Accidents will happen

I think that the scariest part of living from paycheck to paycheck is not having enough money left over for those expensive little "accidents." I am not talking about car accidents or even a tree falling on the house, those to me are BIG accidents. I am talking about when your child drops your new iPod or spills liquid on the computer keyboard. In fact my husband gave me a scare just yesterday when he dropped his laptop on the ground outside the house. We both had to give it a once over to see if it was ok. I was not until recently that I discovered that there was such a thing as student laptop insurance. I guess that laptop insurance is a big thing to have. About 12 years ago we went through a bout of TV sets failing. We would buy a new TV and it would last 2-3 years then just not work anymore. Then we bought one that lasted 6 years which was a huge improvement. The one we have now has lasted 7 years, so far .......we are getting better.

It is those little accidents in life that will break you mentally, if you let them get to you. I have started a small savings account just for those little accidents. It will just have a few hundred dollars in it but at least I know it is there for those little inconveniences in life.

An open notice to all my newsletter subscribers

I have decided to end my newsletter. I was not working on them as diligently as I should and they were getting sent out more and more sporadically over the past year. Since I have other commitments to putting together newsletters for other people and my other blogs I thought it was best to end my "money saving newsletter." Instead of placing many of the limited time offers in my newsletter I will probably list them on here with the expiration dates of the offers.

For those of you that enjoyed my little newsletter I hope you forgive me or maybe leave a comment on if I should start it up again. I have deleted the entire subscriber list so if I did start one up again it would be from scratch.

Taking advantage of post dating your blog posts

Do you ever have one of those days when you can think of at least 3 great blog posts and then for at least a week you can't think of anything to write about? Rather than put your readers on a binge then starve, try using the post dating feature off your blog. You can write all 3 great blog posts but then change the dates of 2 of them so they show up on your blog several days later. This is also great for wishing people "happy (you fill in the event here)". All you have to do is write your blog post then date it for the time you want it to appear on your blog. This works for Blogger and Wordpress blogs.

You cannot trust all affiliate programs

You have heard of affiliate programs. Some of the well known ones are Amazon, Clickbank, Linkshare, Shareasale, CJ and Pepperjam. There are others and some websites run their own independent affiliates. You can get commissions on selling everything from website hosting and domain names to office furniture accessories and cosmetics. When I first got involved with affiliate programs I wondered how accurate they were and if they actually paid people for the purchases made through banner clicks. I had one affiliate that I tracked the click throughs on and something seemed fishy.This was one of the independent websites that I had joined. It was called tackoutlet.com and they sold horse equipment. They claimed to not only give you a commission on any purchases made by clicking through their banner, they would also give you an affiliate discount if you made a purchase with them. They also sold pet supplies and I needed something for my dog so I made a purchase. Not only did I not get any discount, I did not get a commission. Top that off with the fact that it took almost 6 weeks for the item to arrive I was just a bit upset with the company. I even tried to call their customer service and all I got was an order desk and I was told that the company did not have a customer help line after a purchase was made. Needless to say I quit advertising for that company very quickly. They have since closed up shop.

Even the big name affiliates are not imune to shady goings on. CJ, aka Commission Junction is notorious for not answering their emails. I have contacted them repeatedly for a lost password and I have yet to hear from them. I did a quick search on complaints about the company and found pages of publisher complaints about them. Mostly non-payment of commissions. On person was owed $50K and then without warning CJ closed their account and has not paid them. Horror stories to say the least.

I have received payments from ClickBank, Google and Amazon. Google is my best performing one thus far.

So you think you are a failure

Did you just lose your job? Are you about to embark on your second year of unemployment? Does your family think you are nuts when you come up with yet another invention? Have you been told over and over again that you have no talent or that you will "never learn anything?" DON'T BELIEVE A WORD OF IT.......

I now offer proof that even the most famous people in history have gone what you have gone through, here is the link to Famous Failures. Read that and you will then decide if there is a light at the end of your tunnel or not.

TV commercials I would love to see banned

I bet you have seen a TV commercial that you thought should never be on the air. Was it one of those lawyer ads for asbestos mesothelioma victims or an infomercial that looked like a real news cast? I have a dislike for those pharmaceutical ads. You know, the ones that are advertising a prescription drug that you have to ask your doctor about and list side effects a mile long. What I don't understand about them is why are they pushing those drugs to the patients? Is it because the doctors know about them and refuse to prescribe them because the side effects are worse than what the drug is treating? Now you know those ads are not cheap to produce and put on the air waves. Are they (the drug companies) hoping to get the money to pay for the ads and a nice profit by pushing those drugs on people who don't need them or are best treated by a cheaper drug? I almost feel like I have invited a drug pusher into my home every time one of those commercials comes on the air.

Of course they are not the only commercials I don't like. There are the fast food commercials that want to ram food down your throat at every opportunity. Even Taco Bell tries to get customers in late at night with "4th meal." Gads, don't they know it is called supper? They are hoping most Americans have never traveled and know that other countries have breakfast, lunch, dinner and supper. In England you add 4pm tea. Supper is usually around 9-10pm and is a very light meal....I think that we call it eating in front of the TV at night in the USA. Of course there is the Burger King commercial with the girl on the beach in the bikini eating a burger. You know darn well that she didn't get to look that way from eating burgers. I wonder if she had to binge and purge just to eat a burger during each take of the ad?

What I would really love to see is the cable and satellite TV providers go back to how it use to be.......when you had cable 20 years ago, there was no commercials on it. The only commercials were on the major networks that were broadcast via air waves. It was understood that when you paid for cable, you had paid for the privilege not to have commercials on the cable channels. Nowadays even some of the PBS channels are putting commercials on its programing. Where will it end....or will it?

Avoid the scam "blogdog" like the plague

About 18 months ago I joined a community blogging website that claimed it would pay you $2 for every thousand page views. I thought it was a pretty good deal since I get paid $1.60 for every thousand page views at Associated Content, so I signed up with them. Their name was Today.com and soon after I signed up I was actually earning some good money. Then 6 months into blogging with them, they decided that any search engines that found a blog on there via image search would not be paid for that view. At that point I was just a tad pissed off with them. They had gone back on their contract. Then they shut down their members forum. At that point I should have seen the writing on the wall but I didn't.

Then out of the blue the company sold the domain name in May 2010 to NBC for their Today Show. The rumor was that they got about $3-5 million for the domain name. So instead of giving all the bloggers that worked on the today.com blogging site a nice little payout and then take everything down, they moved all the blogs to blogdog.com and started blocking people from writing on their blogs......me included.

So now my work is not only still up but I can't earn anything for it. I am currently looking for anyone that might be starting up a class action lawsuit against them. They violated their part of the blogging agreement which is a breech of contract.

I have found one blog that is devoted to letting the public know about them, it is called "To Hell With Today"

At least at AC (Associated Contact) I know that they will not screw me over. I have been earning money with them since 2006 and Yahoo just recently purchased them and my views have increased because of that.

How I made $50 in less than 15 minutes

 I really enjoy finding new ways to make money online. I have found one very profitable one and that is with eBay Now I don't mean selling stuff on eBay, nope I simply direct people there and when they buy something I get a commission on the sale. I am a very sociable person online and many people actually like my posts on message boards that I am a member of. I never push items on people but I do suggest items to people that are already looking. For example, a few months back someone on one of the message boards I frequent was looking for a computerized sewing machine. The machine cost about $5K new but I did a quick search on eBay and found 3 of them at auction for under $800. I put a link to them on my reply message and got 10 clicks to the machines. One of those clicks ended up with a "buy it now" purchase and my share was $50. You see, you can make money online if you really want to.

The internet allows people to earn money even if there are no jobs close by

I am so glad that I am able to make money online. The extra few hundred dollars a week certainly makes up for the fact that the area I live in has a very small number of job vacancies. If you have the ambition to make a go of making money online then you can do it. What I love about making money online is the fact that I don't have to physically sell anything. That means I don't have to handle shipping or processing a purchase (other than the odd item I sell on eBay) to make money. I either sell advertising on my blogs or get affiliate commissions from ads that I put on my blogs. Yes I also have Google ads but they don't pay me nearly as much as straight advertising does. What I like is the fact that I can have a niche blog and put affiliate advertising on there that pertains just to that niche. If I had a blog about hip hop clothes or skiing you can bet that I would find an affiliate that I could partner with that sold items pertaining to those subjects.

The only thing I have learned is that not all affiliate programs are equal. Some have a bad track record. One that I was a member and will not deal with again is Commission Junction. They do not answer the emails I send them and I have found out they have a bad reputation of ending a publishers account for no reason and then not paying them. If you are interested in any affiliate program, check them out before joining them. Just doing a simple Google search with the affiliate's name and the word "scam" or "ripoff" added to it should get you enough results to help you decide.

Scam alert - the Green Millionare

Have you seen those infomercials about the "Green Millionaire?" The commercial claims to tell you that by reading their "free" book you will know how to get your electricity for free and drive a "green" car for free. DON'T FALL FOR IT! What they want is access to your credit card. The first thing they want when you get to their website is you name, address and email. When you click on submit then they want your credit card for the $1.95 for shipping and handling. Wait a minute..if they are "green" then the book would be delivered digitally to your email addy. After they charge your credit card the $1.95 then you will see another charge for a email newsletter at a whooping $29 or more! That charge shows up every month. The only green going on with this company seems to be in their pockets.

Doing a search online about them brought up huge numbers of complaints. One woman was charged $300 over the course of six months by the Green Millionaire or should I say the Green Scum Bag.

As to what they are offering. I also found out from the complaints the simple fact that the information can be found online for free and is nothing special. I know for a fact that the state of Oregon helps people with grants to install solar power generating grids on their roofs. Each state offers energy saving rebates and incentives so you should check out your own state's official website for links to the information you want.

Weight loss study

Did you hear about the new weight loss study? It was not a study about effective weight loss products but about eating habits and exercise. The results come to no surprise to me. What researchers have found out is that if you exercise when hungry you will lose more weight. How much money did they spend to figure that one out? Let's look at that one:

• Your body stores extra calories in the form of fat
• When your body needs those fat calories it will grab them and use them
• Your body will use newly digested food for energy first then go to the fat storage
• No food in tummy, you will be hungry
• No food in tummy, body must use fat storage for energy
• Fat storage being depleted for energy use by body......you lose weight!!!!
• Rocket science - NOT

Shaking head and walking away from that bit of news.

Drugs and medications that have dangerous side effects

If you watch TV you would have seen one of those TV commercials for prescription drugs. Whether it was for Viagra, Boniva or some other medication you would have noticed the disclaimers and warnings. A friend of mine is about to embark on a 6 month treatment for adult acne and the medication they want to give her has a ton of side effects. She showed me the book her doctor gave her that just lists the medical problems she might encounter while she takes this drug. I actually told her to put up with her acne rather than risk liver damage, hearing loss, loss of night vision, low white blood cell counts and a compromised immune system.

Why do people take drugs that will often have side effects that is worse than the problem they are taking the drugs for? Maybe what people need is a drug that enables us consumers to have common sense and say no to drug companies.

It can stop raining now

I normally don't complain about the weather but here in the Pacific Northwest it has not stopped having its annual rainy season.....and it's June! I wanted to put that vegetable garden in but first it was too cold now it is too wet. I would also like to get my spring house cleaning under way but when I open the windows for home ventilation, it just gets too damp in the house.I am keeping my fingers crossed that the weather man is right when he said we will get sunny weather in the 70's over the weekend....but I am not holding me breath, they have been wrong so far about all of this rain.

More news about layoffs - HP

Have you heard the news about yet another BIG layoff? This time HP announces yet another one of their layoffs. This time it is to be 9K employees. HP claims that the layoffs will save them $700 million. Wait a minute.....I had just heard that HP just bought Palm for a cool $2 billion, so was the only way they could afford to buy Palm was to layoff 9,000 employees?

I had once worked at HP as a temp worker so I know the anxiety that those employees at HP go through each time HP has cutbacks. If I was a regular HP employee I would be having to stock up on the best eye cream for dark circles since I would be having many sleepless nights just worrying about my future with them.

One of the main reasons that I will not buy an HP printer is because they shipped the manufacturing of the ink cartridges to China and just recently sent the R & D for them to Ireland. Those use to be made in the USA until only 5 years ago.