May competition is out now
May 6, 2008 – 9:03 pmThe May competition is now out. http://www.peazyshop.co.uk/may-2008-competition.php
Article submission sites
May 1, 2008 – 2:59 pmIn my last post I discussed submitting articles to certain article creation sites with links pointing back to your own website or blog in order to increase your website importance in the search engines. In my quest to find more - article submission sites I have been scoring the internet for more and have found a selection of sites that you can post your work on - and best of all they don’t use the ‘nofollow’ tag.
http://hubpages.com/
http://www.gather.com/
http://www.tumblr.com/
http://www.squidoo.com
http://www.spongefish.com/
http://www.xomba.com/
http://blogdrive.com/
http://wordpress.com/
http://www.zimbio.com/
http://www.vox.com/
http://freeblogit.com/
https://www.livejournal.com/
http://terapad.com/
How to build valuable links to your website and get paid for it too
April 27, 2008 – 5:11 pmAbout a year ago I discovered Squidoo.com and never gave it much of a look over. For anyone that doesn’t know what the site is about Squidoo allows anyone to write content and post it on their own section of the site in much the same way that a blog works. If you want to make money from your content then you can sign up for Google Ad Sense and place ads on your pages and any revenue that you make from a page on Squidoo you have content on you split with Squidoo and yourself.
If you have a fliar for writing then sites like Squidoo.com, Gather.com and Hubpages.com, all allow you to make money from your content and network with other writers.
Now I’m not the best at writing so I would probably never make much money from my articles but what these sites do offer is something far more useful. You may or may not be aware that building links is the key to driving traffic to your websites AND to increasing your positions in search engine results for a keyword. The Google algorithm is complicated; it uses onpage and offpage factors to decide where your website will appear in the search engines. For example if you have a website about money making, and you want your website to appear for the term money making you want to have as many links pointing to your website with the phrase ‘money making’ in the link text. This is an over simplified example but is essentially what happens.
In the world of search engines a link acts as a vote, links from high quality websites are more valuable than links from low quality websites. Because many sites allow you to add your own links to them like social bookmarking sites; most of these sites add a tag to the HTML called the ’nofollow’ tag this means that any links pointing to your site from a link with a ‘nofollow’ tag will not be counted by Google in its algorithm.
So you need to find sites that you can add links to that don’t use the ‘nofollow’ tag. Which is exactly where the article websites - Squidoo, Hubpages and Gather come in. I am in the middle of building a small website about Puerto Pollensa, so I need to source links that point to the site with the keyword ‘puerto pollensa’ in them. The easiest way I found to do this is to write an article about Puerto Pollensa then post it on Gather - Puerto Pollensa and Hubpages - Puerto Pollensa and make sure that there are links pointing back to my site from each article.
This is a simple and effective way of building valuable links to your website or blog.
Check your loose change for 2p’s (1983)
April 13, 2008 – 7:29 pmI was listening today to a radio programme today on BBC radio 4 in the car. They were talking about rare coins that people have found in their loose change that have ended up being valuable.
The first coin they talked about were the 1933 UK pennies. No penny coins were pressed in 1933 because the banks had such high volumes of them there was no need to press any that year. Acoording to the Royal Mint website http://www.royalmint.com/Corporate/Museum/georgeVpenny.aspx 6 (possibly) 7 specimen 1933 penny coins were pressed. The last one that was sold at auction went for over £20′000, so you don’t need to rush to your attic for a rumage because your not going to find one.
They did however give me some hope at the end of the programme - In 1971 when the UK changed from metric to decimal all 2p coins were printed with the word ’new’ on the front.
From 1971 to 1981 all 2p coins were printed with the word ‘new’ on the front, then in 1982 the royal mint decided that they were not really new any more so started pressing them with the word ‘two’ instead. However in 1983 some coins were pressed with the word ‘new’ by mistake and these coins went into collector ‘coin sets’ and not general curculation. According to the programme these coins are rare and you can expect to get around £300 at auction for one and there were a possible 450 pressed.
Now you maybe one of the lucky people to have one and you didn’t know it was valuable so have a look in your attic!
Have you ever found anything rare in your attic? Let us know by leaving a comment.
New Eco Articles Section On Peazyshop
April 13, 2008 – 10:38 amThe environment is something that we are passionate about here at Peazyshop so we have created a new eco section which will feature all the interesting eco and environmental stories we find. to visit it you can find a link at the top of every page, or click the link below.
The environment is something that we are passionate about here at Peazyshop so we have created a new eco section which will feature all the interesting eco and environmental stories we find. to visit it you can find a link at the top of every page, or click the link below.
April charity fundraising out now
April 7, 2008 – 8:03 pmThe April charity fundraising page is now up. http://www.peazyshop.co.uk/peazyshop-fundraising/
April Competition now out
April 3, 2008 – 10:04 pmThe April competition is now live and ready to go http://www.peazyshop.co.uk/april-2008-competition.php
How to buy and run a website for less than a £1 per year
March 30, 2008 – 7:49 pmIf I said that I could run a website for 2 years for less than £2 would you believe me? I used to think that I was getting a good deal on my web hosting which costs around £20 per year, until someone on the forum kindly pointed me in the direction of some completely free (ad free) web hosting.
I now have around 4 sites running off this free web hosting and can safely say that it is great value! Then last week I discovered that the domain registration company that I have been buying domain names off are running a £5 discount code promotion at the moment as well. If you use the discount code - TD20080331 at the checkout of UK2.net.
So that means I can buy a .co.uk or .org.uk domain for £2 for less than 2 years and can host it on free web hosting as well.
If you don’t know anything about buying domain names and hosting them somewhere else, then the one thing to keep in mind is that you will need to change the DNS settings. (wikiepdia can explain DNS better than I can).
Essentially when you buy your domain name from UK2.net and you visit the login page (shown below for my holidays in paphos website). The DNS settings will not be pointing to any server since ou have just bought the domain. What you need to do is change your DNS settings so they point to the free web hositng. This is easy just click on the ‘DNS management’ tab which you can see in the image below.
Then change the DNS settings so they point to the free web hosting, which you can see below. This means that in the window you see in the image below click on ‘change nameservers’ and change the primary and secondary name servers to dns1.000webhost.com and dns2.000webhost.com respectively.
Then wait till the changes have taken effect and you you will be able to access your domain using an FTP programme and upload onto your free web hosting.
Sewing On A Budget
March 25, 2008 – 10:31 pmRising fuel costs, house prices, rents, spiraling food bills; it all gets a bit much. We all find ourselves watching the budget, and looking for new ways to budget. One way is to take up sewing. At first glance, this may seem an expensive proposition, but this is not so.You can combine a hobby like past time with your need to clothe and furnish and save money, as part of your entertainment budget, now becomes part of your living allowance budget too, so both costs go down.
To begin with, you will need a sewing machine (well, you CAN sew by hand, but that is VERY time consuming!). No need to trot down to the shops or browse catalogues. Those new machines are expensive, and what you pay for a cheap one, you can get a most excellent machine and accessories for if you go the used route. the second hand machine will also have much better performance and durability than a cheaply built import too. For most sewing tasks, all you need is a straight stitch. For the few tasks you need a zigzag stitch, you can buy an attachment to do the task. So, looking at an older machine will be just fine, or perhaps grandma’s old Singer or Jones up in your mother’s loft might do! Look around. Just as my example mentions old machines family might have, so might persons on Freecycle. EBay is also a good source, but be certain that it is where you can collect it, as if not packed just right, a machine may end up only good for parts. if the machine is a hand crank or treadle, don’t despair. These two people powered types are excellent for learning to sew as the machine won’t run away from you, and you can most easily adapt to electricity by wiring on a motor quite simply.If you acquire a straight stitch only machine, a few inexpensive must haves to be truly useful are:
a buttonholer attachment. This will make different styles and sizes of buttonholes, moving the fabric about to achieve the zigzag stitch effect needed.
a seam gauge- this you place on the machine so your seam is straight and your hem is the desired width without variation
zipper foot- needed for placing zips on
edge stitching foot- this is a very versatile foot for sewing various seams
walking foot- for matching plaids, squares, and also for quilting
sewing reference books- you will want a copy of the manual for your machine, for the buttonholer, and general sewing reference book. If you buy no other reference book, I heartily suggest the Singer Sewing Book by Mary Picken. You will see a review of it in the book review section of this site.
There are several other feet and attachments you can get, but these are not needed until you have mastered the basics and get into advanced types off sewing, if you do.
Having gotten your machine, it is best to have it serviced, to ensure it is working properly. This will also ensure you do not find a need for alter costly repairs. if you cannot afford a service, or a repair place is not nearby, you can find online sewing groups on Yahoo and MSN as well as sewing machine enthusiast sites where you can find out the very simple techniques for servicing your own vintage machine. once that is sorted out, and you have mastered simple seams and pivoting with the needle, you are ready to consider the making of projects.
To keep within a budget, it is highly recommended that you think carefully before buying patterns or fabrics. Think of what you actually rend to wear and use, and avoid wistful thinking. It might be lovely, but it is a waste if it just sits on the hanger or clutters the place up! When you have settled on what you need to make, look about for free patterns online by Googling. Also keep an eye out for sales of second hand patterns on eBay ad sewing pattern sites, as well as sales at local and online haberdashery shops. be patient and take your time to find just the right pattern for what you are after, at just the right price, and that is designed for your skill level, and you will have no problem getting a satisfactory result all the way around.
When looking for fabric, consider making over old clothes. For example, old twill work trousers with popped crotch seams are no longer any good for general wear, but with the seams unpicked provide plenty of good material for a sturdy pair of trousers for a young child. Old unremovable stains from work can be got around by having the old outside sewn to face inside as well, and no one will be the wiser.Worn out cellular blankets can find new life as wadding for inside a patchwork quilt, and jeans with the knees ripped beyond gone can be reused for patchwork squares, material to make appliques on clothing, and more. Other resources for cloth include markets and haberdashery shops. With the plethora of online shops, and the strength of the pound against American, Australian, and Canadian currency, it pays to sit and figure out overall costs for what you are after from more than one source. For example, it may be cheaper to order denim from a UK based vendor, but for flannel, an order from Canada might save you money.
With planning, organisation, and proper practice, you can turn out a designer style wardrobe and furnishings for the same price (or less) of sweat shop produced, mass marketed goods. Those embroidered and appliqued jeans you saw at the department store for £35 can be made by you with surprisingly little effort for as cheaply as £15-20 depending on how if you make or buy in your embellishments, and how heavy the quality of denim you elect to buy. That means you have basically pocketed a savings of no less than £15 for yourself, and not only got yourself those jeans, but spent time enjoying making them, over a couple of evenings, so spent no extra cash on entertainment. Now that is budgeting and getting to enjoy life too.
Some of my own projects can be viewed at http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=29124&l=1d502&id=634629781
Frugal gardening - how to save money
March 6, 2008 – 1:20 pmGardening in the UK is a billion pound industry. Whenever the sun is shining, crowds flock to garden centres and come home with a car boot full of garden-related products. These days you can even order a ready-made vegetable garden – all you have to do is plant it.
But gardening doesn’t have to be an expensive hobby. If you’re gardening on a budget then there are some simple ways that you can make your garden add a lot to your life without costing much at all.
The first thing any gardener should do (whether they’re on a tight budget or not) is to find space for a compost bin or heap. If you want a plastic compost bin (very handy for small gardens), then check out the RecycleNow website, which can tell you whether your local council is offering discounted compost bins. If your council isn’t listed then give them a call – some offer discounts but aren’t good at publicising them.
If you don’t fancy a plastic bin, or want to make a really cheap one, then you can make a wooden bin out of old pallets (there are lots of internet sites that offer instructions). Remember to find something to cover the heap with to keep the heat in. Most people use old carpet for this, but anything will do.
Once your compost bin/ heap is ready, keep feeding it your garden waste and kitchen scraps. The RecycleNow website is handy again, if you don’t know what you can and can’t compost. In a few months you’ll have turned your waste into garden treasure – compost that will feed your garden and can even be used for container plants.
Next on the list is a water butt. This is particularly important if you have a water meter, but using rain water on the garden is better for the environment and the plants. Again, check with the local council or your local water company to find out if they offer discounted butts. You can make a water butt out of any container that’s large enough, but make sure you wash it out thoroughly to remove the previous contents. Food-grade containers are best if you can find one.
Now that you’ve got the nuts and bolts of a frugal garden, you’ll want some plants. Whenever you’re visiting friends or family, have a look around their garden. If they’ve got a plant you like, ask them if you can take a cutting or collect some seeds (if it’s the right time of year) or ask them to do it for you. Most gardeners are happy to share. In fact, many have large plants that really need dividing and they’ll be happy for you to take a clump off their hands!
Once you’ve exhausted the possibilities of the gardens you visit, you can turn your attention further afield – there are plenty of internet sites for swapping seeds and plant material. And you may well find spare plants (and gardening magazines, tools, pallets, plant pots and all kinds of useful things) being offered on your local Freecycle group.
In some places you might be able to find a local seed swap taking place in spring. Most seed swaps offer free entry to people who bring a few seeds to swap, and then allow you to take home whatever you want.
Finding space for even a small kitchen garden can bring great savings. Even if you have to buy seeds, a packet of mixed salad seeds costs less than £2 and will keep you in fresh salad leaves all summer for less than the price of a bagged salad from the supermarket.
Herbs are also a good investment. Some grow well from seed, but for others you’ll need to beg a cutting or buy a plant. But you’ll have fresh herbs at your fingertips all year round (pot some up and bring them indoors for the winter!) at a fraction of the cost of those tiny bags and pots of herbs in the shops.
Once you get the bug you’ll be finding space for all kinds of vegetables and fruit. Many are easily grown from seed. If you need plants then check out those on offer at the discount shops and supermarkets (Lidl, Aldi, Wilkinsons and Woolworths are all worth a look) early in the year.
Finally, remember to think about recycling in the garden. Plastic bottles are endlessly useful, as scoops and funnels, plant pots and cloches. Small plastic trays are ideal for sowing small amounts of seed, and if you find two matching clear ones (or get one of those clear ‘clamshells’) then they make an instant propagator, too. Larger items can be recycled into pots for your container garden – anything that holds compost and water but also allows water to drain away can be pressed into service.
Most gardening expenses can be avoided with a little planning and thought. You will need a couple of tools (a trowel, at least), but might be able to pick them up at car boot sales. A watering can is useful, but you can use plastic bottles or a bucket. For safety reasons you should find yourself a pair of boots to protect your feet (from spades, forks and heavy objects!) and a pair of gloves to do the same for your hands.
By Emma
To listen to Emma’s podcasts visit - http://coopette.com/blog
Or if you have some money saving gardening tips you woudl like to share at Peazyshop come and post them in gardening section of the forum
