I heard in the news that over the Christmas times, US residents spent more money online then in shops across country. No wonder, as shopping online, especially when it comes to presents is cheaper, easier, and saves hours of time. No driving, no parking, you get what you want in one mouse click. It never ceases to amaze me how far the technology went… Anyway, most of you probably ask - where to shop? There are quite a few Online Stores out there, but it’s important to remember that when you are Shopping Online only go to trustworthy websites with reputation. One of the advantages of shopping online is that you may dig out something your would never be able to find in real life shops.

Online Stores really worth visiting you may find some really nice stuff to grab, and in most cases it even ends up been cheaper than in “real life” stores. Give it a shot

Isn’t it amazing how TIME magazine named YOU as the person of the year? Indeed blogs have become so pervasive that one can no longer overlook them. Take for example all these friends I have who run their own blogs: Mickey Temp, Sharon Steele, Dave Abigail, Kathy Bright, Casper DoGood, Charlene Coop, Edwina Warner, Eva Gardner, Gina Turner, Jane Nicole, Helen, Glenn Alvarez. And then of course there are those who are running several services on their blogs. For instance: Major Major blog, Random Articles, Directory Owners Interview Blog, Web sites review. Clearly the era of the blogs is here.

The reason that TIME magazine selected YOU as the person of the year was because of the power of citizen journalism — primarily driven by blogs. So, what are you waiting for? Go over to one of the free services like blogger or some other, or get your own word press blog.

What is very magnetic about the blogosphere is the way you can actually generate an avalanche of a response to your thoughts. Just be true to yourself and post something that you truly believe in. And quite literally, you are the master of the world.

Of course, if you are a technophobe, you will face some initial hesitation in getting this entire process going. Not a problem, blogging technology is notoriously easy to use. In many senses it is an entry level content management system. Something like a CMS for the masses.

If you do not run your own blog, then now is a good time to do so. Look at some of my other friends who run their own blogs: Maria Robins, Mike Horner, Tyran Mike, Noel Page, Ted Nestle, Terresa Hopkins, Zoe Martini, Ajeet Khurana, Joy, Kendall, Madlaine, and get a good picture of what you could do.

High Stuff is not a regular web portal you would expect to see - it has a very appealing design and easy, original navigation, that will lead you throughout the site, and where you will find free stuff, free deals and many other interesting stuff and offers. It’s also PR5, so getting your site there might be a good idea to help your own ranking.

Myself, I found an interesting offer in the free deals section; a templates site I was looking for for quite a while, and a great clipart site I came across through their free stuff page. Really nice (’high’) stuff.

Now, this is an interesting find, especially for those who seek to submit their website to as many as possible directories - the directory of directories. I never came across anything like this before, have you? As the title says, this is a directory website, that lists only other directories on the Internet. For visitors’ utmost convenience, it also separates paid directories from free ones, as well as indicating which Google PageRank each directory has. Very easy to follow and navigate, plus if you are a directory owner, you may consider submitting your site and benefit from purely targeted traffic.
So, if you are looking for a place where all the high quality directories are gathered and nicely sorted then I strongly recommend to visit the directory of directories.

There are quite a few directories over the internet, I should think no less than a few good millions, but not all of them are actually quality directories.

I came across this web directory and thought I will make a post about it, as it really lives up to its name - Elegant Web Directory. While you are mostly used to see a bunch of links in columns, here you will find a great example of convenient navigation AND quality content.
The submission in this directory isn’t free, hence you are only likely to find high quality websites there, no cheap and trashy sites. I was searching for arcade and for a change found  a few awesome websites, no popups or flood of adsense. This directory is really worth visiting if you are after some top level content. I’d also recommend website owners to list their website there; it’s always good to associate your business with other classy websites or in this case - web directory.

While php, in general, is a jungle that I am always afraid to step in, for some people it’s “just” a programming language, that they work with… Yep, there are some people like that, out there.
Fr33lancer.com is a forum that belongs to a friend of mine, and deals with Turnkey Scripts, Prozilla, php, SQL, datebase and other tutorials that many freelance programmers will find useful. Once you joined, you will find a very friendly and extremely professional discussion; you will be able to get help with miscellaneous programming questions and learn many new things in a cozy and sympathetic atmosphere. Fr33lancer.com is highly recommended for those who want to combine professional and social talk in one.

I have been a member in this forum for some time now, and must admit that participating there is fun, interesting and most of all - teaches even advanced freelancers something new. The administrator and staff are incredibly knowledgeable, friendly and warm people, so only one warning: don’t get addicted

Paid to post community is becoming a trend recently, most people ask themselves, why to post for free, while in many forums you can get paid for it. There are normally 3 types of paid to post communities.

First, those who have a fixed rate for posts and pay by paypal or any other online payment method. The price varies from 1 cents, up to 20 cents, depending on the size of the board and admin’s pocket.

Second are the “shared revenue” communities, where a member can input his AdSense code into a specified field in his cPanel, then when he makes a new thread or replies the last, there are 50% of chances for his Adsense ads to show up.

Third is a more general type of “paid communities”, as the member do not get a direct monetary payment, but are provided with miscellaneous goods in exchange for their participation, such as free (quality) web hosting, domain names, etc.

It’s up to you, what types of communities to join. I personally tried them all, but can’t come up with a good and overall review, as I was not participating equally in all of them, some grabbed my attention and I stayed just for fun, then even became a moderator of the board, while in others I have 150+ posts and can’t really tell how profitable is the business. I will start off with my personal experience though and hope it will be useful for you.

Paid to post communities that pay on a fixed rate are a great way to make fast money, especially if the minimum post count and word count is not too big. 10 cents per post of about 30 words would be a decent deal. Mostly you will find such offers in other big forums, such as DigitalPoint.com, where new forums owners are looking to boost activity and pay people to join and participate in their board. Once the forum grows, the pate per post gets lower, and then normally been done away with completely. So if you are after such a forum, just look for related offers on other huge forums and carpe diem.

Shared revenue communities can boost your AdSense revenue, however, there are a few “but’s”. You need to have AdSense account, where minimum payout is 100$. If, for whatever reason, Adsense will ban you, this type of revenue will no longer exist for you, as Yahoo publisher and Adbride aren’t an alternative in this case. I joined 2 forums that share income with their members, but not out of greed, only because the forums happened to interest me. In one forum I have 150 posts and earnt… just don’t die from envy! - 5 cents. In the other forum I have about 100 posts, and joined the revenue account only on half way, made about 3$. Bottom line is that I’d not count on shared revenue board if money is all you are after, as you will need to post a lot just to get your ads displayed, then again, it will be in rotation of 50%, and then, go and hope that someone will click it. Notable forums in this category are Digital Point and Webmasters Talk
Last type are the forums that provide their members with hosting and domains, as this is the most common thing you get. Most forums do provide quality hosting without ads, some demand a link back to the forum, while others go further and provide ads supported hosting. If the hosting provided is ads supported, then you shouldn’t waste your time posting, there are tons of free hosts out there, some do not even place ads on your site. If, however, it’s a respectable and established website that indeed delivers what their promise and provide high quality professional hosting, you should consider giving it a go. Remember that average host will cost between 5$ and 10$, so as long as you don’t feel like overworking yourself for this monthly price, it’s ok. Some people do not have credit card or paypal,and cannot pay for online service because of it, so for them it will be the perfect solution. Same applies to domain names, which can be registered in exchange for particular amount of earnt points or “stars”. Notable forum that provides domain names and cash by paypal in exchange for point earnt for posting it HostBidder.com

This is more or less my coverage of paid to post communities. Of course if you don’t feel like selling out you can always join my forum - Lorelei Web Forum where the participation is free and volunteer. Hope this pours some light on the paid to post communities and on how you can earn money at home, enjoying talking to your friends.

Video tutorials are normally a lot easier to follow. Unlike images and text based tuts, you can fully follow your “teacher”, step by step, without skipping any step and therefore the result after video tutorial is a lot more accurate.

Recently, I came across a tremendously talented artist - Steve H., who’s Deviant Art page astonished me. First I found him while searching for high quality wallpapers but this week he released a several video tutorials, which are just impossible to pass by. The tutorials are ranging from photo correction to stylish glossy orbs, covering a wide variety of Photoshop aspects and answering to many questions that newbies, as well as advanced users may have. The tutorials are really incredible, but don’t take my word for it, go and look for yourself! DP Studios’s DeviantArt page.

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Additionally to the useful tutorials, you will also wind a lot of other, generously offered material such as wallpapers, graphics and even prints, which you can buy. Bottom line: visiting is a must!