If you have been blogging for a little while you will be aware of the various blog community sites. They rank blogs, show summaries for them, and provide various other information that they specialize in.

I am registered with Technorati, Feedburner, and BlogMad. There are tons of them out there.

One of the biggest hassles is to tell them that you have updated your blog when you make a change. If you are registered with a lot of them, it can be time consuming to do it on each one. You can find plugins that might help you do this or if you understand web programming you can write this yourself.

Ash from NewThink.net suggested a web service that automates this the other day. I shouldn't say it fully automates, but it makes it really simple. It is called Pingoat. You enter your blog name, url, and xml feed into the form and pick the services you want to ping that you have updated.

When you submit that page, it takes you to another one that shows you the results of the various blog services it pings. From one page you can update all the services you want. Check out the screenshot below of all the services you can choose to automatically ping.

After the first time you have pinged, you can bookmark the ping results page so that you just have to go to your bookmark whenever you want. One click and you have pinged all the services you want.

If you are wondering what blog services you can register with, this is a good place to see what is out there and to check it out.

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This is seriously awesome. A guy figured out a Google search string that will find audio files. I'm assuming they are audio files that have been inadvertently indexed on other web sites.

For those of you who already seen this on Digg, this is just a rehash for anyone who hasn't seen it already.

Basically you copy and paste the following search string into google, replace the REPLACETHIS part with the band name, and do the search. You can read the original article for any more information.

-inurl:(htm|html|php) intitle:"index of" +"last modified" +"parent directory" +description +size +(wma|mp3) "REPLACETHIS"

I just had to put this on my blog because it was so impressive.

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This is going to be a frequently updated entry on the top posts for my site. Articles that were either well written or provided something useful to somebody. I will base it off my own opinion, but don't worry, I will try not to be biased. It will be based on looking at the traffic patterns, number of comments, and if it ranks high in specific Google searches (goes hand in hand with the traffic patterns one usually).

Plus, it just gives me an easy place to create an index of the better articles on my site. So here we go...

Blogging

• Revenue Sources for Thoughts From My Life
• Steps in Setting Up a Money Making Blog

Finance

The airmiles/aeroplan articles receive by far the most hits of any of my pages. I don't even know how many times this must be searched for.

• The Value Of A United Airlines Mile And Collecting Them
• Collecting Air Miles and Their Value
• Collecting Aeroplan Points and Their Value
• Aeroplan Versus Airmiles - Comparing Them
• Borrowing Against Your Life Insurance
• Choosing a Mortgage
• Mortgage, RRSP, Insurance Policy ... What Should I Do?

Investing

• How To Analyze an Investment Property
• Increase the Value of Your Property

Photography

• Crumpler 5 Million Dollar Home Bag - Review
• Understanding the Value of Wide Angle Lenses
• Camera Shake and Image Stabilization (Vibration Reduction)

Travel

• Checklist For Traveling - The Ultimate Guide
• Finding the Cheapest Flights Online

Computers

• Connect to Your Windows XP Professional Computer Through A Router
• Using Mod Rewrite - Search Engines and Dynamic Links
• Acer Extensa 5420 review
• Acer Extensa 5420 Black Screen On Startup
• Frets On Fire - Free Version Of Guitar Hero
• Getting Frets On Fire Working On Vista
• Getting Frets On Fire Working On XP

Nintendo DS

• Best Nintendo DS Homebrew
• Supercard DS One for Nintendo DS
• Warcraft Tower Defense for the NDS

General

• Best Shaving Cream in the World - I personally can't believe people go to this one.

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I signed up with AuctionAds the other day. After a week I made absolutely nothing.

I have been focusing lately on establishing my advertising and how I lay it out on the page. Nothing like visitors coming to a page and being thrown off by the ads and where they are placed. AuctionAds was another attempt to see what kind of revenue and impact it could have on my page.

Now I know I am small in the scheme of things, but I earn at least 50 cents a day with Adsense ( ) and Kontera. But I still expect to see some money flowing in.

I think the problem ultimately lies with me though. I chose the wrong advertising medium for my site.

How AuctionAds Work

Basically, you insert a code snippet like all these ads companies into the html code for the page. It generates a customizeable box of ads. These ads show current items in eBay that are related to the posting. If someone clicks on the item and takes "action" on it (places a bid essentially), you will receive payment for this.

So I think this was my problem. I have a few photography product reviews, but that is about it. So no one in a purchasing mood would be coming to my site I think.

Anyhow, I have replaced it with another one and I will review it in a week to see what happens with it. If anyone has had better luck with AuctionAds, please post a comment.

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Performance #5 of our Theatre Calgary subscription was "The Cripple of Inishmaan". I honestly had no expectations when I went into this play. After I left, I can honestly say it was one of the best plays I have seen (definitely top 10).

First of all, it is a comedy. Set on the island of Inishmaan, in the bay of Galway, Ireland. The time period is the 1930's. It follows the happenings of a few people living on the island and in particular, Billy (or Cripple Billy as they call him).

Hollywood comes to another nearby island to film a movie and Billy, along with a few others, decide to go over and try to get cast in the movie. What transpires afterwards you can see for yourself.

Their accents were fantastic (even though I wouldn't really now if it is true Irish or not) and their mannerisms were even more funny. Several of these characters stood out as well played. In particular, I liked johnnypateenmike, Babbybobby, Mammy, Bartley, Helen, and Billy himself.

Some of the comedy was quite crude, but almost so crude that it made you laugh at the rudeness of it. Helen would even be breaking real eggs over brother in the play and throwing them against the wall.

Again, I was impressed with the stage setup. One seen had water falling from the top of the state behind a thin screen at the back of the stage. There was a light being cast from one side and made it look like rain. Very cool atmosphere.

I would definitely recommend this to anyone other than children. It is only playing until the 25th in Calgary, but if you get the opportunity to catch it elsewhere, make sure you do.

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After removing AuctionAds from my site the other day, I decided to try out Chitika. These are consumer product ads as well, but with a different payout scheme.

Auctionads were eBay products and you were only paid if the person who clicked on the add too some sort of action on the product. Chitika will pay per click on the ad. It works similar to Adsense, but there are product photos and other information that are displayed.

Here is an example of an ad shown on one of my pages.

Sign up was pretty easy. I just walked through the steps in the "Bloggers" section. After I was done, I received an email around 24 hours later saying I was approved. I logged back on, found the code snippet I needed to insert into my page and the rest was history. They even let you define some keywords to help them decide on the content of the ads.

How did I find these guys? To tell you the truth, I clicked on a referral ad on ProBlogger. I haven't heard John Chow talk about these guys at all on his site yet, but maybe he will make a posting sometime and try them out. He seems pretty happy with his own ad networks for this type of stuff though.

I like the look a lot better as well. I still don't know how well it will pay, especially on my site. If anyone has dealt with them, please post a comment about your experience.

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I have reviewed a couple credit cards and reward programs previously. This was the CIBC Aerogold Aeroplan cards and the BMO Mosaik Airmiles cards. Both have their pros and cons. So decided to look at ScotiaBank's Visa.

This is the bank I am with, but I have never used their credit card. I figure it would be an easy one to review, because its reward feature is easy to calculate.

No Fees

This is the first big plus. No fees. When you have a card with a fee, you need to be spending a certain amount before it pays for itself. No fees card you can leave in the safe for emergencies or not use them for long periods of time without worrying that you are throwing money away.

Reward Feature

Simple. It is 1$ back. For every dollar you spend, you will receive a penny back. It appears like you only receive this once a year however. There are two cards as well. The standard interest rate 19.5% for the "no fees" card and 18.5% for a fee of $8/year. If you pay your card off consistently, you should be fine with the "no fees" card.

How Does This Compare to Other Cards?

In my other articles on Aeroplan and Air Miles cards, I made the assumption that an Aeroplan point is worth about 1.6 cents and an Air Mile is worth about 20 cents.

You can accumluate 1 Airmile for every $15 on the best schedule and 1 Airmile for every $40 on the worst. So this would mean you would get back 20 cents for every 15 dollars down to 20 cents for every $40. This is return rate of 1.3% down to 0.5%. A large variance. You have to remember that you are paying a fee to get those higher returns as well.

UPDATE (March 22, 2007) American Express has an Airmiles card that gives 1 AirMile for every $20 and it is a no fees card. This is a straight 1% return rate if you value an AirMile at 20 cents like me.

Aeroplan points can be received at 1.5 points for every dollar down to 1 point for every $2. I value an Aeroplan point at 1.6 cents. So this would be a return rate of 1.5% down to 0.8%. The same thing applies here as Airmiles. You need to pay a fee to get the better return rate on your money.

Summary

Aeroplan and Airmiles offer better return rates if you are willing to pay the fee and put quite a bit of money through your credit card (to offset the fees). Their rewards pay out monthly (if you choose to use them) where ScotiaBank's visa does not.

UPDATE: (March 22, 2007) If you have the American Express card, it basically matches the ScotiaBank card in rate of return (unless you think an AirMile is more or less valuable than I do).

However, Scotiabank Visa is real money. Not points that can only be used on predefined products. Their visa starts with no fees and give the medium return rate. Without fees, you do not have to worry about putting a lot of money through your card.

I put a lot of money on my mastercard because it is our primary method of paying bills and such, but the ScotiaBank visa looks like the best alternative for those who are unsure what to go with.

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Why I think an airmile can be worth anywhere between 13 cents and 44 cents depending on what you use it for.

Air miles, Aeroplan points, HBC points, PetroPoints, etc, etc, all the way back to Club Z Points at Zellers. They seem like such a gimmick and just a way to influence your spending. The thing is, they are everywhere now and you can't really avoid it, so you might as well take advantage of it. I have calculated how much I think they are worth so read on.

I personally collect Air Miles and Aeroplan Points so I just talk about those. This posting is about Air Miles specifically, but the same techniques can be used to figure out Aeroplan. You can read these related articles...

• Collecting Aeroplan Points and their Value
• Air Miles Versus Aeroplan Points
• Scotia Bank No Fee Money Back Visa Card Review
• TD Travel Visas

Canadian Credit Cards

Basically, I value an airmile differently depending on the product. Here is my summary.

• Entertainment gifts are about 40 cents/airmile.
• Travel is around 20 cents/airmile.
• Gift cards are around 10 cents/airmile.

So when you see those "double your airmiles when you buy this..." deals, you can add up how much you are going to spend and how many airmiles you will get and see if it will actually pay for yourself. Unless of course you actually need what you are buying, then it doesn't matter.

How to Collect Air Miles

Air Miles, first of all, is free and there are three different ways to collect.

• You can apply for the blue Air Miles card and just keep it on you. If you shop at stores that are affiliated with them (Shell, SportChek, Turbo, Boston Pizza, Safeway, Rona, etc) then you just hand them your card and you collect some points.
• If you have the blue Air Miles card then you can also earn points buy purchasing on-line through the retailer links at airmilesshops.ca using your collector number. Read more on it at Book Through AirMilesShops For More Air Miles.
• You apply for a no fee BMO Mosaik Mastercard and link it to your Air Miles card you got above. They will give you 1 AirMile for every $40 you spend on their credit card. For a yearly fee you can increase the AirMiles you earn. You will get 1 for every $20 you spend for $35/year (the silver card), or you get 1 for every $15 you spend for $80/year (the gold card). The card upgrades can also give you some cheaper AirMile rates on flights.
• You apply for a no fee American Express card and link it to your Air Miles card you got above. They will give you 1 AirMile for every $20 you spend on the card. This is way better than the Mosaik card above (there 1 for 20 card is $35/year), but you cannot upgrade this one any further. You don't get any special rates on flights either.

So you may get airmiles on any purchase if you use your Mastercard/Amex and at AirMile affiliates you can "double dip" by collecting airmiles using your blue card that they give you and paying for your actual purchase with your credit card and getting airmiles from BMO.

These points can later be used to buy flights, car rentals, gift cards, tickets, electronics, and a variety of other products. With flights and car rentals you will still have to pay the taxes, but the base fees are covered by the air miles.

So this is the basics of the system. Now I will discuss what they are actually worth.

What is the Best Value for My Airmiles? (How I Figure Out How Much They Are Worth)

This is an interesting question. This tells you what your airmiles are worth. I decided to investigate this. Basically, I looked at how many airmiles it took to purchase something and divided it into the cost of the item. This gave me the cents per airmile they were good for. There is a large difference depending on what you buy with them.

For example, I will compare 3 items for you right now. I'll list the value you save, the airmiles it takes, and the value of each airmile for that item. I priced out a round trip flight from Calgary to Victoria, a Starbucks gift card, and 2 for 1 movie coupon.

1. A flight from Calgary to Victoria on Westjet. This is an approximate savings for the flight I found.
   • Money Saved: $181 (this can be higher)
   • Air Miles Used: 800 (A discount because I'm a gold card member)
   • Air Miles Value: 23 cents/air mile
2. A $25 Starbucks Gift Card.
   • Money saved: $25
   • Air Miles Used: 200
   • Air Miles Value: 13 cents/air mile
3. A 2 for 1 movie pass.
   • Money Saved: $11 (move ticket in my city)
   • Air Miles Used: 25
   • Air Miles Value: 44 cents/air mile

So you save the most money on movies, then the flight, then the starbucks card. Now don't run out and use your air miles for as many movie passes as you can buy. The problem here is, what do you want to buy with them? Not everyone wants to go to the theatre all the time. This is just to keep aware of what kind of value you are getting.

A couple years ago, my future wife was living in Victoria and I was in Calgary. Oil prices were still low and flights were really cheap. If we waited for seat sales to see each other on the weekends, I priced out my airmiles were only worth 8 cents each. So I just shelled out the money for my plane tickets and used my air miles for something else.

Basically, my advice is to check out how much money you "actually" save by using air miles to purchase something and how many airmiles it takes and plug it into this formula:
Air Miles Value = Money Saved / Air Miles Used

Should I Upgrade my Mosaik Mastercard?

Should you pay the annual fee to get more Air Miles? This depends on how much money you spend on your credit card and what you will use your miles for. The more you spend, the more likely an upgrade will be a good thing.

Update (March 22, 2007): American Express offers a no fees card that pays out 1 AirMile for every $20. This is better than the Basic and Silver card. The only question is whether you should go for the Amex or the Gold Mastercard. If you don't care whether you have an AMEX or Mastercard then read the section below called Should I Get a Gold Mosaik Card or an American Express. There is an update below regarding how to choose.

Now that we did our calculations above to see what an airmile is worth we can figure this out. Ask yourself what you want to use it for. For me, it is flights.

Upgrading Between the Mosaik Cards

If you do not want the American Express then here is the reasoning behind upgrading the Mosaik cards.

I will show you whether you should upgrade for each of the 3 examples I did above. To calculate this I made a formula that took into account the annual fee and what the value of an airmile is to figure out how much money you would need to spend to at least recover the annual fee in extra airmiles value. The formula for upgrading to the silver card is 1400 / Air Miles Value. The formula for the gold card is 1920 / Air Miles Value. If you want to see how I figured these out, send me an email and I'll send you the proofs.

For example, if I value an air mile at 20 cents, this is the formula:
1400 / 0.20 = $7000
1920 / 0.20 = $9600
This means that I would need to put $7000/year on my Mosaik card to make it worth the fee to upgrade to the Silver card and $9600/year to upgrade to the Gold card.

For the examples I list above here are the results:

Minimum Spending Amounts Based on Reward Types

Item	Value per Air Mile	Silver Card	Gold Card
Flight	$0.23	$6087	$8348
Starbucks Card	$0.13	$10769	$14769
2 for 1 Movie Pass	$0.44	$3182	$4364

Should I Get a Gold Mosaik Card or an American Express?

Updated March 22, 2007

This is an update to this article since I have looked at the American Express. This card pays you 1 Airmile for every $20 and has no fees. So it is not even a comparison to the Basic and Silver Mosaik cards, the Amex beats them hands down. However, the Gold card will pay you more miles if you put enough money on it.

The formula is $MoneySpent = 4800 / AirmileValue

So depending on how you value an airmile, the amount of money you need to spend to make the Gold card worth your while is shown in the table below. Remember you have to make enough extra miles to cover the $80 yearly fee you have paid.

Minimum Spending Amounts Based on Reward Types for Amex to Gold Card

Item	Value per Air Mile	Gold Card
Flight	$0.23	$20,870
Starbucks Card	$0.13	$36,923
2 for 1 Movie Pass	$0.44	$10,909

Wow, that is some serious coin you need to be putting down now. Unless you own a business and are putting your expenses on it, the Amex is probably the better bet.

Bottom line: The more value you get from your air miles, the less you have to put on your card to make it worthwhile for the upgrade. So if you are using all your airmiles on Starbucks gift cards, you will have to spend a lot on your credit card before you should think about upgrading.

If you are using the Amex, you can't upgrade anyways so it doesn't matter. UPDATE: There is a platinum Amex available now as well as Aeroplan earning cards. I will evaluate them at a later date. If you are not putting on at least the amounts I mention above to make the Gold card upgrade worth your while for the Mosaik card, you should just stick the American Express one. And based on the values, it looks the Amex is the best bet. The only question is how often you will be able to use it since it isn't as widely accepted.

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So many sites out there seem like a scam and a lot of them are. Actually, I think most of them are. They prey on people like you and me to subscribe to their system. I have found a few that I feel are legit. Each one gives you something to learn and I'm going to summarize some that have influenced me.

I plan on making this an ongoing series as I stumble across sites that I feel are valuable.

www.johnchow.com

I like this guy. He has two other websites plus this blog where he talks about how he is trying to make revenue from his site. His numbers are down to earth and he actually prints some of them. His November 2006 earnings were over $2000. He tinkers with his site advertising and will let you know his results. Go read any one of his articles, you will probably find something of value. I really enjoyed his Google Whores article. It is one of those inspiring reads when you are thinking about trying to make money online.

Interesting tip. To get traffic, he wrote his own valuable article and emailed to around 200 other sites with related content asking if they would do a post on his article with a link. Some said no, but others said yes. He was up to 6000 hits/day within a day or two I believe and had other sights with high PageRanks pointing to him.

Build a Successful Site in 12 Months

This is a good four page article on building a website. Read through it. For me it was a good checklist of what I needed to do. One of the main keys they keep getting back to is to have "good content". This will keep people coming back.

ProBlogger

This is a good site. There are tons of good articles concerning blog writing and maintenance. He doesn't seem to post new content every day, but the front page cycles between old articles if there isn't. It makes it interesting to look at, even if you already read the article, because it acts as a reminder.

Check out some of these ProBlogger articles.

Kumiko's Cash Quest

This is an American Japanese girl who is living in Japan right now. She has an excellent site about earning money online too. She has a few more "critical" articles which I like. The contrarian does not exist in most of these "making money blogging" sites so it is kind of refreshing. Some of her best stuff is on Increasing Traffic Subject Page.

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I created an RSS Feed for my site and used FeedBurner to monitor it.

Anyhow, I had forgotten about it for the longest time, so I logged in today to see that stats. There are 9 readers of this blog and there is a handy widget to display this in the left sidebar menu.

It is kind of nice to get a bit of confirmation that there is something people find valuable in this site. Please sign up if you want an easy way to keep up to date on article changes and such.

You use the RSS Feed on the side or click here

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