MAKE MONEY ONLINE POSTS: 12/14/15

الاثنين، 14 ديسمبر 2015

Proof petrol stations fleece us

THAT sneaking suspicion that petrol stations are gouging us is true, in a damning report from the consumer watchdog.

Source NEWS.com.au | Business http://ift.tt/223CPF8

Mother names her baby boy ‘Uber’

MEET baby Uber, the first known child to be named after the ride-sharing app after a dramatic birth en route to the hospital.

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

6 Steps to Wow the Big Boss at Your Company Holiday Party

Overcome your fear and introduce yourself to the corporate bigwigs at this year's holiday party.

Source U.S. News - Money http://ift.tt/1Qib0Ff

5 Signs Your Boss or Co-Worker Is an Office Bully

Constantly teasing employees about traits they can't change can be a form of workplace bullying.

Source U.S. News - Money http://ift.tt/1m1iwXP

Yieldcos Offer a Bright Spot for Solar Investors in 2016

An institutional investor-led slump could be a bargain opportunity for retail investors.

Source U.S. News - Money http://ift.tt/1m1iwXI

Who Invests Better: Men or Women?

These trends show that women and men's investing habits are getting closer.

Source U.S. News - Money http://ift.tt/1QoCIjk

3 Business Gift-Giving Ideas for the Holidays

Sponsoring an event or class can be a great gift for a larger group of clients and their employees.

Source U.S. News - Money http://ift.tt/1Qib0oO

Last-Minute Holiday Shopping Tips

With some careful planning, you can stay on budget.

Source U.S. News - Money http://ift.tt/1QoCJUl

It's the 'Good Season' for the Stock Market

Statistically, this six-month period offers the best returns for the stock market.

Source U.S. News - Money http://ift.tt/1QoCI2Y

Why Buying Airline Miles Is Almost Never Worth It

Rewards programs should save you money. They shouldn't compel you to spend more.

Source U.S. News - Money http://ift.tt/1m1itLv

7 Ways to Ruin Employee Morale During the Holidays

Assuming that everyone celebrates a certain holiday can make workers feel uncomfortable and isolated.

Source U.S. News - Money http://ift.tt/1UoBbJ5

5 Big Money Mistakes Freelancers Make

Protecting your profits costs a lot. Not protecting them could cost you plenty, too.

Source U.S. News - Money http://ift.tt/1J3irYV

LG slammed for misleading customers

HAVE you bought a TV from LG? Then there’s a good chance you’ve been lied to, according to the competition watchdog.

Source NEWS.com.au | Business http://ift.tt/1m2Nv5Y

‘Why I walked out on Candyman’

SHE was the first “Goddess” crowned by the Candyman at his mansion, but Parnia Porsche has left it all behind.

Source NEWS.com.au | Business http://ift.tt/1Z8PSmb

This Expert Couponer Got $1,800 Worth of Stuff for Free — and Then She Did Something Awesome

If you’re a well-seasoned Penny Hoarder, you may consider yourself a couponing expert.

But this woman from the U.K. took it to an entirely different level.

Holly Smith set out to beat the U.K. couponing record set by a young man in 2013, who purchased £600 worth of groceries for just 4 pence.

She didn’t just break the record, but smashed it.

Smith nearly doubled the haul, purchasing almost £1,200 (about $1,800) worth of goods from her local Tesco store without paying for anything in cash.

That’s right: This extreme couponer got a crazy amount of groceries and toys using only coupons.

Extremely Charitable

So what’s she going to do with such a massive stash?

Now that she’s secured the record for the largest U.K. coupon shop ever, Smith will donate the goods to The Benjamin Foundation — an organization that supports young homeless who occupy subsidized accommodations around Norfolk.

Want to Try Your Hand?

Smith and others like her make couponing into a serious sport not for the faint of heart.

It took her more than five hours to complete her carefully designed shopping spree, and she had to collect hundreds of coupons to make it work.

But if you want to try to set your own record — or just score some free stuff to give away this holiday season — you’re in the right spot.

Check out our list of ways to give back without spending a dime. And, of course, we Penny Hoarders have some pretty sweet couponing tips, too.

Your Turn: Have you ever done an extreme coupon shop? Do you want to try? Tell us about it in the comments!

Jamie Cattanach 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. You can wave hi to @jamiecattanach on Twitter.

The post This Expert Couponer Got $1,800 Worth of Stuff for Free — and Then She Did Something Awesome appeared first on The Penny Hoarder.

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Silvio Calabi: Turning pages, not wheels, with holiday car books

Yes, it’s hard to stuff a coffee-table book into a Christmas stocking, but for the right recipients these three are worth wrapping up and laying out under the tree with the big presents. They are beautifully produced and written, illustrated and edited well, and not only attractive but also informative, even authoritative on their subjects.Ford GT: How Ford Silenced the Critics, Humbled Ferrari and Conquered Le Mans (Preston Lerner & Dave Friedman; 224 pages, [...]

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Why Books Might Be the Best Christmas Gift You Could Give Your Future Penny Hoarders

Ebooks are awesome for a whole host of reasons.

We have more access to a wider variety of content today than ever before — and we can carry it all with us in a small machine that weighs less than a pound.

After double majoring in two reading-intensive subjects (English and philosophy) with the residual back pain to prove it, I can definitely jump on board to say: Thanks, technology.

But it turns out paper books still have a lot to offer — and in some ways, simply can’t be matched by their electronic counterparts. Here’s why you should buy books for someone this year.

Ebooks or Paper Books?

Do you remember the bookshelf-lined study in your childhood home? Remember what a whole library of books smells like — paper, leather and age?

It’s a special kind of seduction, being faced with so many stories just waiting to be picked up, flipped open and read.

Many more stories are available to kids today, but they might not hold as much mystique sitting on their pixelated shelves, even accessible at the touch of a finger.

What’s worse? A lack of paper books might spell failure in your child’s career.

Why Paper Matters for Penny Hoarders

In his eloquent and thought-provoking essay, novelist Teddy Wayne examines the repercussions of our disappearing collections of non-digital content.

Wayne points to a scientific study that found the second-most important predictor of reading success was the quantity of books in one’s home.

As we all know, good reading skills are essential for high performance in the classroom — and grade point average has been shown to have a direct correlation with earnings later in life.

What’s more, reading paper books has been shown to improve comprehension and retention of material — even more reason to go the old fashioned route.

Looking for Some Books to Buy This Christmas?

Newsflash: You can still buy paper books through digital venues!

Amazon usually has great prices, but don’t be afraid to hit your local bookstore and feel the seduction you might be missing in your contemporary home.

And if you want to give a kid the gift of curiosity, excitement and yes, long-term earning potential, check out these educational kids’ books.

They might be great options to set under the tree this year.

Your Turn: Do you read paper books or ebooks? Will you give the gift of paper this holiday season?

Jamie Cattanach is a junior writer at The Penny Hoarder and a native Floridian. She’s tried to make the e-reader jump many times, but her need to highlight, write in and otherwise destroy the books she reads always wins out. You can wave hi to @jamiecattanach on Twitter.

The post Why Books Might Be the Best Christmas Gift You Could Give Your Future Penny Hoarders appeared first on The Penny Hoarder.

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Cars We Remember: Texting while driving is a national nightmare that’s getting worse

Last week, we detailed the sad story of “The Saga of Young Joe,” a vibrant 21-year-old who lost his life in an alcohol related single car accident. This week, we follow up with how Joe also became a statistic in the National Highway Safety Administration (NHTSA) group of fatalities and crashes directly related to cell phone and texting use while behind the wheel of a moving vehicle. If you recall the “Saga of Young Joe,” in addition to having one [...]

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10 Retirement Resolutions for 2016

Take these steps to improve your retirement readiness next year.

Source U.S. News - Money http://ift.tt/1UpB0Ny

6 Steps to Wow the Big Boss at Your Company Holiday Party

Overcome your fear and introduce yourself to the corporate bigwigs at this year's holiday party.

Source U.S. News - Money http://ift.tt/1Qib0Ff

Yieldcos Offer a Bright Spot for Solar Investors in 2016

An institutional investor-led slump could be a bargain opportunity for retail investors.

Source U.S. News - Money http://ift.tt/1m1iwXI

Who Invests Better: Men or Women?

These trends show that women and men's investing habits are getting closer.

Source U.S. News - Money http://ift.tt/1QoCIjk

3 Business Gift-Giving Ideas for the Holidays

Sponsoring an event or class can be a great gift for a larger group of clients and their employees.

Source U.S. News - Money http://ift.tt/1Qib0oO

Last-Minute Holiday Shopping Tips

With some careful planning, you can stay on budget.

Source U.S. News - Money http://ift.tt/1QoCJUl

It's the 'Good Season' for the Stock Market

Statistically, this six-month period offers the best returns for the stock market.

Source U.S. News - Money http://ift.tt/1QoCI2Y

Why Buying Airline Miles Is Almost Never Worth It

Rewards programs should save you money. They shouldn't compel you to spend more.

Source U.S. News - Money http://ift.tt/1m1itLv

7 Ways to Ruin Employee Morale During the Holidays

Assuming that everyone celebrates a certain holiday can make workers feel uncomfortable and isolated.

Source U.S. News - Money http://ift.tt/1UoBbJ5

5 Big Money Mistakes Freelancers Make

Protecting your profits costs a lot. Not protecting them could cost you plenty, too.

Source U.S. News - Money http://ift.tt/1J3irYV

See Star Wars in Theaters, You Must: 22 Ways to Spend Less at the Movies

My wife and I signed up for Amazon Prime, which includes Amazon Instant Video. We canceled after watching dozens of movies during our free month.

We also did a free trial of Netflix, and now pay $7.99 per month for the streaming service. We love watching movies at home — and it’s cheap.

But some movies really should be seen on the big screen, right? Especially that one outer space movie coming out Dec. 18. What’s it called again?

Oh, yeah: Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens.

And maybe you don’t always want to wait for it to come to Netflix or Amazon. It’s also nice to get out of the house.

The problem is, movies are expensive!

In one poll, most respondents said they don’t go to the movies more often because of high ticket prices. Then there’s the popcorn, candy and $4.75 water bottles! Really, I recently saw that at a local theater. And if you have hungry kids, two-hours at the cinema could break your budget.

Fortunately, help has arrived. Check out 22 ways to spend less at the movies.

1. Go to Matinees

Going to a matinee can knock up to 30% off the ticket price, but watch those definitions.

Shows before 4 p.m. used to be called matinees at most theaters, but some now charge the evening price for anything that starts after 3 p.m.

2. Go to Pre-Matinees

Some theaters offer an even better deal for really early movies — “pre-matinees.”

For example, Cinemark’s Early Bird discount applies to movies starting before noon.

3. Go on Discount Days

Our local Frank Theatre offers $6 Movie Tuesdays.

This is also the only theater where we’ll eat popcorn, it’s $2.50 for a medium on Tuesdays.

Regal Entertainment theaters have Regal Value Days, and most Cinemark Theaters also have discount days.

4. Eat Before You Go

We often go out to a healthy lunch at a sit-down restaurant before a matinee.

Done right, it can cost less than buying movie theater snacks. See my post on how to eat out for less.

Save even more money by eating at home before you go.

5. Share the Snacks

Theaters don’t want you to bring your own food.

But I haven’t seen them stop parents who bring their own paper bags to divvy up a large bucket of popcorn between the kids.

It’s much cheaper than buying a small bag of popcorn for each person. Share other snacks to save money.

6. Get Special Discounts

You might qualify for several special discounts — and you could save up to 35%. Here are some examples:

7. Buy Discount Movie Gift Cards

There are a number of places where you can buy discounted theater gift cards online. For example, you can buy AMC Theater gift cards on Raise for a discount of up to 25%.

Use them for matinees, and your total cost might be less than half of what an evening ticket costs.

8. Go to Discount Theaters

These are also called late-run movie theaters. You’ll see the same movie, so why not wait a couple months and catch it for less?

At Silver Cinemas in Phoenix, Arizona, movies are $3 every day, and just $1.50 on Tuesdays. Just search “discount theater” plus the name of your city to locate cheap movies.

9. Join the Club

Most theaters have a club or loyalty program you can join to save money. Here are some examples:

Regal Crown Club: Free to join, and rewards include free popcorn and drinks, and a free movie for each $150 you spend
AMC Stubs: A $12 annual fee, and you’ll get free concession “upgrades” and a $10 credit for every $100 spent
Frank Theatres Loyalty Program: Free to join, and you’ll get points for movie and concession purchases you can redeem for free movies or snacks

They call these loyalty programs, but there’s no need to be loyal.

10. Go to a Drive-In Theater

Check Drive-Ins.com or DriveInTheater.com to see if one of the few remaining drive-in theaters are near you.

Call or check online to see if they have discount days or a price-per-car night when you can bring the whole family or split the cost with friends.

11. Use a Rewards Credit Card

Most Discover Cards offers 5% cashback for restaurants and movie theaters for three months each year.

Chase Freedom also has rotating categories that sometimes include movie theaters. Saving 5% may not sound like much, but combine this with other some of these other strategies for bigger savings.

12. Buy in Bulk for a Discount

At BulkTix.com, save up to $5 per ticket for some theaters if you buy more than four at a time. At Costco you get a discount when buying 10-packs of tickets.

13. Get a Business Discount

Theaters discount tickets for businesses that buy them as gifts for employees or others. Of course, there’s no reason you can’t use them yourself.

These three chains offer business discounts:

14. Use Your Rewards Points

Some credit card rewards programs offer theater gift cards as redemption options. For example, my wife recently received a $25 AMC gift card from Capital One.

Other rewards programs also offer free movies. For example, it takes 940 Coke Rewards points to get two Fandango tickets.

15. Skip the 3D Version

It’s worth seeing a 3D movie at least once (Star Wars!), but it may not be worth the higher price for most films.

In fact, most are not even filmed in 3D, but converted after production.

“There’s a limit to what can be done post-production,” according to RealOrFake3D.com. The site lists which movies are real 3D and which are “fake.”

16. Use Warehouse Club Memberships

If you shop at Sam’s Club or Costco, ask about theater tickets at the customer service desk. They often have them at a discount.

17. Buy at the Theater

Sites like Fandango charge extra for tickets (they have to make money somehow), which is why most people still pay at the theater.

Skip the line, and use the kiosk!

18. Go to Late Shows

Some theaters offer cheap tickets for late-night shows — sometimes at matinee prices.

Showings typically start around midnight. If you’re a night owl, this can be a great way to avoid the crowds and save a few bucks.

19. Become a Secret Shopper

As a secret shopper for movie theaters you not only save money but you can be paid to attend movie premieres. Occasionally you can bring a friend for free, too.

20. Go to Advance Screenings for Free

Movie companies sometimes offer free tickets to the public for advance screenings. If you get one, go early — movies screenings often get overbooked.

Here are a few places you can check to see if anything is available near you:

See Althea Clarke’s post on ways to get free tickets to advance movie screenings for more tips on how to snag these freebies.

21. Use Group-Buying Websites

Group buying websites like Living Social and Groupon regularly have deals on movie tickets or on theater gift cards for tickets and snacks.

22. Go to Free Summer Movies

Free summer movie programs are common, and many are outdoors. Here are some of the larger cities with free outdoor movies:

Search online for “free outdoor movies” plus the name of your state, province or community to see what’s available near you.

Your Turn: Do you know any other ways to save money going to the movies?

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!

Steve Gillman is the author of “101 Weird Ways to Make Money” and creator of EveryWayToMakeMoney.com. He’s been a repo-man, walking stick carver, search engine evaluator, house flipper, tram driver, process server, mock juror, and roulette croupier, but of more than 100 ways he has made money, writing is his favorite (so far).

The post See Star Wars in Theaters, You Must: 22 Ways to Spend Less at the Movies appeared first on The Penny Hoarder.

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RBS customers to be reunited with 'lost' cash

Helen Knapman

Thousands of RBS customers are to be reunited with ‘lost’ cash after the bank wrongly told some users their accounts were closed. But you need to actively go in branch to get what you’re owed.

Source Moneywise http://ift.tt/1OrHpD4

Health care jobs will be opening next year in Monroe County

With the unemployment rate looking “much better” than it had just two years ago, Monroe County CareerLink is expecting a mix of the staple local industries and growing employers to drive job growth in 2016.Administrator John Casella said he expects tourism, hospitality, transportation and warehousing to remain some of the county’s highest employing fields next year — and for health services to join their tier.As St. Luke’s University Health [...]

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5 Advanced Forms of Content That Will Ensure You Stand Out

advanced content

You’re reading blog posts and improving your content marketing skills, but the results aren’t coming quite as fast as you had hoped for.

Why?

There are many reasons, but one very likely possibility is that you’re learning the wrong things.

I see many marketing blogs preaching high quality content but producing low quality content of their own.

If you’re a reader of those, it’s easy to see how you might get confused as to what high quality content actually is.

You see, quality is relative.

Only a small portion of it is truly high quality. That’s the content that stands out among all the rest and actually makes an impact on the lives of readers:

Years ago, the standards for content quality were much lower.

If you created then the content you are creating now, it likely would have easily fallen in that upper tier.

But content marketing has become much more competitive: 91% of companies have some sort of content marketing strategy, and that’s not declining any time soon.

If you want to see real results, the kind that produce huge volumes of consistent sales, you need to up your game.

Now, you can create high quality content just by being a great writer, but there are alternatives.

I want to walk you through 5 forms of advanced content that virtually guarantee that your content will stand out and you’ll attract the traffic and subscribers you desire.

1. Big data is HOT

Terms like big data and machine learning are thrown around a lot these days.

Technically, big data refers to collecting and analyzing ridiculously large sets of data.

But for the average person (or marketer), I think it’s fair to say that analyzing hundreds of thousands, or millions, of data points could fall under the “big data” umbrella.

The reason why analyzing large sets of data is so interesting is because it can reveal new and interesting findings.

Anyone can make simple connections.

Writing about SEO? Writers should include their target keywords in their content.

By now, that’s obvious to 99.9% of the SEO community.

Most of the simple observations have been made in any niche because anyone can make them.

But some observations and findings can only be made by analyzing a larger set of data. This means that you need some programming skills (or the budget to pay a developer).

In other words, very few marketers can produce these findings.

This, of course, makes them even more valuable.

An example: Let me show you a great example of using big data to create incredible content effectively.

In 2014, OkDork published a post that revealed the results of their analysis of 100 million articles.

They wanted to find out why content goes viral using data.

They were able to observe some really interesting correlations such as:

Needless to say, this was a breath of fresh air compared to all the other information on creating viral content that simply suggested that all you need is to create curiosity.

And the community response was as expected. After being published, it attracted hundreds of comments and thousands of social shares:

Analyzing such a large set of data lets you draw data-driven conclusions and use them to give advice.

This gives your content much more credibility than it would have otherwise.

How to use big data in your content: I understand that this type of content can be intimidating. Analyzing big data is something that is completely foreign to most marketers and business owners.

But everything is scary to most of us at one time or another.

Even basic link building was once thought of as something complicated and abstract. It’s those who are willing to put in the work to learn how to use what scares them that get a leg up on everyone else.

You can wait a few years when there’s a more accessible way to study big data, but that’s when everyone else will hop on the trend too.

Or you can get on it now and get huge results.

If you’re willing to put in a bit of extra effort and overcome a few obstacles, it will pay off.

Assuming you can’t do the analysis yourself, there are two ways you can put together content like this.

Way #1 – Hire a developer/programmer: You can’t analyze hundreds of thousands of data points by hand, no matter how smart or hardworking you are.

Instead, you need to create a program that can do the analysis for you.

Depending on the difficulty of the analysis you’re trying to do, as well as how easy it is to find the data you’re looking for, this can take anywhere from 5 hours to 100 in most cases for a typical programmer.

Where can you hire one for this type of job? Try any of the main freelancing boards:

You can typically create a job posting with all the details of the job, and then freelancers will apply (and give you a quote).

Alternatively, you can seek out a developer with previous big data experience on those platforms.

You should include the following details in your job posting:

(optional) budget – if you specify your budget, the applications will come from programmers who charge around that amount
the project goal – describe what data you want to analyze and what you’re trying to determine from it
anything you have to help - if you’ve already located a data source, it’ll make their job a lot easier (no need to scrape sites for data)

If you don’t have a technical background, just do your best with the details. If you hire a good developer, they will work with you to figure out what needs to be done.

When I say a data source, I’m talking about an existing database of information.

In the OkDork example, they were able to get the data from BuzzSumo—they didn’t have to hunt for it themselves.

In most cases, search for something like “(content topic) + database api”.

An API provides an easy way to access the collected data, reducing the project time.

Way #2 – Partner up with someone who can: If you have no budget or you have a decent size audience, you may not have to pay a programmer.

Instead, you can find an existing company that collects the data you want to analyze and reach out to them to see if they’d be interested in creating an epic piece of content together.

That’s what Noah Kagan (founder of OkDork) did.

I’ll quote him to show you how simple it can be:

A few weeks ago someone sent me a link to the BuzzSumo website. It is a gold mine of data regarding what content is the most shared across any topic. Cha-Ching. So I reached out to the company to help understand what the main ingredients for insanely shareable content are.

The end result is that BuzzSumo helps create the content and provides the data (essentially a guest post), but you get to look amazing in front of a large audience.

It’s a win-win.

Companies that already use big sets of data are starting to recognize the potential of content marketing.

BuzzSumo is one business that I’ve seen really hop on it, collaborating to produce similar articles, like this one with Moz where they analyzed 1 million articles in different ways.

This is a perfect opportunity to start connecting with these companies in your industry before it becomes a more common tactic.

2. Become a scientist (at least for a little while…)

Science typically deals with complicated subjects, and there’s always an expectation of rigor—an expectation that quality comes first and that tests should be done as accurately as possible in order to ensure a useful result.

And this relates to great content.

Great content reveals new information that the creator discovered, hopefully while conducting valid tests that will help others do the same in the future.

While you don’t need to put on a white lab coat, consider doing your best impression of a scientist and conducting your own research.

Step #1 – Come up with a hypothesis: All studies start with a hypothesis, a guess about what will happen if you do something.

The general form for one is:

I think (action) will result in (what might happen).

Not every hypothesis turns out to be true, but when one does, you’ll have the data to back it up.

You’ll have to put some thought into this, but I’ll give you a few hypothetical examples of hypotheses to give you an idea of what you’re looking for:

I think guest posting will grow our blog traffic by X%
I think I can eat at McDonald’s and still lose weight (which actually happened!)
I think doing push-ups every morning for a month will allow me to do 100 push-ups per day (by the end)
I think you can grow a tomato plant in 60 days by using Procedure XYZ

There’s no “wrong” way of creating a hypothesis, but ideally it will be something that you can turn into a great piece of content if you find it to be true (e.g., “I conducted research to find the quickest way to do 100 push-ups per day. Here’s what I found…”).

Step #2 – Create a valid experimental setup: Let’s take our example of eating at McDonald’s every day.

You need to include a few things in your experimental setup:

how you will track results (e.g., daily weigh-ins)
specifically, what you will eat (the procedure)
any other rules that will ensure that no other factors are influencing results (e.g., maintain your usual level of exercise)

I should also mention that in some cases, you might find that the data you are trying to gather from your own experiment already exists, just not put into consumable content. That’s fine as well, even though I think personal experiments are a bit more credible.

Step #3 – Run the experiment and analyze the results: There are no shortcuts here; you need to do the work. Sometimes, it will take months to perform the experiment.

Yes, it’s hard work.

But that’s the reason why very few people can create this kind of content and why it will always stand out from the rest.

Now, running the experiment itself doesn’t help your audience.

What does help them is when you analyze the results and make valuable conclusions that will affect their lives.

Even if your hypothesis is incorrect, you still may learn some useful lessons.

Your first step here is to collect all your data in one place (usually a spreadsheet) and calculate the values you are interested in.

Step #4 – Use those results to make something great for your community: Now that you have your data and can make a conclusion, it’s time to create your content.

Here’s an example of an analysis I did of the performance of my past infographics:

Instead of just saying “infographics have worked well for me,” I analyzed these results to get a specific number of visitors, backlinks, and social shares for each infographic.

I also had enough past infographics for a valid sample size (that took me two years to collect—that’s a long experiment!).

Sometimes, it’s enough to just state your results, but in most cases, you want to make a conclusion and then explain how your readers can apply those results.

In our push-up example, you could probably outline a simple routine that your readers could follow to develop the strength to do 100 per day as well.

3. Put together an e-book like no other

When e-books first hit the marketing scene, people put a ton of value on them.

A high perceived value means that readers will invest more into consuming and applying the content as well as sharing it.

But as you know, everyone has an e-book these days. They still hold a bit of extra perceived value over blog posts, but not too much.

However, some e-books are truly great, and those still get a lot of attention.

I’d like to show you how to create a special type of e-book that will automatically get thousands of visitors and shares.

The idea:

Create an e-book where one influencer in your niche writes one page. The final book will be a 20-page book written by 20 experts (just using 20 as an example).

Essentially, it’s an expanded expert roundup.

Instead of just contributing a couple of lines to answer a question (and all experts answer the same question), your experts will each be writing a chapter of the book.

Here’s an example: This is a great example that showcases the power of the technique.

Stoney deGeyter, from Pole Position Marketing, put together an e-book of “link building secrets” for 2014.

He was able to get 20 different industry professionals to contribute one secret each.

Some of these were also influencers.

Even though they weren’t all influencers, he got some solid results.

He saw that all influencers who contributed to the book shared his other posts (along with the book) with their followers.

On top of that, most of them also linked to the book, which is a nice bump in high quality backlinks for Stoney.

Stoney also mentioned that he saw a spike in traffic, although he didn’t say how big (but probably pretty considerable).

And one final benefit is that he now has relationships with 20 influencers/professionals, which could lead to some great opportunities in the future.

How to put together your own e-book: There are three main parts to producing an e-book like this:

Come up with a good topic
Find influencers willing to contribute
Organize, design, and format the content into a book before publishing

Obviously, not all of those steps are equally difficult.

Coming up with a good topic? That’s not too difficult if you’ve read any of my past posts on finding great content ideas.

Formatting content so that readers are blown away? I can help you with that too with some of my other posts:

But the second step is tough.

It’s not difficult for me because I already have relationships with many influencers. I could send out a quick email and get an overwhelmingly positive response rate.

But what if you’re not in that position? What if you want someone to contribute who has never heard of you?

That is difficult.

But there are a few things you can do to increase your chances of success.

First, build as strong of a relationship with 3-5 influencers as possible.

How do you do this? There are many ways:

leave comments on their blogs
engage with them on social media
send them emails (with questions or comments—get on their email lists first)

It may take a few weeks or months before you have a solid relationship, so be prepared to invest some time here (it will pay off in many ways).

During these first times when you interact with an influencer, your only goals are (1) not to be a pest and (2) to get them to remember your name. Ideally, you want to provide value so that they don’t mind helping you out in the future as well.

Once you have a somewhat strong relationship, you can then ask them to participate in the book. You’ll get at least 1 or 2 who will be happy to.

Wait, don’t you need 20 (or some other large number)?

Yes, but it’s these first few who really unlock your potential to bring other influencers on board.

Ideally, you’d build relationships with 40-50 people before asking them to help you, but that’s not typically possible.

So, you’ll be cold-emailing most influencers.

When you send a cold email pitch, it’s difficult to get a positive response because you don’t have any credibility.

That’s where those first few influencers come in. Here’s what the start of your email should look like…

Hi (name),

I wanted to quickly offer you an exclusive opportunity. I’ve already got (influencer #1) and (influencer #2) to agree to participate.

(book details here…)

That one line gives you instant credibility if those influencers are well known.

If they want to do the project, it’s probably worth at least reading a bit about.

Using their names will boost your response rate by an incredible amount.

Once you’ve done this and you’ve got your target number of participants (expect to email 50-100 of them initially), put together the e-book and publish it.

When you send your contributors a link to the book, most will help you promote it. You should still do your own basic promotional work—expect better than usual results in this case.

4. Take product reviews to the next level

Like I said in the beginning, we’re looking for “next level” content.

I mean content that is so much better than what everyone else is producing that it will be inevitably noticed.

One particular type of content that typically isn’t very impressive is product reviews.

Usually, they’re biased, lack credibility, and aren’t very convincing.

The reason why this is so is because it’s difficult to create a good one.

However, if you actually care about creating great content, that means there is an opportunity here.

Before I get into what an amazing product review is comprised of, I’ll give you a chance to look at an example.

The following video is a review of the best kitchen blenders:

This channel, “America’s test kitchen,” is one of the few that understand what an actual useful review looks like.

They’ve done a great job with the kitchen niche and have several high converting videos with hundreds of thousands of views.

There’s no reason why you can’t do the same (although it doesn’t necessarily have to be video content).

What’s in a great review? In order to create a review of this level, you’ll have to include things that aren’t normally included:

actual product examples
useful test results
clear comparisons

Let’s break it down into steps.

Step #1 – Pick a specific type of product: This is the easiest step by far. All you need to do is observe which kinds of products in your niche your target audience buys the most.

Ideally, people would be wondering what the best product is, and you would be able to answer that question.

Some examples from different niches are:

Link building tools
Rank tracking tools
Marketing courses
Futons
Dining room tables
Lawn mowers
Cat food

There are obviously thousands of types of products out there, so it shouldn’t be hard to think of a few.

If you’re really struggling, go to Amazon, and type in your niche into the search bar to see what comes up.

Step #2 (Important!) – Actually buy the product: One of the main reasons why most product reviews suck is because they’re obviously written by someone who hasn’t used the product.

People want (and love) genuine reviews.

This could get expensive, but in general, the more you spend on products, the more you will get out of the content later on (more traffic, sales, etc.).

It can also take a few weeks (or months in the case of courses) to thoroughly go through each product. Invest the time now to get the results later on.

Step #3 – Decide what tests would be useful: Once you know how a product works, you want to show your audience whether it does what they’re hoping it does.

To do that, you’ll need tests.

For example, with blenders, you’d want to see how well it blends frozen fruit into a smoothie. You could measure both the completeness of blending and the length of time it took to blend.

But in most cases, you’ll want more than one test.

Again, with the blender, you might want to see how well it handles things like nuts or yogurt (clearly I’m not a blender expert).

Step #4 – Quantify and compare the results: Another shortcoming of most product reviews is that the creator tends to finish the content with a seemingly random conclusion.

They’ll say, “Based on the product specifications, I think we can conclude Product X is the best.”

Even if a review actually tests each product, it’s not always easy to compare the results of each test.

That’s your job.

Put together an overall score that takes into account your test results:

That way it’s easy for your audience to compare the performance of each product.

And that’s all there is to the next level product review. It will take a lot of hard work, but it’s something that just about anyone can do if they’re determined.

5. One type of content that’s more practical than the rest

The final type of advanced form of content is one that I think every business should try (if applicable) at least once.

And that advanced form of content is a tool (yes, I consider them as content).

If you’ve ever been to the Quick Sprout homepage, you know that I have a tool that analyzes web pages. It gives you a quick SEO, speed, and social score:

I’ve written about the results in a full writeup before, so I won’t go over them again in detail.

But to sum things up, despite the tool costing much more than I expected, it still brought in a ton of backlinks and business, producing a very solid return on my investment.

You don’t need to create a tool as complex as my analyzer, but even a small tool that can accomplish one useful thing for your audience will get a lot of attention.

Step #1 – Come up with the idea: Tools solve problems, so that’s where you’ll have to start.

Make a list of as many problems or difficulties your readers face on a regular basis as you can.

For me, I noticed that SEOs had a hard time doing a few things:

checking if a site was optimized for search engines
making repeat SEO reports for clients
combining evaluations of multiple areas of their marketing efforts (e.g., SEO, social, etc.)

And then I designed a tool that provided the solution. Now, people can just insert a website URL, give the tool a few seconds to do some work, and voila—a beautiful and simple result.

Step #2 – Create the tool: Creating the tool, of course, will be the hardest part unless you have experience as a developer.

If you don’t, you’ll have to hire one. Again, you’ll want to post a job offer on any of the main freelancing boards:

One aspect you will have to consider here is the cost.

Tools can cost anywhere from a few hundred dollars to a hundred thousand dollars, which is quite a big range.

You likely don’t know how much one would cost, which makes it difficult to set a budget.

What you can do is post the job ad without a budget, asking developers to submit a quote. That will tell you all you need to know about the affordability of your project.

If you can’t afford to create the tool you chose, move on to a problem that can be solved by a simpler tool.

Step #3 – Promote the tool: Promoting regular content is hard, but promoting a tool is really easy.

You can present it to most forums and online communities, and they will be thrilled with it as long as it’s actually useful.

Tools are rare, so they’re not met with the same cynicism as regular blog posts often are.

On top of that, you can now mention your tool in your content and whenever you get introduced to someone. It’s a great point of introduction that can lead to a lot of extra business opportunities.

Conclusion

It is absolutely necessary for your content to stand out if you want to succeed with content marketing.

But producing amazing content that stands out isn’t always easy.

That’s why I put together this list of 5 different advanced forms of content and showed you how to create them step by step.

I encourage you to try just one for now.

When you see the results from that, I’m sure you’ll have the motivation you need to try out other forms as well.

We looked at some fairly complicated concepts and steps, so it’s understandable if you have some questions. I’ll do my best to clear them up if you leave them below in a comment.

Source Quick Sprout http://ift.tt/1OrztBF

Questions About Holiday Gifts, Guests, Identity Theft, Windfalls and More!

What’s inside? Here are the questions answered in today’s reader mailbag, boiled down to five word summaries. Click on the number to jump straight down to the question.
1. Holiday guests and hotels
2. Challenging home purchase decision
3. Frugal gifts for elderly relatives
4. Advance preparation for personal risk
5. Directionless
6. Identity theft strangeness
7. Leftover ham ideas?
8. Retirement savings and risk
9. Money saving coffee strategy
10. Cheapest lifestyle?
11. Windfall after financial turnaround
12. Hate job, close to retirement

This past weekend, we decorated our home for the holiday season. We put popcorn strings on the tree, decorated it with lights, and made the branches heavy with ornaments, mostly homemade ones from years past.

The best part of doing it is simply going through all of the ornaments and talking with our children about them. It’s a great chance to help them understand how they are part of our larger family. They have grandparents and great grandparents and great great grandparents out there that made some of these ornaments with the hopes that someday Sarah and I would have them and, some day after that, our children would have them.

It also gives us reason to start making our own ornaments. Right now, they take the form of children’s art, but as the years pass, their skills become more and more sophisticated and they’re beginning to make things that would look beautiful on any tree.

To me, things like this are the reason for the season. It’s not about how you celebrate or what religious beliefs you hold in your heart, but the people you hold dear and how you treat them – and everyone else in the world – with love and compassion.

Q1: Holiday guests and hotels

In previous years our extended family has all stayed at my father’s home. Not only does the main house have five bedrooms, but there’s also a guest house with two more bedrooms, which gave everyone room to stay.

The home and guest house were sold this year so I volunteered to host Christmas. We only have three bedrooms in our home and that just isn’t nearly enough space for the people. So I have been telling people that they should stay at a hotel, but as I put together plans I have learned that many people are assuming that they are staying at our house anyway. They’re either thinking that other family members are staying at a hotel or that there will somehow magically be room for everyone.

Regardless of what I tell them, there are more people that are planning to stay at our house than we really have space for and I don’t know how to make it clear to them.

I have checked with local hotels and there is space for people at the ones I checked.

I know that some of them might have difficulty with the expense, but none of them volunteered to host Christmas either. What should I do?
– Sara

What you should do is openly state to everyone in the family who exactly is staying at your house and make it extremely clear that there is no room for others. Recommend a single specific hotel for everyone to use. Make it extremely clear that there is no room.

If someone shows up expecting a room, be clear and direct. Tell them that you said multiple times that there isn’t any room and that hasn’t changed. Give them details about the hotel where everyone is staying.

Honestly, if I were you, I wouldn’t host a holiday celebration for a family that just completely disregarded what I was saying to them. If you end up having family members calling you “selfish” or demanding a place to stay, just do what you have to do to get through the occasion and refuse to host in future years.

Q2: Challenging home purchase decision

My wife and I are currently caretakers of her grandpa’s house (he’s in assisted living). We are paying reduced rent in exchange for our help keeping up the house. My wife and I really like the house. It’s an older two bedroom home in the midwest. Her grandma and grandpa built the house after WWII with his GI bill. It is the house her dad came home from the hospital in when he was born. We love the family history and the fact that we know the history of the house from day 1.

In the next year, her grandpa will need to sell the house (assuming his health stays strong at 94 years-old). My wife and I have been given the opportunity to buy the house without it going on the market. It saves everybody money and headache. As stated before, we love the house. The location is great (near a “park and ride” for my wife, a short commute for me), the neighborhood is a modest working-class neighborhood with many kind people, and it is the right size for the two of us plus 2 cats. Yes, I’m aware that there is a fair amount of emotion already tied into this house, which is why I’m struggling and would like your advice.

My wife and I both have good jobs. While no job is secure, neither of us has had much need to worry, even through the recession. Combined, we make about $110K/year before taxes and deductions. We are paying off our debts using the Debt Snowball method, and our snowball is up to about $2000. Unfortunately, we have around $101K in debt (over $88K of which is student loans). The other debt is a car loan (late model used), and one line-of-credit balance.

I’m not sure what to do about the home purchase. We have never purchased a home. Most of our married lives we’ve been focused on paying down debt. I’ve tried looking for advice on buying a home when you have a large chunk of student loans. Where do you stand on purchasing a home in this situation? We would love to be debt-free, but we know are finances will go up whether or not we buy the house (renting somewhere else will be more expensive than our situation right now). We’ve spoken with banks and have been given the green light to buy a house if we decide it’s right for us. I guess I’m just wondering if debt payoff should trump the purchase of a modest house, especially one that we know the history on for the past 60+ years.

I’m aware that the answer involves a lot of “it depends…”, but I’m interested to hear your take on our situation if you’d be willing. I’ve tried searching for advice on The Simple Dollar, but I had trouble finding advice on a similar situation, even though I’m sure you’ve touched on it.
– Kevin

There are absolutely a lot of “what-ifs” with this situation. Are you getting any discount on the house if you buy it? What will your monthly expenses look like if you’re paying a mortgage, insurance, property taxes, and so on versus paying rent on the house? Can you afford that change?

Your financial situation doesn’t look like one where I would absolutely avoid buying. Obviously, you’re not in perfect shape, but you’re not in a disastrous paycheck-to-paycheck situation either.

I think if the purchase is financially reasonable and if there’s any sort of discount involved, I’d go for it. If there’s not a discount, I’d really think strongly about whether you truly want the house – and don’t buy it if you aren’t sure.

Q3: Frugal gifts for elderly relatives

Each year we give a Christmas gift to my grandfather. I try really hard to find something I think he will like but recently I realized that many of the gifts we have given him and that others in the family have given him are just sitting in the downstairs walk-in closet. I am just completely lost about how to handle this. He doesn’t need money and seems to not really want anything.
– Carly

The best give you can give here is time. Simply pick a few Saturdays in 2016 and give him three or four gift certificates for those days, stating you’ll spend the full day with him, take him out to lunch, and do a few hours worth of chores for him. Identify the dates in advance for him and put them in your own calendar.

That will mean way more to him than another physical item he probably doesn’t want.

The thing is, you’ve got to stick with the commitment. If you pick a weekend and then later on find out that there’s something fun going on, don’t reschedule. Stick to what you committed. That’s the actual gift part of this – he’ll know that you’re probably giving up on some things you’d like to be doing in order to spend the day with him.

Q4: Advance preparation for personal risk

With all the mass shootings that are constantly happening in America, I’m worried about my future and loved ones. I like to hope for the best, but I want to be prepared in case something bad happens at, say, the Star Wars VII midnight release. I’m young and unmarried, but I know I don’t want my parents or other family making decisions in the event of my death or serious injury. I would want my partner to do all of those things instead. Do you have a list of things I need to do to prepare? I know I need to set up a last will and a living will too, and probably life insurance. Am I missing anything? What documents matter if I’m too hurt to make medical decisions?
– Terry

First of all, the fear of being hurt by gun violence is something that is largely stirred by the media. You are actually far more safe than you were going out in public in, say, the 1990s, let alone the 1980s or 1970s. In 1993, there were seven homicides by firearm for every 100,000 Americans, while in 2013 that figure had dropped to 3.7, according to the Washington Post. In 1980? Try 10.8 homicides by firearm per 100,000 people. The reality is that gun homicides are actually far more exceptional than they once were, which is why they garner media attention than ever before. You had far more reason to be worried going out in public in the past than you do today.

Having said all of that, there are a lot of things you can do to prepare if you’re worried about this. You should have a healthcare power of attorney set up (it’s a document that gives someone else the power to make medical choices for you if you can’t do it for yourself) and have a frank discussion with that person. You should also have a will set up. If you have those in place, you’ll be okay.

The most important thing you can do, though, is to make sure that you’re not afraid to participate in everyday life. Don’t let fear affect your choices, especially when the reasons are flimsy.

Q5: Directionless

I feel completely directionless right now in my life. I go to work, come home, have a bite to eat, and go out to bars pretty much every day. I date but nothing ever lasts. I’m saving a little for retirement but other than that my life is a mirror image of where it was two or three years ago. Not sure what to do but I want things to change.
– Tabitha

You obviously don’t like where you’re at, so where do you want to be? Where would you like to be in, say, five years if things turned out pretty well for you? What would be different?

Whatever that picture of the future looks like, spend every day asking yourself what you can do today to head toward that picture. Don’t worry about tomorrow or next week. Focus on what you can do today.

I’ve felt directionless at various points in my own life and that’s honestly the best (and maybe the only) way out of it.

Q6: Identity theft strangeness

In August I received an email confirmation for an item I didn’t order and that wasn’t put on any of my cards. The email address was my own and both the shipping and mailing addresses were an address that I lived about ten years ago in another state. When I called the (legitimate) company, they were able to add that the card used was a MasterCard. Of course, I cancelled the order and put a fraud alert on my credit report. However, when I checked my credit report, there were no new cards in my name—in fact, I don’t have a MasterCard at all and never have!

Last weekend, this happened again three times. Each night, in the wee hours, I got an email confirmation of something I didn’t order, to be shipped/billed to my old address, that was purchased using a card I don’t own. The first order was on that same MasterCard, and the next two were on Visas—again, cards that I don’t own. Two out of the three companies thought something was fishy and sent me a followup email asking for more information to make sure I had made the order, and for one of them, “my” card was actually declined. Again, I cancelled the orders and checked my credit report, but still no new cards appeared on there. It seems like the thieves have only “stolen” part of my identity.

I can’t seem to find anything online about this sort of half-scam. These people aren’t damaging my credit since they’re not opening a card in my name, but this is annoying and makes me nervous that I could be compromised somehow down the line. I have a very secure email password that I haven’t entered on any public computers, plus two-step verification. I just don’t see what I can do to prevent this—not to mention my confusion over how these thieves benefit—surely they know that if they use my email, I will receive a confirmation and cancel the order!
– Jessica

There’s really not much you can do here except keep your credit on lockdown. Keep that fraud alert maintained on your credit report and examine your credit report often to make sure nothing’s popping up.

My guess is that whoever is trying to use your identification here only has part of your identification or has part of the identification incorrect. They may be using the right address and name but have an incorrect Social Security number, for example, and the systems of the credit card issuers are allowing them to keep doing it.

Like I said, all you can really do is watch your credit, so be vigilant about that.

Q7: Leftover ham ideas?

What can you do with leftover ham? We always have ham at Christmas and it seems like a lot of it goes to waste.
– Alexa

Just take all of your remaining ham, cube it into small pieces, and save it in quart freezer bags, about half a pound of meat in each one.

Then, in the future, when you’re making soup, pull out a bag and add the contents to the soup. When you’re making scrambled eggs for a few people for breakfast, pull out a bag and add it to the scrambled eggs. When you’re making a meatloaf or hamburgers or meatballs, pull out a bag and mix it in with the meat to add interesting flavor.

There’s really no better use for leftover ham than this, at least as far as I’ve found.

Q8: Retirement savings and risk

I am 27 and have around $9000 in retirement savings so far (I withdrew a portion to buy my first home, which is allowed in New Zealand). I have been reading your retirement articles and decided to have a good look at how my retirement money is invested, but I’m not sure how I should structure my investment. I belong to kiwisaver (You can find more info here kiwisaver.govt.nz if you’re interested in how the programme works), and they offer 6 investment types, from no risk/no gain through to high risk/high potential for gains. I’ve copied the details below. Basically, I’m not sure how to allocate my funds. I can have a percentage of funds in as many or as few investment types as I like, as long as the percentages add up to 100%. What do you recommend I do? I’ve had all of the money in the conservative fund since that I what I picked when I signed up at 19, but I don’t think that is the right choice.
– Danielle

At your age, you should not be in a conservative fund. You should have all (or almost all) of your money in a growth fund, one that will have a high average annual rate of growth but will have some very intense down years balanced with some amazing up years. That’s because you have a lot of years left for things to balance out to that high average.

You shouldn’t be in a conservative fund until much later, like when you’re retired or very close to it.

In your shoes, I’d move at least 90% of my money into growth funds (high risk/high potential for gains) and leave that money there until you’re at least 45. At that point, start shifting it gradually down into less risky options.

Q9: Money saving coffee strategy

One strategy I learned from my dad is this: after you finish off a pot of coffee, add another teaspoon of coffee to the basket and stir it around, then run another pot immediately. The second pot tastes basically the same as the first and uses only a fraction of the coffee. He actually keeps doing this throughout the day as long as new pots are needed but then dumps the grounds at the end of the day.
– Kevin

This makes sense to me. Coffee grounds still have flavor in them ater the first pot, so mixing in a bit of additional grounds with the old stuff would add up to enough to make another pot.

I’m not sold on the third/fourth/etc. pot of coffee using this method as I’m almost sure everything would get really bitter, but for a second pot, especially fairly quickly after the first one, it seems like a great idea.

Q10: Cheapest lifestyle?

How much would you need to live on to have the cheapest lifestyle?
– Frank

Honestly, nothing. You could live in America with no income at all and no savings at all and survive. You probably wouldn’t have the life you would like, but you could certainly do it, especially if you applied some street smarts to making it work.

This question really boils down to the kind of assumptions that you have about what’s needed to live in the modern world. What do you consider a baseline to “live” in America? Do you need a home of your own? How much clothing do you need? Do you need electricity? Running water at home? All of those things add up.

I’m not sure what I would consider the “baseline” lifestyle for myself and my family. I wouldn’t probably want to live without those basic services.

I tend to think an income around $12,000 to $15,000 a year is a baseline in a small town or rural area, with more needed in a city due to housing costs.

Q11: Windfall after financial turnaround

I’ve been able to pay off *all* of our debt – 50K worth. 12K came from regular bill paying this year and the other 38K came from an unexpected inheritance. It’s a weird feeling to know that someone’s passing has left me with a big emotional hole but has freed me financially. Literally her death has given my husband and I a new financial life. It’s a bit of a guilt trip to say the least.

Anyway, that’s not the point. The point is that I’m *still* expecting to receive about $30K next year and now that we’re debt free, we’re working on defining our next goals, but it’s a little daunting since for a decade my main, and often only, financial goal has been working on paying off school and other debt. I’m a goal-oriented person so with this huge milestone behind us, I feel like I’ve lost direction and a little steam. We didn’t have a lot of consumer debt, the debt we had was student and some car loans, but we paid off $120K in the last 10 years, not including the interest (gah! just writing that number is insane. We could have bought a house for that). I just started using YNAB, so that’s given me something money-oriented to work on while we think about next steps.

If you have any advice regarding next steps, I’m all ears. Some things we’re considering – opening a 529 for our daughter, opening a Roth IRA, putting away for a house (we’re already saving regularly for vacation, new car, car maintenance, emergency fund, and medical expenses), I’m considering getting a second master’s degree that would open up a different career path for me (I work at a university so it’s very cost effective for me, though requires a significant time commitment). I’m already putting away $650 each month into my work retirement account, not including the $180 they automatically deduct for my pension (state job). This is not a bad problem to have – it’s an awesome problem- and I know you’ve written about this in the past, but it’s finally applicable to me and I’d love to hear your thoughts
– Aimee

You named a bunch of different goals. Your answer, honestly, lies in whichever of those goals is most important to you personally. It might be the Roth IRA, which would lead you most directly to a strong retirement. It might be a 529 for your child, which would lead to a cheaper education and a better financial start on her adult life. It might be saving for a down payment, which would move up home ownership in your life. It might be a master’s degree, which would open up a new career direction.

Don’t look at the actions. Look at the outcomes. Which outcome would make you happier in ten years? Career flexibility? A cheap college career for your daughter? A healthy bunch of retirement savings? A home of your own? Which one would make you happiest?

Whichever it is, that’s the path you should be following. Spend some time thinking about it. Visualize where you want to be in five or ten years. You’ll be glad you did.

Q12: Hate job, close to retirement

I’m 54. In five years I will be able to retire and I already have enough in retirement savings to make it work. The next few years are all about building a buffer against downturns. The problem is that I want to retire today, which I could do but I would be pretty exposed to stock market downturns and other shifts. I really don’t enjoy going to work any more and the thought that I could walk away is really tempting. Suggestions?
– John

Take each day one at a time. Remind yourself that today, you are securing your retirement. That’s what you’re working for. You’re swapping those hours for a step toward a more secure retirement where you don’t have to worry about these things and that an economic downturn won’t send you right back to work in an even worse situation.

Think about what would happen if you did quit right now and 2008 repeated itself in 2016 or 2017. You’d be in a pickle without that secure job.

Every day, go to work and remind yourself that today is a day I’m spending to make sure that when I do leave, I never have to come back and I never have to deal with an even worse job. Then, retire as soon as you can make things work.

Got any questions? The best way to ask is to follow me on Facebook and ask questions directly there. I’ll attempt to answer them in a future mailbag (which, by way of full disclosure, may also get re-posted on other websites that pick up my blog). However, I do receive many, many questions per week, so I may not necessarily be able to answer yours.

The post Questions About Holiday Gifts, Guests, Identity Theft, Windfalls and More! appeared first on The Simple Dollar.

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Don’t Pay Rush Fees! Here’s When to Ship Your Packages so They Arrive by Christmas

Here’s a simple way to save money this holiday season: Avoid unnecessary shipping costs.

If you’re sending gifts to friends and family away from home, do it early. You still have plenty of time to get packages to your loved ones before Christmas without paying extra for expedited shipping.

To help you plan ahead, we’ve rounded up standard shipping deadlines for the major postal services.

Note: Deadlines are for delivery by Dec. 24 within the continental U.S., unless otherwise noted.

U.S. Postal Service (USPS) Free Shipping Deadline

Ship by Dec. 15 via Standard Post or Media Mail for standard rates.

Standard Post is the most common service for gifts and merchandise. Prices are based on delivery distance and the weight of your package(s). You’ll use Media Mail for books, film and printed materials of several pages.

For holiday cards and other envelopes or lightweight packages you can mail with a regular First Class postage stamp, ship by Dec. 19.

For later deadlines and expedited shipping rates, visit USPS.com.

United Parcel Service (UPS) Free Shipping Deadline

Ship before Dec. 18 via UPS Ground or UPS 3 Day Select.

UPS Ground delivers in one-to-five business days, depending on distance to destination (includes Christmas Eve delivery). UPS 3 Day Select delivers by end-of-day on the third business day (no Christmas Eve delivery).

For later deadlines and expedited shipping rates, see the UPS 2015 Year-End Holiday Schedule.

FedEx Free Shipping Deadline

Ship by Dec. 16 via FedEx Ground or Home Delivery.

FedEx Ground delivers in one to five business days, depending on your location in the continental U.S. See this handy map for delivery times in your area.

FedEx Home Delivery offers faster delivery to residential addresses. Ship packages up to 70 lbs for delivery within one-to-five business days plus Saturdays.

For later deadlines and expedited shipping rates, visit FedEx.com.

Save Money on Stamps

Sticking with cards this holiday season? Save money on stamps, too, with our simple tricks.

Happy Holidays, Penny Hoarders!

Your Turn: Are you shipping holiday gifts this year? What tricks do you use to save money on shipping?

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

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