Archive for the ‘Earn More’ Category

We wrote about Bing Cashback before, as an easy way to earn real cheese through your regular online shopping.  Unfortunately it looks like that gravy train has run out of steam.

According to the following e-mail notice to customers, the program is ending next month.  Fun while it lasted.  Need more ideas on how to make a little extra cash to help pay off your bills? Check out our Earn More archive.

Bing cashback

Dear valued cashback customer:

We are writing to notify you that the Bing cashback program will be discontinued, and the last day to earn cash back on your Bing Shopping purchases will be July 30, 2010. Until July 30, 2010 9:00 pm PST, it’s business as usual so continue to take advantage of great offers from your favorite merchants. You can redeem all of your earned cashback savings consistent with the cashback terms and conditions and access theBing cashback customer support system through July 30, 2011. We encourage you to redeem your cashback savings and to further support redemption, we are waiving the $5 minimum payout effective July 31, 2010. To assist with prompt delivery of your cashback earnings, please visit http://cashbackaccount.bing.com to ensure your account information is current. For more details and answers to your questions, please visit our frequently asked questions page. Thank you very much for being a loyal cashback user.  We remain committed to delivering great value to our customers, and we are currently working on an exciting new program which you will hear more about from us later this summer. Sincerely, Bing cashback team

It’s a well known fact that taller and more attractive people earn more money.  Although technically illegal, bias in hiring and promotions favors those already blessed by nature with symmetrical features, smooth skin and dreamy eyes.

Now equal employment laws be damned, a new website is looking to cut to the chase and link employers with only the most beautifulest job seekers.

BeautifulJobSeekers.com is that site.  It’s free for job seekers, but charges employers up to $299 for access to view resumes and photos of individual members.  Believe it or not, prospective employees have to actually submit their photo to the site for approval. Users can rate members in true HotorNot fashion.

According to the site:

Many researches related to the job market, have concluded that beautiful people have several advantages over those who are less aesthetically pleasing. For instance, beautiful people are more likely to make a positive impression during a job interview and thus have an increased chance of actually getting hired for a job. And once an attractive person is hired, he or she tends to get a job promotion faster. Also, an attractive person (working, for instance, as a sales representative) tends to generate more business for his or her employer. Hence our tagline:

More Beauty! More Business!

The website was started by Dutch Internet entrepreneur Ralph van Troost, who started Date For Trees, a now defunct website that donated trees for every person who signed up on the dating site.

The site currently lists very few jobs, most in the sales arena.

While specialty job boards abound, particularly in fields that require specialized education or certifications, this niche may be too narrow for its own good.  In  the end, the job market is a market, and those function best where the most buyers (employers) and sellers (job seekers) can meet.  Artificially limiting a job board to prospective employees who are this vain and employers who are this shallow doesn’t bode well for success.

Nice gimmick, but even if you’re a “10″ you should stick to established sites like CareerBuilder, Monster.com and my personal favorite, Indeed.com for your job search.

The honeybees are dying.  Due to environmental changes, disease or perhaps still other undetermined factors, the global honeybee population is in rapid decline.  Veteran beekeepers who keep meticulous count of their hives are seeing their entire way of life threatened.

Because honeybees are used to pollinate many of our most important agricultural products, their disappearance is resulting in a real threat to the long term viability of many crops.  Everything from apples to blueberries to almonds are at risk.

Not to mention the supply of Honey Nut Cheerios.

As a result, farmers are paying a premium for agricultural honeybees and consumers are paying more for honey and beeswax.

This has opened up a new market for amateur beekeepers looking to cash in on an industry that doesn’t require a lot of space, start-up money or expertise.

Urban beekeeping has become a hot trend with support communities and online tutorials.  San Francisco and New York are hotbeds of beekeeping bohemians.

Honey and related products can be sold for big bucks at local farmer’s markets and specialty stores.  That’s because bonus bucks given for products that are deemed local and organic.  Renting bees to farmers who need them for pollination is another potential source of income, but to do that one would need to have a bevy of bees.

Beesource.com and other sites can help budding beekeepers get their hive on.

Want to see what the buzz (pun intended) is all about, check out this video of a beekeeper in Manhattan from CNN.