How Teens Can Make Money Online Is Treasure Trooper a Scam

For those of you that dont know, Treasure Trooper is another online survey money maker. I joined the website about 6 months ago and have made myself $872.42 in that time. I complete surveys, fill out offers and refer other members. But is it a scam or not? Lets find out!

How to Sign Up
When you get to the Treasure Trooper homepage you will be asked to fill out some personal information pertaining to where your check will be sent to. Dont worry they do not ask for any credit card information and there is even a Paypal option for payments.

After you sign up your account will be credited with a $1 sign-up bonus. Not too shabby!

Next Steps

After you sign-up you will be at your homepage where you will have an option to make money via a variety of ways. You can click on cash surveys, cash tasks, cash search, cash videos, or trading court where you will have the ability to trade gems and coins you collect for cash and gift card prizes. Examples of prizes include an Xbox 360, Nintendo Wii, Ipod Nano, $50 Visa Gift Card or a $50 Amazon Gift Card. All very appealing options for a teen or college student who loves playing the newest video games.

Does Treasure Trooper Cost Money?
Absolutely not! Yes you can use your credit card to fill out offers for larger sums of money, but that is not needed at all. There are thousands of dollars worth of free offers that you can complete without the use of a credit card. Treasure Trooper has paid out nearly 7 MILLION dollars to its users since they began operation and there is no reason that you cant collect a couple hundred dollars or more from them each month.

$300 Bonus
One of my favorite thinks about Treasure Trooper is that you receive a $300 bonus once you achieve 300 referrals. It is quite easy to get that many referrals and if you have an effective blog, then you can get that bonus in a months time. Along with all of the money you will make off your referrals ($1 per active referral you get and 20% of their earnings) you will also get the bonus which is something that other survey sites dont offer. Check out my post, Blogging is The Key to Getting Referrals!

Cashing Out
When it comes to cashing out all you need to do is head over to the "redeem" area. The minimum cashout is $20 which is pretty standard, but not only can you get your money via check or paypal, but also other crazy options that Treasure Trooper offers like gems or raffle tickets you can use to win larger prizes.

Overall
Treasure Trooper is a great way for teens to make money online and not a scam. It is by no means a get rich scheme but if you have a positive work ethic and utilize my referral method then you can easily find yourself making over minimum wage with little work. Overall, I would give it a 8.5/10 and definitely think you should check it out now!

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Write a Guest Post at Teens With Money!

I have recently realized that a lot of my readers have great ideas and I currently do not have any guest posting system. Starting November 2014 I will now begin reviewing and accepting well-written guest posts about money making methods, marketing ideas, ways for teens or college students to make money and others ideas. You can link back to your blog in the article, a great way to attain a do-follow backlink and therefore increase your page rank for your keywords.

If you wish to submit a guest post for consideration, then send it to teensandmoney@yahoo.com. The article should be original and not published anywhere else on the internet. I’m looking for unique ideas, not an article that you simply stole and spun from another website. I will not accept every post that I get, however if it is unique and about an interesting topic there is a great chance that it will get accepted. Please, do not be spammy or promote any affiliate links as there is ZERO chance that I will publish it to this website.

Doing a guest post on a blog is one of the best free ways to give your blog some exposure. You’ll be able to reach a very large readership and if they like what you have to say, chances are good they’ll check out your blog and maybe subscribe to it. You can also include an authors bio paragraph where you link back to your website or Twitter/Facebook. So best of luck and send me what you have to say!

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Sorry Taylor Swift Youre Not Entirely Correct

Pop icon Taylor Swift has had a rocky time, to say the least, with the modern phenomenon of music streaming. Last July, she took a stand against streaming service Spotify, when she removed all of her music from the service and branded it as "undervaluing the art" that is music by offering free, ad-supported subscriptions. Swift cited in particular how underpaid artists putting their music onto the streaming service were, effectively making less than a cent per stream.

Many believed Swifts dramatic exodus from Spotify was simply a part of an exclusivity deal with Apple, and their recently announced service Apple Music. But it turns out this is far from the case, as a tumblr post just today from the 25 year old revealed. The post, titled "To Apple, Love Taylor", dealt to Apple what she had dealt to Spotify last year. In an unexpected move, Swift revealed she was not going to allow her music to be streamed on Apples service either.

Why? Unlike with Spotify, she does not discuss the lack of revenue an artist receives for each stream, rather the effect of the initial three month trial that Apple plans to grant users of the service. Swift called it "shocking, disappointing" that during these three months, Apple Music provides no revenue at all for the artists, as it receives no income from the user. And, according to herself, Taylor Swift is arguing not from her own position as a world-renowned star worth over $200m,  but from the position of "the new artist or band that has just released their first single and will not be paid for its success", "the young songwriter", "the producer who works tirelessly". Essentially, Swift is putting forward the argument that the free 3 month trial being proposed by Apple to customers is putting smaller artists at a loss, failing to reward their efforts.

However, there are areas where I quite disagree with Taylor Swift. Firstly, she is correct about the lack of lucrative music streaming opportunities. Its no secret that despite its massive growth, Spotify has been finding difficulty in creating sustainable and spreadable profits. But is revenue really the priority of an artist, big or small, when they put their content onto streaming services such as Apple Music or Spotify? Swifts own friend Ed Sheeran disagrees with the notion of doing so with income being the primary motive. "Im in the music industry to play live," he claimed last year. "Thats why I put things on Spotify". He highlights his enjoyment of playing live, and indeed playing live is the far superior source of income for the significant majority of musicians both small and large. Sheeran sees the real value of streaming services, in how they provide a platform for artists to promote not just their music, but themselves- their merchandise, their YouTube channels and most importantly their live shows.

Like most artists, Taylor Swift derives most of her income from live shows- six months on the Red Tour in 2013 bringing her an estimated $30m. Justin Timberlake provides another example of how tours bring in far more revenue. In 2013, 39 shows made him over $40m, compared with a paltry $5m from combined streaming and album sales.

For smaller artists, there is a little difference. Streaming services are arguably a little young in this respect, but free media has more than shown its worth for smaller musicians, notably YouTube, from which the likes of Justin Bieber and recently Charlie Puth have found their fame. Apple Music and Spotify, with their ability to feature smaller talent, certainly has the potential to do the same for many other artists, and in that sense provide far greater value than just revenue from streaming.

And lets have a look at the impact of the three month trial in particular. Everyone knows the allure of a free trial. There is no doubt that more people will sign up to Apple Music because of it, and whether or not they leave after the trial is up is not of as much significance as we may think. Three months is quite a lot of time to explore and discover new music, to find new favourites and to support them, whether its through merch, buying their content or a ticket to their show. Of course, users wont be able to discover everyone in this three month period, but one has to realise that artists will certainly receive more traffic and attention when there is a larger group of streamers available to them- three months of this is better than none.

And lets not forget the power of a free trial to retain customers. Apple has very deliberately set a rather long free trial of 3 months (Spotifys is just a third of this). It gives users time to get themselves hooked. Streaming music, whether from your phone, tablet or computer, becomes part of your routine and three months is ample time for the streaming habit to settle in. Therefore it is very likely that a sizeable portion of Apple Music free-triallers will continue their subscriptions and pay for the service after the trial is up, providing the paid support that Swift wishes for.

Its important to note that Taylor Swift is not totally anti-streaming. She notes in her open letter that everyone knows that Apple "has the money to pay artists... for this three month trial period", and indeed this is true. Apple should cough up for the artists in this three month period.

But even if it doesnt pay out, its not entirely correct to argue that musicians, big or small, will not benefit at all from streaming, whether its Apple Music or Spotify. For the value of all types of music streaming clearly lies not in its money making capacity, but rather its ability to promote, to introduce artists and their work to vast amounts of new audiences. These new audiences, and the money that they spend buying merchandise, albums and live tickets are the most substantial, long-term rewards that streaming, free or paid, brings to artists.

So Taylor, making massive amounts of money from Apple Music or Spotify, as you know well, is probably a futile effort for most artists. But that doesnt mean theres no value, nothing to offer to artists, in these services.

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What Has Happened To The Greek Economy

 The recent decade has seen turbulent times for economies all around the world, and perhaps the most notable of such sufferings have been witnessed within Southern Europe. Spain, Portugal and Italy have fallen into economic turmoil, but one could argue that these problems pale in comparison to those being currently faced by Greece, a country where the last 6 years have seen unemployment triple, public debt ruthlessly pile up, and the economy shrink by a quarter. The lack of money in Greeces financial institutions is such that citizens are being warned of banks shutting down their ATM services, simply because there is not enough cash to give to people who want to withdraw from their own accounts. In 2012, the situation got so desperate that the government had to secretly ship in cash from abroad to prevent a shortage.

But where did it all go wrong? Why is it Greece in particular that has gone through even tougher times than the rest of Europe?

Well, from the onset you can see that the deadly nail in Greeces economic coffin has been its borrowing from other countries and organisations such as the IMF, in order to finance public spending.

Greek public spending during the 2000s was incredibly high, especially in relation to the size of the economy and its productivity. Spending on the public sector (as a percentage of total public expenditure) was higher in Greece than anywhere else in the OECD, yet according to Paul Belkin, Derek Mix and Rebecca Nelson, there was "no evidence that the quantity or quality of the services were superior". Indeed, the nominal output of the Greek economy had grown by 40%, and tax revenues 31% between 2004-2009, yet total government expenditure grew 84% during this period. Some
argue that the Greek governments of recent decades have been bribing the electorate, providing public sector jobs that are overpaid in order to maintain popularity among the public- at the cost of long term economic stability.

Spending also came in forms other than public sector employment. The 2004 Olympic Games, for example, put a crippling burden upon the government of $8.6bn, contributing to debt by 2005 amounting to €50,000 per household.

What further compounded the economic struggles was the outbreak of tax evasion Greece has seen in the past decade, particularly since the financial crisis of 2008. According to a Greek Finance Ministry Report, during the initial period of crisis, the state had only taxed a third of its citizens officially declared income. More recently in 2013, it was revealed that the state collected only half of what was due in 2012. Such tax evasion activity has been estimated to cost the treasury over $20bn a year, and it has landed Greece the rather unenviable positions of having the lowest tax revenues per capita in Europe, and according to the 2012 Corruption Perception Index, being the most corrupt country in the EU.

Greek Debt, visualised in trucks of cash.

The consequence of such public spending in spite of a lack of revenue for the government has resulted in a colossal amount of debt being collected in Greece. As of now, Greece owes €360bn to the IMF, the ECB, and numerous lenders throughout Europe, notably from Germany, France and Italy.

Theoretically, lending and borrowing usually works out for both parties. The general idea is that a country can borrow from another, and use that money to be productive and make more money, allowing them to pay back the lender and also make a profit.

But Greeces situation is far from theoretical; despite efforts by the European community to reduce its debts (in 2011, the banks had to agree to half Greeces debts to them), the outlook is not rosy for the Mediterranean nation. Its newly elected leaders, the Syriza government are being brutally honest about how they see the future and fears are escalating that they will have to default on their debts, a move that will accompany an exit from the Eurozone and no doubt a long ensuing period of turmoil and instability, not just for Greece and its citizens, but for much of the rest of Europe too.

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Government Regulation Gone Wrong

A 2013 report showed France to be quite the bureaucracy- it claimed that over 400,000 directives were being enforced, ranging from how far a postbox is allowed to stick out of a wall to how much boiled egg a kindergartener can eat at lunch time. 

The examples seem petty, but more serious regulation is coming to the cost of small town and village budgets- for example a law enforced making all pavements at least wide enough to allow two wheelchairs to pass. 

Of course, this is not a bad idea in itself, however when Paris enforced this on every French town or village, it becomes a problem- in many cases this blanket ruling is uneconomical, perhaps if there are few disabled people in the area or few people altogether.

According to Michel Therond, mayor of 25 years of the small town Albaret-Sainte-Marie, he gets letters with new regulations or stipulation from every time he opens his mailbox.

In many cases regulation is not as disputed- regulations on the minimum drinking age, or that businesses must hire employees regardless of any disability are largely accepted by society. However this excessive bureaucracy can have damaging effects on a country’s economy- it can mean managerial-type people are employed with high wages to not do very much, it can put pressure not necessarily on the cities, but smaller town or village councils- and it does not always work.

In Mexico City, at the time of a great pollution problem (that still exists in part today) a regulation was enforced that aimed to reduce car use and thus emissions and so on. So the government created Hoy No Circula (literally meaning Today it (your car) does not circulate)- a legislation that stated that cars with only cars with certain numberplates could be on the road on certain days- to bring this example to england you could say that on Mondays, Wednesdays, Fridays, only cars whose number plates begin with letters A-M can drive, and on the other days, cars N-Z. 

In Mexico City however, this plan backfired- it’s a typical example of what is known as the Cobra Effect. Most people needed their cars everyday- to go to work, do shopping, go to places where cars were the only reasonable, comfortable way to get there. So people didn’t start walking or taking the bus on days when their car could not be on the road- instead people just bought a second car, with a plate that would allow them to go on the days they previously couldn’t- granting them car usage for the whole week. It was quite an ingenious way of avoiding the regulation.

However we must remember that most people of Mexico City were not wealthy- so the second cars these people did buy were more often than not old beat-ups- whose emissions were even worse than their first cars. The result? Not necessarily fewer cars on the road, but instead older, more polluting cars on the road. This regulation did not last long, unsurprisingly.

This was the Cobra Effect- the origins of which I’ll briefly explain in another article.

So bureaucracy can be damaging, that’s for sure. Regulation may be necessary in areas, but like all things, in careful measure.

SOURCES:

French bureaucracy effect on small towns 

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/apr/30/government-rules-hinder-france-growth

Hoy no Circula regulation http://geo-mexico.com/?p=2343

Driving Restrictions and Air Quality in Mexico City www.rff.org/Publications/WPC/Pages/08_15_08_Driving%20Restrictions%20and%20Air%20Quality%20in%20Mexico%20City.aspx Lucas W. Davis

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Stop Being Lazy

I was just on Cashcratess forums going through some sob stories of how people need to make 2 more dollars or they wont reach the minimum $20 to cashout. I feel sorry for these people, because although it does take some work to start earning something on Cashcrate, it really is not that hard. $2? Honestly? Go find 20 cans in a trashcan and there ya go. Stop being a lazy teen (like I once was) and go put in some work and before you know it you will be making $2 every hour of every day for 30 days straight on Cashcrate.

I have recently been reading up on investing and how beneficial it is if you start at a young age. I am still only 17, so if I establish a strong investing IQ then I will be set financially for the rest of my life. One of my favorite quotes that I came across just yesterday was:

"Stop working for your money, instead have your money work for you."

This had a powerful impact on me and really speaks volumes to about 99% of Americans. They get an education, get a job, pay taxes and barely have any income left for themselves. So basically they are working 60+ hours a week to eat and live in their house. Sounds exhilarating. Live a little, take chances and it will pay off in the end. Having your money work for you is exactly what I am teaching you to do. If you havent already read some of my previous posts on keywords and backlinks.

Cashcrate and other survey sites are a great way to start earning some extra money. I currently have a job at a pet store, but because I put in a couple extra hours on this blog and survey sites I am making an additional $500 a month. And just because many of you are young, doesnt mean it is hard to make money online as a teen. Just be smart, stop being lazy and use your brain to decide whether there is a good or bad oportunity in front of you.

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