Category Archives: Marketing

How to Make Money Online at DraftKings

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You can make money online at DraftKings, even if you aren’t a sports fan. DraftKings is a sports betting website that allows users to put money on their favorite teams. You do NOT have to wager any cash, however, to play their free games and win money, prizes, and DraftKings Dollars. Free games are just like their betting games, but they are FREE.

What’s the catch? DraftKings wants you to play the free games, so that you’ll be interested in betting on another game. Most free games have a sponsor that wants you to buy their product; these games provide a soft-sell for them. Some sponsors will ask for your email. Those are the catches, along with the ones in the real sports games.

How do you as a (non)-sports fan make money? Let’s break it down.

Daily Fantasy Sports Vs. Sportsbook

DraftKings offers two ways to play, and the betting portions may or may not be available depending on your state’s laws. Daily Fantasy Sports, or DFS, is what a lot of people play. It’s been described as Dungeons and Dragons for jocks. You pick a set of players from different teams in an attempt to get the highest score for the game. Your score is based on the statistics (stats) your players accumulate during a live game. If you have more points than the other players playing the same game, you win. Some games pay out to the top 50% players. Some pay out only to the top 10. It just depends on the rules set forth by the sponsor. Do not be intimidated. Think of it like the lottery. You’re picking numbers and hoping they’ll come up.

Every game where you select players will have the player’s position, name, average fantasy output, and cost. You have a budget that you cannot exceed when choosing your team. Your job, in the beginning and absent of any analysis, is to choose players who have the highest average output for the least amount of money. Depending on the contest, you may need to have a certain number of players who qualify for certain positions. You won’t have to know what the positions are or what the abbreviations stand for. You just need to choose a team.

With Sportsbook Pools, you pick a set of teams to win their games (or cover the spread), or answer a series of questions about who you think will do what. Some of these Pools aren’t even sports related. They’ve had pools about TV shows, the weather, and other random fun topics of popularity.

Don’t worry about the jargon if you’re new to sports or betting. For your first pick ‘em games, you’ll just want to pick who you think will win. Since these are free, you won’t even have to worry about winning or losing. It’s all about crossing your fingers and hoping those metaphorical ping pong balls come up the right way.

DK Dollars and Crowns

While DraftKings does offer free games that provide real dollars, they also offer DK Dollars and Crowns. These you can only use on the site. Crowns you can convert into betting capital, and DK Dollars are equivalent to real dollars. This is what is known as house money. You can use it for any games you’re eligible to play as long as there is no restriction on the game you choose. You don’t have to use them, but if you don’t they will sometimes disappear because they have an expiration date.

Increase Your Chances

If you don’t want to just plug in random players, you can study the game to increase your figurative chances of winning. You will have to learn the game you’re interested in, like football or basketball. At least, you’ll need to learn the jargon used for the sports.

Once you know some of the jargon, you can click on the research tab at DraftKings and find out what the experts are saying about who to choose. For the NFL, you’ll need to know what week they are currently in. For the NBA and MLB, you’ll need to know what day it is that your games take place. Then you can try to use the experts’ opinions to create a roster.

You can even look at YouTube to find some people talking about the picks and why they choose them. Of course, even the experts get the picks wrong. Sometimes, injuries will knock your players out of the games. That’s all part of DFS sports.

The Spread

When people talk about “the spread” in betting, they are referring to the number of points a team needs in order for a win to count as a win. Winning outright isn’t enough. Teams need to win by a certain number of points. For example, the Bills are seven-point favorites against the Jaguars. If you bet the spread and say the Bills are going to win, the Bills would need to score seven or more points than the Jaguars. If the Bills win the game by three points, you lose the bet. By the same token, if you take the Jaguars to win, and they lose by three, you still win the bet because they lost by fewer than seven points. When looking at the spread, a minus sign before the number indicates that the team is favored to win by that many points. (It’s confusing until you get used to it. Apparently, the guy, Charles McNeil credited with inventing the spread was a mathematician.)

With the free pick ‘em games, I don’t worry about the spread too much. I just try to guess the winner and hope they cover the spread (win by enough points for the bet to payout).

How to Find Free Games

When you log on to DraftKings Daily Fantasy, you’ll need to make sure you’re in the Lobby. A list of upcoming games will load, and you can click on “entry fee.” It should sort out from low (free) to high. If it’s free, click on the enter button and try choosing.

When logging on to DraftKings Sportsbooks, find the “Pools” tab and click on it. There will be a list of pools you may enter in.

Why Play DFS?

Sports is a huge part of American life. It’s a light topic that most people won’t get too upset about, and if it can help you connect with someone else, you might want to learn about it. I learned to love basketball my freshman year in college, so I could live in harmony with my roommate. I didn’t realize how important it would be as I went through life meeting other sports fans. Daily Fantasy Sports offers a way into the sport of your choice while giving you something else to think about and learn.

This article contains my referral links. If you decide to play for real money (of at least $20) on DraftKings, we both will get a betting allowance of DK Dollars. Really, I’d rather hear that you won a free contest than have a DraftKings allowance for games. There are other Daily Fantasy Sports sites. FanDuel and Yahoo! are a couple of others that I will likely explore in the near future.

I wrote this article because the following articles got a lot of response. They were liked, viewed, and some people subscribed to my blog because of them. Apparently, everyone wants to know how to make money online. I want to share the… cents… wealth is taking it too far at this point.

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My Golden Hearts Journey So Far

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I joined Golden Hearts through InboxDollars (referral link) because InboxDollars said they would give me $15 if I donated $10 to a charity through the Golden Hearts website. I thought I would take a chance because getting 50% interest over a month is loan shark-type money. There were a couple of other conditions I had to meet to qualify for the $15, but I don’t remember them now. At any rate, I satisfied the conditions and got my $15, which means they paid me $5 to give me the coins I used at Golden Hearts!

What Is Golden Hearts?

Golden Hearts (referral link to Golden Hearts; use the one for InboxDollars instead) is an online casino where you can donate money to a charity listed on their site and get coins to play their games, including several varieties of slots, bingo, and Jacks or Better. I made my $10 donation to International Penguin & Marine Mammal Foundation Inc. Then I played Jacks or Better.

Jacks or Better

I chose Jacks or Better because I basically understand how the game is played, and it gives me a feeling of control. I get to decide which cards I throw away and which I keep. (Once, when I was rushing through the play, I threw away two pairs. My bad.) Slots and Bingo don’t allow you any sort of control, you just get to watch numbers come up on the screen.

In the beginning, it went really well. I was winning a lot of small prizes. In fact, with my first $10, I won over $10, which means the $10 I donated to charity turned into $25 total for me. The site charges a 50-cent fee to redeem any winnings under $25, so I decided to let it ride. I was going for that $25. After all, I had done really well, so far.

The Gambler’s Story

This is where the typical gambling story takes a turn for the worst. Winning streaks come to an end; doesn’t that mean losing streaks do, too? I knew I could win with Jacks or Better, so I kept playing and I started losing. I’ve gone five days without a win.

The good news is that my cash balance hasn’t declined; it continues to sit above $12. How is this possible?

The Golden Hearts Bonus

Every day, Golden Hearts gives its players a free spin on its bonus wheel. The coins come out from 75 to 2500, and they don’t cost anything. I’ve been using only these to play games on Golden Hearts. When they’re gone, I go back to my other Internet activities. I have to be disciplined and not fall for the winning streak trap; as long as I do, I’m playing with house money.

Know When to Fold Them

I don’t know how long it will take me to reach $25, but even if I quit right now, I will have made $17 profit – $5 from InboxDollars and $12 from Golden Hearts (as of August 10, 2022). If gambling online is something you choose to do, I recommend going through InboxDollars to get to Golden Hearts. Just remember to never bet more than you can afford to lose.

 “The National Council on Problem Gambling operates the National Problem Gambling Helpline Network (1-800-522-4700). The network is a single national access point to local resources for those seeking help for a gambling problem. The network consists of 28 call centers that provide resources and referrals for all 50 states, Canada, and the US Virgin Islands. Help is available 24/7 and is 100% confidential.”

https://www.ncpgambling.org/help-treatment/national-helpline-1-800-522-4700/

This article contains referral links to InboxDollars, where you can make money online. (Check out this article to learn more.) All information presented was true at the time of writing to the best of my knowledge.

How to Make Money Online with InboxDollars

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July 1, 2022 – I did a web search to find out how to make money online, and InboxDollars came up. I decided that the worst thing that could happen was I would get spammed or not get paid, so I joined on May 31. In about one month’s time, I’ve made almost $25. It’s not going to pay the bills, but an extra $25 comes in handy. I’m still exploring the sight, but here are some suggestions that could help you earn more if you decide to join. (Use my referral link above. It doesn’t cost you anything. When you earn rewards, I also earn rewards. More on the referral system below.)

Playing Games

The first thing that caught my eye about making money online with InboxDollars was that I could do so by playing solitaire! I figured I play enough point and click games that give me nothing beyond the satisfaction of doing well and seeing Disney characters interact with the park I built (in Disney Magic Kingdoms). A couple of games of solitaire a day for a little cash would be a little more productive.

Can you really make money playing solitaire? Yes, you can, but only indirectly and don’t expect it to buy you coffee. Basically, as you play Solitaire, Mahjongg Dimensions or one of the other games, your progress bar fills up. When the bar gets to the first dollar sign symbol, you get a scratch card for up to $10. Don’t play it. The second dollar symbol on the progress bar gets you a scratch-it for up to $25. However, the real winner is the third dollar symbol, which gives you a scratch-it for up to $100. It’s the last one that I wait for, and I generally win between a nickel and nine cents. If playing these games is all you do, you’re still pulling in a nickel when you fill up the bar (depending on what scratch-it you go for.)

Games are probably the hardest way to make any money, but if you’re playing solitaire, three match, or word games anyway, you may as well hook yourself up with the opportunity for $100. If you have a smartphone, there are other game opportunities with better rewards.

The Daily List

As long as you have decided to make money online with Inbox Dollars by playing games, you should really maximize your efforts. Start everyday by checking out the Daily List and doing the simple tasks they have there. Answer and Learn is the daily poll that requires you to answer one question. Add a Magic Receipts Offer requires nothing more than for you to choose something to add to your grocery list; you can remove it later. Visit the Deal of the Day and any other pages they may have in the list. These are easy pickings, and if you do five of them, you get a bonus. Do all of them and you get a second bonus.

Make Your Daily Goal

Your Daily Goal will vary from day to day. In order to achieve the Daily Goal, you must earn a certain amount of money each day. Sometimes, it can be 30 cents; sometimes, it’ll be more. Whatever it is, you get a bonus every day, and if you keep a streak going, you’ll get larger bonuses as the month goes on – as much as $3. The Daily Goal is relatively easy to attain if you do the right surveys, but a foray into the Offers area can also get you to the goal on some days.

Take a Survey

The surveys are where you can rack up your money total. The surveys section lists a number of surveys with the amount they are worth and the approximate time the survey will take. It’s important to note that you will not qualify for every survey. In fact, some estimates say you will qualify for about one in five or 20% of the surveys that you click on. Also, some of the surveys will cycle you through three or four qualifying survey pages before you actually take the survey. You may also run into surveys that you seem to have completed, but they never bring you back to InboxDollars. It’s frustrating, but it’ll be better if you don’t get too angry about it.

Find an Offer

InboxDollars has 100 percent free offers. Many of these offers are related to games that you can download to your smartphone and play to a certain level in a certain timespan. Some of them are point and click quizzes that take you multiple web pages while asking questions about which picture matches which.

Perhaps, the most important of these 100 percent free offers are the Click and Earn and Explore and Earn. With these offers, you get between one and four cents for your click or clicks. These links will take you to another page that will send you to the actual place where you can get credit for your effort. While the amount of pennies you can pick up this way varies, it has helped me to make my daily goal on numerous occasions. I have found that I need to go through these pages all at once rather than try to get them in separate sessions. If you see a penny, click it up!

Do a Search

Searches are a great way to earn progress points. This is the information they are looking for, and they are willing to boost your winning potential to get it. Of course, they want a natural search, so it helps if you know what you are looking for. Start with InboxDollars instead of one of the other search engines, and you’ll be able to fill your progress bar. (This is an especially good idea for authors or people who need to search for info because of their job.)

Upload Receipts

Magic Receipts allow you to upload your grocery receipts and make money online with InboxDollars. You need to pick out the Magic Receipts offers related to your grocery receipt and add them to your list. When you get to the list, you need to click on them again. Every receipt is worth a couple of cents. But the price can go up depending on what you buy. Deals can and do change, so it’s important to know what you are looking for.

Because you have a 14-day window to upload receipts, I generally wait until the last possible moment to do so. My Magic Receipts are a last-ditch effort to meet my daily goal.

Paid Emails

Paid emails are another way to drastically increase your progress bar. The email comes to your personal email, click on it and you get progress toward a Scratch and Win. The emails are also in the messages section of InboxDollars.

Refer a Friend

If you have the kind of friends who like to play games online or do surveys, the Refer Friend link will help you increase your earnings. As of this writing, you can make 30% of whatever your friends make when they do activities. For every dollar they earn, you get 30 cents. It doesn’t cost them anything other than their time.

With all of the activities available to make money online with InboxDollars, there is certainly a way to help you supplement your income. Join today with my referral link, and we’ll both be enriched!

What Do We Need to Make Our Store a Reality?

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I was asked what we need to make our store a reality, and the list I came up with was long and filled with all the things you might expect. However, the first thing we need is to learn how to get people to the store. We’ve had a Facebook page, an Etsy shop, a Patreon, an Instagram account, a now-deleted YouTube channel, an Amazon author page, and a website long enough to know that we don’t know how to get people to any of those. We tried ads. We’ve cross promoted. I’ve used all of my SEO knowledge to rank us higher. I’ve taken classes in marketing, gone through five day challenges, and spent a month with a marketing guru; nothing has worked to bring sustained traffic that converts to buyers.

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The Fussy Duck in Salem, Or: Penguinate.com

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The Fussy Duck in Salem, Or is a locally owned, small business that brings together several other small businesses and gives them a place to display and sell their creations and products. Whether you’re looking for handmade items, like penguin plushies, cool wooden signs, snazzy holiday fragrances, or you want a vintage toy that reminds you of when you were child, the Fussy Duck has a treasure waiting for you to find it.

Penguinate.com is one of the small businesses you can find at the Fussy Duck. Our penguins are waiting for you to adopt them for the Christmas Season, read more about them, our books and what the Fussy Duck has done for us!

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The Fussy Duck in Salem, Oregon: Support Small Business Saturday with the Brass Button

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The Fussy Duck in Salem, Oregon is a locally owned, small business that brings together several other small businesses and gives them a place to display and sell their creations and products. Whether you’re looking for handmade items, like penguin plushies, cool wooden signs, snazzy holiday fragrances, or you want a vintage toy that reminds you of when you were child, the Fussy Duck has a treasure waiting for you to find it.

One of the purveyors of treasure is the Brass Button. Owner and Designer Carlie Childs took time out of her busy schedule to talk about what the Fussy Duck means to her, what you can find in the Brass Button space, and her favorite holiday tradition:

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I Deleted My YouTube Account

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I deleted my YouTube account. I will no longer be watching any videos on YouTube or through embedded YouTube players. On Nov. 18, 2020, YouTube sent out a change to their terms of use. In it, they stated that they now reserved the right to place ads on any video they saw fit. If the creator of the video wasn’t in the YouTube Partnership Program (YPP), he or she would not receive any part of the ad fees for that video. YouTube would take all the money and leave the creator with nothing.

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Everything You Think about Hard Work Is Wrong

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In America, you’ve been told that if you work hard, you will succeed, and for most people, that means get rich. However, hard work isn’t the only thing you need. You need to have talent, luck, and to find the right occupation for you. Minimum wage workers have some of the hardest jobs in society. (If you’ve never worked at McDonald’s, you don’t know how difficult that job is, especially if you’re working with a crew of less-than-motivated teens or for a disgruntled, entitled customer.)

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August is the Month to Shop on Etsy: Win $5,000

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Etsy and Mastercard are teaming up to give Etsy shoppers $5,000! From now until the end of August, one lucky shopper on Etsy will receive $5,000 as a thank you for supporting small business and handmade items. I suppose I could probably write that information in another way, and psychologists would say I need to write it six times in order for you to remember it and 22 times in order for you to take action. However, I think more of you than psychologists.

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