Archive for 2010

Diversify Your Income, Create an Online Business

December 28th, 2010

This is a great time to broaden your financial horizons
No matter what the economic climate is like, it’s always a good idea to be thinking of how to diversify your income. Why not spread the risk and have more than one source of income? Creating an online business that you can manage on the side is a great way to do this. Online businesses are flexible enough that you can grow them at your own pace without necessarily having to invest a lot of money. Website designers and developers are in the business of helping to bring their clients’ concepts alive. Just take a good, long look at the internet and you will see the many great ways this can be accomplished.

Here’s a model
This article focuses on one model that can be easily done by anyone who has interests or hobbies that can be turned into a website. I came across this website a few years ago and really liked its premise: http://www.dadsworksheets.com/

How it came about
The site was created by a father of two girls who had been creating math sheets for his daughters to help them improve their skills. He was looking to make additional income and thought that putting them online would be a nice way to do this and help other parents teach their children. Although the website has been around for a few years, it didn’t start this large. The site owner added content regularly and developed the site’s sections in order to offer added value to site visitors as time went on.

The business model
The business model is simple; he has created a site that offers valuable free content that he updates regularly in order to draw in traffic. This is key for both site visitors and search engines. Visitors like to know that there will be new things to look at on each visit and search engines place greater importance on sites that are regularly developed. The website generates income from a combination of ‘pay per click’, Google ads, paid advertizing and affiliate advertizing.

Any topic will do
This same site can be done to offer content on any topic. Consider your interests and see if you can convert your hobby into a website of this type. Perhaps you love to cook and could offer recipes, maybe you wish to write regular articles or run a blog around a specific topic you feel passionate about.

Put your mind to work
Start thinking about ideas for this type of a website that suits your personality and feel free to share your ideas. Just about any topic will do. Are you a model builder, a stamp collector, a jogger, a music freak? Any of these subjects is worth developing. In no time at all, helped with a bit of advertising on the search engines, a website devoted to model- building will become a popular calling point for other model builders. Add a service where enthusiasts can exchange ideas and help each other and you will be in business. After that it’s only a small step to adding a purchasing section to the website.

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How You Cannot Make Money

December 27th, 2010

Online gambling will get you nowhere
The struggle to legalize online gambling is back in the news. The oft-rehashed arguments against legalizing gambling that lack real evidence are rearing their heads once again in Washington. From the earliest days, man has loved gambling and many leaders have tried to stamp it out without success. Man still gambles and man still loves gambling.

Back in 1388
King Richard II passed a statute requiring people to buy items necessary for the martial arts and to stop spending money on “casting stone, and other importune games.” A century and a half later, King Henry VIII passed a law against gambling on the grounds that it diminished military ability because people spent leisure time gaming rather than practicing archery. Or so the bowyers, fletchers, stringers and arrowhead makers claimed in their petition. If you cannot compete, then get the government to outlaw the competition and disguise your motives with patriotic or moral outrage.

The 1600s
The Puritans condemned gambling because they opposed “idleness” In its first year of existence The Massachusetts Bay Colony outlawed not only the possession of cards, dice and gaming tables, but also dancing, singing and all “unnecessary” walking on Sundays. The Blue Laws of Connecticut in 1650 denounced gambling because it fostered too much “unfruitful” time. In 1737 the Massachusetts legislators changed anti-gambling laws, noting that lawful games and exercises are innocent and moderate recreations.

Religious Institutes
Not surprisingly, religious institutions fought gambling. It was competition for people’s leisure time, for their small change, and for their view of life too. Buying $10 worth of lottery tickets meant betting for better life on Earth in contrast to $10 on alms that implied bets for a better afterlife. Religious institutions eventually wanted all gambling outlawed, except for Church raffles and bingo in Church basements.

Present times
All forms of gambling changed dramatically with the advent of the internet from horse-racing to baccarat. Today it is possible to buy Lotto tickets and take part in a world-wide poker tournament without getting off the chair in front of your computer. You can win a major slot machine jackpot or lose everything dressed in your pajamas and holding a mobile phone in your hand.

The downside
Gambling is addictive. It also has other negative features, but the most dangerous is addiction. There are many stories of gamblers who lave lost everything they own due to gambling addiction. Your kids could be gambling in an online casino using your credit card number and you wouldn’t know a thing about it. Likewise your wife could be totally addicted to playing Bingo as soon as you step out of the house on your way to the office.

Online gambling
Gambling was ‘dangerous’ and addictive in the days before the internet when playing roulette meant driving hundreds of miles to a casino. Nowadays online gambling means a trip from the bedroom or kitchen to wherever the computer is standing and logging in to an online casino. Very few people have made real money by gambling.

Posted in Finance, Money, Personal / Internet | No Comments »

‘Tis the Day after Christmas and I’m Flat Broke

December 26th, 2010

It’s going to take a Payday Loan to get me out of this money-mess
Come the end of December every year and I am physically and financially frozen. And this year is the biggest two-way freeze ever. December was great and we really enjoyed ourselves. We went to the usual round of parties, the office, families, then at friends and finally the neighbors. A good time was had by all. The wine and beer flowed, the presents made the rounds until everyone was satisfied at what they ended up with. My kids did exceptionally well from Julie and me but it cost plenty… Ever priced new bicycles for teenagers?

The office closed
The office, as usual, closed between Christmas and New Year so I have a chance to catch up with the household chores and maintenance jobs and by New Year I will lean back feeling pretty pleased with myself. I have a whopping overdraft at the bank, but December is bonus month and 31st December is bonus day and I’m almost there.

No news is bad news
Yesterday passed quietly. I checked emails and sat around drinking coffee in front of the computer and the heater waiting for the bonus announcement to arrive. It has done this faithfully for the past 12 years or so. It comes in the form of a joyous looking email. Another cup of coffee and more waiting. No incoming mail. Now black thoughts started invading my one-track brain. What if…? No bonus? Is that possible? But it was a very good year. Then my mind moved to possible solutions. A Payday Loan solution?

I’ve been there
I have used this a few times before, always in the month of the anniversary of the car purchase. That’s the month they hit me with the license, the insurance and the annual service all in the same couple of weeks. I use a Payday Loan to get through that and it works pretty well. Could I use a Payday Loan to get me through January this time?

Bad news confirmed
I was right. No bonuses for 2008. Yes, it was a record year but “you know how December has been.” I hate those fancy meaningless terms they’ve harvested from the newspapers.

Payday Loan from AdvanceLoan.net
So I am about to apply for a Payday Loan from AdvanceLoan.net to help settle some of the debts incurred by holiday cheer. I am sure the company will still be here at the end of January and will pay the salaries do I can re-pay the loan. What I need to check now is how much I can borrow and if I can renew it for another month on the due date so that I pay it back over more than one month.

Good news at last
Yes, the Payday Loan will help out in every way it can. AdvanceLoan.net are courteous, friendly and eager to be of assistance. How nice it is to know that there is an alternative to fighting with the bank. Pity about the bonus though.

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Posted in Finance, Loans, Money, Payday Loans, Personal / Internet | No Comments »

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