Owner: Money Making Student URL:http://www.moneymakingstudent.co.uk Join Date: Wed, 05 Dec 2007 13:51:32 -0600 Rating:0 Site Description: Student life can be challenging, especially if money is a bit tight. Money Making Student is my student blog delving into student life and investigating how to make money online whilst saving money offline!
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Go by Train, 5 Ways to Save Tons of Money on Tickets 2007-12-03 17:35:36
photo by JasonRogers
Cheap train tickets anyone? A month doesn’t seem to go past without another, “Train
ticket prices set to rise by [insert inflation busting value here]%”. True, UK train ticket prices are generally rising, but as with flying there are some bargain offers to be had.
Here’s my top 5 tips:
1.) Buy Early
Cheap tickets are available on most journeys and routes. But as with airlines, these tickets are often loss leaders to the train operating company. Therefore always aim to book your tickets at least 3 weeks if not 4/5 weeks in advance, as these seats are limited per train. Remembering peak time tickets are most sought after by bargain hunters/experienced rail travellers.
2.) Split Your Journey
Experiment online, often there are silly things when buying your ticket. For instance a ticket booked for a train between Cardiff and London can cost a lot more than a ticket between Cardiff and Bristol, then Bristol and London. Even though you may s Read more:Money
, Tickets
Call the World for Free, Why aren’t You Using Skype? 2007-11-23 18:52:20 Skype is simple, useful and free.
Well OK not strictly free. But it proved it’s worth in the first year I was at uni. My dilemma was simple, “how could I phone home cheaply and easily without a landline”. Firstly the mobile phone was ruled out, without doubt it is useful but it won’t be cheap, even making calls to a landline. The alternative was (without trying to sound like a geek!) voice over internet protocol or VoIP, for those who haven’t heard of or understand what this is, basicly it involves routing phone calls through the internet, or for more detail see the wikipedia article.
So how is this cheaper, firstly if you are talking to other users of VoIP then your call is completely free, secondly calls to landlines are often cheaper than making normal landline calls and certainly cheaper than payphones. Another positive is calls to international numbers are likely to be cheaper.
The drawbacks, well, people cannot phone you unless you pay for a number a Read more:World
, Skype
The BlogRush Effect 2007-11-17 14:13:32 Today I’m going to look at BlogRush, is it worth the space it takes on my blog?
Firstly, before I discuss BlogRush, apologies for the lack of posts in the last week, university work takes priority at moment. This has been holding me back a little of late, but not to worry my desk is slowly becoming more visible, after hiding under pages of half finished practical write ups!
Well then BlogRush has been causing a bit of a stir over the last few months! For those of you who haven’t heard of BlogRush here’s what it is and how it works:-
It’s aim according to the website,
“BlogRush is a free service that was created to help bloggers solve their #1 need:
More Readers For Their Blog.”
This is done by hosting a widget, as seen in the top right of this page, on your blog (a simple piece of code). This widget then shows the latest blog post titles, that may be of interest to your readers. For showing the widget you get credit for each time the widget is displa
Clever Marketing from Cadbury’s 2007-11-09 18:08:39 I’ve been doing a few surveys online lately, testing which ones I would recommend to others. Well earlier today I did a survey about lager, which showed me some adverts and then asked questions about how I felt when I saw these adverts. To be honest all these adverts were pretty bland and uninteresting. But one advert people have been talking about lately is the Cadbury
Advert. For those of you who haven’t seen it, here it is :-
YouTube Direktvideo link
Strange, a bit different you may say, but I think its quite fun and attracts your attention. But so many people have said or I have over heard saying, how does it advertise chocolate? Well showing the advert has obviously got people talking about the advert and therefore the brand involved (Cadbury’s). So therefore it’s not only getting exposure on telly and through video sharing sites such as youtube, but also via word of mouth. Which in my opinion is the most effective form of marketing a product, because you Read more:Clever
, Marketing
Easy Money, No Hassle, How? 2007-11-02 19:48:34 Even this amazed me, I’m sure many of you are aware of the ways websites earn money. Sign up to an advertising company as a publisher. Then show adverts on their behalf, you then earn either by commission or per click on the advert you are showing. The problem with this is you need traffic to generate the clicks and therefore the revenue. Not good if you are starting out like me.
But there is an alternative, place an advert on 3 pages of your website, earn £10 for signing up and then £5 per month as long as you keep the adverts on the 3 pages.
Who then would do an offer like this? - money4banners .
The website looks a bit tacky and unbelievable, but I have been paid my initial signing up fee, £10, into my paypal account. So I’m pleased with them so far, but I await my first fiver. I will keep you posted on whether that materialises!
If you want the U.S. version use money4banners.com Although you only get $10 initially, and $5 monthly, half what you get for the UK version Read more:Money
, Easy Money
Enjoy More, For Less 2007-10-27 17:13:24 There’s no point going to uni, if you just go to lectures and then spend the rest of your time staying at ‘home’. Nothing wrong with spending a little time socialising with your flatmates and friends in your new home, but everyone needs to get out and about at sometime.
The problem, well going out costs money. Going out to a club, costs you entry plus drinks to get you in the right ’state’. Going to the cinema to see the ‘must see film’, all your friends have seen. The list goes on, but how do you get a great night for less money? Well with clubbing it’s worth setting yourself a limit, e.g. only withdraw a set amount of cash before you go out. Also try drinking at home before going to a club, it’s always cheaper (pubs/bars/breweries put a large mark up on pints, remember you’re paying to use there facilities), just don’t go over the top, else you will never get to the club! If you do want to go to pub first always try yo
Are Your Opinions Worth Paying For? 2007-10-22 17:57:00
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 Read more:Opinions
, Worth
Save Money, Eat Well 2007-10-18 07:14:56 One 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 an Read more:Money
Money Making Report No. 1 2007-12-15 09:20:15
photo by jenn_jenn’s
So its been a little while since I started my money making mission.
Disappointing, probably sums up my progress so far, I have little to show for the time I have put in. But there is a little cash in the piggy bank. Its easy to get down about this but I’m an optimist and realistically I was not expecting to become a millionaire over night. As long as I keep posting regularly (at the moment it has had to be weekly due to other commitments and lots of work), then I will be able to create a useful resource with lots of content. Until that unknown point of time comes, I will just have to wait. Hopefully with a little patience and a bit of effort the pennies will turn into pounds.
So my earnings so far -
Adsense
So far earned: $5.58 (approx £2.29)
Received: $0
Money
4Banners
So far earned: £25 (approx $50)
Received: £25
As you can see money4banners has been the most successful to date, we wait to see and hope more different sources of revenue appea
BlogRush Gets the Boot, Hello Entrecard! 2007-12-09 11:44:35
photo by robertgaal
Some may have noticed a little change. ‘If it ain’t broke don’t fix it’, but if it is, hoping things will get better won’t solve the problem. So I have decided to remove BlogRush, the concept was good, but as I explained previously, the results were poor and have continued to be poor. But rather than remove a valuable connection to other similar blogs, I have decided to replace it with another blog network.
Entrecard
The basics, well think of it like a virtual business card. As in real life you can hand your business cards around to other businesses/blog owners who have the Entrecard widget. For this you earn credits, 1 for you and 1 to the person you give your card to. This is done by clicking on ‘Drop yours’ at the bottom of the widget. Feel free to do it on mine, but first you must create your Entrecard. You don’t need to be creative as there is a ‘card creator’ using some simple templates. The us Read more:Hello
The 4 P’s of Marketing and your Blog, Price! 2008-03-04 12:56:20 photo by TooFarNorth
Following on from my first and second posts in this series on the marketing mix, I would like to introduce the Second ‘P’ of the 4 P’s.
Price
It is very unlikely you are charging for the privilege of reading your posts. Price is easily defined when we talk about real products, for that scenario, [...] Read more:Marketing
Ultimate Free Software for Students 2008-02-22 20:13:51 photo by archie4oz
Now I fully know students like me don’t want to pay for anything, if they can get away with it. As is said the best things in life are free.
This is true of software, but trying to find viable replacements to the expensive mainstream software such as Microsoft Office can be hard. But [...] Read more:Ultimate
, Software
Money Making Report No.3 2008-02-15 17:20:27 photo by jenn_jenn’s
Welcome to the third money making report, it doesn’t seem long since I did the last one.
A few developments, firstly I have signed up for Adtoll and Project Wonderful.
Secondly I have suffered from a couple of server problems, not of my own doing, I assure you! My hosting company has been most helpful [...] Read more:Money
The 4 P’s of Marketing and your Blog, Product! 2008-02-08 17:44:32 photo by TooFarNorth
Following on from my first post in this series on the marketing mix, I would like to introduce the first ‘P’ of the 4 P’s.
Product
Traditionally this refers to a product or service provided by a business.
Relating this to a blog or website is quite easy. Your blog (website) provides a service in that [...] Read more:Marketing
Pancake Day! 2008-02-05 17:50:16 photo by Paul Albertella
Yep, I couldn’t think of a better title. Today is a perfect excuse to have a go at making pancakes, the chance for students to work together perfecting the art of making and tossing pancakes. It is probable one of the best opportunities to get flat/house mates together for a fun cost [...] Read more:Pancake
Connect with the World 2008-02-02 14:07:30 photo by Mel B.
Exchanging links, can and is one of the best ways to get a new blog (or website) off the ground.
Potential visitors are highly unlikely to accidentally stumble on to your site unless they are led there from a link. But gaining those initial links can be difficult, top bloggers are not [...] Read more:Connect
, World
Make Free Phone Calls to Friends, With Facebook 2008-01-26 19:53:38 photo by Catherine Trigg
Facebook
has a large following, especially amongst students. It is a great social network that allows you to communicate quickly by typing messages on each others ‘wall’, but what if you wanted to talk to someone instead of having to wait for a reply.
Well I discussed previously how you can save money [...] Read more:Friends
rssHugger 2008-01-26 13:58:32 Some will have seen this, it is basically another directory system based around your RSS feed. As with other directories there are the usual categories to put your blog into. But one differentiating point is a top 100 list that resets every month. Gaining access to this ‘elite’ list is by referring more visitors to [...]
The 4 P’s of Marketing and your Blog, Promotion! 2008-03-11 20:19:27 photo by TooFarNorth
Following on from my first, second and third installment in this series on the marketing mix, I would like to introduce the third ‘P’ of the 4 P’s.
Promotion
Essentially if no one knows about a product it will never sell. Same with a blog (or website), if no one knows it exists, then no [...] Read more:Marketing
Money Making Report No.4 2008-03-16 15:40:55 photo by jenn_jenn’s
Welcome to the fourth money making report, it doesn’t seem long since I did the last one.
Since signing up for Adtoll and Project Wonderful. I have also signed up for Amazon. This is great except I am only showing UK Amazon at the moment. Although I am currently setting up an Amazon.com affiliate [...] Read more:Money
Money Making Report No.5 2008-04-16 19:25:30 photo by jenn_jenn’s
Welcome to the fifth money making report, it doesn’t seem long since I did the last one.
I have neglected my Internet interests over the last month due to university commitments (the work keeps on piling up!) Not surprisingly due to the lack of posts, traffic to this site has dwindled, therefore the money [...] Read more:Money
The Secret Power of Viral Videos, You’ve been Rick Rolled 2008-04-24 18:27:55 photo by Jason McArthur
So admit it you’ve either heard about or have been Rick Rolled. If not, where have you been, Antarctica?
For those who have managed to avoid the Internet over the past 3 months, One video has been causing quite a storm, unusually a music video of
Rick Astley performing “Never Gonna Give You Up” [...] Read more:Viral
The 4 P’s of Marketing and your Blog, Place! 2008-04-27 18:10:16 photo by TooFarNorth
Following on from my first, second, third and fourth installment in this series on the marketing mix, I would like to introduce you to the fourth and final ‘P’ of the 4 P’s series.
Place
ment
As with some of the previous P’s place or placement is open to interpretation. To a normal product, it is [...] Read more:Marketing
Tesco Attempts to Challenge iTunes Music Download Dominance 2008-05-09 21:22:11 photo by JEKY
Music
is very important to students, I had not been exposed to such a wide range of music until I started uni.
It will be no surprise that the iPod and iTunes
are a students best friend. But can Britain’s biggest supermarket muscle in on iTunes market share when it comes to downloadable music?
Well [...] Read more:Tesco
, Challenge
, Download
, Dominance
Money Making Report No.6 2008-05-16 18:27:50 photo by jenn_jenn’s
Welcome to the sixth money making report, here’s the last one.
As with the previous report I have been concentrating on university work this month, already had 2 exams with a further 4 to follow. Therefore this has got to take a back seat for the next couple of weeks at least.
I still await [...] Read more:Money
Matched.co.uk May Provided the Answer to Many Low Traffic Blogs 2008-05-25 20:06:16 photo by j0nn
For many bloggers and website owners, finding a method to monetize their sites in the beginning can be a challenge.
Low traffic means commonly used ‘Pay per Click’ adverts like AdSense can give poor or no earning potential. Another possibility is payment for a 1000 displays, again this can be difficult to achieve or [...] Read more:Blogs
How to Display Matched.co.uk Adverts on Wordpress Blogs 2008-05-30 18:01:43 photo by totalAldo
If you’re afraid of PHP code or don’t know what a widget is, run away. This is really a follow on post from my introduction to matched.co.uk. The problem with matched.co.uk is you have to submit absolute web urls. This is fine if you are going to drop the ad code into the [...] Read more:Display
, Adverts
, Wordpress
, Blogs
Money Making Report No.7 2008-06-29 15:01:23 photo by jenn_jenn’s
Welcome to the seventh money making report, here’s the last one.
Yep I’m a bit late, this report is from the middle of May to mid June. Exams have now finished, I’ve had a brief holiday before getting back into the swing of things. At least the summer should give me the time and opportunities [...] Read more:Money
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