Friday, November 30, 2007

The biggest down turn a business can take

Starting a new business is never easy. Throwing a wrench into the works will almost always end your start up. That wrench is not usually business related but related at the personal level, after all we are all human. My "wrenches" in the past have been:
  • Having a relative make constant fun of my business to the point of harassing jokes and me giving up on it. Looking back, the business was doing fine but I just couldn't take the ridicule anymore. That person is no longer in my life - thank God.
  • Having 2 parents die within 2 years of each other. The grief I went through put all other thoughts on the back burners for quite some time. Plans for starting up a second business were delayed.
  • Pressure from becoming suddenly unemployed. A business should not be started out of desperation, because to establish a good growing business takes time. Time is what you don't have when you are just trying to pay your bills, what you do have is panic mode.

If you can over come the many "wrenches" that life throws at you at the time you are just starting up a business get some counseling or a mentor to talk things out. Your future business success will thank you.

Thursday, November 29, 2007

Is your computer protected?

If you don't have an up to date firewall, you should. "Botnet" is a very real threat coming from Russia. Watch the video and learn.

Paid to blog site to stay away from

I was looking for another website that pays bloggers to post articles on their blog. I have found a few but I have also found one that I feel I should warn you about. It is linkworth.com they pay you only 70% (what ever that is) of the actual payout. But that was not got me up in arms. Before I sign on with anyone I AWAYS read the TOS or Terms of Service agreement. This one had the nice "we own the copyright to your work" that statement was enough to turn me off. I OWN MY OWN WORK and nobody else. All writers should know the copyrite laws and not sign over anything to anyone else without due compensation (read here BIG bucks). Please do yourself a favor and don't short sell yourself for a few dollars when down the road you could become famous and find out you don't even own your own words on your blog!

Investing your money

Do I invest my money? You bet I do! For years now my major investment has been my home or should I say homes. I am living in my 3rd home in 20 years. Like everyone else I started off with the small starter home and moved up in size and quality each step. When I mean quality I don't mean to keep up with the Jones' but the actual age, condition and location of the home. Now with the home prices dropping I don't think of my home so much as an investment but now as shelter and comfort.

In those many years I have also invested my money in stocks and mutual funds. Some of them bad, some good. I have learned also with my experience to invest in mutual funds rather than individual stocks. I had great foresight when several years ago I bought 50 shares of Lam Research stock. In the course of one month the price went from $38.00 a share to $120.00 a share. I sold it right before a 3 way split and the price bottomed out. It took well over 4 years for the price to rebound back to before the split. My other investments were not so good. There have been several companies that went belly up while I had 100's of shares of them. "Playing" the stock market (yes I did the day trader thing about 9 years ago) I have lost about $15K. On the other hand investing in mutual funds I have gained it all back and then some.

Learn from my experiences, don't day trade you will lose BIG time. Invest for the long run. Invest in companies that will be around in 20-30 years. Stay away from technology stocks, they are too volatile. Go with energy stocks and "green power" stocks as they are the wave of the future. I have several mutual funds right now and only one stock a "green stock" call Nova Bio Fuels (NBF) because I believe in the future of bio-diesel.

Invest, but invest wisely.

The lastest "hot" items for Christmas

Here is the lastest list of hotest items for Christmas. It turns out that video games are the big sellers this year so far.

Wednesday, November 28, 2007

An experiment in blogging

I have found another way to make money with a paid to post type of blogging opportunity. I was curious so I signed up. Now my loyal readers know that if my experiments in blogging or finding out that companies are rip offs I will report it here. So I am going to be up front and tell you right now that this post is my first "assignment" from Bloggerwave. I don't get credits if you sign up from my link but I am suppose to get $10.00 if they approve this post. If you are interested in this newer company then go to the home page and click on the FAQ link at the bottom of the page - I did. I found out most of my questions were answered except 2 of them. How do I get paid and when? I figured I have nothing to loose except the time it cost me to type this post in and I might end up with a really nice company to deal with in the end. I'll keep you posted on what happens next.

EDITED TO ADD THE FOLLOWING ON 1-15-08

LINKS HAVE BEEN REMOVED FOR NON-PAYMENT OF POST This post was an attempt at earning money thru Bloggerwave and failed. No payment received as of 1-15-08

Tuesday, November 27, 2007

The Hallmark humping dog




I take it by now you have seen the TV ad for the item pictured above. It is Hallmarks newest action packed ornament. My daughter told me to watch the ad carefully and tell her what I thought of it. At the very end you see the dog on the sled moving in a very common movement known to owners of male dogs - the dog is humping!!! I just about died when I saw it. If this item does not become the fastest selling off the wall item this season I will be surprised.

Hallmark's Humping Dog
Edited to Add: As soon as I posted this, Amazon is on the verge of selling them out so the Amazon link might not work. They are HOT!!!!

Charge it and I don't mean credit cards

This Christmas like all Christmas's in the past run on batteries and batteries are not included! This year to save money in the long run, buy items that are rechargeable. Batteries over the course of a year or more can get expensive to keep replacing. Even some rechargeable batteries go bad like one of our laptops keeps doing every year. Those laptop batteries run about $100.00 or more.

If you do need non-rechargeable batteries and want to save some money do what I do - buy them at the local Dollar store. Check the expiration date on the package before you buy them. Store them in a cool or cold place to prolong their life. I store ours in the refrigerator.

Lastly, don't forget to include batteries as part of the battery operated gift.

Monday, November 26, 2007

Cyber Monday is a myth

Ready for a break from shopping?


Help for cell phone owners

Here is what we need more ways to get out of those cell phone contracts. I have a cell phone but because of the area I live in the only company that covers it is Verizon. I wish I could get one of those pay-as-you-go type of phones but they have no coverage here. I hope tha video below can help some of my readers out.

Sunday, November 25, 2007

Came up short this month

It is almost the end of the month and I am finding that I am coming up short in the money department. I think that in my zealous efforts to get ahead of my bills I may have over paid to the point of not having enough money to pay for gas in the car. I know that I am ahead on all the bills but should I short change myself in the process? I don't want to be so far in debt that I can never hope to see the end in sight. Another blog Rantings of a Strong Woman relates her past struggle with credit cards. She and I seem to stress out about the same thing - money or lack of.

I am very realistic when it comes to earning money or making money thru selling, blogging or surveys. I realize that almost all those ventures takes several weeks from the time you have earned the money to actually seeing it in your bank account. Even selling items on line via PayPal takes about 4-6 days before you can actually say it is in your account. The only way I know of to earn hard cash right away is to sell something in person. So while I wait for my earned money via the internet to show up in my account (I won't hold my breath) I'll just sell some more jewelry.

Are you ready for cyber Monday?

Cyber Monday is tomorrow. Why do they call it cyber Monday? Very simple answer really. People have been shopping all weekend and can't find what they are looking for. On Monday they return to work and can't shop so they resort to internet shopping while at work.If you sell stuff online this is the day you have been waiting for. Make sure all of your items are available and not out of stock and test buy a few items to make sure your "shopping cart" is working. If you are are a manager at work be aware that your employees will be shopping on line even if you don't see it.

Me, I am keeping my fingers crossed as I have just put about 5 items on eBay at auction. None are over $25.00 if you buy them NOW but I am hoping to get $20.00 each for them. Small potatoes I know but I still have one more bill to pay this month and it is that darn dental bill of $100.00 a month.

Also don't forget, if you need to make some extra money for the holidays do what I am doing selling jewelry at private parties. The link is my supplier. I don't mind the competition as long as you and I don't have the same friends

Saturday, November 24, 2007

Finding interesting stuff online

While looking for bargains online I had a chance to come across one of the most popular blogs on the internet. I am not talking about Perez Hilton but a blog that is devoted to funny pictures of animals. It is called icanhascheezburger and one of the funniest is the 2 bear cubs doing judo . Now talk about doing an off the wall blog that has over 25000+ links to it and is ranked number 11 in the world of blogs.

Get out of debt - NOW

Watch the video, lots of sound advise. I only wish my in debt sister-in-law would listen to this type of advice. She is the type that keeps refinancing her house to pay her credit cards off but forgets to cut the cards up. She then runs the credit card balances straight up to the limit again and then can't pay them. She and her husband are slowly drowning in debt.

Friday, November 23, 2007

Be still my heart

I have sold my first Sterling silver necklace. This one was turquoise and silver. I made a small but nice profit. In celebration I am posting this nice video news item about a jade necklace, enjoy.

Have some fun with your blog

I found an interesting little item to add to your blog. It is a badge type thing that shows the reading level of your blog. Here is mine for Scratching out a living:

The result is what I expected. For fun I tried out a very simple blog that I thought any idiot could read. The blog is The Gossip Hound and here is what that result was:

That result just about had me spitting out my hot coco. Go ahead and try it on your blog.



Christmas time is highly stressful for the unemployed

I know all too well the feelings of stress around Christmas time when a person is unemployed or if their business is not doing well. This is my second year in a row that I have been unemployed at this time of year. Last year my only real Christmas gift was a phone call telling me that I start a new job the first week of the new year. It took the sting out of the stress just in time to relax on Christmas day. It is hard to watch people merrily spending right and left when I go to the store just to buy essentials. I come home with just a touch of anxiety.

I also get pissed off when I am with other people that are watching the TV news and hear one of them say "why doesn't that person just get a job?", then look at me real quick and say "not you of course". Now how am I suppose to take that? The people saying that are usually the type that have never gone through a period of extended unemployment.

If you are unemployed it seems to also go against you when you are looking for work. How do you explain a period of 9 months or between jobs? A woman can say she took care of a sick relative or decided to take some time off to be a homemaker but what does a man say? I also feel there is much more stress on a man than a women when it comes to the stigma of being unemployed.

Thursday, November 22, 2007

Electronics looks to be the "hot" items this Christmas shopping season

I just finished doing some research and found that electronic gifts are the big thing this year. The current top searches on eBay are for iPods, mp3 players and laptops. The top searches on Google are all for electronic stores like Fry's and Circuit City. I found the biggest bargains are from reputable stores that also have online stores. As long as the shipping is free or reasonable then I say cyber shop.

Before you buy from anywhere - brick and mortar or online - check your prices and make sure the item is new and not "refurbished" unless you get a good deal on the "used" price. Check out PC Universe at the link below I have heard good things about them.

Get great deals on 250,000 technology products from over 700 manufacturers.

Thanksgiving - Internet style


Occasionally I look at the major Internet search engines to see what everyone is looking for. Most of the days show an abundance of celebrities or news items with the occasional shopping item like an iPod or other "hot" item at the time. Today I just happened to check and the majority of searches, in fact the top 50 at least were for cooking, setting tables, recipes, stores open on Thanksgiving, and opening times for store tomorrow. Guess what was the number one search on Google? The National Dog Show!


With that in mind I am thinking about gearing a business towards dog owners. I think there is money there.


Happy Thanksgiving everyone. May you have many blessings.

Wednesday, November 21, 2007

Pearls of wisdom, which ones do you believe?

List found on the Internet - not my creation

1. Never, under any circumstances, take a sleeping pill and a laxative on the same night.
2. Don't worry about what people think, they don't do it very often.
3. Going to church doesn't make you a Christian anymore than standing in a garage makes you a car.
4. Artificial intelligence is no match for natural stupidity.
5. If you must choose between two evils, pick the one you've never tried before.
6. My idea of housework is to sweep the room with a glance.
7. Not one shred of evidence supports the notion that life is serious.
8. A person who is nice to you but rude to the waiter, is not a nice person.
9. For every action, there is an equal and opposite government program.
10. If you look like your passport picture, you probably need the trip.
11. Bills travel through the mail at twice the speed of checks.
12. A conscience is what hurts when all of your other parts feel so good.
13. Eat well, stay fit, die anyway.
14. Men are from earth. Women are from earth. Deal with it.
15. No man has ever been shot while doing the dishes.
16. A balanced diet is a muffin in each hand.
17. Middle age is when broadness of the mind and narrowness of the waist change places.
18. Opportunities always look bigger going than coming.
19. Junk is something you've kept for years and throw away three weeks before you need it.
20. There is always one more imbecile than you counted on.
21. Experience is a wonderful thing. It enables you to recognize a mistake when you make it again.
22. By the time you can make ends meet, they move the ends.
23. Thou shalt not weigh more than thy refrigerator.
24. Someone who thinks logically provides nice contrast to the real world.
25. It ain't the jeans that make your butt look fat.
26. If you had to identify in one word, the reason why the human race has not achieved it's full potential, that word would be "meetings."
27. There is a very fine line between "hobby" and "mental illness."
28. People who want to share their religious views with you almost never want you to share yours with them.
29. You should not confuse your career with your life.
30. Nobody cares if you can't dance well. Just get up and dance.
31. Never lick a steak knife.
32. The most destructive force in the universe is gossip.
33. You will never find anybody who can give you a clear and compelling reason why we observe daylight savings time.
34. You should never say anything to a woman that even remotely suggests that you think she's pregnant unless you can see an actual baby emerging from her at that moment
35. The one thing that unites all human beings, regardless of age, gender, religion, economic status or ethnic background, is that deep down inside we ALL believe we are good drivers.
36. Your friends love you anyway.

Are you ready for some serious shopping?

The Christmas shopping season officially begins in 2 days - are you ready?

I am never ready for this time of year. In the past I have done kamikaze shopping on Christmas Eve. That was the easiest shopping I have ever done. I went into the local Sears and planned on getting everyone a gift card. When I went in there was a huge markdown sale going on. I got 3 Mr Coffee, coffeemakers for $5.00 each and bath towels, the plush kind, for $2.00 I am all for kamikaze shopping. I learned that on Christmas Eve is when all the big markdowns are done and there is hardly anyone in the stores, a great time to shop.

Now for bargain hunting I have found the best prices for electronics are at Overstock.com and Staples (not the online site but the local stores). For other items just shop around. If you live in a large metropolitan area go shopping in the smaller towns surrounding you. You will find that the prices are usually lower where there is less population, because they just don't have the customers.

Happy bargain hunting. I won't be shopping until the last minute because I want some bargains. If they sell out of what I want oh well, there are always gift cards.

Tuesday, November 20, 2007

Are you ready for Black Friday?

Black Friday or more commonly known as the day after Thanksgiving is going to be interesting this year. It is called "Black" Friday because that is typically the day when all retail stores come out of the red and into the black on profits for the year. I say that it is going to interesting because I don't think it will be as black as they hope it to be. As an example if sales are expected to be good then tell me why would Kohl's be opening their doors at 4am in the morning on Black Friday? It is things like that, that tell me the large retailers are having fears about profits for this year.

What am I doing on Black Friday? Probably blogging and making my gifts (custom machine embroidered items) and getting out the Christmas decorations. Above all else, staying away from the crowds at the stores.

Tips for bloggers or how to get the elusive reader

Elusive readers are what bloggers strive to rein in. As a blogger I get side tracked trying to get links to my blog forgetting to write content that my readers will come back to day after day. Some of my postings I must admit are just for me, sort of therapy. Other posts I hope to share new found items of interest. For now I have found a wonderful blog for fellow bloggers to find out about HTML widgets for their blog. There is no way I could even cover what that blog has. It truly is Tips for New Bloggers

Now my blog can get back on track with money saving tips and sharing how to start a business. With that in mind I am sure to get a fair share of readers. Not everyone wants to blog and I find catering to would be bloggers quite boring.

Monday, November 19, 2007

Saving money at the grocery store

I wanted to get meat for a pot roast dinner. When I looked at the prices of the roasts it about floored me. The price was $3.99 a pound. Right next to them was London Broil on sale at $1.99 a pound. At that point I figured beef was beef and bought the London Broil for the meat for the pot roast. I then went to the ground beef section to buy some ground beef for a "dirty rice" dinner. Again sticker shock at the $3.89 a pound for ground beef - the "cheap" kind at that. I went back to the London Broil and bought another one. This one I cut up in small chunks when I got home for dinners such as the "dirty rice" and the hamburger helpers I have. The 2 London Broils I bought for a total of $8.75 will be used in 4 different dinners.

The pot roast was cooked today in the crock pot and came out really nice. I think I like the "cheaper" cuts of beef.

By the way stew meat was being sold for $3.55 a pound!!

Something is strange about Google's PageRank

Google's PagePank seems to be the goal of most bloggers, the higher it is the better the blog or so we are led to believe. I am finding this is not true at all. Here are my findings on the subject:

A niece of mine, a teenager, has a blog about sea life. There are about 12-14 posts on it all together. She has a friend that occasionally writes a short post but that is about it. She has had the blog for about a year. She seldom writes in it, maybe once a month. She gets about 200 readers a day and her PageRank is 5. She does not post on other blogs or have links pointing to it, yet. She does not write long blog posts, her posts are very short 1 paragraph long. No advertising on her blog.

Another blog that I have discovered and become email pals with the owner has a PageRank of 4 and has about 10 readers a day. She has about 20+ posts and tries to write at least once a week if not more. Her articles have appeared on digg.com and she has a few pingbacks. She would love to have more readers.

My conclusions are PageRank has very little to do with how many visitors you have or your content. I plan on looking more into how PageRank works and why it seems so important to advertising rates. As of right now I just think it is all smoke and mirrors.

Sunday, November 18, 2007

Another scam to watch out for this time via your phone

I am a blogger with some real life values

I know I need to have a paying job and I am desperately looking for one. Until then I blog and sell Sterling silver jewelry part-time for whatever little money I can get. There is one thing I WILL NOT do and that is write a blog for something or a company that I do not believe in for money. Here is a list of the companies I will NOT advertise for and the reasons:
  • Payday loans or Cash Today or any other type of quick (read here loan shark) type of operation. They are the scum of the earth, charging extremely high interest rates to people who cannot afford it. If you do paid blog posts about how "great" these companies are then you are just like them - scum.
  • HP (Hewlett-Packard) I worked for them at one point in my life and I know how first hand they treat their employees and how they really "recycle". I will not put extra money in their pockets if I can help it. I found another ex-employee of HP online and she speaks for the temp workers that worked there at her blog.
  • Ebooks or companies that sell a "system" for making money online without telling the customer what the "system" is all about.

I am sure that as time goes on my list will grow. I maybe desperate for money at times to pay a bill but I will NOT mislead others to get my money. I guess I'll never make a good salesperson.

Saturday, November 17, 2007

My first and maybe my last church sale

Well, my first holiday Church sale is over and I am only $8.00 in the hole! Just one sale the entire 7 hours I was there. I don't feel too bad since it was a learning experience. Another woman there was selling huge plush blankets and not one sold. Lots of people looking but very few buying. One lady was doing custom embroidery with a huge industrial size machine on the spot - her customers were all the other vendors.

What I learned:
  • It is better to have a small exclusive sale like a party that lasts only 2 hours than to spend 7 hours waiting for customers to show up
  • $15.00 (my booth spot fee) would have been better spent on party refreshments to host my own Sterling silver jewelry party
  • I would much rather have my customers come to me - via a hosted party, than have to wait for one to maybe show up.

I might do one more fair type selling but not at a Church sale. The next one is on December 8th at a local school. I have not decided to go to it yet but I might.

Friday, November 16, 2007

Outragous spending

To be a successful blogger......

To be a successful blogger -you can't do it by yourself. You have to have readers and lots of them. How do you get those readers? By reading and commenting on other people's blogs! Don't just say, nice blog, go into some detail in your comment about the post, make your comment worth reading. Those blog owners will then have to approve your comment and usually take a look at your blog to see if you are the type of person and blog they themselves would like to read. Not only are you finding out the types of blogs you find interesting but they in turn are finding you.

I go one step further and add a link to their blog right here on my links section for the ones I really like. I hope they link back to me but if they don't I don't sweat it.

Find out how much your website is worth

Here is a little handy tool I found on the internet, it checks backlinks and calculates how much in dollars your website is worth. I ran a few websites and blogs through the checker and got quite a surprise on one of them. I did find out that you can get 3 different values based on how you entered your URL. if you just enter the straight forward domain name such as "mydomain.com" you will get a different result than "http://mydomain.com" also adding the "www" to the domain will get another value. I found that just the straight domain name without the www or the http will yield the higher value. Have fun with it.

Website value checker


Thursday, November 15, 2007

What every blogger should know - the blogging laws

Do you know that there are US Federal laws that cover blogging? I bet you didn't know that. I think we are all familiar with copyright laws but there are fair trade laws and truth in advertising laws too. Did you know that if you wrote a blog post that endorsed a product or service and you were paid to write or publish that post you HAVE to mention it is a paid or sponsored post? Or else you would be breaking the law? Interesting isn't it? I ran across a very detailed article by a fellow blogger that covers the subject very well. If you are thinking even remotely about blogging for money then his article is a must read.

Blogging Laws

Desperate times call for desperate measures

Let me make a prediction. With the failing housing market, rising unemployment the following industries will be booming - churches, TV Evangelists, religious jewelry makers, astrology, tarot card reader and manufactures. Why? Because we fear the unknown and our uncertain futures. We tend to turn to a higher power or a mystical venue in times of trouble. But you say that you don't believe all that garbage. I say you do. When was the last time you got an email that said wonderful things and to spread the good will you should pass it on to all your good friends? That is a type of superstition that I am talking about.

Now I am not saying that you should stay away from prayer or church or whatever makes you feel good but I am saying don't get suckered in on a false promise that will only get your hopes up then let you down - fast.

Stay happy, healthy and believe in yourself.

Wednesday, November 14, 2007

Using your credit card for online purchasing

If you shop online then you use your credit or debit card. With the on going problem of identity theft and credit card fraud here is a suggestion. I keep and use just one credit card for online purchases. The card has a limit of $300.00, that's it. If anyone tries to use it and go over the limit it won't hurt me that much. At one time I used my debit card but I hate the thought of someone emptying my bank account out in a few hours or less with a stolen number.

If you have a credit card with a small limit then just use that one for all you online shopping. If you don't have a credit card with a small limit but do have one with a large limit, then just call the credit card company and see if they can lower your limit. That would also serve to lower your balances on your credit cards so you would not be a slave to credit card interest rates.

Happy online shopping.

Me, a professional blogger?

Let me tell you that I am making money blogging - not much money, but money none the less. I thought it might be interesting to list here how much I have made so far:

  • Google AdSense - $13.89 (but they don't pay you until you reach $100.00)
  • shareasale.com - $14.76 (minimum payout is $50.00)
  • Clickbank - $28.00 (but you need to have 5 different purchases on 5 different credit cards before they pay out the first check, only 3 more to go)
  • Paid blog entries - $58.00 and I have been paid for them already!

Not bad for 2 weeks! That of course is not including the money I made from taking 3 surveys this week - $24.00, and selling a used book on Amazon for $25.00

Toy safety

With all the toy recalls going on I was thinking about making some toys to go with me to the craft fair. I have a book on stuffed teddy bears and other toys like that but I wonder if that is the type that would be in demand? I think that most of the recalls have been aimed at toddler aged children and under. That is something I will have to keep in mind for today.

Getting items ready for bazaar on Saturday

I am just staying up late to get more items ready for the Church bazaar/craft sale on Saturday. I have other items that might do well at the sale. I have machine embroidered items that I have made for sale on eBay that will probably sell well. So far I have my 10 Sterling silver pieces of jewelry, my jewelry catalog for people to order from, several handcrafted necklaces, 10 embroidered children's tops, about 200 Italian photo charms, 32 photo badges, 10 embroidered dinner napkins with napkin rings, 3 custom made oak photo frames with old time photos of the old west.

It is not that much yet so I will be making a few more items to fill out my inventory.

Tuesday, November 13, 2007

Health care for the self employed

If you have your own business you might be lacking in a vital aspect of your life, health insurance. Even if you are between jobs, unemployed, or just found out you can no longer afford health insurance there is no reason you should be stuck with a high medical bill should you get sick. I just had major dental work done about 2 months ago and since I don't have dental insurance I had to work out a payment plan with my dentist. I pay $100.00 a month and should have the bill paid off in about 18 months. I use to have one of those health discount cards but dropped it when I got regular health insurance. I didn't realize that those cards covered dental work too. My dental bill would have only amounted to about 1/3 of the amount I am paying now. My card only cost $19.99 a month and that covered the whole family. If I plan anymore dental work I'll get one of those cards again.

What I like about those types of plans is that they don't exclude people that have prior medical conditions like regular insurance companies do. If you do look into getting one of those discount medical cards there is one thing you should know - make sure your local dentist, doctor, pharmacy and hospital are listed in their plan. That was one of the major reasons I dropped our card, the closest doctor was over 50 miles away but it did cover the local hospital.

I should mention that the medical discount card that I had was a different company than the one I have links to in the paragraphs above.

The problems of the internet

If you truly plan on making money on the Internet please be aware of all the problems that go along with it. Recently a hosting company called navisite.com had their servers go off line for 9 days!!! They are host to over 160,000 websites. Link to full story. With that type of interruption in your business, website or blog, you could go broke. My honest opinion and advise is not to make the Internet your sole source of income for your business. If you make and sell something then find another way to sell it. Use the Internet as advertising and extra sales. For bloggers that make blogging their sole source of income, take note, either have your own server with your blog on it or ask your blog host what servers or server is your blog on.

We all know that the Internet is a prime target for terrorists. So what will you do when the Internet gets major interruptions? Will your income go flat or your business go belly up? Something to think about.

Ebay has died.....

..at least for me. A few months back I had put several items on there and all of them sold, some with several bids. Then about mid September I had about 20 items at auction there and only one sold. It was a very rapid decrease in sales for me. That little bit of extra money was subsidising the unemployment check to the tune of $150.00 a week. For several weeks I continued to relist those items and nothing. I even listed a few more of what had sold previously with several bids - nothing. I had 4 sales in 1 month, not a good thing since those sales just about covered the eBay fees. Now I know why several former eBayer's like to call eBay, "FEEbay".

I gave eBay a rest and that is when I decided to get back into an in person selling type business. Since I am a woman my business choice is jewelry. I guess life sometimes gives you a kick in the pants. When eBay froze over that was my kick.

Digg!

Successful business people

What is the difference between a person that has a successful business and the person who just wishes their business was successful?

Many factors can come into play with that question but the most important factor is the “human” factor. Most successful business people love to talk and socialize. That is just what you need if you are selling or marketing an item or service. Another personality trait needed is someone not afraid to take risks. Someone who is afraid of failure and is an introvert should not consider starting a business on their own. If that type of person wished to start a business than they should have a partner that could handle the marketing, sales and risk taking part of the business. Bottom line is you should be the type of person that other people like to deal with.

But what if you are not the type of business person I mentioned above? Don’t despair there is help. Many local colleges offer classes to help you out. Take a short course in public speaking. Enroll in a drama class. In fact enroll in any type of class that gets you out into the spotlight and the center of attention on a daily basis. You will learn to relax and enjoy working with people and having people genuinely listen to you. You can learn to be an extrovert, but learning to be a risk taker might take more practice. That takes more daring. You can learn to skydive but that is not the same as taking risks with money and your future. Daring physical risks are only momentary but taking business risks is something you can only learn by doing and learning NOT to panic when something goes wrong. Your best bet is always to have a back-up plan. Having a back-up plan will also help defer the panic of risk taking.

You can learn and develop your personality to become a successful business owner.

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Monday, November 12, 2007

I am a worry wart

When it comes to paying bills and not having enough savings to cover them - I worry A LOT!

I don't think that I am that much different than most people when it comes to this subject. Worrying for me gives me that push to go out and make a difference in my life. I have had some worry free years but something has always come along to get me going again. With me it is always the unexpected that broadsides me, an illness in the family, a major job loss or natural disaster. It is all part of life. I have been lucky so far that my worrying has not caused me to have health problems - keeping my fingers crossed on that one.

So what does one do? I plow ahead and hope for the best. My plans so far include getting my small jewelry business going, always looking for a great paying job, blogging in my spare time to make a few extra dollars, selling a few odds and ends on Amazon.com and eBay and above all else cutting back on various non-essentials. I know that I will succeed because I have a positive outlook at my life. There is no way I will ever think that the world has turned against me because I refuse to look at things that way.

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Penny pinching, or should I say dollar stretching

Now days saving pennies is not going to do you much good. After all the ATM machine spits out 20 dollar bills not 1 dollar bills. Most people will go through a few 20 dollar bills as if they were 1 dollar bills though. If you are really trying to save up money to pay your bills here is just a few tips:
  • Do away with unnecessary bills such as your cell phone, remember the days when you didn't need it? If you really have to have a cell phone then go with a pay as you go and buy the minutes cards.
  • Get rid of all those extra channels on your cable TV bill, go bare bones for awhile. That could save you anywhere from $20 to $100 a month.
  • Find ways to save on your electric/gas bill
  • Go bare bones on your land line phone service. Get rid of those extra items.
  • Lower your auto insurance rate by shopping around or contacting your insurance agent to see if they are offering anything different. I lowered mine by having my payments pay direct from my bank account to the savings of $200.00 a year.
  • Cut up the credit cards that have a higher rate than 12% and just pay them off. Keep the lower interest rate one for emergencies. The 22% interest rate on a $300-400 balance will run you an extra $100-120 dollars a year if the balance is not paid in full each month.

That should keep you busy for a few hours.



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The "System"

Being unemployed makes me more vulnerable to scam artists. I am always clicking on links that sound too good to be true - like "make a million dollars a year doing practically nothing". When I get to their "pitch" website and read it all the way to the bottom I still have no idea what their secret "system" is. I don't know if I am doing data entry or re-selling ebooks. I do know one thing, the person who put up the website and taking in $29.95 for info on the "system" is the only one getting rich.

I have learned to stay away from unreal promises and websites that I can't figure out what they are selling. From my experience the only way you are going to get rich is by working hard, very hard at it or having a rich relative die and leave you all their money.

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Sunday, November 11, 2007

I hate the word frugal

The word frugal always seemed to me to be another way to say CHEAP but with a touch of nostalgia, something Jack Benny would say. I would prefer to phase it as “money wise”. Wisdom with money is something everyone should learn. Many parents of today’s youth are not educated enough to teach their children wisdom with money. After all it is today’s mid age parents that are drowning in debt and some are over their heads with their own mortgages. In general people under the age of 45 did not receive any advice or training from their parents when it came to money management. The people in the next age group from 45-55 probably only got the following advise from their parents “put your money away for a rainy day”.

When I was growing up my parents emphasized saving and living on a very tight, extremely “frugal” budget. The only problem with that type of teaching is that they did not teach me to spend wisely or how to invest. My father did not believe in loans or credit of any type so needless to say he never owned a home, my parents were forever renters. Their type of investing was limited to money market CD’s and they would complain about paying taxes on the interest earned. I only wish they had known how to manage their money better so they could have taught me at a younger age. All what I learned and still learning is by trial and error when it comes to money management.

After seeing and indeed going through hell at times with money worries I would love to see schools at the elementary and above level require courses in money management. I would not like them taught by school teachers but by financial advisor experts and accounts. Without adequate training our youth of today will have great education but not know how to manage their earnings correctly when they have a nice paycheck. The current emphasis on today’s youth is to get an good education but it seems to end there. No mention of after you get that first job with your college education what to do with your money next. Is it best to pay back your education loan first, or start to invest your money while slowly paying back your loan? Only those people that know interest rates, credit scores, tax laws and your lifestyle can help you answer questions like that - not your parents unless they are expert financial consultants.

Help yourself like I am doing and get all the education you can about money and it’s management.

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More ways to make money from your blog

Once you have established your blog and have at least a few readers a day then you can start to put some advertising on your blog. Yes you can get paid for putting those ads there yourself. There are at least 3 different types of advertising that you can get paid for on your blog. One is affiliate advertising, that type is when you put a banner ad or a clickable link that takes your reader to another site in order for that site to sell your reader something. You only get paid when the person that clicks through your ad actually buys something. You might get anything from a percent of the sale (often as low as 5 cents, to a high of several 100 dollars), so it varies and remember - no sale - no pay. I have a banner ad on this page to the right and it is something that I feel fits in with this blog and also with my personal feelings about the company. I am a member of shareasale.com and they are the ones I get my affiliate advertising offers from. It costs nothing to join any of the affiliate marketing groups and they always want new members. I do believe that affiliate banners work best on regular websites with related content simply because I would rather get paid to write my blog post content instead of just advertising.

Now a word of caution - not all affiliate advertising companies are the same. Some do and can cheat you. About 3 years ago I had someone buy something using one of my affiliate links to see if they really tracked the sale. I was suspicious of the company to begin with since my tracking software showed that they had a large amount of click thrus. Well she placed the sale and got her item about 5 weeks later (really slow shipping) and I never got a commission on the sale nor did she get a special discount that my link offer. Needless to say I removed all ads to that company from my site and went one step further and found other sites that had advertisements to that company and emailed all the webmasters. Those advertisements soon disappeared too. The company is still in business and it tackoutlet.com so you know. That brings us to ......

Getting paid to write a blog post. That to me is were the real money is at. I have in the past written blog posts about my hobbies. Those posts were about 4-5 paragraphs long and something I was passionate about. Add to that element 3 links to the same site selling dog coats or dog health insurance and walla! you have an advertiser that paid me $15.00 a post. I would rather get paid just to write and add a few links to that post than wait for someone to just click on a link hoping they will buy something or not so I could get paid. If you are interested in getting paid to blog about something you love writing about I have a sign-up link on the right side of this page.

The third way is to have a blog that is so popular that advertisers come to you with high priced ads and wanting you to write about them even if it is to slam them. One good example is Perez Hilton's blog. His blog started out as a fun thing to do and now he is a millionaire. He just wrote about what he found funny and his fascination with celebrities. Companies came to him to advertise on his blog.

So go out in the blog sphere, have fun and make some money on the side.

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I'm making money blogging!!!

I just got a shocker. I just logged into my account at Google AdSense, since I had not logged in for about a week, and found out that there was $5.00 more in the account. I am actually making money blogging. The account doesn't say what types of ads paid out but it does give a breakdown of how much I earned each day. I did notice that one day I had 1 click for 30 cents and the next day I had 1 click for $1.50 so I guess I am doing something right. If only I knew what types of ads were giving me the higher payouts I could use those "keywords" in my blog posts.

When I was posting my blog at the now long gone Blogfeast there were a few people that would post tips and hints on the right words to use in your blog to get the higher paid advertisers there. If I remembered it correctly the higher paid words were financial types like, insurance, car insurance, loans, real estate loans, loans for education and stuff like that. My guess is that advertisers want people to either fear the unknown by selling insurance or playing on the money angle with all the loan stuff. I do remember that every time I wrote about my dog I would get stupid "dog ring tones for your phone" AdSense ads so I just went ahead and blocked them from appearing. There are just some ads I don't want to appear on my blogs.

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Saturday, November 10, 2007

Getting ready for my first holiday bazaar

Well I decided to go for it and signed up to take some of my Sterling silver jewelry to a church run bazaar. I have a few other items that I use to sell on eBay so I'll take them too. I have a card table that I will make a cover for and make some displays out of black felt to show off the jewelry. It will be for only 7 hours so I am hoping that I can sell at least $100.00 worth of items. The jewelry party is still on but I figure it wouldn't hurt to get out there and start selling.

The bazaar is only next weekend and the jewelry party the following week. No news from any of the places I sent resumes and I got to pay my bills so selling I must do.

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How the average person can save

I am not going to tell you that if you put "X" amount of dollars into a certain account or investment you will make "X" amount of money - no I am going to tell you how you can save money everyday.

#1 buy items that you need and use everyday at SALE prices only and stock up. For example if there is a big sale on toilet paper and you save $1.00 on each pack of 6 then stock up on as many as you can afford. You will always need and use the toilet paper so you will be saving money in the long run by buying at a lower price. The same is true for meat that can be frozen for 6 months. Shampoo, soap, laundry detergent and other essential non-perishable items can all be bought at bulk sale prices. Items to avoid are flour, wheat, cereals and other grains since they don't keep for over 9 months due to the weevil eggs in them.

#2 use coupons whenever you can. Don't use coupons for something you don't normally buy unless it makes the item you normally buy more expensive and you think you might like the different product.

#3 don't buy items that will be wasted. If you buy bread but find out that you end up throwing out half the loaf because it went bad or stale before you could use it, then you have just wasted your money. Next time buy a smaller loaf or buy rolls and freeze half of them. Don't buy more than you can use before it expires!

Bottom line - buy smart, not wasteful and you will save money in the long run.

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Penny pinching

How to save money - let me count the ways......LOL

I love watching Susie Orman and listening to her advise, but some how I just don't think she is in tune with the "real" America. Most of her advise is geared toward successful people that had real good jobs but don't know how to budget. She very rarely takes on those people that are unemployed, gone through all their savings and 401K's and still can't find work and are now looking for a way to get enough money just to get by.

Well I'm gonna tell it like it is, you scrimp and scoot through every week with coupons clipped out of those free newspapers cuz you can't afford the real newspapers. You look for work literally everywhere and get turned down by Wally World because you have no experience in retail, or you are too young, too old or you are just one of the 30 other people that interviewed for the same job. Now with the gas price going so high you can't afford to drive around looking for work so you head to the library to use their computers to look on line. Then you have to either wait for a computer or book one in advance. You can no longer afford to have a cell phone so when the interviewer asks how to get a hold of you, you say your home phone which would be great if your answering machine worked but it went south just when you couldn't afford to replace it. So now you have to stay home to wait for the phone top ring but you have to look for work!

I know a few readers can really see that situation but poor Susie can only give advise if you have a job to pay to get ahead then she can help you. Till then we just survive.

The foreclosure crisis

Many years ago I had the unhappy event of having my house in foreclosure. I was lucky that it happened during the boom years of the real estate market and was able to sell it and have a huge lump sum to buy another home outright. I cannot even fathom what sellers are even thinking right now with the falling real estate market. I have noticed one BIG difference in the market though. Most of the homes, in fact a great majority of the homes now in foreclosure were bought by speculators hoping to cash in on the housing boom. They in turn made many of those home that they bought into rentals with elevated rents to match. These homes are now in foreclosure. Housing markets such as California and Texas are the ones that had many of the speculators going belly up right now. I have no feelings for people that want to drive up the housing market for their own greed.

Because of the housing market down turn there are now many affordable houses on the market in foreclosure. At one time I would have stayed away from buying someones house that they could no longer afford but I would gladly buy a house in foreclosure due to a speculator gone over their head. It is people like that, that make it harder for the average family to afford their own home.

Should I go back to school?

I have often thought about going back to school to improve my skills in the work place. There are local colleges but mostly of a general education type. The major universities are geared toward more of the medical or attorney types of fields where you would have to go full time ...... for YEARS! If I was in California - where I grew up, there is Westwood College located in the southern part of the state. Another one is LA College in the Los Angeles area.

If you are interested at all in attending a college to advance your work skills then by all means THINK about it. You can do some research on the 2 colleges mentioned above at California College a website that is geared in providing information on choosing the right college and classes for you.

I am glad I don't sell real diamonds

I watched in horror last night as the Discovery Channel aired the mini series "Diamond Road". I was thoroughly dismayed at the treatment of the people that mine the diamonds. If you have not seen the series I encourage you to do so especially if you own or wear diamonds.

I for one will not be part of that greedy and horrific abuse that goes on in the diamond industry. I am so glad that many of the gemstones can be manufactured in the lab nowadays. After all why do we put so much emphasis on the word "genuine" when it comes to gemstones. All their function is - is to look pretty. I can see the diamond industry going the same way of the old fur industry. When fake furs were introduced there was no more reason to trap and kill animals for their fur anymore. Now with lab produced diamonds that are made of carbon just like the nature made ones - why do we need to destroy the land and abuse people to mine diamonds?

In my opinion they should have named that series "Road of Despair" but would they have that many people watching it?

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Friday, November 9, 2007

Doing OK at blogging

I guess I am doing OK with my new blog so far. I get about 20 readers a day so I think that is pretty good. It helps me keep my sanity while looking for work and trying to set up my business.

Business wise I am actually doing not bad. I received my jewelry catalog and price list and I was showing the catalog to a few friends when one of them told me she was the buyer for a local boutique. She is going to ask the owner of the store if they want to carry a line of a higher quality jewelry, right now they just do the cheap costume stuff. She said that the owner might go for it since she was very impressed at the product line. Keeping my fingers crossed on that one.

I am learning to sell anything you need to get out and talk to people - the internet can only do so much for you. You need to get off your butt and get away from the computer to make a real difference in your life.

Well I am right now getting off my butt and getting away from the computer...........

Thursday, November 8, 2007

Message board blaster is a piece of S***

In my quest to publicize my personal website in the past I have used a program called "Message Board Blaster". It is free to download and use 3 times. After those 3 times they want to charge you to use it. I just used it one time and that was enough for me. Here is what happens:
You download the software and put in all the info you want to see on the message including the website or blog you want the reader to visit and hit go. The trial version will only send it out to 10 message boards but if you pay them it will send it out to 5000 message boards. I opted for the free 10 message boards. Before I hit "go" I took down the names of the message boards so I could look them up later. On my website and this blog I have an invisible counter that I can look up who visits and where they are coming from. So with that in place I can see if I do get any visitors from those message boards. So I then waited a week and still no visitors from any message boards. I finally looked up some of the message boards mentioned in the blaster and I found out they were all the same! The only difference was the title of the message board. What I figured out they did was simply put up 5000 of their own message boards - which no body reads and then claim they "blasted" your post to all those message boards. It is a scam!!! Stay away from them. I did see one of their testimonies from a customer, it said "Message Board Blaster must work because I got 25 more visitors than I usually get" 25!!! With the millions of people on the Internet you would get 25 more visitors by accident - give me a break.

Ways to make money while waiting for your unemployment check

While searching for job openings online I am often finding other ways to make money rather than a 9-5 job. I don't know how lucrative they are but I do try to look into them.

Taking online surveys are one online venture that I have looked into. There is a lot of hype about how you can make a decent living of $400+ a week doing these things but I have found out differently. I joined 2 of them about 2 months ago. One is Lightspeed and the other is Survey S. Both of them are free to join, in fact don't ever pay anyone for information on how to get paid to take surveys, that part is a scam. Lightspeed sends me offers to take a survey about every other day but when I start the survey I am some how disqualified after the first 2 questions or so. This happens about 2 out of every 5 survey invitations sent to me. So I end up taking maybe one or 2 surveys a week. Lightspeed pays you in points. After you get so many points you can cash them in for cash or merchandise. I always cash mine out. So far in 2 months I have "earned" a whooping $25.00 not much but it does pay one bill for me. The next company I joined for free was by invitation and I am including my invitation to my readers here to join Survey S. Now this company pays you in straight cash. No contests or points just plain money. Their offers come about once a week and the pay rate has varied from $5.00 to $30.00 a survey. I have only been disqualified on 2 of the offers so far. In the last 2 months I have made $200+ which is not bad as a part time venture. My survey taking experience has not been enough to say I could earn a living doing it but it does offer some extra cash here and there.

Another one is blogging for money. This is my second blog. My first one was at a now defunct BlogFeast which has disappeared into the unknown. It was there that I learned about AdSense - those annoying ads from Google you see everywhere. If you have them on your website or blog and someone clicks on them to visit the advertiser then Google will pay the owner of the website or blog money for it. So far I have made the very large sum of $12.89 ...LOL Nothing to shout home about but then again I don't have the readership that some of the more established blogs do. Google will not pay you until you reach $100.00 so it will take me some time to get there. I do keep in touch with one of the other bloggers that does blog for money and he makes about $200.00 a week from AdSense on his 3 blogs. He has developed a readership following and has his own website. He still has his day job, as a trucker in Australia. His blog is about video games. Now if you plan on making money by blogging you will need to have a blog host that allows advertising. Blogger.com is the one I am using here. Wordpress.com does not allow any type of advertising at all and will cancel your account if you are even suspected to be having any paid links. So stay away from Wordpress.com if you plan on earning any money blogging.

We enough talk about making .... or should I say trying to make money .... back to sending resumes' out.

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Wednesday, November 7, 2007

I do believe that China is declaring war

The latest recall from China is the toy "Aqua Dots". This toy has a chemical that when ingested can cause children to go into a coma and die. So far there are 3 cases of young children in comas. I have not heard of any deaths - yet.

This is just the latest in a long string of recalled toys and other items made in China. I do know that with all the recalled toys many small toy making companies in the USA are having booming sales right now and they deserve it. If this keeps up maybe the US companies that sent their manufacturing to China will bring it back to the USA where it belongs. That will only happen if the buying public refuse to buy anymore items made in China and I do believe that is what will happen.

I imagine many handy type parents might even be making their children toys this Christmas like a toy working backhoe , stuffed animals or a wooden rocking horse. The older children would be getting the electronic type toy but it is the younger kids that are being affected by the recalls.

I am glad that I don't have any young children now. I would be worried sick about anything I bought for them.

What would you do with a million dollars?

A girl friend of mine just dropped by and we sat down to talk for just a bit. The conversation went from what was going on in our lives to winning the lottery. That last part got us both thinking. What would we do with a million dollars?

I think that most of us would pay off our current bills, buy a nice car or house but then the great majority of us would end up blowing the rest. Why do I say that? Simply because many people in this world can make a living and end up with a successful business out of practically nothing. I am talking about those on welfare with no car and living in low income rent areas that manage to become successful. They have the knowledge and experience on how to survive on very little. The rest of us have never gone thru those types of hard times to learn from. Those people that know how to budget for hard times will end up making that million dollars stretch and will probably end up making more money from it. The key word here is "budget". Learn how to make what little money you have stretch out and work for you. If you have any left over - DON'T SPEND IT - SAVE IT!

You don't have to win the lottery to have a million dollars, just save for it.

The Sterling silver jewelry catalog came - yeah!!!

It finally arrived! Now I can get busy with which items I can point out to my friends. I had no idea that they had such a large selection. I also noticed that their website had lots of stuff on sale for much lower than the catalog price. I guess that is why they don't list everything - just the sale stuff. I don't have to worry about competing with them because most of my friends still don't shop online, they just don't trust the internet yet with their credit cards. That is still the big advantage to NOT having a website store, too many people are still NOT shopping online. I can fully understand it though, I would not like to buy a pair of shoes from the web - I need to try them on first! The same thing with clothes and yes even jewelry. Us girls still want to see stuff in person before we buy it. Also there is the whole social thing. I like to get out of the house and go to the store and shop - why? To meet and talk to people, even if it is just the cashier in the store.

Now I can start my jewelry party business.

Watch out for scams

When you become unemployed or you are just trying to get ahead in life financially you can become victim of many, many frauds and scams that are on the internet. One of the quickest ways to check out a company is to do a quick search on google, dogpile, MSN or most of the other major search engines. This is how you do your search:

Type the name of the company in the search window than add the word "scam" or "fraud" after it. You should come up with lots of info. You best source is going to be message board postings and personal blogs for the real inside info on these companies. People love to talk about getting ripped off so you should get a good idea about which companies to stay away from.

Another Wednesday

Wednesdays at my house mean that my unemployment check comes and I get to go grocery shopping. Things have been getting tight at our house with the bills piling up just a tad. What I have found out is the fact that our food bill is the largest monthly expense other than the mortgage. That means if I can save money on the food bill I'll be able to get ahead on the other bills. So I began search around for coupons to clip. I didn't find that many so I went online to search. I found a few but not enough to really save a bunch. During my search I found this place:

It was free to join and so I signed up. They have lots of free samples and COUPONS you can print out and take to the store with you.

Now off to the grocery store!

Tuesday, November 6, 2007

Another day of waiting

I tracked my package and it seems to be in limbo about 40 miles north of me. I guess things never move fast when you want them to. Just like watching a pot of water boil - takes forever it you watch it.

I have been busy making up cute little business cards to hand out at my jewelry parties. I also ordered a few sets of Sterling silver earrings to hand out as prizes. So far I have 5 friends coming and some of them are going to be bringing a relative or neighbor. The party is scheduled to run for about 2 hours. I know from experience that you should always have a set end time if the party is at your own place otherwise people never want to leave, which is OK if they are close friends but not if they are the neighbor you never met before!

I hope to sign-up a few of my friends as future party hosts so I can sell at their parties too. I have been debating with myself whether to pay them cash or in jewelry.

Well back to party preparation's.

Blogging my way to millions

The title could mean two things, either blogging to earn a million dollars or having a million readers. Both would be nice, but I am realistic. Since I am still waiting for the mail to show up with my catalog I figure I would share a few blogging tips I have learned.

If you plan on making any money off of your blog stay away from most "free" blog hosting forums. Wordpress.com doesn't allow advertising or links in your articles that maybe even considered advertising. They don't allow you to write your post even if it is to promote your OWN business! Even this blog at blogger.com might be removed for "inappropriate" content. Why? because people are allowed to "flag" blogs they don't like!! Say I write my opinion on an issue coming up in the coming election. Someone that doesn't agree with it could flag it. Since I have had no experience with blogger.com on this I can't say what if anything would happen. Wordpress.com on the other hand could remove it without batting an eye! What people do to have blogs removed is that they dig around and look for anything that might violate the "terms of agreement" or TOS. Then they report that to the blog host. They know that with millions of blogs out there the hosting company does not have the manpower to check up on every flag so they just suspend or delete the account. What I would like to see is if the "flagging" was done out of spite or nothing was found wrong with the blog then the one who did the flagging would be suspended. Your best bet if you plan on making money off of your blog is to host it yourself on your own domain. I highly recommend Bravenet as your host. Why? You can have up to 10 domains and websites hosted for a total of $99.00 a year! That is for all 10! Each one of those domains can have up to 20 sub-domains! Each domain name can have 500 email accounts! I know of no other domain hosting company that offers all that - for that price. Did I tell you that they also have site-builder for those who are not tech savvy. You also have the option of using Front Page and up-loading your website that way. How do I know all that? My sister uses it and I was flabber-gasted at how much she got for her money there.

After you get your website host and start your blog you are going to need people to come and visit. Here is where the real work begins. You will need to get your blog listed with any and all the blog directories you can find on the net. Don't fall for those ones that want you to pay to get listed there are plenty of free ones out there. I have just started to list this blog with a few of them. Some require a back link to them. The ones I have this blog listed with are listed at the top of my home page in the right hand column.

Then blog away! You will need some really interesting posts for people to want to come back often.

Saturday, November 3, 2007

Good news - bad news

I have some interesting news for myself. First the bad news, my old jewelry supplier is no more! Seems they bit the dust about 3 years ago. It was mostly costume stuff but they did have a really nice line of gold plated silver jewelry which I sold at very nice profits. After that news I had to get away from the computer and went into town.

In town today there were several early Holiday craft fairs and I went to 2 of them. I was talking to several people about me looking for something to get involved in to make a living. Several of them started out just like me and now they are doing very well. It got my confidence up again.

I got back home and went straight to the internet to find a supplier of a product that I could sell at the local Holiday Bazaars. I found an ad on craigslist.com and ended up talking to the owner of a Sterling silver jewelry distribution company. She was really nice and very helpful. It turns out she supplies several of the local florists and bridal boutiques in the lower part of my state with Sterling silver jewelry and gemstone jewelry. Some of her stock is for sale online but she mostly sells to retail stores. She then told me that if I wanted to she could help me with setting up jewelry parties in my area. She use to do jewelry parties years ago with friends and that's how she started out in the jewelry business. I was now excited!! She is sending me one of her dealer kits and I should get it Monday or Tuesday.

Maybe now I can have my income and life back!!!

Less than 55 days till Christmas and panic has set in!

Nothing has panned out yet in the employment department. No leads and no offers. I figured I would end up my day by writing something here. I went to Wally World aka Walmart, yesterday and realized that Christmas is almost here! They are putting out the decorations already. Now panic is starting to set in. I need to get some income - fast! I am not about to try anything illegal or immoral so coupon clipping and very frugal meals might be on tap for awhile.

I was doing some searching online for any legit home based businesses and I have come up with a few. I use to sell nik-naks at work years ago and I was looking into that type of thing again. One of my friends said not many people she knows of are buying that stuff anymore. It takes up too much space and unless you have a curio cabinet the items collect too much dust. I also did a few jewelry parties in the past and actually made more money than the nik-naks did so I might contact my old supplier.

I need to win the lottery - just have to buy a ticket now and then (which I hardly ever do!)