September 24, 2010
Filed under: Debt Control — Jean @ 5:39 pm
First, living below your means keeps you out of debt. Living below your means allows you more freedom in many parts of your life. Living below your means also lowers your stress. And living below your means keeps things simple. Here are seven painless pointers for lowering your bills and adopting a lifestyle that allows you to live below your means. Living below your means and sticking to a budget does not have to be painful. Why do so many people who adopt frugal habits speak so highly of this lifestyle?
Learn how to brown bag your own lunch. This is a very simple way to keep your bills low. You can save money without even feeling like you’re saving money and even adopt a healthier lifestyle. If you enjoy eating out, you probably don’t even notice how much you spend on this expensive habit. This doesn’t mean that you have to give it up entirely. If you go out to eat several times a week, take it down to one or two times a week. Learning the pleasures of preparing your own meals can introduce you to a whole new world and save you lots of money in the process.
What’s wrong with your old car? Buying a new car is one of those major purchases that can keep you drained of savings for years. Instead of buying a new car, or leasing, every few years, keep your car for as long as you can and watch the savings add up. Keep your car in good working order by taking it for regular maintenance and driving as lightly as possible, take good care of it and hopefully you will give yourself many years of trouble-free driving without having to make those hefty new car payments.
Re-evaluate your living situation. Could you be paying a large rental bill for a two-room apartment and you live alone? Are you paying too much on your mortgage balance each month? If you are serious it’s time to sit down and reconsider your living situation. Maybe you can live just as comfortable in a somewhat smaller, and less expensive, apartment. Maybe you can lower your monthly mortgage payment significantly by refinancing your home. Whatever your situation looks like, sit down and see how much you’re paying per month on living expenses. Chances are, there are ways to lower this expense significantly.
Do away with your land line if you’re not using it. Do you live by your cell phone? These days, with increased cell phone stability and advanced technology, most people use their cell phone for most of their communication needs. If this sounds like you, perhaps it’s time to cut that land line service and save on your monthly telephone bill.
New clothes, furniture and electronics are nice, but they are usually marked up pretty high. Watch the prices plunge as you step into your local secondhand store or thrift shop. Shop secondhand whenever possible You can buy high quality clothes, furniture, books and music at your local secondhand shop at a deep discount.
This long-held adage still rings true today. Pay yourself first. Most people in debt are anxious about saving, but it’s time to deposit a little into your own private savings stash every month. Make an emergency cushion for yourself by having ten percent of your paycheck automatically deposited into savings account each month. But if you are in deep debt, pay this down first.
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September 17, 2010
Filed under: Debt Control — Jean @ 5:29 pm
Money saving is never easy. Most os us simply don’t do it. Yet, saving money is essential and It’s a lot better than using credit. How often do you see a commercial that says, “Save up for six months and buy this new couch set!” we wants it and we want it now. Unfortunately, that can cause us to get into debt that we can’t climb out of. Instead of debt, try saving. Let’s say your short term goal is to buy a boat-you have a few options. One option is to borrow the money from a lender. Another option is to charge it on a credit card, and the final option is to save for a few months and buy it with your own money. All three ways will give you that boat. Some of those options are not the wisest. If you use a lender and are late with one payment, they can put on a 99% interest. If you use a credit card, you have interest and more debt. If you save, you’re fine. But, how do you save?
First of all, don’t go out to eat. If you do, get water and share a dish with someone. If you calculated the amount of money you spend on dining out in one month-you will most likely be surprised. Save that money, your short term goal is worth it. Another way to save is to cut out some extra spending. Instead of going to see a movie, rent one and stay home with some popcorn. Instead of buying an entire CD, buy the track and save that money. Another way to save some money is to buy bulk.
On occasion it’s hard to save up by cutting things out of your life, not everyone can afford to go out to eat as much as others. We can’t all afford nights out at the movies. Just act like you are literally making ten percent less until you reach your short term goal. These are just a few ways you can save for short term goals. Some will say that if you need extra help financially, there are trained professionals just a call away for advice. When doing your research, consider the following: Look into these programs: door-to-door, fee-per-ride, ride-share, carpools, and private shuttle services. Some services require advanced notice or reservations. Use services that are no or low cost to seniors.
Use pay as you go or monthly coupons. Use public or private transportation (taxi, mini-bus or van, bus, rail). Remember that debt is never a wise choice to make if at all possible, because of interest and other things.
Proviso you decide to keep your vehicle, be sure to look into lower discounted insurance rates for mature individuals. Also, if you find that you are moving slower when walking, ask your medical professional about assisting you with obtaining a handicap sticker, tag or license plate for your vehicle.
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September 10, 2010
Filed under: Web Business — Jean @ 5:25 pm
One of the most enjoyable aspects of building a home based web business around a content site is shopping for merchant partners and then coming up with creative ways to incorporate their products and services into your web site. In many respects, this process can allow you to make a “store of your dreams” without having to invest a single penny in merchandise, a storefront, hired help and all the other costs that go with running a retail operation.
I’ve always wanted to have my own a shop even as a kid, in fact. To have such a store in bricks and mortar would require easily more than a million dollars to start, and would have massive ongoing costs associated with running such an operation.
And that is the beauty of a home based web business. You can choose what products to promote on your site, incorporating them however you want into you web site, without any cost to yourself (or risk, for that matter).
Discover the Internet is filled with merchants that have quality affiliate programs. The key word here is quality. When shopping around for merchant partners, several things need to be kept in mind. These are:
1. Return Days – Does a merchant offer return days? A return day is how many days after the initial click through by a visitor from your site to a merchants site that you can still receive credit for a sale. A visitors who click through from our site to XYZ Store for a period of 120 days after the initial visit. This tracking is accomplished by the setting of cookies on the users machine. Generally, the longer the “cookie duration” or number of return days the merchant offers, the better.
2. Merchants Web Site – It is imperative that the merchants have a quality web site that will lead to sales. If the merchants web site is always down or does not inspire confidence to visitors, then sales from that merchant will be very low to non-existent. My main test when I evaluate a merchant web site is whether or not I would buy from them. If the answer is yes, then I consider their program. If the answer is no, I find another merchant to partner with.
3. Product Linking – The ability for an affiliate (you) to link directly to individual products on a merchant web site is critical. Repeat – critical. It is a well-proven fact that web surfers click on individual product and text links far more often then generic banner ads. If a merchant does not offer the ability to link directly to products, then you will be limited to promoting the merchant in banner ads – which are far, far less effective.
4. Commitment of Merchant – Many merchants utilize affiliate programs not as a way to gain sales partners for the long term but instead to find a quick and easy way to create name recognition. Generally, these programs are quickly identified by a lack of return days. Another way to recognize these programs is how they are managed. If the merchant does not respond to your emails, then you likely have a sub-par merchant that is not worth the bother to partner with.
5. Merchants Products in Relation to your Home Based Web Business – It goes without saying that what the merchant sells must relate in at least a loose way to the visitors that your web site will receive. Attempting to sell perfume on a web site that covers hunting is not likely to succeed very well. Instead, for your primary merchants, pick only merchants that fit in closely with your overall theme of your web site.
Now that you know what to look for, and what not to look for, in selecting merchant partners for you home based web business, the next step is to find them. Merchants, broadly speaking, run their affiliate programs in one of two ways. They either do it themselves (private affiliate programs) or they hire out an affiliate network to manage things for them. Each of these methods have their pluses and minuses, although the sheer number of programs offered by the affiliate networks makes shopping around for merchant partners much easier.
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September 3, 2010
Filed under: Web Business — Jean @ 5:21 pm
Once you’ve created your web site and put in all the content, the next step, of course, is to get your home based Internet business online so other people can see it. You do this by uploading all the files that were created in developing your web site to a web host, or a web hosting company. The choice you make in selecting the right web hosting company is crucial to the long-term development of your web site, so shop carefully. Also, keep in mind that if you use the Site Build program, hosting is already provided…so you don’t have to worry about this.
If you do want to look into various web hosting companies. Many companies are good, a handful are not. I have learned a couple of things that should help you narrow you search down for a good web host.
1. Send Email – Always send the Web Host an email, asking questions about their service, even if you don’t have any questions. If a web host does not promptly respond to your inquiries about sales, then you know for a fact that their support after the sale will be terrible.
2. Toll Free Technical Support – Make sure the web host has toll-free technical support. Generally, you will not need to use this. However, at times, the ability to get in touch with your web host via phone is crucial. Generally, these hosts cost a few dollars more than ones that do not have phone support, but it is worth every penny when the need arises.
3. Expandability – It is very important to make sure whatever web host you choose has lots of expansion possibilities. As your web site grows and your site receives more traffic, the ability to easily and effortlessly upgrade to different plans is very important. Equally important is the ability to add new features to your site as it grows – such as adding in dynamic database capabilities for both UNIX and Windows operating systems.
4. Fast Servers – Many web hosts offer dirt-cheap rates because they pack their web servers full of web sites. All of these web sites, and their associated traffic, will slow down connection speeds for visitors to your web site. Use the tools at Site Solutions.com to gauge how fast or slow a particular web hosting company’s servers are.
5.
6. Linux Server – I started withWindows Server. Besides being more expensive, it’s well…Windows. Linux Servers are faster and more reliable. And…most importantly…you can use My-SQL databases and PHP scripting language. Why is this important? If your site gets huge you WILL start using MySQL and PHP in one form or another. I do on my site (to run ads, among other things). And I can guarantee you that if your site spans 1000 pages you’ll use it too. So…do it right and get a Linux Server right out of the gate. It’s cheaper, more expandable and will save you headaches down the road.
Want a Hosting Recommendation?
If you do a search online for web hosts, you’ll find tons of “reviews” about web hosts, you’ll notice that all the best reviewed hosts tend to be the same from review site to review site. The reason? Those hosts pay a bounty (a large one) for each new sign-up.
Some of those hosts might be good, but I’ve never used them
Thus, I won’t comment on them. But when doing a search for web hosts, always be “wary” when you see the same hosts plugged from site to site.
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