Tag Archives: money

Are Your Opinions Worth Paying For?

Making Money, , , ,

Pencil and Notepad

Yes, but why? Well everyone is interested in other people’s opinion, whether this is politicians wanting to know which way you vote or businesses wondering whether you like product A or B. Even reading blogs shows an interest in opinions of others. But can you gain money from giving such an opinion? Well yes you can:-

YouGov is an independent research agency. Companies commission YouGov to survey people about all sorts of things so they can improve their knowledge of the market. By signing up to YouGov you could be selected to take part in one of these surveys. For each one you complete you earn money, not much, we’re talking 50p’s to a pound. So potential earnings are low but the surveys are quick and easy to complete (generally ticking boxes), and from the ones I’ve done they take between 5 and 10 minutes to complete. The downside is you may only be asked to do one survey a week or less, so earning opportunities are a little tight. Also you need to earn £50 before you get a cheque. At the rate I’m currently going at, I will receive my first cheque this time next year, so not a great earner. But if you are patient and can wait then maybe it’s worth a try especially if you don’t plan on having a blog or website. One other plus side is you can earn commission for recommending a friend! It you refer a friend, you receive equivalent amounts for every survey they complete in the first 3 months. Before I stop I must mention, Residents of the U.S. and Middle East can also take part, although I think there are separate sites for these area. Just check around the main site!

Cheers,

Martyn.

image: www.freeimages.co.uk

Save Money, Eat Well

Saving Money, University, , , , , ,

pastaOne of the constant hard hitters on the health of my wallet is food, yes we all need it, but can we save money and eat well at the same time? As a student you are constantly tempted by student deals from takeaways and other fast food outlets. The ‘10% off for students’ or ‘ Free [insert food] with this voucher’, offers can be hard to resist, but the bottom line is everyone wants your money and students tend to fall for these marketing tricks. Anyway why not, students like to be lazy, why cook when you can just pop into the nearest chippy?

Cooking does take time and effort, but is a lot more rewarding (if you don’t burn it!). Pasta must be one of the quickest and must be one of the most cost effective meal. Quite easily less than 50p a meal if you buy a large bag of pasta at the start of term. Why not jazz it up adding cooked bacon or grated cheese e.t.c. Cook more pasta than you need, rinse and save what you don’t eat, mix with mayonnaise, tuna and sweetcorn, to make something different for your dinner tomorrow. Certainly by cooking for yourself or others (even more cost effective if everyone pays a bit towards the cost), you have more control over what goes into your food, unlike that fat infested burger you had from the burger bar the other night (yes we’ve all had one!).

My last thought is, buy own brands products, e.g. Tesco Value range or Asda Smart Price. Many consider these products to be inferior when they are sometimes just as good if not better than their more expensive counterparts. In many case the same company that makes the recognised branded product also make the own brand products for supermarkets. On the other hand I’m no so sure about Sainsbury Basics tuna or mayonnaise, not as good as Tesco’s or Asda’s equivalent.

Anyway Happy Eating!

Martyn

image: www.freeimages.co.uk

New term, New challenges

Making Money, University, , , , ,

CoinsBeen a while since I last posted on here, I apologise for my absence. Usual excuses, lack of time as well as been a way from a computer with internet access. Well I’m back now and have set myself new challenges for my second year at uni. As many fellow students will know money gets a bit tight whilst at uni, whether this is down to drinking (most likely) or just poor budgeting/spending of money on student ‘essentials’ (less likely to admit to!).

So for this year I have planned to see whether I can earn a decent amount of money just from this blog and purplesunset.co.uk. How I’m going to do this, we will just have to wait and see. At the moment, I have started by using Google’s Adsense, you probably have seen a massive growth in these small adverts appearing on websites everywhere over the last few years. It works by the publisher (me) receives money for every click on an advert. The advertiser pays for the clicks, with google acting as the middle men, sorting which adverts would be best suited to the webpage, and taking their cut of the money.

Another road I am trying is by using banner advertising at the top of the page, with these adverts the publisher usually gets commission on any sales by a customer who originated from the publishers website. This is the aim in theory at least!

Also over the coming months I will try to give tips on getting the most out of student life on a shoestring, as well as discussing the website, which I have just finished converting to php programming! Took a while, but hopefully now it should be easier to modify and add to! Any ideas more than welcome! Time for some food me thinks …

image: www.freeimages.co.uk