Currently, in addition to everything else I do online, I am a journalist and Editor over at WorldNewsVine. And, a while back (in fact almost a year ago, how time flies!) I told you about writing how-to articles for eHow.

I do have to admit that my schedule, after doing five or six pieces, became so crazy it was very hard to get back into the step-by-step method of writing. However, there is money to be made writing for eHow and you do not need a web site or a blog to write for them. In addition, they have recently teamed up with Demand Studios.

If you’ve never heard of Demand Studios there may be a good reason. Typically it is difficult to get accepted by them. A quote from their welcome email states:

You are in good company at Demand Studios. Our writing community is a select group of writers who produce high quality articles for several brand-name websites on the Internet.

Your fellow writers average more than six years’ experience as professional writers and have been published in publications like “The New York Times,” “Rolling Stone, ” “ESPN the Magazine, ” “Runner’s World” and “Reader’s Digest.”

That’s some “resume” and great experience and exposure. I tell you this for the sheer fact that there are numerous ways to make money online. One of them is writing and building a reputation for yourself.

Consider writing for a living as you decide what direction to go or what to select online.

Living in Las Vegas, snow is a rare commodity. It gets cold, and snow up on Mt. Charleston, but generally it’s once in a blue moon for it to snow in the Valley and stick. However, as I type we are getting flurries. Who knows, we might be making snowmen in a little bit (they did on the other side of the valley day before yesterday).

And… in my continuing odd post for the day, I read something interesting in the Las Vegas Review Journal. A commentary written by Gail Collins, a columnist for The New York Times.

I’m not going to replicate the entire article, but the section that caught my eye about dogs:

“Folks at the University of Vienna conducted a test in which dogs were asked to shake hands over and over and over again. If you have any experience with dogs, you will not be surprised to hear that they were absolutely delighted. And they didn’t care about being paid! The opportunity to perform the same trick endlessly with a stranger in a white coat was reward enough.

Then the researchers brought in new dogs that were given a piece of bread as a reward for every handshake. The uncompensated dogs watched, lost their innate love of mindless repetition and grew sullen.

“They get so mad that they look at you and just don’t give you the paw anymore,” said Friederike Range, one of the scientists.

So OK. Dogs are secretly obsessed with fairness. (And bread. Who knew?)”

Strangely enough, as I read that portion it reminds me of so many individuals I’ve “met” online. They work their little buns off for nothing, yet some “bigger dog” comes along, steals all the thunder, and gets all the bread.

This might sound familiar to anyone who’s joined an affiliate program, promoted it with real heart, and gotten squat (or peanuts) for their efforts. While the “big dog” made tons of money from your efforts.

But there is hope… and a way around this… Start your own thing!

However, you must be picky! By that we mean, so specifically “niche” picky that you’ve taken a big old umbrella of a website (or blog) down to its finest points.

“Health” is not a niche, it is an umbrella. However, “colon cleansing” is a specific niche under the umbrella of Health.

“Home business” is not a niche. However, joining a specific home business (or starting your own service or product oriented website narrowed to a single product or service) IS a niche.

This particular blog you are reading right now is NOT a niche. It is an umbrella, encompassing all sorts of niche-like features to internet marketing and social media – from monetizing blogs, to social bookmarking, to freelance writing… and so much more (hang out a while and read the archives there’s tons of help and direction in this here blog!).

Get the idea?

Another valuable thing to keep in mind is choosing something you are passionate about. If you sign up for something that just sounds like a money maker, with no real understanding of what it is or how to run it, what’s the point? You’ll merely be out the money it took to join (and maybe maintain) because you lack passion.

So snow, dogs, umbrellas, niche markets, passion… and that wraps up today’s post

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Thanks to Nancy of Launch Wizards, and the email she forwarded me this morning, I’m getting caught up on the latest (and greatest?) browser to hit our collective internet shelves.

According to the article in the New York Time’s State of the Art section, Google’s pulling out the stops (or plugging them up?) with a “new browser” called Chrome.

The odd thing is that it’s a (more…)