الجمعة، 8 ديسمبر 2017

Sburg School Board hears rooftop antenna proposal

STROUDSBURG — The Stroudsburg School Board heard a proposal Wednesday to put nine T-Mobile antennas on Stroudsburg Middle School's roof.T-Mobile site acquisition specialist Christopher Miliotich and radio frequency engineer Archie Dickson told the board the antennas would be on three steel-frame sleds. Each 42-pound sled would hold three 11-pound antennas.That many antennas would be needed to provide the most effective directional cellphone signal coverage at that [...]

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Patreon’s New “Transparent” Fee Structure Has Artists Worried. Here’s Why

For everyone who uses Patreon, funding for creative projects just got a little more complicated.

This week, the creative crowdfunding platform announced that its fee structure will soon change. Rather than taking payment processing fees out of an artist’s monthly payouts, Patreon will begin charging those fees to patrons (donors).

This change is set to take place on Dec. 18, and some long-time Patreon users are alarmed by what it could mean for them and their backers.

How Patreon Works

Patreon relies on many backers offering small donations over an extended period of time, rather than large, one-time donations.

In this way, artists and makers have a more constant stream of support that helps them continue creating and working on larger projects that they otherwise wouldn’t have the financial resources or time to commit to.

Patreon backers, or “patrons,” can choose a funding tier that dictates how much they pay each month, along with what exclusive content, products or experiences they receive.

This allows creatives of all types to receive predictable income so they can devote more time to their craft, whether it be painting, music, knitting or dancing — or anything in between.

What Patreon’s New Fee Structure Looks Like

With the old fee structure, monthly fees could take anywhere from 7-15% of an artist’s Patreon income.

With the new fee structure, which places the responsibility of processing fees partially on donors, artists will be charged a flat 5% of their income each month — meaning they’ll be able to predict exactly how much they’ll pocket. This, Patreon says, is in an effort to provide artists with even more financial security.

Under the new structure, patrons will pay an additional 2.9% + 35 cents on each individual pledge.

This added fee, Patreon says, will allow donors to understand exactly how much of their donation the artist keeps. In the past, patrons had no way of knowing how little of their pledge the artist was actually able to keep.

But unfortunately, many artists who rely on funding from the site, along with patrons who donate a little money across many campaigns, are worried about how this new fee structure will affect them.

Users say the problem is “serial backers,” or those who support a large pool of campaigns with constant but small donations, may pull out when they realize that it will now cost them an extra 38 cents to make a $1.00 donation.

So, if a backer is supporting 50 artists with a single dollar each, they’ll now be paying an extra $19 in fees for each round of donations. If patrons’ donations are confined by a budget, they may end up being forced to cut funding from certain artists.

“This fee hits low tiers the hardest,” a webcomic creator who uses Patreon told Motherboard, “and these dollar tip jar tiers really are the foundation of so many small creator patreon campaigns.”

Too many low-tier backers pulling funding completely due to fees on their end could ultimately end up hurting artists more than the fluctuating incomes did to begin with.

Questions, Answers and What You Should Know

Patreon claims that these changes have been a long time coming. According to a spokesperson from the company, the company has been considering and working out this new fee structure for almost a year.

However, it seems that even after taking quite some time to evaluate this decision, Patreon still anticipated some pushback. In a Q&A post shared on Patreon’s site, the company includes an answer to the hypothetical question, “What if I want to take the hit for my patrons? Can I pay those fees?”

Unfortunately, the answer is no — leaving artists worried about how the next couple of months will pan out after the new fees are included in the first billing cycle of the new year.

In the meantime, Patreon encourages artists to educate their backers and to explain the new fee structure to them in the hopes that this new level of transparency between Patreon, artists and patrons will encourage them to continue supporting their favorite artists financially.

If you’re a creator, artist or maker who relies on Patreon, talk to your backers about the new fee structure and encourage them to continue giving what they can.

If you’re a patron, consider reworking your donor budget to include these fees (even if that means lowering your donation amounts slightly) rather than pulling your funding all together. You will have until December 31 to edit your monthly pledges.

If you’d like to know more about the reasoning behind this decision or how it will affect you as either a backer or an artist, you can read more about the new fee structure here.

Grace Schweizer is a junior writer at The Penny Hoarder.

This was originally published on The Penny Hoarder, which helps millions of readers worldwide earn and save money by sharing unique job opportunities, personal stories, freebies and more. The Inc. 5000 ranked The Penny Hoarder as the fastest-growing private media company in the U.S. in 2017.

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Retail Jobs Saw a Small Boost in November, but the Industry Still Struggles

Despite a glowing jobs report touting a strong U.S. economy, the latest employment numbers for November show more turmoil in the embattled retail sector.

Sure, brick-and-mortar stores added 19,800 new jobs between October and November, but when you look at the long-term trend, it’s a bit gloomier. In fact, these retailers actually shed 63,600 jobs when you compare the same month last year.

It’s no surprise, considering the hundreds of store closings that several big-name retailers have announced this year and experts predicting the loss of 30% of the 1,000-plus U.S. malls in the next five years.

Plus, it seems that November has lost some of its luster, since Black Friday is totally not a thing anymore.

“Consumers no longer have to wait until November to kick off holiday shopping,” said a PricewaterhouseCoopers report on holiday shopping.

But if you dig deeper into the numbers, the Amazon Effect remains in full force.

Employment at nonstore retailers, like Amazon, swelled by 3.8% this November compared with 2016. Meanwhile, warehousing and transportation jobs, like those at Amazon, grew 1.8% this year.

Still, the Amazon Effect was just not enough to offset the 22,700 job losses in the overall retail sector as 2017 comes to a close.

As Traditional Retail Jobs Disappear, Where Do Workers Turn?

After she lost her job at Kmart in Crystal River, Florida, in March, Christine Capra spent countless hours filling out online application on her public library’s computers. She dipped into savings after her unemployment benefits ran out in August.

“I felt like someone ripped the carpet right out from under me,” Capra said.

She’s not alone, and things only seem to be getting more complicated for these former retail workers.

In a study released last month, Indeed mined data from tens of millions of resumes uploaded to its site to determine the next step for ex-retail employees.

While the Amazon Effect does leave an opening for these workers, the skills required in e-commerce aren’t a perfect match, according to the Indeed analysis. Many online retailing and storage and warehousing jobs require a college degree, and proficiency in specified software is also in high demand in those two sectors.

The best fit for retail workers tends to be the restaurant industry, where many of the customer service skills overlap. But those jobs pay $14 on average.

The most common jobs brick-and-mortar workers search on Indeed are customer service representative, sales representatives, and receptionists and information clerks, among others.

“To be sure, it’s by no means clear that brick-and-mortar retail is done for,” said Indeed economist Andrew Flowers said in the study. “But, for brick-and-mortar retail workers, the road ahead looks bumpy and uncertain.”

Here’s What You Can Do If Your Retail Job Is Next

To us, you’re way more than some statistic.

If you happen to find yourself out of work thanks to the Retail Apocalypse, The Penny Hoarder Jobs Page on Facebook can be a great resource for your next move.

You can also check out these other ways to map out your strategy.

Now is a good time to consider other retailers who may actually be hiring this season — like Macy’s! These jobs are not long-term gigs, but they will at least get you through the holidays.

And if you’re just tired of the grind of a traditional job, we’ve got 32 legit ways to make money from home for you.

Alex Mahadevan is a data journalist at The Penny Hoarder.

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Expedia’s New Feature Aims to Keep You From Being Surprised by Airline Fees

Don’t you hate it when you think you’ve found a steal of a deal on a flight only to realize later the reason it was priced so low is because you got the worst seats with zero legroom and no allowance for carry-on bags?

Well, Expedia is looking to change that.

The site will be rolling out new features that allow customers booking flights to get more information on the benefits and restrictions that come with the selected airfare, Travel and Leisure reported. Customers will also be able to see video and photos of the cabins on those flights.

These new features are being made possible through Expedia’s expanded partnership with Routehappy and will also extend to other sites under Expedia’s brand, including Travelocity, Trivago and Orbitz, the publication said.

An exact date for the roll-out of the new features wasn’t reported, but David Krieger, senior director at Expedia, told APEX Media it would happen “in the near future.”

Although Expedia already includes information about flight amenities and gives a quality score for airlines, the additional features will help travelers make more informed decisions about their purchases.

Because as smart consumers, we want to know exactly what we’re paying for upfront — instead of getting surprised later on down the line.

Nicole Dow is a staff writer at The Penny Hoarder.

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Download Cash: These iPhone Apps Can Help You Make and Save Extra Money

If you’re anything like me, you love your iPhone and can’t imagine life without it.

Fair warning: If you’re coming for my iPhone, you’ll have to pry it from my cold, dead hands.

Hey, nothing personal against the Samsung Galaxy or Sony Xperia or Google Pixel, or whatever. But for my money, you can’t beat an iPhone.

They’re easy to use, they’re faster, and they have the best cameras. Also, Siri is my spirit animal.

It’s true, though, that iPhones tend to be pricier than Android phones.

What’s a poor, conflicted Penny Hoarder to do?

Well, you can use your iPhone to make back some of the money you spent buying your iPhone.

To the App Store we go! These are the best iPhone apps for putting more money in your wallet.

1. Save Your Digital Receipts to Score Cash Back

With an app called Earny, you can get money back on purchases you make online. It scans your inbox for receipts and tracks the items to find price drops. Then it takes advantage of retailer and credit-card company price-protection policies to negotiate money back on your behalf.

The app works with a bunch of online retailers, including Amazon, Gap, Jet, Kohl’s, Nordstrom, Old Navy, Overstock, Target, Walmart and Zappos.

2. Join the ‘Investor Class’

Investing is a smart way to make money. Sometimes, though, it feels restricted to a few wealthy elites.

Stash is different. This app lets you start investing with as little as $5.

It curates investments from professional fund managers and lets you choose where to put your money. But it leaves the complicated investment terms out of it. You just choose from a set of simple investments reflecting your beliefs, interests and goals.

Bonus: Right now, The Penny Hoarder is teaming up with Stash to fund your first investment — so you’ll get a $5 bonus to get started!

3. Take a Peek at Your Credit Score

Your credit reports are basically the Holy Grail of your finances — and your life. Financially, they can influence many of your big life decisions, like buying a house or a car.

However, one out of every five credit reports has an error in it, according to a study by the Federal Trade Commission. This is easy to prevent, though, especially if you check yours out every so often.

One option is to use a free app like CreditWise® from Capital One®. There, you’ll get a free TransUnion® credit report, which you can review for signs of error, theft or fraud. It’ll even give you personalized suggestions to help you improve your credit score.

4. Use This App to Get Cash Back

Dosh is a cash-back app that pays you for making purchases at more than 100,000 hotels, online stores and restaurants — including Starwood Properties, Marriott, Cost Plus World Market, Nike, Target, Chuck E. Cheese’s and many more.

Download the app and sign up. Securely connect a debit or credit card. Then watch the cash-back roll in.

In addition to cash back, you collect an immediate $5 bonus for hooking up a card to Dosh.

5. Squeeze Money from Your Receipts

Did you know you can get cash back just for taking a picture of your receipt? Here’s how it works:

Browse through the cash-back offers in your area the next time you go to a store, supermarket, restaurant or bar. You can even get cash back shopping online or taking Uber rides. (The offers change every week). Pick your cash-back offers and scan your receipt.

Once you’ve reached at least $20 in earnings, request payment via Paypal or Venmo.

Right now, Ibotta is giving new users a $10 sign-up bonus, just for redeeming their first receipt.

6. Let It Go, Let It Gooooo …

Do you still have a prom outfit from, like, 10 years ago?

It’s never going to fit — or come into style — again, but something just keeps holding you back from sending it to Goodwill.

Maybe money could change your mind? Instead of storing clothes indefinitely, try selling them on an app like Letgo. Just take a picture of what you want to sell, and post it. You can sell just about anything, including wedding dresses, cribs, TVs, jewelry, movies and cars.

7. This App Pays You for Walking Into Stores

Sick of shopping online and headed to a real, live store? Download the Shopkick app first.

Once you sign up, the app pays you “kicks” for walking into certain stores (including Amazon, Walmart, T.J. Maxx, Starbucks, Sephora, Best Buy and more). These can be redeemed for gift cards to those stores.

It pays you even more “kicks” for scanning items in stores and purchasing them with a connected credit or debit card, as well as for scanning receipts and mobile shopping.

8. Negotiate Your Cable and/or Internet Bill

Hop on your phone and check out Trim, a Facebook messenger bot that will negotiate your cable or internet bills down for you. It works with Comcast, Time Warner, Charter and other major providers.

You sign up with Facebook, then upload a PDF of your most recent bill, and Trim’s AI-powered system gets to work. If at first it doesn’t succeed, it’ll keep negotiating until it can save you some money. (If it saves you any money, it keeps 25% of the savings tab.)

9. Go On a Secret Mission

QuickThoughts pays you to become a private investigator for stores and restaurants in your area. Was that CVS you visited last month clean? How do the lines look at that McDonald’s you’ve stopped by for lunch?

Using your phone’s GPS technology, the app will prompt you for information from places you’ve visited in the past few weeks, as well as places it detects you’re visiting right now.

And you’ll earn gift cards for Amazon and iTunes while you’re at it.

10. Get Rewarded for Your Purchases

There’s a new rewards platform on the market. Drop is a financial tech company that rewards you for your purchases.

As an exclusive Drop user, all you have to do is link your credit and debit cards. When you make a Drop-qualified purchase, you’ll automatically earn points, whether you’re grocery shopping, hailing an Uber or ordering a pizza. The points will add up, and you can then exchange them for gift cards to popular retailers like Amazon and Starbucks.

It’s the ultimate loyalty card — without the card. You can sign up right here.

There you go. Just like that, your iPhone is saving and making you money.

Keep it up, and eventually you’ll be able to afford your next iPhone.

Mike Brassfield (mike@thepennyhoarder.com) is a senior writer at The Penny Hoarder. Don’t touch his iPhone. DON’T TOUCH IT.

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Hit Schlotzsky’s Bright and Early Dec. 9 to Win a Year of Free Sandwiches

Schlotzsky’s isn’t my go-to deli –– but now that I’ve heard about this deal, it definitely could be.

The deli chain is set to host its first Guest Appreciation Day, and this could mean a year of free food for some lucky guests.

How to Get a Year’s Worth of Free Food From Schlotzsky’s

To land this deal, head to your local Schlotzsky’s-Cinnabon restaurant on Dec. 9. From 9 a.m. to noon, participating locations will hand out redemption cards good for one free small original sandwich per week for an entire year.

Only the first 100 guests ages 16 or older who purchase a six-pack of Cinnabon classic rolls will get this deal.

If the Schlotzsky’s near you doesn’t have a Cinnabon, you’ll still be able to snag a $5 meal deal that consists of a small classic sandwich, a drink and a bag of chips as the chain’s way of saying thank you for being a customer.

Kelly Anne Smith is a junior writer and engagement specialist at The Penny Hoarder. Catch her on Twitter at @keywordkelly.

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This Work-From-Home Job Will Let You Help Others Live the Glamorous Life

If you’re a helpful individual with a love for the finer things in life, this might be the perfect job for you.

Aspire Lifestyles, an international concierge company, is looking to hire 15 virtual lifestyle consultants to fulfill concierge requests for its premium American Express card members.

You’ll help clients live out their best lives and create magical memories by providing luxury concierge services, such as securing fine dining reservations at Parisian restaurants or booking tickets to highly sought-after shows. And you can work from the comfort of your own home!

But if that’s not up your alley, don’t forget to check out our Jobs page on Facebook. We post new opportunities there all the time.

Be a Lifestyle Consultant and Concierge for Aspire Lifestyles

Pay:

$31,000 a year with the ability to earn up to $45,000 annually

Responsibilities include:

Delivering luxury concierge services

Making tailored recommendations to customers

Responding to a high volume of customer requests in a fast-paced virtual environment, which could include phone and web interactions

Enhancing the American Express brand in interactions with customers

Applicants for this position must have:

A high school diploma or GED

At least two years of customer service experience, preferably in a call center environment (experience in the hospitality, travel, entertainment or luxury industries is a plus)

Great written and oral communication skills

Excellent customer service skills

Benefits include:

Opportunity for overtime and performance-based bonuses

Medical, dental and vision benefits after 30 days

401 (k) with 3% company match

Paid sick, holiday and vacation days

A variety of shifts available to work

Opportunities to advance to senior-level roles

Apply here for the lifestyle consultant and concierge job with Aspire Lifestyles.

Nicole Dow is a staff writer at The Penny Hoarder.

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Here’s What You Need to Know About the Proposed Changes to Tipping Rules

Restaurant workers, listen up! A proposed change to tipping rules could affect how you’re paid.

The Department of Labor is proposing a change to a 2011 rule that allows restaurant workers to pocket all the tips they make.

If the DOL gets its way, restaurant owners will have the option to require workers to pool their tips with fellow employees who don’t have direct contact with customers and therefore don’t receive tips.

What Could This Mean for Restaurant Workers?

People in favor of the new rule say it would allow dishwashers, cooks and bussers to earn more money than they currently make.

People against it say it’s unfair to servers who earn tips by delivering good service. Others worry it could give restaurant owners the opportunity to keep all the tips for themselves.

Tip pooling works like this: In many states, the minimum wage for tipped workers is $2.13 per hour for servers who make more than $30 per month in tips.

Under the current law, if a restaurant owner elects to pay servers $2.13 per hour rather than the state’s regular minimum wage, any gratuities servers earn belong to them.

If the current rule is reversed, restaurant owners could elect to pay all their employees, including waitstaff, the state’s minimum wage and keep any tips servers make during their shift.

“I am sensitive to the disparity between back and front of house workers, but this proposed regulation allows an owner to pocket all the tips, or redistribute them,” Patricia Smith, senior counsel at the National Employment Law Project and former Obama administration solicitor of labor told Eater. “What if he or she chooses to pocket all of them and then no one gets the tips?”

How Can You Tell the Government What You Think?

If you’ve got feelings about the Department of Labor’s proposal and want to weigh in, you’ve got until Jan. 4, 2018 to let your voice be heard.

Head over to regulations.gov to register your opinion with the federal government.

Lisa McGreevy is a staff writer at The Penny Hoarder. She has mad respect for restaurant workers.

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This Often Overlooked Credit Card Perk Could Save You Money This Holiday Season

There are 16 days left until Christmas, and the crunch is on to find the perfect gift while sticking to your budget. You’ve tracked prices, flipped through fliers, searched online and in-store to finally find the item you want at the lowest price.

But wait… it’s been a few days, and there’s your item for $15 less than you paid! What do you do? Do you buy the new lower-priced item and return the original (which you already wrapped)? Do you take the loss?

If you used a credit card to make the purchase, you might be able to get a price match refund without standing in the return line.

What is price protection on credit cards?

One often overlooked perk of many credit cards is price protection. With price protection, if you find an item you purchased with your credit card at a lower price within a certain time frame, you can submit a claim to your card issuer to receive a refund of the difference in price. What’s even more exciting is that price protection is a completely free-to-use benefit when offered by your card issuer.

Price protection is different than purchase protection. With price protection, you’re simply price matching and getting back the difference, whereas purchase protection will refund you if an item is lost, damaged, or stolen and/or you can’t get a refund from the store, in some cases.

Which credit cards offer price protection?

Many cards — such as the , , and the — offer price protection. However, it’s not a feature of all cards, so be sure to check your card details.

Here are some price protection details from popular card issuers:

Card Card Price Protection
Details	Chase	Capital One	Discover
Cards covered	,		All Discover cards, including
Timeframe	120 days	60 days	90 days
Coverage amount	Up to $500 per claim	Up to $250 per claim	Up to $500 per claim
How to start a claim	Call 1-888-320-9656 for information or to file a claim.	Call 1-800-MC-ASSIST to request a claim form.	Call 1-800-347-0213 to ask questions or file a claim.
Benefits guide	Chase Freedom® benefits guide Chase Sapphire Preferred® benefits guide	Capital One® QuicksilverOne® benefits guide	Discover help center FAQ

How to file a price protection claim

The process for filing a claim may differ by the issuer, but in general, you’ll need to:

Make sure the item is not an excluded item as outlined in your benefits guide.
Contact the claims or benefits center to start a claim and receive a claim form.
Fill out the claim form and attach your itemized receipt.
Provide a copy of your credit card statement showing the purchase.
Provide a copy of the print or Internet ad with the sale price

Once you’ve filed a claim, there is a bit of a waiting game. Claims will stay open for a certain period to ensure adequate time to process the information and request any other documents they may need from you. For instance, with the , claims are open for 60 days from the date they’re filed. After the claim has been processed, a refund will be issued, usually in the form of a statement credit or check.

The key takeaways

Holiday shopping is a stressful time, especially when it comes to finances and staying on budget. No matter how much due diligence you do, you might not find the best deal. The good news is that with a credit card that offers price protection, you can still save!

The post This Often Overlooked Credit Card Perk Could Save You Money This Holiday Season appeared first on The Simple Dollar.

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How to Boost Sales by Accomodating the Needs of Mobile Users

You don’t need to come up with a complicated marketing campaign as a last-ditch effort to increase your sales revenue.

All too often I see businesses drastically slash their prices or run other insane promotions, that aren’t profitable, just to get more sales.

Don’t get me wrong. I’m definitely an advocate for running promotional campaigns.

It’s just not always necessary if you’re trying to boost ecommerce sales.

Instead, take a look at your channels for content distribution and sales platforms.

Are they optimized for mobile devices?

If you’re not sure, the answer is probably no.

That’s a big problem.

You have to understand how people consume content, browse, and ultimately make purchases.

In the last six months, over 60% of smartphone users purchased something online with their mobile devices.

Furthermore, 80% of consumers use their mobile devices while shopping at physical store locations.

Why would they do this?

Compare prices
Find other store locations
Research product reviews

If your business doesn’t have a strong mobile presence, you’re neglecting a huge share of potential sales.

Accommodating the needs of mobile users could end up being the cash injection your company is looking for.

I’ve got plenty of experience with this, so I can help steer you in the right direction if you don’t know how to get started.

Here’s what you need to do.

Optimize your website for mobile devices

How does your website look when it’s loaded on mobile devices?

Take a look at this example from the Medical Web Experts website:

The left image is what their standard website looks like.

The image on the right is the same website after it’s been optimized for mobile devices.

Notice the differences?

It’s much harder for users to navigate on their phones if the site isn’t optimized.

The font is smaller and harder to read, which forces users to zoom in to find what they’re looking for.

Scrolling can be an issue too.

That’s because the website was designed for laptop and desktop screens.

The page will load, but ultimately it has too many problems.

Once it’s optimized, the page will fit much better on a smaller screen.

Now users will just have to scroll up and down to navigate, as opposed to zooming and needing to scroll left and right as well to see all your content.

This makes it easier for the site visitor to find what they’re looking for in just a click or two.

Ease of use will keep the consumer happy, which can ultimately lead to higher conversion rates.

These are some other added benefits of a mobile friendly website:

I would definitely recommend adding a search bar to your mobile site at the top of the screen.

That makes it even easier for the user to get where they need to be as fast as possible.

Check out these examples from Patagonia, Amazon, and The New Yorker:

All three of these popular websites simplify the search and navigation process for people using their phones and tablets.

Once you modify the design of your mobile site to accommodate mobile users, it’s time to put it to the test.

Enter your site URL on the Google mobile friendly test to see the results.

These are my results when I run the test for Quick Sprout:

As you can see, my mobile site is friendly for users.

In fact, you might even be reading this blog on your mobile device right now.

Speed matters

Having your website designed for mobile devices is only half the battle.

The site needs to load fast too.

You can use the Google mobile speed test to check how fast your page loads on mobile devices.

It all goes back to accommodating the user.

People are busy.

More importantly, they are impatient.

This is a major problem for you if your mobile site takes too long to load.

It doesn’t matter what kind of device they are using.

According to recent studies, users expect mobile pages to load as fast or faster than the pages on their desktop and laptop computers.

Mobile sites that take more than three seconds to load will see a 40% abandonment rate.

Just take a moment to let that sink in.

Four out of every ten users will leave your website if it doesn’t load fast enough.

Fixing a slow loading time can drastically improve your sales because your abandonment rates won’t be as high.

Look at the other statistics on the graphic above as well.

Over 70% of Internet traffic today comes from mobile devices.

The majority of people who search for your site are probably doing so from their phones and tablets.

If you’re not making it as easy as possible for these people to navigate, you are hurting your bottom line.

This is true regardless of what kind of site you’re running.

For ecommerce sites, obviously, the goal of your business is to get users to buy what you’re selling.

But if they can’t locate your items and the pages don’t load fast, you won’t get sales.

Even if you’re not selling a physical product online, you still need to optimize your site for mobile devices.

How do you make money?

Let’s say you run a blog.

You may rely on advertisements to make ends meet.

But if users aren’t spending time on your site or they are abandoning it, you won’t get as many impressions, and your click-through rates will suffer.

Look at the direct correlation between load times and abandonment.

Your website simply can’t survive if your rates are this high.

Recognize how many people are using mobile devices

Part of operating a business and running a website is keeping up with the trends.

You would be surprised how many business owners don’t have a clue about what’s going on, even in their own industries.

It’s mind blowing.

But for argument’s sake, let’s pretend you’re an expert in your industry, which you very well may be.

That’s not enough.

If you have a website, you need to understand how people consume information.

That goes for small businesses too.

Take a look at how searches on various devices resulted in purchases from a local business.

More searches resulted in purchases from mobile phones and tablets than from computers and laptops.

Remember what I said earlier?

People search for items online while they are shopping inside of a physical store.

Obviously, for convenience and practicality purposes, they don’t whip out a computer to do this.

But they can easily reach into their pockets for their phones.

Let’s continue analyzing the trends.

In 2017, laptops and desktops are trending down.

On the flip side, mobile phones are trending up.

This holds true on a global scale as well.

Over 66% of the population owns a mobile device.

As a business owner who operates a website, you’ve got to stay on top of these kinds of numbers.

Analyze your target market.

Age impacts how people browse and shop online as well.

As you can see from the graphic above, people over the age of 55 use their devices much less than younger generations.

So if you’re selling a product or service that targets senior citizens, you might be getting away with not having a mobile friendly site at the moment.

But you’re still missing out on sales.

Think about all the younger people who may want to buy a gift for their parents or grandparents.

They would browse and shop on their mobile devices.

Plus, this isn’t a sustainable business plan.

Those younger generations are only going to get older, so it’s safe to say these trends will shift and even out over time.

Mobile devices impact buyer behavior

Continuing with our last point, the devices that people browse on impact how they shop.

The reason behind this statement is due to a combination of everything we’ve discussed so far.

Consumers are more likely to buy something if you have a mobile friendly website.

It’s that simple.

Here’s a hypothetical situation.

Let’s say a consumer is shopping in your competitor’s brick and mortar location, which is within a walking distance from your storefront.

The customer is interested in an item, but they want to make sure they’re getting the best price.

They run a quick Google search to see if anyone else sells this particular item at a more reasonable cost.

You offer the same exact item for 20% less than your competitor.

But when the consumer clicks on your website, it takes too long to load, and it’s not mobile friendly.

Now what?

The customer didn’t want to take the time to figure out scrolling and zooming through your complicated website because it wasn’t compatible with their mobile device.

You just missed out on the sale.

They bought from your competitor instead.

If this pattern continues, it will put you on the fast track to going out of business.

A/B test different versions of your mobile site

Once your mobile site is up and running, you have to keep working on it.

Sure, it’s better than it was before, but that doesn’t mean there isn’t room for improvement.

Just like you do with your website and email campaigns, you need to A/B test your mobile website as well.

This will help ensure you get the highest conversion rates possible.

That way you know it’s performing to its full potential.

Approach this test the same way you would any other A/B test.

Just change one component.

For example, you could change the wording, colors, size, or placement of the CTA button.

Here’s a basic example to illustrate what I mean:

I’d recommend testing the performance of different site variations often.

That’s the best way to ensure you’re accommodating the needs of any mobile user who visits your website.

Build an app

For those of you who want to take mobile optimization a step further, it may be in your best interest to build an app for your company.

Apps can help enhance the user experience even more.

It’s not for every business, but I definitely recommend looking into it.

Mobile app development is expensive and takes time.

Even after your app is finished, it’s still going to cost you money to keep it running.

But if you think you have the funds to pull it off, it can definitely be worth your time and financial investment.

The majority of the time that gets spent on mobile devices is through app usage.

It’s a great way to increase the chances that customers spend more time engaging with your company.

I recommend building an app for your business if you have an ecommerce website.

Here’s why.

Your mobile site may be better for the users to browse on when they’re looking up information in a store, but apps make it easier for them to purchase.

The checkout process on your mobile site is long and tedious.

Users have to enter all their personal information, shipping address, and payment method.

This takes a long time, especially on a mobile phone.

There is just too much room for error, and you could see a high number of abandoned shopping carts.

But if you have an app, users, once they download it, can create a profile.

This profile saves all their information.

So when it’s time to check out, your customers can add items to their carts and pay with just a couple of clicks.

This simplified process will increase sales for your ecommerce store.

Conclusion

If the sales for your business are stagnant or declining, it may be because you’re ignoring mobile users.

The trends are changing toward more mobile usage each year.

Optimizing your website to accommodate the needs of these users will help you make more money.

You just have to make sure your mobile site loads fast in addition to being optimized.

Otherwise, you’ll see high abandonment rates.

A/B test different versions of your mobile website to get the highest number of conversions possible.

It may also be in your best interest to build a mobile app for your company, especially if you’re selling something.

Follow these tips, and your website will start making more money from people using mobile devices.

How long does it take your mobile website to load?

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Personal Finance and the Flood of News and Information

Last week, for a full seven days, I tried an experiment. It’s basically something I’ve described before on the site – a media diet where I intentionally avoided almost all sources of “news” and instead stuck to books and offline games and physical activity for entertainment.

For seven days, I didn’t watch the news at all. I didn’t visit any news websites – in fact, I blocked all of them. I avoided social media except within the strict limits of what I needed to do professionally and to contact a few people for face-to-face meetings. I did not watch cable news. I did not read a newspaper, save two feature articles suggested to me by trusted friends. I kept my phone turned off unless I intended to communicate with someone and I often kept it in another room.

What did I do instead? I read a book on economics. I went for several long walks with no distractions, just looking around at my environment. I read a novel about two friends in Italy. I played several board games with my kids. I got several nights of really good sleep. I practiced my taekwondo moves and form. I watched a documentary.

Here are some of the things that I noticed during that break.

One, after the first couple of nights, I slept really well. I slept tremendously well, in fact, over the last couple of nights. I woke up feeling really well rested and ready to tackle my day. A large part of this was the fact that when I was tired, I went to bed without any cell phone time or reading time at all. I just went straight to bed in a dark room. Thus, I fell asleep pretty quickly and slept very restfully.

Two, I felt less compelled to want things, particularly those related to my interests and hobbies. I didn’t hear about the latest and greatest board game or some upcoming book that I couldn’t miss. All of that completely fell off my radar. I can always tap into that sentiment if I ever felt a need in my life to have a new book or a board game, but if I don’t have that feeling, why bother?

That feeling extended even to stuff I don’t normally buy. I honestly wasn’t struck with the urge to buy much of anything aside from covering basic food needs.

Finally, I didn’t feel like I missed anything important. There was no news that went on in the world that required any action of any kind from me. I didn’t feel like I became less informed on the real issues of the day; in fact, because of my book reading, I actually felt a little more informed about how the federal reserve works. I suppose that I did miss out on a few things that would have been the source of some “water cooler” small talk, but in truth if I find myself in a situation like that, I mostly just ask questions of others anyway, so that didn’t really change.

Yes, I didn’t happen to know the latest twists and turns in the lives of whoever the media happened to be talking about today, but in truth, those events almost no impact on my life. I can’t do anything about it, and just having those bits of information doesn’t really change my understanding of the world in any way, though good journalism and writing on these subjects may someday rise to that level. “Hot takes” don’t have much value at all.

Yes, I missed out on some potential fodder for water cooler conversations, but in the few situations where I found myself in that situation, I just said, “I haven’t heard about that!” and asked a few questions, or else I just listened.

In the end, I realized that a nonstop flood of information in my life steered my thinking in countless subtle ways, ways I didn’t even recognize until I took a break. It shaped my opinions and made them forceful, far more forceful than they ever should be when they’re standing atop a fragile pile of selected facts and hot takes from recent days. It nudged me toward buying all kinds of things that I wouldn’t have purchased, and also nudged me toward specific versions of things that I might not have otherwise selected.

Honestly, I don’t need those things in my life, neither for my wallet’s sake nor for my sanity. I want to step back for a while and get away from influences that shape my thoughts in ways that I don’t want. I want to stop spending time on those things and use that time elsewhere in my life, on things of my choosing that have meaning and impact for me.

In fact, I’ve decided to make this a permanent change in my life. Here are some of the changes I’m making to my media diet going forward in order to reduce the impact that “news” has in my life.

I’m untethering myself from my phone. As much as possible, I’m simply not carrying my phone with me anywhere. I am carrying a book with me, however, so that when I’m stuck somewhere with some downtime, I can just read a book.

Furthermore, I deleted many of the media apps from my phone. I basically wiped out any and all apps that don’t involve directly communicating with people that I know, leaving behind only a few information apps – the Overdrive app for reading library books, for one, and a Wikipedia reader app.

I blocked a bunch of websites and I intend to leave those blocks in place for a long time. I often reflexively visit a handful of news sites and that’s a habit I’m specifically trying to kill by making it difficult to visit them. The specific program I’m using is SelfControl.

I now keep an audiobook in the car to listen to while driving. It’s a direct replacement for listening to the radio which seems to be a nonstop mix of sponsors and advertisements. Right now, I’m listening to Mindware by Richard Nesbitt.

I don’t watch much television anyway, so that hasn’t changed. I’m still not watching much television. There are too many other things to do.

I created a “work” profile on my primary work computer that’s devoid of most media distractions. It’s trimmed down to the minimum I need to get work done in a timely manner. I do need a web browser, which is why I’m running the aforementioned SelfControl.

Since these changes are actually saving me a surprising amount of time, I’ve added a block of time for deep reading to my daily schedule. The time I used to spend bouncing around news sites and social media sites is now being channeled into an extra half an hour of deep reading each day. I sit down with a book, read it slowly and carefully, and jot down a few notes as I go. The goal here is to actually add a brick to the foundation of understanding in my life, as opposed to hopping from site to site and not building any deep knowledge of anything.

Most of all, I’m trying to remain conscious of these changes. Things like SelfControl and the revamped app selection on my phone are constant reminders, of course, but one personal practice I use is to remind myself several times throughout the day of the things I’m trying to change. This pushes me to remain conscious of those changes almost all the time and thus it becomes much easier to stick to those changes.

The purpose behind these changes is really threefold. First of all, I want to keep my wallet from being led astray. Much of the news media seems to be specifically cultivated to bring about wants, causing us to desire things that we previously saw no purpose for in our lives – usually, we weren’t even aware of the thing. I have no need for that in my life. Second, I was shocked to see how much time I spent just hopping from news site to news site, and I want to recover that time. As I note above, I want to use it on something more meaningful and foundational in my life. Finally, I want to improve my ability to focus. I’ve found that the constant availability of news and information of all kinds has really damaged my ability to focus on a task and, perhaps even more worrisome, has made me far more prone to making snap judgments about things. I want to step back from that – it’s not a good thing for me.

Even if you don’t agree with the steps I’ve taken here, I hope that this article encourages you to step back for a moment and think about the impact of news (online, television, and print) and social media in your life. Is it helping you to become a better, more well rounded person with a deeper knowledge of the world, or is it putting you emotionally on edge with an incomplete assortment of facts? Is it encouraging you to desire to spend your money on things that you hadn’t even heard of before, that don’t fit any actual preexisting want in your life before you read that article or saw that video? Are you getting more value out of it than the time you put into it?

If any of those questions make you uncomfortable, it might be time to consider a short media diet, and the steps above will help you to do just that.

Good luck!

The post Personal Finance and the Flood of News and Information appeared first on The Simple Dollar.

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Forget the Rising Cost of Living. Funeral Costs Shot Up 227% in 31 Years

Dying is expensive.

New data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics reveals that between 1986 and now, the cost of a funeral rose 227%. In the same time frame, all other consumer prices rose just 123%.

Many people would rather not think about this statistic, let alone the choices for planning a funeral service, cremation or burial. But if you’re the loved one left behind to handle funeral planning and expenses, it can help to know what you’re getting into.

And if you’re getting your affairs in order to make it easier for others in the event of your sudden demise, planning for the costs associated with your final wishes can lift some of the burden from your family and friends.

In case you’ve never planned a funeral before, we asked Elizabeth Fournier, owner of Cornerstone Funeral Services in the rural community of Boring, Oregon, to give us the lowdown on what you can expect, whether you’re doing research for your own final wishes or you’re dealing with an unexpected responsibility.

Fournier’s knowledge of and advocacy for sustainable burial practices have earned her the nickname “The Green Reaper.” A traditional funeral, with the services you’re probably accustomed to — visitation, hearse, cemetery procession — can cost anywhere from $2,000 to $10,000, she said.

Why Are Traditional Funerals So Expensive?

While every state has an office that regulates funeral homes, the funeral homes set their own prices. But they must disclose their general price lists to the state board and are required to share that list with you if you ask about services. As long as those prices are documented, they’re legal, Fournier explained.

Some funeral homes may group their prices into packages, while some spell out pricing for individual services.

Fournier advises looking at family-run or independent funeral homes if you’re trying to keep costs down. Corporate funeral homes may offer additional services, but the convenience factor often comes with additional costs.

Another major expense to consider: the casket. (Yes, we’re really talking about this.)

According to Fournier, the markup on caskets can be up to 400% at funeral homes.

A funeral home cannot refuse a casket that the family provides, whether it’s homemade, from Costco or purchased online. There are a few rules — it has to have handles, for example — but otherwise a funeral home must accept and use the requested casket and cannot charge an additional fee.

There’s one big exception to the rule: Caskets cannot be reused. The only caskets that can be used multiple times are rentals.

Fournier explained that these rentals are often sought when a visitation will be followed by cremation. “Rental caskets have a liner that can come out, and that gets cremated,” Fournier said. “Then the funeral home can use the shell again.” These caskets are typically made from wood and have a traditional look.

What if you pay for a one-time-use casket before a cremation? A wood casket can be cremated along with the deceased. If it’s a metal casket, it has to be handed off to a scrap metal company.

Funeral homes often pass this cost to the family in a “casket distribution fee.”

While planning a funeral might be last on your list of things you’d like to do, Fournier has a major reminder for the cost-conscious:

“You have the right to call around. You don’t have to use the church your family went to or the funeral home in your neighborhood,” she said. “Use what’s right for you. There’s something for everybody.”

9 Alternatives to Traditional Burial (and What They Cost)

Here are the costs of a few common alternatives to a traditional burial and a few new ones you may have seen online.

1. Private Land Burial

In many places, especially rural ones, burying a human on your own property is allowed — and it’s absolutely the cheapest burial option. The tricky part is knowing your state and county rules for private land burial, and having a team of friends and family in place to make it happen.

Some states require you to work with a funeral home, while others do not.

2. Immediate or Direct Cremation

This is the least expensive non-DIY method. It skips visitation and funeral services, and your cremated remains will simply be given back to your family in an urn. Fournier said it can cost as little as $400 to as much as a few thousand dollars.

3. Green Cremation

This procedure, which uses an alkaline solution instead of flames, is legal in 14 states so far. Fournier said it costs between $1,000 and $2,000. It’s also called alkaline hydrolysis, water resomation or flameless cremation.

4. Immediate Burial

This option skips a funeral service and embalming, and does a cemetery burial as soon as possible. Immediate burial starts at about $1,500.

5. Donating Your Body to Science

If neither burial nor cremation suits your desires, donating your body to science can help medical students, scientists and forensics professionals.

The organization — you’ll need to register with the organization prior to death — typically covers the cost to return the cremated remains to your family once it has conducted its research. But don’t plan for a visitation if you’re considering this route.

“You cannot be embalmed if you donate to science,” Fournier said. “Science wants you right away.”

6. Eternal Reefs

For ocean lovers, there’s a nonprofit company that mixes cremated remains with concrete and puts them underwater in an effort to rejuvenate coral reefs. It can cost between $3,000 and $7,500 on top of cremation costs.

7. Open-Air Cremation

The traditional funeral pyre method of cremation is performed by the Crestone End-of-Life Project in Colorado, but it’s limited to pre-registered residents of a single county so far. The organization suggests a donation of $500 to $800 for the service.

8. Burial Pods

You’ve probably seen Facebook posts about burial pods that promise to grow you into a productive, oxygen-generating tree instead of letting you rest quietly in a cemetery. But those pods are just a concept and aren’t legal yet.

For now, cremated ashes can be added to a biodegradable urn that you can plant a tree on top of. It costs about $150 for the outdoor version or up to $550 if you want to grow your tree indoors.

9. Fertilizer

Developed in Sweden, Promessa is a system that rapidly breaks a body down, freeze-dries it and integrates it into the soil. The system is not widely available, but nature lovers can sign up now to show their interest.

Additional Funeral Costs You May Encounter

But that’s not all. While you’re grieving and poring over paperwork, here are a few more items you might want:

Obituary

Whether you choose to submit a brief death notice to the local paper or a 70-line obituary with a color photo, remember that those services can get expensive — even if you’re placing them online and skipping the print edition.

One survey revealed an average cost of $113 for an obituary in a small-town newspaper, $263 in a city paper and $326 for an obituary placed in a major metropolitan area.

The Sunday paper usually costs more than a weekday listing.

Religious or Memorial Service

If the deceased is a member of a religious congregation, there may only be nominal fees to host a service there, though it is customary to tip the minister.

If the deceased isn’t a member of congregation where a funeral service is planned, there could be fees of up to $1,000 for the space and time required.

Use of a common room for a reception can add a few hundred to the tab. A nonreligious service at a park or event space will likely have similar reservation costs.

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

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This is How to Make Some Money the Next Time You’re Sitting on the Toilet

You’re busted.

Study after study shows a lot of us use our smartphones when we’re in the bathroom. The most recent I’ve seen says nearly 90% of us “admit” to doing it.

It’s not a big secret. It’s nothing to be ashamed of. It’s just a smart use of otherwise idle time, IMHO.

Get through some emails. Catch up on the news. Respond to your @mentions on Twitter (you’re so popular). Play a game, because this is the only alone time you get all day.

Or… make money.

If you’re just scrolling to waste time while you’re on the can, try tapping a few buttons that’ll help you earn money.

We’ve found tons of apps that are quick to set up and let you start saving, earning or managing your money simply. Most offer a way to earn a few bucks right away — so you can emerge richer than when you entered.

So that’s what that satisfied grin is all about…

How to Make Money on Your Phone… From the Toilet

Check out these apps to bank more than $50 in bonuses and other cash — plus set yourself up to earn more in the future — next time you take a seat on the porcelain throne.

1. Start Investing — but Don’t Sweat the Small Stuff

Saving money is hard. Investing? Usually harder. Automating the process lets you get started on both without thinking about it.

The micro-investing app Stash does that for you.

With Stash, you can start investing with as little as $5. And you don’t have to know a lot about the stock market to get in. Just tell the app what you care about — the environment, for example — and it’ll invest your money into a portfolio that matches your goals and values.

In Auto-Stash mode, the app automatically withdraws a set amount of cash from your bank account as often as you’d like — from once a week to once a month. Pick whatever you feel like you can handle — even just $5 a month.

Or you can use Smart Save mode, which studies your spending and earning patterns to figure out how much cash you can spare. Little by little, the app automatically saves into your Stash account.

The best part? Sign up here, and you’ll get a bonus $5 when you make your first investment!

2. Sell That Wall Hanging Your Girlfriend is Sick of

You fought over whether you’d buy the framed picture of a bass for, like, a week. She finally gave in, but only if you’d hide it in the bathroom. Now you stare at it every time you’re on the toilet and wonder, “What was I thinking?”

It’s time to let it go.

With the app letgo, you can list pretty much anything you want to sell directly. All you have to do is snap a photo, and you can create a listing in less than a minute.

You don’t even have to leave the commode.

What do you think you can get for it — $5? Give it a shot.

You can download letgo for Android here.

3. Log Your Purchases to Earn Cash Back Every Time You Shop

I signed up for Dosh last weekend, and it’s the easiest money I’ve ever made, hands down. Signing up took just a few minutes, and I banked $5 immediately.

Here’s how it works: Dosh is a cash-back app that pays you for making purchases at more than 100,000 hotels, online stores and restaurants — including Marriott, Forever 21, Nike, Target, Chuck E. Cheese’s, and even local stores and restaurants.

To get your $5 bonus:

Download the app, and sign up.
Pull your debit or credit card out of your pocket, and securely connect it to your account.

That’s it. After that, live your life and watch the cash-back roll in as you use your card (or multiple cards) normally.

Plus, you can collect a $25 bonus for booking your first hotel through the app, as well as bonuses for referring friends and local businesses.

4. Snap a Pic of Your Gorgeous Commode

If you’re admiring the décor in your bathroom right now, the rest of the house is probably pretty impressive, too.

Have a spare room? Might as well use Airbnb to make some money by renting it out.

If you’re a good host with a desirable space, you could add hundreds — even thousands — of dollars to your savings account with Airbnb.

And there’s no reason you can’t be creative. We even found a guy who earns $1,380 a month renting out a backyard tent on Airbnb.

Taking a few simple steps can make the difference between a great experience and a less-than-satisfactory one.

Here are a few tips:

Make your space available during high-demand times in your area. Think: concerts, conventions and sporting events in your area.

Be a good host, and make sure your place is stocked with the toiletries you’d expect at a hotel — toilet paper, soap and towels.

Be personable. A lot of travelers turn to Airbnb for the personal touch they won’t find at commercial properties.

Here’s the link to sign up as an Airbnb host.

(Hosting laws vary from city to city. Please understand the rules and regulations applicable to your city and listing.)

5. Save Your Emails to Get Money Back From Stuff You’ve Already Bought

Admit it: You’ve made a few impulse buys from the toilet. Unless you had Indian food for lunch, you don’t have enough time to carefully consider your decision before tapping “buy now.”

If you’re an avid online shopper, you might not like keeping evidence of your binges. We found a free tool that might make you reconsider.

Paribus gets you money back for your online purchases when an item’s price drops.

It’s free to sign up, and once you do, Paribus will scan your email archives for any receipts. If it discovers you’ve purchased something from a participating retailer, it will track the item’s price and issue you a refund based on retailers’ price-match policies.

You don’t have to do anything!

Paribus monitors more than 25 online retailers, so chances are you could get money back today.

6. Play This Game

Something about gas station scratch-off tickets is so satisfying, but I tend to avoid them because, well, that’s not Penny Hoarding.

Instead, try using a free app called Lucktastic. Each day, it releases a new assortment of digital scratch-off tickets. Lucktastic says instant wins range from $1 to $10,000. You can also earn tokens, enter contests and play games.

You’re playing games on the toilet anyway, aren’t you? (You don’t have to answer that.) Even if you just win $1, you’re still ahead!

The app is free to download — and play.

7. Text This Financial Assistant to Drop Your $10 per Month Gym Membership

Analyzing your monthly budget is, to put it simply, not fun. But you’re just sitting here for the next few minutes. Put it to use by cleaning up your monthly bills with this simple trick.

We all sign up for stuff. Sometimes it’s easier to put subscriptions on a recurring payment and forget about it. Getting rid of the subscriptions you’re not using and socking away the savings could save you a ton of money.

To keep track of them all, check out an app called Trim. Once you sign up and connect your bank account, it analyzes your transaction history for recurring payments.

Trim works like a digital financial assistant — for free — through texts or Facebook Messenger. Text it to ask things like your bank account balance, how much you’ve spent on Amazon this month and which subscriptions you’re paying for.

If you don’t use, say, that dusty gym membership anymore, go ahead and cancel it right from Trim.

8. Take This Survey to Earn $25

OK, not sure how long you’re on the toilet, but this offer might convince you to linger a little.

JOANY is a health care concierge service. It helps people find and compare plans, discover doctors and navigate complicated medical bills.

To best cater to customers, it needs you to answer some survey questions. It takes less than 10 minutes, with fewer than 50 (HIPAA-protected) questions. In return, you’ll pocket $25.

To participate, you need to meet these qualifications:

You purchased health insurance for 2017 through your state exchange, Healthcare.gov, a broker or a plan like Oscar or Aetna.

You don’t receive health insurance through your employer or school.

You aren’t on Medicaid, Medicare or VA health insurance.

Good fit? Take the survey here.

9. Scan Your Favorite CD — Then Get Rid of It, and Turn on Pandora

Do you still have a CD player in the bathroom with that one CD inside? Sell it and go digital.

We appreciate your impeccably-alphabetized CD tower, but it’s time to dust off those jewel cases and cash in on your once-impressive music collection.

Decluttr will buy your old CDs, video games, DVDs and Blu-rays through its app. You scan the barcode with your phone, and Decluttr makes an offer.

Prices vary — usually about 50 cents to $3 per item — but you can unload your media in bulk to make an extra $50 to $100 pretty quickly. And never have to look at them again.

With Decluttr, you can sell stuff online without dealing with individual listings and buyers.

And shipping is free. The company emails you shipping labels to cover the cost. Just print, pack your items in any box and ship it.

Decluttr’s average basket price is between $50 and $60. If you’ve got a particularly impressive collection of dusty old media, you could make quite a haul.

One user, Gil Flores, sold about 100 DVDs and 75 CDs and made $275, an average of $1.57 each.

Plus, enter FREE5 at checkout to get an extra $5 for your trade-in!

P.S. Don’t Flush Your Cash Down the Drain

As you’re finishing up, just a quick reminder: Don’t squander your earnings.

If you struggle to stay on top of your bills, credit card spending or debt, I recommend my favorite financial tool (really), Credit Sesame.

Credit Sesame gives you a free credit report card — including a credit score — and provides you with recommendations and financial education resources. It’s free to use and makes managing your money actually, well, manageable.

Dana Sitar (dana@thepennyhoarder.com) is a senior writer/newsletter editor at The Penny Hoarder. Say hi and tell her a good joke on Twitter @danasitar.

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