A Fun and Lucrative Business Almost Anyone Can Do by Marc Charles

7:22 AM

Hi Gang:

Ive enclosed an article I wrote for International Living.

Enjoy :)

Marc

A Fun and Lucrative Business Almost Anyone Can Do

By Marc Charles

I discovered a fun and lucrative business almost anyone can do…from anywhere.

I say “almost anyone” because this is not for everybody. There’s some work involved, a knowledge curve and details that might overwhelm some people.

But, this business is fun, and you can do it “on the road”, in your spare time or work from your kitchen table if you want to.

The idea is to acquire products at deep discounts from more than a hundred countries around the world, and sell the products online at amazing markups.

The greatest obstacle when it comes to selling products online is traffic. You need tons of targeted traffic and qualified buyers (versus tire kickers). The problem is this kind of traffic costs money, unless you can piggyback sites like Amazon, ebay, CraigsList and other shopping sites.

Last week while moderating a forum I set up around this business, I was amazed how people were leveraging this business and making money.

One gentleman from Germany was importing colored computer cables at deep discounts and reselling them on technology shopping sites at huge mark ups.

A young woman, Jenny, is importing Christmas supplies and reselling them to other online retail stores. She’s doing this from her “pantry office” next to the kitchen in Calgary Alberta Canada.

The point is this is a fun and lucrative business almost anyone can do, even if you don’t have a lot of money to get started.

I also discovered a trading exchange that enables entrepreneurs to locate reputable suppliers in other countries and order from them directly instead of going through a middleman. 

I know dozens of entrepreneurs who are leveraging this neat business. You can meet them in this program I’ve developed to help you get started. 

Today, starting a business on a shoestring is much easier than it was 30 years ago—or even five years ago.

Theres nothing wrong with building a big business. I’ve helped dozens of entrepreneurs and start-up ventures do it.

But when you run a business from your kitchen table, a back bedroom, or even “on the road” as your travel you can greatly reduce the downside risk and expense.

Almost anyone can do this business. Plus, the weak economy makes this business even more viable.

Editorsnote:Remember you only have one more day to get Marc’s program with a $100 discount.Try it out. This might be just the right opportunity for you. Sign up to receive it now. URL

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WHY DO WE DANCE

Have you ever twirled in a circle? Stretched on your tiptoes and swept your arms above your head? Tapped your feet to snappy music? All people dance, because the human body is made to move. The world offers an exciting variety of dances!

WHAT IS DANCE?
Our bodies can twist, jump, stretch, and turn. Dance blends these movements together, usually with music. Dance uses space: What patterns do the dancers make across the floor? What designs do dancers’ arms and legs brush through the air? Dance uses time: Is the dance fast or slow? What rhythm pulses in the music? Dance uses weight: Are the steps light and quick, or heavy and limp? Dance uses energy: Does the dance have fast, choppy movements, or flowing, soft ones?
WHY DO WE DANCE?
People around the world dance for different reasons and in different ways. Some dances can express feelings like sadness, anger, or joy. Other dances can tell a story.
Dance may sparkle as an art form, as ballet does, and be performed for an audience. Ballet dancers train for years to learn to leap and turn across a stage.
People may dance as part of an important ceremony, even as part of their religion. Some cultures honor their ancestors through dance. Dances may celebrate important events, such as a birth, graduation, or marriage. A dance might be used to help work go faster, as in the Japanese rice-planting dance.
In some cultures a shaman, or healer, might dance to cure an illness. Some societies use dance to reach a state of trance so the dancers can perform acts of strength or courage, such as dancing on hot coals.
DANCING FOR FUN
We may gather together and dance simply for fun. Many countries have group dances-folk dances-that are passed down through generations.
Social dances encourage two people to dance together. These dances come and go: A new dance may be very popular one year, and out of fashion the next. In the 1800s, couples glided through a waltz or polka. Young people kicked up their heels doing the Charleston in the 1920s. Teenagers spun and swung to the 1940s jitterbug. Couples did not even have to touch hands for the 1960s dance craze, the twist. Disco dancing, popular in the 1970s, and today’s hip-hop are also social dances.
HOW LONG HAVE PEOPLE DANCED?
Dance probably has been around about as long as people have. Cave paintings thousands of years old show what look like dancing figures. Dancers appear in the art of ancient Egypt and Greece. Through dance, societies asked their gods for good crops or bravery in battle.
Hundreds of years ago the Christian church frowned upon dancing. But farmers and villagers still danced for fun. Many of these dances developed into folk dances. Ballet grew out of dances at the royal courts of France and Italy in the 1500s and 1600s.
Drama, acrobatics, and music are combined with dance in many cultures. People added makeup, costumes, and masks to turn dance into theater. These performances tell a story using movements rather than words.
HOW WILL DANCE CHANGE IN THE FUTURE?
Dance constantly evolves, or changes. People seek new forms of expression. Cultures borrow from one another, and from the past. Latin American dance blends Spanish and Native American styles. African and Asian dances influence dance in Europe and North America.
Like our ancestors long ago, we dance for important ceremonies. And like our ancestors, we also dance for the joy of movement, to express our emotions, and to share music and fun.

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Do You Ever Feel Like This

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2000 379 Peterbilt

What You Need to Know to Become an Owner Operator

6) How to Do Bookkeeping and Other Necessary Paperwork
Permits and Taxes

 

View my Other Posts:

A Holiday Wish
Blogs, Forums and Othrt Resources
Texting Ban
The Way it Was - A Short History of Trucking

Pro and Cons of Being an Owner Operator

FAQ for the Owner Operator
Pictures
Anti-Idling Regulations
Definitions and Industry Terms
Blackrock Auxiliary Power Unit (APU)
Interactive Cost per Mile (CPM) Calculator Spreadsheet
Privacy Policy
1) Owner Operator 411 – Welcome
2) Income and Expenses
3) Financing and Credit
4) Operating Authority or Leasing?
5) Equipment
7) What You Need to Know About Loadboards
8) Companies That Lease Beginning Owner Operators
9) What You Actually Need to Get Started - Licenses, Permits, Insurance, and Taxes
10) Truck Driving Schools

Keep in mind that we have been doing this since 1972, so we will probably miss some stuff. If you dont see what you are looking for, just ask. It is difficult to describe something that to you is routine, but is all Greek to someone else.

Think about when you were learning to use the computer for the first time. You might have asked someone, “How do I find information about ACB company?” The old hand may have said, “After you open your browser, just type their address into the search bar.”

You were probably thinking, “What is a browser and how do I open it? How in the heck do I know what their (mailing) address is? What is a search bar and where do I find it?” To the person explaining it, they were very clear and made perfect sense. To you, their explanation was as clear as mud.

I will try to keep that in mind, but as I said, if I miss something, or dont explain something well enough, let me know and I well see if I can confuse you some more, uh, er, sorry, I mean clear it up.

My advice is to find a good accountant who knows the trucking industry.  The rest of this article is to just give you an overview of what and how expenses are counted.  Keep in mind that for every rule the IRS has, there are several exceptions. 

Where to begin? When I first started as an owner operator, in 1972, there was no such thing as a computer. Everything was done by hand! Can you imagine? At least we had adding machines, but I cant tell you the number of times we would spend a couple of hours going over a column of figures trying to find a mistake.

Today all you need is a computerized spreadsheet, or better yet a bookkeeping program. I first started out with something called Lotus. I am now using an old (2000) version of Quicken. It does the job for me, and I dont have any need to change. What program you need to use depends on what you need to track. If all you need is to keep track of is your income, expenses and mileage, any bookkeeping program will do. If you need to track information so you can do your own permits and fuel taxes, or if you plan on hiring an employee, you may want to consider a bookkeeping program geared to the trucking industry. There is a lot of trucking software around, but having never used any, I cant recommend one. If any readers have used any trucking bookkeeping software, especially owner operator software, please leave a comment and tell us what you use, what you use it for, if you like/dislike it and why.

Since the company I am leased to does all of the fuel and mileage taxes, and permits, we dont have a lot of bookwork to do, as we used to. We dont use an accountant. We never did. My wife kept track of the income and expenses and we would take the totals to a tax preparer to have our income taxes done. After finding mistakes for 3 or 4 years, and having to take them back and have them redone, she got tired of that and decided she could do the job as well as they could. She started ordering tax books from the IRS (now days you can get them online), and she started doing our taxes herself.

What kind of paperwork you will need to do, will depend on several factors. There is one rule that cant be broken, however, no matter what else you do: KEEP ALL OF YOUR RECEIPTS! For everything (except maybe meals – see later).

Before I go any further, I want to remind you that we are in the trucking business – not the tax business. Anything I say, you should have checked out by someone - an accountant or tax professional. See "Income and Expenses"

The information I am giving is just our experience and should be used only as a starting point, so you will know what questions to ask of your accountant or tax professional, and to help you understand what they are talking about.

How much of the following you, personally, need to do depends on how much someone else does for you, such as the company you are leased to, or an accountant you hire.

If you are unsure if the person you are going to knows trucking specifically, find someone else. If they give you information that doesnt sound right, call the IRS (or OOIDA) and ask about it. A good source for tax information is trucking magazines and organizations. Owner Operator Independent Drivers Association (OOIDA) is excellent – yes I am a member, no I dont get anything for plugging them. Most trucking magazines will run articles during tax season about tax questions specific to trucking, and some even have monthly tax columns.

If you are an independent owner operator – that is if you have your own authority, you will have to keep (or hire someone to do it for you) records for: every expense, all income, all capital (equipment) expense, miles run in each state, total miles, fuel purchased in each state, total fuel, and drug and alcohol testing (yes, even if you are the only person in your company).

The DOT tells you how drug and alcohol testing has to be done.  They have very specific rules about pre-employment, random, and post-accident testing.  The most difficult thing for the person who has their own authority and no employees, is the random.  In spite of what you might think, you cant just get up one day and say, "Well, I havent had a drug or alcohol test for a while, guess Ill go have it done today."  Oh, Nooo!  You have to select a "random person" on a "random basis" to have a drug and alcohol test, and you must keep very detailed records about who, how, when, and why.  The easiest way to do all of this is to hire a consortium. A consortium pools a lot of individuals together, pulls the random draws and does all of the required paperwork and record keeping.

As I said before, I am an OOIDA member, and I think they are one of the best things that ever happened for the owner operator.  OOIDA is a full-service organization and help with drug and alcohol testing for you, as well as help you get your own authority and permits. They have owner operator insurance, trucking and personal vehicle insurance, medical insurance, retirement, financing, and tons of information about the trucking business.  Membership fee is only $45.00 a year, which includes their very informative magazine, Land Line.

If you are leased to a company it depends on how much, if any, of the above they take care of on your behalf. Whatever they dont do, you have to.

As I said, keep all of your receipts for everything. If you hire an accountant, you take your receipts and settlement income (pay) statements to them. Some people I know put these receipts in folders with different categories. Some people will even total those categories, but most owner operators I know throw all their receipts in a box and take the box in to their accountant, complete with spilled french fries. Most accountants require that you take this box to them at least once a month.

The perfect way, although I dont know anyone who does this, would be to have a laptop, and enter each expense at the time you buy something, or as soon as possible afterward. I dont advise you to try to enter your toll receipt while driving (ha, ha).

If you are going to be keeping the books yourself, whether or not you do your own taxes, you should enter everything as soon as you can – usually at least weekly. It is so easy to put it off and the first thing you know, it is tax time, and you havent made but one or two months worth of entries.

What records you keep and how you keep them will depend on what type of entity you are. Are you a sole proprietor, a partnership, a LLC, an S corporation, or a corporation? Most likely you will be a LLC.

If you are a sole proprietor, you will use your social security number as your tax number. For all other entities, your will have to file Form SS-4, Application for Employer Identification Number - EIN (you can also file for a EIN online). Its FREE!

If you are a sole (single) proprietor (owner) it is fairly easy to keep records, as everything is 100% yours, income and expenses.

You are also 100% "at risk", meaning all debts, but more importantly, all judgments against your business. In other words, if someone wins a lawsuit against your business, even if your business files bankruptcy, you are still liable for the debts.

You are required to file a Form 1040 Schedule C (or C-EZ) - profit or loss from a business - sole proprietorship, and a Schedule SE - self-employment.

If you are a partnership, it becomes a little more complicated.  How is the partnership split?  50/50? 60/40? Something else?  It makes a difference when you file your taxes.  If it is 50/50 and you buy a $100,000 truck, each of you owns $50,000 worth of the truck.  Each of you will share 50% of the income.  If you financed the truck, then each of you is responsible for 50% of the debt.  Now apply that to 60/40 or some other percentage.  See, it is getting a little more complicated.  Now are both of you active partners?  An active partner is one who participates in the partnership.  For example, you drive and your spouse does the bookwork and record keeping.  You are both active partners.  However, if you drive and you hire an accountant, and your spouse doesnt do anything else, then your spouse is a passive partner, but if you and your spouse drive team, then you are both active partners.  Another example:  Your brother paid for the truck and wants a percentage of the profits in return, but you do all of the driving, maintenance, and everything else.  He is a passive partner.  Now, what if you have more than one partner? Some of them could be active and some could be passive.

Which partners are "at risk", and for how much? Are any of them guaranteed a set payment, no matter how much the partnership nets?

You are required to file a Form 1065 (with a Schedule K) - partnership, and give a Schedule K-1 to each partner. 

The partnership does not pay taxes.  It passes all profits and losses on to the partners using a Schedule K-1.  Each partner is required to file on their Form 1040, a Schedule E - supplemental income and loss, and a Schedule SE - self-employment. Each partner then takes his share of profits or losses on their Form 1040 based on the amounts on the Schedule K-1.

A LLC is a Limited Liability Company.  It used to be that if you werent a sole proprietor or a partnership, then you had to be a corporation or S corporation (small corporation).

Now they have the LLCs (Limited Liability Corporation) which is a relatively new business structure allowed by state statute.

LLCs are popular because, similar to a corporation, owners have limited personal liability for the debts and actions of the LLC.  The reason the owners have limited personal liability is because the LLC is required to carry liability insurance usually for about one million dollars.

Other features of LLCs are more like a partnership, providing management flexibility and the benefit of pass-through taxation (the LLC doesnt pay taxes, but "passes through" the tax liability to each member).

Owners of an LLC are called members. Since most states do not restrict ownership, members may include individuals, corporations, other LLCs and foreign entities.  There is no maximum number of members. Most states also permit “single member” LLCs, those having only one owner.  Some kind of "Articles of Organization" with your state will be required before becoming an LLC.  A limited liability partnership is called a LLP.

Individual members file a Schedule C, partnership members file a Form 1065, and corporations file a Form 1120 or 1120S.

All of this may make a difference in how you track your expenses and income.

When you become an owner operator, you become a businessman, excuse me, businessperson, and you also for some purposes become an employer (even if you dont hire an employee). Because of that, you must pay self-employment taxes on your earned income, which consists of both the employer and employee share of taxes (you are, in effect, hiring yourself). These must be paid to both the Federal and State tax departments. On the other hand, you get to deduct amounts for an IRA (Individual Retirement Account), a SEP (Simplified Employee Pension) plan, health insurance, and 1/2 of your self employment taxes. There may be limits on some of these deductions, so be sure to check it out.

Speaking of being an employer, you can pay your children to wash your truck, your spouse to keep the books, or mother to be a co-driver. These payments are deductible, but you have to pay employer taxes on the amount you pay them (unless one or all are co-owners), and they have to pay income tax on what they earn from you.

On the subject of spouses, if you and your spouse share management decisions, you are automatically considered a partnership by the IRS, unless you elect not to be.  If only only of the spouses makes the decisions, and you dont have any other partners, then you will be a sole proprietor and you can hire your spouse, such as to do the bookkeeping.  If you do not "opt out" of being a partnership with your spouse, then you have to file a partnership return (Form 1065), an you each share in the expenses and income on a Schedule K-1.   See:  IRS site:  "Husband and Wife Business" for details.

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Query Quest What Do I Name It

I need your advice because I keep putting off querying to the national magazines, keep draggggggging my feet. My basic roadblock is something very simple: organization. I have to figure out a system in Excel so I can keep track of what I sent where and when, and when to follow up. For now, though, I have the problem of what to NAME the little boogers and how to store them.

Of course Ill have a folder under Writing called Queries. Then do I make subfolders by query or by publication?

Publications would include:

• Pregnancy & Newborn
• Parents
• Parenting
• Family Fun
• Todays Parent
• Etc.

Queries would include:

• Holiday Sanity
• Teen Dating
• Kids and Cell Phones
• Pregnancy Sleep Disruption Solutions
• Etc.

Lets say a query gets rejected. I want to be able to go back to the right file and put REJECTED in front of the file name so I know. Im thinking I file by PUBLICATION, then put the right QUERY under that.

How would you/do you organize your writing?

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My Latest Pub Creds You Can Also Do It!

Introducing ... my latest publishing credits! (You can see all of them here.)

I dont write this to brag or to make you feel bad about yourself. I write this to show that if I can do this with 5 kids running around my ankles all day, you can do it, too!

#125 is Seminole County Parenting!

#126 is Arizona Parenting!

Tip: Arizona Parenting contacted me looking for a specific type of article. Instead of saying I did not have one in my reprint list, I offered to write one for them. They said it was a tight deadline and I said, "Bring it on!"

Tip: Seminole County Parenting is a new publication that will be listed in the new edition of the ebook, and they do pay.

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7 Reasons Not to Hire People to do Vector Stock For You

1. Return of investment. 

You may not get back what you have invested from the person you hired. The reason being is because a stock vector may not sell at the end of the day or at worst, gets rejected. Here is an example of what you will get per vector depending on the quality of the vector. Bear in mind all of the figures below are just estimations and may not be accurate at all.

An antique abacus vector.
Skills required: Average.
Production time: 3 hours.
Earning after first 6 months: $1.00
Hiring a freelance to create: $50.00.

100 road sign vector.
Skills required: Average
Production time: 10 days.
Earning after 6 months: $50.00.
Hiring  a freelance to create: $500.00

2. Management.

Hiring someone means you have to look into his work to ensure that there is quality control. You also need to have discussion (waste of time) with him and sometimes you have to look at his angry face when you comment on his works. This is called management. And managements means more investment.

3. Potential of infringement.

How do you know that a vector he produced are not stolen from somewhere else? Will you check? There are millions of vector out there and most are free. Bear in mind that this is a very serious offend if your portfolio contains a copied of others people work. You may get your whole account banned for just 1 vector.

4. He may become your competitor.

Now, isnt that something common and shouldnt be a concern? Yes, it is common if you are in car repair industry, hair dressing, or software house, but vector stock industry is different. Imagine your portfolio is popular with seamless pattern design, and this guy who has been working for you has learned all the necessary skills to produce back the similar, but better vectors. He may soon start a new portfolio that competes with you on the same category. You have to understand that you have no advantage in this because buyers dont really care much about your reputation, nor do they have emotional attachment with you.

5. He can do it too.

When you are making a lot of money from him, he will sooner or later realize that he can do this on his own. This will happen a lot sooner than you can expect.You must understand that anyone with illustration skills can do this on his own. All he need is a computer, a software, and some keywording skills. Nothing more, right? This is not an industry whereby you need a lot of resources to start.

6. He may moonlight from you.

Whats stopping him from producing higher quality vector for his own portfolio, and producing lower quality one for you? 

7. You learn less.

On a technical side, you will be spending a lot of time managing your workers. Will you still have time sharpening your skills on illustration? Afterall, the most important aspect in this industry is your illustration skills.

The above reasons make sense if you applied it on vector stock. However, if you are in stock photography, then the above 7 reasons do not applied anymore. The overhead to become a big and successful stock photography contributor is very high. You need cameras, models, studio, photography equipments, and travelling expenses.

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How Much Do I Make as a Freelance Writer Updated Weekly

2013 note: I put this in draft mode after my laptop fell in the drink, got fixed, then the hard drive went kaput. I kinda lost the will to write for a bit after that. Yes, its nice when you are married and your man has a job. Those of you who write for a LIVING, feel free to throw tomatoes at me now.

This year I finally have Internet at home so there is no stopping me from reaching those financial goals. Lets get there together! I love to hear from you!

Aint no hidin from the IRS for me!

Instead of putting this in the sidebar, its going to be a blog post updated weekly. Remember that some weeks I am not able to work much, what with homeschooling 5 kids and having a husband who is out of town (excuses, excuses). Sometimes I am able to work a lot. Some weeks will reflect that I didnt work much but got many checks in the mail. Thats why I average out the weeks every now and then, since once week looks like Im a rockstar and one week looks like Im a loser.

Lately I havent been working much at all but the checks come in from when I was working hard, so it looks like Im a gazillionaire, but I can assure you I am not. I need to start figuring in when I pay a sitter and deduct that from my earnings. Maybe next year! It isnt that often and hubby is supposed to stop traveling as of August 2012.

TOTAL INCOME FROM 2012 WAS ABOUT $7,000

2012
Week 41 (Starts Oct. 8)
INCOME: $80 RPM check; $125 BlogHer campaigns, $10.02 BlogHer ads, $50 RPM check

Week 40 (starts Oct. 1), 5.5 hours, $47.25/hour
INCOME: $240 Australian parenting magazine, $19.85 ebook
NOTE: Laptop fell in the lake so I was limited this week!

Week 39 (starts Sept. 24), 6 hours, $12.50/hour
INCOME: $75 blogging for regional parenting mag online

Week 38 (starts Sept. 17), 12 hours, $3.83/hour
INCOME: $1 ebook!, $45 reprint check

Week 37 (starts Sept. 10), 6.75 hours/$18.15/hour
INCOME: $23 reprint check, $50 reprint check, $20 reprint check, $29.53 BlogHer ads

Week 36, 7.25 hours/$9.66/hour
INCOME: $30 reprint check, $40 reprint check

Week 35, 8.25 hours, $19.98/hour

Week 34, 10.25 hours, $33.64/hour

Week 33, 6.75 hours, $0.00/hour. Yep, I got NO MONEY this week! All those small-hour weeks have caught up with me. This is going to affect my average for sure. Still, pays better than a lot of jobs, and I get to sit outside and write and watch my kids at the same time. Next week should be better :-)

Week 32, 5.75 hours, $13.04/hour (working on doing giveaways and reviews)

Week 31, 2.75 hours, $32.67/hour

Week 30, 3 hours, $34.95/hour

Week 29, 2.75 hours, $30.85/hour

YTD average of $34.67/hour

YTD 133.75 hours, $4636.45 income

Week 28, 6.50 hours, $23.21/hour (got a sitter!)

Week 27, 1.50 hours, $49.40/hour

Week 26, 1.75 hours, $128.57/hour

Week 25, .50 hours, $149.40/hour

Week 24, .50 hours, $89.70/hour

Week 23, .50 hours, $279.40/hour

Week 22, 1.75 hours, $22.86/hour

Week 21, 2.75 hours, $80.73/hour

Week 20, 4.2 hours, $37.65/hour

Week 19, 2.5 hours, $116/hour

Week 18, 1.5 hours, $-0/hour

(preparing to leave town)

Week 17, 2.5 hours, $44/hour

(husband out of town)

Week 16, 2.25 hours, $15.56/hour

(Contently slowing down, sadly)

Week 15, 2.5 hours, $60/hour

Week 14, 4 hours, $79.21/hour

Week 13, 3.25 hours, $60.59/hour

YTD average of $26.30/hour

Week 12, 3 hours, $18.28/hour

Week 11, 4.25 hours, $28.16/hour

Week 10, 4 hours, $53.46/hour

Week 9, 14.25 hours, $20.11/hour

Week 8, 5.5 hours, $27.27/hour

Week 7, 10.25 hours, $27.71/hour

Week 6, 9.25 hours, $35.14/hour

Week 5, 8 hours, $28.96/hour

Week 4, 6.75 hours, $7.41/hour

Week 3, 8.25 hours, $40.24/hour

Week 2, 8.75 hours, $14.84/hour

Week 1, 10.25 hours, $13.99/hour

2011
Week 52, 11 hours, $13.64/hour

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15 Cool Things You Can Do On The Internet For Free

15 Cool Things You Can Do On The Internet For Free

The Beatles sang it and countless philosophers have claimed it,

"The Best Things in Life are Free"

How far you are using internet?

May be its long time but you may still dont know some most common and important things about Internet. After introducing smartphones and different Telecommunications Technologies Internet become most useful accessing media and fast communication technology between people. Today our topic is very interesting and about the most cool things about internet and most important all these free of cost. Now one question must hit your mind hows its possible Free Things on internet then your answer in hidden in below 15 Cool Things You Can Do On The Internet

1. Learn to code

If you seeking to learn Coding then Learn coding for free at Code Academy. They offer interactive lessons in several computer languages, such as HTML and Python.

2. Retouch photos

GIMP offers free photo manipulation software. Its bit heavy software as me personally installed this but such amazing tool for your photo manipulations.

3. Read a book

IF you are book reader then you must find different free e-book sites so now you can easily find tons of classic e-books at Project Gutenberg and Open Library. If you want to organize your ebooks, check out Calibre.

4. Relax

If your tired and looking for any relaxing exercise then must visit Rainy Mood for a little ambiance. your can also visit Calm site as it one my my favorite site.

5. Learn a language

Online learning language is such a difficult task but now Duolingo offers free language learning in Spanish, French, Italian, German, and Portuguese.

6. Take free online courses

Free online courses are offered on different sites but Coursera, MIT, and Khan Academy all offer free online courses that cover just about everything.

7. Improve your vocabulary and fight world hunger

Free Rice donates 10 grains of rice for every vocabulary question that you get right. If you use AdBlock, be sure to turn it off–it’s how they’re able to donate!

8. Get medicine

You can find coupons for your prescriptions at GoodRx. Its best site to get medicine.

9. Get free sheet music

IMSLP has a best library of free downloadable sheet music in the public domain.

10. Manage your finances

If you worry about your managing finance then Mint helps you track your spending easily, for free.

11. Watch a complete documentary

Documentary Heaven is a place for documentary lovers and it has tons of amazing documentaries available online for free.

12. Listen to your favorite music

Songs make everything beautiful so Listen to your favorite songs, find new artists, and make playlists at Spotify, or listen to online radio at Grooveshark and enjoy free of cost.

13. Talk with a therapist

Now no need to go outside for visiting therapist so, you can talk online privately with a trained active listener or therapist at 7 Cups of Tea.

14. Find your laptop and other Smart Devices

Prey Anti-Theft helps you to protect your devices from theft by tracking their location and its one of the best free site to Anti-theft

15. Make friends with an inmate

Meet-An-Inmate is an online penpal service for the currently incarcerated.

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How Much Do I Make Per Hour as a Writer

Okay, so here was Octobers income and sources for little ole me.

Thats all well and good and I say I make that income "part-time" ... but what does that mean in my world? Do I make that working 35 hours per week? If I did work 35 hours per week, Id be making $12 per hour, which is still more than minimum wage. Its still more than a lot of people I know make to do very difficult jobs while their kids are in school or are being cared for by someone else.

So a friend was hoping I did okay hourly and it inspired this blog post! I cant guarantee Ill keep up with it, so if you miss it, just nudge me! Im very nudge-able and approachable!

And yes, you have writers out there who are making $50-100 per hour and they are laughing at my measly income. God bless em! Im not competing with them. Im sticking with things I know how to do that will bring income to my family. Also you will find 99% of these writers have grown children or kids at school or daycare and have a full 6 hours at least to have a thought and put it on paper in an intelligent manner!!!!!

Sept. 30-Oct. 6: 22.22 hours = $24.03 per hour

Oct. 7-Oct. 13: 16.08 hours = $13.71 per hour (my grandfather died this week, we were roofing, it was our anniversary [15 years] and we had weekend company and I likely dove into my ebook project which pays nothing immediately)

Oct. 14-Oct. 20: 21.08 hours = $19.83 per hour

Oct. 21-Oct. 27: 16 hours = $18.06 per hour (tons of Halloween and fall activities!)

Oct. 28-Nov. 3: 18 hours = $22.29

There you go! An average of about $20 per hour, which is about $42,000 per year if I worked full-time. Considering I can work in my jammies and dont have any expenses like gas or lunch out, I think thats doing okay for someone who gets to hang with her kids and husband the rest of the day.

Do you keep any logs of time and money? Id love to hear about your experiences! By the way, heres my ebook thats only 99 cents that tells you the ways I make money and gives more details than I share on the blog. Then it links to another report where you can find a tons of ways to make money doing paid guest blogging and more (things I dont currently have time to pursue but I hope you do)! YOU DO NOT NEED A KINDLE TO BUY THIS BOOK! They have a Cloud reader that enables you to read ebooks on your PC or laptop!

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Other Gigs You Can Do On Fiverr

So what else can you do on Fiverr.com besides writing and proofreading? 

Well, I personally branched out with gigs like these: 

selling ebooks (didn’t work out)

giving advice on writing for regional parenting magazines

writing blog posts for posting on my own blog

creating a dynamic table of contents for an ebook for Kindle

doing book and app reviews

doing social media (Twitter, Facebook and Pinterest) since I have a decent following on each of those platforms. Its good to try new things!

Gigs Ive purchased include gigs for ebook covers, Facebook fan page covers, home-made marshmallows (shipped) and these cute little cube animals (shipped) for the kids. Think Etsy meets EVERYTHING!

Head on over to Fiverr.com to see what everyone has to offer and what you may be able to offer, as well! There are 9 main categories of gigs and then there are sub-categories from there.

Next I’ll be talking about getting positive feedback from customers and how the pay structure works.

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Do You Procrastinate in Your Business

I have so many little business things to do that I keep putting off and they could each mean sales in two of the companies I work with doing direct sales. I should do them first thing in the morning when the kids are sleeping and I have a bit of brain power but I keep putting them off.

I need to send emails to the people who requested Jamberry nail wrap samples and let them know they were sent and that they can contact me at these different places. I need to send emails to all the people who requested samples from way back on to see if they tried their samples and if they would like to buy, party or join my team. Can’t hurt to ask; I’m just not asking.

I need to do the same with Younique, only anyone who tries a sample of that buys so no follow-up there … not too many samples sent yet but each one bought something.

I ordered thank you cards in bulk on ebay today so I can start writing thank you notes to past customers and include a freebie in each one! I love to show appreciation for my customers!

So often I put off doing things that I know will help me to be successful. Do you ever do that?

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Top 20 Do Follow Directory Submission List 2014 USA UK

Every one is familiar about how to create a website or blog but not have enough knowledge how to get high rank of blog or website in search engine.SEO,key word,search description,meta description all are those factors which helps you to get high traffic.But most effective way for high quality blogs as suggested by most successful bloggers is submission of blogs in directories.Submission of blog in different directories is most powerful source to optimize blog or website.It helps to up your blog in search engine.Getting backlinks is also necessary phenomena for a blog or website.There are many method to have backlinks on your website,but directory submission is more effective.BY directory submission of your blog you get high quality of your blog as well as backlinks behinds articles of blog.

What is directory submission:

You have heard about directory but not know about what is directory submission.Now let me explain about directory submission in simple words.Its just a groups of websites of different categories related or unrelated to your blog or websites.Its too much simple and easy to submit blogs in these directories.Just you need to register your blog or website and you able to submit your blog in directory list.

Directory Submission List:

There are a lot of directory submission list available on internet but all are not as much effective come up your blog in search engine.So, to facilitae you I have collected list of top 20 Do Follow Directory list.These list of directories have high google rank as describe below.All of these drectories are best to get backlinks which are given below.

Sr. No.		Google Page Rank
1	boingboing.net	7
2	lanic.utexas.edu	7
3	elecdir.com	7
4	sitepromotiondirectory.com	7
5	ananzi.co.za	6
6	ilovelanguages.com	5
7	blogs-collection.com	5
8	directory.org.vn	5
9	directory2009.com	5
10	directoryworld.net	5
11	a1webdirectory.org	5
12	evolvingcritic.com	5
13	addurl.nu	5
14	iabolish.com	5
15	jetjaws.com	5
16	littlewebdirectory.com	5
17	livepopular.com	5
18	linkslive.info	5
19	envirolink.org	5
20	movethewebforward.com	5
	Final Words: Blogs submission in directories is most powerful and effective phenomena to get high rank in search engine.You can get high quality of your content without any cost.We recommend new bloggers to submit their blogs in these directories.If you have any query you may ask them by leaving your valuable comments.

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