Need More Money? Try Cutting Your Costs!

I had a unique experience yesterday afternoon. I was talking to a friend that was having trouble paying his bills. He was wondering how he was going to make next months rent payment (he lives in Los Angeles and thus his rent is very expensive), his car payment, his student loan payments, and all his other bills. He kept wondering and asking me how to make more money.

During our long conversation, I was amazed that he was considering getting a second job (considering he already worked 60 hours a week). What amazed me further is that he never considered cutting costs. His entire motivation was about making more money.

First, let me start that making more money is a great goal. The entire purpose behind this blog is to share knowledge on how to acquire wealth. However, wealth accumulation can be a long process. Absent hitting the lottery, millions of dollars do not come overnight. It takes hard work, dedication, and motivation.

Most people in my friend’s situation think one dimensionally. The problem presented in paying bills. They think “I do not have enough money to pay bills, therefore, I need to make more money!” This way of thinking is not incorrect, but it can create many problems in the immediate future. Let us say that my friend got a second job on his days off. I guarantee in a month, he would have no energy and his primary job performance would suffer, as well as his health and personal life.

An easier way exists. I told him he needed to cut costs. Cutting costs will have an immediate effect. I told him to stop going out to eat so much (he went about three times a week), brown bag lunch at the office, and stop buying unnecessary stuff. Additionally, I told him to contact his student loan office and ask for a month reprieve. I think that most student loan providers allow the payee to request a “month off” without penalty. Taking a month off will put him a month ahead on his student loan payment.

There are many other little costs he can cut that will add up big in the long run. My biggest piece of advice for him was to NOT form a budget. Budgets are too hard and people never stick with them. All I said was to keep track of the costs that you eliminated. This way, he will be able to see a noticeable difference in his checking account, and most importantly, he may not have to pick up a second job!

Multiple Streams of Income: The Internet Part 10

Recently, there has been a large emergence of Adsense revenue sharing websites. The concept is simple. Like many other websites, you submit content (articles, videos, podcasts, blog entries, pictures, etc.). The difference with the regular websites is that the webmaster takes one hundred percent (100%) of the Adsense revenue. You get the benefits of backlinks, reputation, and traffic building, but you do not actually share in any of the advertisement revenue.

With Adsense revenue sharing websites, you still get the backlinks, reputation, and traffic building benefits of other content submission websites, however, these revenue sharing websites also give you a percentage (usually fifty percent (50%) or more) of advertising revenue. These websites are easy enough to find and usually have a submission procedure similar to the other content submission websites.

Here is how it works. For each piece of content you submit, you get one (1) point. The more content you submit, the more points you get. Usually, you have to submit a certain amount of content before you can earn your percentage of advertising revenue. The more content you submit, the more your articles will show up and thus the higher percentage you have of getting paid, and the more you get paid.

You may be wondering how these websites track your Adsense advertisements. All of these websites have a section where you submit your Adsense publisher ID. This may freak you out, but can be worth it in the long run. This is allowed by Google, and can be safe if you do a little research into the websites to which you are submitting. Be careful about who you give your Adsense publisher ID to because you do not want your ID to be misused.

Ultimately, the choice of whether or not to participate in these websites is up to you. These websites are just like other content submission websites except you can make more money. If you do a little research and make sure the websites are credible, you literally have zero risk.

I have one last note for you. Although other advertisement programs (such as Adbrite) exist, I have only seen revenue sharing websites use Google Adsense. Therefore, if you do not have a Google Adsense account yet, I suggest you get one ASAP. Sign up is easy and your website will be reviewed quickly. Just know that there is a waiting period before you get an Adsense account.

Piercing the Corporate Veil

Piercing the corporate veil is a fancy phrase that means that somebody or something is attempting to hold the shareholders of a corporation personally liable for the corporation’s debts. Veil piercing is not an easy task and requires many factors to be proven. The main inquiry is, “has the corporate form is being misused?” If it is concluded that the corporate form is being misused, the court will disregard the corporate entity and hold the shareholders personally liable.

Each state has different factors that in considers in determining whether to pierce the corporate veil. It would be inefficient to list all the various laws from all fifty (50) states, however, I will discuss some common factors.

Undercapitalization is a commonly considered by most states. Undercapitalization means that the corporation was not equipped with a reasonable amount of capital for the nature of the business involved. What is reasonable? If there was a clear answer to that, there would not be a need for lawyers! Reasonableness depends on many factors including type of business, size of business, etc. If a corporation is undercapitalized, this weighs in favor of the court piercing the corporate veil.

Another commonly considered factor is the failure to observe corporate formalities. Like I stated in previous posts, failure to observe corporate formalities will tip the scales towards the court piercing the corporate veil. Corporate formalities need to be observed by all corporations (except a close corporation).

Lastly, most courts consider whether a corporation was used to promote fraud, injustice, or illegalities. Let me put it this way, if you use the corporation to engage in illegal activity (for example, defraud somebody out of money or other valuables) the court will most likely pierce the corporate veil.

It is important to note that these are just some of the commonly considered factors. Every state has a different set of factors, therefore, check your local laws. Also, no one factor is controlling. Therefore, veil piercing does not turn on the absence or presence of a single factor. Last, even though no one factor is controlling, the factors are not weighed evenly. Factors such as illegal use weigh more than whether or not corporate formalities were observed.

Once again, this post is intended only to give you a brief overview of some corporate issues and in no way constitutes legal advice or a legal opinion. Always consult a professional before attempting anything stated above.

The Corporation

The corporation is probably the mother of all limited liability entities. The case law is vast and the complexities are many. However, a corporation can be a great business form if you know what the differences between the various corporations are.

As I stated in a previous post, corporations are subject to double taxation. A dollar earned by the corporation is taxed once as a corporate earning and then taxed again upon distribution to shareholders. However, this is not true for all types of corporations. An S-corporation (named after sub-chapter S in the relevant IRS code) is a pass-through entity. This means that the corporation is taxed as a partnership. Therefore, no double taxation! Unfortunately, with benefits come disadvantages. I do not have the code book open in front of me, but I think some of these disadvantages include, amongst other things, limitations of the number of investors you can have (I think you can only have seventy-five (75) investors for an S-corporation), and limitations on who can invest (no other entity, such as another corporation or limited liability company, can be a shareholder).

Keep in mind that when you form your corporation with articles of incorporation, filed with your Secretary of State, you do not form an “S-corporation.” Subchapter S status is received from the IRS, not your state! However, some states require that you state your intention to be an S-corp. in your articles of incorporation. Therefore, check your local laws!

A close corporation is the same thing as an subchapter S corporation, but with stricter limitations (for example, I think some close corporations can only have thirty-five (35) investors). A great advantage exists with close corporations. Close corporations do not have to engage in corporate formalities. Why is this important? When somebody sues the corporation and tries to pierce the corporate veil (meaning the claimant is trying to “pierce the veil of limited liability” and hold the shareholders personally liable), one factor, of many, the court considers in determining whether to pierce is whether the corporation engaged in corporate formalities. If a corporation engaged in corporate formalities (conducted annual meeting, recording minutes, etc.) this supports the conclusion that a corporation did not misuse the corporate form and, therefore, is less likely to have its “veil” pierced. If you have a close corporation, corporate formalities do not have to be conducted, and a court cannot hold that against you should any lawsuits arise.

A closely held corporation is a term of art. There is no special filing or advantage to a closely held corporation. A closely held corporation is one in where the shareholders and the directors are the same people. Usually about five shareholders will exist, and each will also be a director, if not also an officer, of the corporation. In case you are wondering, shareholders elect directors and directors elect officers.

This post is intended to give you a brief overview of some of the corporate forms that exist. Like always, check with a professional before trying to form one of these entities by yourself.

Article Submission List Part 3

Here is the third part of the list. Remember, article submission = money. Stay the course and SUBMIT!

Here they are:

Article-highway.com
e-calc.net
ebookdeals.com
ecomallbiz.com
ezau.com
ezine-writer.com.au
ezinecrow.com
fbemarketing.com
freesticky.com
freeblogarticles.com
freeclassifiedad4u.com
freezinesite.com
fresh-articles.com
geminipublishing.com
gestbiz.com
getyourarticles.com
go-article.com
goarticles.com
goodinfohome.com
hamazines.com

Generate More Income from your Articles

Associated Content is a great website. In addition to building backlinks to your website, Associated Content bids on your article in the beginning. Therefore, you do not have to wait for people to click on advertisements. Associated Content pays you in the beginning and gives you bonuses for every 1,000 page views. Check out Associated Content today!

Another great site is Triond. Here is how it works: You submit your content toTriond and then Triond publishes your content wherever they feel it will do best. You get ad revenue and split it 50-50 with Triond. The only problem I have with Triond is that any content you submit cannot exist anywhere else on the web.

Anyway, here are two great revenue creating websites. Check them out!

Multiple Streams of Income: The Internet Part 8

Traffic generation is an important tactic to master. The more traffic you have coming to your site, the better your conversion ratio should be. I say “should” because traffic alone is not enough. Website content, ad placement, and follow-ups are just as, if not more important than traffic.

Think about it like this. If a visitor comes to your website but does not like what he/she reads, will that person come back? Obviously, the answer is no. On the other hand, a visitor may love your content and return repeatedly. However, if your ad placement is bad and you do not follow-up, you essentially cut off streams of income that could be producing tons of dollars!

Many ways exist to obtain traffic. If you have read my previous posts, you know that article submission (which creates backlinks) generates traffic. Other ways to obtain traffic are:

(1) Link exchange;

(2) Search Engine Submission;

(3) Search Engine Optimization;

(4) Viral Marketing; and

(5) Friend Networks (MySpace, FaceBook, etc.)


The above list is not exhaustive. However, it does list some powerful methods for obtaining website traffic.

Each of the above methods will be covered in subsequent posts. Note that these methods are time consuming and will take some diligence before you see results if you choose to do each manually. Options do exist that will significantly reduce the time you spend on these tasks and at the same time will increase your traffic. Less time and more traffic is far better than more time and less traffic!

Currently, over 50 MILLION website are on the Internet. How would you like your website to be #10,000? I know that being # 10,000 does not sound that good, however, to put this into perspective, if your website is #10,000 in traffic ranking for all websites, this means that you are generating hundreds of thousands if not MILLIONS of visitors per month! Could you imagine if you had that many visitors to your website?

If you would like this much traffic, you sound definitely check out Michael’s Traffic Videos! These videos cover every aspect of traffic generation that you can think of. Would you like your traffic rank to look like this:



The proof is in the numbers! Additionally, the best of this program is that one video shows you how to get 100,000 FREE Ad Impressions. FREE is always a nice word to hear when you are trying to create income.

Michael’s Traffic Videos will help you achieve these traffic numbers! Create traffic, make money. What could be easier?

Multiple Streams of Income: The Internet Part 7

Adsense and Adbrite are two programs you can use to monetize your website or blog. Put simply, all you do is copy code into your website and advertisements will appear. Every time a visitor clicks on one of the ads, you will get paid. The price per click depends on the ads you are showing. Do not woory about having to learn HTML code or anything like that, because both Adsense and Adbrite are easy to use and offer step-by-step instructions.

Sign-up for Adsense and Adbrite are both FREE, so you have nothing to lose.

A couple of things you should note:

(1) Clicking on your on advertisements is considered “click fraud” and will result in an immediate cancellation of your account and any money due. DO NOT CLICK ON YOUR OWN ADS!

(2) Rules exist as to where and how many ads you can place on a webpage. Make sure you read the Terms of Service for both Adsense and Adbrite so that you do not get your account cancelled.

(3) The amount of traffic you bring to your website will help generate a steady Adsense and Adbrite income. The more traffic you get coming to your website, the better the chance that somebody will click on one of your ads. Therefore, TRAFFIC = INCOME. However, some exceptions apply.

It is important to note that traffic alone will NOT create a substantial income from Adsense and Adbrite. You have to know how to get people to click on advertisements. The Adsense Decoded Videos have gotten great reviews! The best part about the Adsense Decoded Videos is that it shows you how to turn a significant profit even if you do not have much traffic!

However, if you do not like to watch videos or learn better by reading, and want your information instantly, the Adsense Whizz Kid is also a great product. The best part about Adsense Whizz Kid is that you get a FREE 31 Page Report just for visiting the website!

Whatever you decide, take advantage of these of these programs so that you can build another, potentially massive, stream of internet income!

Multiple Streams of Income: The Internet Part 6

Blog advertising is a quick and easy way for you to monetize your blog. Websites like PayPerPost, Blogsvertise, and Blogitive provide advertisement opportunities to bloggers. This is how it works:

(1) You register/submit your blog to one of these sites for approval;

(2) In order to become an “approved” blog after submission, you have to meet some “minimum standards” set-up by the webmaster. These “minimum standards” include a minimum Google PageRank, minimum Alexa ranking, minimum Technorati rating, a blog that has been active for at least thirty (30) days, and/or a minimum amount of posts, (usually twenty (20)) in the last ninety (90) days;

(3) Based on your PageRank, Alexa rank, etc., you will qualify for opportunities at a certain pay rate;

(4) Lastly, you accept one of the opportunities at the given pay rate by writing a post about a specific website and/or product and submitting it to the blog advertising website from which you accepted the opportunity.

If you do not fully understand how the procedure works, do not worry. Once you sign-up to one of the websites, it will give you thorough instructions. Advertising opportunities range anywhere from $5.00 to $1,000+ per post.

Most of these services use PayPal to pay you. Therefore, if you do not have a PayPal account, you will need to sign up for one.

Do not worry about signing-up for any of the blog advertising services or for PayPal, because all of them are FREE to sign-up.

A couple of closing points: these blog adverting services allow you to submit as many blogs as you have that meet their “minimum standards.” Setting up a new blog that meets the “minimum standards” can be VERY difficult and will take an enormous amount of time! Software, such as Easy Blogger Creator can help you literally build hundreds of unique blogs in a mere fraction of the time it would normally take. Can you imagine having one hundred (100) blogs posting the same advertisement for $10 each? That means you would make $1,000 for ONE opportunity! These blog advertising services have HUNDREDS of opportunities. You do the math!

Creating hundreds of unique blogs will also help you create hundreds, if not thousands, of unique backlinks. Remember, backlinks = higher rating in search engine results = MORE TRAFFIC! Easy Blogger Creator will be able to do all of this in the blink of an eye! Take advantage of this system and you could create a relatively large stream of income from blog advertising. Keep in mind that blog advertising is only one of many ways to monetize your blog. If you could make thousands of dollars from only this one stream, can you image the total you will make from your combined blogging streams? Easy Blogger Creator will help create this large streams so you can fully utilize blog advertising services.

Multiple Streams of Income: The Internet Part 5

Some additional notes on affiliate marketing to keep in mind:

(1) Make sure that you are promoting a product from a reputable seller. If the seller is not reputable, two problems arise. First, your reputation suffers, and second, you may not get paid. If the seller does not correctly track sales from your hoplink, you will lose money! We are not in this business to lose money. Therefore, start smart by finding a reputable seller.

(2) When you do affiliate marketing, you may have to give the seller some personal information for tax purposes. This personal information may include your phone number and social security number. If you do not feel comfortable giving out this information, you will need to find a seller that does not track your income for tax purposes. If this occurs, remember to claim any income you make on your tax return. The last thing you need is to get audited by the IRS!

(3) As I stated in my previous post, Clickbank is a good website for finding affiliate marketing opportunities. Alternatively, you can decide to promote a specific product from one seller. There are advantages and disadvantages to both. If you promote multiple products, you can reach a more diverse group of possible customers; however, it will be harder to track sales. If you promote only one product, you may not be able to meet the interests of all you potential customers; however, sales will be easier to track. Whatever you decide, make sure that you consider your time commitments and selling strengths.

Keep these notes in mind when deciding on a seller’s product!

Multiple Streams of Income: The Internet Part 4

A couple of other quick notes about article writing; as I stated in my previous post, search the terms “free article directory” in your favorite search engine to find various article submission websites. Some of the more popular websites are Ezine Articles, Go Articles, and Idea Marketers. Make sure that you submit your articles to these websites!

Make sure you write quality articles! If you write junk, you will not get traffic to your website. One of the primary purposes of writing articles is to drive traffic. Do not frustrate this purpose by submitting three sentence jumbles and expect results. Many good programs exist to help with article writing and submission. Article writing is very tedious, but with the right help from programs like Article Submitter, Article-a-Day, and 30 Minute Articles you can construct quality, traffic driven, and profit producing articles with ease.

Now that you have an understanding of article writing and submission, affiliate marketing will be our next topic. Affiliate marketing is basically selling other people’s products for them. For every sell you make, you get a commission in the form of a percentage of the purchase price. For a better understanding of affiliate marketing, use this link.

Many affiliate marketing websites and programs exist; however, the most popular is probably Clickbank. Clickbank can be used to promote your own product, should you have one, and/or can be used to promote other people’s products in order to earn a commission. If you search the terms “affiliate marketing opportunities” in your favorite search engine, you should be able to find a product or company that you feel comfortable promoting.

The best part about affiliate marketing is that all the work is done for you. The pitch pages and payment options are already set up by the product creator. All you have to do is drive traffic to the pitch page using your special link. You can utilize your website and/or blog to help drive traffic. Also, your special link or “hoplink” is how your sales are tracked and how you get paid. It is of the utmost importance that you remember to use your hoplink in the links you create. Without your hoplink, YOU WILL NOT GET PAID!

Affiliate marketing is a great way to make money. Many programs exist that will help you start and can make you a “Super Affiliate.” Some of these programs are The Super Affiliate Handbook, The Butterfly Marketing Manuscript, and Secret Affiliate Weapon! Many people are affiliate marketers for a living. Everybody has their own strengths. If your strength is marketing, you will want to pursue this opportunity as soon as possible.

Multiple Streams of Income: The Internet Part 2

Instead of trying to pitch a specific product, I am going to give you many different options in which you invest your time and talents and can achieve a cash return. Keep in mind that most of these options will not make you a millionaire, however, all will provide you with some extra dollars if you have the desire to pursue them. Further, I am not saying that you cannot become a millionaire with the following options, all I am saying is that in order to achieve that level of income, you have much hard work to accomplish!

As I stated in my previous post, there are many options one can pursue in order to obtain multiple streams of income. We are still talking about the Internet. In this post, I will give you an overview of just some of the options available. In subsequent posts, I will discuss each one in depth.

Blogging
The word “blog” is an abbreviation for the phrase “web log.” Think of a blog as an Internet diary that the whole world can read. People post personal thoughts, ideas, conversation, or whatever they want in order to share with the world. However, as blogging has become more popular, people have used blogs as a marketing tool. The more traffic you obtain, the higher your potential income may become. In order to obtain income from traffic, you can sell a product on your blog, advertise, Google Adsense, and/or AdBrite to name a few. All of these options provide viable options that will monetize your website.

In order to find a blog service that you like, just search the terms “free blog” in the search engine of your choice. If you are interested in a subject and can write, you possess the elements necessary to start a blog. Most importantly, blogging is free and the tools available to monetize your blog are usually free!

Article Writing
Another way to make extra money is to write articles for websites like Helium. Using services likes this will do two things. First, your writing skills will become more refined, and second, you will market your name and your blog thus obtaining more traffic and a good reputation. These two benefits will help you obtain dollars and will also drive traffic to your blog.

Affiliate Marketing
By utilizing websites like ClickBank, you can sell products on your blog for a commission. Selling these products are easy because all you do is provide the link. If your traffic clicks on these links, they are redirected to the product’s pitch page and thus does all the work for you.

Multi-level Marketing
In the spirit of not promoting any specific product, I will not mention any names; however, multi-level marketing can be a powerful weapon to wield in the Internet jungle. It is important that you find an opportunity that is FREE or nearly free AND that provides income to members mostly on sales and not on referrals! If a company focuses too much of its pay-outs on referrals, you may be looking at an illegal pyramid scheme and should avoid the scam at all costs!

Blog Advertising
By utilizing websites like Payperpost.com, Blogsvertise.com, and Blogitive.com, you can make money by writing about a product and posting your writing on your blog. These services are free and very easy to use. The only disadvantage is that your blog has to meet certain requirements of Google page rank, traffic, and/or number of posts. Read the requirements and make sure you meet them before you sign up!

AdSense and AdBrite
These services post advertisements on your blog or website. Every time a visitor to your blog or website clicks on one of these advertisements, you get paid. Keep in mind that the pay ranges from $.05 to $5.00+ and are only really profitable if you have a lot of traffic coming to your blog or website. However, free money is free money and should not be passed up!

Surveys
Many Internet survey sites exist that will pay you to take surveys. Globaltestmarket.com is one such site. Like I said, I will not promote one specific product, so search the terms “paid surveys” in your favorite search engine to see what results. Most of these services will award you points for taking a survey. Once you acquire enough points, you can exchange them for cash. This opportunity will not make you rich, but like I said, extra money never hurts!

Check out all these opportunities and see how much you can make!

Multiple Streams of Income

Just like diversifying a stock portfolio gives you the best opportunity to make money by spreading your risk of loss, multiple streams of income give you the best opportunity to achieve wealth and success. The phrase “multiple streams of income” has been around for some time. You have probably heard it used in various wealth building systems and/or popular personal success literature. The logic behind the idea of multiple streams of income is simple. The more areas from which you acquire income, the greater the chance of success and the less the chance of loss. The goal of multiple streams of income is to build a large passive income and residual income.

Passive Income vs. Residual Income

Passive income is defined as: Income derived from business investments in which the individual is not actively involved.

Residual income is defined as: Recurring income received after the initial sale is made.

Income, as defined by the I.R.S. is: An undeniable accession to wealth that is clearly realized and over which the taxpayer has complete dominion and control.

As you can tell by the definitions, some differences exist between passive income and residual income; however, both are equally important and effective in helping you acquire wealth. Now we get to the million dollar question, how does one achieve a passive income and a residual income? This is the whole concept behind the goal of multiple streams of income.

Multiple Streams

I could easily tell you the many areas of business and entrepreneurialism that could help you achieve a passive and residual income, but it probably would not help much. If I said, “Check out the internet, real estate market, stock market, employment opportunities, and investments/savings products,” you would not gain any insight into these areas of potential success. However, over the upcoming months, I am going to break down each area stated above. I am going to tell you about as many different possibilities, products, and opportunities that I know of in each area. By doing this, I hope to inspire you to pursue some of these opportunities. I also hope to build your motivation and get your entrepreneurial mind working.

The Main Categories

I will discuss: (1) the internet; (2) real estate possibilities; (3) stock market strategies; (4) employment opportunities; and (5) investment and savings products.

Please note that each “main category” will be discussed in depth in numerous posts. I will discuss the many different avenues for each category and how each avenue can help you create passive and residual income.

More to come soon...