Scratching out a living

Cheap alternatives to expensive items

2010-03-11T15:47:00.000-08:00

Everyone wants to save money but from experience I also know there are some items we each choose not to scrimp on. Take for example my husband who will only eat Heinz ketchup, it has to be that brand or he will not touch it. I have been often tempted to buy a cheaper brand of ketchup and just put it into a Heinz container. I know women who will only buy a certain brand of cosmetics or hand cream

Some things save you money and others simply don't

2010-03-10T21:24:00.000-08:00

How many gizmos have you bought or had installed in your home that were purported to save you money? I am currently looking up at my ceiling fans that came with the house that are suppose to save us money on our energy bill, but quite frankly I rarely turn them on. I know I was warned a few years ago not to install those thick air filters that filter out even the smallest micron in our heating

Are you getting spam comments on your blogs yet?

2010-03-10T20:57:00.000-08:00

Many new bloggers have their blogs set to automatically approve comments. That is usually just fine in the beginning of a new blog since it has no PageRank yet. Just wait until your blog starts to get some visitors. Your comments will run the gambit from, "I like your blog," to people trying to sell you advertising on their websites or "we can get your blog listed with 500 search engines." All of

Making lemonaid from blogging assignments

2010-03-09T07:59:00.000-08:00

If you ever join one of those paid to blog companies that give you nothing but assignments about "the best website hosting company," or "diets that work," type of blog posts for you to write about but your blog has nothing to do with those subjects, don't fret but do what I did. For some odd reason I kept getting dieting posts to write about so instead of turning down good money from those offers

Using your blog post title to attract the search engines

2010-03-05T15:37:00.000-08:00

Notice how I just put the whole idea of this blog post in the title sentence? That was to get the search engines attention. If you are writing blog posts to get people to visit your blog, you HAVE to use the correct words in your title that people can search on. If you are writing a blog post about the cure for hemorrhoids, don't title your blog post "I had a bummer of a evening." Then talk about

Where to put your investment money

2010-03-05T14:51:00.000-08:00

With the stock market doing a roller coaster ride and real estate not yet recovered, where do you put your money as an investment? I have heard everything from loose diamonds, bars of gold to green technology.In reality, my personal opinion is that real estate is still a good investment provided you don't have a loan on the property. Buying rentals makes for a good steady income, again...only if

The government and health care

2010-03-03T21:23:00.000-08:00

Are you as sick as I am when it comes to hearing about the utter fiasco of the US government and that health care bill? The ones who are arguing about it have health care they can afford. The rest of us worry about deductibles that won't leave us with hair loss, from pulling our hair out or an unpleasant visit to bankruptcy court. Did you know that the majority of bankruptcies are not dead beats

Have nothing to sell online? Sell other people's stuff

2010-03-02T08:53:00.000-08:00

Did you know that most people are making money by selling or promoting other people's stuff online? That my dear reader is where the big bucks are at. Take for example some of the top bloggers on the internet. They are expert salesmen and women. They know how to convince their readers to part with a few extra dollars. One of the top bloggers that makes over $80K a year does not make most of his

A wireless society

2010-03-02T08:26:00.000-08:00

I wondered how long it would take for our society to become completely wireless and it looks like we will be there in the next 10 years. With new inventions like that handheld device charger that you simple lay the phone, iPod or little gizmo on and it charges the device, how much longer will it be that we wouldn't even need wall sockets in our home? We have wireless security systems, cameras

My heating bill

2010-02-24T16:24:00.000-08:00

I just got my heating bill. We have an entirely electric house so there is only one bill for heating and electric. Most of the time in the winter we have a nice wood stove that heats up the entire house so we rarely turn on the heater. This winter we had several days that were cool but not cold enough to warrant making a fire. During those days I just turned on the heater but had it set a 66

How I make money with a blog that has no PageRank and only 3 visitors a day

2010-02-18T10:57:00.000-08:00

When I first started blogging I use to think that I need either PageRank or traffic to my blog to earn money. At least that is what all the blogger gurus were saying. Since then I have learned otherwise. It is no secret that I do paid blogging on my 6 active blogs. When I first started with those paid blogging companies I learned what they were looking for - cheap back links to the advertisers

Another blog bites the dust

2010-02-18T08:58:00.000-08:00

Why is it that almost every blog I become a follower of slowly dies and fades away. I was just looking at some of the many blogs that I follow through blogger and noticed an ever growing number of them that have not been updated in 3 or more months. Did they just get fed up with blogging? Where they sick and tried of getting paid to write about hemorrhoid treatments, plastic surgery and other

Health insurance - what were they thinking?

2010-02-16T15:27:00.000-08:00

If you are a women who has had a baby or ever had to deal with women's medical issues then you might want to lend a ear to this little post. When I just got married over 20 years ago the medical insurance coverage that I had through my employer was considered one of the best in the country. The only problem with it was the fact that they would not pay for birth control pills. They would pay for

A law to protect employees I would like to see

2010-02-15T22:10:00.000-08:00

It's rough being an employee nowadays. Fear of losing a job if you have one. If you are unemployed - having to resort to becoming a temporary worker. Among the world of workers I think that the temp worker has the short end of the employment stick. I have been a temp worker for 2 jobs in the past. One of those jobs lasted 2 years. It was 2 years of being treated like a sub-worker. I was not

Is your last name Johnson? Free tax software for you!

2010-02-15T18:08:00.000-08:00

This is a Sponsored Post written by me on behalf of eSmart Tax. All opinions are 100% mine. Have you done your federal taxes yet? If you haven't already heard you can file electronicly now for free.There are a few companies that were doing it last year but you had to have an income under a certain amount. This year you can file for free with eSmart Tax and you can even get their deluxe version

A sure sign that your blog is becoming famous

2010-02-15T09:29:00.000-08:00

As many of you know, this is not my real money making blog. I have about 10 blogs altogether and 2 of them are my money earners. This blog is where I report to you about the ups and downs of earning money with your blog. Those 2 blogs that do earn the lions share of money have been around for about 4 years now (WOW does time fly) and each of them earn money in a different way. One of them I write

Using scare tactics to sell us something

2010-02-15T08:56:00.000-08:00

How often have you seen an ad that plays on our fears? Is it everyday? Think about it........how many ads did you see today about insurance? Those companies use the ploy that something bad WILL happen one day. Of course they want you to pay lots of money to them just to prepare for that one day. Even state governments have laws that you must carry drivers liability insurance, which of course is

Backyard money making ideas

2010-02-12T18:46:00.000-08:00

If you are as old as me then you would have come across those home spun money making businesses that used to be advertised in the small ads in the back of magazines. I am talking about worm farming, raising fish in a backyard pool, repairing lawnmowers and a few other assorted "brilliant" ideas.I actually got involved in the fish farming idea when I was in my early 20's. The fish were Koi and we

Walmart credit card warning

2010-02-09T14:52:00.000-08:00

If you are a Walmart credit card holder and user, you may want to read this warningThis warning concerns those promotional purchases, you know the ones, buy something over "X" amount of dollars and take a year to pay it with no interest.If you are making regular payments and the original amount of that large purchase is not going down or going down very slowly then here is what is happening -

Warning - a reality check

2010-02-05T13:51:00.000-08:00

Those of you who are unemployed, looking for work or are just sick and tried of being walked all over by others will find what I have to say - a dose of reality and it will hit close to home.I bet you have tried almost anything to get ahead. Trying to get that job so you can just survive or maybe just to get higher up on the food chain at that corporation. Did they tell you that you needed more

A tour of town

2010-02-02T16:26:00.000-08:00

I was just driving back from town and wanted to take the "scenic" route. Unfortunately I also took the same route as the school bus dropping the kids off after school. The trip took a little longer but following and stopping behind that school bus gave me a chance to check out the houses I passed. Something that did strike me was the fact that at least 8 out of 10 homes did not have window

Obama's speech

2010-01-27T19:41:00.000-08:00

Of course I just had to sit and watch what our President had to tell us what he is planning. Most of it I applauded but there were 2 major points that I highly disagreed with. They were the plans to build more nuclear power plants and to start more off shore oil drilling. Where is that man's mind at?Has he forgotten Chenobyl? Oh wait, that was back when he was just a child in 1986. What does he

Taking care of your blog's comments

2010-01-19T20:43:00.000-08:00

When you write a blog either for personal reasons or for the hopes you will earn some money from it, you will have to deal with people that leave comments. When writing your post you have the option of allowing comments on the post or not. Some people do not allow comments at all while other blogs know the advantage of having interaction of their readers. Unfortunately along with loyal readers

The over use of the word "natural"

2010-01-19T20:23:00.000-08:00

How many times have you seen the word "natural" just today to describe a product or method? I bet at least once if not more. When marketers jump on a word they over use it to the point of it becoming meaningless or an oxymoron.Take for example when the word natural is used in conjunction with training like "natural horse training" or riding a bike "naturally." There is nothing natural about bike

Save money, eat less

2010-01-17T19:37:00.000-08:00

Are you one of the many millions of people that spend $50 for the alli diet pill? If you are, I have a news flash for you, save that $50 and spend less on food. It really is a no brainer on how to save money and one of them is on food. Cut out all of those trips to the fast food places and save a bundle on money. The average price for a meal at the burger places range from $5 to $8 dollars now.