Ways to make money now

Step One:

TAKE ACTION!! Reading about how to improve your personal finances is a start. Going to financial seminars is a start. Buying tapes on financial independence is a start, but you have wasted a lot of time, energy….and money if you don’t take ACTION from what you have learned. Before you can get anywhere with your personal finances you need to take steps right NOW. Don’t procrastinate any longer. Maybe all you need is to make some minor changes in your spending habits. Do you really need those new pair of shoes? How many times do you stop at Starbucks to get your pick me up?

Think about it..if you would go to Starbucks one time a day (I personally know people who go many times a day) you probably spend at least $20.00 a week; that’s at least $80.00 a month on coffee.

Since you are reading..or at least skimming this article you know that you probably should be taking at least a few appropriate steps to get your personal finances in order. What I suggest for you is to print out this entire list and keep it in a place that is highly visible to you. You need to remind yourself each and every day that action needs to be taken in the area of your finances to improve your situation. It is known that habits take at least 30 days of consistent and persistent attention and action to change. You can change your financial situation…if you change your habits.

Step Two:

Stop Charging everything on your credit cards. Cut them up, shred them, do whatever is necessary to get them out of your wallets and then take steps to start to pay them off. Depending upon your credit score you are more than likely paying anywhere from 15% (if you are lucky) to 23%..sometimes more of interest on your balances per month. Ouch!! Here are the facts about credit cards and our debt: We, as a nation, are putting a -1% (that’s NEGATIVE) of our money into savings. We are spending more and saving less, and much of our spending is done through credit cards. Just one generation ago, our grandparents were saving on average of 20% of their income. Quite a change..

Step Three:

Start to really understand the difference between your Needs and your Wants. What you might want to do for a month or so is literally write down everything you spend your money on. Kind of like you were on the newest diet that I just heard about. I mean everything from your daily stops at Starbucks to the newest Wii attachment you had to have. At the end of the month go through everything that you spent. Make two lists: one list for your Needs and then one list for your Wants.

Let’s define Needs and Wants. Needs are those items that are necessary for your existence. Your rent or mortgage, the water, the electric, paying off your credit card debt, food. Wants are the items that you normally have cash for and at the end of the week you are saying to yourself, “hum, I wonder where all of my cash went?” The bottles of designer water, the Starbucks, your manicure and pedicure, going out to dinner many nights out of the week, etc. These are the items that you can easily live without. Tally both your Wants and your Needs, then take a long look at your Wants and see what you can do without that month. I would venture to say that you will save quite a bit of money at the end of the month. I know that I did!!

Take Action. Transfer what you save from your Wants column and put it into a savings account or to an investment account. Start to make Your money work for you..not against.

Step Four:

Live On Less Than You Earn. It is truly that plain and that simple: Live On Less Than You Earn. What this means to you is either purchase items that are less than what you make, or find a way to increase the income that you bring home on a monthly basis. Again, track your spending for a month and find out where your money is really going each month. I was talking to a friend today and she said that she spent over $400.00 on gas for just one car. Since she charged the gas all of the time she really had no idea that was how much she was now spending. Believe it or not, most people can balance their budget without making drastic changes to their current lifestyle.

Step Five:

Pay Yourself First. In Robert Kiyosaki’s best seller; Rich Dad Poor Dad, he devotes a portion of his book to go into detail of this practice. You should really pay yourself a minimum of 10% of your take-home pay. This money should not be part of your monthly spending budget. If you can, go to your bank and set up a direct deposit account for your paychecks. After you do that you can then set up an automatic payment..to yourself of no less than 10% of your paycheck. I know this might be hard for you, but the beauty is after a few paychecks, you will get used to not having that money for expenses. It is the old adage of if you don’t see it; you don’t really know it is there. You will be amazed at how quickly those funds can start to build up.

The account that you set up should be one that is interest bearing and of course the higher the interest, the better.

Step Six:

Set your financial goals. Where do you want to be at the end of the year, in 5 years, 10 years and for retirement? “A goal without a plan is just a wish.” Do you know what you will need for retirement? The statistics are a bit scary out there. The average age of living continues to go up, but our retirement resources are either staying the same or diminishing. This is why so many people after the age of 65 either cannot retire or are going back into the work place. Wouldn’t you rather be financially set when you are 65 and not have to worry about how you are going to be able to afford to live? The only way to do that is start to plan today. Trust me, it is never too early to start to plan for your future and for your retirement, nor is it ever too late. I know of people that started their plan in their 50’s and 60’s and are still able to retire in relative comfort. Of course they sought out the proper help, but the key is that they got the help and answers that they needed. If you are in your 20’s and reading this article..don’t delay!! If you plan properly, you might even be able to retire by the time you are in your 50’s…or sooner, if you choose to do so.

Nobody can determine your goals except for you. You need to take the time and if needed, find the resources to figure out exactly what your financial goals need to be so you can take the steps to reach everything that you want.

Step Seven:

Save and Invest on a regular basis. Take your 10% that you are paying yourself and either put it in a savings account, or better yet, invest it to make your money grow for you and work for you and your future.

If you happen to be carrying credit card debt, invest in that high interest account first. Pay your credit cards off as quickly as possible. If your company matches 401(k) contributions, contribute up to the match. You might also consider maximizing your Roth IRA contribution.

Most people do not have an emergency fund started and built up. Start one..NOW. What would you do if you needed a new hot water heater that cost around $800.00, or your car broke down and you needed a new engine or transmission? What most people do is they put it on their credit card..creating more debt for themselves with very high rates of interest. Start an emergency fund that you contribute to on a monthly basis. It needs to be liquid, so you can get to your money quickly, and you only use the money for true emergencies. Not your groceries or a new outfit, but for unexpected medical bills, car repairs, etc. Once these emergencies pop up, you won’t have to use your credit card, saving you hundreds in interest if you are not able to pay it off immediately.

Step Eight:

Protect your Finances. Take the necessary steps, usually through insurance, to make sure that your assets are protected in case of a disaster. Make sure that your insurance is enough to cover your house and all of your belongings.

You may want to take your camera and photograph you furniture, jewelry, your electronic equipment; anything with value. If you can, attach the purchase price for your item, if not, estimate what the purchase price was and keep this information in a fireproof filing cabinet along with your other valuable documents such as your will and birth certificates. This is good evidence for your insurance company if a disaster does occur. Fireproof cabinets are very inexpensive and save you a world of heartache if a disaster such as a fire or flood would occur. They help to make those extremely important documents be preserved.

Once you have the appropriate amount of insurance on your home and your belongings secured, make sure that you re-evaluate your situation every few years or whenever a major life change occurs, such as marriage, divorce or a new addition to the family. You might also want to compare insurance rates on a regular basis, since this is a very competitive business.

Step Nine:

Give back…donate to worthy causes and those less fortunate. When you give, you will get tenfold in return. When you tithe, the universe takes care of you. No matter how desperate your finances may appear to you, there are always people that are far worse off and less fortunate than you in the world.

It is important to nurture a sense of giving and be thankful for the small things that you do have in your life. If you feel that you cannot give monetarily, then give of your time. Volunteer at soup kitchens, shelters or youth centers. Do you have a talent in knitting or crocheting? Make afghans, shawls and hats and donate them to homeless shelters, pregnancy clinics or to churches that send these types of items oversees.

If you don’t really have a favorite charity that you would like to donate your time or money to you can go to Charity Watch and there you can find many different charities with different needs. You should be able to find one or two that resonate with you.

Have a terrific and profitable day,

By Jen Gilbert

Disclaimer: You shouldn’t make any investment decision based solely on what you read here. This is not an offer to buy or sell a security. Should you choose to invest in the markets, it should be only after exhaustive due diligence and possibly in consultation with a licensed investment advisor.

So 4 ways to make money STRAIGHT away. In your first week. With your first home business.

1) Follow the instructions and actions that you are given.

Now I guess here you might be thinking; well that’s obvious surely. Anyone would follow the plan and instructions the homes business gives them.

However NOT so!!

Of course the people who move fast do. But not everyone gets off to a fast start in their home business. And often people working from home wonder why some do and some don’t. This is one of the key things.

Don’t try to re-invent the wheel and make things “better”. You can do that later. If you still feel you need to.

Your home business system will work exactly as it is. So use it. Don’t mess with it that WILL slow you down. There is no way you can produce a new system or even improve on the existing one in your first week. So don’t waste time trying!

2) Capitalise on and use your excitement.

Too often we feel we need to know everything before we get started. Not so at all when working from home in a network marketing business. In fact it can be an advantage.

So use your excitement and be honest about it. It DOESN’T matter if you don’t have a clue what you are doing yet.

People actually prefer to evaluate something themselves. And you will have info to give to them. You can seriously say “here have a look at this and tell me what you think, its my first week so I’ve no idea really yet but its seriously exciting and I’ve got going straight away”.

3) Use your contacts.
Yes – I mean speak to the people you know! Lets imagine you have just opened a new hairdressers. What’s the quickest way you can get a client? Ask everyone you know to put the word out. Someone (not even 8 degrees of separation from you!) will want their hair cut this week, live in your area and be very glad of the recommendation.

Its exactly the same when you start a network marketing home business.

TELL people what you are doing. You don’t have to ask them to become a client or join. Ask them to get the word out on your behalf. The people who are interested then have a chance to come forwards.

4) Create time for your home business.

Ok this is the last point but it could be the first. You have got to actually change your timetable immediately and create time to work your home business.

Presumably before deciding to start working from home you didn’t sit around for one to two hours each night wondering what to do with your time.

Something in your timetable will usually need to move. Luckily most of us (to start with) have TV time or other time we can put to MUCH better use!

So get into your new routine immediately. And stick to it. The first few weeks will be hardest but getting into any new habit will need some proactive action on your part.

Follow these 4 key things and in your first week in your new home business you can start to make money. It might be a couple of dollars! That depends on the business and system you choose. But whatever it is celebrate it you are on your way!

By Louise Farthing

SEO is really important, for Wordpress user, a little tip for you, get your plugins they are going to do a great job!  Pascale

Search engine optimization is a term thrown around a lot, you seem to hear every guru talking about it, but what does it actually mean? SEO is a term coined by internet marketing consultants and has come to mean different things to different people. Here is the simple definition: SEO is where Google, yahoo, MSN, etc. fall in love with the content of your website or blog. Correct SEO can drastically increase your search engine rankings, while poor SEO will get you absolutely nowhere!

Here are three tips to encourage correct SEO techniques:

1. Use on page search engine optimization. This is a technique where you set up your website to be what I like to call Google friendly. This involves using proper meta tag and site description in your webpage html. by doing this, you greatly increase your chances of Google picking up your website highly in their rankings.

2. Use off page search engine optimization. The best way to describe this would be creating quality links to your website. The more quality links a website has the more Google will like it. This is essential to any website, and is one of the vital aspects of correct SEO. In reality the off page optimization is just as important if not more important than the on page optimization.

3. Use article marketing to boost your SEO. Articles create backlinks to your site, and as we discussed earlier, this is beneficial to you for several reasons. In addition to this you will also get a great deal of visitors from the article directories to which you submit your articles.

By using correct SEO you will see a steady stream of traffic to your website, and you will have more success with your business!

By Matthew Lord

We all know that the website traffic is the blood of any online business, without traffic the business is dead.

Promoting and advertisement are critical and sometimes they don’t come cheaply. Work from home using your computer to earn an income online isn’t difficult when you learn these facts.

Before we proceed on about ways of getting cheap but effective publicity, you need to know some of the things that you shouldn’t do. Knowing that these tactics don’t work, you will save time and effort focusing on other techniques.

Safelist mailings. People who are using them have the same purpose as you, to promote their business. They won’t take the time to read the mails even if you have something fantastic to promote or freebies to give away.

Paying for site submission. You wouldn’t know whether they have submitted your website to the popular search engines. No matter how wonderful their service may be, it’s better to do it yourself, anyway it’s free but a little time consuming. Another point is that you will know which category that your website belongs to.

Free for all sites. These are the sites where everybody post their websites. It’s like a large pool of links without targeting to a specific group of people. Don’t waste time posting on these sites, divert your attention to elsewhere.

Below are some of the most effective and affordable ways of web advertising.

Article writing. If you haven’t written your first piece of article, do it now. Articles give you a lot of advantages in terms of business objectives and best thing is that you can do it for free. The concept is simple, you are creating a piece of free but useful information to being benefit to people.

Your article will be written on a particular subject that relate to the content found within your site. Submitting them to as many directories as you wish to gain greater exposure.

A well written article will give you credibility and portray you as an expert in that field. They have compounding effect on your link popularity as well.

If you are buying articles, do take note that as least change 25% of the content and add your voice in it.

Blogging. I believe by now, you have a blog or at least you know what it is. They serve not just as diaries for the youth but also a dynamic tool for online businesses to add content regularly.

It can be used to post announcements, updates, articles, news, etc. Many use them as an alternative way to update visitors about new content and building relationship with visitors.

There is no limit to what you can write on your blog. Share anything useful or interesting to your subscribers, share with them new product information or latest traffic tactic.

In fact, people will be more interested in looking at your site after reading your blog if it’s written with your own touch of personality in it.

Besides, search engines love blogs too. Because the fact that they have rich content, they prove to be especially suited for affiliate marketers.

Viral Marketing. It’s word-out-mouth marketing. Jokes, videos and links that get passed around via email are all examples of the viral effect in action.

Common viral tools for online businesses include things like:

e-books and reports

free software

multi-tier affiliate programs

“Tell a Friend” scripts

Contests or special offers hot enough to spread across multiple sites and multiple e-zines.

Here are some of the potential incentives you can offer:

Outstanding free content

Product discounts

Free training or consultation

Launching a viral tool is not very difficult. You just need to get the word out about it and submit it to as many outlets as possible.

Some typical starting points:

Offer it to your subscribers
Contact other list/website owners and offer it to them

There are of course many other ways to do web advertising. The key thing is to eliminate the ones that are less performing and try out many others that look promising. Remember to track your results.

Thank you for reading, I hope you will be able to create an online business, work from home using your computer as well.

By John Tanyishin