Archive for the ‘compare’ tag
Paypal FX conversion rate, yay or nay?
I couldn’t find any concrete information on the web, especially in the Singapore context, so I decided to do my own research instead. And the answer is? It depends on which credit card you are using.
My total amount payable was US$311.04.
Paypal’s conversion
Credit/Debit Card : MasterCard XXXX-XXXX-XXXX-5230 $448.50 SGD
PayPal Conversion Rate as of Aug. 20, 2008: 1 Singapore Dollar = 0.688701 U.S. Dollars
Citibank
According to prevailing exchange rate, indicative exchange rate at $1 USD = $1.427 SGD or $1 SGD = $0.701 USD; $443.85 SGD.
UOB
Mastercard
Bank charge 1.5% + 0.8% on top of prevailing Visa exchange rate. Assuming the bank charges are not compounded (cos I forgot to ask):
Currencies fluctuate every day. The rate shown is effective for
transactions submitted to Visa on August 20, 2008, with a bank foreign transaction fee of 2.30%.
1 Singapore Dollar = 0.69 US Dollars
Total: $461.16 SGD
Visa
Bank charge 1.5% on top of prevailing Visa exchange rate.
Currencies fluctuate every day. The rate shown is effective for
transactions submitted to Visa on August 20, 2008, with a bank foreign transaction fee of 1.50%.
1 Singapore Dollar = 0.70 US Dollars
Total: $451.01 SGD
I’m going to pay with my Citibank credit card! 
Back from Japan
Hello everybody! I’m back from Japan and it was a really wonderful experience! We visited Tokyo, Kyoto and Osaka and visited Universal Studios Japan and Tokyo Disney Sea Park! We took the Hollywood Dream The Ride and it’s possibly one of the best rides I’ve ever taken! I’ve never screamed more!! 
You get to choose 1 out of 5 tracks to listen to while taking the ride, how clever is that?! I chose Osaka Lover by Dreams Come True and now it’s on repeat on my Winamp player.
Listen to it here:
The Tower of Terror at Disneysea was a little disappointing and not very scary though; all the rides in Disneysea seem smaller and less scary compared to Disneyland LA.
Shinkansen (bullet train) ticket from Osaka to Kyoto
Japanese boy on the shinkansen we took
Almost 1000 photos to go through, will update with more soon!
Comparing ads
So I’ve removed all the clutter and reduced the lag, the following is what I think of some of the online ad serves that I’ve tried and tested.
Adsense
Possibly the least fancy but quite relevant and surprisingly, the $$$ is comparable to other ad serves. Some ads are cost-per-click (CPC), some are cost-per-thousand-impression (CPM). My ads are mostly CPC because it’s not so huge/popular that advertisers choose to place an ad here for CPM. Cashout at US$100.
Advertlets
You get paid CPC and CPM, payout is in RM, cashout at RM$100. No minimum traffic requirements. One of the prettiest advertisements. Malaysian based company, server lags out terribly quite frequently causing my blog to load slowly.
BLOG2u.SG
One of my favorite and best paying, they match you with an advertiser and you get to choose whether or not you wish to write an advertorial on the vendor. Singapore-based, cashout is immediate via internet bank transfer! Remember to say keymistress referred you! 
Nuffnang
Verdict: Don’t waste your time.
WidgetBucks
Welcome to the MLM of online advertising! Ugly flash ads, CPC only. Good for massive tech blogs, doesn’t work for me.
At the end of the day, I wonder when I’ll ever hit the minimum cash payout. Probably after 3 years of blogging, maybe?
