Simon’s Notes

There comes a time in a blog’s life (especially a new one), when the blogger needs to do a little cleaning, otherwise it becomes very easy for the blog to clutter up and become messy, and there is nothing I hate more than a messy, all over the place blog. I think that for Simon’s Money Notes the time has arrived.

When I first started this blog I knew what I wanted from it, but I hadn’t fully decided on what specific niche I would write about. I wanted to blog about money and finances (hence the name), but my ideas were all over the place. I think I’ve generally kept the blog financially inclined but when I looked at my labels on the sidebar, I wasn’t so happy with what was there. My topics include things like soccer, humor, computer games, personal, and harry potter, and I not so happy with having 3 or 4 link exchange topics.

I think that most of that has to go, don’t you? So I’m going to spend some time today cleaning things up. I think that its a good idea for any blogger to be aware of his blog’s appearance, and from time to time clean things up.

Ok, I’m going to make a few main topics like ‘make money online’, and ‘make money on the streets’ (I might change that title though), I’ll have one category for anything related to link building such as link exchanges and so on, I’ll keep my AGLOCO label, and my interviews and blogging labels. What do you guys think of this setup:

1. About Me
2. Make Money Online
3. Money & Finances
4. Blogging
5. AGLOCO
6. Interviews
7. Reviews
8. Personal
9. Updates & Stat
10. Link Exchange Programs
11. Competitions (this one will be coming soon :-))
12. Blah Blah

I really want to know what you guys think, so leave some comments with feedback.

Simon

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Filed under: Updates and Stats by Simon Rodrigues
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This is real cool, I’m actually quite excited. So before I get ahead of myself let me explain. A year or so ago a guy named Dan Raine made a bet with some of his friends that he could make 15,000 dollars in one month starting from scratch with only 150 dollars to start with. He failed, but he came pretty close, he ended up with something like 12,000 dollars. You can read all about it, and learn exactly how he did it here http://www.15kchallenge.com/blog/.

This year he’s doing it again, only this time around he has some help and the rules have changed a little. This year’s challenge will be to make 10,000 dollars starting from scratch with 0 dollars down. In other words, how do you start a blog and earn 10,000 dollars in the first month without spending a cent? I’d like to know, that is why I signed up for their e-mail updates, I want to know all.

All you have to do is enter your name and e-mail and they will post you their challenge updates, you don’t have to spend anything. This is free gold as far as I’m concerned.

Go sign up now.

Simon

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Filed under: Blogging, Make Money Online by Simon Rodrigues
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For most bloggers, inbound links are like solid gold, if you’re a blogger that doesn’t think so then maybe you should look at something else. Blogging is a way to get your views read by the world, it is part of the information future, but the Internet is so vast that simply having a blog is just not enough. So you build a network of inbound links, this would be the equivalent of handing out business cards.

I’m not an expert at blogging, my blog is actually less than 2 months old, so I don’t have vast experience to draw from. But I have managed to rake a Technorati authority of 51, and a rank of 115,000 (this is calculated using your inbound links) so far, which I believe is not too bad for a new blogger. So for what its worth here are some of the things I did or am doing.

• I made a commitment to write quality posts, and to focus my energy on making posts that people would want to link to. I don’t always manage this, but I’m always learning and I’ll get there.
• I had another blog that I had been working on for about 3 months before I started this one. My other blog had accumulated about 35 community members at mybloglog.com, so I sent out a message to all those members offering a link exchange. From this I got about 4 or 5 new links.
• I spent some time googling for link exchange or review exchange offers. This was good because you get all the higher ranked blogs and sites at the top, so the links are quality links.
• I was very happy to find www.reviewback.com, they offer a service where you can exchange reviews with other blogs free of charge. This was quite successful and I got a good number of links this way.
• I sent a message to each member on the blogroll of my previous blog asking for a link exchange. This brought about 5 or so links.
• I spent some time browsing through the blogsphere for other like minded blogs and requested link exchanges from them. This method always brings results. But remember that you want quality links not any old garbage.
• I tried to be as active as I could in the blogging communities that I’m a part of, such as mybloglog.com, and whenever possible I requested a link exchange.
• Eventually I was able to make a few posts on my blog offering link exchanges, which bloggers then replied to. This is where you eventually want to be, now I can’t wait for the upcoming page rank update, hopefully I’ll get a decent PR and be able to leverage that.
• And if your posts are good people will sometimes link to you for nothing. This is great.

There are lots of other ways and methods and each day I learn something new. If you want to hear from a real pro check out this post http://natewhitehill.com/5-ways-to-get-other-bloggers-to-link-to-your-posts/, Nate has been around for a while, and he has a lot of blogging wisdom to impart.

Simon

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Filed under: Blogging by Simon Rodrigues
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I recently discovered BlogMad.net, and I’m very happy with it. BlogMad is a great way to generate some traffic for your blog while you browse other blogs. If you want to be successful at blogging you have to be active in the blogging community, but sometimes I find that I don’t have a lot of time for this, between my day job and trying to write good content there just isn’t much left. That’s whats so perfect about BlogMad, it allows me to be active in the blogging community and browse lots of blogs while at the same time generating some traffic for my own. And its fun too.

The way it works is simple. There are two ways that you can earn credits and allocate credits, the first way is by simply browsing other blogs and viewing them for 30 seconds, and the second way you actually have to rate the blog before you’re credited, you can chose a rating from 1 to 10. You can allocate your credits into these two systems also, so you can chose to have people simply viewing your blog or you can have them rate it. If you get a high rating then you get benefits such as priority viewing and bragging rights.

There’s also a nifty little rank system where you start out at the bottom and you climb up as you earn credits, the higher you go the more benefits you have such as more credits for referring people.

BlogMad is very simple and easy to use, and it doesn’t seem to have any technical problems, it loads up pretty fast and its just a pleasure to use. I advise you to go check it out, and if you get the urge you might want to rate my blog.

Simon

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Filed under: Blogging by Simon Rodrigues
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I’ve decided to start posting some interviews with interesting bloggers from time to time, hopefully we can all benefit from their combined expertise.

The first interview is with a blogger named Adam Donkus. Adam Donkus, AKA EmpererAnton, is a Father, Teacher, Entrepreneur, and Blogger who is also interested in Technology, Business, and Blogging. He has been blogging for quite a while now, that makes him more of an expert than me.

Filed under: Interviews by Simon Rodrigues
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Here’s something that I’ve wanted to do for a long time. Start a comic strip. I don’t know if I’ll be good at it, but I do know that I can try, and if I’m terrible you guys will tell me, right?

I can’t draw if my life depended on it, so I’ve decided to make the artwork as simple as possible, I’m actually making all the art in paint hence the name ‘The Paint Boys’. If you think you have a better name please share it with me.

Ok, here goes the first one, yikes :)).

There you have it, I’m a big fan of this kind of humor thats why I found it funny, but please share your thoughts.

In case you liked it, you might consider subscribing to my full feed.

Hahaha
Simon

Filed under: Blah Blah by Simon Rodrigues
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I do, don’t you? Its not that hard either, in fact I consider myself to be a multimillionaire! The reason being that I know exactly how I’m going to do it, I know that my chosen method (or combination of methods) is fail proof, and I even know approximately when I will reach my goal. The good news is that I’m dying to tell you the secret.

You might have noticed that I said the secret, instead of my secret, there’s a good reason for that. The secret that I’m going to tell you should be common knowledge and I hope that most of you will laugh when you realize how simple it is. But the sad truth is that most people don’t know about it, and whats sadder still is that most people are doing the exact opposite.

The moment you decide that you want to become a millionaire you also have to decide how you want to get there. There are two basic methods to chose from, I like to call them the fast method, and the slow method. So the question you need to ask yourself is do I want to become a millionaire right away, or am I willing to wait for 20 to 30 years? I’m going to recommend a combination of the two, and in the following paragraphs I will try to simplify them for you.

The first method, and the one that most people are interested in, is the fast method. The fast method can basically be broken down into 4 categories:

1. Investments. This category consists of shares, bonds, CD’s, Unit Trusts, and any other form of paper investments.
2. Real Estate. Any investment in property falls into this category, whether you buy and sell property, or you own several properties that you collect rent from. Owning a home that you live in and pay a mortgage on does not count, as this is considered to be a liability and not an asset.
3. Business. This is obviously when you market a product, service, or idea.
4. Internet. This one is my favorite. Any Internet business or venture that is making you money falls into this category.

As you can see, all of these methods have an element of risk to them and none of them are guaranteed to bring you millions. That’s why you need to not focus on just one method, but on as many as you can. I talk a little more about this in another post. If you’ve diversified your methods enough, you will find that the odds are firmly stacked in your favor, as long as you don’t give up. But there is another method to reach your millions, and the second method is 99% guaranteed to bring you to your riches.

The second method is very simple and it can be summarised in one sentence. Save, and invest. if you save one dollar every day and invest it in a low risk investment, this is how long it will take you to become a millionaire.

• 3% interest - 147 years - any bank will give this
• 5% interest - 100 years - any bank will give this
• 10% interest - 56 years - a government bond should give you this easily
• 15% interest - 40 years - low risk Unit Trusts
• 20% interest - 32 years - medium to low risk Unit Trusts

Before you leave and vow to never come back, let me remind you that this scenario is for a monthly investment of just 30 dollars. 30 dollars! Come on, you could have been doing this since you were 8. If you were to invest 100 dollars a month at 20% interest per anum you would be a millionaire in 25 years, and in 40 years your investment will have grown to nearly 17,000,000 dollars. Imagine what would happen with 500 dollars a month.

The best thing for you to do is a combination of the two methods, that way if you don’t get rich soon you’re sure to get rich eventually. And the sooner you start the better, compound interest will do more for you with more time. Remember how I said you could have started saving a dollar a day when you were 8, imagine if you had, by the time you’re ready to retire at 70 years or so, you will have accumulated 1,000,000,000 dollars. I could do with that.

And lastly I cannot stress enough the importance of continued education, read as many books as you can. One of the books that I’m reading at the moment that I highly recommend is called ‘The One Minute Millionaire‘ by Mark Victor Hansen and Robert G. Allen.

Enjoy
Simon

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Filed under: Make Money Online, Money and Finances by Simon Rodrigues
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When you’re starting a new blog, its the easiest thing in the world to go with one of the standard templates, or you might be a little more adventurous and go with one of the many custom templates that can be found all over the internet. This can be fine if you’re just starting out and you just want to get a feel for things, but if you’re serious about your blogging career I would caution you to try and be as unique as possible.

This is not as hard at it might sound. Here’s a list of different pointers that I believe will help you to get started if you’re using blogger.com.

1. Use one of the minima templates. Some of the other templates are very hard to customize, and with a little bit of work you can make the minima template look very unique. Its easy not to chose minima because its so plain, but trust me on this one. My blog uses a minima template.
2. Register your own domain. You can still host your blog for free on blogger or wordpress or any of the many free blog hosting services out there, but you should definitely get your own domain name, and you should get it as soon as possible.
3. If you don’t like the colors of your template you can edit them by clicking customize on the navbar and clicking the colors and fonts tab. Here they allow you to change quite a bit, make sure you get the right color combination right, its no good having a bunch of colors that don’t match.
4. Make your blog easy on the eye. I’ve seen some blogs with a black background and gray writing, or blog posts in different colors. When it comes to blogs simplicity is the key. Chose contrasting colors for the background and the writing. Check out my blog for a good idea of what I mean, the background is a light color and the writing is a darker color, but the two colors still match.
5. Make your own banner. This is very important. A picture is worth a thousand words, most people will forget what your blog looks like if you don’t have a banner, but if you have a nice banner that stands out, they will never forget it, and it might help them become regulars.
6. Find what works and stick with it. If you’re always changing the look of y0ur blog simply because you’re bored, you won’t be able to create a permanent image in your readers mind. So be patient and stick with it.

Most importantly you have to be eager to learn. If you have an idea for something you’d like to see on your blog, don’t give up just because you don’t know how to do it, look around, there are a lot of very experienced bloggers out there with a wealth of information. And if you have any questions don’t hesitate to ask, I will help you in any way I can.

If you have any ideas or experiences that have helped your blog, please share them with us by leaving a comment.

Simon

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Filed under: Blogging by Simon Rodrigues
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Alrighty, lets exchange Technorati favorites. Here’s the deal, its pretty simple, you add this blog to your Technorati favorites, and then leave me a comment with your details and I will add your blog to my favorites. What do you say?

While you’re at it, if you get the itch to support me in any other way such as giving me a spicy vote, or voting for my blog on Blogger’s Choice, or you could even help me blog for a year. If you do any of those things, I will reciprocate.

Thanks
Simon

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Filed under: Link Exchange Programs by Simon Rodrigues
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For those of you that don’t know, gambling can also be a great way to make some extra money. Cool, lets all run off to the casino. Hang on, the casino is also the best place to lose all your money, so you have to know what you’re doing. The first thing to keep in mind is that you must stay away from the slot machines, 80% of casino revenue comes from there (and 90% of “statistics” are made up on the spot :), but seriously, stay clear). But if you know what you’re doing, there is some serious money to be made at the tables.

But in this post I’m just going to talk about poker, Texas Holdem to be more exact. If you don’t know what Texas Holdem is thats fine, cause I’m going to tell you. Texas Holdem is a variation of poker where each player is dealt only two cards, then there is a round of betting, then 3 cards are laid down on the table for each player to see, another round of betting follows, then 1 card is placed for all to see and another one is placed with a round of betting in between, and everything ends with a last round of betting. Each player uses the 2 cards in his hand and the 5 cards on the table to make his hand, and the winner takes all. Things can get pretty complicated so I let you find out more by reading this article.

Poker is not an easy game, and I will definitely not be able to tell you how to win the world series, that stuff is for the pro’s. The good news is that not everyone that plays poker is a pro, in fact, chances are that they won’t be, and when they are you should be able to spot them and leave the table. If you follow the few tips that I’m going to give you, you should be able to stick out a little amongst the crowd of amateur poker players.

There are many ways that you can get a good poker game, you can go to a casino, join a club, or start your own. But my favorite place to play poker is on the Net. One of the reasons for that is the vast quantity of variables that you get out of the way when playing online, for one, you don’t have to be constantly analysing each others tells. The other reason is that you have many more options for people to play with, you’re sure to find someone worse than you. So I’m going to focus mainly on online poker here.

Ok, the first thing you do is find a poker playing site that appeals to you (I know a great one), then you have to register with them. Most poker sites allow you to play with play money until you feel confident enough to play with real money, this is obviously a great advantage. Once you’re registered, just start playing around.

Here’s a few tips:

• Play on the no-limit games. This is more risky, but its the only way you’ll make any money as it allows you more freedom to leverage your hands. In no-limit, you can take it easy and wait for that great hand to come along where you take the table to the cleaners.
• Decide how much money you’re going to play with, and make a commitment to stop if that money runs out.
• Also decide how much you want to make, and make a commitment to stop once you reach that amount. This is very important, curiosity killed the cat, and it can just as easily kill your entire bankroll in minutes if you don’t follow this suggestion.
• If you’re not a pro, don’t try to play like one. If you get a crappy hand, fold. A crappy hand would be anything less than a face card and a high kicker. For example, an ace and a 10, if you get an ace and a 5, fold immediately.
• Never hope. If you got 2 good cards, but then nothing happened in the flop, don’t hope that your third 10 will come in the turn, or maybe the river, just do the smart thing and fold.
• Be attentive to the common cards (flop, turn, and river), they can tell you a lot about the other players hands. If you’re new to poker, practice with play money, eventually you’ll learn the things to watch out for.
• When your perfect hand comes along, don’t get too exited, remember that if everyone folds, you’re left with nothing. Play it cool, and try to lure them in. There are a lot of simple tricks for doing this, and I suggest you read a few good books.

There’s still quite a lot to learn if you want to be a serious poker player, but these tips should get you started.

There’s one poker site that I’m quite fond off is Poker Room. Poker Room is very simple and user friendly, you just sign up free, download the software, and you’re ready to go. You can play for as long as you like with play money, and there is also a lot of fun tornaments that you can take part in. So check them out.

If you’d like some more information, here’s some books that might help you:

Have fun.

Simon

Filed under: Blah Blah, Make Money Online by Simon Rodrigues
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