Turn your passion into cash

Have you been driving home from your ho-hum job and fantasizing about having a job or career doing something you love? You are not alone, most people do the same thing. Right now, sticker shock at the gas pump have more and more people thinking about working closer to home.

Now you don't have to be a writer like me and end up writing meaningless drivel about lipozene side effects, you can see what is in demand in your home town. For example, the little town I live near has very little in the way of entertainment. A bowling alley and a one screen movie theater is it. My daughter had a lively discussion at her school a few months ago when she pointed out that the only attraction the town had was the super Walmart store. Many of her classmates disagreed until she pointed out that the parking lot is always packed.

So take a look around and see if you can provide a service or product that your neighborhood needs.

A successful blogger has a personality that comes through in their words

What really makes a successful blogger? It is the fact that a successful blogger in reality is a wonderful writer. They have the ability to write with a "personality." They could be the most boring person you ever met but their online persona just attracts oodles of followers. They have learned how to sell their readership almost anything. They could make a non-dog owning person want to go out and buy a DVD devoted to dog training. These are the people that advertisers want to have them write about their products. They get food companies and sporting goods stores trying to contact them so they can mention them in one of their blog articles. Just the mention of billiards supplies in a blog post could make sales jump for a company.

A successful blogger is almost like today's new celebrity. No longer do they have to be on TV or the big screen to be famous, just be a famous blogger.So learn to write and write well, but don't forget to put some personality into your work.

The real reason we have not seen looting in Japan

I have read at least 3 different articles about the lack of looting in Japan in the aftermath of the 9.0 earthquake and resulting tsunami. Most of the articles speak of the Japanese culture that ranks honor and dignity above all else. But there is one major factor that those article writers have left out.....the fact that the Japanese have a huge dislike for anything "used."

About 10 years ago I met a co-worker who had just come back from a work assignment in Japan. She and her husband had to live in Japan for 9 months. They had a large apartment (by Japanese standards) and needed to furnish it. They were only in Japan for a week when they noticed that people were putting out furniture and other large items next to the roadside. When they asked a friend why this was going on, he remarked that it was just garbage pick up. They soon found out that the Japanese people don't believe in thrift stores or recycling. If the item is no longer needed, it is moved to the roadside pick up. This gave them a brilliant idea.

They decided to furnish their apartment with everyone's throwaways. The co-worker told me they found some fantastic pieces of furniture as well as some nice decor items. The Japanese probably thought that "those crazy Americans, have lost their minds" when they saw them rooting through all that stuff. They were told that other Japanese people would not even dare to touch such "garbage." Japan it seems, is a throw out society, not a recycle one.

That story would explain why Japan has no looting. Yes it is their culture but not one of honor or dignity but just the dislike of other people's used stuff.

Another lucrative way to make money online

There must be at least 2,000 ways to make money online, all legal. I have found several over the years, but the most profitable is selling an item or product from your own blog or website. The big plus about selling online is that you don't even have to have an inventory to sell. Let me explain.

I am talking about affiliate sales. They are when you write a review about a product and put a link to it. If someone buys the product you get a percent of the sale. This can be done for ebooks, computers or even hot tub spa covers. It should be a product that you know something about or better yet you have used.

There are thousands of affiliate marketing companies that you can sign up for that you can make money with. Listed below are the companies that I work with for referral cash. They are in order from top to bottom from my most earnings to the least:

• Google - yep, Google tops my list with their Adsense ads, I earn at least a few dollars a day with them
• eBay - yes you can earn money by referring people to listings on eBay
• Amazon.com - I have several "astores" that I make money from (you can have up to 100 of them)
• Clickbank - they are not as lucrative as they use to be several years ago, but I have gotten several large checks from them
• Shareasale.com - I have earned money with them but not that much. 
• Linkshare - only one paycheck from them so far.

Earning money with Google is a no brainer. The others take a bit more in product writing and reviews. I personally like the Amazon "astores" as I have 12 of them so far and I might add a few more.

I hate power outages

Last weekend my family spent 36 hours in the dark. No power due to downed trees. The wind storm put several cities without power for 2 days or more. Of course I was unable to do anything that involved the use of electricity or water. Our water is supplied by a well that needs electricity to power the well pump.

That experience got me thinking, if I was looking for a source of alternate energy for just our well, where would I look? We are lucky that our well can be set up to be plugged into a portable generator but with the price of gas going skyward, what about solar?

I did find one website called "Clean Alternate Energy" that has power solutions that would work, On the same site I also found a neat section of solar powered chargers that would keep my laptop charged up during the power outage, all for under $20.

I should go back and look at more of what they have to offer since we almost lost our entire refrigerator full of food due to lack of electricity.

My Google ads are paying higher per click

The last week or so, the clicks on the Google ads on this blog have increased only slightly but the pay out per click has increased by at least 300%. Just today I got one click that paid me $2.65 which is 3 times the normal rate per click that I get on this blog. Too bad that I will never find out what ad that was clicked on so I could cater to those keywords to trigger more higher paying Google ads.

Since I write blog posts on a wide variety of subjects, almost all of them pertaining to money or careers, it would be helpful to me to know what ads are being clicked on. For example are the ads about coupons and saving money or are they about investing in your future with education? I know that the higher paying ads are directed to medical, lawyers and insurance but job hunting and higher education is also gaining a tighter market for ads. If the ad was for education, was it for a medical career or a computer career like mba management? I would like to know that.

Do you know if there is a way I could find out what ads were clicked on? If you do just leave a comment. I am sure that others would be interested in finding out that as well.

Leaving bad feedback on eBay

When I buy things on eBay, which is not as often as it use to be, I always left honest feedback. I rarely, if ever, left negative feedback, but tonight I left neutral feedback. Now if you are a seller on eBay, you would know that your buyers do read your feedback.

The feedback I left was "item broke after a few hours of use." It was a brand new laptop charger and it overheated and stopped working. Since I got it for a cheap price I am not worried about getting my money back but the seller will lose buyers, which will cost them in the long run. I admit that I should have read their feedback before I bought the item. They had a 99.2% positive rating but I failed to see that they had over 300 negative and neutral feedbacks in the last 30 days.

Now if the item was advertised as used or "as is" then I take the gamble. If the item is a collectors item or a custom made item then I am more careful. I also try to look out for fakes like counterfeit cell phones or fake bella bracelets. Granted, eBay has always been a buyer beware website but most of the time I have gotten some great deals on there. I guess most of the great sellers have moved on to other selling venues now.

Investing for your future

So you are getting older and you have not even thought about retirement income. There are several ways you can plan for a steady income. You could save like mad and try to have enough tucked before you reach the age you can no longer work or you could make it easier on yourself. Here are a few tips on how to provide that retirement income you will need:

• Invest yearly into a personal IRA account 
• If your job offers a 401K plan and matches your contribution - take their money. Invest as much as you can.
• Look into the various types of life insurance plans that you can cash out at retirement age.

That last one, not many people know about. My husband has one and will be worth more than a cool million by the time he reaches 65. He started the plan about 25 years ago. The monthly life insurance rate was $104 a month and had a disability clause in it. Should he become disabled, the $104 payments would be paid by the insurance company. After 15 years of payments, he used the disability clause. It was the best investment he ever made. Should he die before he retires and cashes out the plan, I will get $100K as beneficiary.