MiB Smarter Money » Giveaways

Another Way To Make Money Online; Courtesy Of Microsoft…

hank — Sun, 20 Jan 2008 08:13:37 +0000

Photo by: A Fighting FaithNo, I’m not talking about the ol’ “Bill Gates will send you money if you forward this email” spoof. I am talking about Microsoft’s Usability Research team. Clearly Microsoft has a lot of new products that need testing, and it can’t all be done in house; they need a larger audience of NON-Microsoft employees. That’s where we come in. Before you jump off this post because you think it is a tag to get you to buy Microsoft stuff, don’t! I went over to the corporate office in Redmond, WA last week, took 45 mins worth of testing a new Windows Mobile product, gave my opinion, and walked out the door with a copy of Microsoft Office 2007 (currently on Amazon for 399.99).

I have no reason to use the product, so it’s likely going to find a home on Ebay. But that works out to $533.32 an hour! How about them apples? Well worth my 45 minutes to roll over basic questions and give your opinion.

“But Hank, I don’t have an ounce of technical savvy blood in my body. How can I make any money off it?”

Easy answer – they don’t always want the experts to give the opinions on their products. They want the entire gamut of people to test out their products; not just experts. Toss your name out there, you never know if you’re what they are looking for. It takes about 5 minutes to sign up and tell them what you do.

“Ok Hank it DOES sound like a good idea, but I don’t live anywhere near Redmond, WA.”

Again, no problem. A lot of their questions can come over the phone, or through a web interface to test out and poll on certain product aspects. Sign up and you may be pleasantly surprised what they can call you on.

“Fair enough, I’ll sign up; but what about tax-wise? They’ve given me a gift? Don’t I have to pay it on taxes?”

They’ll put your name in their database and send you out a 1099 form if your gifts are over $1000 for the year. Currently the most expensive piece of software I saw on the list was Microsoft Visio 2007 at 559.99. You can get calls back for as many of the items that you can qualify for. I signed up in December and got my first call last month, so I guess we’ll see how many times they call. Yea, they tax you, but the tax is only on free money. You’ll probably pay $100 of your $1000 to Uncle Sam, and that’s not too bad.

Yes, they’ve been dubbed “the Evil Empire,” but as frugal guy, I don’t care who is giving out the money, I’m happy (and so should you) to take the gratuity for a short stint of my time and quick returns like that. This new found cash is likely headed into my Charles Schwab ROTH IRA before the April 15 deadline.

Where’s Hank Been? Make $400 CASH From Mjedi!

hank — Tue, 14 Jul 2009 01:49:39 +0000

So yes, I’ve been in hiding for a while now, but it hasn’t been without keeping finances in mind! I’m a month away from having the third member of the family join us, our third little lady is due August 25 – so I’ve been working on some side projects – one of which is ready to roll!

Times are tough and the economy isn’t showing any signs of letting go in the near future so you’ve got to be tight with the funds; I can relate, but here’s a hands-down easy way to turn $400 bucks if you manage or KNOW someone that manages a retail store! Mjedi.com has just released their BETA site and are looking to build their name and they’re giving away $400 CASH if you can introduce them to your friendly local retailer, and in this case, size DOESN’T matter! 1 employee or 10,000 pays out the same amount!

What is Mjedi?

This is one of the reasons I’ve been in hiding, I’ve been working with them on their backend and website design! I think I’ve done alright on it for version 1.0 and they’re ready to start helping people save!

I took on the project primarily because I liked the service it offered. It fits well with what we preach here and it is with people I know and trust. The basic pitch of the site is to keep you informed about the products YOU care about at your favorite local retailers via SMS or email. A lot of sites want you to see everything about everything on sale at their place, this is a new tactic – YOU tell Mjedi what YOU like at the store via an SMS, and they tell you when that item, and ONLY that item goes on sale!

It Benefits Both Sides

As a Retailer

In the past, retailers haven’t had a way to close the loop as to why a person left the store; usually it’s about price, but what items and what price would they want it at? There was no feedback loop.

With Mjedi, as a retailer you’ll see what people are interested in, and be able to adjust costs as you see fit on the items that people are really interested in! If you’re a retailer, you want people in your store; especially in a down economy. You want people buying your things and promoting your brand. Mjedi can help do that.

As a Customer

As a customer you don’t want everything that comes in from a store. You get their mailers, you know what’s out there, but it is likely not the things you want to be on sale. And if it is, it’s not what YOU want the price to be.

Additionally, you don’t have the time to search through the catalogs that get sent out about the stuff you don’t want. If you’re like me, you go into a store and shop around based off the store itself. I like certain stores for the TOTAL package of what they have, and if I’m in the market for something they have, I’ll go there to see if they’ll have it. If it’s too pricey or I see an item I’d rather have, I’ll usually take note of it search online, but Mjedi is set up so that you send one SMS with the UPC code in it and you’re done!

Log on to Mjedi.com from home to manage the UPC posts, update your preferences, and integrate with your Twitter and Facebook accounts of your favorite items that you’ve just picked up for well below Bluebook value!

Conclusion

It really does have the full package and I’m sure the service will sell itself once it gets off the ground! That being said, the site is 100% legit and I can personally guarantee you’ll receive the $400 if you introduce them to a retailer that signs on for the service! I know the CEO and he’s absolutely dedicated to the process and is an honest guy!

I’m not sure how long the offer will last that he’s going to pay out $400, but he is doing it now, so if you know someone, I’d recommend them as soon as you can before the offer closes!

To refer someone either contact me and I’ll pass it on, or email tellmemore@mjedi.com!

In case you’re having some trouble understanding what they offer, here is a bit more simplied version with pictures!

Ode To The 4 Hour Work Week – A Book Review

hank — Sat, 25 Oct 2008 02:04:18 +0000

So I just finished up the book 4-Hour Workweek by Tim Ferriss. It has the standard self-promoting fluff that you have to dig through and weed out, but once you get through that, he’s actually got some pretty ingenious ideas that I think I may find myself implementing in the very near future…

Introduction

Let me first state that I’m not a book reader. I don’t do it because I often find myself spacing out and forgetting what it is I just read, it happens. But I finished this book nonstop in about 5 hours cover to cover. It kept my attention, and that, in itself is a success!

If you want to just skip to my evaluation and score rating the book, skip to the Conclusion at the bottom of this post.

If you can get over the initial stomach-ache feeling you get when you hear “outsource” and work for a big company, outsourcing can certainly be your friend.

My knees trembled a bit at the first sound of it because there is a lot of talk about outsourcing in my day-to-day I.T. world and quite frankly, I’d rather not train the guy that will eventually take my job. Call me old fashioned.

So the format here is based on the notes I took while reading the book. I’ll italicize and bold what I wrote down while reading and comment on it afterward the note if I find the need for elaboration…

On With The Show

“Who are the NR? The employee who rearranges his schedule and negotiates a remote work agreement to achieve 90% of the results in 1/10th of the time.”

I like it – The “NR” are the New Rich – a sleeker and more laid back version of someone that’s made it rich. It doesn’t take an 8-5 job for 25 years to reach it. You can get to it now.

“I can’t give you a surefire formula for success, but I can give you a formula for failure: try to please everybody all the time. – Herbert Bayard Swope first puliter prize winner”

I’m a people pleaser. I like to make people happy, but sometimes it appears that it just isn’t the answer, and it makes sense. I get hate mail here at the MiB. I know, hard to believe when I’m so super awesome, right? But I do. Some people just have it in their veins to pick you apart. You’ve got to learn to deal with it.

“Retirement is worst-case-scenario insurance. Like life insurance, it should be viewed as nothing more than a hedge against the absolute worst case scenario: in this case, becoming physicallly incapable of working and needing a reservoir of capital to survive.“

Loved this quote. Definitely geared towards new entrepreneurs. Yes, it’s nice to have the backup plan, but try to tell that to the people that are 60 and trying to retire with the hit their 401k retirement plan took this year.

“Most people are good at a handful of things and utterly miserable at most. I am great at product creation and marketing but terrible at most of the things that follow.”

Absolutely agree here. I never thought of it that way, but I really am NOT good at a lot of things. Do I put my time to better use getting decent at those or perfecting the things I’m REALLY good at? I vote for the latter.

“Focus on better use of your best weapons instead of constant repair.”

Ditto.

“Busy yourself with the routine of the “money wheel”, pretend it’s the fix-all, and you artfully create a constant distraction that prevents you from seeing just how pointless it is. Deep down, you know it’s all an illusion, but with everyone participating in the same game of make-believe, it’s easy to forget. The problem is more than money.”

A lot of people get in the mindset of getting money from work because they need to pay bills; they need to pay bills so they have to work. They see a symbiotic relationship with the two and the secret is to break those apart and realize that they can be separated.

“If you are nervous about making the jump [to quitting your job and starting something new] or simply putting it off out of fear of the unknown, here is your antidote. Write down your answers, and keep in mind that thinking a lot will not prove as fruitful or as prolific as simply brain vomiting on the page. Aim for volume.”

Brainstorming is always a good answer when you’re trying to solve a problem. No wrong/bad answers, just dump it all out on the page. I’ve used this method for several things in my past, it works.

“Define your nightmare, the absolute worst that could happen if you did what you are considering. What steps could you take to repair the damage or get things back on the upswing, even if temporarily?”

You quit your job and try a new one. What about the kids? Mortgage? Insurance? Lots of “what ifs” in the scenario. But really, think about it, what would happen? How would you go about trying to fix it if so?

“What are the outcomes or benefits, both temporary and permanent of the more probable scenarios? If you were fired from your job today, what would you do get things under financial control?”

I’ve asked this one before. First thing would be unemployment for me certainly, and more recently I’ve decided if it’d happen, I’d bust my hump to try to find something I could do on my own for 2-3 months and if nothing panned out, I’d be back to the job hunt in big biz…

“90% of people in the world are convinced they are incapable of achieving great things so they aim for the mediocre.”

And 75% of all statistics are 20% false 45% of the time. But a good point is made – is this your mindset? Do you think you’re mediocre? I’m not a self-help blog, but honestly, if you think “mediocre” is “good enough”. Well then the book might not be for you.

“Parkinson’s Law dictates that a task will swell in importance and complexity in relation to the time allotted for tis completion.”

Keep tasks simple, to the point, and most of all timely. It’s a method used in writing good goals and cna certainly carry over to finding improvements in your life.

“Problems, as a rule, solve themselves or disappear if you remove yourself as an information bottleneck and empower others.”

I wrote about this in a work delegation post a few weeks back. It may be hard to take yourself out of the equation, but try it, it might help.

“Don’t respond to things that take more of your time – if it takes less than $100 to fix it, fix it.”

This was in regards to when he was talking about being the bottleneck in decisions. He’d spend several hours fixing things that would have cost less than $100, and ultimately cost him more than that because he was the bottleneck.

He put a method in place to fix the issue right away if it cost less than $100.

“Set an hour cap for tasks so they don’t overcharge chasing their tails.”

In regards again to Virtual Assistants (VA) – if you’re going to use them, make sure you put a time limit on what you want them to do in that time frame.

“Use a business of VA’s not just one.”

If you’re going to go down the path of using a VA, make sure you get more than one person helping if you can. If they get sick or are unable, there’ll still be someone to help you when you need them 24/7.

“Use brickwork.com, YMII.com, and Elance.com”

Eh, I’ve heard that both Brickwork and YMII have been slammed since the book and raised up their rates to account for it. Nothing wrong with that, but I’ve got an ad out on Elance.com right now that is searching for someone now just to see the experience (8 VAs have applied so far). Will let you know how that part goes.

“Requirements for outsourcers – english speaking is a must.”

If email doesn’t always drive the point home, you need someone that can talk the talk too.

“The Indian outsourcers cost between $4 and 10 US per hour. My domestic outsourcers are paid on performance on when product ships. This creates a curious business phenomemon: Negative cash flow is impossible.”

So the Indian outsources he uses create product to be shipped. The domestic outsourcers only get money when the sale is actually made. The secret here is to have a product that can be sold for more than you can outsource for. Indeed a good problem to have.

“Never automate something that can be eliminated, and never delegate something that can be automated or streamlined.”

I’ve heard this a lot in my day to day job and it really does make sense. To trump them both, don’t outsource OR streamline anything that can be automated. Automation is free.

“It is critical that you decide how you will sell and distribute your product before you commit to a product in the first place.”

Makes sense, haven’t had a product to sell yet though. Working on it.

“Find a market, define your customers, then find or develop a product for them.”

This one intrigued me a lot. I never thought of it that way before. I’ve always thought of an idea and tried to fit it into a niche. Certainly a new way of looking at it.

“Invent, let someone else do the rest, and cash checks.”

Preach on Tim. I would like to be in that position certainly; sign me up! Basically though he is saying to utilize your outsourcing abilities. Come up with the idea and let them do the legwork.

“Our goal isn’t to produce a business that is as large as possible, but one that bothers us as LITTLE as possible.”

Really liked this quote. This is the TRUE passive income definition. Passive means that you aren’t doing anything. Bothering you as little as possible fits right in there.

“Lose-win is the new win-win – stand out and reap the rewards. Fffer them MORE back than their investment, most people are honest.”

So for example you’re seeing this a lot these days. People want you to try the product and if you don’t like it, they’ll give you back 110%. Conveniently, 110% isn’t THAT much more when you really put the numbers to it, but it is enough in the initial buy that makes people think, “Whoa, this really MUST be a good product then!”

“Don’t be the CEO or Founder – for negotiation purposes, remember that it is best NOT to appear to be the ultimate decision-maker.”

This helps in the sales role I’m sure. When you’re driving home a potential sale, you can get caught up in it if you’re the final buyoff on it. Make it seem like you need to go back to the office to get the final verdict on things.

Conclusion

Outsource until outsourcing can be outsourced by outsourcing. The point is indeed valid and carries weight (and less cost). Being savvy to the business entrepreneurship, I can most certainly see a need (and use) for it.

On a scale of 1-10, I give the book a very solid 8. I could have done without the self-promoting fluff and he hammered on the outsourcing bit a LOT, I could have used about 20% less “outsourcing chat.” I got the point, I’ll use it if I go into business for myself, but the point is valid.

Good book, I would read another offering from the pen of Mr. Ferriss!

What Did You Learn Last Year? Winners of Hanks Holiday Handout #4

hank — Sat, 18 Oct 2008 08:01:52 +0000

I’d first like to thank everyone for participating in Hanks Holiday Handout #4! Once again it was a big success with entries from all over the world! I think if you read through the comments, you’ll find a wealth of good information (and stories) on what people have learned in the last year.

Without further adieu, the winners are…

1. Danny Cooper wins: How to Finance Your Invention or Great Idea by Jack Lander
$19.95—

2. knobster wins: The Boss’s Survival Guide by Rosner, Halcrow, and Levins
$18.95 —
3. Cah Kontes wins: .1001 Ways To Take Initiative At Work by Bob Nelson
$10.95—
4. David @ DailyDollar wins: When Markets Collide: Investment Strategies for the Age of Global Economic Change (Hardcover) by Mohamed El-Erian
$27.95—
5. Writer’s Coin wins: Rich Dad Poor Dad by Robert Kiyosaki

$16.95 —
6. Matt @ MyFinancialRecovery wins: Financial GPS Software
$39.99 –
7. Kristen, Dusty, Amber, Jamie, SeanP . EACH win $25 in Cold Hard Cash!

8. Sherry was the top commenter for the duration of the contest and takes home the $50!

Again, a big thanks to everyone for participating! If you’re a winner, check your inbox as you should have an email from me in there with details on claiming your prize!

365 Days of Statistics On My Finances, My Blog Stats, And My Revenue Here @ The MiB

hank — Tue, 07 Oct 2008 20:23:10 +0000

I’m a fan of numbers, but I try not to get too wrapped up in them. They’re good markers, but the main point is to drive through with them and continue improving them. They can go up and down and really frustrate you if you let them.

I’ve more than paid for my site but people like to read and learn about how everyone is doing it, so I’m happy to share the past years traffic numbers (and some financials as well)…

MY Personal Finance Numbers

My 401k Through T-Rowe Price

I’m not immune to the stock market diving by any stretch of the imagination but that doesn’t mean I’m keeping my money out of it. It’s an opportune time to buy right now and you’re getting stocks/bonds/mutual funds at all-time historic lows.

I can see Carl’s point when he says: “You all want to leave your retirement money in the stock market right now? Are you insane? I’m 31 years old, self-employed, and all I have (had) so far is $8200.00 to put into a ROTH-IRA. This was 4 months ago. Since then, I’ve lost $2200.00 and the bottom is STILL dropping out.

You expect me to ride this nonsense out? If this continues and I lose almost 2-5% of my money almost every day, I won’t have anything left to bounce back with. I’ll gladly take the $500.00 penalty for early withdrawal before i have nothing left to withdraw.

I’m probably the least savvy when it comes to managing finances but I’d rather bank on the guarantee that if I have the money physically in my hands, nobody, no bank and no government can find a way to molest me. I’m furious about all of this and I don’t know what else to do.”

But the problem I see with the numbers there is that he is only 31 years old. You’re in a ROTH IRA and the point and benefit of a ROTH is for long term investing. You’re not taking that out for almost 30 more years! The stock market is risky, that’s part of the game, but if you’re confident in your fund choices, you should know that you’ll need to occasionally ride out a storm as your money isn’t always going to be headed in the black.

In the past 365 days my 401k has dropped 23.00% [see screenshot1]

My ROTH IRA Through Charles Schwab and Edward Jones

The ROTH IRA funds haven’t been without bumps in the road either. I’ve stopped contributing to my Edward Jones “B” shares ROTH contribution this year and have put it all to my Charles Schwab fund SWEGX.

I am still on pace to contribute the $5000 and max out my ROTH contributions for the 2008 year, however, like my 401k they have taken a beating. An upside to the downside of the market is that I made a good choice stopping contributing to my Edward Jones ROTH IRA as it has dropped over 1/3 its price in the last year (-36.87%) while SWEGX in my Schwab account has “only” dropped (-32.45%).

But Hank, you just lost 1/3rd of your retirement in both your long term retirement accounts! Why are you still in it?

Like I said about my 401k above, and Carl’s comment., I’m only 30 years old.

I’ve got at LEAST 30 more before I plan on taking that money out.

I look at it with a “glass half full mentality”, I’m BUYING funds now for 1/3rd of the cost I was previously paying for them.

I may have lost a good chunk of the capital in there, and that’s demoralizing, but know the game and how it is played and you’ll fair better.

In the past 365 days my cumulative ROTH IRA has dropped 34.66% [see screenshots 2, and 3 above]

My Day-Job Salary

My day-job salary has been the one thing that has kept me in the stock market. Yes, if my salary had dropped or I lost my job I’d certainly have cut contributions to my 401k and ROTH, but it hasn’t, so I’m not.

My salary since Oct 2007 has had a promotion and cost of living increase added to it to help pad the long-term investments a bit more while they’re cheap.

Additionally, my online income has increased from $0.00 in Oct 2007 to… well, that’s in the next section. This is for salary.

In the past 365 days my salary has increase 36.11%

Website Numbers @ The MiB

Top Referrers

I’m happy to have a strong referral base to complement the big dogs (Google/Yahoo) driving traffic. Clearly social networking plays a HUGE role in the success of the blogs MiB not withstanding, and I encourage you all to check out each and every one of them on my Where Am I page. Feel free to “friend” me in each of the respective sites.

These social powerhouses drive thousands of visitors to my site each month and are a staple if you plan on sticking it out for a year or more!

However, without the people in the blogosphere sending folks my way, I wouldn’t be where I am today. Furthermore, without the constant participation and idea brainstorming at the other sites that link to me, I’d probably have stopped in the first month or 2.

Seeing as though this is the year long compilation of stats, I figured I’d bump it up from the standard top 10 referrals to the top 20 shout out to my referrers. Without you guys, nobody would ever find me.

The top referrer to my site in the year was…

1. FrugaHacks.com – it’s strange because I’m buried deep in the pile, but apparently people check it out enough to dig deep! Thank you very much FrugalHacks!

The rest o’ the pack; all with at least 100 people sent my way – thank you all for your support!

2. BibleMoneyMatters.com – (a close second actually – thanks Pete!)
3. Moolanomy.com
4. RemodelingThisLife.com
5. pfblogs.org
6. MoneyLifeNetwork.com
7. FreeFromBroke.com
8. SenseToSave.com
9. FrugalDad.com
10. PFBuzz.com
11. PTMoney.com
12. TheWildInvestor.com
13. TheDigeratiLife.com
14. BeingFrugal.net
15. GatherLittleByLittle.com
16. FreeMoneyFinance.com
17. Finwikian.com
18. MoneyHackers.net
19. MoneySmartLife.com
20. MyDollarPlan.com

Total Traffic

This one can be summed up with the combo of Google Analytics and WordPress Dashboard charts to the right and above. I’d say no counter is perfect, but I’d imagine that

combining both and taking an average should be close to around 125,000-ish viewers this year! Hopefully some of you will stick around, eh? It’s funny to watch the spikes in the big traffic drives you see over the year.

I started off somehow managing 2 and 3 thousand in the first few months, but then I had almost 40k in February/March when StumbleUpon came to be.

It tapered off, but it has been a pretty good boost for all bloggers to have it around I’m sure.

Additionally, I’d mentioned prior that I’d gotten drop from PR4 to PR2 from Google, but my Alexa score has hopped several hundred thousand (125,602 on 10/7/2008) and I’m approaching the top 100k of all sites. We’ll see how it looks in year 2.

Total Posts/Comments

I’ve changed up my posting routine a lot in the past year for multiple times per day, to once daily, to once every other day, but haven’t missed 2 posts a week.

I like the change and it gives me some freedom to step away from they keyboard, but the thing I’ve learned in the past year is that you don’t need to post daily to get the readership you want.

Sometimes writing daily is too much for people to keep up with. Personally, I’m not able to keep up with the 100+ feeds I’m subscribed to and will likely give the reader a once over every week and pick my favorite articles that jump out at me to read/comment on.

I wish I could get to them, but I really just don’t have the time to do so!

I’d like to say I’m extremely happy with Akismet, and rightfully so, they’ve saved me from almost 6,000 spams.

However, I dug around a bit in the past few weeks and had to manually release maybe 20-30 valid comments I’d previously just deleted. Sorry if you were actually one of “the missing” in there folks and dumped you!

But all things considered, I’d rather release 20-30 than block 6000. So I’ll keep my thanks there.

As for the comments, they speak for themselves (literally). People have been very gracious in stopping by and leaving their thoughts, and it is a driving factor to keep going. People clearly find value in some of the things I write – Specifically, people have been interested enough to sign up for the feed! Thanks to all of you as well!

MiB SiteStock Traffic/Growth

In August I was pretty excited to start my first app that I coded in PHP.

I had no prior experience in PHP but had enough to get me started with what I wanted to do.

Basically the goal was to find a way to consolidate all these types of stats on this post into one number. One dollar value metric, and I did that with SiteStock.

I’ve got tracking numbers detailing when it was used and the numbers of queries run against it in the past 2 months but unfortunately aside from guessing don’t have the number of folks actually using it.

However, in the past 2 months, I’ve seen 3,542 queries looking as to how their sites rank against the rest of the folks on the internet!

I hope that number will grow and I’m completely open to feedback on ways to improve/advance it. Thanks to all for using it!

Website Revenue For The MiB

Google Ads

It’s been the steady horse here over the past year. Slowly increase month over month from less than $10 the first month to $250 last month. I can’t actually post numbers and/or click through rates without breaking the Google Policy, but I can say that my best day was Saturday, August 9, 2008 when I made $41.15 that day.

A tip to Google Adsense implementers – Use AdsBlacklist, seriously. Or else you’ll never make more than pennies from Adsense. It takes 2 minutes to sign up and makes a world of difference. It’s free, fairly easy to use, and I’m happy to say dumps the low paying clicks from your site.

In the past 365 days my Google Adsense revenue has produced $1,320.28

Individual Link/Banner Sales

I’ve had good and bad things to say about these. I like that they pay well (between $150-400 per 6 month contract) but they’ll certainly slap your Google PR rank. I was up to a Google PR4 for a while and am sitting at PR2 now. My advertisers page states that I can change the nofollow tag at will, but haven’t seen a decrease in Google traffic since the downgrade to PR2.

We’ll see how this one flies in the coming weeks/months.

In the past 365 days my Individual Link/Banner revenue has produced $1,200.00

“The Rest”

I’ve written about it in the past that I’ve experimented with a couple of different money makers to no avail. Either they were far too intrustive (Kontera $0.02 in 1 day) to the reading or they just didn’t produce (JobsThread – $3.12 in 5 months) in addition to Amazon Affiliates that took up too much space ($8.29 in 1 month) on the site.

I’ve been experimenting with Microsoft Ads ($44.20 in 3 months) and the previously unenchanted Forbes Ad Network ($34.21 in 4 months). With those numbers though, I may fall back into disenchantment shortly.

However all the prior are better than Performancing Ads ($0.00 in 2 months) and Commission Junction ($0.00 in 3 months AND over 40,000 impressions).

Conclusion

You can put a number on pretty much any metric. As you can see through this post, I’ve tried. But can you really put a value on what you’ve learned over the past year? Or how about the relationships you’ve made? I get some pretty solid feedback from a handful of close “associates” I keep close to the hip.

From Blogging Tips to Joint Giveways; from Writing Improvement to Wordless Wednesdays – I find that the monetary value of the site is climbing fast indeed, but not nearly as fast as the relationship/networking potential that this site has given me.

Thanks to you all for a great year!

Things I’ve Learned In The Past Year – Tell Me YOURS And Be In The $300+ Prize Drawing (Hanks Holiday Handout #4)

hank — Mon, 22 Sep 2008 08:01:30 +0000

So we’re crossing the year long milestone here @ the MiB and celebrating in style! Giving away our fourth contest pushing the total amount given away this year close to $1,000! Thanks to everyone for making it worthwhile and I’m happy to craft up this one giving away more than any prior contest! Coincidentally fellow MoneyLifeNetwork writers FreeFromBroke and SenseToSave are in the same boat! Happy Anniversary guys!

So FreeFromBroke and I decided to merge forces with this contest and offer you more than 1 way to enter and win during the dual-contest offering! So after reading and commenting on this one, buzz over to FreeFromBroke.com to see the flip-side of our question coin and toss your name in the hat for another chance to win!

The Prizes

The last 3 promotions (Contest1, Contest2, Contest3) the rules seemed to work very well and rewarded everyone accordingly. Ergo, there are a total of thirteen (13) prizes worth over $300 that will be given away! I have been given several books and an interesting piece of software in the past year, so I figured it best to give back to the site what was given to me. Feel free to trade or sell them yourself if you’d like once you win!

Q: Can you win more than one prize?
A: Indeed! In theory, one person COULD win them all if they had all 100 entries and luck of the draw was on their side! but the last 3 contests had separate winners, but this contest has more prizes than ever before!

How to Finance Your Invention or Great Idea by Jack Lander

$19.95
—

The Boss’s Survival Guide by Rosner, Halcrow, and Levins

$18.95
—

1001 Ways To Take Initiative At Work by Bob Nelson -

$10.95
—

When Markets Collide: Investment Strategies for the Age of Global Economic Change (Hardcover) by Mohamed El-Erian

$27.95
—

Rich Dad Poor Dad by Robert Kiyosaki

$16.95
—

Financial GPS Software

$39.99
—

FIVE (5) $25 Prizes in Cold Hard Cash - $125.00 (American Express Gift Card or direct pay via PayPal.com

***NEW***Top Commenter for the month (next 3 weeks) gets $50 – no drawing, just a giveback to the folks that are regulars, but newcomers are welcome to give it a whirl (includes new comments on past articles also but comments need to be relevant)! – $50.00 (American Express Gift Card or direct pay via PayPal.com

Total Contest Value = $309.74

The Question

So the question each person needs to answer is:

What is the single most important thing you’ve learned over the past year?
(It can be ANYTHING you’ve learned, no holds barred here!)

My Answer(s) To The Question

There are a handful of ways this can go because there really is something new you learn every day, or so they say. To get the creative juices flowing, I’d provide you with a few of my most lessons learned in the past 365 days:

1. Planning ahead. Whether it is for work or play, putting in the extra time will save you more than just time.
2. Adobe Photoshop – I’ve gotten pretty good at Photoshop over the past year and I’ve started to cook up a few pretty nice prints as of recent.
3. Google Adsense – it really does matter where you put your ads if you want people to click them.
4. Ads Blacklist for Google Adsense – You’re not going to make ANYTHING if you don’t filter who you’re allowing to advertise.
5. Internet friends are good to have – I didn’t think that I’d be able to connect with people on this site as well as I have and I’ve actually built a pretty good network of friends.
6. Money isn’t everything – I turned down a job or 2 this year and I’m not upset about it because it doesn’t drive your workload.
7. My 3 and 4 year old daughters will eat anything if you offer them one chocolate chip afterwards.
8. The New England Patriots aren’t unstoppable.
9. People seem to be divided 50/50 on going to Iraq to take a job.
10. Spongebob Squarepants birthday is July 14, 1986.
11. Daily blogging isn’t needed to keep a reader base. If you write good content, people won’t ditch you by posting less frequently.

The Entries

There are actually 100 possible entries you can have if you use all the options, so read these rules closely!

1. Leave a relevant comment based on the question above (5 entries)
2. “Favoritize” this page through your choice of preferred methods: Del.Icio.Us / Reddit / Digg / Stumble Upon / Technorati / PFBuzz . After linking, use the contact page to shoot me an email to which page you’ve submitted (5 entries)
3. Add me to your BlogRoll (5 entries)
4. Comment on FreeFromBroke‘s co-op page to the contest! (10 entries) [contact me to have your entries added!]
5. Sign up for FreeFromBroke’s RSS feed! [Trust me, if you like my content, you'll LOVE his! ] (10 entries)
6. Sign up for The Money Life Network RSS Feed. Worry not, MLN won’t bite. (10 entries) [if already signed up, to enter you must contact to have your entries added]
7. Sign up for my RSS feed (10 entries) [if already signed up, to enter you must contact me to have your entries added]
8. Provide a writeup based on the question above on your own blog and link back to this post (10 entries)
9. Review MiB Smarter Money on your website (10 entries)
10. Add my MiB SiteStock widget to your site (25 entries) [if you already have it, contact me to have your entries added!]

The Rules

This giveaway is all in good fun.
There is no purchase necessary and it won’t improve your chances to win, but I’m always up for free $ if you’d like to send me some.
If it works as planned, I’m happy to offer more giveaways in the future.
The winners will be selected by random number generator.
The winners will be chosen on October 15, 2008 @ 12pm Pacific Standard Time(PST).
Anyone of any age can enter unless it is illegal in your area.
The winners will be contacted via email, SO LEAVE A VALID EMAIL ADDRESS IF YOU WANT TO BE CONTACTED! I promise I will NEVER use your email address for evil purposes. Just to contact you to tell you that you’ve won. You don’t even need to leave a real name if you don’t want, just a valid email address (and home address if you win). If the email address isn’t valid, I’ll use the random number generator to pick another name.
All prizes are provided “as is”.
If you want to host my next giveaway, I’m happy to consider your offer. Contact me.
The odds of winning depend on how many people are involved. I can’t give you this info now, but I can assure you, it’s easier to win than the standard lottery.
By getting in on this you allow MyInvestingBlog to republish what you write either on this blog or other spots.
I am the judge and jury as to what is a “relevant” post. If you’re following the rules above, you’re most likely a valid post; but I reserve the right to delete your post if I feel it isn’t relevant to this blog. For example, if you write something like: “I really like giftcards, and I really really like free gift certificates!” You’ll probably not get in. Please make it a valid post!

One Heck Of A Free Giveaway Over @ 20sMoney!

hank — Thu, 04 Sep 2008 08:01:54 +0000

Kevin over at 20smoney.com is cooking up a little contest giving away $250 to one lucky reader. Couldn’t hurt to head over and toss your name in the hat!

There are a handful of ways to get in:
1. RSS Subscribe To 20s Money – 3 Entries
2. Stumble This Page – 2 Entries
3. Write A Blog Post About This Contest – 5 Entries
4. Leave A Comment Telling Me About What Content You’d Like To See On This Blog – 1 Entry
5. Goto SmallBlogging.com And Signup For the Email List – 3 Entries
6. Get a Bonus 4 Entries For Completing All of the Above – 4 Entries

I’ve actually been a big fan of Kevin’s writing for a while now. His site cooked up in April 2008 and has been growing very fast in the past 5 months and is pulling in almost $500 extra dollars per month now! Ask I write this, he’s got himself 624 loyal readers to the site, and always looking to add more!

He’s got a very keen eye on the stock world to which he illuminates his readers with in his post and is very good at getting back to users that do comment on the site. His site is very clean and easy to navigate and provides a wealth of knowledge.

My favorite 5 articles are:

I’m In A Good Position Financially, What Can I Do To Take My Personal Finances To The Next Level?
The 20s Money Retirement Plan
Where To Put A Little Girl’s Money
Will Energy Rebound? If It Does, I’ll Make A Lot Of Money
20 Must Reads For 20-Somethings

Kevin’s bio says that the site is in existence for the following:

* Most people in their 20s are not sufficiently preparing for their financial future. Unfortunately for most 20-somethings, the math simply does not add up to a financial future where they will be able to attain certain financial goals whether it be a desired lifestyle, sense of security or retirement

* Most of the financial advice and information geared towards 20-somethings comes in either one of two flavors: “start early” or “time is on your side”. We find it hard to believe that the advice to simply “start early” equates to a comprehensive solution to your financial future. We want to give you practical steps to help you build a bright future.

* Most financial “experts” on TV and on the internet can’t tell you what direction a stock or the overall market is going better than any average investor. It’s time to stop investing based on CNBC.

* There are a number of financial challenges that people in their 20s will face that people closer to retirement age will not face. How do we factor into our financial strategy necessary actions that will address these unique obstacles?

* We want to encourage young people to take control of their financial future. Social security will be long gone by the time you hit your retirement years, and don’t even consider the idea of a pension. You should look to nobody but yourself to provide for yourself later in life.

So head on over to 20smoney to get your name in the hat to take home $250!

The Stats and Winners of Hanks Holiday Handout #3!

hank — Thu, 07 Aug 2008 08:07:09 +0000

I’d have to say that this contest was leaps and bounds better than the last 2 I’ve run here at the MiB! Maybe it had to do with the $300 of cold-hard-giftcard-cash we were handing out, but who knows.

The Stats

First I’d like to thank everyone for taking the time to answer the question and put their names in the contest. It looks like most people (52% of the votes) would pay down debt first – probably not a bad idea!

We had a total of 12,310 entries into the drawing which was MUCH more than I had anticipated when starting it up. We had over 1500 pageviews, almost 200 comments, 100 “favoritizations”, 150 referrals, and people spent 4 minutes reading through on average.

We also broke records in RSS subscriptions! We added almost 350 people to the MiB RSS feed and 45 to the MoneyLifeNetwork feed in the past 3 weeks! I hope you all stay onboard and see what else we cook up in the future here! You won’t be disappointed as we’ve got some handy dandies cooked up in the coming weeks!

There are a lot of comments that I hoped helped other people out in realizing the best way to utilize a financial bump like this! Obviously paying off the debt is first on my list of things to do!

The Next Contest

Keep an eye out for the next contest here as well! This one was a smashing success which means that we’ll most certainly be having one in the very near future – which is reason enough to stay subscribed, eh?

On To The Winners

Now this is assuming you all gave me valid email addresses, so if you’re reading this, don’t give up hope yet, if these users don’t get back to me within 3 days of their acceptance, they’re back on the market!

That being said… drumroll please…
The 3rd place $50 giftcard winner is: Jophillips (Digg submission, RSS Feed).

The 2nd place $100 giftcard winner is: GLBLGuy (comment, StumbleUpon, Subscribed RSS feed, Refer a friend > Lynnae from BeingFrugal.net, Added your site to my BlogRoll, article write-up)

The grand prize winner of the $150 giftcard is: NH Mom of 3! (comment, blogroll addition, RSS Feed, post about contest, Added MoneyLifeNetwork to RSS)

A big shoutout to MarketLeverage for providing the prizes and thank you all very much for participating in Hank’s Holiday Handout #3 – and keep an ear to the ground for the next contest very soon!

Sometimes Money DOES Grow On Trees Part II

hank — Tue, 29 Jul 2008 08:01:48 +0000

So in cooking up my $300 giveaway (still have till Aug 6 to enter) this month, I stumbled across another handful of places that are giving away similar prizes and money that I thought my readers would find interesting (especially you new ones that have just signed up because of the contest).

I mentioned a handful last month in Sometimes Money Does Grow on Trees Part I, but they’ve all since expired, so here’s the new batch o’ free goodies from the following sites:

TylerCruz

- http://www.tylercruz.com/affiliate-marketing-challenge-2/

1st Place: Dell 22? Widescreen Monitor with Built-In Webcam
2nd Place: Sony PSP + Secret Agent Clank
3rd Place: Mino Flip Video Camera
4th Place: iPod Nano
5th – 6th Place: $100 Prepaid Rewards Card

TheUniversityKid

- http://theuniversitykid.com/win-a-nintendo-wii/

1st prize: winner will get a Nintendo Wii.
2nd prize: winner will get a Flip Mino

DatMoney

- http://www.datmoney.com/2008/07/new-contest-prize-nintendo-wii-beats-the-ipod-touch-16-10-in-voting.html

1st prize: Nintendo Wii

MixedMarketArts

- http://mixedmarketarts.com/2008/07/20/marketleverage-contest-update/

1st prize: ONE Flip Mino ($179 value)
2nd prize: TEN 2GB USB Pens
3rd prize: FOUR $25 Giftcards

Enkay Blog

- http://www.enkayblog.com/mlcontest/

1st prize:Asus EEE PC
2nd prize: $50 AMEX Rewards
3rd prize: three 2GB USB Pens

BigMarketingOnline

- http://www.bigmarketingonline.com/largest-blog-contest-ever.html

InspiredMoneyMaker

- http://www.inspiredmoneymaker.com/2008/07/14/blog-contest-three-times-the-prizes/

First prize: Flip Mino and a 2GB USB Pen
2nd prize: $50 MarketLeverage Rewards Card
3rd prize: 2GB USB pen

Bloggin-Ads

- http://bloggin-ads.com/goodbye-bloggin-ads-and-final-contest

8GB iPod Touch ($299 value)
$50 Market Leverage Credit Gift Card
$25 iTunes Gift Card

WPThemeDesigner

- http://www.wpthemedesigner.com/2008/07/20/contest-win-flip-mino/

1st Place – Flip Mino Video Camera
2nd place – $100 ML Reward
3rd place – $50 ML Reward

Baby Tea Leaves

- http://babytealeaves.blogspot.com/2008/07/summer-of-me-season-finale.html

1st prize: Wii Fit console
2nd prize: 100$ AMEX gift card

What Would You Do If You Were Given $50,000 Today? (HHH #3)

hank — Mon, 14 Jul 2008 08:01:22 +0000

So the nice folks over at MarketLeverage have agreed to sponsor the contest this round as they’ve been duly impressed with the postings that come out of the M.I.B! I’m happy to say that I’m happy to hear it! That being said, the contest is giving away 3 American Express gift cards for $150, $100, and $50!

We had an opportunity to cook up a laundry list of prizes, but I figured the folks that swing by here want to make THEIR money work for THEM instead of giving prizes that you’d have to turn around and sling up to eBay. I say let your cash work for you!

So in the last 2 promotions (Contest1, Contest2) the rules seemed to work very well and rewarded everyone accordingly, soooooo:

The Prizes

There are a total of (3) prizes worth $300 that will be given out:

(1) $150 American Express Gift card

(1) $100 American Express Gift card

(1) $50 American Express Gift card

The Question

So the question each person needs to answer is:

If you were given $50,000USD (tax free) today, what would you spend it on?

The Entries

There are actually 100 possible entries you can have if you use all the options, so read these rules closely!

1. Leave a relevant comment based on the question above (5 entries)
2. “Favoritize” this page through your choice of preferred methods: Del.Icio.Us / Reddit / Digg / Stumble Upon / Technorati / PFBuzz . After linking, use the contact page to shoot me an email to which page you’ve submitted (5 entries)
3. Sign up for my RSS feed (10 entries) [if already signed up contact me to have your entries added]
4. Sign up for The Money Life Network RSS Feed. Worry not, MLN won’t bite. (10 entries) [if already signed up contact me to have your entries added]
5. Refer a friend to this blog and have them leave an entry here on this post. Contact me with the friend you referred (10 entries)
6. Provide a writeup based on the question above on your own blog and link back to this post (15 entries)
7. Add me to your BlogRoll (15 entries)
8. Review MyInvestingBlog.com on your website (30 entries)

The Rules

This giveaway is all in good fun.
There is no purchase necessary and it won’t improve your chances to win, but I’m always up for free $ if you’d like to send me some.
If it works as planned, I’m happy to offer more giveaways in the future.
The winners will be selected by random number generator.
The winners will be chosen on August 6, 2008 @ 12pm Pacific Standard Time(PST).
Anyone of any age can enter unless it is illegal in your area.
The winners will be contacted via email, SO LEAVE A VALID EMAIL ADDRESS IF YOU WANT TO BE CONTACTED! I promise I will NEVER use your email address for evil purposes. Just to contact you to tell you that you’ve won. You don’t even need to leave a real name if you don’t want, just a valid email address (and home address if you win). If the email address isn’t valid, I’ll use the random number generator to pick another name.
All prizes are provided “as is”.
If you want to host my next giveaway, I’m happy to consider your offer. Contact me.
The odds of winning depend on how many people are involved. I can’t give you this info now, but I can assure you, it’s easier to win than the standard lottery.
By getting in on this you allow MyInvestingBlog to republish what you write either on this blog or other spots.
I am the judge and jury as to what is a “relevant” post. If you’re following the rules above, you’re most likely a valid post; but I reserve the right to delete your post if I feel it isn’t relevant to this blog. For example, if you write something like: “I really like giftcards, and I really really like free gift certificates!” You’ll probably not get in. Please make it a valid post!