A Great Investment......Me!

I have always worked, taken most any job to survive, feed my family, and pay bills on time. I have been a CEO of two small corporations, a college instructor, and a business analyst for a major software company (see profile). At age 45 I went back to Grad School to work on a M Ed in Instructional Design and a MBA in Management. At age 57 I was laid off from the software company (job went to India). I took a part time job in a bookstore to attempt to make ends meet. It didn't work.....and at age 59, I became homeless and unemployed for over a year, eating in soup kitchens and living in doorways. Even with a Master's Degree, help from vocational rehab, & a few non-profits, I have not had a job interview since 2006 (the book store), so in effect, I have not had a "professional job interview" since the software company in 1999!

Yet, I have not entirely given up. I have many creative skills occluding design, writing, educational software, and organizational research. I however, need a few things to make it all work together....hence the INVESTMENT.

I have a old Dell computer with a 15" monitor, donated by an ad in Craig's List! However, a few disabilities make it very difficult to design anything on a 15" CRT monitor. So if folks were able to invest in ME (even $1 helps), I would like to get the following:

1. a 20" - 23" LCD monitor
2. a graphics tablet and pen
3. a larger hard drive (current one is 8 GB)
4. additional software

I will use the new hardware to desing graphics, write educational courses, and perhaps on-line classes. With much luck, may even get paid for it.

Thank you for reading thisappeal, and any help you may be inclined to give. comments and suggestions also welcome!

Basic Marketing Skills

by Barry Anderson

So you’ve started a business, possibly with a few customers already on the books from a previous business or employment. You decide that you need to find some more customers, but you quickly realise that your skills and experience are focussed on delivering your products or services. How do you find the new customers that you need?



Well, there’s good news and there’s bad news. The bad news first – there are probably many businesses out there already offering the same products and services as yours. The good news however is that if you apply some basic marketing principles, and you do this consistently over a period of time, you will bring in new business opportunities.



A simple definition of marketing is communicating the right message to the right people at the right time, in a way that is right for your business. So let’s take those four points and have a closer look at each one in turn.



The right message



Much has been written about what to say to potential clients, as well as how to say it. The key point to keep in mind is that your potential customer must see the benefit to them in buying your product or service. Generally when businesses (and people) are buying, they either want to move away from an undesirable situation, or move toward a situation they would like to be in. Your messages therefore need to reflect this.



You should pay particular attention to your headline. This is the part that will either make people want to read on, or switch them off. Top advertising writers typically spend 75-80% of their time working on the headline for their message.



Your writing should use the words ‘you’ and ‘yours’ – and should talk about solving your prospect’s rather than about what your product or service is.



The right people



Whether you sell to other businesses or to consumers, you should be very clear on which businesses and individuals will want and be able to buy from you and on who will make the decision to buy. Consider these two very different examples.



A company that sells buildings maintenance services will want to target companies that own their own buildings. Larger buildings-maintenance companies will go after companies with multiple sites, and possibly also more complex maintenance requirements. Smaller companies will be better targeting single-site businesses where the needs are easier to meet. In many cases this company will try to get in touch with the facilities manager – or in smaller businesses the managing director or another senior person.



A retailer that sells luxury bathrooms and kitchens will want to target people in the kind of neighbourhoods with this type of residence. As this company offers a complete service from design, through materials selection and on to installation, they will be targeting people who may be very busy with other aspects of their lives.



The right time



People will buy your services if the time is right for them to buy – and these are perfect ‘leads’ for your business because the potential customer is ready to engage with you now. If they are not ready now, you should stay in contact and cultivate the opportunity until they are ready to buy. Being pushy when your prospect is simply not ready will just switch them off.



You need to think about how frequently your potential customers will buy the product or service you are offering. In the case of buildings maintenance contracts are often renewed annually, so you will need to be in touch with facilities managers in the two or three months running up to renewal. For luxury bathrooms and kitchens, the cycle is likely to be five years or more.



The right way for you



There are many ways in which you can contact your potential customers, and good marketing employs many of these methods in a combination. In deciding which methods are right for your business, you should consider the cost of each method alongside the likely returns from each. This will help you to understand the ‘return on investment’ of your marketing activities.



In conclusion



For many business owners, the world of marketing can appear to be a very confusing place. However, it is well-worth investing some time to understand the basics of how best to market your business. Once you become practiced at it you will be pleasantly surprised by the results you can get.

Source: Free Articles from ArticlesFactory.com


ABOUT THE AUTHOR


Barry Anderson has a unique combination of experience covering both marketing training and the marketing of products and services. Working with The Marketers’ Forum, he delivers training and support to students taking the professional qualifications offered by the UK Chartered Institute of Marketing (CIM).

What does the H1N1 Virus have in common with Your Business Internet Money Online Opportunity?

by Rodney Erb

You probably are wondering what could the H1N1 Virus (swine flu) have in common with your business internet money online opportunity. You shouldn’t be surprised to know that the synergy between them to help you help others and make money doing so is something you shouldn’t miss out on. This is especially true for those of you who are medically inclined or in the health services industry and trying to make affiliate marketing your side business for making internet money online.

Everyone is hearing more and more about the H1N1 virus as we start to move into the flu season. People are getting very nervous and I’ve already read that the number of infected students at our college campuses has risen to over 2000. So what does that have to do with Affiliate Marketing and your business internet money online opportunity? As a sales person you should always be looking for and thinking of opportunities. You’ve heard a lot about niche markets or markets that have great potential. Guess what? Anything to do with the H1N1 virus right now is very hot and presents a great opportunity for you as a marketer to not only make this advantageous for you but you could also help your community, society and friends. Apply your affiliate marketing skills to this niche market and a lot positive could happen!

Here are five things you can do to make this opportunity make you internet money online:

1. "Research this important societal issue” – don’t just sit back and accept everything you hear but really understand what the H1N1 virus is. By doing this you will be bombarded with issues you never imagined all of which could be online internet money making opportunities. The more you learn the better a resource you will be to draw people to you and your product links.


2. “Find out what impact it will have" – as the virus spreads, people will need more medicine, more thermometers, more masks, more water, more antibiotics, access to vaccines, more cleansers and cleaners. I could go on and on but think what you could do with a campaign centering on the H1N1 virus and all the many affiliate links you could bring together to platform a marvelous money making opportunity?


3. "Be a sincerely caring person" – you have friends and family, neighbors and business associates who all will be directly or indirectly affected by the H1N1 virus. During conversations you are having or are going to have with them, you can provide valuable information as a result of the research you’ve done. Also, you can hand them a business card with information where you have started a web site they can visit to get more information to calm their fears and organize their thoughts on how to deal with this issue!


4. “Link, backlink and blog” – find all the links, backlinks, blog sites and networks that are talking about the H1N1 virus and link them to your web site. You know that this will explode the opportunity for you to make affiliate money!


5. “Write articles about the virus” – remember that affiliate or article marketing provides a great platform for you to inform people about this disease and then provide them with responsible article reporting to guide them and prepare them for the swine flu virus and upcoming flu season.

The H1N1 vaccine shots start arriving next month. Will you and your business internet money online opportunity be ready? If you start to prepare now you can be one of the first to provide a resource to help people prepare for this season as well as make money doing so using your affiliate marketing skills. The H1N1 virus is not going to wait so neither should you. Start preparing your affiliate marketing campaign today and you can be prepared for the H1N1 (swine flu) virus opportunity!


If you want the best resource to teach you how to apply “Affiliate Marketing” to your business internet money online opportunity to help people address the H1N1 virus as a niche market go to 4-Day Money Making Blueprint OR go to SEM Business Blueprint.

Article Tags: Business Internet Money, Internet Money Online, H1n1 Virus, Business Internet, Internet Money, Money Online, Affiliate Marketing, Money Making

How you feel after Retirement Lifestyle Freedom

I liked being retired, even while homeless! Nothing is redeeming or proud about a minimum or survival job at 50% to 75% pay reduction from your last "Real" job. Some folks claim they will be bored when they retire, won't know what to do...uh huh! Well those are the "Type A Workaholics" that annoy the rest of us. My job doesn't define me. I don't live to work, I work to live! Work may actually interfere with your life. So when retirement greets you, take full advantage of it, even if you sleep in a doorway!



By the term Retirement Freedom, I mean a non-traditional retirement away from the work-a-day world. I call this "Fretirement" since it is a lifestyle that is free from all of the expectations that most of us have with retirement. In "Fretirement", you dont necessarily quit working, rather you quit having to work.

Why go through all of the traditional drudgery associated with a traditional job? Who really wants to spend an hour or more each day commuting to and from an office? Is there anybody who really enjoys office politics and ladder climbing? Or how about the words "outsource" and "downsize" and "layoff"? Can you really get excited about these things? Do you really want to spend a large portion of your earnings for fuel to get to work and for overpriced and unhealthy food during "lunch hour"?

It is possible, at almost any age, to effectively retire from the traditional workforce and to create your own economic machine. Thanks to the electronic age and the advent of the Internet, you can likely make this happen in that area of business wherein you enjoy a certain amount of experience, knowledge and passion. In fact, the more passionate you are about a niche, the more likely you are to be successful in making a good living in it.

In his current bestselling book, "The 4 Hour Work Week", author Timothy Ferris writes about how he managed to wean his company from its dependence on him being present 5 days each week. He did this by outsourcing many of the routine tasks that he did to a Virtual Assistant, or V.A. that he found on the Internet. In fact, he was able to do this so effectively that soon, he weaned his company from needing him at the office 2 days per week. Due to the company's inefficiencies, he and his V.A. were able to produce more results for the company during the 2 days each week that he was absent than he had been producing when he was present!

This went on and on and, over time, he showed up at the office very seldom, but his production was so great that his managers were thrilled and even gave him a raise and promotion! Now, at age 34, he has effectively "retired" from working, enjoys a lot of travel and has a staff of 3-5 V.A.s working for him across the globe! He quickly moved to his desired retirement lifestyle at the ripe old age of 34!

I'm not suggesting that you will be able to work miracles like Tim Ferris did, but, you can certainly explore the opportunities in the niche of your passion and expertise. You might elect to do something complementary to what you are currently doing or perhaps explore a whole new way to accomplish similar results by harnessing the power of the Internet and by outsourcing menial tasks to V.A.s so that you can focus on the really important tasks.

If you are nearing the traditional retirement age, you may be able to spring free of your job years ahead of schedule if you can get some Internet "Cash Machines" setup to provide a level of passive income for you and your family. You can establish many diverse streams of income from various Internet activities and each can be independent from one another. Once you have these in operation, you can have the retirement lifestyle that you desire!

For example, I have income from the sale of an electronic book, or e-book that I have written on the subject of retirement. I also do some affiliate marketing wherein I advertise products for several large companies such as Best Buy and Amazon.com. Additionally, I have a membership site on the Internet where retirees come to learn ways to earn income from Internet activities, and I provide advertising space for Google and other companies. All of these income streams are passive and the income just shows up in my bank account each day! Some days are great and others not so great, but, on average, I earn enough to support 2 sons in a large accredited University without using my Social Security check!

It took me a few months to learn these techniques and a few more months to put them into operation, but now all I do is tweak and tune my marketing programs and explore new ways to compound my streams! Fortunately, I am able to play golf several times a week and get to travel extensively to visit my grandchildren and to just have fun!


I love my retirement lifestyle! You can easily see why I call this freedom that I have my "Fretirement"!

Don Seibert is an Expert Author who writes timely articles and books on retirement including the Amazing Retirement Formula at http://www.Amazing-Retirement.com . Having retired twice, he now is the host of http://www.RetireToEasyStreet.com Visit the site for a complete discussion of Retirement Planning, early retirement, and Retirement Income Options

Student Loans Could Be Forgiven After 10 Years of Public Service

The government hopes a new loan forgiveness program will give students an incentive to consider a career in public service. In exchange for 10 years on the job in a field of public service such as public safety, education, or social work, the Department of Education will erase certain borrowers’ remaining federal student loan debt.

To be eligible for this initiative — the Loan Forgiveness for Public-Service Employees Program — you must have either taken out or consolidated your federal student loans through the federal Direct Loan Program, in which you receive your student loan directly from the government rather than through a third-party lender.

Breaking It Down: How the Loan Forgiveness Program Works
The loan forgiveness benefit is available for any federal consolidation loan or any federal parent or student loans you’ve taken out through the Department of Education’s Direct Loan Program. If you took out your federal college loans from a private lender through the Federal Family Education Loan Program (rather than directly from the government through the Direct Loan Program), you’ll have to consolidate your FFELP student loans into the Direct Loan Program in order for those student loans to be eligible to be forgiven.

In addition to holding a federal Direct loan, you’ll also have to meet certain borrower requirements in order to qualify for the loan forgiveness program:

Spend a decade in a public service career. You must remain in a qualifying public-service career, working full-time, for 10 years, during which you must be making payments on the student loans you’re looking to have forgiven. You must still be working in the public-service sector at the time your student loans are forgiven.

Hit the 120 mark. During your 10 years of full-time public service, you must make 120 monthly payments on the Direct college loans you want forgiven. Only payments made after Oct. 1, 2007, will count toward the payment requirement. If you have FFELP loans (college loans that you took out from a private lender and not from the federal government) that you’re consolidating into the Direct Loan Program, you’ll only be able to count the payments you make on your Direct Consolidation Loan after your FFELP student loans are consolidated. Any payments you’ve made prior to Oct. 1, 2007, or to any lender other than the federal government won’t count.

Sign up for a qualifying repayment plan. Your required 120 payments must be made under one (or a combination) of three repayment plans: standard repayment, income-contingent repayment, or income-based repayment, which becomes available July 1, 2009. If you’re enrolled in a different Direct Loan repayment plan, only those payments you make that are at least equal to the monthly payment amount you’d be required to make under the standard repayment plan will count toward your 120-payment requirement.

The Fine Print: How You End Up Paying Off Your Student Loans Yourself
If you’re considering applying for the loan forgiveness benefit, you may want to look into your eligibility for the income-contingent and income-based repayment plans, which allow low-income borrowers to qualify for lower payments and extend their repayment period to 25 years. Only borrowers who are making reduced monthly payments on an income-contingent or income-based repayment plan will likely have a remaining balance left to forgive after making 120 payments on their student loans.

If you’re in the standard repayment plan, which has a repayment term of 10 years, you may find that you don’t have any student loan debt left to forgive after meeting your 120-payment requirement, since your 10-year repayment term is the same amount of time that the government requires you to hold your public-service job before any of your student loans can be forgiven.

What Qualifies as Public Service?
Public-service fields eligible for the loan forgiveness program include:

Military
Emergency management
Fire departments
Law enforcement
Public library sciences
Public school education
Public child care
Public health
Public service for the elderly
Public service for individuals with disabilities
Nonprofit work with certain tax-exempt organization

Student Loan Forgiveness, A Stimulis?

We have bailed out banks, homeowners, auto companies, stock market and insurance companies. I have an idea that can help stimulate the economy...student loan forgiveness.

Many professions with advanced degrees such as doctors, lawyers, or MBA grads are burdened with student loan payments as high as $1000 - $2000 per month. Depending on their age, "students" may never have enough work life left to repay them. I know people whose balance has tripled or quadrupled while under forbearance or deferment due to the poor economy, unemployment, or underemployment. Freeing up those huge monthly payments would allow people to buy homes, a new car, or other consumer items to stimulate the economy.

Write your congressman or senator and tell them "Student Loan Forgiveness" should be a priority!

Can Twitter Help Your Business?

Author: Lauren Hobson

Although Twitter continues to gain acceptance in the business community as a business communication and marketing tool, I’m still amazed at the number of small businesses that don’t see the value of using this micro-blogging service as a marketing tool for business.

Just in case you need a refresher, Twitter (www.twitter.com) is a unique micro-blogging tool that lets users communicate with their “followers” in quick text messages of 140 characters or less called “tweets.”

Social networking sites like Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, and YouTube are typically most effective when they are appropriately integrated with each other and with a company’s existing marketing efforts, since each one provides distinct benefits and advantages in an integrated social marketing plan. But Twitter – even when used as a stand-alone social networking strategy – can be a powerful tool in any small business marketing toolbox.

Some of the benefits of using Twitter in your marketing mix include:

• Highly targeted audience: The people who choose to “follow” you on Twitter are already interested in hearing what you have to say, or they would not have followed you to begin with. This provides you with an audience of folks who have specifically opted-in to receive your messages and want to listen to what you have to say.
  
  
• Instantly reach your “followers”: When you post something to your Twitter account (referred to as “tweets”), the message is instantly sent to your followers in the way they have chosen to be contacted. This could be a text message sent to their cell phone, posted to their Twitter page on the web, RSS-fed to a Facebook page or profile, etc. Regardless of the method your followers have selected, your tweets appear within a few seconds.
  
  
• Generate traffic to your web site: By adding links in your tweets, you provide followers with direct access to your web site, to other social networking profiles, to your blog, etc. Again, if your social marketing has been properly integrated, all of this will lead back to your web site, generating more traffic and new visitors.
  
  
• Improve your search engine rankings: By optimizing your Twitter profile (and integrating your social marketing efforts), you can build valuable inbound links to your web site, which is key in improving your site’s position in the search engine rankings.
  
  
• Increase brand awareness and online visibility: Being active on Twitter gets your business name in front of customers as well as the general public everyday, which in turn helps build name recognition and improves brand awareness for your business.
  
  
• Enhance customer service: Many businesses have found that by using Twitter, they can respond to customer needs (or complaints) very quickly and efficiently, allowing them to improve their level of service while publicly demonstrating their responsiveness and commitment to customers.
  
  
• Manage your online reputation in real time: By monitoring Twitter for mentions of your business name, key personnel, product names, etc., you can keep track of what people are saying about your business and to respond or intervene quickly if necessary. There are also free tools available to help you monitor your reputation in Twitter (like Twilerts and Tweetdeck), which can make it very easy to monitor your reputation online.

These are just some of the ways in which Twitter can benefit your business, and as social networking continues to grow in popularity, there will surely be even more features, new uses, and business benefits to be gained by using Twitter.

Whether you are just thinking about using social marketing or have already started to use it, Twitter can be a great tool to integrate into your social marketing strategy as you go forward. And for small businesses that are serious about marketing, the value of Twitter is pretty clear.

Article Source: http://www.articlesbase.com/social-marketing-articles/how-can-twitter-help-your-business-1156894.html

About the Author:

Lauren Hobson, President of Five Sparrows, LLC, has more than 16 years of experience in small business technology writing, marketing, and web site design and development. Five Sparrows provides professional website, marketing, and social networking services to small businesses and non-profits at affordable prices, giving clients access to customized services that meet both their needs and their budgets. More at www.fivesparrows.com

Keywords and Word Clouds

How To Maintain Your Market Share In Recession Times

by: Lynne Saarte

During times of economic crisis, what do most businesses cut back on to save on costs? If you are a business owner, you have probably answered marketing. True. Most companies look at marketing as more of an expense rather than a means to get back investments; hence, it can very well be taken off the list if you need to cut back on your budget. Printed posters – not this time. Color posters – cross it out. Brochure printing – another one off the list.

But this is where you are wrong. Especially during these trying times, there is a need for more marketing campaigns than ever. In order for you to gain profits, you need to spend first. And the only way you can get clients for your business is to market constantly.

What will happen if you lessen your marketing costs? What if you stopped producing printed posters or color posters altogether? You are just going to lose your customer, that is what; and your competition might just steal them from under your nose. Is that what you need right now? Right now, what you need is more clients; more clients to buy your products and services. Do well to remember that marketing can generate for you your client so you might as well give a large chunk of your budget to advertising.

Now is exactly the right time to allot a budget for your marketing activities. This is the appropriate time because if your competition thinks like you, they might also be of the idea to put on hold their marketing campaigns to save their money. You can then get their market share if you continue to promote your business while they are abandoning their marketing strategies for a while. With even smaller amount of marketing expenses, you might just end up with the whole lot.

Bear in mind that the marketplace is an area of competition. Even your most loyal customers are fair game for your competitors. By providing your clients and prospects with carefully planned marketing efforts, your business can very well get the most of the market share without your competition having any say about it.

The idea is this: while your competition is taking a rest from marketing their business, you can grab their market share from under their noses by pursuing an aggressive marketing strategy. Not only that, you are also positioning yourself at this time so that when things are well again economically, you have the most prominent place in the industry.

The Best And Most Inexpensive Business Advertising Ideas

It is trendy right now to cut back and try to spend less money in business. You have to have some sort of advertising. There are less expensive ways to do it than what you may be accustomed to. No big ad firm or flashy TV campaign for right now. You can come up with ways that will surprise people . When you do something just a little different then people pay attention. Isn't that the whole point?

You can get very creative with some promotional merchandise. You can design it to stand out and you can give it to people in a way that they will remember. Think about how people did things in the past. It was not unusual to have someone sing the companies praises out in front of the business. That worked when there was a lot of foot traffic and crowded cities. Now you could hire an actor/singer to walk through a crowded outdoor public area while someone follows behind handing out small promo items.

The sign that you have in front of your business should tell people what to expect on the inside. If it is grubby and unreadable, you will not be attracting too much new business. Clearly readable and informative is a good start. If you have space in front of your store, make it more welcoming. A few large potted plants, that could be placed on rollers to move inside nightly if you fear thievery, look great. You could install a bench too.

A more recent grass roots method of advertising is flyers or door hangers. You can easily find a bunch of high school kids that will hit the streets with you for cheap. Remember do not put anything inside of the mail box. That will get you in serious trouble. If you attach a rubber band to your homemade flyer, it can be stapled, you can then hang it. It will go on the front door, the mailbox flag or even the front gate.

Thinking outside the box is what makes a good business owner and a successful business. Keep the budget under control with these great advertising ideas guaranteed to impact your business in grand way with a very small investment.

Should I Buy Gold?

by: Brian Cheek


Investors often ask me, " Should I buy gold ?" The answer is simple, in my opinion: Gold should be a part of every investor's portfolio. Whether or not you believe gold is going to appreciate short term or not is a matter for speculators, but smart investors who want a diversified portfolio will want to own gold for its protective qualities. Gold is a wonderful diversifier, and it offers protection against many adverse events in the marketplace, as we will discuss below.

Why Should I Buy Gold?

Gold adds another layer to a portfolio filled with stocks and bonds. Gold is a completely different asset class than stocks are. Even the ETF that trades like a stock behaves like godl because it is tied to the price of bullion. When compared to the stock market, gold has behaved in a roughly inverse fashion to the stock market since 1971 when the gold standard was abandoned. For traditional buy and hold investors, gold can provide returns when the stock market underperforms.

Gold Offers Protection of Value

Gold protects against inflation. Inflation occurs when the money supply is increased, causing each unit of currency to be worth less. Then this happens, prices for goods and services will rise. This will cause the price of gold to rise as well, because it will take more of the dollars (which are each worth less due to inflation) to buy an ounce of gold. The stronger the inflation, the faster gold will rise. Many investors keep some gold in their portfolio for just this reason.

Gold Investors are Prepared for Disasters

Since the economy of every nation (and the worldwide economy) is based on trust, it can collapse when that trust is eroded. Think about this: the paper that money is printed on is not worth anything. It is worth value because of the trust that people have in the government and the economic system. As soon as a nation defaults on its debt, the money becomes worthless-it is literally not worth the paper on which it is printed. Gold, however, will always be worth something. In this way, it is currency. So, some people like to have gold around as a protection against a bank failure, a war, civil unrest, or severe political climate changes or any other disaster that might cause a currency decline or failure. Indeed, history shows that when a nation is facing war, economic or political uncertainty, or a financial crisis, the demand for gold rises sharply.

Know Your Investment Strategy

You have to decide what type of investor you are, so that you can determine how to work gold into your portfolio. For instance, if you are risk averse, and you do not want to store gold in your house, then you may want to get a gold account, gold certificate, or buy shares of the gold ETF. If you feel gold will appreciate in the long run, and you want to reap higher rewards, you can invest in mining stocks and the gold miners ETF, both of which are leveraged, meaning they multiply advances and declines in the gold price. For a buy and hold investor with average risk tolerance, 25-30% of a portfolio invested in gold is reasonable. A more speculative investor may choose to hold a higher percentage in gold, and use more leveraged instruments like gold stocks and futures. There is no right or wrong amount of gold to hold. There is only the amount that is right for you.

Knowing Where to Buy Gold

Owning gold has never been easier than it is today. Once you know your strategy, then you can start to pick out which investment vehicles make the most sense to you. There are many ways to own it, several of which can be done with clicks of a mouse. You can, of course, opt for gold bullion or gold coin ownership. If you want to own it but have someone else take possession of it, then gold accounts and/or gold certificates are for you. If you want to trade it like a stock, then the gold ETF will be your choice. For those who want a little more risk with the potential for higher rewards, there are gold mining stocks, the gold miner's ETF and leveraged ETF funds.

Spending Money Like It's 2012

Obama is now wanting to spend 2.5 $Billion for electric car subsidies, on top of another two $Billion in "Cash for Clunkers" money. Hundreds of billions here a few trillion there, but no tax increases everywhere. It's almost like Obama knows that after December 21, 2012 nothing needs to be paid back.....ever!

Fiscal conservatives and anyone with common sense can figure out with a pocket calculator, that increasing debt, continued lowering value of the dollar, and printing of valueless currency leads to a disaster that can never be overcome!

But suppose, just suppose all those Liberal, free thinking, over educated, yes men of Obama's know that the end is December, 2012. Than it all makes some sort of bizarre, "What the hell you can't take it with you!" sense. We'll see...we only have to wait three years, four months, and fifteen days to find out!

7 Rules of Successful Freelancer

Article by Aleksei Miheev


I've been a freelance programmer, web developer and system administrator for three years. Not that much, you'd probably say, you may be right. You may be wrong either. Anyway, when you're 21, three years don't seem to be a little time.

I started when I was 18. I had a part-time job in dental clinic (I'm terribly afraid of dentists since then, though I wasn't afraid of them before) and my salary could just cover my Internet bills (in a small town ISPs have very high prices while students can't get much money for work) and leave a little spare money to spend them later on my friends' and parents' birthdays and New Year. I'll tell you the full story some day, now I just want to note that I started from barely nothing and today I only get money from freelance. No full-time office work.

1. Work regularly. Don't depend on you mood.
You should choose time for you to work, and you must work every day from, eg. 6 pm to midnight, and you mustn't do anything but work during this time. Yes, it's very tempting to have a break, read forums, chat, play quake, make love, go skating, etc, and finish the work next morning. That's completely wrong attitude. You work at home, it gives you more freedom and more flexibility, but it's still work.

Of course, if you feel tired, you should rest. Make coffee, smoke a cigarette, clean your cat's toilet, but do not start doing anything time-consuming and interesting – you'll lose a working day.

If you don't want to do anything right now, force yourself to do. You want money? You want to finish this project? So work, you bastard! Start from simple things, do some routine stuff you didn't want to do the day before.

Also, it is very important to make your family understand, that this is work, too, and they should try to not to disturb you when you're working.

It's hard at the beginning, but soon you'll get used to working on schedule, and become as productive as never before.

2. Don't lie to your clients.
“Of course, I do not!” – you'd say. Lie! Terrible lie. There are three kinds of lie to client I know:


When you weren't working or didn't yet do something, but you say you were or you did.

Sure, you don't want to look lazy. But you aren't, are you? So what are you afraid of? Tell you client honestly, that you lost a couple days, tell him, why is it so. Don't make him distrust you. Tell him, what are you going to do to outweigh lost time.

When you have problems with some part of work, but you say that everything's okay or that there were some difficulties, but you overcame them.

Are you afraid to look not good enough? You aren't then. I'll tell you more about that a bit later. Remember, noone can know everything, no one can overcome each and every difficulty. You understand it, right? So why do you think, your client doesn't? Don't let him think you're a lier. Tell him, that you are not very familiar with 'XXX', but you can work it out, and say how much time do you need to do that.

When it was easy to do something, but you say it was a great achievement and you had to go through terrible difficulties to implement that feature.

Are you afraid to get less money than you could? If you want higher prices, take harder work. Any work should cost what it is worth. And do you really want to look that bad, so you are hard to do even simple things? Clients are not coders, but in most cases they realize what is easy and what is not.

3. Don't think you're smarter than your customer.
If you're that smart, where's you money then? You not smarter, and neither he is. You now how to code, he know to make money. Everyone is an expert in his own sphere, so cooperate. Ask him, why he needs the features he needs. Understand what are priorities. Tell him, why is 'XXX' bad in your opinion, and how could it be improved. Extreme programming adepts call it 'planning game'. Work together. You'll see the resuls.

4. Communicate.
Yes, it's obvious, but many people underestimate the importance of communication. At first, people like when you're open and communicative. Be a nice guy. Let them like working with you. Of course, you met to work, not to chat, but a couple lines in IM isn't a big deal. Just let client know what are you working at right now. Be alive. It is okay to say “Be right back, gonna make some coffee”, you're a coder, coders are known to drink litres of coffee every day. That's thought to be funny, use it. Be a geek and be a normal person at the same time. But do not chat too much, you should be working. And your client surely have things to do, too. Remember (or write somewhere) clients' names. Let them feel you remember them.

And the second, not that obvious, benefit of communication is that it helps you track the progress. When you tell someone what are you doing, you know better where you are now and what are you going to do. IM is optional, but weekly email reports are the must, even if client doesn't require them. It would be very good if it's your idea to file the reports. They are not only to let client know how much he has to pay you. they are for you, too. Without them you may have lost the feel of progress and start working slow and inefficiently. I recently made that mistake, and right now I'm finishing the project I would finish two months ago, if I had reported regularly.

5. Do what you can do and a little above it.
If you're afraid you aren't good enough, you aren't. We are programmers. We can do anything. If we don't know how to do something, we read manuals, look at the examples, and do it. But, on the other hand, you must clearly know, what you aren't good at. Never take the work you're sure you can't do. But don't be afraid if you have to deal with something new. Ask for more. Get experience. You can't get experience in any other way but working.

6. Love your work.
Obvious. Never deal with what you don't like. Be good at what you are interested in. Find your niche, but ensure it's not too narrow. Discover new areas of expertise for yourself, but always keep yourself interested. Enjoy your work, programming is almost like sex, didn't you know? If you don't get any pleasure from your work itself, maybe you should try to find someting more suitable and joyful for you?

7. No step back.
Never ask for less bucks/hour than on previous project. No, I don't mean asking more and more and more. You'll lose all your client then. But the work should be paid what it is worth. So don't take the work that is too cheap'n'nasty for you. Be professional.

Rationing Health Care

Health care is the topic of the day on every media outlet. People who have none, want some type of basic care. Many Republican and the wealthy who have it, don't want to pay for others care by increased taxes,etc.

Should health care be rationed? Many diseases and health problems are due to individual choices such as eating disorders, risky sexual behavior, smoking, etc. Should care for the obese, smokers, sexual diseases such as STD's and HIV be limited in some manner?

What about extreme care for convicts in prisons, drug and alcohol addiction, transplants & heart surgery, and numerous life extending techniques for the elderly over the age of 75? Some would estimate those groups account for over 50% of health costs!

While there is no simple answer to health reform, all options should be examined, including rationing.

Marketing America

Gone are the glory days of never ending prosperity, unlimited resources, free open lands, and unending possibilities of the future. “The Golden Age” lasted a short 100 years. From the age of “Robber Barons” such as Andrew Carnegie, John D. Rockefeller, J. P. Morgan, and others to the modern, just plain robbers of Enron, GM, AIG, and the likes of Bernard Madoff.

The land of opportunity is now the land of foreclosure, bankrupt companies, unemployment and welfare. The American dream of a house with a picket fence, married with two children, a new car in every garage and the good life, is now attainable by only a few. The quote, “Give us your tired, your hungry, and your poor”, no longer applies.

The “Welcome “ sign on American shores has been replaced by signs that say “Do Not Disturb”, “No Vacancy”, and “For Sale”. How do we market failure? How do we change a myth into a possibility? Perhaps a reality check is in order.

Lifestyles based on immediate gratification and credit, were always bogus, but ignored.

Get rich quick, aggressive personalities, schemes and scams, cannot replace hard work and intelligence.

Money cannot buy happiness, but being a wage slave is not fun either.

As ye sew, so shall ye reap. What goes around comes around. Karma is a bitch.

The mega rich have always been unscrupulous, immoral, arrogant, and greedy. We have only begun to notice, cause they have been caught at it.

Rather than market America as a concept of unlimited potential for wealth, prosperity, and success, perhaps we should market America as “home”, a place of honor, stability, respect, love, beauty, morals, integrity, and self-reliance. A concept that men/women really are equal, not merely words on paper.

Imagine marketing America that way. Imagine being “Home”.

Blog Updates, Statistics and More

OK, now I've added statistics (analytics), blog rankings, RSS Feeds, updated search engines, updated directories, added new content, affiliates, links, etc. It seems to be slowly working, but I don't see any money yet..like not even one cent!

I peruse other blogs that claim to have thousand of hits. Some are better than mine, or older, but most are worse in both content and appearance. I don't get it.but am unwilling to PAY anyone for results they promise. So day by day, hopefully after five years of blogging, I'll make my first dime! Cool.

Blog Rankings

I've rebuilt my blog appearance, blog more often, updated affiliates, updated blog directories, added "statistics", social media links, and in general have increased promotion. Now, after four years...show me the money!

I don't use scams, misleading information, spam, junk leads, etc. I don't expect to have to "pay" for followers, promotion, or to increase traffic. After looking at "competitors", I see many of the exact same promotional videos, secrets, and general hoopla on every blog. This would appear to make mine "different".

I'll retain my own "Lone Wolf" methods of honesty, self promotion and scam free links and sites. It works or not, but my personal ethics remain intact.

Advertising, Sales, & Turnover

I have lived in several major market areas in the last 15 years: Detroit, Denver, and Portland, OR. They all have one basic thing in common, the number one advertiser's on TV are Mattress and Furniture stores, who run sales 24/7, 365 days per year! Obviously, no one ever pays full retail for a mattress or a sofa. But 20% off, all the time, is just a lower "everyday" price. Off hand, their Ad budgets must be 25% of sales, and what about profit? In these same markets, dozens of these same stores go out of business yearly. Whose left to buy from?

At the opposite extreme, many merchants seem to never advertise or have sales, or ever lower prices, as if that would demean the products and reputation of what is sold. Yet, they too are slowly going out of business. Both extremes are perhaps symptoms of poor or bad management.

When I was in retail management, back in the 1980's, sales were often a monthly event, clearance was to move slow or poor sellers, in another word, turnover! Most sales or clearance starts at 20% off and continues until the inventory is exhausted. Most retailers would probably be happy with 1.5 turns per month. Some others are more aggressive, basing replenishment and mark downs on as little as a weeks sales. I am in that category...if it's not selling, why keep it?

In summary advertising and "sales" should be part of a management plan wit a goal in mind over the long term. Managing inventory for maximum profits is just as important as human resource, marketing, or financial management.

Retirement Without Money...Better Than Working?

I remember when I worked, before my forced retirement in 2005, all the stories about how much money one needed to have stashed away for retirement!

Yes, you need millions if you want that $750,000 home in a gated golf course community with a $5000 mortgage payment, a new BMW and a Lexus for that trophy wife. But you don't need that to "live" or survive.

As I blog this, it has been almost two years since I have had any money, income or assets. I'm not old enough for SS and my SSDI was denied twice. I had a "survival job for one year, working for $7.49/hr, but with %525 rent, utilities, food, and bills was worse off than with nothing!

As previous blogs mention, I was living on the street in two different states for six months, than five months in homeless shelters. It's not great eating in soup kitchens or living in a dorm with 95 other guys. I thought of it as "Camp".

But it is better than being a wage slave, not knowing if your soon to be laid off, to lose you home and car, and be responsible for feeding two kids and a wife who blames you for all that is wrong! Suicide is better than that, which is why more folks take that route!

Am I happy? My counselor probably will say no. But I am surviving, until that first SS check arrives in October 2010. Life has given me lemons and I made Margaritas!

Scams, Shams, & The Internet

Scams and shams…the Internet is chuck full of them. I fell for a Twitter Follower scam, “Get 10,000 followers per day” for my Twitter account of this Blog. I signed up…and got dozens of African–American rapper, gangster, and crack hoe followers tweeting from the hood, following faster than I could delete them, finally I had to take the site “Private”. These “followers” had nothing to do with marketing, advertising or Internet affiliates, they were just annoying and junk spam! Readers know, I have even been scammed by Ebay & PayPal…my advice, don’t take the easy way, get your followers the old fashioned way…. earn them!