CLOSING BELL: Stocks sink early on Washington worries before paring losses

The weakness followed last week's failure by Republicans to repeal the Affordable Care Act, something they've been pledging to do for years, which raised doubts that Washington can push through promises to help businesses.

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Think You Saved at Harbor Freight? You’ll Think Again After Reading This

When is a sale not really a sale? When the prices listed on the shelf are just a pile of malarkey. (Allegedly.)

Harbor Freight, which sells “Quality Tools at Ridiculously Low Prices,” is under fire for allegedly manufacturing some of those low prices.

The tool warehouse is settling a class-action lawsuit claiming it advertised items as on sale when those sale prices didn’t reflect a legitimate discount.

Why Harbor Freight Sale Prices Weren’t Legit

The sale tags compared customer savings to prices that had not been in place for at least 28 of the prior 90 days, according to the settlement.

The suit also affects items marked with “compare at” notes to highlight customer savings compared to other stores. Similarly, Harbor Freight hadn’t listed those items at the regular price for long enough before applying the “discount.”

Harbor Freight maintains it followed the law.

The settlement received preliminary approval Dec. 15, 2016, but the final settlement approval hearing won’t take place until July 7, 2017. You have until Aug. 7, 2017 to file your claim.

What You Can Expect if You File a Claim?

If you shopped at Harbor Freight between April 8, 2011 and Dec. 15, 2016, you may be eligible for a refund of a portion of your bill. There are three claim groups:

Group A: You have an itemized receipt from Harbor Freight that says “You saved __” for purchases made during the eligibility period. You can choose to receive a percentage of the “You saved” amount listed on your receipt(s). Want cash? You’ll get 20% of that “saved” amount; choose a Harbor Freight gift card to get 30% of that amount.

Group B: You have a credit or debit card statement proving you shopped at Harbor Freight during the eligibility period. You’ll receive 10% of the total purchase if you choose a cash settlement. Choose a Harbor Freight gift card and get 12% of the total.

Group C: You know you shopped at Harbor Freight during the eligibility period, but you don’t have proof. Submit a signed declaration that you were affected to receive a $10 Harbor Freight gift card.

It is possible to be a member of both Group A and Group B, but if you’re in Group C, that’s the only claim you can file.

Why Comparison Shopping is Worth Your Time

Harbor Freight is far from the first retailer facing criticism for allegedly manufacturing its amazing prices.

Kohl’s, Macy’s, Burlington Coat Factory, T.J. Maxx, JC Penney and Nordstrom Rack have all faced lawsuits for offering phony “deals.”

A Consumer Watchdog report recently claimed that Amazon inflated crossed-out list prices to highlight how much users would save using the online shopping giant.

And outlet stores, well, a lot of those have been a total sham for a while.

Want to make sure you’re getting a real deal? Compare prices over the course of a few days (or weeks, if you can bear it) at several retailers before taking the plunge on a big purchase. And if it sounds too good to be true… yep. You know how this advice ends.

Your Turn: Do you shop at Harbor Freight? Will you be filing a claim?

Lisa Rowan is a writer and producer at The Penny Hoarder.

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Buddhist Retreat Needs Volunteers to Sow Vegetables, Reap Free Living Costs

I finally watched “Into the Wild” this weekend, and I’m feeling inspired to go “find myself.” (I put this in quotes because at this point, I think it might be impossible.)

Granted, I’m not burning my money and hitchhiking to Alaska to live in an abandoned bus. But I would consider something a little more structured — that’s just my Type A personality — like living at and volunteering for a Tibetan Buddhist retreat in Northern California.

The Odiyan Retreat Center, which isn’t open to the public, is looking for a vegetable gardener/farmer to join its community of 40 people for six months.

You don’t need to practice Buddhism to join; you just need to be open to “a wholesome lifestyle of self-sufficiency, meaningful work and inner development,” according to the CoolWorks listing.

You down?

This Gig Has Real Growth Opportunities

Located on 1,000 acres in Cazadero, California, the retreat center describes itself as a “spiritual and ecological preserve… perched on a ridge overlooking rolling hills and the Pacific Ocean.”

As its gardener/farmer, you’ll be in charge of taking care of a 2-acre vegetable garden. The goal is to feed the entire community.

The center prefers applicants with some gardening, farming, agricultural or horticultural experience.

You also need to be at least 23 years old and able to commit at least six months to the retreat.

You should be OK lifting heavy things and using tools and small machines. Couples are more than welcome to apply together, though kids and pets aren’t allowed.

The Perks of Joining the Odiyan Retreat Center

This is a volunteer gig, but you will reap some sweet perks.

• Free housing (a large room with a balcony)
• Free home-cooked vegetarian meals
• An allowance of $150 per month
• Free Wi-Fi and domestic phone calls
• Free development classes (think: Tibetan yoga, skillful means, Buddhist study)
• Access to nature, hiking trails and swimming areas, plus an unlimited supply of fresh air

If you’re interested in getting away for a while and learning more about this unique experience, check out the listing on CoolWorks.

You can also visit the Odiyan Retreat Center’s website for more information on how to apply.

If you’re more like “namaste right where I am,” we have additional opportunities over on our Facebook jobs page.

Your Turn: Would you bail on your current life and become a gardener at a Buddhist retreat?

Carson Kohler (@CarsonKohler) is a junior writer at The Penny Hoarder. After watching “Into the Wild,” she cried for approximately an hour — which is why she hates watching movies.

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Auto Buying Guide: Consider all costs in that used car ‘deal’

EDITOR’S NOTE: This article appears in Auto Buying Guide 2017. Find the full magazine at http://ift.tt/2nFIEfw it comes to saving money, buying a used car certainly makes sense — as long as you don’t pay too much. “The outlook for used cars continues to be strong in 2017. There will be no shortage of quality used cars for sale again this year, but where buyers really can help themselves is by [...]

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Auto Buying Guide: New cars that get 40 mpg in real-world driving

EDITOR’S NOTE: This article appears in Auto Buying Guide 2017. Find the full magazine at http://ift.tt/2nFUl5D cars like the Mitsubishi Mirage GT are generally the ones we think of when we imagine top-notch fuel economy. Or perhaps a discussion of efficiency brings to mind a single-focus vehicle like the top-selling green car past and present, the Toyota Prius. Although these are both excellent vehicles in [...]

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Auto Buying Guide: Deciding whether to keep or sell your car

EDITOR’S NOTE: This article appears in Auto Buying Guide 2017. Find the full magazine at http://ift.tt/2nFNnxI had your car for a while and you’re at a crossroads. Maybe it’s purely financial, maybe it’s a question of maintenance, or maybe you’ve had a change in family status, but whatever the reason, you think your current vehicle isn’t cutting it any longer.So how do [...]

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Auto Buying Guide: Beyond repair?: Should you buy a car that’s had a major problem fixed?

EDITOR’S NOTE: This article appears in Auto Buying Guide 2017. Find the full magazine at http://ift.tt/2nFOiOC shopping can be tricky, as there are many ways to end up with someone else’s problem. Car history sites are fantastic, but they don’t tell the whole story. Should you buy a car if it had a big problem — say an engine or transmission failure — that was then repaired by a reliable [...]

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Auto Buying Guide: Comparing green cars

By John GorehamBestRide.com EDITOR’S NOTE: This article appears in Auto Buying Guide 2017. Find the full magazine at http://ift.tt/2nFxyqC first step in buying a green car is to define what “green” means in the context of personal transportation. One simple definition of a green vehicle is one that uses significantly less petroleum and generates significantly less polluting and greenhouse gas [...]

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Auto Buying Guide: The safest electric vehicles

By John GorehamBestRide.comEDITOR’S NOTE: This article appears in Auto Buying Guide 2017. Find the full magazine at http://ift.tt/2nFLzVe of electric vehicles and hybrids may have taken it on the chin as gasoline prices dipped, but the green vehicle class continues to grow in both model selection and sales volume.The Insurance Institute For Highway Safety has now completed a new round of testing, [...]

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Auto Buying Guide: Future classics: Collectible cars you can buy new now

EDITOR’S NOTE: This article appears in Auto Buying Guide 2017. Find the full magazine at http://ift.tt/2nFGaha the early ’70s, my great-grandmother walked into a Chevy dealership and purchased a V-8-powered Chevelle hardtop coupe. The last car she would ever buy. Her choice would become one of the most widely restored collectible classics in automotive history. Had she known, pea soup green may not have been [...]

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Nobody Puts Baby in a Corner. But Would You Put Her in a (Free) Box?

I have something to share that I’m not super proud to admit: Before my daughter was born, I briefly considered using a dresser drawer for her bed.

Don’t judge. I was a stressed-out, hormonal pregnant woman wondering how in the world I’d support my child alone while working a job that barely supported me by myself. And babies are expensive.

So I began to think… How much of these infant essentials are actually must-haves? I had already committed to breast-feeding, making my own baby food and cloth diapering to save money on formula, jarred purees and disposable diapers. My logic was that my baby would be small enough to fit in a dresser drawer, at least starting out.

Turns out my thinking wasn’t totally off. Los Angeles-based Baby Box Co. has partnered with the states of Ohio and Alabama to provide parents of newborns with free cardboard boxes for their babies to sleep in. No, seriously.

New Jersey teamed up with the company back in January, starting the trend in the U.S., though the concept of giving expectant mothers a free baby box has been a Finnish tradition for decades.

Now before you start thinking that using a box as a bed is just as crazy as my dresser drawer idea, there’s important logic behind the idea. Baby boxes are a safe sleep option that can reduce the risk of Sudden Infant Death Syndrome, or SIDS.

The American Academy of Pediatrics recommends newborns be put to sleep on their backs on a firm sleep surface with a tight-fitting sheet — without soft bedding or toys — to avoid the risk of sleep-related deaths. The boxes’ small, firm mattresses with fitted sheets make them an ideal sleep environment for a newborn.

Ohio plans on giving away 140,000 boxes this year, while New Jersey will hand out 105,000, and Alabama will distribute 60,000, according to NPR.

The boxes (which are 26.75 long, 16.75 wide and 11.5 inches deep, in case you were wondering) can be used until babies are about 6 months old, or until they’re able to pull themselves up independently.

To get the free box in all three states, parents must first watch a few educational videos and complete an online quiz. Boxes can be picked up from a distributor or delivered home at no extra charge.

In addition to serving as a bed, the boxes come with complimentary baby swag — onesies, diapers, wipes and breast-feeding supplies. Another plus: The Baby Box Co. says the box can be used for toy storage or as a keepsake chest after your child outgrows it.

Talk about a great way to hoard pennies.

For parents living in states that aren’t giving out free boxes, the company’s most basic baby box package retails for $69.99 — which is still less expensive than most cribs.

Your Turn: Would you let your newborn sleep in a box?

Nicole Dow is a staff writer at The Penny Hoarder. She ended up with a crib, two bassinets and a Pack ‘n Play — all gifts — so her baby did not have to sleep in a dresser drawer.

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Auto Buying Guide: Reliable used pickups under $10K

EDITOR’S NOTE: This article appears in Auto Buying Guide 2017. Find the full magazine at http://ift.tt/2nZ37wo sure love their trucks, making the best-selling automobile nationwide a Ford F-150 pickup for many years running. While pickups are great to have, they are not cheap to buy, unless you think smart and buy used. A consumer that does his or her research can locate a high-quality, low-mileage used pickup for [...]

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What’s a Credit Score Really Worth? Maybe Not Much After This

If you’re checking out your credit score, there’s something you should know.

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau has called out all three of the major credit reporting agencies — Experian, Equifax and TransUnion — for overhyping the credit scores they’re selling.

Good news: They’ve also been ordered to change their ways.

The most recent credit agency the CFPB targeted is Experian. Last week, the CFPB announced it had fined Experian $3 million for “deceiving consumers about the use of credit scores it sold to consumers.”

“Experian claimed the credit scores it marketed and provided to consumers were used by lenders to make credit decisions,” the CFPB said.

The bureau continued: “In fact, lenders did not use Experian’s scores to make those decisions. The CFPB ordered Experian to truthfully represent how its credit scores are used.”

Experian admitted no wrongdoing but agreed to pay the fine.

This comes on the heels of a CFPB crackdown on the other two big credit reporting agencies in January. The bureau fined Equifax and TransUnion a total of $23 million to settle claims they were deceiving customers.

What were they doing wrong?

They advertised their credit scores as being the same scores banks are looking at when deciding whether to loan you money.

But lenders tend to use a variety of credit scores, so no one rating is universally accepted by every lender, the CFPB said. Instead, lenders “rely in part on these scores when deciding whether to extend credit.”

The CFPB has ordered the credit agencies to be more accurate in what they tell customers.

What Does This Mean for You?

Just be aware that the credit score you’re seeing isn’t necessarily the same one that the bank is using to judge how creditworthy you are.

“In addition to the credit scores that are actually used by lenders, several companies have developed so-called ‘educational credit scores,’ which lenders rarely, if ever, use,” the CFPB said. “These scores are intended to inform consumers.”

In other words, your credit scores can still be a useful tool to see roughly where you stand in the eyes of lenders.

Everyone is entitled to a free copy of their credit report — an accounting of all credit-related activity — once a year from each of the three biggest credit reporting agencies. It’s easy to do through AnnualCreditReport.com.

A credit report is a summary of your credit history, while a credit score — a number that typically ranges from 300 to 850 — is an estimate of how creditworthy you are based on your credit report.

Here’s how to build a good credit score:

• Pay your bills on time.

• Keep balances on your cards well below the limit.

• Keep credit accounts open.

• Reduce your credit utilization ratio. That means reducing what you owe while increasing your available credit.

Your Turn: Have you taken action to increase your credit score?

Mike Brassfield (mike@thepennyhoarder.com) is a senior writer at The Penny Hoarder. His credit rating could be way, way better.

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Iran’s 'reciprocal' sanctions include Kahr Arms

Pike County gun maker Kahr Arms and firearms developers Magnum Research were among 15 American companies sanctioned by Iran, blaming the companies for alleged support of terrorism, repression and Israel's occupation of land Palestinians want for a future state.The sanctions are likely in retaliation for sanctions earlier announced by the U.S., an Associated Press story said.The list of 15 companies appeared more symbolic than anything else as the firms weren't immediately [...]

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Take Pride in Your Job: Grindr is Hiring Work-From-Home Representatives

The team behind gay dating app Grindr says it’s all about connecting men “to the world that brings them happiness.”

Here’s your chance to help Grindr bring about that connection by snagging this work-from-home job as a customer support agent.

The job is open to applicants around the country, but Eastern daylight time zone is preferred.

Like many part-time remote employees, customer support agents at Grindr work less than 30 hours per week and are not eligible for benefits.

However, “as a Customer Support Agent you will have the opportunity to influence the way Grindr meets the support needs of its users, and positively enhance Grindr’s brand in the marketplace through successful customer interactions,” reads the job description.

In practical terms, that means you’ll help Grindr users troubleshoot technical issues and provide instructions to them using written communication.

Grindr is looking for applicants who meet these requirements:

• One or two years of experience in customer support.

• Excellent English communication skills.

• A computer and high-speed internet connection.

• Comfortable using IM, Skype and email as primary methods of communication.

• Familiarity with iOS and Android.

• Prior experience with remote working and Zendesk customer support platform preferred.

I reached out to Grindr reps to ask about the pay range for this position, and I’ll update this article when they get back to me.

If this job sounds like it’s right up your alley, here’s where to apply.

Your turn: Have you ever worked as a customer support agent? Did you enjoy it?

Lisa McGreevy is a staff writer at The Penny Hoarder. She’s always looking for work-from-home job leads to share with readers. Look her up on Twitter @lisah if you’ve got a hot tip.

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100 Fun and Lucrative Summer Jobs for Teens

It’s almost time for summer, which means it’s time to think about summer jobs. If you’re a teen looking for work — or if you’ve got a teen in your house who should be looking for work — here’s a list of 100 summer jobs for teens.

Teen jobs traditionally pay around minimum wage or a little bit more, so expect to earn anywhere between $2,000-$5,000 (pretax) for a summer’s worth of work, depending on the type of job you get and whether you work full- or part-time. You can also, of course, create your own job — and we’ve got plenty of resources to help you there.

We’ve divided the jobs into categories to help you quickly find the type of job that might be most interesting to you. What will you do for work this summer?

Sitting: Children, Houses, Pets and Plants

Babysitting is a classic teen job, but there are a lot more opportunities for teens to earn money by helping friends and neighbors care for kids, pets and even houses!

The Jobs

1. Mother’s Helper: A good option for younger teens, this is a great way to get started as a sitter. Watch or play with children while a parent is in the home getting other work done.

2. Babysitter: Watch babies or children while their parents are away. You need CPR training and a safe sitter course, both of which are available through the Red Cross. Becoming a family’s regular sitter can often put a lot of money in your bank account, since many parents will need full-time child care while their kids are out of school all summer!

3. Pet Sitter: Watch and feed pets while the owners are away. This gig can last anywhere from a long weekend to a few weeks or more.

4. Dog Walker: Walk dogs while families are at work or on vacation. You must love dogs — and be willing to scoop up their poop!

5. Plant Sitter: It’s not a very high-paying gig, but every dollar counts! Water plants while owners are away. Instead of saying “I charge $10 an hour” for this one, expect that a family will offer you something like $25 to $50 for taking care of their plants over a period of time.

6. House Sitter: For the older teens, this is a great job for summers in between college. You get paid to live in someone else’s house while they are away. Might include pet or plant sitting as part of the job description; will probably include light cleaning and maintenance so the owners don’t come home to dust and mildew.

What You Can Earn

There’s generally a “market rate” in your area for sitting jobs, and it could range from $10 an hour to $25 an hour depending on your location and your experience. Talk to other sitters or parents in your area to find out what’s reasonable. Don’t be afraid to negotiate for the rate you think you deserve!

How to Get the Jobs

A lot of these jobs are filled through word-of-mouth; a friend of your parents might be going on a trip and needs someone to feed the cat. But be proactive! Put up flyers, put out the call on Facebook and make sure the adults you know are aware that you are ready and able to work.

Making: Turn Your Talents Into Cash

If you can make something that’s beautiful or useful, you’ve got yourself a job opportunity.

The Jobs

7. T-Shirt Designer: Have a knack for art and design? Want to turn your favorite TV characters’ names into a Helvetica T-shirt? Start designing and selling T-shirts on sites like District Lines, Spreadshirt, Teespring or Etsy.

8. Seamstress or Tailor: If you can make and alter clothes, you’ve got a skill you can monetize. Alter pants for friends and family, or sell original clothing items on Etsy or at flea markets and craft shows.

9. Doll Designer: There’s a big market for customized dolls out there — maybe you’ve seen the story of the woman who repainted Bratz dolls’ faces to look natural and makeup-free — so if you have a talent or interest here, start making and start selling!

10. Woodworker: Make chairs, crafts, walking sticks or other wood items and sell them on Etsy or in person. Put up signs in your local area announcing your talent and seek out commissions.

11. Webcomic Artist: If you want to get started as a webcomic artist, there’s no time like the present. It might take a few years to build up an audience willing to pay for books, T-shirts and other webcomic-related merchandise, but why not spend a summer developing your webcomic and seeing if this could be a career for you? Emma T. Capps, for example, started her webcomic The Chapel Chronicles when she was 14, and by 17, she taught comics workshops and had her work featured in Dark Horse Presents.

12. Photographer: Whether you take (and sell) stock photography, start a small business taking photos of weddings or babies, or even sell your iPhone photos, there are plenty of opportunities to make money with your camera.

What You Can Earn

You have the opportunity to set your own price for these gigs, but be aware more people are likely to buy an $18 T-shirt than they are a $45 T-shirt. Check out what other people are charging for similar items; custom dolls, for example, can easily sell for over $100 each on Etsy. Read our guide to starting a freelance business for more info on pricing and making a profit.

How to Get the Jobs

You’re creating your own job, so the big hurdle here is promotion. Tell your friends and family, post your work to social media sites and continue to promote your efforts every day.

Writing: A Penny — Or More — For Your Thoughts

If you are at all familiar with books like “Eragon” or “The Duff,” you know that teen writers are in demand — but you don’t have to be a novelist to get paid for your words.

The Jobs

13. Article Writer: Plenty of markets offer opportunities for teens to pitch and sell articles, personal essays and other work to online magazines and websites. Check out teen blogs like Rookie, or visit the websites you read every day and look at their submission guidelines. You can even pitch The Penny Hoarder!

14. Local Newspaper Reporter: If you live in a town or neighborhood with a small local newspaper, there might be an opportunity for you to work as a junior reporter. This could be an internship or it could be a paying gig — and you won’t find out until you ask.

15. Blogger: Popular blogs make money through ads, selling merchandise and turning blog content into books. Start your own blog and build your audience, or consider paid guest post opportunities at other blogs, starting with our list of 7 blogs that pay $100+ per post. When you pitch editors, don’t emphasize your age — instead, focus on your idea and why it’s a great fit for their site.

16. Author: Got a novel that’s almost ready for publication? Use resources like the New Leaf Literary Tumblr to learn how to query and submit your work to an agent, or self-publish your book on Kindle (with your parents’ help) and earn money on each sale.

17. Transcriptionist: If you are skilled at quickly transcribing audio or decoding somebody’s handwriting, look for transcription jobs online. Ask your parents to see if they know anyone who needs transcription done — I spent one teenage summer transcribing handwritten music for a family friend, and that’s the kind of job you’ll never see on an online job board!

18. Proofreader: Do you know when — and how — to use commas? Can you quickly identify misspelled words? Look for proofreading companies that hire teens, or follow my transcription example and find an adult who needs a big document proofread with a careful eye.

What You Can Earn

Payment varies widely; expect about $25 to $100 for an article or a guest blog post. Transcriptionist and proofreader gigs might earn around minimum wage or a few dollars more, depending on your experience and where you work. One of our writers earned $2,000 self-publishing a book on Amazon.

How to Get the Jobs

Follow submission guidelines for articles and blog posts; follow Amazon Kindle Direct Publishing guidelines; learn how to query an agent; apply for proofreading and transcription work directly.

Cleaning: Gather Your Singing Birds and Get Ready to Scrub

It’s a dirty job, but somebody has to do it — and get paid for it.

The Jobs

19. House Cleaner: Got a knack for getting dirt off surfaces? Look for house cleaning jobs in your area, or set out as a house-cleaning entrepreneur.

20. Hotel Housekeeper: Ever wonder who cleans up your room when you stay in a hotel? If you apply for this job, it could be you!

21. Pool Cleaner: Get the scum out of pools so people can enjoy their swims. Look for companies hiring pool cleaners, since you’ll need special training to handle the chemicals involved.

22. Car Washer: Offer to wash cars for your friends’ parents or other adults you know, or see if the local car wash is accepting applications.

23. Janitorial Work: Cleaning toilets may not sound like fun, but it’s a paying job and you might end up with some really great stories!

24. Dishwasher: Do you like washing dishes? I spent part of one summer washing a lot of dishes in a college cafeteria. (Ask me if there were water fights.)

What You Can Earn

Minimum wage or a few dollars more.

How to Get the Jobs

Find out whether the business prefers in-person applications or online applications, and apply accordingly. As with many teen jobs, if you know someone who already works there, your application might get a little boost.

Teaching: Train Scholars, Earn Dollars

Tutoring and teaching younger children is another classic teen job. Whether you are a pianist or a pre-calc expert, there is a tutoring opportunity for you.

The Jobs

25. Music Teacher: I taught piano lessons as a teenager, and it was a great way to make money. If you play the piano or another instrument, you’ll find opportunities to teach kids about Middle C, Every Good Boy Does Fine and other fundamentals of music.

26. Dance Teacher: If you are a talented dancer, see if you can provide lessons to neighborhood kids, support instructors at a community center or work as a teacher’s assistant at your local dance studio.

27. Art Teacher: Put on your paint shirt and teach kids how to put a brush to canvas. Or get out the clay and have fun sculpting!

28. Tutor: You can find tutoring opportunities in nearly every subject, from pre-algebra to French.

29. Conversational English Tutor: Help peers, younger children or senior citizens learn English and practice conversational speaking.

30. SAT/PSAT Tutor: Who better to hire as a SAT/PSAT tutor than someone who just took the tests?

31. Swimming Instructor: Help kids improve their butterfly strokes, or simply help them overcome their fears of putting their heads in the water! As with babysitting, you’ll need to be fully CPR trained. Visit your local swimming pool and ask about job opportunities.

32. Riding Instructor: Start young children on a lifelong love of horses by working as a riding instructor. If this job appeals to you, you’re probably already familiar with the local stables, so ask how you can apply for an instructor job.

What You Can Earn

As with babysitting, there is probably a tutoring market rate in your area. You could earn anywhere from $10 to $50 an hour, depending on your skills, expertise and ability to promote yourself and negotiate.

How to Get the Jobs

Some of these jobs, like swimming and riding instructor, require applications and interviews. Others, like piano teacher or art teacher, you can create yourself. If you are putting out your shingle as the best oboe or algebra teacher in town, work on promoting yourself to people you know, putting up flyers in places where parents gather and making sure everyone on social media knows that you are ready to teach!

Performing: Turn Those Stars in Your Eyes Into Dollar Signs

If you like being on stage, we’ve got some job ideas that you are going to love.

The Jobs

33. YouTuber: We’ve all seen YouTubers who came out of nowhere and became stars. In 2015, we wrote about an 8-year-old girl who makes $127,000 a month with YouTube cooking videos. There’s no guarantee you’ll go viral, but if you are interested in making YouTube videos, why not give it a try?

34. Twitch: If you love gaming and video game culture, then you might as well get paid for it, right? According to Smart Asset, you could make some big bucks just by live streaming your video gaming. By running a few ads during your games you could end up cashing in at the end.

35. Band Member: Yes, it is possible to spend your summer starting a band, writing songs, making a few GarageBand demo tracks and playing gigs. It takes a lot of work to hustle for gigs and sell merch afterwards, so be prepared.

36. Event Pianist: Can you play soft, unobtrusive jazz music for an hour or two at a time? Offer your services as an event pianist for art openings, wine tastings and parties, and get ready to make some beautiful background music. This was another one of my many teenage jobs, so I know the gigs are out there!

37. Choral Accompanist: Lots of choirs need piano accompanists, from community choirs to church choirs. Turn your accompanying skills into cash!

38. Church Organist: A lot of churches use organists every Sunday. If you play the organ, look for church jobs or offer to fill in while the regular organist is on summer vacation.

39. Actor: It is possible to find paid acting gigs at professional theaters, so look for what’s available and go audition!

40. Dancer: Those professional theaters also sometimes need young dancers, so see if there are any jobs out there for you.

41. Pit Orchestra Performer: Community theaters sometimes hire pit orchestras for their summer musicals and are happy to pay talented teens to play in the pit.

42. Magician: Can you pull a rabbit out of a hat? Are you skilled with illusions? Perform the magic trick of turning talent into cash by performing at kids’ birthday parties and other events.

43. Party Princess (or Prince): Want to play Cinderella, Belle, Gaston or Elsa at a child’s birthday party? Read our party princess guide for more information, then look for a character company in your area and ask for an audition.

44. Mascot: Become a team mascot, wear a hot dog suit and stand outside a local restaurant or get a job working as a familiar character such as Uncle Sam.

45. Podcaster: We know that some of you are “Welcome to Night Vale” fans. Why not start a podcast of your own? We’ve got tips on how to monetize your podcast and turn it into a real job, just like the Night Vale team did.

What You Can Earn

This is going to vary widely between gigs, but here’s what we know:

• A party princess could bring in around $40 to $50 per hour plus tips
• An event pianist might bring in $100 for the evening plus tips, depending where you live. Always put a tip jar on the piano!
• A talented magician can bring in $150 to $500 an hour, so practice your coin tricks!
• YouTuber and podcaster are all dependent on how popular your media becomes, so get ready to put out a lot of new content on a regular schedule and promote, promote, promote.

How to Get the Jobs

Some of these jobs, like party princess, actor or pit performer, might require auditions and applications; others, like podcaster, band member or magician, require you to develop and promote your own work.

The Great Outdoors: With the Sun on Your Face and Dollars in Your Pocket

If you like spending your summer days outside, there are plenty of ways to enjoy the beautiful weather and earn money at the same time. Try one of these outdoor jobs:

The Jobs

46. Lawn Maintenance: Mow grass, pull weeds and do whatever it takes to keep a lawn looking tidy. This can be an entrepreneurial opportunity for you, too; talk to family friends, put up flyers and advertise yourself as the best teen lawn service in town.

47. Landscaping: This might include lawn maintenance, and might also include planting bushes and planning gardens. You’ll probably want to work with a professional landscaping company, unless you are the rare teen with landscaping knowledge and experience.

48. Lifeguard: Wear a whistle and help kids practice water safety in and around swimming pools. CPR and lifeguard training are a must for this one, as you never know when a pool accident could happen.

49. Corn Detasseler: This is just what it sounds like: Go into cornfields and pull tassels off corn. “Detasseling is tough,” says Pioneer. “It’s a hot, muddy and sweaty job, but it’s a great way to work for a few weeks in the summer and reap the financial reward. “

50. Apple Picker: Go into orchards and pick apples off trees. You might also get to make or serve doughnuts and cider to orchard visitors.

51. Agriculture Work: Corn detasseling and apple picking aren’t the only agriculture jobs that are available to teens. Depending on what crops grow in your area, you might find all kinds of agriculture and harvesting opportunities. One person we talked to had a summer job as a kelp harvester!

52. Construction Work: Look for construction jobs in your area that hire teens. Some types of construction jobs are only available to people over 18, but others are appropriate for younger teens. Check out OSHA’s Young Workers in Construction site to learn more about job opportunities.

53. Camp Counselor: Sing camp songs, teach crafts and become a kid’s hero for the summer. These kinds of jobs fill up far in advance, so if you missed the application period for this summer, put it on your to-do list for next year.

54. Sign Spinner: You’ve seen them on street corners or on YouTube, spinning and flipping their signs. If you’d like a job where you can stand on a corner and rock out with a sign all day, look for sign-spinning jobs in your area and get ready to demonstrate your skills. Less interested in the dancing aspect? Look for sign-holder jobs, which are like sign-spinner jobs but don’t involve spinning.

55. Paper Route: Here’s another classic teen job. Check your local paper’s website to see if they have any open delivery positions. Be aware that some delivery routes require you to have a car, and many delivery routes require very early morning wake-up times.

56. National Park Worker: If you live near a national park, you might already be aware of the summer jobs available there. If not, visit the park’s website and look for job opportunities, or check out the National Park Service’s Jobs For Students.

57. Zoo/Aquarium Assistant: If you’ve got a zoo nearby, you’ve got job opportunities. Zoos hire teens for seasonal jobs ranging from “landscape attendant” to “birthday party host.” You probably won’t get to feed the red pandas, but you’ll still get to see animals and work in a fun environment.

58. Tour Guide: “And to your left, we have the original foundation of City Hall…” See if there are any tour guide opportunities in your area, and get ready to become very good at walking backwards.

59. Amusement Park Worker: Yet another classic teen summer job. Visit your local amusement park’s website and apply to serve popcorn or help people throw softballs at milk bottles.

60. Fair Worker: Fairs offer so many opportunities to earn money! Dress up and speak in Ye Olde English for a Renaissance Faire, or use your Four-H skills to raise and sell an animal at a county or state fair. Work the funnel cake machine, assist at the carousel or take tickets at the gate — the job opportunities are practically endless, though most fairs won’t last a full summer.

61. Sports Scorer/Timer/Referee: Summer sports leagues need people to keep track of scores, start and stop the clock and serve as referees.

What You Can Earn

These jobs will generally be in the “slightly above minimum wage” range, and can go even higher depending on the hiring organization. Expect to earn up to $10 an hour as a corn detasseler, amusement park worker, lifeguard or camp counselor, according to Glassdoor. One of our Penny Hoarder writers reported that apple pickers can earn up to $28 an hour.

How to Get the Jobs

Go online and look for application instructions. As we noted earlier, having a friend who works there can often help your application.

Working For The Man: Would You Like Fries With That?

Love ‘em or hate ‘em, the following jobs are teen summer staples.

The Jobs

62. Retail: Stock shelves, help customers find merchandise and ring them up at checkout. These jobs often come with a nice employee discount, so look for retail gigs at your favorite stores.

63. Food Service: Prepare food, serve food, ring up customers’ orders, bus dishes and clean up afterwards. Server jobs at nicer restaurants tend to come with the best tips; here’s how to give yourself the best chance of earning more tips no matter where you work.
64. Receptionist: Answer phones, direct people’s calls and greet people when they enter the building. The receptionist is often the first person guests see or speak with when they contact a company, so you have to be ready to present yourself professionally at all times.

65. Administrative Work: Type documents, file paperwork, enter numbers into a 10-key system and perform other clerical jobs for a busy office or small business. One woman we spoke with used to do this type of admin work at a spa, so think outside the box here!

66. Movie Theater Worker: Take tickets, serve popcorn, clean popcorn off the floor and become very familiar with every summer blockbuster.

67. Gas Station Worker: Manage the register at a gas station. If you live in New Jersey or Oregon, the two states that don’t let drivers pump their own gas, you might even get to fill ‘er up.

What You Can Earn

Minimum wage or a few dollars more. If you get a server gig at the best restaurant in town, though, you can expect great tips.

How to Get the Jobs

Visit websites and look for application instructions, or walk into the stores/restaurants/movie theaters/gas stations and ask about open positions. If someone hands you a paper application, be ready to fill it out right away; have your Social Security Number memorized and carry copies of your resume — and a pen — with you.

Calling All Entrepreneurs: Be Your Own Boss

If the idea of “working for the man” made your skin crawl, it’s time to think about working for yourself. As an entrepreneur, you have almost unlimited options — want to start a laundry service for new parents? a dating service for high school students? — but here are a few prompts to get you started:

The Jobs

68. Personal Assistant: Help busy adults handle their personal filing, scheduling, shopping and more. Your job is to make their lives run smoothly and easily, so be prepared to demonstrate how you can make that happen.

69. Personal Organizer: This is kind of like a housecleaner job, except without the scrubbing. Help people decide what to keep, what to throw away and how to organize it all. Study the KonMari method for inspiration, or create your own organizing system.

70. Computer Repair and Assistance: If you know how to get data off a crashed hard drive, or if you know how to help a family friend switch from Internet Explorer to Firefox, you have a job opportunity.

71. Mystery Shopper: This isn’t strictly an entrepreneurial job, since you’ll be working for a mystery shopping company, but we’re putting it here because this job lets you set your own hours and work as your own boss. As a mystery shopper, you go into stores and ensure that, for example, employees are completing customer checkout steps correctly. The Penny Hoarder’s founder, Kyle Taylor, has a lot of mystery shopping experience, so read his guide to mystery shopping to learn more.

72. Crowdfunder: Want to get a big project off the ground, like an album, a novel or a robot dog? See if you can fund it on Kickstarter. If you are under 18, you will need your parents to set up your Kickstarter accounts and accept the payments on your behalf. Read our Kickstarter guide first, to make sure you don’t accidentally lose money on your project! If you’d like to do a series of smaller projects, such as writing and publishing one short story per week, check out Patreon. They welcome teen creators!

73. Startup Founder: Don’t like any of the jobs you see on this list? Make your own! If you have an idea and a way to monetize it, launch your own summer startup and see how much money you can earn. Get a few friends involved and share the work — and the profits! Think how good “startup founder” will look on a college application.

What You Can Earn

It’s up to you — you’re the entrepreneur! Read our guide to starting a freelance business to help you understand what to charge and how to factor for items like taxes and cost of materials.

How to Get the Jobs

Entrepreneurs create their own jobs, and then market themselves to potential clients. Be ready to promote your home organization business, your Kickstarter or your startup.

Make Money Online: Not a Scam!

Make a few bucks here and there by taking surveys, or become an app or web developer and set your own price.

The Jobs

74. Survey Taking: Got a little free time? Take a few surveys and make some extra cash. Or power down and see how many surveys you can complete in four hours. Not all survey sites accept people under 18, but some do. Start with our list of paid survey sites, or check out this list of survey sites for people under 18.

75. Mobile Money-making Apps: Take a look at our list of money-making apps that let you earn money by playing games or doing tasks on your phone. This won’t make you a lot of extra money, but you can make a few extra bucks!

76. App Developer: Making money by playing games on someone else’s app is fun, but you can make even more money by creating and developing your own apps and selling them on the iTunes App Store or Google Play. Maybe you’ll create the next Flappy Bird or Crossy Road!

77. Website Developer: If you know how to build a website from the ground up — or even how to use WordPress to create a unique and attractive website — you have a marketable skill.

78. Theme Designer: Lots of people pay money for premium Tumblr themes. If you can design a beautiful theme, you might be able to make money by submitting it to Tumblr so other users can purchase it. We confirmed with Tumblr that they’ll accept themes from teens, although if you’re under 18, you’ll need a parent/guardian signature on the contract. The more themes you create, the more opportunities you have to make sales.

What You Can Earn

Surveys and money-making apps are going to give you just enough extra cash to go to the movies once a month, unless you are willing to put in a lot of time and effort. Selling apps on iTunes and Google Play might only make you a little bit of money depending on how popular your app becomes, but a completed app is great to add to your resume/portfolio and might help you get a developer job in the future.

You should be charging at least $25 per hour for website development (professionals charge $40-75 an hour), and making money on a Tumblr theme depends on how many people buy your theme.

How to Get the Jobs

Sign up for survey sites or mobile money-making app sites. If you are a developer, you can make your own job.

Reseller: Becoming a Retail Arbitrage Expert

“Retail arbitrage” is when someone buys an item and then resells it at a profit. Believe it or not, this is a perfectly legit way to make money — ask Kyle Taylor, who resold books, toys and more to help pay his way through college!

The Jobs

79. Book Reseller: If you’ve already started college and have textbooks to sell, you can make good money reselling them to sites like BookScouter or Amazon Textbook Buyback. If you don’t have textbooks to sell, start scouring used bookstores or yard sales for volumes in good condition, and then sell them online at a profit. Read our book reselling guide for tips on which books to resell, and which to leave on the shelf.

80. Toy Reseller: Just like book reselling, toy reselling involves selling toys online at a profit. If you already have a bunch of old toys to sell, great! If not, it’s time to hit the yard sales. First, read our toy reselling tips so you know how to make a profit.

81. Clothing Reseller: Yes, you can resell clothes just like books and toys! Read our guide to consignment selling and then start cashing in on fashion.

82. Gift Card Reseller: Here’s one you might not have thought of: buying discounted gift cards online and reselling them at face value. We’ve got both a guide for buying discounted gift cards and a guide for reselling gift cards for you.

83. Flea Market Worker: Want to sell in person? Get a table at a flea market and start selling used items, handmade crafts and other treasures. Read our flea market guide to get the most out of your wares. Depending on the flea market rules, you might need to work with an adult — or someone over 18 — but that doesn’t mean you can’t share in the profits!

84. Yard Sale Organizer: Plenty of families want to have summer yard sales, but balk at the hassle of setting everything up, pricing the items and managing the table for an entire weekend. Why not offer your services as a yard sale organizer? You guessed it: we’ve got a yard sale guide to get you started.

What You Can Earn

Kyle Taylor earned about $750 a month selling used books, and your earnings will likely be dependent on how much you sell and whether you find great items for resale.

How to Get the Jobs

Find something to resell and start selling!

The Family Business: Keeping Money in the Family

Parents are often a teen’s first employers, starting with the exchange of allowance for chores. Here are a few more “grown-up” job opportunities.

The Jobs

85. Help the Family Business: If you have a family business and your parents or relatives haven’t already approached you about working in the business, take the initiative and ask if they can use your help.

86. Cook Family Meals for Extra Allowance: Know how to cook? Offer your parents a trade: you’ll handle all the family meals for the summer — that means shopping, cooking and cleanup — in exchange for what you agree is a fair wage. Your parents may want menu approval to ensure you don’t plan to serve frozen pizza every night!

87. Ask Parents What They Need Done: Chances are, every parent has a long to-do list of jobs: cleaning out the garage, scrubbing behind the refrigerator and other time-consuming and labor-intensive tasks. Tell your folks you are ready to take on this work for a little extra cash.

What You Can Earn

If you are working for the family business, you deserve at least minimum wage. For odd jobs, work out what feels fair. Cleaning out the garage should be worth at least $100, right?

How to Get the Jobs

Talk to your folks.

Volunteer Work: Do Good and Good Will Follow

Not all summer jobs have to be paying gigs. Get a volunteer job and give back to your community — and did we mention it’ll look great on your college applications?

The Jobs

88. Political Campaigning: During election seasons, there are plenty of opportunities for you to support political candidates. Door knocking, phone banking and other jobs abound!

89. Docent: Do you like history, science or art? Become a docent at a local museum. When I was a docent, we got to dress up like local historical figures and share our stories with museum guests.

90. Intern: Get to know the working world and test out a potential career by interning at a local business. If you can find a paying internship, great — otherwise, expect to work in exchange for school credit or the all-important “learning experience.”

91. Library Volunteer: Libraries often need people to read to children’s groups or provide other volunteer services. Talk to your local library about opportunities.
92. Nursing Home Reader: When I was a teenager, I read the newspaper — and a few novels — aloud to nursing home residents. There might be an opportunity for you at your own local nursing home.

93. Service Project: If you’re interested in building houses, cleaning up highways, or giving back to your community in a structured group environment, consider signing up for a service project. If you don’t see the type of project you’d like to complete, organize your own!

What You Can Earn

The feeling of knowing you helped your community, plus a few great lines on your college application or resume.

How to Get the Jobs

Some volunteer jobs can be as competitive as paying jobs and require applications and interviews. Other volunteer jobs, like political campaigning, take everyone who wants to help.

For 18-year-olds: Achievement Unlocked! New Job Opportunities!

Once you turn 18, a whole world of job opportunities opens up to you. Here are some jobs you might want to consider for this summer.

The Jobs

94. Mechanical Turk: 18-year-olds can join Amazon Mechanical Turk, a site that lets you perform simple tasks — like identifying whether a comment is positive or negative — for money. Read our guide to maximizing your Mechanical Turk income to learn more.

95. Uber Driver: Once you turn 18, you are eligible to work for Uber. With Uber, you use your own car to provide rides to people who need them. The average Uber driver makes $19 an hour, the company says, but this will largely depend on where you live. You do, however, have to pay for your own gas.

96. Call Center Worker: Call center jobs are often viewed as boring, but they are solid ways to make money. Not all call center jobs are outbound telemarketing jobs; you can also work in a call center that receives calls from customers.

97. WWOOFer: Want to spend your summer traveling? Sign up for WWOOF, which stands for World Wide Opportunities on Organic Farms. Receive food and accommodation in exchange for farm labor, and learn more about different parts of the country — or the world.

98. Website Tester: Companies like User Testing hire people to test websites remotely and write short reports about their functionality. Check out one writer’s report on working as a website tester.

99. Content Writer: Companies like Crowdsource hire people to write short how-to articles and other copy for the Internet. If you are a fast researcher and writer, you can earn up to $750 a week writing for content sites.

100. Fanfic Writer: You don’t have to be over 18 to write fanfic, but you do have to be over 18 to write for Kindle Worlds, where writers get paid for writing fanfic set in universes such as “The 100,” “Gossip Girl” and “Pretty Little Liars.”

What You Can Earn

$19 an hour as an Uber driver, minimum wage or above at a call center, varying wages for Mechanical Turk and online website testing or content jobs.

How to Get the Jobs

Apply online, pick a country to WWOOF in, write an amazing story about Spencer Hastings going to a murder mystery dinner where she finds herself solving an actual murder.

Your Turn: What jobs did you have as a teenager? If you are a teen, which jobs sound the most interesting?

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 100 Fun and Lucrative Summer Jobs for Teens appeared first on The Penny Hoarder.

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How to Blast Away the Top 15 Conversion Roadblocks on Your Website

Conversion rate optimization has never been bigger than it is today.

Just look at how much interest in conversion rate optimization has increased over the past decade:

And there are more and more conversion rate optimization (CRO) agencies popping up every day.

A quick search on Google for “conversion rate optimization agency” gave me nearly one million results:

This tells me one thing: many companies have lousy conversion rates.

According to Econsultancy, “only about 22 percent of businesses are satisfied with their conversion rates.”

So, what’s going wrong?

The issue with CRO is that there is a plethora of potential problem areas.

It’s not always easy to pinpoint precisely where the issue lies.

But based on my experience and research, there are 15 primary conversion roadblocks that disrupt the process and turn would-be customers away.

If your conversions aren’t where they should be, it’s very possible that at least one of these issues is the culprit.

In this post, I describe these problem areas and offer advice on how to fix them.

I’ll start with the more technical aspects and work my way down to onsite content and, ultimately, the checkout process itself.

1. Slow load time

Before you can ever spark initial interest, you must get visitors to actually browse through your site.

If they abandon your site before it loads, you’re guaranteed to have a zero percent conversion rate.

Not good.

Quite honestly, slow load time is an issue that still plagues many companies today, and that’s because people have little patience.

Here’s what I mean.

Research has found that “nearly half of web users expect a site to load in 2 seconds or less, and they tend to abandon a site that isn’t loaded within 3 seconds.”

In the case of website conversions, a lack of speed kills.

If you think this is a problem for you, I recommend checking out these two resources:

10 Ways to Speed Up Your Website — and Improve Conversion by 7 Percent

How to Make Your Site Insanely Fast

2. Wrong color scheme

When it comes to choosing the color for a site’s design, I feel like many people just use something they think looks cool.

Often, they don’t consider the underlying psychology behind a particular color scheme.

But color may play a bigger role in conversions than you may think.

In fact, “studies suggest that people make a subconscious judgment about a product within 90 seconds of initial viewing. Up to 90 percent of that assessment is based on color alone.”

Here are some examples of the meanings of certain colors in the Western world:

The point I’m trying to make here is that you shouldn’t haphazardly choose a color scheme.

Instead, you should carefully choose colors based on the type of emotion you want visitors to feel.

It can have a tremendous impact on conversions and put leads in the buying mindset.

For more on this topic, check out these two resources:

The Complete Guide to Understanding Consumer Psychology

The Psychology of Color: How to Use Colors to Increase Conversion Rate

3. Confusing navigation

Two words should define your site’s navigation: simple and intuitive.

If your navigation is in any way confusing or complicated, your conversion rate is likely to take a hit.

Allow me to provide you with a couple of examples of this.

Here’s a site where navigation is in a non-standard location:

This can throw people off because they’re expecting to find it at the top or on either side of the page.

Another mistake that can be a conversion roadblock is having too many navigation items:

This can have a paralyzing effect on visitors: they will likely become so overwhelmed that they won’t know where to get started.

Either one of these issues is going to lead to a high bounce rate and low conversions.

The fix is to keep it simple and intuitive, which you can learn more about in this post from Kissmetrics.

4. Cluttered design

Have you ever come across something like this?

Or this?

These sites are messy, cluttered and can lead to a cognitive overload, which isn’t going to do your conversion rate any favors.

I enjoy sites with a minimalist feel, like this:

In fact, that’s what I aim for on Quick Sprout, Crazy Egg, and NeilPatel.com.

I recommend doing the same for your website.

Although you don’t necessarily want it to seem sterile, a simple, fresh design should put your visitors at ease and lower your bounce rate.

5. Crappy imagery

The word “crappy” may seem vague, but I think you know what I mean.

I refer to bad stock photos that come across as inauthentic.

Kind of like these:

“Overly corporate” stock photos are the worst.

Of course, visuals are important.

As Loyalty Square reports,

a research conducted by the Seoul International Color Expo 2004 suggested that 

• 92.6% people take into concern the visual factor while making purchases
• 84.7% of the total respondents think that color is [more] important than many other factors while choosing products for buying.

But you want to be very selective with the images you use.

I prefer spending a little money upfront for some quality stock images.

Sites like Shutterstock and Fotolia tend to be good.

If you’re going to use a royalty-free image site, I suggest be diligent about your quality standards.

For instance, Pixabay is one of the best for free images.

You may also want to experiment with making your own images, which you can learn about here.

Regardless of the path you take, just stay away from crappy imagery because it’s going to hurt your conversions and reputation.

6. Excessive options

Several studies have been conducted on the topic of options and the impact of those options on consumers.

The overarching consensus is this: having too many choices reduces the likelihood of a purchase.

Don’t get me wrong, it’s good to showcase a few different products.

But you don’t want to drown your visitors in a seemingly infinite number of options because it’s inevitably going to overwhelm them.

You’ll notice that I make it a point to minimize the number of options on all my sites, and it’s worked out beautifully.

7. Missing or hard to find contact info

I was honestly a little surprised when I came across the following stats regarding contact info from KoMarketing:

• “Once on a company’s homepage, 64 percent of visitors want to see the company’s contact information.”
• “44 percent of website visitors will leave a company’s website if there’s no contact information or phone number.”
• “51 percent of people think ‘thorough contact information’ is the most important element missing from many company websites.”

I knew that having some means of contact was important but not necessarily that critical.

But these stats show that your conversion rate will basically be cut in half if there’s no contact info or phone number.

So it’s super important to include this information in a conspicuous area.

8. Spelling/grammatical errors

I know we’re all human, and humans make mistakes.

But spelling/grammatical errors can be costly. Really costly.

One study in particular found that “59 percent of people would not use a company that had obvious grammatical or spelling mistakes on its website or marketing material.”

In other words, nearly six out of 10 would-be customers will abandon your site if they come across these types of errors.

This is why it’s so important to be hyper-diligent, and you may even want to use a free tool like Grammarly when writing copy, blog posts, or other content.

9. Stale content

Here’s one that might not be so obvious: having outdated content on your blog.

I instantly become skeptical of a company if its blog hasn’t been updated in at least six months.

I wonder if they even care.

If you run a blog, be sure to update it fairly frequently.

This doesn’t need to be every week, but it should be once a month at an absolute minimum.

10. Crazy salesy copy

Did you know that “approximately 96 percent of visitors that come to your website are not ready to buy?”

If you go right for the jugular and beat them over the head with “salesy copy,” many will run.

In other words, using too much hype or BS and sounding like a sleazy used car salesman is going to hurt your conversions.

Instead, most leads need to be warmed up before they’re ready to buy.

I suggest checking out this post from Kissmetrics for advice on writing persuasive copy without any “icky gimmicks” that could turn off your audience.

11. No social proof

Anyone can make claims on their website.

Today’s customers want to know you can walk the walk and not just talk the talk.

Social proof in the form of testimonials, positive press, and social shares can go a long way.

One of my favorites is media icons (otherwise known as logo porn), which showcases companies you’ve partnered with, written for, or done business with.

That can instantly quell any doubt that may have arisen in a visitor’s mind.

12. No trust elements

Trust elements include things such as:

• A badge from the Better Business Bureau
• Indication of secure payment processing
• Return and refund policies
• Detailed product information
• Unbiased reviews

If you’re missing these types of trust elements, it’s going to be difficult to get your leads over “the buying hump.”

I suggest reading this post from ConversionXL for a comprehensive list of ways to boost your website’s credibility.

13. Annoying sign-ups

You know what people really hate?

Those long-winded sign-up forms with fields that just seem to go on and on.

I’ve abandoned numerous sites when I got hit with these.

If you’re a first-time shopper, you don’t want to waste your time entering loads of info just to make a purchase.

Or as one disgruntled online shopper phrased it,

“I’m not here to enter into a relationship. I just want to buy something.”

The bottom line is to reduce the number of fields a person has to go through to make a purchase.

Or better yet, ditch it all together, and let someone check out as a guest.

Going this route can result in a surge in conversions. If you’ve never read The $300 Million Dollar Button, I greatly recommend it.

It touches on this topic and highlights a real-life case study.

14. An arduous checkout process

This roadblock piggybacks on the previous one.

Besides having too many forms to fill out, a complicated, exhausting checkout process can really hurt conversions.

Just look at the number of customers that drop off during checkout:

If you’re making people jump through too many hoops or have confusing ordering/shipping policies, it’s going to disrupt things.

A streamlined checkout process will be simple and linear and have a progress indicator so customers can see the steps they’ve completed and still need to complete.

This post from Kissmetrics highlights some common problem areas of the checkout process and explains how to correct them.

15. No A/B testing

Last but not least, there’s the issue of A/B testing.

It’s amazing that many websites still fail to use this simple yet incredibly powerful technique.

Running continuous tests on elements like CTA buttons, colors, and copy can have a major impact:

I really like this article from ConversionXL for learning both the basics and more advanced techniques of this A/B testing.

Conclusion

There is a lot happens between the time when a person lands on your site and when they actually complete a purchase.

And that’s why a lot can go wrong.

Understanding some of the most common roadblocks and diagnosing them can make the process go far smoother.

I’ve found the 15 issues in this post to be some of the most pervasive.

But making the necessary fixes can be your ticket to boosting conversions and getting the most out of your traffic.

What’s been your main conversion obstacle? How did you overcome it?

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