MAKE MONEY ONLINE POSTS: 05/02/19

الخميس، 2 مايو 2019

20 Fun, Free Things to Do in Orlando (Because Disney Gets Expensive)

Digital Marketing

Unlike many of the old marketing channels that have enormous barriers to entry, every single business can use digital marketing to grow their business.

Even better, the more you put into it, the more you get.

If you’re just starting to explore digital marketing, start with our Beginners Guide to Online Marketing. It covers all the core topics that you’ll need to get going. If you only read one guide, I’d make it this one.

When you’re ready to go deeper, we’ve put together hundreds of guides across the site, including the guides below that cover every aspect of digital marketing.

Marketing Foundations

Digital marketing changes fast but the fundamentals always stay the same.

That’s why I always recommend getting a good understanding of marketing fundamentals first. Once you have completely internalized these core concepts, you’ll be able to quickly stay on top of the tactics as they evolve. It’ll also help you sort through the snake oil and find the advice that truly works.

You’ll be reaping the rewards from these guides for years to come:

Marketing Tips and Tricks

In digital marketing, the number of tips and tricks is quite vast.

And with how fast online marketing channels evolve, it’s critical to stay on top of these. If all your competitors figure out a new tactic and you don’t, you’ll quickly get left behind. This is one area that you constantly want to review:

Marketing Channels

One of the most important marketing decisions you’ll make is which channel to focus on. I’ve personally worked with businesses that have made it to $1 million in revenue and above using every channel out there.

No single channel is best, it’s all about finding the one that’s the best fit for you.

What about going after multiple channels? Why not get the benefit of all of them?

If you get big enough, yes, you’ll be in every channel eventually. But in my experience, businesses diversify across channels way too early. Especially with online channels, the level of competitive has gotten very high. It’s almost impossible to compete at the highest levels on SEO, social, and paid at the same time. Most marketing teams are only good at one channel which subsidizes the rest.

Personally, I avoid diversifying across channels until I have a good enough brand that can give me an advantage as I scale into other channels. I’ll also start new channels when I’m starting to hit the limits of my first channel.

We have entire sections devoted to SEO, social media, and paid marketing. You’ll find everything you ever wanted to know about those channels.

These guides below will also help you with the channel that you decide to go after:

Marketing Psychology

Marketing psychology is one of the “first principles” in the field of digital marketing. Once you know all the principles and tricks of marketing psychology, every aspect of your marketing will improve. You’ll always know how to improve a campaign, strategy, and ad.

This is one my favorite areas to go deep on:

Growth Hacking

Many of the biggest companies from the past few decades have utilized growth hacking to drive their explosive growth. Facebook, Dropbox, Uber, Airbnb, and countless others have built entire Growth Teams to accelerate growth at every step of their funnels.

I consider growth hacking to be a subspecialty of digital marketing. Growth projects prioritize virality, finding ways to get users to drive growth, heavily focuses on the product itself, looks for exploits in other channels that can be scaled, and relies heavily on engineering along with design skills to ship projects.

These guides will get you up to speed on how it all works:

Marketing Demographics

Digital marketing needs to be completely different depending on what generation that you’re targeting.

This is one of those insights that seems obvious the first time that you hear it but has profound implications across your entire career. Your channel selection, brand values, products, and campaigns will all be completely different if you go after millennials compared to baby boomers for example. For B2C marketers, this is possibly the most important variable to keep in mind when building your overall marketing strategy.

These guides will help you craft the right strategy for your target demographic:

Marketing Careers

One of the smartest decisions that I ever made was to skip the MBA and go straight into my marketing career. From the hands-on experience by leading marketing teams and all the marketing books, podcasts, and blog posts I’ve consumed over the years, I’ve basically given myself an MBA in marketing at a fraction of the cost. And I got paid along the way.

To jump-start your own career, here’s a few of my favorite resources on marketing:

Small Business Marketing

Digital marketing for small businesses takes on a different flavor. Mainly, budgets are pretty limited and the marketing needs to be a lot scrappier.

There’s still plenty of ways to market your business. We go through all your options here:

Marketing Examples

All these tips are great but how does this really work in practice? What’s it really like?

To see how all this works, we put together several case studies along with some lessons that we’ve learned from others:

Source Quick Sprout http://bit.ly/2Lm9iY0

CVS closing dozens of U.S. stores: Is your pharmacy on the list?

CVS has been posting eye-popping profits in recent years, but that isn't stopping the nation's largest pharmacy chain from closing some locations.The Rhode Island-based retailer said this week that it is in the process of shuttering 46 stores it deems "underperforming."The move is expected to have a one-time cost for CVS of $135 million, USA Today [...]

Source Business - poconorecord.com http://bit.ly/2URTzj3

This Back Scratcher Shares 4 Tips on How to Start an Unusual Side Gig

This Simple Step Could Be a Lifesaver If You Have Credit Card Debt

Credit card debt can snowball quickly.

Once you fall behind, you may find yourself getting crushed by interest rates north of 20%. You’ll never catch up that way. You’re spending so much on interest, you’ll never pay off your balances.

If you’re financially treading water like this, it might be worth consolidating and refinancing your debt.

By refinancing an existing loan, you’re taking out a totally new loan, which comes with new terms and (ideally) a lower interest rate. By consolidating your existing loans, you lump all your debt into one big payment, so you’re only making one payment and dealing with one interest rate per month.

Not sure where to start?

Credible is an online marketplace that offers consumers personalized loan offers. It’s best for borrowers who have good credit scores (think: around 640 or higher), and it lets you quickly compare rates without visiting a bunch of sites.

Rates start at 4.99%*, and you can check yours by entering a loan amount here (up to $100,000) and comparing your personalized options in less than two minutes.

*Rates accurate as of 5/2/19.

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.

source The Penny Hoarder http://bit.ly/2GOJ6jk

Debt Finally Paid Off? Here Are 6 Ways to Make Sure You Don’t Rack Up More

The Five Things You Need to Achieve Your Financial Goals

Given the enormous differences in the financial situations of different people, it’s easy to buy into the idea that those different stories have very little in common. After all, what exactly does a well-funded investor making his first millions have in common with a single parent with three kids trying to keep the rent paid?

While those differences might be important, when I hear those stories, what I look for are the similarities. Their external situations might be really different, but the things that drive those people internally are actually quite similar.

In fact, I would argue that there are really only five things that you need to have to achieve your financial goals, regardless of your financial state. They are things that everyone has access to, should they choose to do so. These five elements are present in virtually every financial success story, whether it’s someone making minimum wage and trying to pay off a student loan or someone trying to make their first million.

Here are the five key ingredients I feel everyone needs to succeed at their financial goals. Of course, these ingredients largely hold true for almost every type of goal.

Self-Evaluation

This is the starting point for setting and achieving any kind of goal. You have to look at yourself and ask two absolutely vital questions: what do I have and what do I want.

What do I have? To set any sort of realistic financial goal, you need to start with a realistic picture of where you are at.

What are your assets? What things do you possess that have any value? What are your various account balances?

What are your debts? What responsibilities and obligations do you have? Do you have a spouse or children or others that rely on you?

What skills do you have? How can you apply those skills to make money? How much spare time do you have? What is your health like? Do you have the energy or capacity to work harder?

At the same time, you have to have a firm grip on what you want. What is your goal? When do you want to achieve that goal? Is that goal challenging but still within the realm of reality (for example, I might have some sort of career in basketball, but I’m never going to be an NBA player)? Is that goal deeply meaningful to you, or is it something someone else wants for you?

You can’t run a race if you don’t know what your starting point is. You can’t win a race if you don’t know where the finish line is. So often, people take off running without even knowing where the starting line is or the finish line is and they wonder why they can’t finish the race.

While you might be able to come up with quick, trite answers to all of these questions, the truth is that all of these questions deserve some serious self-reflection, and those questions will lead to more questions. You need to really understand yourself, what you have, and what you want in order to be able to establish a worthwhile challenging goal for yourself, and that’s going to take some self-reflection.

There are a lot of different methods that people can use for self-reflection. I find journaling to be very powerful. I constantly turn over questions like these when I’m journaling and they consistently move me toward better goals and better understanding of who I am, what I want, what I need, and what I should be doing with my time and energy.

Whatever method you choose, I encourage you to set aside some time each day to really think through these questions. What do you have? What does your life situation really look like? What do you want out of life? How does all of that translate into some powerful goals that you can actually achieve that will equate to a better life?

Planning

Planning takes the output of a bunch of self-reflection and turns it into actionable steps that can take you from what you currently have to what you want to have. In other words, planning addresses the question of how do I get from what I have to what I want.

Let’s say you did some serious self-evaluation of where you’re at and what you want and you’ve decided that a big healthy financial goal for yourself is to achieve debt freedom in three years.

The first question you should ask yourself is what can I do this year that will help me achieve that big goal? Maybe it’s something as straightforward as paying off a quarter of your debt balance, because if you do that in a year, you’re going to find it easier and easier to go faster and faster because interest isn’t accumulating. This might include some other big step like getting a new job or moving to a less expensive apartment.

Okay, then ask yourself what can I do this quarter that will help me achieve those end of the year goals? You might come up with a list of things here. They might be things oriented toward cutting back on your spending, like cutting your cable subscription. You might set a three month goal of getting your resume up to speed and applying to ten jobs that match you well. Maybe a three month goal is to find a cheaper apartment and move, or to find a roommate. You’ll probably have a few – you should have at least one for every goal you have for the year.

Then, what can I do this month that will help me achieve those quarterly goals? Maybe you’ll simply make a great resume and get it uploaded in a bunch of places. Maybe you’ll cut your cable. Maybe you’ll do a serious search for a roommate. Maybe you’ll clean out your closet and sell off some of that stuff. Maybe you’ll give yourself a strong thirty day challenge, like cooking all of your meals at home, that will both directly save you money and help you build a skill going forward that will keep saving you money.

Great, so what can you do this week to make those big goals for the month a reality? You might look for alternate ways to watch the two or three shows that you’re keeping cable around for. Maybe you can ask a friend to look at your current resume and suggest improvements. Maybe you can ask five friends whether they’d be interested in being roommates. Maybe you can make a real meal plan for the week, get all of the ingredients in one shopping trip, and make all of your meals.

That leaves us with one final question: what can you do today to make those week-long goals a reality? Just pick two or three things. Make a meal plan and a grocery list and head to the grocery store. Find your resume and send it to a good friend asking for advice on updating it. Call up a friend and see if they’d be interested in being a roommate.

Each day, ask yourself to come up with two or three things that you can do today to make those week-long goals a reality. Then, do them. Make them a priority. Get them done before you flop on the couch to watch Netflix or look at your phone.

Each week, do a bigger review. Make sure you finished up (or made good progress on) your plans and goals for the week, and set new ones for the next week. If it’s the start of the month, do it for the monthly goals. If it’s the start of a quarter, do it for the quarterly goals. If it’s the start of a year, do it for the yearly goals. (I do this on Sunday morning, usually.)

That’s what planning is all about. You’e got your goal, so what does that break down to? Keep breaking it down until it’s some short tasks on your to-do list for the day, and then keep coming back to the goal asking yourself what’s next.

There will come a time with a lot of financial goals where there isn’t something active to do, and that’s fine, as long as you’re not actually letting down your big goals by not doing anything. That’s when some of the other elements below come into play more than ever.

Self-Control

You have to be able to stop yourself from fulfilling desires, because desires are endless. You will always want something. There will always be a treat that you desire or that you think you deserve.

This isn’t easy. Our own internal voice makes it difficult. The pressures of society make it difficult. The nudging of our social circle can make it difficult.

Yet it can be overcome.

I think there are different answers to these problems for everyone, and so I can’t always comment on what might work for you when it comes to figuring out self-control over the things you desire. All I can really point to is what worked best for me.

First of all, I started evaluating literally everything I spent money on. Did I really need this thing? Was there a lower cost version that would have met that need, if there was a real need involved? If it was just fulfilling a desire, did I really get anything lasting out of that purchase?

For many months, I went through every single credit card statement and every single bank statement and every single receipt and asked myself those questions about every single purchase. Every time I ever feel even a little out of whack financially, I go back to this and walk through those statements, asking myself those questions.

“But these things are so small!” I would often think this very thought about a little splurge. Surely a dollar here and a dollar there can’t make a difference, right? It’s so tiny! Well, a pebble is tiny, too, but you can’t expect to walk a marathon with a pebble in your shoe. With every step, the pebble will rub against your feet and eventually you aren’t making any progress any more.

The next thing I did is that I started strongly questioning every desire. Every time I wanted to buy something, I would ask myself why I wanted to buy it. Why? What purpose did it serve? Would I get any lasting enjoyment out of this? Couldn’t I get a similar pleasure out of other things I had available? Was this just something I was buying to make myself feel better about something else in my life – i.e., retail therapy – and wouldn’t I be better off just addressing that something directly?

What I found is that an awful lot of my desires were justified by the weakest and silliest and flimsiest of reasons, reasons that would fall apart very quickly if I allowed myself to question my reasoning. (That’s important, and I’ll come back to it soon enough.) So, if I got into a routine of always questioning the reasoning for a purchase and I was willing to allow myself to recognize the silliness of some of my impulses, the number of non-essential purchases would just drop through the floor.

If you’re familiar with Buddhism, you’ll probably recognize this as having a lot in common with the “eightfold path”. They’re both driving at the same thing: desires are often the source of a lot of misery in our lives, whether we fulfill them or not. Figuring out that most of our desires are pretty useless nips them in the bud and eventually kills them off entirely.

Self-control is a challenging thing and sometimes you’re going to fail. What happens then?

Grit

Grit is the fourth essential ingredient you need to achieve financial goals. It’s a willingness to recognize your mistakes and learn from them. It’s a willingness to pick yourself up when life knocks you down. It’s getting back on board with a plan when something knocks you off of it.

The reality is that at some point during your progress toward your financial goal, something is going to happen that knocks you off your gameplan. It can be something completely out of left field, it might be something you should have planned for, it could even be your own foolishness.

Whatever it happens to be, it either strongly tempts you or it knocks you completely off your game. You’re no longer cruising right toward your destination. You might feel like that destination is in doubt. You probably feel frustrated. You might feel ashamed.

It’s awful. Trust me, I’ve been there. Many of us have been there.

The question is whether or not you’re willing to pick yourself up and keep moving forward toward that goal.

If you’re not willing to do that, then you don’t have grit. You’re not going to achieve major goals in life if you’re not willing to stand back up when things don’t go perfectly.

According to the wonderful book Grit by Angela Duckworth, there are four key elements to grit:

Step one: Identify a burning passion.
Step two: Practice it with commitment.
Step three: Find inner purpose in your work.
Step four: Persevere when things get hard.

If you have a deeply meaningful goal, you have that burning passion and inner purpose. If you have a plan that you’re reviewing and working toward daily, you have that commitment. What about perseverance when things are hard?

I’ve found a couple things that help here.

First, automate as much of your plan as you can during the early stages. That way, when things go awry later on, much of your plan will just keep on trucking when your focus is elsewhere. Set up automatic savings plans and automatic contributions to retirement.

Second, have an emergency fund that you can tap when things go sideways. My preferred method for this is to set up a weekly automatic transfer from your checking account to your savings account – $10 or $20 or whatever you can afford. Then, just let it roll. When an emergency strikes, tap that emergency fund first. You’ll find that a lot of emergencies just melt away and don’t actually hurt your progress.

Finally, think about what went wrong and incorporate what you learn into some revisions to your plan. Why did things get out of whack? That takes you right back to the self-reflection part of the equation. Reflect deeply on what went wrong and what needs to change to ensure that you don’t make that mistake again. You’ll likely alter your plans, at least a little, and that’s a good thing.

There’s just one final ingredient.

Patience

Most personal finance goals are marathons rather than sprints. The goal you’re aiming for is years and years down the road and there are times when it seems impossibly far in the distance.

Patience is the key to success in those situations. You have to be able to accept that the big success you want won’t happen tomorrow or the day after. Rather, it only happens after a long sequence of little successes, many of which will basically be invisible to you in terms of your day to day life.

This is very hard for humans. We’re genetically predispositioned to not think in the long term. Rather, we’re short term thinkers. We think about the day ahead and the week ahead and perhaps the month ahead, but beyond that, it gets kind of nebulous. It becomes this vague sense of “the future.” Sure, we’ll do things that we know we need to do now because they are necessary for future endeavors, but unless it’s a really clear direct payoff, most of us will procrastinate or not worry about it. The urgent almost always trumps the important.

So, how can you help yourself be patient when it comes to a long term goal?

One good method is to look at the little successes that you’re achieving due to marking off those short term daily and weekly goals. How many days this month did you eat at home? How many of your weekly goals did you knock out? Those are the metrics you should be looking at. Focus on those things and the big goal will become an inevitability.

Another strategy is, as suggested earlier, to automate as much of your financial plan as you can. That way, during the long stretches where your patience is being tested, much of your plan is on autopilot and doesn’t require any active decision making.

A final technique, one that works particularly well for me, is to constantly refresh that long term vision. On a very regular basis – often weekly – I think about my long term goals and what my life will be like when I achieve them. I intentionally dive deep into my goals and try to visualize what some aspect of my life will be like at that point. I’ll imagine Sarah and I, slightly older, camping in the Shenandoah National Forest. I’ll imagine myself writing a novel somewhere. I’ll imagine myself feeding a grandchild a spoonful of baby food. For me, it’s those details – often unique ones – that keep the overall goal alive and help me maintain my patience.

Final Thoughts

Self-evaluation. Planning. Self-control. Grit. Patience. Those are the elements of success no matter what your financial situation might be and no matter what your financial goals might be. If you bring all five of those elements to bear in order to improve your financial state, you’ll find that your goals move from being impossible pipe dreams to being achievable (though still challenging) ambitions.

Good luck!

The post The Five Things You Need to Achieve Your Financial Goals appeared first on The Simple Dollar.

Source The Simple Dollar http://bit.ly/2Var6d7

11 Surprising Things Covered by Homeowners Insurance

When it comes to homeowners insurance, typical policies cover such hazards as fire, vandalism, and lightning strikes.

And while every policy is different, there are also a variety of surprising or unusual items and accidents that your coverage provider may very well foot the bill for. Everything from hitting someone with a golf ball when enjoying a day on the greens to the costs associated with identity theft could be part of your plan.

Unfortunately, few consumers understand the full scope of their coverage. A study from the Insurance Information Institute found that while consumers understand the major areas that their house insurance covers, they often have gaps in their knowledge about policies.

“Consumers can—and should—educate themselves about their coverage, recognize that they may have gaps in their coverage and seek guidance from an insurance professional when they purchase or renew a policy,” states the report.

With that in mind, here’s a look at some of the lesser known items and accidents that home insurance often covers.

Damage Caused by Wild Animals

Few people relish the idea of coming home to an uninvited furry guest, but it’s been known to happen on occasion, particularly in areas with dense deer or bear populations, says Christopher O’Rourke, a vice president of property claims with Mercury Insurance.

“Bears, in particular, are resourceful and can enter homes through open windows or by manipulating a door handle simply following the scent of food, so be sure to keep windows and doors closed and locked,” said O’Rourke.

The good news is that any damages an animal may cause while in your home are covered by your homeowners insurance policy, O’Rourke added.

Golf Injuries and Damage

Do you live on or near a golf course? Those who have experienced broken windows, roof damage, or divots to exterior walls caused by stray shots can expect to have such damage covered by a home insurance policy, said O’Rourke.

“Also, many recreational golfers are admitted to emergency rooms each year after accidentally being hit by a golf ball or flying club head,” O’Rourke added. “If you’re the golfer with the faulty swing in one of these scenarios, your homeowners, condo owners, or renters insurance policy will cover the cost of injuries or property damage.”

Property Loss at College

For those who have children living away at college it may be helpful to know that your home insurance policy has them covered – at least when it comes to items that are stolen or damaged.

This typically applies to a child or other immediate family member under the age of 24, explained Jeff Snyder, vice president of insurance for Matic, a digital homeowners insurance marketplace.

“This coverage can come in handy when an expensive laptop goes missing from a dorm,” said Snyder, pointing out that liability insurance is also automatically extended on your policy to cover your child while away at school.

“This protects your child from any non-criminal property or medical damages they could be liable for,” Snyder continued. “Knowing you have this protection can help you sleep easier at night. Check with your insurance carrier prior to sending your child off to college to make sure they have adequate coverage.”

Read more: Five Money Conversations to Have With Your Kids Before They Leave for College

Lost Luggage

Airlines are notorious for losing luggage. In October 2018, the most recent data available, the U.S. Department of Transportation reported 132,187 mishandled baggage claims.

And of course, flying isn’t the only travel related instance in which your luggage may get lost or stolen. As it turns out, your home insurance may come in handy in such situations.

“If your luggage or other property is stolen, lost, or damaged while on a trip, this may actually be covered under your homeowners insurance policy,” Snyder explained. “Most policies offer protection for your belongings away from your property.”

Volcano Damage

Planning on moving to Hawaii or any other area known to have active volcanoes? The good news is your home insurance has your back.

“Although homeowners insurance policies do not cover you for a flood or earthquake, most policies will cover damage caused by a volcanic eruption,” said Snyder.

Dog Bites

We all love our pets. But the reality is, sometimes those pets can get you into trouble. Christopher Earley, an attorney who has been handling homeowners insurance claims for 15 years, says many people are not aware that home policies will cover dog bites.

“For example, if you own a dog that bites someone, and that person is injured as a result, your homeowners coverage will be triggered if a claim is made. The dog bite does not have to occur on your property for homeowners coverage to apply,” Earley explained.

Almost 90 million dogs are owned as pets in this country and 4.5 million people are bitten by dogs each year, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which also points out that nearly one in five people bitten by a dog requires medical attention.

According to the Insurance Information Institute, homeowners and renters insurance policies generally cover dog bite legal expenses up to the liability limits, which are typically $100,000 to $300,000. In the event that a claim exceeds such limits, it is the dog owner who will be responsible for remaining charges.

But do your homework. Some insurance companies will not insure homeowners who own certain breeds of dogs that are viewed as more dangerous, including pit bulls.

DIY Projects Gone Awry

Some home improvement projects are best left to the professionals. Whether it’s replacing kitchen appliances or expanding structures on your property, watching instructional YouTube videos and then tackling the project yourself isn’t always the best approach, said O’Rourke.

Many losses associated with such projects are covered, said O’Rourke. But he suggests checking with your insurance company before embarking on any planned remodeling to be sure the coverage is adequate.

Injured Guests

If a houseguest is injured while visiting, your homeowners insurance may provide coverage. The coverage applies even if you were not the one at fault for the injury, said Christi Houser, an agency manager for Country Financial in Clackamas, Oregon.

“For example, if the insured is hosting a slumber party and the kids get rambunctious resulting in a fall off the bed and a broken arm, the homeowners insurance policy may pay for expenses related to that injury with no deductible,” Houser explained. “Most polices come with a minimal limit, but more can always be purchased. The homeowner should reach out to their agent to determine how much coverage they have and consider increasing it, especially if they have children, pets, or invite guests over often.”

Additional Living Expenses

This little-known category involves expenses incurred should you have to vacate your home for some reason. Additional living expenses pays the extra cost of a place to live if your home becomes uninhabitable due to a covered claim, said Houser.

“This coverage generally includes the extra cost of “other living expenses” such as eating out at restaurants or having laundry done, which you would not have incurred had you not had the covered loss,” Houser explained.

Items in a Storage Unit

The next time you sign up to rent a storage unit, don’t buy the insurance policy they often try to sell you to make extra money each month. Your home insurance has you covered, says Kirby McClanahan, agency manager for Country Financial in Seattle.

“Many people might not realize that their personal property in a storage unit has coverage from a homeowners policy,” said McClanahan “A lot of storage units like to sell ‘extra insurance’ for contents in the storage unit, but personal property at a storage unit is typically covered as if it was in your home.”

Objects Falling from the Sky

One last item worth noting: While it’s highly unlikely that a meteorite, defunct satellite, or other piece of space debris will come hurtling into your home any time soon, your insurance policy will indeed cover the damage if it does, said O’Rourke. Good to know right?

Mia Taylor is an award-winning journalist with more than two decades of experience. She has worked for some of the nation’s best-known news organizations, including the Atlanta Journal-Constitution and the San Diego Union-Tribune.

Source The Simple Dollar http://bit.ly/2Vdh631