I was taking a break from my normal online activities this morning and decided to visit a couple news sites just to see what was going on here in the US and around the world. Well just as I expected, I came across a few headlines talking about the high unemployment rate (over 7%) and reminding us that since the recession started job losses have been large and widespread across all major industries. I will be the first one to agree that the current situation is anything but rosy. I will also be the first one to point out that we maybe need to step out of our comfort zones.

First of all, since people are losing their jobs, the first thing they will do is reduce their spending. That reduces revenue for businesses, which not only lay off people, but have to find ways to keep their costs down so they can at least turn a profit. So what happens is that companies innovate and get more competitive so they can offer goods and services at the low prices that their potential customers can afford. And this is going to be the basis for the future expansion.

We always tend to look at competition from the point of view of businesses reaching out for customers and each of them saying that their offering is the best. It’s time to start considering competition within the labor force too. When unemployment rises, it forces each worker to be on their best behavior so as not to lose their job. They become more productive and the businesses can do just as much with less employees, or more with the same number of employees. And wages either get frozen or decrease, making businesses even more productive.

As much as we’re complaining about the unemployment rate here in the United States, ours is one of the lowest of the developed world. In many advanced countries of the European Union, it has been around 8% for quite some time. It’s probably time for us to come to terms with the realities of basic economics and realize that we have been enjoying full employment for some time (defined by the economic condition when everyone who wishes to work at the going wage rate for their type of labor is employed) and it might not come back any time soon, as it’s the exception rather than the norm.

Finally, my main point is this one. The United States’ current unemployment rate of 6.7 percent translates into 10.3 million people without a job. The state of Michigan is the hardest hit, with a double digit rate, because they depend heavily on the manufacturing business and the factories as their main source of employment. At the other end of the spectrum, Wyoming, with the lowest unemployment rate of only 3.2 percent because it’s a farming state. Farmers are self-employed people who work hard as a family to make a living. In order to solve our current economic crisis, we probably should turn back to self employment.

The most serious financial crisis in 75 years requires us to go back to our roots. As recently as a century or 2 ago, most people were self-employed. We might not have to get back to that point, but everyone should have their personal business, whether or not they derive a full-time income out of it. Wyoming’s unemployment performance is made possible by the fact that it’s hard to lose your job when you’re the boss. Look into your talents and abilities to see if there’s a potential money-maker, take advantage of a global economy and the power of the Internet to launch your very own personal venture. It’s probably the best time to do that.

Blogging has been around for a few years now. Most people use blogs to record their thoughts and lives, while the select few use them as a free way to make a fortune.

One guy who uses this to his advantage is Rob Benwell. In 2006 he dished the dirt on the tips and tricks to making a fortune using blogging. But as time passes the old systems become obsolete and new techniques are required. This is where his brand new, fresh off the press Blogging to the Bank 3.0 system comes into play.

For those who know who Rob Benwell is like me, you?ve probably made a killing using blogs.

For those who don’t, he’s the story:

Back in 2005 he was struggling to make any profit online, had dropped out of college and was getting deep into debt. He was trying all the techniques the gurus tell you and wasn’t getting anywhere fast. All of that went in the bin and he started using his own techniques and started making more and more money using simple blogs. In early 2006 he shared this with the world and had a great ebook called blogging to the bank. Tons of people got rich from using these techniques (including me). He then spoke at Online Marketing Legend Yanik Silver’s underground Seminar where he revealed even more of his underground strategies. Then July 2007 he released Blogging to the Bank 2.0 which showed users his new methods to creating online wealth using blogs. In total both versions have been read by over 50,000 people across the world.

But as I said earlier, the techniques used in these ebooks are now showing there age. Some of them are not even working in the slightest! This is where blogging to the bank 3.0 comes into play.

It’s full of great new techniques that work online right now! Everything’s explained in plain English with all the fluff cut out. I got hold of an advanced copy of the book for a much higher price than what it actually sells for and it has been worth every single cent! I got it in the afternoon and by the evening I was creating new profitable blogs. Within a couple of hours of them being active I had made a nice little profit.

Blogging To The Bank 3.0 teaches you Robs new step by step blueprint to creating highly profitable long term niche blogs using the newest optimization techniques. There’s even a section on advanced Search Engine Optimization. Most people think SEO is difficult but Rob explains this nice and simply so even the blogging newbie will understand it.

Blogging To The Bank 3.0 is a breath of fresh air and I highly recommend it to anyone wanting to make easy money online.

There are many elements to consider when choosing the right franchise opportunity. Not only do you want the franchise to be a good fit for you – you also need to work with a franchisor that’s going to be around for a long time.

How can you determine if a franchise system is healthy? In the franchise book, The Educated Franchisee we believe in sharing knowledge. A little franchise education could be valuable in this area.

One fundamental measure is the system’s pace of franchise growth.

Too Fast: Rapid franchise development may seem like a good thing at first but it is possible for a system to grow too quick. It is important to make sure the franchisor has the people and systems in place to thoroughly manage your training and on-going support. For example, if a system of 50 franchisees adds 30 additional franchisees in a year, the rate of franchise growth may be too fast.

Too Slow: If franchise growth is slow there could also be a issue. Why isn’t the franchise bringing new people? Possibly there are problems with the business model – problems that make it difficult for existing franchisees to succeed. When potential franchisees make ‘validation calls’ they may discover problems and choose to look elsewhere for a business. Or perhaps the franchisor doesn’t have the right staff and has to limit franchise growth. Either way, a lack of new franchisees may be a sign of an unhealthy franchise system.

Just Right: even franchise growth over time is an indicator of effective management and a healthy system. One way to gauge steady franchise growth is to determine the pace at which the franchise grew each year both in absolute and percent terms. To find this data for the past three years you can look in the Franchise Disclosure Document under Item 20 – the List of Outlets. All the data you need regarding franchise growth will be there for you in a clear, easy to understand format.

Rule of Thumb for Most Franchises: As a guideline for medium-sized franchisors, the number of franchisees brought each year should be between 10% and 35% of the total number of franchisees. For example, a company with 100 franchisees should have the infrastructure to add up to 35 new franchisees in the coming year.

Rule of Thumb for Large and Small Franchises: This method doesn’t work for very large or very small companies, however, so when studying behemoth or boutique franchise systems consider the ratio of operational support personnel compared to new franchisees. A ratio of one support person for every 10-20 new franchisees tells you that new franchisees are probably getting the preparation and support they need to succeed.

Talk to Franchisees: But don’t assume! It is decisive that you talk to existing franchisees. Find out about the training they had at the start and what they get in terms of on-going support. Do they find the staff to be experienced? Responsive? Does the franchisee feel at ease calling on them for help? Pay special attention to the information you glean from new franchisees. Your experience will most closely reflect theirs.

Meet the Support Staff: In general, a serious franchise investigation ends with a visit to the franchisor’s headquarters to get final questions answered and meet the staff face-to-face. Spend additional time with the support staff. Make sure you are comfortable with their experience, competence, style, and ability to communicate, because you will need to work well with them and trust their advice on an on-going basis.

There are a lot of things to look at when exploring a franchise business that will match your needs, but it doesn’t matter how much you like the business if the franchisor isn’t viable. Collect the franchise information you need and be sure the system you select is growing and has a good number of satisfied franchisees. Franchise growth is a key part of your due diligence. Only a healthy franchise opportunity can support your long-term growth and success.

Cash gifting programs can make you a good profit, and are a good way to making money. But beware of many false programs that aim at simply robbing you. If you want to take part in a cash gifting program, then find a one that’s been around for a long time, always choosing with caution and information.

When friends, or colleagues, or even people you don’t know suggest that you join their program, think twice. You cannot simply give away your money to people you hardly know, and magically expect it to grow many folds. Not all cash gifting programs are reliable, in fact, there are very few genuine ones. So don’t do anything foolish on impulse. If you must, do it, after you’re researched well into the program.

There are many ways for you to find out if a program is reliable or not. The Internet today offers so many optimized search engines, that’ll get you information on just about anything. The program that you want to join is probably listed too. See how many people have joined, and ask them if they really have made a profit.

Look, if it is too good to be real, than it probably is. Its the old age question. A cash gifting program that has been around a week is probably not the wisest choice. A program that has been around for years and years, is probably more likely to be succesful.

Most people do not understand what exactly a cash gifting program does. It’s very simple. You give people cash gifts, like you would give a birthday card, or a boquet on some special occasion. And as other people refer more people into this program, you get some cash back.

But keep a look out for spams. There was one where some guy claimed to have hit upon 10,000,000 pounds in gold, and just wanted you to give him $2000 so he can start his business. Can you believe that, a guy with so much money, wants so little from you? Well, don’t believe it, because it’s a phony. The system isn’t even a cash gifting program.

Yes, you can trust people when they testify that they made a profit out of this program. But don’t let your guard down, and rush with a huge investment. Start with small amounts. If over a period of time, you got it back, then increase the amount a little bit more, till you are fully convinced that it is true.

My verdict is that cash gifting programs will take you closer to realizing that dream holiday, or a new home. But only if you never let your guard down. Because, in the end, you are the one who has everything to loose.

There are basically two types of bloggers in the world – reporters and experts – and some people perform both roles (usually the experts, it’s hard for reporters to become experts, but it’s easy for experts to report).

If you have ever taken an Internet marketing course or attended a seminar specifically for beginners, you have probably heard about the two different methodologies. Whenever the business model is based on content, and if you blog for money then the model is based on content, people are taught to either start as reporters, or if possible step up as experts.

I”ll be frank; you want to be the expert.

Reporters leverage the content of the experts and in most cases people start off as reporters because they haven’t established expertise. Experts enjoy the perks of preeminence, higher conversion rates because of perceived value, it’s easier to get publicity, people are more likely to seek you out rather than you having to seek others out, joint ventures come easier, etc? experts in most cases simply make more money and attract more attention.

Most Bloggers Are Reporters

The thing with expertise is that it requires something – experience. No person becomes an expert without doing things and learning. Bloggers usually start out without expertise and as a result begin their blogging journey by talking about everything going on in their niche (reporting) and by interviewing and talking about other experts (reporting again).

There’s nothing wrong with reporting of course and for many people it’s a necessity at first until you build up some expertise. Unfortunately the ratios are pretty skewed when it comes to reporters and experts – there are a lot more reporters than there are experts, hence reporters tend to struggle to gain attention and when they do, they often just enhance the reputation of the expert they are reporting on.

Don’t Replicate Your Teacher

If you have ever spent some time browsing products in the learn Internet marketing niche you will notice a pattern. Many people first study Internet marketing from a guru? (for lack of a better term). The guru teaches how he or she is able to make money online, and very often the view that the student gleams is that in order to make money online you have to teach others how to make money online.

The end result of this process is a huge army of amateurs attempting to replicate what their teacher does in the same industry – the Internet marketing industry – not realizing that without expert status based on a proven record and all the perks that come with it, it’s next to impossible to succeed.

Even people, who enjoy marginal success, say for example growing an email list of 1,000 people, then go out and launch a product about how to grow an email list of 1,000 people. Now I have no problems with that, I think it’s fine to teach beginners and leverage whatever achievements you have, the problem is that people gravitate to the same niche – Internet marketing – and rarely have any key points of differentiation.

How many products out there do you know of that all claim to teach the same things – email marketing, SEO, pay per click, affiliate marketing, and all the sub-niches that fall under the category of Internet marketing. It’s a saturated market, yet when you see your teachers and other gurus making money teaching others how to make money (and let’s face it – making money as a subject is one of the most compelling) – your natural inclination is to follow in their footsteps.

If the key is to become an expert and you haven’t spent the last 5-10 years making money online, I suggest you look for another niche to establish expertise in.

Report on Your Process, Not Others

The secret to progress from reporter to expert is not to focus on other experts and instead report on your own journey. When you are learning how to do something and implementing things day by day, or studying other people’s work, you need to take your process and what you do as a result of what you learn, and use it as content for your blog.

It’s okay to talk about experts when you learn something from them, but always relate it to what you are doing. If you learn a technique from an expert it’s fine to state you learned it from them (and affiliate link to their product too!) but you should then take that technique, apply it to what you are doing and then report back YOUR results, not there’s. Frame things using your opinion – your stories – and don’t regurgitate what the expert said. The key is differentiation and personality, not replication.

Expertise comes from doing things most people don’t do and then talking about it. If you do this often enough you wake up one day as an expert, possibly without even realizing how it happened, simply because you were so good at reporting what you did.

You Are Already An Expert

Most people fail to become experts (or perceived as experts) because they don’t leverage what they already know. Every person who lives a life learns things as they go, takes action every day and knows something about something. The reason why they never become an expert is because they choose not to (which is fine for some, not everyone wants to be an expert), but if your goal is to blog your way to expertise and leave the world of reporting behind you have to start teaching and doing so by leveraging real experience.

Experience can come from what you do today and what you have done previously; you just need to take enough steps to demonstrate what you already know and what you are presently learning along your journey. I know so many people in my life, who are experts simply by virtue of the life they have lived, yet they are so insecure about what they know, they never commit their knowledge to words for fear of, well fear.

Blogs and the Web in general, are amazing resources when you leverage them as a communication tool to spread your expertise because of the sheer scope of people they can reach. If all you ever do is talk to people in person and share your experience using limited communication mediums, you haven?t much hope of becoming an expert. Take what you know and show other people through blogging, and you might be surprised how people change their perception of you in time.

Reporting Is A Stepping Stone

If your previous experience and expertise is from an area you want to leave behind or you are starting from, scratch?, then reporting is the path you must walk, at least for the short term.

Reporting is a lot of fun. Interviewing experts, talking about what other people are doing and just being part of a community is not a bad way to blog. In many cases people make a career of reporting (journalism is about just that), but if you truly want success and exponential results, at some point you will have to stand up and proclaim yourself as someone unusually good at something and then proceed to demonstrate it over and over again.

Have patience and focus on what you do to learn and then translate that experience into lessons for others, and remember, it’s okay to be a big fish in a small pond, that’s all most experts really are.

Being succesful in life and having every wish fulffilled is the dream that everyone that I have ever known strives for. Trips, vacations, nice food, resteraunts, and loving family are what we all enjoy in life. To keep the balance however, giving back is an important fact of life.

Well, you don’t have to empty half your pay check into this whole ‘giving back’ idea. Because helping others by going broke yourself isn’t the deal. Strike a balance in to this world by donating only what you can spare, without hurting yourself too much.

Imagine you are buying an engagement ring, or planning a vacation in Las Vegas. Surely, you’ll save money over a period of time for it, without having to go through a definite money crisis. It is the same with making a charity as well.

This is how you can go about with the process without affecting your normal life too much. Every month, a percentage of your pay check that you can do without, even as small as $25 or $10, goes into a separate savings account. This way, it won’t even affect your usual life. But put together, it would make a huge difference in somebody’s else’s life.

Once you’ve decided to save money, you have to start looking for a place to give it to. Without making this decision, your savings cannot be put to any use. Make sure that the organization you choose is genuine. Look into several organizations, particularly on the Internet, before making a final choice.

The next most important thing to do, is to find a cause that is most close to your heart, because any charity done without a cause is pointless. If you are an animal lover, then the Pita or the Humane society is the best place to go. Along with their help, imagine how many poor animals you can provide for.

Another suggestion would be giving to yourself. Invest in the stock market or by a time share. You are not only giving to yourself you are keeping the free market going and providing security for you family in the generations to come.

By deciding how much you can spare, you’ve accomplished your choice in bringing balance to your life. Take a small share of your salary to give away. But don’t do it at the cost of all that you’ve worked for to attain. The money you save can be donated periodically to the organization of your choice. Just that, never try to use this account as a back-up for your financial needs. Follow all this, and you’ll be giving yourself some good karma in return.