Happy Hanuchristmakwanzivus.
Family and travel. No posts today.
Make the most of the holiday.
The no-pants guide to spending, saving, and thriving in the real world.
Happy Hanuchristmakwanzivus.
Family and travel. No posts today.
Make the most of the holiday.
Make Extra Money Part 1: Introduction
Right now, I have 7 sites promoting specific products, or “niche” sites. When those products are bought through my sites, I get a commission, ranging from 40-75%. Of those sites, 5 make money, 1 is newly finished, and 1 is not quite complete. I’m not going to pretend I’m making retirement-level money on these sites, but I am making enough money to make it worthwhile.
Make Extra Money Part 2: Niche Selection
These three topics have been making people rich since the invention of rich. Knowing that isn’t enough. If you want to make some money in the health niche, are you going to help people lose weight, add muscle, relieve stress, or reduce the symptoms of some unpleasant medical condition? Those are called “sub-niches”.
Making Extra Money Part 3: Product Selection
My niches site are all product-promotion sites. I pick a product–generally an e-book or video course–and set up a site dedicated to it. Naturally, picking a good product is an important part of the equation.
Make Extra Money Part 4: Keyword Research
If you aren’t targeting search terms that people use, you are wasting your time. If you are targeting terms that everybody else is targeting, it will take forever to get to the top of the search results. Spend the extra time now to do proper keyword research. It will save you a ton of time and hassle later. This is time well-spent.
Make Extra Money, Part 5: Domains and Hosting
In this installment, I show you how to pick a domain name and a website host.
Make Extra Money, Part 6: Setting Up a Site
A niche site doesn’t amount to much without, well, a site. In this installment, I show you how I configure a site, from start to finish.
Make Extra Money, Part 6.5: Why I Do It The Way I Do It
Several people have asked me to explain why I use the plugins and settings I use. This explains the “Why” behind Part 6.
More to come….
A few weeks ago, I was approached about placing ads on this site. I was excited when I read the email. It came from a real domain, didn’t involve any Nigerian princes or wire transfers for overpayments.
Over the course of the email conversation, it was determined that, for a fee, I would place some links in a few archived posts. It would just be links to improve search engine ranking, without being an eyesore for my current readers. I don’t have a problem with that. The intrusiveness is similar to Chitika ads, which are only visible to search traffic. It’s a nice way to advertise: monetization without alienation.
Then I saw the links. I was being offered money to promote payday loans.
Payday loans offer to loan you–for example–$100 for the low(snort) price of just $25. That’s not bad. Only 25%. I know some credit cards that aren’t that good. The catch is that the loan is due in full in 2 weeks. That gives it an APR(Annual Percentage Rate) of 650%. That’s not so good.
When you payback the loan, your paycheck is pre-spent by whatever you borrowed, plus the pound of flesh fee and you are that much more likely to need their services again, digging you even deeper.
It’s not like the target demographic is terribly affluent. These are people who not only can’t make ends meet, but also can’t acquire traditional credit. They are left paying this insulting fee.
I consider payday lending companies to be immoral, unethical and generally, more than a bit dishonest. These are the people who give decent, hardworking capitalists a bad name. I’d rather go to a mob loan shark. He’s at least honest about what he is.
They got shot down.
Don’t get me wrong, I enjoy making money. I also enjoy the money I make here.
But not at the expense of my soul or my integrity.
Wealth is an elusive goal for many people. Everybody wants it, but for many, it’s impossible to reach. Every time they get a bit ahead, something always seems to come up, forcing them to live paycheck-to-paycheck.
What’s happening? Why can’t you gather enough wealth to know where next month’s rent payment is coming from?
1. You spend more than you earn. This is the mystical and magical Golden Rule of personal finance. Every system, every plan, every gimmick boils down to this. If you spend more than you earn, you are digging a hole that keeps getting harder to get out of. Don’t do it. The amount you earn needs to be bigger than the amount you spend.
2. You aren’t investing. If you invest $200 per month at 5% in your 20s, then stop and let interest do the rest,you’ll have as much after 30 years than if you started at 30 and continues to invest every month. Compound interest is very much your friend. The earlier you can start investing, the better.
3. You are investing in the wrong things. Some things are bad investments. Uncle Bob’s annual get-rich-quick scheme is going to be a bad idea every year. That’s not an investment, it’s pity. Another example is gold. Over the last year or so, that seems like a stupid thing to say, but it’s true long-term. Gold isn’t an investment, it’s an inflation hedge. Generally speaking, a given amount of gold represents the same amount of purchasing power all through time. To put it in simpler terms: 100 years ago, an ounce of gold could get you a nice suit and a good dinner. Today, that’s still true.
4. You aren’t saving. If you are spending less than you earn, what are you doing with the excess? Hopefully, you’re investing it, but keeping a stock of cash is a zero-risk savings account is a smart plan. It’s been said that when you don’t have an emergency fund, everything is an emergency. Have a cash reserve gives you the ability to not only deal with all of life’s little kicks to the crotch, but also lets you take advantage of the opportunities that may cross your path. A coworker needs to unload that big screen TV for 10% of what she bought it for? On it. Find a great deal on airfare to your dream destination? Bon voyage. Savings means security and opportunity.
5. You keep your debt. Debt is the biggest drain on wealth. Every penny you have to spend to service your debt(interest) is a penny you can’t save, invest, or otherwise enjoy. Carrying a balance is a fast way to immediately raise the price of everything you purchase, by 5%, 10%, or more. Debt and interest will hold you back financially like nothing else.
When you’ve been able to acquire a bit of wealth, you are better able to weather life’s bumps, dips, and face-flung poo. There’s nothing quite like the feeling of knowing that, no matter what happens, you aren’t going to struggle financially.
I last did a net worth update in August. I don’t worry much about tracking my net worth, but I’d like to know where I sit at the beginning of the year. If I’m going to track it, I’m going to share it.
This is where I was sitting in August:
Overall: $239,317
Overall: $249,717 (+9400)
I had two goals in August: Get an IRA rolling and save an extra $2500.
The IRAs I have are just sitting. I haven’t done anything to boost them, in any way, so hurray for the free $1163!
My savings have only grown my $773, but the $1000 I put in the investment account 3 weeks ago came from my car fund, so it would have been a growth of $1773, which isn’t bad at all.
I would still like to kill that credit card debt by August, which I think is doable. My crazy goal is to get rid of it by the end of May.
On 4/15/2009, I had $90,395 in debt. Today, it’s $48,707, so I’ve paid down $41,688 in just under three years, for an average of $1263 per month. That average is down $92 over the last few months. I blame our insane Christmas.
Overall, we had a good year. Paying off my car loan while paying down $4800 in credit card debt feels good. Now, I need to make 2012 better.
I am a failure.
Ten years ago, I started a small web-design company with a friend. I had a larger-than-average stack of geek points and the ability to build a decent website.
We lacked two things.
In short, we were trying to launch a tech company on a shoestring budget with nothing but technical skill.
The missing elements doomed us. We never had more than a couple of customers and eventually surrendered to the inevitable.
Ah, well. My investment was time.
The time investment came with some valuable lessons.
Starting a business can be rewarding, both emotionally and financially. I’ve never let myself be limited to just one income stream, but I try not to let my emotional investment cloud my judgment. Do things right and you’ll stand a better chance of making your business a success.