With tax time right around the corner, it is important that you ask yourself the following very important question: do you just have a hobby business or have you turned it into a real business? For many people, developing multiple income streams and side incomes starts as a hobby business. For a few, these hobby businesses turn into real businesses. Why does this matter? Well, it matters because the IRS taxes business income and hobby income slightly differently, and it is important that you know the differences so you don't get audited, owe penalties, and more. Do I Have a Hobby Business or Real Business? Generally, an activity qualifies as a business if there is a reasonable expectation of earning a profit. In order to make … [Read more...]
Money’s Fun, but Time is Better: Why I’m Quitting Freelance Writing
A big part of the new year for me is about focusing on my new goals - which is re-focusing my sights on the two goals I discussed in my annual income stream report: Get 1,000,0000 unique visitors to my sites Make $100,000 As part of my re-focus though, I'm going to quit freelance writing. That may sound odd, especially considering that I made over $10,000 as a freelance writer last year, but it is the right decision for me. I thought about it long and hard, but two thoughts really drove me over the edge in making the decision to not freelance write, and instead focus on my content. Quit Freelance Writing - Get More Time One of the biggest factors that influenced my decision to stop freelance writing was the time commitment … [Read more...]
6 Financial Tips for the End of the Year
2012 definitely seemed like it flew by quickly. Hopefully it did not seem to escape you as quickly as it seemed to escape me. With the end of the year quickly approaching, there are many personal finance money moves that you might want to do or try in order to fully maximize the year. This is so that you can plan more realistically for 2013, and to also see how you truly did in the year of 2012. There are probably hundreds of other things on your to-do list in December, but your financial well-being is also very important. Wrapping up your year by reviewing how you did financially can be beneficial and also refreshing to see how you did. We like to do many of these things at the end of the year so that we start out well in 2013. We also … [Read more...]
The Most Comprehensive Affiliate Marketing Program List
If you run a website, there is a high likelihood that you are also in the business of monetizing that website. The most common way to monetize a website is to join an affiliate network, which gives you access to advertisers that you can post on your site. This is an easy way to get access to a bunch of different advertisers, and most networks make it easy to ad the necessary code to your website. Types of Affiliate Advertising Programs Affiliate networks or programs have several different ways that they pay: - Pay-per-click: As it sounds, you are paid every time someone clicks on a link or ad. The most popular pay-per-click affiliate network is Google Adsense. - Pay-per-lead: This option is for advertisers that are … [Read more...]
Becoming a One Income Family
What we're currently working on in our family is living off of one income. Yes, there's only two of us, so it's not as hard as if we had a family with children, but it is still not the easiest. We're working on paying off student loans and then our mortgage, and would like them all gone within the next couple of years. And this is why we are working on living off of less than 50% of our incomes (this includes our expenses and our minimum monthly mortgage payment of $970 and minimum student loans of around $300 per month). The rest of our monthly income is getting thrown like crazy towards our debt as extra debt payments. Yes, we could continue living the way that we used to and pay off our debt slowly, but we hardly notice a difference … [Read more...]
5 Tips on How to be a Better Negotiator
I don't know if you're like me, but the thought of negotiating makes me nervous. I don't want to offend the person who I am dealing with, but then I also do not want to get a bad deal at the same time. I hate to mention it, but I also don't want to look cheap. I'm guessing other people are like this also, or there would be more negotiating in the world! But in reality, you don't always look cheap. If you truly think the item is worth less, or that you can get a better price, then haggle! In today's economy, there is room for haggling at many stores. Not every store and place allows haggling and negotiating on their prices, but trying to negotiate won't hurt either. Trying because there might be something wrong with the items, when there … [Read more...]
