90 Day Money Challenge

Fighting parking tickets

2010-07-13T19:36:00.002Z

As a follow up to my recent post about Armtrac and their dodgy ticketing practices, here's an article with some useful tips...

The sad fact is that the enormous amounts of issued parking tickets often result in various mistakes. For instance, the officer may write down a wrong plate number, not notice that the meter isn't expired, and so on. When people receive tickets that they should not have received, they may want to fight parking tickets.

If you have received your ticket due to that an officer thought that your meter expired, when it actually did not, you can fight it. First of all, there is no need for you to get angry. People make mistakes, and an officer might have simply not noticed the time, etc. The best way to proceed in this situation is to take pictures or a recording of the scene, which would show that the ticket was issued prior to the meter expiring. For instance, if you have your cell phone with you, you can record a close-up of the ticket, close-up of the meter, and a reputable time source (it might actually be a good idea to try to find as many sources of time as you can). If you go to court, it is very important that you have the evidence to prove your words.

It can also happen that you get a parking ticket for a violation that you did not actually commit. Such tickets are generally quite easy to fight, since most people can prove the mistake. For instance, if the ticket was issued in a city or a part of the city that you did not visit for years, you can prove that it is merely a mistake. In this case, you will need to call the municipal clerk's office, and you may actually have your ticket dismissed by phone.

If you know that you are not at fault, you can fight parking tickets and easily win.

For more tips click the following links. Whether you are fighting a traffic ticket or just need to get speeding ticket help you'll find additional helpful information

Armtrac Security Services - A Dodgy Business Model

2010-07-05T15:46:00.001Z

My wife and I were issued a "parking ticket" which I believe was unlawful. We had stopped in a parking bay which we believed to be owned by the adjacent shop in Camborne. There were plenty of empty bays, including the one next to ours, and I stayed in the car with the keys in the ignition while my wife popped inside quickly, and within a minute or so an unmarked van had pulled up close behind our back bumper blocking our car in. The driver who was not in any sort of uniform but was a rather large chap covered in tattoos jumped out and took a photo of the car, and when I asked what was going on he said I was getting a parking ticket. I said I would move and asked him to move his van which he refused to do. No matter what I said he refused to move his van while he wrote out the ticket, then he handed me a "Charge ticket" for £60 and then left. The parking bays to my left and right were empty, and by delibarately parking on the road so as to block me in he was the one causing an obstruction, double parking a silver mini-van opposite and preventing any other vehicle from passing.

The ticket states that we have 7 days to pay, otherwise the price increases, and that "If you have reason to appeal a £5.00 administration fee will be charged."

After searching online I've found many forum threads about this company which appears to bully people into paying these "charges". They have no website, the 0871 phone number is a redirect which isn't linked to a physical address, and the address on the ticket is a rented mail service (i.e. not the physical address of the company).

Want to find out more, or show your support? Check out Armtrac Security Services and see what can be done to stop these dodgy business practices.

Rowing machines and fitness sites

2009-12-10T23:16:00.002Z

I've recently been researching different types of exercise equipment, and have found that rowing machines and treadmills are among the best.

After a lot of research and visiting several stores and a gym I finally decided that a magnetic rowing machine would suit my needs best, so that's what I bought and I wrote about it on my new blog.

I'm also looking at getting a treadmill running machine in the near future and I'll blog about then too when I have it!

Boa constrictor care ebook

2009-03-25T12:24:00.002Z

Well, it's been a long time since I posted here but I really just wanted to mention one of my new business sites, Boa Care.

After learning all about niche marketing over the part few months I decided to write an ebook about a topic I know a ton about. I've been keeping snakes and other reptiles for over 25 years now, and my favorite has always been boa constrictors. I've written about my own knowledge and experience with boas, and also done a ton of research about some of the boa species I'm less familiar with.

Anyway, the point of the post is that if you're looking for an extra income stream, think about your hobbies and passions... what are you an expert on? What information and knowledge do you have that other people might pay for?

For me it was my passion for boas, and reptiles which has enabled me to add boa-care.com to my list of revenue generating sites.

Have fun!

Bill

New blog dealing with all aspects of online business

2008-07-10T15:03:00.002Z

OK, so I know this blog hasn't been updated in quite some time...

I've been running a bunch of different businesses and had my fingers in way too many pies, with so many websites to update I wasn't keeping on top of everything.

Well, after a serious look at my business, where I want it to go, and what I want to do I've decided to restructure everything and start fresh. One big new change is a central blog, which will cover all aspects of online business, Internet marketing, affiliate marketing, working from home and other related topics.

I've also started teaching web design, both in seminars, and via another website: 1DayWebmaster.com where I'm posting video tutorials so be sure to check that out.

Thanks to everyone who read and commented in this blog, and I hope you'll join me over at Online Business Logic.

All the best for the future,

Bill

Websites and medical research?

2007-04-18T21:49:00.000Z

The wealth of knowledge available in free to download podcasts is amazing: I can't believe I've never tapped into this amazing resource before. For the last week or so I've had my iPod on virtually 24/7 and have learned tons while driving, running and doing the washing up - I highly recommend it.

Today I was listening to Joel Comm, author of The Adsense Code, and realised that I'm not doing enough to test the adverts on my sites. I've been running ads on some of my sites for several years but I'd never realised that small alterations to the layout, position and style of the ads could make such a difference. I'll certainly be ordering his book and running some tests to improve conversions.

The 'medical research' in the title refers to my sister who apparently is reading a medical proposal form tomorrow and filling in a questionnaire in return for £20. Hardly a massive amount of income but not too shabby for 30 minutes work. More importantly however, there will be lots of other people there also filling in a questionnaire to collect £20. Logic would predict that if they are giving up their time to earn a little extra cash they might be interested in a home based business, so Tracy will be pitching them all on the Kleeneze business and handing out info packs!

For a change I actually have a little spare time tomorrow which is unusual for a Thursday. I intend to spend a couple of hours working on my book early in the morning, and then look at my revenue generating ads in the afternoon in the hope of increasing conversions.

Feeds and ideas

2007-04-17T20:55:00.000Z

I've been finding more and more interesting and useful blogs recently and have finally started subscribing to feeds in an attempt to keep on top of them. I've been using Google's free reader tool at www.google.com/reader and it's made me realise how useful feed subscription buttons are. For that reason you'll notice some nice shiny new buttons on the left hand menu!

I carry a notebook with me almost everywhere. I've found it to be the best way of keeping track of ideas and formulating plans. Over the last couple of weeks I've filled pages and pages with ideas for businesses and products. In fact, the problem I have is not coming up with ideas, but choosing the one or two I should be concentrating my time on. I've always loved the idea of multiple streams of income. More specifically, multiple streams of highly automated income. Internet marketing with information products, or software products fits this criteria very well. Here are some of the ideas I'm currently toying with:

Online brainstorming tool. This would be a multi user, real-time collaboration tool for brainstorming and working on plans/ideas for a project or business. Possible features to include a virtual whiteboard, multi user text editor, spreadsheet, chat client and mind mapping software which could export to PDF format. I've started coming up with a detailed feature list and researching the competition but I'm pretty sure there is a strong market for this.

Book/training course for Network Marketers looking to expand their businesses via the Internet. This is the book I'm currently writing. I've not decided to market the book by writing a 7 day crash course to be delivered by autoresponder. Hopefully by the end of the course, subscribers will be suitably impressed to purchase the book.

Direct input browser plugin. This is something I've been thinking about for a long time and I really need to research it some more. The basic idea is to enable the use of gaming input devices for browser based games. There is a definite market here but I'm not convinced on the technical possibility of doing this with Flash (although I'm pretty sure it can be done for Shockwave and Java) which would severely limit the market.

So there we have it - loads of ideas (as usual) but only so many hours in the day. At the moment I can only devote so many hours per week so top priority is to finish the book, write the autoresponder course and get the marketing website up and running. Once that is online and (hopefully) starting to produce a profit I'll look at getting going with the next project. Whether that will be within the 90 days remains to be seen, but I did pull in an extra £60 for an update to an old Hotel site which I wasn't expecting so at least I can update the total slightly!

I'm still here!

2007-04-16T18:02:00.000Z

You'd be forgiven for thinking I'd disappeared, given up, or been abducted by aliens, but I'm still here!

The past couple of weeks have been totally hectic for me, and although I've not updated the blog I have had lots of ideas and have been working on projects behind the scenes. I'll post some of the ideas over the next few days but the main one I can't actually say too much about. What I can say is that I'll be taking part in a major national television program and filming starts next month. Unfortunately I can't say much more than that at the moment as I've signed a non-disclosure agreement and they are very keen on confidentiality. If things go well, the program could have high potential for a massive boost to my future income, but at the moment it's back to the grindstone with other projects.

The games I've been trying to sell on eBay haven't been producing the results I was hoping for. It seems the first sale was a fluke since that's the only one I managed to sell. After listing several more I've reached the conclusion that the way I'm listing them could be the problem. I've been reading a lot from Yanik Silver and Michael Rasmussen recently and I think that improving my 'sales pitch' in the auction, and raising the price (to increase the perception of value) could be the answer so I'll be trying that and posting the results in a week or so.

My book is also coming along nicely. I've found a company to print a short run for direct sales while I'm seeking out a publisher, and I'm confident of selling a reasonable number in that way. If I can keep focused I think I can finish the book within a month. I really need to because after mid-May things will be hectic for me again with my father's wedding, my little sister's baby due, both my older sister and mother visiting and I'll be going up to London filming... Basically if I don't get the book done and sent to the printers by 15th May it won't happen until well into June.

So there we go. I'm back, and I'll be filling you all in on my projects and new ideas over the next few days.

Ice cream vans and summer business

2007-04-03T17:27:00.001Z

It's been nice and sunny for the last few days, and with Easter fast approaching I've been thinking of summer business ideas. Cornwall is a tourist trap and over the coming months tens of thousands of holiday makers will visit the county, each with wallets which will be decidedly emptier when they return home.

What do tourists (we Cornish call them Emmits!) want to spend their money on? Cream teas, ice creams, postcards, sun lotion, t-shirts... the list is endless. By coincidence there is an ice cream van on the garage forecourt not 2 miles up the road which I spotted today. I pulled in to take a look but there is no price on it, so I'm not actually sure whether it's for sale. I know Duncan Bannatyne (of Dragon's Den fame) started his multi-million pound fortune with an icecream van and the idea does appeal; a small fleet of vans with commission only drivers covering the Cornish beaches and tourist attractions. I did actually look into the idea a few years ago and still have the paperwork for license applications, I'll have to dig them out and take a look.

Postcards are also worth investigating. I posted in a previous thread my idea for photo-mosaic postcards and I do believe there is a real market for them. If we have good weather over the Easter weekend I'll have to take some shots and put a demo card together. I think if I approached the major Cornish attractions in the right way it could be a profitable venture.

The tools of the trade are what are really needed to succeed! Whether it's an air impact wrench, or Dreamweaver, choose and learn the right tools to get the job done!

So - online games, ice cream, postcards, articles and web design workshops! When I started this challenge I had no idea I'd have such diverse ideas but so far so good, I'm well on my way to £5000 but there's a long way to go yet, and a lot of work to do.

On target

2007-04-02T16:29:00.000Z

I had confirmation today of the 2 Flash workshops I arranged last week. That adds £300 to my total which puts me back on target.

I've also been working on an old game (which I started writing over 2 years ago!) these last few days and I think by the end of the month I can have it ready. That means I'll be relaunching Kwikgames.com with at least two, but hopefully three new games which should increase the traffic (and revenue) significantly. I'll also be adding a store section to the site, selling re-branded versions of some of the games.

I have decided against submitting my YouTube article. I think I'll have more success with a tutorial style article so it's back to the drawing board to think of a subject. If I can decide on one soon I can write the article and submit it before the weekend.

Kleeneze business, keeping busy

2007-03-31T17:44:00.000Z

Well, I've been really busy with Kleeneze (my Network marketing business) these last few days so I've not had time for much else. I hosted a conference call training on Thursday evening, and this afternoon I did a training at a local meeting. Preparing for those has left me with little time for much else but I'm hoping to have some time tomorrow for my 90 day challenge project. I want to finish my article for DevShed, spend some time working on Kwikgames.com and also check out Second Life.

One of our Kleeneze team has just gone full time in the business. She finished at her job yesterday, and so is full time with Kleeneze from Monday. We're expecting her business to turn over £4000 next month which ought to help give us our best period to date. If we can help her achieve Gold distributor status in the next couple of months that will be a massive boost for the team (We're aiming to have 4 Golds in the team by the end of the summer, giving us a turnover of around £35,000 per month). We're on track but just need to keep things moving along.

First week review

2007-03-30T21:09:00.000Z

The end of my first week, and as you can see my total stands at £137.32

That's a long way off target (of roughly £390 per week) but a lot so far has been brainstorming and planning so I'm happy with the total. I also didn't include the £300 I'll earn from the workshops I'll be teaching. I'll add that to the total when I invoice DPN, but if I was to add that to the total it would put me well past my first weekly target.

Now I've had a week to get into the swing of things I want to make some real inroads over the next 7 days and get that total at the top of the screen looking a little more healthy!

Get a second life

2007-03-29T15:00:00.000Z

Just read an article which Cressy found in 'Woman' magazine about a single mum from Manchester who looks set to earn £25,000 in her first year trading online as a 'virtual furniture designer'. According to the article, Lisa (34), gave up her £15,000 a year job at British Gas to set up a virtual company in an online virtual world called Second Life.

Apparently more than 2 million people have joined the online community where users can create a new identity, called an avatar, and explore a virtual world. Second life has its own currency, the Linden dollar, and the exchange rate is currently around 275 Linden dollars to one US dollar. Users can trade online and exchange real money for Linden dollars and vice versa via a Paypal account.

It all sounds a little odd, but a lot of fun, and there so appear to be many people making real money this so I'm certainly going to look into it. Anyone interested in finding out more can do so at http://secondlife.com/ and I'll post again after I've had time to investigate further.

The property ladder

2007-03-28T19:39:00.000Z

This post is a bit of a side note today, but the challenge is about saving money as well as making it. This certainly won't save me money within the next 90 days but I think it's worth mentioning anyway...

I've been looking at French property. House prices in Cornwall, and the UK in general are still going up and up. The average house price in the UK is now a staggering £184,924 and in Cornwall it's higher than that. Prices in France are considerably cheaper, to the extent that a move over the channel is very appealing. It's something we've looked into before and certainly something which is on the cards at some point in the future. After all, both Cressy and I are self employed working from home, so long as we have a phone and a computer we can live and work anywhere in the world.To give you a rough idea, the photo above is of a 6 bedroom house in Brittany, northern France. It has 2 bathrooms, central heating and comes fully furnished for just €100,000 which is around £68,000 or $135,000. An equivalent house in the UK would certainly be at least 5 times that and probably a lot more in many areas.

While there's no way we'll be buying French property in the next 90 days, I thought anyone reading this blog would probably be interested. We're currently living in a small 2 bedroom bungalow. An equivalent price would get a us a 3 bed villa with a pool in Southern France... got to be worth more investigation!

The days are flying past...

2007-03-28T16:35:00.000Z

I can't believe it's nearly a week since the start of my challenge, time really does fly when you're having fun I guess! I've half written my article for DevShed, but I'm not happy with it and thinking about starting from scratch with a different subject. I chose to write about the YouTube/Viacom litigation case but I think I'd have been better of with something more techie and less topical. I'll get my thinking cap back on and see what I come up with.

I've designed a new layout and look for Kwikgames and I'm planning on migrating to the new look on Sunday. It's quite a lot of work, and I'll want to redo some of the scripts and add some new pages while I'm at it, but I think it's worth the effort. It certainly needs doing if I'm going to release any new games on the site as it currently looks very dated.

The Network Marketing business is going well though and I'm confident on our biggest income to date from that this month. Cressy and I have set ourselves a big target of £3400 personal sales this month and we're roughly on target so far. I'm determined to increase our volume and get to Executive level in the next couple of months.

No update to my total today, but I have a few bits and pieces from clearing out the office ready to go on eBay. I also have a couple more games on there, and will add more over the weekend while also setting up online payments to sell them directly via the Kwikgames site.

Sold my first game

2007-03-27T16:04:00.000Z

Amazing isn't it, you can have an opportunity right under your nose and not realise it until your mind is tuned into the possibilities. I wrote a Sudoku game back in December 2005. I'd become hooked on Sudoku puzzles from a puzzle book that Cressy had with her on a holiday to Turkey. When I got back I made the game really to improve my understanding of the puzzle and for my own enjoyment.
I hosted the game on Kwikgames.com and thought no more of it. When I was brainstorming the other day (see my previous entry) I had the idea of selling customised versions of the game as promotional tools. As a tester I created 2 eBay listings, one for the Sudoku game and then another for my 'Bubble Wrap Simulator'. I really wasn't sure what to expect but the Sudoku auction ended today on £49.99 and the second auction has a while to go but has one person watching it!

What an opportunity I've been missing out on. Even if I ignore all the other games I've written, just the Sudoku game alone could have generated a reasonable income. If I had just sold one copy per month since I wrote it, which I now think is pretty conservative, that would be over £700. Needless to say I'll be listing more games, and spending some time marketing the idea via Kwikgames itself. Anyway, that's £43.62 after fees to add to the total, hopefully with more to come!

Web design workshops

2007-03-26T18:02:00.000Z

I had an email this afternoon confirming that DPN want me to run a couple of workshops next month. We still have to confirm dates but the 2 half-day workshops will add a welcome £300 to my target. I did some a while ago and had a lot of fun, I've always found it amazing that you learn more my teaching then by 'learning' in a traditional sense. I'll be teaching foundation and advanced Flash and should be able to get the students doing some really fun stuff in the advanced class.

I've started planning my article for DevShed too. I've decided to write about the Viacom litigation about YouTube so I've been researching that. I'll plan the article out tonight and hopefully will have time to write it tomorrow evening.

I've also been on the phone to a chap in The Netherlands this afternoon. I've sponsored German distributors for my Networking business before so it would be great to break into the Dutch market. I wonder if my focus on this challenge is giving me extra enthusiasm on the phone because people appear to be drawn to me at the moment - hopefully that will continue and my business will move on leaps and bounds over the next 3 months.

Another old camera went today on eBay for £31.84 after fees. I'll add that to the total, but I won't add the £300 for the workshops until I invoice them.

Photography ideas

2007-03-26T13:43:00.000Z

I have a few items ending on eBay later today so I'll update the total afterwards. In the meantime though I've had a couple more ideas. Both involve photography.

The first is to produce and sell postcards (and/or greetings cards and related items) using photo-mosaics of local scenes. Tourism is probably Cornwall's biggest industry and countless thousands of postcards depicting St.Michael's Mount, The Eden Project, or Wheal Coates must be sold every year. However, I've never seen one using a photo-mosaic.

A photo-mosaic is simply a picture made up from lost of smaller pictures. You've probably seen them for big Hollywood films. Maybe a poster of Luke Skywalker made out of thousands of frames of StarWars footage. My postcards would be of typical local postcard scenes, but each pixel image would also be a Cornish scene. I'm very confident in there being a market for this and we're fast coming towards the tourist season so a little research is in order.

My second idea again involves photography. This time again producing greetings cards, or maybe small framed prints or posters. This time though each image would be highly personalised.

The idea is to take a photograph of a person and use it as the basis of a caricature. I'm supposing people would buy them as gifts for friends and family. They might involve the face being distorted, big ears put on, green skin, or maybe dropped into a different setting. Here's an example:

This is a photo of my good friend Frank, merged into a picture from the film Finding Nemo. It was done for a birthday card. I've done quite a few caricatures for people's birthday cards and the response has always been really good. If I can come up with a viable way of charging for, printing and distributing these I think there could be a market for them. Again, I'll have to put my thinking cap on!

Network Marketing and Articles

2007-03-25T20:00:00.000Z

I realised this morning that my 90 days includes 3 paydays from my Network Marketing business. Cressy and I sat down this morning to revise our plan and we think we should be able to increase our Kleeneze turnover and income considerably over the next 3 months. I'm expecting that roughly 1/5 of my target (£1000) will come from that.

Developer Shed have given me a long list of possible topics for article writing. They want to see a sample 1500 word article to decide whether or not they will pay me for regular writing. I've narrowed the list down to the following; Search Engine Optimization (SEO), HTML, PHP, Link Building, PC Gaming, Style Sheets or Search Engine News. Google has been in the news quite a lot this week with the whole YouTube fiasco so unless I think of a better alternative tonight I think I'll write the article on that.

So that's my first weekend gone. Not too much money in yet but lots of ideas and a few plans hatched!

Slow start

2007-03-24T18:15:00.000Z

I've had little time today due to last minute work commitments. That was further compounded by the fact I picked up Richard Dawkins' new book, The God Delusion, during the week and since starting it I've found it extremely difficult to put down.

I have however been reading through the information from sms.ac and it does look like some of my games will be suitable, although it may take a little more work to make them compatible than I first thought. I'll find out later in the week when I should have time to try the sample code.

I've been trying to register over at geniuscatalyst.com on the forums for the radio show which inspired me to start this challenge in the first place. Unfortunately new registrants have to be approved by admin who seem to be rather slow to respond. Hopefully I'll get an email soon as I'll be able to join in with the discussions.

Very little change to the total, just £22.40 for an old roofrack I've never used. Hope to have more time tomorrow to really start moving things forward.

Off the starting blocks

2007-03-23T20:19:00.000Z

A few hours into my challenge and I've made my first profit. OK so it's only a few pounds (£41.14 after fees to be precise) and only by selling an old camera on eBay, but it's a start.

I've also spent some time over at www.sms.ac reading up about 'pod development'. Their 'mobile pods' are basically small web applications which users subscribe to for a small fee. I believe I may be able to modify some of my Flash games and submit them as pods on a profit sharing basis. There's quite a lot of technical stuff to read through but luckily it's the weekend now so maybe I'll try and submit one tomorrow. I also have a few more bits and pieces to add to eBay, and possibly an article to write so it looks like it will be a busy weekend.

Day one - The challenge begins

2007-03-23T09:20:00.000Z

Well, I've made a commitment, set my target and so for the next 90 days I'll be focused on the task in hand. Can I make £5000 extra income in the next 90 days? We'll soon see. As promised I'll blog my success or failure here and hopefully be an inspiration to others.

I thought it might be useful to list some of the money making ideas I've had so far:

Article writing
eBay trading
Street photography
Finish my book
Promote and build my Network Marketing business
Relaunch my Flash Games site to increase traffic
Sell customised versions of my Flash games
Find ways to save money (Reduce my outgoings)
Garage sale or Car-boot sale
Put on a web design workshop
Do some private IT tuition
Sell advertising space on my websites
Go busking

I'll post an updated list at a later date as I'm sure the ideas will keep coming. Of these, the one's I'll be working on over the next couple of days are de-cluttering (clear out the garage and office for bits to sell on eBay or for a garage sale), article writing (I'm applying to Developer Shed as a writer) and working a plan to relaunch Kwikgames.com. I'm always working on promoting ad building my Network Marketing (Kleeneze) business so I'll not be counting that as 'extra work' at the moment.

There we go. It's Friday, the end of the working week for most people and the start of 90 days hard work for me. I don't know at this stage if I'll succeed in meeting my target but it will certainly be a lot of fun trying!

Why £5000?

2007-03-22T14:04:00.000Z

Why? Why not?

I did put a certain amount of thought into what my target should be. It needed to be attainable. If I'd gone for a million I know there's no way I'd have managed it or even got close. £5000 to me seems like an attainable target. At the same time it had to be high enough that I would have to push myself. If I went for £100 I'd have found the challenge too easy so it obviously wouldn't have been high enough.

£5000 works out to around £55 per day, or £390 per week. Broken down like that I can see how I might achieve it: £50 here, £50 there. At the same time it's not an insignificant amount. £390 per week is not far off the average wage in the UK, and I'm aiming for this as an extra income - on top of my regular income. I'm sure an extra £390 per week would make a big difference to most people's lifestyle, it certainly would to mine.

So there we have it, my reasons for choosing £5000. You'll notice I've now added a counter at the top of the blog which will count my extra income as I go and act as a constant reminder of how close I am to my target. My challenge starts tomorrow so wish me luck...

The money making ideas keep coming...

2007-03-22T07:17:00.000Z

It's amazing, since deciding to do this challenge I've been having ideas all the time. I guess by focussing on the challenge my subconscience is open to suggestions.

I started putting ideas together for a book a while ago and opened my file this morning to read through. I'm going to do a little research on the market for this specific topic but I've never found a book on this subject before, so I think it would be a worthwhile venture to complete the book.

Tracy also reminded me of another venture she tried a few years ago. She sold party-poppers for a pound each at the Edinburgh Hogmany festival and made £300 in two and a half hours. The whole concept of trading, buying and selling, is something I'll certainly look into. There appears to be many successful traders on eBay so maybe I can find a niche market on there...

I've had so many ideas already in a few short days, I can't wait to see what I come up with next!

Double your money...

2007-03-21T14:58:00.000Z

In Michael's radio show he posed a question:

If you woke up in a strange town, knowing nobody and with only £100 and the clothes you were wearing, what would you do to double your money and how long would it take?

The idea here is just to open up your mind. You don't need to think of things and then actually go and do them, just brainstorm and be creative. Here's a few I thought of right away.

Buy a 'pay as you go' mobile phone. Spend a small amount on printing leaflets offering a dog walking/sitting service and giving the phone number. Distribute these to houses in the local area and hopefully some people would call. The same could be done for a gardening or 'odd job' service if enough of the £100 was left for tools.
Buy a cheap guitar and go busking.
Buy cans of cold drink at the cash and carry, take them to the park/beach and sell them for a profit. Variations on theme could suit different climates/seasons.
Visit charity shops, junk shops, car boot sales, garage sales etc. and look for bargains which could be cleaned up/fixed/improved and sold via eBay or a market.
Set up a small market stall.
Buy a Polaroid camera and film. Find a busy square/beach/fair etc. and charge people to have their photo taken.
Buy some supplies and set up a car-wash, giving a percentage of the profits to the car-park owner.

The list could go on and on. While all of these activities are very different, there appear to be 2 underlying themes. Firstly, just about any venture will incur costs - you have to speculate to accumulate. Secondly you can either offer a service or a product. In each of the above examples, and every other one I've thought of, there is some level of investment (stock, supplies, advertising etc.) and an exchange of value (goods or services for money).

I guess the key to making a profit must be to a) Keeping the overheads low while b) Offering a fair exchange of value. That makes the venture low risk and profitable, while building customer loyalty. I'm going to try thinking 'outside the box' and see if I can come up with any money making ideas which don't fit these 2 rules. If anyone can think of one please leave a comment.

2 days to go...

2007-03-21T08:40:00.000Z

I'm getting closer to the start of my challenge now and I've already started making enquiries and thinking of new ideas. I remembered an online content provider who emailed me several months ago about converting some of my Flash games to their format in a profit sharing system. Yesterday I found their website and started reading about the system with a view to trying it next week.

I also signed up as a potential article writer for Developer Shed. They sent me an email explaining what material they are interested in and requested a sample 1500 word article. They pay cash for regular submissions and also provide high PR back-links to author's websites.

My sister, Tracy, came up with a couple of ideas for me. One was a T-Shirt selling idea, the other was for a website promoting local cycle paths to tourists. I'll certainly give them both some thought. She also had a photography idea which sparked off an idea I had last year of producing postcards of famous local tourist attractions (St.Michael's Mount, The Eden Project etc.) done as compound photographs made up of Cornish landmarks. Again that's something to think about over the next week or two.

It really is amazing how many ideas you start to have when you open your mind up to the possibilities. Tune into the idea of making extra money and the possibilities appear endless.

The closer I get to the start of my money challenge the more excited I'm becoming. I've no idea yet whether I'll reach my £5000 target but it's going to be a lot of fun trying!

Money Making Brainstorm

2007-03-20T17:09:00.000Z

I have three more days until the start of my 90 day challenge so I've been brainstorming ideas. The 'game' element to this challenge means that I'm open to any ideas for making extra money; big or small, simple or complex. If anyone reading this blog has any suggestions please do leave a comment. Here's a few I've come up with so far...

Increase my Network Marketing business. I'm a distributor for Kleeneze, the UK's premier Network Marketing company, and that currently earns my partner and I around £1500 per month. Spending time increasing our sales and team will probably have the biggest effect on my 90 day total, but I don't want to limit myself only to this.

Article writing. I've written a number of articles in the past but I've never successfully sold them. I know that Developer Network will pay for good quality, original articles and I'm going to research other companies and see if I can make some money from writing.

Web design workshops. Last year I ran a couple of web design workshops for small businesses. The half day workshops made me about £150 each so I'm going to look into doing a couple more in the coming weeks.

Kwikgames. I have a Flash games website which earns a small sum each month in advertising revenue. I've not had time to update it for about 2 years and I know that with a little work I could increase the number of visitors and the revenue.

De-clutter. Like most people, my office, garage and loft are full of junk that I no longer need. A simple clear-out could, I'm sure, raise a few hundred pounds via eBay or a garage sale.

Tuition. I've done a certain amount of one-to-one tuition in the past for small businesses looking to increase their IT and Internet skills. I'm sure there is a market for more of this type of work.

Saving money. They say A penny saved is a penny earned so I'll also be looking at ways of saving money. If I can reduce my normal monthly outgoings (switch to a cheaper provider, save energy etc.) then the amount saved will also count towards my target.

I'm sure I'll have many more ideas over the coming days and weeks but at least I have a starting point. I now have a time-frame, a target and a list of possible money making ideas. On Friday I'll start my challenge and begin putting these ideas into action.

Challenge rules

2007-03-20T09:18:00.000Z

I've set my target at £5000.

That is equivalent to around $10,000 USD. The target is for extra income, over a 90 day period. I already have an extra income in the form of a Network Marketing business so I've decided on some specific rules regarding what does and does not count toward that target.

Rules for the 90 day challenge

1. I must attempt to acquire a minimum of £5000 extra income in 90 days.

2. The regular income from my web design business does not count. However, if I take on extra web design work which I would not otherwise have done (outside of the challenge) that would count.

3. Only increased income from my network marketing business will count. I will use my previous highest monthly income from my Networking activities as a base, only earnings over and above that level will count.

4. Money which comes to me unexpectedly, for example if I win or am given money, will count. However any winnings from gambling (including lottery winnings) do not count (I don't play the lottery anyway so that point is purely academic).

5. No more rules! So long as everything I do is legal and ethical it will count. I could do with clearing out the garage so I guess selling a few bits on eBay will count, I guess busking would count if I wanted to... it's up to my imagination now.

I've also decided on a start date of 23rd March which is this coming Friday. That means the final day of the challenge will be 20th June which is the day before my birthday. That gives me a couple of days to think and plan before the challenge starts, but any money I make before Friday will not count.

So there we have it. Can I make £5000 extra cash in 90 days? Will I have a double celebration on 21st June? I'll use this blog to chart my progress and pass on any tips I find along the way... Let the challenge commence!

The Challange

2007-03-19T20:49:00.000Z

A few days ago a good friend of mine recommended a radio show to me called You can have what you want by Michael Neill. It's an American show and since I'm British I downloaded a podcast of the latest show from the website at www.hayhouseradio.com

The particular show was called The 90 Day Money Challenge and, as you can probably gather from the title of this blog, I was very impressed. Not only did I enjoy the program, but I liked the idea so much that I decided to try it, and keep a journal of my challenge in the form of this blog.

The basic premise of the challenge is to aim for a target amount if money to acquire over a 90 day period. There are a couple of points to clarify. Firstly that this target is for extra income, i.e. on top of regular jobs or business. Secondly, in his radio show, Michael refers to the challenge as a 'game'. As such I'm viewing it as a fun challenge, and as a game can be 'won or lost'. Whatever the outcome however, I'm planning to approach it seriously with the intention of meeting my target in the 90 days, making some extra cash and learning a lot along the way. Firstly I need to decide on a target amount and a start date which I intend to have decided on by tomorrow.