Investing in real estate

Given the current climate in the real estate market, this is one of the best times to buy a home. Provided you have a good credit rating or a large sum of cash you can really make out like a bandit in the real estate market today. I personally always like to keep tabs on my own neighborhood to see how the prices are doing, going up or down. I am lucky in the fact that I live in one of the main areas of the USA where the prices have not gone down much and have in fact increased a bit. One of the ways I keep tabs on the market is through those free real estate magazines you find at the doorway of many supermarkets a large stores. I always get a kick out of finding that a house that is near to me in one of those magazines. At the same time I find out what their asking price is. I must also admit that I like to fantasize about my dream home and I often find one close to it in them. I usually don’t have the money or the rest of the family is not ready to move – but I can dream. No matter if you are looking for Atlanta real estate or any of the 50 states you are sure to find those handy real estate magazines.

Ebay fees just jumped way up!

If you sell anything on eBay I am sure you just got the email from them informing you of the new listing and selling fees. I just took a look at them and all I can say is that eBay will now be known far and wide as GREED-BAY. They use to charge a 5.25% fee on the selling price of items under $25. Now that fee has jumped to 8.75%!! That's a $1.75 on a $20 item, up .70 cents over the old fees. Sure they now charge about .05 cents less on most insertion fees but that is only to get you to list more so they can charge more at the selling end. My guess is that eBay is now hurting for business. I know from their message boards that many former eBay sellers now sell on Amazon.com and like it there better.

An insiders look at mortgages

Ever wonder what it is like to be a mortgage broker? What are they thinking? How are they reacting to the mortgage mess in the USA? And best of all, what are their underhanded tactics? If you want to find out, I found a place for you. I found a mortgage brokers forum. Read it and learn. Here is the link

Unusual small businesses to start

Being a unique business gives you the edge over other run of the mill types of businesses. I am going to cover 2 of the rarer types of businesses that can be started up with little or no cost.
Worm farming
Do you fish? Then you know the value of worms in an area that is noted for fishing. Worms are sold in local stores, gas stations and sporting goods. Worm farming can be a profitable part-time business. The worm castings (worm poop) are sold packaged in finer garden shops and nurseries. The castings are used as a soil additive for plants.
Pet sitting
Do you love animals? Do you have skills to handle pets? Pet sitting is one of the most in demand occupations during the summer months and around the holidays. Licencing and insurance would be your only expenses to start this business. I knew someone that started one years ago and finally sold the business to someone else and retired. She had so many customers that she had to hire pet sitters.

I have to boast a little

I am so pleased at myself today. I submitted an article to Associated Content a few days ago. Normally when I write an article that has not been requested I simply publish it so it goes live right away. This time I wrote an article on dieting. Instead of just publishing it and getting paid $1.50 for every 1000 views it gets, I decided to submit it for payment. It took 3 days but I got an offer of $4.05 for it. It was published today and yes I took the money. The article is called the Walmart Diet.

Saving money on your cell phone bill

Cell phones have become a necessity now. Not because everyone has one but because there is a lack of pay phones now. Haven't you noticed that it is becoming rarer and rarer to see a pay phone booth? If you have an emergency with your car or need to make a call to your doctor or child's school and you can't find a pay phone you are pretty much out of luck.

Ok, so we need the darn cell phones but is there a way not to pay $40+ a month for the things? There sure is, get a cell phone that you can buy refill cards for. There are about 6 major cell phone companies that offer that service. You buy the phone you want (tip - they have cheap ones at WalMart) and the refill card. One thing to watch out for is service fees. Pick a company that doesn't charge a per day access fee. There are 2 companies that I have found that don't charge daily access fee charges. Basically the pay as you go type of cell phone is a pay phone in your pocket. It is great to have if you don't spend that much time on the phone. If you call less then 250 minutes a month then the pay as you go plan will save you money.

A warning to new bloggers

If you work really hard on your blog you would feel really rotten if someone stole your work, wouldn't you? The same thing happens to blog posts. You spend your time writing and conveying a message only to have someone copy and paste it. Sometimes they take your photo too, and put it on their blog or website and make it look like it was their work. I had that happen to me today. It was a blog post from one of my other blogs. I took the time to research the article and even provide my own photo. I came across the "thief" when I was searching Technorati for reactions to my blog. There was a new one and when I visited the blog there was my blog post, picture and all with her by line. I posted a comment in her comments section and politely told her to remove my work. I told her she could write her own blog post and put a link to my blog post but it was against the USA copyright law for her to copy and paste my whole article without my permission. I just checked the blog again and she has changed it to the way it should be. I also noted that she has removed any way to place a comment to it. If you come across your work and can not contact the person stealing your work, then just contact the blog or website hosting company. They are very good at shutting down blogs like that.

The Feds cut interest rate 3/4 of a point

Big news today. The Federal Reserve has cut 3/4 of a point off of interest rates to boost the American economy. It seems that looming fears of a recession in the USA has been dragging the rest of the world economy down with it. The dollar is weak next to other currencies in the world so imports are now more expensive than products made in the USA. That is a boom to manufactures that have products made in the USA for American consumers.

Growing your products

Years ago I use to grow houseplants. I loved Orchids and still do. At one point I thought I could grow Orchids as a part-time hobby business. I have a greenhouse too, not a large one but it does work for me to get my vegetable garden started in the very early spring. Now if you know anything about flowering plants you have to realize that they only sell well while they are in bloom. To force an early bloom you need a certain amount of "daylight" hours exposure to the plants. This is accomplished by artificial lighting. If you are in the business of growing plants then you will love to hear about a way to save on your overhead costs. They now have energy efficient LED grow lights. This will cut your overhead lighting costs by at least 75%. If you need to cut costs why not look into it.

For business start ups - think outside the box

Most of the successful businesses are the unique ones. Take for example Starbucks. Who would have thought that selling gourmet coffee would take off so big. If you have a hobby look into making money from it. Either by writing a blog abut your passion or selling what you make or grow. Maybe you have a hard time finding an item for your hobby. If that is the case can you make and sell that hard to locate item for a profit?

Help for those selling on eBay

If you are selling on eBay here is a very helpful site, Terapeak. Why is it helpful? Simple, it will help you find out if what you intend on selling on eBay will sell and for how much. I have used this site extensively when I was actively selling on eBay. I would do a search on an item to see how many were listed on eBay and find out if they were selling or not. I could also find out the selling price and a link to the item that sold. They do have a free search so you can see how it works but the information is limited. They offer a paid subscription to their service and as a Happy New Year they are cutting their subscription rate in half. So starting now you can Save 50% on Terapeak This is a service I have personally used and can highly recommend.

Arson as a way to battle foreclosure

This is an alarming bit of news but it was to be expected. CNN is reporting that arson fires are on the increase among home owners that are close to or in foreclosure. The home owners are seeing arson as a way out. I personally cannot see it that way. If your house burns down you still owe money on the property. I don't see how burning your house down can get you out of that debt. On the other hand they are just going to walk away with the money from the insurance fraud and leave the heap of cinders to the mortgage company. Of course the home owners do not realize that the mortgage company can still come after them for the rest of the money owed depending on the local state laws. Here is a link to the CNN story. Will foreclosures spark an arson boom?

Learn to take a break

If you are just starting up a business you know how hard it can be sometimes to just give yourself a break from it. It seems to take up most of your time and you are driven to get to your goal whatever the cost. I know I have been up to 2am in the morning sometimes. Either I was promoting my website or filling a late night internet order. As I have gotten more secure in my business I have learned not to be so intense about it. The intensity is great for the business but bad for those people around you. You become isolated and almost panic stricken especially when you want the results of your labor to happen RIGHT NOW.

Take a hint from the rest of the world and schedule your time better. Forget the internet for a few days a week. Don't work on your business everyday of the week. Set a time limit each day for when your cut-off time is. A good business takes time to grow, be it an internet business or brick and mortar. Even something simple as a blog takes time. Don't burn yourself out if you are in business for the long haul.

A bargain found - prescription eyeglasses

I am always on the hunt for bargains. I have found what I think is my best find this week. Here is a Great Discovery:$ 8 Prescription Glasses From Zenni Optical. They have about 33 frames in the $8 list. They look pretty good too. The next price bracket up is the $9.95 list with about 51 to choose from. If you need a nice pair of prescription eyeglasses that won't clean out your bank account I advise you to check out the website.

Things you won't be seeing on this blog

I try to keep this blog on the subject of finance, saving money, tips on starting your own business and how to profit from your own blog or website. Since I am also a member of several paid to post companies I get offers to write a blog post for just about everything. I only pick and choose what will fit this blog. There are a few things that I will not do a paid blog post about even if they are within the scope of this blog. Here is a list of what I was offered and refused and why.

• Christian loans I don't know about you but as a Christian I find that using religion to sell a service that gets people in debt to be very offensive.
• Pay day loans This is the modern day loan shark business that feeds off of the less fortunate people of our society. Why have the mafia when you can have Pay day loans or Quick cash or what ever the latest name is.
• Off subject Anything that is not to do with the scope of this blog like car reviews, movie reviews, dating sites etc.

Google Page Rank and blogs

If you are a blogger and have been keeping track of the Page Rank gossip on the internet then you would know about some bloggers complaints of their Page Rank dropping in the last 2 Google up-dates. I decided to do a bit of snooping around and here is what I found.

I visited some of the blogs that went from PR3 to PR0 and found them mostly to be a mixture of everything on their blogs. Basically they would ramble on about anything for a buck. One such blog I found last night had a really nice layout and had 80% of the blog posts to do with knitting. Then out of the blue she does a post about barn fans! Now if you know anything about Page Rank you must know part of the algorithm is based on links to other similar sites like your own. Meaning that if your blog or website is about health and you link to astronomy then the link to astronomy would not count or be given less value. The same thing happens in reverse to people that link to you.

The bottom line to what I am saying is: The blogs that have gone down in Page Rank deserve it, not because of paid links but because of getting off subject. I have also looked at many of those blogs that have gone down in Page Rank and most of them are poorly written (no spell check and lousy grammar) so no wonder Google skipped over them.

I know that they like to blame "paid links" for their Page Rank drop but I have 2 other blogs that have "paid posts" on them and they both just went from a PR4 to PR5. I attribute that to the fact I stay on topic and my readers keep linking to the blogs.

Shopping and saving money

I have just discovered another coupon website. This is a search site that will locate discounts, coupons and rebates on products from computers to store bought coffee. It offers coupons you can print out and take to the store with you as well as coupons for online purchases. I really like the idea of more of these types of websites showing up on the internet. As consumers we all deserve a break in the pocketbook. As always shop around for the best price even if you do have a coupon or discount. I find that there is always some place cheaper and I am always kicking myself for not finding that place before I made my purchase.

Selling and advertising trends

No doubt you have seen the higher than normal amount of commercials on TV for those big screen TV's. You of course know why the manufacturers are pushing them now don't you? The Super Bowl of course. This is type of marketing you need to learn when you are selling your own products or services. You have to notice trends and times of the year. Everyone knows about clothing in the stores. The clothes that are currently being sold are for the next season. For example spring clothes come out in the winter and back to school items come out in August. If you start to notice trends and take note of what the bigger companies are doing you could learn something from them. By the same token as a consumer you can also take advantage of sales that you know comes up just when the stores need to make room for the next season's items.

The mortgage crisis

Now how many readers have been thinking about saving money on their mortgages but have been afraid to even look into it because of the mortgage mess? I would venture to say quite a few. I am not going to say yes go out and get your mortgaged refinanced but I will say look into it.

There are a few things to keep in mind if you do think about it. First and foremost don't go ending up with more to owe then you do now. How? By getting a home loan that has all kinds of fees and points attached to it. Right now it is not only a buyer's market when it comes to real estate but also it is a borrower's market out there too. You have the ball in your court this time around and you should play it well. It doesn't matter if you have Florida Mortgage or one in California, there is plenty of loans to look at. Also check out the link because they can find what you are looking for at no obligation so if you find something you like you are not tied to them.

Blogging for cash - my way

Drum roll please, announcing my much awaited article on blogging for money. It is a bit long but I am sure you will find it interesting and hopefully helpful. I call it Blogging your way to a decent income. Enjoy the information and don't forget to leave a comment, I love to read them.

I'm a customer and I was asked to do a review!

One of the fun aspects of writing a blog is the fact that sometimes I am asked to review a website. Most of the time I turn them down because they have nothing to do with the blog or just don't interest me personally. You can imagine my surprise when I was asked to review a website that I have actually bought an item from! You see about 4 months ago my husband's laptop, a Presario needed a new battery. I first went to eBay but all I could find were reconditioned or "factory seconds" (which I didn't even know they had factory seconds). The new ones on there were about the same price as the regular online stores and not even the discount ones. So I did a regular search for hp laptop batteries and found Allbatts.com and found what I was looking for. I had no problems ordering the battery and delivery was fast. I guess now they have become our source of laptop battery supplier. With 3 laptops in the family we have bookmarked their site.

Don't piss me off

I have just edited one of my older posts because the company that I blogged about pissed me off. I have a nasty tendency to let everyone know the truth about any company I deal with - good or bad. This time it was Bloggerwave. You can read my original post and the edited part here. I will certainly let everyone know about my dealings with companies or websites that are not honest or just don't care about their clients and customers. This also extends to any blog posts that are paid. I will do follow ups on some companies if I get wind of them ripping people off. Most people would just remove the blog post, not me I let everyone know about it. Don't piss me off or screw me over or your website or company will get plenty of bad press.

Another way to generate income from your blog or website

A new form of advertising is now making the internet rounds. With faster download times, better audio and advancing technology we now have Pay Per Play ads. These are interesting because you can earn revenue by just putting a line of code on your website or blog. What does happen is when a visitor comes to your website they will HEAR an ad and not see it. The ads are only suppose to be relevant to your website or blog. If the ad plays then you get paid. The visitor doesn't have to click on anything or buy anything.

It's an interesting concept. Just to try it out I would put it on a website or blog that didn't get many visitors, that way if it didn't go over too well I would not loose my regular visitors. I might just check it out and let you know how it goes. You never can tell when a new type of technology just might take off and bring lots of profits with it.

New Domain Name

Look up - I have a new top level domain name. Why? Why not?! It was changed over yesterday and plunged my PR from 0 to n/a. From what I am able to find out it may take a week (Google promises 3 days) to get indexed again. Lets see what happens.

Winning the lottery and having all that money

I guess I would be foolish not to say I have had at least one dream about winning the lottery. What I would do with all that money would be interesting. I wouldn't mind the payouts over a time period. At least that way I wouldn't be tempted to spend it all at once. I have seen the commercials on TV that want people to call their 1-800 number to "sell" their structured payments from lotteries and lawsuits.

I was just a bit curious and did some digging around to find out more about what "Settlement Factoring" is all about. Settlement Factoring is what the legal system calls getting a lump sum payment instead of payments over a period of time. There are companies that will do this type of work - for a fee. I also found out that some of those companies are good at ripping you off. They charge outlandish fees and take forever to get your settlement money.

A decent attorney can do the same thing for your Structured Settlement Payments. Since getting the money from your payment will take a court order why not go through an attorney in the first place. The time frame for getting everything through the legal system takes about 90 days so when you hear about getting your lump sum right away - be cautious of the claims.

Google AdSense earnings

Are you using Google AdSense on your website or blog and not getting anything? Here is a quick tip, try placing the ads in different parts of your blog or website. When you move them around don't forget to put something else in the place where you had the old AdSense ad. I am finding out that different placements account for higher payouts and clicks. The sidebar does not work well for my blogs for AdSense but for your blog it might. Try switching things around a bit until you get the right combination.

Legal matters and your business

Before you even start thinking about developing a business you should find out your state, county or country's legal requirements. I don't know anything about forming a business outside of the USA but I can tell you about inside it. Each state is different in their licensing and permits. For example in the state of California most of the business licenses are issued at the county level with additional requirements at the city level. In the state of Oregon the business licenses are issued at the state level and only certain business types have further requirements at the city level. Also each state has different requirements for different types of businesses. The state of Oregon will not allow you to sell anything (other than garage sales) without a business license, that includes the occasional Avon lady sales. Other states will allow you to sell up to an XXX amount of dollars per year without a business license.

LLC is another term you will hear about when you want to form your business. What is a LLC? LLC stands for "limited liability company". It is often formed when there is a partnership or group that wishes to run the company as a whole rather than just one owner.

Are there secrets to blogging?

Is there a trick that professional bloggers won't tell us that makes a blog successful? I think there is and I am slowly discovering them. I will be writing an article for Associated Content about my findings and will post a link to it here. Give me about a week to pull it together.

Investing your hard earned money

Many of us only know of savings accounts, CD's and Money Market accounts. A few of us know about mutual funds and 401K's because we learned about them from our place of employment. Are there any creative ways to save or invest our money? There sure are. One of easiest ways is to buy life insurance, not your regular types of life insurance but the ones you can borrow from. Over time those same life insurance policies can earn interest and grow larger than the original policy maximum. My husband took out a policy over 20 years ago. That same policy has enabled us to borrow from it and pay it back. The original amount was for $100K but now is worth close to $600K and he no longer has to pay the premiums because the interest on the amount is paying the premiums for him. That is something you should look into before you turn 45 because after that age the premiums per month go up.

Have you thought about your business taxes yet?

Are you prepared to do your business taxes? Many of the tax software programs will help you through the step by step process of filing your business taxes. I have done my own for years with the help of the H&R Block software TaxCut. If your business is not a straight forward cash based business then you might want to consider consulting with a tax attorney or business tax accountant.

Making money from Google Adsense

Most bloggers and website owners have at least tried Google Adsense on their sites for added income. The great majority do not know how they work and most don't make much money from it. The true key to earning money from Adsense is to gear your website or blog to the higher paying Google words. This little blog does not earn much from the Google ads simply because most of the clicks are only worth about .05 cents or so. The higher paying Google words right now are attorney, dui, dwi, auto accident, lawyer, lemon law and so forth. About a year ago it was everything to do with insurance.

Now if you start up a blog just dealing with legal matters you might have a good chance of making some decent income from Adsense. It would take you about 3 months to get your blog indexed, sometimes less if you are lucky and there would be no guarantee that legal words would be high paying by then. I could probably make a good guess and say that tax matters might be the high paying words in 3 months due to income taxes being due at that time - but who knows?

Should you start a business or just be an advisor?

Many businesses hire outside help on a contract basis. If you have any expertise in your field then you might consider being an advisor, inspector, lecturer or technical writer for the industry that you know most about.

One of the most flexible career fields for furthering your career or venturing out on your own is the construction industry. If you have any type of experience in building, plumbing or electrical you could get some more education and become a certified building inspector in your field of expertise. Where do you find out more about career development in the construction industry? That's easy just click on the link to get the latest information on how to become certified and find out news about health and safety in the construction trades.

Becoming an independent contractor does not mean you have to invest in equipment or building materials, it does mean investing in yourself. Like I said you could become an inspector, advisor or even a job estimator. The list can be as endless as long as larger companies lack their own manpower they will hire outside, independent contractors to do the job. Take advantage of your own knowledge and start a new career with you as your own boss

How to improve your credit score

Watch the video and learn how to improve your credit score. By improving your score you not only lower interest rates offered to you but did you know that insurance companies use that score in determining your premiums?

Goals for your blog

If you plan on making money for your blog then you need to set goals for it. One fellow blogger has set goals for his blog, showing that baby steps to success is the way to go. My goals for this blog are on a similar level, to start small and grow at a steady but slow pace. I too have daily and weekly goals.

Bottom feeding at one paid to blog site

I really feel like I am living up to the name of this blog, "Scratching out a living". Not only is it scratching but clawing my way out of the bottom. Why do I feel that way? The companies that pay people to blog make you feel that way. The number one on the list is Pay Per Post. You feel great when they accept your blog into their system. You think you will make at least $20 a day - you hope. You don't realize that they have at least 100,000 other bloggers in their system too. Other pay to blog companies like Blogsvertise (a link to them is in the sidebar toward the bottom of the page) and Smorty assign or offer you items or websites to review, not Pay Per Post. They make you fight everyone else on an opportunity page for posts and if your computer or connection is not fast enough you miss them. Right now there are only 175 "opportunities" available to write about. They range from $5 to $200+. If you have a low PR blog you will get the ones under $25 with most of them at the $5 mark. Of those 175 opportunities, this blog would only qualify for about 5 of them and all of them have been reserved by other bloggers within seconds of being released on their "opportunity" page.

Many bloggers that are listed with them are so sick of hitting the reload key just to grab an opportunity to write about - all for $5! Pay Per Post has made me become very disillusioned about them. Add to it the fact that after you write your post you have to wait 30 days to get paid for it. So in affect that paid to blog site is allowing their customers (the advertisers) to get a free ride for 30 days.

Smorty so far has done better than Pay Per Post and I like them so much I put a widget on the sidebar. They pay higher than Pay Per Post and you don't have to fight a reload page. They give you offers in your own control panel and the minimum offer price is $6.

I don't do many posts for Blogsvertise since their customers pick and choose what blogs their advertising goes on. I do about 2 a week for $10 each but not on this blog. They like my other blogs which are niche blogs about life, pets or mental health.

In all cases I only do posts that fit in with my blogs. I have a pet blog that I will only have animal related posts on so when they offer car insurance opportunities I decline them.

I would much rather have my blogs be popular and earn money without paid to blog posts but until that day comes I still have to pay the bills.

A matter that strikes close to home

Saving money and emotional matters sometimes don't mix. I know that fact first hand. My mother was diagnosed with brain cancer and had to under go major surgery. She was living with my sister at the time and she was to come and live with my husband and I after she came out of the hospital. I took time off from work to care for her and take her to the daily radiation therapy appointments. She did OK for 6 months after the surgery and had 3 MRI's to verify that the cancer was gone.

One day she stumbled into a wall in the hallway of our home. She started to suffer what looked like a stroke and I called 911. The ambulance arrived very quickly. As they were putting her into the ambulance she started having a major seizure. After she was admitted into the hospital it was discovered her brain tumor had come back and the doctors told us there were no more treatments they could do. I had to make the hard decision of placing her in one of the local nursing homes since I was unable at that point to have her come home to my house again. We did not have the money to adapt the house to where she would be able to get around. I felt it was the only sound decision I could make. I know she did not understand why I could not take her home with me but after a few weeks she no longer knew who I was. I still miss her and it has been 4 years since she passed away. When it comes to a loved one and money - I am sorry to say to hell with the money, the loved one comes first.

When having and using a debit/ATM card is just as bad as a credit card

ATM cards were designed to be a way to carry money without having to carry cash on your person. That part is all well and good but the mentality of most people is that if it looks like a credit card, treat it like one. How many people do you know that use a debit card and don't keep track of their spending? I know of one. He uses the debit card as if his bank account has an endless supply of money until he runs out of it each week. I don't know how the man survives but I think that most of his bills are taken out of his account automatically so at least most of them get paid.

If you do use an ATM/Debit card keep track of your balance daily and double check it if there is more than one card attached to the account. If you don't have to worry about carrying cash on you then carry cash instead of the card. Cash is easier to keep track of - once it is gone, it is gone.

Another way our family made money online

This is another way that the internet has made it easier for people to make money - gambling. Let me tell you what happened to us about 2 years ago. Our family loves horses and up until 5-6 years ago I couldn't tell a winning horse from an also ran if my life depended on it. I soon got an eye for the build and attitude of a winning horse before a race. Since the only time I went to the horse races was at the county fair I still had trouble picking out a wining horse on TV. I couldn't see the attitude aspect of the horse. Then my husband had this great idea to place a bet on the Kentucky Derby and had a horse in mind, Smarty Jones. You remember that horse, the one that was helping raise money for the lemon aid stand. He wanted to place a bet for $500.00 to win. We bet on the horse but never large amounts so I talked him down to $50.00 to show. Then it came time to look for somewhere online to place the bet. I found this one place at the last minute that wanted your whole life story and a song and dance to boot as well. I had to fax a copy of my husband's driver's licence and everything. I wish we had found a better place to deal with like a online casino or something like that.

Well you know the outcome of the race, Smarty Jones won and so did we. Husband wanted to let it ride for the next race of the Triple Crown with Smarty Jones again, to show. We won more money. We did the same thing with the last leg of the Triple Crown and won more money again. We ended up with over $500.00 for our $50.00 investment. My husband likes to rub in the fact that if I had not talked him out of placing the $500.00 bet the first time we would have had over $25,000.00 by the time the last race was done. Getting our winnings from that online betting site was like pulling teeth. If they paid us by check they charged an extra $50.00 fee! If it was transferred to an online bank there would be no charge but it would take about 10 days to get the money. I opted for the online bank and had to open an account with them just to get our money!!! Never again would we go thru some off shore unknown betting site.

Google PageRank update

If you have not noticed by now, Google did it's PageRank up-date today. This blog went from unrated to PR0. One of my other newer blogs went from unrated to a PR3 which I am thrilled. Now I just need it to be 3 months old to list it with a few paying to blog sites. I just have another 2 weeks to go on that one.

One of the top paid to blog companies

There are only about 3-4 companies that pay bloggers to post opinions on their blogs about products, services and websites that I can trust. One of them is Smorty. They pay you to advertise on blogs - your blog. They just have a few requirements of the blogs before they are approved but the pay can be good. Your blog most be 3 months old. No adult, porn, hate or otherwise distasteful content. Your blog must have at least 40% unpaid content. You can list as many blogs as you like but you need to have 5 approved posts with them before you can add another one. They pay weekly so you don't have to wait a month for your money (like some of the other paid to blog sites). They pay via PayPal. It is worth looking into to for some added income.

It takes about 5 days before your blog posts will be approved or declined. After that time you will be paid via PayPal at the beginning of the following week for all your approved posts. Your posts must also be 150-400 words long.

What I really like about them is the fact that the higher your Google Page Rank is on your blog the higher price they offer for you to post. Their FAQ section boasts that you can earn up to $100 a post - that idea I like. I have a lot of confidence in dealing with Smorty, I hope that doesn't change.

The lies about blogging

Here are some of the common lies you hear about blogging:

• You can get rich just by writing a blog - not likely
• People will flock to your blog because blogs are found faster by search engines than regular websites - they will only flock if you are a good writer and you have something they want to read
• You will become famous as a blogger - only if you are famous to begin with
• Adsense income alone will be your highest income generator - biggest joke on the planet
• You can generate regular readers to your new blog in under 1 week - yes if they are all your relatives
• You can have a 6 figure income by blogging - only true if you have a regular job that pays that much and you blog at work

Ecommerce and online payments

The most important item you will need in your online business toolbox will be your shopping cart. How else are you going to get paid for your products? Some small businesses will not deal with online payments due to fears about security. Those businesses will not grow because it is a fact that if a person shops online they want to have the ease of paying online too. Try to choose a shopping cart for your website that will be the most user friendly for you. You will only get frustrated using software or company that you just don't get along with or understand.

Your ecommerce shopping cart should be secure and not cost you an arm and a leg to have. One company Ashop Commerce is offering a free 10 trial of their ecommerce software and it includes a website. It is something you might want to look into. I always like the try before you buy companies. While making your decision work out the cost factors of doing business with an online shopping cart company or a regular major credit card processing company.

Medical Insurance for you and your famliy

One of the biggest disadvantages of having your own business is having to purchase your own health insurance. You no longer work for a company that supplies that perk to you and your family. Shopping around for health insurance is no fun either. When I had to do that task the first question I had to ask each one of them was, "is my local hospital on the list of preferred health providers?". That one question eliminated most of the health insurance companies right off the bat. Of course my next question was. "is my current doctor was on the list?" Since I live in a very small community it was important to me not to have to travel more than an hour to see the doctor. After those 2 questions were answered I was down to 3 companies to choose from. next is to check and see if medical supplies and prescriptions are covered and what is the deductible.

The all important issue of money - how much were the monthly premiums and what did they cover was the deciding factor in the end. I did find out that my premiums were largely based on my age and not my health. My age bracket shot my premiums up so high that I had to opt for a higher deductible. With the higher deductible the health insurance monthly premiums became more affordable to me. See I told you that shopping for health insurance is not easy, but with the right help you can do it.

Shop around for savings with the companies you deal with now

When you are looking to save money - look in your own backyard. What do I mean by that? I mean look at your own monthly bills. For example do you have a cell phone? Does the cell phone company you have offer cheaper plans than you have now? If so switch to something cheaper. Does your own car insurance company offer discounts for automatic monthly payments from your checking account, mine did and I got a $220.00 savings a year because of it. Shop around using your own monthly bills. Call those companies to see what discounts they offer.

Does your business have the right equipment?

Equipment for a business can range from a cell phone, computer, car to heavy duty industrial machinery. For a small business just starting out the essentials would be some type of phone and transportation.

A car is also essential for a business, even an on-line one. Lets face it, unless you are selling ebooks or another product that can be delivered electronically you will need to ship your item. That shipping process means you will have to travel somewhere to either ship your products from or to pick up packing supplies.

A reliable car is going to be needed for your business. A used car would be a good choice as a business car. If you live in the UK here is a Used Cars website that you can find a car for your business. The site lists used cars that are available from dealers as well as private sellers. There are also helpful information sections on what to look for in a used car.

As always when buying something used, take an expert with you when looking at the car. I know that in the USA certain states have disclosure laws and if someone does not tell you everything about the car they can be sued, fined or both.

The pennies add up fast

Do you stop to pick up a penny laying on the ground? Strange as it seems, most people don't. Little kids will pick it up but adults won't. The adults think that the penny is now worthless, but I say they cannot be farther from the truth. I know of a woman in Florida that collects aluminum cans all year long and what does she do with the money? She takes cruise ship vacations! How is that for pennies adding up?

Growing with your business

I find that many people will not buy anything over the internet. They don't like dealing with the unknown. They like to be able to call the company they are buying something from. If you have a website you will want to seriously consider having a business phone number just for the business. A few years back I had a cell phone for my business as I did not want my home phone getting calls. A cell phone is a good option as a business phone but it can rack up the minutes unless you find a company that deals with business cell phones with wider options than the regular personal cell phone usage. My calls only amounted to about 10 a week and only when my customers had to make appointments so my cell phone bill was not outrageous - yet.

As your business grows you will have to find a way to deal with customer communications. How do you handle calls for orders when you are not around? Does your customer get a busy signal if you are on the only phone line? You need to think about message systems and advanced communications and voip. VOIP stands for Voice Over Internet Protocol, meaning can you take a voice call while you are on line? You will need to deal with those types of questions if you want your business to grow.

An off beat way to make a few extra dollars

Years ago I had an interview with a company that made pharmaceuticals. They had blood plasma centers all over the USA. They would pay "donors" for their time to "donate" their blood plasma. At the time they were paying $50.00 for a 2 hour donation time. You could "donate" twice a week. I am thinking about calling the local blood plasma center and see how much they pay. I might be able to make an extra $200-300 a month which would pay off a few bills.

Interesting facts about web traffic

Have you ever noticed that Fridays is a slow day on the internet? All my websites across the board slow down traffic wise on Fridays. It picks up again Sunday evenings. Saturdays are sometimes dead. The best days I find that are high web traffic days are Wednesdays and Thursdays. The best days for selling items online are Sundays and Thursdays.

Locating inventory for your business

So you have decided to sell items and products at the retail or sub-wholesale level. You even have an idea of what types of products you want to handle, but where to find them? One of the simplest ways is to contact the manufacturer but many of the larger companies will refer you to one of their distributors for stock purchases. If you are a small start up business you might be left out in the cold trying to find your first initial stock.

Here are some ideas and links for you to find products for your retail business. For a directory of manufacturers so you can contact them directly try Thomas Net. For another wholesale directory try Sale Hoo Wholesale. If you want to sell video games try this, the Wholesale Video Games list. While on the subject of video games how about the suppliers for Xbox, PS3 and Wii? Here is the "official" suppliers list website for those game consoles.

I hope I have given you a start on your search.

Making a few extra dollars here and there can be hard

Finding money when money is tight can be a headache and a cause for ulcers and verbal fights. This is when you need to be greedy, but for the good of the family. learn to say no to extra food goodies that have no nutritional value. Tell your youngster no to that cheap toy. Look around your home I bet there is at least a closet full of items you no longer use. How much could you have saved by not buying them to begin with? Bottom line is quit buying junk! Junk is what I call something that gets used for a few months then takes up closet space for years to come - junk. Take a look in your kitchen while you are at it. How many small appliances do you have and never use anymore? I bet you could have saved a bundle by not buy them to being with.

Save money by spending it wisely - don't buy junk.

A new twist on promoting your blog or website

This little trick was unknown to me a few days ago until I learned it first hand. I had put a link to one of my other blogs on a message board that I frequently post on. This is a large site and has literally thousands of visitors every hour. Someone I did not know posted a reply to my comment on there. This person used foul language and tore into my blog with the following line "no one here is interested in your s***y little blog" so get the F*** out of here". I was upset when I read that, but left it alone and I am glad I did. About 24 hours later I noticed a large increase in visitors to that blog. What people had been doing was looking to see what kind of blog it was just because someone didn't like it. For 5 days now I have enjoyed a 500% increase in visitors to that blog. I am also profiting with AdSense clicks because of it.

I didn't know that a troll could be that good for me!

Keep your business secure

If you have a retail business you know the importance of security of you customers information. If you also transfer that information over the internet and to mobile devices you can be putting your customers and yourself at risk for hackers and others that are looking for a free ride on someone else's dime. If you have not done so already you need to look into a company that offers secure transfers of information. You need to have a company that has a good reputation too. Look into one that offers a Secure Server and other solutions for your business.

The New Year is turning out to be a lucky one

I had a great New Year's Day with the family. We ate the "good luck" foods for the New Year and it looks like it worked. Now I am not one to be superstitious but maybe this year will turn out better for me. If you are interested the "good luck" foods were ham and brussel sprouts. The story goes that you eat pork or ham to "boar ahead" in the New Year. Don't eat poultry since they "scratch backward". The brussel sprouts were our substitute for sauerkraut the symbol of money. In German families the dinner would be pork and sauerkraut.

Protecting your investments

An investment can be large as a full blown mutual fund or as simple as your cell phone. Both cost you money and both could become damaged if not protected. The one expensive investment that is very popular is the iPOD. Like other investments it should be protected from damage. After all the iPOD costs money to fix or replace it if the screen should become scratched or dust gets inside it. A damaged screen on an iPOD could mean having to replace a $200-300 item. That then becomes a very expensive investment. I never did like the current selection of iPOD cases on the market. I simply don't like the hard shell and the cloth pouches I like even less.

A product that would be worth your time to look into is the ipod case. The case is designed to fit over your iPOD without being visible, that's right it is almost invisible. It is not your regular type of case It is flexible and very thin, almost like a second skin. They also make cases for laptops, cell phones and almost any other type of personal electronic device you might carry. There is a great video on the website showing how the product is used. This is a product that will protect your smaller investment.

I may change my business plans

The silver jewelry is not selling as well as I had hoped. On the other hand I have made some machine embroidered items that I managed to sell very quickly on eBay. I will have to re-think my business plans. Maybe I'll try and sell both - we'll see.

A different kind of business

If you are the young energetic type of person then you might want to consider an athletic type of business. I know one young man that went on those paintball fights on the weekends. The local place that he bought his supplies from went out of business. Since they only sold the paintball supplies as a sideline it was not the cause of their business failing. This young man had to order his supplies for himself and soon for all his friends. After about 4 months of this he just started placing larger and larger orders and as a result he got discounts. He kept the discount amounts and soon he was in the paintball selling business. His main business now is not so much selling the paintball items but supplying the property and obstacle course for the "fights".

Now I don't know much about paintball fights or equipment but I do know that it might be a good business to look into if you were to start a business. I personally would buy different brands of paintball supplies and guns and try them out. That way I would know what items to carry in stock and what to recommend.

Niche blogging and Perez Hilton

If you plan on making any money online you have to look into niche blogging. Niche blogging is having a blog that just stays on one subject or theme and does not stray from it. The most successful niche blogs are as follows (in no particular order):

• Celebrity blog, either one celebrity such as Britney Spears or all the celebrities
• Tech blog, either software, hardware or programing
• Hobby blog, crafts, art, collecting, gardening
• Animal blog, wildlife, pets, livestock
• Odd blog, weird stuff, humorous, dark, jokes, videos

Perez Hilton or as some people mistype his name "Hitlon", has become a millionaire overnight from his blog on celebrities. The key to his blog is not that he has something to say but he does post 20-40 blog posts a day on his blog. Because of that his blog is most frequently found by the search engines. He also has a following that has developed over time due to their "hate" of him. His blog is slightly off color and has adult themes. His money comes from charging $9K a month to advertisers to put a small ad on his blog.

Another famous blog is I can has cheezburger which is nothing more than funny cat photos. The estimated income is around $5K to $6K a month from AdSense. Not bad for cat photos and funny ways to spell and misspell things.

The key to blogging is to stay unique and keep your readers coming back for more. By the way blogging about blogging is on the bottom of the money making blogging list.