Paying yourself first
April 29, 2007
One piece of advice you often hear finance pundits making is “paying yourself first”. I know Robert Kiyosaki repeated the phrase throughout his books, but I am not sure if he was the first one to come up with the phrase.
The idea is that you set aside a percentage of your salary every month automatically putting it into a separate account. I have no trouble with this, but I have trouble labelling it “paying yourself first”.
The first time I heard this, I thought it meant to spend money on what you want first and then pay your bills and creditors last. Is possible that other people read it this way?
Why don’t they just refer to it as “automatically saving 10 per cent of your salary every month”?
I would seem ludicrous if people were setting up some saving plan, if they were already carrying personal debt.
I think it is possible that finance gurus that appear on television telling people to pay themselves first are misleading people in finance education. The basic principle of personal finance is to spend less than you earn and invest the difference and I can’t see how they get “paying yourself first” from this.
Linkworth review
April 26, 2007
Disclosure: The following is a paid review for linkworth.com
Linkworth has made me quite a bit of money since I joined their program. They have an ever expanding set of services to help web publishers make money online and companies with their search engine marketing campaigns.
One of their core services is text link ads. This is where companies can get links to their website on a broad range of sites. They offer both straight link placements and rotating ads. Web publishers place the advertisers’ links as a regular link on their website. Advertisers can set how they would like the anchor text to appear. Search engines use the keywords in the anchor text of links to help calculate the search ranking of particular keywords. Rotating ads are where the link changes, so people and search engines visiting a website see different links each time the page is viewed. Rotating ads are controlled by a small piece of code placed on a website.
Website publishers set the price of how much they are willing to sell links on their site for. It is important for web publishers not to set the rates too high initially to attract potential advertisers.
Other services which Linkworth offer, include a manual directory submission service, where you can get your site listed in up to 300 directories. In-text advertising, an IntelliTxt type service where advertisers can purchase keywords for their ads to appear on content websites. Ads appear in a bubble format when the mouse hovers over the keyword.
They have also introduced a paid-posting services for blogs and an article submission service. Linkworth has a number of payout options for web publishers, including bank transfer, check and Paypal. They have always provided good support to any issues I have had with them. They also offer a fairly generous recurring affiliate program.
Their increasing range of products and services can be sure to help web publishers make money online and to assist companies achieve results with their search engine marketing campaigns.
Do people bother reading affiliate forums anymore?
April 26, 2007
Since my online time has dramatically been cut down since I started traveling, I find myself spending much less time reading webmaster and affiliate forums than I used to. I regularly check various blog feeds, which help me to keep up to date, but not so with forums.
When I first got into affiliate marketing, I discovered webmasterworld and literally spent hours reading all of the discussions on affiliate programs and Adsense. Now I occasionally read the front page items of webmasterworld, but rarely delve much further.
I took a look yesterday at the Adsense discussion and all of the topics were pretty much the same as they were two years ago - ad placement, increasing earnings, made for Adsense sites, getting banned and so on. It is kind of frustrating, because if people actually read Google’s TOS, most of their questions would be answered.
Forums are great if you have just started learning about making money on the internet, but if you are fairly experienced you are probably just wasting valuable time.
To be honest, I find John Chow’s blog the most informative at the moment. I can’t imagine him missing any big news in the world of making money online.
Just make one dollar
April 22, 2007
I used to work with a colleague who always had all of these different ideas for businesses. He not only had ideas, but he used to love telling everyone how much he was going to make in the next month, 3 months, 6 months and so on with this new idea. Some people were impressed, but others could see through his talk.
I was initially impressed by what he said, as he is the typical guy who could “sell ice to eskimos”. He had some good ideas, but I doubt that any came to fruition and I know he had at least one business failure. The last business he told me he was starting still has “still under construction” on its website.
My point of this post however, is that if you have an idea for a business, most people start small and try to then build on the business. Often the most difficult thing is earning your first dollar. There is no point in thinking about some wild projections, that if you can get 100 customers you will be able to earn $10,000.
Think first of how you can get your first customer - your first payment into your bank account. I believe that the first dollar is the hardest to earn in any new business. If you can earn at least one dollar, or get just one paying customer you are at least on your way to starting your new business.
Scottsdale Property Site Review
April 22, 2007
Disclosure: The following is a paid review. If I have access to the internet, I will generally try and accept all reviews that I receive. A review on this blog costs just $60.
Scottsdale Fine Properties have requested a review of their site and business. Having never been to Scottsdale it is a little hard to comment on the area, but it is a city I have heard of a number of times. Scottsdale is in Arizona and adjacent to Phoenix.
Scottsdale was named the most livable city in 1993 and is one of the top golf and resort destinations in the world. The prized lifestyle does not come cheap however and Scottsdale is ranked in the top ten markets for luxury home sales in the US. Many famous celebrities call the city home.
Afer reviewing the Scottsdale Fine Properties website, they seem to offer a personal service to both buyers and sellers in the area. They offer a One on One service to meet the needs of high profile people, who privacy may be an issue. Lesley Martinson runs the One on One program and has 17 years experience and an impressive half a billion dollars in personal sales.
Their website has listings for property all over Arizona. You will need to register with the site to view detailed listings. It is amazing that you can still buy a 3 bedroom house in Arizona for $45,000. It is virtually impossible to buy a house in Australia at this price. Even in the remotest parts of Australia, I think you would still struggle to find anything for less $100,000.
Scottsdale Fine Properties specialty is of course luxury properties and their exclusive listings are mostly several million dollars. So what can you get for a cool 10 million dollars?
This property is on 2.34 acres of land, has 4 bedrooms and 10 bathrooms. I wonder why you would need 10 bathrooms? The property would suit a person into sports with a tennis court, pool, batting cage, basketball court and a chipping green. It has capacity for 10 cars and what I would love most, “gentleman’s den with office, wet bar, full bath.”
My only criticism of the site is the black background. A plain white background is much easier one the eye, especially on a property website.
It is going to be a little while yet before I will be signing up Leslie’s One on One property service, but you can be sure when I have a couple million in the bank, I will be giving her a call.
Struggling to keep up
April 21, 2007
I haven’t been able to do much work since I got to Cambodia. Cambodia is still a developing or third world country, so the fact that they even have internet is something. It is ranked 162 in terms of GDP. Power outages are fairly frequent and the fact that it is the hottest time of the year isn’t helping.
Getting a room with air-conditioning might seem helpful, but I think if I am travelling in the region for a while, it is better to try and climatize.
Cambodia is also a little shock to the senses, but the people are warm and welcoming.
I will be going to Vietnam next, which should be a little more developed and in some areas a little cooler.
Update: After that little rant, I found a great WIFI bar/restaurant - the Blue Pumpkin.
New Text Link Ads Plugin
April 16, 2007
Text Link Ads have announced an update for their wordpress plugin. They are trying to sell links in individual posts.
I suspect for a blog that has an individual post which ranks well for a keyword, it could be a cheap way to buy a link. For a large blog with hundreds or thousands of posts, it could be a great new way to earn money as blog archives are often forgotten; but not by the search engines.
I have installed it on this blog, so it will be interesting to see if I can make any more cash from text-link-ads.
Australia heading for a bust?
April 15, 2007
It is strange after spending so many years out of Australia, I have been catching up on the Australian news while in Cambodia. For $2 a night you can get a basic room, but for $5 a night you can get your own bathroom and cable TV.
Australia’s economy is booming, thanks mainly to a export lead mining boom. Unemployment is at an all-time low. The stock market is also at an all-time high. Whoever thought Australia’s unemployment rate would rival Japan’s? Most of the growth is coming from China’s own economic boom.
Several high profile companies are being sold to private equity funds. Like all booms, at some point there is going to be readjustment of the economy. I wonder when we can expect it to happen - late 2007, early 2008. Perhaps, post Beijing Olympics 2008.
Property on the increase again in Australia
April 12, 2007
I have BBC news in the place I am currently staying in and heard a report that Australian housing prices are on the increase again. There is currently a shortfall in rental properties in the major cities.
I just recently increased the rent on my apartment to $10 a week. It is the first increase in rent in a number of years. I still think the rent is under market value, but the tenant I currently have has been there for at least three years now, and has been fantastic.
The increase in rent values has brought investors back in the market, thus pushing up prices. This of course means that an increase in inflation is going to put pressure for the Reserve Bank to increase interest rates.
It’s a pretty vicious cycle, but the overall effect can only be good for existing property owners.
Correction: Yes, that’s a $10 week increase in rent. Not a great deal, but it is an extra $500 a year in income. I wrote that post just after eating a delicious Sri Lankan curry. The food was good, but I was thinking I need to get back to my guest house pretty quick.
Interview with NuNomad
April 12, 2007
NuNomad just put up the interview I did with them last week as part of their “Meet the Nomads” series.
