Happy Holidays

WISHING EVERYONE A WONDERFUL HOLIDAY

 ~ MAY YOUR SPIRITS BE HAPPY AND BRIGHT ~

Announcing A New Category

Seasons Greetings All :) - I ran across this very interesting site called Fiverr (yes, same name at dot com of course). There are folks on this site that will do real work for you. The jobs or gigs as they are called range from providing "real" digital products such as eBooks or video courses, to marketing services, social media posts to thousands, etc...)  Not only could this be a great way to delegate work and get a huge amount of exposure inexpensively, it could also be a good means for "set it & forget it" type of campaign(s) to earn residual cash flows, which is what I intend to do. There are a few things that you will need in advance to get started which I will go over in my first post. The beauty of this site ... Free to join, free to list items for sale, and everything costs $5 bucks, hence the name Fiverr. The name of this new category is - The Fiverr Files.

Making Money Online ... Debunking The Myths

Some Marketing & Internet Gurus Make It Sound Like Money Will Rain Down From The Sky.

Millions have tried, millions are trying right now and millions will continue to try in the years ahead. There is so much misinformation out there regarding making money online, that you can easily be forgiven for thinking that there are many thousands of millionaires enjoying unbridled success from doing it.

The real truth of course is that the vast majority are failing. As with most speculative opportunities in a capitalist system, many must fail in order for a few to succeed. Most who dive into this shark infested pool of opportunity with hopes of earning a healthy living from home dream's are usually shattered before they have even begun. There is no single reason for this. It's usually boils down to a combination of a few factors, and I intend to look at some of the reasons for the now infamous quote, "95% of internet marketers fail in their online business". Some of the things I list below without a doubt, will be contested by many people (including myself) but the harsh facts are that making money online, while entirely possible, is not the cakewalk that a lot of people will try to make you believe that it is. I include myself as a doubter because I do sometimes challenge my own beliefs to try to determine exactly what the truth is. This is good because the internet is not static. It is a dynamic world of information which providers constantly change to stay ahead of each other. You'll always hear: A better way, a better system, boost your income, etc...

Let's start by debunking some of the nonsense right away. Hopefully, this will save a lot of people a lot of time and frustration in the process. Additionally you might just learn what it really takes to become successful at making money online. For the record, "successful" is not $200 once in six months because you will starve to death trying to live off of that. Successful is more like $200 a week and rising, as you add to, compliment, optimize, and expand your internet marketing platform (eventually consisting of dozens if not hundreds of campaigns). The latter is more like real money that you can pay real bills with and in the long run, if all goes well, possibly quit punching Corporate America's slave clock (quit your job). It can take anywhere from a few days to a couple years to reach that level depending on what resources you have available to you. Someone with a subscriber/follower/ or customer list with and a good reputation can actually make money in hours instead of days or weeks.

1) Affiliate Marketing - so much rubbish is touted by so many so called "Gurus" out there who have never made "not one" affiliate sale in their lives, it is ridiculous. The affiliate marketing model is indeed a powerful one and has made a number of people very wealthy. However, you are very unlikely to succeed with affiliate marketing without going through an arduous and sometimes lengthy learning process. Note: Very possible but not very easy, the learning curve is steep.

A huge swathe of articles you read about affiliate marketing are no more than rehashed Private Label Rights (PLR) articles being used by lame hopefuls who are incapable of writing anything original on a subject that they are hoping to convince you they know all about. You can spot these peddlers of fifth hand information easily enough - look at the sites they link to, check their traffic rankings. Ninety Nine times out of a hundred you will find a cookie cutter website just like thousands of others or a direct link to an affiliate program that they foolishly believe you will sign up for having read their blindingly convincing pitch one time.

Are these the people to look to for advice? Think before you answer....... It's actually a "No Brainer"

2) Freebie Seekers and Freeloaders - this encompasses so many people it's laughable. They talk about their "business" and seriously expect others to follow their blind lead. The term "business", at least to my mind, indicates some sort of investment on behalf of the owner of that business - both in terms of time and money. Those most guilty of this faux pas are usually those who sign up to a free program, usually in the network marketing or MLM arena, and use every useless and pointless form of promotion as long as it's free.

Much is said regarding failure rates in MLM schemes being so high, but one of the biggest is the freebie mentality. Don't get sucked into believing you will ever make money online this way. The freeloaders are kidding themselves, but don't let them kid you. The programs they sign up to for free often offer a paid upgrade and they live in hope (if they ever manage to recruit a single person of course) that they will grow fat on the subscriptions of others. Naturally this rarely happens, simply because they advertise to other freeloaders who have no intention of spending any money on their "business" either, and so the vicious circle continues.

If you don't believe me, visit any free traffic exchange and look at some of the webpages circulating there. These people are dreamers - they will never make money online until they accept "the fact" that they are eventually going to have to spend money to make money. Let's get real here - when you're looking for potions or energy drinks or some other latest greatest product that is no more than a copy of an already well established brand, is the first place you think to look going to be a free classified site on the internet? Maybe you'd head for the closest traffic exchange? Think - you don't have to do it (think) for more than a couple seconds to understand why these things don't work!

Please understand what you have read here and try to put it in perspective. There are a lot of "FREE" services out there, auto-responder service for example, that will assist you tremendously in setting up a campaign that may bring substantial earnings. However, there is no "FREE PROGRAM" that includes all of the things that you will need to be up and running in a full fledged business that will bring you substantial earnings with just a few clicks of the mouse ... And it is foolish for you to think that such a thing exists. 

3) Throwing up a blog on a free platform and filling it up with Adsense or other PPC ads is unlikely to deliver much success. This applies whether we are talking one blog or fifty blogs. Adsense is great, but it's also a numbers game - you need big numbers in terms of pages and visitors to make big returns. By big, I mean big - tens of thousands of pages receiving tens of thousands of visitors and you will probably start making a nice income. Throwing up fifty, a hundred or more useless blogs or splogs won't work even if some people tell you that all you need are a couple of Adsense clicks a day on each one and you'll be raking in the money. Great theory, but you won't get the traffic to even generate those occasional clicks in the first place. Throwing up such poor quality free pages will achieve nothing - in fact, you're more likely to get banned from Blogger and Adsense to boot if you're not careful. Oh, and don't think you'll be smart and use auto surf sites to rack up huge numbers of impressions - using any kind of traffic exchange in conjunction with Adsense will get you banned very quickly.

Our freebie seekers of course will tell you otherwise, expecting you to believe that their PR0 blog with no comments is really generating a thosand dollars for them every month, and that all you need to do is visit this or that site, where you can learn to do exactly the same. You will naturally be directed to a page through an affiliate link - Clickbank or similar - to purchase an ebook that the freebie seeker has naturally never laid eyes on, let alone read.

4) Making millions with PPC advertising. This is a no brainer - all you have to do is pick some keywords, write a snappy ad, link to an affiliate program and gve your credit card details to Google, Yahoo, MSN or whoever. You will wake up rich beyond your wildest dreams.

OK, maybe too heavy on the sarcasm, but it's really not that easy. Ask anyone who has rushed blindly into PPC and lost their shirt in the process, paying for a truckload of clicks but generating nary a sale. I have a little more sympathy for these types than the freeloaders; after all, they have accepted that they need to spend money to make money, but unless you do your homework, it's likely to prove costly. Even if you do your research beforehand, there are no guarantees that PPC campaigns will work for your business. Having said all that, PPC can be a very profitable tool, just don't believe overly hyped claims from the totally inexperienced.

5) Start a blog and you will soon be collecting checks on a regular basis. Don't believe this one either. There is a lot to be said for blogs as a marketing tool, don't get me wrong. Blogs can and do increase your exposure tremendously, but apart from an elite few, blogs are usually not their direct revenue generators. A blog is a tool, and used wisely it will help an online business to grow, but it's unlikely to pay the bills all by itself.

6) Article marketing - another area where a lot of ill informed and overly hyped prose is written. As a long term strategy, carried out correctly, article marketing can be hugely beneficial to a business of any kind, but it takes time to see results and there is a learning curve to go through.

I actually saw someone advocating the tactic of blanket bombing article directories with PLR articles and slapping affiliate links into the resource box. This was in an article submitted to one of my directories. They even went as far as to claim that this would guarantee a huge number of hits and sales. This is just one piece of foolish nonsense from a clueless fool, who, no doubt is wondering why article marketing is so useless, while trying to tell others how rich it will make them. It is a fact that most article directories do not permit linking directly to affiliate programs in the resource box!  It follows that this is hardly the way to proceed. There are ways that this can be used productively however, that is another subject.

7) Work from home opportunities have become a breeding ground for scams and hucksters the world over. Global oppportunities for peddlers of schemes and tricks to make themselves rich have never been more plentiful. One of the tricks that they use is to get you baited at little or no cost ... After you've made an initial investment, then you're told how many more hundreds you'll need to invest in order to reveal all of the secrets or acquire all of the tools needed.

There are literally hundreds of so called "opportunities" circulating at this very moment that are borderline illegal and when they disappear there will no doubt be plenty more to replace them.

Promises of overnight riches rarely hold much water if you examine them even superficially. Just because you see a video of someone opening envelopes full of cash does not make it so. One "gifting" program of this nature has obviously sucked in a fair number of gullible souls who really believe that people will be queuing up to send them three thousand dollars just because they show them a poor quality video on a traffic exchange.

Have you ever managed to sell a product online for three thousand dollars or more? I'm guessing the answer in most cases is - probably not. If you fall for this kind of scam, you probably deserve to get took - after all, how difficult is it for someone to get three thousand in cash (there are plenty of ways), go to FedEx, mail it to themselves and then film it's arrival and subsequent opening on a webcam. If that's all the proof it takes to convince you, you have some painful lessons to learn.

Whenever you read outlandish claims offering boatloads of money and retirement before you've even started working, in conjunction with proclamations that you don't have to sell anything, don't have to advertise, don't have to do anything at all really, other than sit back and watch the money roll in.....and you find yourself believing it - my advice is to seek professional help ... LOL. 

8) Making money with sites that pay you to read ads, emails, visit sites, sign up for free offers etc etc etc I'm not saying that none of them work but in terms of time expended set against financial reward, they are usually a dismal prospect. Would you go and do a 60 hour a week job for $20 a month? That is a realistic payout for most of these read ads, do surveys,surf web type of offers.

9) Multi Level Marketing (Both Online And Offline) - Multi Level Marketing (MLM) does work however, the insiders, won't or can't, tell you the entire story or the whole truth. If they told you the truth the MLM paradigm would fail. The only way MLM works is if you are at the top of the food chain (big time investment or by questionable means).

In the real world: Remember those letters you'd get in the mail saying, "Send out 200 letters with $5 cash to those on this list (usually 5 or 6  participants for useless info) and you get more and more $$$ as your name goes up the list? Theory being: When you get to the top thousands of letters will be sent out with you at the top. Then the letter goes on to give you a breakdown of the "possible returns"? Forget it, you will do nothing more than lose $30 plus what ever you spent on postage because the response, if any, will not cover your expenses at this level?" And besides, in some states it's illegal to send out such letters. The winners are the ones already at the top. They send out thousands of these letters, being careful to avoid states that do not permit it. Additionally most of those at the top cheat, they actually occupy all of the positions. You're sending cash, so they can use any names they choose and use a few mail forwarding services in other states.

In the cyber world: The principle is similar. Slick automated capture pages are used to get your email address. Once huge lists are established the fun (for them) begins. There's a blogging system out there in the cyber world (not gonna name it because I don't trust the system) that say's, "Blog on our huge system of like minded folks, about anything you like, and you'll earn crazy money". HA! What a joke. There is no way that this could work indefinitely, especially if "no one" knows who the hell you are. The sole purpose of this system is to upsell you more expensive modules as you go up the chain to enrich their core members or members higher up the chain than you are. Some of these upsells cost thousands of dollars but the startup module is rather inexpensive. Your job is to sell the system that you bought and to upsell the modules to the system that you are being upsold and you'll get 100% every three sells. The fourth sell goes to your sponsor. The modules are merely sales and marketing videos that you can find freely on the web if you knew what to look for. In my opinion this is a Ponzi scheme with a twist (share a little more). The real winners are those giving webinars, system launches to huge mailing lists, and/or real world hotel events (winners circle observances) to hundreds at a time to lure you in. Some of these folks at the top have nation wide tours visiting dozens of major cities. Again, this requires a major investment. What happens when the bubble bursts? No more money that's for sure, and possible legal ramifications too. Many major marketing mediums and websites (like Facebook) have already banned this system and its practices. You cannot make a blog, talk about "anything" and sit to wait for major dollars to start rolling in - point blank.

These are just nine of the countless things that you should not believe. Trust me there are hundreds more.

If you are serious about making money online, you are going to need a "good plan." One that has reasonable expectations and is based on established principles of internet business marketing and logic. You are going to have to spend money to get yourself set up to do business, no way around this. You will need a website of your own for starters (unless you intend to buy a hundred ebooks and courses telling you how to succeed without even this most basic of needs). This means hosting fees or a server. If you are starting from a position of very little technical knowledge, you will have to dedicate a lot of time to learning the ropes or you will have to pay for the services of others. With most things online, the sooner you bow to the inevitability of having to lay out a little cash as you go along, the sooner you will start to open up some real possibilities. Nothing wrong with spending as little as possible ... Everything wrong with expecting to not spend anything at all.

There are countless ways to make money online, there are many people who are living proof of this. I am living proof of this. It would literally take days to tell you all of the ways in which I've made or saved money using my computer. The wise thing to do is to not to get caught up in the rubbish of dreams of opulence, wealth and riches with little or no work involved.

I have not mentioned things like stock or currency trading simply because they are not scams. Trading online can be lucrative and you won't need a website of your own for this kind of venture but you will need capital, and you most certainly need to understand the risks involved, they are significant.

However that's all a subject for another day. As my momma said, free advice is often pretty much worth what you pay for it. Just be careful what you believe in your quest for online wealth and you'll avoid a lot of wasted time and disappointments.

There "is" plenty of free information on the internet and there are also plenty of free tools and software and services that may help you but, you are starting a "real" business and that means you will need some capital to get off the ground. If you think otherwise and persist in looking for the elusive, no cost magic bullet,  you are destined to fail and I don't care what any rehashed nonsense some self help guru or eBook tells you about irrefutable laws of nature or anything else. You need to do a lot more than just dream about online success ... If you wish to achieve it ... It will take a lot of work and some money to do it

A closing thought - money may very well make the world go round ... But if nobody spends any, nobody receives any. If you can find me something that dispels that fact, tell me where to sign up.

The Hard Drive Deal

Sometimes just knowing something that others are not aware of ... or having the time to do something that others do not have the time to do ... Can earn you a little cash !!! Case in point: The Hard Drive Deal. While posting auctions on eBay, browsing other listings, and just doing my normal eBay thing I ran across these hard drives. 21 external hard drives ranging between 320GB - 2TB. The breakdown is as follows: 1 - 2TB, 2 - 320MB's, and 18 - 1TB hard drives. This totals over 20TB of hard drives. The 320's and 1 - 1TB hard drive were laptop drives, all of the others were 3.5" (standard desktop) hard drives. The "Buy Now" price was $369.95 with free shipping. After further reading however, I discovered that the hard drives did not show up under Windows "Computer" nor Windows Hard Drive Management program. Here is where you should turn the attention nob up a bit because it really gets unbelievably good here on out !!! Most of these were the one-touch backup type enclosures. None of them had power cords. I knew that in situations like this, 90% of the time the issue was a "physical" one, and simply removing the drive from the enclosure, initialize & reformat, and it should be as good as new. The "physical" issues could be: Broken USB port, broken wire, bad firmware card connection, etc...  A high definition wide screen movie of my experience with such drives and how I resolved the issues started to play in my mind. Then the strangest thing happened ... I decided to go on YouTube to see if there were any videos regarding the matter. I wanted to see if there were any dis-assembly precautions and maybe check to be sure my visions (LOL) were on point. Not only did I find a low quality, jittery, tilted, out of focus movie ... LOL ... The guy did exactly what I had planed on doing (my visions), and he was doing it with the same brand enclosure.

Here's the video below.

THIS WAS TOO GOOD TO BE TRUE

IT HAD TO BE AN OMEN !!!

Now a new movie started playing inside my head ... It was all numbers. I bounced back over to eBay to see what the average price for standard 3.5" 1TB Hard Drives were going for. I determined that the $70 - $75 range with shipping was a sweet spot. That is, it was a price that provided both me a good profit while at the same time providing the buyer with a bargain. I looked at the sellers other listings and saw that the seller had literally hundreds of these hard drives in their original enclosures and hundreds of good feed backs. I concluded that the seller was surely a "seasoned" seller that probably didn't have the time to do what I was going to do. "WOW!!! That's a lot of TB's", I said, as I pressed the "BUY NOW" button on eBay.

When the drives arrived I quickly unpacked them and began to disassemble them. The first thing to do was to thoroughly test them. I set the enclosures aside to be discarded because I didn't think they were sell-able. One of the 1TB hard drives was a laptop hard drive. I decided to keep that one for one of the Getac's (See Getac B300 post). There was also a 256GB SSD that was password protected that I had setting around collecting dust I planned to add to the pool of drives for sale. After testing, reinitializing, reformatting the drives (around 4 hours) there were three that had loud clicks and a fourth that made a grinding noise. These four were beyond help giving signs of needing a new PCB board at the very least. I couldn't put any more money into this project but I knew that there were others who would. Totally non-working hard drives will sell on eBay if they are large enough. Fortunately or unfortunately depending on how you look at it, the 2TB drive was one of the non-working hard drives, the other 3 were 1TB drives. Below and to the left are photos of the drives, enclosures, etc...

On quick assessment I thought that I could clear $1,000 on this deal.       SO LET'S GET STARTED :)


The next thing I did was sell the four non-working hard drives. Including shipping fees that I charged, I made $64.74. Currently the solid state drive has a bid of $74.99 (smiles). This hard drive deal is looking pretty good so far. Looks like I'll be getting over a third of my investment back in a snap and I still have a ton of hard drives to sell thanks to the addition of the SSD I had sitting around. By the way, I purchased that SSD for around $100 "AS IS" thinking a friend would allow me to borrow his desktop computer to repair it however, I never got the desktop. The solid state drive was password protected and I needed the desktop to remove the password. There may have been another way to do it that I was unaware of or unprepared to do ... So letting it go was a good choice as it had been sitting around for months. I will be giving a full report when the dust settles including shipping expenses. My shipping expenses are a tad high because I always go Priority flat rate. Can't really estimate what the net figure might be at this time but the plan is to list all of the 1 TB hard drives at $64.99 +$10.00 shipping. I might have to play with those numbers a bit but my feelings are very positive about this project for now.

About the only thing that I can say is: GOOD DEAL !!! STAY TUNED !!!

UPDATE 12/09/13 - SSD sold for 76.99 (Less $5.60 shipping expense). Funny that all of the busted drives sold and none of the working drives sold. I only had five of the working drives listed to test the waters. Now I know that I have to change something. Could be ad/text. It states that the drives were removed from damaged enclosures. Or it could be price structure, or it could be something else.  Resolution: Going to re-list for $5 more and FREE shipping ($70 total instead of $75) and remove the information stating that the drives were taken from busted enclosures. I'll also mention the fact that "ALL" of the drives have been re-initialized, re-formatted, and function as if they were new ... BACK TO THE TRENCHES !!! STAY TUNED !!!

UPDATE 01/03/14 - Still no sales and I've reduced them an additional $5 and listed them all in one auction for independent fixed price sales... sighs. Might have to start one or two super low to see where the bidding caps out at. Others are at my asking price and higher. Personally, I think it is the Christmas season that causes buyers to behave strangely. Most buyers around this time are either looking for new items, or returning/exchanging unwanted ones for example. I took a look at item sales for this item. Seems most have sold for around $50 - $55 dollars. So my asking price/opening bid is a little high. I can still meet my financial expectation if I lower the price an additional $10. I didn't want to start out too low and lose my shirt. This is taking longer than I expected and it may possibly be time to bail out soon, take what I can get, as long as it is profitable.

UPDATE 01/31/14 - Looks like I found the sweet spot. The drives are starting to move around $47.49 + $7.50 or around 54.99 including shipping. Should have them all sold February.

UPDATE 05/27/14 - Well the dust has finally settled. Seems like it took forever but luckily I have several projects going at the same time. I found that 2 more drives had problems or were dead. That took about another $100 off of the potential profit that I could make. The results are calculated in the spreadsheet below. I am considering continuing this project as an on going venture as a supplemental stream of income, but it's an area you have to keep on top of. The hard drive industry technology shifts at an amazingly fast pace. There are 6TB drives available as I write. Bigger, faster hard drives push down the prices of older, smaller hard drives.

As you can see I did not make quite as much as I thought I could, but close enough. I doubled my investment and I stll have a couple more drives to sell. Had I done things a little differently I probably could have come out with the same result in a more timely fashion. However it would have been at the risk of lesser profits.

My Busted Cell Phone - Repair

Before 1

Before 2

A few posts back I had mentioned that I had purchased a busted cell phone for around $50 on eBay. Here it is, the Motorola Droid RAZR - XT912 (as received) in the above photos. It retails new currently for around $200 - $250 on the high end. Made with Corning Gorilla Glass and a Kevlar backing (the stuff they made bullet proof vests out of), I would think it is rugged enough for this not to happen often. The phone works just fine but it certainly is hard on the eyes with the shattered glass. My plan is to replace the front, back, and camera lens cover to make the phone look new once again. I will also need a basic cell phone repair kit (sometimes included with parts) to complete the job. Additionally, I will purchase and attach a mirror screen protector. This job is not recommended to those with little or no experience in these types of repairs because of the level of difficulty. For the record, I am not a tinkerer. I usually download service manuals for projects like this and follow the instructions by the book, step by step while referencing the manual. The reason for this is there is a certain order that components have to be removed and replaced. Also, since some of the components are very tightly situated, precautions in dis-assembly/assembly should be known and adhered to. Sometimes however, manuals cannot be found. In those cases there are YouTube instructional videos that are just as helpful. I purchased all of the required parts on eBay and have included photos of them along with the instructional video that I used. I could have made a video but I did not see the point since the one that I used was very professional and much better than anything I could have created. I've also included the expenses for the parts. I will include photos of the phone when the job is complete ... STAY TUNED!!!

Glass Front

Glass Front With Tool Kit

 

Back/Battery Cover

Camera Lens Cover

Total cost for the parts is as follows:

Front Glass And Tool Kit        $9.99

Back/Battery Cover              $16.00

Camera Cover                     $  5.49

Mirror Screen Protector X6  $  7.98

Total Expenses                    $39.46

UPDATE 12/12/13 - All parts have been ordered and awaiting arrival. E.T.A. 2 Weeks.

UPDATE 01/03/14 - The last of the parts arrived yesterday. I'll be looking the video over a few times and putting it on repeat as I begin working on the phone. Should be late evening or early tomorrow at the latest. Soon after repairing the phone I'll be looking into purchasing 2 docks (multimedia & lap dock) and a data cable. I will post those when they arrive also. See you all tonight (smiles).

UPDATE 01/08/14 - Things are held up due to attention to my marketing campaign for ASN. See All Solutions Network post.

UPDATE 01/14/14 - Well my friends this one turned out to be a disaster. I'm really not one to make excuses but ... word to the wise. Do not attempt to do something when you are tired and a little irritated, especially if it's something that is not 2nd nature. All it took was a slip of the wrist. I used a little too much pressure in closing one of the latches that hold the fine ribbons on the camera module. When I put the phone back together ... no sound ... sighs. All is not lost. I'm sure I can sell/salvage all for parts, get another one, and only come out losing $20 - $30 bucks if that. I can also get another busted one, sell them both and get a brand new one with the proceeds. Furthermore I had the wrong replacement part. Turns out the glass does not separate from the entire top of the phone. In other words the entire top of the phone has to be purchased to replace the cracked LCD screen at a cost of $60 - $70. It would be cheaper to just buy a new phone ... sighs @ cell phone issues.


UPDATE 01/31/14 - Front Glass And Toolkit sold for $31.99 (Paid $9.99)

CONCLUSION 06/24/14 - We've finally come to an end. After a few months and 3 sales (whom all reneged on payment), the busted phone finally sold for $34.99. Remember I paid $50 for it. I made $20.00 profit on the LCD kit. Now that the dust has settled sort of speak ... It cost me between $20.00 - $30.00 to upgrade from my busted phone which I made worse attempting to repair it myself. A few parts ordered were not needed and not accounted for but ... ALL'S WELL ENDS WELL :)

5 Steps To Credit Card Debt Reduction And Saving Money - DIY

Have you succumbed to the lure of credit cards and found yourself in a bit of a pickle because of it? Pull up a chair and have a seat. Welcome to the ever growing club of consumer debt. Your biggest challenge now is to dig yourself out of this situation and avoid having to pay anyone to help you do it.

Options at this stage are usually as follows (depending on the level of credit card debt):

• Consolidate into a loan.
• Debt Management.
• Bankruptcy.
• Do Nothing.
• Just pay off the cards over as long as it takes.
• Make the minimum payments and keep spending.
• Make an effective Do It Yourself (DIY) plan.

The more popular solutions, such as consolidation loans and debt management that we see being touted everywhere actually put the control of your money in other people’s hands. I don’t know about you, but for me becoming free from debt should not involve spending more money, or borrowing my way out of debt or letting others make "ALL" of the decisions for me.

So how does a DIY system work? Breaking it down into 5 steps, it might look something like this:

1. Address your spending habits and why you are in this situation. 

To ever win with money and have a comfortable financial future for yourself and your family, "YOU" have to take control your money and how it is used. There is no way around this. Take complete control of your finances and set yourself some realistic yet desirable goals for the future. This is the key to "success" and financial stability.

2. Know your options, exactly how they work, and why some of them may not be for you. 

Along the way you will be tempted by quick fix ‘make it all better’ solutions, like consolidation loans and debt management. As mentioned already there is a multi-billion dollar industry making a very healthy profit from charging consumers to get out of debt. A "DIY Plan" does not involve paying someone else to get you out of debt. Common sense says, the money that you are spending to get out of debt can be applied to the debt itself to get you out of debt even faster.

3. Know and fully understand your financial situation. 

Any debt relief system requires a bit of budgeting. As long as you follow your plan, have realistic goals and no intention of taking an easy and perhaps expensive way out, you should have no trouble budgeting. The other thing you should know is your credit score. There are a staggering amount of mistakes found on credit scores that result in people paying more interest than they should. If you are eligible for lower interest rates and 0% APR cards to move expensive high balances on to, not only should you be aware of this option ... You should definitely take advantage of it.

4. Minimize outgoings, Maximize income and leverage your cash flow. 

If you could be paying less for utilities and day to day expenses you should. Saving money is like a fine art, where you go through all of your expenses and find all of the places where you can trim the fat. This is something that you will become very good at if you’re going to crush your debt and not let your debt crush you. Home economics, consumer education and bargain hunting can save you incredible amounts of cash that can go toward paying off your debt a lot quicker. If you’re really serious about this, you can take it a step further and create a secondary or supplemental source of income. Be it a second job, or using a natural skill/strength you have that can use to earn money in your spare time. With the opportunities available online it’s never been easier to find those who are seeking out some knowledge, experience and skills that you have and that they will gladly pay you for it.

5. Form your system and put it into action. 

Having followed the first 4 steps and laid some sturdy foundations you are now in a position to develop a powerful ‘snowball’ plan. This would be a system that gains momentum as you execute it. This step is completely dependent on the first 4 steps and generating an extra figure that you can assign to snowballing your credit card debt. As the debts get paid off the figure grows and subsequently clears the rest of the debts a lot quicker. Additionally, this will save you a tidy amount of interest in the process. It is very possible to use a DIY plan and enjoy great success from it, yes it takes a bit of hard work and discipline on your part but the alternatives just cost you more and keep you in debt for longer.

Here's An Example Of The Debt Consolidation Trick And How You Can Flip It To Your Advantage

Let's say you have 10 credit cards ranging in balances from $500 to $5,000, totaling $12,000 in debt. The payments on these cards come to around $250 a month. A debt consolidation "expert" contacts you or vice verse and tells you that you can clear up your debts and lower your monthly obligations at the same time using the equity in your home. You currently have 8 years left on your mortgage at $600 monthly in payments. Total monthly obligations for mortgage and credit cards is approximately $850.

Here's the experts plan: Refinance your mortgage to a 15 year mortgage while at the same time paying off all of your credit cards. The new mortgage has a monthly payment of $500. In effect this has reduced your monthly obligations by $350. You may even get a lower interest rate by a point or so. The "expert" will tell you all of the ways in which this transaction will benefit you and save you money in the short term as it applies to your monthly obligations. "Keep in mind Mr./Mrs. Homeowner, you can do anything you like with the extra money left over after closing" ,say's the expert. Sounds good doesn't it? That's the little picture. Now let's look at the big picture.

What the "expert" does not tell you is this. Though it is required in some if not all states for the truth to be clearly and fully disclosed, it is usually glossed over as if it were not very important or, confusing language that is not clearly or easily understood is used. Truth is this, even though you have decreased the amount of your monthly obligations, you have gotten yourself into more debt. The "expert" charges a fee. It could be hundreds or it could be thousands of dollars. Usually the latter is the case. These fees, charges, expenses, and debts are all wrapped together and included in the new mortgage which of course has interest payments. This new mortgage is larger and lasts for a longer period of time. You will be paying interest on this larger amount for a new term of 15 years. This could cost you many thousands of dollars over the years before it is payed off. How does the "expert's" plan sound now?

Remember I said, "YOU SHOULD TAKE CONTROL..." Here's what you should do. Take the experts offer, but ignore the experts advice. One or two of those $350 monthly obligations payments that you are saving every month should be applied directly to your mortgage principal ... That's one or two extra payments to you mortgage a year. Some of these payments can even be subtracted from the extra proceeds from the closing. You will effectively reduce both the principle and term or your mortgage dramatically. You can actually reduce the term by as much as half ... Saving you many thousands of dollars in interest in the process. Additionally, you should consider cancelling those credit cards that you have paid off. Those cards now have full balances and it is quite tempting to go on a spending spree. Those credit lines are still open. In using them you will reverse the snowball effect of clearing the debt to a snowball effect of re-accumulating the debt. This is of little or no service to you.

NOTE: Though the numbers used are purely hypothetical they are realistic in some parts of the country. They are used primarily for illustrative purposes to give you an idea of the dynamics involved in such transactions.

It’s your money, it’s your life ... If you want to truly own them both then you have to take control ... Not give it over to someone else. Control or be controlled, the choice is yours.

FREE Credit Repair Information Here ==> http://bit.ly/1gMf3aX

USB Automatic Direct Stirring Coffee Mug / Warmer

If you are anything like me ... When sitting at my computer for prolonged periods of time, I absolutely MUST have a cup of Joe there with me. I have a color coordinated (black & grey) cup warmer sitting to the right of my monitor. However, I have a couple of nagging complaints in regards to this old school warmer. It is not USB so I have to use yet another plug on one of my power strips. Since the cup is not covered, the heat dissipates quickly and it does not stay as warm as when poured from the coffee machine. The cooling off of the beverage causes a film to accumulate on top because it is never stirred ... sighs. During a normal day of posting auctions and such, I ran across this item. As soon as I seen it, I said to myself, "I gotta get one of these!" It is a beverage warmer that works via USB and actually stirs the beverage for you. Google images will direct you to many places where you can purchase this FANTASTIC item. Fairly inexpensive, they run around $20 and come in various colors including basic black (so I won't have to abandon my geeky toy color scheme ... lol). A great gift for the computer geek in your life. Simply Google the post title and you should have no problem finding it. You can also take the shortcut and go directly to eBay ... Where else ... HA!

The Media Matrix - How Propaganda And Mass Media Are Impacting Americas Contact With Reality

Here's something for you to ponder. How much of ourselves is really us? I mean, the things we like/dislike, our beliefs, trusts/distrusts, etc... How much of that comes from within and how much of that comes from somewhere else? What other places? Television, the internet, advertising, the government, propaganda, and mass media. Truth is; all of these entities play a very large part in shaping us spiritually, emotionally, and mentally. Some of the techniques in the past, thought of as brain washing Gestapo tactics are actually currently used in everyday television advertising and product promotions. Techniques used in modern day warfare such as propaganda and disinformation are used by politicians in their election platforms and by the government to take advantage of it's own citizens. These advantages are used to keep the citizens in line or usually for the purposes of catering to the wealthy elite (whom have political power with the funds to support lobbyists), feeding it's greedy corporations or to sure up run away spending and shortfalls in taxation. Massive shifts in the paradigms thought of as "normal behavior" have occurred at a mind blowing pace in the last couple of decades. This documentary uses the movie "The Matrix" to compare and contrast to the machine of this day and age (all mass media) that accomplishes this without most of us having a clue of what is happening to us. I found this documentary to be very thought provoking in this sense: I thought I was safe because I'm not a big TV person, I'm an internet junkie. Truth is ... Radio, TV, Internet, Advertising, etc... are all a part of this machine, "The Media Matrix" according to this documentary.

WATCH THIS !!!

 

 

Square Reader - Squareup.com

What if you had a $1,000 dollar computer to sell? What if you advertised it locally (on craigslist or your local newspaper let's say)? What do you think the prospect would be of someone showing up on your doorstep (residential) with $1,000 cash in their pocket ready to buy it? I say, that the prospect of that happening would be damn near zero ... HA! If however, you can promote that you accept all major credit cards ... The probability jumps up dramatically. Admittedly, I confess that my sales "have not" dramatically increased merely by having this device. However ... I AM PREPARED. Given the way that I promote products ... This gadget opens the door to sales prospects that I would not otherwise have. I can now promote those Getac computers (see Getac post) on craigslist and at least get a few serious inquiries from prospects with the means to pay without having many issues involving security to do so. This device is like having a merchant account without all of the red tape. There is no setup fee, no recurring account service fees, nor minimum transaction concerns (where fees from such may dip into your profits). There is an affordable transaction fee of around 3% per transaction and that's it. And to top it off, the device itself is free. The funds are deposited directly into your account. Visa, Master Card, American Express, and Discover are all excepted. And now Square Up has introduced a register system that works the same way. It's like a mini kiosk and Point Of Sale (POS) system all in one. It may be possible to combine virtual and live sales at one point. See the video below for full details on how it works. Be prepared, you can get it from the URL in the heading.

Turn Your Computer Into Your Personal ATM Machine

Do you think that ATM’s are only available at banks and credit unions?  Think again.  Your computer can become your own personal ATM machine.  How can you turn your computer into a money making machine you ask?  The best way to do it is to jump into the world of internet marketing.  An Internet marketing business is not only profitable, but can be started quickly without reeking havoc on your budget. 

What should you do first to help you start an Internet marketing business?  You need to create a website that reaches millions of potential customers all over the globe.  There are hundreds of software programs, companies, and offerings out there.  If you are not familiar with Internet infrastructure then you may have a difficult time trying to find the right company to host your website.  I have taken the confusion out of this situation for you by providing a couple of references for software tools to help get you started.

First, you will need a domain name.  Domain names are the text that users will type into the Internet to access you website.  Think carefully about your domain name so that it is relevant to your product or service.  Once you have a domain name in mind, you need to make sure that it is not taken.  You can type it into your Internet browser and see if anything comes up.  However, it is good to check this through one of  the domain providers I recommend which are www.hostgator.com or www.hostmonster.com.

Which ever hosting service provider you choose make sure that you only purchase the domain name and none of the extra services. Most of the additional services are recurring expenses and can add up rather quickly. Besides, there will be plenty of time in the future to decide whether you may need these additional services or not. Most providers have a tendency to jack up the prices on these additional services when you can find them a lot cheaper at places like www.frontierpowerhosting.com.

Make sure your web hosting Service Company is top notch whereby you will receive your OWN IP address and not one that is shared by many.  It is critical to have your own IP address so that your emails are never blocked due to an email spammer that has the same IP address.  Make sure that there is also excellent customer service phone support. This option is important to those who do not trust the automated world of the web. In addition, there should be an “Email Tracker” feature which enables you to track your emails and provide you with information regarding the deliverability rate of emails you send to help keep your customer list clean. This information will help you tailor and streamline your marketing efforts.

Next you will need to setup a “Smart Autoresponder”.  A smart autoresponder is one that automatically sends emails or forms to users in order to capture their personal information.  Make sure that your autoresponder captures the following information:  first name, last name, email address, time and date stamp. There are many free autoresponders out there, some even perform all of these tasks excellently.

THE TRUTH ... THE WHOLE TRUTH ... AND NOTHING BUT THE TRUTH !!! 

Some of you out there may read an article like this and either wish or assume that making money on the internet is as simple as pressing a dozen or two buttons , and viola ... You're on your way to becoming rich ... HA! Nothing can be farther from the truth. Making "Real $$$" on the internet involves advance planning, the acquisition of good marketing tools and applications, organizational skills, patience, perseverance, realistic goals (setting, tracking, tweaking), and an intuitive nature to recognize those things that may be beneficial to your marketing campaigns and product niches.

One of the things that you should consider eliminating from your expectations is "FREE". You get what you pay for. This blog for example is a "FREE" blog and I have proved that you can actually make money on the internet without investing a dime. This is indeed a milestone. All of which, no matter how big or small, are things to be tallied to stay motivated. However, let's keep things in perspective. How much? Mere pennies because I am somewhat restricted in what I can do or promote. I am almost totally reliant on the "Google GODs" for advertisements, promotions, optimization, etc... The optimization is for "views" not "sales". A "paid for" blog or full fledged website (like an eCommerce site) have little or no restrictions within legal applications and built-in "sales" optimizations like affiliate status with major internet retailers like Amazon or eBay. Some sites have included built-in marketing and promotion optimizations such as promotional portals to the advertising platforms used on Facebook or Yahoo.

In the near future I plan to take you from beginning to end on a couple of my campaigns so that you may see for yourselves what is really involved in these money making processes. I will also try to provide results and income stats. These campaigns will be posted under the latest new category "Money & Finance". I know, if you're into this sort of thing, that you've heard the saying, "The money is in the list". This is so true. With a good list of supporters, buyers, associates ... You can put things on a sort of auto pilot. Ka-Ching ... Ka-Ching ... Ka-Ching !!! This is the ATM aspect of internet marketing. Any time you need cash, you simply launch a campaign. It takes time, but once in place you can literally make money at the press of a button, but it takes a lot of time and preparation to reach that point. Stay tuned to see how it is done.

Once you have these tools and procedures in place, you are ready to create your website and change your personal computer into a cash cow today!