THE WEGO HEALTH AWARDS...PLEASE ENDORSE ME :)...

Endorsements are now open for the Wego Health Awards.

If you missed my last post I was excited to announce that I have been nominated and shortlisted for the WEGO Health Best Chronic Illness & Illness Recovery Blog Award in the 2018 WEGO Health Awards.

WEGO Health is a mission-driven company connecting healthcare with the experience, skills, and insights of patient leaders. They are the world’s largest network of patient leaders, working across virtually all health conditions and topics. Click here to learn more about their Patient Leader Network. The WEGO Health Awards were created to celebrate those who tirelessly support the mission of WEGO Health: to empower the patient voice. With 16 award categories, the WEGO Health Awards are the only awards across all conditions and platforms, that recognize the over 100 thousand inspiring Patient Leaders who raise awareness, share information, and support their communities – but often without recognition.

This year, the 16 WEGO Health Award winners will be honored and I’m now looking to my incredibly supportive network to help endorse me for this award. There are two easy ways to endorse that only take seconds of your time!
1) You can click on my endorsement badge located on the right-hand side of this page.
2) Click here to be taken to my WEGO Health Awards profile where you can click “Endorse” under my nominee photo

If I have ever supported you, made you laugh, or inspired you to keep fighting – please consider endorsing me for this award

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A NEW YEAR AND NEW WAYS TO MAKE SOME EXTRA CASH...

With Christmas well and truly behind us now and all the credit card bills coming in, it's no wonder that this is the most popular month for people to seek out ways to make some extra cash to help pay off their bills.

To kick start the new year I thought I would give you some quick and easy ways to get some quick cash back.

Please tell me that most of you already use a cashback site as this is the quickest way to get some 'cash back'. Most of the transactions you will have bought through this site over Christmas will now have gone through so your total amount of cash back should show on your statement. One of the best cash back sites is Top Cash Back which is the UK's highest paying cashback site.

Another quick return is to sell any unwanted gifts online through Ebay, Craigslist or Gumtree, even Ebay offer free listings or nothing to pay until you sell for January.

Pop over to The Money Saving Expert's site and head to the 'Boost Your Income' forum boards which have lots of ideas on how to boost your income.

According to Save the Student site the best survey sites are - Toluna, Vivatic, MySurvey, Valued Opinions, IPSOS, Global Test Market, The Opinion Panel, You Gov, Pinecone, One Poll and more.

Changing your bank account or credit card can also give you instant cash and the best site for these deals is The Money Saving Expert.

Check out the site Task Rabbit which lists jobs such as picking up parcels, flat pack assembly or moving and packing jobs in your area.

Finally, watch TV and get paid for it. At this time of year the nights are long and we do tend to sit in front of the TV for longer so why not make some money while you are watching by joining The Viewers you can earn £40-£70 for a group discussion on specific programmes.

FREE EBOOK ON HOW TO MAKE £1,000 A MONTH TAX FREE FROM HOME...

Get this FREE Ebook from Money Magpie on How to Make £1,000 a month, tax free- from home.

In this free ebook you will be shown how to make up to £1,000 a month profit. Not just for one month but for every month to come through Matched Betting.

In the book you will find out exactly what Matched Betting is, how to make sure you never put your money at risk and how to make a consistent profit from the process.

ARE YOU BORN TO BE LUCKY...

Are you born lucky?

Well, actually scientist think that they have found a link between certain conditions, including personality traits and birth months.

By looking at people who actually considered themselves lucky and the month they were born, they found out that those born between March and August believe themselves to be luckier than those born between September and February. Well, that includes me and I must say I do not think of myself as lucky at all.

May is the luckiest month, so if you are planning to have a family, plan to conceive in August......

SAVE MONEY, MAKE HOMEMADE CLEANING PRODUCTS...

Fill a spray bottle with three tablespoons of bleach and one tablespoon of vinegar and fill up with cool water.

Dip a toothbrush into vinegar to shift hard water deposits around taps.

Rub chrome taps with plain flour, then wash off.

To remove lime scale from a kettle, pop a cup of vinegar in the kettle and boil up. Rinse out thoroughly afterward.

BECOME A HOLIDAY TESTER AND HAVE A FREE HOLIDAY...

Become a Holiday Tester and see the world for free. Holiday Testing is a powerful tool whereby hotels, airlines, and other travel businesses can obtain real feedback about their services. Companies are always searching for new travelers who would like to go on holiday for FREE. If you qualify they provide you with a voucher for you to use and all they ask is that you fill in a short form detailing your experiences.

Union Jack Freebies is one company that offers Holiday Testing, just fill in your email details and wait for them to come back to you. Voyage Prive.com is another very well known site that advertise for Holiday Testers.They say that they hand-pick only the best holidays and hotels available and offer members fantastic deals with up to 70% off. Whether you want a romantic rural getaway, idyllic beach retreat or a chic city break, the choice is yours. Camping Selection are looking for a Glamping Tester, they want enthusiastic camping customer's who like to holiday with their families, and would like to try one of theirs. A great article on how to become a Hotel Tester for Trivago is available on their website.

MODERN SOCIAL MAGAZINE FOR SOCIAL MEDIA INFLUENCERS...

Modern Social Magazine is the leading magazine for social media influencers, bloggers, entrepreneurs, small business owners and digital marketers for over 4 years. 

Enjoy the actionable content from top social media experts, leading influencers that have grown their blogs and online businesses into money making machines and the smartest, most influential people in content marketing today. 

Modern Social Magazine partner with 25+ social media, influencer and marketing conferences and work with leading national brands, agencies and networks to ensure you are connected to content that is sure to grow your online presence, business and brand! No matter what size your business, Modern Social Magazine will provide you insights, secrets and tips to help you grow.

HOW TO MAKE SOME MONEY FROM A SPARE ROOM IN YOUR HOME...

Following on from my previous post about working from home or finding a desk somewhere else to work from. What about expanding the idea and if you have a spare room at home which could double as an office space or desk space for someone else then you could advertise this as office/desk space to rent.

It targets the growing army of freelance workers, looking for a short-term, space to work in. Prices seem to start at £17.20 but there are a number of websites who offer this so it would be best to research price in your local area first. Some of those websites include Office Genie, Desk Near Me, and Deskcamping to name a few.

The best thing is that you have the property to yourself in the evening. Obviously wifi would have to be available but how many houses can you think of that don't have wifi. Some US companies have even jazzed up their rooms with yoga mats, settees and flip-boards.

Having somewhere easy to park and no fees for a parking space is another factor in the why this has become popular and ideal for someone who is setting up on his/her own in business.

MAKE MONEY FROM PET SITTING...

Pet sitting has become big business throughout the world with celebrities all carrying their smaller pets around with them. But none of us like leaving our pets in kennels, so set yourself up as a pet caring service for when people are away or at work for the day.

You can either house the pet with you or pop around to their home once or twice a day and feed and walk their pets. These include cats and dogs. Fish and caged birds and all manner of other pets, it's up to you where you draw the line.

Clients are also benefited by this type of service as it reassures them that someone is keeping an eye on their home. There are also agencies that you can join but you will need to provide references for these, some of which are Animal Angels, Platinum Petcare and Nina's Nannies for Pets. You could also set up your own agency and can see how it's done from the above sites. 

How much to charge for your pet care varies greatly from area to area so your best bet is to ring around and see what other people are charging first. You will also need to take our insurance not only for yourself but for the pets you are caring for but it easily available online. 

                        

2 OF THE BEST SURVEY SITES TO MAKE MONEY WITH...

With a number of survey sites offering you cash back for your opinion, it's difficult to decide which one to use. I have to admit I have tried a lot of them but my best two that continually send me decent surveys and earn me some money.

1. Pure Profile  - Pure Profile has been rewarding people for over 14 years for their opinions on different subjects. The more opinions you share, the more your profile gets to know you and the more valuable it becomes. Connect to brands, research campaigns and opportunities to earn. Answer questions, engage with brands and content, and you will see you account balance climb. Pure Profile pays your earnings directly to you. You can also earn money by simply referring friends and colleagues to join Pure Profile. Cash redemptions are from only £25. Connect it to your own social media to raise your profile. I've been with them a number of years and always redeem when I get up to £25.

2. One Poll  - a friend introduced me to this when I was desperate to start earning some extra money. Reach your target audience with them as they do online research throughout the world. They have an endless list of clients. They pay out at £40 but like Pure Profile have lots of surveys sent to you regularly. One Poll pay via BACS or Paypal. You can refer up to 10 people and will receive 50p but then when they reach £20 you get £1 back and when they reach £40 you get £2.50 back so it's a win, win situation. Feel free to put your email address in here if you are interested in joining One Poll. 

The knack to earning money from both these sites is to login in daily and keep your profile up to date on a regular basis. Good Luck 

SAVING MONEY WITH TOP CASH BACK...

It's not easy to save when you haven't got a lot coming in and I know there are lots of cash back sites

on the market but until you take the time to give it a go you won't appreciate how much cash you can

actually get back and then save.

A friend told me about Top Cash Back  which I decided to give a go back in April, and I still forget

quite often to buy online before I go shopping as they cover most grocery shops and stores but

I have managed to save £28.

Even if you purchase one small item from Ebay to Asda you still get cash back but the big winners

are if you need to change something quite large in the house (like a hoover or cooker) - well that was

at least what I thought.

That was until I booked our holiday this year and found out that I could get cash back not only on

my flights but also on my airport parking !!!!!! You can even choose your holiday through the

website to get back the best deal.

My plan with this cash back site is to leave the money I make until the end of the year for Christmas

presents which I plan to buy online to get even more cash back.

You can also earn £15 just by referring a friend, they just give you a link like mine here and if

anyone signs up through my link I get £15.

MAKE MONEY FROM YOUR CAR...

You can get £66 - £200 a month to have an advert plastered down the side of your car, and apparently it will not do any damage to the paint work.

Look at www.comm-motion.co.uk – for more details. They have a strict driver requirement with the obvious things on it like, a current MOT and road tax for your vehicle and no convictions on your license.

IS MAKING MONEY FROM BLOGGING EASY???????...

Is it just me, or do you keep finding lots and lots and LOTS of articles on the web, Pinterest, wordpress and other sites on how you can make money blogging?

I have been looking at a site on Pinterest which I am now following called Babes Make Money  and
there are a ton of sites on making money but the majority are geared up around making money blogging.

Well I write a number of blogs, two of which are on Wordpress and one of which was an award winning blog a few years ago when it was on another blog platform which closed down. Since moving it to Wordpress I have done everything in my power to try and make money with it and to also get it ranked on Google like before.

I find it really frustrating that I am doing exactly what is suggested to make money from your blog but apart from the occasional promo posts I just cannot seem to get my rankings or earnings up any higher.

Had I changed the blog completely then I would be able to see where I went wrong but it's based on the same blog I started in 2007 - for anyone interesting in taking a quick look at the blog I am talking about it's my Back Pain Blog UK. 

Please take a look as I would love some feed back on where I am going wrong with the blog or any suggestions on getting it ranked higher in the hope I could then earn a few pennies from it.

Do you have the same problem with your blog? Has blogging changed that much over the last 7 years that it's a bit like a competition as to whether you are successful or not?

SOME TAX TIPS FOR PEOPLE WHO ARE SELF EMPLOYED...

Being self-employed is very rewarding but you must remember to keep the tax man informed of your business. Any sources of extra income have to be declared to the HM Revenue and Customs.

As soon as you become self-employed you should inform HMRC either through their website or by calling 0845 915 4515. If you don't let them know you could end up with a penalty.

You will also get a fine if you fail to meet the deadline for self assessment which is 31st October for paper forms, and 31st January for electronic submissions.

You can find out all the information on the HMRC's of how to register for self employment.

Make sure you make full use of your personal allowance, depending on what your other job status is and your age, again you will find details on this on the HMRC's website.

Finally, make sure you keep all your receipts for any purchases for your business as they are tax deductible. To see the full breakdown of what you are entitled to check the HMRC website.

AT WHAT AGE CAN YOU #RETIRE?...

At what age is it suitable for you to retire? Well, according to an article in Moneywise, Fisher Investments UK  say that ...

"If you have a £250,000 portfolio, you should download "The 15-Minute Retirement Plan" by Forbescolumnist Ken Fisher's firm ".

"Even if you have something in place, this must read guide includes research and analysis you can use right now. Investing in stock markets involves the risk of loss and there is no guarantee that all or any capital invested will be repaid. Past returns are no guarantee of future results ".

MAKE SOME EXTRA MONEY WITH TOP TEN BEST PAID #SURVEYS IN UK...

The Top 10 Best Paid Survey Sites is a company based in UK. It has a customer base of over 100,000 and works with some of the biggest market research companies 

They have a large team who are dedicated to recruiting survey panelists and growing the list of trusted survey companies to provide quality customer service. Each team member has their own skill set, creating an overall complimentary team of hard working individuals.

With an article only yesterday in The Daily Mail about dodgy survey sites, where people were giving sites all their bank details which were then hacked, so it's important that we note the genuine ones like Top 10 Best Pain Survey Sites. 

It's simple to just sign up and start earning straight away. 

WHERE TO LOOK FOR #FREELANCE WRITING/BLOGGING JOBS...

Have you spent hours on end looking through websites to try and find a freelance writing/blogging job? Well I hope I can help you by suggesting some of the best places to look for this kind of work.

People Per Hour is UK's No 1 Freelancing Community, This one works by you (the blogger/writer) advertises what you can offer and how much it will cost the client. For example,' I can write an engaging 400/500 word blog article in 60 minutes for £10'. If a customer finds that interesting then they pay a down payment to start the job. Then if they are happy you then finish the job for them.
Jobs are also advertised whereby you can send a proposal for the job.

Fiveer is another great site and under their 'Articles and Blogs' section state that you can 'hire professional writers for your blogs and articles. You advertise what you can blog about like People Per Hour, although I did notice the hourly rate was a tad less on this site. One advert said 'I will write top quality content for you up to 500 words for £3.51' and there is a page full of these!!

Guru  has lots of blogging/writing jobs. They have a global network of over 1.5 million gurus listed on their database. The client pays Guru then Guru pays you which is a win, win situation as they will make sure they get the payment and save you any problems.

All you do is join Guru and create a profile and define the freelance services you want to offer. Employers will then find you by these services when they search for freelances to hire. You then apply for jobs that interest you. Guru also showcase previous work you have completed to back up your proposals. They also provide job matches daily so you don;t miss out on an opportunities.

They also give you all the professional tools you need to define milestones, set tasks, communicate with employers, share files, and agree upon payment schedules.

Freelancer which is well established and has a good reputation. They have freelancers on their list for any kind of job such as: Logo Design, Business Cards, Graphic Design, Website Design, Market Research, Telemarketing, Search Engine Optimization and lots more.

You sign up, create a profile then check out the thousands of jobs listed and if you see any you like the look of then make a bid for them by offering your service and the fee you would charge per hour.

A few more sites to take a peak at are Blogging Pro  Whatever you write on you will find a steady stream of employers looking for a blog writers versed in many subjects.

Freelance Writing Jobs other sites say that Craig's list is Craig's list but this site does try to exclude any posts that look like scams but check the postings well.

Media Bistro have a freelance section which covers a whole range of jobs from TV, PR/marketing and book publishing and social media.

Finally the Pro Blogger's board is one to check on, on a regular basis. It's always full the brim of freelancing jobs. 

#HOW TO SELF PUBLISH YOUR OWN BOOK AND EARN SOME EXTRA MONEY...

Have you always wanted to write a book, or maybe you have written a book but don't know where to go with your manuscript. Obviously you can try sending it out to publishers but their margins on books have decreased over the years. There are now fewer major publishing houses in existence and the ones that are left tend to focus more on publishing books that have track record, or a celebrity name to them.

So that leaves all new authors in a difficult position and hence the reason why so many are going down the self-publishing route. Create Space who I used for my books will publish them completely FREE...

Create Space is an Amazon Company who will self- publish your book for you then get it onto the Amazon sites throughout the world. The free Publishing Resources help you with creating content, formatting files and marketing your work.

They have some FREE book covers to choose from or you can download your own. I would certainly recommend doing your own or asking a friend to do it for you. You can see the difference in my two quite clearly from a professional cover to the off the peg one.

You can maintain complete creative control and own your copyright with their non-exclusive agreement. You can set your list price and receive industry-leading royalties, so basically you decide how much you make. Have your work published and available on Amazon.com and Europe in just a few days.

Every part of self publishing with Create Space is very straight forward. Just simply join and add your title and then your on your way.

There are a number of other large self-publishing companies like Lulu  and Blurb. I have self published two books with Blurb but they were both personal diaries for my family. But I'm sure they are all very similar in format and easy to master. 

#HOW TO MAKE EVEN MORE MONEY WITH YOUR BLOG...

So my last post was all about making money from your blog with Adsense. This post is going to give you other ideas of how to make money from your blog.

I'm sure most of you will have heard of Affiliate Marketing which to put it bluntly is where you sell or promote someone else's stuff on your blog/website and get paid for doing it. You partner with the company that sells a product or service you would like to recommend. You recommend this product or service to your followers which can be done by writing a post or popping a button or banner ad somewhere on your site or talking about it on social media. You then include a special link to the product or service which is your affiliate link. When their purchase is complete you then earn the commission.

There are lots of Affiliate Marketing programs to join and deciding on which one to use can be quite daunting. I am certainly no expert in this field and can only tell you of the ones that I have joined.

The first one I joined was Amazon Associates which is easy to set up and easy to add to your blog posts. You will need an Amazon account to start this up but as I use Amazon a lot it was easy to get this moving. The second program I joined was the Ebay Affiliates program as I am an Ebay seller and use Ebay quite a lot but so far I have to admit, I haven't had much success with it. Finally the third I joined is Affiliate Window.

The choice is yours and the list is vast, so all I would suggest is that you take your time before you commit yourself to a program. Just don't make the mistake of writing posts on products or services that you don't normally write about as this is the easiest way to lose some followers.

Another way you can earn money through a blog is to write a book on your blog. I have written three of these over the last few years. My first one was 'Over One Hundred Tips and Ways to Lose Weight' which I put together from my Weight Loss blog which was one of the first ones I wrote a long time ago.

The second one I wrote was 'Over One Hundred Tips on Baking Cakes' which I developed through my Afternoon Tea Blog. Then finally last year I spent a loooooooong time putting my latest book together which is 'Complimentary & Alternative Therapies for Pain', which I grew from my Back Pain Blog posts.

I self published all three of these books through Create Space and have them listed on Amazon and can be bought as a paperback or downloaded to Kindle. I will cover how easy it is to write and self publish a book through Create Space in a later post. Of course with self-publishing you don't get the same publicity but the feel good factor seeing your book on Amazon makes up for that. I also think that probably if I was 30 years younger and fitter then I would have approached a publisher and gone down the traditional route.

As blogging has risen in its profile more and more businesses are starting blogs. Some of these companies have internal staff take on the blogging duties but some small companies just haven't got the time or knowledge on how to get this to happen.  

So I decided to approach my hairdressers to see if they would be interested in me sorting out a blog for them.  They got on board straight away and I still write for them today ( see my website). I was then recommended to one of their customers who asked me if I could write a blog for their legal recruitment company. I also volunteered to write one for a local community project.

Some top bloggers also earn money by speaking about blogging and holding blogging classes. The site Pro Blogger has lots of information and links on making money through your blog. The owners story is an inspiration to anyone wanting to start up in the blogging world.

Finally you can actually Sell your Blog - maybe, like me, with my Weight Loss blog. You start one and then decide it wasn't giving you the excitement it did when you first set it up. Well if you have written a load of posts and it's just sitting there doing nothing then maybe it's time to sell it to someone else who might enjoy writing on your subject.

I hope you are enjoying my tips on making some extra money. Please feel free to ask any questions.

#HOW TO SET UP ADSENSE ON YOUR BLOG...

As I am sure you will know you can make money through Adsense by placing ads on your blog, you can then earn a percentage of the revenue that Google makes for sponsoring the ads.

The companies that want to advertise pay Google, which then pays the hosting website. But first your have to set up an Adsense account. It's easy to do - first you need to have a blog or website and you must be over the age of 18, otherwise you will need to apply using your parent or guardian. If you don't have a Google account then you will have to create one to sign up for Adsense.

You will then be asked for your primary blog/website or url, even if you have more than one blog/website they just want a primary address. Then you pick the language that you are writing it in.

Google Adsense will then list its Terms and Conditions and Program Policies. It's all very straight forward basically letting you know what you are NOT allowed to do to increase your sales.

Next you just simply fill in your contact information and make sure you have your bank details in front of you when you fill this form in and check and double check for no mistakes. Next accept Adsense policies then sign up with an email account. The Adsense team will then review your application and let you know if you can join them. This can take a few weeks so don't lose heart if you don't here back straight away.

Now add Adsense to your blog - There are three place you can consider putting your ads on - on the sidebar, right at the top of your pages (under or above the header) and somewhere in the content (either at the end near the footer,before the comments, or right in the middle of the text). Your site has to be up and running for around six months before you will be eligible for adding Adsense (hence why I don't have it on this one yet).

Adding the Adsense isn't to complicated although I must admit that Affiliate links are much easier. So, here goes -
1. Log into your Google Adsense account
2. At the top, click on the option that says My Ads
3. Click the button that says New Ad Unit
4. You will then see a setup area where you can name your ad. This is just for your reference so you can name it where you are going to position it (header)
5. Choose the option that says Responsive from the drop down menu
6. All the other options leave as default
7. Click the Save & Get Code button where you will see another window pop up with html in it.
Select and copy the code
8. Now head to your blogs Layout
9. Click on add a gadget on your Cross-column
10.Now click on Adsense and enter your code. Click Save Arrangement and in goes your first advert

Adsense will only allow you to put three adverts on each blog/website so next you can repeat everything I have put above but choose the large sidebar type ad for your sidebar, and a small horizontal ad for your content.

Your add will not show up straight away so don't panic when you can see nothing showing on your blog/website. That's it, when you next check on your blog you should see your Adsense adverts. There is support from Google if you need it.

My next post will be on other ways to make money from your blog including self-publishing your own books on your blog subject.