In these tough times of job losses, foreclosures and rampant unemployment, many are looking for ways to make money online. Unfortunately, many offers of help to make money are scams, asking for money upfront in order to “help you achieve your dream”.
Do not fall for these, I’m about to show you a way at no cost whatsoever, and best of all, you don’t need to know anything about FTP,HTTP or any other programming knowledge.
Just nine months ago I discovered Hub Pages, and this is what I want to make you aware of.
To help you better understand what I’m talking about and to get the maximum help from this post, why not take a quick peek at two of my Hub Page blogs. This is my highest ranked blog, and this is my lowest ranked blog.
Take a good look around each site, and hopefully you will notice there is lots going on here. It may look impressive with how the page is laid out, but Hub Pages automates most of the layout and links for you following your selection of which modules to include in your hub.
Choose modules for text, adding YouTube video, Newscasts, comments, eBay, Amazon, photos, and rss feeds. You can also add a poll module and a comments box. You can omit any module you wish, and duplicate any of the modules several times if required.
Let me clarify that by directing you back to my highest ranked blog where you will see the text is broken up into five separate text modules, three Amazon modules, I’ve added five videos, there’s a photo slide show, a news rss feed and a comments box. I could have added eBay modules too, but its best not to over-commercialise I think, and besides, you need to balance the page to make it pleasing to the eye.
Every module can be positioned where you want it on the page by dragging and dropping from the box on the right when you are in edit mode, then clicking on the re-order box.
This is maybe a good time to explain how money is made from your hub.
In the site, you need to enrol as an affiliate of Google ad-sense, Amazon, eBay, Kontera and Analytics. You are given an affiliate code for each of them which you enter into the box for affiliate settings. You only need to do this once then forget about it as Hub Pages takes care of it now.
So working from the top and across the page of my hub page on Blue Springs, Orlando, Florida, you will see a number. This is an assessment by Hub Pages of the relevance of the article. Compare this to a percentage mark you may get for an essay at school. The more interesting the hub and the more pleasing the layout, the higher the mark.
Immediately under the title will be some Google ads if you have opted in to these. The position of these ads appears to be fixed by default. (A word of warning here, never ever click on Google ads on your own pages. You will be severely punished!)
Under this panel of ads will be your opening paragraph. Keep this to about five lines, outlining what your hub is about, including your main keywords.
To the right of your opening text will be a light blue panel with your membership details, the RSS feed, a link to join your fan club and your avatar or photo if you uploaded one. In the corner of this box is a number which reflects your good standing on Hub Pages.
Now you can consider adding either an Amazon or eBay capsule to compliment the wording of your opening paragraph. You have the choice of adding from 1 to 6 links in eBay, these are automatically selected by eBay from the wording you place in the capsule. Amazon lets you add from 1 to 10 links, and you are given the choice here either to let Amazon choose the links dependent like eBay on your keywords, or choose the products to offer yourself by placing the ASIN number in each line.
In my example hub Blue Springs Orlando Florida, I have placed an Amazon box with just 3 products of my own choosing. To the right of the Amazon capsule I’ve added my own video of Blue Springs, but you can add any suitable YouTube video you can find.
Below these 2 capsules are another 2 Google ads, but your visitor can search for more ads by using the < > arrows.
I’ve repeated this format for the rest of the page, and I hope you can agree that the page is well balanced. The boxes on the right are positioned there by default, and include more Google ads, related hubs by others, related questions and answers, then a list of all of the keywords you have chosen and added to describe your hub.
If you have added a news hub, I always think this is best placed near to the bottom above your comment box. You have the choice of the number of news articles to list here, and these are selected and added automatically for you dependant on the keywords you choose to include.
The page is finished off with more Google ads.
There is much more to Hub Pages than what I’ve mentioned here, but I hope by now you will be on information overload with what I’ve already listed above.
The important thing now is to sign up and just get on with it, learning as you go, always experimenting with better ways to display your hub, and keep coming back to it to add more relevant text. Hopefully, this will result in your hub mark rising, as well as your income.
Another warning, income from each hub might take upwards of 4 to 6 months to start, but if you add new hubs as often as you can, join the forums and write well enough to interest other hubbers to join your fan club, you can only grow to become a respected Hubber.
If you cannot think of something significant to write a hub about, draw on your life’s experiences with occupations, hobbies and sports you are knowledgable about. You will see from my profile page the variety of subjects I’ve written hubs about, and below the list of links you will see all of my hubs itemised with links to every one, and below these is a list of the hubs by other hubbers I have subscribed to. By subscribing to these, I get notified automatically every time these hubbers publish a new hub.
I hope this helps you along the way to start to receive income from blogging, and if you care to comment or need to ask a question to clarify anything, I promise I will always give you a response.
If you take this on, why not include a friend or group of friends to join you, then you are accountable to someone, and you can spur each other on to make more and better hubs. There’s room for everyone, so this idea is worthy of serious consideration. Why not forward this post on to others now, and get a quick start along your own road to riches?
It seems like I wasn’t the only one having trouble working out the complexities of uploading videos to YouTube from my mail inbox.
So I will try and give some pointers here how I finally succeeded.
The first program I must give credit to is Quick Media Converter. Best of all, it’s a free download.
You can find it here: http://quick-media-converter.en.softonic.com/
Quote”Quick Media Converter is a flexible and comprehensive solution for converting video and audio with an eye on simplicity, usability and speed.”
It’s a matter of having your video file completed, and simply drag and drop.
Select the type of file you need your video converting to, such as flv for the web, quicktime, windows,DivX, XviD, DVD, VCD,mobile phone format, iPhone and all the popular games consoles.
I needed a conversion to upload to YouTube, so I selected Quicktime MP4, dragged my file into the box, and after a few seconds the conversion starts. Be aware that it will take a while, maybe an hour if your original file is large.
After the conversion, a new file will be placed on your desktop, and if you click on properties, you will see that the file is now only about 10% of the original file.
Once logged into YouTube, click on “upload video” and brows to the file to upload. Click OK, wait another half an hour or so, and your file will be uploaded to Youtube. While you are waiting, add a few notes in the boxes, add some keywords, and you’re ready to go.
Be sure to make a note of the Youtube address of your masterpiece from the right hand box near the top of the page.
If you need to see my results, visit my blog on Blue Springs Orlando Florida.
They are both about wildlife you might see if you get out into the state parks and waterways of Orlando Florida.
I’m happy to help with any questions you may have, but please remember I’m a novice at this too.
Good luck.
Art
If you are going to Orlando Florida this year, you may like to take a look at my hub on the area, suggesting ways you can enjoy the Orlando area away from the parks, have great days out with lots of fun, and for very little money.
Having lived in this area for many years before returning to England, we recently re-visited the area and recorded some video of our very favorite part of Orlando, the Dora Canal near Tavares, about 40 miles north of the parks.
So, I’ve found it hard to transfer this video to Youtube, but finally sorted it out.
Just an update on what I’ve been doing recently on the Internet.
Until recently, many of my websites were with different hosting services, and not necessary the best hosting for business web hosting, as in the early days, I went for affordable hosting, paying little attention to see if they were the best web host to best suit my requirements.
This resulted in many of my sites being hosted with different web hosting services, which of course all had their own web hosting plans, with me paying each web hosting company a monthly fee.
So for this past few months I’ve trawled the Internet searching for the best web hosting company I could find with a web hosting service which would host all of my sites with just one web hosting package.
It had to be affordable web hosting, reliable web hosting, and cater for business web hosting.
I know I can finally say I’ve found the best hosting available, and they offer hosting services both in the USA as well as a UK web hosting service.
That web hosting company is d9hosting and already I’ve transferred many of my sites to their hosting services, giving me just one web hosting plan to pay for monthly instead of many.
If you are looking for affordable web hosting with the best hosting out there, just check what web hosting package d9hosting has to offer you best, and I’m sure you will agree with me if you are looking for business web hosting, affordable web hosting and/or whatever web hosting solution to meet your own particular needs, d9hosting is the best hosting for you.
I’ve also spent a lot of time completing my 2 most recent e-Books, and I’m doing a special deal on them just now to get sales moving, so I’ll tell you about that in my next post.
Just a short post to notify all that the first stage of the JOOB weight loss plan is posted on HubPages and this will be the main posting area from now on. Thank you to all readers here who have registered their interest, it’s really encouraging to have your support and ideas.
The first results are in already, as I teamed up with Paul, and to share them with you, I can tell you that Paul lost 3lbs in the first week and I lost 1lb. This means that as we are sponsoring each other for $10 for each pound lost, Paul puts $10 away for me, but I put $30 away for him.
It’s up to me if I actually have to pay him that amount; all I have to do is reach my target of losing the mutually agreed weight within our time frame of 14 weeks. You can see how this works in an earlier post.
Remember, even though you yourself might not need to lose weight, YOU WILL know someone who does. If you can gently point them in the direction of this post, you will be doing them a massive favor.
Masses of people are becoming unemployed at this time of crisis, and it is an essential part of gaining employment again by staying healthy, fit, and looking good.
Apologies to all who opened this blog yesterday using Internet Explorer.
In my haste to get the post on line between working out on Wii Fit to loose weight and taking my daily exercise walk which is my chosen way to improve my health, I made the cardinal sin of not testing over all browsers before uploading.
The post reads as it should in Google Chrome, Firefox and Safari, but IE seems like it was having a bad hair day!
So for all IE users, sorry for the mess, but you can view this post correctly on Hub Pages at JOOB Weight Loss Plan
Meanwhile, I will work on IE to see what went wrong, and correct the error. Any ideas will be gratefully received.
Yes, today is the day when we feel we can release our plan to help you lose weight.
This is how it works:
1.“Buddy” up with someone who has some weight to lose, preferably a similar amount to you.
See note 1
2.Agree how many pounds you would like to lose during your challenge – this must be the same for both of you. See note 2
3.Work out the date your challenge will start and end – one week for every pound you would like to lose. See note 3
4.Start your weight loss – healthy eating, exercising or whatever else to help your challenge – surgery not allowed!!! See note 4
5.On the starting day of your challenge, email or text your buddy with your “JOOB” weight – JustOutOfBed.
6.On the same day every week, text your weight progress to your buddy. See note 5
7.If you both achieve your target weight-loss before the end date of your challenge, either set a new date and goal with your buddy or find a new buddy to continue with. See note 1
8.On the end date of your challenge reflect on how well you’ve done and decide if you want to set a new target. If so, see 7 above
9.OPTIONAL MONEY INCENTIVE If you need additional motivation, why not agree to add money as an incentive – perhaps , $5 or $10 in a jar for every pound your buddy loses – the theory being that no money will change hands at the end of the challenge because you will have lost the same…. If you lose more pounds than your target you still get the target amount – no more. Likewise, if you lose less than the target loss, you will get less money.
(Obviously use your own currency for where you live).
10.If you are using the money incentive, put the agreed amount per pound in a jar for each full pound your buddy has lost that week. Then, at the end of the challenge work out how much you owe your buddy and your buddy owes you – hopefully no money will need to change hands. See note 6
As an example, this is how it will work
My buddy and I both want to lose 14lbs in 14 weeks – end date 1st June. We’ve agreed $10 per pound of weight lost.
For every pound I lose each week, my buddy will put $10 in a jar for me and I’ll do the same for him. On 1st June I intend for my buddy to have $140 in a jar to give me and I’ll have anything from $0 to $140 to give him, depending on how well he has done. I may even make some money if he hasn’t achieved his 14lb loss in that time….
Why not give it a try – you’ve got weight to lose and money to gain……….
Note 1If you can’t find a buddy with similar goals to yourself, let us know and we’ll try to help.
Note 2 Don’t be too ambitious, if this is the first attempt at loosing weight, try a target of say 7 pounds loss at first, you can always repeat this once your target is achieved.
Note 3We suggest a Saturday to start, if not a Sunday, just to make it easier to keep tabs on everyone.
Note 4 Over the duration of the plan, we will suggest tricks and tips to help you stay on plan with tips on healthy eating, exercising etc which we have found works for us in the past. These will be posted on this blog.
Note 5 As well as texting your buddy every week, please also send an email with the results to JoobWeightLossPlan@yahoo.com Just using the initials of both of you will be fine if you wish.
Note 6 While you both need to put in the same amount for each pound lost, don’t overstretch your weekly budget. Provided that you achieve your goals, you won’t have to part with any money, giving you spare cash to treat yourself to a new outfit in a smaller size.
If you have something to contribute by way of recommended diets, exercisers or change of lifestyle, why not share them with everyone else? Either include it in your weekly report or as a comment in the blog.
Likewise, you will notice that we’ve recommended helpful purchases with big discounts. If you have seen anything like this, why not tell us about it too in your weekly report?
We hope to hear from lots of you this weekend with your goals.
Now get busy planning,
Art
PS Today is Ash Wednesday when we are encouraged to give something up over the next 40 days for Lent.
Still working the finer details out before giving you details of our Joob weight loss plan, but following on from my post yesterday about getting the Wii Fit back into action, it was pointed out to me that Amazon have a 17% discount offer on the Wii 5-in-1 Fitness Bundle right now if you care to check their offer out here:
After doing my 8 most used routines on the Wii Fit yesterday morning, come the afternoon I felt sufficiently energised to re-start my walking program.
While in Florida, I had found a great Omron Pedometer with a massive37% discount.
In the past I have found that pedometers are great gadgets to carry during exercise for use as a step counter and health and fitness monitor. So off I went on a 2 mile walk, which today I have repeated already. Check out the link below to take advantage of this 37% discount offer:
I realise it’s not everyone that needs to lose some extra pounds, but like I said yesterday, we all must know someone who does need to lose weight, so if you feel able to mention this blog to them, hopefully within the next couple of days we will tell you all the plan.
About 18 months ago, my wife Laura and I bought a Wii Fit to add to our Nintendo collection.
The thinking was that it may help us loose some weight, while at the same time get us both a little fitter. I did well at the time, and in total I lost about 26 pounds in weight.
Alas, as any of you who have been in the same situation will know, good things never last.
We stopped using the Wii, and slowly, despite our careful diet, the pounds have crept back on.
Today, I got the Wii Fit out again, and after doing the fitness test, it tells me that it’s been 248 days since we last used it, and in that time I have gained 13 pounds in weight, and my body mass index has jumped from 28.87 then to 30.76 today. How gross is that?
So, here’s what I’m doing to correct matters:
First, I did a 29 minute work-out with the Wii Fit.
Then I programmed the Wii with my goal of loosing 21 pounds in the next 21 weeks!
Just one pound a week. But I’ve gone further than that to keep me on target; I’ve teemed up with our youngest daughter who with her husband has devised a plan to put an optional incentive into the mix, as they both also wish to lose weight.
Their idea is called the JOOB Weight Loss Plan, and it’s just about ready to tell others about it.
No initial cost is involved; indeed, it’s very possible that money can be made by those who succeed in achieving their target weight.
Check back here within the next day or two, and I’ll let you in on the plan.
Meanwhile, if you are in a similar position of having gained weight like me, why not start today to do something positive about it.
Get that Wii back into action, (it may need new batteries like mine did) and watch out for my next post.
While in Fl, during our recent Orlando Florida vacation, we passed through Kissimmee going west along the 192 and came to Celebration resort, a new town built near Walt Disney world, just south of Old Town on the 192.
We saw someone riding a Segway, and met Dale, the owner of Segway Orlando in theDisney area, and learned that he gives private tours around the town of Celebration.
We knew that Disney Florida offered Segway tours, but ruled this out because of the high cost. So imagine our delight when we learned that Dale offers Segway tours for less than half of what others might charge.
We signed up straight away, and were given a tour around the lake at the end of Main Street, Celebration. To say we enjoyed it immensely is an understatement, the thrill of zooming along paved pathways in total silence, all without effort other than leaning forward to accelerate, and standing up straight to slow down or stop, made the tour so enjoyable and allowed us to take in the great views of wildlife and the varied scenery.
The tour came to an end all too soon, so we decided we would return for the 90 minute tour which was on offer, at a later date.
We thought we had been on most of the Orlando attractions, but of all of them this was the greatest and one of the cheapest fun things to do in the Orlando Fl area.
So, there we were, just a week later, back for more fun on the Segway.
With a party of 5, we toured many small lakes, mostly on paved walkways, with Dale pointing out all the wildlife, the many great multi-million $ homes, taking us from one lake to another over a series of raised boardwalks through wooded areas over swampland.
The Segway is just so easy to ride that we were free to appreciate all the beauty which the area has. Dale is so knowledgeable about the area, giving you a great insight into the best that Celebration has to offer.
Alas, 90 minutes passed by all too quickly, and we were back at the lake at the bottom of Main Street.
All I can say to anyone who visits Orlando in the Celebration area is to seek Dale out from his website www.zetours.com and book up for a unique thrill of your life.
