Saved Pennies How to save your money one step at a time

Associated Content is a website which pays you for any content you produce. This includes everything from articles and videos, and whatever sort of content you can think of. This blog is about saving money, more specifically, pennies. When I say pennies, I mean it. Associated content lets you write about any topic you want, and they generally pay anywhere from a dollar to five dollars for each 500 word article you write. In addition to this, you are paid $1.50 for every thousand people who view an article you wrote.

So how are you going to get rich writing for Associated Content by making one dollar at a time? You aren’t. But just because you can’t make a million dollars doesn’t mean you can’t make 100 dollars without too much effort. Here are some tips to help you get started.

Don’t write articles giving your opinion on something

Opinion articles are not eligible for upfront payment, and generally, you aren’t going to have thousands of people who want to read your opinions about anything. So if you want to write an opinion piece, you will get no upfront payment, and probably less than 25 cents per year. This is not walking around money.

Don’t write locations specific articles

Don’t write articles about nearby state parks, malls, museums or anything else location specific. Depending on what you’re writing about, the upfront payment can be quite good, even over four dollars. But because you’re writing about something location specific, the traffic to these articles is going to be next to nothing. You will earn upfront payment, and probably less than 25 cents per year. Your goal should be total revenue over the long term, not immediate upfront payment.

Niche articles tend to receive good traffic

You may not get millions of views, but if you write about something specific, and something that isn’t written about very much but people are interested in the subject, you may be able to make some good money with these articles. The tighter the niche, the less competition you will have for traffic, but the less people in general will be interested in your subject. This is a delicate balance that you must find yourself.

Write articles everyone will be interested about

Articles many people are interested in have the potential to receive great traffic. Many articles can get a million views, which actually translates to some good walking around money. The problem is that you are sure to face competition often, so you may need to try, try again. Typically, if you write content which is very similar to other content, you will receive less traffic, and less upfront payment. So the best thing you can do is include original ideas and information for viewers.

Don’t write just one article

I’ve written about ten articles for Associated Content, and many of them are for completely different subjects. Some of the articles I submitted without the request for upfront payment, just so the articles can be published sooner. The sooner your articles are published, the sooner you can receive information about how many people are viewing each type of article. This will give you an excellent bearing as to what types of articles and writing styles are bound to make you money, and which topics you should never waste your time writing about again…at least on Associated Content. So write plenty of articles to guarantee you will receive more automatic revenue.

Posted under Making Money

Copying blue ray movies has been an interesting technological and financial problem for several reasons. Blue ray DVDs contain many layers of encryption and security features designed to prevent you from copying the blue ray disc, and to hassle you as much as possible when trying to play that new blue ray DVD you just bought. There are financial challenges to copying blue ray movies as well. Hard drive space is not free, and because blue ray movies can take up to 50 gigabytes of space, it effectively costs you money to store the movie on your hard drive. Similarly, blue ray burners and very expensive, and blank blue ray media is extremely expensive and unreliable.

So what is the cheapest way to copy a blue ray movie? First things first, there is currently no free software which is able to decrypt and copy blue ray movies. You need to obtain a copy of Slysoft’s AnyDVD program, which effectively defeats any copyright protection on your DVDs.

Now the only problem left is how to copy it cheaply. As it turns out, the best and cheapest way to copy a blue ray movie is to re-encode it to a reasonable size of 4.4 gigs or even less. You are probably saying to yourself that even double layer DVDs store more information than that, so the picture quality of a re-encoded blue ray movie will be equal to or less than a DVD. That notion is, in fact, incorrect. DVDs use MPEG-2 compression, which has been around for a very long time. There are other, more sophisticated codecs such as DIVX and XviD. The compression algorithms used in these codecs is MPEG-4, which is significantly more advanced and higher quality than MPEG-4. Indeed, if you re-encode a 50 gigabyte blue ray movie into a 4 gigabyte MPEG-4 movie file, the movie will still have excellent quality, and you can even burn it onto a DVD. Of course, no DVD player will be able to play it, but your computer or media PC could certainly be able to play it. This is, by far, the most cost effective way to back up your blue ray movies without losing much visual quality.

Posted under Saving Money, Technology

Compact Fluorescent Lights promise to save us dozens of dollars on our electricity bills each year, but there has always been one problem; CFL bulbs are much more expensive than regular incandescent lights. For example, a single, 100W equivalent CFL can cost over seven dollars! So where should you go if you want to find massive discounts on CFLs? The answer may surprise you. Check out your local electricity company’s webpage, and look for rebate programs for energy efficient devices. Many electric companies, such as PG&E have massive rebate programs for CFLs, and provide you with a list of stores which participate in their rebate program. The best thing about these programs is that you don’t have to handle coupons or anything like that yourself because it’s all taken care of. For example, yesterday, I managed to buy a 23W (100W equivalent) bulb from Lowes for a dollar and fifty cents, which is a massive discount! Sometimes it is necessary to invest and spend money in order to save money in the long run, but if you live in an area with energy efficient rebate programs, you can start saving money immediately without worrying how long it’s going to be until your investment pays off. For my particular situation, I fully expect the $1.50 investment to pay itself off in just 21 days.

For more tips on how to conserve electricity, check out my saving electricity category

For more tips on how to save money in general, check out my saving money category

Reference:

http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/1120808/where_to_find_the_cheapest_compact.html

Posted under Saving Electricity, Saving Money

This website is mainly about how to save you money one penny at a time, but why? Sometimes, it’s important to take a step back and remember that money is only worth something if you spend it. It makes sense to save up money for retirement, or a new home, or new car, but it’s important not to get carried away with long term goals. Sometimes, it’s best to save money for the long term, but also use some of your spare money so that you can live a good life. For me, I invest a lot of money into personal hobbies of mine because they can keep me entertained for months with relatively little investment.

Today, I’m posting about my new coilgun site. I didn’t bother getting a new URL because, after all, I do like to save money. I spent a couple months on and off working on a coilgun which has kept me thoroughly entertained and challenged. Thinking back on the project, everything probably cost me less than $200, which is fantastic for all the entertainment it provided me. If you want to see a good coilgun site with plenty of result data, feel free to check it out!

Posted under Technology

Some people claim that HHO devices can make your car up to 50% more fuel efficient. These HHO ‘fuel savers’ are little more than a jam jar filled with water. A natural question for many people is, if it were so easy to make a car 50% more fuel efficient, why aren’t any major car manufacturers designing, making, and installing HHO devices in their vehicles? By major car manufacturers, I’m talking about companies like Ford, GM, Toyota, BMW, etc.

This reason, along with technical reasons, it is my opinion that HHO is a scam. The scam simply feeds on people’s despair at the gas pump. People may be willing to pay 50 dollars for bogus plans and schematics if they think it’ll save hundreds of dollars at the gas pump. Because HHO is not a legitimate technology, scammers are forced to make up excuses and explanations for some obvious holes in their advertisement. Some claim that HHO is a secret technology that the oil companies don’t want you to find out about. Take a step back and ask yourself if you think something you can buy cheaply on the internet is some sort of industrial secret. Obviously, the answer is no.

So why aren’t any car manufacturers making HHO devices? Scammers tend to claim that there is a secret conspiracy between car and oil companies. This is absurd, mainly because the automotive industry strives to have higher fuel efficiency in order to attract more customers. A popular example is the Toyota Prius hybrid, which isn’t made fast enough to fill demand. This means that you have to have your name put on a waiting list in order to get one! The only reasonable conclusion is that HHO isn’t made by any major automotive companies because it is not a legitimate technology. It’s nothing more than a scam which is carefully designed in order to take your money. Instead of spending your money on bogus and fraudulent products, consider changing your driving habits in order to save fuel.

Posted under Avoiding Scams, Saving Gas, Technology

Is is no secret that McCain and his campaign have been participating in aggresive negative campaigning against his opponent, Obama. Commercials, flyers and radio advertisements have been showering people with lies and false claims. McCain’s advertisements often include false information about Obama’s policies or history, but many of McCain’s campaign advertisements go far beyond that. John McCain and Sarah Palin have continuously and repeatedly tried to linked Obama to terrorism, claiming that he is good friends of terrorists, and that he is an Arab, or extreme Muslim. After so many weeks of lying to the American public, John McCain has finally seen the results of his negative campaign!

It’s important to remember that the absolute most right winged republicans are easily brainwashed. For example, many of them believe the world is only 6,000 years old (and no, I am not joking). They’re ability to learn and think critically has been severely compromised due to how their parents brought them up. They believe anything they’re told, including that Obama is an Arab. John McCain has now seen, first hand, how his negative campaigning has started brainwashing his supporters. What else did he expect from running a campaign based on mean-spirited lies?

Posted under Politics

If you haven’t noticed, the DOW Jones index is falling fast, along with people’s 401k value and property values. Even today, the DJI fell over 670 points, and people are feeling the effects of the economy. While there are many people to blame for the shattered economy and people’s lives, this problem is mainly seen as a problem caused by republicans simply because they have been in control of the presidency for the last eight years. The number one issue in the 2008 presidential election is the economy, and McCain has already said months ago that economy is not one of his strong points. The economy certainly isn’t any of Palin’s strong points either.

Now that economy is in serious crisis, people are smart enough to connect McCain and indeed the entire republican party to the financial crisis. This is the main reason why McCain’s polls have been dropping rapidly, despite viscious and false accusations against his opponent Obama. So what is the McCain campaign doing? They’re trying to exploit the economic crisis in a pathetic attempt to get more votes! I recieved this in the mail today:

You can click on the images for larger versions

The three points this piece of propaganda lay out are as follows:

Democrats:

1) Will raise taxes in 2009

FACT CHECK: If you make under $250,000 a year, your taxes will not increase, even by a penny if Obama were president

2) Will raise taxes on small businesses, putting the jobs of millions at risk

FACT CHECK: The vast majority of small businesses make under $250,000 a year, and will not see any additional taxes if Obama were president

3) Will increase the budget deficit by billions of dollars with no plan to reduce debt

FACT CHECK: National debt was decreasing rapidly under Democratic leadership eight years ago. Now, under Republican control, national dept is at an all time high. Today, the famous national debt counter ran out of digits. FACT: Ending the war in Iraq is the best way to start decreasing the national debt. Everyone knows this. Everyone except McCain’s Campaign.

There are a couple interesting points in this piece of republican propaganda. The word ‘families’ is mentioned a lot. I graduated from college a couple months ago, so of course, I don’t have a wife or kids yet. I guess I’m not in their target audience…

Anyway, there is one conclusion to be made from this piece of filth: McCain and his campaigners are filthy liars. They always have been, and they always will be. Much of what they say is factually incorrect, but they don’t care. McCain’s campaign shows what McCain’s character is really like, which is disgraceful. They want your votes. McCain tries to exploit the economic issues right now, but in reality, the only people he’s able to fool are middle school students. Unfortunately for McCain, that target audience is too young to vote. McCain is one of the most disgraceful candidates to ever run for president, and the most responsible thing we as Americans can do is vote against him in the election.

Posted under Politics

There are two types of HHO scammers. Most of the HHO scammers know that it is a scam, while some percentage of the scammers actually believe that it is a legitimate idea and sound technology. Either way, in order to sell their products, all of the HHO scammers have one thing in common; they bend the facts. The only way they could ever sell their products is if they bend the facts.

Today, I’m going to focus on a recent article written by an HHO scammer. Don’t worry, you don’t have to read it if you don’t want to. I’ll fill in all the facts. Before we dive into that, first I need to give you a context.

Context

The HHO scammers essentially claim that by putting a jam jar filled with water in your engine, you can get anywhere from 30% to 60% incrased gas mileage. There is a little more to it than that, but this the the basic idea behind HHO, or any of the run your car with water scams. The very first question that most people ask is, “If it were so simple to improve gas mileage so much, then why aren’t car manufacturers making it? Why don’t dealerships offer this magical device? Why can’t I buy it from a major retailer?” All of these questions are very basic and very legitimate. Until recently, most HHO scammers are happy to tell you about secret government conspiracies, big oil conspiracies, and secret assasinations. Most intelligent people simply waive off these conspiracy theories as looney. However, enough people buy into these tall tales and purchase HHO devices, plans, and books, which is what makes the scam so sucessful. Scammers are after one thing; money. The HHO scammers aren’t stupid, and they know there is a large part of the population which doesn’t believe their conspiracy theory fairy tales.

Now you have been given a proper context as to why HHO scammers are always trying to validate their ideas in order to fool people who normally aren’t fooled easily. That brings us to the main point of this article; HHO scammers bend and twist facts in order to fool people. In the article I linked above, the scammer is trying to say how the government is recognizing HHO technology as legitimate. Below are three points from his website:

• Hydrogen produces electricity in fuel cells
• Hydrogen is a  replacement for gasoline in internal combustion engines
• Hydrogen is a supplement to gasoline used in an internal combustion engine.”

The three points are slightly reworded for clarity, but you can read the original article if you wish. Let’s take these one at a time. First and foremost, Hydrogen is used to produce electricity in fuel cells. This technology was used even in very early NASA missions. The second point stats that hydrogen is used as fuel for internal combustion engines. Again, this point is accurate, but somewhat less common due to extreme engineering challenges related to storing compressed or liquid hydrogen.

Notice that the third point is in bold. This is stating that hydrogen may be used in conjunction with gas or diesel in an internal combusion engine, which is actually true! To some, it may appear that the government is actually acknowledging the validity of HHO. Unfortunately, this is not the case. The HHO devices the scammers are trying to sell you take massive amounts of electricity from alternators, to make make HHO, to feed it back into the engine. Because of inneficiencies in the alternator and extreme inneficiencies in the electrolysis process, the engine actually consumes more gas to make the electricity than is made back by burning hydrogen. The government is referring to engines specially designed to burn gas or diesel and inject hydrogen. These engines do not use electricity from an alternator for an onboard electrolysis device. The engines or vehicles carry a supply of hydrogen with them. You see, I can write in bold too! The fact of the matter is that the HHO scammer most likely doesn’t undestand that the government isn’t referring to HHO devices at all. Here, we have a simple, and all too standard case where a technologically uneducated scammer is confused and bends facts in an attempt to make more money.

Posted under Avoiding Scams, Saving Gas, Saving Money, Technology

In times of great difficulty, even the largest companies have started bizarre and desperate measures to save every last penny. Often, the easiest and quickest way for a company to improve its bottom line is to reduce operating expenditures. Currently, in offices all over America, companies have decided to literally turn the lights down in order to save money in electricity.

Imagine you work at a company where most people work in cubicles and lighting is provided by overhead fluorescent lights. Many companies have actually turned off half of these fluorescent lights. The companies are able to save exactly 50% of the lighting costs, but this also makes the offices about 50% darker. While this dramatically increases eyestrain, the only thing large companies care about is money. The only reason companies exist is to make money, and if that means the employees suffer eyestrain all day long, that’s acceptable.

So why can’t companies simply make the lights only slightly dimmer, say 90% as bright? The answer is actually technical. Basically, fluorescent light bulbs and especially CFL lights are designed to work at specific voltages, namely 120 VAC. If you install an ordinary incandescent light dimmer switch, this can lead to buzzing, and eventual early failure of fluorescent lights. The reason companies choose to simply turn off 50% of the lights is because most offices and even classrooms in America are already wired up for alternating lights to be controlled by one switch, and the remaining lights to be controlled with another switch.

How much money are companies saving? Well, suppose you have an office with 10 rows of fluorescent lights and each row has 10 tubes. Suppose the lights are on for 12 hours a day, and each fluorescent tube consumes 40 watts of power. Finally, suppose you pay 10 cents per kWh.

10*10*40/1000 KWatts * 12 hours  / day *.10 cents  = 4.8 dollars per day

As you can see, for multi-million dollar companies, this isn’t very much money. Yet, these companies still choose to save every last penny, even if it’s at the expense of their workers.

Posted under Saving Electricity, Saving Money

IF you have been paying attention to hard drive prices, then you already know that the price of hard drive storage is plummeting. As the hard drive companies such as Maxtor, Seagate and Western Digital make hard drives with ever-increasing capacity, the price for the actual hard drives often stayts the same. Currently, one of the cheapest hard drives gives you 7.69 GB per dollar. That’s right, a one terrabyte hard drive costs only 129.99 dollars. One has to ask themselves if it’s cheaper to copy movies using a DVD burner, or to simply buy a hard drive.

The cheapest hard drive will get you 7.692 GB / dollar

Currently, the cheapest single-layer DVD medium is about 18.80 GB / dollar

Currently, the cheapest dual-layer DVD medium is about 9.66 GB / dollar

Currently, the cheapest single-layer Blue Ray medium is about 3.47 GB / dollar

As you can see, no matter how you look at it, it’s cheaper to simply burn DVDs instead of buying hard drives to copy them. Sure CD cases cost money too, but not much. One interesting thing to note is that it is much cheaper to use single layer DVDs instead of dual layer DVDs. One solution you might want to consider is using free software such as DVD shrink in order to copy a movie from a dual layer disk to a single layer disc.

One last thing to consider is that if you want to compress a 4.7 GB movie into a movie file less than 1.9 GB, it will actually become cheaper to store the movie on your hard drive. Of course, you can expect some loss of visual or audio quality with such an aggresive shrink.

As you can see, the most expensive medium is the blue ray disk. It is actually cheaper to buy a new hard drive rather than copy blue ray movies to a blue ray disc. This is a serious reason why you should wait to buy blue ray.

Posted under Saving Money, Shopping, Technology