What you'll need to participate in online money making

     There are several preparations you will need in order to fully participate in all of the opportunities that are offered on this site.  Generally, these are for your own benefit and privacy.  You can make necessary changes if you feel they are necessary.

 

 

• New email address – Remember that you are getting a very good deal on whatever you are getting.  The trade-off is often a poor Privacy Policy on the website.  Fortunately, there are steps you can take to retain your privacy.  A new email address will be needed; I would recommend Gmail (http://mail.google.com/) because of the superior options it offers.  It allows a very large amount of space, the ability to archive letters, simple interface, and the option to forward email to another email address.  You will need all of this.  Also, you can set it up with a POP3 email interface for free.  You will want to make one email address for all of the offers, surveys, and sign-ups you complete that you will check.  If you decide to make additional email addresses also, have them all forward to this first one.  The Google spam filter will screen most of the mail, but the legitimate emails you need to see and / or keep will go through. 
  
• Voicemail Number – Unless you want the possibility of marketing calls to your home or cell number, you will much appreciate a voicemail number to use when you sign up for things.  You can get one for free.  The best website is Google’s GrandCentral (http://www.grandcentral.com/).  It has a large amount of space and you can have it forward calls to another number if you want.  It will also allow you to obtain a local telephone number.  Other great alternatives include K7 (http://www.k7.net/) and Laser Voicemail (http://www.laservoicemail.com/), which you need to sign up for via a toll-free call.
  
• Business name – Many opportunities may require you to enter a business name.  You can use your own if you want, or you can just make one up.  Try to make it sound legitimate.  Example: Langley Group, LLC or Johnson & Favre, APLC. 
  
• Street Address – Because many offers might not accept P.O. boxes, you will have to have a physical street address or a UPS Store Box address.  It will be helpful to gather more than one address if you can.  If you need additional addresses, from time to time, a great way to create a new, unique one is to simply append a suffix to your current one.  Example: 123 Main St. #23, 123 Main St. Apt 23, 123 Main St. Flr 2, 123 Main St. STE 42.  All of those addresses are unique, but the postal service or courier service will still deliver them to your residence.
  
• Credit Card -  Do not use a debit card for anything mentioned here; it does not offer the same protections that credit cards do.  Under federal law, you can be liable for the first $50 of any unauthorized charges, and it is much harder to get an invalid charge removed.  Additionally, someone will have direct access to the cash in your bank account.  Use a credit card – they offer chargeback service that will make it very easy to remove any accidental or unauthorized charges.  Additionally, you should use a credit card that will allow you to generate virtual account numbers.  Citibank and possibly also Bank of America offer this possibility; it will allow you to generate a separate, valid credit card number of each transaction that expires after one month.  This helps limit your exposure to any fraud, and it is crucial for keeping necessary records.  There is a separate section on credit card selection on this website.
  
• Bank Account – A simple, free checking account will be sufficient.  Do not waste monthly fees on checking accounts.  If you need help choosing a good checking or savings account, there is a separate section for that on this website.
  
• Calendar Software -  There are many different options for this.  I would suggest using Microsoft Outlook, because you can configure it to start up each time the computer turns on, and it offers good formatting options.  A pop-up reminder also appears a certain amount of time before each task needs to be done.  I personally get the Microsoft Office series through a student program funded by my university, so if this isn’t a cost-effective method for you, Google Calendars (http://www.google.com/calendar) offers a great solution that will be with you everywhere you go.  The calendar program will be instrumental in keeping track of when you need to cancel offers, participate in studies, or any number of other things.  These things will be discussed in more detail later
  
• PayPal Account -  This is free to sign up for at http://www.paypal.com/.  This is necessary for receiving payments from many survey sites, eBay, and other opportunities.  You will need to enter your credit card and bank account numbers to sign up, but they will never be charged.  PayPal offers a money market account through which you can receive interest on the balance in your account.  Also, the offer the PayPal Debit Card, which give you currently 1% cash back on all purchase made, credited to your account very soon after the purchase is made.
  
• Automatic Form Filling Software -  This is any software that will automatically fill our web forms for you.  It will save you a ton of time, and there are many solutions out there.  I personally just use the AutoFill feature that comes with the Google Toolbar (http://toolbar.google.com/).