teatree

Clinical trials have several phases - Phase 1 involves testing the drug on healthy patients to check whether it is safe for humans (only later is the drug trialed on sick people). If you are healthy, you can make some money participating in these trials. Healthy men between ages 18 to 45 are most in demand, and they usually pay £100 to £300 a day, some residential and some non-residential. Note that sometimes trials go wrong, but the firms concerned should compensate you should this happen... Read Full Story

Financial markets around the world have been crashing and bon market vigilantes have been stalking sovereign governments, forcing them into cutting back on public spending. Whenever public spending is cut, the economy slows down a little. This doesn't matter much during boom times, it just slows things down and prevents the economy from going white-hot. During period of weak growth, cuts can make things worse, and send you back into recession. That might be the scenario we are seeing now. How... Read Full Story

Yes I know it's not yet December 31st, but I thought I'd write my year-end summary now. It's been an interesting year for me. I've branched out into setting up fashion websites, and it's consumed so much of my time I have neglected this blog a bit. I hope to post more in the new year, and in particular will post about the value of becoming self-employed in the current economic climate. In particular working online gives you a degree of protection from domestic downturns, because if you know... Read Full Story

We are nearly at the end of the first recession year we've had in Britain since the early 1990's. According to the Guardian , householders have reacted to the downturn by repaying mortgage debt - by £7bn in each of the first and second quarters, and £4.9 billion in the third quarter. Which brings me to a post I wrote about repaying mortgage debt back in early 2007 when it looked like the good times would roll on forever. Many people in the comments of that post pooh-poohed my advice and said... Read Full Story

It's interesting looking at Google Analytics to see which are the top articles on this blog. They tend to change with time and give you a real idea of what readers are looking for. Here's the top five articles this year: How to survice without any money Your rights when you lose your job and are made redundant What to do if you can't repay your credit card debt How to survive and prosper in a recession Ways to raise money Sadly they are all articles to do with weathering the recession. Read Full Story

I've been following the fascinating 30 day challenge held every August by Ed Dale (and Australian Internet Marketer) who helps people (especially small businesses) to set up and optimize websites. His credo is that no matter what your business, whether you are in the industrial safety supplies business or perhaps a pop band looking to break out, you will benefit from optimizing your site for keywords related to your business. Even the smallest business would benefit from understanding how the... Read Full Story

For those of us who have been making money online for a few years now, it's tempting to capitalize on our hard-won knowledge of how search engines work to set up a business offering seo optimization services . But it's pretty clear that everyone and their dog has had the same idea judging from the results when you plug that keyword into Google, and it's not clear that all of them know what they are doing. If you are going into this business the best way to do it is through the off-line world... Read Full Story

It turns out the online world is just like the off-line one, with stores such as Circuit City (which sold electronic goods) closing their doors. I think part of the problem was that they specialised in a product group that was vulnerable to the recession. After all nobody needs to buy TV's or plasma screens - these are purchases that can easily be postponed. By contrast the online stores that are thriving, such as Amazon or Buy.com, offer a wide range of goods, some of which could be classed... Read Full Story

It looks like the fight between Microsoft and Google is hotting up, with Google moving into the operating system business and Microsoft challenging in the search business with Bing. Microsoft plans to go further - they currently offer advertising on Bing, displayed alongside the search results, but have never allowed small publishers to put advertising on their websites they way Google does. However, it turns out that they are thinking about it, with a test system in beta with a few selected... Read Full Story

Since the recession started up last year, a whole host of job board sites has sprung up, mostly specialised ones catering for particular industries such as software or accounting. However people looking for simple administrative careers haven't really had their own board till now - a new American job board called AdministrativeJobs.com has sprung up listing all sorts of admin and clerical jobs. It's worth registering with as many of these sites as possible - you never who which one will... Read Full Story