Over the weekend I decided to upgrade to WordPress 3.0. With this update apparently being a significant one with a few changes and new features, I was a bit hesitant about going ahead with the upgrade. What brought about the hesitation was the number of stories out there about people who have gone and upgraded to the latest version of WordPress only to end up with a ‘broken’ site that has taken them hours and hours to fix. Another reason why I was a bit hesitant was that I was not running the latest version of Fresh News by WooThemes either which meant that I had two big things to worry about.

One thing that put me at ease was a tweet from WooThemes team stating the following:

For those who missed it earlier, all our themes are WP 3.0 compatible and you can upgrade WP with peace of mind. : )

After reading that, I went ahead and downloaded the latest version of Fresh News and upload it to my site. That out of the way, I then moved on to do everything that WordPress tells you to do when upgrading. I no time at all, I was up and running on WordPress 3.0 using Fresh News 2.4.0. The whole process was a lot easier than I thought it was going to be. I attribute that to WordPress and WooThemes designing their products in such as way that makes them very user friendly.

So why am I even going on about this? Well, if you are a blogger or thinking about blogging, it pays to have a premium theme whose designers keep up to date with WordPress. WooThemes makes sure that their themes are compatible with the latest version so that all you need to worry about is blogging! Another very big advantage is having access to support facilities which include, theme documentation, forum facilities, knowledge-base and tutorials which come in handy. If you are thinking about getting your hands on a premium theme, WooThemes is a good way to go.

I have an exam on Saturday and should really be studying for it but I just got an email from Infolinks who just told me to dream on! When I saw the subject before I opened the email I was wondering what the? But as I read the email it became apparent what it was all about and I just couldn’t pass on the opportunity. In a nutshell, they are giving a few publishers the chance to live out their wildest dreams; on them!!!

All I need to do to be in on a chance is answer two questions and here goes:

1. what about Infolinks makes you happy?

Besides them being better than other similar services, they respond to questions or requests I have in a very timely manner. That makes me very happy because there are a few services or program providers out there who you will not get to hear back from quickly or even get a reply from at all (I won’t go into details about the bad experiences I have had). An example was when I emailed them out of the blue to find out about their affiliate program which I had read about but had no idea how to join. I not only got a response (from Account Executive Jamie M) a few hours later, it included my own personal referral link. That kind of service makes a big difference in my books even more so given that I am not one of those people that makes tens of thousands of dollars a month. They take everyone and everything seriously regardless of who you are!

2. What can Infolinks do to make you happy, really happy?

This question was pretty simple to answer. Since my crazy self decided to quit my job and go back to school  (and move cities in and amongst that) I have been dreaming about getting away from life for even just a couple of  days. Why? It has been a while since my brain (which seems to have turned to mush) has had as much of a work out as it’s had over the last three months. I’ve been tired, irritable and even wanted to give up! One thing that I have dreamed about doing for the longest and even more so now is hopping onto a plane and taking a short 4 or so hour flight to Rarotonga (Cook Islands). First thing I would do when I got there is just sit on the beach for a day or two and do nothing but enjoy the weather, my wife’s company (God knows she needs a break after putting up with me especially during exam time) and go for a quick dip now and then to see what the aquatic world has to offer. After that I would take in a few sights (time permitting) before heading back to NZ. The getaway would include no laptop and I wouldn’t even bother to turn on my mobile phone when over there and completely disconnected from the world.

There you have it, a nice and simple dream that would make a world of difference! If you haven’t already done so, sign up to Infolinks (and yes, this is a referral link) and see if you will be as happy with them as I am. Back to studying now!

Why haven’t I posted anything in three or so months? Well, I took a nice and longer than expected break which I spent at home in Zimbabwe with my family. The vacation also meant giving blogging a break so that I could really put in some good R & R. Even if I did want to do a bit of stuff online, that would have been a little frustrating due to connection speeds over there.

Anyway, when I was over there, I came across a guy who was heavily into computers. One thing that he was getting more and more interested in and wanted to get into was blogging. The one thing that he was not too happy about was the lack of ‘African’ themes. He went on about how if he was going to blog he wanted his site to have an African look and feel to it. I did a quick search online myself and saw that there really weren’t that many African themed themes out there (I could only find one).

Something else about this guy that got me wondering was that he had the know how on how to create themes. I quizzed him on why he didn’t just go ahead and create themes for platforms like WordPress and Blogger. He really didn’t have an answer as to why he had not thought about it and done so already. That right there is a good example of someone not using their knowledge and skills to their full potential.

Internet penetration rates are on the rise in Africa and my guess is it will lead to an increase in the number of bloggers on the continent. Chances are, there will be a number who want to be identified as being African or having a connection to Africa and would want a theme that shows just that. With that in mind I gave him the idea of coming up with some templates which he can distribute for free and eventually get to the point where he has premium themes for sale. Who knows, he could end up like the likes of WooThemes, only difference being he would be exclusively creating African themed themes.

That there was just something that came to mind during the short conversation I had with this guy and something that could turn into a potential money maker. By the sounds of it, this is something that should be a no-brainer since he already has the technical skills. Of course, it is something that won’t happen overnight and he will have to come up with a plan and put a bit of work into it but it is something that is not impossible. I don’t know what you guys think about it but I see it as a good idea especially seeing as he is using skills he already has.

What you should do right now is take a bit of time out and think about what skills you have and how you can use them to create a revenue stream.

If you are a regular reader on Ninety Nine Ways then you will have noticed the theme change to Fresh News by WooThemes. Last month I won a contest and managed to get my hands on the theme which I had originally intended to use on one of my other blogs but after using it for a little while I thought that it would be a good fit for this site too.

Getting it set up was really easy and at the moment I am still working on customizing it so some things may change over the next few days but nothing too major. Some of the things are a bit more time consuming than others but the support forums have proven to be an invaluable resource where I have been able to get the right fixes to get things looking the way I want them to look or working the way I want them to work.

If you are on WordPress and you don’t already have one, you should seriously consider getting yourself a premium theme. From my experience so far, WooThemes would be a very good option. They have feature rich themes to fit all sorts of blogs, customizing themes is relatively easy, different homepage layouts and colour schemes are available for a lot of the themes, most if not all have widegtized sidebars, for all your queries on what to do to fix something they have excellent support forums and the list goes on.

You too can get your hands on a WooThemes theme to see what they are all about for the following:

• Standard Package from $70 (Bonus 2-for-1 offer)
• Developer Package from $150 (Bonus 3-for-1 offer)
• Standard Club Membership $125 + $15/month thereof
• Developer Club Membership $200 + $20/month thereof

Or, you can come back to Ninety Nine Ways at the start of next month to see how you can win a Standard Theme Package and save yourself $70. There may be more than just a WooThemes theme you can win so make sure to come back then.

I recently did an interview with the famous affiliate marketing expert Murray Newlands at murraynewlands.com. You can get to know a bit more about me by reading through the interview. This is what I had to say:

Tell me about your Blog?

Ninety Nine Ways is a blog on ways of making money online as well as offline. I also write about things that people can do in their everyday lives to try and save themselves a few more dollars without changing the quality of their life. Why do I write about this stuff? Well in this day in age I want to be financially stable and I don’t see the point in making money when you can’t save some or at least spend it wisely and I figured that there may be people out there who feel the same way and may be interested in what I have to say.

What was your first blog?

My first blog was ‘Show Me The Money’ on blogger, a blog that I must say I started off because I wanted to make money. That was not the best move because setting up a blog purely for the purpose of making money doesn’t get you anywhere. I didn’t have any idea about what I was doing and in the early stages it was a mess.

What is the biggest tip you would give to a newbie blogger?

Blog about something you are really interested in and passionate about. With that being the case, finding stuff to blog about won’t be a problem. That was something I discovered when I set up a second blog about the country I call home – Zimbabwe.

What do advertisers do that you wish they wouldn’t?

Not going into too much detail, it does get to me when one day they are you friend and the next they don’t want to know you. One thing I have learnt of late from situations like that is don’t be afraid to ask – you will be surprised at the kind of responses you will get.

What do bloggers do that you wish they wouldn’t?

Lots of ads and very little or no useful content. I literally find it painful on my eyes when I come across a blog that is covered in ads and I can’t see the content because there isn’t much there.

Where do you see growth in the blogging field?

That is a really hard one to answer. These days when something big happens around the world chances are very high that you will hear about a blogger or bloggers having some sort of impact on the the topic being reported no matter what it is. Blogging is everywhere!

What new ideas are advertisers coming up with to take advantage of new trends?

I haven’t really paid a lot of attention to this but one thing I see a lot of with some people on twitter is that their tweets are mainly ads. So maybe a number of advertisers a trying to……………

To Read the rest of the interview head on over to – Make Money Online Blog Blogger Gerald Ndoro of Ninety Nine Ways to Make Money Online Blog

For those of you who have known me for a little while my intentions of migrating from Blogger to WordPress should come as no surprise to you. This was a move I first thought about making months if not years ago but I just didn’t get around to actually doing it.

As you can see I have finally moved Show Me The Money over to WordPress and with the move came about a change in what the blog was all about. If you are interested you can read a bit more about it here. Coming to grips with the basics of WordPress wasn’t too much of a hassle because earlier in the year I did a little experiment and set up a phpBay site which has been going well. Whilst working on my phpBay sites (which I will write about in future posts) I was impressed by what WordPress had to offer and I was pretty much sold on the idea of migrating. The only reason it took a while from then, was because I was waiting to see if I could win myself a WordPress blog through Rocky’s competition. That wasn’t to be but it wasn’t something that was going to stop me from moving and I got the ball rolling.

The move was something I decided to go ahead and do by myself but there are a number of people out there who provide services to do the move for you (most of them charge a service fee). There were a few people who helped a great deal and either directed me towards tutorials on migrating, provided a few useful tips and tricks and answered any questions I had to the best of their ability. That being said, I would like to thank Martin – Creating an Awesome Home Business and Clement – Clement Nyirenda’s blog world .

I hope you will enjoy what Ninety Nine Ways has to offer. You can easily stay up-to-date with what’s going on at Ninety Nine Ways by subscribing to free email updates.

April 1, 2009 was the day that a new independent earner tax credit was introduced by the New Zealand government. The tax credit was supposedly put in place not only to let people keep more of their hard earned money but also to encourage spending to give the economy a bit of a boost.

Anyway, yesterday morning The Edge radio station put out radio ads, website banners and a press release telling their listeners that a Stimulus package had been announced where the government had rewarded those who earn over $50,000 per year with a $5,000 cash bonus into their bank accounts overnight. They even went as far as to set up an 0800 number for people to call and get more information on the bonus.

The first I heard of the bonus was when my wife got back from her early morning workout session. I was on my way to work and already running late and she was going on about whether or not $5,000 had been deposited into my account. I was a bit confused and wondering what she was going on about. I knew that some sort of tax cuts were coming into effect in April but didn’t think it meant a $5,000 lump sum so I kind of brushed the idea aside.

Things started to change as I was driving to work and listening to all the ads, news broadcasts and people calling up talking about the bonus they had received. It all seemed a bit too good to be true but I started wandering and asking myself “what if?” and “could it be?” and was starting to get excited but trying to stay calm. I was going too wait until I got to work to hear what, if anything my colleagues had to say about but no-one seemed to be talking about it. A few minutes after getting to work my wife called me to say that no deposits had been made into our accounts. It was then whilst I was speaking to her that it clicked that it was April the 1st. All I could do was laugh!!

What was your April Fools?

Technorati Profile

One thing that a number of people who are making money online tend to neglect or maybe ignore is the issue of paying taxes on their online earnings. One of the reasons for that is that they do not see the amounts they are making online warranted enough to pay tax. Truth of the matter is, there is a high chance you need to pay tax on your online earnings if you are earning a substantial amount of money.

When it comes to earning money via various publisher networks and affiliate programs (a lot of which are based in the US), people are asked to enter their tax information when they sign up. If the new sign ups are not based in the US they generally do not need to provide any information. I got into discussions on forums a while ago and from there on in, the general consensus is that a lot of people start earning, get paid out and forget about paying taxes.

A number of people are also turning to auction sites such as eBay and Amazon to sell goods for a few extra dollars and experience more success than they expected. With that being the case, it is not long before these people find themselves investing more time into selling more and more stuff online and making more and more money and more often than not they are going to receive payment via a service such as PayPal. Last year in the US, legislation was passed that requires the processors of third-party payments (such as PayPal) to report to the IRS individuals who receive at least $20,000 a year in credit or debit card charges from 200 or more transactions. When this legislation is put into place it will make it that much more difficult to evade the taxman.

As already mentioned, the tax laws are different from country to country. For example, if you are selling goods here in New Zealand on a site such a TradeMe, you should declare your online earnings if; you acquired the goods you are selling with the purpose of on-selling, the purpose of the activity is to make a profit or your business involves dealing in these goods. The tax department (IRD) is also said to work closely with TradeMe to make sure people meet their tax obligation.

What I am getting at is, if you are setting out to make a bit of money online it may be a good idea to check what tax laws apply to you. Leading on from that, it may also be a good idea to keep track of your earnings and this can easily be done with finance software such as Quicken, Microsoft Money and QuickBooks. You never know just how far you will get with making money online and if you get to the point where you really need to report your earnings you should be well on the way to being set to avoid the hassle of being chased around by the taxman.

Get an IRS approved 6 month tax extension with no excuses needed. Visit FileLater.com.

Twitchhicker, also known as Paul Smith is a guy who is finding his way halfway across the world with the help of the Twitter community. His aim is to travel from Newcastle upon Tyne, UK to Campbell Island, New Zealand (a sub-Antarctic island 700km south of New Zealand) in 30 days with one of his rules being that he can only accept travel and accommodation offers on Twitter from users who are following him. I had no idea he existed until I saw John Campbell interview him earlier in the evening (here) from his current location in California.

I was very impressed by the whole idea of him setting off and making his way from Newcastle upon Tyne to Campbell Island and it just goes to show the power of social media if you use to your advantage. Paul had an idea, developed it and made it a reality before anyone else got onto it.

One thing that struck me the most during his interview was the mention of Air New Zealand offering to fly him across the Pacific. I did a bit of research and found out that he asked them if they could help getting him from LA to Auckland and they were more than happy to help. Him going out and asking if they could help and actually getting it brought me to thinking about SlyVisions talking about what SXSWi (by the way, Twitchhicker made it to SXSWi as well) taught him (What Did SXSWi Teach Me). The lesson was – Don’t Be Afraid To Ask!

In one week I have gone from reading about not being afraid to ask to seeing another person asking for help to get 10546 km (and more) and getting it. That was my biggest lesson of the week. Just imagine how much further we could get in a number of areas in our lives if we weren’t afraid to ASK?

Follow Twitchhicker here @twitchhicker

Is the credit crunch affecting you?

The webinar touched on a number of topics which included

• Knowing the product
• Marketing
• Who you are marketing to
• What sort of thing to take into consideration in your marketing efforts
• Paid search and creating Box.net paid search campaigns

What are your thoughts on the presentation.

Maximize your marketing ROI with Yahoo! Sponsored Search. Sign up and get a $25 credit.

In the middle of last year I applied for Chitika eMiniMalls and the application was declined very quickly. I thought to myself that I would apply again after my blog had been up and running for while. At the beginning of the week I went through the process of reapplying and when I hit the submit button after entering all my information I was taken to a screen that told me my application had been declined right there and then. The message also included a note stating that their system had detected that I had put in a previous application that was declined.

When I checked my mail this morning I had received the following from them:

Hi Gerald,

If you have any other questions, please feel free to ask. Welcome to Chitika!

I read a fantastic post Don’t Get Money Worshiper Syndrome by Tony at The ScholarPreneur where he was basically talking about what it means to be an entrepreneur, and the point of having money. He wrote about creativity being one of the driving forces of entrepreneurship which I agree with 100%. If you are able to come up with an innovative idea and turn it into a money making venture you are bound to succeed. In the rest of the post he went on to talk about what money really is – a tool to obtain something we want. Just like everything else, it is something that can be used in a good or bad way. People have different uses for money and varying reasons for wanting to have money. The way in which we use it will eventually determine our financial success. As Tony put it, ‘if you throw money at perceived problems you will only create more problems’.

This got me to thinking about the way people can very easily obsess about making money. An obsession of any kind is not good and things can go wrong when you are obsessed. If you are out to make money you should be having fun whilst you are at it.

You could wake up one day and decide that you want to start making some real money and go out and try anything and everything without having a think about how and what you are going to do. In a lot of cases you end up wasting a lot of time, effort and maybe even money trying out all sorts of things that won’t work for you. What I am trying to get at, is not to obsess about making money, to at least have a plan on how you are going to go about doing it. Setting up a few rules to follow wouldn’t be a bad idea either. Steve Jobs is someone who has made a lot of money over the years. These are his 12 Rules of Success:

1. Do what you love to do.
2. Be different.
3. Do your best.
4. Make a SWOT analysis.
5. Be entrepreneurial.
6. Start small, think big.
7. Strive to become a market leader.
8. Focus on the outcome.
9. Ask for feedback.
10. Innovate.
11. Learn from failures.
12. Learn continually.

One thing that I don’t see too often on sites/blogs that go on about ways of making money is a mention on savings. Putting aside a certain percentage of what you earn is a very good idea. There is no point in making money, spending it all on whatever you may spend it on and at the end of the day have nothing to show for it. You will need money for your retirement and if you haven’t already started putting some aside there is no time better than the present to start doing just that. A really good read on this and other topics is The Automatic Millionaire by David Bach. If you haven’t already read it, I would really recommend it to anyone who wants to live and finish rich.