At SLS Las Vegas, things may worsen before they get better

As SLS Las Vegas nears its one-year anniversary in August, it’s become clear the north Strip hotel is having trouble finding its niche in the resurgent Strip market.

Source Business http://ift.tt/1LLhCIk

Observers watching strict new construction-defect rules

Real estate observers said they’re watching how strict construction-defect rules that took effect in February will shape the market for condominiums and townhomes.

Source Business http://ift.tt/1etARco

PMED helps shepherd $3M in LSA funds to Monroe

The Pocono Mountains Economic Development Corp. is widely recognized for ardently recruiting businesses into the area and Chuck Leonard has worked with Middle Smithfield Township toward getting a a Local Economic Revitalization Tax Assistant program, an abatement toward business improvements and expansion.But it also has worked toward getting funding for businesses with grant writing under PMED Marketing Director Michele Bisbing to the Commonwealth Financing Authority that led to half [...]

Source Business - poconorecord.com http://ift.tt/1Rc6Uzf

Leonard getting more inquiries from companies

As Kalahari Resort with its $200 million hotel and indoor waterpark in Pocono Manor officially opened this past week and Aquatopia indoor waterpark at Camelback Mountain opened with an accompanying new hotel complex in May, optimism has risen in the commercial sector for more business growth and job creation in the Pocono Mountains region.It has helped generate new interest from corporates toward the Pocono Mountain Economic Development Corp offices in Mount Pocono where executive [...]

Source Business - poconorecord.com http://ift.tt/1Rc6WXX

(No heading)

East Stroudsburg BoroughHuseyin and Zeynep Cagatay to GAC Realty LLC, Property South Courtland Street, containing 850 square feet, same premise as Pocono Gas Stations, inc., $245,000Middle Smithfield TownshipMark Walter and Teresa Ann Lazor to Angela Lynette Logan-Smith, Lot 262, Phase II, Big Ridge, $249,900Mount Pocono BoroughMillet 21st Century Ventures L P (By Gen Partner) Millet 21st Century Ventures L [...]

Source Business - poconorecord.com http://ift.tt/1Rc6WXT

Lending manager: Prime time for homebuyers

At the time of filing this column, it remains uncertain whether the Fed will end the long hold on the prime interest rate hovering in the low 3 percentile (with a consumer’s good credit history) for home mortgages. But ESSA Bank and Trust Lending Services Division Manager Chuck Hangen says it’s business as usual for homebuying with his division despite that uncertainty for the second half of the year.“It has not affected the real estate market,” said Hangen, [...]

Source Business - poconorecord.com http://ift.tt/1Rc6WXP

Great at Planning, Terrible at Executing: Ten Strategies for Becoming a Doer

Most people are pretty good at coming up with ideas for the future, and many of us are pretty good at developing plans to achieve those things.

I know I certainly am. If you were to take a look at my pocket notebook, many of the things in there are ideas for things I want to do followed by a page or two of details on how I could do it.

In just the last ten or twelve pages of my pocket notebook, I have plans for a novel, a nonfiction book, a video series about board games, a complete revamp of my home beer making process, an exercise routine, and an improved DIY home security system.

Will I ever do those things? Most likely, I won’t.

Yet when I step back and look at the big projects I’ve actually executed in my life, the number is relatively small. I built The Simple Dollar out of nothing. I paid off all of our debts – a total that added up well into the six figures. I completed a few additional large-scale professional projects, each taking a year or more of my professional life. I’ve also completed several quite large but comparatively smaller projects, both personally and professionally. And… that’s it.

Like almost everyone else on Earth, I’m good at planning and relatively quite awful at actually executing those things.

Over the last few years, though, I’ve spent a lot of time reflecting on the big projects that I have achieved in my life and what set them apart. How did I take those great plans and execute on them then and then fail to execute on plans now?

Along the way, I came to realize several things about the most successful plans in my life. And, recently, I’ve been trying to use these steps to accomplish a goal I’ve had for a long time. I’m essentially self-educating myself through a college major, using all of the same books and readings and lectures one would need to go through to major in philosophy (using a pastiche of materials from different universities available online). It’s going slowly, as it’s a very big project, but it is moving forward with a progression that makes me very happy.

These ten strategies seem to be working in my own life. Hopefully, they’ll work in your own life.

Strategy #1 – Commit to At Most Two Central and Important Goals at a Time

We all have busy lives, with lots of responsibilities and interests of various sizes. Those things pull us in a lot of different directions at once, keeping us from bearing down on anything with a strong central focus.

Often, whether we notice it or not, we are working on several big projects at once in life. Whether it’s maintaining our job, being a good spouse, being a good parent, executing a community responsibility, or even something as simple as watching through the entirety of a lauded television series or reading a book series, we often have several projects going on at the same time in our lives.

It is that splitting of our focus that keeps us from hitting a home run with whatever additional projects we add to the mix. It’s like adding yet another scoop of ice cream to an overflowing bowl. Eventually, you’re going drop one of those scoops and it’s going to be messy.

Instead, I encourage you to take a much different approach to the problem. Choose at most two of the big projects in your life and make them the central focus of your time and energy. Yes, you have other responsibilities you’re going to have to take care of. That’s fine. View those other responsibilities as supporting your main goals.

So, let me give you an example from my own life. Right now, I have two major projects that are central in my life. One is my immediate family – my wife and kids – and ensuring that they are truly happy and taken care of and have good relationships with everyone else. The other one is my aforementioned study of philosophy, which I’m engaging in because it is improving how I think.

The other responsibilities I have in my life are all subservient to those two main projects. I take my writing responsibilities with great seriousness because they provide income to support my family and they sometimes let me put some of those philosophical ideas into my own contexts and writings. I take care of our home and possessions and make meals, but, again, those are all connected to taking care of my family. I have a few community responsibilities, but they’re related to my family, too. I try to keep myself in good health so that I have energy and lasting health for my family and for what I’m learning.

What have I thrown away? Aside from a few minor hobbies that simply provide a “release valve” for me – home beer making, board games, and reading things besides philosophy – I don’t really do anything else with my spare time. I don’t watch television other than a rare family program or something I watch late in the evening with Sarah. I don’t play computer games or video games with the exception of ones I play with my children (which is a huge turnaround from my substantial play of League of Legends a few years ago).

Those two projects really are the focus of my life at this point. Almost everything I do is related to one or the other of them.

Strategy #2 – Break Your Plan Down to Tiny Tasks

So, what’s my plan with each of those goals?

With my family, it’s simply to ensure that they are happy, they have a strong relationship with me that they can rely on, and that my children are raised to be thoughtful, intellectually curious, and independent people.

With my studies, it’s simply to study enough philosophy to be roughly equivalent to a college degree in the area.

From there, I can start breaking down those big goals into plans. The philosophy study is easy – I’m just following a degree plan that I synthesized by looking at the course catalogs of several universities. The family plan is a bit trickier as much of it involves around consistently doing a bunch of things like keeping care of the house, providing an income, spending time with everyone, engaging in educational activities with them, encouraging personal growth, having fun with them by doing simple things like playing kickball, and so on.

The thing is, those tenets are still far too big and nebulous. They don’t really mean anything at that level.

They need to be broken down into tiny, tiny actions that I can take on right now. We’re talking pieces that are half an hour or less in length.

For the study goal, I can break it down into a single reading and add that to my to-do list. I figure out what class I’m taking, what session of that class I’m on, and what readings and other materials are required, and then I just bite off that chunk. If the reading is big, I break it down even further.

With my family, it involves things like basic housework tasks, but it also involves things like doing something with each family member one-on-one each day (like reading my youngest child a book or playing a game with my oldest child). It also involves getting some exercise.

Those are specific next steps that I can take to move forward on these goals. I try to keep them very small so that I can knock them off of my to-do list with ease.

You can essentially do this with any goal. How can you move forward today in terms of paying off your debts? Well, you can take on a frugal project, you could negotiate with your credit card company, and so on. Almost any big goal or project you have can be broken down like that.

Strategy #3 – Eliminate Distractions

Life is full of distractions, from cell phone games to interesting websites, from enjoyable television programs to idle conversations with friends, from the best restaurants and snacks to simple daydreaming.

Every time we allow ourselves to get caught in a distraction, we take away from the things we really want to accomplish in life.

I struggle with this myself. I often get caught up in interesting websites and online discussions that really aren’t very productive at all. I often catch myself playing with my cell phone when I shouldn’t be, taking my focus away from whatever is going on in front of me. Those distractions – and many others – take me away from my goals.

The best response I’ve found? Cut out any and all distractions from whatever it is you’re focusing on.

I often turn my cell phone completely off when I’m trying to focus on something. Yeah, I might miss a notification or a text. So what? I can check them later.

I often close my office door to focus on things. This reduces the sounds that might distract me and keeps people from coming in when I’m trying to blow through a particular task.

I have a program that blocks time-wasting websites so that I don’t get sucked into a black hole of Facebook or discussion forums (I find the “nuclear option” to be really, really useful).

I’ve deleted virtually all computer games from my computer.

You get the idea. I’ve simply cut out a lot of the things that distract me. That enables me to put my focus on the things that actually matter, and it makes a tremendous difference. I get things done much faster and actually have time and focus for the important things in my life.

Strategy #4 – Set Up “Triggers” for Positive Behaviors

At the end of each day, I spend a bit of time thinking about some of the stuff I want to do the next day to move forward on my projects and the specific tasks I want to execute (as discussed in Strategy #1).

For each of those, I try to find a way to “trigger” those things.

For example, let’s say I need to read a section in Plato’s Republic and take notes on it. I’ll set out the book, bookmark the places I need to start and finish, and put my notebook and a pen out next to it.

Let’s say I want to play a particular board game with my oldest son. I’ll set that game out on the table right now.

That way, during the next day, those pieces are already in place, making it really easy to just jump into those things.

In fact, this whole process has been really useful for me in terms of moving forward with my two big central projects. I just sit down the evening before, come up with the things I want to complete the next day, and set things up to make those tasks easy to start (and thus complete).

Let’s say your task for tomorrow is to make four pans of homemade lasagna and stick three of them in the freezer. One way you can “trigger” this is by setting out all of the non-refrigerated ingredients and equipment you’ll need on the table and stovetop right now so that it is ready to go in the morning. You’ll see it and already feel like some of the effort is done, so you’re much more likely to dive right into it and get it done.

Strategy #5 – Block Off Time for Your Project

If you’re focused on one or two singular goals in your life, it shouldn’t be too much of a stretch to block off significant parts of your day for each of those singular goals.

Make it happen. Go to your calendar and literally block off some of your day for direct progress on those goals.

I block off two hours a day right now for philosophy reading and study. It’s what I do during those hours. I shut off distractions as much as humanly possible and either watch a lecture, do some reading, or do some thinking and formulating responses to what I’ve read or heard.

I block off two to three hours a day in the evening for family time each and every day, and some days I devote most of the day to it.

Those types of devoted time blocks might be difficult for you, but if they are, it’s a sign that you have a bunch of other things in your life that you’re assigning a higher priority to than your supposed “priority” projects. If you’re finding it difficult to devote real time each day to the one or two things you really want to succeed at, then you’re not really interested in succeeding at those things.

Find the time. Cut out other distractions and other things that aren’t related to those things. Yes, this might mean eliminating other things you find “fun.” It’s worth it. Few things are more “fun” than nailing it at something you’ve really wanted out of life.

Want to really get in shape fast? Block off two hours for exercise each day and maybe one hour for healthy meal preparation. If you do that and actually follow through for a while, you’re going to be an animal. Why don’t people follow through? They don’t block off the time.

Strategy #6 – Set One Specific Micro-Task to Complete Each Day

Here’s the thing: I can block off all the time in the world, but that still doesn’t guarantee that I’ll actually do the thing I want to do. Simply devoting time doesn’t guarantee success.

Another problem: sometimes life just throws things at you that you don’t expect. Those new challenges can sometimes throw all of your plans for a loop, cutting right into the time you’ve set aside and disrupting everything you want to do.

Yet another problem: it’s often hard to really determine whether a block of time has been successful or not. Did you really achieve something there? Or did you just waste time?

For me, I’ve found a lot of success in addressing all of these things at once by defining one small thing that’s the key criteria for success. Usually, that small thing puts me in a position where it is incredibly easy to do more than that – and usually I do far more – but it’s that tiny thing that really defines success.

For my philosophy study, the one thing that defines success each day is whether I spent time reading and taking notes on one single page of a book or one single minute of a lecture. That’s it. If I managed to do that, then today is a success. Naturally, if I’m already in position to do those things, it’s really easy to do more – and I often do a lot more.

For my family, it’s as simple as this: did I spend one minute one on one focused with each other member of my family and one minute focused on a family need? That totals five minutes – one for my wife, one for each child, and one for some sort of household or family care task. Naturally, it’s really easy to do much more than that once I’m already doing it.

Maybe your goal is different. Maybe your micro-goal is to simply choose not to spend money once today during a time when you would normally have spent that money. Maybe it’s something as simple as setting foot in that gym where you have a membership.

Whatever it is, make that your threshold of success for today. Then, try to build a chain of those successes. I actually use a wall calendar for this, marking each day I succeed at one goal with a purple X on that day and a red X for the other goal. Once I start building a long chain of X’s, I don’t want to break that chain. That motivates me to at least achieve the minimal amount each day, and that minimum amount virtually always encourages me to do more.

Strategy #7 – Be Extremely Clear on the Reasons for the Project – and Keep Those Reasons in Focus

Why do I want to do this?

That’s my question that I think about with my big projects. What is my reason for even wanting this.

The family goal is easy to articulate. I want very strong relationships with each person there. I want my wife to have a wonderful life. I want my children to grow into thoughtful, independent, intellectually curious, and self-reliant individuals.

The study goal is a bit different and more difficult to articulate, but it mostly comes down to clarity of thought. I want to be able to understand the world a little better and have better approaches for thinking through the problems of life.

Those reasons remain front and center all the time when I think about those goals.

With my family, I think about the people I hope my children become. I think about the strong moments in my relationship with Sarah. And I also reflect on potential bad outcomes if I don’t follow through.

With my study, I think about those big moments of insight and discovery I’ve had, and I also think about those moments of frustration where some idea is almost within my grasp but it slips away.

I try to keep those thoughts in my mind as much as possible. I reflect on them each day as I’m thinking about what I achieved today and what I hope to achieve tomorrow.

Strategy #8 – Couch Your Efforts in Positivity

Whenever I succeed at whatever threshold I’ve set for success for myself, I intentionally pat myself on the back for it. I intentionally think positively about it.

I often look back at how far I’ve come and what I’ve achieved in my goals. I look at the good side of the relationship I have with my family members (and it is almost entirely good). I look at the progress I’ve made in my studies and the things I’ve learned.

And I’m proud of it. I let myself feel very proud of it, and that feels good.

I relish that good feeling. I don’t want it to go away at all, and I know that the best way to keep it going is to keep moving forward on the projects at hand.

I dig into those positive feelings whenever I cross that minimum threshold for the day. I dig into those positive feelings whenever I finish a block of time devoted to a project. I dig into those positive feelings at the end of the day when I reflect on what I did that day and what I’ll do tomorrow.

It makes the whole project feel much more positive and uplifting and often helps carry me through when it becomes a struggle.

Strategy #9 – Allow Yourself to Plan Other Goals, But Set Those Plans Aside without Execution

Like many people, I often make plans for big goals and ideas I might have. I’ll draw up a great plan for redoing my home brewing system, or sketch out ideas for a board game design project, or come up with an exercise plan, or so on. I’ll often sketch these out in my pocket notebook.

However, once I’ve done that a little, I intentionally set them aside as “someday” projects. I don’t even really allow myself to move forward into execution, even a little bit (unless it’s a very small project).

Why? It’s going to end in failure. I know that it is.

That new project would simply mean that I’m splitting my time more than before and trying to squeeze more into what amounts to an already full day. That’s not going to add up to success over the long haul.

So, I commit these things to a “someday/maybe” notebook that I have. It includes sketches for many, many different projects that I’ve thought about but not really committed to.

At some point, my focus might change. My children will grow up, after all, and at some point I will either finish out the philosophy studies or decide a different direction is more urgent.

At that point, I may then take up one of those “someday/maybe” plans and do my best to run with it. I’ll flesh it out using many of the strategies described here and elevate it to one of my major focuses in life.

Until then, I’ll make plans, enjoy the process of planning, and then intentionally put them aside. After all, it’s really the doing that matters, not the planning.

Strategy #10 – Share Your Plans with a Trusted Circle and Ask for Suggestions and Reinforcement

Once you’ve committed to a major life project, share that project plan with a trusted circle of family, friends, mentors, and advisors.

Before you do that, think it through. If you’re going to devote a couple of hours a day to something, what are you giving up to make that happen? Where is the time coming from? Why is this goal important to you? How exactly will you execute it? Write all of that stuff out before you share your plan.

There are two big reasons for sharing your plans with this trusted circle.

One, they will help you see holes in that plan. Some of the criticisms might be strange and not worthwhile, but many of the criticisms will be. They’re worth thinking about and they will help you strengthen whatever it is you’re trying to pull off.

Two, they can become a source of inspiration and forward motivation. Lots of people you value and care about now know about your goal. This simple fact alone can be a motivator, but it can go beyond that, too. You have people to talk to when you need advice or suggestions or when you simply need encouragement. They know the struggle you’ve chosen to take on. Plus, you’ll know which ones are positive about it and those are the ones that are likely to offer positive support.

My family provides a lot of encouragement for almost any goal I work on. Beyond that, I have several friends who are very positive about both of my goals. In particular, I have a friend of mine who is a philosophy professor who has been incredibly positive and encouraging about my self-study of philosophy. Those people make my goals achievable and exciting.

Final Thoughts

I use these strategies together on the big projects I’m facing right now in life, but I can also see them at work in my own past on the projects I’ve succeeded on before. All of these things were present to some degree in my professional successes, my success in starting The Simple Dollar, and my personal finance turnaround.

On the other hand, when it comes to the things I’ve failed at, many of the pieces above were missing from the picture. I didn’t think positively or set daily goals for myself or block off devoted time or set triggers or have people to motivate and encourage me.

If there’s something you want to achieve in your life, whether it’s a big professional success, turning around your personal finances, getting in better physical shape, or whatever it may be, use these strategies. In fact, use as many of them as you can, all at once. Make it happen for yourself.

You’ll be glad you did, both today and in the future.

The post Great at Planning, Terrible at Executing: Ten Strategies for Becoming a Doer appeared first on The Simple Dollar.

Source The Simple Dollar The Simple Dollar http://ift.tt/1NDUVnO

The Miracle Morning: Interview With Author Hal Elrod

Beep. Beep. Beep.

Smack snooze button.

Back to sleep.

10 minutes later….

Rise and repeat.

This was my typical sleep routine every morning.

Most people assume that since that I was in the military that I’m naturally a morning person.

#notevenclose

I’m a bonafide night owl. I usually get my second and sometimes third wind after 9pm.

In fact, when I started my blog this is when I did most of my blogging. I was up many a night writing and hammering out blog post ideas. I used to be super productive in the evenings.

That was, however, before kids. Especially, after our 3rd son.

I started noticing that my blogging activities were turning into mindless Facebook and Buzzfeed sessions. I was wrongfully convincing myself that I was being productive but the truth was finally coming out.

I needed a change and that change happened when I read the Miracle Morning.

 

MY MIRACLE MORNING EXPERIENCE

There are only a handful of books that I can say have honestly changed me for the better.

A few that come to mind are the Bible, Robert Kiyosaki’s Rich Rad, Poor Dad, Dave Ramsey’s Total Money Makeover, and Tim Ferriss’ 4 Hour Work Week.

Now added to the list is Hal Elrod’s The Miracle Morning.

Before reading Hal’s book I would usually roll out of bed at 7am.

Now I typically get up around 5am.  And one some of my more crazing Miracle Mornings I’ve woken up at 3:30am.

Yes, #craycray.

But the craziest thing is that the mornings that I wake up before 5am are usually some of the most productive mornings and days I’ve had in my life.

I’m hooked!

I was elated to have Hal on the podcast to share his journey and what inspired him to start a morning routine.

I promise you’re going to love this interview.

LINKS AND RESOURCES MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE:

• HalElrod.com
• The Miracle Morning
• The 5 Minute Journal

Source Good Financial Cents http://ift.tt/1JLH666

County to auction land near Laughlin for solar development

Clark County officials hope to spur solar energy development on thousands of acres of county-owned land near Laughlin, after a larger effort to boost development fizzled.

Source Business http://ift.tt/1GWgmvC

17 creative ways to save money at Disneyland

The “happiest place on earth” is a top destination on many families’ bucket lists, though admittedly, it’s not the most budget-friendly vacation spot. However, if you plan ahead, this magical, unforgettable destination doesn’t have to put a large dent in your budget.

Source Business http://ift.tt/1M0x95b

Confederate flag controversy has rebel-themed items flying off shelves

As national debate swirls around the Confederate flag, Las Vegas business owners say products with its emblem are suddenly hot sellers.

Source Business http://ift.tt/1gfdkgy

Investing AND Borrowing Through Prosper

Want to know how to avoid your bank? If so, read on…..

Founded in 2005, Prosper is the first peer-to-peer (P2P) marketplace in the US.

Since it began, it has funded loans totaling more than $3 billion to more than 250,000 members.

As a P2P platform, Prosper brings borrowers and investors together, in a lending arrangement that eliminates the middleman from the transaction entirely.

That “middleman” is the banker.

By taking that function out of process, Prosper allows both borrower and lender to come together to create a mutually beneficial financial arrangement.

Borrowers can take loans ranging from $2,000 to $35,000, and for terms of either three years or five years. Individual investors can invest as little as $25 in any one loan, which enables them to diversify their holdings over many different loans.

Prosper acts as the servicing agent on the loans, handling the technical details of each loan, collecting payments, and remitting repayments to investors. Legally known as Prosper Funding LLC, Prosper is a wholly owned subsidiary of Prosper Marketplace, Inc.

Is Prosper Legit?

In one word YES!  Prosper has been around for ten years now.  In the world of the Internet that is an eternity.  As we cover the reviews of Prosper for borrowers and lenders you will see that this is a well maintained and viable way to invest and borrow money.  Prosper is subject to state and federal regulations, just like any loan producing organization is.  To put an even more legitimate light on the company, all loans that are originated through Prosper.com are made by WebBank.  This is an industrial bank that is chartered in Utah and a member of the FDIC.

On a more personal level, I have personally been investing in Prosper for several years now.  A couple of years ago I started a comparison of Prosper vs. Lending Club and had very good results from both companies on my investments.  Lending Club is the number one competitor to prosper in the peer to peer loan market.  I have had very good luck with them and you can use my Lending Club review to do a full comparison of the two.

Investing Through Prosper

Borrowers come to the platform and choose a loan amount and a loan purpose, and then post their loan listing on the site. This gives investors an opportunity to review the loan listings to determine if it meets their criteria. Once a lender (or more likely, a group of lenders) agrees to fund a loan, the loan is formally created.

As an investor, your participation is very simple. You determine your investment criteria, choose the loans that you want to invest in, and borrower payments are then direct deposited into your Prosper account. You will have an opportunity to earn returns on fixed income type investments that are much higher than what you can find on fixed income investments like certificates of deposit or Treasury bills.

Open an Investment Account with Prosper

Investor Requirements

Prosper requires you to be a US resident, at least 18 years of age, and to have a valid Social Security number.

There are also various state requirements, that vary depending upon which state you live in. Typical requirements include a minimum income of $70,000 per year and/or a minimum net worth of $250,000. It’s also typical for states to require that you need to purchase notes in an amount that is no greater than 10% of your investment net worth.

Prosper IRA

You can use your Prosper investment account for an IRA, just as you would any other type of investment vehicle. You can either fund the account directly, or you can transfer money from another IRA into your Prosper IRA. You can accomplish either simply by completing the Prosper IRA input page.

Choosing Notes to Invest In

This process is made easier with Prosper’s Quick Invest feature. Using this tool, you can establish your specific investment criteria and in which you define what type of loans are acceptable to you. Quick Invest will sift through the list of potential loans, and identify those loans that most closely approximate your criteria.

Once the narrow list of loans appears, you will have the opportunity to either confirm the entire set of loans to invest in immediately, or you can do a deeper review of each individual loan and choose them one by one. This gives you complete control over which loans you will invest in.

To give you a good idea as to the types of loans that are available, you can check out the Browse Listings page and see what’s available.

Collecting Investment Returns

There’s one important aspect in which P2P loans are different from traditional fixed income investments, and that is that they are self-amortizing. While you will receive monthly payments on each loan that you hold in your Prosper portfolio, it’s important to understand that each payment comprises both interest and principal, and will pay off the loan completely in either three or five years.

What this means is that if you invest $1,000 into a single five year note, at the end of five years, the loan will be completely paid off. Unlike a certificate of deposit, the payments are not exclusively interest, and you will not receive your original investment back at the end of the term. Since it is paid off, the loan no longer exists.

This will also affect your rate of return. Unless you reinvest your loan repayments into new notes, your interest income gradually decline as the loan portfolio you’re invested in slowly amortizes. Reinvestment will be a priority if you want to keep your rate of return high.

Loan Types and Loan Grading

Loans are graded based on credit grading and loan term. AA is the highest grade, while HR is the lowest. Loan pricing is also based on the term of the loan, which is either three years or five years. A five-year loan will be considered to be higher risk than a three-year, and will require a slightly higher price.

Rates charged can vary from a low of 5.32% for a AA grade for a three year loan, to 35.97% for an HR grade on a three year loan. But just keep in mind that these rate ranges are the extremes, and not the averages.

Trading Notes Before they Mature

Prosper does offer you an opportunity to trade your notes before their respective maturity dates. You can do this through Folio Investing. For a fee of 1% of the face amount of each note, Folio Investing will handle the purchase and sale of existing notes.

In order to take advantage of this function, you’ll have to open up a brokerage account with FOLIO Investing through which you will handle your transactions. Folio Investing will return any money or notes that result from transactions, to your Prosper account.

This feature will enable you to adjust your portfolio position at any time you like, even after investing in a given set of loans.

Risks

When you invest in loans through Prosper, or any P2P platform, there is the constant risk of loan defaults. At virtually all loan grades, at least some loans will not perform. There is no FDIC insurance to cover loan losses at Prosper either. But nowhere is the correlation between risk and reward more apparent.

You can get a solid idea as to the performance of each loan grade level by checking out Prosper’s Marketplace Performance page. As you will see, the returns vary widely from one credit grade to another, in order to make a generous allowance for loan defaults.

As you can see from the first chart on the page:

• Seasoned Returns as of September 30, 2014 – For Loans Originated July 2009 – November 2013
• Actual Effective Yield (center column) averages 15.94%, with a range of between 7.09% and 26.81%.

But see also that the Actual Loss Rate in the next column averages 6.62% across all loan grades, with a range of between 1.61% for the highest loan grade (AA), to 16.04% for the lowest loan grade (HR).

The actual return that you will get on your investment is found in the Actual Return column – that’s actual effective yield, less the actual loss rate. This represents your true return. The average across all loan grades is 9.33%, but there’s a big spread between the highest credit grades and the lowest – and it favors the lower credit grades.

Notice that while the actual return on AA rated loans is 5.48%, the actual return on E rated loans is 11.35% – the highest net return of all credit grades, and more than twice the return on AA loans.

The moral of the story is that it f you plan to maximize your investment return, you will need to invest generously in the lower grade loans. Yes, there’s a greater risk of loan default, but rates are much higher to compensate, and will provide a much higher net yield to you.

Minimizing Investment Risks

Risk grades aside, there are ways that you can reduce your overall investment risk in a portfolio of Prosper loans. The first most obvious way to do this is through diversification. Since the minimum investment per loan is just $25, you could spread a $5,000 investment across as many as 200 different notes. That will minimize the fallout of any single loan going into default.

You can also set more conservative criteria in your loan selection. One way to do this is by favoring notes that represent the refinance of existing debt, rather than new loans taken for acquisition purposes. You can also establish criteria for employment that requires that a borrower has more time on the job. Debt-to-income (DTI) ratio is still another possibility. By setting it below 30% or even 25% of stable monthly income, you can greatly reduce the chances of loan default.

The lower than your default rate is on your loan portfolio, the higher your net return on investment will be.

Investor Fees

Prosper charges no upfront fees in order to join the platform as an investor. They do charge an annual loan servicing fee equal to 1% of the outstanding loan principal balance of the loan prior to the applying the current payment.

In addition, in the event any of your loans becomes past-due, and a collection agency must be brought into the picture, the investor will be charged for the collection fee, but only in the event that the past-due loan proceeds have been recovered.

Overall, Prosper offers investors an opportunity to earn fairly stable rates of return that are much higher than what you can get with other fixed income investments, such as money market funds, certificates of deposit, or Treasury securities.

Borrowing Through Prosper

Just as you can lend on Prosper, you can also borrow. You may find that the rate and fees that you pay on a P2P loan is less than what you will pay with a traditional loan.

How the Loan Process Works

Applying for a loan is a simple multi-step process, that looks something like this:

• Create your loan listing – you provide basic information, then Prosper will obtain your credit score and determine your rate and terms.
• Based on your credit score and other information Prosper will obtain, you will be assigned a credit grade, from AA to HR.
• You then create a loan listing which is your request for a loan. You will add a description of your loan purpose and financial situation. It will appear on the platform to be reviewed by investors.
• Once the loan listing is fully funded and your information has passed Prosper’s verification process, you will receive your loan.
• The listing will stay active for 14 days, or until the loan funds.
• Loan funds are deposited directly into your bank account within days.
• You begin making your monthly payments.

Open a Personal Loan Account with Prosper

Loan Terms and Rates

As mentioned earlier, loan amounts range from $2,000 to $35,000, with terms of three or five years. All loans are fixed rate, fixed monthly payment, and no prepayment penalties. That part’s pretty simple. More complicated are loan rates, since they are based on your credit grade.

Credit grades can run anywhere from AA – the highest – to NR – the lowest. There are 26 levels within the range, and there is a rate associated with each level. Pricing can also be determined based on the term of the loan, as well as the number of previous Prosper loans that you have had in the past.

At present, the lowest rate on a AA loan grade with a three-year term is 5.32%. The highest rate on an HR loan grade with a three-year term is 35.97%. You can check out the rates for each credit grade on the Personal Loan Rates and Fees page.

Origination fee. When you borrow through Prosper, you will be subject to an origination fee. The fee is based on your risk grade, as well as the term of your loan, and look something like this:

• Risk grade AA – 1% to 2% for a three year term, 3% for a five year term
• Risk grade A – 4% for a three-year term, 5% for a five-year term
• Risk grade B – 5% for either a three-year or five-year term
• Risk grades C through HR – 5% for either a three-year or five-year term

Prosper Loan Types

Prosper offers loans for the following purposes:

• Debt consolidation loans – combine credit card debts into one, single fixed rate loan
• Get a home improvement loan – loan is not secured by your home
• Short-term and bridge loans – short term funds for any purpose
• Auto and vehicle loans – unsecured, and with no vehicle eligibility requirements
• Small business loans – these can even be used to start a new business
• Baby and adoption loans – borrow up to $25,000, unsecured, to cover expenses
• Engagement ring financing – get loan funds without using the ring as collateral
• Special occasion loans – for weddings, graduations, or even a birthday party
• Friends and family loans – use Prosper to set up a loan between you and a friend
• Green loans – use to install solar panels for heating, hot water, or electricity
• Military loans – use the proceeds for any purpose, and you don’t need to apply in person

While these are specific purposes for loans, the basic loan set up remains the same. Each loan is fixed rate, unsecured, payable over three or five years, and has no prepayment penalties.

If you’ve been having difficulty getting a loan from banks or other traditional sources, check out Prosper, and see if you can’t do better. I’m betting that you can.

Source Good Financial Cents http://ift.tt/1JI4iCn

Love Vintage Clothes? Here’s How One Vintage Etsy Seller Turns a Profit

What if you could shop for a living? No, we’re not talking mystery shopping, or even working as a personal stylist. This job entails shopping at thrift stores, garage sales and even other people’s closets.

Vintage has long been back in style, especially because every piece is so unique. If you find a piece of vintage clothing from the ‘50s, ‘60s or ‘70s, there’s a good chance you’ve found the last one on Earth. And if you learn how to find those one-of-a-kind, highly sought-after vintage pieces in the wild, you can resell them online to make a profit.

Sound easy? That’s not entirely the case. Selling vintage clothing on Etsy isn’t a way to make a quick buck. But when you have a passion for paying homage to fashion of decades past, the work doesn’t (always) feel like a job.

That’s exactly the case for Lora Conrad, the owner of Hungry Heart Vintage. Over the past few years, she’s built her Etsy shop into a profitable business. Conrad sells about 20-30 pieces a month through her shop, as well as a few more through private purchases.

She gave us some insight into how she got started, how she finds and prices her pieces, and how she’s built her Etsy business into a job she loves going to every single day.

Scrounge High and Low

When asked how she finds her pieces, Conrad says, “Lots and lots of scrounging!” Estate sales, flea markets, garage sales, antique malls in the middle of nowhere, you name it.  Conrad is always on the hunt for new pieces she can breathe new life into and sell.

One surprising way she acquires new pieces is through private appointments. “People don’t realize that, much of the time, I get my inventory because someone has just passed away,” she said.

“Private buying appointments are by far my favorite ways of acquiring vintage,” she said. “I love taking the time to sit down with people as we go through their old clothes, or more often, their late loved one’s clothes. I get to learn all about the women who wore them, and when I leave I feel like I’m leaving with more than just dresses. I’m leaving their homes with bits of their family history that will live on through others.”

When she first started selling vintage, Conrad didn’t anticipate this would be part of her job. “But it makes me happy when I can help people through that time, even in such a miniscule way,” she said.

Embrace Seasonality

Swimsuit season arrived a couple months ago — including in Conrad’s shop. She constantly keeps her shop fresh and lists what’s in season.

That means swimsuits and party dresses in the summer, cardigans and scarves in the fall. If she finds a stellar vintage coat on a summer thrifting adventure, she won’t post it until cooler weather arrives. It’s not just that she can get more money when an item is in season. It also keeps her selling costs as low as possible.

Etsy charges $0.20 for each listing. If it doesn’t sell within four months, it costs another $0.20 to relist the item. By posting in-season pieces that will likely sell within four months, Conrad only needs to pay the listing fee once.

She also runs promotions, especially during holidays like Black Friday. Running a 20% off promotion during the already high-shopping holiday season brings more customers to her shop and moves more product off her virtual shelves. While this entails much more work — more shipping, more back and forth with customers, and more time to keep her store stocked — Conrad finds the extra revenue she makes during this time provides a nice buffer for the post-holiday shopping slump.

Build Your Brand

Conrad doesn’t spend all her time on her Etsy shop. She’s also active on Facebook and has 1,700 Instagram followers, where she shares not only new listings, but also sneak peeks of what’s coming soon and behind-the-scenes photos of her workday and “shop assistants” (a dog and two cats.) This puts a face on Hungry Heart Vintage, so her customers can get to know the woman behind the shop.

Though it’s more difficult to track the value of the time she spends building the Hungry Heart brand, Conrad does occasionally make sales through Instagram.

Conrad also blogs about how to blend vintage and modern style. She’s kind of like a vintage clothing advisor. “Vintage clothing isn’t just for vintage enthusiasts, and just because something is old doesn’t mean it has to be styled that way,” Conrad said in a recent blog post.

Dedicate Yourself to the Details

Glowing reviews attract more people to your shop. And on the other side of the coin, a bad review can turn someone away. The best way to acquire those happy customers, then entice them to leave you a five-star review? Go above and beyond their expectations.

To begin with, Conrad spends a great deal of time preparing clothes for sale. Cleaning and repairing is time consuming. “Some pieces need to be soaked and hand washed several times to get the decades of dirt out,” she said.

Then Conrad gets extremely detailed in how she describes each item. She includes measurements as well as information about fit, material, brand and condition. She always lets customers know about any imperfections and provides a range of photos for each item.

After the sale, Conrad artfully packages her orders and writes notes to thank her customers.

“Packing takes quite a bit of time, but that’s on me,” Conrad said. “I love packing up orders and making them look pretty, so I’m happy to spend a lot of time on that.”

With review after review from her customers thanking her for a pleasant shopping experience, Conrad has built the trust that will bring new customers to her shop.

Develop a Pricing Formula

One of the trickiest parts of selling vintage clothes is pricing. Some pieces are more rare than others, so are worth more. Some pieces Conrad finds for cheap, others she has to pay more for up front. Many require a great deal of time and money (dry cleaning, new zippers or buttons) to bring up to selling condition.

So how much does she make on the stuff she resells?

“It’s hard to say from piece to piece,” Conrad said. “Sometimes you find a treasure on its way to someone’s dumpster or in your neighborhood thrift. Other times, between the cost of purchasing the items, plus the cost of cleaning supplies or having it professionally cleaned, repairs, the mark up is fairly slim.”

Since so much wildly varies in how much she pays and invests in each piece, Conrad doesn’t aim for a certain margin every time. And she doesn’t even bother with trying to factor in her own labor hours. “The only formula I use to mark up items is, L=0. That’s ‘Lora pays herself no money per hour for her labor.’ “

Just like other successful Etsy sellers, Conrad does not deny how much work she puts into finding, preparing and selling her pieces. “I’ve never tracked the hours it takes to see a piece through from start to finish, but I know I’m done when my lower back hurts.”

But as a self-defined “independent, stubborn, loner workaholic,” she wouldn’t have it any other way. “Starting a business from nothing is totally terrifying, but the moment I made my first sale I knew I did the right thing.”

Your Turn: Do you sell vintage clothing online? What advice do you have for new Etsy sellers?

Betsy Mikel is a Chicago-based freelance copywriter. She loves biking all over every city she visits to find its best taqueria.

The post Love Vintage Clothes? Here’s How One Vintage Etsy Seller Turns a Profit appeared first on The Penny Hoarder.

source The Penny Hoarder http://ift.tt/1NDxVGo

10 ways to save money in July

Climatologists agree that July 24 is the hottest day of the year, but the tenth of every month during the summer feels the hottest to me … that’s the day our electric bill arrives in the mail. Follow these tips to stay cool and save some cash this month.

Source Business http://ift.tt/1CQNqEw

Protection for savers to fall by £10,000

Mark King

savingsjar.jpg

The safety net enjoyed by savers in the UK is to be cut back by £10,000, the Bank of England has announced.

The safety net enjoyed by savers in the UK is to be cut back by £10,000, the Bank of England has announced.

Currently, an individual saver's money is protected by the Financial Service Compensation Scheme (FSCS) to the tune of £85,000 should the bank or building society they have their deposit with go bust.

Protection for savers to fall by £10,000

Feed Copy: 

The safety net enjoyed by savers in the UK is to be cut back by £10,000, the Bank of England has announced. Currently, an individual saver's money is protected by the Financial Service Compensation Scheme (FSCS) to the tune of £85,000 should the bank or building society they have their deposit with go bust. But that level is to be reduced to £75,000 from 1 January 2016, the Bank of England's Prudential Regulation Authority has announced. The FSCS says savers therefore have, "six months to spread their money around to keep within [the new limit]". The change comes under an EU ruling (known as the European Union Deposit Guarantee Schemes Directive), the FSCS said, which is making a compensation limit of €100,000 (or local currency equivalent) standard across Europe. This itself comes as a result of a huge depreciation (16% at the time of writing) of the euro, largely brought about by the crisis in the Eurozone due to the Greek debt situation. Absurd decision Andrew Tyrie, chairman of the Treasury Committee, blasted the decision, calling it "absurd". He added: "It makes no sense to fix deposit guarantees, which need to be stable to win public confidence and which should be providing certainty and predictability for ordinary savers, to a volatile variable like the exchange rate. "In this respect, the EU Deposit Guarantee Schemes Directive is defective. It has been designed without adequate consideration for the requirements of those, like the UK, in the EU but outside the Eurozone. By one means or another, the Directive needs to be injected with a dose of common sense." Rhydian Lewis, founder and chief executive of peer-to-peer specialist RateSetter, said the FSCS was no longer fit for purpose. "Moving the goalposts in this way with a lower level of protection and higher charges while offering no improvement to the pitiful returns for savers only strengthens the case to refresh the FSCS," he said. "RateSetter is of the view that the one-size fits all approach of the FSCS is no longer fit for purpose and results in poor value. This is why we have put in place our own bespoke, self-sufficient system - a Provision Fund which has ensured that nobody investing in our market has lost a penny whilst allowing them to enjoy healthy returns." The FSCS did, however, announce that people with higher balances will be protected up to £1 million for up to six months, giving them a chance to better spread their cash around different institutions to achieve a greater degree of protection. Tyrie welcomed this announcement. The FSCS also said that large companies and small local authorities (such as parish councils) will now benefit from FSCS protection from 3 July 2015, up to the new limit of £75,000.

read more

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

7 Low-Cost Ways to Throw an Awesome Kid’s Birthday Party

My boys are still young enough — they’ll be one and three years old this fall — that birthdays don’t have to be a big deal. In an age where parents often spend hundreds of dollars (or more!) on birthday parties and elaborate, Pinterest-inspired themes, though, I feel pressured to put on a big to-do for the little guys.

Unfortunately, our budget doesn’t allow for extravagant cakes or expensive locations. Instead, I have to get creative. Here are seven ways I’ve found I can save money and still throw awesome birthday parties for my boys.

1. DIY Your Invitations

You don’t need to be a creative genius to make your own adorable invitations. Etsy shops offer a number of printable birthday invitations for just a few dollars that fit just about any theme.

Want to save even more? Use a site like Evite to send electronic invitations for free.

2. Find an Affordable Location

We have a tiny house and the idea of entertaining a dozen or more people in our limited space makes me want to cry. But that doesn’t mean we can’t have a great party!

Community spaces, like firehouses, local farms and petting zoos, community centers, the library, and even pools and parks, offer affordable options for parties. Make some phone calls, ask around and find a location that fits your budget.

3. Cut Your List

It’s normal to want your entire family to be there when you celebrate your baby’s first birthday. And your social five-year-old may think she needs her whole kindergarten class at her party. But one of the easiest ways to reduce birthday party costs is to keep your guest list short.

Celebrate with your immediate family and make it a special, intimate party. Or let your child choose five to 10 friends to celebrate with. If you decide to splurge on an older child’s special event party like go-cart racing or bowling, limit the number of guests based on your budget. Tell the child to choose his two or three closest friends to share his special day.

4. Make Your Own Cake

Whether you make it from scratch or from a box, making your own cake can save you a lot of money. Those of us who aren’t professional bakers can find a lot of simple decorating ideas on Pinterest.

If a cake seems too hard, cupcakes are perfect solution! They’re just the right serving size for little ones, and they’re easy to decorate in most themes just by changing the frosting color and adding some decorations from the dollar store.

5. Skip the Goody Bags

These birthday party staples usually end up cluttering the guests’ houses with cheap plastic toys. Instead, give each child a small gift (bonus points for linking it to your theme) that you can find (or make) for a couple of dollars per guest. Some ideas: coloring books and crayons, matchbox cars, play dough or homemade cake pops.

6. Time It Right

Time the party between meals so you’re not obligated to provide lunch or dinner. Instead, offer a few fun finger foods as snacks.

If you’re the creative type, you can make snacks that follow your party theme. If not, cheese and crackers, a fruit plate and some veggies and dip will make most kids just as happy as a fancy spread.

7. Make It Quick

The longer the party, the more you’re going to need to spend on food, activities and entertainment. So keep things short and sweet to save yourself money — and headaches. Younger kids get overstimulated and overtired quickly. Keep their parties to a maximum of two or three hours. For older kids, four or five hours is a good limit.

This year, I’m putting these tips into action for our birthday celebrations. We’re planning a joint party for our boys, since their birthdays are only a month apart. We’ll have a few family members over for cake and ice cream after lunch. There will be balloons to bounce around, maybe a few streamers and some gifts from the guests for the boys to open. Then it will be time for everyone to head home.

It will be a short and sweet, but it’s still a celebration for the kiddos to enjoy! And as a bonus, I won’t be worried that we’ve busted our budget by splurging on unnecessary decorations or food for a huge list of guests.

If you keep these tips in mind when planning your next birthday party, you’ll be able to stick to your budget, too. Which means you’ll also be able to relax and enjoy the celebration instead of stressing about how much you’ve spent!

Your Turn: What tricks do you use to save money while still throwing awesome birthday parties for the kids?

Ami Spencer Youngs is a freelance writer and yoga teacher, raising her career alongside two boys under three. Learn more about her life and her writing at writingherlife.com or on Twitter at @writingherlife.

The post 7 Low-Cost Ways to Throw an Awesome Kid’s Birthday Party appeared first on The Penny Hoarder.

source The Penny Hoarder http://ift.tt/1IyVe48

13 Important Questions You Need to Ask Yourself Before Blogging

What’s the most important factor of every blog post?

Quality.

But sometimes, it’s easy to find yourself in a grind, cranking out content because you think you’re supposed to.

That’s when quality suffers.

When it comes to blog posts, it’s really all or nothing. A “good” post will get the same engagement and traffic as a “bad” post.

You have to create outstanding posts on a regular basis for your content to make a real difference.

Willpower can help you create these posts, but studies have shown that people have limited willpower.

Did you know that of 86% of marketers who use content marketing, only 30% have a consistent content strategy?

These marketers don’t have the systems in place to maximize the return on their efforts.

If you are one of the 70% of marketers creating more content this year than last year, you need to ensure you maintain a high quality writing standard throughout your content creation.

To help you maintain that quality, I’m giving you 13 questions you should ask yourself before and after writing a blog post.

Not all of these will apply to your specific business, but most will. Once you read through this article, download this simple checklist of questions to keep you accountable. Go through them for every post to ensure your continuous success. 

1. “Who is this post for?”

Have you heard that when you write a post, you should do it as if you’re writing to one specific person?

It’s true. That’s how you craft an article that really resonates with someone.

If you run a new or small blog, this is a fairly easy question to answer: write to your target audience. Before each post, think of your customer avatar, and write to him/her.

But what about once you grow?

All of a sudden, you’ve attracted different types of people with one or more shared interests.

For example, Quick Sprout readers are made up of many types of people. Some are beginners trying to learn about marketing; others are employed professional marketers; and yet others are trying to market their own small businesses. And there are a few more distinct types of readers on top of that.

When I write a post, I know that it’s likely not going to resonate with everyone—that only happens once in a blue moon. But that’s okay.

Most often, a piece of content will speak to one or two segments of my audience. As long as I change it up, they all will find at least a few articles per month they will enjoy. This is another reason why consistent content creation is important.

Let’s look at some examples from Quick Sprout…

How to Make Custom Images for Your Blog Posts Without Hiring a Designer

Many beginner marketers don’t have the budget to hire a designer. This post was for them. Some small business owners might also find this article useful.

How to Come Up with Winning A/B Tests Using Data

This post was not meant for newbie marketers. While they will learn a few things, they won’t be able to apply them right away. This post was for marketers working with a significant amount of traffic and looking to increase already substantial profits.

Is It Worth Speaking at Conferences? 

There is a very small portion of marketers who have the opportunity or desire to speak at conferences, and yet I wrote this post—for them. Some beginner marketers might find it interesting and consider speaking at conferences in the future, but it’s unlikely they’ll be able to apply any of the insights right away.

If you happen to run a blog with decent traffic, make sure you create detailed reader personas you can target with each post. Don’t let any important segment feel neglected as you plan your content schedule.

2. “What is the purpose of this post?”

Now that you know who you’re writing the post for, you need to decide what you want the post to accomplish.

In general, a post has 4 purposes:

• to entertain
• to solve a problem
• to encourage discussion
• to teach (not always the same as solving a problem)

Purpose #1: Entertain

Almost all posts contain entertaining parts, but their main goal is not entertainment. Conversely, some posts have a main goal of being interesting and entertaining, with only a small educational part.

Example: The $100,000 Challenge: May Update

You might learn a few things from each challenge update, but more than anything, they are entertaining. A large portion of Quick Sprout readers have never built a site that’s profitable, and they have a great interest in trying or seeing how it’s done. This post serves as an inspiration to help them move towards their own blogging goals.

Purpose #2: Solve a problem

The fundamental reason why most blogs are created in the first place is to solve a problem for a specific type of reader. That problem is typically large and complex. Each blog post has the opportunity to solve a smaller problem within that overall problem.

Example: How to Engage and Persuade People Through Storytelling

Most marketers know the power of storytelling but struggle to implement it. This is a problem. This particular blog post shows them how to solve this specific problem.

Purpose #3: Encourage discussion

In order to build a community, you need to get your readers to talk. There are many ways to do so, but the main ones are to pose a question or make an outrageous claim or observation.

Example: How to Make $100,000 a Month Within 1 Year

This is a very short post where I laid out the challenge. Not only did I claim the ability to reach a huge goal, but I also asked for your opinions to decide which site I should create. This post is one of the most commented on Quick Sprout with over 2,300 comments.

Purpose #4: Teach

Solving problems and teaching are closely related and often represented in the same blog post. I’d classify teaching as sharing general knowledge your readers need to possess before they can address specific problems. Both are important if your readers are to reach their overall goals (the reason you started your blog).

Example: How to Avoid a Google Penalty

In this article, my readers learn both what causes Google penalties and what precautions they need to take to avoid them. Technically, the reader doesn’t have a problem yet as they don’t have a penalty. In this instance, you could think of teaching as problem prevention.

Multiple Purposes

Some posts combine multiple purposes. For example, the post How Spending $162,301.42 on Clothes Made Me $692,500 is both entertaining and educational as it teaches how much looking your best really means (that sounds more shallow than it is!).

3. “Why will my readers care?”

There is a small but important difference between this question and the previous—“what is the purpose of this post?”—question.

The previous question is about the purpose of the post from your perspective.

This question, however, addresses your readers’ point of view. It will help you frame the blog post.

For example, you may solve a problem with a post, but the reader doesn’t care about the problem. They care about the pain the problem causes.

Why does that matter?

Because there are 2 types of pain points, and both need to be approached differently when writing a blog post.

Type 1: Acute

Acute pains are those that hurt now. You will go to great lengths to solve them. If you find a blog post that tells you how to solve those hurts now, you’re happy to read it. These types of pains (like fixing a Google penalty) are straightforward to write about.

Type 2: Chronic

We often live with a minor pain that comes and goes. It’s not always severe enough to seek out a solution. From a marketing point of view, for example, such a pain might be the stress that comes with a hectic publishing schedule and subpar results.

The problem with trying to solve these pains for people is that almost everyone underestimates how important they are (because they don’t hurt that much right now). Furthermore, we feel that we can live with these pains.

When your blog post solves a chronic pain, you must first focus on making your reader feel the pain before you show them the solution.

If I’m writing about creating a content schedule, for instance, I’m not going to start the post with jumping right into the step-by-step process. I might not even include it in the headline as some people might dismiss it, thinking “I don’t really need that right now.”

Instead, I’d start by illustrating the pain. I’d cite credible statistics about how the lack of a content schedule is the number one reason for failed blogs. I’d describe in detail that without a content schedule, you will never achieve the results of the blogs you admire.

Once a reader relives the pain they’ve felt before, then they are receptive to a solution you present. Then it’s your job to present a solution that actually solves the problem for them.

4. “What is my unique angle?”

Over 7 billion people live on this planet. Most are with reasonably similar points of view.

An original thought is rare.

Type in almost any topic in Google, and you will find hundreds of thousands of relevant articles.

Does that mean you shouldn’t bother blogging at all? No.

Just because a topic has been written about thousands of times doesn’t mean it’s been written in a way that can help your audience in the best way.

You may be able to connect personal experience, opinion, or other seemingly unrelated topics to offer a new perspective. And this perspective is valuable.

When I search for “How to write a good blog post,” I get 270,000 results. But even in the first few results, I can see different angles presented by different authors:

• how to do it when you lack motivation
• how to do it fast
• how to write so that people don’t just skim

In fact, I’ve written my own take on this topic in my guide to writing a data-driven post.

So, how do you find an angle that no one else has written on?

It starts with research

Before writing any post, read through as many of the best articles on the subject as possible. If you don’t, you might be repeating one of them without even knowing it.

This happens all the time in the startup community. Someone believes they have a novel idea—all because they didn’t research enough to see they already have competition.

Once you know what’s out there, you can put your own perspective on the subject in a number of ways:

• improve upon an existing angle – e.g., “write a good blog post as fast as a professional typist”
• add personal stories – all personal experience is unique
• add your opinion – while it shouldn’t be all about your opinion, your readers follow you because they value what you think
• combine two topics – e.g., What Einstein Taught Me About Death

Whichever you choose, find a way to present an original angle. The simplest, although not most comprehensive, way to double-check you’ve found a unique angle is to simply search for your headline in quotations. You have a unique angle if you can’t find any other results.

5. “What’s the best way to present my point?”

Throughout history, authors have expressed themselves through many different forms:

• poetry
• song
• plays
• books
• journals
• stone tablets…

Each form has its own advantages and disadvantages as a means of expressing a message. Some are more entertaining than others, while others are more informative. Some are great for long messages, and others are great for short ones.

When it comes to a blog post, you have a variety of formats to incorporate into your post:

• text
• images/gifs
• video
• infographics
• audio
• embedded social media (tweets, slideshows, etc.)
• formatting (bullets, bold, font size, etc.)

They each have a specific purpose, and each has its own strengths and weaknesses.

Text

Almost all blogs are built on text. It’s by far the simplest, fastest, and cheapest way to convey a message. But it’s also often not very effective at getting messages across. Reading takes a lot of time, and people can process images up to 60,000 times faster than words.

Images

You can’t create a blog post with just standalone images, but they can be used to enhance your content. Images can quickly convey data in a clear way or provide simple instructions that would otherwise require complex text descriptions. There are many types of images you can use in your posts: charts, screenshots, animations, and more.

Sites, such as Buzzfeed, often base entire articles on images or gifs illustrating their points:

Video

Some things need to be learned visually, and images may not be enough to help with that. If you’re giving an overview of a tool, it can take several images to show what you need to show. In contrast, a video that’s 30 seconds to 2 minutes long can often show the features in an easier-to-understand way.

Infographics

If you know me at all, you know I love infographics. Not only do infographics generate more shares than regular posts, they also allow you to quickly highlight the most important aspects of a topic.

As a bonus, it’s very easy to write a post about a topic and then create an infographic with the key takeaways that can be used for another post.

Audio

Podcasting has exploded in the past few years. There were over 1 billion podcast episode downloads in 2014. But that doesn’t mean you need to create a traditional podcast if your readers like audio. On some posts on the Crazy Egg blog, we embed a short “podcast” that summarizes the content in the article. Anyone who doesn’t like to read can listen instead.

Interactive content

Interactive content is still fairly underutilized, but it’s a great way to get readers to engage with your blog post. If you can find a way to get a reader to take action on something you mention, it can help illustrate a point you’re trying to make.

Quizzes and calculators help readers learn and apply something immediately. For example, SilkRoad built a truly ugly calculator for their homepage to show prospects how much money they could save on their hiring and training procedures.

Formatting

Decide which points are most important and need to be emphasized. Format the post so that these are the biggest and bolded on the page. In addition, you can (and should) use formatting to make your article more readable to lower your bounce rate.

Overall, you can prove your point in many ways. Think about which ones you can create and which ones will get your message across more effectively. Don’t be afraid to combine them if you believe it will be most effective.

6. “Does any research need to be done ahead of time?”

The reason that most marketers “get away” with not having a content schedule is because most of the time, they can write a post last minute.

I still don’t think that’s a good idea for a number of reasons, but aside from that, you can’t always write at the last minute.

This means you’ll either have to publish a subpar post (useless) or postpone posting altogether, which can have consequences of its own.

The reason why you can’t always write a post at the last minute is because some of them require work before you even start writing.

Most posts don’t require too much work. I typically spend about an hour researching my topic and finding useful statistics that support my points.

But not all research is like that.

If you need to interview someone, especially someone busy, it can take weeks to schedule a time when you’re both available.

If you need to collect specific data for a post, such as the results of a split test, that also can take weeks or months. For example, Bryan Harris split-tested the effects of removing his sidebar on VideoFruit. He couldn’t have done that overnight.

What if you need to analyze that data? That can take even longer. For example, HubSpot, among other companies, frequently publishes massive reports of benchmarks. The team needs to spend weeks or months collecting the data and finding important trends that can be presented as statistics.

Ideally, you should ask this question when you first come up with the post idea. At the very least, ask it before you start writing so that you can complete all background work as soon as possible.

7. “Is my deadline reasonable?”

Before you start writing, you should always have a deadline—and a reasonable one at that.

If your deadline is too short, you’ll end up rushing the post and producing mediocre content. We all know how that goes: less traffic, less engagement, and fewer subscribers.

But having a deadline that’s too long isn’t good either.

Work fills the time allotted for it; that’s Parkinson’s law. Extra time gives you an excuse to slack off.

So what you really need is a reasonable deadline.

This means that this particular question has to be asked before you even start writing. It needs to be asked when you’re planning your content schedule.

Don’t have a content schedule? Make one. That’s the only way you’ll be able to produce great posts on a regular basis. It allows you to have a little buffer room in case a post takes longer than expected.

8. “Can I go the extra mile?”

To really stand out in the flood of content online, you need to write exceptional content.

Amazing content has to be many things:

• interesting
• useful
• actionable
• fun to read

Creating a great blog post is more like crafting a piece of art than simply producing a manual on how to solve a problem.

There are many ways to go the extra mile, but I’d like to highlight a few of my favorites.

a) Custom images

As discussed before, images can help you highlight and reinforce concepts. On top of that, they can be entertaining. Some blogs regularly use comics and images to illustrate key points:

b) Spreadsheets

If you’re writing a blog post that advocates using a spreadsheet to solve a problem, give your readers a sample or template. This will increase the chances of them taking action. You can even use this as a content upgrade.

c) Checklists

If you write a step-by-step guide, what’s more useful than a checklist? Create a simple checklist, and let your readers download it. Again, they will be more likely to use it and to associate any positive result that comes from its use with you.

d) Back up claims

When I write, I try to back up all statements with credible references. It’s the main principle of writing data-driven posts. References help readers trust you and your posts more than a simple opinion.

9. “How does this lead into my next post?”

At some point during the planning, writing, or editing process, ask yourself this question.

When you consider your next post, you have the opportunity to create cliffhangers. Make a note somewhere in the post about a related topic that you’ll be covering shortly in the future.

Additionally, knowing what you’ll be posting about next is extremely important if you’re about to launch a product. You need to write your post while keeping in mind what role it will play in your launch. It may be a case study, an educational post, or a post that highlights a chronic pain.

During the launch, you’ll email your subscribers a mixture of content and information about your product. It often makes sense to include links to recent blog posts to support your case studies or to educate subscribers—but only if you’ve planned relevant posts.

10. “How will I promote this post?”

Just like it’s a good idea to plan your content in advance, it’s also a good idea to plan your promotion.

Not all forms of content promotion need to be considered during the writing of your blog post, but some do.

One of my favorite tactics is to simply email everyone I mention in a post, letting them know that I enjoyed their particular post and that I linked to it in my article. Most of them will be happy to read it and share it with their audiences if they liked my post.

Before you publish your post, carefully go through it to see if you missed any opportunity to mention someone’s work.

Note that while you could mention someone for the sake of getting a bit of extra traffic, I do recommend linking only to posts and resources that add value to your post.

11. “Will I repurpose this post?”

Repurposing content is one of the best ways to bring down the cost of each individual piece of content you produce.

If you have a limited budget, this is how you can consistently publish high quality posts.

If you ask yourself this question before you start writing, it will make your life a lot easier.

How?

Imagine if you’re writing a blog post and also plan to turn it into an infographic. Instead of having to pull out all your stats and main points later, you can put them into a secondary text file as you’re writing the post.

In addition, you can paste the URLs that you’ll put at the bottom as your sources in that document instead of going through your blog post later to get them one by one.

12. “What do I want readers to do after reading this?”

Blogs can have many purposes, but each blog post should help you accomplish each one.

Let’s hope that by the end of a blog post, you’ve imparted some wisdom to your readers or discussed an important problem or topic.

There are two things you should include at the end of each post.

First, while you may think it’s obvious what your readers should do next, it usually isn’t that obvious to them.

You need to spell it out. Tell them exactly what they should do with the information in the post.

Secondly, include some sort of call to action (CTA). At this point, they’ve taken the time to read your whole post, so they obviously found it useful. This is your chance to ask for a small “payment” for the post.

Common CTAs include asking your readers to comment by answering a question (my favorite), asking them to share on social media, or asking them to sign up to your list.

You might find that one type of CTA is more important to your business than another, so focus on that, and mix in the others when appropriate.

13. “How will I measure success?”

One of the hardest things about blogging for a business is tracking the results.

Not all posts are created equal. Some take weeks to write, others take hours. Some have custom images, some don’t. And almost all posts address different topics, which makes them hard to compare.

While we generally look to see whether we increased the number of backlinks, comments, or shares over a long period of time, these metrics aren’t very useful when determining if a single post is successful or not.

But we also know that the vast majority of engagement or results come within the first week or two of publishing a post. That gives us a time frame we can use to evaluate the results of each post individually.

Before you write the post, and while you are editing the post, ask yourself how you will measure its success.

Some posts are made to generate links and social shares, e.g., roundup posts.

Others are made to generate discussion, e.g., my earlier example of my $100,000 per month challenge introduction.

Yet others are written to build relationships with influencers. A post can give you a reason to reach out and give them something of value.

You should regularly review the results of your past posts. The idea isn’t to deem each one a failure or success but to learn what does and doesn’t work for your business and your audience.

Conclusion

Nothing in this article is particularly complicated to apply—that’s the point.

These are simple questions you should ask yourself through your content creation process to make sure you don’t forget anything important.

I’ve put together a basic checklist you can print out and keep at your desk if you’d like: download it here.

I’ve said it before: consistency leads to success. Get in the habit of answering these questions for every post, and you will produce better content on a regular basis.

Now I have a question for you, which I’d like you to answer by leaving a comment below.

Which of the questions in this article is most important for your blog?

Source Quick Sprout http://ift.tt/1NDe229

The Power of Wi-Fi: Using Mobile To Drive Customer Acquisition And Loyalty

Columnist Allan Haims explores the benefits of in-store Wi-Fi for malls and retailers and how it can significantly boost customer engagement.

Please visit Marketing Land for the full article.

Source Marketing Land - Internet Marketing News, Strategies & Tips http://ift.tt/1LZbUAE

Win Free Money: Enter These Contests for $61,750 in Cold, Hard Cash

Everyone loves a good travel contest or two. But what’s even better than winning a dream vacation? Winning cold, hard cash.

Instead of coordinating with your honey to head to the Bahamas, squeezing a trip to Oregon into your already-packed schedule, or trying to mobilize the whole family to take advantage of the getaway you won, these contests simply reward you with cash.

Plus, as some have pointed out, when you win a trip, you’ll often need to pay taxes associated with your win. But when the prize is a check, you can easily cover those taxes before spending the rest on anything you please. And for those of you north of the border, some of these contests are open to Canadians.

Try your luck at winning some cash this summer through these contests.

1. Xome Home Remodel Sweepstakes

It might be called the “Xome Home Remodel Sweepstakes,” but you can use this prize any way you like — it’s a check for $25,000. What would you do with that money? Pay off your bills? Buy a new car? Go on an epic vacation?

Between now and July 31, you can enter Xome’s $25,000 giveaway sweepstakes once a day if you’re a U.S. legal resident aged 18 or older. To enter, just create a free Xome account. You can also earn two bonus entries per day by sharing the sweepstakes via Twitter, Pinterest or Google Plus, or downloading the real-estate-focused free Xome app (the link to download the app is on the entry form).

2. O’Reilly Auto Parts $10,000 Payment Payoff

O’Reilly Auto Parts is holding a $10,000 Payment Payoff Sweepstakes where they’ll give away $500 once a week for nine weeks, as well as a grand prize of $10,000.

The contest runs through August 25 and you can enter up to twice a day. Each day, you can earn up to six bonus entries by sharing the contest via Facebook or Twitter, referring friends or naming your favorite O’Reilly Auto Parts location.

You must be a legal resident of the U.S. (sorry, void in Connecticut, Delaware, Maryland, New Jersey, New York, Rhode Island and Vermont) aged 18 or older. To play, pick up a game card at an O’Reilly Auto Parts store and use the code online to submit a registration form. Or, if you don’t want to get a code, you can enter by mail.

3. $5,000 Champion King of the Road

U.S. and Canadian residents aged 16 or older (except Quebec residents) can enter this contest for cash prizes. Enter by July 20 (one entry per person) for a shot at the $5,000 grand prize or one of 10 weekly $500 prizes. One hundred other winners will also receive a “prize pack” with a hat, T-shirt and decals.

To enter, you’ll need to take a photo of your ride and include a caption describing “why your vehicle is the King of the Road.” The public will vote on the photos and whoever gets the most support will receive the grand prize. Your vehicle must be “street legal” and only the owner can upload images of their vehicle (but no people can be in the photo — more details here).

4. $10,000 Kikkoman Asian Cool Contest

Enter to win a $10,000 grand prize from Kikkoman. You could also take home one of more than 1,000 “instant win” prizes, including silicone brushes, aprons, cookbooks and more.

This contest is open to U.S. and Canadian citizens (except for Quebec residents) aged 18 and older. You can enter once per day through November 27, so the sooner you start entering, the better.

5. $10,000 Michael’s Summer Sweepstakes

Craft retailer Michael’s is looking for photos of summer fun. Think beaches, lakes, fairs, flea markets and more.

Enter your photo in their Summer Sweepstakes in categories like Summer Fun, Beach/Lake, Fair, Main Street, Art/Music Festival or Flea Market for a chance at winning weekly $100 gift card prizes or the grand $10,000 cash prize (in the form of a Visa gift card).

Continental U.S. and Canadian residents (sorry, no Quebec residents) aged 18 or older are eligible to compete, and the contest ends August 1. Choose your photo carefully — you can only enter once. Your photos won’t be judged — winners will be selected randomly. Complete rules here.

6. $1,750 Back to Nature Sweepstakes

Enter the Back to Nature Sweepstakes for a chance at a $1,000 cash prize, plus a year’s supply of snacks. First place winners receive $250 checks plus snacks.

To enter, you must be a U.S. resident aged 13 or older. Go to Back to Nature’s website or Facebook page, click on the entry form and enter up to once per day, per device between now and September 18. You even get a $1 off coupon for Back to Nature products for entering.

Good luck, Penny Hoarders!

Your Turn: Have you found any great summer contests for cash prizes? Share them in the comments!

Kristen Pope is a freelance writer and editor in Jackson Hole, Wyoming.

The post Win Free Money: Enter These Contests for $61,750 in Cold, Hard Cash appeared first on The Penny Hoarder.

source The Penny Hoarder http://ift.tt/1T9T7H8