Tea with AK71: Macarons from ZUJI.

Today, I got a treat from ZUJI. They sent me a box of six macarons. What are macarons? I know what is macaroni. ;-p

Very nicely boxed and ribboned.

 
Wikipedia says it is "a sweet confectionery made with egg whites, icing sugar, granulated sugar, almond powder and food coloring. The macaron is commonly filled with buttercream or jam filling sandwiched between two cookies."

Letter says to eat within 3 days but the expiry date on the box says 8 Dec 2011.

According to a colleague, these macarons are quite pricey and they are being sold in atas places like MBS. Price? $3+ each! Oh, my goodness! I could have a very good lunch for $3! Sorry for the exclamations but I am not well informed when it comes to atas food and atas malls.

If I was not told, I would have thought the box of macarons is at most $5 in price. So, this box of 6 macarons is worth more than $18!

I was told that Canele is definitely branded.

Macarons melted and cracked during delivery but the aroma was heavenly. Yummy too.

Oh well, just food to me. It is very nice of ZUJI to send me something sweet for booking hotel rooms and sometimes air tickets through them. I do have a sweet tooth. :)

Planning a trip? Check if ZUJI has a good deal for you! Click here.

Tea with AK71: Removing AdSense from ASSI for now.

You might or might not notice that I have removed all the ad space for AdSense or Ads by Google from this blog.  This is because I have noticed multiple clicks on these ads from possibly the same source for several days now.

I understand from other bloggers that Google is quite strict in policing and weeding out fraud. Having multiple clicks within 1 minute from possibly a single IP address could quite possibly be classified as fraud. This could result in my AdSense account being terminated by Google.

Although I appreciate the support, I would like to appeal to readers who have been super supportive in clicking on the Ads by Google to refrain from the behaviour described.

Why am I taking action only now? I was wondering if it was an aberration but it seems to be an established pattern now. If it is apparent to an IT dinosaur like me, it would not escape an IT giant like Google.  So, I am suspending all ad space for AdSense or Ads by Google on this blog for the time being.

If you guys are worried about a loss of income for ASSI, just visit my other sponsors, Ads by Nuffnang. Also, give my ZUJI banners a chance if you are planning to travel and I would get a small commission if you find a good deal.


You might also want to visit my other blogs:

http://investgoldsilver.blogspot.com/

http://travelphotosvideos.blogspot.com/

Of course, you could also choose to contribute some money if you really like what ASSI is doing. A $15 donation is equivalent to 50c a day for a month or you could think of it as 10c a day for 5 months! Haha. ;-p

The donate button is on the left sidebar and looks like this:



Thank you and have a great weekend. :-)

Tea with AK71: Income from blogging.

I have blogged about this before but it is timely that I revisit this topic as JW (aka momoeagle), the blog master of Wealthbuch, took it really hard when Adsense decided to stop working with him recently.  I believe that he would look past this unpleasant episode in his life as a blogger and soldier on in good time. :)

I started blogging out of curiosity and boredom last Christmas Eve and I have been hooked since.  I suppose I really enjoy writing and I enjoy sharing my ideas with people. On 10 March 10, I blogged that "I didn't know I could make money from blogging. However, I did discover quite quickly that there are many ways of making money through a blog."  Adsense, it seems, is the predominant way for most bloggers to derive some income from their blogs.

LP, the blog master of Bully the Bear was one of the first people I made contact with in blogosphere.  He told me how he was unceremoniously banned by Adsense.  Later on, I was told the same thing by my friend and blog master of Time to Huat.  So, you don't see any Adsense ads in their blogs.  So, fearing that I would suffer the same fate, I decided to remove Adsense from my blog.

I enjoy blogging and if I do make money out of it, I consider it a bonus. However, since I do not make much from blogging, it would have a lower priority when compared to other activities which I derive most of my income from.  We live in a world which runs on money.  So, we have to be realistic sometimes, if not most of the time.  The day I could derive an income of mid $X,XXX from blogging every month like some famous blogging personalities in Singapore, blogging might be the only thing I'd do. In fact, I was told that Xiaxue could make $XX,XXX per month from blogging!

The fact is I am a financial blogger and we have a very small niche.  Financial bloggers in Singapore have even a smaller niche. 20,000 pageviews or more a month like Xiaxue's blog?  Not in my lifetime, realistically.  Well, I suppose if I colored my hair like Xiaxue and wrote catchy songs about floods in Orchard Road like Mr. Brown, I could improve my blog's readership numbers. Hmmm, I wonder... Nah.

I can only hope that my readers would visit my sponsors (Nuffnang's ads), give my ZUJI banners a chance when planning to go on an overseas trip and feel generous enough to make a donation (Donate to AK71 pocketmoney fund on the left sidebar) towards my blogging efforts.  So far, I have received small sums of money from all three avenues.  Thank you for the bonus. ;-)

Related post:
Planning to travel? Check out ZUJI.

Planning to travel? Check out ZUJI.

Do I make money from this blog?  I was asked this question recently.  Frankly, I started this blog out of curiosity last Christmas Eve as I was wondering what is this blogging business all about. I've always enjoyed sharing my ideas with friends and family.  So, I guess I've just moved up to the next level with my blog in that I am sharing my ideas with a bigger audience.  Of course, it helps that I actually enjoy writing.

I didn't know I could make money from blogging. However, I did discover quite quickly that there are many ways of making money through a blog, especially for a blog with a strong readership base.  I found out that there are sites which actually charge a membership fee and there are some which charge a fee for subscription (and within the first month of my blog being set up, I actually received an email asking me how much do I charge for subscription and, a little bewildered, I told the writer that it's free).

The most common way to make money from a blog is through ad placements.  For some time now, I've had ads in my blog.  There are companies which would pay according to the number of impressions my blog generates.  There are companies which would only pay if visitors actually click on the ads.  There are companies which would only pay if visitors click on their ads AND actually buy something.

I checked my account with ZUJI recently and found that someone made a purchase and I have been credited with a small percentage as a commission.  It works! 

So, when you plan your future holidays, please click on the ZUJI advertisement banner in my blog's header and see what they have to offer. You get a good deal AND make a small monetary contribution towards my blogging efforts at the same time.  Cool?  Thanks for the support.  :)