Archives for 2017

What does Plenty of Fish Cost and is it Worth Upgrading?

Should I upgrade my POF Membership

Well there are a few benefits to upgrading your POF membership. I don’t personally believe that most of the benefits on the site are worth it but you may disagree.

First the cost of POF (Plenty of Fish)

If you choose to pay over a 12 month period it means you pay less per month. About £6.78/$8.35 per month, £8.50/$10.46 for a 6 month Plan and a significant increase to £12.90/$15.88 for a 3 Month Plan.

If you’ve already been on the site awhile and have had a positive experience already I would recommend the 12 month payment for less per month. If you think it might be a flop just go with the cheaper alternative

The Benefits of Upgrading your Membership:

Being able to Upload more images to your profile: This isn’t much of a benefit. The only profile pic that really matters is the main one. You have more than enough on the free account.

Unlock every user’s extended profile: Not really that important since there’s rarely much to see.

See if your emails were read or deleted: This is a somewhat better feature although it can be discouraging to find out just how many dismiss your emails. However at least you know whether they’ve seen it or not. This can save you sending another message just in case they missed the last one

Experience POF ad-free: Not a significant benefit if you’re on a PC but if you use the site on a mobile the ads can be a bit intrusive.

Find out the date and time someone viewed your profile: Not that important. What matters is that they’ve seen your profile in the first place.

Send three gifts per day: I’ve never really seen any benefit in sending gifts. Sending a gift is pretty pointless and looks rather cheezy. They either like you or not and sending a gift can make you look desperate.

Some unpaid members who’ve paid for the pleasure of sending a gift consider it a bit of a bullying technique into getting someone to pay more attention to you then they originally would have.

See who viewed your profile and you voted yes/maybe on: Can be demotivating when you find out someone viewed your profile but never bothered to respond positively. I’d actually rather not know.

The only two benefits of signing up with POF are:

Stand out in all searches: This is much more important. The whole point of the site is to find a date. Standing out in all searches does increase your chances quite considerably, but only if you’re a women, or a great looking guy!

Why?
Because on POF, men significantly outnumber women. Therefore it tends to be men who search and initiate a conversation. Women can afford to just respond.

Show up first on Meet me: Showing up first on Meet me will benefit you considerable if you’re attractive, not so much if you’re a less attractive guy. If you’re an attractive guy you will get a lot more opportunities to respond, knowing that they’re attracted to you. If you’re an attractive female you will get a ton of meet me notifications.

The downsides of upgrading are two fold. Firstly the cost, secondly upgrading may make you look desperate. A long term member should be able to tell whether you’re a paid member or not, on the other hand it can make you appear more serious.

Conclusion

The site claims becoming an upgraded member can double your chances of meeting someone. However, I would say this is somewhat of an exaggeration. It really depends on whether you visually stand out and make a great first impression.

Upgrading does increase your chances of finding a date – marginally if you’re a not so attractive guy, significantly if you’re an attractive female.

[author-details=Sarah Johnson]

What is SFI affiliate and is it a Scam?

Should I join SFI Affilaite or is it a scam?

It isn’t a scam but I wouldn’t recommend joining SFI Affiliate. Its both an affiliate program and a MLM (Multi Level Marketing) program who sell over-priced products.

The reality is that SFI is partnered with TripleClicks.com and the main purpose of SFI is to train you to become an effective affiliate and referrer.

While SFI Affiliate is free to join, it’s hard to earn money unless you’re buying products yourself every month or referring others to the program. This gives you EA status.

According to another review, once you purchase a product, you’re awarded Versa Points (VP) so you can upgrade to EA status. The alternative is to refer others to join the program who purchase products, allowing you to upgrade to EA status and earn commission from sales that they make, or their referrals multiple generations down the line.

They claim to provide a signup bonus of $20 just for signing up. However you only get that after making your first internet sale and it’s hard to make sales.

And here’s the reason why.

They claim that each time someone clicks your link (or banner) and buys the product, you earn a handsome 45% CV commission.

However in order for their affiliates to earn 45% commission they charge outrageously high prices to customers who buy their products.

For example I did a search for iphone at TripleClicks.com and their iPhone 5S 16 GB Silver is selling at $495.00. Compare that to Amazon who are selling exactly the same product for only £294.41, around $200 cheaper.

That’s why they can afford to pay 45% commission. Because they charge prices much higher than other online stores.

The problem is that few people would buy their products at this price when they can buy them much cheaper from other online stores.

They also claim that TripleClicks.com sell 90,000 products from around the world. However Amazon sell 480 million products.

The affiliate earnings for Amazon are much lower than TripleClicks and only in the single digits. This is what you would expect for tangible, physical products, rather than downloadable products.

However you’re more likely to make a sale as an Amazon affiliate as the products are more affordable and people trust Amazon. Also with Amazon it’s not necessary to purchase products yourself or refer others to earn decent money.

Another disadvantage of TripleClicks is that their products are often shipped from overseas. For example the example I gave, the iphone 5S is shipped from India whereas Amazon’s products are usually shipped from the same country. Amazon has many warehouses and so the delivery time is significantly reduced.

When signing up for any affiliate, you have to ask yourself this question. Would you buy the products sold from that affiliate? If the answer is no, then you’re better off finding another affiliate.

The success of an affiliate or MLM company is dependent on whether people will actually buy the products. Are they affordable? Can you buy the same product somewhere else much cheaper? How long will the product take to ship. What is their returns policy?

Is there a better alternative to SFI Affiliate

For a much better alternative I would recommend Wealthy Affiliate which is Free to Join. I’m with Wealthy Affiliate myself and I believe it’s the best program out there, hands-down. It actually shows you how to do affiliate marketing the correct way so you can create profit straight from home.

Kyle and Carson are the owners and have years and years helping newbies get started and pointed members in the right direction.

WA is here to stay and is just improving every single month. It does work, but only if you’re willing to put in the work yourself! The reality is that it isn’t easy to earn a living online unless you have the right knowledge.

Click here for Wealth Affiliate

How to Find a Date on Facebook

How can I use Facebook for Dating

Don’t make the mistakes that can get you rejected. Here are six tips to help you find a date on Facebook from initiating a friend request to messaging her on Facebook.

Reasons why People Prefer Facebook For Dating

There are a number of reasons why people prefer to find a date using Facebook rather than initiating a conversation face to face:

Reduces the risk of rejection

Asking someone for their phone number face to face takes more courage and risk. Also by initiating a friend request you get a chance to ‘test the water’ and see if they’re interested first.

Get to know them first

It gives you the chance to get to know the person first. Getting to know their relationship status, their friends and interests gives you the chance to share something you have in common before taking things further. Sharing comments, liking their posts, and messaging them gives you the time to build rapport with them first before asking them on a date. It also helps you decide if they’ll make a good boyfriend/girlfriend.

Easier Conversation

Facebook can make conversation easier. It’s difficult to think of what to say on the spur of the moment. Chatting on Facebook via instant chat gives you the opportunity to consider what you’re going to say before saying it.

Show your best first

Facebook gives you the opportunity to show the best side of you first and what makes you most attractive, showing your unique traits and characteristics.

Tips to Finding a Date on Facebook

1. Befriend her Friends First

Assuming you have little or no contact with the person in your everyday life, it may seem too out of the blue to initiate a friends request straight away. They may simply reject your offer making it harder to contact them again in future.

Females feel more comfortable associating with those their friends already know. If they think their friends already know you, it gives the impression that you’ve already been judged to be trustworthy. After you have befriended their friends – who you’re not attracted to – you could then initiate a friend request with someone you are.

2. Start off with something you have in Common

Facebook gives you the opportunity to know them first, so exploit this opportunity to find out what you’ve got in common. Whether it be friends, an event or a shared hobby. If you don’t know much about the subject and need to fake it, at least do a little research first. You can research anything nowadays with Google.

3. Don’t Creep her Out

They may initially be very suspicious about chatting to someone they don’t know. Don’t creep her out by:
1. Flooding her with instant messages
2. Being overtly sexual
3. Getting to the point too quickly
4. Showing you know too much about her. She may think you’re a stalker
5. Come Across as Desperate
6. Don’t reference her looks to early

4. Have a Smiling photo of yourself for your Profile Picture

First impressions matter. If you use a friendly smiling photo for your profile picture, it will be the first photo they see when initiating a message or a friend request. These initial few seconds before deciding to accept or reject your friends request can make all the difference.

5. Consider have a Conversation with them in Person First

If she doesn’t know you any more than the homeless guy down the street, initiating a friend request out of the blue may unnerve the person and cause them to reject you. If your paths cross in person, you could show a casual interest in them first and then take things further online. That way they already know who you are, you’re not a total stranger and you’ve already built up some rapport with them first.

6. Use some humour

Lastly it always helps to use some humour when possible. Humour is important for romantic attraction. Humour points to having a sociable and agreeable personality helping to build trust.

[author-details=Sarah Johnson]

How to Prevent your POF (Plenty of Fish) account from being Deleted

Why does POF keep deleting my account?

If you’re Plenty of Fish account was deleted there are a number of reasons why and some steps you can take to prevent it happening again

It can be frustrating having your POF account deleted, particularly if you’ve spent some time and effort writing out your profile and customizing it to your liking.

Why your POF Account was Deleted

According to the POF blog there are six reasons your profile can get deleted

1. You are looking for casual sex
2. You’re married and not separated
3. You’re a scammer, a spammer, or using a fake or underrate profile
4. You’re just plain rude to others on the site
5. You post inappropriate photos
6. You login from a country where PlentyOfFish doesn’t exist yet

Plenty of Fish is the largest dating site in the world and it’s very difficult to keep track of everyone’s profile and monitor private conversations. Therefore POF relies upon both human intelligence and artificial intelligence system to detect suspicious activity that fits any of the above.

While I’m not familiar with the technical methods used by POF to detect suspicious activity I do know that the system will look for regular expressions or patterns of behaviour that could indicate suspicious activity.

These could include words, phrases, searches or selections you make indicating that you’re just looking for a hookup, that you’re married, or that you’re just using the site for commercial reasons.

Being rude to others or posting innapropriate photos on the site may result in your profile getting flagged by other users, leading to your activities being more closely scrutanized.

Websites can track your IP address which means that they know geographically whereabouts you live. If you login from a country where PlentyOFFish doesn’t exist yet, this would be an activity that is easy to detect and flag by the system.

How to Prevent your POF account from being Deleted

Simply be more cautious of the words, phrases, searches or selections you make that could indicate suspicious activity.

If you’re looking for a hookup there are plenty of sites that cater to this. If you chose to use the site for this there are more discreet ways of going about it.

Do not message people too quicky as your activity could be interpreted as automated activity usually carried out by spambots.

Do not copy and paste the same message to multiple users. It’s common to copy and paste the same message to multiple users to save time. After all sometimes you have to send multiple messages just to get one positive response. Copy and pasting the same message can save time. However this could be interpreted as automated behaviour. Therefore try and vary your messages, even if it just involves changing a few words here or there.

Taking time to create and customize your profile will indicate you’re a real person and not a spambot automatically creating worthless profiles just to send out automated messages.

My last piece of advice is to simply be pleasant, humorous and interesting. You’re more likely to make a positive impression, find a date and not get your account deleted.

[author-details=Sarah Johnson]

How to setup WordPress with Yahoo Web Hosting?

How do I setup WordPress with Yahoo Web Hosting?

In an earlier post I explained why you should re-consider setting up WordPress with Yahoo Web Hosting. However if you choose to do so here is a step by step guide:

First visit smallbusiness.yahoo/webhosting:source=geocities and Choose your plan.

You can then choose to register a domain with Yahoo or use one you already own:

Before paying for Yahoo web hosting and perhaps a domain you will need to signup with Yahoo Aabaco Small Business:

After you have completed the signup process, verified your email, added your details and you’ve received the getting started email you should end up back on the Yahoo web hosting home page where you can access your account.

Click “Access Your Account” to access the web hosting control panel

Click on the Create & Update Tab

Scroll down and click on WordPress just under Blog Tools:

Here you will see the form you need to complete in order to install wordpress:

Step 1. Add in login information, password, and Email you want to use with this site.
Step 2. Select the checkmark “Make my blog my homepage” to install your WordPress site on your homepage and for your entire site.
Step 3. Next choose “Install in this default directory…”. As yahoo does not allow you to install WordPress on your root directory, you must select a directory name or a pre-existing directly in which to install WordPress. It will still install your blog on your homepage.
Step 4. Accept the license agreement and then click Activate

WordPress should now be successfully Installed!

Select “Edit Blog settings” to access your WordPress dash board where you need to enter the Username and Password you just created.

Or alternatively Select “Add a post” to add a post or “View your blog” to view your blog

[author-details=Simon Hough]