Guide to Click Bank and Affiliate Marketing

Your ClickBank nickname allows the company to keep track of all your account activity. You will be asked to select an ID when you open your ClickBank account. The nickname that you choose is important because your customers will see it every time you sell a product, and your nickname will also be on the memo line of the commission checks that you will receive from ClickBank.

Keep in mind that you cannot ever change your nickname, so if you are unhappy with what you have picked, you will be required to create an entirely new ClickBank account. ClickBank will not be able to transfer a balance from your old account to a new account. Unless you want to lose money, you should never close a ClickBank account that has a positive balance associated with it. Because your ClickBank ID is how you will be associated with the products you are promoting, you want to take care when making your selection. Try and come up with an ID that reflects your professional nature. Something like "Surfs4fun" may sound cool, but it could discourage customers from doing business with you in the future -especially if they happen to hate surfing.

I try to pick nicknames that have something to do with the general nature of my business, and it is always a good idea to choose a nickname that is simple to remember. This way, you will be easier to find if someone is searching for you from memory, and you will not have to look for this information every time you log into your account. A ClickBank ID must be between five and ten characters in length, and it can contain numbers and letters. A good ID could be "Marketer1", or something else very similar. Although it does not seem like a big deal, it is important to choose a ClickBank nickname that you will be comfortable with for a long time, and it is smart to be professional with respect to this selection. Your customers will only know you by your nickname, so keep in mind that this information is the core of your ClickBank identity.

Discover 12 Ways to Make Money on the Internet

1.Opinion Outpost – Opinion Outpost is one of the legitimate survey panels out there that actually paid good for survey takers. Expect $1-$10 per survey. Time it takes per surveys ranges from 10 to 30 minutes. Best of all, it is free.

2.Synovate – Synovate is a panel worth joining. Fast payments with great compensation.

3.Ipsos I-say – Ipsos I-say is also one of the better free paid survey panels out there as well. Get our free complimentary list of the free survey panels here.

4.MySurvey – A well organized group that simply pays for your opinion as well. Has been known to be one of the most legitimate panels out there.

5.Google Adsense – Google’s publisher’s program is one of the better incentivized program out there that pays probably the most in the PPC market.

6.Chitika – Chitika is probably known as the second best PPC program right after Google’s publisher program, Adsense.

7.Clickbank – Clickbank is simply a must for any serious affiliate marketer. This is a must for any serious Internet marketer as well.

8.Shareasale – Shareasale is one of the better affiliate networks that simply pay publishers to do the required action. Whether it be per sale, per lead, or per click, they deliver your money.

9.Associated Content – Have a thing for writing? Make it profitable. Build up a community of readers and get paid per impression/article.

10.Ebay – Everyone probably have already heard of Ebay. Simply auction off merchandises or stuff you keep in your storage to make some extra money.

11.ProStores – Start your own ecommerce site and start selling your products online. Make it an extra source of revenue and make your store international for the world to see.

12.Google Adwords – Adwords, the potential lead magnet in terms of generating sales, you can be making money off leads from Google’s advertising program, Adwords, if you got a great webpage that converts of course.

Try each method one after another. If you find one that fits your personel, simply continue doing it, and you could be making money online instantly.

Way to Make Money on the Internet With an Amazon.com Affiliate Site

Probably you heard before a lot of hype about how much money you can make with affiliate programs. Maybe you've even set up a site yourself, only to find that after buying the domain, a few bucks a month in hosting, software or a web designer to design your site, etc., that the piddly affiliate fees hardly even covered your cost. Well, here's the hype-free way to really make money with an Amazon.com affiliate site. And it'll only take a day to make the site. The secret? Low cost, low effort.
If you don't already know it, learn some basic HTML. You have to do this to keep your costs down and still get what you want. Even if the site is basically laid out for you, you're going to need to know how to insert images, create hyperlinks, and do some basic text formatting. Our HTML Guide offers a free 10-week HTML class and a great collection of beginning HTML tutorials. Get over any anxiety you have about this. Just do it. You'll thank me for it later.
Decide on your topic. You're going to be doing product reviews and recommendations, so pick a topic that you enjoy and know something about. If you can't stay passionate about the topic, that will show, and it also won't hold your interest. Choose a narrow enough niche to be distinctive, e.g., bands from your city, left-handed guitarists, music for a certain kind of dancing, authors of a certain religion, books about arts & crafts, etc.
Choose your domain name. Make it keyword-rich, not clever. Think how people will find your site in the search engines. Here are some ideas (all available when I first wrote this, though a cfew have been snatched up):
Music: BandsFromTexas.com, BandOutOfBoston.com, SouthpawGuitarists.com, ClassicPsychedelia.com, Non-Stop-Hip-Hop.com, Merengue-Music.com
Books: Mormon-Authors.com, Arts-and-Crafts-Books.com, Books-by-Stephen-King.com, ClassicBusinessBooks.com
Others: Best-Baby-Toys.com, MomsMags.com, FelliniMovies.com
Register your domain name. If you're not technically inclined at all, register your domain wherever you set up your hosting in step 5. Otherwise, you can save a few bucks by choosing a lower-cost provider. Not a big deal for one or two sites, but it can be for ten or twenty. I use GoDaddy, who have great domain management tools and are less than $10 a year. The least expensive I've found from a reputable source is 1&1, whose price is around $7 a year last I checked.
Set up your web hosting. This is where most people get burned. For this kind of site, you do not need $10 a month web hosting! Our Online Business Guide has a list of Cheap Web Hosting for Under $10. Some are as little as $4 a month, with unlimited domains, i.e., you can run several sites like this on the same hosting package.
Install blog software. "Blog, you say?" Yes. It will give your site all the structure you need, plus make it easy to quickly post new content. My pick is WordPress, which is open source (i.e., free), easy to install and use, and yet very powerful. Many hosts have a one-step installation process for it, or you can download it and follow their installation instructions.
Make it pretty. One of the great things about WordPress is the huge variety of templates available for it -- they can completely change the look-and-feel. Our Weblogs Guide has a list of 5 Sites for Free Wordpress Themes, where you can find hundreds of free WordPress themes.
Set up categories. Most blog software allows you to create sub-categories to help organize your entries. This will help visitors narrow in even more specifically on their interests. For example, BandsFromTexas.com might have one group of categories for genre ? rock, country, blues, etc. ? and another for city of origin ? Austin, Dallas, Houston, San Antonio, etc.
Sign up as an Amazon Associate. It's simple and free. Just visit Amazon and click on the Join Associates link at the bottom of the page (here's a direct link for your convenience). Your site should already have at least the basic setup done, even if you don't have any content there yet, as they'll review the site manually before approval.
Create your blog posting bookmarks/links. There are two links that are going to be essential for you to make this easy. First is the blog posting link. In your blog software, on the posting page (see their instructions), at the bottom of the page there should be a "bookmarklet". Click on the link (and hold the mouse) and drag it up to your Links toolbar in your browser (assuming Internet Explorer), or your Favorites menu. This will allow you to blog a product with one mouse click.
Create your Amazon Build-A-Link bookmark/link. This will make it easy to build the link with your affiliate ID built in. Log in to Associates Central, look in the left navigation sidebar, go to Build-A-Link, and under Static Links, find Individual Items. Click and drag this onto your Links toolbar or Favorites menu.
Build your first link. Go to Amazon and log in with your Associates account. Find the product you want to review and use the Site Stripe (gray stripe at the top of the screen that you'll see when logged in as an Associate) to get your personalized link to the item. They also offer a variety of other options for creating links and banners.
Blog your review. Now click on your blog posting link (Press It! by default in WordPress). If you're using WordPress, you should now see two pieces of link code in your posting form, the first one ending with "Associates Build-A-Link >< /a >". Delete through that point. The second part is a link to the product with your Amazon Associate ID built in. Now just write your product review, choose the appropriate categories for it, and hit Publish.
Build out your site. Before you promote your site, you want to have some substantial content there. Write several product reviews. Have at least 2-3 in each category you've created. You may also want to make a categories for articles, news, and commentary about your topic. The more content your site has, the better. And the great thing is that while you're writing all this, the search engines are getting notified automatically, assuming you turned on the notifications mentioned in step 6.
Promote your site. The best free way to do this is to communicate with other bloggers writing about similar topics, and to participate in online communities where your topic is discussed. See the Online Business Networking category for ideas, as well as the Internet Marketing category.

Keep Track Your finance - Use Excel!

Excel is a very useful tool if you want to keep track of your finances and be in control of your budget. Setting up a budget in Excel is a great idea, particularly for people who are totally disorganized and spend more than what they earn simply because they don?t have a clear picture of their financial situation. Besides, Excel can be a great substitute of any complicated financial planning software you may find in the market that requires more time to learn and deal with.

Many people think that setting up an Excel budget is difficult and requires a great deal of knowledge. Especially, if you have never had a budget before, you may be feeling intimidated by the prospect of using Excel. However, things are not so complicated. If you use an Excel spreadsheet to track your income and expenses, you have to be honest and plug in real numbers so that you derive an outcome that portrays your real financial situation.

A) Expenses

Typically, a complete Excel budget should include the following categories:

Housing
Under this title you can include mortgage or rent (include home equity loans as well); second mortgage or rent; phone; electricity; cable TV; gas; water & sewer; supplies; waste removal; maintenance/repairs; and other.

Transportation
Under this title you can include car payments; car insurance; fuel expenses; maintenance/repairs; bus/taxi fares; licensing and other.

Insurance
Under this title you can include home insurance; health insurance; life insurance and any other type of insurance you may have.

Food
Under this title you can include groceries; dining out and other food-related expenses.

Children
Under this title you can include medical expenses; clothing; school tuition; school supplies; lunch money; child care; toys/games; and other.

Pets
Under this title you can include pet food expenses; medical expenses; grooming expenses; toys; and other.

Personal Care
Under this title you can include medical expenses related to personal care; hair/nails; clothing; dry cleaning; health club; and other.

Entertainment
Under this title you can include video/DVD; cds; movies; concerts; sporting events; live theater; and other.

Loans
Under this title you can include personal loans; student loans; credit card expenses and other loans.

Taxes
Under this title you can include federal taxes; state taxes; local taxes and other.

Savings / Investments
Under this title you can include retirement account; investment account; college; and other.

Gifts / Donations
Under this title you can lists all the charities you have contributed money to.

Legal
Under this title you can include attorney expenses; alimony; payments on lien or judgment and other.

Each category has a subtotal that can be calculated as follows:

In cell A1, you plug in the title ?Monthly Budget?.

In cell A3, you plug in the title ?Housing?.

In cell A4, you plug in the title ?Mortgage or rent?. In cell B4, you plug in the relevant figure.

In cell A5, you plug in the title ?Second mortgage or rent?. In cell B5, you plug in the relevant figure.

In cell A6, you plug in the title ?Phone?. In cell B6, you plug in the relevant figure.

You go on until you finish with all your entries that are related to the Housing category until you reach cell A15. There, you plug in the title ?Subtotal? and you sum up all B cells in cell B15 to calculate the subtotal of Housing category. The formula used is =SUM(B4:B14), which actually calculates the sum from cell B4 where your first entry in the Housing category is, until cell B14 where you last entry in the Housing category is. Just make sure that you plug in the formula in cell B15 to avoid circular references problems.

You do the same for all other categories and you derive 13 subtotals, as much as your categories are.

Then, to calculate the grand total of all your expenses you go to cell B88 and you add all subtotal cells. For instance, if subtotal cells are B15, B23, B28, B32, B41, B46, B53, B61, B66, B71, B76, B79, and B84, in that cell you plug in =B15+ B23+ B28+ B32+ B41+ B46+ B53+ B61+ B66+ B71+ B76+ B79+ B84, and you derive the total of your monthly expenses.

B) Income

In cell D3, you plug in the title ?Income 1?. In cell E3, you plug in the relevant figure.

In cell D4, you plug in the title ?Income 2?. In cell E4, you plug in the relevant figure.

In cell D5, you plug in the title ?Extra Income?. In cell E5, you plug in the relevant figure.

In cell E6, you calculate you total monthly income by plugging in the formula =SUM(E3:E5).

C) Difference

To calculate your actual financial position, you deduct your expenses (cell B88) from your income (cell E6). In an empty cell at the bottom you plug in =E6-B88. If the difference is positive, it means that you are building wealth and you are in control of your finances. But even if the difference is negative, you have a clear picture of the areas that need improvement and better financial management.

All in all, with Excel you are less likely to make mistakes and you can keep a running total of how much money is spent per month and how much is left. These totals are automatically adjusted every time a new entry is made into the spreadsheet. By setting up a budget in Excel you can make long- and short-term projections about your financial situation and plan for major financial changes. In that way, you always get the most of your money and you, ultimately, achieve peace of mind.

Tips on Your Personal Finance Shape your dreams

Shape your dreams - A few tips on your financial

If you have any kind of financial emergency, having an emergency fund in your savings account is always helpful to cover the needs. Many people borrow money from their friends, family members, getting cash advance from their employer or getting a loan at very high interest rates. If you are falling short of cash and you know the payday is still a few days away, there are ways to bridge the gap.

Most of the people live from one paycheck to another paycheck and this is certainly not a good way of living life in this expensive world. Many students when they step out of the college get overwhelmed by their student loans and they feel like they will never come out of it. There are ways to resolve all kinds of financial problems by personal finance planning.

It is very important to prioritize your personal finance. The examples mentioned above are just a way to resolve the financial dilemma. What happens if you have already used your savings account and you don’t have anything left in it? What happens if your boss, your family or your friends are not willing to offer you any more advance.

These are tough economic times and that’s why it is important to do a proper planning of your personal finances. If you are an average earner and you live life way beyond your means, you will not have any money left just in case if some kind of emergency happens in your family. It is quite possible that you might be already overwhelmed by your existing debts at that time. Here are a few tips that everyone should follow, just to give a head start.

The most important thing in life is to live within your means unless you can afford to go beyond it. With the easy use of plastic money, you might get tempted to buy the new gadget that you always wanted to have or you want to pick those trendy clothes in the store that you just “must have”.

When you are driven by such kind of temptations, wait for a moment and think that you may get that item easily by using the credit card. But do you have the money to pay back your credit card bills within the due dates.

Monitor the ins and outs of your finances and have a savings plan. This is another crucial part of planning your personal finances. Always try to stick to a monthly budget and don’t increase your debt to income ratio. If you have little money left, then you should not be spending any more than you have to.

Another important way of planning your personal finances is to have a perfect control on the use of credit cards. Excessive use of credit cards more than your income will not only put you in the debt trap, but will also spoil your credit ratings.

With these personal finance planning tips, you can sharpen your money management skills and experience the financial freedom that you deserve.

Money Budgetting : Spending

How to buy quality products for discount prices. Stores try to answer this quandary with door-busting deals on reduced merchandise. Maybe it's the eggnog, or all that good cheer, but in December we're prone to fall for deals that just don't add up.

'Tis the season for retail trickery. The stores have less than a month to make their last-quarter profit margin. They are willing to sacrifice your naivete for the bottom line. Stores will entice you with coupons, pay-later schemes, and even guaranteed money-back returns.

Step 1.
Cut time in half by not cutting coupons. The holiday season is not the time to begin couponing. There is a unique strategy that bargain hunters use when saving with coupons. In December, manufactures beef up Sunday inserts with coupons. Consumer Reports suggests we're more likely to buy an item if a coupon is available, even if it isn't our preferred product. Translation: we're likely to spend more money on an item we don't want, just to save a bit. Avoid coupons for items you don't usually buy, and you'll save more.

Step 2
Avoid the false sales price. Retail workers know the science. If they're preparing for one of those 20-50-percent-off weekends, they spend the week before adjusting item tags. They add an adjusted price atop the retail price, then give an additional percentage off. Do you recall ever seeing the original price? The discounted price is kindly plastered atop it. The original retail price is hiked up a few dollars. So when we purchase the discounted item with that percentage off, we're actually paying the original price.

Frank Woolworth, a pioneer of retail, invented this technique decades ago. Modern retailers continue in his legacy.

Step 3
Beware of stores that always have sales. Check your Sunday newspaper and it will have a coupon from Kohl's or Burlington Coat Factory. They have a continual sales cycle to lure us in the door. Don't rush to this weekend's clearance sale, only to find next week's 50-percent-off sale. These are time-tested marketing strategies that speak to the inner bargain hunter. They know we crave savings and continue to repackage it to us in unique ways. They're offering us an opportunity not to pay the price mark-up. Just accept it. The sales price is actually the original retail price.

Step 4
Check the shipping price. Amazon, the company that introduced most of us to online shopping, offers its customers free shipping after $25. You purchase the bestseller for $10 and the checkout threatens you with a free shipping after $25.

Look, your shipping fee will probably be $3 to $5. Don't search to buy another item to arrive at the $25 price mark. You'll inevitably surpass it and end up spending up $15-$20 more in an effort to get the deal. Check the price of shipping before falling into this con.

Step 5
Don't pay for an extended warranty. If your purchase is a kitchen appliance or electronic item, beware. Most electronics and appliances come with a one-year warranty. The check-out clerk will try to entice with an extended warranty. The truth is, unless it's a car, a one-year warranty is more than enough coverage.

Become a loyal customer to a particular brand like HP, Dell or Kenmore, and sign up for free membership. That membership will come in handy. If a product fails after the warranty expires, go on the message boards and complain. You're sure to get a swift response.

Step 6
Pay now, not later. Every electronics and kitchen appliance store will have a 0% down on a big-ticket item. You won't have to begin paying on that big screen television until March or July. If you're itching to pull out the credit card, or worse, sign up for a new card, don't do it. Check the fine print. When it's time to pay for the item, the interest rate will be in the double digits. You'll end up paying as much as 30% interest for the time the company 'loaned' that big screen television to you.

Step 7
Return unopened items. Some of us still fall for this trick. We're a bit iffy about a product, but buy it knowing we have 30 to 90 days to return in case we don't like it. Check that policy again. Many stores include a hidden "re-stocking fee" in that return price. They'll take your opened product, and also take a third of the money-back price. If you want your full return, bring back the product unopened.

Step 8
List and stack. There are two tools to combat retailers schemes to empty your pockets: create a shopping list and stack deals. Write a list of gift recipients, products and stores. Then, check each store for deals. Finally, stack a deal with a coupon. The only way to save is to use a coupon on a marked-down item.

Step 9
Compare and haggle. Walk with sales ad in hand. For instance, if you're walking into Office Max, have a Staples ad in hand. It makes the sales clerks a little nervous. They know you're price checking.

If the product is priced cheaper at the competitor's store, in this instance, Staples, ask the check out clerk if they will honor the price. Many stores have an unspoken policy of paying the competitor's price. Some will even take the other store's coupon!

Try your luck. I've used this technique at different outlets, drug stores, office supply, and electronic. I have never been turned away. It always works.

Step 10
Outsmart the stores. The Consumer Board reported 9 out of 10 shoppers in 2008 didn't regret taking time researching their holiday deals. All this takes a bit more research than the average weekend spree, but your bank account will thank you.

Manage Your Finance

Read it first before you Click

Does this ring a bell? "Click Here If You Agree To Our Terms and Conditions."

Whether you've made an online purchase, joined a social networking site or simply have booted up your new computer for the first time, odds are you were cruising along until you hit this little roadblock.

If you're like most people, you quickly scroll to the end of the page and click through so you can get on with what you were trying to do in the first place.

But do you really know what you're agreeing to? Are you aware that by clicking "I Agree," you are signing a legally binding agreement?

Most people have come to regard the online version of the TOS (Terms of Service) document as a pain in the you-know-what, but when problems arise later on, such as when monthly fees begin automatically coming out of your bank account or your information is sold to a third party vendor, it's the first place the company directs you to for an explanation.

Cries of "Nobody reads those things" won't help you now. After all, you agreed that you read and understood the TOS. And you can't say that you're not familiar with them. These days, there's a TOS for everything. Violate it and you can find yourself banned from your favorite social networking site, massively multi-player online game (MMOG) or even the very Internet service you use to get online.

For the most part, the TOS is detailed to protect the company providing the service from negligent acts performed by the end-user. For instance, an online multi-player game may ban a user for sexual innuendo or behavior, or a social site may restrict certain inappropriate or copyrighted photographs or content. Internet providers usually impart strict restrictions on the downloading of illegal media or the use of their services for spamming purposes.

While most Terms of Service are understandable, some can be outright crazy. In 2008, a major communications company sent out an 8,000-word update to its TOS agreement. The TOS came in a guidebook format that was 2,500 pages long, twice the heft of the latest Stephen King novel. This update stated that it was not possible for any user to sue the company under any circumstances, as well as a host of other non-user-friendly agreements. California lawmakers called the TOS alteration illegal and quickly worked to force the communications giant into editing their terms.

In another instance, in February of 2009 a popular social networking site altered their TOS to state that they had the right to use their member's content as they saw fit - forever. Thanks to an overwhelming response from its members, the site eventually withdrew the alteration.

These two cases may be extreme, but it's inside the Terms of Service that most companies place the none-too-consumer-friendly information. In this era of speed-of-light transactions, it pays to stop for a minute and finally follow your old man's advice: "Read the fine print."

12 Ways to Make Money on the Internet

1. Opinion Outpost – Opinion Outpost is one of the legitimate survey panels out there that actually paid good for survey takers. Expect $1-$10 per survey. Time it takes per surveys ranges from 10 to 30 minutes. Best of all, it is free.
2. Synovate – Synovate is a panel worth joining. Fast payments with great compensation.
3. Ipsos I-say – Ipsos I-say is also one of the better free paid survey panels out there as well. Get our free complimentary list of the free survey panels here.
4. MySurvey – A well organized group that simply pays for your opinion as well. Has been known to be one of the most legitimate panels out there.
5. Google Adsense – Google’s publisher’s program is one of the better incentivized program out there that pays probably the most in the PPC market.
6. Chitika – Chitika is probably known as the second best PPC program right after Google’s publisher program, Adsense.
7. Clickbank – Clickbank is simply a must for any serious affiliate marketer. This is a must for any serious Internet marketer as well.
8. Shareasale – Shareasale is one of the better affiliate networks that simply pay publishers to do the required action. Whether it be per sale, per lead, or per click, they deliver your money.
9. Associated Content – Have a thing for writing? Make it profitable. Build up a community of readers and get paid per impression/article.
10. Ebay – Everyone probably have already heard of Ebay. Simply auction off merchandises or stuff you keep in your storage to make some extra money.
11. ProStores – Start your own ecommerce site and start selling your products online. Make it an extra source of revenue and make your store international for the world to see.
12. Google Adwords – Adwords, the potential lead magnet in terms of generating sales, you can be making money off leads from Google’s advertising program, Adwords, if you got a great webpage that converts of course.

Try each method one after another. If you find one that fits your personel, simply continue doing it, and you could be making money online instantly.

Get rid of Credit Card Debts

average American has eight credit cards. You think to yourself how did I get into this mess. Well you did and you don't know how. With a few easy steps you can be out of credit card debt and stay out.

First important most important step is to stop now putting things on any cards. If its for a recurring thing such as gym membership, game membership every month. Stop it or try to pay it just with your checking account. The basic thing is to stop putting anymore onto your cards.

The second step is you need see where your money is mostly going. So gather up all your receipts and look. Is it going towards eating out or buying clothes. If it is find alternative routes such as packing your lunch or not buying clothes.

The third step is to look at all your cards and see the all the balances and to write them down. Now set a date usually seven to eight months from now. Which is a realistic goal.

Now take all your balance and divide them by seven or eight months or you can divide them weekly such as sixteen. Now your payments will be much more easier to pay per week or month and you won't feel overwhelmed of how much debt.

Make Fast Money With Forum?

Besides of these money making opportunities, there is another way where you can make fast money on the internet, which is make fast money with forum. I am sure most of you may want to ask me “how to make fast money with forum?“, that’s simple and read further to get the answer. Months ago, a friend of mine shared with me his experience with the forum named MyLot, I gave it a try but end up I quit it due to busy workload. I didn’t have much time posting and joining the discuss in the forum, so I was just able to make a few little bucks from there. It’s a legitimate way to make money online and you don’t have to pay even a penny to start working.

MyLot is some kind of forum who pays you for your valuable contributions, it pays you for every of your discussion thread, responses and comments to others’ discussion, and etc. So far MyLot has over 170,000 members, there are over hundreds of thousands discussion have been started by the members, so you can simply join their discussions and share your opinion too. Besides these, MyLot has lots of different categories with different topics, you say it they have it. With that said, you don’t have to worry that you don’t know which discussion you should join and can’t make money from it.
In order to make fast money with MyLot, you have to contribute honor comments and start genuine discussions because MyLot will see the quality of your comments made in the discussion and take into consideration in judging whether the comments and discussions are valid. They won’t pay you with the comment that says “Good Post!” or “Well Said!”, you have to really contribute your ideas and comments to the relevant discussion, else you’re wasting time posting in MyLot.

How Much You Can Make With MyLot?

In fact, I have no idea how much MyLot pays for a single comment or discussion, it depends on how genuine is the discussion thread that you open, and what kind of comment that you leave. You’ll get more earning if you contribute helpful comments and interesting discussions, you’ll get lesser if your comments and discussions are not that useful and interesting. Besides of these, you’ll earn more money if you insert relevant images or pictures into the discussion too. Nevertheless, make money with MyLot is kinda simple, leave honor comments and start interesting discussion, you’ll get paid for your efforts.

MyLot updates the earning in daily basis, so you will only see your earning adjusted within a day after you’ve left a comment or started a discussion. The minimum payout limit is only $10, if you work hard and put some efforts on leaving comments and starting new discussion everyday, I believe that you can reach the minimum payout limit in short period.

My Thought With MyLot

You can actually treat it as a forum that shares opinion and meet new friends instead of keep thinking of making fast money, ultimately you’ll be doing it under pressure. You can also build your profile and look for people who have similar interests with you, you can also look for business partners. With that said, you might get the chance of getting someone who can helps you in making money online or expand your business. In long term basis, you will be getting lot of benefits from your community in MyLot.

Remember what I said above, there is no quick cash schemes. By making money with MyLot, you can earn some side income but it won’t make you rich. If you want to make fast money, join MyLot and participate the discussions now!

Way To Make Money with Free Online Surveys

Here's some ways to earn some cash from online internet surveys.

You can make a little extra cash in your spare time by taking online surveys. Companies who want to know what’s on the minds of their customers are willing to pay for your opinion. Online surveys won’t make you rich, and won’t allow you to quit your day job, but you can make a little extra cash while engaging in a fun hobby.


Steps :

1.Search the internet for companies that will pay you to take surveys. Do not fall for scams where companies ask you to pay money to find fragile lists.

2.Fill out the screener surveys. Many survey companies offer screener surveys when you register, which usually don't pay. But it's worth the little extra time it takes to fill these surveys out, because the more demographic information the market research companies have about you, the more targeted surveys they can send you.

3.Check your email for survey opportunities. The companies you signed up with in step 1 will send you survey requests – some more often than others.

4.Choose and complete the best surveys. Now that you have lots of surveys, you can pick the ones that seem the most interesting and most lucrative to you. If you have time, do them all. If not, decide which ones you’d like to take. You're under no obligation to complete any surveys if you don't want to.

5.Earn a little extra money. When you take the surveys, the company will specify what you’ll receive as payment. Many companies pay in cash. Some offer prizes or products. Many companies let you accrue points which you can trade in for cash or prizes.

6.Be wise. Some websites say you won a xbox360 or a new laptop for example. There is usually an asterisk near the "you won" part. This means you have to do something like buying stuff before you even get to talk about your prize. Don't fall into these sorts of traps, they're ridiculously difficult and not worth it.

Tips :

The more companies you sign up with, the more survey requests you’ll receive in your email and more opportunity you’ll have to make money.

Make a dedicated email account set aside just for surveys to keep junk mail out of your normal inbox.

Any individual survey site may only send a couple of surveys to you in a given month. The more companies you sign up with, the more surveys you'll receive.
If you use Mozilla Firefox, try using the WOT extension to stop yourself from going to scam sites.

Remember !

Always check privacy statements. Who will your information be shared with?
Never pay any site to find these survey sites for you. Search the Internet for free by yourself.

Do your research.... Some survey companies only award points or enter you into a sweepstakes for completing surveys.

Teenagers can also participate in this but you should always research whether or not a company allows teens to participate.
Many websites with online surveys often have spyware and viruses, so be careful of them.

Dont accept what sounds to good to be true sometimes
You get like $1-$50 a month mainly from doing online surveys
Most survey sites (and their affiliate companies) will start sending you tons of spam. Before you sign up you should get a separate email account (Yahoo, Google, Hotmail and others offer free services) and use it just to sign up. Should you get a lot of spam it won't clog your regular email. Look for an email account with excellent spam filters and junk mail options.

Also avoid giving your phone number as it can open the door for telemarketing. Some can even circumvent the Do-Not-Call lists because you've signed up to receive information.

What is your goal? Surveys are a nice way of getting a little extra change in your pocket but you will not be able to quit your day job. If you are looking to make more than $100/month online you should look into affiliate marketing.

How to Conduct an Online Survey

Make money from online survey

There are a few questions in your mind that you would like answered and you are on the lookout for a fast and inexpensive way to find out more about your customers, clients etc. The first and foremost thing you need to decide what the objectives of the study are. Ensure that you can phrase these objectives as questions or measurements. If you can't, you are better off looking at other means of gathering data like focus groups and other qualitative methods. Online Surveys tend to focus in on more on "Quantitative" data collection.

Review the basic objectives of the study. What are you trying to discover? What actions do you want to take as a result of the survey? This helps you double check the validity of the data collection mechanism. Online Surveys are just one way of collecting and quantifying perspectives.

Visualize all of the relevant information items you would like to have. What will the output report look like? What charts and graphs will be prepared? What information do you need to be assured that action is warranted?

Rank each topic in items 1 and 2 according to the value of the topic. List the most important topics first. Revisit items 1 and 2 again to make sure the objectives, topics and information you need are appropriate. Remember, you can't solve the problem if you ask the wrong questions.

How easy or difficult is it for the respondent to provide information on each topic? If it is difficult, is there another way to obtain the information by asking another question?

This is probably the most important step. Online Surveys have to be Precise, Clear and Concise. Due to the nature of the "Web" and the fickleness associated, if your questions are too complicated and are not easy to understand, you will have a high "drop out" rate.
Create a sequence for the topics that is unbiased. Make sure that the questions asked first do not bias the results of the next questions. Sometimes providing too much information, or disclosing purpose of the study can create bias.

Once you have a sequence of topics, you can have a basic layout of a survey. It is always prudent to add an "Introductory" text to explain the project and what is required off the respondent. It is also professional to have an ending "Thank You" text as well as information about where to find the results of the survey, when they are published.

Determine the type of question that is best suited to answer the question and provide enough robustness to meet analysis requirements. This means do you use open-ended text questions, dichotomous, multiple choice, rank order, scaled, or constant sum (ratio scale) questions. There is a fine line you need to walk here - Generally tougher analysis requirements will lead to more complicated questionnaire design. However there are a couple of tools available to make life easier: -

Page Breaks - Avoid having a huge scrolling survey. Introduce page breaks as necessary. Please also refrain from just having one question per page. This increases the time to complete the survey as well as increases the chances for "drop outs".
Branching - Use Branching and Skip Logic to make your surveys "Smart". Avoid using text like, "If you answered No to Q1 then Answer Q4" - this causes respondent frustration and increases the "drop out" rate. Design the survey using Branching Logic so that the correct questions are automatically routed based on previous responses.

Write the questions. You may need to write several questions for each topic, selecting the best one. You might also be better off dividing the survey into multiple sections.

Sequence the questions so that they are unbiased.

Repeat all of the steps above to find any major holes. Are the questions really answered? Have someone review it for you.

Time the length of the survey. A survey should take less than five minutes. At three to four questions per minute, you are limited to about 15 questions. One open end text question counts for three multiple choice questions. Most online software tools will record the time taken for the respondents to answer questions.

Pretest the survey to 20 or more people. Obtain their feedback... in detail. What were they unsure about? Did they have questions? Did they have trouble understanding what you wanted? Did they take a point of view not covered in your answers or question?

An easy way to do this is to create another survey, with a few "open ended" essay questions along with your main project. Let's call this the "feedback survey".
Email the "Project" survey to your test group and then email the "feedback" survey also after that.
In that way, you can have your test group send you comments regarding the functionality as well as usability of your "Project" survey by using you "feedback survey"!

Revise your online questionnaire incorporating the feedback that you got.

Send the Survey out to all your respondents!
Online surveys are a great alternative to expensive mail or telephone surveys. There are a few caveats to online surveys however that you must be aware of. If you are trying to survey a representative sample of the general population, please bear in mind that not everyone is online. Moreover, not everyone is receptive to online survey also. Our research has shown that the demographic that responds to online survey invitations is generally biased toward younger people.

Preparing for a Recession : How to Survive a Recession

Here are a few things that you can do to stay ahead during a recession and maintain the success of your small business.

Improve Customer Service

Make sure that each and every customer gets special treatment and leaves your store or office satisfied that you have delivered much more than what was expected.

Your employees should also understand that tough times require a gentler touch and your customers need to be treated as VIPs now more than ever.

Since all your competitors may be selling the same products that you are, it will be your satisfied customers who will not only bring in repeat business, but also new customers.

Improve Your Knowledge and Skills

Now would be a good time to build on your knowledge and learn new skills regarding the technical and financial aspects of your business. Your customers should be impressed with your product knowledge.

This not only will enhance your reputation as an expert, but will also ensure that they come to you if they run into difficulties.

Control Your Expenses

Now is the time for you to tighten up the controls on all your expenses, especially those that are not crucial to keeping your business going. It certainly is not a good time to indulge in luxury items; that can wait until the situation improves.

You should also split large expenses into smaller ones so that they become more manageable. Even when purchasing inventory, try to get longer credit periods or better rates by comparing prices offered by different suppliers.

Start Accepting Payments by Credit Card

If you are dealing in consumer goods, then you probably already have a credit card machine; but if you are dealing in industrial items and do not have the ability to process credit card date, then now would be a good time to make that change.

Many of your smaller customers might need to pay you by credit card if they are experiencing a cash flow problem. Recent surveys have shown that more people are using credit cards as a way to deal with the financial downturn.

Lower Your Profit Margins

Keeping in mind that it will only be temporary, this is a good time to lower your profit margins. Notify your existing and potential customers that you are making this move.

You’re going to need more sales to make up the difference, and their goodwill is more important than ever. You can always raise your prices once the recession shows signs of easing.

Use the Power of the Internet

Use the Internet to advertise your products. In comparison to traditional media such as newspapers and television, the cost is very reasonable.

Hire experts who can ensure that your firm is always on top in product searches, and make your website attractive and interactive.

Motivate Your Staff

Your staff should be made aware of your business’ situation in the current recessionary market. They will be motivated to work extra hard to achieve the desired results, if they are convinced that their participation can save the business - and their jobs.

You should also put in extra effort and hours, so your staff will know that you are going the extra mile yourself.

Use these ideas and seek others on your own so your small business will survive the downturn. Only businesses with a solid foundation and foresight survive the inevitable bad times that go along with managing a business. You want to be one of them.

Making Money Through Internet Marketing

Make Money Through Affiliate Program


Marketing is something that a lot of people want to get in to. If you are also looking to find a job that you can do from home with complete flexibility, then you should look online. There are many different ways to have a marketing job online. You can make money through internet marketing via affiliate programs. These are programs that rely on marketing in order to make money for the merchant site and the affiliate business site.

What happens is that the affiliate site will advertise for another site and get paid for all of the traffic that is sent to that site. The affiliate site can also get paid a percentage of the purchases that the visitors make. This is called a two tier affiliate program and it makes more profit for everyone. This is because the business will get more sales and the affiliate site will get paid from those purchases. If you become an affiliate you can quickly make money through internet marketing. The great thing about this is the simplicity of these programs. In addition, you will have ultimate flexibility in your hours and you can work when it is convenient for you.

You just need to remember that effort is very important. When you are in marketing, it is important to be aggressive in order to attract people to your product. This means a lot of planning. Also, as an affiliate, you need to advertise to customers that will actually want to visit the site and buy some products. This is why you should choose to become involved with sites that are either similar or that you can w rite about on your site to promote them.

If you want to make money through internet marketing then you know a little something about that type of business. You know that it is illogical to think that you can sell any type of product. You need to get involved with products that you know will sell because that will then make you more money. This is especially true if you are part of an affiliate program that is labeled as a two tier. In this type of situation, when you are responsible for the sales of more products, you will get more money. If you really are serious about making some money, it is important to be confident that you can advertise for a product that is really going to sell.

Mobile Banking. Is It safe?

Mobile banking security in the US and all over the world.

Mobile banking (also referred to as m-banking, phone banking, SMS banking, etc.) means conducting account transactions via a mobile phone. For banks, mobile banking has become the most promising medium of reaching out to their customers because of the ability to provide services at any time or place in the world (of course, if there is cell phone reception). That’s why news headlines weekly report about new financial institutions launching mobile banking.

According to statistics, nearly 70% of Americans use a mobile phone, and the demographics of mobile phones users are much more diverse than that of Internet users. That’s why m-banking, or mobile banking, is so popular in the U.S. It opens up new opportunities for financial institutions interested in providing their services and attracting new customers.

Using comprehensive mobile technology, financial institutions can offer a wide array of different services to their customers. The basic options include bill payments, balance inquiries and transfers among accounts owned by the same person. However, many banks offer more sophisticated solutions, such as getting bank statements, receiving minimum balance alerts or even performing stock trading.

Mobile banking provides exceptional convenience for all cell phone users. There are various m-banking methods to cover different capabilities of mobile phones: text messaging, the mobile Internet, and special programs called “clients” that are downloaded to mobile devices. So even if your phone does not support Web browsing, you can still take advantage of m-banking.

Text messaging is the most popular method of mobile banking. However, its functionality is limited to two or three services. Web browser-based solutions are more sophisticated than text messaging and provide the same range of options as online banking. M-banking clients, generally created for smartphones, are the most comprehensive systems. They provide a fabulous combination of speed and functionality.

Is mobile banking safe?

The experts are very optimistic about the future perspectives of mobile banking. They think that it will grow much faster than online banking. Carrying a cell phone is much easier than carrying a laptop!

Mobile banking is generally considered safer than online banking. The main threats to online security, such as viruses, Trojans or other data-stealing software don't exist for cell phones. So the risk of being infected on a mobile phone is minimal in comparison with a PC.

The main type of scam that mobile banking users should avoid is called "Smishing." It is a variation of the e-mail phishing scam. Smishing occurs when a person posing as a financial institution sends a text message requesting personal information or a social security number. You will be asked either to click a website URL or to call a phone number that connects to automated voice response system.

The smishing message usually contains information that will definitely capture your attention. For example, you will receive a notice that you have been subscribed to a paid site, and you need to click a link to cancel this subscription. Or the thieves can write that your account has been suspended and you need to reactivate it by making a call.

The link will redirect you to a legitimate looking website where you will be asked to enter your SSN, credit card number, PIN, email address, etc. If you need to make a call, you will be connected with a legitimate sounding automated voice response system which will ask for the same pieces of information.

M-banking rules and regulations

With the rapid development of mobile banking, users have faced a very serious problem: there are no specific laws concerning this industry. The lawyers just can’t follow the pace at which mobile banking is developing.

Banks need to take into consideration regulatory and security issues involved with implementing mobile solutions. First of all, it concerns third-party vendors (such as software developers, telecommunications companies, etc.). Some of them may not have any experience handling personal financial information.

There are just a few states that require vendors providing services to a bank and its customers to license as money services businesses. That’s why it is necessary for financial institutions to evaluate the risks associated with outsourcing mobile solutions to a vendor. Banks can implement a system that will help them evaluate vendor’s capability to provide such services.
Nowadays consumer privacy is regulated under the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act, or GLBA, and the USA PATRIOT Act.

GLBA includes several acts intended to protect the consumer information from threats in security and data integrity:

• The Financial Privacy Rule controls the collection and disclosure of customer information by financial institutions and companies who receive such information. This law requires providing each consumer with a privacy notice explaining what information is collected about the consumer, where that information is shared, how that information is used, and how that information is protected.

• The Safeguards Rule obliges all financial institutions to create, impose and maintain safety measures to protect customer information. This rule applies to financial institutions that gather information as well as financial institutions that receive information from other organizations.
The companies should develop a written information security plan describing how the company is protecting consumer privacy. This rule forces financial institutions to take a closer look at how they manage private information and to analyze possible risks.

The USA PATRIOT Act, also known as the "Patriot Act", lets law enforcement agencies search financial records, telephone and e-mail communications in order to freeze terrorist funding. This act also gives the Secretary of the Treasury more authority to regulate financial transactions of foreigners.

So even though mobile banking data is encrypted, it is necessary to impose privacy requirements on vendors, because some of them might not fall within statutory requirements to keep all customer information confidential.

Mobile banking in the world

M-banking is popular not only in the U.S., but also all around the world. The reason can vary from country to country. For example, in Europe people use m-banking because the level of mobile phone penetration is very high (at least 80% of consumers use a mobile phone).

In Asian countries like India, Bangladesh, China, Indonesia, Korea and Philippines mobile infrastructure is better than the fixed-line infrastructure. M-banking can be performed by people with moderate and low income because it does not require a PC with an Internet connection (it is not a big obstacle if for people in the US and the European countries). In Latin America countries like Paraguay, Brazil, Uruguay, Venezuela, Colombia, Argentina, Guatemala and Mexico m-banking has a great success due to the same reason.

However, similar to the US, these countries do not have separate laws concerning m-banking. This industry is typically regulated by guidelines describing the banking transactions and handling personal financial information. For example, in India only the banks that have a physical presence may offer mobile payment services. Only India rupee services should be provided.

Make Money Online – The Opportunities

How To Make Money Online..Sharing The Opportunities

If you have always wanted to work from home, and you have a computer with an Internet connection, then what is stopping you? Many people make money online successfully every day, and there is absolutely no reason why you should not be one of them.

If you are not sure where to start, you may want to begin by reading up about online businesses. You do not have to spend a lot of money to learn everything that you need to know about making money online. As a matter of fact, you may not have to spend anything at all as there are tons of good, free information online (the very essence of the Internet!).

Read as much as you can, use your discernment and do your best to not get sucked into any Internet scams. If something sounds too good to be true, it probably is. You will never make money online without putting in some time and effort, so be aware that running your online business will require some work on your end.
Make Money Online Tip – Why Are Videos Excellent Teaching Tools?

As you are getting up-to-speed on your ‘make money online’ marketing skills, you may want to see what you can learn on video. Typically, a video can answer questions that you have not even had time to form. You can back-up and watch whatever sections you choose, as many times as you wish.

Once you get your basic information by doing your online research, you are probably ready for a good quality video course. Some people can learn the information they need by reading, but many others learn better by watching videos. If you are one of these people, then you may want to look at a video-based program as you are choosing your online business.

While you can discover everything that you need to know about making money online through trial and error, taking video lessons will save you time and ultimately money in mistakes that you can avoid making. This means you will set-up your business much sooner and as result you will be making money online much quicker.
Some advantages to using a video program to learn are as follows:
• It is an inexpensive way to get training.
• It is an easy and quick way to learn.
• It is easy to remember the material, because you watched how things were done.

When you are learning how to do something on your computer, it is much easier to follow a video demonstration than it is to read a list of instructions.
If you are anxious to get your online business up and running, then a video, training program may be just the perfect thing for you. It lets you cover the material fast, and you can rewind and watch whatever section you may need to until you know the material inside-out.
Once you really understand how to set up your website and get your online marketing program in motion, you will be surprised at how really simple it is to work for yourself and make money online.

Protection For Your Deposits

Perbadanan Insurans Deposit Malaysia

Dear Readers,
I thought this is a great special plan develop by Malaysian Governtment to protect the depositors in financial institution in Malaysia.

With the implementation for the Government Deposit Guarantee on 16 October 2008, PIDM now fully protects all ringgit and foreign currency deposits with commercial, Islamic and investment banks, international Islamic banks and deposit-taking development financial institutions regulated by Bank Negara Malaysia. This is a pre-emptive and precautionary measure, consistent with measures taken by neighbouring jurisdictions, to maintain financial stability. Malaysian banking system is well capitalised and profitable, and it is unlikely that the Guarantee will be called upon.

The Government Deposit Guarantee provides for additional depositor protection over and above that provided by PIDM, and will be in place until 31 December 2010. All types of depositors – whether businesses or individuals holding conventional or Islamic deposits – are fully protected on their eligible deposits.

Types of deposits and instruments protected
Deposits that are eligible for protection under the Government Deposit Guarantee include:
• Fixed deposits, current accounts, saving accounts, joint accounts and trust accounts
• Islamic deposits
• Principal guaranteed conventional structured deposits
• Foreign currency deposits
• Negotiable instruments of deposits held by non-banks

Types of deposits and instruments NOT protected
Certain deposits and instruments are not covered under the Government Deposit Guarantee. These are:
• Conventional structured products that are not principal guaranteed
• Deposits payable outside Malaysia
• Inter-bank money market placements
• Negotiable instruments of deposits held by banks
• Repurchase agreements

If you need more info about this, just visit www.pidm.gov.my

Make Money

Tips How To Make Money


With unemployment rates high and regular jobs hard to find right now, the ideas below can bring in some extra cash, whether you are unemployed or working and just trying to build up an extra savings cushion.

1. Make ad supported web site or blogs. Here is my personal favorite: make web sites on your favorite topics and put ads or affiliate links on your sites for some extra cash. A great way to get started is to use Google's blogger site, and then put their Adsense ads on your blog to generate income.

Here is an interesting link on the topic from USAToday: Google's AdSense a bonanza for some Web sites.

2. Try freelance article writing. If you aren't comfortable making your own blog, there are existing web sites where you can make money by writing articles that go on established sites. Some of the sites that operate this way are Associated Content, Hubpages and Squidoo. The advantage to putting pages on these sites is that it may be easier to get your pages to rank on an established domain as opposed to starting a new site from scratch, and you personally don't have to know any of the technology behind setting up a blog or site.

The downside is that you are writing content that is given over to someone else, and in the long run you probably won't make nearly as much money as you could as with a site of your own. Plus with your own site you have the option of selling the entire site someday.

3. Clean out your closets. Have a garage sale, take your goods to a consignment store or sell your unwanted goods online. You know the old saying, one man's trash is another man's treasure. If you can't find a buyer for your unneeded goods, at least you can donate them to a local charity like the Salvation Army or Goodwill. Then you aren't cluttering up you house with stuff you don't use, you might be helping out someone else who needs what you are not using, and depending on your income, you may be able to take a tax deduction at tax time for the fair market value of the goods.

If you are a college student, you can sell your used text books online. Often you can get a better deal than at the campus book store where they have some what of a captive market.

4. Resell items. Go to other people's garage sales, look for bargains and then resell the items online through places like eBay. We have a friend that makes a living just from reselling a certain type of exercise equipment on eBay. Another person that was featured in our local paper made a living reselling wedding dresses. It helps to specialize in one area so you get to know the market very well and get a good feel for what will sell online and for how much.

5. Go to library book sales, especially on the last day when they are trying to get rid of the books. You can often get a whole bag of books for $1 or $2. Then resell the books online through Amazon Marketplace or Ebay. The downside with this approach is that in order to turn a tidy profit you have to have a good idea in advance of what types of books sell online and for how much. Plus, library sales often attract many used booksellers so the competition for the best books is often steep. You can get an edge by becoming a library member, or better yet a volunteer, and possibly getting a chance to purchase books before they go on sale to the general public.

6. Sell handmade items. If you have a hobby such as sewing or woodworking, instead of just making items for yourself and your friends, make items to sell either at craft fairs, consignment shops or online. One of my friends is an artist and sells her oil paintings, so it gives her both a relaxing hobby and a second income. Her art supplies are all tax deductible because they are business expenses. To sell your items online, check out www.etsy.com.

7. Offer your services to others. Even if you don't have a craft type hobby, if you have a talent you can often do services for others who either don't have the skill or the time to do chores themselves. Some of my friends who are otherwise stay at home moms do services such as pet care, child care, sewing and typing for some extra money.

Tax Tip: If you are self employed, health insurance in the U.S. may be a tax deductible business expense, offsetting any business income. This means that if you have regular job and pay $300 in health insurance premiums, and a small business on the side, you may well be able to deduct an extra $3,600 a year from your taxes. Check with your accountant to see if this deduction could apply to your home business.

8. Turn Your Hobby Into a Business. Turning any hobby into a business can often "earn" extra money just from tax savings. This is due to the many tax deductions available to small business owners. Possible deductions for your home business may include deductions for a retirement plan, health and dental insurance. phone expenses, Internet connection costs, equipment such as phones and PCs, a home office, travel expenses and much more. The list is really quite extensive. For more information see the IRS Tax Guide for Small Businesses.

9. Sign up for consumer focus groups. One of our friends makes an extra few hundred dollars a month just by going to consumer focus groups. My husband made $100 a couple of years back on his lunch hour just for watching two commercials for a major software company and telling the marketing people which commercial he liked better.

10. Use or Sell Your Gift Cards. Recent news reports claim that there are billions of dollars of unused gift cards going to waste. This is a boon for retailers and a financial set back for millions of U.S. households. So dig up those old gift cards and either use them or sell them on eBay. I had a $50 Linens N Things Card I could not use because they closed their only store in my area, and their online site no longer accepted their own gift cards. Initially I was going to throw the card away but then I thought that maybe I could find a place to sell it online. I ended up putting it up for auction on Ebay where to my amazement it sold for $45 (less listing and selling fees).

Financial Stress

Financial Stress. How It Can Affects You and What You Can Do
Here's the Factors that can easily happen to us.


Financial stress is a sadly widespread experience. According to a poll conducted by About.com site, roughly 7 in 10 respondents are "very stressed" about money, and only 1 in 10 report that they are not stressed about finances — and the proportion of people stressed about money is only going up. This is pretty significant because financial stress is linked to health problems like depression and sleep problems. With the rising cost of gas and food, the mortgage crisis, and the new bank troubles we're seeing, many Americans are feeling the crunch of financial stress. Anxiety over money can negatively affect health in several ways:

1. Unhealthy Coping Behaviors: People experiencing financial stress can be more likely to numb their anxiety by drinking, smoking, overeating and practicing other unhealthy coping behaviors. This in turn leads to more stress.

2. Less Money For Self-Care: With less money in the budget, people who are already under financial stress tend to cut corners in areas like health care to pay for basic necessities like food. Small problems can go unchecked and turn into larger problems. This also leads to more stress.

3. Lost Sleep: When under financial stress, people often experience trouble sleeping, which can add up to a sleep defecit, impairing immune functioning and cognitive abilities, causing additional moodiness, and more.

4. Unhealthy Emotions: Credit card debt can cause unhealthy emotions that can take a toll on health. People can experience anxiety, frustration and a sense of hopelessness as the debt piles up and increasing amounts of money are needed just to pay the interest. This causes additional stress, which compounds with the stress from poor coping and self-neglect, to become a menacing amount of stress.
It’s no wonder financial stress is one of the leading causes of stress in Americans.

Here are some resources to help you handle your financial situation and feel more in control of your life, reducing stress and helping you build toward a more secure future:

1. Find Out Where You Stand: Do you have a major money problem, or is your situation relatively under control? Ask yourself these questions and find out how much help you need to get on the right track.

2. Learn About Implementing Systems That Can Help: Find out why budgets are important to your financial success, and learn how to create one that will fit well with your lifestyle.

3. Work Toward Getting Out of Debt: Getting out from under credit card debt is much easier with a plan. Here’s a three-step approach that can help you.

4. Learn How to Save Money and Cut Costs: Keeping a budget and working toward reducing what you owe is easier if you have more money. Here are some ways to hold onto more of yours!

As you work on improving your financial situation, you can reduce stress by practicing stress-reducing techniques and making other changes to create a low-stress lifestyle. By following the advice provided in the above links and making these lifestyle changes, the burden of financial stress can soon be a thing of the past!

Side Effect on Food Spending

How Much You Spent For Food?

One of biggest impacts the current economic recession has is on people’s spending on food expenses. People are eating out less swapping dining out in restaurants with more home-cooked meals.

In the United States of America
However, health professionals in the USA are concern about the rise in obesity levels. This is due to the people spending less on healthy and relatively expensive food like fresh fruit, fish and vegetables for cheaper food that tend to be high in sugar and saturated fats. To cut food expenditure to economize may mean eating foods that are high in sugar, saturated fats and refined grains, i.e. empty calories as they are cheaper. The advice is to pay attention to affordable and healthy food as well as a balance diet.

In Malaysia
In Malaysia, with both husbands and wives working, eating out or buying prepared food is normal. The varied choices from coffee shops, food courts, road side stalls, fast food joints and restaurants mean not getting bored with outside food. They also have the choice on how much money to spend depending on the food source. Of course coffee shop food tends to be cheaper compared to the expensive restaurants like Secret Recipe. These foods are seldom healthy compared to home-cooked meals. The good news is that for those who prefer to cook at home, fresh produces are easily available and accessible. One only has to make the choice on whether to cook at home or eat outside food.

In Japan
Japan households are also affected by the current situation. Japan homemakers have been practicing frugality and cutting back or spending less on food. The average salary is about USD2900 a month (about 270,000 yen) and being frugal has some housewives spend only USD108 on food per month. This is accomplished by having a budget, a proper meal plan and also good discipline to follow it through.

Maybe certain family has not felt a significant impact except for the rising costs of food stuffs due to the fuel price hike previously. The bad thing is that after the fuel price went down, the high price of food remains. Try to choose seldom eats out at expensive restaurants and the fast food joints but that's can be limited to once a month only. Having simple meals at home helps to save money in the long run.

10 Small Ways to Save Money That Make a Big Difference

Fact of saving money that maybe have been overlooked.

When it comes to saving, often by small, you feel almost like part of all. A little 'here and a bit' tendency to add, as drops in a bucket. What is important to remember, but when it comes to saving is that the droplets can reach a long thread, after a stream, then a torrential flow of cash.

Using such a small package to save is similar to the sticks by the story - remember the one that starts with the man easily break a single stick. Then, in the form of two or three sticks. But when given a comprehensive package of sticks, he finds it almost inflexible, much less fragile. And 'much the same with the techniques of small savings. Many seemingly insignificant saving methods combined can significantly increase their savings to immense proportions.

1. Rewarded for spending on a credit card
It might seem strange to start an article on ways to save with a subject such as credit cards. With interest rates often range from 10-20% percent (unless you get a credit card zero transfer), credit cards can be the enemy of a savings plan, but only if you leave . First, make sure you pay the balance every month to avoid the hyper-inflated interest rates. Second, get a credit card that offers a cash refund, store discounts, or other rewards and incentives, so that when they can also save.

2. Take advantage of balance transfer card
If you bring a credit card debt, so it is certainly advantageous for you to transfer balances credit cards among the papers, which lets you avoid paying interest rates broadly in balance. Make this change, with its debt, for example, a card with a balance of $ 1,000 and an interest rate of 15% to a board with a significantly lower rate or introductory 0%, can save hundreds of dollars, if no more depending on the time required to pay the balance.

3. Coupons will save you money
What happens if you saw a note engraved inside the paper Sunday? Want to take? Absolutely. However, there is a perceived lack of urgency among many of us when it comes to vouchers, which are essentially the same case. Certainly not all coupons are to save money, especially when used in products of particular brand, which are more expensive than their generic competitors, but if you compare and knows a lot, when you see one, coupons can turn small great savings in cash.

4. Start saving pennies
Hey, if it works when you were seven, can function only when you are thirty-seven. Carry everything you change the bank to become a deterrent is often enough for most people leave the pot where it is. Moreover, while all the changes that probably does not look like much, you might be surprised at how much money you get when you finally do

5. Save tax on government bonds
Putting in money that the government issued savings bonds can be a great way to save money. These investment vehicles offer a low initial investment ($ 25 is the minimum purchase Series E), a sure way to save money, and guaranteed (even if sometimes lower) returns. United States taxes on savings interest on government bonds may also be deferred until the bond is cashed, allowing your investment to grow up to 30 years tax free and, if used for educational purposes may be exempt from taxation whole .

6. Establish a monthly direct deposit to a savings account
Direct deposit can be best friends with a small shield. Diversion of part of his salary, even if only $ 20 each pay period, a separate account, you can add up to big savings in recent years. This deposit of $ 20 every two weeks is $ 520 per year, $ 5200 after ten years, and that is before you add the interest earned on the account.

7. Payroll deductions
After deleting some items from your salary before you pay is a great way to make some small savings. The use of deductions for a health plan sponsored by their employer, the retirement account or savings plan, can be a great way to save money without really realizing the loss of money. Not only is hiding in cash, but some of these deductions are before tax, saving more, especially in the long term.

8. Avoid taxes to increase their savings
There is a difference between tax avoidance and only stop for a while '. As we have seen, everything that the interest savings bond with the pay of some items may be deducted from tax deferral. Avoid taxes allow a greater portion of your money to grow, increase their savings over time, and delaying the cost of taxes for years - sometimes indefinitely. For the purchase of goods or retired, is also important to consider rates of sales and property taxes, because they can vary considerably depending on the cities, provinces, regions or states.

9. Let your savings to save
Once you've got to start saving, let your stash of work for you. Compound interest, dividends and other investment income is the money can grow without having to lift a finger. Even if sometimes the benefits are small, over time, can grow exponentially, and who can deny that the free money, no matter how small, it should get.

10. The liquidation of remnants of
Few people know how much money you have in your home, whether in the form of books, CDs, DVDs, antiques and household items. Shops Mall, retail stores and a growing number of websites offer to purchase specific products, such as books, CDs, DVDs and more. These companies have made the sale of personal items, a lucrative source of income for many. The resale of products as a great way to turn your unused items into cash.

Thinking About Car Hire-Purchase Agreements?

7 Tips About Car Hire-Purchase Agreements

These schemes aren't cheap
Just like if you finance your car through the dealer, when you use hire purchase to finance your new car it is often very expensive compared to getting an ordinary personal loan from a separate provider. To compare the total cost, ask for the ?total amount repayable? figure, and get similar comparisons with your personal-loan search.

You don't own the car yet
Hopefully you realise that with this agreement you are only hiring the car until you have made your final payment. The only benefits to this are small and probably won?t be of use to you. They are:

You can return the car once you?ve paid half the cost and can stop making further payments.
If the car is faulty and you act swiftly enough, you can pursue the company that financed the agreement (i.e. the one that paid for the car and to which you make the repayments). This is in addition to your usual route of pursuing the dealer.
The negative aspect of not owning the car is bigger. If you haven't yet paid 1/3 of the cost and you default on a payment, the finance company can simply turn up and take back their car if you?ve parked it on the road (but not from your drive or garage, although car parks are grey areas). What's more, many agreements will still require you to pay up to 1/2 of the cost of the vehicle, whether you have it in your possession or not.

If you've paid more than 1/3 the finance company must get a Return Order from the court before they are allowed to take the vehicle back.

Finally, as it's not your car it can't be protected if you're made bankrupt.

What can you do?
Here are some tips.

1. As explained, the finance company can take your car back. However, if you keep your car on private property, such as your drive or a locked garage, the company must first get a court order to do so. This is regardless of how little you?ve paid. It would certainly keep it in a garage if possible.

2. Work out if you've paid 1/3. Take into account the deposit you paid and the value of any part-exchange. If the finance company takes your car without a court order or your consent, and you?ve paid over a third, you should get a refund of all the money you?ve paid in the agreement.

3. Decide if you can you do without the car. Bearing in mind that you?re struggling with your bills, would it make more financial sense to give it up and get a cheap, reliable 2nd-hand car? (Remember, though, that you?ll probably still be obliged to pay up to half, if you haven't already done so.)
4. If you can't do without the car, make it a priority debt and pay less to other debts such as unsecured personal loans. However, don't forget your other priority debts:

Council tax (people go to prison for not paying their council tax)
Electricity and gas (don't get cut off)
Maintenance, child support and fines (to avoid going to prison)
Income tax
Rent or mortgage (to avoid losing the roof over your head)
Second mortgage (same reason)
Television licence

5. Before the court issues a Return Order, you will receive claim forms and will have the opportunity to plead your case in court. If you can offer a repayment plan that pays off the debt in a reasonable period, as well as the ongoing monthly payments, the court is likely to refuse the finance company's Return Order.

6. Always try to negotiate with the finance company first to make a plan to pay off the debt. It's not often that they'll let you pay less per month than the monthly payment was supposed to be, but it can happen.

7. Failing that, you can apply for a Time Order from the court. You use this when you're having temporary difficulties. The judge can agree that you pay reduced payments for a short while and can increase the length of the contract.

Hope these tips could help you..

Personal Finance: Don't cut 401k contributions to get instant cash

In the long run,how much you will be loss?

In the past couple of years as the economy has slowed, I have seen a variety of creative methods by people trying to cut corners to increase cash flow, from bringing their lunch to work, to clipping coupons. On occasion, I have seen a few clients contemplate cutting back, or completely stopping contributions to, their 401(k) or 403(b). Although this may seem like a good short-term strategy to increase cash flow, it has a few long-term implications that can prove detrimental.

Taxable income increases

First of all, every dollar that you contribute to your retirement account lowers your taxable income by a dollar. If you make $50,000 a year and contribute 6 percent of your salary, which is $3,000 ($50,000 x 6 percent = $3,000), you will lower your taxable income by $3,000. Therefore, if you cut back your contributions by $1,000, then you are also increasing your taxable income by $1,000. This means that your goal to increase cash flow may be short-lived. When tax time rolls around, you may end up owing more in taxes, because of the higher taxable income. This, of course, helps defeat the purpose of trying to improve your cash flow.

Losing company match

Second of all, many companies offer a company match with their retirement plans. For example, many companies match 1 percent on the first 3 percent you contribute and 0.5 percent on the next 3 percent. So if you cut back your contributions to less than 6 percent, you may be missing out on the company match. And not contributing at least enough to get the company match is, well, plain foolish in my opinion. A company match is free money to you. Why would you not take advantage of it? This is free money that will definitely help your cash flow in retirement.

Additionally, by cutting back on your retirement contributions, you are missing out on the power of compounding and the power of time. To continue with the previous example, if you lower your contributions by $1,000 year ($83.33 a month), and assume a conservative 5 percent annual return, over 20 years you will be losing out on more than $13,000 of interest.

Better think about that..

Have pity on Ruth Madoff

Have some pity on Ruth Madoff. Really…

Her fate and her wealth are on my mind because of the auction, scheduled for today, at which the U.S. Marshals Service is slated to sell off hundreds of thousands of dollars' worth of propertyseized from her and her husband, the infamous Bernie. The marshals intend to use that money to help reimburse the victims of Bernie's multi-billion-dollar Ponzi scheme.

Admittedly, looking over a list of Ruth's possessions on  the auction block, it is a little tough to feel sorry for her. With her husband's ill-gotten gains — authorities haven't accused Ruth of participating in Bernie's scheme, or even being aware of it — Mrs. Madoff certainly lived the high life. Up for sale are such items as a pair of diamond earrings expected to sell for as much as $21,400, a $23,000 bracelet, six furs, and, by my count, 49 different purses and handbags from the likes of Louis Vuitton, Hermes and Chanel. New York hasn't seen such a public display of suspect wealth on the market since the Philippine government auctioned off the contents of Imelda Marcos's Upper East Side townhouse.

But here's where my sympathy comes in: Ruth Madoff has lost it all. (Or nearly all; she's got $2.5 million left, though a court-appointed bankruptcy trustee wants that, too.) She woke up one morning in the same boat as her now-jailed husband's victims: A lot poorer than she used to be. That's a shock to the system no matter who you are. And though she would appear to live on a different planet than most of us, she's going through the same things as a lot of other people have during the economic meltdown, whether victims of a financial crimes or just unlucky.

To get a sense of what might be going on in Ruth Madoff's mind, I spoke earlier this year with a woman named Susan Bradley, the founder of a firm called the Sudden Money Institute. Bradley, who works with both individuals and their financial  advisers, helps people who are trying to adjust to financial change — mostly because they've gained wealth, but sometimes because they've lost it. In fact, Bradley, who lives in the Palm Beach area (not far from one of the Madoffs' homes) says she's done pro bono work for some of the Madoff victims.

One thing that Bradley points out is that you can't easily dismiss Ruth Madoff's plight. Yes, she did end up with $2.5 million, and yes, a lot of Ponzi victims (and the rest of us) would be wildly happy to have that kind of money. But given the Madoffs' previous standard of living, says Bradley, in which the two of them were burning through millions, $2.5 million isn't so much. "She looks at that as, 'I have one year of living left,'" says Bradley. "It's that shift that's very, very difficult for someone like her." Like her husband's victims, she's lost her peer group and her economic security; compounding her problem is the public shame and ostracism she's subjected to because of her closeness to Bernie and the economic rewards she received from him.

Bradley has some useful advice for Ruth — and for anyone who has undergone such a financial setback:

1. Address the basics. The first thing Ruth (or someone else in her situation) has to do is figure out the mechanics of her new life — where she should live, how much she's able to reasonably spend, and how she can protect the money she has left. "It's just like stabilizing an accident in medical triage," says Bradley. The process can be difficult, she acknowledges: The stress of the situation usually translates into a short attention span and terrible follow-through for people who have undergone such financial trauma. "Their decisionmaking," she says, "is erratic." But as is the case with paramedics responding to an emergency, quick action is best. Most people in this situation, she says, live in denial, believing that something will happen that will magically restore their old lives. "The magic solution is to do it fast and make deep cuts," she says.
2. Mind your health. Remember to exercise, says Bradley. Eat well. Keep a daily routine. Many people in this situation, she says, gain or lose dramatic amounts of weight.
3. Find a purpose. You need something that makes your days worthwhile, she says. Volunteer. Help someone who is worse off than yourself. Get what Bradley calls a "helper's high."
4. Feel gratitude. "You've got to switch your attention from what's wrong to what's right," says Bradley. "Even if only ten percent of your life is working well, that's where your attention needs to go." She adds, "It may sound impossible that Ruth Madoff can wake up in the morning and feel grateful, but more extraordinary things have happened in the world."

What do you think?

SMS scams cleaning out consumers' bank accounts

Beware Of SMS Scams

Recently, various type of scams are coming to us.

State authorities are urging consumers to think twice before providing their mobile number for contest entries or for other marketing purposes.

The public is being warned of text messages that are being sent to consumers claiming their debit or credit card account has been suspended.

Apparently, consumers should be cautious when receiving messages like this because it maybe a scam.

The text messages give a phone number that consumers are supposed to call, where they answer questions regarding their accounts only to find money missing afterwards.

Wisconsin's Brown County had two people that fell for the scam last week.

Authorities are advising consumers to ignore the messages and contact the creditors or banks directly with any worries.

Wisconsin isn't the only state being hit by these types of scams.

A texting scam has hit local residents in North Carolina as well.

In fact, the North Carolina Attorney General's Office is now investigating this issue.

Like the Wisconsin scam, people in North Carolina are receiving messages that request they call a specific phone number about their accounts.

These phishing scams appear as if they are from a legitimate organization and ask for a person's personal financial information.

North Carolina state officials said that thousands of people have reported getting these types of messages.

Additionally, scam artists are sending out text messages trying to get credit card information in the tri-state area as well.

The scam text message targeting New Yorkers asks consumers to call a number because their credit card has been locked.

Anyone who received such messages is asked not to provide any personal information. Victims should call their credit union's call center at 888-732-8562.

Consumers should be suspicious of text messages from a bank that come out of the blue, without the consumer initiating a request.

In fact banks and creditors don't send text messages to report a security breach. Consumers usually get a direct call or something in writing.

To avoid falling victim to text messaging scams consumers should be selective about giving their mobile number out.

Also, consumers have to make sure they know who a communication is from before they respond to a number or a Web address included in a text message.

This could help avoid the download of malicious software and being hooked into a scam.

Consumers who get one or more unsolicited text messages should automatically report the problem to their wireless carrier.

So if you receive message that told you have won some cash or something like that, delete the messages, otherwise your bank accounts will be deleted!