You're Not Really Going To Eat That, Are You?

Have you ever fancied tucking into a nice, big plate of worms? What about snakes? Do you fancy eating a snake? I'm guessing that eating worms or snakes has probably failed to get your mouth watering, but it's a strange world and some people put some very strange things into their mouths. Anyone for rat meat? Or how about some boiled bat? The boiled bat is particularly nasty because it is the bat, the whole bat, and nothing but the bat, with guts and fur included. In Guam, apparently, bat eating is quite the done thing, but the flesh of the flying fox has been linked to some very nasty diseases: Four Strange Foods That I Won't Be Eating Anytime Soon

How Things Have Changed

When I was a kid one of the things I used to look forward to was reading my comics at the weekend. I loved my comics and sometimes, if I was lucky, the comic would have a free gift with it. How different things seem to be now. I went to the Supermarket today and while Mrs Malone was choosing which magazines she wanted to burden the trolley with (she gets lots of them) I got bored. My eyes began to wander and I saw several shelves full of comics. Every comic had a free gift with it, and I cannot remember ever seeing a single comic on those shelves that did not have a free gift with it. It's all rather sad really. Do kids buy comics these days for the content or for the gift? Are the producers of comics afraid that if they do not include a free gift nobody will buy the comic?

Can 20 Minutes Change Your Life?

I am very interested in prosperity consciousness and I spend a lot of time reading self-help books and books and articles about the law of attraction. I also watch a lot of YouTube videos on the subject and once you become interested the subject it is amazing how much information is available and how one piece of information often links to another. The other day, for instance, I was watching a Bob Proctor video and noticed a link to a video about Earl Nightingale. I had never heard of him so I clicked on the link, followed another link, and then another one and soon found myself on Amazon, where I bought and audio book download. With a title like 20 Minutes That Could Change Your Life, it was kind of hard to resist and it only cost me £0.79.

The dialogue was taken from an old radio show which was later released on cassette and now, of course, is available as an mp3 download. It is one of those things that some people will get a lot from, but others will just let go over their head and may even label ‘a load of old rubbish.’ Nightingales words may not offer anything new to those who have read a lot of self-help books etc, but he presents the information very well and I love some of the quotes:

All that makes a man unique is his mind. Anything else can be found in a pig, or a horse.

Nightingale took that quote from Archibald Macleish’s play The Secret of Freedom, but here is one of his own (at least I think it is),

We are all self made, but it is only the successful people who will admit it.

I particularly like the survey that he suggests that the listeners conduct:

Walk down a street in your neighbourhood on any Saturday or Sunday and ask the man of every house two questions.
What are you doing at the present time to increase your income now?
How much money are you planning to be worth at age 65?

Remember that things have changed quite a bit since the recording was made. Back then, in most houses the man was the bread-winner and women tended to be stay-at-home wives. So that is why Earl suggests that you ask ‘the man of every house.’ Times have changed. The world has progressed and now you could just as easily ask the woman of every house as well. But! Some things may not have changed. Earl warns the listener that he or she will receive blank stares and have to suffer unnerving silences. I think that there is good chance that this will still be the case.

Ask yourself the survey questions. Does an answer come straight away, or do you also draw a blank and wear it on your face? The first time I heard this question I felt very proud because I could answer it straight away, I do have definite plans and goals and have already set them into action quite some time ago.

Later on in the recording Nightingale offers suggestions on how to go about making the necessary changes (to self) and climbing the ladder to success. His advice seems very sound to me and the Nightingale is not to be taken lightly because he was a self-made man who had traveled the road from rags to riches.

If self help recordings are the kind of thing that you like to have in your mp3 player or iPod, you may want to try give this one a try. You have nothing to loose, but £0.79 and everything to gain.

I listen to a lot of recordings like this, and have found many of them very useful, so I intend to do further posts on the subject of Prosperity Consciousness

Now You Can Make Even More Money on HubPages

If you are already a Hubber you will probably already be aware that Hubpages have just announced a new competition. If, on the other hand, you have never before ventured into the world of hubbing, now may be as good a time as any to sign up for hubpages and begin writing hubs because if you do you will then be able to enter the HubPatron of the Arts competition.

The competition began on the first of this month and contestants could win "$50, $100, and even $500 in prizes!" just by submitting qualifying material (poems and poetry, creative writing, and photo galleries).

Maybe the chance of winning a possible $500 does not inspire you. It's not a huge amount of money, is it? But bear in mind that a good hub can generate a nice passive income for many, many years to come and some of the most successful hubbers make a lot more than that each and every month, from hubs that they created years ago.

I have other commitments and it is not often that I create a new hub, so it is doubtful whether I will ever reach those lucrative dizzy heights of professional hubdom, but I still receive revenue from the hubs that I have already created, so I am not complaining. Maybe you can do better though, so why not give it a try? Nothing ventured, nothing gained. You can find out more about Hubpages and/or sign up here (remember it is free to join) by clicking here. Then just click link at the the top right hand corner of the page if you want to find out more about the competition.

Maybe this will be for you, maybe not, but either way good luck with your online ventures.

Where Have All The Free Bookmarks Gone?

Earlier this year I became a member of the She Told Me website. If you are not familiar with She Told Me allow me to enlighten you. The whole idea revolves around 'scoops.' If a member found an interesting article or website they could then write a brief discrispton and publish on She Told Me along with a link to the site. The thing I liked about it was that I could use She Told Me to generate links into my articles.

Sadly things seem to have changed somewhat since I last logged into the site, several months ago. I logged in today and discovered that I am now only allowed to post comments and vote on other people's scoops because I am a 'free member.' If I want to publish a scoop of my own it will cost me $5 a month, or $12 for the year.

What a pity! I like the site, but I have no intention of paying to use it. What can I say? I much prefer to make money online than to spend it, and that whole 'You've got to speculate to accumulate' thing does not appeal to me in the slightest.

I used to use Xomba.com in a similar fashion and considered it to be a great resource: Publish a bookmark and generates an inbound link for your article. Many people are still doing this, but I got banned from the site for 'breaking their rules.' Actually it was more a case of they changed the rules. That's just how the cookie crumbles sometimes though.

Arachnids with Attitude: The British Spiders That Bite

There are around 640 species of spider living in the UK. The vast majority of them are content to just get on with their thing and leave us poor old human beings alone. A few species have, however, been known to bite. The chief culprit is the false widow spider and a dozen of it's cousins have, at times, followed its bad example: Do British Spiders Bite?

Write Articles, Get Paid! and Get Paid 50% More for Doing So

It has been quite a while since I logged into my account at Write Articles, Get Paid! but I have just paid them a visit and I see that they have upped their rates by 50% and are now paying $1.50 for each article instead of $1. They are also accepting 400 word articles as well as 700 word articles.

I must admit that these days I find it hard to motivate myself to write for so little money, so I probably will not be writing anything for them any time soon. $1.50 is better than a slap in the face with a wet fish though, and I know that many people would be glad of it, so if you want to give them a try why not pay them a visit.

I also noticed that they now offer payment through MoneyBookers as well as PayPal.

Write Articles, Get Paid! are not a scam site, by the way. They pay their writers on a weekly basis and I know that from experience because when I first discovered the site I wrote several articles for them and was paid for every one of them. If you are thinking of giving them a try, but would like to know a little more about them before you do so check out my review of the site.