Simon’s Notes

There’s a new social kid on the block. SocialSpark is still in it’s beta stage, but I’m already noticing a fair amount of activity. Social Spark is kind of similar to PayPerPost, except that it has a much more social feel.

Social Spark makes it very easy to connect with other like minded bloggers, but it also allows me to connect with advertisers, which is something that I find quite unique.

I’m still finding my way around, but basically, you want to sign up and make as many friends as you can, you can browse and make friends with other bloggers and with advertisers. If an advertiser likes you, he might give you an opp, which you could earn money from. It is more likely that an advertiser will pick you for an opp if you are one of his friends, so don’t be shy.

There is also a marketplace, just like PPP, where you can browse the public opps. There are 3 types of opps, the ’sponsored post’, the ‘blog sponsorship’, and the ’spark’. A sponsored post is just like a sponsored post in PPP; if your blog qualifies, you can accept the sponsored post and get paid for it.

Blog sponsorship is exactly that, you get paid per day to display a banner from the advertiser. Just like with sponsored posts, your blog has to be approved first.

A spark has no monetary gain (I don’t think), it’s more like a post idea, but some advertisers offer a link back or a review back of your spark.

Why are you still here, go check it out. And while you’re there, check out my profile http://socialspark.com/bloggers/thebaptist, and give me a prop and add me as a friend, I’ll prop you back.

Enjoy

Simon

Filed under: Blogging, Reviews, web 2.0 by Simon Rodrigues
4 Comments »

One of my favorite hobbies is computer programming. If I ever got a conventional job, I would want it to be as a programmer, and one day I will start a computer game development company, I think that would be great fun. The problem with enjoying programming as a hobby is that every time I don’t do it for an extended period of time, I have to learn a lot all over again, and that’s tough.

Anyway, the other day I was looking through some of my disorganized files, and I found a computer game that I wrote a while back. It’s quite a fun little arcade style game that I called ‘Space War’. It’s only got 8 levels, but I’ve never made it past level 6, and there is a high score so you can compete with your buddies. Check out some screen shots:

Early levels are easy enough:

After a while it gets tougher:

Anyway, you can download the full game here http://rapidshare.com/files/71654252/Space_War.rar, feel free to share it and spread it around, as long as nothing is changed. And make sure to give credit where credit is due, a link back would be nice. In fact, as an added incentive, I will link back to anyone that links to this post, you can write a review about it, or you can just make a simple link. Just leave a comment with the URL where I can find the link and reciprocate ASAP.

But first I gotta give a few credits of my own, I wouldn’t have been able to make this game if it weren’t for the book ‘Beginning Game Programming‘ by Michael Morrison. I owe a lot of code in the game engine to that book, and if you’re thinking of game programming as a hobby, this is the first book you should get.

Enjoy

Simon

If you like this post consider subscribing to my full RSS feed.

Filed under: Blah Blah, Link Exchange Programs, Personal, Reviews by Simon Rodrigues
No Comments »

There are many reasons why you might choose online gambling as opposed to going to a casino, for one, it can be quite peaceful. When it comes to choosing the right online casino for you, there are a few things that you might want to consider. Some of those things include:

• Is the casino legal?
• What kind of bonuses and promos do the offer?
• What games are available?
• What’s the customer service like?
• Is the casino secure?

A good way to get a clear idea of where the online casino stands on all these points is by reading 3ed party reviews. Pro360.com is a site that provides that exact service, and it is one of the best ones that I have seen. Pro360.com is quite a versatile site offering many different ways to find the right casino for you, you can search casinos by your favorite game type, or you can search for a different set of criteria, such as:

• The editors choice
• Most voted for casino
• Casino with the highest jackpot
• Casino with the best payouts
• Or the casino with the best bonuses

I would suggest that you check it out for yourself. I would call this your ‘one stop casino shop’ if that didn’t sound so cliche. If you’re the online casino type, then Pro360.com is a tool for you.

Simon

If you like this post consider subscribing to my full RSS feed.

Filed under: Reviews by Simon Rodrigues
1 Comment »

Who likes to gamble? Myself I quite enjoy a little bit of relaxing poker once in a while. As long as you can control yourself, and you know when to stop, you can actually make a good bit of money by gambling.

If you’re anything like me you probably like things as simple and efficient as possible. That was the very first thing that attracted me to top usa online casinos. ‘Top USA Online Casinos’ is a site that simply lists a few online casinos that US players can check out. The site has a top 10 list that ranks casinos by things like bonuses and payout percentages.

The best thing that I liked about the site, aside from the idea itself, was the layout and general simplicity and user friendliness. It is very easy to navigate especially since there is really only one page to it. And that is one of the things that I don’t like about the site. There is not enough variety, I could only find 10 casinos to compare and choose from. If TopUSAOnlineCasinos.com want to improve on anything, I would suggest that they include reviews from more casinos.

Simon

If you like this post consider subscribing to my full RSS feed.

Filed under: Reviews by Simon Rodrigues
No Comments »

The day has finally arrived, and it’s even a little earlier than I expected, Simon’s Money Notes has been approved by PayPerPost. I wrote a review on PayPerPost not long ago, so I will try not to repeat much of the same things here, if you’d like to check out that post go to ‘earn some blogging money with PayPerPost‘. First off, I’d like to acknowledge a mistake I made with the last post, I said that you had to pay half of your review fee to PPP, but what really happens is that the person ordering the post has to pay an extra 10 percent that goes to PPP, so you don’t actually lose anything.

I’ve heard some people say that they’ll wait till their blog meets the PPP criteria before they consider signing up, I think that’s a mistake. I’ve had this blog for almost 3 months now and only today it’s been approved, but I signed up right away and started promoting PPP through my affiliate link.

PayPerPost has a very generous affiliate program. If you refer someone to PPP and their blog gets approved, you will get paid 15 dollars into your account. Another option you have is to use the “get paid to review my post” tool (you can see it at the bottom of my posts), if they sign up, do the review, and get approved you will get half of the referral bonus and they will get the other half, so you’ll be left with 7.50 dollars.

Does it really work? Yes it does. Simon’s Money Notes is still quite a humble blog, but in a very short period of time, and without doing much advertising, I’ve managed to sign up quite a number of people. If all of the blogs that I’ve referred get approved I could be sitting on a potential 90 dollars. Is it worth it to sign up even if my blog doesn’t meet the criteria? Yes it is.

Simon

If you like this post consider subscribing to my full RSS feed.

Filed under: Make Money Online, Reviews by Simon Rodrigues
3 Comments »

For those of you that don’t know, I’m doing a little begging, you heard correctly, I’m collecting contributions for a John Review. Well I say I’m begging but I’m actually offering something in return, I’m offering a very good mini-review for any one who cheerfully chips in :)). If you want to read my previous batch of reviews check out “mini-reviews for John Chow chippers - Batch 1“.

Since doing the last batch of mini-reviews, I’ve received two more contributions from two very lovely bloggers. So without further ado please take a few minutes to check out these great blogs.

• My Blog Contest - Are you looking for a one stop competition shop? Then look no more, Simon’s blog is blog where you can find it all. Looking to win some freebies? You came to the right place. There’s some other cool stuff also like a list of SEO software that you can download, and a few suggested online money makers. Check it out.
• Buzzing with Ange - I feel that this mini-review doesn’t really do Ange justice. Not only is she my biggest contributer to date but she is also a good friend of mine. Ange is a mother of two and she lives in Australia, Ange’s blog is all about wealth creation. Who wants to be wealthy? Then check out Buzzing with Ange. With Ange you come to realize that wealth is an attitude, and once you develop that attitude, wealth is attracted to you.

Hope you enjoy reading these two great blogs and if you find them as helpful as I did, go ahead and subscribe to the RSS feed.

If you’d like to get one of my great mini-reviews to your blog, all you have to do is chip in towards my John Chow review. There is no minimum, you can contribute as MUCH as you like. It’s really quite a bargain since my full reviews will set you back 30 dollars.

See you around.

Simon

If you like this post consider subscribing to my full RSS feed.

Filed under: Blogging, Reviews by Simon Rodrigues
6 Comments »

I’ve been a little obsessed recently with SEO, so you can imagine how excited I was when I came across a contest being held by Dev Basu at DailyMoolah.com where I have a chance to win a free SEO book by Aaron Wall.

For those of you that don’t know what the SEO book is, where have you been? The SEO book is the authority when it comes to search engine optimization. Aaron Wall is a well-known expert in the field of SEO, and the SEO book has been used and is highly recommended by some of the internet’s top webmasters.

If you want some kind of success for your new blog but don’t to fork out a whole lot of cash, I suggest you check out DailyMoolah.com’s competition now. It quite easy to enter, all you have to do is digg the contest post, stumble it, subscribe to the RSS feed, mention the contest on your blog, or do a review of DailyMoolah.com.

You have nothing to lose and everything to gain, so go check it out.

Simon

P.S. In case you don’t win, you can purchase the 300+ page book for only 79 dollars here.

If you like this post consider subscribing to my full RSS feed.

Filed under: Competitions, Reviews by Simon Rodrigues
6 Comments »

If you take a look at my sidebar you might notice a little widget asking anyone to chip in for a John Chow review of this blog. Read my post ‘chip is for a John Chow review‘ if you want some more details.

Of course I’m not in the business of begging (hehe), so I’m willing to give something back in exchange for your contributions, however meager. I’m offering to do a mini-review of the blog of anyone that makes a contribution. If you think that I’m selling reviews on this blog for 30 dollars, getting a mini-review for whatever price you dictate is not such a bad deal.

So hurry up and chip in, this deal ends on the 21st of September. While you’re thinking about it, take a few minutes to read these mini-reviews of the 2 first contributers, Adam Sutcliffe, and StockTagger.com.

• The 30 Day Man - For those of you that haven’t heard of the 30 day challenge, go check it out now. Adam is one of the many internet marketers and potential internet marketers that are taking part in the challenge. The challenge is to make 10 dollars from a brand new blog in one month. Adam started his blog as a bit of a personal challenge to lose some weight in 30 days, but it seems that he’s left that train of thought and is concentrating purely on internet marketing. Adam’s blog is quite interesting with a lot of very useful posts, layout could use some work, but I’m sure he’s got plenty of time for that. Go check it out.
• StockTagger.com - For those of us interested in investing, this is one of those blogs worth checking out. StockTagger is an extensive database of Jim Cramer’s “Mad Money” stock picks to monitor past performance and to examine what details might lead to future gains. The blog has a nice layout and the posts are concise and to the point. One suggestion that I would make would be to make StockTagger a little more personal, and maybe put a name and a face behind the blog, because as it stands, I have no idea who the author is. Definitely worth a visit, and maybe even a subscription to the RSS feed.

So there you have it. As you can see the mini-reviews are not so mini, so don’t waste any more time and make a small contribution to have your blog mentioned on Simon’s Money Notes.

Simon

If you like this post consider subscribing to my full RSS feed.

Filed under: Blogging, Reviews by Simon Rodrigues
2 Comments »

Who wants a free banner ad for one day on John Chow dot Com? Me, me, pick me. I certainly do, and if you’re like me you’ll want to head on down to eMonetized where Tim Schroeder is giving 4 people the chance to have their very own 125 x 125 banner ad on John Chow’s blog absolutely free. If you doubt me, go on over there and read about the ‘John Chow banner ad contest‘.

That was short, and I like to give you guys value for… I’d like to say money, but I’d never do that to you. Anyway, I’ll just do a short review of eMonetized since it really is a good blog for you guys to check out.

According to Tim’s about page, Tim Schroeder is one of those internet marketers making a 6 figure income that nobody hears about. Tim is the proud owner of Webmaster-Talk.com, but a good percentage of his income also comes from affiliate marketing.

eMonetized is a blog where you can go to learn from a master with over 4 years experience. Some of the topics being covered include affiliate marketing, adsense, adwords, blogging, and internet marketing.

This is one that I will hang around, I’ve already subscribed to the RSS feed, and I’m hoping to learn a lot here. If you’re like me and love learning, then go over there and check it out. Take part in the John Chow competition and who knows, you might get lucky.

Simon

If you like this post consider subscribing to my full RSS feed.

Filed under: Competitions, Make Money Online, Reviews by Simon Rodrigues
3 Comments »

Lately I’ve really started to put a lot of focus on networking, and this has given me the opportunity to discover some truly interesting blogs. One such blog is run by a guy called Ades and the blog’s name is AdesBlog.com.

Ades blog is mostly about web design and web development which is a very popular topic these days and definitely an excellent choice for someone with Ades kind of knowledge. If you’re new in the Internet world, especially the business Internet world, a blog like this one is always an excellent resource to include in your arsenal and its definitely in mine. Some of the categories to keep a look at include such topics as CSS, Online Tools, Search Engines, Scripts, Making Money, SEO & Promotion, Social Bookmarking, Software, Tutorials, and many, many more.

One of the cool tools that Ades is offering is AdesClrPicker v2.0. I can really relate to this because whenever I need to get the code of a certain color whether it be HTML, RGB, or anything else, I still go and open up photoshop and wait for ages for it to load before I can take a couple of seconds to get what I’m looking for and close it down again. Doing this has always annoyed me, but with this nifty little tool all I have to do is click anywhere on the screen and presto, there’s the code I’m looking for. It’s great and for only $9.90, its definitely a bargain.

This is a blog that you should check out. If you’re serious about your online business, you’d want to spend some time here.

Simon

If you like this post consider subscribing to my full RSS feed.

Filed under: Reviews by Simon Rodrigues
1 Comment »