Cryptocurrency

In the last year or so, I have become quite involved with cryptocurrency. You have probably heard of Bitcoin, however there are lots more. Lately I have been using what are called "faucets" to get some free coins. Basically what you do is solve a Captcha and you are rewarded with a small amount of crypto that goes into a microwallet until you withdraw it.
All of these faucets I can recommend as legitimate as I have used them and withdrew my earnings when I had enough to withdraw. I have found it to be a decent form of passive income. It also is good when the price of cryptos goes down, as you generally get more when the price is lower. So, if you are interested, read on, as I will explain what you need to do to reap the rewards of this crypto goldrush.

First and foremost, you need to register on Coinpot. Coinpot is the microwallet that will gather all your payouts from the various faucets. It is located here:

Coinpot

After you have registered with Coinpot, it is time to start putting money into it. We do this through the use of faucets. These faucets give out a little bit of various cryptos at set times. Let us begin.

Moon Faucets

Moon Bitcoin pays out in Bitcoin (duh!). You sign up using the same email that you signed up for Coinpot with. You can claim every 5 minutes, or as long as you want. The important thing is that you claim at least once per day. This is important because every consecutive day that you claim, your loyalty bonus goes up by 1%. What this means is that if you claim for 30 straight days for example, you will get a 30% bonus added to your claim, every time you claim. The max is 100% if you claim for 100 days straight. If you miss a day, you reset back to 0.
You will also receive a mystery bonus, which is anywhere from 1% to 100% also added to your claim.
All the following Moon faucets work the same way. Just sign up using the email you used for Coinpot.

Moon Litecoin

Moon Dogecoin

Moon Dash Coin

Moon Bitcoin Cash

 

There are ads and popups, so be aware of that. Also you will need to whitelist these sites in any ad blocker you use. Keep in mind that you will not become rich overnight, but it is a great way for someone new to crypto to get there feet wet without spending any money. So check them out and let me know what you think.
In the coming days, I will explain what to do with your new found crypto when you are ready to withdraw it from Coinpot. Stay tuned.

Merry Christmas 2014

 

A Visit From St. Nicholas

'Twas the night before Christmas, when all through the house Not a creature was stirring, not even a mouse; The stockings were hung by the chimney with care, In hopes that St. Nicholas soon would be there;
The children were nestled all snug in their beds, While visions of sugar-plums danced in their heads; And mamma in her 'kerchief, and I in my cap, Had just settled down for a long winter's nap,
When out on the lawn there arose such a clatter, I sprang from the bed to see what was the matter. Away to the window I flew like a flash, Tore open the shutters and threw up the sash. The moon on the breast of the new-fallen snow Gave the lustre of mid-day to objects below,
When, what to my wondering eyes should appear, But a miniature sleigh, and eight tiny reindeer, With a little old driver, so lively and quick, I knew in a moment it must be St. Nick. More rapid than eagles his coursers they came, And he whistled, and shouted, and called them by name;
Now, Dasher! now, Dancer! Now, Prancer and Vixen! On, Comet! On Cupid! On, Donder and Blitzen! To the top of the porch! to the top of the wall! Now dash away! dash away! dash away all!
As dry leaves that before the wild hurricane fly, When they meet with an obstacle, mount to the sky, So up to the house-top the coursers they flew, With the sleigh full of toys, and St. Nicholas too. And then, in a twinkling, I heard on the roof The prancing and pawing of each little hoof. As I drew in my hand, and was turning around, Down the chimney St. Nicholas came with a bound.
He was dressed all in fur, from his head to his foot, And his clothes were all tarnished with ashes and soot; A bundle of toys he had flung on his back, And he looked like a peddler just opening his pack.
His eyes -- how they twinkled! His dimples how merry! His cheeks were like roses, his nose like a cherry! His droll little mouth was drawn up like a bow, And the beard of his chin was as white as the snow;
The stump of a pipe he held tight in his teeth, And the smoke it encircled his head like a wreath; He had a broad face and a little round belly, That shook, when he laughed like a bowlful of jelly. He was chubby and plump, a right jolly old elf, And I laughed when I saw him, in spite of myself; A wink of his eye and a twist of his head, Soon gave me to know I had nothing to dread;
He spoke not a word, but went straight to his work, And filled all the stockings; then turned with a jerk, And laying his finger aside of his nose, And giving a nod, up the chimney he rose;
He sprang to his sleigh, to his team gave a whistle, And away they all flew like the down of a thistle. But I heard him exclaim, ere he drove out of sight, "Happy Christmas to all, and to all a good-night!"

Thrift Store Reseller Guide

Have you ever wanted to resell thrift store items on eBay but had no idea what to do or how to begin? Or maybe you already have an eBay store, but you have questions about how to take your sales to the next level.

Here is a great guide from my mentor in Ebay selling, Meinard Agraan:

Thrift Store Reselling Guide

By now, most people are already aware that thrift stores such as Goodwill, Salvation Army, and Savers receive thousands of donations on a daily basis.  What most folks don’t realize however is that many of these donations can be worth A LOT of money on eBay…if you know what brands and items to look for!

I’ve resold thrift store items on eBay before but it was mostly coffee mugs, toys, and other small items.  After reading this eBook however, I discovered that there are many other great items with even higher profit margins to resell on eBay.

Every section of the thrift store – the shoes, jeans, jackets, athletic apparel, boots, housewares – is literally filled with tons valuable items that are just sitting there waiting to be found.  This eBook is filled with pictures of previous eBay sales.  I was also a little sad because I recognize some of these thrift store items from previous visits and I just walked right past them, not realizing how much they were worth.

Meinard, the author of the eBook, has been thrift store reselling for nearly a decade and he’s interacted with thousands of other resellers (myself included), helping them to expand their knowledge and increase their eBay sales.

His eBook covers a wide range of topics including:

•    Which Thrift Store Brands and Items You Should be Looking For and Which Ones to Avoid.
•    Common Mistakes that Beginner’s Make and How to Avoid Them.
•    How to Resell High School and College Textbooks for a Quick Profit.
•    A Beginner’s Guide to Reselling Thrift Store Nike’s and Air Jordan’s (A MUST READ!)
•    All About Vintage Polo Ralph Lauren
•    Women’s Jeans and Shoes
•    And much more!

Thrift Store Reselling Guide

It really does include so much more – it’s now over a 100 pages of content and he’s constantly updating with newer information.  Plus, all future updates are free after your purchase it. 

Meinard obviously loves thrift store reselling and loves the world of eBay. This is a must read for anyone who already sells on eBay or is thinking of doing it.

Bottom line

Honestly, I’ve resold coffee mugs and other small items in the past but I’ve been looking for a way to branch out into other sections in the thrift store.  Now that I have this book, I feel fully prepared to begin my adventure with thrift store reselling on eBay. Definitely one of the best reads I’ve had in a long time. Highly recommend it!

Here's the link again:

Thrift Store Reselling Guide

Swagbucks - September In Review

For the past month, I have been writing about Swagbucks, a site where you earn Swag Bucks (SB) which you then redeem for gift cards and other prizes. As a follow up to the Swagbucks 101 Series, I am going to put my money where my mouth is and show you my results. In the month of September, I earned 16,341 Swag Bucks. This equals $163.41. From these earnings I bought 5 $5.00 Amazon gift cards at 450 SB each - there is a limit of 5 per month - (2250 SB), and 5 $25.00 Paypal payments at 2500 SB each (12,500 SB). This left 1591 SB in my Swagbucks account. Here is my ledger:

The biggest earnings chunk (47%) came from running the mobile apps as discussed in the Swagbucks 101 Series. I earned 7800 SB ($78.00) from them. If you only run the apps each day you can see you will get a solid payout each month.

Next came Special Offers at 3589 SB (21%). There are many ways to earn in this category. Some include Cafe Mom (on the Swagbucks Mobile app), offers from the Wall (your "Home Page" in Swagbucks), Jun Group Videos (AKA Laptop Guy), and  most things found in the "Discover" tab.

The third biggest payout was Surveys (called Answers in the ledger) at 21%. Surveys are completely hit or miss, but if you try to do the ones with the best payout for the least amount of time you can maximize your time and effort. Be prepared to get disqualified a lot. I actually stopped doing surveys because of the time involved and the failure rate. We will see how this affects my October earnings.

The next best earner was "Other" which paid 778 SB (4%).  The majority of this was 700 SB for Swagbucks Accelerator. I have since upgraded to Accelerator Plus and will write about this in a future post.

The remainder was split up among Encrave (216 SB), Bonus SB (120 SB), Swag Codes (110 SB), Searching (99 SB), Tasks (53 SB), Games (42 SB), Swagbucks TV - not the mobile app (24 SB), and Referrals (22 SB).
As you can see this is a pretty easy way to earn some extra cash with minimum work involved. Check out the Swagbucks 101 Series for more info.

Part 1 Swagbucks Basics
Part 2 Swagbucks TV app
Part 3 EntertaiNow app
Part 4 Moviecli.ps app
Part 5 Sportly.tv app

eBay - My Thoughts

I have been a full time seller on eBay since January of 2012. I got laid off from my job and needed to do something to make ends meet. eBay became the answer. I am my own boss, answer to no one (except an occasional unhappy buyer), and I enjoy the experiences that picking and thrifting offer. Since then a lot has changed, sometimes good, sometimes not.
When a change does occur, one thing I have noticed is that a lot of sellers will say how unfair it is, or they will never sell on eBay again, how it will put them out of business, or what have you. From uploading tracking, to Cassini, to the defect rate, to the coming spinoff of Paypal, there has always been a "sky is falling" mentality among certain sellers.
The bottom line is this: I have weathered all these changes and survived. Why? How? Because when something new is introduced instead of protesting and complaining, I adapt to it as quickly as possible. I find out as much as I can about it and do what I need to do to stay current. The defect rate is a good example of this. I was very concerned about this so much so that I actually called eBay about it. The rep I talked to basically said "you're doing a great job, just keep it up". And guess what? He was right. My defect rate is down to 0.81% (4 defects in close to 500 transactions). I have maintained Top Rated status through it all, and I have opened a second account that has become Top Rated also.
One thing I have found is when things start going sideways it is usually my fault (not listing new products, not adapting Best Practices, etc.), and not some eBay conspiracy to put me out of business.
The lesson here is do the right thing, and keep doing the right thing. And then do the right thing again. You know what will happen? You will usually come out okay.

Swagbucks 101 Part 6 - Indymusic.tv

Welcome back to the Swagbucks 101 series. 
Part 1 Swagbucks Basics
Part 2 Swagbucks TV app
Part 3 EntertaiNow app
Part 4 Moviecli.ps app
Part 5 Sportly.tv app

The next app you will use is called Indymusic.tv. This app was introduced a few weeks ago. It is currently available for Android only and you can find it here:

Android (2.3 and up)

As of now, this app will give you 36 SB per day (subject to change). You will get 2 SB for every 15 clips you watch. You can simply let the clips play in order, or you can favorite the shortest clip or clips and loop. This is the preferred method of the savvy Swaggernaut. By doing this you can reach your max fairly quickly and move on to the next app. The list below (courtesy of Reddit) shows the shortest clips on Indymusic.tv. The numbers in parentheses indicate which video if there is more than one from that movie.

Love is All Around by Joan Jett and the Blackhearts	:30
Life Force by Joan of Arc	1:11
Carpet Bombing by Jungle Rot	1:12
Contention by MxPx	1:19
United States of Whatever by Liam Lynch	1:27

Keep in mind you will not find all of these as the clips rotate. Also new clips may be added. Once you find the shortest clips available to you, favorite one or a few. Then just go to your Favorites section in the app and play. The other benefit of favoriting is that you will not lose the clips when they go out of rotation.
By running these apps daily, and doing a few simple things discussed in Part 1, you can earn enough for a $5 gift card in about 2-3 days.

Check back soon for the next installment on Swagbucks apps (1 more!). Also coming up, 2 more sites to earn gift cards on, and in early October, my Swag Bucks earnings for the month of September!

Swagbucks 101 Series:
Part 1
Part 2
Part 3
Part 4
Part 5

Swagbucks 101 Part 5 - Sportly.tv

Welcome back to Swagbucks 101. In Part 1, I talked about simple ways to earn Swag Bucks (SB). In Part 2, I discussed the Swagbucks TV Mobile app. In Part 3, the EntertaiNow app was highlighted. The Moviecli.ps app was discussed in Part 4.

The next app is called Sportly.tv. It is currently available for Android only and you can find it here:

Android (2.2 and up)

As of now, this app will give you 36 SB per day. You will get 2 SB for every 15 clips you watch. You can simply let clips play in order, or you can favorite the shortest clip or clips and loop. This is the preferred method of the savvy Swaggernaut. By doing this you can reach your max fairly quickly and move on to the next app. The list below (courtesy of Reddit) shows the shortest clips on Sportly.tv. The numbers in parentheses indicate which video if there is more than one from that movie.

Side Lunges with Bosu Ball-Women's Fitness	:25
Bizarre Sightings-Laughter Yoga	:26
How to do Side Lunges	:27
How to Perform Eyes to Sky Neck Extension	:28
How to do Hand Walkouts	:28
How to Perform Upper Back Stretch	:29
How to do Windmills	:29
How to do Explosive Jump Squat	:30
How to do The Side Leg Stretch	:30
How to Perform Egyptian Stretch	:30
How to do Crab Walks	:30
How to do Triceps Kickback	:31
Standing Knee to Elbow Exercise	:32
How to Perform Upper Chest Stretch	:33
How to Perform Plank Position	:33
How to Perform Bicep Stretch	:33
How to Do Overhead Squat	:34
How to do I So Jump	:35
How to Perform Triceps Stretch	:35
How to Perform Chin to Chest Exercises	:35
How to Do a Bridge Pose	:36
Squats with Vertical Barbell	:37
Hop Flexor Stretch	:37
How to do Bear Crawl	:37
How to Perform Neck Rotation	:37
Standing Abs - Bent Over Punch Exercise	:39
How to do Lateral Raise	:39
Standing Abs - Bent Over Punch Exercise	:39
Fashionable Shoes for Your Workout	:40
Black Diamond Razor Carbon	:40
How to Perform Barbell Squat on a Bench	:40
Fashionable Shoes for Your Workout	:40
How to Perform Standing Chop	:41
Hula Hoop Arm Exercise	:42
How to do Hurdle Hop	:42
How to do Knee Plank Curls	:42
Curtsy Lunge With Kick to Side	:42
Bridge Pose With Yoga Ball	:43
Overhead Exercises With Dumbbells	:43
Plank to Downward Dog	:44
How to do Sumo Squats with Dumbbell	:44
Fitness Through Sensual Dance	:50

Keep in mind you will not find all of these as the clips rotate. Also new clips may be added. Once you find the shortest clips available to you, favorite one or a few. Then just go to your Favorites section in the app and play. The other benefit of favoriting is that you will not lose the clips when they go out of rotation.
By running these apps daily, and doing a few simple things discussed in Part 1, you can earn enough for a $5 gift card in about 2-3 days.

Check back soon for the next installment on Swagbucks apps (2 more!). Also coming up, 2 more sites to earn gift cards on, and in early October, my Swag Bucks earnings for the month of September!

Swagbucks 101 Series:
Part 1
Part 2
Part 3
Part 4