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States should collect Internet sales taxes

Chief Editor Ted Como brings you the latest tech advice on Tech Bytes

Published Tuesday, September 1 2009 - (1) Comments

In these tough times we are saving money where we can and looking for additional income and there are opportunities you might pursue using your computer, first and foremost being selling on eBay.
All one needs to become an eBay marketer is a digital camera, a credit card, and "stuff" you don't need. The process is simple: take pictures of your merchandise and save them to your computer, visit ebay.com and register as a new user, click the "Sell" button, follow instructions on classifying and naming your merchandise, upload your pictures, and wait for the bids. I've sold a lot of merchandise on eBay and found over the years that folks will buy almost anything.
Do not insist that buyers only pay via certified check or money order; that just sends them away. Allow payment through PayPal or make clear merchandise will ship when a personal check clears. Give as much detail as you know about merchandise, ship immediately upon payment, and read eBay's very thorough information for sellers.
Other online opportunities may involve finding online taks for which you are paid, such as helping with surveys or searching for information but a word of caution. There are a lot of scam sites out there promising untold riches. Typically, they involve downloading some program or process that will earn you lots of money - don't do it. Legitimate sites match you with companies looking for folks with time on their hands, www.mturk.com, for instance.
At that site, you may become a "Mechanical Turk" worker. Mechanical Turk is a wierdly named web site but legitimate, that matches people looking to make money with people looking to get something done. You can work from home or accept assignments that take you out of the home, at your convenience.
Jobs needing doing are called Human Intelligence Tasks, or HITs. For each HIT there's information on what the job entails, what it pays, and time alloted. Once you set up an account, click on a group of HITs for specific information and click to accept.
American Consumer opinion operated by Decision Analyst, Inc., pays you for participating in surveys - www.acop.com; visit www.wikianswers.com and enter the question " Where do you find legitimate survey research companies?" to find more.
If you have a good command of language and grammar - writing experience - there are numerous freelance opportunities online. A good place to start is www.freelancewriting.com which lists opportunities under headings like magazine guidelines database, and the freelance writing jobs network at www.freelancewritinggigs.com. Also try http://www.freebyte.com/makemoney for additional ideas including selling photos to online photo providers, or looking for data entry or bookkeeping jobs. But again, many, if not most of the web sites promoting work-at-home schemes are illegitimate. Look for online jobs through your local newspaper classifieds or craigslist.com or monster.com.
Any online work opportunity that requires you pay something first, or that asks for information other than just your e-mail address, is likely fraudulant.
Win7: As we get closer to the October Windows 7 release date, the new operating system from Microsoft is gaining more and more respect. Here's a site that details seven good reasons to switch to W7: http://www.wired.com/gadgetlab/2009/08/windows7-seven-reasons. Says one reviewer: "Upgrading from Windows XP to Windows 7 will be like ditching your old Toyota Camry for a sexy, new Nissan GT-R. Everything from the typography to the icons, and from the toolbar to the windows, has been refined with some extra detail, polish and shadows. Finally, Microsoft creates a clean, modern look that competes with Apple's finely designed Mac OS X Leopard."
Maps Compare: At http://googlemapsmania.blogspot.com click on "Comparing On-Line Map Providers" under Top Posts at right. On that page, click on "Maps Compare" to open a window with four maps each focusing on the same geographic area. The site places Google Maps, the Google Earth browser plugin (which you might have to download but it's no problem to do so,) Yahoo Maps and Microsoft's Bing maps on the same page. You control all the maps by moving just the Google map.
Kitchen Hints: To keep potatoes from budding, put an apple in with them. Use a meat baster to make pancakes. Zap garlic cloves in the microwave for 15 seconds and the skins slip right off. Many more kitchen hints may be found at: http://www.bearhaus.com/kithints.html.
3D Fun: You'll have a lot of fun at this site: www.dhteumeuleu.com/dhtml/rotate3D.html. Just click your mouse, and watch the effects - fascinating.

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FYI, eBay requires payment through PayPal now. Payments through PayPal is eBay policy. Guess who owns PayPal?

John Wayne | 9/27/2009 - 9:12 PM - ( Comment

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