I’m the kind of person who likes to know how to do things. For example, I took a free class at Home Depot on learning how to cut and lay tile so I could replace the ugly linoleum flooring in my home. I’ve even learned a few things or two by watching This Old House. I took a free class from a local community college to learn After Effects and was able to create a personalized wedding gift for a friend. I took another free class on PhotoShop at my favorite free college, San Diego Continuing Education, and use PhotoShop on a daily basis.

So what’s my point? If you want to learn how to do something for free or get paid to do something, do a little research. Here’s a few simple gems:

1. Make your avatar, also known as a profile picture or thumbnail photo, appear globally when you comment on a blog. How do you do that? Sign up for a free account at Gravatar.com. Your Gravatar is an image that follows you from site to site appearing beside your name when you comment or post on a blog. Avatars help identify your posts on blogs and web forums. People relate more to a picture than a blank box. If you have an account with Wordpress, for example, you don’t even need a new account with Gravatar…just an email verification that you are who you claim to be.

2. Zac Johnson suggested that I join Sponsored Tweets last week and so I did. Thanks to Zac, I am $38.66 richer for allowing another Twitter user to tweet his ad on my Twitter account. That’s $38.66 for literally ten minutes of my time between setting up a free account and logging in to approve the advertisement request. If Zac were here in San Diego right now, I’d kiss his Spiderman loving face!

3. Buy gift cards or gift certificates for 50% of the value by purchasing the gift cards second hand at an auction. My favorite auction is the San Diego Police Auction held quarterly at the Scottish Rite Center on a Saturday. I can generally get the gift cards for fifty percent of the value as it’s just a matter of patience. While most people get bored waiting as hundreds of stolen bicycles are being sold and leave, I wait it out until the good items are auctioned. At the last Police Auction, I walked off with a $150 gift card to the Hyatt Hotels & Resorts plus a bundle of other gift cards to Target, Carl’s Junior, Office Depot, and a bundle of others. By the way, if you don’t live in San Diego and you’re wondering if a police auction is held in your state, just Google your city name with the words “Police Auction.” I randomly searched Des Moines, Iowa and yes, they have their own police auction.

A special thanks to Gail Hyatt for the global avatar suggestion. And no, I don’t know if she’s an owner of Hyatt Hotels & Resorts. You’ll have to ask her.

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