Well done Bonds, this is an ad you want to watch

IF YOU’VE ever wondered what a conversation between two testicles would sound like, your curiosity will be sated by Bonds’ hilarious new advert.

Source NEWS.com.au | Business http://ift.tt/1ZeCUV5

How did Islamic State get its Toyotas?

HOW did Islamic State get its massive fleet of caliphate-branded Toyotas, when the company stopped sending the vehicles to Syria years ago?

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How I Made $154 During Last Night’s “Modern Family”….

Last night was a pretty typical night for our family. We ordered Thai food, ran the dog all over the house, and vegged out to the TV.

It was awesome!

But, since it was a repeat of one of my favorite shows (“Modern Family”), I decided to do a little multi-tasking while we’re watching TV. I try to use downtime like this to do little, online jobs so that I can make extra deposits into our savings account every month.

 

Franklin, our black lab, was pretty tired last night. :)

I know I’m never going to get rich doing little projects like this, but it’s not really about that. Most of you know that my strategy is to just do a few extra jobs throughout the month and then deposit the income directly into our savings account.

And those little things add up pretty quickly. Last night I was able to pocket an extra $154 in about 30 minutes. Let me show you how I did it…

First, I made $4.00…

Most of you know that I practically despise survey companies because of their low payouts. But, I make an exception to my “no-survey” rule when I’m watching TV.

My calculus on this is that I’m not really doing anything anyway, so I might as well make a few extra bucks.

I had two surveys sitting in my email inbox from Springboard Panel (one of my favorite survey companies, but not the only one I’ve made money with). I completed them both during “Modern Family” and was able to pocket an extra $4. Not awful for 20 minutes of work.

And then I did this for an extra $250…

There are a ton of bank promotions out there and they can be a great way to fill your savings account.

For example, right now Chase is offering $150 when you open a new bank account and make a direct deposit within the first 60 days. Awesome, right?

It seriously only took me a commercial break to get signed up here. If you’re interested, we’ve got all the details on the Chase offer here.

Total it all up and I earned $154.00 for my savings account. I didn’t have to get a second job. And I didn’t have to leave my family. That’s penny hoarding… 

Your Turn: Do you have any ways to make money while watching TV? Would you try the two things I mentioned above?

The post How I Made $154 During Last Night’s “Modern Family”…. appeared first on The Penny Hoarder.

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Why Aren’t Car Loans More Regulated?

By Peter Miller

Auto debt has become a trillion-dollar industry, yet it’s a form of financing largely exempt from government oversight.

Car and truck buyers borrowed $119 billion in the second quarter of 2015, according to the Federal Reserve Bank of New York — an amount that brings outstanding auto debt to $1.01 trillion, the highest level in 10 years. How that debt is created, whom it goes to, and why it’s broadly unregulated are all matters of debate and contention.

Most importantly to you, it means that if you don’t shop around, you might pay too much for financing when you next buy a car or truck.

Origination

Traditionally, auto financing is originated by the local car dealer. As the Center for Responsible Lending has pointed out, a car dealer acts as a lender or broker (or, more commonly, both). The dealer “sells” the financing, and negotiates the price, term, and structure of the loan.

Later, the dealer may resell the loan to investors. The sale value of the loan depends on such factors as the amount borrowed, the interest rate, and the buyer’s credit standing. Naturally, consumers want the lowest possible rates, while dealers want the best deal they can get to create a more valuable loan for resale.

Subprime Auto Loans

As cars age, they create a natural replacement market. Most Americans rely on cars to get to work and go shopping, so owning a car is often more a requirement than an option, even for individuals with weak credit. While subprime loans have become a rarity among mortgage lenders, that’s not the case with auto financing.

“Losses on car loans taken out by bad-credit borrowers are continuing to climb, thanks in part to the flood of rookie auto finance companies that have entered the market in recent years,” Bloomberg reported in August. “You can see the rise in subprime borrowers struggling to make car payments in monthly data on bond deals sold on Wall Street.”

“If borrowers with lower credit scores can’t get auto financing, then in many cases they can’t get to work or improve their finances,” said Rick Sharga, executive vice president at Auction.com. “Ideally, borrowers will better their financial situation and raise their credit standing, so that their next loan has better rates and terms. At the same time, the mortgage industry has shown the horrific downside of making subprime loans without managing risk and carefully underwriting these loans. Hopefully, we won’t see a similar meltdown in the auto financing industry.”

Auto Loan Oversight

Given its size, one might expect the auto loan industry to be carefully monitored by the federal government, especially by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB). But that’s not the case.

Under a “carve-out” created by Congress with the passage of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act, auto dealers are specifically excluded from oversight under the theory that, unlike banks, local car dealers don’t have the ability to deal with federal paperwork.

The CFPB has worked around the carve-out in several ways: First, instead of car dealers, it’s going after auto financing companies, alleging that car loans often include discriminatory rates and terms. So far, auto finance companies have paid out more than $200 million to settle such claims.

Second, in June the CFPB published a rule that defines some auto leases as a “financial product or service,” according to Alan S. Kaplinsky, who leads the Consumer Financial Services Group at law firm Ballard Spahr. This would be one way to get some regulatory traction into the auto field without directly regulating local dealerships.

How to Get a Good Deal on Auto Financing

Since most of us need a vehicle, it’s important to prepare for not just an auto purchase but also the financing that might go with it. Here are some steps you can take to get a better deal:

• Save. If at all possible, pay cash for your vehicle. This can be done by setting aside money each payday for a future car purchase. Don’t rule out a reliable used car, which you’ll be able to afford in cash sooner than a new one.
• If you can’t pay cash, then try to get the smallest loan possible. The bigger down payment you make up front, the less you’ll need to borrow, and the better rate you should be able to get.
• If it’s financially feasible, go for a shorter loan term — say, three years rather than six. This will substantially reduce the amount of interest you pay over the course of the loan.
• Search for financing before buying a vehicle. Check with banks and credit unions for the best available rates given your credit standing, and compare those with dealer offerings. Have an alternative financing option in hand so you can bargain with dealers — or buy without the dealer’s financing if your bank or credit union offers better terms.
• Make sure you can prepay the loan without penalty. Many auto loans use a sum-of-the-digits system called the rule of 78s, which effectively locks in interest costs and makes it more expensive to prepay the loan. Instead, look for dealers and lenders who offer simple-interest financing where — as with most mortgages — you have the right to prepay in whole or in part at any time and without penalty.

With rising inflation and more complexity in the market, it’s no surprise that auto prices have risen in recent years, and with higher auto costs have come bigger loans. In the same way that it pays to shop around for deals on a car, it also pays to look for auto loans that give you the best rates and terms. The good news is that such financing is increasingly available, and with a little searching, you can find it.

Peter G. Miller is a nationally syndicated real estate columnist. His books, published originally by Harper & Row, have sold more than 300,000 copies. He blogs at OurBroker.com and contributes to such leading sites as RealtyTrac.com, the Huffington Post, and Auction.com. Miller has spoken before such groups as the National Association of Realtors and the Association of Real Estate License Law Officials.

The post Why Aren’t Car Loans More Regulated? appeared first on The Simple Dollar.

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Capital One 360 Savings

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How to Make Your Money Work for You, Even After You’ve Spent It

There’s no way around it — most of us have to work for our money.

It’s a good rule to save or invest some money from every paycheck (the more, the better). But what about your regular expenses?

Once that money is out of your wallet, there’s no way to make it work for you, right? Wrong.

Here’s how I started making my money work for me even after I spent it.

Start With How You Spend

I’ve written about the power of cash-back credit cards in the past. Using cash rewards cards is an easy way to reclaim a percentage of your spending each month.

I use different cash-back cards for different purposes to maximize my rewards, such as groceries, gas, utilities and Netflix. Using multiple credit cards means I have to be more vigilant about how I spend.

I treat my cash reward cards as though they’re charge cards — an obligation I have to pay off in full every month.

Putting Your Money to Work

Once I made the most of my credit card rewards, I started thinking about ways to wring even more value out of the money I spend regularly.

That left me with two problems to solve: How to partition my money in a way that made spending easy to track, and how to make the most of that money.

At the time, I’d started using Capital One 360 as my primary bank account. For a checking account, Capital One 360 does offer a decent return — a 0.20% APR with no minimum balance to earn. Considering Bank of America only offers 0.01% APR on a regular savings account, it’s a great value.

Inspiration struck when I discovered you can add up to 25 free savings accounts on Capital One 360. Those accounts offer a 0.70% APR with no minimum balance required.

This solved both my problems in one fell swoop: I simply added a savings account for each of my rewards credit cards. After that, whenever I spent money on a credit card, I simply transferred it to the corresponding savings account.

Since I can pay my credit cards directly from my savings account, I just let the money sit there, accruing interest, until the day my credit card payment is due.

If I buy something at the beginning of a billing cycle and make my credit card payment on the due date, I’ll have money earning interest for nearly two months after I’ve spent it!

Increase Your Earning Power

After doing some digging, I discovered GE Capital Bank, which offers a 1.05% APR on savings accounts. You can have an unlimited number of accounts and there’s no minimum to earn interest.

If you’re already a Capital One 360 customer, you may prefer to use their savings accounts. Although the interest rate isn’t as high, the money you transfer from checking to savings is instantly available no matter when you make the transfer.

GE Capital Bank does not offer a checking account, so it’s difficult to use as your primary bank. Also, transfers made after business hours or on the weekend aren’t processed until the next business day and it can take up to a week for the funds to be available.

I’ve used both banks at different times, and I’m always on the lookout for another one that will offer me higher interest with a comparable user experience. For me, the flexibility of being able to have so many accounts is paramount.

In June 2015, American consumer spending averaged $90 a day. Using either of the accounts listed above, a year’s worth of spending adds up to an extra $18-$28 dollars a year. Not big bucks, but free money all the same.

This strategy does require some work to get started, but once you have your accounts set up, it’s easy to use. Give it a try, and your money will be working for you — even after you’ve spent it!

Your Turn: What are your favorite cash-back rewards cards? How much have you saved using them?

Disclosure: We have a serious Taco Bell addiction around here. The affiliate links in this post help us order off the dollar menu. Thanks for your support!

Douglas Clinton is a New Englander, an AmeriCorps Alum, a Kentucky Colonel and a playwright whose work has been performed across the U.S and abroad. He lives in Charleston, South Carolina, with his fiancee and three cats.

The post How to Make Your Money Work for You, Even After You’ve Spent It appeared first on The Penny Hoarder.

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4 Radically Simple Places to Invest Your Money

Knowing how to invest money in the financial markets can be confusing because there isn’t a one-size-fits-all solution.

Everyone’s financial situation is different. We all have different goals, amounts to invest, tolerance for risk and knowledge about investing.  

But before you get to how to invest, you need to choose a place to actually open your investing account. In this post, I’ll give you my favorite radically simple and innovative places to invest money right now.

You can use these recommendations no matter if you have lots of extra money to invest, or can only afford to set aside a few dollars each month.

4 Radically Simple Places to Invest Your Money

If you’re fortunate enough to have a retirement plan at work, such as a 401(k) or 403(b), your employer is in charge of it. That means you’re stuck with the brokerage and plan they choose.

Although you’re not in control, this is still the first place you should invest, when possible. That’s because it comes with terrific tax advantages and perhaps employer matching, to boot.

But when you don’t have access to a workplace plan, or you’re maxed out and still have extra to set aside, you need other places to invest your money.

There are many great investment firms and brokerages. Some of the biggest and well-known companies are Vanguard, Fidelity and Charles Schwab.

But just because a firm tops the charts doesn’t necessarily mean that it’s right for you — especially if you don’t actually use it.

Here are four radically simple places to make your money grow.

1. Acorns

Acorns is a free mobile app, which will also be a web-based application soon. It’s like nothing you’ve ever seen, because it allows you to automatically invest your digital spare change.

What’s digital spare change? Well, you give Acorns permission to round up your purchases on debit or credit cards and then invest the difference by automatically pulling it out of your bank checking account.

For instance, let’s say you link up a credit card and charge $12.25. Acorns would round up to $13.00 and know that you need to invest the difference of $0.75. Once you’ve accumulated at least $5 in total spare change, Acorns automatically takes it out of your checking account and invests it.

You can link up as many debit and credit cards as you like. Then you pick one of Acorn’s five investment portfolios, ranging from conservative to aggressive. Each one is made up of six exchange-traded funds (ETFs) selected to achieve the portfolio objective.

To get started investing with Acorns, all you need is $5. Then they charge $1 per month for balances under $5,000 or 0.25% per year for balances over $5,000.

I’ve been using Acorns for several months and my virtual spare change totals about $40 a month. According to their calculator, if I maintain a moderate portfolio for 20 years, my change will be worth over $20,000.

That’s certainly not enough to retire on, but it’s a terrific reward for using a free app, and an easy way to set aside a little over a dollar a day for the future, without even thinking about it.

I don’t recommend that you only use Acorns to invest. However, if you’re struggling to get started, it’s an incredibly easy and painless option! And even if you’re already a pro at saving and investing, using the Acorns app is actually fun.

2. Betterment

If you’ve been a long-time Money Girl reader or podcast listener, you know that Betterment is a frequent sponsor. But what you may not know is that I became a customer and a huge Betterment fan several years earlier.

Betterment’s founder, Jon Stein, and his great team have built an easy and efficient way to invest for any goal. It’s a one-stop shop where you can open a regular investing account or an IRA, including a rollover from an old workplace retirement plan.

It takes less than five minutes to set up a Betterment account, and you can get started for as little as $100. Their fees depend on your account balance, but as long as you have an automatic monthly deposit set up, it won’t be more than 0.35% per year.

To pick your portfolio, Betterment gives you simple slider to indicate how you feel about investment risk. Then your money is automatically allocated across a suitable portfolio of low-cost ETFs that are right for you, no matter if you’re very conservative or aggressive.

What I really like about Betterment is that each investment objective starts with a goal where you identity what you’re saving for — such as retirement, a home or a vacation — and when you want to achieve it. Then they make recommendations to help you get there.

You can set up automatic transfers so you get in the habit of investing on a regular basis. Betterment also has a great mobile app, so you can keep up with your investing progress on the go.

3. Aspiration

One of the most unusual ways to invest is through a new company called Aspiration. They launched in late 2014 with the goal of bringing middle class investors sophisticated products that were previously only available to investors with super-high net worth.

Their first product, the Aspiration Flagship Fund, is a blend of mutual funds designed to grow your money over the long term, while also limiting volatility along the way.

It uses a variety of advanced strategies to try to make money no matter if the stock market is moving up or heading down. It also watches global trends and corporate moves, in order to make profits.  

You need $500 to get started with Aspiration, but unlike most firms, they also have a maximum investment of $100,000 — so they stay focused on everyday investors. They don’t have any retirement account options right now, just a regular taxable account.

Something else that’s different about Aspiration is instead of charging a flat fee to manage your money, they charge a “pay what is fair” fee schedule. You actually get to decide what to pay them — even zero!

Aspiration believes letting you decide what to pay helps build trust. And if that weren’t generous enough, they also give away 10% of their revenue to charities in the U.S.

4. FutureAdvisor

FutureAdvisor is an online investment advisor that manages investments you already own, or new ones that you purchase through them, such as regular brokerage account or an IRA.

Their goal is to provide quality financial advice to ordinary Americans. They offer complete, top-tier portfolio management based on unbiased advice, diversification, tax-efficiency and low-cost index funds.

Think of FutureAdvisor as a management layer you add over your existing accounts to help you maximize return. They use computer modeling to analyze your investments, and then recommend the best way to allocate your money.

They work through two well-known brokerage houses: Fidelity and TD Ameritrade. So if you have accounts at other places, FutureAdvisor does the paperwork to consolidate your investments there. You’ll pay a 0.5% annual fee for the investments they manage.

The Best Place to Invest Money

The place(s) you choose to invest money will affect your customer experience, investment options, amount and quality of advice you can get, and fees you have to pay.

You’re not limited to one type of investing account or service. For instance, you could have a retirement plan at work, open up an IRA with Betterment or FutureAdvisor and have a regular investing account through Acorns or Aspiration.

You can max out both a retirement plan at work and an IRA every year. However, depending on your income, you might not get 100% of the tax benefit for an IRA when you or your spouse also have a retirement plan at work.

But no matter your situation, you can always invest any amount of money in a taxable investing account, in addition to what you contribute to a tax-advantaged retirement account.

As I mentioned, these recommendations are just a few of the many places to invest. But I hope they give you some ideas and inspiration about how simple investing really can be!

So get started by doing some research, and using at least one of them to achieve your short- or long-term financial goals this year.

Your Turn: Do you use any apps to help you invest? Will you be trying any of these tools?

Disclosure: We have a serious Taco Bell addiction around here. The affiliate links in this post help us order off the dollar menu. Thanks for your support!

This post originally appeared at Quick and Dirty Tips, a network of podcasts and digital content offering short, actionable advice from friendly and informed authorities. Laura Adams, host of the free Money Girl podcast, is a personal finance expert and award-winning author.

The post 4 Radically Simple Places to Invest Your Money appeared first on The Penny Hoarder.

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How This Blogger Paid Off $15K in Student Loans Before Graduating From College

Thomas Frank’s “blogging adventure” started after he was rejected as a writer for another blog.

Since he’d already written a post, then-19-year-old Frank decided to start his own blog and go from there.

Now he’s 24, and his blog has more than 25,000 email subscribers and brings in $4,000 to $5,000 a month. It helped him pay off almost $15,000 in student loans before he graduated from college.

Crazy, huh?

If you’re a college student, you’re probably wondering about his secret. How did he pay off all his student debt before leaving campus?

A part-time job, an internship, a scholarship and a bit of freelancing helped Frank finished college debt-free. But much of his income came from his website.

Here’s how he started his blog and built it into a business — and how you can learn from his success.

How Did Frank Start Making Money Blogging?

Frank’s site, College Info Geek, focuses on getting the most out of college. From tips on paying off student loans to studying to getting the job you want, he helps readers “be awesome at college.”

At first, it was mostly for fun, sharing his own experience. After a couple of years, though, Frank started making money.

His first earnings were from Amazon affiliate links, where he would post a link to a product page and if someone bought it, he would get a small percentage of the sale. He didn’t make much at first, but as he built up traffic to his site, he started seeing bigger earnings.

He started by being active on social media, commenting and liking people’s work, trying to get his name out there.

Then one day he came up with the “really weird dumb idea” to build a hanging desk under his loft bed to save floor space. He took pictures of the entire process and share them on his blog.

It went viral. Two other blogs, including the one that had originally rejected him, wrote about his DIY project, and sent him a ton of traffic. Frank noticed a continued increase in his readership, and he began writing more frequently.

For the most part, Frank earns money through affiliate links. When someone makes a purchase through one of his links, he gets a portion of the sale. You have to get a lot of traffic to your website to earn money this way; Frank sees about 300,000 pageviews each month.

Though a lot of companies want to advertise on his blog, Frank focuses on featuring products and companies that benefit students. He said he tends to be pretty selective and usually seeks out companies he’s had previous experience with, such as Chegg, a textbook rental company.

How Does He Promote His Website?

When Frank wanted to build his readership even further, he knew he had to branch out. In 2013, he started a podcast to share his advice in a different format, and he releases new episodes every Monday.

Then, in 2014, Frank starting posting videos on a YouTube channel. He had wanted to do videos for a while, but was too intimidated by other bloggers with fancy equipment. After seeing a video by someone else who didn’t have any special gear, he thought to himself, “Why can’t I do this?”

His videos and podcasts bring a lot more people to the website, which helps him share his content and make more money.

Plus, he self-published an ebook about smart study habits, which he gives away to people who sign up for his email list.

Between his book, videos and podcasts, Frank describes it as “basically flipping a switch.” Two years ago, he was getting about seven to 10 new email subscribers a day. Today, he sees about 130 signups each day.

Frank also now speaks to groups and at conferences, some as a volunteer and a few paid gigs. His next plan is to write a book and publish it traditionally.

How He Paid Off His Student Loans

First, Frank made sure his monthly expenses were as low as possible.

Then, he set aside enough money to cover those costs, and put the rest of his income each money — from the blog, his part-time job and a college scholarship — straight toward his loans.

Frank’s loans were all federal Stafford loans, with about half subsidized and half unsubsidized, with an interest rate around 3.8%. He focused on paying off the unsubsidized ones first to reduce how much he’d spend in interest.

In March 2013, two months before graduation, he made his final payment.

“It felt absolutely amazing to have almost complete freedom upon graduation,” Frank said. “With my debt gone, I knew that all I needed to cover were my living expenses.”

What’s Next for Frank?

At first, Frank simply thought it’d be fun to start a blog in college.

Now, he’s paid off his student loans and his blog is his full-time job. He can work from anywhere, and he doesn’t have any debt hanging over his head.

We asked him how he feels about debt, two-plus years after making that last payment and becoming debt-free.

“After paying [off my loans], I had a pretty staunch debt-free mindset for a while,” he said. “Now, though, my view is a bit more nuanced.”

“I realized that taking on some debt enabled me to go to college. While I could have worked for a few years and then probably gone without taking loans, the debt didn’t end up being a burden, and college opened up a lot of opportunities.”

For example, it gave him the experience he shares on his website, which has become a lucrative business.

Could You Follow Frank’s Lead?

If you want to start and monetize a blog, check out our step-by-step guide.

Keen to make money from a podcast? We’ve got a post about that, too.

And for ideas on paying off your student loans quickly, check out these two posts. Good luck!

Your Turn: Have you tried to monetize a blog? Are you using it to work toward a particular financial goal, like paying off your student loans?

Tess Thomson is a freelance writer living just outside Washington, D.C.

The post How This Blogger Paid Off $15K in Student Loans Before Graduating From College appeared first on The Penny Hoarder.

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12 Shopping Tricks to Keep You Under Budget

The U.S. News Frugal Shopper blog contributors suggest always using coupons and sticking to your list. 

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Big Reasons Not to Buy a House

Homeownership comes with its share of headaches. That's why some prefer to abstain.

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4 Clever Ways Videos Can Help You Attract Customers

Most people would rather watch a movie than read the book that it’s based on.

In general, video is an entertaining and informative type of content that people love.

It’s strange, then, that so few businesses use video to improve the results of their online marketing.

Videos can attract more attention than regular text content can. And since people can’t really skim videos, most will watch the entire thing if it’s interesting.

The biggest benefit of using video is that it typically raises your conversion rate. A video on your landing page will increase your sales, while videos on your blog posts will improve your email opt-in rate.

You should think about incorporating video into all steps of your sales funnel. 

To truly appreciate the power of quality marketing videos, let’s look at a few case studies.

1. StacksAndStacks.com, a seller of a wide variety of home products, added videos to some of their products. As a result, they found that the visitors who viewed the videos were 144% more likely to purchase than those who did not.

2. A jewelry store Ice.com found that those who viewed a video on their site converted 400% better than those who didn’t.

On top of that impressive increase, they also observed that their overall returns decreased by 25%. We will go over why this happened further in this post.

3. Retail Touchpoints reported that incorporating video increased their conversion rate by 174%.

Although video definitely works better in some niches than others, it has a positive effect on just about any business.

A Treepodia analysis found that visitors who watched product videos converted better than those who didn’t in every single niche. In some niches, they converted over 100% better.

In this post, I’m going to break down the main ways you can use video in your business to attract more traffic to your website and convert visitors into customers.

If you’re interested in improving your conversion rate, read on…

4 reasons why video converts so highly

Video is content just like any blog post you create.

Isn’t unfair to say all videos convert well because some videos will actually hurt your conversion rate.

Just like there are low quality blog posts, there are low quality videos, which aren’t going to produce results.

So, while I am going to outline four different ways you can use video in your online business, you need to understand why video works before you can use it effectively.

There are four primary reasons why video can help hold attention and traffic.

Reason #1 – You can simplify complicated topics: As someone who writes a ton of content, I’m familiar with the limitations of writing.

Writing is great when you’re explaining straightforward concepts, but once you try to describe complex situations, it gets tough.

Here’s an example: Imagine you’re writing about how to do an oil change in a car. How many words will it take to explain how to safely prop up the car, find the oil plug, and complete the rest of the procedure?

My guess is it would take at least a few thousand words.

In a video, though, you could explain it all in a few minutes.

Not only that, the video provides much more context than text does.

You see where the oil plug is located in relation to all the other parts of the car, and you can also see exactly how each step is performed.

So, not only do you get all your information in less time but you also get it in a much more clear and practical way.

Actionable content is what drives visitors to take action, whether it’s to follow a tutorial or buy a product.

And then there are other topics that simply can’t be explained effectively through text. Some things need to be shown rather than described.

For example, if you are doing a blender comparison, it’s easy to show which one is better just by running both blenders in a video:

From a consumer point of view, I’m much more likely to buy a blender after I see it work flawlessly in a video rather than reading someone describe it in text.

Reason #2 – It’s more authentic: Another limitation of written content is that it’s hard for the reader to connect with the writer.

I include a picture in the sidebar of my blog posts, but your experience of seeing an author’s picture is not the same as seeing or hearing the content creator:

Video is one of the best ways to connect with someone even if it’s a one-sided conversation.

What happens over time is that your readers will read your other content in your voice, just like when you see a picture with a quote from a movie, you’ll often read it in the actor’s voice. 

Although I don’t use video often on my blog, I have done various interviews and talks over the years that anyone can easily find on YouTube.

I’m aware that most of my best readers know what I look and sound like from stumbling across one of these videos at one point or another.

Reason #3 – Products are best seen in action: There are many factors that stop people from buying products online.

One of the big ones is that they are unsure how the product will actually look, feel, and act in real life.

Until 3-D simulations become possible, the best option we have is video.

In a video of a product being unboxed and tested, you can easily see important things like:

• how big it is (relative to other things in the video)
• does it look as good as the professional product pictures?
• do the main features work as described?

If you have a good product, you want these questions answered. Then, your visitors will have one less reason not to buy it.

Reason #4 – People are lazy: Finally, reading is tiring. It takes mental effort to stay focused and to make sense of all the content.

Yes, you could say that it’s kind of sad that most people don’t want to read much anymore, but it’s a fact.

Compare that to a video, which takes just about zero effort to click “Play” and watch.

A survey by Usurv found that users are 39% more likely to share and 36% more likely to comment on an online video compared to a text article.

But you can also optimize your content for both the lazy and non-lazy visitors, which I’ll go over shortly.

1. “How to” create videos that attract viewers with buyer’s intent

I laid out two goals of video content: traffic and conversions.

Let’s start with a way that will help you accomplish both goals: create “how to” videos—videos that show viewers how to do a particular task.

People particularly love to turn to videos when they’re searching for how to do something.

For the reasons we discussed above, videos are much easier to follow along than a text article.

As an even bigger benefit, many “how to” searches are made right before someone decides to make a purchase.

Why? Because people are looking to solve a problem:

• “how to bake a cake?”
• “how to edit videos?”
• “how to make beef jerky?”

If you have a video that outlines all the options and links to the products you use in the video, you’ll get a solid conversion rate.

But even if you don’t have your own products, you can use this type of video to sell affiliate products.

Sometimes, the product creators don’t even create their own videos, which means you can rank highly and get thousands (or more) views on your video.

For example, Adobe doesn’t have any videos showing up for Photoshop-related searches on YouTube, which allows everyone else to have a chance to show up:

And on top of searches on video sites like YouTube, videos also show up in about 70% of Google searches.

In addition to creating videos that show people how to do things for specific products, you can also make a series of videos that show people how to do something more general.

For example, Pat Flynn created a very popular video series on how to create a podcast from scratch.

In these videos, he mentions products like his favorite mics, software, etc. that he can link to and get affiliate commissions from.

Step #1 – Find keywords with buyer’s intent: This is the toughest part of the process. You need to identify keywords that actually get searched for.

According to Reel SEO, you should look for keywords with variations of “how to” and related phrases.

Videos with:

• ‘How To’ in the title generate an average of 14K views
• ‘Tutorial’ in the title and description generate an average of 16K views
• ‘How to fix’ in the title and description generate an average of 17K views
• ‘How to do’ in the title and description generate an average of 24K views

On top of those phrases, try to think of words relevant to your niche. For example:

• best (keyword) products
• performing (keyword)
• how to perform (keyword)

There are two main ways for you to find these types of keywords, but I’ll warn you upfront: it takes some time and effort.

For both methods, it really helps to understand your niche as much as possible. If you’ve been teaching in your niche for years, you can probably guess most phrases without any tools.

Otherwise, let’s go through the two options you have.

First, type in Google search the above phrases plus one keyword from your niche. This will bring up a full list of commonly searched for terms related to what you typed in.

For example: “how to do seo”:

You’ll need to write those down.

Then, repeat the process using all the different variations of “how to” as well as different keywords in your niche.

For SEO, here are some phrases you could try:

• how to build links
• how to create blog posts
• keyword research tutorial
• link building tutorial
• how to use schema

Get the picture?

Your second research option is to use the trusty Keyword Planner.

Start by entering a broad keyword for your niche (e.g., “seo”):

The point is to find related keywords that could be combined with “how to” or related phrases.

Once you have a large list of related keywords (e.g., link building, local SEO ranking, keyword research, etc.), you can look for specific keywords to target.

Put the “how to” phrase in quotes in the tool, which will tell the tool that you want the words to show up in that order. Then, add each of the related keywords you just found, one at a time.

For example:

“how to” keyword research

Out of that test search, I found two phrases that get a decent search volume per month:

• how to do keyword research
• best keyword research tool (could compare 4-5 of the best options)

What you’ll probably end up finding is that for most searches, you get a lot of irrelevant results.

If so, click the “Keyword options” option in the left menu:

Once you click the pencil icon, click the first button to turn it on (it should be blue now), and click “Save.”

Now, you’ll only see phrases with the exact keywords you typed in (you probably won’t have many).

Using both these methods, you should be able to get at least 20-30 video ideas to start with.

Step #2 – Create a high quality video: Content marketing doesn’t really work without great content. The same applies to videos.

You’ll need to invest time, money, and effort to create high quality videos that people will actually want to see.

How do you do that? That’s a topic for another post in the future.

For now, I have to assume that you have a little bit of experience creating videos.

Step #3 – Post it on the best video site for marketers: Have you heard of a little site called “YouTube”?

It’s by far the largest video site out there.

You always have the option of uploading videos to your site using a player like Wistia. This allows you to do some cool things like collect emails directly from the video.

However, unless you have a large following, you’re probably better off uploading your videos through YouTube.

The main reason for that is because YouTube has a ton of traffic. It has over 1 billion users and gets more than 3 billion searches per month.

On top of that, your videos will be on an extremely authoritative domain, which is why YouTube videos rank so well in Google.

Assuming you are one of the 1 billion users, you can upload a video using the “upload” button in the top right corner of any screen:

Then, select your video to upload:

Finally, you can fill out the basic info for the video.

This basic info is a large part of how YouTube ranks videos for different searches.

While you don’t want to keyword-stuff, you do want to add the keyword you’re trying to rank for in the title.

Include its variations in the description and tags as well:

 

In the description, you can also post a link back to your site. You should point it to the page you create in Step #4…

Step #4 – Embed the video on your site, and add a transcript: If you only uploaded the video to YouTube, you’re not making full use of it.

You should also create a new post or page on your website and embed the video in it.

To embed it, click the “Share” button just under the video:

Then, click the “Embed” tab, and copy the HTML code.

If you paste this on a page, you will get a nice embedded player.

Ideally, you want to rank this page as well as the video for the keyword in Google (you could have two front page spots).

Without content, however, it’ll be difficult.

To fix this, just write out the main points that you went over in the video. This also gives some visitors the option to read if they prefer that format.

2. Tell stories to gain lifelong customers

Many brands are only figuring out now that people love stories (interesting ones at least).

When every business out there is producing content, and most now are, it’s hard to tell them apart.

As a reader, whom should you trust?

Getting to know the people behind the products and the brand is one of the ways readers can decide if they can trust you.

And if they trust you, they will happily buy from you.

In general, there are three main types of stories that are perfect for online businesses to tell in a video.

For each story type, I’ve included an example that you can learn from and emulate.

Story type #1 – Who you are: Readers (and potential customers) want to know who you are.

And not just you, but also the brand you represent.

In this type of story, you focus on introducing the employees of the business (however many there are).

On top of that, you tell the viewer a little bit about your brand and your main products.

You could even go into the backstory of what went into building the product. This is a great idea if consumers in your niche are afraid of anything (like chemicals in the products or unethical work conditions).

An example of this kind of story is on the GoPro’s About page.

The video has over 190,000 views even though it’s set to “Private.” I think that proves that people really care about stories like these.

Story type #2 – Explain why you exist: No, I’m not talking about having any sort of spiritual discovery. I’m talking about why your company (or the one you work for) was created.

In this type of video, you want to answer questions like:

• Who does your company serve?
• How does it help people?
• Why do you care about these people?
• How are you different from competitors?

An absolutely brilliant video of this type was created by Dollar Shave Club.

The video, which is essentially a commercial, went viral and probably led to thousands of new customers:

The video features the founder talking about why the rest of the industry is silly, and why he created Dollar Shave Club.

If you watch it, you’ll also see a lot of humor, which can help videos spread.

Story type #3 – Show experiences your product makes possible: As much as you care about your product, your consumers don’t.

What they care about is the result of using your product.

They don’t care about a blender. They care about making and enjoying smoothies.

They don’t care about the craftsmanship of a table. They care about how it looks in their living room.

In this type of video, you want to show those end results—those experiences. These videos do very well on social media, so incorporate them into your social media strategy if you make them.

If your brand is big enough, you might be lucky to have your customers make the videos for you.

Airbnb is a great example of this. Their Facebook page has several videos that customers sent them about their experiences:

The videos are all about positive travel experiences and welcoming Airbnb hosts. Here’s an example:

 3. Stop giving customers manuals

I don’t think I know anyone who actually likes instruction manuals that come with products.

Usually, they’re filled with extremely boring pages of text.

Even digital products often come with guides that no one really wants to read.

People buy a product so they can start using it. They don’t want to waste an hour reading instructions.

Obviously, this leads to frustration and a bad user experience. This could lead to refunds and fewer word of mouth referrals.

But guess what customers would be willing to do? That’s right, watch a couple of short videos.

It’s easy; they get to see the product in action; and it’s more effective as a learning tool than typical instructions.

If you have a product, I strongly encourage you to create an overview of the main uses of that product and more detailed individual walkthroughs of all the main functions. Send these along with the product (or in advance if you can).

An example of this is WordStream’s video for their PPC campaign builder tool:

It’s 3 minutes long, but it goes through all the main features that a user will need to know to get started. It’s much easier than reading 1,000-2,000 words.

Don’t make products? Make overviews of others': If you don’t have any products of your own, you can still make tutorials and walkthroughs of other people’s products.

Often, people not associated with a company can make better videos because they have a new customer’s point of view of the product.

For example, videos about complex products like phones often get hundreds of thousands of views.

Potential customers, or new customers waiting for their phone to ship, want to know what to expect when they receive their phone. They also want to know how to use the most important features.

4. Eliminate all doubt in trust elements by using video

One of the most important elements of video that we went over at the start of this post is the ability to connect.

When you put yourself in a video, you put yourself out there for people to see. You’re not hiding behind a screen. On the contrary, you’re standing behind your thoughts and opinions.

Online reviews can have a big effect on your conversion rate.

The problem is that it’s really easy to fake a review.

Some are obviously very easy to spot, but others leave potential buyers unsure of their authenticity.

If you have a written feedback from a customer who loved your product, that’s great. But it’s not going to help you very much with future customers.

But if you can get a customer to review your product on video, it could be worth hundreds of sales in the future. With a video, there’s very little doubt that it’s a real review, which allows you to eliminate a lot of the anxiety and fear that potential customers might have. 

You can generate customer video-reviews using two main options.

Option #1 – Encourage video reviews: In order to get reviews of your products, you need to ask your customers for them.

If you sell your products on third party e-commerce sites like Amazon, they take it out of your hands.

After someone buys your product and receives it, Amazon will send them an email asking to leave a review of the product.

However, if you sell on a site that allows you more flexibility, or you sell products directly from your own website, you have an opportunity.

When you ask for a review from your customer, specify that you’d really appreciate a video review from them.

Include simple instructions for how to record a video with their webcam and how to send the file to you (or a link to it).

Here’s an example of a great video review:

The product is a squirrel toy for a dog.

Instead of just writing a normal review on Amazon, Larry took a video of his dog playing with the toy.

Obviously, other people found this really useful since over 1,100 said that “this review was helpful to me,” which moved this review to the very top.

Option #2 – Interview happy customers: Standard video reviews are great and will stand out from all the other reviews (at least for the foreseeable future). So if that’s all you can get, you’ll still be very happy with the results.

For more complex products, interviewing happy customers can be a more effective option.

This is something that Ramit Sethi does occasionally for his products at I Will Teach You to Be Rich.

He flies in one of his successful students and then films an extremely high quality interview, during which he talks with them about their story and what they learned from his courses:

I understand we’re not all Ramit and can’t afford to fly out a happy customer just for an interview.

However, you could easily record a Skype or Google Hangouts chat to create this type of video even though it obviously won’t be the same quality as Ramit’s.

The reason why this can be a better option is mainly because you can direct the “review” however you’d like.

One of the problems with most reviews is that the reviewer talks about whatever comes to mind rather than what other potential customers are interested in.

In Ramit’s case, he asks questions that he knows other potential buyers are struggling with.

When they can get real unbiased answers from a successful student, they are much more likely to make the leap and buy the course.

Conclusion

You know I love writing great blog posts, but don’t think that’s your only option for content.

There are many types of videos that can be used to either drive traffic to your business or improve your conversion rates (sometimes both).

I’ve gone into detail about four different types of videos that accomplish these goals.

If you’re interested in video marketing, start by picking one or two of these types to focus on.

If you have any questions about how you can use video in your marketing, leave me a comment below, and I’ll try to help you out.

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Hate Clipping Coupons? Try These Easy Ways to Save Money on Groceries

You probably already know groceries account for a huge portion of your total budget.

It’s also one of the most variable budget items — you might feed your family on $64 a week, or spend $1,000 a month at high-end stores like Whole Paycheck Foods.

So, cutting back at the supermarket can lead to big savings. But how do you do it?

Find Easy Ways to Save

You don’t have to be a coupon-clipper to save lots on groceries!

No-brainer ways to save are the best — you can make them habitual and let the money practically save itself.

Trent over at The Simple Dollar has a bunch of great grocery hacks, but one of them is so easy I couldn’t believe I didn’t think of it myself:

Use a basket instead of a cart.

Unless you know you’re on a grocery mission for items that take up lots of space, like toilet paper or paper towels (which, ideally, you’re buying in bulk anyway), you can probably fit most of what you need in a shopping basket.

Trent says this strategy has saved him loads of cash on impulse buys that are easy to make when you’re wheeling a cart through every aisle. If you use a basket and just shop the perimeter for fresh, perishable goods like eggs and produce, you’ll save cash and eat healthier foods.

But what about your breakfast cereal and other boxed or canned goodies?

Divide and Conquer: Why Separate Trips Can Be More Efficient

Trent and his family have organized different kinds of grocery trips: A big one every few weeks for non-perishables and bulk items, and smaller weekly trips for fresh items that don’t last, like milk or bread.

Plus, many of these fresh items come from the family’s garden and local CSA, minimizing weekly grocery spending.

If you’re willing to put in a little effort up front, you can save a lot of money by figuring out which stores sell your key products the cheapest. Trent says:

“Basically, we made a long list of the staples we buy most frequently — eggs, spinach, tortillas and so on — and got the prices for those items from several different groceries in the area, then added them up. The store with the lowest prices overall became our go-to grocery store.”

You can also strategize by figuring out which days are the best to shop at specific stores in your area.

Minimize Waste through Organization

Finally, an important part of saving money on groceries is actually using what you buy. Anyone who’s ever found a three-years-outdated can of soup at the back of the pantry knows how easy it is to break that rule!

Trent recommends pulling everything out of your pantry or freezer and stationing easily forgotten items toward the front, where they’ll be conspicuous. You can also plan meals revolving around those items for the next few days.

Using what you have means you’ll have less need when you walk into the store, and your savings will rack up automatically! That’s what we call a win.

Your Turn: What no-brainer strategies do you use to save money on groceries?

Jamie Cattanach (@jamiecattanach) is a junior writer at The Penny Hoarder and a native Floridian. She’s passionate about learning, literature, chocolate and finding ways to live the good life as cost-effectively as possible.

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Avoiding the Big Cost of a Divorce Before You Even Get Married with Eight Smart Dating and Wedding Strategies

Perhaps the biggest cost that you can face in a marriage is that of divorce. According to this LegalZoom article, the average divorce in America costs between $15,000 and $30,000, which adds up to between three and six months of salary for the average American household (which earns around $60,000 pre-tax).

That’s a lot of money. Add into that the presence of ongoing expenses like child support and you end up with a life-changing expense where you’re putting a lot of food on the table of lawyers and not nearly as much on your own table.

That doesn’t even include the emotional trauma of divorce, which can have a great deal of impact spread throughout your life, affecting your other friendships, your family relationships, your professional life, and your internal life as well.

Of course, in order to have a divorce, you have to get married first, and it turns out that, according to Andrew Francis and Hugo Mialon of Emory University, in their recent paper ‘A Diamond Is Forever’ and Other Fairy Tales: The Relationship Between Wedding Expense and Marriage Duration, there are a number of indicators as to the likelihood of divorce that pop up even before you’re married.

You might think of this list as a set of strategies that increase the likelihood of having a successful marriage, although that idea isn’t directly proven. These are simply eight features of successful marriages that originate from the period of dating and wedding and honeymoon planning.

Couples that date at least three years before their engagement are 39% less likely to divorce than couples that dated less than a year before their engagement. Even if you’re deeply and madly in love right now, it might be a good idea to wait a while before pulling out a ring. Relationships aren’t always in a constant flame of passion and a great relationship is one that can last through the ebb and flow of that passion due to the strength of other aspects of the relationship, and you can’t really tell whether that is true at first.

The greater your combined income, the lesser the likelihood of divorce. In fact, couples that make $125,000 or more combined per year have half the divorce rate of couples that make a combined $25,000 a year or less. Even topping that $25,000 a year threshold makes divorce 31% less likely. If you’re not earning much right now, it might be a good idea to make some choices to shore up your career and improve your earning potential before offering up a ring or accepting one.

People who attend church regularly are 46% less likely to divorce than those who never attend; “sometimes” attendees are actually 10% more likely to divorce than those who never attend. I would take that statistic to mean that people who share at least somewhat strong religious convictions and practice them together are substantially less likely to divorce.

Don’t marry someone for their looks, as that makes divorce 40% more likely. Looks don’t last. People age, and the beautiful face and body that you desire when you’re younger will fade over time. If one of the major reasons for marrying someone is their physical appearance and your attraction to it, you’re asking for marriage difficulty down the road as those looks fade away.

Don’t marry someone for their wealth, either, as that makes divorce 18% more likely. Interestingly, this seemed to be much more true in marriages where a woman is marrying a man for his wealth, which caused a 60% increase in divorce likelihood, than the reverse, which seemed to have relatively little impact on divorce likelihood. Regardless, marrying someone because of their bank account balance means that you’re marrying someone for reasons that have very little to do with that person at all. You need to focus on marrying the person, not the stuff you can extract from them, or else your marriage will not be a stable one.

The larger your wedding, the less likely you are to divorce. Even inviting a single person to your wedding causes your likelihood of divorce to drop by 35% compared to getting married with no guests. The more people you invite, the less likely divorce becomes, up to the point of inviting 200 or more people, which indicates a 92% reduction in the likelihood of divorce compared to a couple getting married with no guests.

The cheaper your wedding, the less likely you are to divorce. Interestingly enough, having a less expensive wedding also increases the chance of a successful marriage. Spending $1,000 or less on a wedding drops the chance of divorce by 53% compared to a wedding in the $5,000 to $10,000 range, whereas a $20,000 wedding (or more) makes divorce 46% more likely than a wedding in that middle $5,000 to $10,000 range.

Having a honeymoon makes divorce 42% less likely than if you didn’t have a honeymoon. Go away together right after your wedding. It’ll be good for the future of your marriage.

A Summary of the Strategies

Here’s a summary of the features of successful marriages.

1. The longer participants date, the better (at least three years).
2. The more participants collectively earn, the better (at least $25,000 combined, but more is even better).
3. Share religious beliefs and discuss and practice those beliefs regularly.
4. Don’t marry someone for their looks.
5. Don’t marry someone for their wealth.
6. Invite lots of people to your wedding.
7. Have the most inexpensive wedding you possibly can.
8. Go on a honeymoon.

How Did Sarah and I Do?

Did Sarah and I follow these strategies?

1. We dated for about five years before being engaged, which reduces our divorce chances by 39% compared to people who quickly married.
2. Our combined income at the time of marriage reduced our divorce chances by 39% compared to low income earners.
3. We shared our religious beliefs early on and practiced them together, making divorce 46% less likely than people who didn’t do that at all.
4. For me, at least, I didn’t marry Sarah for her looks or her wealth, which meant that we didn’t have any increase in divorce chances.
5. Our wedding had between 100 and 200 people present, which made divorce 84% less likely than a couple who married with no guests.
6. We spent between $1,000 and $5,000 on our wedding, which made divorce 18% less likely than a couple that spent between $5,000 and $10,000 on their wedding.
7. We went on a honeymoon, making our odds of divorce 41% less likely.

We’ve been married for more than twelve years. We have great conversations every day, a fair bit of romance, and a ton of cooperation when it comes to each other’s interests and needs. I can’t imagine us divorcing any time soon. That seems to match up well with the statistics and observations from this research article.

Final Thoughts

Do these ideas really serve as a checklist of things to do to prepare for a great marriage? I’m not sure. The article is mostly a series of observations about what different premarital features do to alter marital outcomes.

My feeling is that this list can provide things for you to work on in your relationship and questions to ask yourself. Are you in love with looks? Bad idea. Are you in love with that person’s checking account? Also a bad idea. Do you share religious beliefs and practices? That’s a good thing. Are you planning a big wedding? That’s good. Is it an expensive one? Not so good. You get the idea.

I think that these suggestions collectively achieve a few things, the most important of which is that they point toward financial stability. Spending more than $10,000 on a wedding is not a financially stable choice and my feeling is that such a decision is often driven by just one member of the couple, meaning there’s a fracture already in place. Having a health combined income before you get married is a very financially stable choice, particularly when you combine it with not marrying someone for their wealth, which adds up to a prime indicator that both people are contributing – and are recognizing each other’s contributions.

So, will these ideas point you toward a perfect stable marriage? That’s far from a guarantee. However, they can point you towards attributes that have, in other couples, increased the likelihood of a stable marriage and, in the end, that’s what you want from your wedding. You want to leave your wedding day with a marriage in hand that has the greatest possible chance for long-term stability, and these are features that have been shown to increase that likelihood in the past.

Good luck!

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