I thought I’d wrap this week up with a quick review of what we’ve covered so far this month and also what we’re going to be talking about in the next few weeks in the March Money Month.

In the last week we’ve talked mainly about debt, the week before we looked at what it meant to be rich and what it all means.  Specifically we’ve looked at:

What it means to be rich

A book review of rich dad poor dad

The secrets of getting rich

The differences between good and bad debt and how to control bad debt

A Book review of  I will teach you to be rich

and finally, Are you going to retire rich or are you going to retire dead?

Next week we’re going to talk about controling your spending and then we’re going to cover savings and investments and lifehacking your finances.

We’re going to close the month by looking at a special challenge which you can join in with…more on this in a couple of weeks.

So, what have you done in March is Money Month? Let us know in the comments below.

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Yesterday I was reading my Twitter Feed when I spotted a link on @breakingnews quoting a story on CNN Money that 43% of Americans have less than $10k saved towards retirement

The CNN story refers to a survey, conducted by the Employee Benefit Research Institute, that’s just been released which also said that 27% of Americans have less than $1000 towards retirement. (I’m assuming thus 27% is included in the 43% as that would be catastrophic)

The fact of the matter is that less and less people are saving for retirement (dropping from 75% of Americans to 69% in 2009). Which will end up forcing people to have to work much longer into the traditional retirement years.

Sure, the economy has a lot to do with this but also to quote the survey’s co-author Jack VanDerhei:

“People just don’t want to think about this,” said VanDerhei. “Everybody thinks they’re too young to think about it, until suddenly they’re too old to do anything about it.”

The point is that this is not something you can put off.  The earlier you start saving towards retirement, the less you have to save each month, thanks to the power of compounding (interest earned is also subject to earning interest).

Consequently the converse of this is also true. If you start late, then you have to save to save more and you may have to radically re-address retiring to live on yacht.   The truth of the matter is, that if you don’t start saving towards your retirement then you could be facing that you might be working until your mid 70’s to make ends meet.

You need to think about the sort of expenses that you’re like to experience when you reach retirement age. Will you have paid your debts off then? What are you planning to do with your time when you retire?

Financial planners suggest that you should be aiming for saving a fund to provide the equivalent of 80% of your pre retirement income.

Which may well translate into saving between 6-10% of your income towards your retirement. But of course that all depends on how old you are and the lifestyle you want to live.

No matter how old you are, you need to do something and do it regularly.

What’s your plans for retirement?

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I Will Teach You To Be Rich

March is Money Month and the Wednesday Wisdom’s during the month of March are dedicated to the personal finance books which have shaped my life and will undoubtedly help you. In terms of return, these books have paid for themselves many times over and that’s why you should add these books to your reading list now.

The subject of this week’s Wednesday Wisdom is I Will Teach You To Be Rich by Ramit Sethi:

This is the newest book in my personal collection around personal finance, primarily because I’d read some of Ramit’s guest posts on blogs such as the 4 Hour Work Week and have followed Ramit on Twitter for a little while.

This post refers to the UK version of this book which came available in paperback in January this year.

The book is essentially structured around a 6 week programme designed to ‘teach you to be rich’. The reality is, and let’s get this straight right at the start, is that you aren’t going to be rich at the end of 6 weeks.

But what you will be, in this easy to read, action orientated guide is well on the way to setting the foundations to becoming rich.

As Ramit points out, being rich may be cool, but getting rich is not. Or as Ramit put’s it

“Would you rather be sexy or rich?”

Ramit aim’s this book at University/college leavers but there’s lessons to be learnt for everyone. Basically the key lesson, which we’ve been talking about a lot in this special series of posts, is that the earlier you start to get your finances in order, the richer you will be.

The main point though is that you can’t keep making excuses if you want to be rich, you’ve got to take control of your actions and take responsibilty for the situation you’re in.

Ramit’s straight forward approach is to stop paying fees on things like credit cards and bank accounts and get out of debt as quickly as possible in order to maximise your monthly cashflow available for savings or investments.

He talks about being aware of your spending (not budgeting) but understanding where your money goes so you can be ruthless in controlling the amount of money you have to save or invest.

I can teach you to be rich doesn’t ask you to spend hours dealing with your finances but talks about automating as your finances as possible, so that you can save money whilst you’re sleeping.

One very useful thing which I picked up is to have savings goals. If you have a goal (ie saving for a wedding) then you are more likely to save for the cost of this event if your earmark your spending for it. For example if you’re saving to get married in 2 years and you expect the wedding to cost £10k, then you need to be saving £416 a month (or £14 a day). That way, if you normally go out 3 times a week and spend £30 a time, that’s almost a week of savings towards your wedding. Still want to go out 3 times a week?

This book is a good ‘operations manual’ for setting yourself up for financial future and will no doubt lead you to becoming rich.

If you want to add this to your reading list, you can order the book from Amazon at 42% off at £7.49 by clicking the link below:

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This is the second part of a two part post on controlling debt, which is the first step to finanicial freedom.

In the first post we looked at the  difference between Good Debt and Bad Debt, in part two we look at strategies for dealing with bad debt.  If you missed the first part of the post you can catch up here : Good Debt and Bad Debt

In this post we look at the strategies for dealing with ‘bad debt’

Dealing with ‘Bad Debt’

If you want to know the difference between good debt and bad,  for the purposes of this post we’re defining good debt as debt used to purchase things that go up in value such as a house or fund education which enables you to get a better job.  Whereas bad debt is used to purchase things that typically go down in value such as a TV, a car a stereo or an iPod.

However you can’t take control of what you spend unless you know how much you owe.  You can download a free Debt Template to help you with this task here.  Get all your credit card statements (open the envelopes) and be honest with yourself. Now is not the time to ignore the pile of unopened envelopes on the kitchen worktop.

Go on do it now. The quicker you start the quicker you can take control.

Finished it? Well done. You’ve just taken control.

To  take control of your finances we have to ruthlessly eliminate debt.

This post assumes that you can afford to make your monthly payments, and you aren’t in arrears. If you are experiencing problems paying your debt or are in arrears, you need to take professional advice.  In the UK you can try National Debtline or in the US The Federal Trade Commission (If US readers have better sources of Free advice, please let us know in the comments section below).

The first step is to stop adding to the debt. Put your credit cards away (take them out of your wallet or purse) or cut them up, just don’t go buying anything on them you can’t afford.

If you only pay just the minimum payment  of your credit card each month it will not only take you longer to pay it off but cost a fortune in interest payments.  For example if you spend £250/$250 on a new iPod and pay the minimum amount each month (£5/$5) , it will take 9 years to pay off and cost you £290/$290 in interest (at 20%).  I don’t know about you, but I don’t fancy having a 9 year old iPod.

Now as you will see from the debt spreadsheet, some debt costs more than others. Now there’s two schools of thought here about which debt to pay off first:  1) pay the most expensive debt first 2) pay the smallest debt first (that way it gives you a psychological boost when you’ve paid it off).

Financially, it obviously makes the most sense to pay the more expensive debt first until it’s paid off then moving to the next most expensive. But, it doesn’t matter which one of these strategies you follow, just as long do something and the sooner you do it, the quicker you will pay it off. Obvious yes, but you can make dramatic differences just by paying small amounts off:

Ways to knock months off your credit card bill

If you pay just 10% more than the minimum payment each month then you will reduce the time it takes to pay for the iPod in the above example,   from 108 months to 85.  That’s right, nearly 2 years.
Fix the amount you pay on your credit card. So if the minimum payment is £50 / $50 per month, contact your bank and set up a regular payment for £50/$50.  Because If you pay just the minimum payment, then you will be reducing the amount of money you’re paying back each month as the balance reduces. Locking in your payment will compound the effect of your payments and reduce your debt much more quickly.
Although charged monthly, your credit card applies interest daily. So instead of paying the amount you would normally pay at the end of the month, divide it into to 4 and make the payment each week.

As you pay one credit card, roll the payment from that credit card and increase the payments on another card by the same amount.

Similarly, if you get a pay rise or extra income you weren’t expecting then use that extra amount towards your debt but avoid any temptation to go and spend it on something you fancy.

So, how have you dealt with debt?

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In The Secrets of Becoming Rich we talked about the six steps to creating a solid foundation to build your wealth. In case you’ve not read the six steps, you can catch up here.

This post is part one of a two part post looking at controling your debt.

In this post specifically, we’re going to look at the difference between Good Debt and Bad Debt, in part two we look at strategies for dealing with bad debt.

Good Debt v’s Bad Debt

The secret to long term financial freedom is similar to going on a diet. We all know that in order to loose weight we need to eat less and exercise more, and yet, diet books frequently top the bestseller lists. As people look for the quick fix to go from overweight to athlete.

With our finances it’s about spending less and saving more. If it only it were all so simple, we’d have washboard abs (a six-pack) and be millionaires, sadly it’s a touch more complicated in reality.

In recent years the economy, both in the UK and US, has grown due to people remortgaging their houses and using them like a cash point or ATM.  The abundance of easy credit deals and over willingness of banks and other lenders to give you money means that, chances are, you’ve bought stuff on finance.  Sadly many people have financed credit by getting more credit.  Debt on top of debt. A kind of debt pyramid if you like.

With credit deals disappearing faster than a stripper’s clothes, the party is over for many people especially as global interest rates start to rise and the employment situation worsens, meaning that the ability to repay debt becomes more difficult.

Just like we know eating chocolate bars is not good for your health or spending money on Jimmy Choo’s is not good for the bank balance, yet we still do it. it’s all part of being human and being subjected to TV or magazine adverting and peer group pressure.  I read recently that if your friends are overweight , you are also more likely yourself to be over weight.  Therefore it follows that if your friends are in debt, then there’s every likelihood that your friends will also be in debt.
In this post we look how you can stop being a follower and be a financial athlete!

So how do we do we do this?

Chances are you have some debt.    Some of it will be debt that some personal finance pundits refer to as good debt (used to finance assets which go up in value  e.g. a house or fund your education which enables you to get a better higher paying job) from bad debt (assets which go down in value such as a TV, Stereo or car).

So, not all bad debt is bad.

The answer is it’s how you use it.

For example, I have a loan on a sofa. Generally speaking, that would be bad debt, except that it’s a 4 year interest free loan from the shop I bought it. I had budgeted for the amount and I could afford the monthly payment.

Secondly, the use of credit cards gives you an interest free loan, so as long as you pay the credit card in full at the end of each month, the use of credit cards and the like is no big deal.

In some situations, the use of credit cards for larger purchases gives you some consumer protection as the credit card company will be responsible in the event of any problems with the retailer who provided you with the goods and services.

Again credit cards can be good if you get rewards such as cash backs or rewards every time you use them. I’ve just had a few days away in New York, with the flights paid for with air miles.  But the important thing is to only have a credit card reward scheme if it’s worth something to you.   There’s absolutely no point in getting credit cards for the air miles if you never fly anywhere.

Equally, you should not have a credit card which charges you a membership fee unless the benefits of membership far outweigh the costs. For example ‘free’ life and travel insurance, access to airport lounges etc. If these benefits are things that you would use and you cancel the expenses you are paying for these services, then maybe they could be worthwhile.

So, that’s an overview of good debt v’s bad debt.   In part 2 we will look at strategies for dealing with reducing your debt.

What do you think?

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How to make your millions…

Making money is quite a simple process in theory, but like all the best journeys the road is not always straight forward.

In this post we look at the 6 steps to financial success, which will be covered in more detail in separate posts over the rest of the month.

There is no easy way to get rich. Well, not unless you discount winning the lottery or inherriting a fortune. Getting rich

1. Control debt
2. Ruthless control spending on things not important to you
3. Start saving
4. Start investing
5. Stat a pension
6. Start a business

Control your debt

Many of us have debt, either in the form of credit cards, student loans or mortgages. By debt I’m refereing to the debt that you fund your purchases on. Namely credit cards, store cards and personal loans.

Chances are that these have been taken out to fund purchases, which maybe you don’t use anymore or maybe you can’t fit in to those nice designer clothes now?

Sadly many of us are still paying for things they’ve bought, long after they’ve forgotten that they ever had them.

So, consequently the first step to becoming rich is to be rigourous with how you clear this debt. Many people will realise that if you just pay the minimum balance, it will take years to clear the debt. It’s all very well for some bright spark to say pay more than the minimum amount, but if you really can’t afford any more than the minimum payment, then it’s no great help. In later posts we will challenge if this is really true.

What a lot of people don’t realise though is that you don’t just have to pay your credit card once a month. There’s nothing stopping you splitting your minimum payment into 4 and paying it weekly. Or fixing the amount you pay rather than the minimum percentage demanded by the credit card company.

Spend money on the things you love

This is not a series of posts about telling you to cut back on your morning Starbucks or cancelling the paper. It’s about looking at what you spend your money on and radically cutting back on the things that aren’t important to you. For example, I like living in my house but I’m not particularly bothered who supplies my electricity as long as when I switch on the light it lights up.

If it’s not important to you have a big house, live in a smaller one, or get a lodger.

Start saving

The secret to being rich is to start saving as early and as regularly as possible. For example if you save £100 per month for 10 years then you’ll have £12,000 (c$20k) and that’s not even accounting for interest.

Start investing

Similarly, the earlier you start investing, the earlier you’ll start to reap the rewards for your efforts. The long term average of the UK Share indexes is s retrun of around 8%. The earlier you get started, the longer this will have to take effect and deliver substantial returns.

FREE Money – Start a Pension

Many employers offer pension schemes which although have had some bad press over recent years are effectively a source of free money to you. This is not only because the Government provides tax incentives for you to save into a pension, but quite often the employer will provide an additional contribution or matching for what you put in it. Put another way, if someone was giving you money, would you say “no thank you?”

Start a business

Once you have the basics provided for, you can look at other opportunities to generate additional income for you which maybe starting a business in your spare time or investing in rental properties.

Building the foundations first will help you get rich and build a sustainable base for yourself and your family.

So, what do you think?

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Rich Dad Poor Dad

March is Money Month and the Wednesday Wisdom’s during the month of March are dedicated to the personal finance books which have shaped my life  and will undoubtedly help you.   In terms of return, these books have paid for themselves many times over and that’s why you should add these books to your reading list now.

The subject of this week’s Wednesday Wisdom is Rich Dad Poor Dad:

Rich Dad Poor Dad by Robert Kiyosaki has the subtitle ‘What the rich teach their kids – that you can learn too’.  So that’s quite a big claim to live up to.

I don’t know if the lessons in Rich Dad Poor Dad are ones that rich do teach their kids, but there are some very useful lessons here for either the rich or those aspiring to be rich.  The book tells the story of Kiyosaki as a young boy learning the lessons from two dads; a rich one and a poor one.  The poor one of course is a regular parent, works hard all his life working as a University lecturer, whilst the rich father, the dad of his friend, runs his own businesses.  It reads more as a novel rather than a stuffy personal finance book, which means you can read it in a couple of evening.s

The book focuses on 6 main lessons, which as they were being explained to a nine year old are incredibly simple, but don’t make the mistake of assuming they have no relevance to either a 12 year old or an 40 year old. The lessons learnt will change your life.

Here’s the 6 lessons;

1. The rich don’t work for money
2. Why teach financial literacy?
3. Mind your own business
4. The history of taxes and the power of corporations
5. The rich invent money
6. Work to learn – Don’t work for money

At face value these lessons don’t sound that sexy. Which I think is part of the appeal. These lessons are entirely practical and you can apply them quickly and simply.

For example, in lesson 1 Kiyosaki says;

“The pattern of get up, go to work, pay bills, get up, go to work, pay bills… their lives are then run forever by two emotions, fear and greed. Offer them more money and they continue the cycle by also increasing their spending. This is what I call the Rat Race.”

Sound familiar?

He then goes on to explain how he and his friend Mike set up their own comic book business and how rich dad was so pleased that by not getting paid for working in rich dad’s store, they were forced to use their imaginations to identify opportunities to make money. By starting their own businesses, the comic book library, they were in control of their own finances, not dependent on an employer. They had learnt that as their business generated money, even when they were not physically there, they learned the lesson of having money work for them.

The other key lessons explain the differences between assets and liabilities and explains the importance of cash flow. In other chapters he talks about the difference between earning money through corporations (LLC’s in the US and Ltd companies in the UK) and earning a salary via an employer.  For example, in my work as an interim manager, my travel expenses to and from client premises are deducted from income, before I pay taxes. If I was an employee, then the travel expenses would be paid after I had taxes deducted.

This book makes you look at things in a completely different way to what you thought to be true and I changed a number of my behaviours as a result.

Read this book, it really will increase your wealth. If you have children lend them a copy, better still get them their own copy. The sooner you read this book you will singularly improve your finances.  Quite simply the lessons here aren’t taught in school or University or professional accounting course so the sooner you learn them, the better off you will be.

You can buy the book from Amazon here at 39% off at only £5.46. Add it to your book shelf.

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We have all heard the term rich. But what does it all mean?

There are books on how to get rich, classes  or internet articles on how to get rich that are headed by someone who can show you an easy way to get rich, rich people willing to drop advice on how to get rich, and many other schemes that guarantee you will get rich fast.

Getting rich is one of the main goals of most people, and while it is never easy, there are some sensible techniques that will increase your chances of getting rich.

To become rich, first of all you have to start with understanding what it all means. Here are the steps to uncovering what rich means to you.

Steps

1. Define “rich”. It’s one of those subjective words that everyone uses but no one defines. What are your standards for being rich? In other words, what do you envision when you think about being rich? This can be different for everyone. Usually it whittles down to a few common goals:
   • Prestige. For many people, the idea of getting rich is tied to getting respect. It’s not so much about how much money you have, but about maintaining a luxurious standard of living–exotic vacations, nice cars, swimming pools, etc.
   • Retirement. Some people want to get rich so that they never have to work another day in their lives. In this case, the standard of life one wishes to maintain once retired is critical to understanding how much money is needed to get rich.
2. Keep your eyes and ears open. All the time interesting people and chances appear and disappear. Get a feeling when to step forward and when to wait.
3. Delay purchases. If you’re looking for information on how to get rich, then you’re probably not rich right now, and there’s a reason for that.Are you spending money on things that won’t get you rich? Are you sticking with a job that doesn’t make that much money to begin with? In order to get rich, you’re going to have to give up some of the things you enjoy doing now, so that you can enjoy those things without restriction later. For example, you might like having free time, so you give yourself a few hours a day to do nothing. But if you were to invest those few hours into getting rich, you could work towards having 20 years of free time (24 hours a day!) with early retirement. What can you give up now in exchange for being rich later?
   • Cut expenses
   • Get a job that pays more or get a promotion
   • Downgrade or give up your car
   • Downgrade your apartment or house
   • Reallocate your spare time
4. Invest. Once you’ve stockpiled your savings, start thinking of ways to invest it. This is where your definition of “rich” really comes in handy. If you’re looking for prestige, for example, a good investment would be education. Save up enough money to attend an Ivy League school and obtain a degree in something that will make decent money but, more importantly, earn great respect (doctor, lawyer, dentist, any kind of professional). If your goal is to retire early, on the other hand, invest that money in stocks, bonds, or other vehicles of investment that will give you an annual return on investment (ROI) that’s enough to maintain you in your retirement.For instance, if you have one million dollars invested and you get a reliable 7% ROI, that’s $70,000 per year! Invest in relatively stable assets – rental properties or potential development land in steadily growing areas is a good example. Put your money not in luxuries that will be worth nothing in a couple of years (a fancy car, for example), but in things that will increase in value over time, and that will earn you supplementary income in the interim.
5. Stay rich. It’s hard to get rich, but it’s even harder to stay rich. Your wealth is always going to be affected by the market, and the market has its ups and downs. If you get too comfortable when times are good, you’ll quickly drop back to square one when the market hits a slump. If you get a promotion or a raise, or if your ROI goes up a percentage point, don’t spend the extra–save it for when business is slow and your ROI goes down two percentage points.

At the Big Red Tomato Company, we recommend to all our clients the ebook Think and Grow Rich which gives an excellent insight into how millionaires think and what you can do to change your mindset to think like a millionaire. You can purchase the eboook Think and Grow Rich for only $7 which is downloaded instantly as a PDF.

• Surround yourself with self-made millionaires. Learn from them. It’s been said that “like attracts like”. Get all the information you can about how rich people started making big money and what they are doing now. You can learn the secrets of millionaires in Think and Grow Rich.
• Every night before you go to bed, empty all of your spare change (coins in particular) into a jar. This takes time but after about one year you may have at least $150 saved up in coins.
• If money is burning a hole in your pocket for something specific (a new car, for instance, when your current model works fine), force yourself to wait a month before buying. Ask a family member or very trusted friend to hold your money for you if it’s that much of a temptation. Spend time considering the real cost of what you want to buy, the pro’s and con’s, how much it will set you back in your aspirations versus the immediate satisfaction, and how that money might be put to better use. If you still can’t live without it after a waiting period, it’s yours, but often you will find that an immediate desire looks less and less attractive once you stop and think about it.
• If you find yourself wanting something big to gratify you immediately, divert yourself with a small indulgence rather than giving in to the large one. Walk away from the designer suit or purse, but on your way home, buy an ice cream cone or catch a movie instead. The $8 cinema ticket is a lot less expensive than the $800 handbag, but gives you the same feeling of doing something “just for you.”
  

  Warnings

  • Get rich quick schemes are invariably scams. Avoid them. There is no such thing as free money unless you inherit it. Then you must handle it wisely, or you will lose that as well.As there is no free lunch, nothing can be obtained without struggling for it.The best way to get rich quickly is having a plan and able to implement the plan successfully, if possible with a team that is well experienced and interested in helping you.

  Original article provided by wikiHow, a wiki how-to manual and edited by The Big Red Tomato Company. Please edit this article and find author credits at the original wikiHow article on How to Get Rich. All content on wikiHow can be shared under a Creative Commons license.

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Making The Most of Your Money

By now many of you who set yourself goals or made New Year’s Resolutions have either forgotten them or are struggling to achieve them.

This month, we are dedicating the whole of the month to making the most of your money, for two reasons:

1. To provide encouragement for you to acheive your goals
2. In the UK it is the end of the Government’s tax year on 5 th April and this gives the opportunity to start the new tax year in control.

In this month of posts we will be publishing articles on:

1. How to be rich
2. Getting your finances in order
3. Where does the money go?
4. Setting a budget
5. Life hacking your finances

In February, we started a weekly round up of the most actionable articles we’ve found in the last week and have called the feature Wednesday Wisdom. During March will be adding reviews of some really useful books which I think you should read. (don’t worry, they won’t be about accounting!)

We will also be setting a special challenge at the end of March, which if you follow the challenge, there’s every chance you’ll cover the cost of this years summer holiday, but more of that later in the month.

We’ve never dedicated a month of post to one topic before, so this is an exciting project for us. Normally of course, we post around entrepeneurship and leadership, Lifestyle and Making a difference. Although, strictly speaking having more money in your pocket is likely to cover all three areas!

These articles are aimed at everyone, regardless of where you are. It’s about re-energising your finances and making a difference – to you.

I hope you enjoy this special month of posts.

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From time to time we feature guest posts from cool people changing the world one step at a time. At the the end of January we announced that 6aliens.com writer Ben Lumley would be taking a regular slot here on the last Friday of each month with a series on How to Make A Difference.

If you don’t already know Ben, you can learn more about him over at his site, 6aliens.com and why not connect with him on Twitter @6aliens or if you liked this article then why not subscribe to his RSS Feed?

In the first of Ben’s regular articles, he looks at How to Make A Difference Using Twitter, over to you Ben:

If you’re running a business, whether an online or offline one or you’re trying to promote a website or blog then Twitter is a big deal. The social media phenomenon has been around for a while now but if you’re not used it or even heard of it before then don’t worry. Twitter is simply a way of communicating to a massive (worldwide) audience by the medium of status updates of no more the 140 characters.

Twitter is used by a lot of people in a variety of different ways. Some people are there for personal reasons letting anyone from anywhere around the world follow what they’re up to. Others are using it to promote their business or website/blog by providing people with links to their own web pages. Some people even use Twitter to help them to become President of the United States.

There are a few important things that you should do to make a difference when using twitter whether you’re using it for personal or professional reasons.

Have a conversation

Twitter was originally created for one simple reason; to allow people to update each other with what they were doing and to let them have a simple conversation online. The funny thing about a conversation is that it is two-way. You need to be both talking and listening in order to have one.

Strike up a conversation with your followers. Ask them how they are? Respond to something that they’ve said. Respond to a question that they have asked you (this is a really big one by the way).

Whatever you do, engage with your followers and the people you follow. Start a conversation.

Be personal but not too personal

So you’re happily tweeting away and feeling like you’re having great conversations. You start to wish that you could come up with great random updates like the ones you see from some of those really cool users you follow. That’s great! Going off on a tangent is a good thing from time to time. It keeps people on their toes and the ears pricked up.

But that doesn’t mean you should get too personal. Seriously, no one wants to know about that embarrassing operation you just had or the fact that you bodily functions are in order. They don’t want to know your extremist views on things and they especially aren’t interested in how your cat looks like Hitler.

Bear in mind with Twitter you’re building a brand. That may be a personal brand or it could be a business brand. Either way you need to rein in those tweets that give us all way too much information.

Would you like to receive spam?

There’s a pizza place up from where I live that’s constantly sticking menus through my door. Now I love pizza, just thinking about it now is making me hungry but honestly the pizza at this place is the WORST I’ve ever eaten. Yet even though I never go in their shop anymore they still spam my letter box with stuff I’m not interested in and have already read once. It’s beyond annoying.

We all hate spam. So how do you think people feel when you repeatedly ram the same message out in to their Twitter feeds ever hour? There’s no need. That kind of forcible advertising doesn’t get you anywhere. You’ll put off more people than you bring in via Twitter if that’s your approach.

Remember everything in moderation.

Add value

If you really want to make a difference on Twitter go past the normal “I’m on a train to X, the man next to me smells” tweet and begin to add value. Let people know about that great blog post that you just read which completely blew your mind. Share to your followers some insightful quotes or thoughts on a particular topic in your niche. Confess to a recent mistake you made even if it only effected a small group of people.

The Twitter users out there that are really good, not necessarily popular like some of the celebrities are, but are good neither the less are the ones who add value. They share the things that they know will make people sit there and go “wow!” You can do the same you just have to put a bit of thought in to what you doing and try and rise above the masses.

So….

Twitter is such a massive phenomenon. If you’re looking to build up any kind of brand, Twitter is definitely somewhere that you should be doing it. But you need to be conscious when using it. You can make a difference on Twitter to a lot of different from all around the world, you just need to think about how you personally can do that. Until next time….

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