Register to earn $25 referral reward from Payoneer for each Approved application

Payoneer is currently the most common Global payment service we should use to get Payments globally. However, we can actually earn money with Payoneer by raising $25 referral reward into account for each Approved application.

1. Register and get a Payoneer Prepaid MasterCard.
2. You then are able to generate a referral link.
3. Get $25 as reward once someone register a Payoneer account successfully via your referral link.
4. The sum of reward money will be available into account for withdrawing once you receive first payment of at least $100 from any services (Affiliate, Google Adsense, Amazon Affiliation,..). No worries about this condition since you can even make a deposit into your account from your local bank.

The below is my third $25 referral reward proof from Payoneer:

sign in payonner

Wanna make some extra money by joining the Payoneer Refer a Friend program? This post will teach you how you can become a Payoneer affiliate and make $25 within a few months. Update:For everyday users the bonus reward is great because it can be used to cover Payoneer’s maintenance fees. However, as an affiliate I have found Payoneer’s refer a friend program to have a very low conversion rate. The conversion to sign up ratio has been surprisingly, extremely low. So far, its nowhere near profitable as affiliate programs from companies like Hostgator, Bluehost  and if you have good traffic you can even earn more via click to pay per click services like AdSense.

However, since I am relatively new to the Payoneer’s affiliate program, I am optimistic I’ll see the conversions pick up in the coming days/months. I will keep updating my results. Right now, Payoneer doesn’t provide affiliate marketers any features to check the status of their referrals, meaning  you will have to use your own tools to track everything. However, they are planning to soon add a new dashboard for the affiliate marketers

Before learning about how you can make referral money with Payoneer Refer a Friend affiliate program, let’s take a look at what services you get with the Payoneer MasterCard.

Payoneer MasterCard is a popular option for freelancers and publishers to quickly and safely withdraw online earnings. Popular freelancing websites like Odesk, Elance and Freelancer allow you to easily add Payoneer as your withdrawal method, and withdrawal can be made either within hours or within two days.  With a Payoneer account you actually get a Bank of America Checking account and you can use this account number to receive payments from thousands of  companies from around the world-eg: Commission Junction, Amazon, Paypal, InfoLinks, AdStract and so on.  You will also be able to transfer payments from your Payoneer account to another Payoneer account but this  feature might not to be available to non-US citizens of some countries.

Another benefit, specially for non-US customers who don’t have access to other online payment methods, is that Payoneer MasterCard can be used to pay for purchasing stuff online- this includes buying hosting plans, domains, app from App Stores, and anything from online retailers like Amazon.com, Ebay, BestBuy, Walmart etc. Payments made by using the Card doesn’t carry any fee but if you plan on withdrawing money from ATMs, you will be charged ATM fee + currency conversion fee if reside outside US. There is also a monthly/yearly card maintenance fee which you will need to pay to activate your card. Despite the fees, Payoneer is still a great option to withdraw small amounts of cash swiftly- other methods such as Wire Transfers take much longer. Read: Best Withdrawal Methods for Freelancers.

While it’s a convenient option for withdrawing funds, Payoneer also let’s you make money through it’s Refer a Friend program. After you sign up and activate your Payoneer account, you are an official Payoneer Affiliate- meaning you are eligible to earn money through referral to friends, families, followers etc. The cool thing is Payoneer doesn’t have any stringent requirement for participating in its Affiliate program. Once you sign up and activate your MasterCard, you are provided with a referral link and any sign up that occurs via that link will earn you as well as your referee $25.  Now that may not sound like much but if you have contact with a bunch of people who are likely to use Payoneer MasterCard on the long run, you can actually earn hundreds or even thousands of referral dollars. You should however know that the earning will not come fast because you will only be rewarded for valid referrals and only active accounts count as valid referrals. Also, you and your friend will earn $25 only after the latter loads at least $100 into his/her account.  Since the whole activation and loading time may take longer for some individuals, it might take a month or two before you earn your first Payoneer affiliate income.

HOW TO ACTIVATE PAYONEER MASTERCARD AND HOW TO EARN MONEY WITH PAYONEER REFER A FRIEND PROGRAM

• Sign up for Payoneer account. To start off, use my link here   and you can earn your first $25(as soon as you load $100). To sign up you’ll need a scanned copy(image) of your Government ID and a proper mailing address (PO BOX recommended). Make sure your Payoneer account name/ address matches the info on your official Govt ID.  If you get confused Read this post on How to get Payoneer MasterCard . You can actually get the MasterCard via your national post office or mailing service for free but that method can take up to three weeks. If you want to get the card within 3-5 days you can use expedite shipping services like DHL and FedEx for certain fees.
  • Once you get the card via mail, well, the next step is to open the envelop and then remove your shiny MasterCard attached to a paper containing details of your Payoneer account- keep this paper safe or back it up for later.
  • Sign in to your payoneer account and then go to My Account >> Activate Card. Enter your MasterCard number and enter a new 4 digit pin code which you will use to withdraw cash from your local ATM. Save the pin number in a safe place. You can change the pin code anytime by logging into your account.

• Now on the left corner you will see a “Refer a Friend” banner. Click it.
• You will be redirected to a page where you will get your Payoneer affiliate link. You can refer your friends via Facebook, Twitter and Email.

When someone signs up using your referral link, you will be notified about it via email. After the referred person loads a total of at least $100 into his/her account, both of you will get a $25 reward in your respective accounts.

I hope this post helped you setup your Payoneer account and gave you an idea how you can earn affiliate income via Payoneer Refer a Friend program. Your next step should now be to identify potential Payoneer users and then to convert them into qualified referrals.

Note: Payoneer doesn’t provide MasterCard to some countries (Example- India) and in those types of Payoneer account you get the option to withdraw funds directly to your local bank account, which is also cool.

VMware nears completion of $67B merger

SAN FRANCISCO — VMware CEO Pat Gelsinger has plenty on his plate.

As head of the $7 billion maker of virtual-storage software, he's smack dab in the middle of tech's largest merger ever, Dell's $67 billion marriage with data-storage company EMC. EMC owns about 80% of VMware.

While the blockbuster sale takes EMC private, VMware remains a publicly-traded unit of Michael Dell's holding company, Denali. The deal is expected to close after a shareholders' vote on July 19.

Gelsinger firmly believes the mega-merger will lead to new market opportunities that could quadruple VMware's annual sales. "It's a wow deal," he says. "Things have gone amazingly smoothly."

Shares of VMware have been on an upswing since April, when it reported first-quarter sales that were slightly better than Wall Street expectations and issued a second-quarter sales forecast that may beat analysts' estimates.

In a far-ranging 30-minute interview at USA TODAY's bureau here today, the Silicon Valley veteran ruminated on how VMware has not only changed the field of virtualization software but is in prime position to help usher in cloud computing on an even deeper scale for corporations.

He also weighed in on several hot topics in the tech world:

— A tech bubble? Gelsinger doesn't buy into the growing sentiment that tech is headed for a calamitous meltdown. He suggests a cooling market and tepid IPO climate have brought unicorns — private start-ups valued at $1 billion or more — have been "brought back to Earth."

An increasingly sober financial environment might mean scaled-back operations and lower valuations in the short term but more stable companies with bigger IPO upsides, he says.

— Apple and innovation. Apple doesn't create groundbreaking technology as much as it redefines it for consumers, Gelsinger says. Case in point: iPod, which was "a great innovation," he says.

"There were 53 MP3 players, but Apple, with iPod, consumerized it, industrialized it, and popularized it," he says.

— Amazon Echo. The voice-activated device is in "its gestation phase" and "it's going to get pretty good," says Gelsinger, one of the architects of Intel's 486 chip in the mid-1980s. "Funny story, I was told back then it was important to (eventually) make the chip" AI-ready, he says. "It shows it can take 30 years for a technology to become marketable."

Instagram tops Twitter with advertisers, survey says

NEW YORK — Twitter's advertisers are flying the coop, seemingly for Instagram, according to a new survey.

Strata, a subsidiary of Comcast, said a first-quarter survey of 87 U.S. advertising agencies found 96% of agencies responded they plan to advertise on Facebook and 67% planned to advertise on YouTube. Instagram came in third, with 63% of surveyed agencies placing their plans there, followed by Twitter, where 56% planned to advertise. Snapchat received 11% interest, an 84% jump up from the fourth quarter.

While Facebook and YouTube have previously been the top two platforms, Strata says the new survey marks the first time that Instagram has received more attention than Twitter from its advertisers. Instagram interest rose 29 percentage points from 34% at the end of Q1 2015, while Twitter interest is down 2 points from 58% from the same period.

Strata's media-buying software handles $50 billion in advertising annually, or approximately 25% of U.S. advertising spending.

Twitter said the Strata survey doesn't paint an accurate picture.

"The data presented in this survey couldn't be farther from the truth," said Twitter in a statement provided to USA TODAY by spokesman Will Stickney. "We have close relationships with our agency clients and continue to hear that Twitter offers the most powerful creative canvas while driving significant ROI. Further, three global agency holding companies have recently renewed their upfront deals with us with increased spend - a true testament to the success they're seeing on the platform."

The Strata report comes on the tail end of a tough week for the San Francisco-based media company. Jeff Seibert, the company's chief product officer, left on Tuesday. A report Wednesday from research firm eMarketer projected Snapchat will overtake Twitter in overall users this year, jumping 27% to 58.6 million users in the U.S. by the end of the year. Twitter is expected to have 56.8 million users.

Twitter (TWTR) shares fell 4% Friday to $14.02, down nearly 8% for the week.

The shifts come as social media spending is on the upswing.

"I think ad agencies are finding their footing with social," says J.D. Miller, director at Strata. "It's always been something they wanted to do or felt like they needed to be in but now they're spending money on it, which we're seeing in our survey."

"They're spending money more than ever before."

According to the survey, general spending on social is up, with 17% of the agencies polled saying they would be putting up to a quarter of their ad budgets on social media. Social media also became the number one spot for digital spending at 77% of agencies, overtaking more traditional display ads — such as banner or video ads — that are common on the web.

Research firm eMarketer agrees with Strata's findings, though they have Instagram overtaking Twitter in 2017. "In general we think that's the trend," says Martin Utreras, a senior forecasting analyst at the firm. "We think (it) is really mainly driven by the audience. We think Instagram's audience is larger than Twitter's audience right now, approximately by 30 million. So that makes it more attractive, of course, for advertisers."

Utreras also credits Instagram's generally broader audience and "piggybacking" on Facebook's data and ad buying network, which lets ad buyers purchase Instagram ads through the same platform they buy Facebook ads.

In its last quarterly financial report, Twitter disappointed investors with revenue that fell short of forecasts and a sales outlook that also missed forecasts.

It also acknowledged that "brand marketers did not increase spend as quickly as expected" in the first quarter.

Apple seeks to sell excess solar power

SAN FRANCISCO — In addition to iPhones and Macbooks, Apple could start selling consumers another desired product – energy.

The technology giant filed a tariff application to theFederal Energy Regulatory Commission on Monday asking to sell energy that it makes at solar plants and other renewable energy facilities, including biogas and hydroelectric plants, to consumers at a market-based price. Apple made the request through Apple LLC, an energy subsidiary stationed in Delaware operated entirely by Apple headquarters in California.

Private companies are currently allowed to sell their excess power, but can only sell to energy companies at wholesale rates. However, Apple states because the company lacks horizontal and vertical market power among energy companies – meaning because Apple does not control inputs to energy power production or pose a threat to energy companies — they should be allowed to sell at market price.

“Applicant seeks the same blanket authorization and waivers of the Commission’s rules and filing requirements previously granted to other entities authorized to transact at market-based rates,” the tariff reads.

Apple has requested the tariff be granted within 60 days of the filing. Apple did not respond to a request for comment.

Green Mountain Power – the first U.S. utility to sell Tesla home batteries to its customers – is an example of a company which also sells renewable energy to homeowners, which Apple could do if the tariff is granted. 9to5Mac, an Apple blog that earlier reported on on Apple’s FERC filing, writes it “wouldn’t be a stretch” to see Apple follow in the footsteps of Green Mountain Power.

Apple operated at 93% renewable energy in all facilities around the world in 2015, and aims to eventually operate at 100% as stated on their website. The company is 100% renewable in countries such as China, Germany and the U.S., and is 100% renewable in all data centers.

The company issued a $1.5 billion green bond dedicated to financing environmental projects, becoming the first American tech company to issue such a bond. Apple says it also uses recycled or sustainable paper in 99% of its packaging and switched from plastic to paper bags for selling products in April.

Report: Samsung phone with bendable screen may launch next year

The next smartphones from electronics giantSamsung could feature a bendable screen.

According to Bloomberg, Samsung may roll out smartphones using the technology next year. Citing "people familiar with the matter," the report says one of the devices could fold in half like a compact.

A second device will feature a 5-inch screen as a phone, and expand to an 8-inch screen in a tablet form.

Samsung is familiar with the bendable screen, launching the Galaxy Edge smartphone featuring a touchscreen that curves on to the side. If true, this next phase would mark a huge step forward for touchscreens.

The smartphone business could use an injection of life with signs of a slowdown approaching. Internet analyst Mary Meeker projects smartphone sales to rise 21%, slower than the 31% growth rate from the year before.

Samsung goes rugged for Galaxy S7 Active

Those looking for a tough smartphone now have a new option, at least if they're on AT&T.

AT&T and Samsung have once again partnered to create a more durable version of the latest Galaxy, announcing the Galaxy S7 Active on Monday. The companies have been working on tougher Galaxy S devices since the Galaxy S4 Active released in 2013.

Similar to the new Galaxy S7 and S7 Edge, S7 Active is IP68-certified and can be submerged in up to 5 feet of water for up to 30 minutes. Unlike its glass siblings, the Active is also built to withstand dirt, sand and drops from up to five feet. In some early tests, the phone did not fare well when dropped on concrete, though AT&T says this is an anomaly due to a faulty unit. A new device has thus far fared much better when dropped on a variety of surfaces, but we'll see how it does after further testing.

The Galaxy S7 Active retains many of the latest features found in Samsung's newest Galaxy smartphones, including a high resolution 5.1-inch display, 12-megapixel rear camera and 5-megapixel front camera and speedy Qualcomm Snapdragon 820 processor with 4GB of RAM. This year's Active also packs a fingerprint sensor, a first for the line, and a larger 4,000 mAh battery that AT&T says will provide over 32 hours of talk time and can fully charge in under two hours through fast charging.

Unlike other recent Galaxy S devices, the more ruggedized design means that the S7 Active will not work with Samsung's Gear VR virtual reality headset.

The Galaxy S7 Active is exclusive to AT&T and will be available on June 10 for $26.50 for 30 months when purchased on AT&T's Next payment plan, or $33.13 a month for 24 months when bought on the company's Next Every Year plan.

Samsung's new wireless earbuds let you ditch the phone

NEW YORK—Samsung has just introduced a new wireless set of earbuds called Gear IconX, which in addition to delivering music the music you expect to hear, will measure your heartbeat, steps and other fitness tracking metrics, without you having to carry your phone.

It also ties into the S Health app on Samsung phones.

As with other wireless headphones, IconX communicates through your phone via Bluetooth. But you only need your phone if you're planning to stream from your phone, say on a music service. For listening to songs stored internally or for health tracking, you can leave it behind.

Samsung's completely cut the cord, too. There is no cable or cord connecting the left earbud to the right. Samsung is by no means the first company to bring out such 100% cordless earbuds. But it's the first with this type of name brand recognition.

IconX will cost around $200 when they hit the market later this year.

During the brief time I got to sample them, they felt comfortable in my ears. They're light—about the weight of a U.S. quarter. The sound was decent (though I want to listen longer). There was a tiny bit of trial and error before I mastered swiping on the earbud for the proper set of audio or other controls.

An apparent cause for concern is suspect battery life: just about an hour and a half, Samsung says, when you’re streaming music or about 3 ½ hours when you’re playing songs stored internally; you get 4 gigabytes of storage for that purpose. In other words, these truly are meant to be worn while you're at the gym or for relatively short workouts—look elsewhere for headphones to wear during long trips.

One nicety: You can charge IconX in its compact battery-equipped case, twice in fact before you have to plug anything in.

Samsung introduced another new wearable that also communicates with the S Health app on Samsung phones (as well as third party fitness apps). It’s the Gear Fit2 fitness band that is a successor model to the first Gear Fit that came out nearly 2 ½ years ago. The new bracelet tracks the usual parameters—steps, calories burned, floors climbed, sleep quality and your heart rate.

But there are improvements: a wider 1.5-inch high quality curved touch display with a vertical orientation that the first Fit lacked. You had to turn your wrist or head in an awkward fashion to actually view the display properly on the original Fit.

Also new to Fit2 is standalone GPS tracking, and compatibility beyond Samsung’s own devices across the Android line, so long as you're using software version 4.4 or later. (Fit2 runs Samsung’s own Tizen operating system.)

Other features to take note of are smart notifications for texts, calls and such that you can respond to without your phone. Fit2 is also water resistant and has 4GB of internal memory for storing music.

Samsung is promising three to four days of battery life with typical usage, which is this instance would be pretty good. This new model costs $179 and comes out June 10.

I wondered if Fit2 would cannibalize Samsung's more full featured Gear S2 smartwatch but the company doesn't believes there's a ton of overlap in the market.

Ben Arnold, executive director, industry analyst for the NPD Group, says when it comes to what we think of as smartwatches, Samsung is the No. 2 brand behind Apple.

“At this point, I do think fitness trackers are putting some pressure on the smartwatch market, as they offer a core piece of the smartwatch use case— fitness tracking — at a lower price," Arnold says. "In many ways pricing and the straightforward use case of fitness trackers make them an easy entry point for consumers into wearables. Both products are evolving, however.“