Best Money-Making Sites
So I'm sure we all need some way of a little extra cash. There seems to be a large -- and by large I mean huge -- number of sites claiming to have the ability to make you rich quick. But we are all skeptical of these sites, especially when they require you to pay a fee to join. I personally enjoy legitimate Pay To Click sites. They may not pay that much, but if you are going to sit around on your computer just wishing you had something to do, you could at least bring in some cash. So here are my personal favorites. I would recommend signing up to several of these, as you can maximize your profits by using more of them. They have all paid me before, so they can be trusted.
QuickRewards.net
QuickRewards.net sends out about 3 to 5 emails daily (no spam), to which they pay you for clicking on the ads in it. In addition, there are daily clicks on the main site, both on the home page, and the "Clicks" section. Between those sources, you have the opportunity to make between $0.08 - 0.12 per day. That's more than just about all other PTC sites I've tried. In addition to that, they send you survey offers, valued between $0.50 and $2.00 each. There is no minimum payout, so you can cashout any time you want to. That's right, if you need that penny so desperately, you can cashout to PayPal and have it by the next day.
Neobux.com
Neobux.com is among the most acclaimed PTC sites to date. They have been around for years, and as you can see, they have paid a great deal of people. As a standard member, you make $0.01 per click, $0.015 for each extended view, and $0.05 for each referral click, $0.01 for their extended view. You can upgrade to Golden Membership, which pays you $0.01 for a regular click, $0.02 for extended view, $0.01 for regular referral click, and $0.02 for referral extended view. This may not seem worth it, but with Golden Membership, there are also more ads for you to view, so more chances to increase your earnings. The minimum payout is $2.00 through PayPal.
RealCashPTC.com
Now we get to some higher paying sites. RealCashPTC.com pays $0.03 for each click, and $0.01 per referral click. There are anywhere between 10 and 20 ads per day. You can clearly make a bit of money from that site. The payout waiting time is currently 30 days, but the minimum payout amount is $1.00, so you can send in requests pretty often. If the administrator doesn't pay within the given waiting time, your account will be upgraded for free. However, the admin is pretty good with payouts, and has rarely had to upgrade anyone. The different levels are as follows (each level includes more ads):
- Premium: $0.06 per click, $0.02 per referral click - Cost: $2.00 per month, $4.00 per 3 months, $8.00 per 6 months, $10.00 per year
- Silver: $0.10 per click, $0.03 per referral click - Cost: $3.00 per month, $5.00 per 3 months, $10.00 per 6 months, $15.00 per year
- Diamond: $0.20 per click, $0.04 per referral click - Cost: $5.00 per month, $10.00 per 3 months, $12.00 per 6 months, $17.00 per year
I highly recommend this site. It's a great opportunity to make some extra cash.
The Lagoon Sites
GamingLagoon.com and CashLagoon.com are two of the most celebrated money making websites there are. Not only do they each have PTC ads that amount to roughly $0.30 each day, but you can complete surveys and other offers to make even more money. And you are not limited to PayPal cash; you can redeemed your cash for a number of different prizes on each site. Offers are worth both cash and points. You can cashout your monetary value and redeem the point value for the rewards on the site.
Swagbucks
Finally, we have Swagbucks.com, where you get paid to search, just as you usually would. It pulls it's results directly from Google, so you don't have to settle for less. After every random number of searches, you'll be awarded with a number of Swagbucks, between 1 and 5. On Friday, it's Mega Swagbucks Day, or MSBD, where the chances of winning increase greatly, and you are more likely to win bigger bills: 3, 4, 5, and now 10 Swagbucks! Plus, there is at least one Swagcode everyday, worth anywhere between 1 and 5 Swagbucks each. You can find these codes on the widget (the link is on the right), or the Swagbucks toolbar, which you can download off of the site. It is not hard to accumulate Swagbucks. When you gather enough, you can purchase a prize from the store, or request PayPal cash for 70 Swagbucks. I've averaged over $5.00 in PayPal cash since I've started using Swagbucks, so I definitely recommend it.
Tips & Tricks
There are a few things that can help you maximize your profits and minimize your time on these sites. First, for QuickRewards.net, GamingLagoon.com, and CashLagoon.com, the most efficient way of moving quickly through the ads is to click on the links with the middle wheel. This will automatically open the link in a new tab, and you will remain on the current window. The offers still approve regularly, and you save quite a bit of time. As for Swagbucks, install the toolbar, where you will often find Swagcodes, and check back here on the Swidget (Swagbucks Widget), which will let you know whenever a Swagcode is available. I also suggest that you follow them on Twitter.
But really, I think that the best investment is to sign up to all of the above sites. Between them, you can make an extra $50 each month with minimal effort. It takes only a few minutes a day, and with a little extra work, you can easily increase that number.
If you have any questions, or if you sign up and want some help and more tips, feel free to let me know.
Edit (1/5/10): The Lagoon sites have banned my accounts, accusing me of using a proxy, which I assured them I did not use. After providing the required identification that they asked for, I received the following message:
Your ticket has been replied to by James Gabbard.
This was the reply:
This account is permabanned -- sorry
In my opinion, this was a very nonprofessional way to handle the situation. I gave them exactly what they asked for, and I didn't even get a reason as to why my account was banned, just a notice that it is. I don't recommend these sites any more, becuase, after some research, it seems others have had a problem with their "anti-fraud" software being too powerful.
Gomez Peer
I recently stumbled upon this great program called Gomez Peer. It's a great program that pays you for simply running your computer. Sounds too good to be true, right? Let me explain how it works.
You sign up -- under my referral would be appreciated -- and download the Gomez Peer Client. Install the client, which shouldn't take more than a minute, fill in your information, and run it! That's it. The client runs in the background of your computer and doesn't take up much memory. But what does it do?
The purpose of this client is to test the accessibility of websites. For this reason, your computer must have access to the internet whenever you run the client. It makes use of any internet capabilities and RAM you aren't currently using. It's designed not to slow your computer or internet down because it only uses what you aren't.
The payment rates are as follows:
- Online Time (per day): $0.08
- Processing Time (per minute): $0.0002
- Referral Bonus (per Active Referral): $1.00
- Minimum Monthly Payment: $5.00
- Maximum Monthly Payment: $45.00
So, this doesn't exactly seem like a lot, right? 31 days x $0.08 + 44640 minutes per month * $0.0002 = $11.408. And the maximum monthly payment is $45.00? Well, first thing, you can have the client on as many computers as you want, all running at the same time. So, 4 computers running non-stop, you can earn the $45. But not every client will be processing for every minute running. Not even close. So, how do you make that much money?
Fortunately, there is a crack. You can find it here. I've scanned it myself, so you don't have to worry about a virus. I have not tried the client on Vista, but it works on all other versions of Windows, including Windows 7. Just replace the Kernel.jar and PeerReviewProject.jar (found in C:\Program Files\Gomez\GomezPEER\jre\lib\ext\) with the ones contained in the .zip file. Now you can run multiple instances of the client on the same machine. To do this, open up Task Manager (Ctrl + Alt + Delete), select GomezPeer.exe in the process list, and end process. You should still see the client window open, which is how the crack is designed. Now you can just click on the icon for the Gomez Peer Client and open a new instance. Repeat as many times as desired. However, be aware that more memory and internet will be used by the clients, so don't plan on having a hundred up at the same time. About ten or so should be plenty. After that, it will just be a waste.
So, if you want to sign up, please use my referral link. In the referral box, just enter "Dave1005" (without the quotes). If you have any questions, feel free to contact me. Hope you make some money!!! 
At the Car Show
I just got home from the Car Show in town. There were a lot of nice cars, and plenty of "Why are they here?" cars, too. Classic cars are just awesome. I wish that cars now-a-days naturally sounded like the classic muscle cars. All those cars with mufflers to add the nasty imitation sound don't deserve the attention they get.
Anyway, just wanted to post some pictures of the nicest ones there. You can also see them on my Twitter feed.
A nice old Chevelle.
7 Camaros in a row! Heaven!
Camaro #1.
Camaro #2.
Camaro #4.
The rest of the Camaros weren't anything special...
Yup. Straight from "Back to the Future."
While there were more than enough Camaros for me, they didn't have any of the new ones. The 2010 Camaro is perfect. Enough said.
This is what should have been there.
Oh my God! I almost forgot! The best part of the entire show!
Stewie and his Chevy.
Opinions Needed
Okay... So, I've decided I'm going to take a break on the Game Engine Tutorials for a while. I've gotten a few responses about them, but I need your opinions and to know if you want me to continue. Either way, I am going to eventually continue, but I have an idea for a game that I want to pursue right now. If enough of you want me to keep going, I'll work them into my schedule. If not, I'm going to work on the game, and once I finish it, I'll get back to the Game Engine Tutorials.
If you really want to keep going, and I decide not to continue at this time, you can go through the original tutorials on Innovative Games. Some things to note:
- Sean hasn't posted a new tutorial in quite some time, and doesn't seem to be active too much, either
- His engine was built for the PC, whereas ours was going to focus on both PC and Xbox, and then branch in different directions when it was stable
- Not all of the code is the same, so you may have to change a few things
If you want, you can always contact me with questions, even if they are on Sean's tutorials. So, as of now, I am not going to be working on any new tutorials, unless I hear otherwise.
Update (10/20/09): Sean has posted the (re)start of his Engine Series, so be sure to check it out. It seems that he has a clear path set out and a goal in sight. Hopefully, this series will be (even more) successful than his last.
NDepend: Code Analyzer
Recently, I was introduced to a code analysis tool called NDepend by the creator of it, Patrick Smacchia, a C# MVP. After some discussion -- and Patrick offering me a license -- I agreed to try it out and write a review of it.
Now, I have never used a code analyzer before for one reason: I've never had a complete project to analyze! Seeing as I still don't, I still wanted to try NDepend out. So, seeing as I am a huge XNA fan, why not analyze its code?
So, once starting up the program, you are greeted with the following screen:
NDepend's Start Screen.
For anyone that uses Autodesk software, you'll agree that this style resembles their's, and it is definitely attractive. It's sleek, color appropriate (it compliments the Visual Studio IDE), and just all around a nice environment.
Next, in the top left, you find the menu bar. The large "NDP" button acts as the file menu. Next to it is a button I was very interested in: "Select .NET Assemblies To Analyze".
The "Select .NET Assemblies To Analyze" Button.
Once selected, I navigated to the Microsoft.Xna.Framework.dll file and chose it as the assembly to analyze. What came next couldn't have made less sense (at first glance).
The results when analyzing the XNA assembly.
It seems like a lot of images, but trust me: there is a lot of meaning behind them. When you highlight each block, it tells you the class you are highlighting, the property/method, as well the specific namespace. The size of the image represents the proportion of the property/method relative to the class, as well as classes to each other and their namespace.
NDepend also shows all references to outside assemblies. To the left, you will see what is an embedded .NET Reflector, allowing you to explore the assembly's methods and properties. When mousing over any class/method/property, that object is automatically highlighted anywhere it can be found on the screen. This allows for quick access and location.
NDepend is extremely well documented. The site contains plenty of resources on getting started, and obviously goes more in-depth to its features than I could.
Finally, it produces a very clear and organized .html file that you can save and view at a later time. It covers so many higher-level concepts that I can't even begin to explain. If you want to see the entire report for the XNA assembly, you can view it here.
There are other versions, one of which I know is for Java, called XDepend. NDepend is a must-have for any and every serious programmer.
[Thanks to Patrick Smacchia for providing me with this incredible software.]