10 Secrets To Success

What is it that makes people successful and I mean really successful compared to you or me? Are they smarter or do they work harder? Are they risk takers or have powerful and influential friends?

The financial newspaper Investors Business Daily (IBD) asked these same questions a few years ago and started a multi-year search for the answer. They studied industry leaders, investors and entrepreneurs to understand the traits they all had in common that contributed to their success. Reproduced here is their list of 10 Secrets to Success along with my commentary on each no-so-secret, ‘secret’.

I decided to reproduce the list here and comment on each of the traits in hopes of motivating you and myself in the process. It’s time for me to take my own advice and start on the path to my dreams. I hope to motivate you, by using myself as an example.

I originally came across this list when I was staring at some papers on a refrigerator owned by someone who was very successful – both personally and financially. My family and I had just spent the night as a guest in a great house in the suburbs of Boston. We were living life large as we played pool in the rec room, drank wine from the wine cellar, and enjoyed a dip in the hot tub. The problem was, neither of the couples in the house owned the property or the life we were pretending to have. You see, my friends were house sitting for the original owner and they had invited us to stay for the weekend.

It wasn’t until the morning after our little ‘party’ that I noticed something taped to the refrigerator – something that impacts me each time I read it. It was the IBD 10 Secrets to Success. Once my head cleared, I quickly copied them down and read them over and over again. After our vacation I made copies and posted them in my home office and inside a journal I decided to keep.
The problem was, after a couple of months I forgot about the secrets and they fell by the wayside. And so did my actions towards my goals. At the time the articles 7 Ways to Grow the Action Habit or How To Motivate Yourself – Self Motivation didn’t exist and I lost my motivation. Well, I re-discovered the list and want to share it with you now. I hope you take these not-so-secret, secrets to heart and realize your dreams – whatever they may be.
1. How You Think is Everything.

Always be positive. Think Success, not Failure. Beware of a negative environment.
This trait has to be one of the most important in the entire list. Your belief that you can accomplish your goals has to be unwavering. The moment you say to yourself “I can’t…”, then you won’t. I was always given the advice “never say I can’t” and I’d like to strike those words from the dictionary.

I’ve found that from time-to-time my attitude waivers. A mentor of mine once said “it’s ok to visit pity city, but you can’t stay and there comes a time when you need to leave”. Positive things happen to positive people.

2. Decide upon Your True Dreams and Goals: Write down your specific goals and develop a plan to reach them.

Write down my dreams and goals? Develop a plan to reach them? You mean like a project plan? Yes, that’s exactly what this means. You may have heard the old adage: A New Years resolution that isn’t written down is just a dream, and dreams are not goals.
Goals are those concrete, measurable stepping stones of achievement that track your progress towards your dreams. My goal is to start a second career as a freelance writer – what are your goals?

3. Take Action. Goals are nothing without action.
Be like Nike and “Just do it”. I took action by reaching out and started writing. Every day I try to take some action towards my goals. It may be small, but it’s still an action. Have you taken action towards your goals?

4. Never Stop Learning: Go back to school or read books. Get training & acquire skills.
Becoming a life long learner would benefit us all and is something we should instill in our kids. It’s funny that once you’re out of school you realize how enjoyable learning can be. What have you learned today?

5. Be Persistent and Work Hard: Success is a marathon, not a sprint. Never give up.
I think every story of success I read entails long hard hours of work. There is no getting around this and there is no free lunch. But, if you’re working towards something that you’re passionate about, something you love – then is it really work?

6. Learn to Analyze Details: Get all the facts, all the input. Learn from your mistakes.
I think you have to strike a balance between getting all the facts and making a decision with incomplete data – both are traits of successful people. Spend time gathering details, but don’t catch ‘analysis paralysis’.

7. Focus Your Time And Money: Don’t let other people or things distract you.
Remain laser focused on your goals and surround yourself with positive people that believe in you. Don’t be distracted by the naysayer’s or tasks that are not helping you achieve your goals.

8. Don’t Be Afraid To Innovate: Be different. Following the herd is a sure way to mediocrity.

Follow through on that break-out idea you have. Ask yourself “What would I do if I wasn’t afraid?”

9. Deal And Communicate With People Effectively: No person is an island. Learn to understand and motivate others.

Successful people develop and nurture a network and they only do that by treating people openly, fairly and many times firmly. There is nothing wrong about being firm – just don’t cross the a-hole line. How do you deal with people?

10. Be Honest And Dependable: Take responsibility, otherwise numbers 1 – 9 won’t matter.

Enough said.

Why Some Of The Smartest People Fail With Their Online Business

Ruck and I have had the pleasure of working with Internet and Affiliate Marketers for over seven years now and we’ve seen a lot of stuff.  From those that first come online and turn their business into a multimillion dollar enterprise all the way to those that just can’t get the hang of things and are never able to make the transition full time. Rags to riches, success to going back to work, million dollar acquisitions; I’m really not surprised to hear anything nowadays!  One of the biggest things I’ve began to notice is some of the most successful marketers out there are the ones that don’t over analyze things and take action.

Inside our Private Community we have marketers ranging from beginner all the way to seasoned veteran.  Many times I find that some of the people just starting out are over thinking the entire process or have such an ADD problem they can’t just stick to one campaign and see it successfully through.  The successful marketers take action getting as much traffic as they can find and rather than over thinking about the exact call to action they’re using, creative image(s), etc. they produce as many as many campaigns as they can to start immediate split testing.

At times it can be frustrating to see a very “smart” individual fail at some of the most simple things.  Rather than just taking action and seeing a profitable campaign through they dibble dabble a bit with a campaign here, a bit with another one there, and end up having ten failed campaigns; over and over again.  On the other hand it’s amusing to see someone with very little Internet background, that doesn’t know HTML or how to make their own images, come in and clean up six figures a month in profit.

Simply put, they’re not over-thinking the process.  Their limited amount of knowledge actually works for them because they really have no other choice than to start testing and see what works.  I’ve been working online for over a decade now and while I can answer a lot of questions some of the best answers come from actually testing things out and seeing what works and what doesn’t.

If you spend a lot of time on anything you’re going to eventually get good at it.  For example, if you practice playing a sport for a couple hours every day, set goals, monitor your progress, and work hard at it – you’re going to be better than the average person.  A person that goes to they gym and weight lifts four times a week is eventually going to have more muscle mass than the average individual.  That’s just how things work.  Transitioning this over to Internet Marketing those that spend adequate time creating campaigns, taking action, testing, and seeing what works will eventually become successful.  Those that dabble a little here, a little there won’t because their focus is too diverted to see anything all the way through.

The next time you setup a campaign or start a new website ask yourself from the beginning, “what is my overall goal?”  Don’t use money as a motivator because it’s never enough (ie: have a goal to make $100,000).  Rather than doing that you may just set your goal to “be profitable every day for one week.”  Maybe another goal would be to split test at least 20 different creatives and 4 different landing pages.  Also don’t be quick to give up on yourself or lose confidence.  In everyday life, especially business, you’re going to fail.  However if you recognize why you failed and can build off of it you’ll likely pull through and overcome.

For those veterans out there that are consistently pulling in massive profits because you’re taking action and not over analyzing things; keep it up!  Just remember to develop your business with legs and actually retain some assets that are valuable and can be leveraged for long term growth!

http://www.imgrind.com/why-smart-people-fail-online-business/

Top 5 Traffic Generation Methods Guaranteed to Cause A Stampede Of Readers to Your Blog This Year

We all hate traffic jams on the roads but not when it comes to our websites or blogs. Traffic is that one thing that any blog owner will never have enough of, or else what is the standard measure for maximum allowable traffic on any blog. Put in another way, when would you say that you’ve had enough traffic even if you get a thousand comments per post everyday?

I don’t know about you but I want more web traffic. In this post, you’ll discover the top 5 traffic generation methods sure to jam your blog with readers and commenters this year. Read on…

1. Hijack Traffic From Other Webmasters And Publishers

Write articles for only high traffic article directories, some popular article directories do not send as much traffic as some unpopular, silent ones – go check ezinearticles and see what the traffic over the past 3 months has been for average article writers (good contents, of course). While searching out article sites that can send high traffic, I tested Buzzle and got over 600 views in less than 3 days (now over 800 views for that same article); articlealley and articlebiz and a few others have also delivered great results for me – so I suggest you spend your time where you’ll get high volume of traffic, not a mere 30 views or the likes in 3 months.

If your articles are good, you may be lucky to have them picked up and published on the websites of other webmasters; so that you have an added exposure to the readers of the blogs where they are republished. I realized that my articles on Articlesbase.Com are the most picked up by other webmasters and are posted on their blogs with all my links in place.

When I first discovered that I was getting lots of trackbacks on my blog from places where the articles have been republished, I decided to make some article directories my lazy traffic generation machine. I then tweaked titles of my other articles to test how frequent they would be republished; I also added more blog post links or changed some depending on what the article directory allows. I tweaked and tested until I get desired increase in pingbacks (that is more republishing).

Write compelling titles that will sell your content, making other web publishers pick them up and happily send you click-traffic, from their readers who click your links within the article to come to your blog.

2. Stock Your Home With Food For Content Choppers

Stock your blog full of relevant, quality contents for voracious readers. If you want to maximize your traffic generation ROI, always ensure that you’re getting the kind of traffic that will stick and return again.

Your goal should be to generate Traffic that is likely to stick (return again and again). If you are not able to make your one time visitors come back again and again, you will forever be looking for massive traffic. When was the last time Problogger or CopyBlogger was looking for new traffic? They have more than enough return traffic.

When you think traffic, think retention, think sustainable, return traffic – your goal is to bring them and keep them. Do not be in a hurry to be seen/noticed everywhere: Spend some time to put your house (blog) in order before inviting the whole blogosphere (public) to come reading. The kind of readers that are likely to come back again (and again) are looking for blogs that have more than a measly amount of contents – and I’m talking about QUALITY contents here.

Note that numbers (quantity of posts) is not equal to quality. Instead of writing 20 run-off posts, why not spend a bit of time to write 10 or 5 quality and useful posts that any reader can implement and see results. You’ll be glad you did because your results will speak – not just the usual ‘great post’ comments.

First build a foundation for your blog – up to 10 pillar posts would give any visitor a reason to come back again. It’s not about how fast you go out there and be all over the place. You can be all over too long and someone just coming to the public today will achieve success faster than you.

3. Join Relevant Forums And Play By The Rules

Many of your potential visitors are hanging in the niche-specific forums and groups, asking questions and looking for help. Find and join high activity forums that are related to your blog theme, and put yourself in front of them – answering their questions. That way you’ll gain exposure to your brand as an expert and also pick up traffic back to your blog.

High activity forums are those that have lots of participation and traffic daily. You’ll notice that from the number of replies to forum/group threads. Ensure to read the forum or group rules so you can play within the acceptable guide. Here are what you should do to get traffic from high activity forums and groups:

• Find two high traffic and active forums in your market niche, then find (question-like) topics with sizable amount of activity (replies/posts) and then spend 30 minutes to 1 hour twice every week providing quality and complete responses. Be sure to leave a link to your blog in your forum profile and signature area as some readers who find your answers useful will be clicking to visit your blog.
• Create new threads in the forums to share tips on what’s working for you. As more and more people read your tips and find it truly helps them, they’ll be drawn to click to visit your blog.
• Post a video on YouTube and also post the same on a forum – this is a great way to bump up your YouTube views while getting more traffic from the Forums. Some forums do not allow videos but confirm from their Terms of Use, or check out other threads – if any has video, it’s a sign that it’s allowed.

*For this traffic strategy, be sure to check that a forum you’re interested in accepts signatures; be sure to check out the forum’s terms of use to ensure you know your boundaries. This allows you to get exposure to your link (likely traffic) every time you ask a question or make a helpful post in response to another member’s question.

Where to Find High Traffic Groups or Forums: You can find your niche related groups, to participate in, on Facebook, Google and Yahoo. Below are some high traffic forums for the general internet marketing niche:

• Digital Point Forum (PR4, 200,000+ members)
• Warrior Forum (PR5, 200,000+ members)
• WAHM Forum (PR4, 60,000+ members)

Note: To get high number of targeted relevant traffic, join forums that are in your own niche. Most people make the mistake of flocking to the general ‘how to blog forums’, ‘MLM forums’ and ‘how to internet marketing forums’ – when they are not writing for that target audience. If those are not your market niche, you’ll not attract quality traffic because forums members go to specific forums and are looking for specific expert solutions.

Hey, smart bloggers have ultimate and end purpose behind their every traffic generation drive – to get traffic of blog visitors that will be interested in what they have to offer. So for example, if you’re in the golfing niche and blogging about golfing, find a golf lovers forum; if you blog about makeup, find a makeup lovers forum/ group.

Here’s how to use Google search to find a relevant Forum:

Go to Google.Com and enter in keywords using the following format: “’your keyword’+forums” or “’your keyword+discussion board”. Look through the search results to find the most relevant forum to start contributing to, in exchange for traffic.

4. Seduce the Search Engines to Send You Traffic

This kind of traffic is hands-free but only requires one-time effort on your part in order to get streams of free, organic traffic to your blog daily.

If you want to get traffic all year round without going to look for it, you’ll have to spend a small time to ‘seduce the search engines’. Communicate in the only language they understand – keywords and Search Engine Optimization (SEO) magnetize search engines. That’s the only way they’ll know your blog or post exists.

If you give the search engines what they want, they’ll give you what you want (tons of traffic).

Pages in the first page of search engines get over 50% of traffic from searchers. The idea here is to get up there on the top Search Engine Results Page (SERP) so that your target readers can easily find your posts when they search.

Here are a few tips to magnetize the search engines with every post you write:

a. Learn and apply basic keyword research. Use Google Keyword Tool and/ or Wonder wheel to find the most related and least competitive long (-tail) keywords. Long tail keywords are 2, 3 word phrases related to your content).

• Think keywords as synonyms when writing contents and strive to achieve at least a 1% keyword density in order to build a related theme around your contents – that’s how search engines understand what you are writing about. Find words that you can replace with your keyword, without altering the intended meaning of the sentence. A topic theme is made up of related KWs.
• Ensure to place your main keywords in your post title, URL (permalink), body of post, headings (mainly h1, h2, h3); bold, underline and italicise your main keyword once in the body of your post.

b. Get Plenty of Backlinks so as to make the search engines see your blog as relevant on the WWW, and bless you with Google rankings necessary to push you up the SERPS. More Backlinks result in higher search engine rankings, which in turn results to increased visibility and clicks by searchers to your blog. Use these methods for backlinks: social bookmarking, RSS feed submission to RSS aggregators, article writing (with your post / blog links inside) and guest posting for other blogs.

If your content writing need an SEO makeover, head on here to learn how to SEO right: Basic SEO for bloggers.

5. Listen To Your Traffic Analytics Dashboard

What’s your traffic analytics dashboard telling you (aside from the number of visitors per day)? What can you deduce from the numbers?

Those numbers hold the key to your blog’s traffic reserves, seriously. Within those numbers, you can find insights and golden keywords that’ll further jam your blog with human traffic.

Analyse your Google analytics traffic dashboard and find the most popular words that searchers used to find your blog from the search engines in the past 30 days – that’s likely an indication of what’s trending in your industry/ market. Below are steps to put to use your Google analytics monthly report:

• Keyword Report: Identify the most recurring (popular) word combination in all the listed keywords and optimize your old and new contents for that keyword group, as follows:

-Write new posts using those group of responsive keywords; add some of those keywords into old related posts (meta tags and body). Write posts to address the top 10 search key phrases, ensuring to use the searchers keywords in your analytics, when writing the post. These kinds of posts have the potential to bring lots of traffic to your blog, from other searchers looking for answers/ related posts.

-Optimize your old posts for increased search engine traffic by finding the most popular searchers key phrases for each post, and then tweaking the post’s SEO using those popular searchers’ keywords.

• Referring Sites: Get closer to the top 10 websites and blogs that sent you large volume of traffic; work your way to building an alliance with the bloggers or webmasters.

Next Steps…

Did you see how you can easily and drastically increase your web traffic almost overnight in 5 simple, yet powerful steps? I bet you’re looking forward to start implementing them on your blog.

Share it! I had fun writing these traffic tips for you and I hope you enjoyed reading, if so you can help a friend read this post by sharing with love. So use the easy share buttons below to tweet it, facebook it, digg it, stumble it,

http://www.youngprepro.com/traffic-generation-methods/

There's ALWAYS a silver lining...

Different Ways to Make Money Online

There seem to be endless ways of making money online. I never ask myself WILL this make me any money, just COULD this make me money. There are examples of all these ways below. Remember just one of these is the ticket to your silver lining.

• Get Paid To Click (PTC): Get paid 1c or 2c a time to click on websites, Legitimate, Great for Stay-At-Homers
• Get Paid to Fill in Surveys: This is tough until you get a reputation as a reliable survey filler. Great for Stay-At-Homers
• Advertise on your Website/Blog: This is growing all the time Adsense, Banners, Affiliate Links
• Get Paid to Blog: This is huge now Smorty, Widget Bucks
• Cashback: Earn money/commission every time you spend money on the Web/High Street. You really ought to be doing this!
• Affiliation: Earn money/commission by getting people to sign up other websites or buy off eBay or become an affiliate themselves (perhaps the best way to earn money)
• eBay: Still the best way for newbies to develop their Sales & Marketing skills
• Virtual Stores: You appear to have your own website selling health foods or audio-books etc. In fact a website cookie is used to remember that a customer came from your link
• Get Paid To: You have to complete offers, sometimes get friends to sign up. You can win say iPod or earn cash. Completing offers is usually free but sometimes to have to remember to cancel at the end of your free period. Discretion advised.
• Casinos: The Casino websites offer very attractive bonuses to join. They require you however to make a minimum number of transactions before you can withdraw your money. Sometimes just by playing red all the time in Roulette you can meet this condition and still have a profit. You must however read the small print as there are often other conditions/catches.
• Sell Domains: Buy and sell useful domain names. Buy ones that have expired or use a domain name generator website to create new ones. Sell on eBay of specialist websites. Sometimes better to create a simple website to go with it
• Get Paid to SEARCH : This is New and Hot as Google and Microsoft battle it out for domination. Effectively you will get a share of any revenue generated when you use their Search Engines. This is going to big even though I've only earned $3.96 so far!
• Display Amusing Viral Videos Put funny videos on your site and earn 10-20 cents per view; can add up with time.
• YouTube
  I'd been putting videos on YouTube just for fun but then one found I was earning money.

http://www.squidoo.com/idiotsguide#module8306633

Work From Home – Work Online

As Internet stretches out to more and more people from all walks of life, it indeed has created a worldwide network of online families, friends, colleagues, and business partners. It also paved way for a new approach of studying and working in the comfort of our homes. It has changed the definition of an office.

Now you can sit at home and still earn a salary by just working online.

The past decade has brought about online tutors/teachers, data entry jobs, and typing jobs among others, and these business opportunities have been continuously becoming more and more popular in our generation. Some of the reasons why these online rackets have become so popular in today’s society are:

1. In the comfort of your home – As long as you have a laptop/computer online jobs can practically be done without leaving your bedroom, or your couch, or your car, or the nearby café, in fact it can be done in any part of the world.

2. Flexible timings – You can manage the time for doing your online jobs around your daily schedule for example a data entry project one hour before you leave for the office, an online student to be tutored once you go home etc. Since most online jobs offer part-time and full-time opportunities, people could immediately work out which job is right for them, based on their schedule. You can finish typing jobs over the weekend, or fill out survey forms before you go to sleep. Just stick to the deadlines.

3. No age barrier - So long as one has access to the equipment and know how to maximize each system, they are ready to go. Though some prospective online clients are looking for people aged 18 and above, there are some for whom age is no consideration as long as you are able to deliver the work on time, with an above average level of quality at the very least.

4. No specific qualification required - Unless you are applying for an online teaching career, which might still require a board license, your educational achievements matters very little with online recruiters. This is also the reason why college and high school undergraduates who need extra cash generally look forward to part time jobs online. Sure, you would need some degree of literacy, especially English proficiency is most probably that you’ll be needing for this kind of stint, but other than that, your business partner won’t really be asking for any particular qualification.

No wonder online jobs are becoming a hit for people looking for additional wages. Building your online career is not exactly a cakewalk, as with most trades, a little effort and perseverance are also needed to be successful in this field. Professionalism is the key word; if you show results in what you are doing you will surely go a long way.

9 Methods for Mastering Your Money

2008 was a miserable year for money. The stock market tumbled, unemployment soared, the housing market continued to crumble, and retirement savings shriveled away. Whew! Here’s hoping 2009 will be better!

But hope can only do so much. Hope cannot bring change. Action brings change.

If one of your goals for 2009 is to take control of your money (instead of letting it keep control of you), this crash course in financial basics can help guide the way. Here are nine simple but effective actions you can take to build a better financial future.

Method #1: Track every penny you spend
The authors of Your Money or Your Life admonish readers to “keep track of every cent that comes into or goes out of your life.”

[This is] the best way to become conscious of how money actually comes and goes in your life as opposed to how you think it comes and goes…This is the step that somehow makes the biggest impact.

It doesn’t matter how you track your spending — the most important thing is to do it.

• You can use a cash notebook.
• You can use an online tool like Wesabe, Mint, or Quicken Online.
• You can use a piece of software like Quicken or Microsoft Money.

Whichever method you choose, stick with it. Make it a habit. Don’t fudge the numbers. Record your transactions as soon as possible. Most of all, don’t judge yourself. Tracking your spending is an exercise in data collection; it’s not the appropriate time to change your habits.

Method #2: Develop a budget
After you’ve tracked your spending for a few weeks (or months), use the data you’ve collected to develop a budget. According to The Millionaire Next Door, budgeting is one thing that sets the wealthy apart from the rest of us — 55% of millionaires keep a budget.

Many people — myself included — fail to budget for a variety of reasons: it’s boring, we don’t think we need it, or we don’t know how. But this simple act can provide a roadmap for your money.

There are a variety of budgeting methods you can choose, from Andrew Tobias’ three-step budgetto the 60% budget. My recent favorite (and a favorite of GRS readers) is Elizabeth Warren’sbalanced money formula: 50% to Needs, 20% to Savings, and everything else to Wants. Simple but effective.

Crave more budgeting tips? Check out this article highlighting 13 tools for building a better budget. Hate the idea of budgeting? Consider the spending plan, a budgeting method for non-budgeters.

Tip! Spend less than you earn. This is the fundamental money skill. It’s common sense, yet many people never learn to do it. Only by spending less than you earn can you hope to build wealth. This is easier to do if you track your spending and develop a budget, but those steps aren’t completely necessary. Even if you do nothing else in this list, spending less than you earn can put you ahead of your peers.

Method #3: Optimize your accounts
For eighteen years, I was an account holder at a large national bank. I paid an $8 “service charge” every month, as well as many other fees. I received terrible service and earned no interest. Over the last couple of years, I’ve finally begun to optimize my accounts. If you haven’t already done so, consider the following:

• Open an online high-yield savings account. Even in this era of low interest rates, it’s still possible to earn about 3% on your savings. Internet favorite ING Direct currently offers a 2.50% APY and FNBO Direct offers a 2.80% APY. These rates are about as low as they can go, and should increase in the months and years ahead. And if you don’t need as much liquidity with your investments, consider researching cd rates which may offer a higher interest rate.
• Choose a rewards checking account. Believe it or not, it’s possible to find checking accounts that pay interest. Online checking accounts generally pay between 1% and 3%, depending on your balance. But you can usually find an even better deal through your local bank or credit union. Check out this huge list of rewards checking accounts.
• Use a rewards credit card. If you have trouble with credit, it’s best to avoid plastic altogether. If you can use credit responsibly, be sure to choose a credit card that pays youand be prompt to check your free credit report. Avoid cards that carry an annual fee. Find a rewards program that matches your lifestyle. But don’t choose a card just because it offers a signup bonus or because it gives you a discount at your favorite store. Remember: your goal is to find a useful tool. Look for a long-term relationship you can live with.

It’s important to choose accounts and systems that work for you. I signed up for a rewards checking account at a local credit union, but the nearest branch is fifteen minutes out of my way. I never use it. I had to compromise by opening on online checking account instead. I earn a lower rate, but it’s an account I’ll actually use.

Tip! When optimizing your banks and credit cards, consider using multiple accounts at each institution. For example, I have ING Direct subaccounts that allow me to target my savings. I save for vacation in one account, for a car in another, and I use a third account for emergency savings.

Method #4: Start an emergency fund
For years I lived paycheck-to-paycheck. I spent everything I earned. This worked well until something went wrong. Suddenly I’d find myself without money to pay for a car repair, or facing an expensive doctor’s bill. I financed emergencies with credit cards. I finally paid off all of this debt at the end of 2007.

After you’ve optimized your accounts, make it a priority to save for emergencies. In The Total Money Makeover, Dave Ramsey explains why he believes anemergency fund should come before anything else:

Since I hate debt so much, people often ask why we don’t start with the debt. I used to do that when I first started teaching and counseling, but I discovered that people would stop their whole Total Money Makeover because of an emergency — they felt guilty that they had to stop debt-reducing to survive.

After you’ve saved $1000, then you can attack your debt. Open an online high-yield savings account and add $20 or $50 to your account ever time you get paid. Two years ago, I opened an account at ING Direct, where it’s simple to schedule automatic deposits.

See also: Learning to love the emergency fund.

Method #5: Get out of debt
Are you struggling under a heavy debt load from credit cards or student loans? Make it a priority to unload some of this this burden in 2009. At the end of 2007, I said good-bye to 20 years of debt — it feels fantastic to have that weight off my shoulders.

If you have the mental discipline, you’ll save money by paying down your high-interest debt first. But if you’ve tried that method before and failed, consider using a debt snowball. Pay your debts starting with the smallest balance first. Here’s how:

1. Order your debts from lowest balance to highest balance.
2. Designate a certain amount of money to pay toward debts each month.
3. Pay the minimum payment on all debts except the one with the lowest balance.
4. Throw every other penny at the debt with the lowest balance.
5. When that debt is gone, do not alter the monthly amount used to pay debts, but throw all you can at the debt with the next-lowest balance.

The debt snowball can give you awesome psychological payoffs, keeping you motivated to stay in the game. It’s not mathematically ideal, but it worked for me (and for many others besides). However you choose to get out of debt, stick with it. Don’t give up.

Tip! The perfect is the enemy of the good. When you spend so much time looking for the “best” choice that you never actually do anything, you’re sabotaging yourself. And an ideal solution that you don’t follow through with is worse than a good solution that you’ll actually use. Choose a good option and act.

Method #6: Fund your retirement
The current economy gives a lot of people the jitters. But if history is any indication, now is a great time to be buying stocks for your retirement. Take advantage of any employer-matched opportunities, such as a 401(k). Also consider starting a Roth IRA.

If you’re young, you probably don’t think you need to start a retirement account. You’re wrong. No matter how old you are, now is the time to begin saving for retirement. The extraordinary power ofcompound interest favors the young — and in a big way! In The Automatic Millionaire, David Bach writes:

The single biggest investment mistake you can make [is] not using your [retirement] plan and not maxing it out.

After reading The Automatic Millionaire a couple years ago, I opened a Roth IRA at Sharebuilder. It was easier than opening a checking account. I managed to make the maximum contribution in 2006 and 2007. In 2008, I maxed out my 401(k).

Don’t understand retirement accounts? No problem. Last year I explained what a Roth IRA is and why you should care. For more ideas, check out Wesabe’s simple investing group.

Method #7: Automate your finances
For the past eighteen months, I’ve been moving toward a system of paperless personal finance. Along the way, I’m learning the value of automating routine transactions. When you make things automatic, you remove the human element, making it more difficult for you to mess things up.

The classic example is overdraft protection. By tying your checking account to your savings account, you have a safety net if you bounce a check. But there are other ways this can work for you. For example, I’ve set up automatic payments with the gas company, the cable company, and my auto insurancecompany. I also make automatic deposits to my online savings account.

One terrific advantage to automation: when pay your bills and do your saving and investing automatically, it’s easy to tell how much you have left over to spend at the end of each month!

Tip! Do what works for you. There are few hard-and-fast rules in the world of personal finance. I can suggest methods that have worked for me (and for others), but only you can determine if these methods are appropriate for your own circumstances.

Method #8: Earn extra money
You can meet a lot of your financial goals by reducing your spending and using the right tools. Butnothing supercharges your progress like a boost in income. How can you earn extra money?

• Ask for a raise. Several readers have written to tell me how they’ve given themselves a raise through ambition and ingenuity. Here’s one example.
• Switch employers. Not every employer is able or willing to offer raises, even when they’re merited. If you’re in a position where a raise isn’t possible, consider finding a new employer.
• Take a second job. Many people find that the best way to get out of a financial hole is to temporarily take a second job. Nobody wants to work more than 40 hours per week, but sometimes that’s what is needed to get out of debt or to save for a house. Just remind yourself that you’re doing this for a short time.
• Use your hobbies. Yes, it’s possible to have money-making hobbies. You’re not going to get rich playing World of Warcraft, but many people use productive hobbies to earn a little extra income.
• Volunteer for medical research. Last summer, I earned $120 for a couple of hours spent participating in medical research. My colleague Donna Freedman has earned extra cash bygiving blood and watching porn (though not at the same time).
• Sell things. When I decided to get out of debt, one of my first steps was to sell a bunch of the stuff I’d bought with that $35,000. I used eBay, Craigslist, garage sales, and the Amazon Marketplace to sell the things I no longer needed or wanted. The money I earned jump-started my debt reduction.

Another effective way to increase your income is to pursue entrepreneurship. While working to defeat my debt, I started a small computer consulting business. It didn’t generate a lot of income, but it did provide $2,000 a year that I wouldn’t have had otherwise!

Method #9: Educate yourself
Knowledge is power. Personal finance doesn’t have to be a mystery. Subscribe to this site.Read other personal finance blogs. I recommend:

• The Simple Dollar
• I Will Teach You to Be Rich
• The members of the Money Scribes network
• The members of the LifeRemix network

Visit your public library. Borrow money books and self-development manuals. Here are four of my favorites:

• If you’re in debt and can’t seem to find a way out: How to Get Out of Debt and Live Prosperously
• If you’d like to know more about investing: The Random Walk Guide to Investing
• If things are tight and you need to find creative ways to make ends meet: The Complete Tightwad Gazette
• If you want a motivational manual to prompt you to pursue your goals: The Magic of Thinking Big

You don’t have to agree with everything in a book to get something out of it. I read a lot of personal finance books — some are good, but many are not. Even the worst books usually have one or two things I can pull from them. Learn how to read a personal finance book so that you can pick and choose those pieces appropriate for your life.

Final thoughts
Taking control of your finances can be intimidating — there’s so much to do! — but it doesn’t have to be that way. One effective solution is to take a vacation day from work: designate one specific date as your personal “Money Day”. Use this day to finally set up Quicken on your computer, to open a retirement account, and to call around for a better deal on your insurance.

The good news is that you can get out of debt. You can save for retirement. If I can do it, so can you. 

http://www.getrichslowly.org/blog/2009/01/05/9-methods-for-mastering-your-money-in-2009/

Richard Branson's 5 Rules for Good Business

During a recent radio interview on the BBC, the host asked me what advice I would give to young people who want to start their own businesses. In the 46 years since I launched Student magazine, the world has certainly changed. The uncertain economic outlook and the relentless pace of technological advances make replicating Virgin’s success much more challenging for today’s young entrepreneur.

Image Courtesy of Getty Images

At Student magazine, we expressed our opposition to the Vietnam War and the Cold War; these days, governments now face the more nebulous threat of terrorism and instability in the Middle East and Africa. Back then, American and European markets were generally stable; today, the economic power of Western nations is being challenged by the fast-growing economies of Brazil, Russia, India and China, and growth opportunities and new markets can be found around the world.

There is also marketers’ new ability to bypass traditional channels -- TV, radio and newspapers -- and build a strong following online for their companies via Twitter, Google+, Facebook and new applications such as Path and Klout. This means that most startups are able to launch with smaller marketing budgets, and that entrepreneurs can break into new markets fast. It also means that successful companies must defend their positions, because their products can go out of fashion just as quickly as they caught on.

But during the radio interview I found myself arguing that while the world may be changing quickly, the steps to building a good business have not. The five simple guidelines we followed when we started the magazine and then Virgin Music remain as valid and useful as they were in the late 1960s and early 1970s.

1. If you don’t enjoy it, don’t do it. You must love what you do.
2. Be innovative: Create something different that will stand out.
3. Your employees are your best asset. Happy employees make for happy customers.
4. Lead by listening: Get feedback from your staff and customers on a regular basis.
5. Be visible: Market the company and its offers by putting yourself or a senior person in front of the cameras.

Virgin Media founded its Pioneers program to promote aspiring business people and help them to network. One of our best known pioneers is Jamal Edwards, the founder of SB.TV, an online music and lifestyle channel, whose company and business model remind me of Virgin’s in our early days.

When Edwards started out, his company was just himself and his camera; he started posting videos of rap performances for his online followers. He was doing what he loved, and soon he developed a cult following for his passionate, innovative and authentic early videos of musical events.

Once he had established a brand and a following, Edwards and his team extended SB.TV’s reach into more areas, including music and lifestyle, merchandise, clothing and even a record label. Traditional brands like Puma and Nando’s (the fast-food chain) started calling, wanting to discuss deals and endorsements.

Edwards has also made his own luck by spotting talent. In 2010 a struggling singer-songwriter sent a video to SB.TV that was accepted and placed on the company’s YouTube channel. The views kept racking up, and eventually the rapper Example offered the unsigned young singer a chance to tour with him. This was none other than Ed Sheeran, whose career was effectively launched by SB.TV.

Edwards remains very busy and very visible, promoting SB.TV and himself wherever he can -- on his website, in partnership with Google Chrome and in the media, he tells the story of his company and their dreams and successes, getting the message out. And he knows that good business depends on backing your people and being a good listener. Despite his early successes, he remains down to earth, always willing to listen and constantly trying new ventures.

If you have the right idea and execute properly, your startup’s launch date does not matter. While the business environment has changed, the basic rules remain the same. Rather than getting nostalgic about how things used to be, embrace the new opportunities and challenges available to you now.