Some of you may know that I’m into photography, and I like using my little point and shoot digital camera and that I’m currently saving up to buy a Nikon D80 among other things, right? One of the things of buying a decent camera is the potential of using it to make a bit of money on the side while doing something you enjoy, this can obviously range from doing wedding/event photography to uploading your photos to a stock library and hoping someone will buy them.

What I don’t like about stock photography, is that most stock libraries have strict requirements about the kind of images they take, whether you’re allowed to do any digital retouching and the file size of the image. This means that most stock libraries can easily be out of reach for most people with a digital SLR below a certain amount of mega-pixels.

This is where flickrcash comes in, they provide a service which enables people to sell images which they uploaded to their flickr account, which presumably not only puts less restrictions on them but also makes it accessible to people who would not normally sell their images or even consider selling their images.

Think of flickrcash as a installable lightbox and slideshow for publicity and marketing of images which enables people selling images, and those wanting to buy images to easily find what they are looking for and purchasing the images they want. It also has some pretty cool features such as auto watermarking, a definite must for anyone wanting to market their images.

Do have a look and as always tell me what you think!

Note: This post is sponsored by flickrcash.com

If you’re like me you need the odd ego booster from time to time, so what better way than being an award winning blogger?

Receiving awards for stuff is always a lot of fun and when it comes to blogging everyone needs a little reassurance from time to time so blog awards are not a bad idea!

What I like about that web site in particular is that anyone can dominate who ever they like as well as having the ability to start their own category I might not win an award for the hottest mommy blogger but I might just be in for a shot for the best geek blog (doubt it) or the feakiest blogger!

I quite like that winners will be anounced at PostieCon so it will not only tie in with PostieCon itself but who ever wins an award will get a whole new level of exposure from doing so… It’s also a good excuse to practice acceptance speeches in front of your mirror before posting them on your blog for all the world to see.

“I’d like to thank Darth Vader for providing me with inspiration throughout my life…”

Anyway rather than being bored by me check out the blogger’s choice awards site and make up your own mind!

I really don’t like web directories in general, which is why it might surprise some of you that I’m willing to write about them so I’m going to explain why I hate them first.

There are millions of them out there, so you’re not sure whether submitting your site is worth it, does anyone actually read them and how much traffic will they create? It varies from directory to directory, so it can either be not much, none at all or more than you expected depending on the popularity of the directory.

I also don’t like the way they sort sites submitted to them, mainly because I often end up buried where no one will spot me so I more or less wasted the last five minutes of my life unless I’m willing to pay them ridiculous amounts of money to rank me that little bit higher.

Why can’t they just rank new sites at the top for a week or so and then move them down? You never know it may actually bring them some more customers, but then I have no idea about the internal workings of web directories and how one is supposed to run one of them.

This is where the Big Web Links Bid Directory comes in which links your site by the amount of money you’re willing to contribute, which can mean that you’re getting a much cheaper deal than on some other sites, because certain categories may have higher contributions than others.

Also since they’re just starting out in the web directory business there aren’t very many sites listed on it and this doesn’t make it a bad thing. In fact it’s just the contrary because you’ll be able to get a high ranking, if not the highest, while keeping your outgoings minimal something important to any starting/growing business trying to improve their online customer base.

So as always please check it out, these guys might just be what you’re looking for and if not I hope this pointed you in the right direction.

This post is sponsored by:

I’ve not written one of these posts in a while so I thought I may do one now because it’s fun to promote new sites from time to time.

You might be asking yourself what is he going to write about now? Obviously as the title states it’s something to do with online gambling!

JackPot City Casino is a “new” online casino, it’s not one of the biggest ones but it has been around for a while and I love its incredible transparency, want to know what their payout rate for June 2003 was? Simply follow this link and take a look for yourself, and from the looks of things they’ve had a very large payout rate, so you’re guaranteed to collect your winnings quickly and easily.

Although I don’t gamble online mostly because I run Linux and online casinos are sadly incompatible I do like to play blackjack from time to time because it involves a lot of skill which is why I have a tremendous respect for the game.

It’s definitely worth a look, and you do get a sign up bonus when you register and credit your account with $50, for me what I find extremely interesting is the large amount of online payment methods they accept, so there’s definitely one for everyone.

Before I forget, I’ve got a screenshot for those of you too lazy to look at the audit page, hopefully you’ll find it useful.

Note: This post is sponsored by Jackpot City.

Why should you attend PostieCon ’07? Two words: Rock Star. Bloggers and Internet personalities are the Rock Stars of the information age. Bloggers reach millions of dedicated fans on a day to day basis, it’s easy to see why today’s humble blogger could potentially be tomorrow’s Rock Star. That’s why PostieCon ’07′s theme is “You’re A Rock Star”. We are here to educate bloggers on how to build traffic and readership, and use your notoriety and unique brand to create value and monetize your voice. It’s not all about money and fame, our conference is designed to help you become a better blogger. We have invited some of the world’s biggest bloggers to share their knowledge, perspective and experience with PostieCon Attendees. We provide the peeps and the knowledge, you use it to better yourself and build your blog.

I think that really speaks for itself, the description on the PostieCon website does more to convince you to go than I personally think I could.

It’s definitely worth going, to see the various talks which I’m sure will be extremely informative, everyone needs the odd blogging tip, right?

For example I’m pretty sure I tend to go off on tangents and end up waffling on about random things which have nothing to do with the subject at hand, so I need to concentrate on focusing more something which I’m sure will be covered at the event.

While at the PostieCon bloggers conference you would also get a chance to meet the people behind PayPerPost and Rockstartup.com, which is pretty exciting in itself, I was lucky enough to meet Ted and his ever present shadow Travis recently during the recent postie patrol I took part in, definitely an experience I recommend, they’re both really nice guys and you get to learn more about the ideas behind PayPerPost.

I would definitely go if I could, but sadly it’s on the first of June and in Orlando, not that I wouldn’t welcome a trip to Florida, but it’s sadly too close to comfort to my exam season, as a result I’d be busy studying… While on the subject of dates, a full schedule of the event can be found here.

I guess there’s always next year, right?

I hope you enjoyed this post and that it proved helpful.

Supposedly everyone likes a good rumour, and PPP feel the same way, which is why they’ve come up with this opportunity, supposedly they’ll be announcing something amazing within the next few weeks and us posties are supposed to guess what it is.

Well, what could it be? Are PayPerPost expanding into something even more exciting than what they’ve done up to now?

You never know, surely their Rockstartup documentary has to be followed with something to surpass it.

Or could it be that they’re going public?

I’d like to take an opportunity to ask you on your opinion of what they’re going to do, what do you think? As you know I value the opinion of my readers highly, and always welcome their input on any and all topics, sponsored posts are no exception, so get involved!

That would normally have been my first guess, but I’m not sure that PPP have been around long enough to go public yet. On the other hand, if they are, what do marketing company shares usually go to?

Will it be worth investing in them? Probably, it is an exciting and dynamic company after all…

Are they going to give away share packets to certain members for the excellent work they’ve done so far, or something similar?

I guess we’ll find out soon enough!

What do you think they’re going to do? I highly value you the opinion of my readers, so I’d just love to hear from you and what you think they might be doing.

Possibly they might just be expanding overseas…

I keep mentioning how Pay Per Post have revamped their user interface as well as its opportunity allocation system, and it’s something to bear in mind.

PPP have had a few high paying opportunities for a while now, but they’d be gone almost as soon as they came up on screen. Why? Because people obviously want to make money, and opportunities were not restricted to specific categories and page ranks, nor did it exclude certain domains, like the advertiser is now able to do.

This means that advertiser can target blogs which fit into a specific category as well as those with a certain page rank, which in turn helps to target specific groups and obviously creates ads which are potentially further reaching than was possible before.

This means that a lot more high paying opportunities available to bloggers, got a PR7 blog? Feel like making a very easy $1000? Take opportunity X and it may get approved after 30 days you’re $1000 richer.

Obviously the $1000 opportunities are at the extreme end, but qualifying for something which pays say $30 rather than $5-15 is pretty cool. Of course having a PR7 blog would be even cooler, if out of reach for most people, at least it takes quite a while to get there. PPP can probably help you with that though as it tends to increase blog traffic which may generate back-links, especially when participating in the “review my post” scheme.

For those of you who still don’t know who PPP are, they’re a company which enable you to make money blogging.

Another cool thing about PPP is that they take a 35% fee from the advertiser, which means a lot more money goes to the blogger rather than the advertising company which facilitates the deal, ReviewMe for example take a lot more money which in turn may equal lower paying opportunities.

Furthermore PPP require all of their bloggers to disclose which opportunities are sponsored, this in turn can help to improve the quality of blogs and posts advertisers can expect for their money, as well as helping to make PPP and most importantly the blogger more legitimate.

Oh and one more thing before I forget, since PPP added new features to their interface certain posts are auto approved and reviewed by humans at a later date which rewards those who consistantly write posts of a specific quality.

This post was sponsored by PPP and I have a little badge to prove it

As I’ve mentioned in a previous entry PayPerPost have introduced some changes to their whole site, as well as to the way their affiliate program works. As a result, other bloggers are no able to review my posts if they see the “Review my post” badge under any of my posts, after signing up to PPP and being approved they get a special opportunity which enables them to write said review.

I quite like the idea because it adds more incentive to sign up through an affiliate link instead of cutting out the middleman entire, because who ever signs up this way gets an automatic $7.50, instead of previously where only the person referring new members got paid, instead it’s shared between the two now.

It’s a wonderful idea which should bring PPP more bloggers, on which they obviously rely on, but it’s also a good arrangement for the blogger since PPP can help you to cover hosting bills as well as bringing new, and possibly previously untapped traffic to your site.

For those of you who don’t know PayPerPost is an ad network which facilitates various sponsored posts to qualified bloggers, this helps the blogger to make a large amount of revenue which in many cases far surpasses other forms of on site advertising, helps bring traffic to your blog and of course the advertiser themselves don’t lose out either.

To reiterate how I feel about the new affiliate program (in case you’re one of those annoying skim readers ), it’s a great idea which in my opinion should have been brought in a lot earlier!

And while on the subject of reviewing posts, you’re welcome to review this one if you think PayPerPost is something for you.

Italy has been becoming an increasingly popular holiday destination over the past few years, even the past few decades. And who could blame people? It offers excellent weather, assuming you’re the kind of person who likes to go out in the sun of course.

Wonderful landscapes, as well as many historical cities. It has always amazed me how effortlessly the very old buildings seem to blend in with the newer pieces of architecture, I’m sure there must be strict policies to make sure they don’t clash too much.

And who could forget Fiat’s Lingotto factory, the biggest factory in the world at the time it opened if I remember correctly, with its impressive test track on the factory roof? Just for that reason alone I view it as one of the most innovative buildings of the 20th century.

So with Italy offering so much to people, whether they want good food, wine or anything else, it’s not surprising people are buying holiday properties in the country. One of the more popular choices is often a property in Tuscany and since it’s extremely popular you can be sure of being in the historical Italy, while still being within range of people from home.

Obviously this isn’t something for everyone, with many people preferring more rural properties to get away from it all and to get back to nature, but with everything else in life it’s their choice.

Do take a look at the site I linked at, as it contains some useful information about buying property in Italy, and the law, so even if you’re not going to buy a property there (yet) it certainly makes good research.

Another piece of the great PPP and HP puzzle can be found here!

For those of you who don’t know, HP and PPP are giving away digital cameras right now to some lucky people who took part in a previous PPP opportunity!

These cameras are obviously made by HP.

Also HP have some cool Digital Photography Tips on their site.

And thanks to this puzzle someone out there is going to be able to win $1000 just by putting a collage together, couldn’t be easier? Right?

Well, you need to find all the pieces of the puzzle first, and be an approved PPP member.

This post was sponsored by HP.