TRANSPORTATION

Airline Fares

1. You can lower the price of a round-trip air fare by as much as
two-thirds by making certain your trip includes a Saturday
evening stayover, and by purchasing the ticket in advance.

2. To make certain you have a cheap fare, even if you use a
travel agent, call all the airlines that fly where you want to go
and ask what the lowest fare to your destination is.

3. Keep an eye out for fare wars. Be prepared to act quickly.

Car Rental

1. Since car rental rates can vary greatly, shop around for the
best basic rates and special offers.

2. Rental car companies offer various insurance and waiver
options. Check with your insurance agent and credit card company
in advance to avoid duplicating any coverage you may already
have.

New Cars

1. You can save thousands of dollars over the lifetime of a car
by selecting a model that combines a low purchase price with low
financing, insurance, gasoline, maintenance, and repair costs.
Ask your local librarian for new car guides that contain this
information.

2. Having selected a model, you can save hundreds of dollars by
comparison shopping. Call at least five dealers for price quotes
and let each know that you are calling others.

3. Remember there is no “cooling off” period on new car sales.
Once you have signed a contract, you are obligated to buy the
car.

Used Cars

1. Before buying any used car:

a. Compare the seller’s asking price with the average retail
price in a “bluebook” or other guide to car prices found at
many libraries, banks, and credit unions.

b. Have a mechanic you trust check the car, especially if
the car is sold “as is.”

2. Consider purchasing a used car from an individual you know and
trust. They are more likely than other sellers to charge a lower
price and point out any problems with the car.

Auto Leasing

1. Don’t decide to lease a car just because the payments are
lower than on a traditional auto loan. The leasing payments may
be lower because you don’t own the car at the end of the lease.

2. Leasing a car is very complicated. When shopping, consider
the price of the car (known as the capitalized cost), your trade-
in allowance, any down payment, monthly payments, various fees
(excess mileage, excess “wear and tear,” end-of-lease), and the
cost of buying the car at the end of the lease.

Gasoline

1. You can save hundreds of dollars a year by pumping gas
yourself and using the lowest-octane called for in your owner’s
manual.

2. You can save up to $100 a year on gas by keeping your engine
tuned and your tires inflated to their proper pressure.

Car Repairs

1. Consumers lose billions of dollars each year on unneeded or
poorly done car repairs. The most important step that you can
take to save money on these repairs is to find a skilled, honest
mechanic. Before you need repairs, look for a mechanic who:
* is certified and well established;
* has done good work for someone you know; and
* communicates well about repair options and costs.

INSURANCE

Auto Insurance

1. You can save several hundred dollars a year by purchasing auto
insurance from a licensed, low-price insurer. Call your state
insurance department for a publication showing typical prices
charged by different companies. Then call at least four of the
lowest-priced, licensed insurers to learn what they would charge
you for the same coverage.

2. Talk to your agent or insurer about raising your deductibles
on collision and comprehensive coverages to at least $500 or, if
you have an old car, dropping these coverages altogether.
Taking these steps can save you hundreds of dollars a year.

3. Make certain that your new policy is in effect before dropping
your old one.

Homeowner Insurance

1. You can save $100 or more a year by purchasing homeowner
insurance from a low-price, licensed insurer. Ask your state
insurance department for a publication showing typical prices
charged by different licensed companies. Then call at least four
of the lowest priced insurers to learn what they would charge
you. If such a publication is not available, it is even more
important to call at least four insurers for price quotes.

2. Make certain you purchase enough coverage to replace the house
and its contents.

3. Make certain your new policy is in effect before dropping your
old one.

Life Insurance

1. If you want insurance protection only, buy a term life
insurance policy.

2. If you want to buy a whole life, universal life, or other cash
value policy, plan to hold it for at least 15 years. Canceling
these policies after only a few years can more than double your
life insurance costs.

3. Check your public library for information about the financial
soundness of insurance companies and the prices they charge. The
July, August, and September 1993 issues of Consumer Reports are a
valuable source of information about a number of insurers.

Free PDF Download

HERE’S 46 WAYS TO GET MONEY WHEN YOU ARE BROKE
(Money You Don’t Have to Pay Back)

1. One way to get money is to have a yard sale and sell items
that you are getting ready to toss away because you don’t want
them any longer.

2. You can always gather shells at the beach and polish and turn
into jewelry.

3. Get cash surrender from life insurance policy.

4. Paint faces on rocks and sell as paper weights.

5. Go to a pawn shop and pawn some jewelry.

6. Borrow from a relative.

7. Go get welfare pay or food stamps.

8. Dig small trees from woods and sell to homeowners.

9. Learn names of wild plants and plant in pots for sale.

10. Roll newspapers up in logs, tie, dye and let dry… then sell
(fireplace).

11. Cut up old shirts and dresses and make pot holders out of
them and sell.

12. Cut square towels out of old tossed out clothes and sell as
wiping rags.

13. Gather driftwood from the beach areas and sell to craft shops.

14. Paint old used wine bottles and sell as hand painted vases.

15. Go house to house and paint house numbers on curbs for a fee.

16. Take the lawn mower house to house to mow lawns for a fee.

17. Offer to dig or spade gardens for local neighbors for money.

18. Offer to sell fishing (earth) worms as bait - dig in garden
to get the worms.

19. Paint house exteriors in spare hours. Charge prevailing rate.

20. Gather pine cones and sell to craft shops.

21. Turn pine cones into useful jewelry, etc. and sell to shops
or houses.

22. Spray old building bricks gold, sell as “Fort Knox Rejects”
paper weight.

23. Paint bricks a vibrant enamel and sell as toilet bowl
displacements.

24. Fill coffee cans full of plaster, paint all over and sell as
door stops.

25. Gather vegetables from your garden and sell at road side stand.

26. Walk pets for your neighbors for pay.

27. Baby-sit for profits.

28. House sit for vacationers, get extra by upkeeping grounds.

29. Make fudge and sell house to house.

30. Do typing for fellow students or fellow workers for a fee.

31. Type menus for restaurants for a certain amount per menu.

32. Read books and do reports for a fee for students.

33. Research any subject (in library) for $25 a page.

34. Paint scrolls and designs on plates or make birthday plates,
charge $19 each.

35. Teach people to do calisthenics, charge $2 an hour and have
10 at time.

36. Teach dancing and charge $2 an hour, and have 10 at a time.

37. Learn to do juggling and clowning, put on shows for pay.

38. Rent out as a clown to birthday parties, affairs, etc.

39. Get good at telling jokes and rent out to night clubs.

40. Sing for money at night clubs.

41. Make crafts and sell them at road side yard stand.

42. Teach others to make crafts ($2 each) and have 10 at each
class.

43. Bake fruit pies and sell house to house (or in stores at
holidays)

44. Make Christmas wreaths during holiday season to sell, using
discarded boughs from your own and neighbors’ Christmas trees.

45. Make Christmas candles from paraffin wax and sell at
Christmas time.

46. Polish shoes for office workers by going office to office once
a day every day and charge 50 cents a shine - lawyers best bet
here.  Also see all accountants, clerks, insurance agents, etc.

… That Pull Like Crazy!

CLASSIFIED ADVERTISING IS A PROVEN METHOD

Classified advertising has always been, and will continue to be the favorite
method for Mail Order “Pros” to advertise. Almost all Mail Order Pros started with
these tiny inexpensive ads since they represent the best cost effective way to reach
millions of people.

TWO BASIC METHODS

Two basic methods are used with classified advertising.  (1)  Place an add
offering FREE literature, and then send your literature to all inquiries. A Free offer
will always out pull an ad that requests money, but your overall profits may be larger
since you will generate more inquiries. This method is excellent when you are also
collecting “Opportunity Seeker” names that you can rent. You should be able to
generate fresh National leads for $.20 to $1 using this method.  (2)  Offer a report for
$2 or $3 and then send out other offers with your orders. This eliminates the
“Opportunity Seeker” who never buy anything, and your operation is much cleaner
and void of “busy” work.

OVER  200  LISTED PUBLICATIONS

The following is a listing of over 200 magazines that offer classified
advertising. The  first group of magazines represent the mail-order “Pros” favorites,
and they will always out pull other magazines for opportunity offers. The second
group has been selected from thousands of other magazines (1) they offer classified
advertising, and (2) they are the least expensive (Word Cost/Circulation ratio). Notice
that the last column provides the Word Cost/Circulation ratio. That is, this ratio shows
you how much it will cost you for each word for every 1,000 people who get the
magazine. The lower this ratio is, the more cost effective it is. For example, if you
were to advertise in the National Enquirer, it would cost $8.95 for each word, and it
will cost you $.0023 for each 1,000 persons that get the National Enquirer. In this
example, if you placed a 10 word ad, it will cost you $89.50, and it will be sent out to
3,500,000 people.

COST/CIRCULATION RATIOS

This may seem like an expensive ad, but the cost to get your 10 word ad to
1,000 people is only ($.0023 x 10) = $.023! That’s right - two cents!! For every 1,000
people! Therefore, learn to evaluate the circulation/cost ratio since this will tell you
the relative cost that is important. As a further example, consider advertising in the
“Hounds And Hunting” (#238). Here the cost for a word is only $.22. Good Deal?
NO! In this case your Word Cost per 1,000 is $.0227. Therefore, your cost to place a
10 word ad per 1,000 people is ($.0227 x 10) = $.227!  That’s over 10 times more
expensive than the National Enquirer!  However, if you were selling something for
hunting, it might actually pull better than National Enquirer.

ASK FOR RATE CARD

Before you place an ad, write to the magazine and ask for their “Rate Card” for
both classified ads and space advertising. You will normally receive a large package
containing a sample publication, advertising rates, schedules and discounts offered for
multiple insertions placed for sequential publication dates.

Free PDF - Download

How to write good content has to be the bravest article to write about. Credibility is at stake here but I hold no fear and wish to offer the finer tips about writing good content for the web.

To begin with, let me inform you that I do have a couple of publications but they’re not in the public domain, it’s for free consumption within business support services in my area so basically, my writing experience is slim. What I pride myself on is the research into the following steps on crafting an article and generating the cuisine of the bots, good content. This in turn translates to more readers which is the primary objective of the exercise.

What defines good content?

Good content has many attributes and we need to ensure all these attributes have been checked before we publish.

Let’s take a look at what we need.

- Unique information
- Scannable structure
- An answer to a question
- Quality of grammar, punctuation and spelling
- Readability

The above sounds fairly obvious I know but they do take some thinking about. It’s easy to get them wrong and hard to get them write, sorry, I mean right.

Unique information

Most subjects on the web have been covered so you really do have to dig deep and ask yourself what you can bring to the web that belongs to you. The answer to bringing unique content to the web is to write for your readers. The language you use determines the kind of visitors your site will attract.

I write to owners of websites that operate a business, mostly non-technical or DIY. I do assume some knowledge of the web but aim to provide information that someone without the skills can learn from. I don’t always get this right so feedback is always welcome, something good content is carved from. When you know your readers, you listen to their feedback, you hear their questions, you write good content. It’s that simple.

Scannable structure

Not many people read the web but everyone scans the web. Don’t argue about it, just accept it. So, how do we convey our content then? Well, the answer is to use small and on-topic paragraphs with careful use of headers and subheaders. The headers really do make a document scannable and must be used correctly. If the topic changes from one paragraph to the next either reconsider the header or create a new one.

I’ve aimed to make this article a good example of scanning. I take the 9 o’clock news approach, which is; strong introduction, short summary of content, the content itself, a closing summary. All this is done on a scannable level with lists, headers and concise paragraphs.

An answer to a question

I spend a lot of time reading content on the web and many of the articles don’t actually answer a question I was asking. Sometimes, a header or link text can imply there is something to learn by reading the content. Often though, I’m left short-changed.

If you’re hot on a subject and have something to offer, write the content in the form of an answer to a question. This is best done by describing the question to help clarify why people are there, make the reader feel like they belong, then follow with a solid answer.
The aim of the content is to provide people with homework to do, something they can take away from your site, basically, an answer to a question. Get this right and they’ll be back for more.

Quality of grammar, punctuation and spelling

Punctuation and spelling can be auto checked in an online thesaurus or tool such as Microsoft Word. They will clear up the obvious but you will still need to carefully proof read the information before publishing to be sure.

Nothing destroys authority on a subject quicker than poor use of the language. To readers that do know how to use the language it can smack of stupidity. Now that doesn’t mean you’re stupid and the information within holds no less value on the subject you’re writing about but if you get the language wrong, the reader will have less faith in you. This devalues the content. Not good.

Being grammatically correct is so important so always get your content checked by others to ensure you communicate effectively and keep the value high.

Readability

Being readable is about not over explaining things. Your good content isn’t a novel, it’s a readable document providing information to people who are interested in learning the subject you’re writing about. Stick to the point.

Keep your personality within the words as this shines through. Your perspective on a subject is why people are reading. Chances are the subject has been covered before and it’s you they’re reading, so be yourself.

Readable is about pace of the points. Pace of the points means hitting the readers with the key solutions you’re writing about in a steady and consistent way. Where there is consistency in the structure of the information, the scanners can scan and the readers can read. This suits everyone.

Finally

Taking the points above onboard and spending time researching the content, you’re guaranteed to generate traffic to your website. You don’t need writing experience but you do have to be prepared to learn to write.

To wrap this, you follow the steps, produce a great article but here’s the rub.

“The search engines will make you change your content.”

That statement will no doubt be criticised because the search engines love good content, true, but they need a bit of help in the understanding department. I certainly wouldn’t spend time changing the core of the content but the headers need to be revised.

Headers, particularly the primary header and title will need to be a searchable key phrase that concisely describes the content. Ask yourself “what key words will people type to find this article?”. That’s your title for the article.

The idea is to keep a balance between what the readers’ want, what the search engines think they need and what they really need.

Good luck with your next write up.
About This Author
Edward Clarke is an eCommerce Consultant and works for a Government sponsored business development team which aims to assist economic development and regeneration of local compaines using the Web. Edward also lectures about the Web in the local University and advocates Web standards, accessibility, usability, good semantic markup and information architecture.

Ineffective DMOZ

Webmasters who have tried getting sites listed in the free directory DMOZ have found it be a hit and miss attempt. Attempts to expedite the process make it worse, attempts to obtain acceptance status may make it worse, and in an industry only a few years old, many years can elapse before any inclusion is experienced, if at all. If DMOZ is the directory it believes itself to be, it should behave like that directory. As virtually any webmaster would concur – the chances of getting into DMOZ even with the best site in the genre, with original content, with a site that visitors love, with strong and constant traffic, excellent page rank and much more – are patchy, chancy and can even deteriorate a site’s rank if ever included if the editor wants it that way. Good search engine optimisation companies such as ourselves (see author bio) attain good rankings for their clients with or without the open directory. However a listing in the ODP makes this process easier by far, but the arcane and arbitrary behaviour by the open directory makes a submission far from open and unnecessarily frustrating. Here’s why DMOZ has become a liability to good search results on the web.

Submission:

To submit to DMOZ – the webmaster will go to DMOZ.org, find the most appropriate category – fill out the fields required and submit. Sometimes there is an automated indication of the success of the submission (not of acceptance, just the submission), and sometimes there isn’t. Did the submission occur? If you attempt to submit again when the submission was accepted – just not indicated – you will harm the chance of being included in the directory. If you submit several times because you’re not getting any indication that the submission was successful – you’ll be seen as a spammer. Sites that may be already accepted in the past may now be in jeopardy – and the one you are now attempting is particularly at risk. Forum postings from DMOZ editors suggest this is completely wrong – that the process works perfectly and submission success is always emailed. We know this to be disingenuous.

Attitude of Editors:

DMOZ editors think they are important. It’s true to say that webmasters do need them to perform a responsibility they’ve been entrusted with. Some editors live up to this responsibility with integrity – but most don’t. DMOZ editors will do things in their own way, in their own time, and sadly – most importantly – on their own terms. If you don’t submit a site in exactly in the right way, which is their right way – your site won’t be listed and you‘ll never know whether it’s still in the queue, moved to another editor, or just rejected. As of mid 2005 – there is no status coming out of DMOZ.

Prima Donnas:

Similar to above – Most DMOZ editors think they are a cut above the rest of us. They believe they hold the key to life or death – that for obviously meritocratic reasons they have been selected to wield power over webmasters who need to come crawling to them to plead their case. The problem starts at the top – the senior editors are geeks who’ve been operating in the upper hierarchy of DMOZ since the time that only computer geeks were really interested in the role. Like many geeks, they’re very intelligent but kinda out of touch with aspects of the real world. Aspects of great importance to an individual webmaster are not regarded with due diligence by senior editors and those they loosely oversee further down in the pecking order. Prima Donna’s? Attempt to contact them to find out any information meets with the response similar to some high official you have approached inappropriately. The Prima Donna’s of DMOZ are the only interface between the webmaster and the directory – and if the webmaster treats them wrongly they react with the attitude of some offended film star, and they’re off to their trailer in a huff. How can something so important be so ridiculously managed? It’s only a matter of time until Google, the search engine that uses the repository more than other search engines concludes the same (the others, sensibly, have their own).

Enquiries:

Once submitting a site to DMOZ – you can just check progress along the way – right? Wrong. Enquire at your peril. Prior to early 2005 DMOZ had a forum where progress could be checked – though the forum was subject to the replies of editors with all the characteristics cited in this article. It was a difficult and arcane way of getting information, and marginally better than nothing. Now there is nothing. But there are editors for each section – could you not just contact them and ask for status? No. As previously warned – enquire at your peril. It will almost definitely result in a negative effect for your site’s listing potential. The temptation to plead with one of the DMOZ Prima Donnas is strong. It may be all you have – but we can’t say the result is good – so think carefully about the wording and attitude. It may be difficult to find their email address – if so this is an indication that they don’t want to be contacted. It’s a closed organisation and it’s just so surprising that the heavy-weight search engine Google has such a high regard for a badly operated structure like DMOZ.

Since the backlog for editors seems to be so great – the obvious attitude of webmasters is to offer to become an editor. One would imagine that such an organisation would welcome such free assistance. However, if you have submitted a site and declare your situation (if you don’t they’ll do a search), they will block it in the vast majority of cases. The intention any well be to assist and add quality sites to the index – but they’ll assume you just want to get your own site in. Could you blame an ethical webmaster – there’s little other choice as long as Google rewards the directory with such kudos? Sites need to be listed with the directory – and the fact that it’s such a hit and miss pursuit is frustrating and pointless. There are not enough editors, the editors don’t approach their responsibility with due diligence and they don’t easily accept new editors into the organisation. How can it work? It can’t. Google should see the obvious truth in this.

DMOZ Corruption:

One hesitates to accuse – but the forum postings of so many webmasters complaining of corruption and apparent postings of editors who themselves say they are corrupt cannot but lead one to the conclusion that there is corruption at the MOZ. There are editors that just will not accept sites into a category where the site competes with existing sites they have a financial interest in. There are editors that will do worse than not list a site. They will change the description of the site that appears by default in Google search listings such that surfers will not see the site as appropriate to their search (as of mid 2006 Google have permitted a ‘NOODP’ tag to be used to overcome this – but the knowledge of this mechanism isn’t widespread). There are supposed editors that have posted in forums that themselves say they invite payments to be made to have a site listed – payments to be made to the email address that sometimes appear along with the editor details, and others that can be found through web searches for that editor name. There are editors that will deliberately seek out other editors that have a very high queue of sites to consider and who aren’t doing much about reducing the workload and pass the site over to them –which delays the site consideration for perhaps 2 or 3 years! When it is eventually turned back to the correct editor, the editor may do the same with another over laden editor. One forum posting by a supposed editor said that he combined the above two techniques by finally adding the site in his category after giving it the run-around for some period of years, then changing the description of the site to repel visitors. This is dysfunctional to the point that most objective observers would conclude the existence of corruption. Sites which exist as a small business with one or two hard working employees have this kind of behaviour to grapple with – the webmasters are close to powerless – Google should recognise this and reduce the value they attribute to a DMOZ listing.

So What to Do?

If DMOZ is to continue to be the directory of choice for Google, the solution is obvious. A volunteer group assigned to do something so important is a bad business model. The editors need to be paid employees and the system needs to be fair, instead of arcane and very probably corrupt. We struggle to see how Google don’t appear to already recognise this – it’s blindingly obvious.

Another solution would be a win win for the two parties concerned. The two parties are webmasters and Google linked with DMOZ. Google could either junk DMOZ or buy it. If they junk it – build another directory. Then, with the new directory or with the purchased DMOZ charge webmasters for commercial site consideration just like Yahoo do. Yahoo is far too expensive especially for small businesses, but webmasters of sites representing small businesses would be happy to pay a substantial sum like $100 for listing consideration is such a heavy weight directory. Webmasters would pay with a smile – content that the previous farce of DMOZ is now gone.

Conclusion

There is no doubt that DMOZ is an important directory. But its arcane way of operation makes it a liability as far as appropriate listings are concerned. The submission process doesn’t work properly. Editors have a regal attitude towards their conferred responsibility and act like Prima Donnas in their work. There is no way of getting any status of sites, Sites may have been rejected or may still be in the queue, and any attempt to find out in order to put things right puts the listing at peril if it’s still in the queue. You can’t be an editor if you are attempting to list a site, and reports of corruption are so common that it has to be at the very least probable. When inclusion in the open directory has such an influence on making or breaking a small company, DMOZ is a travesty of justice and an inappropriate influence on ranking of sites by the search behemoth Google. We believe it is only a matter of time before Google recognises this.

About This Author
Baron Turner is a British SEO with the firm TurnerDow Premier Search Engine Optimisation.