Building Wealth - Cutting Costs

If you use Word Press for blogging you know that it comes with a stock visual editor that is basiclly a limited WYSIWYG (what you see is what you get) editor and you can switch over to a HTML code view.  One thing that annoyed me was the lack of some very basic editing buttons in the visual editor.  Things like underlining and redo and undo for instance along with a formating options for things like headings and paragraphs as well.

I mean come on!  These are very basic word processing functions.  Then I learned they were there you just needed to know how to access them.

The command to do so is, hold down alt and shift and then hit the “v” key.  This adds the features mentioned above along with some others like a code cleaner and the ability to insert special characters (like Π or €, etc).  Now do not ask me why these functions are hidden.  That makes no sense but now you know how to access them.  Give it a try I think most bloggers will enjoy the added editing power with out having to switch to code view and doing it manually.

One of my people who knows me as the true author of this blog absoultely hates the “Mandigo Theme” I have on this blog as of right now.

[If you don’t see a blue swirl like mark in the header that means I changed it since this post.]

I honestly have been using it for one main reason and that is a feature it has that I have yet to find another theme that had it built in. That feature is the ability to not display some of the pages in the navigation of the blog.

What I mean is like this, say I want a nice page that says “Thank You for Subscribing to my Blog” after an email opt in. Right now if I use the “Pages Feature” in Word Press and publish it then it shows up in my page navigation. Now I really don’t want a link that says “Thank You for Subscribing to my Blog” across the top of my blog do I? It wouldn’t make sense to a visitor if they clicked on it.

Also perhaps in a given post I want to promote a product and have a sales page for it. May be I just want to create that page in Word Press rather then with software and then upload it. May be it is a “landing page” to be used with PPC or for any one of many reasons I just want a page that is not displayed in the navigation of my site for every visitor. With Word Press I just can’t do it.

So when I found Mandigo despite not really liking the look of it (compared to some other themes) I compromised and used it because it has a tab called “Theme Options” where you can hide or show pages.

Now I have found a much better solution! It is called Page Links Manager, and it is a simple to install plug in that ads a tab to the “Manage” Tab in word press. This plugin takes blogging with word press to a new level creating what ammounts to a real website content management system. With it all you do is deselect the pages you don’t want to display and they don’t show up in the navigation. I put a simple sample page on this blog to show you what I mean, you can see that page here, Page Link Manager Example.

Here is a screen shot of the control panel as you can see it is very easy to use. There are also some folders in the download zip that are for MACOS, just ignore those and upload only the simple .php file and activate and after that it could not be any easier. Great plug in and very big Kudos to the author.

It seems like forever ago when I first built my first website. In fact it was more then 10 years ago and at times it is easy to loose touch with how overwhelming it is for a brand new potential internet entrepreneur who wants to get started today. So I though I would share four ways a new person can begin to get started. None are all that hard but none can be complete with out learning more, these are just starting points.

1. Get a blog and do some blogging for dollars. I suggest you try not to be to obvious about this because Google has begun to give the smack down to bloggers that do this. I recommend you never use the name of the companies that you go through to find business on your blog as you are just asking for problems. What I can simply say is go to google and search for “get paid to blog” and you will find many options.

Now you are going to have to blog for about 90 days and do so at least 4 times a month to qualify for these types of services. Once you do however, you can and will make money. I won’t go deeper right now but will make some specific how to details available in the future. Let me just say that anyone that wants to can put an extra 500-1500 a month into their income column can just by doing this.

2. Learn the very basics of website design and publishing, even a tiny bit of say PHP programming can go a long way. Today if you can slap together a website you can make some money. Spend the money for a good design software and take a course on it at a community college or a CEU class at a university. Total investment may be about 1,000 dollars and it may make you a lot more then any degree will. You don’t have to be a great designer but at least be able to build simple sites, you can out source the actual “graphics” work.

Most sites are nothing but a header, a footer and some pictures. Outsource your graphics and build a site. Make your first site about something you just love to talk about and don’t worry if you make a dime on it. All you need at first is the “ability” to build and design sites. Learn how to do it and do not rely on site builders they are to limiting. Today if you can publish content there are countless ways to make money. Oh and you can pay your tuition with one months worth of blogging with suggestion number one above.

3. Start with affiliate marketing and take your skills from item two to build unique websites that provide information, build email lists and sell a few products around a niche. Later you may and honestly should create your own products and keep all your profits but in the beginning you are learning how to market and sell online so dedicate all your efforts to doing so.

A great source of items that others have made that you can sell for about a 50% commission can be found at Click Bank. Odd are there is a product about any subject you can think of. Most sell in the 50 dollar range and pay about 25 dollars in commission. You don’t have to make anything, deal with customers, etc. This is not a long term way to get rich but it is a great way to learn and earn at the same time.

4. Become an adSense Affiliate and a Yahoo Publisher, neither pay the big money they used to but they are both very passive ways to earn some extra money. In time with enough sites anyone can pull in a hundred dollars a month at least. Remember invest 100 dollars a month from age 18-65 in quality funds in a tax deferred or sheltered account and you are a multi millionaire.

The key with adSense and Publisher is make your ads blend into your sites. The inexpensive wine site I reviewed a few days ago does a good job at this. Use back ground colors that match, make the links the same color as links on your site and above all no borders for the ads. Then be sure to put the ads in prominent spots on your site, don’t hide them remember you want people to click on them.

So there you go 4 places to get started with making money online. Each has its on benifits and challenges yet if you commited to learning how to at least do all four in the next 6 months you are well on your way to truly building a solid and passive online income. In time you out source more and more and you don’t do all the work yourself. Yet in the beginning it is important to be sure you understand things, learn what you want and what you don’t want.

More then that learn to make some money asap and again bloggin for dollars is a 100% guaranteed way to start the income flow. From there you can branch out, learn more and keep building.

One more important thing. Don’t buy over priced crap, info courses and other bullshit. There are countless gurus out there, well countless self appointed internet marketing gurus that claim to have the secret to making money. They are mostly full of crap and even the ones with good info unless you learn the fundamentals first it won’t do you any good.

Start with free advice and perhaps use some of the online video courses that don’t cost to much. Learn basics, learn “how to” and then you can develop “what to” on your own terms. I promise you one of the surest ways to kill of your future in making money online is buying one to many 297 or 997 dollar how to courses.

Don’t buy that crap, start with a blog, learn to make sites, practice with affiliate products and sell ad space along the way with Google and Yahoo. Look for solid how to advice and instruction and limit your spending on “education” to 50 dollars or less a month (other then stuff like the college course I mentioned) and you will in time work things out. Gurus exist not to make you rich, they exist to enrich themselves with your dollars.

Let me be clear I don’t think you have a safe, secure job today if you work even say for the Post Office or even a State Government agency. I believe firmly with the toxicity of debt in both the consumer credit card market and the sub prime lending market a major recession is coming. We won’t die off, no one will jump from tall buildings on Wall Street and the dust bowel is not comming back but there also may no longer be “two chickens in ever pot”. Todays “chickens” are Plasma TVs and other do dads.

Right now there is over 1 Tillion Dollars in toxic debt in the consumer credit market, that is money that will NEVER get paid back. The American tax payer has had enough, we won’t bleed money any more. Social Security is getting to where you as a working member of society have you “own old person” to provide for, it will change and that will be good but short term it will hurt.

The dollar weakens almost daily now! Canada now has a stronger dollar then the US that has never happened. The weak dollar is supposed to help fix the multi trillion dollar trade deficit we have with the world, it does nothing of the sort. The biggest potential export markets for us are China and Japan and both artificially tie their currency to the dollar. When the dollar drops so does the Yen by an equal amount. All a weak dollar does is make your money worth less and less in the global market.

My point is this can’t all just stand as the house of cards it is today and there will come a time soon when some of the bills will have to be paid. When that happens there will not be enough money to pay it. At that point employers are going to feel it hard and tough decisions will have to be made. Your boss might love you but if it comes down to the company surviving and your employment he will have that hard talk with you about some measly severance package. Odds are in many instances he will then get to have the same talk with his boss and so on.

How bad will it be? I do not pretend to know but it will be worse then it is today, that I am sure of. My real point though is it doesn’t really matter does it how many people loose jobs? All that matters to you is if and when you loose yours! It can happen to the best of us, it happened to me and because I live by the things I teach and write about it just wasn’t that big of an issue.

My point is you need to live as though you are currently in the hight of summer. You must buget and make spending choices with the view that you are right now at the peak of your earnings, you must plan for a big decline that can come at any time. This does not mean that you live in fear only that you live free from illusions.

If right now this second you or your spouse lost a job and were unable to replace it quickly how long would your last before you started to go negative on paying your bills. How long till you lost your house or got evicted from your apartment? The average American could scarcely make it 30-60 days! Many are but one or two paychecks from bankruptcy!

How do people get in this position? The belief that a paycheck is an entitlement that’s how. It amazes me how entitled employees tend to be in relation to their employers. Just look at the auto and airline unions, they keep getting more and more from their employers but the problem is the airlines and the car makers no longer can pay the bills. They are putting their very security in jeopardy by always wanting more, more, more.

So what is the solution? - Here are ten things you should be doing starting yesterday.

First - Never see yourself as secure in your job, have a plan B. Always know which competitor or similar company would be best for you to go work for. Cultivate relationships within said company, don’t act like you are ready to switch if you are not but be on the radar.

Second - Build a big network of contacts in your line of work, I don’t care if it is packing boxes or running companies as a CEO. Build network of people around you that can help you if you ever need a new job.

Third - Live below your means! Nothing is more important, make sure you buy less house then you can afford. Buy a cheaper to own and maintain and fuel car that you really have to settle for. In short never buy what you can afford today, buy what you should still be able to afford with far less then you have.

Fourth - If you deep in debt get out now! If have home equity and large credit card debt refinance your house and pay off the cards, then cut them to pieces.

Five - Buy and own a home! Renting has a place but as soon as you can afford to own a home the right way do it. Buy smart, pay less then the house is worth, find a deal, there are always deals. Know this variable rate mortgages are the devil, if you can’t afford the home with a fixed loan, you can’t afford the home!

Six - Build a second income, in other words own your own small business. You know how to do, make or advise on something better then most people. Find a way, anyway to make money with it. Do private consulting, build online income (this is what I do) hell just by blogging you can make 500-1000 dollars a month, (I will show you how in the future). Someway, somehow develop a second and even a third stream of income.

Seven - Save money outside of just your 401K, IRA, etc. The golden rule is get to where you save 10% of your income in an IRA or other tax deffered acocunt. That money is locked away until you retire though. I am all for 10% going to retirement as long as you can save say 15%. If today all you can afford to save is 10% put 5 into a long term locked away account and 5% where you can get to it with out penalty if you need it. Build an emergency fund of at least 90 days of your current income before you lower your savings contributions to liquid accounts.

Eight - Plan on being fired, your company being bought, your job being downsized, etc. It may never happen but plan on it. The very act of viewing such things as a possibility will make you smarter in your decisions every day. It will also make you more level headed and able to stand the hardship if it comes. Again do not live in fear, just follow the boy scout wisdom of “be prepared”.

Nine - Educate yourself in and outside of your current employment niche. When I lost a job about 8 years ago it became an opportunity! I went from Sales Management into online marketing and became very successful. The reason was simple in my sales career I educated myself on how to sell all the time. At the same time I taught myself how to market on and off line. I took my sales knowledge and put it to use online with my new skills. This was my “secondary income” a tiny small business that was making me about 500 dollars a month. I turned it into a new career because I had become a learning sponge. Today I own companies because of this education I gave myself. Be it online, via books, classes, seminars, I don’t care what invest both time and money in educating yourself.

Ten - Be the supreme commander of your own life and destiny. Every day think about how you can do better for yourself, your family and your employer. Your job IS NOT a right, you salary IS NOT an entitlement. Get that into your head right now this second. Would you take a raise if it was enough to damage your companies future? If you can answer that with a yes you should be fired! See yourself as an independent contractor, self employed no matter what your job is about. You should get paid as much as you can with in reason, many are underpaid but many people are also over paid. Work hard enough to be able to demand and expect more.

The key here all goes back to one thing though, no job is secure today. That false belief has put many people into massive debt and financial ruin along with a retirement in poverty. Sure this post was an ass kicking but most of America needs one from time to time.