Personal Experience: Crowdfunding

My personal experience with crowdfunding come from nearly being an active member of a crowdfunding website called SellAband. With Sellaband (SAB) you are known as a "believer" who "believes" in artists music by buying parts (parts cost $10 each) in the artists next album which will be made when the artist reaches $50,000 in credit. As a reward for investing your money with with the band you gain a Limited Edition CD and a small percentage of the revenue the album makes through CD and digital sales.

I fell in love with the concept as soon as i read about it in the paper. It brought together my two loves (music and money!) and there was no way i was not going to sign up. I left it a few days before i bought any parts as i thought i would test the water before i invested. However i caught the SAB bug and within a week i had invested over $100.

Like i said i've been with the site for few years now and over the time I've invested a fair amount of money, i mean we are talking $1000+ here on un-signed artists. This may not seem a considerable investment to some people considering the risk factor that comes with it as very few artists make it big with major record labels so its very unlikely that a small independent label like SAB with an unusual concept could produce stars (although it is still possible, watch this space!)

As of the week beginning the 13th of December there have been 26 artists that have gained the $50k needed to record their album and 14 artists have released their album to the world. Each on with differing amounts of success.

After investing $1000+ some people out there would expect a good return on their investment however as it turns out the amount I've received back from SAB is just over $2 from record sales of the albums. This doesn't take into account that none of my LECDs have been sold or the fact that i'm investing in bands because i genuinely like them and wish for them to do well.

SAB to me is a real hobby i know I'm not going to make millions from it but i enjoy browsing the artists and investing in the occasional band that catches my attention. The music is great and any money i makes is just a bonus as i will most probably just re-invest it when i get enough money!

Here is my Sellaband account so you can see in what bands I've dabbled in and hopefully it will inspire you to take the plunge and invest in some artists that one day could make it big!

Personal Experience

I've been trawling the web for many years now and most of the those years I've been trying to make money using different methods on the internet. Its where i got the idea for this site as the amount of time I have wasted/ invested in internet projects is considerable and i thought i could use the knowledge that i have accumulated to give people a better understanding on better ways of making money on the internet.

Here is a place where you can read in-depth guides of my experiences trying different methods of making money using the internet.

• Crowdfunding: Sellaband
  

Lottery Bonds

Lottery bonds are a unique way of investing money. Basically its like a respectable lottery, however instead of buying tickets every week you invest money and depending on how much money you have put into the account you get a certain amount of tickets. Every month you keep you money into your account your ticket gets put into a draw. There is very little risk with lottery bonds as normally you can take out your money at any time. Lottery Bonds are often set up by governments.

An example of Lottery Bonds are Premium Bonds set-up by the UK government. They have 2 £1,000,000 jackpots that are won by members every month. There are also a million other prizes ranging from £500,000 and £50. The rate at which you are able to win with your investment is 1 in 24,000. The winners are picked at random by a machine once a month. One ticket costs £1 to with a minimum of £100 to be invested initially and you are able to invest a maximum of £30,000 in Premium bonds.

There is a Premium Bonds calculator available here which can analyse how much money you can win over time with your amount of investment. With this information you can compile the following information depending on how much money you invest.

Hold £100 over a year and the chance of winning anything is one-in-20.

Hold £1,000 over a year and 57% of people win nothing.

Hold £10,000 over a year and you have a 19% chance of winning £500 or more.

Above source form wikipedia.

Premium bonds are available to anybody even if you don't live in the UK. Currently there are 23 million investors in Premium Bonds and its been running since 1956.

For more information about buying premium bonds visit: National Savings and Investments

Top Tip for Finding the Right Insurance on the Internet

The internet has opened many doors in the Insurance market. There has been a steep rise in the amount of insurance companies only operating through the internet. This leads to potentially cheaper rates for you the customer. This is because as its a business run on the internet the company doesn't have to pay rent for shop fronts and have to pay less wages as fewer staff are able to run it.

However finding the cheapest insurance quote is always going to be a struggle even on the internet. There are comparison websites that can aid you with finding the right insurance you need at the best possible price. It is best to use this as your resource, however like with most things its best to check more than one comparison website out. The reason for this is the way the comparison website makes its money is either from advertising or from referring you to an insurance company. Different company's will favour different comparison sites as they are all trying to compete fr your attention over whatever medium they can.

So my top tip is to use multiple comparison websites to find the cheapest insurance quote.

Microfinance

Microfinance is an unusual way to invest your money and really became widely used with the invention of the internet. Microfinance is where you can either gain a loan by asking many members of a community site for small amounts of money each or you can lend money to someone only giving a small amount of money to them. Sites have been set up to use cope with this function.

The idea is that an investor can put money into the website and then choose where the money goes. Its best to spread the money across several people wanting a loan and its also best to see how much you will be gaining from each person. The website is like a bank so usually if the user can't afford the payments then collateral is often put up. Like with most things there is a risk factor in investing but if successful you could be earning impressive amounts of interest on small investments.

For people wanting to take out a loan, the site will often check your credit history and see whether youe eligible to take out a loan and if you are able to afford the repayments. Then you will get to choose the amount of money you wish to loan and the interest you wish to put on it. Too low and few people would want to invest their money with you and too hight and you may not be able to make your repayments.

The best use of Microfinance I have seen is a website called MicroPlace where you can invest your money in developing countries to support local buisnesses while still earning interest.


The best advice I can give you for lending and borrow money through Microfinance

1. Borrowers: Find the right amount of interest that you will be able to pay back.
   
2. Lenders: Only lend small amounts of money to begin with.
   
3. Borrowers: keep up to date with your payments.
4. Lenders: Look for the best interest rates.
   
5. Both: Find a reputable site to trade your money in.
   

Using Referrals

Using referrals and referral links is basically a form of advertising, however unlike using adverts on your website where your not allowed to ask people to click on the adverts as this give the advertiser a click-through rate but no interest in their actual product. However referrals your allowed to encourage your visitors to click on the link and buy the product.

Referrals work best when you write a short section about the product which in turn create interest from your readers. Some websites use methods to get people to click the referral link that makes the user feel deceived as you will be making money from them buying the product and which makes some people feel like they lost out seen as you made money from them.

Using referrals in the right way however is a great way of earning money as long as you give a good enough review about the product, and by review i mean listing its good and bad points about the product as that will show the user that your an honest reviewer which could lead to more custom in the future. This type of advertisign works great with the likes of google adsense.

The best advice I can give you for earning money from using referral links is

1. Review the product your trying to refer.
   
2. Try not to hassle prospective buyers.
   
3. Use referral links with other advertisment programmes.
   
4. Find a way of advertsing your site to get people to click your referral links.
   
5. Remember that it may take many clicks to make 1 sale so be patient.
   

Top Tip for Investing Money on the Internet

When it comes to investing money on the internet and elsewhere there will always be an element of risk. If there wasn't that risk then you should be thinking whether the scheme is a scam. Whatever method you choose to invest your money into just remember this one tip.

Only invest as much money as you can afford to lose.

It way seem obvious but once you get caught up in all these investment schemes you may want to risk more than you can afford to risk. Just be patient and if something seems to good to be true it probably is.