Lots of people are jumping on the internet band wagon to try to cash in. There are lots of ways. Aside from selling stuff directly, one of the most common ways to make money is through blogging. How it works is fairly simple in concept: You write and write diligently about things you are passionate about, and advertise on your blog with something like Google AdSense or Yahoo/Bing adCenter. As people come to your website and click on the ads you place there, you get paid! Pretty sweet, huh!
Setting up a website and getting ads on it is pretty easy. The hard part is getting people to come to your website. There are a lot of tricks you must learn to bring people to your web pages, like doing guest posting and guest articles on others’ websites, commenting on others’ blogs and in forums, joining blog communities/carnivals, joining directories, linking to other blogs, search engine optimization, using title tags and anchor text (text with hyperlinks), creating single web pages like Squidoo and more. The best article I’ve read on the subject is How To Make Money With A Blog. And here’s an article on how to get your website listed in The Open Directory.
Do you recall this jivy, bouncing music? If you’re old enough to remember a lot of the good rock bands bowing to the disco gods, then you’ll also remember becoming more and more disenchanted with rock music about that time. Can’t say I ever loved disco music, in all its goofy glory. But it had some fun moments (maybe it was the beer though!).
Too bad your savings and retirement planning didn’t survive the polyester shirts and tight pants. Or maybe you forgot your retirement planning with the busted disco ball in the basement closet. Either way, back when you were hearing “Shake Your Booty” you should have been saving your looty.
But if you’re anything like me, those days are a bit of a blur and your retirement account is asking for a couple of aspirin.
Not to worry. It’s never too late to get radical on getting out of debt and then saving like crazy. And I mean extreme if you remember disco music and you’re still behind the disco ball in your savings. If you need some ideas on how to get drastic, there are lots of ideas and resource links on this website or try some Boiled Down Money Goo, tips for propelling your financial future.
So…let disco come back in style. This time, you’ll be able to afford those frilly but fake polyester (real silk) shirts and look just as goofy in style. Oh, and here’s a little update on what the new disco could sound like (or what the old disco should have sounded like).
To kill time in the car during trips, Deborah and I brainstormed “sayings” that we could include at the start of each section in our book. Here are a bunch that didn’t make the book:
Too bad that there isn’t a stupid tax deduction on federal taxes. Most of us would have a pile of money coming back!
With my luck when the lime light finally shines on me it will just reveal all the wrinkles and gray roots.
Everyone should be a bridge; it’s great to be walked on, driven over and used as a bathroom by birds and other two legged creatures.
If someone does you wrong don’t do anything crazy; just write it down – preferably on their car with spray paint.
Be kind to mean people – nothing messes with their mind more.
I don’t why anyone would rather be the bug or the windshield, I’d rather be the windshield washer.
Even a three year old knows the difference between good decisions and bad decisions; too bad I’m not longer three.
Don’t worry about doing something stupid, few people will know – unless it’s caught on video!
Kids are great at lying about something they’ve done and saying it was an accident; I found that it works great at work too…
They say that a river won’t sing without the rocks in it; it must work on swimming pools too ‘cause you should hear my neighbor sing when he finds the rocks that I toss in there at night.
Silence can really be golden, but chances are if you open your mouth the moment will be rusty steel.
Complaining about your credit card bill is like when your kid hands you a poop-stained underwear and says it’s your fault. Who cares whose fault it is at this point – that’s just wrong!
Here the thing about a difficult child: When you’re at work you really miss them. When you’re at home you really miss work.
No matter how good we have it, we always find something to complain about.
Always pick ugly friends. They’ll make you look good. Really good.
People are about as stupid as their friends are.
Don’t hang out with stupid people, or you will find yourself acting just like them.
Going towards the light may not always be a good thing. Ask the dead flies that are stuck on your bug zapper.
They say change is good. A tornado makes a lot of changes. But you can bet that your insurance company won’t like any of them.
Laughing till it hurts is great…except when your hairpiece is the butt of the joke.
Less is truly more. Ask any woman standing on the bathroom scale.
If the best isn’t good enough, stick with mediocre. It’s easier to achieve and just as satisfying.
People spend a lot of effort putting lip stick on pigs. They taste the same either way (the pigs that is).
What you do with your money says a lot more about you than how you earn your money, unless you happen to hug a pole and wear dollar bills in your costume.
I’d rather be devious than pretty. But I’m over 50, so what choice do I have?
Good luck takes a lot of hard work. Bad luck takes no effort at all.
Most everything about money on the television is pure…pure crap that is.
Beauty is in the eye of the beholder, as is her husband’s fist.
Life may be a bowl of cherries, but I’d rather be eating apple pie.
The winning team usually gets just as beat up as the losers. I’d rather have a hot dog and a front row seat.
Wild horses are great…until you wake up in the hospital with a hoof print on your face.
White teeth are great…until the bartender hands you yours in a plastic bag.
While I don’t like being labeled a consumer, I sure do enjoy consuming a frosty cold brew.
To kill time in the car during trips, Deborah and I brainstormed “sayings” that we could include at the beginning of each section in our book. It was quite fun, though many were rejected. Here is a sampling of some that were used:
Too often our ego is bigger than our wallet.
No matter what good you do you’ll likely be remembered for your mistakes.
The light bulbs in many people’s homes are brighter than they are.
Less is truly more and it’s a lot easier to achieve. Along these lines read this article.
While you can cover over a zit with makeup and stink with perfume, there’s no disguising lazy.
Buried treasure comes at a great cost, ends up hidden underground, and is very liquid once you find it. But beware where you place your shovel, because this is also true of septic tanks!
My wife and I clawed our way out of debt in two years after selling virtually everything we owned. With no debt (except the mortgage) we felt we could work any job we wanted. But neither of us wanted to quit our job, just cut down on hours so we’d have more time together, for family, and for other interests.
So we both contacted our employers and asked if we could work less hours. With no debt you can do this with the confidence that if you REALLY want to work less hours then you’ll move on if your employer won’t accommodate. We were both pleasantly surprised to find out that we could indeed change our working relationship with our employers and work less hours. Sure, this cost us money but now we had more TIME.
In my case, some of this extra time translated into writing a few rock and roll guitar tunes (my lifelong love). After making demo recordings of them (one called Spoiked and another called Tull), my wife encouraged me to write a whole album worth of songs and record them. Since we had no debt I now had both the time and money to make this happen. And I did. And some pretty good stuff came out of it! That was such a fun experience. But it would have been very difficult to do while still a total slave to my job and the banks.
You don’t need to wait until retirement to enjoy the fruits of financial planning and sacrifice. You’ll be able to pursue your lifelong interests NOW with the time and money to make them a reality! Come on, do it! It feels great. What are your dreams?
We love our cars and trucks. A tough truck, sleek luxury car, or classic muscle car is a thing of beauty. The look, feel and smell of new rigs are exciting, and can bring a smile to the grouchiest person’s face. Too bad the smell is simply toxic fumes being released into the air….and that would explain the stupid grin on our face and why our math skills disappear after test-driving a new rig.
Don’t underestimate what you can get in a used car, and paying cash for it. Case in point: My ’94 Mustang GT that my cute and savvy wife found on Craigslist and my smart and so-funny son-in-law blessed. We got a steal at under $3500 and had it in our driveway over a weekend! Try doing that with a bank (no thanks).
Been loving the hell out of it and gunning past every thumb on the road ever since. And it’s sleek enough to tuck cleanly out of sight after every highway chase. Think you can’t get much for that price? This video is the real thing!
Okay, we had a lot of fun taking all sorts of pictures for our book. Only about twenty of them were actually published. Even our original book cover ideas were scrapped after we saw the accidental photo taken from a toilet seat! The original cover ideas involved the faux food, the stew, the original recipe – the true boiled down money goo. That’s what this video is all about – the goo that started it all…