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FriendSell.com is a new site in the works where you can find good deals on items, as well as sell your own stuff. Unlink eBay, FriendSell.com is not an auction site, but more like classifieds. However, it isn’t quite your typical classifieds…it’s social. It is currently in the beta stages and is by invitation only, but it should soon be open to the masses. Once it opens up you will be allowed to list items for sell as either a private listing or public listing.

Private listings are great because you can limit your listings to people you know, so that you can help the people you know first. If no one you know needs the item you are listing, you could just as easily create a public listing for the item. Here is what FriendSell.com has to say about their service:

Private Listings:

• Easy to Use + Flexible options, update your items anytime.
• Limit listings to friends, family, or both.
• No more wondering if you can trust the other party.
• Let your friends have first dibs on your stuff!

Public listings:

• Increase your items exposure to a wider audience.
• Your posts remain anonymous to the public.
• Great if you’re still building your network or are new to friendsell.
• Mix and match your public and private posts – you’re in control!

Besides the great ways to get your items sold, you can also find some pretty awesome deals on stuff. For example, there is an 32GB iPod Touch listed for $275, brand new, while they usually go for $299.

You can go ahead and request an invitation and if they have any beta spots open, they will email you back. Happy Deal finding!

**UPDATE 11/30 9:05pm: While it is supposed to be by invitation only, we’ve found a way to register. Just head to friendsell.com/r/logo There is no guarantee if this link will stay open, but nevertheless it should be open to everyone soon anyways, but if you want a head start, click that link!

Whether you need branded supplies for your home business or personalized mail labels or Christmas cards to send to family, VistaPrint is the one-stop shop. They constantly have Free products to choose from, such as 250 Free Business Cards, and you only pay the small shipping cost! On top of all the free options offered by VistaPrint, they have top notch products that are very cheap. Every product allows for a great degree of personalization.

Here are some of the products offered by VistaPrint:

Business Cards

Postcards

Holiday Cards

Return Address Labels

Stamp

These are just a few of the great products at VistaPrint. For a home business solution, this is great because it provides free, or at least very cheap, product/business branding. You can easily get 250 FREE business cards for the cost of shipping and spread the word about your business or product or create more traffic to your website.

Have you ever wanted to manage your personal finances but didn’t want to pay the price for some expensive software? Mint.com was made just for you. Mint.com is many things….personal finance software, budget software, online money management, and a budget planner, but best of all…it’s FREE!

The best things about Mint.com:

Image via Wikipedia

Easy to Set up: Unlike some other sites, Mint.com only needs you to input your information once. It takes about 5 minutes to give Mint.com access to your bank accounts, credit cards, loans, etc. And from then on, Mint.com will automatically update as things change. Now, I know what you are thinking…”Give access to my bank account, online? I don’t think so!” But that brings me to the next point…

Safe & Secure: Mint.com prides itself in having the same encryption and data security that banks use. On top of that, while Mint.com automatically updates your accounts using your log-in information, it never knows your account numbers, SSN, or other personal information. In the super rare chance that someone could get through to your Mint.com account, they still could do no harm, as there is no moving of money at all in Mint.com.

Simple Budgeting: Whatever type of life you might lead, Mint.com makes it super easy to create a budget that works for you. It calculates your average spending in all different categories (car related, groceries, entertainment, etc.) so that you can see what you typically have been spending. You can then set a budget for each category and get updates on how you are meeting that budget as each month progresses. It even shows you a predicted amount that you will save each month by sticking to your budget.

Awesome Graphs: Mint.com uses great, easy-to-read graphs to show you the big pictures, such as a pie graph showing what percentage of your money is spent where. Other graphs let you compare your spending from one month to another, or from one year to another. Mint.com also shows you in real time how your net worth is growing or shrinking.

Find Savings: You might even find that Mint.com will show you places where you could save even more money than you are! It might find a better credit card for you, or make a suggestion on a savings account that you save you more money than your current one. Word of Warning here…I’ve noticed that if you already have a great thing going, it might suggest something that is actually worse, but it’s easy to spot. Just make sure to read over everything before making any such decision.

New Features: Now Mint.com has some even newer features such as an iPhone app so you can access your account right from your phone. If you use Yahoo! a lot, you can also add Mint to Yahoo! so that you can access your information straight from your Yahoo! home page.

Check Out some videos from Mint.com:
Budget Tips, Security

For those looking to make a little money without leaving the house, Amazon provides a way to earn some cash with their Mechanical Turk program ( a.k.a Mturk). While this gig is definitely not going to bring you the big money, it can be one source of a few extra bucks here and there.

So what exactly is Mechanical Turk?

Mechanical Turk allows various companies to post certain tasks that they need done that are not easy for machines to do. That’s where you come in. You choose an assignment that you think you like, complete it, and get credited to your Amazon account. Once you reach a measly $10 in your account, you can cash out!

The payout for tasks (or HITs as Mechanical Turk calls them) ranges from just cents up to $7. While this may seem like a low number, most of the jobs are really simple to do and unlike some Survey sites, you can qualify for hundreds of jobs. Rainy weekend? The moolah will add up pretty fast!

However, if you’re the type of person that doesn’t have a lot of free or gets bored pretty easily, then this is probably not for you. But my advice to you is to just give it a shot, and if after 6 hours of hard work you are going crazy and have only made one buck, give up and try something else!

Check out Mturk now!

In today’s world…especially today’s economy…the realm of home based business is growing explosively! Because technology is growing each day and, more importantly, becoming more readily available to the masses, there are no more physical boundaries to stop someone from starting a home-based business whenever they want to!

Here are some of the reason others have decided to start their home business. If some or all of them appeal to you, maybe you should be the next home based business owner! If you already have a home business, please leave a comment about the benefits that you enjoy most!

1. Freedom from certain things – You don’t have to deal with a boss hovering over you, traffic jams on the highway, dealing with co-workers. While this allows for more family time and a flexible schedule, it also comes with the responsibility of time management, scheduling, and personal motivation.

2. Saving Money – You can save money that you would normally have spent on gasoline driving to work!

3. No Office Expense – You save on the extra costs of maintaining a business location because your office is the home you’re already paying for!

4. Quality Family Time – One of the most enticing advantages to a home business is the extra time with family. You are your boss. You set your work hours. This is especially great for an extra income from a stay-at-home mom or retired individuals who want to help their retirement budget.

5. Learn New Skills – When you run your own business you are forced to gain experience in the various areas, such as advertising, sales, marketing, planning, development, etc. If you are running the home business as a supplement to your regular job, you can learn these skills and build the business gradually until you are ready (and skilled enough) to make the jump to soley working from home.

6. No Stress of Unemployment – In today’s recession and people losing their jobs right and left, having your own business relieves the worries of being fired. You are your own boss, so as long as you do the work and keep up with today’s trends, you’re job is secure!

7. Tax Advantages – You can deduct a part of your costs for maintaining your home as valid business expenses!

8. Money, Money, Money – Why are there so many people doing it? Because they are making money! But even more than that is the security you have when you’re making money doing something you love!

9. Personal Control – Your sense of self-worth heightens when you do something on your own. Starting your own business, while having it’s risks, gives you a sense of accomplishment. The more confidence you have, the harder you will work at it…the more you work at it, the more confidence in yourself is confirmed. As you achieve your goals, you will be encouraged to push it to the next level!

10. Early Retirement – Who wouldn’t want to retire early? There is no guarantee that it will happen, but with hard work and determination and a little bit of luck, your home business could turn out to be a huge success! It would just make life that much better to be able to retire early!

Did any of these reasons spark to life an interest in the dormant entrepreneurial self you know is inside you? Leave a comment! What are your thoughts, ideas, plans? Again, if you own a home business currently, please contribute to this list by adding your own reasons for starting your business!

If there is a subject that you love talking about, then you owe it to yourself to find an audience for it through podcasting.

     Although this is still a fairly new medium as far as making money is concerned, it is clear already that there is money to be had, as some people have latched on to several ways that they can do just that with it.

     The key is to find a subject that people are interested in and reach that audience in as many ways as you can by making your podcast available to them – and then it’s just a case of waiting for the money to start rolling in.

     Okay, so you have a subject you love and you could talk about for hours. Does that make a podcast? No – you need to work on it to make sure you can create podcasts that everyone will want to listen to. You need to script each one at least roughly so that you know what to expect. Otherwise there will be a degree of umming and aahing and you don’t want that. Short podcasts – let’s say fifteen to twenty minutes for example – do very well, so you don’t want to be waffling on for hours at a time. Keep the structure tight and well planned.

     The next step is to work out how you will make money from them. It is possible to treat podcasts in much the same way as you would treat e-books, CDs or DVDs – release them in a program that you can charge money for. Perhaps one or two a week on a specific subject, revealing information that people would be prepared to pay for.

     Be wary of this though – you can’t do this unless you have really good information that people cannot get elsewhere without paying anything.

     Another good way to make money from podcasting is to use it as a way to promote an existing business. Let’s say for example that your business sells e-books. You could start a podcast on e-books in general and mention the name of your website, or perhaps some of the books you sell, once or twice during the podcast itself. This can provide very good publicity and your sales should start to go up as a result.

     You can even make special offers to those people listening; offer them a bundle of books on a specific subject, or a special package deal that lasts for a limited time. Direct them to your website to buy it and see what revenue you get from that. If it works well you can extend it to take place with each podcast you make. This in turn should get you more listeners as well.

     If your podcast becomes very successful you can also sell advertising space on it. Businesses are always looking for new ways to find new customers, and if your podcast can connect them with their ideal target audience then you can make extra money in this way too.

     Some people have even started creating special promotional items that feature the podcast itself, and sold them to their listeners. Not only does this fill a need if your podcast is that successful, it also means that you get some additional publicity yourself.

     There are plenty of ways to make money from podcasting, but as always you will get the best results from researching your subject and finding out what people want first. Once you can do this you stand a better chance of starting a podcast that will run for a long time, and pick up more and more listeners as you go.

     And don’t forget YouTube. If you aren’t charging anything for the podcast itself, you could film yourself doing it and put it on YouTube for some valuable extra publicity.

Written By: 101WaysToMakeMoney.com

Alcohol…It’s an expense many college students will not give up. Each year, college students spend about $5.5 billion on alcohol, mostly beer. So here’s how you can save, and some creative alternatives for your favorite beverages.

1. Don’t drink. But if you must…

2. Be cheap

• Buy the cheap stuff. Pabst Blue Ribbon and Old English 40 oz. bottles come to mind
• Buy in bulk. A cheap 5th of Vodka might cost about the same as a drink or two at a bar.
• Drink where the specials are. Some college bars and dance clubs have pitcher specials, 1 dollar drink specials, no cover charge, or other specials for people going out early or going out on slower nights.
• Pre-game, if you do, drink heavily.
• Don’t bring much money with you to limit how much you drink and spend.
• Hit other people’s parties.

3. For those beer lovers who really dislike the cheap beer, join a beer brewers club or get a group of dorm mates to brew homemade beer . In the last few years the hobby has grown exponentially and college students everywhere are brewing. Warning: brewing may not be “legal” in your dorm room….que sera, sera.

4. Hate beer? Brew cheap wine!

5. At a sit-down restaurant avoid ordering the alcoholic beverages. Most restaurants make a killing on beer, wine and fancy cocktails. The alcohol mark up can be anywhere between 75 and 400 percent! An option is to shop for BYOB restaurants.

No, I’m not endorsing prostitution. However, you can definitely make some money selling your expertise with Ether’s help. Ether is the key to the next step in online commerce. Using a combination of the web and the telephone, they enable you to sell your services online. Most importantly, Ether provides a phone number with a rate, that you set, for people to pay to talk to you. Your phone only rings when you’re earning money, and only during the hours you choose. Ether also provides all the online tools you need to sell your digital content – written documents, photographs, tax returns, videos, podcasts. You can now sell what you have to say – on your website, blog, business card, radio show, or wherever customers for your services may be found!

So how’s it work exactly?

1. Get your free Ether Phone Number - You will get your own number, 1-888-MY-ETHER with an 8-digit extension that is unique to YOU. Set it to forward calls to your actual phone number – cell, home, work, or any number you want. It takes 2 minutes to set up and it’s free!

2. Set your rate - How much is your time worth? $75 an hour? $15 for 15 minutes? $30 per call? Whatever you like. People will only be able to call you when they’ve prepaid your rate, just be reasonable if you want customers!

3. Take calls on your schedule – Your phone will never ring when you don’t want it to. Just set the hours when you want to take calls by adjusting the automatic schedule – currently set so you don’t get calls at night. Or, turn your Ether Phone Number on or off with the click of a mouse or by using your phone.

4. Market Yourself – Put your Ether Phone Number on your business card, website, blog or wherever people can find you. Your actual phone number is kept private. You can also get an Ether Button for your blog or website that lets customers know whether you’re available to take calls. Clicking on your button guides them through the payment process with a simple web form.

5. Phone Me The Money – Your phone only rings when people prepay your rate. Ether bills their credit or debit cards and sends you your money via direct deposit or check. Ether ’s commission is only 15%, with no monthly fees, no setup fees, and no connection fees.

You can also earn money via Email and selling digital content on the Web!

To save money you need to manage it. I hate to get on the topic of money management right off the bat, but if you expect to save money you need to be a bit savvy with the little bit of cash you have:

1. Get a free checking and savings account. The bank will nickel and dime you on dumb stuff like too many ATM withdrawals, too many checks written, or a funds transfer. Shop the town for banks catering to students. Make sure you can access online banking, pay bills and manage your account without attached fees.

2. Take the free checks that the bank offers in the maximum amount they allow – mine was initially going to give me 50, but for some reason I thought I needed more right away and paid $4.95 for another 50. If you need more, you simply go online and order more, but leftover checks are more typical than not, especially with online bill pay options becoming more commonplace. Extra checks become nothing more than wasted paper and wasted dollars.

3. Failure to keep track of your bank/checking account can easily cost you money via overdraft fees. Your debit card can easily get you into the red if you don’t know what’s in your checking account. Think your card will be declined if your account has insufficient funds? Think again.

If you go into the red in your checking account, your debit card will usually continue to work without even so much as a burp. Every time you make a debit card purchase while you have insufficient funds in your checking account you are also being slammed with a banking fee. (My banking faux pas cost me $250 in fees one weekend because I didn’t pay attention to the balance in my checking account and my debit card just kept on smokin’. On top of that, the bank charged me another separate fee to transfer funds from my savings account to my checking!) Unless you have an automatic overdraft protection that enables funds from your savings account to be transferred, you can be way more broke than you ever imagined in one, short weekend. Make sure you know what banking fees you’ll be spanked with if you make a mistake.

4. If you have to have a credit card, make sure you get one with the lowest interest rate possible; no annual fees and with only enough of a credit limit to get you by in an emergency. Don’t carry it with you, but instead keep it in a safe place known only to you.

5. Pay credit card bills on time. Companies charge late fees, sometimes as much as $50 per month. And do not go over your credit limit—that offers just one more way for your credit card company to get rich off your poor judgment.

6. Serious about saving money, huh? For one month save every receipt of everything you purchase, from a pack of gum, a tube of toothpaste to your computer. Log each expense in a notebook. When the month is up, tally up what you’ve spent and take a good look at just where most of it went. Food? Beer? Gas? Games? This sure fire technique will unabashedly expose the evils of your spending ways.

7. Save that spare change you’ve got jangling in your pocket or sloshing around in the bottom of your backpack or purse in a big jar or can somewhere out of the way.

• Count and roll spare change yourself.
• Stay away from those coin-counting machines you see at the grocery store.
  They will rip you off or at the very least charge you a fee.

E-books are big business online – especially if they teach other people how to do things. How to earn more money, how to sell on e-Bay, how to write a bestseller… the possibilities are endless if you have the knowledge and the perseverance to actually write a book and then get out there and sell it.

What’s more, you can apply exactly the same principle to creating a course too. By splitting it up into sections you are creating more value – and you can charge more as a result.

If it’s done properly it can be a real money spinner.

You don’t need to be an expert on e-books to know they sell extremely well if you pick the right subject. “How to…” e-books and courses are particularly good at shifting lots of virtual copies, since they reveal the answers to things that people want to know.

The first thing to remember is that you need to pick a topic that isn’t going to suddenly become unpopular. The topics are obvious here – money, sex or health. Those are the three biggest selling topics around. If you look at all the e-books and courses online, you’ll see that they all revolve around one of those topics in some way. The successful ones do, anyway.

But it’s not just a case of picking a good topic. You need to pick a great title and get the best information to go in it as well. If you want to write a whole course then you need to ensure you’ve got plenty of material and you can divide it naturally into separate sections.

It helps if you already have some knowledge of the subject you are writing about. One of the keys to success is to find your own unique angle, as this is what will sell copies. Don’t try and tread over the same old material that is already out there. It will only be a waste of time. If you have tried something yourself or come up with your own foolproof method of doing something, and other people you know have tried it and got the same results… now that is something worth writing about.

Along with writing the product itself, you’ll also need to write the sales page to go with it. If you’re no good at writing you can always hire a ghostwriter to do it for you; this will cost money but if it’s ghostwritten you can still put your name to it at the end.

Now you need to decide how much to charge for it. The more value it has the more you can charge, and it’s important not to price it too low otherwise it won’t be taken seriously. When it comes to pricing the course you can charge more; it’s up to you whether you supply the whole thing for a flat fee, or set up a payment model where you dispatch one part every month (perhaps via email) in exchange for a monthly payment. This can sometimes result in more people taking you up on the offer, since a smaller monthly amount is easier to pay than one large fee up front.

While you can and should do plenty of research and plan your book or course carefully before you even start to write it, there is still a degree of risk involved. Even ideas that you think will be guaranteed winners might flop, whereas other ones you’re not so sure about could sell massive amounts.

But you will learn plenty from your first effort, and you can use that knowledge to launch your second e-book. And your third, and your fourth…

Written by: 101WaysToMakeMoney.com