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Creating your very own products is a great way to increase your income from your website. There are many products that are fairly easy to make (just require a little hard work) and also many of them are free to create (or reasonably cheap). If you run a blog or a website and you have regular readers then many of your readers will thank you for offering them a paid service with A Grade information they can use to improve their lives (for me to improve their financial situation).

Don’t be afraid to create your own products. Almost everyone has the skills and knowledge to create a product of their own (of some sort) that they can sell to make money. And even if you don’t have the skills yet you can certainly learn them.

I have heard the story of a man who spends one month researching a topic and becoming an expert on that topic. He will then write an e-book or create some other product to sell about that topic. Then once he is done he will spend another month researching and becoming an expert in another topic.

However, all you need to do is to research and understand one topic fairly well and you can create, market and sell your own product. It all sounds too easy doesn’t it? Well it is pretty easy.

Here are a few ideas that I can present to you of products you can easily create and sell to make some extra income:

1. An E-Book
An E-Book is one of the easiest products to make online. You do not need a degree, and you don’t even need a publisher to publish your E-Book, all you have to do is write it yourself. E-Books can easily be written in a Microsoft Word Document and then converted into a PDF file (so they cannot be edited). There are other programs out their to avoid people stealing content off your E-Book but creating a PDF file is the easiest way I believe.

Check out www.pdf995.com for a free tool to create a pdf file. An E-Book is also fairly easy to write. Problogger has a fantastic article on the ins and outs of how to write and publish an ebook. Read it here.

Ebooks range in price from around $5-$50 depending on the quality of the content and how much the author decides to sell it for. An Ebook is usually between 15,000 to 30,000 words long. A piece that has less than 15,000 words is usually called a ‘report’.

2. A Photograph
A picture tells 1,000 words. Now that has to be worth something doesn’t it? Well for many pictures they are worth some money. Many businesses will look to outsource photos from websites such as www.istockphotography.com . This is a cheap way for them to get a great photo and a great way for you to make some extra money. On istock I believe photos range from around $1 to around $10 depending on its size and you can sell multiple copies of the one photo to different people. If a great photo makes 100 sales then you can make a nice little income. The more great photos you have online the more money you will make.

Happy snaps and sunset/landscape pictures don’t usually fetch well on istock because they are not business friendly. So try to target your market to make the most money you can

3. A Members Only Area
You can create a members only area on your website which can contain valuable information not otherwise accessable to normal readers. People pay a fee (small or large) to access the website and then they have full or partial access to the content depending on how much they paid. I believe this is fairly easy to set up however I have never done this myself, and I don’t know if I ever will. I love offering free content to my readers to help them achieve financial success.

4. An Audio Teaching Series
You can buy a microphone for your computer for a fairly cheap price, and then you can record your information in an audio format and post it on a secure site online. Then people can access and download the files and listen to them. You can offer a cd but you have to pay for cds and postage. Keeping them online is a cheaper option. I am looking at doing this in the next 18 months as I grow both my experience and my knowledge. Robert G. Allen who is my mentor has done this really well. His site is www.multiplestreamsofincome.com

5. A Training Program
You can develop a training program for people with workbooks and sessions and you can have them participate each week. You can do this through conference calls or you can even automate it online. I have a free automated training program for “The Challenge”. This is simply a 52 week course where each week an email is sent to the receiver teaching them something new. This is still in it’s early development stages, however as I grow in knowledge and skills I believe it will become a fantasitc tool for all of my readers.

So there you have it. There are 5 great ideas for creating your own products and selling them. There are many different ways to market your product (which is another post) but a great way to sell as product is through affiliate advertising. That is getting others to sell your product for them and giving them a comission. www.clickbank.com offers a great resource for selling your products online.

If you have any more ideas I would love to hear them. Please place them in the comment section below. If I receive enough ideas I would love to write another posts for you with more ideas.

Having a list of 30 things to do before you turn 30 is a great motivator to push you forward to succeed in life. I strongly believe that everyone should have a list of 30 things which they want to do by the time they are 30

Having a list like this is great to motivate you towards achieving great things before you turn 30. Below is a list of things I have chosen that I would like to do by the time I am 30 and I believe some of these will be the same for you and some will be different. Have a look at them and pick and choose which ones you want for your life.

Your 30 things which you want to achieve by the time you are thirty can be anything at all. They can range from areas such as fiances to relationships and anything else you can think of.

I want to challenge everyone to create a list of 30 things to do before you are 30 and to post it on your site or write it on a piece of paper that you can view everyday. If you are over 30 then do 30 things to do before you are 40, or 50, or 60. 

So here is my list of 30 things you should do before you turn 30:

1. Become a Millionaire (save over $1,000,000)
2. Go Skydiving
3. Get Married
4. Have a Baby
5. Buy Your First Home
6. Buy Your First Investment Property
7. Have Sex (within marriage)
8. Publish a Book
9. Start a Website
10. Preach A Sermon
11. Live In Another Country For a Period of Time
12. Go On a Reality TV Show
13. Work for Yourself
14. See the 7 Wonders of the World (man made/ natural/ historic etc)
15. Be financially secure enough to retire at 30
16. Go on a short term missions trek
17. Start an international aid organisation (or get heavily involved in one)
18. Earn over $100,000 per year
19. Go one holidays to the Maldives (it is so beautiful there)
20. See the Great Barrier Reef (once in a lifetime experience)
21. Go to space (who knows space tourism could be around soon)
22. Run a Half Marathon
23. Run a Marathon
24. Join a Gym and ACTUALLY go
25. Start Your Own Business
26. Employ Someone
27. Help Someone Achieve Their Dreams
28. Move Out of Your Parents House
29. Lose those extra kilos
30. Retire

Many of you may be interested to know why I have decided to become an entrepreneur as opposed to pursuing a career in a company, or even pursuing a pastoral role in a church. I want to share with you today my personal story of how I decided to become an entrepreneur in the hope that it will explain some things to you and that it will also inspire you to go after your dreams.

I first got the thought that I could go into business for myself when I read a short ebook about a lady who started making money online with $0 startup capital and just 30 days. I read about this and I got really excited. Maybe I could make money online like she did. (You can download her ebook from http://www.searchengineguide.com/ebooks/freeebook.html)

I began along my path of trying to make some money online in the early months of 2007. Never did I know the path it would take me down of wanting to be a full time entrepreneur. I started a blog and started designing some t-shirts to sell. Pretty much my first 18 months of attempting to make money online was full of failure. But I learnt SO MUCH! and I started getting really passionate about seeking after a full time income online.

I then came across a book by Robert G Allen called “The One Minute Millionaire” which I found at the library and again it talked about how a woman went from being in the dumps to earning $1,000,000 in just 90 days. This book so inspired me to learn and to become an entrepreneur that I signed up for Robert G Allens training course (which was a few dollars short of $6,000 all up). This is a 2 year course which I am 6 months into and which covers everything from making money online to real estate, to the stock market. To find out more visit www.multiplestreamsofincome.com

All of this time I had been trying to start blogs and failing miserably at making money from them. My main point of failure was the topic I had chosen for each of my blogs. I had either chosen a topic I didn’t know much about or I had chosen a topic I wasn’t passionate about. It wasn’t until March 2008 that I realised the one topic I am passionate about, constantly learning about and already know a fair bit about. That is finance. I started Fool’s Wealth (which is now Smarter Wealth) and I have been growing my blog ever since.

It has been a slow process for me to become an entrepreneur. It happened as I began to learn more and more about earning money for myself and how to manage that wealth also. It wasn’t until sunday night (2 days ago) that I really decided that this is what I want to do with my life. I don’t just want to run a blog (though that will be part of it) I want to change the world and make it a better place.

I want to do this by training people (both in developed and developing nations) to become entrepreneur and teach them how to create and manage wealth and also teach them how to be generous with their wealth. I believe that this blog is just the beginning of something that will become much bigger than myself.

That is a little outline of how I became an entrepreneur. I know it wasn’t in much detail, however if you want me to share my story in fuller detail please let me know in the comments section below and I will write a much longer bio.

I recently saw a post on www.getrichslowly.com about a man named Randy Pausch who was a proffessor at Carnegie Mellon University who discovered that he had pancreatic cancer and that it was terminal. He only had 3 to 6 months of good health left. After he discovered this he delivered his “last lecture” which was his method of imparting his life lessons to everyone and to make his mark on history.

This presentation became MASSIVE online and was downloaded more than 10 MILLION times. It is entitled “Really Achieving Your Childhood Dreams”. I have started watching this lecture (though admittedly I have not watched the whole thing) and it is very inspiring and very well worth watching.

Randy Pausch died on the 25th July 2008 at age 47, yet he continues to live on in the impact he has made on many. I believe this will not only inspire you to fulfill your childhood dreams, but will also inspire you to find ways to make a lasting impact like Randy did

Money is a big deal in society today and it can buy you a lot of things. However, there are some things money cannot buy you and there are some things I have today that money could have never bought me.

Money is not the be all and end all of life. No one gets to the end of their life and thinks to themselves. Boy I wish I had more money. They think things like “I wish I was more generous”, “I wish I had better relationships”, “I wish I told my kids I loved them more”. There are things in life that have a higher value than money and sometimes we forget about them

I want to share with you some of the priceless items in my life:

1. Relationship With God
This is the one thing that I am most thankful for in my life and no amount of money can compare to it. I am saved by the grace of God which is a free gift and I live in relationship with God. If people ask me “Are you religious” I saw no because I am not religious, but I do have a RELATIONSHIP with God. In fact I give money to church, not because I have to but because I love God.

2. Great Relationships
Great relationships are the most valuable thing in my life (second to my relationship with God). I have great relationships with my family, with my friends and with my girlfriend which I am extremely thankful for. Often money is a reason relationships are destroyed, however I like to use my money to build my relationships. Money cannot buy you great relationships, they are earnt through hard work and build upon trust, but money can be used to make them better.

3. An Optimistic Outlook
I have an extremely optimistic outlook on life, which sometimes gets me into trouble because I need to face reality. But I am very grateful for this. I do not have it because I have a great situation where I am rich and have no problems. But I have an optimistic outlook because I chose years ago that I would look for the good in every situation no matter how bad it was. You cannot buy this you have to choose to have an optimistic attitude.

4. A Purpose Driven Life
My life is driven by purpose. In the Bible God say “I know the plans I have for you, plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you a hope and a future.” That is how I am going to live. I am going to prosper and I have a hope and a future. I am driven to achieve success because I know that my life has purpose. I have a dream bigger than myself and this pushes me forward. You cannot buy this, you have to find it for yourself

6. Fulfillment
I am fulfilled in everything that I do. I do my best to help people, I am pursuing a career that I love and enjoy (writing and finances) and I believe that my life will make a great positive impact on the world. I have fulfillment in my life and no amount of money can ever give me that. You need to earn it.

So there are just a few things in my life which are priceless and which no amount of money can buy (though by using money it can help improve these thing). Now I want to hear what is priceless in your life. What is something in your life which you love and which no amount of money could buy?

This is a press release to announce that smarterwealth.net has now released a online money tips newsletter which has great tips and insights on how to make money online. If you sign up today for the newsletter you will also receive the free report “How to Make Money Online From Scratch” which was previously for sale.

I encourage all my readers to sign up today by entering their name and email into the form in the sidebar of this site ———————>

I WILL NEVER SPAM YOU. This newsletter is sent out weekly offering you great tips for making money online, and I will sometimes send you other emails when I feel there is something special you need to know about. So sign up today and enjoy

I am looking at running a competition next month and I was wondering if anyone could help me on HOW exactly to run one.
The things I want to achieve from my competition is

• Increase Traffic
• Increase Reader Involvement (Comments)
• Increase RSS subscribers

I was thinking of doing a draw and having each comment equal one entry, and an RSS subscription equal 10 entries.

I have a few questions though. Firstly how can you find out who exactly signed up for your RSS feed? How do you find out their name and their email? Is there a way to do this?

Any other help on how to run a competition on my site please let me know

I love photography. I have been very good at photography since high school. But since starting this blog in March, photography has been put on the back shelf for a while. However, I intend to pull out my digital camera, dust it off and begin to make some easy residual income from my photography. I have decided to begin turning my hobby for photography into a money making stream of income

Cashflow is my goal. I want to have more money coming in each month. I don’t want to make heaps of money straight up just a few extra dollars here and there (enough to land one cheque per month) to help with my expenses and my savings. I have not started this yet and the information I offer you is not a money making scheme it is simply a plan which I am trying to employ to make some extra cash from my hobby (and something I am really good at).

1. Sell my Photos on iStockPhotography
The goal of this is to create residual income, so I can take the photos, upload them and then just let the money come in with no extra work. www.istockphotography.com is the perfect place for me to achieve. They have a huge database of photos and a massive audience of buyers who like to buy these photos to use for their companies. iStock do all of the marketing (people find your photos through keywords) and then they make all the sales and do all the customer service. Then I get a cut of the money each time my pictures sell.

2. I am Going to Focus on Business Photos
Generally I have been a landscape photographer, however these do not sell on iStock. Because it is generally business that will buy your photos to use in their marketing campaigns, not everyday people who want some art on their wall. So I will be taking some creative photos which will be focused towards business. Photos of things such as computers, business people, relationships, coffee, other products. This way I can focus on the audience that has the money and hopefully make the most sales.

3. This is a Gradual Strategy
The great thing with iStock is that you can sell your photos over and over again to new businesses looking to market their products. I have actually seen the same photo used in KFC ads as I have seen used to market a Bible College near where I live. Because of this I can use this as a gradual strategy to build residual income. Each month I will take a couple of photos worthy of selling to businesses. Every month I will add a few photos to the website, giving myself more exposure to businesses and increasing my sales through diversity. As I continue to ad more photos then my income will slowly grow over time.

So there you have it. I am going to turn my hobby for photography into a money making stream of income and the best thing is once I have taken the photos and uploaded them then they can earn me money for years to come.

As many of you may already know I am doing my final months of my 3 years at bible college! Yay!

Ever since I started Bible College it has been my dream to be able to work at church as a youth pastor or some sort of pastor. However, now I have changed my plans. I no longer want to work in a church at the moment and I believe the reasons I have decided this are good reasons.

1. The Money is Terrible
I am never someone to work somewhere just because the money is good. But the money you get from working at church is almost not enough to live off. I have dreams of getting married and starting a family and I simply cannot do this on a pastors wage. Instead I need to build up other streams on income which I can use to supplement my income when I do become a pastor. I want to work on building those incomes now so I can be a pastor later

2. You Have to Work Really Hard
The workload for a pastor (even a youth pastor) at church can be enormous. You have to work your regular 9-5 shifts, then you are also involved in running youth on tuesday nights, friday nights and church all day sunday. Not to mention special events and still running your cell group. This is too much work for me to handle at the moment (I am a lazy college student). So I want to work a little less first, build up my income and then just work for church part time so it is not too hectic.

3. You Have Extremely High Expectations Placed On You
As a pastor everyone has extremely high expectations of you. Expectations to have perfect character, to be able to solve everyone’s problems, and to make youth and church amazing every week. Truthfully I don’t believe I can live up to these expectations just yet.

4. Your Entire Life Becomes Church
When you work for church, go to church, hang out with people from church you whole entire life becomes church. I have been doing this for aroung 3 years with bible college and truthfully I have had enough. I need a break where I can do my thing during the week, hang out with and influence those who are not christians and then go to church and lead at church on fridays and sundays. I don’t want my entire life to be church just yet.

5. It is Hard to Focus on Anything Else
When you are working for church full time it is hard to focus on anything else. Because church is your life you are always thinking about it and how to make it better. This is not a bad thing it just means that I cannot focus on building my business, writing and studying. These are things I desperately want to do.

I just want to finish by stating the fact that I am not bitter at th church in anyway and that I would love to work for church in the future. I am simply saying that at the moment I myself do not have the capacity to work for church at this time (I couldn’t handle it, I would burn out) and for these reasons I am decided to pursue a entrepreneur career first before I go into ministry.

I am a full time student and recently I applied for a student credit card with a limit between $300-$500. This is not a lot but it will be very releasing for me to use my card online and begin to build up my business and be released to do that. I am very disciplined so I know that I will not get into excessive amounts of debt. I will be using my credit card to move my financial situation forward.

Seeing as I am applying for a credit card I thought I would share with you guys what I believe to be the pros and cons of having a credit card. You should weigh up the pros and cons for your situation before you ever decide to get a credit card for yourself.

Pros:

You can buy whatever you need to now and pay for it later

You can receive rewards for using it such as frequent flyer points

You can use it to make purchases online

Many hotels require a credit card to be able to check in

It allows you the freedom to do whatever you want

Many companies and stores accept credit card as the easiest form of payment

You can use the money you don’t have as a way of investing into your business (as long as your return is greater than the debt you pay).

Cons:

You can get into some nasty debt if you are not careful

If people find your credit card or details then they can easily use it to make purchases

You can live beyond your means spending more than you can afford

You have to pay sometimes over 20% in interest on your payments

Sometimes if you are not aware of the fees you can be charged fees for reasons you weren’t aware of

So I weighed up the pros and cons of getting a credit card and decided that I needed wanted a credit card because it would be useful to move my business forward and it would release me now to buy some things that I need which I can pay off when I start working full time.

Note: Personal Finance tip 101 is to never get a credit card if you can avoid it. But if it is seriously going to make your finances better through investing in appreciating assets then a credit card can be a great tool. But be careful you don’t get into too much debt or get stung by fees.