FIVE STEPS TO MAKING MONEY WITH OTHER PEOPLES PRODUCTS

By: John Farina

If you want to make money online without having you own products, selling other people's products could be the ticket. Selling others products has many advantages. You do not have to spend time on creating the products, you do not have to set up a system to sell and deliver the products, and you do not have to get a merchant account and pay recurring merchant account fees. The person who owns the product does all of these things for you. All you have to do is market the product and make money with it.

So how can you make money with other people's products? People who have created products usually run affiliate programs. An affiliate program is a way for you to earn commissions every time you sell someone else's product. When you sign up for an affiliate program, you will get your own unique id you use to link to products you are promoting. Once you make sales using your affiliate links, you will generate commissions.

Here are five steps to take to make money with affiliate products:

- Find A Product To Sell. Before going any further, you need to find a product that will sell. A product should have a professional appearance, be presented on a professional web site and be a quality product that you would want to recommend to others.

Once you find the product, join the affiliate program for it and get your affiliate links.

- Create A Web Site To Sell The Affiliate Product. Having your own web site to promote the affiliate products is best. I always recommend that you get your own domain name and web hosting to host your web site.

The cost of domain names and web site hosting has come down considerably since just a few years ago. You can now get a domain name for about $8 per year and web site hosting for under $10 per month. At these prices you don't have to be a millionaire or commit to a large capital outlay to start your own web site.

- Create Content For The Web Site. To get more visitors and more sales, you need content for your web site. It is not enough to just link to the product with your affiliate link. In order to make money with your affiliate link you need to bring potential buyers to your web site. A great way to bring them in is with content that is of interest to them, and is related to the product you are promoting.

One good way to generate the content for your web site is by creating your own content and articles that are related to the topic of the product you are promoting. Another good way is by using the articles that were written by the author of the product. Many authors allow their affiliates use the authors' articles on their web sites, and use the affiliate link in the resource box.

- Optimize Your Web Site for Search Engines. Search engine optimization is the process of modifying web page content and meta-information to improve the search engine ranking of the page. Successful search engine optimization will greatly increase the number of visitors that come to your web site. The more visitors to the web site you have, the more affiliate products you will be able to sell, and the more money you will make.

Make sure you optimize every page of your web site for search engines; that way you will get more web site visitors.

- Use Your Articles To Promote The Affiliate Product. Article publishing is a great way to drive traffic to your web site. Start by writing a few articles that are of interest to the people who would want to purchase the product you are promoting. Use the About The Author Resource Box to promote the product. Then take your articles and submit them to article directories. Doing this will bring more traffic to your web site and help you make more money.

Remember, you do not need to create your own products to make money online. Follow the five steps we outlined above to make lots of money selling other people's products.

EASY WAYS TO SAVE MONEY

By: Sarah Russell

To get on the road to financial freedom, you’ve got to have a budget to help you focus on achieving your financial goals. If you’d like to own your own home someday or pay off all your credit card debt, you need to plan ahead and set aside money to make your dreams a reality. But saving money can seem impossible when you’re already reaching to pay all your bills. Fear not – it can be done! Check out some of these easy tips to help you start saving money.

Spare Change Matters

Don’t underestimate the power of the penny! If don’t think you can afford to put any extra money into a savings account, commit to saving your loose change for that purpose. At the end of each day, put all your loose coins in a jar or a cheap piggy bank. As your jar fills up, stop by a Coinstar machine and deposit the cash into your savings account.

Let Online Banking Help You

Online banking makes it easy to transfer money to your savings account. If have direct deposit for your paycheck, you should be able to set up an automatic transfer so that a portion of your money automatically goes to your savings account. If you never see the money, in your checking account, you won’t be as tempted to spend it. Most experts recommend that you automatically deposit 10% of your take-home pay, but if this is too much for you to start with, try to work up to it.

Learn the Trading Game

If you’re great with kids, why not volunteer to watch a colleague’s children in exchange for a free ride to work? Or offer to trade some of your world-famous pies for some auto repair work from a car-loving friend. Everyone have some skills – use the things you’re good at to trade for the goods and services you’d otherwise pay for.

Cut Your Utility Bills

With the explosive growth of modern technology, it seems that there’s some new gadget for every task. Using all these tools can make your life easier, but it also increases your energy bill. One night a week, wash your dishes by hand, or hang your clothes to dry on a clothesline in your laundry room. Buy a carpet sweeper or a manual lawnmower to replace their energy-guzzling alternatives. You’ll cut your energy bill and develop a new-found respect for your pioneer ancestors.

Live the High Life on a Budget

Buying a $5 coffee everyday or catching dinner and a movie every Friday night with your partner can quickly chip away at your savings. If you can’t give up your Starbucks, consider switching to plain black coffee with a bit of flavored creamer. You’ll save money as well as all those calories in your grande caramel macchiato! Learn to cook a nice dinner to serve by candlelight in your home and follow it up with your favorite old movie on the couch.

If some of these tradeoffs don’t sound like much fun, try to keep your financial goals in mind. Picture yourself moving into your new home or driving down the road in your Ferrari convertible. If you stay focused on your goals, you’ll find it much easier to stick with your budget and save more money. For more easy ways to save money, visit The Sexy Secretary - a great website with lots of tips on living the good life on a budget.

SEVEN SIMPLE WAYS TO SAVE MONEY ON GAS

By: Gary Ruplinger

Looking for ways to save money on gas that won’t require you to go out and spend more money just so you can save a few bucks at the pump.

If you have a perfectly good vehicle, then spending $25k on a new hybrid car just so you can save $10 when you fill up at the pump might not be such a good deal.

Also, if you’re not the type that wants to install any of those “gas saving” devices in your car, then this list is for you.

Whether or not you have any mechanical skills, you can use these no brainier methods to start saving money on gas right now – even if you don’t know how to change a tire.

1 – Get A Gas Card

Want a tip that will save you money every single time you fill up at the pump no matter what vehicle you drive? It’s a gas card. Just about every major gas station offers their own brand of gas credit card that will allow you to save 3-5% on all your gas purchases at their gas stations. Forget about the branded gas cards and get one that will save you 5% on gas no matter where you fill up, like the Discover Open Road Card. Just remember, pay it off every month or it won’t save you any money.

Saving 5% off every gallon of gas means that $3/gallon gas now costs only $2.85 and $4/gallon becomes $3.80. If you have a 25 gallon tank, you’d save $3.75 every time you filled up ($3/gallon gas).

A lot of people use a credit card when filling up at the pump anyway since it’s easy and convenient. You may as well get a gas card so it’s easy, convenient, and saving you money.

2 – Avoid Aggressive Driving

Hitting the gas hard when the light turns green and braking hard will make your car drink gas faster than a drunk at an open bar at a wedding. If you were to drive away from a stop at a more moderate pace, accelerate in traffic more slowly, and anticipate when you’re going to need to brake ahead of time so you can do so slowly, you’re going to save a lot of gas – up to 37% – about the same buying a hybrid car but this tip won’t cost you anything. (oh yeah, it’s safer too)

3 – Use Your Cruise Control

Personally, I won’t buy a car if it doesn’t have cruise control, since it means I don’t have to worry so much about keeping my speed constant. However, cruise control also had the added benefit of saving you gas too. On average, you’ll save about 7% more gas than if you don’t use cruise control.

4 – Slow Down

Sure, going fast can be fun. It can also get you a nice collection of speeding tickets, but more importantly, the faster you drive the more gas you use. I’m not saying that you need to drive like your grandmother, but slowing down from 75 to 65 can you 12% on you gas bill, and unless you’re driving across the country, the time difference in getting where you’re going will be minimal.

5 – Stop Idling

Having the car running when it’s not moving wastes gas.

I remember being taught when I was first learning to drive that you should let your car warm up for a few minutes before driving it anywhere when it’s cold outside. While that may be true for older cars, modern cars don’t need warm up time before being ready to drive. Don’t drive like a maniac (see #2) before you car is completely warmed up and you’ll be fine.

If you going to be sitting and waiting some place without moving for more than about a minute, turn off the engine. It probably goes without saying that if you can avoid rush hour traffic, you should.

Also, one great place to sit and waste gas is your local fast food drive-thru. Get off your lazy butt, get out of your car and go inside to get your food.

6 – Plan Ahead

Instead of driving to the gym, going home, driving to work, driving home, driving to the store, and then home again, start combining trips whenever possible. This is really easy to do if you just think ahead. Avoid just spontaneously hopping in the car and driving to the store to pick up some milk and eggs. Think about what else you can do if you’re going to be out running errands anyway so that you can avoid another trip later.

7 - You got legs – use’em

Really want to save money on gas? Then use your legs. A lot of trips aren’t really that far, and while it takes a little longer to walk somewhere than to drive there, it’s a good chance to get outside, get some fresh air and get some exercise in the process. It’s really not necessary to drive absolutely everywhere unless you happen to live in the middle of nowhere. So get yourself a comfortable pair of tennis shoes and start walking instead of driving when you can.

Also, a bicycle is a nice compromise between the two, and can actually be faster to get some places than a car. I remember when I was in college and moved off campus – although we lived almost 2 miles from campus, it was a lot faster for me to take my bicycle to go to class than to take my car.