I was discussing Ebay with someone the other day, and they were talking about how frustrating they found it that they could not open up their Ebay store yet because they did not have the minimum number of required feedbacks. They were only a few short but they were really wanting to move forward and get the store opened over the weekend when they had the time to fix all of the postings up, and were disappointed that they had not sold enough items that week to be able to do so. This is when it occurred to me that other people may benefit from learning how to use a simple tactic that will solve that problem immediately. I used this method a long time ago when I needed to have a feedback rating at a certain level in order to get work as a merchant’s official Ebay poster, and I myself was lacking only a few points.
Note that I am NOT condoning that you do this on a large scale, or in order to try to inflate your numbers so that you can defraud anyone. People often check your feedback and items bought and sold before dealing with you, and if it is mostly generated in this way you will look really bad. Doing it only for a few extra items to get you to a near goal sooner will not cause any comment or concern with anyone, and should be okay. If you find yourself in this situation, here is how to immediately fix it.
Go into search and look for Ebooks that you can purchase for one or two cents using buy it now, and buy however many you need. It does not really matter what the topic is, you are buying the feedback and not the Ebook. Since it is a buy it now item, you should be able to get immediate feedback as soon as you pay for the items. You can now move forward with your Ebay goal, and begin buying and selling normally again.
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Fast Ebay feedback method
10/24/2009Posted by Ework 411 at 10/24/2009 3 comments
Labels: Tips and Training
Note about real work at home employers
10/23/2009These real life companies that pay people to work from home are just like any other employer, and may not be hiring at all times. They can only hire enough workers to cover their flow of business. This is actually to your benefit. If the company hired you when they did not have the work to support you, nobody would make anything from them due to lack of enough work to go around. If you apply, please be patient as it can sometimes take a while before they contact you back. Pestering them will not get you hired faster, and may cause you to not be hired at all. My advice is to apply for all of them that are applicable and be patient, just like searching for a real job. Also, since these are real life jobs working at home; be prepared for the fact that some may require resumes, certain amounts of experience, proficiency tests, and special equipment.
Posted by Ework 411 at 10/23/2009 0 comments
Dungeons and Treasures pays you to play their RPG game
10/21/2009
Dungeons and Treasures is a great game that you can get paid to play. My first impression of it was that it reminded me of one of the very old school Role Playing Games, because it is a bit cheesy compared to modern RPG’s. After you really start playing it though, it is oddly addictive. I actually look forward to playing it every day now. The instructions are a little difficult to follow, because the game is operated by non-US citizens who have written the instructions in English. The rest of this post will provide you with a set of basic understandable instructions and tips to save you a headache and a learning curve from having to figure most of it out on your own.
Posted by Ework 411 at 10/21/2009 0 comments
Labels: Legit Money Makers, Paid Gaming
Short Task pays you for completing microjob tasks
10/20/2009Short Task is a Microjobs provider, similar to M-turk and Microworkers. There seem to be a good variety and large amount of tasks to complete on this service, and I have been impressed with it so far. This one seems to combine the numbers of listings that Mechanical Turk offers with the easier payment options that Microworkers provides. You can request payout by Paypal when your account reaches $10.00. The only thing that I do not like so far is that tasks do not disappear once completed, and there is no option to make them do so if you have already done them or are not interested in them. This can create some confusion when you are talking about 36,000 tasks that often have similar titles such as “follow a Twitter account” lol. I have sent a comment in to the site about this suggestion, but they are probably already working on it because the logo says “Beta” on it. I am still in the process of testing Short Task out, so I may have a further update on this program later. I have not been paid yet, but it does come highly recommended by a good friend so I am posting it as legit.
Posted by Ework 411 at 10/20/2009 4 comments
Labels: Legit Money Makers, Microjobs
Earn with Lulu self publishing platform
Lulu is a self publishing program where you can write and sell your own materials. Unlike many self publishers, Lulu does not require that you pre-print a large number of copies in order to get going. You simply create your content and post it on the site. You can sell books, musical albums, photographic collections, and more. You can choose to publish in eBook format, or as printed material. When publishing a printed book, you simply upload the contents, and add the cover. Once you have done that, you selcet what sizes and styles of book you would like to offer it in (hardback, trade paperback, coffee table book, etc). Lulu will give you a price per book for what it costs to print the item.
Once you know what the cost is, it is up to you to set the selling price. Keep in mind that Lulu does keep 20% of your royalties. This is a little bit higher than some places; but the fact that you can get your work into print without having to pre-purchase thousands of copies makes it very worth it for publishers who are just starting out. Ebooks do not have any printing costs, and can be sold for any price, including free. If you have a price on an Ebook, it is 100% royalty, less Lulu’s percentage.
Now that your book is ready, it is up to you to market it. Lulu does display it very nicely on their site, which will generate some traffic and sales for you. You can even set up your own storefront with templates that you can change. They also allow people to review your work on the site, which is a great feature. When someone decides to purchase a copy of your book, Lulu will take care of all of the packaging and shipping for you too. Lulu is a must use program for anyone who would like to publish their own book, but cannot afford the high fees associated with the large print houses.
Here is an example of a book distributed by Lulu that was written by an Ework411 reader and my online friend. Chelsea Hoffman's Lulu page. Let’s show her some link love and check it out on our way to scope out the great service Lulu can provide.
Posted by Ework 411 at 10/20/2009 0 comments
Labels: Legit Money Makers, Publishing
Get paid for promoting your content at Shetoldme
Shetoldme is a combination program that is part traffic generator, part bookmark/backlink service, and part moneymaker. Once you sign up for Shetoldme, you can post links to blog or website articles you find useful (including your own). Be sure to vote up your own posts, you can and should do this once by clicking the up tab next to the icon that looks like a world. Your post then goes into a queue, where it is reviewed by other users of the system. They will read the short summary of the post; and if they find it of further interest they can then click through to read the entire post. This helps you get traffic to items that you post on this program. Once they have read it, they will rate it up or down. Once it gets to be above a certain ranking, it becomes a permanent backlink and stays within the database. This will help increase the pagerank of whatever you have posted.
Every post made on Shetoldme has three Google Adsense sections. One is yours, one belongs to the person who referred you, and one to Shetoldme. Due to this, you will have an Adsense ad on every post that you make; as well as on every post made by your referrals. Not a guaranteed money maker by any means because it is unknown how often your referrals will post; or if anyone reading will click on an ad located on either you or your referral’s posts. But the fact that these remain out there permanently and get good Google search rankings, and you do have potential to make money using something that is benefitting you anyway is neat. I have made Adsense earnings from this program, which I consider to be a nice bonus to a great service.
Posted by Ework 411 at 10/20/2009 0 comments
Labels: Legit Money Makers, Pagerank, Traffic Generators
Get paid to be a juror at Online Verdict
Are you a US resident that finds legal matters interesting? Are you able to remain open minded and review situations individually before making up your mind? If so, you may be a good candidate for working at Online Verdict. Online Verdict is a program where lawyers who currently have legal cases awaiting a jury verdict who will pay you for your individual opinions, in order to get a good idea of how the case is going to be decided. E-jurors complete a detailed profile, and are then invited by email to participate in cases when they meet the demographic a lawyer has requested. You will only be able to review cases occurring within your county or Federal district, and they are only offered as they become available as a match with no guaranteed rate of work. You may not participate if you have any felony convictions.
If you get invited by email to participate in a case, you have the option of accepting or passing on it by not taking action to accept the case. Not taking or abandoning a specific case you find disinteresting or offensive does not penalize you in any way aside from not being paid, and you will still be invited to participate in any future cases if eligible. If you do decide to accept the case; you just click through the link, and review all of the evidence and legal arguments presented by both sides. Reviewing a case takes anywhere from 30 to 60 minutes or so, and pays between $20-60; depending on the difficulty and amount of material you have to review.
Once you have reviewed everything, you will be asked a series of questions about the case, and your opinions of it. After your participation in the case is finished, you will be mailed a check to your home address. Online Verdict pays monthly for any cases you have participated in that have closed in the previous month.
Get paid to be a juror at Online Verdict.
Posted by Ework 411 at 10/20/2009 0 comments
Labels: Legit Money Makers, Online Juror
Ejury will pay you to act as an ejuror to pre-try legal cases
Ejury is a program where you can participate in pre-trying a legal case before it goes to a jury. Having the case pre-tried allows the lawyer presenting it to find holes in their side of the case, improve jury selection, and discover how good their legal case is according to public opinion. You are only eligible to participate in trials going on within your county, and must be a US resident who has not been convicted of a felony. Once the case is fully closed you can view the results if you like, which consist of a summary based on responses from all of the participants in that case.
A case generally takes 30 minutes or less to review, and pays between $5-10 each. You are more likely to get cases if you live in a larger metro area. This jury program does not pay as much as Online Verdict does, but the reviews are easier to do and take less time. This is because you only get the basic facts and info that you would learn from opening and closing statements, and not the entire process of a full trial with testimony and official evidence. Occasionally you may get invited to actually physically attend a mock trial, and those pay fairly well (plus they feed you lol).
Click here to find out more about being an Ejury e-juror and pre-trying legal cases.
Posted by Ework 411 at 10/20/2009 0 comments
Labels: Legit Money Makers, Online Juror
Pixprofit pays for typing out captcha images?
Pixprofit is a site that pays you to type out the letters and numbers in a captcha image. You get 30 seconds per image to type it correctly. You must type it in case sensitive, and include any symbols or spaces just as it is in the image. I am still testing this program, and am not really sure what I think of it. I have heard from many sources that it does pay and is legit, and the site states that they process payments daily. I have also heard that if you make too many errors your account will be suspended, so if you do use this program accuracy is a must. You earn $1.00 for every thousand captchas processed. I like the fact that the site pays out daily, so you can get paid as soon as you have reached the $3.00 payout amount.
My biggest issue with this would be to wonder why someone needs thousands of capchas decoded in the first place. Also, this has got to be the most mind numbingly boring work from home task I have ever attempted. I did not even get to the point of having made a dollar before my brain felt like it had turned to Jello, and I had to stop doing it. Since then, I have found it difficult to feel motivated enough to go on another captcha rampage, so it may be a while before I can verify if this pays or not. In the meantime, it is believed to be legit (but possibly unethical if being used to spam?), and I will leave it up to you to decide whether or not to use it.
Posted by Ework 411 at 10/20/2009 0 comments
Labels: Positive Listings, Transcribing
West at Home is a top rated CSR work from home employer
10/13/2009West at Home is a company that hires representatives to do customer service jobs for their clients. This generally involves data entry and telephone work. You can set your own work hours, which are totally flexible to your life schedule. West at Home even has an optional medical and dental benefit package available through an outside provider! This could be a great solution, if your regular employer does not offer any insurance benefits. You can either be compensated on a per minute rate, per call rate, or a guaranteed hourly rate. No matter which plan you choose, you are guaranteed to earn at least your local minimum wage for the hours you have worked because they will always pay you the greater of the two amounts. You can be paid biweekly; either by direct deposit, or by a Paycard. You will be required to go through some training, but they pay you to do so. The requirements to work for West at Home are: a pc with Windows XP or Vista, Pentium 3 or better with 1GHZ or better processor, a high speed internet connection, and a feature free landline phone with a headset.
West at Home has one of the best reputations of any work at home company that I have ever heard of. Everyone I know who has worked for them has liked doing so. To work for West at Home, you must fill out the online application and take a skills assessment test. If you pass the test, you will move on to an automated virtual interview. If they decide to accept you, they will email you an offer acceptance with paperwork to fill out. It can take some time for this process, because this company is in high demand as an at-home employer. Be advised that if you apply here, they will check your background and criminal records prior to the job beginning.
Click here to find out more about being a West at Home customer service representative.
Important note about real work at home employers
Posted by Ework 411 at 10/13/2009 7 comments
Labels: Customer Service, Legit Money Makers
Learn how to recognize work from home opportunity scams
One of the most difficult things for people new to trying work at home programs is learning how to tell which opportunities are legitimate. The best advice is that you should use a combination of critical thinking, and information obtained by researching. Familiarize yourself with the common types of scam formats; which are Ponzi schemes, Pyramid scams, employment and job training scams, reshipping programs, and phishing. If you know how the most common scams work, you are much less likely to be taken in by one.
You should also learn which types of programs tend to have high scam rates. A few examples are Pay to Click sites, MLM opportunities, autosurf exchanges, paid cyclers, envelope stuffing, jobs that require the purchase of a training program, and assembly work. Once again not all may be bad; but there do tend to be a very high percentage of scams within those programs. Learn to examine those types of programs even more critically. Find out how the ones that are known to be scams have operated and taken people in, and what patterns they have followed.
Posted by Ework 411 at 10/13/2009 5 comments
Labels: Scamwatch Listings, Tips and Training
Direct Quote Printers- new MLM Pyramid scam
10/11/2009I recently had a very interesting discussion with the owner of a company called Direct Quote Printing, who was looking for a marketing manager. While I do have resumes posted online a couple of places and do accept some consulting work in the marketing field; I am very selective what types of companies I work with, and this is NOT it. There is no way I would be the head of marketing for a company whose sole purpose seems to be to run a scam. He stated that he is a reputable, professional magazine printer located in Sarasota, Florida. I myself am located right outside of Tampa. The scary thing is that he is trying to run this promotion as a nationwide MLM program, and is attempting to aggressively advertise for reps nationally using Craigslist. Unfortunately for him, I heard that a little birdie is now flagging all of his ads for sales reps….. how sad.
The program seems to follow the usual MLM pyramid scam. You are expected to pay $149 for supplies, which are business card samples. I was assured that this was fully refundable. (If you look at the opportunities section of the site; it is refundable for exactly 48 hours and only under certain unspecified conditions). You are then expected to go door to door trying to direct sell these business cards to businesses. The problems with this program are as follows:
1. There are no examples available of his work, outside of these samples you must purchase to view. For all anyone knows, the “custom designs” could be a staff of illegal immigrants hand writing the info in very poor English using crayons.
2. The products are way over priced compared to competitor’s products, and are unlikely to sell even if they are top notch.
3. Anyone who really needs a business card is already aware they need them, and is probably already ordering them elsewhere. Nobody is going to be suddenly floored by the revelation that they desperately need a business card from a door to door salesman.
4. This website looks like it was slapped together in 2 hours by my 7 year old son. For someone who has “Custom design” experience, they are sure not showcasing their capabilities. They have not even bothered to design a company logo for this site, which is a stock template from Website tonight and has no pictures or product examples.
5. This guy wants to hire as many sales people as possible, which will flood the market with a ton of people selling a product that few people (if any) will want to buy.
6. From the way it sounds, most of your commission is expected to come from recruiting new people, which makes this an illegal pyramid scam. He claims it is because you will receive a portion of their sales; but since I don’t see much potential for sales it is likely your sole purpose will be to sucker the $149 out of others for the supply kit of “Custom designed” business cards.
When I got finished laughing at this guy, I decided that I would be more than happy to market him. Unfortunately for him, I will be doing so by placing him on my Ework411 Scamwatch list as a suspected Pyramid scam. This is the cheesy Direct Quote Printing website. Would you hire these people for custom design work? LMAO
Interesting side note- I did a reverse lookup on this phone number, but it was not published. So I Googled it, and did come up with some results. Here is one where this same number is listed as a professional handyman and contractor service: $Sav-a-lot Handyman. Apparently that has not been going well for them because I also found a bunch of active auctions for tools being sold on various classified programs from the same number, which does lead me to think it is the same people and not a case of the number having been re-assigned. Also, the same name Elle appears on both ads for tools for sale, and ads for printing work in classifieds. Maybe if their money gets tight and they can't afford to pay you; you could ask to be paid with used sanders and paint sprayers, and start your own handyman service? I also found this article in the Herald Tribune which states (towards the bottom) that they are a fictitious business: Transactions, foreclosures, etc Charming list to be on, hmmm? I see no evidence anywhere that leads me to think this is a professional printing company in any way.
NOTE- While I strongly suspect the DQ Printers program is a classic example of a Pyramid scam due to the reasons above; I have no legal proof or evidence that it is a scam and am only stating my personal opinion on this matter. Do not base any decision to use or not use the program strictly on this review; conduct your own research and arrive at your own conclusions.
Posted by Ework 411 at 10/11/2009 2 comments
Labels: Scamwatch Listings