MAKE MONEY ONLINE POSTS: 12/07/16

الأربعاء، 7 ديسمبر 2016

Get Free Money Fast – 16 Easy Ways to Shower Yourself with Real Cash

If you want to make money, you need to get a job, right?

Well, not necessarily.

If all you want is some spending money, then you might be surprised to find out how easy it is to score a few extra bucks each month. And thanks to the internet, all it usually requires is filling out some surveys, playing around on the web, or signing up for a few specific offers.

Doing just a few of these things can easily add up to thousands of dollars in cash each year, so what are you waiting for?

16 Ways to Shower Yourself with Free Money

Want some free money of your own? Check out these 16+ companies that offer free money when you complete simple tasks in your spare time:

#1: Earn points redeemable for gift cards.

Ever heard of MyPoints? Simply put, it’s a website that offers points for nearly anything you can do online – from shopping to online surveys.

With MyPoints, the “points” you can redeem are good for cash back and a variety of gift cards to stores like Amazon.com, Best Buy, CVS Pharmacy, and even GameStop.

A gift certificate to Applebee’s, for example, starts at just 1,650 points. Paypal cash, on the other hand, starts at just 4,550 points.

To get started with MyPoints, all you have to do is sign up for a free account and use the site to shop online, take surveys, watch videos, or participate in fun, daily polls. It’s as simple as that.

#2: Score an easy $10 with Ebates.

ebates Ebates is a great place to earn money for all sorts of online tasks, but you’ll also get a $10 welcome bonus just for signing up and making a $25 purchase.

Simply open an account, spend $25 at an online store like Walmart.com, Kohls.com, Groupon.com, or Amazon.com, and the $10 bonus is yours for the taking.

And if you use Ebates for the long haul, you’ll earn even more. Just by clicking through the website when you shop online, you can earn up to 40 percent cash back at certain stores. Sounds pretty good, huh?

#3: Give your opinions for money.

American Consumer Opinion offers an unthinkable proposition for most people – they’ll actually pay you for your opinions. If you thought no one cared, you’re absolutely wrong!

Just sign up for a free account and you’ll be on your way to scoring free money for your musings on everything from new products to advertising campaigns.

Payouts vary, but the points you earn can add up fast. You can even redeem your points through PayPal if you want, with a $10 redemptions starting at just 1,000 points.

#4: Sign up for a rewards credit card.

Rewards credit cards offer something for nothing if you are able to meet a small minimum spending requirement. This free cash usually comes in the form of a signup bonus, and can easily be worth hundreds.

Since a lot of rewards credit cards don’t even charge an annual fee, you can get this money for free provided you never pay interest on your purchases. Super cool, huh?

Check out these cards for the best deals at the moment:

Chase Freedom^® – Sweet $150 Bonus
Chase Freedom Unlimited℠ Card – Sweet $150 Bonus
Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card – $500 in Free Money

#5: Score a bank bonus.

All kinds of banks offer a bonus if you are willing to put a certain amount of cash on deposit or sign up for direct deposit. From Chase to Huntington Bank and others, these bonuses can add up to some serious cash if you can meet their requirements!

My post on the best online checking accounts highlights some of the best deals in this space, but you can also check with local banks to see what they offer. Just make sure you read the fine print and watch out for any “gotchas” or requirements you don’t understand.

#6: Provide valuable feedback in exchange for cash.

Here we are again – yet another company wants to pay for your opinion. Popular Harris Poll Online doles out cash to consumers willing to share their opinions, ideas, and feelings on a variety of matters from commercials to political campaigns. By signing up, you’ll be able to participate in many of these polls and earn some free money in the process. Does it get any better than that?

Your rewards will come in the form of “points” you can redeem for purchases made on websites like Amazon, iTunes, Home Depot, and Walmart. Or, you can turn them in for merchandise purchased directly from the Harris Poll website itself.

Whether you need extra cash for groceries, bills, or supplies for your home, this is one smart way to make it happen. Best of all, signing up is completely free!

#7: Refer friends to NetSpend for $20 each.

Netspend prepaid cards offer an easy way to track your cash, but did you know you can get paid for having one and referring friends?

This part is easy. Simply sign up for a NetSpend card of your own, then activate it when it arrives in the mail. After that, you can refer your friends indefinitely and earn $20 a pop!

Each time a friend gets a card and loads it with $40, you’ll get $20. And each time they refer a friend who loads their new card with $40, they’ll get $20. And on and on it goes.

But it all starts with signing up, so make sure you sign up for NetSpend today.

#8: Help this company conduct valuable research.

With Pinecone Research, you’ll get money for completing surveys and offering your valuable insights on today’s hottest products and services. Once you get started, you’ll start earning points for every survey you complete. Best of all, you can redeem your points for an actual check in the mail – as in, cold hard cash.

It doesn’t cost anything to sign up, and you might find giving your opinion is more fun than you realized. And if you have a few hours to kill each week, why not earn some free cash in the process?

#9: Rack up some Swagbucks.

Swagbucks are ridiculously fun and easy to earn. Believe it or not, this website will pay you free money to shop online, watch videos (or space out and pretend you’re watching) surf the internet, or answer survey questions. Have you ever heard of a part-time job that will pay you just to hang out?

Once you start earning Swagbucks, you’ll learn all the fun ways you can redeem them as well. For example, you can cash in your Swagbucks for a wide range of gift cards. Don’t like that option? Turn in your points for PayPal cash instead.

Signing up is free and you literally have nothing to lose, either. If you’re going to be on the internet, why not get paid?

#10: Earn a free $5 with Inbox Dollars.

Inbox Dollars is yet another website intent on paying you for living and breathing. In all seriousness, the tasks Inbox Dollars pays for are crazy-easy. Simply surf the internet, use the website to play games, compete surveys or questionnaires, or print grocery coupons to score free cash!

It’s fairly easy to earn an extra $20 – $30 per month for regular use, plus you can get a free $5 just for signing up.

If you like free money, it’s hard to beat this offer.

#11: Invest money with Motif.

Motif Investing makes it easy to build a portfolio with a wide range of underlying investments called Motifs. Best of all, you can get a free $100 just for opening an account and depositing $1,000!

My review of Motif Investing highlights exactly how this all works, but suffice it to say Motif Investing offers a smart way to invest your money in the long-term.

If you were thinking of joining already, you might as well earn an extra $100, right? Join today for a free $100 bonus, and you’ll be glad you did.

#12: Participate in more consumer research.

Companies like Concepts Consumer Research will pay you to participate in any number of research studies. After signing up, you can receive anywhere from $20 to $1,000 for each evaluation you participate in. Now, how’s that for free money?

Since this firm asks you to evaluate products, you may be asked to try experiment with any product from shampoo to barbecue sauce. But if you’re honest – and if you meet each study’s requirements – you can make some serious free money fast.

#13: Take an iPoll.

Yes, iPoll is yet another company that offers cash in exchange for participating in a poll or product research. Once you sign up using any of your social media accounts, you can get paid for commenting on and evaluating the products you use and the places you visit every day.

In exchange for your efforts, you’ll get gift cards to popular retailers, free cash, and entries into a quarterly drawing for $10,000. What are you waiting for? Sign up today.

#14: Get $5 for installing an app.

Smart Panel is a market research app aimed at gathering valuable insights from people who use their smartphones. To sign up, you’ll fill out a simple questionnaire to see if you qualify. Once you do, you’ll get a free five bucks just for installing the app on your phone.

For each month you keep the app installed, you’ll score another easy $5. Plus, you’re promised some kind of loyalty bonus every three months.

The only way to see if you’re eligible is to fill out their questionnaire. You can do so here.

#15: Trade your junk mail for free money.

While this might sound absolutely nuts, it’s absolutely true. A company called Small Business Knowledge Center will actually pay you to mail in your junk mail and forward them your spam email.

This might sound bonkers, but it works! According to the company’s website, the company uses information from our junk mail to help their clients develop and market their own products with a watchful eye on their competitor’s practices.

If you sign up and qualify, you’ll be rewarded for your junk mail with gift cards to some of your favorite stores. That’s a pretty sweet deal considering you were probably going to throw your junk mail straight in the trash, right?

#16: Answer questions about television shows.

This is a funny one. Basically, a company called RewardTV will pay you to comment on your favorite television shows. We have no idea why, but does it really matter?

If you watch enough television, you can get paid to answer fun trivia questions about your favorite sitcoms or nightly dramas. You won’t earn a lot – maybe $10 or $20 per month – but you might have fun.

And who knows? You might even learn more about your favorite shows, or discover some new shows to put into your weekly television rotation.

The Bottom Line

The internet offers a treasure trove of ways to earn free money in a pinch. And most of the time, all you have to do to get started is sign up and complete mindless tasks like watching videos or answering survey questions.

The free money is out there for the taking; it’s up to you to get out there and seize it!

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Slot machine revenue down 4 percent in November

The Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board has released the monthly report for total revenue generated from the play of slot machines at casinos during November.According to the report, November gross revenue from slot machines at the 12 casinos was $179,399,604, a 4 percent decrease in revenue when compared to the $187,540,869 generated in November 2015. Tax revenue in November of this year was $95,663,257.The average number of slot machines operating on a daily basis was [...]

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Memories of parents inspire the spirit of giving

We all have our own memories of Christmas. Some joyous, and others that reflect struggles. Nonetheless, the memories tend to stick with us, significant in tribute to the meaningfulness of the holiday season, with its family gatherings and the spirit of giving.Some of us remember Sciota resident Marjorie Robertson’s father Howard Roberson Jr., who ran an auction house in Neola.“Every year a Christmas party was held for all who came,” she said. [...]

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Penn-Stroud Hotel renovation nears completion

The historic hotel project, previously the Pocono Inne Town, received over $2 million in loans this week.

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Apply Today: 5 Work-From-Home Jobs That Don’t Require a College Degree

Looking for a new work-from-home job?

We scoured the internet to find five new opportunities that are 100% remote and hiring now. None require a college degree, and three are even part time!

Better say goodbye to your commute — we know you won’t miss it.

1. Customer Product Support Advisor for Concentrix

Are you a tech geek?

In this customer service position, you’ll “troubleshoot and resolve advanced technical issues while supporting one of the largest technology companies in the world.”

You must have “strong problem-solving, analytical and data-entry skills” and one to two years of customer service experience. You’ll work a flexible schedule, including weekends and/or holidays.

You’ll earn $9.50 per hour, with opportunities for raises after three, six and nine months. You’ll also get PTO — and full-timers get medical benefits.

2. Customer Support and Community Manager for Saent

Show me the money!

This customer support position pays $4,000 per month, with a reevaluation after six months. You’ll also get unlimited vacation days.

In this role, you’ll be responsible for handling all customer questions and building an online community. So, you’ll need customer service and community-building experience and excellent communications and problem-solving skills.

You should also be a self-starter, as the listing notes: “We are a young company and the team and our processes are still being built; don’t expect to arrive in a typical role where your responsibilities are very narrowly defined and clear.”

Interested? Get your application in by Dec. 12, 2016.

3. P/T Receptionist for Virtual Gal Friday

In this virtual receptionist role, you’ll answer live calls, schedule appointments and perform data entry.

You must have communications and computer skills, and the ability to do many things at once — “multitasking is an understatement for this position,” according to the listing.

To be eligible, you should have at least one year of experience in customer service or medical assisting or as a receptionist. Pay ranges from $11.50-$13 per hour.

4. P/T Marketing Ops Assistant for MeetEdgar

Whoa, talk about some killer benefits!

By working for this fully-remote startup, you’ll get the following for free: a monthly cleaning service, internet, co-working space or coffee shop expenses and educational books and conferences.

As a marketing ops assistant, you’ll work 25-30 hours per week to ensure things are running as smoothly as possible.

Your duties might include “managing meeting schedules, creating tasks and documentation, controlling project workflow, and otherwise supporting our marketing team’s daily operations,” the listing states.

To be eligible, you’ll need some experience in an ops/support/assistant role, some marketing experience and “impeccable organizational skills and internet fluency.”

5. P/T Customer Service for Skybridge Americas

If you live in Wisconsin or Minnesota, this gig’s for you.

For this work-from-home customer service job, you’ll need strong communications and computer skills. Your main duties will consist of responding to customers via phone and email, as well as some data entry.

You’ll work up to 29 hours per week at $10 per hour, and can also receive performance-based incentives. You’ll get a raise after six months, and then upon your anniversary each year.

Your Turn: Will you apply to any of these work-from-home jobs?

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.

The post Apply Today: 5 Work-From-Home Jobs That Don’t Require a College Degree appeared first on The Penny Hoarder.

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Google Fi Users: Here’s a Super Easy (and Cute!) Way to Score a Free $10

Do you hoard pennies by using Google’s cell phone service, Google Fi?

If you’ve never heard of it, you might want to check it out — it’s pretty sweet! You get a basic plan with unlimited text messages and minutes for $20, and then pay $10 per GB of data you use each month (without ever paying overages).

And the phones themselves aren’t cheap-o derivatives. In fact, the new Pixel has been called “the best phone on the planet” by Wired.

But I’ll put aside my fangirling for a moment to speak directly to those who’ve already converted.

If you’re on Google Fi, you can get a free $10 to spend in the Google Play store in less than 30 seconds.

Here’s how.

Use Google Fi? Get a Free $10 Google Play Store Credit

Google’s running a cute holiday campaign for Fi users called “A World of Thanks,” and it’s full of fun (and apparently valuable!) surprises.

Each week in December, Google will unveil a new digital wonderland. This week, users can create a custom streetview snowglobe, take a quiz about international greeting styles and, yes, score a free 10 bucks to spend in the Play store.

Just click here and log in with the Google account associated with your Fi service, then follow the prompts to “explore.”

The point is to click around and have fun, so I won’t give away all of this week’s wonderland’s secrets… but the $10 credit is hiding behind the big Christmas tree toward the left side of your screen.

Just click on the tree and redeem the code that pops up, and Google will credit your account with the freebie. Pretty easy, huh?

As a rabid Google Fi fan myself, I can’t wait to see what the next three weeks bring.

But in the meantime, I need to figure out which paid apps I’ll snatch up. Any suggestions?

Your Turn: Do you use Google Fi? What are your favorite apps available in the Play store?

Jamie Cattanach is a staff writer at The Penny Hoarder. Her writing has also been featured at The Write Life, Word Riot, Nashville Review and elsewhere. Find @JamieCattanach on Twitter to wave hello.

The post Google Fi Users: Here’s a Super Easy (and Cute!) Way to Score a Free $10 appeared first on The Penny Hoarder.

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United is Charging for Overhead Bins — and That Might Not be a Bad Thing

Travelers are in a tizzy about United Airline’s new Basic Economy ticket option, which — as most reports frame it — “bans” the use of overhead bins.

United isn’t doing itself any favors in its explanation of the new fares, either. It leads with, “Basic Economy fares have some important, additional restrictions compared to standard Economy fares…”

Let me help you out, United. Here’s the message you should be shouting from the rooftops (or writing in the sky?)…

Hey! United Airlines just introduced a cheaper plane ticket!!

The Basic Economy fare works much like the fares for low-cost carriers like Allegiant or Spirit. You get a seat, and that’s about it. If you want to bring a carry-on, choose your seat or change your flight, you’ll pay extra for it.

The benefit?

You get to fly in a United cabin, instead of in a cramped low-cost carrier’s seat, which seem to have forgotten that our legs only bend once. And you have the option to purchase in-flight food and entertainment that low-cost carriers don’t even offer.

New York Sen. Chuck Schumer isn’t happy about the fare. He even went so far as to call the overhead bin “one of the last sacred conveniences of air travel.”

Let’s reign in our adjectives, Senator. Overhead bins are many things — oddly-shaped, lower than you were expecting when you stood up, and filled with the jacket of some guy who thinks he deserves the space more than you — but “sacred” they are not.

Schumer isn’t the first senator to speak out against airline fees. In March, the Forbidding Airlines from Imposing Ridiculous (FAIR) Fees Act was actual legislation two senators proposed in response to airlines having “increasingly charged consumers fees for basic aviation services” in recent years.

The “basic” services mentioned include checking a bag, or changing or canceling a flight.

But I’d argue these fees aren’t “ridiculous” at all. They’re actually key to saving money on almost everything.

Wait, What?

I’m a capital-F Frugal traveler, and as such, I rarely pay extra fees.

I avoid checking a bag, or even bringing a carry-on when it costs money. I bring my own snacks, don’t care where I’m seated and provide my own in-flight entertainment.

All I usually need out of a flight is to get to my destination.

Everything else is an extra, and I’m happy to have the option to forgo it to save money.

Any Penny Hoarder should be.

How Added Fees Help You Save Money

Airline passengers are inclined to feel an injustice when they’re hit with these extra fees.

Many people feel like an airline takes advantage of their need to travel by tacking on fees for every little thing.

But look at it the other way: Think of those fees as costs removed from the price of your ticket.

Instead of charging everyone one higher rate and handing out extras for free, airlines can bring their prices down overall and recoup costs by charging people who use additional services.

Hate paying $25 to check a bag? You have the option to pay less if you travel light. If checked bags were free, you’d pay the same amount as other passengers, regardless of your baggage.

I fly low-cost carriers who don’t offer free drinks or snacks. Think about how much that saves the airline — savings they can pass on in the form of cheaper flights.

Instead of a $350 ticket, I’ll pay $200 and fork over $6 if I want pretzels 30,000 feet in the air.

Why You Pay Extra for Guac

Airline fees are probably the most noteworthy — and sometimes, most painful — fees we face.

But the logic of extra fees extends far beyond travel.

Do you hate paying $1 to add guacamole to your burrito? Or 50 cents for a side of sour cream or extra salsa?

It’s annoying, right? You’d think Chipotle would be able to survive without your pocket change.

The point isn’t that guacamole costs a lot. But the price you pay to add guac helps keep the cost of the burrito down in the first place.

If you want a cheaper burrito, you don’t have to add it.

And I’m glad I don’t have to pay extra for my burrito because you order guacamole every time.

Do You Want Convenience or Savings?

Yes, it feels better when everything you want is included.

You feel cared for, instead of nickel and dimed. And there are no surprises at the register.

Businesses know that, and some use the all-inclusive option to attract customers.

You don’t pay for extras at Qdoba, so skip Chipotle if you prefer not to budget for your preferred ingredients.

You don’t pay to check bags on Southwest, so choose that airline instead of a low-cost carrier if you need four pairs of boots for your trip.

But I prefer Chipotle’s quality, and Southwest rarely has the $150 round-trip flight I can find through Allegiant or Spirit.

As with a lot of things in life, you can choose between the convenience of having everything included or the savings of paying only for what you use.

I prefer to go for the savings. But mostly, I’m glad I have the choice.

Your Turn: Do you prefer all-inclusive rates or fees for extras?

Dana Sitar (@danasitar) is a staff writer at The Penny Hoarder. She’s written for Huffington Post, Entrepreneur.com, Writer’s Digest and more, attempting humor wherever it’s allowed (and sometimes where it’s not).

The post United is Charging for Overhead Bins — and That Might Not be a Bad Thing appeared first on The Penny Hoarder.

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How to Create a Content Marketing System That Runs on Autopilot

I think we can all agree that content marketing is both practical and potent.

It’s the ultimate form of inbound marketing and makes total sense when you need to reach 21st century consumers.

I could even spout off a laundry list of stats that prove just how big of an impact content marketing can have.

There’s the insane volume of leads, minimal financial investment, increased audience engagement, high ROI, and so on.

But if there’s any area where content marketers run into trouble, it’s the inherently time-consuming nature of the process.

Creating epic content takes time and energy. And not everyone has the time to devote to this marketing strategy.

And this doesn’t even include the additional effort needed to manage a campaign.

In many cases, it can take so much time that it hinders your ability to oversee other areas of business. Not good.

Here are some stats that put some perspective on just how time-consuming content marketing can be.

“72 percent of marketers are producing more content than they did the previous year.”

“Most B2B marketers use at least 13 content marketing tactics.”
“60 percent of marketers create at least one piece of content each day.”
“76 percent of B2B marketers will create more content in 2016 versus 2015.”

If these trends continue, the time investment required for content marketing will keep growing and growing.

And of course you have to consider that competition levels will continue to rise as well.

With more brands catching wind of the potential of this technique, it will become increasingly difficult to make your campaign stand out from the masses, requiring even more of your time.

What’s the solution?

As a person who’s incredibly busy myself, I’ve figured out some effective ways to run a content marketing campaign that requires the least amount of time but still achieves maximum results.

The content quality remains stellar, but I don’t have to perpetually “stoke the fire” to keep things running smoothly.

In other words, my campaign requires less time (and stress), but everything still operates at a high level.

Here’s how to create a content marketing system that runs on autopilot.

Campaign structuring and organization

In my opinion, a well built campaign starts at the top and trickles down.

You need to keep chaos at bay by having a clear game plan and making sure that all of your team members are on the same page at all times.

How do you do this?

I recommend using an online collaborative content calendar.

Although your basic spreadsheet can be helpful, I’ve found it’s seldom sufficient to meet my needs.

However, an online collaborative content calendar allows you and your team to:

Systematically plan and coordinate your content
Make edits that can be viewed in real time
Keep track of deadlines
Monitor progress each step of the way from conception to completion

I also prefer this to a spreadsheet because of the visual element. I just find it easier to keep my ducks in a row when I can visually see what’s happening and what needs to get done.

By staying organized, you can streamline collaboration, spend a lot less time scrambling to find information, and reduce your mistakes.

Some tools I recommend include CoSchedule, Buffer, and HubSpot.

Brainstorming

I’ve found that half of the battle of content marketing is simply coming up with new ideas for blog posts, white papers, videos, etc.

There never seems to be enough new ideas to “feed the hungry content monster.”

One way you can expedite the brainstorming process is to have a handful of idea-generating resources at your disposal.

I personally love BuzzSumo because it’s perfect for pointing me to articles on practically any topic under the sun.

Take content marketing for example.

By entering “content marketing” into the search bar, I instantly get access to a long list of articles written on this subject.

As you can see, BuzzSumo also shows you how well each article has performed based on social shares so you can see which topics are clicking the most with readers.

Some other content aggregators and helpful resources I recommend include:

Feedly
Alltop
Quora

You may also want to create a spreadsheet of all relevant industry blogs that you can quickly reference when you need to brainstorm.

I actually wrote an article about how to never run out of ideas, which offers further insight on this topic. Check it out for more details.

Content creation

This is without a doubt the more laborious part of the content marketing process.

You’ve got to actually sit down and consistently pound out quality content. Or do you?

While I definitely write a lot of the content myself, there’s just no way to keep up with the demand while juggling everything else that’s involved with running a business.

That’s why I recommend outsourcing at least part of it to freelance writers.

In fact, “64 percent of B2B marketers outsource writing.”

Some may only outsource a small fraction of it, while others outsource nearly everything.

It really just depends on your budget and content needs.

If content marketing is your go-to marketing strategy (or writing just isn’t your forte), you’ll probably want to outsource a significant portion of your content creation.

I’ve found outsourcing to freelance writers to be a positive thing, and many other brands feel the same way.

In fact, a big reason for the success of KISSmetrics was skilled writers we hired.

I even wrote an article on how KISSmetrics grew to 793,858 visitors a month by using this formula.

However, you don’t want to leave your content and brand reputation to just anyone.

You need to be sure you hire writers who are highly skilled, understand your brand/style/tone, and create quality content that resonates with your audience.

That’s why you need to make sure a writer has these six skills before you hire them.

Content curation

This term is defined as “the process of sorting through the vast amounts of content on the web and presenting it in a meaningful and organized way around a specific theme. The work involves sifting, sorting, arranging and publishing information.”

As you can tell, this sounds incredibly arduous. And it often is.

But it’s a staple of most content marketing campaigns.

Studies have even found that 95 percent of marketers share other organization’s content in some capacity.

The problem is it’s like panning for gold. You have to sift through all the dirt and debris just to find something of value that you can share with your audience.

If you’re just blindly curating content without some type of a game plan, it’s going to be a massive time-drain.

But the way I look at it, there are two main options to streamline this process:

Hire someone else to do it
Utilize a tool to make it quicker

The first choice is good because it can save time, but you lose a bit of control.

The second choice gives you maximum control and still saves time.

No matter what approach you choose, it’s still going to be much more efficient than manually sifting through piles of content just to find the diamond in the rough.

If you’re looking for a tool that works well for content curation, check out DrumUp.

It “analyzes tens of thousands of stories every day from across industries, interests and niches,” so you can quickly find great content to share.

Even if you’re in an extremely small niche, this will help you find suitable content for your audience without having to painstakingly search for a needle in a haystack.

Automating posting

The final piece of the puzzle is posting.

If you’ve only got one or two accounts, this is no big deal. You simply post your content manually and boom!—you’re done.

But what if you’re on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest, Tumblr, and more?

Posting the same piece of content across multiple channels can quickly eat away at your time.

This is especially true if you’re posting nearly every day.

Fortunately, you can automate much of your content distribution by using a tool such as Zapier.

This easy-to-use platform connects your apps and allows you to post content across multiple channels with only a couple of clicks.

In turn, it can eliminate a lot of tedious busy work (while saving your sanity).

Conclusion

Creating an effective content marketing system involves addressing five key areas:

Organizing and structuring your campaign
Expediting the brainstorming process to come up with new ideas
Creating the actual content
Efficiently curating content
Automating your posting

By taking measures to simplify and streamline these areas, you can create a system that essentially runs on autopilot.

This isn’t to say that it requires no effort or maintenance on your end whatsoever. But you can definitely eliminate a lot of the tasks and dramatically reduce the amount of time you spend on the tasks you still perform.

The outcome should be a content marketing system that produces equal or even greater results than the ones you’ve been achieving so far—while spending only a fraction of the time managing your campaign.

Are there any content marketing “hacks” that have worked for you?

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Wealth, Purpose, and the Idea of “Enough”

I’ve recently been enjoying The One Thing, a very thoughtful time and goal management book by Gary Keller and Jay Papasan. While I came away from the book with several very good ideas for time and goal management, there was one quote on page 142 that just stood out to me like a beacon of light:

“[F]inancially wealthy people are those who have enough money coming in without having to work to finance their purpose in life. Now, please realize that this definition presents a challenge to anyone who accepts it. To be financially wealthy you must have a purpose for your life. In other words, without purpose, you’ll never know when you have enough money, and you can never be financially wealthy.”

Let’s break this down into parts.

First of all, the authors hit the nail on the head with the first sentence, defining “financially wealthy people” as being those whose expenses are covered by income from their investments or from their previous efforts so that they no longer have to work for money. I call that state “financial independence,” meaning you’re simply no longer dependent on work to make ends meet in your life and can instead direct your energy elsewhere. It’s my long term goal at the moment, one where I’m far from the beginning but also far from the desired destination.

What’s interesting, though, is that the authors assign a purpose to financial independence. In other words, a significant part of their idea of financial independence is that you have some kind of purpose in your life that’s able to be financed by your investments and careful planning. That purpose inherently defines exactly how much money you need. Without that purpose, you can never have enough money.

I’m heading for this nebulous goal of “financial independence,” but how will I really know when I get there? I need some sort of purpose so that I know how much money I will need in order to be financially independent and live out that purpose.

This idea was one of those “close the book and think for a while” moments. I actually sat the book down, put on my coat, and went for a walk around the neighborhood when I first read those sentences.

Here’s the reality: Sarah and I have worked our tails off up to this point in our lives and right now, we could both retire extremely early if we were willing to live on a very tiny income, smaller than either one of us feels comfortable with. We’ve sat down together and done some modeling and realized that with our current financial state, we actually wouldn’t lose our house and we would be able to feed everyone if we both lost our jobs at the same time.

However, there are a lot of things we wouldn’t be able to do. We wouldn’t be able to travel much at all. We’d go down to one vehicle and would have to be very careful with how we used it. We’d have to make a lot of things ourselves, meaning a healthy portion of our time. As a result, we’re not retiring early any time soon unless it’s forced on us.

The interesting part, though, is that even those realizations point to a bit of a purpose when we’re financially independent. Clearly, some degree of travel is part of our purpose in retirement, which means that it requires a certain level of investment. I would very much like to spend at least a week at every national park in the national park system and walk the Appalachian Trail while I’m still young and healthy enough to pull it off.

That’s not going to fill all of my time, though. The truth is that I am wired for creative endeavors. I like making things. I like writing essays and books. I love writing and compiling computer code. I like building stuff. I also like learning new things and incorporating what I’m learning into the stuff that I build.

I also enjoy helping people. I’ve done a lot of different kinds of volunteer work over the years. I also write for The Simple Dollar, whose core mission from the day I started it was to offer as much insight into financial decisions as I could muster from an ordinary person with nothing to sell who wasn’t a part of the financial industry.

That’s who I am. That’s the core of what’s meaningful for me. I like learning and thinking and creating and helping people. When I am doing those things, I feel the most complete. That’s my purpose.

Thus, when I reach financial independence, I want to be able to support a life where I can learn and think and create and help people. I intend to take some classes at the local university and slowly progress through a different degree program for my own enrichment. I have ideas for several books I want to write. I want at least two or three hours a day for reading and I’ll probably take a daily hike, too. I will probably take a leadership role in a local charity that would eat up 10 to 20 hours a week at least. Aside from that, I want a life that’s largely like the one I have now, except with perhaps a little more domestic travel.

That is the life that I want in retirement. It sounds incredibly fulfilling to me. It fulfills what I think is my purpose in life – to create things and to help people. It also doesn’t rely greatly on the actions of others.

The question then becomes centered around cost and, honestly, that adds up to roughly what we’re spending now. Our children will move out, which will lower our costs, and we’ll travel a bit more, which will bring them back up. I work from home so my professional expenses are already pretty low – no commute, no wardrobe – so nothing like that will vanish when I retire early.

Thinking about financial independence through the lens of purpose really helps me to understand that goal and what it’s really all about. It isn’t about dollars and cents in an account; it’s about building a purposeful life that really has meaning for me. The dollars and cents are just a tool and the amount we need to save is just a target number, nothing more. The thing that matters is the purpose, because without that purpose, the goal of financial independence becomes very vague, very fast.

Another valuable part of this type of thinking is that it often really informs how you spend your spare time right now. The list of things that I want to do – to learn and to think and to create and to help people – are things that I fill my professional life and my leisure time with right now as much as possible. I engage in hobbies that make me think and learn, such as playing strategic games and reading, and my other hobbies blatantly recharge my creative juices, like hiking does. My work is about thinking and creating and helping people. I spend a surprising amount of time volunteering to help people in other ways.

It turns out that my life is pretty fulfilling right now. Financial independence merely serves to add to that fulfillment by eliminating the profit and income motives from everything that I do, rather than just from some of the things that I do, and also eliminates some of the time constraints. It lets me do those things more and gives me more windows of opportunity to get lost in the flow of the moment, because I’m convinced that flow is the truest source of happiness in life.

So, turn this whole thing around on you. Let’s assume that somehow, right now, you had enough money in the bank to simply fulfill whatever purpose you have in life. What would you do? How would you fill your days with something that brings deep and lasting meaning to yourself?

It’s not an easy thing, of course. It will take time and you’ll find that over time your idea of “purpose” will shift around a little bit as you gain life experience and knowledge.

However, when you put a purpose in place and give yourself a real, tangible goal that just rings true for you, you’ll not only find a ton of motivation to work toward financial independence, you’ll also find things to fill your spare time with and perhaps even find some smart career choices along the way.

What is enough? Enough means simply having adequate financial resources to do whatever it is that you’re drawn to do in life without interference. It’s a wonderful, powerful personal finance goal.

Good luck.

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Spread-betting firms face regulatory crackdown

Gary Adams

spread-betting.jpg

Spread-betting and binary trading, two controversial methods of financial trading that have become more popular recently, have come under the glare of the regulator.

The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), has this week proposed a package of measures to “limit the risks” of these products, which it hopes will “enhance consumer protection”.

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7 Ways to Stay Focused When You’re Working from Home (Look, a Squirrel!)

I worked from home as a freelancer for several years. Then I started a full-time job with The Penny Hoarder, where I work from home one day a week.

Though I love the flexibility and the comfort — PJs all day! — I can attest to the challenges of working from home and managing your own time. Distractions abound, and without regular access to coworkers and bosses, productivity can suffer.

Whether you work for yourself or a company, your challenges are probably the same:

Staying focused on your work.

Deciding which tasks to prioritize.

Keeping track of your time.

Communicating with co-workers, colleagues, clients or teams.

Collaborating on projects with people all over the world.

Here are my favorite productivity tools to combat these challenges:

1. Use These 3 Apps to Stay Focused

When you work from home, a lot of factors will determine your level of focus. You’ll want to ensure family or roommates know to let you be and that your home office is distraction-free.

But don’t forget about that giant distraction right in front of you: the internet.

Working from home requires a computer and internet connection nearly 100% of the time. You have to figure out how to focus on your tasks while you’re connected to literally everything in the world at once.

No one should be faced with such a feat. Thankfully, plenty of tools exist to help:

RescueTime gives you a detailed report of your daily computer activity, showing you which applications and websites get the bulk of your attention.

SelfControl for Mac lets you blacklist distracting websites — think: social media, email or perhaps a celebrity news blog? — and set a period of time during which you can’t access them. For PCs, try the Self Control Chrome extension.

Time Out has a similar motivation to the Pomodoro Technique, reminding you to take breaks from your screen throughout the workday. Set this app to remind you to take a break to stretch, eat lunch or just relax your muscles and rest your eyes.

2. Be More Productive in Email

Email can be one of the biggest timesucks in your day — unless you do it right. I recommend using Gmail or its mobile-optimized Inbox app. Both apps offer options that help you stay organized so you can spend less time sorting through email.

Read my six Gmail hacks to help you be more productive in your workday.

3. Streamline Communication With a Messaging App

To keep your email inbox clean, use a messaging app for ongoing conversations with your team.

Here are my favorites:

Through Slack, you can join an existing team by invite — e.g. for a professional organization you’re part of. You can also start a new team for your company or colleagues.

Google Hangouts lets you send instant messages to contacts from within Gmail or in the Hangouts app, or start a video chat with up to 25 users.

If you use an iPhone and a Mac, you can use the Messages desktop app to continue conversations from your phone on your desktop — all conversations will appear in both places.

If constant chatter in these apps becomes distracting, they each have “away” or “do not disturb” options to let you focus but stay connected.

4. Organize and Share Your Projects

For collaboration and organization, Google’s suite of apps is my absolute favorite.

Docs, Sheets and Slides let your team create content, work in the same files simultaneously and track changes and comments. Stop sending attachments via email and losing the most recent version of your projects!

Drive lets you upload, store, share and download files in almost any format, so you don’t have to send files via email or worry about creating a document that’s compatible with your colleague’s software.

5. Manage Your To-Do List With a Free App

Plenty of project- and team-management tools exist to help you streamline work with a large team. If you’re working from home for a company, I recommend you ask your boss to look into Flow or LiquidPlanner to keep track of big projects.

If you working for yourself and need a simpler solution to manage your own time or work on projects with just a few people, consider these free options:

iDoneThis

iDoneThis is a super-simple free site you can use to set personal or team daily goals and celebrate wins. Each day, note what you got done and create goals for the next day. You can even set iDoneThis to email you a daily reminder and respond via email to update your list.

When you’re working alone, this service is a helpful daily reminder of your achievements and a simple way to set your priorities for each day.

Starting an iDoneThis team with colleagues or coworkers lets you see what others are achieving and adds accountability for achieving your own goals.

Trello

I love Trello almost entirely because of its design, which is more palatable than most project-management apps. It lets you create and share boards dedicated to various departments or projects, then add tasks and other information as cards on those boards.

Drag and drop cards to shift deadlines or priorities, assign cards to various team members, attach documents and images, and chat with other members within tasks.

Trello is free to use with unlimited boards, cards and members. If you need more control and options, it’s $9.99 per user per month.

6. Schedule Meetings Without the Email Back and Forth

Scheduling is another timesuck and inbox-thief you don’t need in your day. Email and even instant messages are annoying and inefficient for the task. Instead, use a simple meeting scheduler to get it done faster and get back to work.

Doodle

You may have already heard of Doodle, the classic scheduling tool. Its simplicity makes it a mainstay. Create an event — like a remote staff meeting or networking lunch — and invite attendees to pick a time.

If you’re scheduling appointments with coaching or consulting clients, I like Doodle’s app BookMe, which starts at $10 a month.

Google Calendar

If you haven’t caught my Google apps mania by this point, let me add another: Calendar helps you plan events and meetings by sharing schedules with others so you can quickly see when everyone is busy or available.

Within your organization, Calendar is a more efficient tool for scheduling than Doodle, as your co-workers will likely share their calendars with you.

7. Avoid Being Distracted by Must-Read Links

Whatever your job, I bet you spend a lot of time on the internet and social media by necessity. You have to do research for articles, learn about a business, reach out to network or just Google a company’s phone number.

Unfortunately the internet is loaded with landmines — headlines you can’t help but click.

61 Puppies That Just Can’t Even at Christmastime

6 Ways You’re Doing Exactly the Wrong Thing Right Now

You Won’t Believe the Inspiring Way this 3-Legged Goose Saved My Life

I know. You have to read this. But don’t let that ruin your productivity.

When you come across an article you need to read but don’t have time for, save it to Pocket and read it later.

Bonus: Try Zoho if You’re Starting From Scratch

Many of these apps might be your best option, because they’re widely used by the people you’ll work with. For example, your company might use Gmail for employee emails, which gives you access to all of Google’s apps.

If you’re working for yourself or building a team from scratch, though, you might want to check out Zoho, cloud software for business that offers tools for all of the above under one account — much of it for free

With a free Zoho account, you can use Zoho mail, docs, calendar and tasks; plus Connect, a private social network for your team; Projects, a project management app; and its Meeting app for video calls.

Zoho isn’t as widespread as many of these other tools, so vet it for yourself. I use docs and mail, and love them. It lets me set up an email address at my own domain for free, and I love that team collaboration can be rolled under one roof.

Your Turn: What are your favorite productivity tools?

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5 Smart Money Moves for Empty Nesters

Parents always get a bit melancholy when their kids grow up and move out on their own. Well, for about five minutes anyway.

Somewhere between getting your morning coffee with no pants on and making anything you want for dinner, it dawns on you that being an empty nester has its perks.

While you’re enjoying your abundance of me time, don’t forget to consider the money moves you can make now that your circumstances have changed.

Here are five ideas to get you started.

1. Rent Out Your Empty Rooms

Empty nesters often think about downsizing the family home to something smaller (and easier to clean!).

While that’s good advice, it may not be right for every situation. If your house is paid off or you’re in a rent-controlled home in an area with high rental prices, staying put might be a better bet.

Don’t let dust bunnies move into those empty bedrooms, though. Get some renters in there instead.

List your spare space on Trulia or Zillow for long-term rentals, or create an Airbnb listing to accommodate people for shorter stays. If you decide to rent rooms on a short-term basis, think about targeting business travelers to make even more money as an Airbnb host.

2. Review Your Ride

After children move out, it’s the perfect time to reevaluate your vehicular needs. If you’re no longer toting around piles of football gear or packs of kids for the neighborhood carpool, you probably don’t need a vehicle that could double as the Partridge Family tour bus.

Think about downsizing to a smaller, more economical vehicle, or even selling one vehicle if you’re a two-car family that can make do with just one.

If you decide to hang on to a second car, don’t let it simply languish in the driveway. Put it to work making you some extra money.

While you’re thinking about vehicles, remember to take a look at your car insurance policy. If you’re not using your car as much as you used to, it’s possible your rates may go down.

3. Reallocate Your Money

You don’t need me to tell you that kids are expensive. Food, clothing, allowances, school fees and other necessities can easily add up to hundreds of dollars per month per child.

A significant portion of your expenses went down when your kids moved out. Use that extra money to bulk up your retirement plan or pay down debt.

If you’re debt-free, talk to a financial planner about the best place to plunk down the money you used to spend on keeping your kids fed and clothed so it can grow. Don’t forget to also ask them how your new status as an empty nester affects your taxes, so you can plan accordingly.

4. Review Your Budget

Now that your household expenses have dropped, it’s time to re-evaluate your budget. You might not think it’s necessary, but a good budget is a critical part of making sure your financial success follows you into retirement.

Budgeting apps like Personal Capital and You Need a Budget take the pain out of planning and are a huge help in tracking how and where you spend your money.

One of the perks of setting up a budget and sticking to it is that it frees you to enjoy this new chapter of your life.

After the 11th sleepless night with your colicky baby, you probably thought a lot about all the fun things you’d do once Junior moved out on his own. Now that day has arrived, and with a proper budget in place, you can save for your dream vacation or kitchen remodeling project.

5. Ramp Up Your Hobby

When your schedule is packed with family responsibilities, it’s not easy to carve out time for a hobby. Now that you’ve got some breathing room, use it to earn money while pursuing your favorite pastimes.

If crafts are your thing, set up a shop on Etsy. Maybe you’ve been itching to up your photography game and sell a few prints along the way. Now’s your chance!

Indulging in a hobby can earn you some extra passive income, and if you’re feeling particularly frisky, you could even turn it into a business. Just make sure to factor the money you invest on it into your budget so you don’t overspend.

You don’t need a workroom and a hands-on hobby to see a financial gain. Volunteering with an organization that needs your help can be just as fulfilling. You won’t make much (or possibly any) money that way, but the expenses you incur while doing volunteer work are often tax deductible.

It’s common to feel a bit blue when your kids move out. Pat yourself on the back for the great job you did raising them, and enjoy your new journey as a part of the empty-nest community.

Your turn: How did your financial landscape change when the kids moved out?

Lisa McGreevy is a bargain-loving freelance writer based in Tampa. She’s a travel junkie who keeps her passport in her wallet because you never know when opportunity will strike.

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Five Things Your Life Insurance Agent May Not Tell You

Life insurance agents provide a valuable service by explaining policy benefits and costs, but they may not tell you everything you need to know before you make a coverage choice.

Agents are in the business to sell policies, so it’s to their advantage to focus on the positives. Consumers can protect themselves by doing some research so they’ll understand the basics of how life insurance works. It’s also important to ask questions about anything you don’t understand.

“Not everyone’s needs are the same,” explains Curtis Price, an independent insurance agent based in San Diego. “You need to ask questions.”

Here are five things that your life insurance agent may not tell you:

1. Not everyone needs life insurance.

While many people can benefit from life insurance protection, each situation is different. The main purpose of life coverage is to replace your income if you die, so your dependents will be provided for. If you’re a primary breadwinner with a spouse or children who rely on your income, buying a life insurance policy probably is a wise decision.

However, if you have no dependents, a life policy could be a waste of money, unless you plan to designate a favorite charity as your beneficiary.

Also, some people have enough financial resources to guarantee their dependents’ wellbeing, even if they die unexpectedly. “If you have enough savings or investments so that all of your primary expenses are covered, you may not need life insurance,” says Price.

Kevin Foley, an insurance agent in New Jersey, says for some people it makes sense to buy a minimal amount of life insurance to cover final expenses, such as funeral services and burials.

2. Permanent life insurance isn’t right for everyone.

The two basic types of life insurance policies are term and cash value, which also is known as permanent or whole life insurance. A term life insurance policy generally is less expensive, because it insures you for a fixed period, such as 10 years. At the end of the term, you must buy a new policy.

Cash-value insurance covers you for your entire life, as long as you pay your premiums. It gradually builds a value on a tax-deferred basis. The cash value is the amount available if you surrender a policy before you die or after the policy reaches maturity. Maturity typically occurs when the insured reaches age 100, says Foley.

A cash-value policy can be borrowed against for such expenses as down payments on homes and college tuition. The cash value is different, though, than the policy’s face amount — which is the money that will be paid upon your death, or when the policy matures.

Because cash-value policies are designed to keep for extended periods, they may not be right for people who don’t have a need for long-term coverage, according to Life Happens, a nonprofit organization formed to educate the public about life insurance issues.

3. You can buy too much life insurance.

It may sound like a good idea to buy more life insurance than you need, but taking on too much coverage will place an unnecessary strain on your bank account. MarketWatch points out that it’s a good idea to have enough coverage to pay off your mortgage. After that, the amount you select should be based on the needs of your dependents. Don’t be too quick to agree to $500,000 or $1 million in coverage.

If you’re widowed and your children are grown, your need for life insurance is likely to be much less than a primary breadwinner with a spouse and young children, says Jim Armitage, an insurance agent in Arcadia, Calif. “It all depends on what your goals are and what your needs are,” he says.

4. Your life insurance agent is paid on a commission basis.

Your agent may be sincere when he or she says you don’t have enough life insurance coverage, but remember that agents typically are paid on commission. The larger the policy you buy, the more money they earn. Sometimes agents will urge clients to replace existing policies just to generate new sales, says Foley.

“Be cautious if your agent sells you a policy and tells you a couple of years later they have a better deal,” he says.
If your agent says you need an expensive policy, make sure he or she can justify the cost, Foley adds. Don’t be afraid to ask about your agent’s commission on various insurance products.

5. Insurance is primarily a risk-management tool.

If you’re looking for a way to invest your money, there normally are more profitable ways to do so than buying a life insurance policy.

While permanent life insurance has an investment component, the main purpose of any life policy is to replace the income of the insured and to protect his or her dependents. A policy enables you to manage your risk of dying.

“I’m not an advocate for saying life insurance is a good investment,” says Foley. “It is a tool for providing a cash flow to your family after death.”

There are cases, however, when it makes sense for high net-worth individuals to minimize estate taxes by buying permanent life policies. Consult a qualified wealth planner to explore your options.

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