Thursday, January 6, 2011

personal finance books

Intuit-owned Mint.com is heading to schools today with the launch of a free, online program designed to educate middle-school students about personal finance and financial management.

Mint has partnered with educational publisher Scholastic to develop materials that parents and teachers can use to teach children the ins and outs of personal finance management. The materials includes lesson plans as well as an interactive game, to teach children money management, budgeting and goals.

For example, the program teaches children the concept of compound interest with real-life math problems, and encourages children to set goals and budgets with their own current work opportunities (i.e. babysitting).

Mint says the curriculum will be expanded to 30,000 classrooms nationwide early next year. Considering the state of the economy and credit, teaching children financial literacy and sounds personal finance practices at an early edge is an incredibly important initiative. In terms of branding, this is a big win for Mint, which can start building awareness of its tools among students at an early age.

Posting for a friend:

Last week I was cleaning out my desk when I noticed a wad of 20s sticking out from one of the books on the shelf above my desk ($200 total). At first I got super-excited, thinking I'd stashed some cash and forgotten it. But then I realized that the cash was actually sticking out of a card in the book. I remembered that the book (which I hadn't gotten around to reading) was a gift from a family member, L, for my birthday in the winter of '07-08.

I looked at the card and saw that L had written an inscription asking me to donate the cash to the Obama campaign in my name. Uh-oh. Obviously I did not do this. In fact, I have absolutely no memory of receiving this money or L's request. Normally I'm not a forgetful person, but that winter was an insane period in my life. Still, I feel absolutely and completely horrible about this. I completely abused L's trust.

So now I need to figure out what to do with this money. Just keeping it is not an option. I could give it back to L with a profuse apology. This makes the most sense but I'm worried that she'll be angry that I never did this and hurt that I paid so little attention to her present - not only did I not read the book, but I never even opened it!

I could donate the money to a charity I know she would support, like Planned Parenthood. I could wait until 2012 and donate it to Obama's reelection effort.

What would you do in my case?
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Wednesday, January 5, 2011

Making Money Online Forum

Every startup needs to understand that the customer paradigm has dramatically shifted over the past two years with pervasive social networks and smartphones. The customer base is no longer a mass audience that can be driven by mass media, but a dynamic network of individual customers who interact with each other, and expect to interact with you as a business.

If your business doesn’t connect with your customers, individually and as a community, demanding customers will not only ignore you, but will actively keep other customers away. According to the 2009 Tribalization of Business Study by Deloitte Development, one third of all online communities now launched by businesses fail to engage even a hundred participants.

A new book by David L. Rogers, titled The Network is Your Customer, elaborates on this paradigm shift, and outlines the following five key strategies to thrive in this digital age, prioritized from the most basic to the most complex in value to the customer:

Access to your business from the relevant network of customers. Every organization today faces the expectations of an always-on world. To compete, startups must find ways to provide customers an easier, faster, more pervasive connection to digital networks, via mobile as well as the Internet.
Engage customers with relevant and valuable content. In an environment of media overload and rampant ad-skipping, startups that want to engage customer networks need to create content that customers actually want to consume. Funny videos and worthless give-aways won’t make your website go “viral” these days.
Customize your interactions to meet unique customer needs. You need to give customers the tools to customize products, services, and content to suit their needs and interests, to engage them more deeply, add value, and differentiate your offering from competitors.
Connect to the customer in your communication. Join in conversations with customers who are already shaping brand perception and sharing their ideas and opinions on the Web. Conversations may be on existing social media, or on your own brand forum established specifically for this purpose.
Collaborate with customers on shared goals. One of the most powerful ways to engage customer networks is to invite them to collaborate with your startup on shared goals and projects. This requires the right balance of motivators (love, glory, and money), and the right balance of bottoms-up versus top-down control.

Many businesses that seem to understand the new paradigm still fall for some common mistakes, like the following, that can blunt the effectiveness of their efforts:

Infatuation with technology. Founders too often see a list of the latest hot tools, and go after them, without first making the proper analysis and connect to relevant customers. The best tools, if not relevant or used incorrectly, can’t save you.
Lack of customer insight. Startups launch plans without taking the time to understand the networked behavior of their customers, or the drivers for that behavior.
Lack of clear objectives. Without a clear scope and vision, efforts become unfocused, lack impact, and are impossible to measure. Everyone on the team has to be involved and on board, or the efforts will be fragmented.

This book outlines a good process for planning and implementing a customer network strategy to match your customers, your business, and your objectives – whether you need to drive sales, reduce costs, gain customer insight, or build breakthrough products and services.

The bottom line is that today, whatever your goals and whatever your business, the network is your customer. Connect to it and win customers.

Marty Zwilling

Politico said he wasn’t, now Fox News (and Frum Forum) say he is. To help you process this news, read Ed’s post from this morning about Obama potentially spending a cool billion on the 2012 campaign and then have a look at Jay Cost’s graph of Republican fundraising over the last four cycles. Said Cost, believing that Steele was set to bow out, “In the end, this is what did Michael Steele in. He could not raise the money, and that just will not do moving forward.”

Or will it?

Ending weeks of rumors that he would not seek a second term, Steele plans to throw his hat into the ring during a conference call with RNC members at 7:30 p.m. ET, the sources said. Steele is said to be amused by false reports of his retirement and intentionally kept his plans secret for the last month in order to flush out competitors for the post, Fox has learned.

During Steele’s tenure, Republicans picked up 63 House seats in last month’s elections, the biggest gain in more than seven decades. But Steele has been dogged by criticism from some Republicans who see him as prone to missteps.

Criticism of Steele has helped lead to a crowded field of challengers seeking to head the RNC. Among those who have officially announced they are in the race are Saul Anuzis, a committee member from Michigan who ran and lost to Steele in 2009, and Reince Priebus of Wisconsin, a former member of Steele’s inner circle, along with former Luxembourg Ambassador Anne Wagner.

So that explains why he didn’t show up at the RNC chair debate: He was lying low, cagily making it look like he wouldn’t run again so that, er … more contenders would jump into the race. Frum Forum’s whip count puts him at around 45-60 votes in the first round of balloting, with 85 needed to win; several of his former aides and allies (Reince Priebus, Gentry Collins, etc) are in the race as challengers, so a key question will be what happens to their supporters if/when they’re eliminated in the first few rounds. Are those supporters so disgruntled with Steele that they’ll gravitate to a consensus alternative, like Saul Anuzis? Or are they actually clubby RNC insiders who prefer Priebus and Collins to Steele but will resort to the chairman as a next best option if their preference is eliminated? Or will some outsider with fundraising appeal, like Norm Coleman, sweep in to provide yet another alternative?

There are only two reasons to conceivably back Steele, as I see it. One: The GOP did, after all, win 63 seats on his watch, and he’s been lying low enough over the last few months that at least it looks like the gaffe-o-rama phase of his chairmanship is finally over. All of which is well and good, but in that case I urge you to follow the link up top and eyeball Cost’s graph again. The question isn’t whether the GOP did well this year, it’s whether it could have done better if the RNC had been flush with cash. Gentry Collins argued that poor fundraising might have cost Republicans an extra two dozen House seats, but given that he’s now challenging Steele for the chairman’s position, take that estimate for what it’s worth. Two: If you believe that, in an age of online donations and targeted giving to campaigns, the RNC will never again be relevant the way it once was, then maybe it’s better to keep Steele in place. It’ll avoid a nasty public squabble between pro-Steele factions, led by Palin, and anti-Steele factions like the “Bush establishment,” and it’ll spare us the spectacle of Steele doing interviews to dump on the GOP after he loses. Plus, if Steele’s reelected, Republican outside groups are bound to start planning way ahead to pick up the slack in case the RNC can’t get its act together to fulfill its traditional fundraising and GOTV roles. No one cares about the RNC as an organization, only that its functions are being done and done well by some conservative outfit. If Steele’s reelected, it means that some other outfit or outfits will be pressured to step up. Inconvenient, but not fatal. I think.

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Tuesday, January 4, 2011

Free Making Money

As we get ready for John Boehner to take the gavel from Nancy Pelosi on Wednesday, I find myself thinking back to the last time a Republican speaker took control of the House from a Democrat -- and reflecting on how far down the wrong road we have traveled since then.

It was January 1995, and Newt Gingrich, now considered a right-wing bomb thrower, was taking the gavel from Tom Foley. After taking the oath of office, he delivered a speech that praised FDR as "the greatest president of the 20th century" and presented concern for the least among us as a shared national objective. "The balanced budget is the right thing to do," he said. "But it does not in my mind have the moral urgency of coming to grips with what is happening to the poorest Americans."

For the incoming Republican speaker, reducing poverty and lifting the poor into the middle class was a moral imperative beyond the left vs. right battlefield -- not just the purview of lefties, socialists, and community organizers:

I say to those Republicans who believe in total privatization, you cannot believe in the Good Samaritan and explain that as long as business is making money we can walk by a fellow American who is hurt and not do something.... If you cannot afford to leave the public housing project, you are not free. If you do not know how to find a job and do not know how to create a job, you are not free. If you cannot find a place that will educate you, you are not free. If you are afraid to walk to the store because you could get killed, you are not free.

So now, with poverty higher than it was 16 years ago, with greater income inequality, and with the middle class struggling to hold on, what will Speaker Boehner make his number one priority? According to the Washington Post, it's "cutting spending," followed by repealing the healthcare law, and "helping get our economy moving" (no specifics on how he plans to do that).

Yet we saw on 60 Minutes that he's very aware of how fragile the American Dream has become, telling Lesley Stahl, "I can't go to a school anymore. I used to go to a lot of schools. And you see all these little kids running around. Can't talk about it." And he choked up when he did try to talk about "making sure these kids have a shot at the American Dream, like I did. It's important."

Interestingly, in his first speech as speaker, Gingrich also talked about being moved by the woes of school kids.

I have seldom been more shaken," he said, "than I was after the election when I had breakfast with two members of the Black Caucus. One of them said to me, 'Can you imagine what it is like to visit a first-grade class and realize that every fourth or fifth young boy in that class may be dead or in jail within 15 years? And they are your constituents and you are helpless to change it?' For some reason, I do not know why, maybe because I visit a lot of schools, that got through. I mean, that personalized it. That made it real, not just statistics, but real people.

But the trajectory of our political discourse over the last decade and a half has meant that taking on poverty has gone from a moral imperative and shared national objective to an afterthought -- or no thought at all.

The question is, is there anything that can be done to help Boehner make the connection between the policies he supports and the effect those policies have on the kids who bring him to tears?

Newt Gingrich failed to follow through on the moral imperative he identified in his first speech as speaker, trading in his moral vision and replacing it 15 months later with an announcement that the Republican agenda could be reduced to six words: "Earn more, keep more, do more."

Will Boehner's take be "Earn more, keep more, cut more"? Or is there a chance he will surprise us? Maybe it's because it's close enough to Christmas that I still believe in miracles, but wouldn't it be great if the John Boehner who takes the gavel on Wednesday is the one who weeps at thought of kids denied a shot at the American Dream?

It’s being reported by BGR that some Best Buys may be unable to activate new T-Mobile lines at their stores. Normally, you may think “What’s the big deal?” but it’s causing issue for those hoping to buy the new Nexus S superphone. With Best Buy unable to activate a new service line through T-Mobile, some BGR readers are reportedly having to pay the full retail contract-free price of the Nexus S ($530) in order to assure that nobody else nabs their phone. Brutal!

According to the reader, he couldn’t activate the new line in store, and after heading home, he called back and after repeated calls, they said that if he wanted to get a Nexus S, he would have to pay full retail for the phone. Now, this seems to be an isolated incident, and who knows if the guy was black listed by T-Mobile or something.

BGR reached out to Best Buy’s press relations people, who apparently didn’t respond to their questions. Have any of our readers had this issue? We’d love to find out. Tell us about it in the comments section.

To briefly recap the specs of the Nexus S, it’s not a bad phone, though it’s basically a Galaxy S with Google branding and a curved display:

4-inch OLED contour display
1GHZ processor
512MB RAM
16GB storage
Android 2.3
5MP Camera w/ LED flash

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robert shumake detroit

I say to those Republicans who believe in total privatization, you cannot believe in the Good Samaritan and explain that as long as business is making money we can walk by a fellow American who is hurt and not do something.... If you cannot afford to leave the public housing project, you are not free. If you do not know how to find a job and do not know how to create a job, you are not free. If you cannot find a place that will educate you, you are not free. If you are afraid to walk to the store because you could get killed, you are not free.

Interestingly, in his first speech as speaker, Gingrich also talked about being moved by the woes of school kids.

To briefly recap the specs of the Nexus S, it’s not a bad phone, though it’s basically a Galaxy S with Google branding and a curved display:

4-inch OLED contour display
1GHZ processor
512MB RAM
16GB storage
Android 2.3
5MP Camera w/ LED flash

robert shumake

Movie News Quick Hits: Bigfoot to get the 'Avatar' Treatment ...

A leaked costume test from MGM's completed-but-shelved remake of 1984's 'Red Dawn' has found its way online. It's not much, but thanks to MGM's.

Social News Site Reddit Reports 200%+ Growth in 2010

Social news site Reddit posted year-end numbers this afternoon including January and December page view stats that climbed from 250 million pageviews to more than 3X that number, ...

CNN's John Roberts Joining Fox News | John Roberts | Mediaite

robert shumake

Movie News Quick Hits: Bigfoot to get the 'Avatar' Treatment ...

A leaked costume test from MGM's completed-but-shelved remake of 1984's 'Red Dawn' has found its way online. It's not much, but thanks to MGM's.

Social News Site Reddit Reports 200%+ Growth in 2010

Social news site Reddit posted year-end numbers this afternoon including January and December page view stats that climbed from 250 million pageviews to more than 3X that number, ...

CNN's John Roberts Joining Fox News | John Roberts | Mediaite

robert shumake detroit

So you want to make money online? You’re tired of your 9 to 5 job. You like the idea of setting your own hours. You may have heard that you can make a ton of money without a whole lot of effort. Whatever the reason, you know this is what you want to do.

Although the things you may have heard make it sound like the best thing you can ever do, many things are just myths. When deciding to find a way to make money online, you need to know the fact from fiction.

Don’t Quit Your Day Job

I’m sure you’ve heard that many times before, but it’s true. If you already have a job and you’re bringing in a steady income don’t quit, whatever you do, don’t do it. No matter what you’re promised. The money you bring in at your job will support you while you work to make money online. It can even be used as start up capital for certain business endeavors.

It Takes Money to Make Money

Yes, you’ve heard that one to. This is true and false at the same time.

If you’re completely new to making money online, you may want to invest in training material. You can learn practically everything you need to know for free using the web, but this is the case of time is money. It may take you a lot longer going the free route.

This is the reason people can sell countless numbers of how to guides to making money online, or charge for access to a database of sites that pay you for a particular service. They know some people don’t have the time to spend researching ways to make money and testing out those ways once they find them. So for a fee you can get access to year’s worth of knowledge and be on your way in less time than it took them.

So is there a way to make money without spending it? Sure there is. Writing articles is a perfect example. Plenty of sites will pay you for quality original content. Most of which have no upfront cost. Those that do may let you pay out of your earnings, so no money comes out of your pocket.

Some will pay more than others and some will have stricter guidelines on what you can submit. It all depends on the website. MPAM and Associated Content are two popular sites for submitting articles for pay.

You can also become an affiliate. An affiliate is someone who advertises someone else's products for a commission. Most affiliate programs are free to sign up with. You can then advertise that program in message boards or make a review in your blog.

Owning Your Own Website

If you want to be seen as a professional you must own your own website. Whether you own your own business or you’re marketing someone else’s you need a website. No one would take you seriously if they see you made your site using some free program.

Even if they did, usually free websites have pop up ads and banners. You definitely don’t want a bunch of advertising for other sites taking away your business.

Many features come with owning your own website as well. Bandwidth is a huge concern. If your site gets popular you don’t want your site getting shut down because you exceeded your limit. Free sites don’t give you nearly enough space. With your own domain you get you own personal email account. Besides looking more professional you don’t have to worry about spam filters. If a prospect is sending you an email you want to be sure you get it.

It’s not that expensive to have a website anyway. You can buy a domain for under $10 a year and hosting for under $5 a month. If you’re serious about making money, you can’t be cheap and you can’t be lazy.

Making Money Online is Hard Work

There are no ifs ands or buts about it. If you want to be successful in making money online you need to work hard. Ignore all the sites that promise you riches overnight, or that it takes no effort at all to produce huge sums of money.

If you write articles, you have to know how to write. Seems obvious doesn’t it? But many people believe that you can write a ton of articles in know time at all. While it’s possible to get to the point where you can write 20 to 30 articles in a day. I can guarantee it took some effort to get to that point. Nobody is born knowing how to write.

If you decide to sell your own products, you have to know exactly what it is you want to sell and how you’re going to do it. Simply finding a product is hard enough but once you do; getting it setup to sell, advertising the product, maintaining your site and dealing with customer support all takes a lot of work, especially if you do it yourself.

If you sell no product of your own and simply market other peoples products, expect to find a lot of competition. Nowadays everybody and their cousin are trying to make money online.

Expect to spend time advertising. Nobodies going to buy anything from you if they don’t know about it, and they won’t know about it if you don’t tell them. Spend time in message boards, submit to search engines and traffic generators. Publish articles to popular sites.

The Bottom Line

Whatever you do you have to work at it, and you won’t see success over night. One thing you need to realize is that no one is going to do the work for you. There are plenty of people that can help you. Some will even give you step-by-step instructions on what to do, but if you don’t actually do them you won’t get anywhere. If you’re going to succeed in making money online you have to commit to doing it.

robert shumake

Movie News Quick Hits: Bigfoot to get the 'Avatar' Treatment ...

A leaked costume test from MGM's completed-but-shelved remake of 1984's 'Red Dawn' has found its way online. It's not much, but thanks to MGM's.

Social News Site Reddit Reports 200%+ Growth in 2010

Social news site Reddit posted year-end numbers this afternoon including January and December page view stats that climbed from 250 million pageviews to more than 3X that number, ...

CNN's John Roberts Joining Fox News | John Roberts | Mediaite

robert shumake detroit

I say to those Republicans who believe in total privatization, you cannot believe in the Good Samaritan and explain that as long as business is making money we can walk by a fellow American who is hurt and not do something.... If you cannot afford to leave the public housing project, you are not free. If you do not know how to find a job and do not know how to create a job, you are not free. If you cannot find a place that will educate you, you are not free. If you are afraid to walk to the store because you could get killed, you are not free.

Interestingly, in his first speech as speaker, Gingrich also talked about being moved by the woes of school kids.

To briefly recap the specs of the Nexus S, it’s not a bad phone, though it’s basically a Galaxy S with Google branding and a curved display:

4-inch OLED contour display
1GHZ processor
512MB RAM
16GB storage
Android 2.3
5MP Camera w/ LED flash

robert shumake detroit

Movie News Quick Hits: Bigfoot to get the 'Avatar' Treatment ...

A leaked costume test from MGM's completed-but-shelved remake of 1984's 'Red Dawn' has found its way online. It's not much, but thanks to MGM's.

Social News Site Reddit Reports 200%+ Growth in 2010

Social news site Reddit posted year-end numbers this afternoon including January and December page view stats that climbed from 250 million pageviews to more than 3X that number, ...

CNN's John Roberts Joining Fox News | John Roberts | Mediaite

robert shumake

Thursday, December 30, 2010

budgeting personal finances

Automate Your Finances to Spend Less Time Managing Your Accounts

Despite how simple the process can be, most of us are terrible at saving and paying bills. Here's a strategy to effectively automate most of your finances to keep you saving and out of late fee trouble.

Ramit Sethi of I Will Teach You To Be Rich.com has put together a system for managing your personal finances that only takes about an hour of your time each week. The video above fully explains the process in detail, but here's the gist. First, you want to set up your bills and other payments so they're all happening on the day you get your first paycheck of the month (the first of the month for most people). Once you have that in place, you want to set up automatic savings plans (Sethi suggests using Ing Direct) with sub-savings accounts that let you organize your savings into specific categories (vacation, wedding, etc.). You'll also want to send a percentage of your paycheck to your 401k, and have all of this happen immediately so that the money you see when you get paid is the money left when everything has already been saved. From there, you automatically pay as many bills as you can with your credit card (and then pay the credit card bill on pay day). For the bills you can't pay with your credit card (like rent, in most cases), you can use your online banking to automatically issue a check. This will leave a little money leftover in your checking account that you can use to budget for guilt-free spending and cash withdrawals.

As someone who's often fallen victim to the faults of automatic payments systems (despite frequently using them), definitely do not forget to stay on top of your bills nonetheless. Make sure you set some time aside at least once a month to do a little maintenance and make sure there are no bugs causing your automated finance system to break down. Sethi isn't suggesting a set-it-and-forget-it automated finance system by any means, but as someone who hates paying bills I know how easy it can be to procrastinate and ignore the task. If you set up a good automated system like this one, you'll be at a point where all you have to do is watch and fix the occasional problem as the most important things are being taken care of for you.

Consumerist Budget Spreadsheet Balances Your Money, Encourages Your Nest Egg

The saving-savvy folks at The Consumerist blog have put together a template Excel spreadsheet for managing personal finances. It's the kind of thing you always say you're going to do, but they went ahead and did it for you, and it's free.

It's not a new thing, but Consumerist's budget spreadsheet, crafted during the days the site was one of our blog network brethren, has come back, after being lost to the vagaries of server maintenance. The site has instructions on setting it up, including tips on thinking through your monthly expenses and advice on how much you should plan on socking away for a rainy day, retirement, and other expenses.

Maybe you use Mint or another automated spending/saving tracker instead—but then again, maybe those tools are so automatic that you don't get a good look at your real money situation.

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Small Business News: Small Biz Tech Primer

Technology is vastly changing the scope and reach of small business not only in the world of marketing but in all aspects of operating your venture. From tech.

AOL Weird News Top 10: The Best of the Bizarre

What does a one-legged man, a fly-sized frog, a bacon sculpture of Kevin Bacon, conjoined twins who can see out of each other's eyes and a 115-foot Jesus statue have in common? They've all made the list for AOL's Top Ten Weird News ...

Fox News Channel's Kimberly Guilfoyle: Ignore CPAC boycotters ...

Former first lady of San Francisco tells groups boycotting February convention to participate if they want to be heard.

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Tuesday, December 28, 2010

Making Money Online Scams

I have never been one to read books or PDFs on my computer screen. Give me a paperback book, or a printed page, and I can get through it quickly, but sit me in front of a screen and I just can’t make myself read it. Now with the advent of eReaders like the Kindle, and tablets like the iPad, reading a book off a screen isn’t as hard as it used to be.

There is no end to the wealth of free eBooks available online today, from literature to books on social media, to teaching yourself how to use Linux. There is one topic, blogging, with countless eBooks available, both paid and free, and it just takes a little bit of digging to find some of the best ones out there. This list of 7 books is a good place to start, with advice for both beginners and advanced bloggers alike.

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Deep Secrets of Successful Blogging

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It may be a few years old, but the wealth of information contained in Chitika’s Deep Secrets of Successful Blogging makes it just as relevant a book today as when it was first posted on their site.

Featuring the words of wisdom of 30 prominent bloggers including Chris Pirillo and Darren Rowse amongst others, the free eBook contains encouragement, advice and guidelines for the aspiring blogger.

Get the free eBook here.

279 Days to Overnight Success

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279 Days to Overnight Success by Chris Guillebeau is available for free download in PDF format from his website. Not only useful for bloggers, the free eBook is a must-read for any writer, artist or modern entrepreuner who wants to create an online presence for themselves.

Guillebeau uses his own journey to becoming a full-time writer as a guideline for others to follow.

The free PDF is available for download here.

If his style appeals to you, be sure to check out his earlier tile, A Brief Guide to World Domination available for download here.

Viral Copy

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Viral Copy by Brian Clark of Copyblogger takes on a very straightforward approach and can truly be seen as an essential guidebook for any blogger to read.

From the art of writing headlines to link baiting to how to use humour in your writing, Clark leaves no stone unturned, on how to drive traffic to your blog. In fact, you can see him put his own advice to good use with the links used in the eBook, making it hard to read the book offline.

Viral Copy is available for downlaod here.

Make Money Online With John Chow dot Com

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At first glance, Make Money Online by John Chow book probably sounds like one of those get-rich-quick scams but don’t be fooled. There is no hidden secret that will make you reach instantaneously. Instead, John Chow gives you an outline on how to drive traffic to your site, as well as giving specific recommendations on ad networks, and most importantly, how to monetize your blog. The book is best suited for beginners who are just getting started and don’t know much about how to make money in the blogging world.

While the book is available in paperback from Amazon, John Chow offers it as a free download on his site here.

Traffic Roots

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You’ll find that a lot eBooks about blogging focus on one specific topic – traffic. And rightly so, because without an audience to read what you’re writing – it all starts to feel futile. Traffic Roots by Jens Berget covers important topics like Search Engine Optimization, Email Marketing, Keyword Search and much more in over 130 pages of advice, tips and tricks.

Traffic roots is another ideal title for beginners, and may also contain some interesting tips for the slightly more advanced blogger. Download the PDF here.

Beginners Guide to Search Engine Optimization

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If your focus is to learn more about Search Engine Optimization, and need an introductory explanation, the Beginners Guide to Search Engine Optimization is a great place to start.

The guide covers the basic terms, explains how it all works, and tells you what you need to do to make use of these concepts on your own website.

There is no direct link to download the book, but rather can have it emailed to you by submitting your email here.

Viral Marketing

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Getting people to your blog is not just about SEO and link building. You also have to know how to market yourself. Viral Marketing by David Meerman Scott has been available for a couple of years but is a good place to start to understand what viral marketing is and what it takes to get in on the game.

The title is available for download here, along with a few other interesting titles by Scott.

What eBooks for bloggers are on your virtual shelf? Let us know in the comments.

Image credit: Shutterstock

id="more-58750">

Deep Secrets of Successful Blogging

style="text-align: center;">

Featuring the words of wisdom of 30 prominent bloggers including Chris Pirillo and Darren Rowse amongst others, the free eBook contains encouragement, advice and guidelines for the aspiring blogger.

Get the free eBook here.

279 Days to Overnight Success

style="text-align: center;">

Guillebeau uses his own journey to becoming a full-time writer as a guideline for others to follow.

The free PDF is available for download here.

If his style appeals to you, be sure to check out his earlier tile, A Brief Guide to World Domination available for download here.

Viral Copy

style="text-align: center;">

Viral Copy by Brian Clark of Copyblogger takes on a very straightforward approach and can truly be seen as an essential guidebook for any blogger to read.

Viral Copy is available for downlaod here.

Make Money Online With John Chow dot Com

style="text-align: center;">

While the book is available in paperback from Amazon, John Chow offers it as a free download on his site here.

Traffic Roots

style="text-align: center;">

Traffic roots is another ideal title for beginners, and may also contain some interesting tips for the slightly more advanced blogger. Download the PDF here.

Beginners Guide to Search Engine Optimization

style="text-align: center;">

If your focus is to learn more about Search Engine Optimization, and need an introductory explanation, the Beginners Guide to Search Engine Optimization is a great place to start.

The guide covers the basic terms, explains how it all works, and tells you what you need to do to make use of these concepts on your own website.

There is no direct link to download the book, but rather can have it emailed to you by submitting your email here.

Viral Marketing

style="text-align: center;">

The title is available for download here, along with a few other interesting titles by Scott.

What eBooks for bloggers are on your virtual shelf? Let us know in the comments.

Image credit: Shutterstock

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