Down On Our Luck

Posted on Tuesday, 15th July 2008 by Bcarter

I’m going to admit that I’m still young enough to reveal my age, which is 33. Yes, 33 years ago my wonderful mother finally went into labor with me; I say finally because I was two weeks late and I’ve been late ever since.

I usually take my birthday as a time to reflect on where I am in life and to possibly start a new good habit for myself. My mom sent me a check for a decent amount of money which I received on Saturday. I was tempted to go out and buy some new clothes with this money, but I really need to do something to get myself in shape instead. If I could drop 30 pounds, I have at least 3 pairs of jeans in my closet that would fit me. Why should I waste the money on new clothes when I have perfectly good ones waiting to be worn once more. I know this is easier said than done, but starting tomorrow, I’m going to commit myself to reserving 10 minutes every morning to working out. To help me out with this, I’m going to be ordering the Beachbody 10 minute workout. Q thinks I’m crazy and I’m not going to commit to this, but I think spending the money will keep me committed.

It takes 20 days to build a habit and I’ll be committing to my 10 minutes every morning right when I wake up. If I don’t do this right away, I’ll make excuses not to work out at all and then Q will be right. I think this will give more more energy during the day as well so I can either get something done at home in the evening.

Tags: personal tips, working out
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Posted on Friday, 11th July 2008 by Bcarter

I finally made the plunge and decided to go with a reseller account for all of my websites. When I added up the costs, it just made sense. So far, I’m saving almost $12 a month and I have quite a bit of room for growth. I have been with Real Web Host for a long time since I had The Software Castle redone with an OSCommerce shopping cart. This was in a round about way, but that’s where I landed up.

So, it dawned on me that I want to get my blogs transferred as soon as possible; to make for an extremely busy weekend. However, I need to keep true to the conscious decisions I made this week to keep myself sane.
more cat pictures

1. Even though my dream is to be working for myself (soon I hope) I cannot sacrifice relationships and quiet time; this doesn’t help myself or Q in his recovery process. Coming home and just crashing on the couch is not the way I want to spend my life; besides, it’s not productive. I think Josh stated it best in his post: How to Make the Switch to Working Online – Part 1, “Start small and allow yourself to have a life outside of the Internet and your work.” Allowing a life outside of the Internet is my biggest battle. Tomorrow Q is going to help some friends out, I’m going to make sure to make some “me” time, do some rummaging, take a dip in the hot tub, and rest outside in the shade. There’s only about 4 months in Wisconsin that can really be spent outdoors and I need to start taking advantage of them. While resting, I’ll be writing ideas and blog posts down so I can take advantage of the quiet time and fresh air.
2. On the other hand, the weekends are my productive times where I get the most done. I read a post the other day (I can’t remember where) that pretty much stated, “You’re not going to make any money just sitting on your butt doing nothing, so get to work”.

Finding a middle road between relaxation and working to the point of exhaustion is a difficult position to find. Once I find it, I’m sure it will be my happy place.

Which end of the spectrum are you on?

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Posted on Monday, 7th July 2008 by Bcarter

I realized the other day that I didn’t post an update for my Big Crumbs earnings for May. They weren’t bad, not great, but not bad at $11.41 for the month. June turned out to be much better as you can see below:

On top of this I also earned $26.13 in cash back for myself; $22.50 of this came from Let’s Talk when I renewed my contract. Not bad for something I was going to do anyways.

My tip for the month is to remember that Big Crumbs offers cash back for purchases from GoDaddy.com. If you purchase your domains from them, then you may want to check into this great site to earn some rebates on your domain purchases.

After all of my cleaning, I am finally ready to start the spreadsheet needed for my contest. There will be two parts to this and one of them will take a little manual tracking on my part. Stay tuned for more details.

Tags: Big Crumbs, cash back shopping, Coupons, free online income, make money shopping
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Posted on Sunday, 6th July 2008 by Bcarter

As I stated in Information Overload, I had two things that absolutely had to get done for this weekend if I had any hopes of being productive when I sit down at my desk in the near future. Goal number one which I consider complete was to get the desk clear.

This may not look like it’s complete, but it is as good as it gets for right now. I have a couple of pieces of paper and software to put away yet, but that’s it folks.

Goal number two was to get through the RSS feeds I’ve been subscribing to and clear out the ones that I don’t read or get any valuable information out of. Some that I kept have been borderline, but I’ll give them the benefit of the doubt for a little while longer. I kept way too many to list in one blog post, so I’ll give links to 5 of the blogs I will keep subscribing to today and on a slow day (IE, I can’t think of what to write) I’ll continue the list.

I Can Has Cheezburger – I love LOL cats and this blog brings me a great dose of them every day. We all need some time to laugh; the adorable cats and animals here do just the trick. I only spend about 5 minutes here; everything doesn’t have to be all business all of the time, does it?

Blog Badly – I like the sarcastic viewpoint that this blog takes. 9 Common Newbie Blogger Misconceptions is a great example of the writers sarcastic side. Any newb should poke around this blog for a short time to get a good idea of what NOT to do. Do I always listen? Peak around here for yourself and you’ll know the answer.

Mr. Javo – I was borderline with keeping Mr. Javo because for a while I felt that he was trying to be a John Cow wannabe. After reading his more recent posts, like 6 Useful Tips to Build Relationships With Your Readers, I have decided to keep subscribing for a little while longer and give him a chance.

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Posted on Saturday, 5th July 2008 by Bcarter

I’m getting close to the end of completing goal number one of my weekend projects and this has gone surprisingly fast. I found a ton of expired coupons, upcoming release paperwork and in stock printouts from 2007. Obviously, the coupons and the in stock printout from my distributor have gone in the recycle bin. I’ll be making a folder for current fliers and sales items from each distributor so I know where to find these items when I need them. That was a majority of the clutter that you saw in the picture yesterday.

Once I hit rock bottom in the mess I found a winning lottery ticket worth $2 (I know) and $1.20 which immediately into the change jar that Q has started.

I still have a Kleenex box full of personal receipts to file away somewhere, but I think I’ll just put these downstairs by the business receipts in case something is in there that shouldn’t be; I don’t want to be caught off-guard. Once this is done I should be ready to dust and get down to business with an uncluttered desk. Then I’ll be ready to get running with my next project of the weekend; going through the feeds which I subscribe to.

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Posted on Friday, 4th July 2008 by Bcarter

Obviously, if you are trying to make money online then you need to keep up on the latest tips, tricks, and trends, but when does it all become just too much? I have been going through a major case of information overload which has really hampered my productivity. There are so many ways to make money online and get your name out on the web that a person could easily spend a year, 365 days at 24/7, reading about them. The problem is, if all of my precious time is spent reading and then I’m not doing; if I’m not doing then I get nowhere. Getting nowhere is frustrating and then a self destructive cycle worsens spirals downwards and goes out of control. Information overload is standing in the way of my success and the buck is stopping here.

This weekend, my RSS inbox will be cleaned up and I’ll need to consider which feeds are valuable and worth my time. Relaxation is important also, so the two feeds that I subscribe to for entertainment will not be going away; everything else is fair game. Once that is done I’m sure reading my feeds will definitely be a productive time for me instead of a daunting task.

Cleaning and organizing my desk is next on the list. Walking up to this mess and thinking I’m going to get anything done is just crazy. All I see if a stack of reminders of unfinished business and things to get done. Not a great way be productive.
Someone I know once said, “A clean desk is a sign of a crazy mind”, which I believe is true and knowing myself, the desk will never be spotless. On the other hand, there is definitely a problem with going to far to the other extreme, which is what this is.

Feel free to share your ideas.

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Posted on Monday, 30th June 2008 by Bcarter

As if I don’t already have enough to do, I started a new blog this weekend and came up with an EXCELLENT business idea yesterday.

The blog I started was originally just going to be a directory for my Squidoo Lenses, but I didn’t have the patience to learn how to use Word Press as a Content Management System. It’s on my list of things to do, just not near the top. For now it’s a blog & even though I’m not an expert, I think blogging about my Squidoo experiences will definitely help me get there. Since I’ve made it into a blog, I’ll also be featuring many other Squidoo lenses as well; it won’t be all about me! (How boring)

I will touch on my other business idea as soon as everything is up and running. I love this particular idea because it’s fresh, original, Q loves it, and Q has already offered to help me out on the sales portion. Finally, a business that he can understand and participate in. Stay tuned for more information.

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