Just been contacted by Blogvertise.com to point out that they have a similar scheme to that run by the now defunct Matched.co.uk.

That is, paid banners on the home page payable every month that the advertiser has not cancelled the agreement.

Not likely to be as big an earning opportunity that we had with Matched, but anything gratefully received in this credit-crunch climate.

Click Here to Advertise on My Blog

Just posted this on my other site.

Just found out that TopCashBack provide links with your referral id embedded, so if you put them on your website, or email them to friends, you get paid if they buy something using it.

Useful for sending to mates that cannot be bothered to join up to cashback sites but want to buy something on the Internet anyway.

http://www.bigbustbras.co.uk/cashback.html for more information from TopCashBack itself.

Why not join while there, they pay out to PayPal if you have 1 penny in your account.

They also are one of the few major players that do not deduct an annual fee from what you have accumulated.

Just lost all that I typed so just look at this link, I cannot be arsed to retype it all.

Suffice to say I do not trust them still.

http://www.typepad.com/t/trackback/2531274/31372760



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My sons wanted me to look at WHIRLED, so in my research I found http://virtual-economy.org/tags/virtual_asset_sales

I replied to it with this comment. I suppose I wrote it partly for its cathartic effect. Look that word up, it is a useful concept.

Any road up, here is the comment I left:


Good luck with the publications.

Taking a global view, why do people play virtual worlds.

In my case, when I paid for Runescape membership for me and my 2 sons, for 1 year, it was to help them in the game they loved playing(at that time). The intention being to make them armour and weapons they could not make themselves (being lower level than me), give them Runescape "gold", etc.

I was under threat of unemployment, possibly divorce, I am near to getting my free bus pass (so an old man), and immersion in this game took my mind of the scary and depressing nature of the way my life was turning out.

Objects that helped me to complete "Quests" so getting me to a higher level, were welcome, and that aspect of an item comes under the "functionality" part of your definition I guess.

I mention this in case someone you know is looking around for a PhD thesis subject, the reasons why people play these games in the first place may be as interesting as why they want to buy items for real money having made the decision to play the game.

I have now moved on (still married, still got a job with the Bank that tried to get rid of me) and I no longer play Runescape, nor pay for membership to give me the extra items that a Member gets.

In the end the very thing that was useful as an escape from reality (the mind numbing and pointless repetitious acts needed to raise the character up through the levels) was the thing that killed my interest after a year, once I no longer needed to hide from reality.

Since I did not socialise on Runescape (ever) it had no point.

Perhaps the social aspect is one reason to play, therefore one reason to buy virtual goods, due to the "preening" effect of wanting to look good or indeed, better than one's contemporaries.



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My wife gave me a Sony Vaio.

Nice laptop.

Built in web cam and wireless connection.

Must have cost a bomb.

You would think therefore that they would supply recovery discs like the netbooks my sons got for their Christmas present.

Apparently not.

At first it annoyed the hell out of me, then reading around the subject, it seems there is a "hidden disc" partition that can be used to recover.

Only if the hidden disk is damaged are any recovery discs needed.

These can be burnt on 3 DVD R or 2 DVD R DL disks using the optical disc drive.

Unfortunately, they do not allow CD-R discs to be used.

Despite the help documents saying you can, if you go online to check!!!

Sony, get your act in order and at LEAST SUPPLY 2 DVD DL DISCS SUITABLE FOR IMMEDIATE BURNING!

Does not take a genius to work out that this would be in the customer's best interest, and reduce the resentment towards your "cheapskate" organisation.

Pay per Post say this blog is not good enough for them.

Possibly the previous post from Bloggerwave, now deleted, as they never paid me for it.

Stuff both of 'em.

I never qualified for any of their paid posts anyway so no loss there.

(Update 24/1/9)
Funnily enough, having deleted the Blogger post, and said the above, I was miraculously paid yesterday (23/1/9).

I have now earned more from Bloggerwave than PayPerPost ever did, or will, pay me.

Possibly the fault lay with PayPal (again).

(Update Jan 17 2009. They have stopped sending beers as they no longer have any left from the samples they had. The beer blog is not active anymore. A pity as I enjoyed their free beers, and the beer book was nice quality as well.) This is not actually a paid article!!! Unusual for me some sarcastic beggars might say).

Just finished my second post for The Beer Blog.

Every week I get a beer(so far, 2 weeks, perhaps one day they will run out of new beers to test and not need us any more).

The condition is,we have to write about what we think on the new beer that week.

Not a hardship I can assure you. I write this post with the warm feeling of their latest beer flowing through my veins, at almost 5% proof. Nice.

Here is the post over at The Beer Blog, run by DK (Dorlings Kindersley).

I tidied up some typos, must get this space bar fixed and ban the kids from using any new laptops that I buy in the future!!! Ruddy silly Internet games are a menace to space bars and the mouse!

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FourtyNiner beer.

As lynette and Markc noted, when you open this do it over the sink or in my case the kitchen worktop, easier to mop up when the beer fizzes out in a small fountain. And that was after leaving it to stand for 2 days from when the delivery man arrived!

The reason is the yeast sediment act as nucleation sites for the gas bubbles to grow rapidly around, so when the pressure is reduced when taking off the bottle top, it releases the gas as a froth rapidly. The froth being down to the plant matter used in brewing, I guess.

The beer is "conditioned in the bottle", that means it has live yeast (as it also says on the label) that continues to ferment and grow.

Hence the cloudy look to the beer, and the slight sediment on the inside of the bottle top when I removed it (from being stored on its side in transit for a while I guess). The bottle says to store UPRIGHT.

It says to pour carefully, that is because it is like wine, you do not want a gob full of yeast sediment while glugging down this amber nectar.

Apparently, having to pour this carefully to avoid the sediment, puts some people off this beer, all I can say is it was worth pouring carefully.

It is another deep amber beer, similar colour to the honey based witchywood beer I wrote about last week.

Similar strength, 4.9% as opposed to the 5.0% last week.

Nice flavour, IF you do not mind the yeast flavour in addition, that comes with the bitter hops basic tang. It has a "home made beer" taste because of this, this is not a criticism, nice to have "old fashioned" flavours instead of the chemical-vat stuff we used to (and still do) get fobbed off with by other brewers. Any one old enough to remember the ubiquitous and somewhat ridiculed Watneys Red Barrel? I rest my case M'lud.

In fact, it carries a "CAMRA" label stating it is "real beer" which I agree with.

Any road up.

Sweeter than many beers I have drunk, which I prefer myself.

Not a drink to quench your thirst when trying to rehydrate (is any beer really, but that is another matter). Unless you want to get paralytic, this should be savoured almost a sip at a time.

Almost a sacrilege to add lemonade to it, so this time I avoided making a shandy, although I expect it would be a nice sweet one, which again I like.

I like it, and when I am out and about and HBOS is paying expenses (while it still can!!!) I will order this if it is available.

Nice gold ink decorated labels front and back, gives it a feeling of an expensive beer (which I guess at nearly 5% proof,it will be, but worth every penny).

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Some feedback for the marketers and designers to think about.

Ringwood Brewery is something to be proud of, yet the back label uses a black label with gold and white letters except for these 2 words which are in a dark
green (possibly a hint of dark blue in it) the result being that it looks like the label has not been printed properly, and the area was missed by the printers.

Only in the right light could I read the words.


Possibly the designer or printer is colour blind, being male would increase that chance 10 fold approximately. If so, perhaps dark green looks like a
contrasting colour (light grey perhaps), get some of us to product test the labels if you want for future products. I pass the Ischira colour test 100% so I am available. You might want to include colour blind members as well to see what trouble they have with labels.

Not a major thing to worry about, except the Disability Act does get invoked sometimes to fine businesses for blatant discrimination, colour blindness being one condition that is covered.

Have you wondered about all those sites that advertise "free laptops" and "free ipods"?

The alternative is to get your own website, join affiliate sites like TradeDoubler, CJ, OffersQuest, etc (see my afiliate links) and pocket all the money from signing up to the offers yourself, (and your family as well if they want), using the affiliate links on your own site.

That way you should get enough money to buy the stuff, more quickly, as you do not have to wait for your recruits to complete offers and qualify for payment themselves.

Just refering people does not get you anywhere, they must also signup to stuff, and some schemes also require they also recruit enough people before they qualify.

Be aware that some sites set up like that are considered scams as you can never qualify as your recruits can never qualify, the chain is endless.