www.minetterivera.com goes live!

To all my fellow bloggers and bloghoppers who would usually take a peek on my blog, please update your Favorite's list or blogroll because I know have my new domain name (YEHEY!!!) which is :

www.minetterivera.com

I will still be using blogger and will have the same theme.

"A collection of great freebies found on the internet: free movies, free e-books, free songs, free printables, free ringtones, free lyrics, free advice, free tips, free newsletters, free tutorials, free how-to's, free recipes, free software, free magazines, free articles, free games and more freebies. You would also find reviews of outstanding websites that provide freebies."

Have fun and please continue to visit my blog!

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Keywords: The way to a great amount of web traffic

Ever wonder how to increase your blog traffic? Most of the articles and ebooks that I have been reading about Increasing your traffic points to researching good keywords for your website. I have been a ghostwriter and wrote articles for clients who would always require certain keywords to be included in the article. This is quite challenging for me because I prefer to write whatever comes out of my head. And I never realized the importance of these said "keywords" not until I become a blogger. So now, I have a few good reads and great tools which will help us get a higher page rank.

Choosing the best keywords - This is an interesting article that will teach you how to look for keywords that best suits your blog or website. It explains the techniques that you can use so you can find and locate the most related and most popular keywords.

Top paying keywords - If you are targeting top paying keyword, then you may want to read this articles because it has 100 top keywords with their cost-per-click (CPC),

Google Keyword Tool- I personally like this tool because for one it was created by google, thus I believe it provides a more accurate results. Moreover, it provides you a list of keywords but also their Approximate Search Volume (which refers to the approximate number of search done for that specific keyword on the previous month) and Advertiser Competition (which is the number of advertisers that bids on that specific keyword).

Other Keyword Generation web based tools that you can use:

SEOBook Keyword Generator

WordTracker

Do you know any other way to easily locate effective keywords for your blog or website?

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Is Affiliate Marketing an Effective Way to Earn Money Online?

Affiliate Marketing is a business relationship between a producer and advertiser. A producer can be a company or individual that is selling products or services while an advertiser is someone who is willing to promote the said product or service. This relationship is now strongly built online and is considered one effective way to earn money online.

So why all of a sudden I am talking about Affiliate Marketing? Plainly because I have recently engaged into Affiliate programs and hoping that one day I'll be successful. Also, I would like to share this information to those would like to earn money online without spending any money (because sign up is for free). Moreover, I would like to seek advice from you so you can help me become successful on my endeavors.

Some of the Affiliate Programs that I am currently into are the following:

Bravenet is a service that helps webmasters in creating and maintaing their websites. It provides free site and free tools such as mailing list, counter, guestbook, widgets and a lot more. If you need enhanced features such as having your own domain name then you can create a pro account with minimal fee. They also have an Affiliate Program that allows you to earn $1 per affiliate program referral and $50-$100 per hosting account you refer. So Join Bravenet Now to get the most of web designing and affiliate marketing.

One of the leading payment services on the internet, Paypal allows you to securely pay for your online purchases (using your debit cards) and even track your online expenses. You may also send, receive and request money globally. If you would like to earn money online, you need to sign up for a Paypal account (which is actually for free) because most programs and clients have Paypal as one of their payment method. Moreover, it has a Great Affiliate Program that allows you to earn $1000 for every Merchant you refer.


One of the affiliate programs that you can never resists because of the enticing ad that says "Earn up to $233 per sale" with "High demand products that get searched for over 2 Million times per month." Sign up as an advertiser of World Niche to get rich.

Want to have a $50 dollar sign up bonus? Register at Domain IT and get the same benefit ($50) for every web hosting sales. You can even help webmasters in creating their own name online with minimal fee (as low as $7.95 a month).

An upfront $50 sign up bonus is offered by Press Releasing Affiliate Program. Afterwhich you can earn 12% commission on every sale you generate by promoting their writing services.

A safe and easy to use online payment method. With the use of just an email address, you can send to your bank account from a credit card. It also has a Refer a Friend Program which will allow you to earn as much as 100 euros. So Sign up for a Moneybookers Account now.

I have read a lot of blogs and these are just some of the affiliate programs that they suggest. Most of the blogs are affiliate markerters too and they really recommend this process if you are serious about making money online. But I guess you need to have strategies so you can maximize the benefits of Affiliate Programs. Some of the things that I am considering are the following:

1. Quality Writings. Of course, you would not want your website to look like a online billboard where it has a lot of advertisements. As they say "Content is always the king" you have to couple your ads with quality review. But if you have been a blogger or webmaster for quite sometime now and your site or blog has a lot of visitors, that only proves that you can write quality content which you can use on Affiliate Programs.

2. Proper Placement of Advertisements. Organize your blog and make sure to place your ads where your readers can actually see them. And make sure that you don't clutter your blog with so much advertisements.

3. Seek Advice from the Experts. It's always good to ask because that is one way of learning new things. If you are afraid to ask then you can just simply visit the sites of Online Money Makers. Use the search engine to discover who are earning money online. Some of my favorites are: Problogger and Dosh Dosh

So do you think I'm taking the right path in becoming a successful online blogger and marketer? Or do you know any other legit Affiliate Program that pays well? I'd like to hear from you. =)

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How to Earn Money Online : More than 70 Great Links where you can earn cash

Is it really possible to earn money through internet? The answer is “YES” and I believe a lot of people would agree with me. I think the follow up question to that is how to earn money online?

There are many ways in which you can earn a decent income while online. Let me categorize them into two:
1. Be an online employee
2. Sell Product

BE AN ONLINE EMPLOYEE
How would you feel working at the comforts of your home? Well, that thought is very much appealing to me. I bet all Mother’s out there who are trying to make ends meet and still prefer to be with their children while working would definitely love that idea too. Let’s say thank you to the brilliant people who created the internet for making this thought into a reality. Now you can be an online employee by looking for a online job.

Where exactly can you get an online job? I got my first online earnings from my ghostwriting, big THANKS to my friend “Malou Barry,” (not her true name of course), she was the one who encouraged me to write so that I can have an extra income. Now, she is one of my mentors when it comes to “making money online.” Why am I sharing this? Just to let you know that you can really earn money by using your talent. Either be a temporary helper of a client or an employee of a company. If you know how to write articles or ebook, design blogs or websites, create graphics, do data entry, be a technical guru, teach online and others then you may meet your future client or boss at any of the following freelancing sites:

1. Rentacoder: Although the site imposes a high commission, I personally like it because this is where I mostly got my project from. They even have arbitration if the coder and buyer didn’t agree in some point. And if ever you have other problems within the site, rentacoder staff will really look into the issue and make a resolution.
2. Getafreelancer Most of my friends have good experiences on this site and they said its highly recommendable. The site posts a lot of projects everyday.
3. Scriptlance : This site posts both temporary and permanent work. So you can check on their Project List as well as on their Job Listings. Check out their Job Listings because that is where you can get a more permanent job from one of the prospect clients.
4. Guru : The site both has a free and premium subscription. I only got one client from that site because I don’t have the premium account. You may want to give it a try and see if you got the talent that the clients are looking for.
5. Online Writing Jobs : If you are a writer then this site is for you. It has job listings of clients looking for different kinds of writers (technical, creative, academic, etc.


These are the major freelance job database that I have had experience with. So you can also visit other sites such as : Go Freelance , GET A CODER and Elance.

If you are looking for a permanent homebased job, you can explore the popular Job Banks such as: Jobstreet.com, Monster.com, Bestjobs.ph (for Filipinos), etc. and just use the search term “homebased,” “work at home,” or “telecommute” to get a list of homebased jobs.

II. SELL A PRODUCT
Another way to earn money online is by selling a product either directly or indirectly. Directly selling a product is the best option if you want to earn more but that is more tedious compared to just recommending the product or service and encouraging others to buy it. Decide which path you are heading according to your abilities and resources. Why do I say so? Because if you will be directly selling a product, you need to have a capital. Otherwise, venture on just being an affiliate and invest by using your writing talents. So let me tell you the different ways you can earn money online using your “selling power.”

A. Participate in Auction Sites or Build an online Business.
Selling products online is very profitable specially if your products are unique and has high demand. My sister is now a homebased Mom, making a living out of her online business. What does she do? She actually is a power seller in Ebay.ph (leonalianne) and Auction.ph. Mind you, my sister is not a computer geek at first but she already has that “selling power” offline. So if you have that ability as well, then you can visit sites like
1. Ebay.com
2. Auction.ph (Philippines only)
3. Amazon.com
4. Ubid
5. Bidz

If you want to invest more, you can create a website and embed an ecommerce on your page so people can directly purchase from your site.

B. Monetize from your blog
Creating a post can be so much fun if you really do like writing. It does not only becomes your outlet when you happy or sad, but it also allows you get to know a lot of people from around the world because you got great and not so good comments from people whom you never meet. And the best thing about blogs is you can even earn some money from it. Here’s how:

• Paid Posting/Review : I am tempted to go into this direction with the recommendation of my friends but I havent signed up to any of Get Paid to Post programs just because I havent had the time yet. So what is Paid Posting all about? It is one type of GPT program (which I would later on discuss) that would require you to create a post or a review about a website product or service on your own blog. And in order for you to be a qualified reviewer or endorser you need to have a blog which is at least 2 months old. Some websites may have different requirements so make sure that you carefully read the terms and agreement before you apply. After which you can create a post or review that is in English and contains at least 200 words. Sounds easy for you? If yes then you can now visit some of these Paid Posting or Review Sites:

1. 451 Press
2. Blogitive
3. Blogmeout
4. Blogsvertise
5. BlogToProfit
6. BOTW Media
7. BuyBlogReviews
8. Loudlaunch
9. MoneyTYZ
10. Payperpost.com
11. PayU2Blog
12. Review me
13. SnapBomb
14. Smorty.com
15. Sponsored Reviews

• Adsense: I havent had big earnings on Adsense but my brother is earning a decent income from Google and I have read stories of people who are really earning from Adsense. Take a look at this article from John Chow (a site that I frequently visit which has a lot of interesting articles) "The Internet Biggest Google Whores"and be inspired.
  
  
  
  
  

• Become an Affiliate or Advertiser (Advertisements) – I’ve excluded Google from this list just because a lot of people are making a living out of Google Adsense. However, there are still a lot of Programs or Companies out there that needs your help in advertising their product. You can check out the Paid to Post sites that I have provided above because most of them have an affiliate program as well. But if you want to earn more money through affiliate marketing, you can check out this big companies:

1. Commission Junction
2. Linkshare
3. Amazon

C. Participate in GPT
Get-Paid-To (GPT) Programs – So what is GPT? Get-Paid-To are programs that would tell you do to something and they will pay you for that. Paid to Post which was already discussed on the previous topic is one example of Get-Paid-To (GPT) programs. However, there are still other types of Get-Paid-To (GPT) programs that doesn’t require for you to have a blog. I'm not experienced when it comes to Get-Paid-To (GPT) programs but I have read a lot interesting articles about this topic. Some are earning a small enough but if you have all the time in the world to always be in front of your computer, then you may want to engage into this programs and earn at least $100 a month. However, you need to be extra careful because there are a lot of scams on the internet especially with Get-Paid-To (GPT) programs. I’ll be giving you an extensive list of Get-Paid-To (GPT) programs that I got from through research from forum and blog hopping

List of websites that will pay you to write something on their pages or blog:
1. About.com - http://beaguide.about.com
2. Blog Burner - http://www.blogburner.com/
3. Day Tripper - http://daytipper.com/
4. Pay Me to Blog About You - http://www.paymetoblogaboutyou.com
5. Shvoong - http://www.shvoong.com/promotion/
6. Weblogs Inc - http://www.weblogsinc.com

List of websites that will pay you to do something such as read, complete a survey, click on links, etc:
1. A whole Lot of Green: http://awholelotofgreen.com/ (US Residents Only)
2. Bux.to http://bux.to
3. Cash On Top http://www.cashontap.net/
4. Cash Lagoons http://cashlagoon.com/
5. Cashcrate http://cashcrate.com
6. Dear Barbie http://dealbarbiepays.com/
7. Ezami http://ezami.com/
8. Fairy Tale Treasure http://fairytaletreasure.com/
9. Freebies on Tap http://www.freebiesontap.com/
10. Fusion cash http://www.fusioncash.net/ (US Residents only)
11. Instant Profitz http://www.instantprofitz.com/
12. My Cash Safari http://www.mycashsafari.com/
13. Raid The Bank http://raidthebank.com/
14. Rapid Loot http://www.rapidloot.com/
15. Revolution Offers http://revolutionoffers.com/
16. Snap Dollars http://www.snapdollars.com/
17. Send Earnings http://www.sendearnings.com/
18. Squishy Cash http://squishycash.com/
19. SWAT Cash http://www.swatcash.com/
20. The Cash Grab http://www.thecashgrab.com/
21. This Site is For Real http://www.thissiteisforreal.com (US Residents Only)
22. Treasure Tropper http://www.treasuretrooper.com/

List of websites that will pay you to give Advice, Answer, Opinion, Share Expertise and Others:
1. Bitwine http://www.bitwine.com/
2. Expert Bee http://www.expertbee.com/
3. Know Brainers http://www.knowbrainers.com/
4. Student Questions http://www.studentquestions.com/
5. I want your Answers http://www.iwantyouranswers.com/
6. Small Biz Advice http://www.smallbizadvice.com/
7. Problima http://www.problima.com/
8. Duno http://www.duno.com/
9. Kasamba http://www.kasamba.com
10. Innocentive http://innocentive.com/
11. Idea Connection http://www.ideaconnection.com/solve-problems.html

Do you think this post is useful? And do you know any other means of earning money online? If so, I’d like to hear from you.

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Great Sites that Provides Free High Quality Images

Looking for free images that has high resolution or pictures that are pleasing to the eye? At times, you will be needing image for your blog that goes with the message you would like to convey to your reader. Let me recommend to you some websites where you can get these free images.

A. http://www.imageafter.com/
I just love this site coz they provide high resolution images. So expect that the file size of the pictures will be more than 1MB. In this site, you will find pictures of places, objects, animals, vegetables, building, landscapes and more. All their images are copyright-free. So visit IMAGEAFTER now so you can browse on their collection.







B. http://www.pixelperfectdigital.com/
This site provides 3D Graphics, Abstract, Animals, Architecture, Holidays, Industries, Nature, Objects, People, Places, Textures and Transportation. In order for you to download any of their great images, simply register to their website. Once you are a member, you have the opportunity to upload your own images so you can share it with others. So REGISTER NOW to have full access to Pixel Perfect Digital Gallery!




C. http://www.stockvault.net/
What I like about this site is that it provides nice scenery graphics which you can use for travel blogs. You may also use their images if you want to make cards for special occasions like Valentines. So register to thi stock photography site so you can see more of their collection.

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Only in the Philippines: A Foreigner’s Perspective Part 2 (A Matter of Taste)

This is another funny article written by Matthew Sutherland. It's all about food.

Matter of Taste

I have now been in this country for over six years, and consider myself in most respects well assimilated. However, there is one key step on the road to full asimilation, which I have yet to take, and that's to eat BALUT.

The day any of you sees me eating balut, please call immigration and ask them to issue me a Filipino passport. Because at that point there will be no turning back. BALUT, for those still blissfully gnorant non-Pinoys out there, is a fertilized duck egg. It is commonly sold with salt in a piece of newspaper, much like English fish and chips, by street vendors usually after dark, presumably so you can't see how gross it is. It's meant to be an aphrodisiac, although I can't imagine anything more likely to dispel sexual desire than crunching on a partially formed baby duck swimming in noxious fluid. The embryo in the egg comes in varying stages of development, but basically it is not considered macho to eat one without fully discernable feathers, beak, and claws. Some say these crunchy bits are the best. Others prefer just to drink th e so-called 'soup', the vile, pungent liquid that surrounds the aforementioned feathery fetus...excuse me; I have to go and throw up now. I'll be back in a minute.

Food dominates the life of the Filipino. People here just love to eat. They eat at least eight times a day. These eight official meals are called, in order: breakfast, snacks, lunch, merienda, merienda ceyna, dinner, bedtime snacks and no-one-saw-me-take-that-cookie-from-the-fridge-so-it-doesn't-count.

The short gaps in between these mealtimes are spent eating Sky Flakes from the open packet that sits on every desktop. You're never far from food in the Philippines. If you doubt this, next time you're driving home from work, try this game. See how long you can drive without seeing food and I don't mean a distant restaurant, or a picture of food. I mean a man on the sidewalk frying fish balls, or a man walking through the traffic selling nuts or candy. I bet it's less than one minute. Here ar e some other things I've noticed about food in the Philippines.

Firstly, a meal is not a meal without rice - even breakfast. In the UK, I could go a whole year without eating rice. Second, it's impossible to drink without eating. A bottle of San Miguel just isn't the same without gambas or beef tapa. Third, no one ventures more than two paces from their house without baon (food in small container) and a container of something cold to drink. You might as well ask a Filipino to leave home without his pants on. And lastly, where I come from, you eat with a knife and fork. Here, you eat with a spoon and fork. You try eating rice swimming in fish sauce with a knife. One really nice thing about Filipino food culture is that people always ask you to SHARE their food. In my office, if you catch anyone attacking their baon, they will always go, "Sir! KAIN TAYO!" ("Let's eat!"). This confused me, until I realized that they didn't actually expect me to sit down and start munching on their boneless bangus. In fact, the polite response is something like, "No thanks, I just ate." But the principle is sound - if you have food on your plate, you are expected to share it, however hungry you are, with those who may be even hungrier. I think that's great. In fact, this is frequently even taken one step further. Many Filipinos use "Have you eaten yet?" ("KUMAIN KA NA?") as a general greeting, irrespective of time of day or location.

Some foreigners think Filipino food is fairly dull compared to other Asian cuisines. Actually lots of it is very good: Spicy dishes like Bicol Express(strange, a dish named after a train); anything cooked with coconut milk; anything KINILAW; and anything ADOBO. And it's hard to beat the sheer wanto n, cholesterolic frenzy of a good old-fashioned LECHON de leche (roast pig)feast. Dig a pit, light a fire, add 50 pounds of animal fat on a stick, and cook until crisp. Mmm, mmm... you can actually feel your arteries constricting with each successive mouthful. I also share one key Pinoy trait ---a sweet tooth. I am thus the only foreigner I know who does not complain about sweet bread, sweet burgers, sweet spaghetti, sweet banana ketchup, and so on. I am a man who likes to put jam on his pizza. Try it! It's the weird food you want to avoid. In addition to duck fetus in the half-shell, items to avoid in the Philippines include pig's blood soup (DINUGUAN); bull's testicle soup, the strangely-named "SOUP NUMBER FIVE" (I dread to think what numbers one through four are); and the ubiquitous, stinky shrimp paste,BAGOONG, and it's equally stinky sister, PATIS. Filipinos are so addicted to these latter items that they will even risk arrest or deportation tryin g to smuggle them into countries like Australia and the USA, which wisely ban the importation of items you can smell from more than 100 paces. Then there's the small matter of the purple ice cream. I have never been able to get my brain around eating purple food; the ubiquitous UBE leaves me cold.

And lastly on the subject of weird food, beware: that KALDERETANG KAMBING (goat) could well be KALDERETANG ASO (dog)... The Filipino, of course, has a well-developed sense of food. Here's a typical Pinoy food joke: "I'm on a seafood diet. "What's a seafood diet?" "When I see food, I eat it!" Filipinos also eat strange bits of animals --- the feet, the head, the guts, etc., usually barbecued on a stick. These have been given witty names, like "ADIDAS" (chicken's feet); KURBATA" (either just chicken's neck, or "neck and thigh" as in "neck-tie"); "WALKMAN" (pigs ears); "PAL" (chicken wings); "HELMET" (chicken head); "IUD" (chicken intestines), and BETAMAX" (video-cassette-like blocks of animal blood). Yum, yum. Bon appetit."

If you wanna see the different types of Filipino Street Foods, you may want to visit this blog:

http://my_sarisari_store.typepad.com/my_sarisari_store/street_food/index.html

Lots of great pics!

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Only in the Philippines: A Foreigner’s Perspective Part 1 (A Rhose, by Any Other Name)

Most Filipinos have a story to share about their name (like where it came from? Or why their parents have picked that name for them?). And this is a common thing here in the Philippines. But to some, especially foreigners, those stories may sound weird. Just read this very funny (yet so true) article written by a British Journalist, Matthew Sutherland.

A Rhose, by Any Other Name

A good name is rather to be chosen than great riches" -- (Proverbs 22:1)

WHEN I arrived in the Philippines from the UK six years ago, one of the first cultural differences to strike me was names. The subject has provided a continuing source of amazement and amusement ever since. The first unusual thing, from an English perspective, is that everyone here has a nickname. In the staid and boring United Kingdom, we have nicknames in kindergarten, but when we move into adulthood we tend, I am glad to say, to lose them.

The second thing that struck me is that Philippine names for both girls and boys tend to be what we in the UK would regard as overbearingly cutesy for anyone over about five. Fifty-five-year-olds colleague put it. Where I come from, a boy with a nickname like Boy Blue or Honey Boy would be beaten to death at school by pre-adolescent bullies, and never make it to adulthood. So, probably, would girls with names like Babes, Lovely, Precious, Peachy or Apples. Yuk, ech ech. Here, however, no one bats an eyelid. Then I noticed how many people have what I have come to call "door-bell names". These are nicknames that sound like -well, doorbells. There are millions of them. Bing, Bong, Ding, and Dong are some of the more common. They can be, and frequently are, used in even more door-bell-like combinations such as Bing-Bong, Ding-Dong, Ting-Ting, and so on. Even our newly appointed chief of police has a doorbell name Ping.

None of these doorbell names exist where I come from, and hence sound unusually amusing to my untutored foreign ear. Someone once told me that one of the Bings, when asked why he was called Bing , replied, "because my brother is called Bong". Faultless logic. Dong, of course, is a particularly funny one for me, as where I come from "dong" is a slang word for well; perhaps "talong" is the best Tagalog equivalent.

Repeating names was another novelty to me, having never before encountered people with names like Len-Len, Let-Let, Mai-Mai, or Ning-Ning. The secretary I inherited on my arrival had an unusual one: Leck-Leck. Such names are then frequently further refined by using the "squared" symbol, as in Len2 or Mai2. This had me very confused for a while.

Then there is the trend for parents to stick to a theme when naming their children. This can be as simple as making them all begin with the same letter, as in Jun, Jimmy, Janice, and Joy. More imaginative parents shoot for more sophisticated forms of assonance or rhyme, as in Biboy, Boboy, Buboy, Baboy (notice the names get worse the more kids there are-best to be born early or you could end up being a Baboy). Even better, parents can create whole families of, say, desserts (Apple Pie, Cherry Pie, Honey Pie) or flowers (Rose, Daffodil, Tulip). The main advantage of such combinations is that they look great painted across your trunk if you're a cab driver. That's another thing I'd never seen before coming to Manila -- taxis with the driver's kids' names on the trunk.

Another whole eye-opening field for the foreign visitor is the phenomenon of the "composite" name. This includes names like Jejomar (for Jesus, Joseph and Mary), and the remarkable Luzviminda (for Luzon, Visayas and Mindanao, believe it or not). That's a bit like me being called something like "Engscowani" (for England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland). Between you and me, I'm glad I'm not. And how could I forget to mention the fabulous concept of the randomly inserted letter 'h'. Quite what this device is supposed to achieve, I have not yet figured out, but I thin k it is designed to give a touch of class to an otherwise only averagely weird name. It results in creations like Jhun, Lhenn, Ghemma, and Jhimmy. Or how about Jhun-Jhun (Jhun2)?

How boring to come from a country like the UK full of people with names like John Smith. How wonderful to come from a country where imagination and exoticism rule the world of names. Even the towns here have weird names; my favorite is the unbelievably named town of Sexmoan (ironically close to Olongapo and Angeles). Where else in the world could that really be true? Where else in the world could the head of the Church really be called Cardinal Sin? Where else but the Philippines! Note: Philippines has a senator named Joker, and it is his legal name.

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