focus on small easy to remember domains rather than worry about having the correct keywords (of course if you can get great keywords and easy to remember then you’ve done a good job!).

7. Start commenting on other blogs. Once you have your pillar articles and your daily fresh smaller articles your blog is ready to be exposed to the world. One of the best ways to find the right type of reader for your blog is to comment on other people’s blogs. You should aim to comment on blogs focused on a similar niche topic to yours since the readers there will be more likely to be interested in your blog.

Most blog commenting systems allow you to have your name/title linked to your blog when you leave a comment. This is how people find your blog. If you are a prolific commentor and always have something valuable to say then people will be interested to read more of your work and hence click through to visit your blog.

6. Trackback and link to other blogs in your blog posts. A trackback is sort of like a blog conversation. When you write a new article to your blog and it links or references another blogger’s article you can do a trackback to their entry. What this does is leave a truncated summary of your blog post on their blog entry - it’s sort of like your blog telling someone else’s blog that you wrote an article mentioning them. Trackbacks often appear like comments.

This is a good technique because like leaving comments a trackback leaves a link from another blog back to yours for readers to follow, but it also does something very important - it gets the attention of another blogger. The other blogger will likely come and read your post eager to see what you wrote about them. They may then become a loyal reader of yours or at least monitor you and if you are lucky some time down the road they may do a post linking to your blog bringing in more new readers.

5. Encourage comments on your own blog. One of the most powerful ways to convince someone to become a loyal reader is to show there are other loyal readers already following your work. If they see people commenting on your blog then they infer that your content must be good since you have readers so they should stick around and see what all the fuss is about. To encourage comments you can simply pose a question in a blog post. Be sure to always respond to comments as well so you can keep the conversation going.

4. Submit your latest pillar article to a blog carnival. A blog carnival is a post in a blog that summarizes a collection of articles from many different blogs on a specific topic. The idea is to collect some of the best content on a topic in a given week. Often many other blogs link back to a carnival host and as such the people that have articles featured in the carnival often enjoy a spike in new readers.

To find the right blog carnival for your blog, do a search at blogcarnival.com.

3. Submit your blog to blogtopsites.com. To be honest this tip is not going to bring in a flood of new readers but it’s so easy to do and only takes five minutes so it’s worth the effort. Go to Blog Top Sites, find the appropriate category for your blog and submit it. You have to copy and paste a couple of lines of code on to your blog so you can rank and then sit back and watch the traffic come in. You will probably only get 1-10 incoming readers per day with this technique but over time it can build up as you climb the rankings. It all helps!

2. Submit your articles to EzineArticles.com. This is another tip that doesn’t bring in hundreds of new visitors immediately (although it can if you keep doing it) but it’s worthwhile because you simply leverage what you already have - your pillar articles. Once a week or so take one of your pillar articles and submit it to Ezine Articles. Your article then becomes available to other people who can republish your article on their website or in their newsletter.

How you benefit is through what is called your “Resource Box”. You create your own resource box which is like a signature file where you include one to two sentences and link back to your website (or blog in this case). Anyone who publishes your article has to include your resource box so you get incoming links. If someone with a large newsletter publishes your article you can get a lot of new readers at once.

1. Write more pillar articles. Everything you do above will help you to find blog readers however all of the techniques I’ve listed only work when you have strong pillars in place. Without them if you do everything above you may bring in readers but they won’t stay or bother to come back. Aim for one solid pillar article per week and by the end of the year you will have a database of over 50 fantastic feature articles that will work hard for you to bring in more and more readers.

I hope you enjoyed my list of traffic tips. Everything listed above are techniques I’ve put into place myself for my blogs and have worked for me, however it’s certainly not a comprehensive list. There are many more things you can do. Finding readers is all about testing to see what works best for you and your audience and I have no doubt if you put your mind to it you will find a balance that works for you.

This article was by Yaro Starak, a professional blogger and my blog mentor. He is the leader of the Blog Mastermind mentoring program designed to teach bloggers how to earn a full time income blogging part time.

To get more information about Blog Mastermind click this link:

www.BlogMastermind.com

Agloco Viewbar launch update

Agloco sent its members an email recently to give an update report of sorts about its Viewbar software that members use to earn ad revenue while surfing. People who swear by Agloco are those who have managed to sign up referrals, although when payment will be made for these referrals is unclear. The longer Agloco drags it feet launching the Viewbar, the more dropouts there will be as people seek out better ways to make money online. Worst still for those who have actually spent money advertising in AdWords and paid posts for referrals.

Although many have come out strongly against it, some even calling it a scam, its concept is still fundamentally sound enough for many, including big names like John Chow to sign up. However, I think only the referrals can earn any good money, assuming you get paid eventually. The paid surfing concept falls under the categories of get paid to post, get paid to read emails and get paid to complete offers- generally not worth the amount of time required to earn very little returns.

Here’s the email from Agloco.

We will be releasing the AGLOCO Viewbar software soon and want to update Members on how things will work when it is released.

Each Member will get an email informing them that their Viewbar is available. It will contain detailed instructions on the download, which will be done from the agloco.com website. Members will be invited to download in groups of 50,000 a day for a two week period, with Members contacted in the order in which they signed up.

Shortly before the first set of download emails go out, you will receive an email notice that the AGLOCO website will be ‘out of service’ for a few hours – this is necessary for us to move the Viewbar download system from the test server to the main servers.

Also, please be aware of the following:

1. AGLOCO Hours: You will accrue hours in your AGLOCO Member account (current maximum is five direct hours a month). Hours are earned during active surfing on the Internet. The Viewbar has a green light on it that notifies the Member when it is accruing time. Your referrals’ surfing will accumulate hours for you at a 25% rate, meaning if one of your referrals surfs for the maximum five hours you will get 1.25 (0.25 x 5) hours credited to your total referral hours. You can only get credit referral hours up to the amount you directly surf (meaning if you surf 3 hours but a referral surfs 4, you will only get credit for the first 3 of your referral’s 4 hours). AGLOCO accrues these hours each month and also has a cumulative total of all hours earned. These hours are what AGLOCO will use to calculate cash and other distributions. The Viewbar contains a one click inactive button which turns it off and removes it from your screen at any time.

2. Initial Release for Windows: The initial Viewbar release will be for Windows Vista, XP, 2000 Pro and 2000 Server. Later, we will release Mac and Linux versions of the Viewbar. Until that occurs, Mac/Linux users can still log onto any supported Windows computer and accumulate their five hours. The Viewbar works with browsers IE 5.5 or higher and Firefox 1.5 or higher.

3. Cash Distributions: To be a sustainable entity in the long term, AGLOCO makes Member cash distributions from its positive cash flow (revenue minus costs). Therefore, please do not expect a check after the first couple of months as it will take time to collect revenue from advertisers and this revenue must exceed costs in order to make cash distributions to Members. We will be keeping Members informed of our financials and you can visit the Official company blog at http://blog.agloco.com for the latest updates.

4. Multiple Users on One Viewbar: As stated previously, multiple Members may use the same Viewbar on the same computer. Only one Viewbar download will be necessary as the Viewbar software will enable each Member to log in and log out using their AGLOCO Member ID# and password (obviously, only one Member ID# can be accumulating Viewbar hours at any one time). Please note, only one Viewbar is allowed on a screen at a time.

5. One-Time Download: The v1.0 Viewbar is purposely simplistic and minimalist, but it also comes equipped with an automatic self-updating feature. Once you download the Viewbar for the first time, your Viewbar will be seamlessly updated with new additions and features as they become available. These future features include the direct cash back feature when a Member purchases items on sponsor site and a portion of the purchase price is added back to the Member’s AGLOCO account (as described on the Official AGLOCO Blog at http://blog.agloco.com/index.php/post35/ . )

We look forward to your active participation in the AGLOCO community.

Dan Jorgensen
Member Coordinator

10 get paid to blog sites roundup

One of the main ways for bloggers to make money online is to get paid for blogging. There are many paid blogging or paid review sites for bloggers to make money online, in addition to other ways such as sell images and videos.

1. PayPerPost
Lots of opportunities and if your site has a high PageRank, you could actually make some very nice pocket money completing the maximum limit of 3 posts a day since higher PR blogs have access to high paying offers. Currently the highest paying offer is USD175.00 for a post - but your blog has to have a PR6. However there are quite a lot of USD5.00 - USD10.00 offers for low traffic blogs as well.

PayPerPost also has the most rules and regulations to follow such as your PPP post must be between 2 non-paid posts, and other advertiser requirements such as having the post title in your browser window.

You have to check in frequently if you want to get the high paying posts as these get taken up very fast. After you accept an opportunity, you have 6 hours (subject to change) to post the URL or the opportunity will be released back onto the board.

2. Blogsvertise
Not many offers but if you go for quantity, all those USD5.00 posts do add up. Usually only about 100 words are required but at least 3 anchor links are mandatory for each post. You are emailed the offers from time to time but you can also browse the grab bag for offers which other bloggers have failed to complete or rejected.

The site navigation is a little troublesome as you have to change the category of your blog to check if there are any other offers. It would be more productive if all offers from the grab bag are displayed together on a page instead of having to waste time changing categories.

3. Blogging Ads
Recently revamped, posts here work on a slightly different model in that they are already written. So all you have to do is to copy and paste onto your blog. Each blog is limited to a maximum of 3 posts a month fixed at USD5.00 per post. Your blog must be indexed by Google and more than 3 months old to be considered. Opportunities are few and limited and once you have done the current offers, you have to wait 3 months to take the same offers again, and there may not be new ones available for a couple of months.

4. LinkWorth
They have several monetizing programs such as banners and in-text links in addition to their get paid to blog option. Member bloggers can set their own price tags for a post but must factor in LinkWorth’s share. Standard Partners get 70% of the set price while Preferred Partners get 50%. The difference is that LinkWorth markets the sites of Preferred Partners so they get more exposure and more offers from advertisers.

5. Smorty
A fairly new site, Smorty sets the fee for a blog post according to your blog’s traffic statistics. Lower traffic blogs get a flat USD6.00 fee per post of at least 150 words. Currently quite limited in both the number of offers and type of advertisers, Smorty promises better things to come when it grows its list of advertisers.

6. Sponsored Reviews
Requirements for this site are fairly high although once accepted, you can set your own fees to a limit set by Sponsored Reviews. The opportunities are listed with traffic requirements and price offers and if your blog qualifies, you can send in a bid for the offer. This method of matching advertiser with blogger means that lower traffic blogs will find it hard to get any offers since advertisers tend to pick higher traffic blogs.

7. ReviewMe
Has very high requirements and standards and unless your blog has a substantial PageRank and traffic ranking, you will hardly find any offers as advertisers browse through blogs and pick and choose the ones they want to advertise on. The fee for a blog based not entirely on PageRank, is set by ReviewMe who takes half the amount.

8. LoudLaunch
There are quite a lot of opportunities with the amount to be paid - usually USD5.00 - determined by your blog traffic and ranking. Posts rejected are not told the reason and not given a chance to rectify the problem. A large disclosure widget button has to be placed at the end of each post.

9. Creamaid
One of the lowest paying sites, with fees mostly in the region of USD1.00 - USD2.00 with another dollar or two as referral fee. A large widget which serves as both the disclosure and referral button must be placed at the end of a post. If a blogger takes up the offer from your post, you will earn the referral fee.

10. Bloggerwave
Recently resolved its payment problems with PayPal and back on track with its get paid to blog programme, which the sympathetic have attributed to over-zealous PayPal admins. Many bloggers who had their payment reversed have reported getting paid even though they had already deleted their posts.

Check out other sections on this blog for more make money online opportunities such as get paid to post, and making money with images.

AdGridWork - free contextual advertising

Publicise your website for free with AdGridWork. It is an advertising network that works on the basis of in the form of exchanging links text ads to increase visibility and traffic for your website - for free. You just need to display ads of other sites.

With the network of advertisers, you are effectively improving your search engine ratings by exchanging links with other sites in the network. You can even specify your target audience by selecting the category of advertisers you want your site to appear.

How It Works
1.Simply register your site for free.
2. Immediately configure the text you want to appear in your ad.
3. Specify the category for your ad.
4. Enter a list of keywords and phrases to optimize even further.
5. Customize the ad format and size for your website.
6. If you like, you can even enter a list of domains you do not want displayed on your site.
7. If you are running Google AdSense, you will have to check the option to turn off contextual advertising.
8. Submit your site.
9. Copy and paste the html code for the ad onto your website.

There are statistics to show the number of times the ad for your site has been displayed, requested and clicked. Since adding this site to the network just a couple of days ago, statistics show that this site has been displayed over 200 times which is quite impressive results.

Make money selling direct advertising

After avoiding advertising as a means to make money online, because of PageRank and traffic concerns, I have decided to try selling blog advertising direct to interested parties. Contextual advertising programmes like Google AdSense, Text Link Ads and other Pay-Per-Click advertising either do not appeal to me, my site does not qualify or just simply do not work.

If you have been thinking of doing the same thing, you may find this information useful and tweak it to create your own advertising campaign.

Types of advertising offered
There are 3 flavours offered - Sponsored Posts, Text Links and Banner Ads. Sponsored Posts are a given. Get paid for blogging is the primary source of earnings for this blog. Up to 4 keyword links will be offered with a minimum of 200 words.

Text Links are very low cost listed anchor links which will be under a Featured Links header. I intend to offer 5 links for starters and if response is good, to increase the links to a maximum of 10, as I feel that too many links tend to dilute exposure.

Banner spaces are available in specific horizontal and vertical formats. These will have the highest visibility as they will appear on every single page near the top of this website.

Benefits of selling blog advertising on your own
Obviously, in cutting out the middleman, profits will be 100% instead of being shared. Sites like ReviewMe take 50% your revenue, while others take 30%. You can also decide the amount you want to charge and there is no waiting period for a minimum payout sum either.

Disadvantages of selling blog advertising on your own
Advertisers may be hesitant to deal directly with bloggers even though it costs much less, just as there are bloggers hesitant to deal directly with advertisers. You have to depend on your traffic or word of mouth to get advertisers. Hence for this reason, I am not writing off contextual advertising programmes completely. I might sign up for the better ones at a later time when there is much higher traffic.

Why I decided to sell blog advertising
It doesn’t cost anything except some time in planning what types of blog advertising to offer and typing out the details. Still, I have not actively promoted this avenue of income. The only promotion I have done is this post and the advertise page. I don’t expect much response at this stage but I think it’s a good idea to have the option ready. If and when advertisers do come in, minimal time and effort is required to place some html code on the page. You would also already have a PayPal account to enable advertisers to simply pay you with an easy click of a button.

How much to charge?
You don’t want to charge too high and appear to be not worth the advertising dollar, yet you should not undercut your market rate. How do you determine your market rate? If you have joined any monetizing website, you would see the rates for your posts, text links and other advertising options which are all based on PageRank and traffic rankings.

Although different companies may peg your rates differently, they serve as a good guide on how much to charge. I would guess it makes sense to charge about the same or slightly lower to make it worth the advertiser’s while.

I also pondered over whether I should also offer banner design services since I am a graphic designer by profession. Perhaps I shall later on, if there is a demand for it. More details can be found on the advertise page.

PayPal account security measures phishing scam alert

PayPal users will most likely have received an email apparently from abuse@paypal.com with the subject PayPal account security measures. It is not from PayPal but a phishing scam from Beijing, China - the email IP origin.

What is phishing?
From PayPal’s security centre, “Phishing is a form of fraud designed to steal your identity. It works by using false pretenses to get you to disclose sensitive personal information, such as credit and debit card numbers, account passwords, or Social Security numbers.

One of the most common phishing scams involves sending a fraudulent email that claims to be from a well-known company. Phishing can also be carried out in person, over the phone, through fraudulent pop-up windows, and websites.”

The fraud email claims that there have been repeated unauthorised attempts at logging in to your PayPal account and therefore you need to go to a certain website to secure your account. Here’s the phishing email:

Military Grade Encryption is Only the Start

At PayPal, we want to increase your security and comfort level with every transaction. From our Buyer and Seller Protection Policies to our Verification and Reputation systems, we’ll help to keep you safe.

We have recently noticed one or more attempts to log into your PayPal account from a foreign IP address and we have reasons to believe that your account may have been hijacked by a third party without your authorization.

If you recently accessed your account while traveling, the unusual login in attempts may have been initiated by you. However, if you are the rightful holder of the account, click on the link below to log into your account within the above-mentioned period.

Click here to Secure your account

http://dezandgravertjes.nl/www.paypal.com/secure-login/

If you choose to ignore our request, you leave us no choice but to temporaly suspend your account.

We ask that you allow at least 72 hours for the case to be investigated and we strongly recommend to verify your account in that time.

If you received this notice and you are not the authorized account holder, please be aware that it is in violation of PayPal policy to represent oneself as another PayPal user. Such action may also be in violation of local, national, and/or international law. PayPal is committed to assist law enforcement with any inquires related to attempts to misappropriate personal information with the intent to commit fraud or theft. Information will be provided at the request of law enforcement agencies to ensure that perpetrators are prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.

Thanks for your patience and understanding as we work together to protect your account.

Sincerely,
PayPal Account Review Department
PayPal, an eBay Company

As with fake DVDs, there are spelling errors in the phishing email. The scary thing is, the link provided is a redirection to what looks like the actual PayPal site. If you try entering some fake email and password such as “dieyoubloody@scammer.com”, like I did, you will still be taken to the page to enter your credit card details.

So be warned and keep yourself informed of scams.

Money saving tips

Everyone is always thinking of how to make money online, but hardly anyone thinks about cutting down spending instead. For a change, instead of writing about making money, I thought I’d focus a little on fostering good money habits.

On the outset, it may seem like common sense but really how many of us actually put into practice all the financial advice that we read? Therefore, the very first thing to do is to change your mindset.

1.Change your mindset
The reason why we never change the way we do things is our mindset. You are used to having a certain sum of money to spend and changing that requires some serious change in your thinking.

Take stock of your monthly expenses. List them down in detail and see how many on that list can actually be done without. What are the dispensable expenses?

Be honest with yourself. Which are the things you bought because you saw it on a flashy TV commercial or a glossy brochure, or simply because it was too good deal to pass up on? Do you really need another wrist watch or change your mobile phone because a newer model is available? Is cable TV necessary?

Do you really need to keep up with the Joneses? Ingvar Kamprad, Ikea founder who built his massive wealth from selling low-price Swedish furniture and home goods drives a Volvo that’s nearly 15 years old.

Even if the item is only a hundred dollars, imagine if you cut back a one-hundred-dollar item every month, you save $1,200 a year. Put that into a long-term compound interest savings plan and you are creating tens of thousands of future dollars.

2. Save first, then spend.
When you receive your paycheck, do you spend whatever you want and come the end of the month, save what’s left? Do it the other way around. That is, when you get your paycheck, fix an amount to put into the bank. Preferably, have an account that does not allow easy withdrawal, such as a long-term fixed deposit, or better still, have your salary deposited into an auto-save type of account which automatically transfers a percentage of your salary into an untouchable investment account. Then spend the remainder. How much should you fix to save? That depends on you. It would be easier to start off with a low save/spend percentage such as 20/80 and slowly increase that ratio as you get your spending habits into better shape.

3. Have only 1 or 2 credit cards
Take an inventory count of the number of credit and debit cards you own. If you are very determined to drastically cut your spending, cut up all but 1 of your credit cards. If you need baby steps, cut all but 2 of your credit cards.

Credit card debt is a growing social ill encouraged by credit card companies themselves, what with pre-approvals, easy credit loan, minimum payment and rollover options all designed to get you in debt. A certain credit card company is always reminding you to never leave home without it, I say leave your credit card at home whenever you can and use cash.

Without a credit card, sure you will have to put up with some inconveniences but until you train yourself to cut back on unnecessary spending, paying in cash helps you keep track of how much you spend and forego more costly items, guaranteeing huge cuts in unnecessary spending.

And always pay your credit card bill in full.

4. Plan your purchases
It pays to plan your purchases. Buy only during the sale season and stock up on what you need. Bakeries for example, often have huge discounts pass a certain hour at night before closing to clear their cakes and pastries. Take advantage of that. Shop at wholesale outlets or online shops where prices tend to be lower than normal retail.

5. Give yourself a cooling off period
When you see something you want to buy, give yourself sometime to think about it. Tell yourself to go back next week. Think about how long it would take you to make back the money that you are going to spend buying the item. Is it worth it? Do you really need it? I have done that many times, and the item just doesn’t seem all that necessary anymore, or I just forget about it.

6. Keep yourself busy
The best way to fight temptation is to keep yourself busy, whether by taking up some courses which help you grow your potential, sports, reading useful books or with some fulfilling volunteer work. You have less time to spend window shopping and keep yourself out of shopping malls. Most people go to the malls because they have a lot of free time. Why not spend your time purposefully and save money?

If you combine all these methods and keep at it, I would be really surprised if you don’t see a substantial increase in savings - just by cutting spending. If you can, try and find another person with the same goal to increase savings by cutting spending, and encourage each other. You can even make it a competition to see who saves more. The biggest obstacle is you. Tell yourself, “No more excuses, I’m going to make a change.” and mean it.