The Aldi of hardware is coming

LOOK out Bunnings. You’re about to face off with a new player. This is the little guy out to challenge the hardware giant’s dominance.

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Term Life Insurance: The Basics

No one really wants to think about life insurance. But once you settle into life with a spouse, kids, or both, something funny happens: You have to consider what’s best for your family, not just yourself.

People begin to depend on you, and you on them — for love, for companionship, and, of course, for financial stability.

Unfortunately, sometimes life throws a curveball. If your family would find itself in financial trouble if you unexpectedly passed away, it’s probably worth buying term life insurance — the simplest and typically least expensive type of life insurance.

We’ll cover the basics below, including what term life insurance is, how it’s different than other life insurance, why it’s a good bet, and how much you need to cover your bases. If you want to jump right in, you can compare term life insurance quotes here:

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What Is Term Life Insurance?

Some insurance can be tough to understand, but term life insurance is about as simple as it gets.

Just like other kinds of life insurance, its primary purpose is to offset the financial burden caused by an unfortunate event — in this case, to make sure your dependents can continue to live comfortably without your income if you pass away. It can also help cover outstanding debt, pay for funeral costs, and even help pay for your kids’ college education after you’re gone.

With term life insurance, your policy is good for a specific period of time — the term. While shorter and longer terms are available, 10-, 20- or 30-year terms are common.

If you die before the term is over, the policy pays a pre-specified amount, called a death benefit, to the person or people you’ve chosen as your beneficiary — typically your spouse, children, or other family members.

Term life insurance can also be convertible or renewable. A convertible policy can be exchanged for whole life insurance of equal value, while a renewable policy can be renewed or extended for additional terms. We’ll discuss these sub-types of term life insurance in depth later on.

So if you have a 20-year, $500,000 term life insurance policy, you’ll pay a monthly or quarterly premium for 20 years, and if you die within that time frame, your family will receive $500,000 (death benefits are generally not taxable as income). If you pass away after the 20-year term, however, and you didn’t renew your policy or convert it to a whole life policy, they won’t receive anything.

Before we dig deeper, let’s compare term coverage with another kind of life insurance, called whole life insurance.

Term vs. Whole Life Insurance

Also called permanent life insurance, whole life insurance has two components: the life insurance policy itself, as well as a savings component that grows over the years. Some of the premium you pay every month with a whole life policy is invested on your behalf in an interest-bearing account that you can borrow against without paying taxes.

With term life insurance, unless you die before your term is up, you won’t see a penny of your benefits — you’re simply out the cash you paid in premiums over the years. With whole life insurance, you’re guaranteed your death benefit regardless of when you die as long as you’re paying your premiums.

	Term Life Insurance	Whole Life Insurance
How long does coverage last?	Specified term such as 10, 20, or 30 years	Permanent, as long as premiums are paid
When is death benefit payable?	Payable only if you die before your policy expires. Otherwise, no payment.	Whenever you die
Does policy build cash value?	No	Yes
Tax-deferred savings component?	No	Yes
Can you borrow against policy?	No	Yes
Cost	Varies, but usually relatively inexpensive.	Varies, but typically much more expensive than term coverage.

Though the guaranteed benefit may make whole life insurance seem like a no-brainer, most experts caution that term life insurance is still a much better deal for most people.

Why? First, term policies are typically much cheaper than whole life policies, making it possible for you to get the coverage you need without busting your budget.

With a term policy, there’s a very good chance you won’t need your death benefit, so this lessened risk means lower premiums. When you buy whole life, your insurer knows that (as long as you keep paying premiums) it will eventually have to pay a death benefit, so the policy costs more. Moreover, commissions are very, very high on whole life policies.

Second, if whole life is attractive because of the savings component, note that you can probably get a better return by simply taking the extra money you’d pay for a whole life policy and investing it on your own. This is especially important if you want to be an active investor — you won’t have much, if any, control on how your premiums are invested with a whole life policy.

How Much Term Life Insurance Do I Need? How Long Do I Need It?

First things first: If you’re lucky, your employer may provide term life insurance as part of your benefit package. However, these policies often aren’t big enough to truly protect your family in case you die.

It’s typical for employers’ group life policies to come with a death benefit equivalent to one or two years’ salary, according to Bankrate. Even if you’re fortunate enough to work someplace where that’s a relatively beefy sum — say $100,000 to $200,000 — that may not be enough.

If you want a very general starting point, you can multiply your salary by 10 to figure out how much life insurance you need.

Of course, you could have a lot of extenuating factors that demand a more precise evaluation. The easiest way to figure out how much life insurance you really need is by using a calculator that will consider your family’s income, savings, debts, and other relevant factors.

There are several of these tools online, but the most comprehensive is provided by Life Happens, a nonprofit dedicated to educating the public about insurance. If you have a financial planner, he or she can also help you figure out what’s best.

Nothing makes you realize the importance of life insurance like having a child. Photo: Bridget Coila

You may be surprised by how much life insurance you need. My husband and I recently purchased term life policies when we realized that his employer-sponsored life insurance policy had a paltry death benefit of $15,000 — maybe enough to cover funeral costs.

With two kids, two mortgages, and a host of other expenses, that’s not even close to what I would need to replace his income and live a similar lifestyle if he unexpectedly passed away. Meanwhile, he would need to replace my income as a freelance writer — and incur additional childcare expenses — if I suddenly died. We settled on a $1 million policy for him, the primary breadwinner, and a $500,000 policy for me.

As for policy length, experts say a good starting point can be to buy a policy for at least as long as you’ll be financially supporting any children. You also want to consider whether you’ll still need life insurance once any big expenses — for instance, your mortgage — are taken care of, or whether you’ll need life insurance once you retire.

My husband and I have young children, and we want to help them pay for college. We also recently bought a house with a 30-year mortgage. Finally, while we’ve recently started saving more aggressively for retirement, we’re making up for some years where we didn’t save as much as we should have. For those reasons, we opted to pay a bit more for 30-year term policies.

What Type of Term Life Insurance Should I Choose?

Though term life insurance is relatively simple, you’ll still need to choose whether you want a renewable or convertible policy. Here’s how they differ.

Renewable term life insurance

“Renewability” allows a policyholder to renew or extend their term life policy for additional terms without medical examination. This is important because it guarantees that you can still get life insurance even as you get older or your health declines. So while you may eventually find yourself unable to pass a company’s underwriting criteria — meaning your health is too poor to get a new policy — the insurer is required to renew your old policy. Most term policies do not allow renewal after age 80.

For example, say you’re a healthy, non-smoking 25-year-old. You can buy a 10-year renewable term policy with a benefit of $100,000 for about $120 per year. In 10 years, you can renew that policy for another 10 years regardless of your health (although the rate may be higher).

Note that your health does still matter when it comes time for renewal: While you’re guaranteed the right to renew, the amount you pay annually for the same amount of coverage will be based on your current health.

So by age 35, if you’ve gained 40 pounds and started smoking, your premium may double for the same coverage based on your age and current health. It’s also possible you won’t be offered another renewable policy, which could leave you uninsured 10 years down the road, when your need for one may be greater.

Convertible term life insurance

“Convertibility” simply means that the policy can be exchanged for whole life insurance of equal value. Typically, this exchange requires neither underwriting nor a medical exam.

This means that if you had a $50,000 convertible term policy, you could convert it into a $50,000 whole life policy without giving a health history. This conversion would, however, increase your premiums.

Usually, policyholders are permitted to convert term policies only until they turn 65, and the period during which conversion is possible is shorter than the period of coverage.

This means you can convert your term policy into whole life insurance even if health begins to decline. The “hybrid” nature of convertible policies proves especially important in this situation, because once in ill health, you’ll have a much more difficult and costly time securing coverage.

It is important to understand that your premium’s new rate will be based on your age, health, and other factors at the time of conversion. You should also remember that the cost of whole life insurance is greater than the cost of term, even if all other factors are the same.

Renewable and convertible hybrid

Some convertible term policies are a hybrid that offer the choice of either renewing for an additional term or converting to a whole-life policy. Health and age factors apply the same way they do with renewable or convertible policies. The options are often available on an annual basis regardless of the length of the initial term.

Which kind of term life insurance is right for me?

As with all things, those increased options often carry a higher cost. Insurance carriers, like car dealers, charge by the option: The more options, the higher the premium.

If cost is your bottom line, note that renewable policies are cheaper. You may be able to renew for more than one term as long as you remain in good health. Just remember that your premium may go up each time.

A convertible policy might be a better bet if you want whole life eventually but you’re afraid you’ll end up in poor health sometime down the road. It will be more costly, however. And unless you have a hybrid policy, you may not be able to renew it without converting.

How to Shop for Term Life Insurance Quotes

You can start your search for term life insurance with our online quote tool, which will let you compare offers in your area. This can be a good starting point for your search, and give you a baseline for prices.

You can also buy directly from most companies. For a starting point, check out our picks for the Best Life Insurance Companies of 2015.

One caveat: Some life insurance companies don’t give out quotes online because they would rather you call and speak to an agent. This isn’t inherently bad; after all, agents know their stuff and may be able to provide you with valuable guidance.

However, if you don’t mind using an agent, you may want to stick with an independent agent. Unlike agents who sell only one company’s insurance, independent agents can shop around for you and are under less pressure to steer you in a particular direction.

When you get a life insurance quote, you may be asked for health-related information such as your height, weight, and whether you’ve ever smoked or suffered from any illnesses. Be as truthful as possible when you answer these questions — you may have to undergo a health exam after formally applying, and unfavorable results can mean a big difference between what you were quoted and will actually have to pay.

In general, the younger and healthier you are, the less you’ll pay — but things like gender, career, location, and lifestyle can all affect your rate, too.

Still have more questions about life insurance? Here are some of The Simple Dollar’s past posts on the subject:

• How to Get Cheap Life Insurance in 2015
• Buy Term Life Insurance
• The Best Life Insurance Companies of 2015
• The Heartbreaking Puzzle of Life Insurance
• Life Change? Update Your Life Insurance Policy
• A Rookie Life Insurance Mistake I Made and How You Can Avoid It
• Life Insurance Loopholes to Avoid
• Who Needs Whole Life Insurance Coverage?

The post Term Life Insurance: The Basics appeared first on The Simple Dollar.

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Shopping in Stores on Black Friday? This Website Will Give You $30

If you’re planning to hit in-store sales on Thanksgiving or Black Friday, we’ve found a reward for the time and money you’ll spend.

Online marketplace Jet.com is offering site credit to those who shop at physical retailers between 5 p.m. on Thanksgiving and 11:59 p.m. on Black Friday.

Prove you spent at least $50 at a physical location of select retailers in that time period and you’ll get a $10 JetCash voucher.

Internet Retailer reports that Jet will give credit for purchases made in-store at:

• Toys R Us
• Sports Authority
• Brookstone
• hhgregg

To get the credit, snap a photo of your receipt and upload it to Jet’s Facebook page by midnight on Sunday, November 29.

Each shopper can claim up to $30 in vouchers. But you must register for a Jet account before Thanksgiving to participate.

What Is Jet?

Jet is an online shopping marketplace for just about everything you can buy. It’s made waves in the e-commerce world for its unique “real-time pricing algorithm”.

Items you buy through Jet are priced as you shop, based on their location in distribution centers.

Forbes breaks it down like this: Add two items to your cart from the same distribution center that can be shipped in a single box (“smart items”), and you’ll pay one low price.

Add a third item from a different distribution center and you’ll pay more.

As you add items to your cart, other items that can be bundled will also be flagged as “smart items,” so you know you’ll be getting the best price.

Get full story and more details at Internet Retailer.

Your Turn: Are you planning to shop in stores for Black Friday? Will you claim this JetCash credit?

Dana Sitar (@danasitar) is a Staff Writer at The Penny Hoarder. She’s written for Huffington Post, Entrepreneur, Writer’s Digest and more. She’ll probably spend Black Friday working on an elusive novel and eating ALL the leftover green bean casserole.

This post originally appeared on our special Black Friday site. 

The post Shopping in Stores on Black Friday? This Website Will Give You $30 appeared first on The Penny Hoarder.

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The Stores With the Best Discounts on Black Friday (And the Stores With the Worst)

On Black Friday, everything looks like a good deal.

The reality? Many things are not.

With a little bit of work, you can tell if a particular item is worth your while — but what about stores on the whole?

Are there retailers who typically offer better Black Friday sales than others?

The answer is yes, according to a recent study released by WalletHub.

And the disparity is shocking: While some retailers offer an average discount of 68%, others have a typical discount of less than 30%.

We bet you’re as curious as we were to learn which retailers came out on top — and which came out on the bottom.

Which Retailers Have the Best Black Friday Deals?

To determine whose Black Friday prices are truly a bargain, WalletHub analyzed 8,000 deals from 30 retailers.

“The average discount was weighted based on the pre-discounted price of the item,” they explain, “to give more credit to the retailers that are discounting higher-ticket items.”

And the results?

Some stores you might associate with huge Black Friday sales actually don’t offer the biggest discounts.

10 Stores With the Lowest Black Friday Discounts

1. Amazon (25.8%)
2. Walgreens (28.7%)
3. Toys”R”Us (28.9%)
4. GameStop (29.2%)
5. Walmart (30.1%)
6. Home Depot (31.4%)
7. Best Buy (33.5%)
8. Ace Hardware (34.2%)
9. Staples (34.4%)
10. Dell Home (35.3%)

The WalletHub study included several discount retailers like Costco and Sam’s Club, but we omitted them from our list because their prices are much lower to begin with.

Still, it certainly surprised us to see Black Friday stalwarts like Amazon, Toys”R”Us, Wal-Mart and Best Buy on the list. You could argue these retailers already have lower prices, too — but we would have expected their Black Friday sales to be better.

Now, on to the winners of the study…

10 Stores With the Greatest Black Friday Discounts

1. JCPenney (Average discount: 68%)
2. Kohl’s (66.7%)
3. Stage (63.9%)
4. Groupon (63.7%)
5. Belk (59.5%)
6. Macy’s (56%)
7. Kmart (50.1%)
8. Panasonic (47%)
9. Fred Meyer (45.3%)
10. Office Depot & OfficeMax (42.8%)

Penney’s coming in with a 68% discount!? My mom would be so happy; she’s the only person I know who still shops there.

And rounding out the top 10 are several other stores you might not think of as having big Black Friday sales. (What is Stage? And who is this Belk character?)

You should, however, take these lists with a grain of salt.

Some stores have higher prices so their sales appear better. And stores on both lists will likely have great — and not-so-great — deals on Black Friday 2015.

But if you’re choosing between Office Depot (42.8% average discount) or Staples (34.4%), for example, we’d probably pick the former.

For the full list of stores, click here.

Most importantly, be vigilant when deciding what to spend your money on — and if you need help or guidance, check out our Black Friday deals blog!

Your Turn: Did any of these numbers surprise you?

Susan Shain, senior writer for The Penny Hoarder, is always seeking adventure on a budget. Visit her blog at susanshain.com, or say hi on Twitter @susan_shain.

This post originally appeared on our special Black Friday site.

 

The post The Stores With the Best Discounts on Black Friday (And the Stores With the Worst) appeared first on The Penny Hoarder.

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How to Start a Blog: A Tutorial

If you’re passionate about writing and comfortable with technology, starting a blog is one way to share your personal experiences and insights with the world. And if you do it right, you might be able to turn your blog into a profitable hobby – or even a full-time career. While that might sound crazy, I can assure you it’s not.

If you’ll remember, The Simple Dollar was created in 2006 as Trent Hamm’s personal blog and online journal. As the years marched on, the site grew to the point where it became wildly popular and profitable and needed the attention of a full-time staff. That’s the magic of starting a blog: If you build a following and get a steady flow of traffic, the opportunities that come your way can be limitless.

I, too, can attest to the power of starting a personal blog and building it over time. My husband and I started out first website, Club Thrifty, in 2012 and have collaborated on several others since then. We both had full-time jobs when we started, and I nurtured my freelance writing career on the side. Several years later, we are both out of our former industry and working full-time on our blog and a variety of online endeavors from home. And let me tell you, self-employment is amazing!

Of course, not everyone wants to turn a website into a side hustle. For some people, blogging is more of a therapeutic or creative activity than anything else. There are literally millions of blogs out there. Virtually every topic you can think of has hundreds or even thousands of blogs devoted to it. But with so many people online, there’s always room for one more.

How to Start a Blog: What You Need to Get Started

The first part of the equation is figuring out your topic. What exactly are you going to write about?

If you write about a broad topic, you’ll have a lot more material to write about and the potential to reach a larger audience — but you’ll also have far more competition. If you stick to a narrow topic, there will be fewer things to write about and you may have less competition, but your audience can only grow so big. Both strategies have advantages and disadvantages.

Here at The Simple Dollar, we focus on money issues from a personal angle, tying together financial advice with the realities of living through life’s ups and downs. This isn’t an entirely unique angle, of course, but very few things are truly unique online these days.

Another factor to consider is what you personally bring to the table. Who are you? What is your voice? Will you be snarky? Or will you be earnest? Are you writing from the perspective of a parent? Are you a fan or a critic? What area of the country or the world are you writing from? What are your other interests that you might tie into the topic?

You want to be able to describe yourself and your website in just a few words. For example, I would describe content offered on The Simple Dollar as honest, forthcoming, and helpful. That’s a set of traits that makes The Simple Dollar at least somewhat unique. Other personal finance blogs may be snarky or sophisticated or hail from other regions or cover different financial situations. Some bring in other interests, too.

Photo: Sascha Pohflepp

Once you’ve come up with a topic and a tone for your website, you’ll need to figure out a domain name that tells potential readers what you’re about. Here at The Simple Dollar, our name says it all. In addition to offering basic financial education, we offer simple ideas on how to get the most out of your money.

When it comes to choosing a domain name for your own site, you can go in a number of different ways. If you want your topic to be obvious, pick a domain that makes your passion and covered interests clear. Conversely, you can pick a blog name that is unique or quirky – or one that represents who you really are.

In addition to a domain name and blog angle, you’ll also need the ability to write clearly, plenty of time to spend on your hobby, and some ideas to get the ball rolling. Other than that, an internet connection and a reliable computer are the only other investments you’ll need to make.

Starting a Blog: Steps to Get Started

Step 1: Choose a niche

As I mentioned before, you’ll want to have a unique angle or topic idea before you get started. Start by brainstorming ideas, paying special attention to any subject you’re especially passionate or knowledgeable about.

If your passion is personal finance, for example, you’ll want to pick a niche that has something to do with money, investing, or frugality. Likewise, if you want to write about food and cooking, you should pick an angle that will allow you to explore your ideas and share the recipes and concepts you’re most invested in.

Step 2: Create a name

Now that you have a niche nailed down, you need to name your blog. It could be something as simple as your own name. However, you may wish to consider branding your blog.

For example, Trent Hamm didn’t call this website TrentHamm.com; he named it The Simple Dollar. With that one act, he made the website more about money than himself and gave it a broader appeal for readers.

Step 3: Register your domain name

Once you come up with a name for your blog, you’ll want to choose a domain that matches it as closely as possible. Prepare yourself for the inevitability that your preferred name may already be taken — at times it seems almost every dot-combination of words has been snatched up by enterprising domain hoarders — but it’s usually easy enough to find a variation that will work.

The best way to search domain names and ultimately buy one is to visit a site such as GoDaddy.com and conduct a search. (Domainr.com also has an easy search feature and will suggest alternative spellings and suffixes that may be available.)

Note that if you purchase a web hosting plan — which you should, and we’ll cover that in a minute — the hosting service will often include one free domain name, so you may not need to purchase one separately.

Using GoDaddy.com for our example, here are the steps you’ll take to find and register a domain name:

1. Fill in your preferred domain name, click the green button, and search for your domain. If your preferred domain isn’t available, keep looking for options until you find something that will work:

 

2. Your results will look like this. Click the green “Select” button, then the orange “Continue to Cart” button to move on to the purchase page.

 

3. When you’re ready to buy, you’ll be asked whether or not you’d like to purchase any add-ons. Generally, the only add-on I’d consider is the private domain option. Registering your domain privately keeps your personal information private so people can’t find it via a simple search. Make your selections and click “Continue to Cart”.

4. Review your selections and click the orange “Proceed to Checkout” button. Be sure to pay special attention to the number of years you’re purchasing the domain for. By default, it will show five years. You can change that to increase or reduce the price (and the price per year).

5. On the following page, fill in your billing information and choose your method of payment. Click the orange “Continue” button.

6. On the next page, confirm your selections and complete the sale.

Step 4: Find a host

When creating your own blog, you’ll want a Web hosting company if you hope to make money off it one day. (You can start a free blog using sites like Blogger or WordPress.com — you’ll just face some limitations.)

Personally, I use Bluehost. Not only is it easy to use, but they offer excellent customer support – especially for newbies. Here are the steps you should take if you want to sign up with Bluehost and link your new website.

1. Go to Bluehost.com and click on “Get Started Now.”

 

2. Select your plan. It’s fine to start with a basic plan — you can always upgrade to a premium one later on.

 

3. Enter your domain name under “I Have a Domain Name” (or sign up for a free domain name from Bluehost):

 

4. Confirm your purchase details and enter your billing information:

 

5. Buy any additional related domain names if you want to own them:

 

6. Create a Bluehost password, and you’re done! 

 

Step 5: Connect your host and registrar

Now that you’re all set up with hosting services, you need to make sure that your web address is pointed in the right direction. After you open your Bluehost account, you should get a welcome email from them. In the email, you’ll find a list of your nameservers.

They should look something like this: Nameserver 1: ns1.bluehost.com, Nameserver 2: ns2.bluehost.com.

You’ll need these details to connect your new host with your registered domain, so make sure you save this email and its contents. To connect your host and registrar:

1. Login into your GoDaddy.com account.

2. Find the “Domains” row in your dashboard, and click on the green “Manage” button:

3. In the domains menu, click on the domain you’d like to update.

4. Find the “Nameservers” row and click on “Manage”:

 

5. On the next screen, click on “Custom” and “Edit Nameservers”:

6. Add your new nameservers, click save, and you’re done!

Step 6: Build your website using WordPress and Genesis

Once you have the details of your website up and running, you’ll need to build actual web pages people will see. There are a few different platforms that are available, but in my opinion, WordPress is the best.

Overall, WordPress sites are among the easiest to use and build from scratch – especially for beginners. They also have a bunch of free themes available, which can help cut down on the overall costs of creating your blog.

If really want a professional design, you can purchase a “premium” theme. There are dozens to choose from, but my favorite is the Genesis Framework. For somewhere between $85 and $100, you can get the Genesis Framework and a “child theme” that will improve your site’s efficiency and look.

Do you really need a professional theme? Probably not, at least not at the outset — but it’s worth considering.

Think of your website like a car. WordPress is the engine, the Genesis Framework is the body, and the child theme is the paint job. Sure, the engine is the most important part and runs fine without the other two items — but it sure is more attractive with a sleek body and a professional look.

Even if you don’t need a professional theme at first, chances are good you’ll want one eventually. As more and more people visit your website, you’ll want to find a way to improve its appearance and feel. But, first things first — let’s get WordPress installed.

Step 7: Install WordPress in Bluehost

Bluehost makes it super simple to install a WordPress website. Here’s how you do it:

1. Log in to the Bluehost dashboard and click on cPanel:

 

2. Find the “Website Builders” section and click on WordPress:

 

3. Click on the green “Start” button:

 

4. Select the domain you wish to use as a WordPress site, and then install it:

 

5. Create your WordPress login information: 

 

6. Yay! You’ve installed WordPress! 

 

Step 8: Create a new theme using Genesis

If you do decide to go with a professional theme, here’s a step-by-step guide to setting up the Genesis Framework and a child theme on your site:

1. Go to StudioPress.com and click “Shop for Themes.”

 

2. Find a child theme you like, scroll over it, and click on “See Details and Pricing.” 

 

3. Click on “Buy Theme + Framework.”

 

4. On the next screen, you’ll create your account and payment details. Once you’ve completed your registration and payment, click on “My StudioPress” and then “Downloads.” 

 

5. Scroll down to the themes you have purchased and click the blue download button for both the Genesis Framework and your new child theme. 

 

6. Once the download is complete, save the .zip files where you know you can find them. Next, log in to your WordPress dashboard and click “Appearance” and then “Themes.” 

 

7. Click “Add New.” 

 

8. Click “Upload Theme.”

 

9. Click “Choose File,” choose the .zip files you saved earlier, and click “Install Now.” You’ll need to download the Genesis Framework file first, then the child theme file. 

 

10. Once you have both the Genesis Framework and your child theme files uploaded, click again on “Appearance” and “Themes.”

11. Find the child theme you want, click “Activate,” and your child theme is now live. Click on “Customize” to begin customizing the look and feel of your website.

You’ll need to play around with your child theme’s settings in order to get it to look the way you want. It may take a little time to get it just right, but in the meantime, you’ll have a fully functioning website.

Now that you’ve created a platform to share your passion and your stories, it’s time to get busy creating. While starting a blog from scratch can seem overwhelming, the important thing to remember is that you have to start somewhere.

Sure, it may be frustrating when your website has just a few articles, but everything worth doing takes time. And if you pour your heart and soul into it, you can quickly build a portfolio of posts and stories you can be proud of.

Turning Your Blog Into a Business

After all of this work, most people hope to get something in return. This begs the question, “Can you really make money blogging?”

Most blogs make money in one of three ways: displaying advertisements, linking to other affiliated sites, or selling a product. The first two are the relevant ones here, so we’ll focus on those.

Display Ads and Google Adsense

Display advertisements are those banner ads and box ads that you see on many sites, including The Simple Dollar. Generally, these ads pay you a fraction of a penny each time they’re displayed. You usually earn a “CPM” rate from these ads – this refers to how much you make for every thousand views of an ad. In other words, you’ll earn that much each time 1,000 pages are viewed on your blog.

There are a number of different ad networks with different rates, but many are closed networks, meaning you have to be invited in. The biggest ad network, however, is basically open to everyone. It’s called Google Adsense. Adsense pays a relatively low rate for their ads, but it’s generally the best option for beginners.

Affiliate Links and Amazon

Another way to earn money is through affiliate links. For example, let’s say you’re talking about a book and you decide to link to that book on Amazon.com. Amazon has a program – called Amazon Associates – where those links can earn you a little bit of money.

In Amazon’s case, it works by giving you a tool to generate a customized link to that book on Amazon that includes a special code. When a reader clicks that link, they get the ordinary Amazon page, but then you earn a small reward if they decide to buy anything during their visit, usually a percentage of their total purchase.

So, let’s say you have an affiliate link on your site to buy a book and someone follows that link. If they buy a $10 book and you’re earning a 4% commission, you’ll earn $0.40. But if they also toss a $50 video game into their cart and buy that, too, you’re now earning $2.40. With enough Web traffic, you can see how it ads up.

There are many different affiliate programs online. Depending on what you’re writing about, you can dig around and find ones relevant to you. However, since Amazon sells just about everything, their program is relevant to just about anyone.

What Can You Really Earn?

How much you can earn depends on many, many factors, but the biggest factor is the number of readers you attract. The more readers, the more you’re going to earn.

When you first start, you should be able to earn $2 or $3 per thousand page views on your site. However, with limited content, it’s hard to get that many page views. You might only generate that many in the first month or two of your site’s existence, meaning your first weeks of slaving away over posts might not even cover the cost of your domain name.

Later on, once you have lots of articles, you may be generating a few thousand page views a day. Plus, your CPM rate — your earnings per thousand views — might be raised as your site grows more successful. When your site starts earning $10 or more each day, day in and day out, it feels pretty darn good. It just takes a while to get there.

However, sometimes, your site will just click and you’ll do far better than that. The thing is, it’s incredibly hard to predict whether that will happen. Just keep writing the best stuff you can and sharing it on social media to reach new audiences.

Surviving the ‘Valley of Death’ and Finding Long-Term Success with Your Blog Business

As with every endeavor, the first few weeks are really exciting. You’re posting articles and people are actually reading them!

After that, it becomes quite hard. I call this period the “valley of death” because many people abandon their blogs in this time frame.

What happens is that your site’s readership isn’t growing very fast, but the “newness” of writing has worn off. You begin to feel frustrated because you didn’t gain any readers over the last week or even lost a few. It’s not the runaway hit you dreamed about.

The Long Tail

The truth is that success for most blogs actually comes from the “long tail.” In other words, they don’t necessarily build a huge active readership for a very long time. Instead, they build up lots and lots of visitors from Google or other search engines because of their extensive archives of articles.

When you reach this point, there are a lot of search terms that match your site in Google, so you get a healthy number of visitors coming in from the search engine all the time. You also have a lot of other articles for those visitors to look at, so they might stick around for a while (especially if your articles link to each other). This generates more ad views and also provides more opportunity for visitors to click on those affiliate links.

Most people never have the patience to reach this point, however. They give up because they don’t earn much from their first 10 or 30 articles. Unless you’re very lucky, those first articles won’t earn you much — until months or years later, when they start to bring in search traffic.

It builds, but it builds slowly. You’ll need patience.

Don’t Sweat the Stats

It’s easy to get obsessed with your site’s statistics. For a long time, I looked at them on an hourly basis. Now? I basically don’t even look at them.

Why? They don’t really matter. The stats don’t really help you make your site better. What makes your site better is writing good stuff that people want to read.

Handling Negativity

As your site becomes popular, your posts will start attracting comments. Some of them are going to be negative.

The problem with negative comments is that most of the time comments are anonymous. You have no idea whether the person is actually expressing a real concern or they’re just trying to evoke a response from you. There are a lot of people online who get a strange joy out of provoking bloggers in their comment section by posting negative or absurd things.

You cannot let this bother you or it will eat you alive. If someone posts a negative comment, the best suggestion is to completely ignore it. Responding is almost always a mistake.

Yes, sometimes negative comments do point out a genuine problem with something you’re writing about, but when there’s a genuine problem, a genuine commenter can find a polite way of discussing it without personally attacking you or other commenters and without using negative language. When people do those things, they’re just looking for a response. Don’t let those truly negative people bother you, because their negativity usually has nothing at all to do with you. It’s their own problems boiling to the surface.

If you find that it’s too problematic or upsetting, don’t hesitate to turn off the comment section on your site. You can carry on discussions in other places, such as Twitter or via email.

Final Thoughts

Success from blogging comes down to consistency above all else. At first, the time invested will not seem worth it in terms of earnings, so it makes sense to choose a topic you enjoy writing about.

However, if you stick with it and survive the “valley of death,” blogging can earn you a nice little side income that will continue to grow for as long as you choose to write.

Starting a Blog: Frequently Asked Questions

How much does it cost to start a blog?

Starting a website is fairly inexpensive if you don’t pay for all the bells and whistles at first. Most of the time, all you’ll need to start your hobby is a domain ($2.99 – $12.99) and monthly hosting ($3.95 per month and up).

If you want a professional theme, you’ll usually need to fork over around $100. As you get the ball rolling, you’ll find the biggest investment you need to make is with your time, not money.

What ongoing costs will I need to pay?

When you buy your domain, you’ll have the option of purchasing it for one year or several. No matter what you choose to do, you’ll need to renew your domain every few years at minimum. This isn’t a huge consideration since domains generally cost less than $20, but it’s definitely worth keeping in mind. Other than that, you’ll just need to pay your monthly hosting fee to BlueHost or whichever host you choose.

How much time investment is involved?

Blogging is just like any other hobby; you can spend as little or as much time on it as you want. To build a blog as a business, however, you should expect to spend several hours per week at minimum.

If you get really involved, you could wind up spending considerably more time than that. It all depends on your personal desires and abilities.

Who should create a blog? Who shouldn’t?

Starting a blog is a good idea for anyone who needs a creative outlet, wants to keep track of their personal or family journey online, or hopes to build a website that will grow into a business.

Likewise, a blog might be a bad idea for someone who has little time to spend on a side hustle, not to mention anyone who dislikes writing or is uncomfortable with technology.

The post How to Start a Blog: A Tutorial appeared first on The Simple Dollar.

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Clipped: Learn to Negotiate Like J. Law, Handle Taxes as a Freelancer and Give Awesome Frugal Gifts

Each Friday, we share some of our favorite posts that will help you make money — whether you work at home, want to get ahead in business or just want to make some extra dough on the side.

Love these posts? Let the authors know! Click here to tweet about it.

Here’s what we clipped this week:

1. Tax Filing Tips for U.S., U.K. and Canadian Freelance Bloggers

Mandy Gardner at Be a Freelance Blogger

The holidays will fly by, and tax season will be here before you know it.

As your year comes to a close, pay attention to these tax tips for freelancers from Mandy Gardner of The Freelancer Society. Read more…

2. Negotiate More Money With These Simple Tricks

Stever Robbins at Quick and Dirty Tips

Whether you need to ask your boss for a raise or set reasonable rates with contract clients, these negotiating tips from QDT’s “Get It Done Guy” can help you think creatively about how to do it.

He invokes Jennifer Lawrence, so you know this is “outside the box” advice! Read more…

3. On Starting Online Businesses: 3 Case Studies

Corbett Barr, Chase Reeves and Barrett Brooks at Smart Passive Income

The team behind Fizzle.co reached into their community of new entrepreneurs to share stories and tips about starting and running online businesses. Read more…

4. New Business Checklist: Tips to Launch a New Year Freelance Biz

Carrie Smith at Careful Cents

Is freelancing on your New Year to-do list?

Solopreneur Carrie Smith shares seven tips to think about now and ensure a successful launch in January. Read more…

5. Holiday Gifts For Frugal Weirdos To Give And Receive

Mrs. Frugalwoods at Frugalwoods

This one isn’t strictly about making money, but the topic is too tempting to ignore this time of year!

Blogger “Mrs. Frugalwoods” shares what her family gives friends and family members as gifts for the holidays. She also explains how to be a frugal gift-giver without looking cheap or going all-DIY. Read more…

Enjoy your weekend, Penny Hoarders!

Your Turn: Did you read any great posts on how to make money this week? Share them in the comments!

Dana Sitar (@danasitar) is a staff writer at The Penny Hoarder. She’s written for Huffington Post, Entrepreneur.com, Writer’s Digest and more.

The post Clipped: Learn to Negotiate Like J. Law, Handle Taxes as a Freelancer and Give Awesome Frugal Gifts appeared first on The Penny Hoarder.

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Holiday Prospects for 4 Big-Box Retail Stocks

Are Wal-Mart, Best Buy, Target and Macy's good buys for investors looking for some extra holiday cheer?

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The 15 Best Tools for Creating Content as a Team

Creating great content, week after week, has a set of challenges.

It’s one thing to understand how to create high quality content, but it’s an entirely different thing to actually do it.

What you’ll quickly find is that if you want to adopt an aggressive content marketing strategy, you’ll need a team to create that content.

And anytime when you have a team working together, things can easily slide into chaos if you’re not careful.

There are basically two ways you can keep a content team working smoothly:

1. Good planning
2. Using useful tools

Both are important. Even with the best tools in the world, you won’t get anywhere if you don’t plan well.

But I’m going to assume that you have at least a decent grasp of how to manage your team and content strategy.

Instead, I want to focus on the second main point – tools.

I’m going to share with you 15 tools that can help you create better content as a team, while minimizing the chance of mistakes.

You definitely won’t need all of them, but you’ll probably want to use at least one from each of the four main classes of tools. 

An organized project is an executed one (Project Management)

You need to keep things straight.

When you are planning content for months ahead, you’ll have writers working on it and turning it in at all sorts of times.

On top of that, you’ll have to communicate to edit content and, possibly, your promotional plan as well.

Needless to say, this can get messy fast.

You can lose track of certain pieces of content, emails, files, etc.

Luckily, there are tools that will help you plan your strategy and also keep track of your progress.

1. Trello: When it comes to any conversation on project management, Trello is always one of the first tools mentioned.

It’s very versatile.

It’s a great tool to increase productivity that can be used for both personal and team projects.

The concept is extremely simple.

First, you create a “board” in Trello:

Basically, you want to have a board for each project you have on the go.

You can have as many as you need—there are no limits.

On each board, you can add lists for each main category of tasks.

Finally, you can add cards (to represent tasks) to each of the lists:

The visual overview of all your tasks is really handy.

In addition, the tool has a few really neat features:

• drag and drop your task cards from list to list
• set due dates for each individual card
• comment on or attach files to each card

Additionally, you can also add members to each board.

These members can interact with your cards and lists and even add their own.

This makes Trello an incredibly useful collaboration tool.

To add someone to a board, just click on “add members” from the menu once you’re inside the board you want.

Once you’ve added a member to a particular board, you can then click on any of your cards and add a member to it.

They will get a notification in Trello and possibly an email (depending on their settings).

An alternative to Trello is Kanbanchi.

It works in a very similar way, but it’s perhaps a bit simpler and can also be color coded.

Just like in Trello, you can assign particular tasks to a specific person on your team. They will get a notification that they are expected to complete the task.

There’s nothing wrong with either, pick one that you like the feel of.

2. Streak CRM for Gmail: This tool is a CRM (customer relationship management) plugin for Gmail.

Obviously, CRM tools are different from content creation tools.

However, I feel that there are a few useful features of the tool that will help you create better content.

First of all, this is what it looks like:

Streak is a simple, yet useful, panel in Gmail itself. You navigate it using the left side menu—the same one you use to navigate through your different email boxes.

The two main areas of the tool are sales and support dashboards.

It’s set up so that you can assign members of your team to specific contacts that you’ve entered in either of the main areas:

There are two main areas where the tool could help you with content creation and promotion.

First, you can highlight any support questions that would make good content ideas. You could even assign someone to the task using the tool.

Secondly, you can use the tool to see where prospects are in your sales funnel.

When they reach different parts of the funnel, you should send them content that will improve your conversion rate. Content such as case studies usually works best.

3. Basecamp: Trello is a great project management tool for small to medium projects, but it doesn’t quite work when you have many projects, people, and parts of the business that need attention.

Basecamp is one of the leading all-in-one solutions.

First, you can add all members of your team to a project. That way, they can see every message and file and can interact in comments or the calendar:

The calendar list is pretty much what you’d expect, and it’s very useful:

Even though Trello also has due dates for tasks, it’s often hard to display them all at once.

On large projects, you’ll have too many notifications to keep up with. With Basecamp, you have the option of viewing the calendar, which gives you a bird’s-eye view of all the tasks in a project.

I won’t go into every single feature of Basecamp, but it has an impressive set of features.

You can have discussions, create to-do lists, and upload files as well.

There’s a bit of a learning curve initially, but after that, it’ll become a very simple, yet effective tool for you to use.

There’s no reason why you can’t use it to manage your content creation.

4. MindMeister: When you’re trying to figure out your content plan, it’s often helpful to visualize how all of the pieces fit together.

A great way to do that is with a mind map.

This tool is one of many mind map tools but very simple to use.

You can click on any node and then press the “tab” button to create a child node.

Notice the little minus signs at each child node. You can click these to hide or expand each section.

This is a great tool to use whether you’re planning out your overall content strategy or a really complex piece of content.

For example, if you created something like an advanced guide to SEO, you could create a node for each of the main sections and then create branches for each of the subheadings in those sections.

5. A web whiteboard: I’m sure you’ve had some sort of meeting before in your life. Although meetings are usually a waste of time, the one really useful tool they typically utilize is the whiteboard.

It allows you to collaborate with other people and easily combine images and text to get across complex points quickly.

Online collaboration, which is more and more common these days, means you can’t use a whiteboard any more.

Or does it?

This tool is an online whiteboard.

You can do the same things here as you can on a normal whiteboard.

In fact, you can do even more because you can paste images on the board as well as write on it.

You can add however many people to the board you need, and they can edit it as they see fit.

I think this could be a useful tool if you’re already on a call with other members of your team.

If you ever want to see examples of useful whiteboards, just check out any of Moz’s whiteboard Fridays.

Say goodbye to endless copies of files (Content Creation)

Every business’ content creation process looks different.

It depends on your team and the way you like to work.

At some point, however, you will have at least a few people working on each piece of content.

You’ll have one or more authors as well as one or more editors to help fine-tune each piece of content.

If you still attach a new file every time you make a change to the content, I feel for you.

Doing that is confusing enough for a single article, but doing that for several on the go is near impossible.

You’ll waste a ton of time looking for particular files and end up making mistakes anyways.

Thankfully, it’s 2015, and there are many better alternatives. Here are some of the ones I’ve found most useful.

6. Google Docs: Many content creators are hesitant to give Google Docs a try because they used it a few times years ago and weren’t impressed.

But it’s come a long way since then.

While Microsoft Word might be better in a few ways, Google Docs holds its own.

It has all the essential formatting options you’re used to, but there’s one huge benefit…

Multiple people can view a document at one time.

They can make edits, they can comment, and you can even chat with them inside the window.

When you create a document, you have a few different ways to share it. You can see these by clicking the “Share” button on the top right.

Your first option is to simply invite people to the document using their email addresses. Using the drop-down menu, you can choose what permissions they get (read or edit):

Or you can get a link to share. Again, you can set the permissions so that anyone you send the link to can either only read or edit as well.

The only difference between the two is that if you share the file using the first method, those people can go into their Google Docs accounts and find the file again. Anyone with just the link will need to remember the link if they want to return to the file in the future.

The final thing I want to mention about Google Docs is that it isn’t just limited to writing.

You can share Google spreadsheets or slideshows in the same way.

7. Red Pen: This tool is specifically designed to help you edit as a team.

It’s primarily a tool for visual content, but there’s no reason why you couldn’t take a screenshot of written content if you wanted to edit that.

It works by you uploading an image to the tool.

Then, you can make editing notes on it by clicking somewhere on the image and typing your comment.

The comments can be expanded or hidden by clicking them.

The most important feature, assuming that you’re working as a team, is that you can add multiple people to the project.

Their names will be attached to any comments made on the image.

8. GoVisually: If you’re looking for a slightly more advanced editing tool for visual content, this may be the best option for you.

Again, you upload images into project folders within the tool. You can also add whomever you like to a project by sending them an email invite from the right sidebar of the tool:

There are a few neat features you’ll find useful when it comes to collaborating on editing an image.

First, you can make comments on any part of the image. However, you start a comment thread when you do.

This means that other people in the group can reply to that comment until the issue is sorted out.

Instead of having a ton of unorganized comments, you have them all organized by the original comment.

As you can see from the screenshot, you have a ton of annotation options. You can add shapes and use different colors.

Finally, there’s a useful Revisions feature of the tool. You can continue on the same project and create a new revision for it that is linked to the previous ones.

You can navigate between them using the revisions tab on the right sidebar. This avoids the problem of having too many comments on a single revision and having to keep track of what was done at what time.

9. SamePage: This tool is ideal when you have content that has a high degree of complexity.

And by that I mean that extensive research needs to be done and many people need to come together to create it.

SamePage, as the name gives away, allows you to keep all your project information on a single page:

It has several project management features, like being able to create a visual project timeline.

You can upload files and access them using the left sidebar.

You can invite as many people to the group as you like. And anyone can comment on any page in the project.

This could be used as a tool to keep your overall content strategy on track. But it can also be used to create a new project for each piece of complex content.

If you know a piece of content is going to take months to assemble, you can create a timeline for all the different parts:

• data collection
• data analysis
• other research
• critiquing research
• content creation
• editing
• publishing

That’s overkill for many posts, but if you’re creating something like an advanced guide, it could be really useful for staying on track.

How to ensure you’re always on the same page (Communication)

One of the most challenging aspects of working in any team environment is communication.

Good, open lines of communication allow you to produce better content (or results in general) and avoid last minute emergencies.

You don’t want to find out the day before a post goes live that the writer has had a problem. Especially if it’s an issue that you could have fixed as soon as you heard about it.

I bet you understand that communication is important.

However, it’s possible that you’re not using the best tools for the job.

I know that many marketers, writers, and business owners only use email to communicate.

That can work well if you have a small team. But if you’re collaborating on content with multiple team members, email gets messy quickly.

You’ll lose track of past messages, occasionally forget to include someone in an email chain, and then have a huge pile of emails sitting in your inbox that you can’t get rid of.

It’s not ideal.

Hopefully, one or more of the tools in this section will meet your needs.

10. Slack: This tool was launched by the co-founder of the massive photo-sharing site Flickr.

To say that it’s exploded in its growth is an understatement.

If you haven’t heard of it until now, you’ll start hearing about it increasingly more in the future.

It’s a tool designed to improve group communication and collaboration.

Just like most other messaging tools, it works both in a browser and as an app on any mobile device.

When you create a group, you can create different hashtags (e.g., #research for a chat about content research) to represent different conversations.

It has a beautiful layout, and members will get notifications beside each conversation when new messages appear.

You can also attach and comment on files.

Once you’ve set up a project, you can create a channel, then right-click it and invite people to join:

These are private chats, so no one will be able to see them unless you give them permission.

This kind of a chat tool is best when you need to consistently be in contact with your team multiple times a week.

It’s especially useful if you need to have group conversations where everyone needs to be able to contribute.

11. Skype: No, Skype is not exactly new or unpopular, but it’s always a good option that should be considered.

Slack is a tool best used by groups that need to communicate with each other.

But what about situations where you’re working with a bunch of employees or freelancers on a one-on-one basis?

That’s when a tool like Skype is a great option.

You can add as many contacts as you need, and the best part is that most people already have Skype accounts and know how it works.

On top of that, you can also create group chats when needed; I just find them not to be quite as organized and user-friendly as a tool like Slack makes them.

The big feature of Skype is that you can quickly jump on a call (or video call) with any of your contacts.

Some topics are too complex to talk about efficiently in an email. It’s often easier to jump on a call for 5 minutes and sort things out instead of spending hours sending emails back and forth.

12. Google Hangouts: An alternative to Skype is Google Hangouts. It has the added benefit of working in a web browser.

In many ways, it’s similar to Skype, but there are a few important differences, which may make it better for your content creation team.

First, the group video calls are better. The connection is usually solid, and you can click on anyone’s screen in the video (along the bottom) to make it bigger.

In addition, it’s also very easy to get people on Google Hangouts even if they haven’t used it before.

Why? Because you can use people’s Gmail addresses to invite them, and most people will have those.

Just like with Skype, you always have the option to chat, whether in the browser or the mobile app:

Overall, it’s developed into a really good communication tool, so if you’re a fan of Google products, give it a try.

If there’s one specific situation where it excels, it’s running the group video chats. This is a perfect replacement to in-person meetings if you’d still like to hold them.

Never lose track of a file again (Sharing files and information tools)

The one final problem you might encounter when running team projects is file management.

Part of any good content creation process is improving the first draft.

No matter how good of a writer you are, the first draft will require further improvement.

So, you bring on an editor to help you out.

But as your team grows and you produce more and more content, it’ll be hard to keep things straight.

You end up with several revisions of files that are scattered all over the place.

The solution is to have one central storage location for content files that anyone on your team can access.

These tools can help you do that.

13. Dropbox: This tool was really the first to capitalize on the shift to cloud storage.

While everyone else was focused on storing backups on external hard drives (and even CDs), the team at Dropbox created a tool that allowed you to back up your files and access them anywhere.

And if you don’t have many, it’s free. If you do, it only costs a few dollars a month.

You can configure your Dropbox account to automatically sync with your PC.

So, when you change a file in any way, you just have to give it a second to sync with your web account. Then, anyone on your team with access to the file will see the updated version.

With this feature, you’ll no longer have “Content_v_5.6” and so on floating around and confusing everyone.

Which brings us to the second main feature: sharing.

You can either share individual files or whole folders.

The advantage of sharing a folder with your content creation team is that you only have to do it once, and then they have access to anything you put in that folder.

You can give them access either from your online Dropbox account or from your local computer.

Just right-click the folder, and choose “Share this folder”:

If you’d rather do it online, navigate to the folder in your dashboard (or click the blue “New shared folder” button:

Finally, you can click on any individual file as well, click “get link,” and get a link that you can share with anyone you wish.

The only thing you really have to be careful about is editing a file at the same time. This will result in duplicate copies of the file.

It’s pretty easy to avoid though as the file will show a label telling you that it’s being used.

14. Google Drive: After the success of Dropbox, many companies launched their own cloud storage businesses.

Google Drive has become one of the industry leaders.

Since it’s a Google product, it has one advantage no one else can offer. It works automatically with your Google account, and you can share files with people based on their Google accounts.

You share files just like in Dropbox.

Simply click the drop-down menu next to a folder on Google Drive, and click “Share”:

In case you were wondering, you can also configure Google Drive to work on your local computer. You can set up a folder that looks like any other folder on your computer that automatically syncs with the files in your online account.

One final part of Google Drive that I should mention is that it integrates perfectly with Google Docs.

If you use Google Docs, this is the obvious file sharing and storage tool for you.

Google Docs will automatically save your files in your main Google Drive folder. You can drag them to a shared folder after if you want.

15. SharePoint: There’s one final main option that works well when you need to edit a lot of files as a team.

SharePoint is a Microsoft product and looks like it, which makes it easy for most people to get used to it quickly.

Like with the other options, you can upload any files you’d like here and organize them by folders:

You can set SharePoint to lock a file while it’s being edited, which eliminates any duplication issues you might get with Dropbox.

In addition, there are sharing settings just like with the other options.

And while Hotmail may not be as popular as Gmail, many people still have an account that you can invite them with.

To share a folder or file, you click the file, click the “Share” button in the top right, and then enter your recipients’ names or email addresses in the box.

You can give them different access rights (e.g., just reading or editing too).

Finally, you also have the option of sharing a file through a link:

Overall, it’s a very similar option to either Dropbox or Google Drive.

Other than the particular case I went over with Google Drive, all these options are top quality and will work for most teams.

Go with whichever you like the most, but don’t stress over choosing one. They all have similar feature sets and are fully developed at this point.

Conclusion

You can create all your own content if you make it your top priority.

However, not everyone wants to do that.

So, when you get to the point of creating a ton of content, you’ll probably need help.

But if you use the same process you were using before, you’ll run into problems.

You need to have the right tools to effectively manage a content creation team. Otherwise, you’ll end up wasting time and money and be stressed all the time.

I’ve shown you 15 different tools that can help improve your collaboration process.

No one needs to use them all. However, you’ll probably want to choose at least one from each of the four categories.

At the same time, I know there are many other great collaboration tools out there. If you really like one that I didn’t mention, please share it below in a comment along with a brief description.

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