But here’s the problem I’m currently facing – I can’t register for the online account. Unlike Maybank2u which can be registered via most of the Maybank ATMs, the Public Bank online account requires you to register and get the PIN number at the branch which you’ve registered your debit card. This is very very inconvenient for me because I registered my card in Kluang, Johor (I went there while I was on vacation) but I’m based in KL.

It’s funny how such a large bank will have such old and out-of-date system. For now, it’s impossible for me to register online since I no longer go back to Kluang. I’ll just have to wait for the monthly statement or cancel it, and register at a KL branch.

Other option? There is another debit card which we can use which is from Al-Rajhi Bank but the ATMs are pretty rare in Malaysia. We do have 1 Visa debit card from Maybank but that cannot be used. As of now, Maybank has not allow international-based transaction for their debit card. So, if you think you can use that for PayPal withdrawal, don’t. It will not work yet.

Hope it helps.

For example, online money making. There are a lot of sites which require you to work hard in order to earn a few cents. Don’t worry, just subscribe to their “platinum” or “gold” or “silver” or anything program, you will earn few dollars for the same amount of work! But you need to pay in advance. Most of them don’t work out in the end. So don’t fall for their traps.

Another thing is those marketing program which requires you to pay a certain amount of money in order to join their ‘elite’ membership. To me, another nonsense.

I personally will not fall for such traps. I will try my best not to ‘lose’ money before actually earning anything. The next thing you want is to hand over your hard-earned cash, and rewarded with blank promises.

So better be careful with your money. It’s easy to fall trap to all those get-rich-quick investment or money earning scams. But as long as you don’t commit anything first, it will still be okay for you.

So now, I can verify that CIAO does pay!

And when there are users who rate your reviews, you get to earn from $0.01 – $0.03 per rating, depending on the “valuation” of the item.

However, the $1 per review has since been reduced to $0.25 per review. The $1 is during their promotion which is already over now. $0.25 is still good money since you can cash out once you’ve reached $5, as compared to ReviewStream which needs at least $50.

Here’s the details of the transaction:

Dear Lim Zhi Guang Alvin,

Ciao GmbH just sent you money with PayPal.

---

Payment details

Amount:		$6.11 USD
Transaction Date:		13. Nov 2008
Transaction ID:		1B21100SA82134333
Subject:		userpayments Oct 08

Try it out when you have time. All I can say is that it does pay and if you’re much more hardworking than I am, it can be quite rewarding. 

This program is actually putting an additional layer in between you, the users, and Yahoo. It uses Yahoo search engine which is good enough for me. You can actually set the search box in your browser (normally at the top right) to use this Homepage Friends. The amount rewarded can be pretty random but it is there, unlike some online sites which do not reward you for what you’re doing. Also, you can always install a Google plugin (for Firefox users) and use the Google search whenever there’s a need – at work or something important. For personal and not so important things, maybe can use this instead and can help you earn some money.

The payout rate is £20 or £25. I cannot remember. It’s still a long long way to go for me. Just put it there and look at it after few months. Whether this is reliable or not, I’m not sure too. I know there are people who managed to get the payout.

Just want to share this with you in case you’re interested.

Here’s the link – Homepage Friends.

Hope it helps.

WARNING: A lot of people have reported that this is actually a scam site since they no longer pay. Please do not use this site anymore. I’ve removed the link here. Just keeping the post to inform anyone who searches for Homepage Friends.

Anyway, to apply for PayPal is quite a straightforward process. You fill up your details and most importantly your email address. PayPal account = your email address and you will use it in all your payments. So make sure you have the right email address especially the primary email address.

Next, you will need a credit card, preferably a VISA credit card for Malaysians. This is because PayPal (as of now) does not allow people to withdraw the fund in PayPal to MasterCard credit cards. Only VISA cards can be used. When adding your VISA credit card, you will need to verify the transaction before PayPal confirms the card to be yours. You can go to your credit card statement, copy the 4-digit in front of the transaction and paste it to the card verification field inside PayPal. This is your PayPal Code.

Quoted from PayPal.com

Your unique, randomly generated 4-digit PayPal code is displayed on your credit or debit card statement next to or near the PayPal fee. In the item description section, you will see it next to the word PAYPAL.
Allow a few business days for the PayPal code to appear on your online card statement. If you do not have online access to your statement, you’ll need to wait for your statement in the mail.

The PayPal will charge $1.95 to your credit card in order to verify it. Don’t worry about it since the $1.95 will later be refunded to your PayPal account after your card has been confirmed.

Workflow to withdraw money from PayPal

However, for credit card, it’ll only minus the cash from your balance. Say you have $100 in your PayPal, withdraw it, it’ll become $95 (PayPal charges $5 per withdrawal and 1% if you withdraw the maximum $500). This $95 will help to minus all your credit card balance and you will not get any cash out unless you use a Debit Card.

For Debit Card, PayPal only recognizes Public Bank Debit Card. There are already people who managed to withdraw successfully into their debit cards but there are also people who are facing some issues.

Either way, that doesn’t deny the fact that the money is still with you. Enjoy and if you have any problems, do not hesitate to ask here.

The rate is 1 review – USD $1 and if there are ratings by other users, it’ll generate $0.01 – 0.05 per rating depending on the product. I’ve wrote about 7 reviews and have earned USD $ 7.21.

The good thing here is that you can review what other people have reviewed and the length of the review does not need to be long. It can be short and precise – you still earn $1. Furthermore, the minimum withdrawal is $5. As long as you have $5, you can request to withdraw the money to your PayPal. Ciao will pay you in the middle of next month. For example, you request to withdraw somewhere in between 1 April – 30 April, and you’ll be paid in the middle of May.

If you have any questions, feel free to ask me here.

And if you’re interested, head towards to Ciao and register yourselves there – Ciao US. I do get some referral benefits.

Enjoy! Hopefully this site will not be as strict as ReviewStream.

p/s… one way to check if the site is popular or not, just check the Google Page Rank. You can get that if you install the Google plugin into your Firefox. Useless sites normally do not have good page rank.

I’ve registered in some of the review sites which pay people for posting up product reviews. I’ve tried Epinions (very very very slow earning rate), SharedReviews (very slow as well), DooYoo (only available for UK and Europe residents) and Ciao (available to UK residents). All those, I must admit, are not that easy to earn money.

Then I came across ReviewStream. Unlike the rest of the review sites, this site lets you write ANY product reviews. You can write in a simple form since there’s no minimum or maximum length. You can also write on any product since the title of the review is up to you to put. The company requires you to have a PayPal account though. The rate is around USD $ 2 per review and if your review is so-so or there’s already another such product review, you might be paid BULK RATE instead. Bulk rate is the current review rate divided by 5. So the current rate is USD $ 2, the bulk rate would be USD $ 0.40.

I’ve just got the acknowledgements from ReviewStream of my 2 reviews and I’ve earned USD $ 2.40. Not too bad since the reviews are not really lengthy.

But there are some things which you need to pay attention to.

• The account which you are going to use is your email address. There’s no user registration. There’s a nickname which will be tied to your email address. That’s all. And also, always ENSURE that your email address in ReviewStream account is connected to your PayPal. Otherwise, you will not get anything. This is very important.
• The difference between bulk rate post and full rate post is quite subjective since there’s no proper guideline given by ReviewStream. But I’ve read it from somewhere that the recommended length of the review should be at least 300 words. This is not stated anywhere in ReviewStream though.
• You will receive an email right after you posted the review. One review, one email. Always keep the email because that’s the only proof that you’ve got. If you managed to search the site and saw your review, without any acknowledgment from their side. You can use the email to ask them. Once you’ve received the acknowledgment email, you need to wait 72 hours or more for them to confirm that your review has been accepted. They will send you an email with the rate charged and your account’s balance.
• Be consistent and be precise. Don’t go out of topic because your review might end up getting rejected by them and you earn 0.

Other than that, I find that ReviewStream is a very good place to earn side income. It’s up to you whether to try it or not. Writing a short review for them doesn’t take that much time as well. And you get to review on ANYTHING. Not that difficult, right?

If you’re interested to join, go here – join ReviewStream. Yea, I do get a little bit of benefits from here. Hope this helps.

NOTE: I’ve received my first payout from ReviewStream. So happy that all the hard work finally paid off.

That’s why I started looking for methods to earn money online. I want to earn as much as possible in order to be there during the sales carnival for Kuala Lumpur Stock Exchange (KLSE). I’ve found quite a few which I will go through with you all as time goes by. I need time to review them first.

Today, I will tell you about myLot.

In myLot, you can post up any discussion topics, reply to the existing discussions or even attach some picture files. It’s just like our Lowyat Forum. The only difference is that, you’re getting paid for it. Not much, but still getting paid. I’ve posted around 20 posts (started 4 discussion topics and around 18 replies) during my first day in there, and I’ve earned around USD $ 0.60.  Not much, but it’s better than my Google Adsense. Furthermore, you don’t need to be an expert in writing to start earning. It’s as simple as that and you also get to know more people.

What you need to do to earn a steady income from myLot is to post up to around 10-20 replies a day, and each has around 4 lines or more. Attach picture files if you’re starting a discussion and start a discussion topic which will attract a lot of participation. That’s it.

If you’re expecting to earn lots of money from the internet, then this site is not for you. For me, it’s just a place for me to de-stress since there are many topics which I can talk about. And it gives me the opportunity to earn some side income.

If you’re interested, go here – Join myLot Community.

And yes, I do get some benefits from the referrals and you don’t lose anything. If you insist of not giving me the referrals, then do remember to add me in there – daydreamer20.

Hope this helps!