It is a new year now and it is time that you focus on kicking away your bad habits – financial one’s included. If you plan to accomplish more in the money department this year then here are 5 bad financial habits that you need to get rid off:

Making Impulsive Purchases

How many times have you found yourself on a binge shopping? Or perhaps a time when you saw something that had your tounge sticking out and your credit card swiped at the end? Impulsive purchases are a big no-no. They play havoc with your budget and usually its the credit card debt that really ends up making you poor. So make this the first bad financial habit to quit this year.

Spending Without Tracking

Only 60% of Americans actually track what they are spending. The number is the same or much worse in other countries. So many people simply hate to record where they spend their money. Some because they are lazy, while others because they are too scared to see the amount of money they might have spent needlessly. Either way, this is another fatal financial bad habit that needs to be quit.

Dipping into an emergency fund for non-emergencies

An “emergency” fund is called that for a reason. But so many of us make up any slightest of reasons to dip into the emergency cash. Wanting to buy that amazing new Android that is released in the market is not an “emergency”! Yet, many of us do that.

Delaying Payments

Okay, you can confess here. Everyone of us has delayed payments at one point or another. But some of us seem to have a chronic payment delaying disorder – we just can’t seem to pay on time. It is very important to kick this habit, because there is no way you will ever avoid payments. When you pay late, there is a needless delay fine which can be easily avoided. A solution to this is making use of internet facilities for as many payments as you can – to save your time and work.

Not saving a set amount automatically out of every paycheck

You know, it is a good habit to set aside a part of your earning into your saving account. There is a very slim chance that you will yourself take a part and go to deposit it in your bank. Ensure that a percentage  of your paycheck money is automatically taken into your savings account each time it is issued.

A Final Note…

Living beyond your means is the number financial Achilles heels that people have. This is one of the reasons why so many people struggle financially. Which is why we see people who have steadily begun to earn more and more income along their career graph, still continue to find shortage of cash and almost nil savings. An uncomfortable situation for anyone.

Please leave your comments below.

Every entrepreneur knows the importance of a high venture capital in a startup. Angel funding is quite popular among start-ups but there is phase before that. That stage is also known as pre-angel funding. We have discussed about it in the last post. So we have learned that the pre-angel funding is basically the money that comes from friends, family and er…fools (FFF).

What is the greatest RISK while getting funds from Friends and Families?

Before turning to anyone else, we first turn to our closest members to accrue funds for a venture. It is only natural. Moreover, most angel investors require you to show them some progress before they put in money for your startup. So the seed money almost always comes from friends and families. They are also humorously known as fools when they give you money for a startup – that is with reason though. Statistics show that 8 out of 10 new businesses fail within the first three years.

There are also a few risks associated with it.

The greatest risk is your relationship. If your business fails- and mind you 80% of new businesses fail within their first year. You can end up losing your friend or create tension with your family members, especially, if they are not immediate.

There are many cases where a simple case of pre-angel funding gets into a big legal battle. Sure, you may assume them as worst case scenarios but, the reality is that daily there are many entrepreneurs who get into an emotional wreck because of pre-angel funding.

Friends, Family and Fools (3F)

This post is not a deterrent that is trying to remove an alternate finance option. In fact, this is more of an awareness post. Sure, there is a high-trust quotient with your close friends and family. But it has been proven through the ages – when money gets involved, everything changes.

Let me know your views below. Thanks!

If you ever plan to begin a business, you will realize the desperate need for funds right from Day one. You need the initial cash to setup the basic requirements for your startup.  This is where pre-angel funding comes into play.

Before I get into the concept of pre-angel funding let me talk Angel Funding. Angel funding is also known as Angel investment.

Angel Investment

What is Angel Funding?

Angel funding is the capital that is provided to a start-up for kick starting its business. There are angel investors who provide capital to start ups based on their business plan. If the business plan is quite strong and seems to be a profit making venture then an investor would be ready to invest in the startup.

In return, the angel investor receives a part-ownership or share in the company. Thereby, he earns profits via startup investment.

A  prime example of this kind of funding can be seen with the start of Facebook. When Facebook hit a brick wall with its expansion plans it was Peter Thiel (Founder of Paypal) who came to their rescue by offering them millions of dollars of funds for expansion.

Why are these investors called as Angels?

These investors are no less than angels. More often than not, these investors pump money into a startup at a time when they are low on funds or need to expand rapidly to capture a market. The Facebook story is a prime example. Another good example is that of Google, the first funding for Google as a company was secured on August 1998 in the form of a $100,000USD contribution from Andy Bechtolsheim, co-founder of Sun Microsystems. Back then Google was not even yet incorporated. So we can see here that these are two companies that are standing where they are today because of the belief of their Angel investors.

What is Pre-Angel Funding?

This brings us back to Pre-angel funding. Before an angel investor actually begins to trust your business startup you need to show some progress. Unfortunately, even the “some progress” of a startup needs money. This money comes from pre-angel funding and this comes from your family and friends.

The pre-angel funding is more of loaned out money and you need to pay it back to them. Unlike, angel investors who acquire  a stake or part-ownership to your company.

Let me know any questions or views below. Thanks!

There are two popular models of advertising on the internet: Cost-Per-Click (CPC) and Cost-Per-Mille (CPM) used by bloggers. Many webmaster make use of CPC and CPM ads to make money from their websites and blogs. But many have a doubt, whether CPM or CPC advertising is better for their blog. This post will examine this question that is asked by many bloggers.

The case with both these advertising models are that they might perform well for one person, but not that well for another. All ad publishers might not enjoy the same earning from CPC as others do. It is possible that some sites perform better for CPM.

What is Cost-Per-Click (CPC)?

Cost Per Click is the most popular advertising model that is used by webmasters today. CPC advertising is simply stated an advertising model where the ad publisher earn for each click on the advertisers ad. The most popular examples of a CPC ad is Google Adsense. Google Adsense is a very popular CPC program for ad publishers that displays contextual ads that are relevant to the keywords used in articles.

The cost-per-click of an ad may vary according to the advertisers. Some advertisers are ready to pay the publishers in two-digit dollar amounts for a single click on their ad. Whereas, there are many advertisers who pay only a few cents for each click on their ad. The advertisers who know that they will be earning almost 20-30 times more from the lead generated per click will be willing to pay a few dollars for each click on their ad. The other advertisers who do not earn that much from a lead will pay less to publishers. Of course, advertisers who pay more get to be listed on websites that use uncommon keywords. This is why it is important that a publisher needs to focus on the keywords he uses while advertising with the CPC model. Some keywords will pay a publisher a lot of money for each click whereas, some keywords will only pay a single cent.

Another important factor is that to make a decent amount of money from CPC ads, you need an above average traffic level to your site. There are so many bloggers who are frustrated from CPC ads due to the low earnings they register. Most sites can only generate a few cents of revenue in a month from ads.

Advantages of CPC ads

Before coming to CPM ads, here are some advantages of the Cost-Per-Click (CPC) ads:

• It is easier to get approved for a publisher account of CPC ads.
• CPC ads are keywords based, so you can earn a lot for targeted search engine traffic.
• There is no limit to how much you earn in a month from CPC ads, you may earn only a few dollars in a month and earn in four figure the next month.

Disadvantages of CPC ads

There are always two sides of a coin, so along with the advantages of CPC ads there are also some disadvantages:

• You need a good amount of traffic if you want to earn a decent amount from CPC.
• Mostly effective on Search Engine Traffic.
• Earnings are very dependent on the placement of ads.

What is CPM?

CPM is an acronym for Cost-Per-Mille. Quite simply, the definition of CPM ads can be explained as the cost an advertiser pay for a thousand views of his ad. This advertising model is impression based, so the advertisers is paid simply for displaying the advertisers ad whether they are clicked or not.

There are many CPM advertisers on the internet. The main advantage of putting up CPM ads on your site is that you do not have to worry about whether your ads are clicked or not. In fact, you have to focus on your website’s traffic aspect. Since you are paid for every thousand impression under the CPM ad model it is important for you to generate as much traffic as possible to your site as possible.

There will not be much difference whether your traffic comes for targeted search engine keywords or direct hits. CPM eliminates the risk involved i.e. whether your ad is clicked or not. You will be paid for every thousand impressions it has – which is why it is sought after by many bloggers who do not specialize in keywords.

Advantages of CPM

• Great for publishers who do not have targeted keyword-based traffic.
• Can be placed anywhere. The placement of CPM ads does not matter at all.
• There is no risk involved since one only needs traffic and does not require the reader to click on the ads.

Disadvantages of CPM

• It is difficult to get approved for a CPM publisher account as they ask for a minimum site traffic (10k+/month) requirement when you submit your application.
• Since a site does not have huge traffic level fluctuations except in rare cases, your earnings are predictable and capped to an extent.

Bottomline

So it is easy to understand that the CPC and CPM ad models may not perform well for every publisher. Some advertisers who get a lot of targeted search engine traffic can earn more from CPC ads rather than CPM ads. And sometimes the earnings you get from every thousand impressions of your page may be more than the income from clicks made on your ads. It is important that you do a little bit of a experimenting and testing before you finally decide on your advertising model among these two.

Finally Paypal has resolved the problem with Reserve Bank of India, which caused a hard time for many Indian merchants who depended on Paypal to make money transaction globally. Paypal had disabled personal payment transactions and withdrawal of money to Indian banks. Now, one can withdraw money to their bank accounts however, personal payment transfer remains suspended.

This is the letter which I received from Paypal, I am sure that you too have received it if you are a Paypal customer.

Dear Vivek Krishnan,

We have been diligently working with the RBI and our business
partners to resume Indian bank withdrawals for the thousands
of Indian businesses who depend on PayPal to sell their goods
or services in the global marketplace.

Today, we are happy to announce that the RBI has allowed us
to continue local bank withdrawals for settlements for exports
of goods and services.  We are currently making changes to
comply with Indian regulations for settlements for exports of
goods and services, and we anticipate that, as of Wednesday,
March 3rd, customers will be able to use our
bank withdrawal service.  

As part of the changes, you will be required to fill out a
new field entitled 'Export Code' when you request a withdrawal.
This information is required under the current laws of India in
order to identify the nature of cross-border merchant transactions.  

On Monday, March 1st, we will be back in touch with specific
instructions on how you can move your money into your bank account. 

Moving forward, the RBI has told us that PayPal needs specific
approvals to allow personal remittances to India, which we
currently do not have.  Until we get these approvals, personal
payments into India will remain suspended.  However, if you are
an exporter, you will continue to be able to use the PayPal
service for payments of goods and services.  In fact, with the
changes we are making to our system, PayPal is now set to be a
more powerful engine for exporters in India.  With purpose codes
for export transactions and FIRCs (Foreign Inward Remittance
Certificates), you should now be able to get the export
related benefits you seek. 

You can check the PayPal blog for additional updates.

www.thepaypalblog.com

We thank you for your business and for your patience during
the past few weeks.

Sincerely,

PayPal

Hello Everybody.

This post is dedicated to all those young internet entrepreneurs who had the courage to make it happen for themselves. I began blogging almost 3 years back. It is amazing to see people who began their business on the internet for a few months and are now well-known millionaires. I hope the post below lets you become a better blogger. These are 10 young internet entrepreneurs who make millions per year.

Mark Zuckerberg - Mark is just 25-years old (at time of writing). He is the youngest and the top most internet entrepreneur in the world today. Mark is the founder of the second most visited website in the world – Facebook. With this he is the youngest billionaire in the world. He started Facebook while he was still in Harvard. It is amazing to know that Mark started Facebook in his messy dorm room on February 4, 2004 as a way for students, faculty and friends to connect. He got the idea for Facebook from his college and school days where a book with head shots of students used to published.

Kevin Rose

Kevin Rose – ‘Digg’ any posts lately. If yes, you have to thank Digg’s founder 29-year old Kevin Rose. While younger, Kevin worked as a breadstick maker at a popular restaurant. Kevin has perhaps paid a heavy price for Digg. He lost the ‘love of his life’ while founding Digg. He invested $6000 into the site, which was supposed to be for a deposit on a house for him and his girlfriend. As a result of this, their relationship broke down. Since then he has been quoted saying,

“no matter what happens with Digg, I won’t put business first again.”

Michael Arrington

Michael Arrington – The lawyer who started a blog. He is one of the most powerful guys on the internet right now. Once he was a lawyer and he left his job to become the founder of TechCrunch. TechCrunch is now an authority-blog. TechCrunch covers internet startups and latest in technology news serving over 1.5 million page views per month. Michael is 39-years old. He is one of the most powerful guys on the internet right now.

Bob Parsons

Bob Parsons – Almost everyone reading this post is connected to this man. Bob Parson is the founder of the flagship domain registrar GoDaddy. Parsons recounts that he was extremely weak at academics. He joined the US Marine Corps and claims otherwise he would not have graduated high-school. Bob Parsons is also a Vietnam war hero who got injured while serving as riflemen for Delta forces in Vietnam. This is what Parsons said about his childhood,

“I’ve earned everything I’ve ever received. Very little was given to me. I’ve been working as long as I can remember. Whether it was delivering or selling newspapers, pumping gas, working in construction or in a factory, I’ve always been making my own money.”

Arianna

Arianna Huffington- Is perhaps one of the most successful female Internet entrepreneurs ever and is the founder of the top blog in the world according to Technorati! She started the news-blog Huffingtonpost dot com. Her blog HuffingtonPost has become synonymous to a news website. She is greek American and speaks with a marked Greek accent.

Peter Thiel – Peter is the reason why you got the immediate payment from your sponsor the last time.  He and Max Levchin co-founded PayPal. There is yet to be a substitute to Paypal but none have been as effective. Thiel is also the investor who helped Zuckerberg kick things off with Facebook. I don’t know if you care but Thiel is gay. He is worth $1.3 billion.

Janus Friis- He is a Danish internet entrepreneur, who founded the popular telephony application Skype. Although in September 2005, he and his partner Niklas Zennström sold Skype to eBay for $2.6 billion. His hobbies and pass times include skydiving, pool, martial arts and winter sea bathing.

Evan Williams

Evan Williams – If you ever thought who on Earth could come up with a name such as Blog – then Evan is your man. He is responsible for popularizing the word ‘Blog’. Evan created the most popular blogging platform for newbies – Blogger. And yes, he is also the reason you “tweet” so much. Evan is the co-founder of the third most popular social network – Twitter. He is 37-years old, never too late huh?

Andrew Gower – Andrew became worth $650 million developing games. He is the founder of popular gaming site Runescape. He created Runescape in January 1999 as an undergraduate at the University of Cambridge. He used the assistance of brother Paul Gower. The Daily Telegraph also listed Andrew and Paul Gower as the 11th richest young entrepreneurs in the UK. Right now, he is 30-years old.

Milun Tesovic

Milun Tesovic – A young internet entrepreneur and an inspiration to all of us. Milun started Metrolyrics at 16 years old. His is a music website. Milun tells his story in his own words,

“When I was 15, I knew that after I got my driver’s license, I wanted a decent-looking car,” he said. “I had my own hosting company (on the Internet), and then I started analyzing where a lot of people go on the web. There were a lot of places where music and video games were available, but what I saw was music lyrics wasn’t that well represented.

So I made a quick script with my own code and started a database of music lyrics. … It cost $9 a month to buy up the domain.”

Although Metrolyrics receives over 36 million visitors monthly. Milun is still pursuing academics, he is doing BBA (Bachelor of Business Administration) in Entrepreneurship.

Wishing you all Success in your Blogging venture.

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#1: You Love It

If you love your blogging then you will most probably be successful at it. So many people start blogging because they heard of the Make Money Online buzz. They all quit in a few months time as they lack patience and dedication. Most successful blogs look easy to emulate but in reality there has been a lot of effort which has went into it. Passion is the first and foremost ingredient to blogging success.

#2: There Is Money To Be Made

Whatever niche you select it is important to understand whether it has value. Make Money Online/Blogging Tips niches are saturating the internet. Although, there is money in it. So it would be more profitable if you have a blog on finance, entertainment, arts etc. Remember that there is always potential in all niches – but some have more money in it than others.

#3: You Can Do All The Important Aspects Of The Blog Yourself

If you yourself can – buy your domain name – buy your web host – install WordPress – basic SEO – knowledge in the niche, then you can check this point off. Many start-up bloggers are not conversant with this – they require help from friends etc. Eventually many either trail off their blogs – although some slowly learn the tricks of the trade. So make it a point to know all the basics of blogging. The best way is to go through all the pro-blogger archives on the internet.

#4: You Can Bootstrap Yourself

When you begin a new blog it is easy to get distracted – buying a premium theme, then spending on ad programs such as AdWords etc. The fact is, unless you are launching a business or service – you do not require these frivilous expenditures. You have to bootstrap yourself until the income begins to come to you.

#5: You Have Patience to Tweak and Tweak and Keep Tweaking

It is an interesting fact to me that each day I become better an better at blogging. I assure it is the case with all bloggers. With each day passing you learn new promotional methods, better writing skills, improving your blog SEO etc. A person requires patience for this and those who have it can achieve good success at blogging.

Hope you find the list useful to understand the core lessons for blogging. Eager to provide you with more interesting stuff.

- Vivek Krishnan