Digg is a website that allows the community to post their favorite web content for others to see and discover. When people like a certain post they will “Digg” it. When something receives a lot of Diggs, it is promoted to the front of the page for millions of people to see.

I have put together a list of pros and cons of Digg:

Pros

• Top social news website
• Easy to use
• wide variety of topics

Cons

• Users can easily sink into an article they don’t agree with
• There could be some stylistic changes to the site that would attract more users
• There are a lot of ads all over

Although I was exempt from the blog posts last week, I think I will write about Kiva after all. I had never even heard of Kiva before this semester, but after a little reading up on the site I am extremely intrigued.

Kiva’s tag line is “Loans That Change Lives” and, as evidenced by its users, this is a very true statement. Kiva is a micro-loan site — anyone can browse through the many profiles of people in need of loans and their reasons behind them and decide to loan money directly to that person, and earn a little bit of interest along the way. There is no middle man, there is no bank. You know that your money is going directly to the person in need. Not to mention many of these people couldnt get to a bank anyways, and even if they could they would probably not qualify for a loan. “Kiva’s mission is to connect people, through lending, for the sake of alleviating poverty.”

Kiva and its participants are helping people who can’t get the help any other way. I have not lent any money through this site yet, but I fully intend to.

There are countless websites out there that allow the common individual to buy and sell stocks. However, in my experience, Ameritrade.com is unequivocally the best out there. There are tons of features for both the novice trader as well as the experienced stock broker. With inexpensive transaction rates of $9.99, it is also a very affordable service considering its security. Ameritrade is also a very stable company grossing over $2.7 Billion in 2008.

If you have an interest in the stock market and an interest in making money without leaving your desk, I suggest Ameritrade as easy platform to get started and as you gain investment knowledge and stock market savy, you can sit back and watch your few well placed investments grow and grow.

Digg is social news website, and the first of its kind. I have known what Digg was for a while and have seen Digg applications on other websites, but this was the first time I have perused the Digg website itself – It’s addicting. I just spent an hour looking at “Celebs With No Photo Shop,” “Lady Gaga Before She Went Gaga,” “Crazy Tattoos,” and “15 Surprising Logos,” among other things. Its great if you just want to waste time looking at cool or funny posts, but you can also narrow your searches to things such as World & Business, Technology, Entertainment, and Sports, etc…

With this site it is easy to keep up with current events and you can see what your peers are reading and enjoying as well. If you find a post particularly interesting, stimulating, hilarious, informative or what not, you simply “Digg” it. The posts with the most Digg’s are on the front pare and the rest are ordered accordingly.

With Digg I was able to easily find the latest on the new healthcare bill by clicking on “World & Business” and then “News” – sure enough, there it was, the third post on that page.

I will definitely be returning to this site regularly.

You’d be surprised what some people are willing to do to earn $5.  Fiverr.com is a twitter-esque site that enables users to log on and post things that they’re willing to do to pocket a little bit of extra cash. Users can simply browse through these entries and take anyone up on their offers. The majority of these requests are legitimate, and the model is innovative and clever. The entries are formatted identically (“I will ___________ for $5) and are very entertaining to browse through. Given ample time, I still doubt that I’d be able to find anywhere else online where I could personally pay someone 5 bucks to revise my resume, create a custom flipbook from a video file, record a movie preview-style voiceover for my video, give me a digital makeover, etc. The flexibility is astounding the potential is limitless. Fiverr.com effectively unites unique suppliers with obscure customers. In addition to the legitimately helpful entries, there exist a handful of hilarious gems as well. The following is a list of things that people are willing to do for $5 on Fiverr.com:

I will let you sleep on my couch and watch movies with me for $5
I will sing 5 out of tune Irish songs to you for $5
I will burn a small paper effigy of your enemy for $5
I will trade you a klondike bar for $5
I will eat ramen noodles for an entire week for every meal for $5
I will talk down to you like my dad for $5
I will sell you my eternal soul for $5

Check it out for yourself.