Changes On My Advertisement Banners

I joined a Advertlets, a blog advertising community  since 9th July 2007 at about the same time I registered with another company, Nuffnang. Between these two it seems the latter is more aggressive and  actively organise events for members and is usually open for all. The former too did the same but I see that many of their events cater to close friends and only a few open to other bloggers.  

Being business rivals, these companies categorize their members into normal members and premium members. Premium members earn more from advertisement posted on their blogs. 

At first I pasted both company's advertisement space on my blog but after sometimes it seems that only one of them actively posted ads on my blog and that made me pull down the other company's banner, even though I did make some money but not eligible to cash out. I really felt left out by the company and that being one of the reason I pulled down their banner but kept my membership intact. 

My reaction upgrade my status on the other company from a normal member to Gliteratti member with better perks. However it did not last long enough and I lost the status after I place another advertising banner which seems very slow in generating income (I might pull down the banner one day, maybe if it just does not give me the edge) and then I lost my Gliteratti status. It happen at a wrong timing because I lost the status (and did not realise it) just before I requested my payout and it took me two month before my check is processed instead of 30 days for Gliteratti member. After all I had already received my cheque. 

After losing my status, I though what the heck now. So why not put up the first advertisement banner again with all the hope I will get advertisement to balance up. Everything is trial and error. If it is not successful, then why not make more changes. After all, I am paying nothing for all that. So now you can find three banners on my blogs.

More than 7K in 5 Days

You might have encountered a list of affiliate advertisement as soon as you visit this blog. But before that is a list of Vote Me banner. Some of you might find it irritating but the Vote Me banner will go off after 5 January 2010 when the Blog 4ft contest ends. However I hope when you visit this site, you will be kind hearted enough to vote for my blogs. Just click the respective banners and when the page load just scroll down and click vote.  I thank you in advance for your votes.

Then you will see a list of affiliate banner ads. That banner add not only give me some benefits but it will to you too.They are my referral accounts and if you decide to register (FREE Registration) you too can earn some money while being on-line. The procedure is after you register for an affiliate account you will be receive a registration bonus that is being credited into your account. Members will be sent emails containing advertisements and have to click and let the page run for between 20 seconds to 80 seconds. After the required duration had been fulfilled, your account will be credited automatically. Members do not have to worry about missing reading the mails because it will be accumulated.

I join these websites on 1 November 2009 and until I write this entry I have already accumulated $ 7623.00 from the 4 websites. All that for just a few minutes of reading email advertisements online. I still can't request for payout because there is a minimum payout limit and I have to fulfil the requirement. Payout can be made any time if I upgrade to Premium member for between $199 to $220 base on the website. I might upgrade and receive a FREE laptop (needs to be confirmed for International members) and request payout earlier.

Another Membership Card

Last night I went to KL Downtown and sign up for another membership card. This time it is for active lifestyle. I am not sure at the moment about the effectiveness of what was claimed on the card. I had a bad experience with Narsco for being felt cheated and wasted more than RM 400 for a forced registration with that membership card. 

This ACTIVE card membership is just RM 39 with quite a number of facilities as claimed. I decided to join since I started playing paintball and hope that I will get back the investment by discounts at the participating paintball venue. 

This is the membership card which was issued instantly. I have to activate the card using SMS to a given number. I sent an SMS as instructed but was not successful. A first experience is already bad. I have to call their office for assistance. What a number to be given to me. 007 is on the card. Wa, being a JamesBond at paintball games la after this. 

Below are the benefits of being a member. 

Their official partner is as printed on their active guide book. 

How People Market Their Product

Last night I attended a FREE Forex Seminar at the Hilton in Petaling Jaya. I came across the advertisement in The Sun and registered as instructed. 

I arrived a bit late since I left home after office and on the way stuck in the jam at the exit to Jalan Utara from Federal Highway. Then my time was again was wasted finding The Hilton. Of course I know where Hilton is but I do not know the way to it. Its a normal situation for someone new to certain areas and place. But being stuck in the jam and lost on the was was not the real problem. The actual problem was I was holding back my call of nature. I have no opportunity to escape the situation since I was on the inner lane of a jam packed exit. Then again I missed the Caltex at PJ becauese of the position I was in. At last I reached PJ Hilton and rushed to the Gents. Fuuuuu.....relieved. But that is not the main point I am going to blog about in this posting. 

Its about marketing. I see for myself how marketer market their product. The modus operandi from my perspective are same. Whether its roadside peddlars or high end promotions. If one were to walk the streets and watch the medicine man especially will always start with impressing those present the good things that his product provide. The general tagline will be his product is the best among all products in the market. Peddlars selling sexual related product especially for men, will always exhibit pictures of beautifil sexy half naked or naked women. Men will be those with six pack abdomen and well endowed sexual organ. After he succeeded capturing the mind of the onlooker then only he will market his product. Usually there will offers that he claim you will not get elsewhere.  The word FREE is a real catch and sometimes can be a trap. 

I was trapped once with the word FREE. It was during the last PC Fair. I was looking for a laptop backpack and at one of the booth selling backpacks I saw the advertisement FREE one year insurance for laptop with purchase of their backpack. I was quite impressed since I had just bought a new netbook. I bought the backpack that has a lifetime warranty. I was told that if there is any defect in manufacturing, I can send it back for repair. Good enough the holding handle split a week after that. HoweverI have not sent back the item to the company. 

Back to the FREE Insurance. After I paid for the item purchased, I inquired about the FREE Insurance. Then only I realised that the FREE Insurance is only for laptop bought during that PC Fair. So I made a silly mistake buying that backpack out of carelessness. The word FREE most of the time can be deceiving. 

Back to Hilton. I arrived about half an hour late and the FREE Seminar had already started. However I sat through till the end. The speaker, a prominent and successful Hedge Fund Manager and hadgone through the mill of hardship in life before becoming what he is now. He talk impressively about the benefits and advantages of investing in Forex market citing examples of his successful students who graduated from his seminars.  

At the end of the FREE seminar come the time to sell his product. It was a seminar cum course on how to trade in Forex. I am not sure whether the number of seats available is limited to 15 as he said that seats are limited and the first fifteen who filled up the arranged seats at the back will get a place in his nexst class. Those who rushed to the seats were being baited by the offers worth more than RM33,000. After the seats were filled up, he opened a second chance to those who are still seating in front and with another bait. This time his offer was the fee for the seminar. He said he is not charging the full amount but slashed it to the last amount of RM6,000, which he said he will not charge that amount but RM 498.00. And that bait attracted a few more. So now the figure is has bloated to more than 15. The first group had already exceeded the required number and I was asking to myself. Does the limited 15 seats is real or just a tactic to get participants. Psychologically, demand will be high if supply is low. 

Thats Theory of Economics. He is using this tactic. 

Then only he revealed that the cost for the Forex course will be RM 498 per month for 12 months. So he is right that he will not charge participants RM 6,000.00 but just RM 5976.00. Of course during trading, participants will get the returns of his investments but there is a Disclaimer in his advertisement in  The Sun; There is a risk of loss in ForexTrading. But who don't want to be rich?

The Sanlu

What happen to Sanlu Group Co, that went bankrupt due to tainted milk scandal recently should be an eye opener for local Malaysian companies that deal with food products. Sanlu not only was confirmed bankrupt but it also tainted China's food product and image world wide. To make a comeback takes time because it needs confidence  of the people. 

Sanlu, like a number of major Chinese dairies, had been exempt from government inspections because it was deemed to have superior quality controls - until high levels of the industrial chemical melamine were found in its baby formula and other products in September. 

Another inportant fact about the company that should not be missed by out authority is, " Sanlu is 43 percent owned by New Zealand daily cooperative Fonterra Group". I don't mean to say that Fonterra group is responsible but to point out that multinational companies in our country should not be treated as first class but on equal level with our local companies. The days of putting high respects on foreigners is over. The colonial days is long being written in the history books we have been independant for 51 year snow. 

The Sanlu experience must be taken seriously by our food and food related industry especially those who export their product. Already we have seen some of our product had been listed as melamine tainted and listed on the website. Its a negative image for the country. 

Eventhough the Sanlu Saga had been checked but it is not the end of the problem. Just in our own backyard we found out that some of our vegetables were not allowed entry into Singapore because it does not pass the stringent health check from the country. In the end, not to loose out these vegetables are fed to our own consumer. Thats too bad to feed our own people with second class food  and produced and produced by our own farm. Who is responsible? 

Should not the relevant agencies ponder about it of just too many under the table deals changes hand?

My CIMBClicks Account Locked Because I Ignored their Email?

Read this as a reminder. 

There is always email received from banks asking you to update your account or verify something. This emails sometime looks very genuine and do dupe and trap innocent account holders into believing the scam. I used to receive emails from Citibanks before and jus ignored it after finding that the mail does not come from the banks address but from yahoo or microsoft.

Today while spring cleaning my spam mail box, I came across an email from CIMB warning me about my account that has been blocked. They are very lucky because I have an account with CIMB and even CIMBclicks. I click open the email and read it. The warning with a red background do make your heart throb because it warn about false claims. Hahahaha..... they think I am that stupid. The email warned me about their InternetBanking server being attacked by DDos and need to verify the integrity of my CIMBClicks account. The rest of the line looks so genuine when they even ask to request for aTAC from the bank. Thats a normal securityprocedure undertaken by internet banking activities. 

On the 'Here's how to get started' , there are two links that is not working. Profesional eh?. As usual I will check the origin of the email and it show that it does not come from CIMB because it is only a comb.com whereas CIMB uses dot com dot my. Attached is the email. Read more after the attachment below.

 

Since the email looks genuine and sounds genuine, I  log in to my CIMBClicks account to check whether it has really being locked. The email requested me to respond within 24 hours that is on 17th December 2008 and today it has already exceeded tha date line and therefore my account has been locked. Well, I still can access my CIMBClicks. Seems internet conmen are getting smarter but we as consumer must also be smart. 

All you out there, be careful when dealing with such cases. Conmen are looking for every which way and tactics they can to rob us of our money. 

My First Paycheck From Nuffnang

On 8th November 2008, I received my first paycheck from Nuffnang. Bloggers shoud know about this, so I am not going to write much about it here. This check is my second time that is related to online activities. The first was a profit from an online promotion business. However so far I still can't depend on my online business to feed myself and my family. 

I Own A New Mini

I have been using this Benq Joybook since 2005 and it did not give me any problem except for the usual virus attacks. This faithful joybook helps me a lot with my job presenting during lectures and I consider myself lucky to get married to this Benq. The design is not like any other laptop in the streets but it does make me stand out among the normal boxed shape laptops. 

Letely I have been experiencing auto shut down and I am not sure whether the HDD is going to crash or the virus auto shut down this laptop in the middle of my work. Everytime it shuts down, I have to start with a Dick, ooooppppssss disk check. So I sensed its the drive that is the problem. 

I am not going to loose out with my job because I depend on the computer so much especially during presentations. This is my second laptop. My first was an Acer Travelmate. I lost conficence in Acer because of its built. The hinge cover is very fragile and it cracked twice. Once during the warranty period and the second time after the period was over. Ever since Acer laptop is not my priority anymore. 

I have beenshopping for this mini laptop for a few months since EeePC came out with its super mobility 701 model. However the Linux operating system does not arouse my sexual desire, err... I mean buying desire and  is a turn down for me. I knew the salesman said that it can be upgraged to Windows XP for RM 200. However it still does not changed my stance.

Then EeePC came out with a newer model which definitley is much better than the previous. The 701 model even had its price crashed during the last Pikom PC Fair from RM 1399 to just RM 999. Newer models from other brands jumped into the super mobility bandwagon. HP came out with its HP Mini. First read that at Kenysia's. More models came out and I keep buying magazines that review the mini's. 

Of course I saved up money I earned during my lectures and now have enough to buy a new laptop. The mini is my priority since its light and convenient travelling with it. Actually the first time I saw the EeePC at Low Yatt is when I accompany my friend to buy a laptop and he biught that model. 

Yesterday my dream accomplished. I went to Low Yatt to buy my mini after months of reading and weighing for a better buy. After reading the review on October 2008 issue of Mobile World, I made up my mind to buy the EeePC 10000H with a 80Gb HDD at RM 1799. However after reaching Low Yatt I saw a Lenovo priced at RM 1749 on one of the outlet on Level 4. That shoild be agood buy. Its in three colour and the pink and white on display interest me. However the attitude of the salesman who is concentrating on his desktop, I think playing computer games, did not show any interest in my questions turn me down. He should not be working in that shop in the first place. Disrecpect of his customers and his attitude did make his employer loose a customer and sales on that day.

Then I went to FTEC IT Shop and was impressed with its range of minis. 

Bought this FTEC Ee Book G10X-3G. It has 2Gb Ram / 160 Gb HDD / 10.2 " screen and 3G ready. It is priced at RM 1988. There are not many laptops with 3G capability at the moment and buying one I think will slow down the rate of being obsolete of this laptop.  However the laptop is preinstalled with original Windows XP operating system only and no other basic softwares such as word processing. 

Airasia CEO Blog

I first knew about this blog after reading Rocky's Bru blog. 

Airasia CEO Tony Fernandes turn into a blogger in August 2008. For young enterpreuners this blog will be a good read shince Tony shares his experiences and tips. I am not an enterpreuner eventhough I dream to be one but I do read his blog as a source of inspiration. Tony was in the entertaining business prior to turning to the airline industry and he made it to the top when he wrote in his blog : It means that when someone thinks of low cost travel in Asia they think AirAsia. When someone wants to partner with a low cost airline they think AirAsia. When we need to make new contacts, look for finances and build new relationships, it's much easier as everyone knows AirAsia.

Airasia has turned out the be one of the most popular airline among travelers in Malaysia and Asean country. Her tagline "Now that everyone can fly" did meet the purpose. Traveling domestically among Malaysians has been made easy and affordable with the inception of Airasia service. I missed my MAS flight once and Airasia did fly me home. Wile at times we do read comments and complains from passengers, to me it is just a normal complain because its not easy to satisfy everyone and WYGWYPR (what you get is what you paid for). 

Read his latest posting about the value of brands which prompted me to write this posting. 

Internet Millionaire Club

I am not a millionaire but I am a member of the Internet Millionaire Club with its tagline Make money online (Malaysian Style).Wow, What a club that open its door to just anybody who has access to the internet. You don't have to be a millionaire to be a member. I signed up for FREE on the 23rd of January and given a lifetime member and then upgraded as an affiliate where I can generate some side income using my blog.

Internet Millionaires Malaysia is a portal for people looking for ways to make money online from Malaysia. Activities organised includes tele seminar and tele coaching. The website also has the IMC Forum where members can get information about money making opportunities and such or post your threads to share with other members.

Teleseminar are FREE and member can learn how to make money on the Internet by either calling in via phone, use Skype or listen in via the web players.

The portal was started by Gobala Krishnan who quit his boring job in November 2005 and since then have been making money on the Internet full-time working from home in Malaysia. He started from making RM1,800 in his first month, and now is making RM23,000 to RM56,000 every month. His income continues to increase and within the next year expect to become one of the few Malaysian Internet millionaires.

There are two types of membership, free member and Silver Member. Silver member receive personal coaching every month from him, and his secret group of successful Internet marketers in Malaysia.

Becoming Affiliate

By becoming an affiliate you can generate residual income using your blog or website. According to the email I received from Gobala Krishan the new payment structure is as below:

Free Member Registration: USD0.10
Silver Member Registration: 40% monthly
Payout Limit: USD50

Part of the e-mail reads; This means, now you can also get paid to refer free members to
our Internet Millionaires Club web portal.

If the free member upgrades to a Silver member, you also get 40% commissions every month. Put together, this is a great win-win situation for you. Now you can choose to send traffic to the Silver page of the free page, and you still get paid both ways.

This payment structure is valid for the first batch of 200 members only and it may change for future batch, so login now and start your promotion.

Even if you don't have a website, you can get the link and send a simple email to your friends and invite them to sign-up for free.

Those who act fast usually get the most, so do it soon!

Join The Internet Millionaires Club (Free)

Join The Internet Millionaires Club (Silver)

Blog Advertisement Network

About a month ago I registered with a new online advertising for blogs after reading about the new advertising network at Hongkiat.com. With all the hope of making some money online I posted the ad banner on my sidebar. I can see some activities but when I check with my account it seems that not even 1 click was found. It seems that the fail to fulfill my expectation. Advertisements placed on the banner are just in writing and nothing attractive (see screen shot below) which might be the reason for the no click. So now I decided to pull down the ad banner. I just loose my USD 15 for registering with them. After all its their money as a gift for me registering my profile there.

Besides the company started with another name that is a combination of the existing two advertising companies already on the running track but suddenly they changed it to another name and not even sending an email informing about the change. So now I will say bye-bye and kita Go lah! I will stick to Nuffnang which I already made more than RM100 and advertlets that also has some of my money in the account. These two companies are performing better.

Shutting The Eye? - Updated 1 January 07

Today is the last day of 2007 and the countdown for the year 2008 will begin by midnight. Celebrations has been arranged and the highlight will definitely be at Dataran Merdeka in Kuala Lumpur where the PM is expected to be among those counting down to 12.00 midnight. It will also mark the end of Visit Malaysia Year 2007.

Most of us might still remember that one of the attraction set up for VMY is the Eye on Malaysia which was officiated by PM Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi on 6th January 2007. So tonight will be the last night it serves tourist foreign and locals alike. Is it so? Another landmark will be dismantle and not sure whether it will end up in a scrapyard or being erected again somewhere else. So there goes our RM30 million structure and did they get back the taxpayers money? It is not a wise idea to build the eye with such an amount of taxpayers money just as a feast of the eye for 365 days only. Would it be much better if it is a permanent landmark and icon of Malaysia where many people can earn a living from its operation.

Picture Credit: LensaMalaysia

UPDATED - 1 January 2008

The Star (online) reported the the Eye on Malaysia will be retained. The report:

PUTRAJAYA: Datuk Seri Tengku Adnan Mansor is hoping to make the Eye on Malaysia ferris wheel a permanent fixture here, where the icon will stand tall and proud alongside the Kuala Lumpur City Centre (KLCC) and the KL Tower.

Made My First Buck From Internet Business

Today I receive an email from Admin of viewmalaysia.com that my redemption of my profit points has been approved. I had made a 320 point profit which when converted to cash is RM320. That means I made RM170 from my investment. Its a small sum but at least I know I can earn from the internet.

I registered at the website on 2nd September 2006 and post advertisement on my blog to bring traffic to the website which is about selling tour packages. It was a close eye effort where I don;t expect much from registering and paying registration fee of RM150. The fee is for web hosting, programming, designer website management.

After paying the registration fee I was given a pre programmed website and a user account and I can advertise my business. For every sales I made I will be given a commission of RM 80. I can sell 24 packages as a paid member (Program A) whereas just 3 packages for a free member (Program B). For introducing a member or selling a package I was given the same amount of commission mentioned earlier. A member can start advertising the business immediately as soon as registration is successful.

Viewmalaysia sells tour packages from tour and traveling agents.

Internet Investment Scheme

SC had given the dateline for all investors to pull out their e-investments before 11th June 2007. After which date all e-investment website will be blocked (see MSC Bill of Gaurantees) . Investors are advised to withdraw all their investments and that put them in a dilemma. Even before the the warning most of these websites were already on maintenance which mean that no transactions can be made. They start website maintenance when the government start debating on the scheme which is being branded as illegal, a scam and trying to con investors. Ermmmm..... so they are conning thousands who had made hundreds of US Dollar daily. Why not legalise them so the SC can keep an eye on them instead of banning.

I tried to surf in one of the website and received the HTTP Status 500 (MSC Bills of Gaurantee says Ensure no internet censorship)

Got this message when trying to visit one of the website.

The effect of the SC's action will actually make more people loose more money and stops them bringing USD into the country. I am not sure the reason behind the issue but I think the government is afraid of losing more investors to ASN, ASB and depositing money into the local bank. Money deposited into foreign accounts such as these e- investment can't be put into a more useful resource since the general election is just round the corner. Millions are needed to maintain power and keep getting richer for the next five years. So where to turn to after Ijok was promised RM 30 million overnight.

Beside these e-investment scheme, there is a more dangerous money making scheme going round the country. I am sure many would have received emails on fast money making opportunities with just a small sum of investment. These scams are spamming our mailbox daily. Email providers would bar these email address for spamming but no action has been taken. I think the government should look into this kind of investment and not the former. I am fed up of receiving these emails and eventhough report it as scam they still flood my mailbox.

Pelaburan Internet Haram

Utusan Malaysia hari ini memuatkan di muka hadapan bahawa pelaburan internet itu haram. Pengharaman itu diputuskan oleh Majlis Fatwa Kebangsaan dalam mesyuarat kali ke 77 Majlis tersebut di Kuala Terengganu. Sememangnya skim pelaburan internet itu telah melanda bagaikan gelombang dan ramai yang sudah mampu memperolehi keuntungan hingga ribuan ringgit sehari. Dan ini sememangnya berbeza jika mereka melabur dalam saham-saham di BSKL ataupun ASN dan ASB. ASN dan ASB memberikan pulangan 8% setahun (lebih kurang) sementara pelaburan melalui internet ini memberikan pulangan yang lebih besar antara 2-3% sehari. Jadi siapa tidak gelap mata apabila mampu memperolehi keuntungan mudah dalam jangka masa yang singkat. Seorang kerani pun boleh menjana pendapatan bulanan hingga dua tiga puluh ribu sebulan dengan hanya membiarkan wang mereka bekerja.

Setelah Majlis Fatwa Kebangsaan memutuskan skim pelaburan ini haram, sejauh manakah pelabur akan menarik diri dari terus menyertainya. Saya mendapat tahu ramai yang membuat pinjaman Bank Rakyat untuk melabur dan sebelum hutang bank itu dilangsai, sudah tentu mereka akan keberatan untuk menarik balik pelaburan mereka. Satu lagi masalah kepada pelabur ialah pelaburan mereka mempunyai jangkamasa matang iaitu 100 hari bagi beberapa skim pelaburan. Jadi sama ada mahu atau tidak mereka tetap akan menunggu keuntungan itu sehingga mencapai tahap matang.

Walaupun selepas tarikh matang itu, sejauhmana pula mereka akan mengelak diri dari terus melabur jika wang yang diharapkan itu akan terus mengabui mata. Haramnya pelaburan internet adalah salah datu daripada aktiviti yang melibatkan umat Islam. Banyak lagi aktiviti yang telah diputuskan haram oleh Majlis Fatwa dan berstatus haram dalam agama seperti yang disebutkan dalam Al-Quran, tetapi umat Islam masih mengamalkannya. Misalnya rokok telah diputuskan haram tetapi sejauh mana umat Islam mengelakkan diri dari terus merokok termasuk mereka yang tergolong sebagai alim.

Saya bukanlah bermaksud untuk mempertikaikan Fatwa berkenaan tetapi sekadar untuk menyatakan pandangan saya terhadap penerimaan umat Islam kepada perkara-perkara yang haram. Saya masih ingat kata-kata bahawa dua "it" boleh menyebabkan lelaki hilang maruahnya. Pertama ialah duit dan yang kedua ialah....(minta maaf saya tidak boleh menyebutnya di sini. Anda fikirkanlah sendiri)