Dismay and concern immediately set in as I bemoaned the shear number of times I had used the compromised computer during the span of the last few days to check my Yahoo, Gmail, and business email accounts, and used the workstation to log into my confidential online bank and brokerage accounts. Who knows the number of confidential user login names and passwords I had unwittingly submitted using my infected computer that could very well now be in the hands of unknown criminals and evil-doers.

For those never infected by a computer worm, Trojan virus, or spyware download before and aren’t familiar with the telltale signs, you know your computer’s been infected when – strange things start happening when you’re simply doing routine work, files you originally had suddenly start disappearing, the operating system starts acting slow, or unfamiliar applications start installing themselves or strange alert messages start appearing on your screen. As a big fan and frequent user of music and movie P2P file sharing programs like LimeWire and Bit Torrent, I came to the conclusion that one of the files I had downloaded in recent days must have been infected and must’ve somehow bypassed my firewall filters and punched through my existing spyware programs and installed itself onto my computer as a parasite. While I had Trend Micro installed on my computer for some time now, I realized that I had neglected to renew my subscription and had not updated my virus definitions for some time, which may have been a contributory factor as to how the virus/spyware managed to infiltrate my computer’s defenses.

Scan Your Computer Regularly With Free Anti Spyware and Virus Software

When reality finally set in that my computer had been hacked, the first thing I did was grab my spare laptop computer (presumably clean and spyware-free), and log into all of my various email, bank, and brokerage accounts to change the passwords. Fortunately, none of my important online accounts appeared to be compromised, and no strange identity theft activities had taken place without my authorization – at least according to MyFICO ScoreWatch, the program I use to monitor and track changes to my personal credit reports. Next, I went about the task of figuring out which of the free anti virus and anti spyware software packages out there would do the best job of cleaning up the infection and ensure that such an occurrence would never happen again.

While in general, the very best online security programs such as Norton, McAfee, and TrendMicro usually require members to pay a subscription fee to gain access to their virus and spyware prevention products, there are quite a few comparably high quality alternatives out there that are available for free. Because each of the following tools utilize its own different and unique detection algorithm to scan for viruses and spywares, I recommend downloading a combination of two or three to get the maximum benefit. After spending a day or so of downloading and trying out most of the best programs, here are my recommended selections that I felt did the best job of completely ridding my computer of  pesky spyware bugs and viruses:

Best Free Anti Virus Scanning Software

1. AVG Anti Virus Free Edition: Strangely and rather interestingly, I’ve noticed that the free AVG virus/spyware algorithm frequently provides for a more thorough scan than that offered by paid software programs like Trend Micro. Go figure. AVG AntiVirus catches quite a few viruses that the others miss.
2. Avast! Home Edition: Highly recommended. Avast! Home Edition is not only light on system resources, but it also provides excellent real time scans for free.
3. Avira Anti Vir Personal: Great free application that automatically scans for and removes both viruses and spywares that lurk on your computer.

Best Free Spyware Detection and Removal Software

1. AVG Anti Spyware Free Edition: Scans for both viruses and your run of the mill malwares. Easy to use and does a very nice job of keeping your computer clean.
2. SUPER Anti Spyware: The aptly named SuperAntiSpyware program is truly super and highly recommended. The free edition is 100% free and will detect and remove thousands of spyware, adware, malware, trojans, key loggers, dialers, hi-jackers, and worms. The only downside is that the free version does not provide real time blocking or scheduled scans.
3. MalwareBytes AntiMalware: I recommend running both MalwareBytes along with Super Anti Spyware. Each is likely to pick up spyware not readily detected by the other due to differences in their detection algorithms.
4. AdAware Free: AdAware by Lavasoft is one of the oldest free anti-spyware programs available on the Internet and much of it remains the same. For no cost, the program offers a pretty decent, albeit stripped down, manual spyware detection option for your computer.

Free Online Virus Scanners

The following services offer premium virus scanning from popular brands via online interfaces. They’re all very easy to use and generally offer high detection rates. The major downside is that some require you to pay a membership fee to initiate a virus removal after one’s been detected. But nevertheless, it’s still a good idea to run a full computer scan on occasion using each of the following services to ensure a clean computer.

1. Panda Security Free AntiVirus Online
   
2. Kaspersky Lab Free Virus Scan
3. Trend Micro HouseCall
4. Eset Online Anti Virus Scanner
5. BitDefender Online Scanner
6. Symantec Security Scan
7. McAfee FreeScan
8. CA Online Threat Scanner

If you want maximum protection, I recommend using Norton or Trend Micro, along with at least one or two of the free anti virus and anti spyware programs listed above. When it comes to your precious computer files like personal photos, important Word documents, and applications you have saved in your hard drive, it’s always better to be safe than sorry.

• Trend Micro Promo Offer: Trend Micro’s currently offering a limited time 10% discount on its virus and spyware program with Trend Micro promotion code: “trendpro”
• Norton Anti Virus Offer: Norton by Symantec is also currently touting special promotional savings deals for new customers.

Source URL: Best Free Anti Virus Software and Anti Spyware Program

Copyright Protected © 2009 Money Blue Book: Personal Finance Blog. All Rights Reserved.

Some of you may live within a short drive or even within walking distance of your neighborhood post office. But unfortunately in my case, my local post office is a bit of a distance away situated within the city center, and getting there frequently requires that I fight through road rage inducing traffic jams and suffer through depressingly long lines once I’ve arrived. While I’m sure the folks at the U.S. postal service (USPS) do the best they can under the circumstances, I pretty much avoid visiting the post office as best as I can – turning to the free USPS website to manage the bulk of my postal decisions whenever possible.

Put Your Mail On Hold For Free By Requesting USPS Hold Mail Service Online

Unless you have someone at home to receive your mail for you, those of you planning to be away for an extended period of time (3 days or more) on vacation or for a business trip may want to notify your local post office to put your mail on hold while you’re gone. While you can always visit your local post office, wade through the customer service lines, and fill out one of those Hold Mail paper card forms – the easiest way to put your mail on hold is via the Internet through the USPS homepage. Open 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, and 365 days a year, the website is certainly the easiest way to process all of your mail routing submissions. Your hold mail request can even go into effect the same business day if you submit the request by 3:00 am EST.

Currently, the USPS offers consumers the ability to temporarily put home and business mail on hold for a minimum of 3 days, up to a maximum of 30 days. During the length of the hold period, the home resident or business owner’s letters and packages are held at the Post Office, with normal delivery not resuming in bulk until the date specified.

At the present time, the USPS hold mail feature is free, regardless of whether the request is submitted in person or online. But with the way the postal service is hemorrhaging money and now trying to cut costs and save money by closing out branches and cutting back on staff, I wouldn’t be too surprised if they started imposing a USPS hold mail surcharge of $1.00 or more for each request one of these days. But for now:

• To submit a hold mail request online, visit the USPS Hold Mail Service web page. At the present time, you cannot put your mail on hold by phoning in your request.
• On the Hold Mail page, enter your 5 digit zip code number in the Create a Request box and click on Go. Bear in mind, while the online hold mail service is available in most areas of the country, not all Zip codes will qualify.
• Next, follow the displayed instructions by providing your name, mailing address, phone number, hold mail start date, as well as the date you would like your normal mail service to resume.
• Remember to record your Confirmation Number. This number is important because you will need it to make any future changes to your online request – such as if you decide to cancel the order or you later decide that you will need your mail held for a longer period of time than initially requested.

If you anticipate being away for longer than 30 days, you may need to consider having your mail forwarded to another temporary address. While the online USPS Hold Mail service is free, requesting temporary mail forwarding or any other service that requires a formal address change requires the payment of a $1.00 online service fee. The USPS requires this $1.00 fee be charged to a valid credit card for identity confirmation purposes. While some people may find this small charge rather annoying and somewhat of a deterrent to using this web convenience, I find the tiny fee to be worth the benefit of not having to deal with the time and hassle of personally visiting my local post office branch. Don’t you agree this online service is still worth the nominal cost?

Alternatively for the super frugal cheapskates, you can always print out the paper Authorization to Hold Mail (PS Form 8076) manually and give it to your letter carrier or mail it to the post office that delivers your mail for free (minus the obligatory cost of postage).

Source URL: How To Request USPS Hold Mail Service Online

Copyright Protected © 2009 Money Blue Book: Personal Finance Blog. All Rights Reserved.

Previously, I shared a little background overview of how I got started as an aspiring full time blogger and pursued my dream of working from home and making money with a blog. For many years, I worked a traditional day job as an attorney, whether it was with the federal government or whether it was in the private sector. A few years ago and rather unexpectedly out of the blue, I stumbled upon the idea of starting up a blog to make some money on the side. The idea was not to replace my seemingly stable and indispensable full time day job as a lawyer, but to supplement my salary with an alternative income stream. Little did I know and much to my subsequent surprise years later, my small network of profitable online weblogs would one day start reaping monthly incomes that greatly exceeded what I could earn as an ambulance chasing attorney. While I continue to balance my part time legal practice profession with my mixture of online businesses and other side ventures to this day, my blogging operations have finally grown to the point where they are now capable of providing me a stable and nearly free source of revenue – offering me a boost in a quality of life I never dreamed possible before.

If it’s one thing I’ve learned over the years, it’s that persistent adaptation, continuous self education, a strong entrepreneurial spirit, and the uncanny ability to function with little sleep – are traits that can truly be turned into financial success. Becoming a semi-full time blogger and giving up the tedious commute and traditional desk job – to work from home and earn a stable living is a reachable goal for many. The process is not easy and most of those who attempt to walk down this deceptively daunting and challenging path will undoubtedly fail miserably, but the fiercely determined and highly self motivated few will succeed – I’m living proof of that.

As entire books and trilogies can be easily written on the subject, the following is more of a quick summary for beginners who are interested in getting started with running their own profitable blogs than a comprehensive guide. Here are some of the key pointers that I’ve learned over time as a blogger who now earns in excess of six figures a year. I’m by no means an expert – just a guy who’s witnessed and endured first hand both his personal share of lucky successes and misguided failures when it comes to the subject of blogging online to earn a living.

If You Want To Make Money As A Blogger, Blog About A Subject Other Than Merely How To Make Money Online

This is not a blog about blogging, nor is it a blog about how to make money online per se. While I do occasionally dwell into ways how ordinary consumers can take advantage of arbitrage opportunities such as advantageous 0% balance transfer offers, reward credit card bonuses, and paid online survey offers that compensate participants looking to make some extra cash on the side – the primary focus of this blog has always been first and foremost focused on personal finance and long term financial planning and investing. The emphasis has always been on the nitty gritty elements of saving money, debt reduction, and planning for one’s financial future. One of the most recent endeavors of mine was to start sharing my personal net worth reports and income progressions over time. On this blog, I track and provide my own net worth tables for all to see, not to boast or demonstrate some ego-boosting bravado, but to show readers that I am just a regular guy, trying to work hard and turn my life’s fruits and efforts into a future retirement nest egg. I have had a tremendous number of failures in my life, whether they be personal, relational, or professional – but I have continued to strive for my dreams. That’s one of the essences of blogging – the sharing of personal viewpoints and the trials and tribulations of personal experience.

Those of you who want to quit your full time day jobs and end the seemingly endless cycle of trading hours for dollars, and start blogging online will do well for yourselves by picking a real world topic instead of dwelling in the saturated “make money online” tar pit. Not that there is anything particularly wrong with writing about your passion for blogging and generating income via your efforts on the web if that is your interest and true calling, but the fact of the matter is – it’s not a topical niche that deserves the type of massive attention and copycat imitation that it receives. Like the overrated careers that populate the professional landscape, the “make money online” niche is vastly over saturated, with supply outstripping the demand, and conversion rates (the ability to convert blog traffic into income producing sales) from its natural audience of extraordinarily tech savvy readers – too aggravatingly low. It’s not impossible, but I think you are better off choosing a less tapped into subject matter that’s not so exceedingly rife with scams and get rich quick junk products. Frankly, the same negative sentiment can be said for the technology niche as well, although fortunately for that area of tech based information, the content matter is more broad, more varied, and perhaps sufficiently diverse to accommodate new blogging entrants.

When choosing a subject to blog about – make sure you pursue a subject that is sufficiently broad and dynamic enough where you would be able to sit down and write out 100+ new blog titles on the spot if you had to. The world is currently filled to the brim with a tremendous number of subject matters and questions that still await to be responded to with updated information. Do you enjoy clothing and fashion trends? What about cooking, parenting advice, personal fitness, or outdoor activities like camping or fishing? How about coupons, shopping deals, lifestyle do-it-yourself tips, interior decorating, real estate news, home improvement, or celebrity gossip? Those are all interesting subject matters worth blogging about with plenty of advertisers to tap into for the passionate blogger.

How To Find Advertisers For Your Blog As A Beginner Blogger

Whenever I’m at a family gathering, with friends I haven’t seen for some time, or at some church function, one of the most common questions I get whenever I talk to someone about my online business (once I’ve overcome the blank stares after I tell them my self employment job title), is how I find relevant advertisers for my blog and how I actually get paid for my blogging efforts. Frankly, advertisers are everywhere and you just have to know where to find them. When your blog ultimately hits the big time and starts generating massive traffic, prospective advertisers and curious companies (and even advertising spammers) will naturally start tracking your contact information down. But until then, your best bet is to seek out and partner with the middle man companies out there – the affiliate marketing networks that consolidate and aggregate the various affiliate and lead generation offers out there on the Internet.

Through these affiliate marketing networks, you will be able to locate advertisers from a very wide variety of categories – all willing and able to pay you whenever you refer targeted sales or business to them through your blog or website. Many will allow you to access their affiliate product inventories and compensate you for a variety of sales referrals including – pay per click ads (PPC) which pay a tiny sum of money per text or banner ad click, pay per sign up or action type ads (CPA ads) which pay you a much larger referral cut in the way of commission percentages whenever you refer a prospective customer to them, and pay per impression ads (CPM) which pay a sum for a set number of website viewing impressions. For example, if I wanted to promote Monavie or any number of acai berry juice brands/scams for example (I don’t – but just giving this product as an example), there are plenty of companies out there willing to pay me a set referral commission (hypothetically, say 5-10% or $10.00 per lead) for every new customer I refer. Picking the right mixture of advertisers depends on your blog’s subject matter and your target audience.

Check out the following below recommended and popular affiliate marketing networks and companies for advertisers. Bear in mind, there are also quite a great number of specific advertisers and companies out there who also run affiliate programs, but are only obtainable if you contact them directly, and many frequently won’t deal with you until your blog reaches a certain traffic minimum (on average at least 5,000 unique visitors per month).

List Of The Best Affiliate Marketing Network Companies (Pay Per Click and Pay Per Referral):

Remember to negotiate for the best commission rates and learn to leverage your ever steadily increasing blog traffic to your advantage. Your negotiation clout will slowly increase as your blog traffic increases with time – be patient. Compare affiliate payout rates and offers and go with the best rate provider. All of the following affiliate networks below provide similar banners, ads, and website scripts you’ll need to get started, but each differs in the exclusive offers each carries in its inventory cache of advertisers. Many of the individual offers overlap between multiple affiliate network providers, but each of the following networks offers uniques. Be forewarned, it will likely take many, many, many months of very hard (but frequently fun and interesting) trial and error work before you’ll figure out how to maximize your ad revenue, but if you are persistent and are constantly learning, you’ll figure it out in time. Trying signing up and tinkering with each affiliate provider to get started:

1. Google Adsense: The most well known and best pay per click advertising network is run by Big-G. Google’s highly targeted contextual advertising program is a must have if you are a beginner to blogging. Just run the Adsense script on your blog and ads relevant to your content will automatically be displayed. Pay per click income is great for beginners but its usefulness tapers off in income potential after your site gets bigger.
2. Amazon Associates: With this popular and versatile program, simply link to Amazon.com related products for affiliate income earning potential. Very useful and scalable for even mature sites.
3. Ebay Partner Network: With the eBay affiliate publisher program, you can link to any specific eBay auction or link to an eBay ad based on keywords to get a commission cut of the sales generated.
4. Linkshare: Lots of very nice ad exclusives but less customer support and attention then I’d like. But in general, the exclusive affiliate offers are worth signing up for as you can’t get them anywhere else.
5. Commission Junction: The 800 pound gorilla of pay per action ads. Like them or not, they are the biggest of the advertising networks.
6. Flex Offers: Run by the same guys who run CardOffers.com. A personal favorite of mine as my longtime rep has consistently offered me the best affiliate payout rates. Lots of great exclusive affiliate offers for a diverse selection of categories.
7. CardOffers: A very popular choice for credit card sales and affiliate referrals if you are into the financial niche. The best credit card payout offers have all but dried up recently however. The economy is to blame.
8. NCS Reporting: Owned by Bankrate.com, it’s one of the biggest credit card referrals company. However, payout doesn’t seem as consistently high as CardOffers and account security was a problem for a while (major breach of my account by cunning online thieves).
9. Acclaim Network: Allowed me to run Citibank credit card links as a new start up blog when the other card affiliate companies wouldn’t permit it. Payouts are pretty low though.
10. Commission Soup: Invitation only affiliate company that offers great service and good payouts on most of their affiliate offers.
11. Market Leverage: Great referral program and an up and coming affiliate network company. Market Leverage is big among big name bloggers.
12. PepperJam Network: Another up and coming ad company that’s popular among established bloggers and affiliate promoters.
13. ShareASale: Provides a variety of affiliate companies to pick from.
14. Chitika: Touts quite a number of search targeted ads similar to Google Adsense
15. Google Affiliate Network: Seems like a blatant conflict of interest to me, but Google does offer a few exclusive deals. Not a well developed affiliate network as of yet however.
16. Text Link Ads: Used heavily during its heyday, but has grown somewhat taboo these days as a means to build up page rank based search engine authority, but some sites still use them. I personally don’t, but that’s because my site’s been around for a while now and I don’t need to use such services, which are better suited for beginners perhaps.
17. Azoogle Ads: Affiliate network that allows publishers to buy and sell text links and various ad space.
18. Clickbank: Offers primarily text links, random ads, and e-books of all sorts (big chunk of those offers are targeted at the make money online MMO niche).

How To Start Blogging For Money and Generating Blog Traffic

As there is simply no way I can write down every single advanced blogging technique and trade secret strategy I have about how to make money online and generate money with a blog (there is just too many), I’ll share just the basics as this is a post primarily to serve as a call to action for beginners. Here is how you can get going if you want to start getting serious about blogging as a way to replace your existing full time job and for you to start working for yourself. As entire blogs and books can be devoted to the subject, the following is just a basic primer to help newbies get started on the road to blogging for income. Please don’t fall for those stupid and utterly useless Shortcut To Internet Millions and related eBay type scams that promise lots of money with no effort and no computer know-how. Don’t be misled – you will need to work very hard, for months or years, but making money online with a blog is possible.  The following are the entry level steps I took to get started blogging:

1) Register A Domain Name and Purchase A Monthly Web Hosting Service: I recommend starting out with a free Blogspot.com or Wordpress.com account as a way to get your feet wet into the wonderful world of blogging. However, for long term brand name and website setup purposes, if you plan on making this whole blogging deal into a serious venture, I very strongly recommend registering for a formal domain name and choosing a paid web hosting service sooner than later. After all, doesn’t MoneyBlueBook.com seem much more professional than say – moneybluebook.blogspot.com?

• Get A Domain Name: Go with GoDaddy.com for your domain registration needs if you want to go with the service that most people are using at the moment. GoDaddy is a very popular registrar choice for bloggers just starting out. I personally use Dreamhost.com for my domain name registrations – but that’s only because they’re the company I started out with and I want to stay consistent. Good luck finding a short domain name however – it seems like all of the juicy domain names are all taken, especially the coveted “dot com” ones.
• Get A Reliable Web Hosting Provider: MoneyBlueBook.com is currently hosted on a dedicated LiquidWeb.com server. I pay about $150 a month for excellent and very reliable hosting, but that’s because this blog generates pretty decent traffic. Liquidweb is more expensive than other companies, but I’ve found their service to be extremely reliable with an excellent uptime track record. Most start up blogs can probably run sufficiently on a cheap shared server at least for some time with a hosting company like BlueHost, GoDaddy, or DreamHost for about $10-20 a month. But ultimately though, you get what you pay for. Cheap hosting equals unreliable up time. It’s not a big deal when you’re just starting out, but it’ll kill your business when your sites start generating serious traffic.

2) Install and Learn To Use Wordpress: Wordpress is the best and most reliable blogging platform to date. Some popular blogs out there are still operating off of other blogging programs like Blogger, but most are steadily migrating to Wordpress. Most professional web host providers can help you install this very powerful and versatile free blogging tool for you. It will take time for you to truly master the ins and outs of Wordpress blogging and learn how to fully utilize all of the Wordpress plugins and widgets available, but once you get the hang of the versatile blogging tools at your disposal, you’ll find the free Wordpress software to be quite indispensable.

3) Start Blogging On A Daily Basis and Pace Yourself As A Writer: The key to surviving as a blogger and building a sustainable future as a blogger capable of making a living online through blogging – is to stay consistent and not get overly burned out too soon. At the start, there is a natural euphoria of excitement as you start witnessing the blogging traffic fruits of your efforts, but don’t let the initial excitement force you to over exert yourself. Similarly, during your blogging journey, at some time or another, you are likely going to get stricken with an affliction of what’s popularly known as blogger’s block (aka, writer’s block). But fear not – even seasoned bloggers experience this feeling of laziness and lack of motivation on frequent occasion. Cut back on your blogging activities if you have to but don’t give up.

When you first start out, your readership will be pitifully few, but that’s absolutely normal. Don’t stop writing quality content as that is the only way you will generate readership in the very long run. This feeling of blogging loneliness and frustration caused by lack of traffic may persist for many months, but if you are to succeed, you must give it time. It takes a lot of time to get accepted into the good graces of the search engines and for strangers to organically discover your blog through the series of tubes of cyberspace. From the time I personally started blogging with the intention of ultimately making money online, it took 12 months or so before I finally started to generate a substantial income from my blogging activities. Blogging is easy to get started but difficult to truly master.

4) Learn To Monetize Your Blog Readership and Increase Your Blog Traffic: Blogging should always be a work in progress. You should always be adapting and finding ways to do existing things better. Even after you’ve started to generate traffic and establish a cadre of readers, you should be constantly trying to figure out ways to increase that traffic and tweak the effectiveness of your advertising pitches. Strategic Google Adsense placement, targeted blog titles, and improved search engine optimization updates are ways to boost your income and traffic.

Getting listed in search engine submissions, blog directory listings, exchanging blog rolls, swapping reciprocal text links, participating in blog carnivals via blogcarnival.com, guest posting on other blogs, writing comments in popular online forums, participating in popular and related blogs, article marketing, as well as engaging in social media sites like StumbleUpon, Digg, Facebook, mySpace, and Twitter – are all valid ways to get traffic but you’ll need to experiment with each one to find out what truly works in terms of improved monetization and what methods are just ways to generate exciting blog traffic numbers, but that don’t actually convert into tangible sales. Tip: Social media marketing is vastly overrated for monetization purposes as social media readers are not looking to buy or have their specific questions answered – thus targeted, organic search engine traffic is key. If you want to make money blogging, you had better be praying to the great temple of Google and figuring out what the Google gods want in the way of blog content and optimization.

5) Never Stop Learning, Experimenting, and Examining Your Competitors: You should never be trying to re-invent the wheel. One of the best ways to improve your own blog and blogging approach is to learn from the techniques of others. Take a peek at your competitor’s blog or visit your favorite blogs to see how they monetize and how they structure their blog content for clues as to their success. Don’t worry about feeling like a spy – after all, more likely than not, they are peeking right back at your website as well. That’s what smart businesses do – they examine their surroundings, learn from the best, and constantly improve. After all, if you owned a struggling ice cream shop, wouldn’t you secretly visit competing ice cream stores that are more successful than yours to figure out why and how those shops are able to generate more ice cream sales than yours?

Source URL: How To Make Money Blogging

Copyright Protected © 2009 Money Blue Book: Personal Finance Blog. All Rights Reserved.

I am a part time (almost full time now) blogger who spends a great number of hours working on the Internet from home every night. For more than a year now, I’ve been quietly earning a sizable and consistent amount of money through blogging and my internet marketing efforts. As a multi-year veteran now to the world of making money online with a blog, I’ve joined a rather unique and eclectic group of young and emerging internet entrepreneurs – individuals who have not only successfully harnessed the power of the Internet to generate real money, but who have managed to turn seemingly unassuming websites into rather lucrative income producing automatons. While the phenomenon of blogging for money on a part time basis is certainly not new, the idea that one can actually become a full time professional blogger (a problogger of sorts) and generate not only a stable, but a sustainable income at a high velocity through mere blogging alone is quite a surprise to many (particularly among my friends and family).

I’m sure many of you are already well aware of a number of fairly successful bloggers and established Internet entrepreneurs like John Chow, ShoeMoney, and Darren Rowse of Problogger fame – online personalities that dominate the so-called “make money online” niche. Most of these semi famous Internet tycoons have been in the news for some time and have had many years to perfect the art of both online and mainstream personality-based sales pitches. Much of their mystique, self perpetuating hype, and authoritative attention stems from the sheer amounts of money they have raked in through their blogging and online entrepreneurial activities, and the continuous reminders of their financial success to their readers in the way of monthly income reports and screen shots of high dollar amount affiliate income checks. However, the ones you usually don’t hear about are those of us like myself who also run pretty successful operations of our own, but who have generally chosen to remain contently semi-anonymous and out of the lime light. While I’ve enjoyed a pretty lucrative career thus far in terms of the income streams that I’ve been able to pull through my collection of websites and online businesses, I made the conscientious decision early on to remain in the online shadows and out of the way in terms of real world publicity and attention. Not vying for the social media spotlight for ego-stroking purposes has allowed me to quietly generate a pretty prolific online business without the complicated hassles of unnecessary attention or even the critical scrutiny that the well known online bloggers at center stage face. Have you heard of the term “Millionaire Next Door” ? Well I’d like to think of myself as the “Blogger Next Door” – one of a growing number of unassuming and self made entrepreneurs who enjoy their relative anonymity and are content to blend in with everyone else in cyberspace while they quietly build their online fortunes.

Working From Home As A Full Time Blogger Is A Difficult, But Emotionally and Financially Rewarding Profession

My goal today is to simply break out of my usual personal finance subject matter for a moment and perhaps share some tidbits to encourage and inspire fledgling writers and aspiring entrepreneurs who have been quietly sitting on the sidelines – individuals who want to believe, but are afraid to take the first baby steps towards the world of self employment and Internet-based incomes. Admittedly, the journey from entry level writer and semi techie egghead, to nearly full time super affiliate power blogger is a very difficult and time consuming process, particularly in the early stages. Despite its rather ephemeral and unestablished nature, the seemingly unrealistic fantasy of being able to work from home and generate a full time income from just blogging alone is very real. While I have yet to make the final leap to full time blogger (I’m still a part time attorney), I am living proof that working from home and working for yourself is entirely and ultimately possible.

I stumbled upon blogging and the whole online business model a few years ago in 2006 quite by accident. One day I was tinkering with my free personal Xanga blogging account (this was back in the old days when Xanga.com was still popular) and I suddenly noticed the banner ads and affiliate links in the website margins for the first time. Examining the html source code, I finally realized and discovered that there was a whole marketing and income producing mechanism underneath it all that was quietly profiting from all of the user generated content that Xanga consumers were creating. From then on I decided to investigate further and figure out how the blog content and advertisement scripts were integrated into a workable business model – and the rest is history. A blog, or a weblog as it is officially called, is nothing more than an online diary of sorts sorted in reverse chronological order according to article post dates. Blogs are uniquely advantageous for monetization purposes because of the regularly updated and archived nature of their content. Simply put, Google, Bing, Yahoo, and all of the other search engines love blogs for both the fresh and timelessly relevant content they churn out, and generally prefer to rank them very highly for organic search engine traffic – which when translated into practical terms, equals dollars and cents for savvy entrepreneurs.

Now that I’ve worked for myself and have finally tasted financial success and professional freedom, no longer will I ever go back to working for someone else. No longer will I ever want to go back to the emotional and professional constraints of working the traditional full time desk job and devoting my efforts towards benefiting someone else’s company or firm.

I attended law school and graduated to eventually work as an attorney (law school is overrated in my opinion). But anyway, in one of the lawyer jobs I held before I pursued my dream of becoming self employed, I used to work for an overbearing and very unprofessional alpha-female attorney. Despite my best professional efforts at the job, I felt absolutely miserable working as an associate attorney at her small solo practitioner law firm – and never felt so unfairly scrutinized, treated so condescendingly, and persistently set up to fail. But because it was her law firm and because she was my boss, and also because I wanted to keep my precious full time job, I humored her belligerency and endured her belittlement and unreasonable demands for weeks and months. Despite my seething frustration, the fact remained that it was her personal law firm and I was merely a replaceable cog in a bigger machine – and thus I swallowed my pride and did as I was told. But eventually I had enough of the disrespect and quit the firm, literally storming out at the end of one working day without looking back – going from having a full time job that paid the bills to immediate unemployment.

Now that I am a semi full time blogger who runs a variety of part time real life business ventures and operates his own part time legal practice on the side, I use tragic memories of my working past to motivate myself. Whether you no longer want to work for anyone else or whether you were forced out of your previous or current job due to the economic recession or as a consequence of layoffs, it’s time to consider chasing the dream of becoming self employed and finally throwing off the shackles and emotional constraints of the traditional “trading hours for dollars” working life. It may be a scary first step to take, but the potential rewards and financial upside are worth it.

How Much Money Do Bloggers Make From Their Blogs? Answer: Depends On Blog Niche, Your Tech Savviness, and Effort That You Put Forth

When I talk about bloggers, I’m not referring to full time freelance bloggers and online newspaper writers who crank out articles for others. Those types of freelance writers who produce text based content for blogs that are owned by other people only generate a few dollars or perhaps just a measly $1.00 to $5.00 per blog post that they write. In this article, when I’m talking about bloggers and webmasters who are able to generate a very good part time income supplement or even a full time living from their blogs, I’m talking about those who own their own blogs and websites – entrepreneurs who serve as both website owner and chief content producer.

So how much income exactly do average bloggers earn from their blogs assuming a reasonable measure of built up success? That’s not an easy question to answer. Because the amount of money that bloggers make from their blogs varies so greatly depending on the type of advertisers that a website can attract, that statistic is highly dependent on the subject matter of the blog. As a general rule of thumb, the most lucrative and financially rewarding websites and blogs tend to be those in the financial niche where credit card issuers, online banks, brokerage firms, insurance companies, and mortgage lenders are better equipped in terms of financial capacity to pay a lucratively high price to affiliate publishers for customer and new sales referrals. While not as financially lucrative, other blog content niches such as entertainment, gossip, fashion, clothing apparel, legal services, health care, weight loss, shopping, computers, electronics, and dating are certainly financially worthwhile in their own rights and can be immensely profitable as well. However, successful online entrepreneurs who are able to multi task and pour in significant amounts of time and effort on a consistent basis may be able to target different content niches with a diverse portfolio of actively updated websites. Obviously the greater the content diversity from a variety of different websites with appropriate targeted traffic to match, the greater the pool of prospective advertisers to generate income from. The key is to also truly enjoy what you write about. The blog traffic, blog comments, and relevant advertisers will naturally flow thereafter.

Making a decent full time income online by working as a blogger is very much possible but it does require an enormous amount of time investment and educational self training, especially upfront during the initial stages when the financial rewards are still miniscule or non-existent. Whatever you do, absolutely do not quit your full time day job until your part time blogging efforts start paying off. I started blogging part time while I still had a full time day job – spending my off hours teaching myself the intricacies of blogging, website design, and Wordpress blog optimization tricks. It also took a great deal of time to learn the fundamentals of Adobe Photoshop graphic manipulation and the intricacies of basic Wordpress PHP programming for blog theme tweaking purposes. While the barriers to entry are extremely low for blogging as a profession and almost anyone and his/her grandma can get started at any time without paying a dime, there is no guarantee that the process will be easy (and I can almost assure you that the journey will be difficult and sleep depriving). A five figure income per month is possible if you pick the right niche and work extremely and exceedingly hard, but it’s not the norm. Most of you (more than 95%) will probably fail due to blogger’s block, frustration, and lost of interest – but the ones who can persist will succeed in time. Nothing in life is guaranteed but if you put your mind towards blogging and don’t burn yourself out – $100 a month, $1,000 a month, and perhaps even $10,000 a month of passive income is reasonable with the correct mix of content, the right blog niche, and a lot of search engine traffic generation luck.

Much of the information needed to get you started as a professional blogger can be obtained online for free and there is no real need for you to purchase or spend money on E-books or on the make money online books being sold at bookstores. But if you really want a good primer to get you started, I’d recommend something like Darren Rowse’s book – ProBlogger: Six Figure Income Blogging. Anyone who is a wannabe blogger knows about the original pro blogger himself – and ranked by experience rather than age, he’s the granddaddy of us all. Alternatively you can always just visit your local public library and borrow the books for free. But my advice is to just follow your favorite bloggers online and read through their past blogging post archives to get the information you need. You’ll get more real world practical advice on blog writing techniques, search engine optimization tricks, and website business maintenance pointers from these updated daily blogs than you’ll ever glean from mere stale books alone. The world of blogging for income and the fickle nature of search engine traffic generation techniques are constantly evolving so it’s best to stay updated on the latest news by reading from actively updated blogs and websites than from constantly reviewing some ancient textbook on the subject.

If you want to know exactly how much money I currently generate from my online businesses and from this personal finance blog in particular, unfortunately, I won’t be able to share that information in great detail at this time. If you must know a little bit, I will put this forth – this personal finance blog generates in excess of $100,000 in organic net profits per year, most of it without substantial effort on my part. I do not pay any money for advertising, I absolutely do not sell text links, I don’t do paid reviews, and I don’t engage in any pay per click Google Adword advertising – it’s all organic search engine based. Regarding the specifics of my income breakdown, I wish to stay silent on that for now. Perhaps in the near future I will share more about my online income sources and real life business ventures in greater detail with readers. For the time being, I don’t plan to share any pictures of fancy checks or reveal the specifics of my income sources from my blogging operations – you’ll just have to take my word for it. But it’s perfectly okay if you don’t believe me. Like I mentioned early on, I’m not interested in capturing attention or attracting a loyal zombie following – just hoping to inspire a few people and motivate some of you to a call to action.

Never Stop Learning And Chasing Your Entrepreneurial Dreams

To get the blogging and website business know-how you’ll need to run a successful blog, you’ll need to strive towards constantly educating yourself on all aspects of blogging. The facets are broad as blogging encompasses everything from the fundamentals of writing to grammar, basic web programming, graphic design, salesmanship, multi tasking, negotiation skills, and efficient time management. It will take months, even years before you will become a fully self trained expert on the blogging business. I started the early research and tinkering process in 2006, but didn’t start running my first few successful online blogs and start seriously generating a stable income sufficiently large enough to replace my day job wages until 2008. From the time I truly started writing and promoting this particular financial blog you are reading, I didn’t generate a sustainable full time income until 12 months thereafter. There will be times when you first start out that you will feel like no one is reading your work and that you are writing for yourself, but that’s okay. We’ve all been there before and that’s perfectly normal in the beginning. It’s a lonely process at the start but with time, your efforts will pay off. Meanwhile, to this very day, I still spend hours and hours every day reading blogs about blogging and scouring the web for any new morsels I can uncover about website optimization, how to generate more search engine traffic, and how to capture blogger traffic. As far as I’m concerned I will forever be a work in progress. There is so much to learn and my self driven educational enrichment will never cease so long as I continue to blog for a living and make money online (view my beginner’s primer on how to get started).

Source URL: How I Started Blogging To Make Money Online

Copyright Protected © 2009 Money Blue Book: Personal Finance Blog. All Rights Reserved.

Unless you are a billionaire like Warren Buffett with an endless supply of cash to draw upon, chances are you’re operating under a monthly budget like the rest of us are. In most cases, the best way to keep your finances in order and save money for the long haul is to devise a sensible budget, track your monthly spending habits, and stick to your laid out plans without frequent deviations. The problem with offering suggestions about setting personal spending budgets is that there usually isn’t one way that works best for everyone. It’s a highly personal and customized affair due to the great differences in how we all each handle tasks and micro manage events in our lives.

I personally use a variety of online based financial tools to help me chart out my monthly net worth reports and personal balance sheets. They help to encourage me to make better financial decisions for myself and to continuously plan for the future. As a strong advocate of using streamlined software based tools that automate and aggregate one’s finances, I particularly recommend using programs like Quicken Online and Yodlee. Both budgeting programs are free and offer great convenience – automatically pulling income and expense data from your bank and credit card accounts into a single viewable source without requiring you to manually compile the data by hand.

But at the same time, I understand that there are lots of people out there who prefer to lay out their budgets and plans the old fashioned way. Those who shun online automation and prefer to do their budgeting by hand may want to try out some of the Microsoft Excel spreadsheet based budgeting tools below. Many have found that by having to manually enter transactions into their checkbooks and budget programs every week, that they tend to more careful in monitoring their spending habits. To credit financial guru Dave Ramsey’s spoken philosophy involving cash versus credit card spending, it simply hurts more when you have to write out your expenses by hand as opposed to having the spending transactions automatically populated into a computer program. For some people, this forces them to think long and harder about certain spending choices during the budget building process.

Test Try Each Free Budget Software Out To Find The Best Personal Fit

Over the years, I’ve attempted to come up with the best way to budget, but I don’t think there is any single one tool or popular method that works for everyone completely. But while I realize that everyone has their own unique way of doing things, I’ve decided to provide a list below of some of the best free online budgeting tools (in my opinion) to help get you started. All of the software tools listed below are available off the Internet free of cost (or available for a free test trial) to help just about anyone set up a working budget for his or her home, or small business. I recommend tinkering with each one for a few minutes to get some ideas on on how you can make it your own. Many of the account aggregation and online budgeting programs reviewed are customizable to your individual needs and I’m confident you’ll find something that works for you.

As the whole notion behind budgeting and smart financial planning is to cut costs and save money, it seems sort of counter-intuitive to go out and spend a lot of money on expensive accounting or budgeting software. While premium software packages like Microsoft Money, Quicken, and QuickBooks are highly recommended accounting and budgeting solutions for those who can afford them, there are plenty of free alternatives available for those with modest budgeting needs. Those with simpler needs can easily establish monthly and yearly budgets for their business or home by turning to free budget software programs online to chart their finances and track their net worth changes. At the very least, utilizing budgeting software tools may help to encourage you to take a more pro-active approach to personal financial planning.

In terms of the ones I’ve selected as recommended programs, just so you are aware, I’m highly partial to online software tools that are not only great for budgeting purposes, but are also cleanly designed and pretty on the eye in terms of graphics and website layout. Feel free to provide some suggestions and recommendations of your own!

List Of Popular Free Online Budgeting Software Programs and Excel Spreadsheet Templates (Not ranked in any particular order)

1) Quicken Online (Free) – I absolutely love Quicken products as they always seem to nicely meld form with function. Quicken Online in particular is a free, web based budgeting tool run by popular software maker Intuit that helps users chart their net worth progress and spending habits. With Quicken Online, users get access to a one stop source for all of their account aggregation needs. By having their bank account balances and credit card transactions automatically pulled into the Quicken online system, users can chart their financial progression over time and plan out monthly budgets with the aid of Quicken-fied charts and graphs.

2) Mvelopes Personal (Free Trial) – Taking financial guru Dave Ramsey’s cash envelope system to heart, the Mvelopes system provides users an online envelope budget management solution. By dividing your income into online envelope spending accounts for expenses like groceries, entertainment, and bills, you can budget for the future by setting money aside in advance and increase the money you save. The Mvelopes Personal tool is not free, but they do offer a free trial offer to give you a chance to kick the tires a bit before driving it off the lot.

3) YNAB – You Need A Budget (Free Trial) – YNAB, aka the You Need A Budget spreadsheet program, is a popular budgeting tool for those struggling to get out of debt and attain financial peace. The downloadable YNAB spreadsheet software offer is not free, but does offer a 60 days free refundable deal if you decide to return after the test trial. Aside from getting a host of powerful budgeting tools, you’ll also get additional bonus spreadsheets to help you get acquainted with using a debt snowball, a mortgage analyzer, and even a handy car maintenance scheduler.

4) Yodlee MoneyCenter (Free) - Yodlee offers the best account aggregation technology available in the market today. With its well honed account consolidator service, users are able to automatically sort their account transactions into specific categories to meet their budget planning needs. Currently the company has major partnerships with numerous corporate banks, brokerages, and credit institutions like Fidelity, HSBC, Mint, Scottrade, and Capital One. This one is a must have and must use. Highly recommended.

5) Pear Budget (Free) – Calling itself easier to use than Quicken or Microsoft Money, Pear Budget’s a popular and highly touted intuitive budgeting and expense tracking tool (with over 100,000 claimed downloads). Pear Budget’s original free program is still available for download in Excel spreadsheet format, but those desiring a more “pretty-fied” version may want to try out the new web-based version, which offers a free introductory 30 day trial period but then costs $3 a month (still very affordable however).

6) SimpleD Budget (Free) – SimpleD is a simple, open source budgeting software designed for personal household financial management. The free downloadable program allows users to plan out personal budgets and track expenses by allocating income into specific spending categories. The application is quite customizable and allows for the use of multiple currencies and language types.

7) AceMoney Lite (Free) - This is the freeware version of a more premium personal finance manager. It’s equipped with all of the fancier features of its bigger sibling except multiple accounts management. AceMoney Lite supports all of the basic features needed to help any beginner to personal finance get started with financial budgeting, expense accounting, and investment tracking. AceMoney Lite even offers a special eBay feature to help small businesses manage their eBay auction transactions.

8) Mint (Free) – Mint is a very popular and rapidly growing online money management tool. This minty fresh online service uses well-established Yodlee account consolidation technology to power its account aggregation feature, but pairs it with a variety of free online budgeting tools. If you’re looking for a very beautiful online interface with easy to understand charts and graphics for your budget planning needs, Mint should be one of your top picks. However, as the service runs off of affiliate advertising income, be prepared to receive a fair share of product pitches on occasion.

9) Buxfer (Free) – Offering a beautiful online budgeting interface, Buxfer’s an online personal finance software you should take a look at. Buxfer offers the usual account aggregation functions and free budgeting tools for users, but even throws in useful features like group shared expense tracking for friends or roommates that share bills. The basic version is free but you’ll need to upgrade your membership to get unlimited account access to other more enhanced features. But even then, we’re only talking about $1 to $3 a month for the extra budgeting perks.

10) BudgetTracker (Free) – The free limited version of Budget Tracker allows for basic budget tracking, bill payment, and transaction recordation tied to calendar dates. However, more enhanced account data import and export functions and stock chart access does require the user to upgrade to a paid $2.95 per month subscription version. Still, it’s a fairly cheap, and feature-rich way to budget.

11) BudgetPulse (Free) – Developed with simplicity in mind, BudgetPulse touts its user friendliness and comprehensiveness in providing budgeting value for its customers. Best of all, the web based budget tracking software is indeed free. The company is also uniquely fanatical about privacy and user data security (big pluses), indicating on its website that for security reasons, the company has no  intention of ever linking directly to user banking accounts or credit cards.

12) My Spending Plan (Free) – MySpendingPlan’s currently a free online budgeting software for users who need help managing their budgets and reaching their financial savings goals. The online site can be used to plan out entire household budgets or just for specific tasks like weddings or home improvement projects. The free tool allows you to create shopping lists, set up bill payment dates, and create savings goals. The site even offers an interesting predictive Auto-Assign Budget technology to help recommend ongoing budgets based on past and present spending habits, matching them with your income limits.

13) Expensr (Free) - Acquired by MoneyStrands not too long ago, Expensr is currently a free online personal finance application, still operating in beta mode it seems. Resembling somewhat of a Quicken and Microsoft Money lite of sorts, it looks to be a fairly basic but useful tool for those with simple finances and budgeting needs. The service is free so worth at least a quick peak.

14) Money Trackin’ (Free) – Yes the domain name’s missing a letter “g” at the end, but that’s to make it sound hip I guess. Money Trackin’s a free online webapp that allows you to track all of your expenses and income sources automatically, thus allowing you to have a clear view of your financial situation at all times. Along with the usual household budgeting tools, the free site also offers functions to help track shared expenses and provides accounting tools for small business needs.

15) Buddi (Free) – On its website, the developers of Buddi references the program as a personal finance and budgeting program aimed at those who have little to no financial background – perfect for beginners. Simplicity with basic functionality’s the name of the game here. While offering nothing too fancy, it does offer the essentials of budgeting, account tracking, and financial progress report generation. As an open source budgeting software tool, Buddi will run on any machine with Java installed. The software is indeed absolutely free but does welcome donations and contributions from happy customers.

16) GnuCash (Free) – Compatible with Windows, Mac OS X, and Linux, GnuCash is a deceptively complete personal finance tool for ordinary consumers and small businesses alike. This freely available budgeting and accounting tool offers users a very powerful and flexible software-based platform to track bank accounts, stocks, income sources, and expenses. GnuCash is indeed free to use and offers much of the same professional accounting features you would expect from premium paid personal finance packages – such as balanced double entry notations and accurate financial reports. The free budgeting software program’s regularly updated and maintained so the program’s bound to continuously improve over time.

17) PLCash (Free) – Honestly, I’m not the biggest fan of home made budgeting tools, but PLCash is a very well put together budgeting program. Plus it’s also completely free and routinely updated and maintained. PLCash offers the basics of what you would need in any budget tracking tool – the ability to manage multiple accounts, juggle balances, allow for the importing and exporting of financial data to other programs like Quicken, with even extra bonus features like the ability to print checks in a variety of ways. As a Java based program, this free budget software tool is compatible with almost all computer operating systems.

18) Microsoft Office Accounting 2009 (Free Trial) – This free software download is provided courtesy of Microsoft, so we can expect a pretty well put together budgeting software program. This rather extensive small business accounting package may be a bit much for ordinary household consumers looking for a free/cheap budgeting software tool, but the free 60 day trial offer is worth a test run at the very least. Keep in mind though, it’s not cheap.

19) Microsoft Office Online (Windows) – Excel Budget Templates (Free) – If you prefer to run your personal budget projections by hand and track your expense estimations and actuals manually, Microsoft provides a wealth of freely available Excel spreadsheets and Word based tables for your budget downloading pleasure. Many of the freely available templates are compatible for running complete household budgets and even for specific budget plans for special events like weddings. Did I mention that they’re all free?

20) Microsoft Office Mactopia (Mac) Budget Templates (Free) – For the Apple Mac fans out there, there are also free Excel spreadsheet budget templates for you as well, however your pickings via the Mactopia site are significantly slimmer compared to the wider variety available to Windows users. Thus it’s time to ditch the Apple and switch to the PC. Just kidding.

Search Online For More Free Budgeting Software Options To Download

Visit Download.com and SourceForge.net for even more assorted free downloadable home and small business budgeting tools. In particular, I recommend checking out the ones that have garnered the most positive approval from users and editors – usually denoted with exceptionally high review rankings and star ratings.

Source URL: Free Budgeting Software and The Best Online Planning Tools

Copyright Protected © 2009 Money Blue Book: Personal Finance Blog. All Rights Reserved.

Since I gave my only existing laptop computer away to my younger brother so he could use it for his new graduate school studies, I decided I needed to go out and buy a new one for myself. As I’m actually in the midst of working my way through one of those supposedly free online laptop gift reward offers at the moment, I debated whether to wait around until I received it before heading off on my trip. At the end, I decided I could always sell the free laptop reward on eBay or Craigslist for extra money some other time in the future. So I decided to go ahead and buy a new laptop computer for work travel portability. The following are some of the considerations I went through when choosing a new laptop computer.

What Features Should I Look For In The Perfect Laptop Notebook Computer?

I’m not a tech blogger, nor am I even close to being an expert on how to buy a notebook computer. While I love computers, I really don’t update myself on all the latest news and advancements in technology related products. What I am is just an ordinary consumer who has purchased laptops and computers before as a student and as a working professional, for myself, family, and friends. I know what I like and I know what’s practical for most personal and business applications. I also enjoy visiting retail stores like Best Buy and Circuit City that offer in store display products for consumers to tinker on, tap away furiously, and basically abuse to their heart’s content. It’s one of the many reasons why I like retail brick and mortar electronic stores as opposed to online shopping sometimes. At retail stores, when it comes to products like laptop computers, you have the ability to pick the product up to physically gauge the weight and feel, the ability to feel the sensation of the laptop keyboard spring response as you type, and the first hand ability to visually assess the quality of the merchandise.

As a financial blogger with a legal background, I’m definitely not a savvy expert on computer CPU processor terminology or a know-it-all when it comes to deciding whether one memory component is better than another memory component. But I do know what works for me and what is practical for most laptop consumers in the real world. For my purposes, so long as a laptop computer is form appropriate in terms of weight, size, and aesthetics, and performs with proficient speed, and able to handle appropriate writing and browsing tasks at an affordable cost, I’ll definitely give the laptop model a serious consideration.

Here are some of the most important features to look for in a laptop notebook computer. The items in this little list don’t cover everything, but they are the primary features and components that most ordinary laptop users will want to consider when choosing a new notebook computer. I’m sure some of the so-called laptop hardware experts will be surprised at the features I find important and amused by the ones I deem less worthy of my concern.

1) Glossy Screen or Matte/Anti-Reflective Screen – Other than the keyboard, the screen is probably one, if not the most important feature of a great laptop computer. Personally, I highly prefer the glossy screens over the duller matted ones, despite the fact the great majority of computer users (probably 80% or more) seem to prefer matted displays. While the glossy screens tend to be more reflective of light and has been reported to cause eye strain in some users, I’ve never had any viewing problems or reflective difficulties associated with the glossier displays. I love the glossy screens because the colors are displayed much more brightly and with more richness. Color palettes are not only displayed with greater vibrancy, but the resultant effect is a laptop screen back light that seems stronger than that of the matte.

Matted displays on the other hand, while not reflective of light and supposedly less imposing of a strain on the eyes, display colors and shades that are much more subdued. My old IBM Thinkpad laptop was a matte screen and I always had problems with the display being too dark. Ever since I bought a glossy Sony Xbrite LCD monitor for my desktop computer, I fell in love with the glossies and never plan on going back. Due to my great experience with Sony glossy screens, I almost always recommend their displays over other brands. I’ve owned Dell’s and other brands as well and have found their screen colors to be comparatively duller.

2) Keyboard Size and Responsiveness – As I will primarily be using this new laptop for word processing and blogging related functions, having a stellar keyboard with accurate spring back response will be extremely important. The keyboard is definitely a major make or break issue for me. After visiting all the local Best Buy and Circuit City stores, and having matched the opinions expressed on online review sites like CNET to my actual experience at the retail stores, I’ve narrowed down what I believe to be the top 3 laptop brands that offer the best keyboards – Lenovo (formerly IBM Thinkpad), Dell, and Sony’s Vaio SZ business series. All of the other laptop brands out there like HP, Sony non-SZ series, and even Apple offer sub par keyboard typing experiences in comparison. Of course this is just my personal take and opinion, but I highly prefer laptop keyboards that click crisply as you type with very responsive and clearly defined bounce backs as keys are pressed.

The legendary IBM/Lenovo Thinkpads are above and beyond the very best when it comes to keyboard design and technology. Very few other brands even come close. The only ones that can even compare are the Dell and Sony VAIO SZ series keyboards (the non-SZ series laptops offer keyboard buttons that seem a tad too soft). While some might not like the noticeably louder clicking sounds that emanate from the Sony SZ keys, I actually find the sharper key taps to be very reassuring and responsive as I type.

3) Laptop Machine Weight and Screen Size - Unless you are buying a laptop computer as a desktop replacement computer that will spend the bulk of its time sitting stationary at your home office desk, the laptop’s weight and size will be fairly important factors to consider. In my ideal business oriented laptop, I prefer a light weight machine that doesn’t exceed 5 lbs (4 lbs is highly preferred). Anything higher than 5 lbs is treading into the heavy brick category in my opinion. I’ve lugged around laptops before and have found that after including the additional weight of the electrical power strip, the mouse pad, the mouse, and other external hard drive extras, any laptop that exceeds 5 pounds can quickly weigh down the laptop bag fairly significantly.

Interestingly, the laptop screen size itself is not something I pay too much attention to when it comes to choosing a notebook computer. If you ask me, unless you are buying a desktop replacement, you needn’t pay too much attention to the screen size. Even smaller screen computers generally perform just as well as the larger ones. Usually, it comes down to a trade off between screen size and weight. Having a larger screen size affords more computer desktop space and is certainly nice, but it also means the computer is likely to be substantially heavier. I’ve found that the compact 13 inch screen is perfectly ideal for most ordinary users, including bloggers and writers who don’t really need the extra desktop space for their work. For my purposes, anything larger than a 13 inch screen would probably result in a portable computer that’s significantly heavier than I’d like.

4) Processor and Memory Hardware - I rarely pay attention to the processing speed or memory hardware when choosing a laptop. I’m sure some computer techies would probably be shocked, but I personally view such laptop parts as inherently interchangeable. I’ve rarely had any problems with slow processing speed or issues involving not having enough memory. These days, with the rapid rate at which new developments in computer hardware get released into the marketplace, there isn’t much point in trying to stay on top of the latest technology. Most of the desktop computers and laptops sold out there usually offer the top of the line hardware anyway, or at least close to the top. There’s no real point fussing over one chip over another and it’s unlikely any of us regular consumers would be able to tell a difference based on performance alone anyway. You’re better off hinging your laptop buying decision on components like the keyboard or type of screen offered.

5) Built In Camera and Microphone – While neither are essential components, having a built in camera and internal microphone are handy features to have. Having them already installed into your laptop screen cuts down on the added weight from having to carry around extra accessories. With the growing use of video instant messaging and the use of Voice Over IP services like Skype for audio conferencing purposes, it’s good to have a built in webcam in your notebook computer. It shouldn’t be a make or break issue though, so don’t let it hinder your ultimate buying decision.

6) Extra Features and Gizmos Like Special Video and Sound Cards, and Extra USB Ports – Having extra USB ports is nice because it allows you to hook up multiple components like your mouse, printer, scanner, digital camera, and external hard drives at the same time. While the ideal laptop should have at least 4 USB ports, 2 is often enough for most entry level users.

As for having fancy 3D video cards or premium sound cards, unless you plan to be a heavy gamer or work as a 3D graphics designer, these are luxuries that are nice to have but not really essential in a new laptop computer. My suggestion is to not pay these components too much attention. Focus on the screen type and keyboard instead.

7) Customer Support and Product Reliability – One thing that I’ve learned over the years is that internally, computers are all basically from the same stock. Other than a few proprietary and unique components like computer screens and keyboard design, the internal processor and hardware components are all the same among the different computer brands. Almost all of the manufacturing and assembling processes are outsourced to other companies. For example, would it surprise you to know that Dell and many of the major computer brands out there don’t actually build their own computers? It’s true. What the brands actually offer is customer and technical support for computer repairs and troubleshooting. Manufacturing responsibilities are outsourced to other companies and all their laptop and desktop computer parts are built and assembled by third party manufacturers like Seagate, Panasonic, and Intel. Thus, oftentimes, one of the few distinguishing factors among different computer brands are the differences in customer support warranty packages. Most of my laptop buying and technical support experiences have centered around IBM/Lenovo Thinkpads, Dell laptops, and Sony notebook computers – the vast majority having been generally positive and favorable.

Most computers in the market offer the industry standard warranty of 12 months. When it comes to buying extra laptop warranty coverage, I advise against it – use credit card warranty programs instead. You’re much better off buying the laptop computer with a credit card and extending your original manufacturer’s warranty by a year or more with the special warranty extension perks that many credit card issuers provide for consumers. By extending your laptop warranty to a combined total of 2 years with credit card warranty programs, you’ll get pretty good mileage out of your portable computer. As laptop lifespans are generally 2-3 years and computer prices drop fairly fast, you may be better off buying a new laptop after the end of the 2 year warranty period should it break down after that time. Don’t waste your money on purchasing additional extended warranty add-ons. Many retail store agents push this type of extra service, not because it’s such an invaluable service, but because it’s one of the few things the reps can earn lofty commissions on.

My Decision To Ultimately Buy A Sony VAIO SZ Series Business Laptop

After weeks of tests and comparisons at local area electronic retail stores, I finally settled on buying a brand new black Sony VAIO SZ750 business laptop. The price, while more expensive than that of standard consumer laptops, offered a laptop that was a perfect fit for an aspiring full time blogger on the go like myself. The keyboard typing experience is quite exceptional on the Sony VAIO SZ series and the laptop is very light at 4-5 pounds. The glossy screen display also offers crisp colors and an excellent viewing experience, a trademark of most Sony VAIO computers. I love the black exterior color design, reminiscent of my old IBM Thinkpad during law school. The only thing that would have made the Sony VAIO SZ even better would have been a red pointer device. While most people seem to dislike those handy red pointing devices in favor of the classic laptop touch pad, I actually like the pointing sticks a lot more, probably due to my days as a Thinkpad user. I had considered buying a Lenovo Thinkpad, but the lack of glossy screens in the Lenovo notebook line eventually led me to go with a Sony VAIO. As usual, I paid very little attention to the processor, memory, or even hard drive specifics – making my decision primarily based on keyboard and laptop screen quality comparisons.

Getting Rid Of The Infamous Sony VAIO Computer Bloatware Programs

My only gripe with the Sony VAIO laptop I purchased is the extremely high and ridiculous amount of bloatware that came pre-installed. Bloatware is basically the lingo used to refer to free, but useless software that comes pre-installed on many new computers. Oftentimes third party software developers like AOL, Microsoft, and Norton Anti-Virus pay computer manufacturers like Sony and Dell large sums of money to install their promotional software programs into all new computers sold. Most of the time, the software installed are not even fully functional versions, but rather demo test trial programs designed to compel the user to pay more money to buy the full software at the end of the trial period. The pre-installations essentially bloat your new computer, causing it to unnecessarily devote processing power to handle the excess software load. For those like me who desire a clean desktop and streamlined hard drive installation, getting rid of all the preinstalled software can be a major pain in the you know what. Oftentimes it’s also hard to differentiate the unnecessary bloatware from the essential programs.

Sony is probably the king of bloatware. While they build pretty decent computers, for whatever reason, the company don’t hesitate to sell out their computer consumers to the bloatware developers as they readily stuff their new computers with all sorts of pointless software programs that consumers are unlikely to ever use. The following list are all the pre-installed programs and applications that came with my new Sony VAIO SZ laptop. While the specifics will likely differ among Sony computers, the majority are likely going to be the same. I’ve bolded the ones I’ve kept. The non-bolded ones are the pre-installed software programs I’ve deemed to be bloatware and useless. Please let me know if you disagree with any of my bloatware assessments. I removed the bloatware programs by accessing the uninstall program feature through my desktop’s control panel and individually removing each one. The whole removal process wasted about 1-2 hours of my time. Thanks Sony.

List Of Pre-Installed Software On My Sony VAIO Laptop (The Programs That Are Somewhat Useful and Perhaps Necessary Are Bolded)

• Activation Assistance For the 2007 Microsoft Office Suite
• Adobe Acrobat Professional 8.0
• Adobe Flash Player
• Adobe Reader
• Alps Point-device for Vaio
• AOL Toolbar 4.0
• ArcSoft Magic-i Visual Effects
• Business Contact Manager for Outlook 2007
• Click to Disc
• Click to Disc Editor
• Compatibility Pack for the 2007 Office System
• Corel PaintShop Pro Photo X2
• Crackle Screen Saver 1.0
• DSD Direct
• DSD Direct Player
• DSD Playback Plug In
• HDAudio SoftV92 Data Fax Modem with SmartCP
• Java SE Runtime Environement 6
• LiveUpdate 2.3 (Symantec Coproration)
• Location Free Player
• Microsoft Office Component Files (all)
• Microsoft SQL Server Component Files (all)
• Microsoft Visual C++
• Microsoft Works
• MSXML 4.0 SP2 Files
• MobiTV Icon
• Napster
• Norton 360 (Symantec Corporation)
• NVIDIA Drivers
• OpenMG Limited Patch 4.7
• Protector Suite QL 5.6
• QuickBooks Simple Start 2008
• Roxio Easy Media Creator Home
• Setting Utility Series
• SigmaTel Audio
• SmartWi Connection Utility
  
• SonicStage
• SonicStage Mastering Studio and Filters
• Sony Snymsico for Vista
• Sony Video Shared Library
• Spy Sweeper
• SupportSoft Assisted Service
• VAIO Camera Capture Utility
  
• VAIO Center Access Bar
• VAIO Content Folder Bar
• VAIO Content Folder Setting
• VAIO Content Metadata (all)
• VAIO Control Center
• VAIO DVD Menu Data Basic
  
• VAIO Entertainment Center
  
• VAIO Entertainment Platform
• VAIO Event Service
• VAIO Help and Support
• VAIO Media (all files)
• VAIO Movie Story
• VAIO Movie Story Template Data
• VAIO Music Box
• VAIO Music Box Sample Music
• VAIO OOBE and Welcome Center
• VAIO Original Function Setting
• VAIO PC Wireless LAN Wizard
• VAIO Power Management
• VAIO Productivity Center
• VAIO Security Center
• VAIO Service Utility
• VAIO Startup Assistant
• VAIO Status Monitor
  
• VAIO Survey
• VAIO Update 3
• VAIO Wallpaper Contents (not needed but nice to have some different wallpaper options)
• WIDCOMM Bluetooth Software
• Windows Driver Package Intent Corporation
• WinDVD for VAIO

Source URL: Buying A New Laptop Computer And Getting Rid Of Sony VAIO Bloatware

Copyright Protected © 2008 Money Blue Book: Personal Finance Blog. All Rights Reserved.

Personally, I can barely recall the last time I actually went through the hassle of balancing my checkbook manually. The tedious bean counting practice of manually comparing my own personal account records with the recordation information provided by monthly bank statements is simply not something I’ve readily adopted over the years. The last time was probably in high school when my mom sought to teach me about basic account management by forcing me to watch her go through the motion of recording transactions neatly on the gridded transaction register that comes with each set of checks. But other than that first initial lesson, I don’t think I’ve ever done it in real practice. After all, I bank online almost exclusively, and other than the monthly rent checks I write, I seldom glance at my checkbooks anymore. In fact, I highly recommend readers do the same. We are entering the new technological age where efficiency, speed, and identity security are paramount concerns. Electronic banking and online bill pay offer the type of convenience and security benefits that paper checks and manual payment systems simply are unable to provide.

Write Personal Checks Sparingly To Minimize The Risks Of Becoming An Identity Theft Victim

If you asked me, checks are nothing but potential identity fraud cases waiting to happen. After all, you wouldn’t go about your daily life randomly handing out slips of paper with your complete personal identification and financial information scrawled on them would you? But that’s basically what you’re doing when you open up your checkbook and issue a personal check. Personally, I write very few checks nowadays, and here’s why. When you write a personal check at your local Safeway or CVS, or when you cut out a check to your local pizza delivery guy, you are opening up a tremendous security risk by leaving the check behind. On that check is your name, address, phone number, bank’s name and address, bank account number, bank routing number, and even your actual handwritten signature. Oftentimes, as is the case at most supermarkets and department stores, cashiers even request additional identification from you and write the information directly on the face of the check. This additional ID request can include sensitive information such as your driver’s license number, your social security number, and even your birth date.

While many banks eventually mail the used canceled check back to you, not all banks do. Some merely scan the checks and upload the displays onto your online account for you to see. It’s almost impossible to know how many sets of eyes have viewed the check and how many scans or copies were made. What’s exceedingly apparent is that anyone who sees the front of your personal check has sufficient information to open fraudulent bank and credit accounts in your name. One very unknown fact about checks is that anyone can take an account number and routing number off the bottom of a personal check and create new fake checks with them. The name displayed on the check doesn’t even have to match the actual customer name on the underlying bank account in question. Oftentimes, retailers and banks simply don’t check to see if the numbers on the check match up with the right names for that account.

While I personally abhor writing checks, viewing the practice as not only archaic but outdated, there are still limited circumstances when I simply can’t get around it. Because I lease my current condo apartment from an ordinary pair of mom and pop landlords, they’re not properly equipped to handle credit card payments. As such, each month I’m obligated to mail a personal check out to them to cover my monthly rent. Sometimes, you have few alternatives and must write out checks, and that’s acceptable in limited circumstances like paying your rent, your mortgage, or paying your monthly credit card bill. But if some traveling salesman or pizza delivery guy comes to your door, don’t write him a check, because all you’re doing is giving him a potential tool (a blank check if you will) for trouble. Even if it’s the seemingly innocent girl scouts selling cookies at your door, I recommend paying by cash instead of paying by check so long as the sum is not too prohibitive. Avoid check payments if you can unless you’ve already established a history or measure of trust with the person or company.

Online Banking Is Truly A Much More Efficient Way To Balance Your Checkbook and Track Your Account Finances

The actual practice of balancing your checkbook is a method to verify and confirm that your own personal records accurately match your monthly bank statement transactions. The purpose is to catch mistakes and unauthorized transactions as they happen. While most bank transactions are processed and recorded accurately, sometimes mistakes occur. Usually, bank customers have anywhere from 30-60 days to bring the accounting error or unauthorized transaction details to the attention of their bank. Failure to notify the bank in time about any account discrepancies may result in forfeiture of the bank’s liability to pay you money to make up for the difference. That’s why it’s generally important to balance your checkbook, or reconcile your account balances as accountants like to put it. The best way to do that is to get in the habit of banking online, particularly with the aid of Internet banking aggregators. Online banking not only affords you accurate and real-time updates of your bank accounts on demand, it also provides a variety of account history information to help you budget your spending.

By giving you instant access to your account balances at all times, online banking  helps you plan accordingly. Failure to know how much money you have in your checking or savings account on a regular basis may lead you to blindly spend more money than you have, through ATM withdrawals, excess check writing, and debit card purchases, causing you to incur unnecessary bank fees and charges. Protecting yourself from overdraft and bounced check fees is a must when it comes to sound financial planning.

There are a variety of bounced check and insufficient fund fees that banks and merchants levy when there isn’t enough money in your bank account to cover your authorized checks. A single bounced check can easily cause $50 or more as not only the bank will charge you a $20-30 processing fee, but the merchant who received the paper check from you is likely to charge you an additional $20-30 merchant fee as well for passing a non sufficient fund check. Without knowledge and daily tracking of your checking account balance, insufficient fund and late payment fees can quickly add up and spiral out of control. For the overdraft prone, many banks currently offer overdraft protection to ensure that your checks never bounce and that all ATM and debit transactions still go through. While you’ll still have to pay the bank’s overdraft or bounced check fee, at least with overdraft protection you can avoid having to pay the merchant’s return check cost, and stay in good standing with the payee and the people you do business with.

Another service many banks now offer is the option for customers to link their checking accounts with a savings account. In the event the customer accidentally exceeds his or her available checking account balance, funds from the linked savings account will automatically be used to satisfy the shortfall. While there is usually a small transaction fee for this automatic coverage via the savings account, the charge (around $5-10) is often substantially less than having to pay a non sufficient fund charge to the bank and an additional bounced check fee to the merchant.

While some banks also allow checking accounts to be linked up to credit cards as a backup source of funds in the event of a cash shortfall, I don’t recommend this option. In the event of insufficient checking account funds, the overdraft becomes a cash advance on your credit card. Oftentimes the cash advance fee is levied immediately and cash advance interest charges start accruing immediately. The better option is to utilize the linked savings account alternative, mentioned above.

View Your Online Bank Accounts Daily and Mentally Keep Track Of Your Balances Throughout The Day As You Spend Money

When I speak of balancing my own checkbook, I’m not actually talking about sitting down with wads of purchase receipts and manually matching handwritten checkbook transactions to information found on my monthly bank statements. That would be much too unwieldy and time consuming of a regular task to undertake. In this day and age, between writing checks, swiping credit and debit cards, and using online bill pay, it’s simply too much work and too cumbersome to carry around a paper register and write down every single transaction. However, that doesn’t mean I am not tracking my finances and transactions at all times – I’m simply using a broad mental tracking method to keep tabs on my check, debit, and credit expenditures as opposed to using a manual recordation approach.

The whole point of keeping those accounts balanced is primary to catch those rare but pesky bank recordation mistakes and to ensure that you have even funds in your actively used checking accounts at all times to handle payment requests. For those who want to adopt the same mental tracking method that I use, it’s actually quite simple – all you have to do is get in the habit of viewing your online account balances on a regular basis. Ideally, you’ll want to check your bank account balances every single day. There’s nothing particularly obsessive or compulsive about that. After all for example, if you’re looking to lose weight or count your calories, you would want to step on that bathroom scale regularly to track your progress. In the same way, you want to know where your bank account balances stand at all times. You want to always have a mental figure for the day and make sure you spend well below that amount. If you are new to the practice of mental tracking, you may want to keep a small transaction log (like the ones used for checkbooks) on your person until you get the hang of it. But ultimately, the goal is to rely on mental tracking instead of wasting time and effort writing down every single day to day transaction.

Since all of my credit card, checking, CD, and online high yield savings accounts are linked together on the web and enabled to make automatic monthly debit payments without my continuous oversight, I always make sure I have sufficient funds in my checking account to satisfy all upcoming bill pays. For those who utilize automatic debit payments to handle recurring bills as I do, It’s important to establish a sufficient monetary cushion in your checking account to handle unexpected ATM withdraws and debit card uses to avoid having to pay insufficient fund charges or late fees.

Some banks like Bank of America offer special enrollment programs to help customers better track their spending by rounding up purchase amounts to the nearest dollar. With the Bank of America Keep The Change program, each time you use your Bank of America check card (essentially a debit card) to buy something, the purchase amount is rounded up to the nearest dollar denomination and the difference is automatically deposited into a linked savings account. Not does only does the program greatly promote savings, it makes it a lot easier to mentally keep track of daily purchase transactions as you don’t have to contend with adding up cents.

Using Credit Cards Is Actually A Smarter Way To Manage Your Money Than Using Checks or Debit Cards

The practice of using bank debit cards to manage money is a growing trend as society steadily moves away from cash and check transactions. However, the reality is that most people don’t manage their debit card spending very well and most don’t balance their debit transactions daily, either in written form or mentally, like I do. Personally I’m not a big fan of using debit cards. In my opinion, debit cards are simply check writing in glorified plastic form, minus some of the potential identity theft issues discussed earlier. While it’s substantially safer and more secure than writing paper checks, debit cards still come with the same problems inherent in check writing – payment amounts are withdrawn from your checking account immediately and thus you have to make sure you stay within your checking account limit at all times or face having to pay over the limit fees.

The better solution is to go with a payment mechanism that does not rely on immediate account debits – like credit cards. Due to grace periods inherent with credit cards, compared to debit and check payments, there is less worry when it comes to insufficient fund requirements and bounced payment requests. Credit cards also offer substantially stronger fraud protections against unauthorized transactions and charge mistakes. Oftentimes a quick phone call or an explanation letter is enough to get unauthorized credit card charges removed from your bill, and the best part is that you don’t lose any money while the billing dispute is going on.

Ideally, credit card usage usage is the way to go in an otherwise perfect world. In a perfect world, all cardholders would be responsible credit users with the self control to not spend wildly beyond their means, and would be able to always make sure they have enough money to pay off their credit card balances every month. Unfortunately, this is not a perfect world we live in and not everyone is qualified to use credit cards as their primary method to pay for things.

Source URL: Stop Writing Checks and Start Banking Online To Avoid Identity Theft

Copyright Protected © 2008 Money Blue Book: Personal Finance Blog. All Rights Reserved.

This preferential situation comes up whenever I call a live customer service help line. When I pick up the phone and make that affirmative decision to seek help via a toll free telephone number, my reasonable expectation is that I will reach someone who can communicate with me in an intelligible way, and help me resolve my consumer business problem quickly and efficiently, so that I can go along my merry way. It’s bad enough that I often have to spend 30 minutes or more waiting on hold before I can talk to a live technical support representative, but these days, it seems when I finally reach that live person, he or she turns out to be completely unable to communicate with me using comprehensible and discernible English.

I Can Deal With Difficult To Understand Accents In Real Life (By Using Hand Gestures), But When The Situations Happen Over The Phone, The Conversations Can Get Comically Tedious

I am terrible when it comes to understanding different accents. Even British English accents trip me up on occasion – but at least it is somewhat closer to American English in terms of speech and pronunciation, albeit a bit more deliberately pronounced I suppose. While I can understand the different types of American English accents such as a southern, Boston, and even accents that distinguish different races and ethnic groups prominent in this country, I still have frequent difficulty understanding the cultural nuances and accents that aren’t considered mainstream American English. This difficulty in understanding foreign accents is most pronounced and debilitating when it comes to conversations over the phone with someone from another land, especially when I find my phone call re-routed to some outsourced call center located overseas and wind up with a customer service rep who speaks with a thick accent that I simply cannot understand despite my best efforts.

While in a real life conversation and business work setting, heavy accents aren’t as significant a detriment as there are other methods of communication such as using writing and through natural hand gestures to punctuate one’s point, in the world of customer service telephone calls, this type of linguistic verbal diversity is a significant detriment and handicap. When it comes to customer and technical support help lines, communication and speed are two important elements to a quick and satisfactory resolution of the problem at hand. There are plenty of jobs where having a perfect American English accent is not crucial and one can get away with not having otherwise perfect American English, but a position as a customer service call representative that caters to Americans is not one of them. The job absolutely demands that the agent be able to communicate with the language of the target country. Is that really too much to ask? Oftentimes in such scenarios, time and patience are limited luxuries. In such situations, having a thick accent is a very undesired handicap to have, particularly when the issue needs to get resolved quickly over the phone in a short period of time without the benefit of time to get to know each other. This is the biggest problem many customers such as myself are having with companies that continue to outsource their customer service call center jobs overseas to English speaking, but heavily accented countries like India.

Facing An Indian Customer Service Representative With An Incredibly Thick Accent Is Like Talking To A Brick Wall – Nothing Gets Through, and Time Is Wasted

When American call center customer service jobs are outsourced to other countries, I think it’s reasonable to expect the call agents that will be handling the calls to be trained to speak in proper America English. However that is not always the case. Especially when it comes to Indian call centers, the accent is often an interesting mish mash of British English, local Indian dialect, and butchered American English. What often comes out is an unintelligible murmur, resulting in humorous and frequently embarrassing exchanges between the rep and the customer.

A few years ago, I bought a Linksys wireless Internet router, but had major trouble setting up my wireless connection. I kept losing my wireless internet signal and so I embarked on a customer service phone call quest to solve the problem. I dialed the company’s 1-800 number and was promptly connected to an agent. Little did I know, but my call from Maryland, USA was instantly routed thousands of miles across the planet to a different time zone to a call center in India. Immediately when I heard the agent’s accent, I knew it was going to be a long day. It started as soon as my phone rep introduced herself with a thick Indian accented “Hello”…followed by a …”my name is Mary”, a presumably English name moniker chosen by the Indian customer service rep for the convenience sake of their mostly American clientele instead of compelling them to remember a more difficult Indian name. For the next 60 minutes, I struggled valiantly to understand her words and sentences. I tried to remain polite and understanding, but I kept asking her to please repeat herself, much to my continued embarrassment. Every sentence on her part would be followed by a “What?” on my end, or would be followed by a momentary pause as I scratched my head and tried to figure out what she was trying to tell me.

After a while, I could tell she was getting fed up with having to repeat herself after every instruction, but then what was I supposed to do? I desperately tried to understand, and I really did try – but it was a constant guessing game on my end. I simply could not comprehend the Indian customer service representative’s thick Indian English accent. At the end, I got little accomplished because she and I were simply unable to communicate. I found myself spending more than an hour repeating her own words back in my vain attempt to make some linguistic sense. Eventually I had to give up and seek help from another customer service rep. The next rep’s Indian accent was just as thick and I ultimately had to call back several times before I finally found an agent who’s accent was more bearable. But the experience left me with a very negative view of the company and their irresponsible cost cutting efforts to send customer service jobs overseas when the work could be better handled here.

American Companies Who Cater To American Consumers Should Seriously Re-Consider Their Indian Outsourcing Strategy Or Face Consumer Backlash In The Long Run

This is a serious problem that many major American companies who choose to outsource their call center jobs to low cost foreign countries will ultimately have to face. Customers such as myself may eventually take our customer service frustration out on the company and defect to one of their competitors. Based on some news reports I’ve read, many companies that have attempted to outsource their customer service functions abroad have not realized the cost savings they expected, discovering that there are hidden costs that far outweighed the potential savings in labor expenses. Oftentimes, due to significant customer complaints about difficult to understand customer service representative accents and great differences in culture, companies have had to expend significant amounts of additional money to train the agents on proper American English and terminology. Ultimately some of these outsourcers have brought those type of jobs back in-house and back into the country.

Faced with backlash from customers like myself who have great difficulty understanding heavily accented Indian English, some companies are actually taking the next logical alternative step by shipping the work over to other moderately English speaking countries, like the Philippines. As a former U.S. controlled territory, the Philippines at least offers a more Americanized work force with a better understanding of American culture that can potentially offer employees with lighter accents. There will still be an annoying accent to deal with, but at least the twang, so to speak, will be significantly less painful to understand than that spoken in India.

There are currently also signs that the trend toward outsourcing call center jobs to low-wage countries like India or even the Philippines may be slowing down. Research shows that some call centers are most effective when staffed by Americans and there is at least some growing attempt to keep jobs here. I’ve noticed that many companies are now trying to keep the bulk of their daytime customer service call center jobs in the United States where the calls can be handled by American English speaking agents. For customer service lines that provide 24 hour coverage and take on evening calls however, some still get routed overseas to places like India, but many daytime calls are now being mercifully handled by call centers in the U.S. At least that’s what I noticed recently when I called my cable internet provider’s help line several times recently. When I called during normal daytime office hours, I got a service rep that spoke perfect English, but at night, I basically played the ole accent guessing game, doubling and even tripling the length of time spent trying to resolve my problem.

For those of you out there who are embarrassed to admit but also have difficulty understanding accents, I recommend making your 1-800 customer service and technical support phone calls during the day. Sure that means using up your precious anytime wireless phone minutes, but you stand a much better chance of reaching someone in this country than if you called after hours.

Source URL: Outsourcing Call Center Jobs To India Leads To Bad Customer Service

Copyright Protected © 2008 Money Blue Book: Personal Finance Blog. All Rights Reserved.

Well we’ve finally reached the dog days of summer – the hottest stretch of heat sweltering days of July and August. For those of you who live in colder climates, bless your hearts – enjoy the mild temperatures while you can because colder weather will be upon you soon. But for everyone else who lives in a state or region that enjoys four seasons year round with hot and humid summers like I do, it’s time for all of us to get outside and enjoy that nice sunshine warmth.

One of the best ways to get some mild exercise, and enjoy the great outdoors with the family at the same time is to visit an amusement theme park like Six Flags, Busch Gardens, or Disney World. Now you might be thinking to yourself – wait, visiting an amusement isn’t exercise and it sure isn’t the great outdoors. Where is the huffing and puffing, and where are the essential greenery that make up the great outdoors? I guess that’s where you and I differ – I consider the great outdoors to be anywhere that’s not cooped up inside an air conditioned house or apartment on a summer’s day spent watching TV or playing Nintendo Wii. As long as you are out and about, walking around outside, enjoying the sun’s natural Vitamin-D inducing rays, you are immersed in the great outdoors my friend.

In addition, all that walking around, waiting in line, and strolling from roller coaster ride to concession stand is definitely exercise. It’s not exactly running an Olympic marathon, but you’ll likely burn off some needed calories in the process. The last time I went to Six Flags, my poor puppies (my weird slang for feet) ached after walking around all day. I visited the amusement theme park during pre-season so the lines were incredibly short and non existent, prompting me and my travel companion to walk around even faster to ensure we hit every single roller coaster ride and gaming stand by day’s end. It was a fun, but rather tiring and dizzying experience.

You’re Getting Off Track Again – What About The Free Roller Coaster Photos?

Now, anyone who has ever been to one knows that spending a day at the amusement park does not come cheap. In fact, most places are pretty expensive and if you’re not careful about your budget or keep a tight reign on careless spending on snacks and drinks, you mind find yourself blowing more money than expected – just like you do at the movies. At amusement theme parks like Six Flags, you can expect to shell out anywhere from $25 to $50 per person depending on your age and height, and even more on top of that for meals and other gaming experiences. At mega theme parks like Orlando Florida’s Disney World resorts, tickets range anywhere from $70 for young children to more than $160 for adults for multi-park access. Thus, any little thing you can do to cut costs here and there will help you save lots of money in the long run and prevent you from losing your financial mind.

Here’s a little tip I picked up a while back on how to get free roller coaster photographs of yourself and free on-board pictures of your friends at any amusement theme park. After every major roller coaster ride, as you’re walking down the exit ramp rather dizzily from the experience, you’re likely to bump into the ubiquitous roller coaster souvenir photo booth. At the stand you’ll usually find a sales counter along with multiple television monitors mounted high up, cycling through live digital photo shots of roller coaster riders taken in various stages of facial displays ranging from joy and happiness, to sheer terror (but they are usually all funny). The images are all photos automatically taken by strategically mounted on-ride cameras located throughout the track. Oftentimes, the cameras are installed on segments where the riders experience the greatest speed, resulting in a variety of funny displays of wacky and distorted expressions due to excitement, fear, or just plain wind resistance. Sometimes, all occupants of a single roller coaster car are displayed in one photograph, and sometimes only two or four people are displayed at one time. The photos on the display screen are usually numbered and park customers willing to purchase their own can do so. The instant photos are usually available immediately after the ride is over should you choose to buy them – and they frequently come in a variety of specialty trinket forms like T-shirts and key chains. The prices charged however, are frequently expensive rip off prices. A tiny wallet size photo may cost in excess of $15-20 each. Larger photos may be priced as high as $25-$35 each. Keychains and T shirts can easily cost in excess of $25-$45.

For those who want to get their roller coaster photos for free, you’ll have to act fast as soon as the ride is over. Usually the rollercoaster souvenir booth video displays cycle through the most recent ride results from one car to another before moving on to the next set of new vehicle riders. As guests exit the ride, the display screens update the photos with the latest riders, thereby gradually burying the photos of riders that came before. If you want to save some money, take the limited time opportunity to raise up your digital camera, zoom in, and take a direct digital photograph of the display screen when your rollercoaster shot cycles through. You’ll want to act fast as your photo will likely only be flipped through a few times before disappearing for good. If you’re quick, you just might be able to walk away with a high quality, free roller coaster self shot.

The last time I was at Six Flags, I did just that for numerous rides. It sort of baffled me at the time why no one else was doing it though. As soon as I saw the screen display of my friend and I, I raised my Canon Digital Elph sky high to rise above the crowd of riders waiting to buy souvenir photos, and quickly snapped off a few free shots. As soon as I did that, everyone looked at me with eyes widened, and immediately took out their own cameras to do the same – frantically snapping their own self pics as the display screens flipped to images of them. Such frugal tips seem so common-sensical that we oftentimes fail to realize that we can easily get many things for free just by trying.

Financially or Morally Ethical? It’s Up To You – But Remember, You Did Pay The Price Of Your Pricey Admissions Ticket

While I doubt Six Flags, Disney World, Disney Land, Kings Dominion, Busch Gardens, or Cedar Point officials condone this type of free photograph taking, I’ve never noticed any signs or ticket stub fine print restricting this frugal (albeit freeloading) practice. Support the park and pay your $35 roller coaster souvenir photo at Kingda Ka or any other popular ride if you want. However, in my opinion, you’ve already paid for your price of amusement park admission, so you might as well maximize your budget by taking advantage of free photographing opportunities. Once you snap a photo with your digital camera, you can pretty much make as many digital prints as you want.

I suppose the lawyer part of me feels compelled to address one more concern. As for questions about copyright infringement legalities, don’t worry. Copyright laws only protect the rights of actual tangible mediums of expression whether it be an expression of writing, photography, or music. Yes it would be a possible copyright violation if you were to copy the digital photographs off of the souvenir booth computers directly and reproduce them (that might be considered criminal theft as well). But by using your own personal digital camera to take a photograph of the monitor indirectly, you are in the clear. Feel free to snap away. You are now your own paparazzi!

Source URL: How To Get A Free Roller Coaster Photo At Six Flags or Disney World

Copyright Protected © 2008 Money Blue Book: Personal Finance Blog. All Rights Reserved.

Have you ever wondered how credit card companies generate all those account numbers that appear on the face of the credit cards you carry around in your wallet? At first glance the numbers, while neatly arranged, appear to be completely random. But would it surprise you to know that there is indeed meaning and actual mathematical methodology to the way the numbers are sequenced? The process of generating real credit card numbers and validating them based on a proven mathematical formula is not only intriguing on an intellectual level and a hacker’s dream, the carefully calculated way the numbers are ordered is actually quite beautiful and elegant when you come to understand how it works.

Before I get down to explaining the anatomy of credit card numbers and discussing how credit card numbers are generated, I think it’s prudent to remind everyone the intent of this article. The goal of this blog post is not to encourage or get people thinking about how to go out and create fake credit card numbers on their own for improper means. The purpose is to shed some light on the science behind the mathematical sequencing technology of valid credit card numbers and offer some insight into something that many of us frequently see and use everyday, but oftentimes don’t pay much attention to.

Please take in the information provided for purely academic and entertainment reasons. I’m not trying to encourage anyone to create fake credit card numbers and get themselves in trouble with the law. For anyone even thinking about engaging in fake credit card number hacking, keep this in mind – using mathematically generated credit card numbers to purchase products over the Internet or in real life is not only unethical and highly illegal, it’s also not yet technologically possible (yet), based on the sheer probability of long shot odds of 1 in trillions. After reading everything I’m about to say carefully, you’ll also realize that there is no realistic way to generate actual working credit card numbers that could be used for anything but entertainment reasons. The math and science behind generating authentic credit card numbers are only good for validation purposes and not sufficient for creating workable numbers as several highly encrypted numerical components are still needed. So, with that obligatory disclaimer out of the way, here is a short guide on how anyone can generate and verify the authenticity of any credit card number.

Basic Background About Credit Card Numbers and How They Work

Rather than ask you to take out a credit card out of your wallet to examine it, I’ve provided a picture of a prototypical card – in this case, it’s a Visa credit card. While different card types offer different lengths of numerical digits, most major credit card issuers popular in the United States have 16 primary numbers on the front face of the card. Visa, MasterCard, and Discover cards all have 16 digits. American Express is the only major credit card issuer in the U.S. with one less number – at 15 digits. Regardless of the length of numbers, their numerical sequencing is still guided by the same Luhn validation formula, the mathematical check sum equation that makes all valid credit card numbers error free.

As you can see from the picture of the Visa card above, the very first 6 credit card number sequence is known as the issuer identification number (IIN) or bank identification number (BIN). These first 6 numerical digits denote the credit card network and the banking institution the card is a member of. The issuer identifier number also incorporates the card type’s special identifying numerical prefix.

• All typical 16 digit Visa account credit card numbers start with a prefix of 4.
• All 16 digit MasterCard account numbers start with a prefix of 5.
• All 16 digit Discover account numbers start with a prefix of 6011.
• All 15 digit American Express credit card numbers start with a prefix of 37.

There is less randomization during this initial set of 6 digits as the numbers are determined purely by the card issuing source. Validation systems that want to go the extra mile in verifying authenticity oftentimes scan this first numerical sequence to match the known bank and issuing location of the card with the provided customer billing address for further validation accuracy.

The lone digit at the very right end of the complete 15 or 16 digit credit card number sequence is known as the “check digit”, which often is the final number that is computer generated to satisfy the mathematical formulations of the Luhn check sum process. Meanwhile, in between the first 6 digits and the last single check digit is the actual personalized account number – the 8 or 9 digit sequence given by the card issuer. For more basic background information about credit card numbers, check out this credit card features brochure for more useful knowledge about the embossed and printed information found on your typical plastic credit card.

What’s The Secret Behind The Luhn Algorithm, Also Known As The “Modulus 10″ Or “Mod-10″ Formula?

The Luhn Algorithm is the check sum formula used by payment verification systems and mathematicians to verify the sequential integrity of real credit card numbers. It’s used to help bring order to seemingly random numbers and used to prevent erroneous credit card numbers from being cleared for use. The Luhn Algorithm is not used for straight credit card number generation from scratch, but rather utilized as a simple computational way to distinguish valid credit card numbers from random collections of numbers put together. The validation formula also works with most debit cards as well.

The Luhn formula was created and filed as a patent (now freely in the public domain) in 1954 by Hans Peter Luhn of IBM to detect numerical errors found in pre-existing and newly generated identification numbers. Since then, it’s primary use has been in the area of check sum validation, made popular with its use to verify the validity of important sequences such as credit card numbers. Currently, almost all credit card numbers issued today are generated and verified using the Luhn Algorithm or Modulus, Mod-10 Formula. Needless to say, if you come upon some existing credit card numbers that fail the Luhn algorithm when put to the test, it is safe to assume that they are not valid or genuine numbers.

The one thing to keep in mind is that validity in terms of passing the Luhn test only means that it is mathematically valid for computational compliance purposes. It does not guarantee that the credit card number sequence is indeed a working number that is backed up with a valid credit card account on the card issuer’s end. It is not unremarkable for one to artificially generate a mathematically valid credit card number that passes the Luhn validation check, but still ultimately fails as a fake credit card number with no actual substance. The Luhn algorithm only validates the 15-16 digit credit card number and not the other critical components of a genuine working credit card account such as the expiration date and the commonly used Card Verification Value (CVV) and Card Verification Code (CVC) numbers (used to prove physical possession of the debit or credit card).

The Nerdy Process Of Applying The Luhn Algorithm To The Creation and Validation Of Credit Card Number Sequences

For those who hate math or get scared when they encounter a bunch of scary looking mathematical formulas and numerically inspired descriptions, you are not alone. I personally hate math as an academic subject and was rather terrible at it back in high school and college, but if you like visual, thinking puzzles like Sudoku, you’ll like working with the Luhn Algorithm. It’s pretty clever and remarkably well put together. It’s also pretty easy to explain.

1. First, you’ll need to lay out all 15 or 16 numerical digits of the credit or debit card number. The Luhn Algorithm always starts from right to left, beginning with the rightmost digit on the credit card face (the check digit). Starting with the check digit and moving left, double the value of every alternate digit. Non-doubled digits will remain the same. Remember that the check digit is never doubled. For example, if the credit card is a 16 digit Visa card, the check digit would be the rightmost 16th digit. Thus you would double the value of the 15th, 13th, 11th, 9th digits, and so on until all odd digits have been doubled. The even digits would be left the same.
2. For any digit that becomes a two digit number of 10 or more when doubled, add the two digits together. For example, the digit 5 when doubled will become 10, which turns into a 1 (when 1 and 0 are added together). Likewise, the digit 9 when doubled will become 18, which becomes 9 (as 1 and 8 are added together). Obviously, 0 when doubled will remain 0.
3. Now, lay out the new sequence of numbers. The new doubled digits will replace the old digits. Non-doubled digits will remain the same. Thus, you should be able to come up with a new sequence of 15 or 16 numerical digits depending on card type.
4. Add up the new sequence of numbers together to get a sum total. If the combined tally is perfectly divisible by ten (ends in 0, like 60 for example), then the account number is mathematically valid according to the Luhn formula. If not, the credit card number provided is not valid and thus fake or improperly generated.

An Example Of the Luhn Validation Technique In Action – Using Homemade Graphics

For the visual types like myself, let’s use the American Express credit card on the right to better demonstrate the doubling and addition mathematics of the Luhn Algorithm. Follow the numbers and you’ll realize that it’s not as difficult as it may first appear. It’s actually very easy once you get the hang of it. You won’t look at credit card numbers the same way ever again after you get a good grip of it – I assure you. You’ll find yourself testing credit card numbers for fun!

Ignoring the obvious Amex logo on the card, right of the bat it’s clear the account number is that of an American Express number – denoted by the numerical prefix – “37″. Now let’s crunch the numbers through the Luhn Algorithm using the following displayed Amex credit card number: 3759-876543-21001. It doesn’t matter if the credit card number sequence has 15 numbers like the American Express or 16 numbers like Visa, MasterCard, or Discover, the Luhn validation check should be able to verify whether this card number is a mathematically authentic credit card number regardless. Follow the Luhn steps from #1 to #4 below, starting with the rightmost check digit.

In this case, the total calculated sum was 57, which is not divisible by 10 (the added up sum does not end with zero). Thus the number fails the Luhn Algorithm validation check. According to the Luhn test, this particular Amex credit card number is completely bogus and fake. The numbers were likely randomly slapped together. To make this particular set of numbers Luhn compliant and error free, all we would have to do is change the all important “check digit” number from 1 to a 4, which would result in a total sum of 60, thereby becoming Luhn compliant.

If you want to test this mathematical theory out in real life, I recommend pulling out your own credit cards and spending a few seconds to run a quick Luhn screening on them just for your own amusement and education. Pretty neat isn’t it? If you want another credit card number to test on, try using the credit card number that is displayed on the cartoon “VIZA Card” [sic] that Bart Simpson is holding up in the graphic at the top right of this article – the card is in the name of “Rod Flanders”, and the credit card number is: 8525-4941-2525-4158. Tip: Just by looking at the prefix numbers you probably should already be able to tell that the account number’s completely random and fake.

Use The Luhn Formula To Validate Existing Accounts But Don’t Attempt To Create and Use Fake Credit Card Numbers

Now with this new found knowledge, keep in mind you still won’t be able to randomly generate genuine workable credit card numbers. The Luhn theory only allows you to generate mathematically compliant credit card test numbers, not hack workable ones. Besides, without valid expiration dates, and valid CVV2, CVC2, or CID numbers (the special security codes printed on the back or front of credit cards as additional authentication measures), you still wouldn’t be able to legitimately use your self generated numbers to run credit transactions anyway.

Cracking and hacking the security codes found on credit cards is currently impossible. To calculate a workable 3 digit CVV2 security code, the algorithm requires a primary account number (PAN), the 4 digit expiration date, a special 3 digit service code, and a pair of DES keys. With such heavy encryption and billions to trillions of numerical possibilities, unless you have God-like mental processing power and a fleet of super computers at your disposal, you won’t be able to use brute force guessing attempts to crack the codes.

While it’s good to use this type of information to education yourself on the inner workings of credit cards and mathematical validation theory, it’s best to stay away from trying to further crack the secret of credit card codes to come up with free workable account numbers. Don’t use the Luhn Algorithm for anything else but personal entertainment and amusement.  Please don’t go around trying to generate a list of fake credit card numbers on your own and trying to buy stuff with them. I know some of you out there may be tempted to try, but you’ll just get yourself in trouble.

Source URL: How To Create and Generate Valid Credit Card Numbers

Copyright Protected © 2008 Money Blue Book: Personal Finance Blog. All Rights Reserved.

One’s Home Office Can Be Any Cafe, Restaurant, Or Public Park With Free WiFi and Electrical Outlet Access

Since I’m trying to transition into running my own home based businesses full time and no longer work frequent contract attorney projects as a result, I no longer have an Internet equipped office computer outside of my home that I can go to everyday to get me in the right day job mindset. Sometimes it’s difficult to work from home because it just doesn’t feel like a real work zone and it’s so easy to get distracted and sidetracked. After all, my bedroom, home office desk computer, and television entertainment gadgets are only a few feet apart from each other. So at least once or twice a week, I enjoy driving out to local public places to swap my home office for a more productive working environment.

As a savvy saver and frugal fellow, I prefer to seek out suitable local neighborhood businesses and public work spaces that offer free but necessary business amenities like convenient restroom access, proximity to drinks and food, and most important of all – free or very affordable wireless internet access. While not all places provide truly free wireless Internet for customers (instead requiring them to purchase usage time or limiting free surfing to only an hour or two), there are places that do provide this particular perk. Free Wi-Fi hotspots are everywhere – at the mall, the park, in public places where people gather – you just need to know where to look. Many major fast food chain restaurants and many sit down coffee cafe shops provide free wireless hotspot services for customers to enjoy. Often times they don’t even require you to purchase anything – although I’d recommend that you at least buy a coffee or a light snack. You don’t need to purchase a three course meal, but on principle, you don’t want to be a freeloader do you? Speaking of eating and working at the same time, I do however at times question the wisdom of placing an expensive laptop in very close proximity to food and drink. Just be careful – your laptop and your caramel macchiato drink don’t mix!

The last few days, I purposely visited various popular WiFi hotspot locations to confirm and inspect the business’ free wireless Internet service offerings. Below, I’ve listed the places I’ve found to be the most widely available and easily found free wireless Internet locales. So long as you have a portable notebook computer that is WiFi enabled that you can suitably lug around, you are good to go for free web surfing. All you’ll need to do is run the wireless signal manager, search for the target business’ public wireless network name (also called the SSID), and you should be able to connect instantly to the WiFi service. For habitual free WiFi hotspot seekers who browse the Internet for hours at a time, I recommend investing in extra long lasting laptop batteries. Some of the places below either don’t offer electrical outlets for customers to use, or simply don’t have sufficient numbers to go around.

Some Of The Top WiFi Hotspot Places To Enjoy Free Wireless Internet

1) Panera Bread – This place is one of my favorite free wireless hotspot destinations for unlimited use. Panera has become a very popular choice for young professionals and home business types who want a relaxing place to access the web for free, while enjoying a tasty sandwich, hot soup, or one of their delicious salads at the same time (please bring back the Fuji apple chicken salad). There are lots of tables and electrical outlets available, but single Internet users should focus on the small tables, and leave the bigger ones for groups. The cafe is a common meeting location for small businesses and sometimes you’ll see such meetings take place in corners – as the place has sort of a trendy, Internet cafe vibe to it (at least that’s the case for the one near where I live). Panera Bread is a popular choice for free WiFi seekers but its popularity also causes greater strain on the shared Internet connection. I found the WiFi access speed to be very slow during peak usage times. Avoid using the WiFi from 12 pm to 2 pm if you can since that is when most people try to get on. Panera also heavily filters out many (ahem) questionable websites – I’m sure some of you hanky panky web surfers are disappointed.

2) Corner Bakery – Right around the corner (pun very much intended) is the Corner Bakery, which offers free WiFi for unlimited use and is also a great place to relax, eat, and surf the web for free. There is no obligation to buy anything either, although Corner Bakery offers quite a selection of pretty decent pastas, sandwiches, and soups. Corner Bakery franchises seem to be located mostly in the major states. As for the WiFi, I think few people are aware that Corner Bakery offers free wireless Internet for patrons, which probably explains why there’s less connection crowding. The WiFi speeds were much faster and less congested than that offered by other restaurants, including Panera. Electrical outlets are not plentiful, but they are available at certain tables.

3) McDonald’s – While McDonald’s used to charge for extended wireless Internet usage at participating restaurants, they’ve recently started to offer free unlimited WiFi use. Free WiFi access is now being offered at most McDonald locations. There is no obligation to buy – just power up your laptop computer and surf to your heart’s content. However, you might want to get used to nosy people peeking at your screen over your shoulder – McDonald restaurants are usually filled with all sorts of interesting characters. Also, aside from the unhealthy aspects of McDonald’s fast food choices, one other big problem with McDonald’s is that their restaurants lack electrical outlets. I wasn’t able to find a single outlet for my laptop.

4) Starbucks - While Starbucks coffee shops have started to offer free wireless internet access for coffee and tea drinking customers, this top free WiFi hotspot needs a little asterisk next to it. While WiFi use at Starbucks is indeed free, it’s only currently free for a single use of two consecutive hours at a time. Since Starbucks switched from T-Mobile to AT&T, customers must now register their Starbucks Card and use it at least once a month (buy a drink with it), to receive two consecutive hours a day of free internet use. While it’s not unlimited use, I needed to mention Starbucks, if only because of the fact that they have locations almost everywhere.

5) Caribou Coffee – I like Caribou coffee drinks much more than the unremarkable ones brewed at Starbucks, so I prefer to hang out at Caribou more often than I do at Starbucks. However, Caribou locations are not as widely available as Starbucks. But at Caribou, WiFi internet use is completely free and usage is unlimited. There is no demand that you actually purchase a drink, but it’s probably advisable to do so as a courtesy. If you want to use your laptop in a trendy environment decked out in wood to look like some type of ski lodge, Caribou’s the place to be. Plus, their daily trivia questions are not only whimsically interesting, but getting them right can also help you save a few cents off your drink!

6) Schlotzsky’s – Schlotzsky’s, like the slogan says, has a funny name, but provides serious sandwiches. If you enjoy relatively healthy deli sandwiches, subs, and wraps, this is a nice place to hang out. This New York style deli sandwich chain provides free wireless Internet access for its customers through its Cool Cloud wireless network. Most locations also provide free computer workstations for laptop-less customers to jump online and browse.

7) Public Library – While there seems to be plenty of odd and quirky folks who hang out at public libraries, not to mention the hordes of kids everywhere, I like public libraries, mostly because of the comfortable presence of people that it affords work at home entrepreneurs like myself. Most local libraries provide a wealth of free county sponsored services, including free wireless Internet access. Your tax dollars pay for them so you might as well take full advantage when you can. Most public county libraries also have free computers for patrons to use although sometimes you’ll need to sign up for a library card to access them. Because there are usually a large number of simultaneously connected users, public library connections are notoriously slower than average. I recommend bringing along electrical extension cords in case available electrical outlets are not conveniently located next to your desired table. Based on my observations, public libraries seem less strict about patrons stringing cables and cords around anyway.

8) Local University Library or Study Lounge – I recently returned to my alma mater’s university library to see if I could still access the library’s internet connections for free. Unfortunately my old school doesn’t provide free WiFi access for non active students, even for an alumnus such as myself. Students are required to log onto the network with secured passwords, and unauthorized laptops are denied Internet access. However, at another local college, I was able to access the school’s free wireless signal from a study lounge area, despite not being a student there. While not exactly publicly available, the signal wasn’t restricted. If you’re lucky to find a free university library WiFi signal, you’re quite fortunate. University wireless signals tend to be extremely fast and rarely congested – perfect for home business workers who want a change of scenery.

9) Unsecured Wireless Router – This one is controversial, but another interesting way to work somewhere besides from your home computer is to find a public work space where you can obtain a freely available WiFi signal from some random person’s wireless router. While most home network owners are getting better at securing and protecting their wireless broadcast signals, there are still some people who either purposely choose not to or neglect to do so (like my neighbor). If you don’t have ethical qualms about doing so, it’s an option. Be careful though, open wireless networks make it easy for hackers and evil-doers to access your computer and intercept data that you submit through the connection. I don’t think it’s very likely as it requires some fancy knowhow, but it’s a possibility. Keep in mind, while I’ve done this before in the past, this grey area practice is fraught with debatable legal issues.

10) Public Parks or Certain Downtown Areas – In the downtown city area close to where I live, my local city government has decided to shell out money to provide free public WiFi access for all city residents that frequent the heavily trafficked area. The wireless signal area is populated by restaurants, shops, and lots of open sitting spaces – perfect for those who desire to work on the Internet and enjoy the great outdoors at the same time. In major metropolitan areas like New York City, there are lots of public places where the city government has provided complimentary wireless Internet signals for free public use. The only drawback with these places is that electrical outlets are usually nonexistent.

Source URL: Best Locations To Find Free Wireless Internet Access (WiFi Hotspots)

Copyright Protected © 2008 Money Blue Book: Personal Finance Blog. All Rights Reserved.

I Always Use My Credit Card To Pay For Gas And Don’t Intend To Change This Payment Practice Anytime Soon

While I understand why some gas station owners and advocates are pushing for the move back to cash payment only for gas purchases, I hope this is not an emerging or widely adopted trend. Paying cash at the pump may work for some, but it’s not going to fly for me.

I take frequent road trips and one of the most appreciated benefits of fueling at the gas pump is the ability to easily slide into a gas station off the freeway, punch in my prepayment, fuel up, and get out quickly. With a gas credit card, I can do that easily. With just a quick swipe and the press of a few buttons on the automated gas pump, my car is instantly refueled without hassle. With cash payment, not only is the practice comparatively more time consuming, but it’s a major inconvenience for those of us who have grown dependent on using our credit cards to pay for everything. I rarely carry more than $50 worth of emergency cash in my wallet and dislike the annoyance of walking around with dollar bills and loose coins jiggling around in my pockets. My efficient credit card usage habit also stems from my view that handling paper money is inherently dirty and unsanitary. I’m by no means a germa-phobe, but I feel that money is one of those heavily transacted items that you never truly know where it’s been before. For all I know, the bills were last taken out and manhandled by some hairy, sweaty dude while he was sitting in a bathroom stall doing his business somewhere. Hey, you never know. With my personal credit cards, at least I know where they’ve been and while I’ve never actually cleaned them before, they are at least washable.

I don’t know what I would do if gas stations suddenly and uniformly stopped accepting credit card payments due to their displeasure at having to pay spiraling credit card interchange fees. While I sort of vaguely sympathize with their declining profit margin plight (not really), as an oil consumer, I’m bound to take my gas business elsewhere to a place that does accept credit cards. The convenience of using my trusty gas rebate credit card to pay for gas and earn cash back rewards at the same time is not something I’m willing to give up anytime soon. I’ve been known to stop at a low priced gas station only to drive off immediately after finding out the place only accepted cash payment.

In the Washington D.C. region, there is a chain of el-cheapo gas stations called Free State that is known for offering greatly discounted gas at prices that’s frequently much lower than that offered by more recognized competitors. However, the biggest downside is that they only accept cash payment. Obviously this is to keep prices low and avoid having to pay merchant fees to credit card companies for each credit card transaction. But for heavy credit card users like myself, this is a complete deal breaker. While I see them everywhere along my driving route, I always avoid Free State gas stations because of their cash only payment policy. I would rather drive across the street to a slightly more expensive gas pump than deal with the inconvenience and hassle of paying by cash. It’s just one of those expected perks in life that I’ve come to insist on and demand. Other local gas station chains sometimes offer discounts for cash payments, but I would still rather pay the slightly higher fuel rate just to have the benefit of paying by plastic. Besides, any potential cash payment discount offered by the pump owner will be unlikely to offset the nice gas credit card rewards that I earn using my usual method of payment. I don’t expect or intend to give that perk up anytime soon as long as they are around.

I Have Also Come To Rely On The Budget Tracking Benefits That Credit Card Usage Affords Me

It’s not just the convenience and speed at which credit card payment at the gas pump affords me, it’s also the record keeping benefits as well. I pay by credit card at gas stations, restaurants, and everywhere else because it affords me convenient and reliable expense tracking. Payment by cash requires me to retain all of my paper receipts to keep track of total monthly spending. Credit card payments on the other hand allow me to permanently record and retain transaction dates and pricing information on my credit card statement to access at a later time of my choosing. I can easily log onto my online account from home to review the frequency of gasoline fill ups and the amount of money spent per visit with a just few key strokes.

Change Might Be A Good Catch Phrase For Politics, But It’s Bad When It Comes To How I Pay For Gas

Knowing the pervasive and established nature of credit card payment at the pump, I think most major gas stations like Exxon Mobil, Shell, BP, and Sunoco are unlikely to go cash only no matter how high gas prices may go, and no matter how badly their financial bottom lines will be hurt by having to pay higher transaction fees. Such brand name gas stations are likely to find other ways to cut costs than deprive consumers of this important convenience. Besides, switching to cash only would probably hurt their revenue stream more detrimentally than any potential cost saving benefits from going all cash due to loss of business volume. They’d lose the patronage of gas guzzling, dinosaur liquid loving, weekend road warriors like myself.

Source URL: Paying By Credit Card At the Gas Pump and Refusing To Use Cash

Copyright Protected © 2008 Money Blue Book: Personal Finance Blog. All Rights Reserved.

Unfortunately, there is one significant and readily present downside to shopping for products online – the inevitable wait time and frustrating inconvenience of having to wait around for days and weeks for the delivery to be made. Depending on the shipping option chosen and the actual distance separating the online merchant and customer, the wait time can be anywhere from as quick as 3 days to as long as 3 weeks for more expensive back ordered merchandise like custom built computers. Of course, one could always speed up the delivery process to overnight delivery status, except the much higher price of expedited delivery would just pretty much negate the intended cost benefit savings of online shopping to begin with. With gas prices overpriced and soaring as they are, future shipment and delivery prices are anticipated to see increases in the coming years.

Despite the Discounts and Savings Associated With Online Shopping, Forced Delayed Gratification Is A Pain In The Butt Cheeks

I’m currently a huge and almost obsessive online shopper, particularly with popular online auction sites like eBay (I like to call myself, an eBay Powerbuyer). My goal and objective since the advent of the Internet has always been to maximize my money by taking advantage of all online bargains and arbitrage cost saving opportunities whenever possible. Over the years I’ve turned to my tried and true eBay bargain hunting approach for such things like heavily discounted subway debit cards, expensive laptop electronics, and bulk pet food. By combining inherent online price discounts with cash back shopping sites and free promotional coupons found online, I’ve generated significant cost savings for myself over the years. Recently I’ve even tried to see if I could garner some extra tiny savings by utilizing online grocery delivery programs like Stop & Shop and Giant Food’s Pea Pod service and Safeway’s supermarket delivery service, but I’m starting to wonder if I’m going overboard with the whole online bargain hunting obsession.

While I’ve managed to save quite a bit of money for a long time due to my online shopping practices, I’ve had to learn and force myself to hold back my instant gratification urges. For example, when I suddenly needed to buy a GPS device immediately for my car, my frugal mentality dictated that I head to eBay and Google Products to perform a few hours of thorough price comparison shopping. Eventually I settled on using eBay to maximize my purchase price savings. However, the whole buying experience took up to 2 and a half weeks to secure my product online and to finally receive it in the mail. Not only did the auction bidding process take nearly a week of several failed bid attempts before I finally won my bid, but it also took more than a week for the item to get delivered and shipped to my address. While sometimes the compulsory delayed gratification is helpful because it prevents me from hastily snapping up newly released and grossly overpriced electronic gadgets during their maiden introductions, the mandatory wait time from delivery to receipt can be a major pain and inconvenience, especially when you need to use the desired product sooner than later. Now I’m starting to wonder if the online cost and supposed time savings are worth the great inconvenience and terrible hassle of having to wait so long. Instead of being able to see the physical object and walk out with something in my hand, shopping online offers me only a confirmation email and a claims ticket for something I won’t receive for weeks.

While Online Shopping Sites Will Always Offer The Best Prices, Sometimes You’re Better Off Paying A Little Extra At Brick And Mortar Retail Stores

While I used to think that shopping online was a time saver in that the buyer did not need to waste time getting dressed, hopping into their gas guzzling car and driving the miles needed to get to the local mall or retail store, I’m starting to realize that for certain smaller ticket items, or things more urgently needed, the time savings of shopping online is sometimes only illusory. While websites offer many more options for consumers, sometimes the graphic intensive sites offer way too many confusing choices. While browsing speed is no longer an issue due to faster broadband Internet download speeds, trying to navigate some of these product and feature heavy websites from only the four corners of the computer monitor screen can be a burden. Oftentimes it’s just easier and more simplistic to drive to the store, walk around the shopping aisles to inspect your choices with your physical naked eyes, or ask a live customer service person for help, than to buy online.

While shopping online is great because you don’t have to pay sales tax most of the time (this former benefit might be disappearing soon in the future) and prices are generally lower, I think there may be times when the ability to walk out with what you want immediately is worth the extra cost. I realized I was starting to take the whole online shopping deal a little too far when I found myself willing to wait one and a half weeks for a $12 handheld Sony FM radio that I found online, instead of buying it from a live Best Buy location for $15 – for a mere total cost savings of $3. All in all, I think buying very expensive electronic products online makes a lot of sense, but for smaller, cheaper day to day items, buying online just isn’t worth the hassle or inconvenience anymore.

Source URL: Sometimes Shopping Online Isn’t Worth The Inconvenience Or Hassle

Copyright Protected © 2008 Money Blue Book: Personal Finance Blog. All Rights Reserved.

Technology And The Internet Are Steadily Replacing The Out Dated Practice Of Getting News From A Traditional Newspaper

Does anybody actually read the newspaper anymore? I’m not talking about CNN.com, NewYorkTimes.com, or Washingtonpost.com – I’m talking about old fashioned plain paper print media. Most people I know who have had any exposure to computers and technology now get the bulk of their written news and entertainment updates from the Internet. Almost all major established newspaper publications nowadays operate their own websites filled with plenty of free content rich text to satisfy even the most information hungry and voracious of readers. With the heavy push towards Internet based news, it seems the traditional newspaper is slowly becoming a thing of the past due to its inability to keep up. Technology and the World Wide Web simply afford readers too many conveniently free reading options at their fingertips for present adopters and future generations to ever turn back to that age old print medium.

Even commercial advertisers are steadily following former newspaper readers out of the door and gradually putting their advertising dollars into online website banner and pay per click advertising solutions where online technology allows the ads to be strategically targeted to the exact demographic consumer the advertiser hopes to reach. Online free classified services like Craigslist have also struck huge blows against whatever remaining classified advertising potential that newspapers may have had left. It’s only a matter of time before the end of the newspaper as we know it.

I challenge you to find any one under the age of 35 these days who still enjoys reading from a traditional newspaper. The practice is simply boring and dry. In contrast, by going online, not only can I utilize news aggregation services like Google News and Yahoo News, and pull RSS news and blog feeds from hundred of respected news sources instantly, I can actively participate in online discussions by posting comments and offering my two cents about important issues I personally care about. Through the Internet, I can read all the primary points and counter points immediately to get the complete picture of what is going on in the world of current events. Who wants to get information from just a single slow moving and potentially biased newspaper publication source?

Unlike paper newspapers, the Internet also updates its archive and collection of news stories virtually instantaneously. Breaking news stories can be released to the reader as soon as they happen. When the Islamic terrorists hit the New York City World Trade Center on 9-11, internet news pages broke the announcement almost immediately. Traditional print newspapers simply can’t complete with that level of quickness and would not have been able to report on the story until at least the day after. Things have changed a lot since the baby boomer days. We are now living in a rapid fire instant news era. We want our news fast, and we want it free. Only the Internet can promise and deliver such instant informational gratification.

The Rise and Growth Of Bloggers and Blogging Will Only Further Change The Face of Journalism and Traditional Newspaper Reporting

The Internet age has also spurred on the growth and reach of the casual online blogger, and hastened the gradual decline of so-called legitimate press reporting media as we know it today. Legions of both amateur and professional bloggers, including personal finance bloggers such as myself, are doing our part to contribute to the whole information revolution comprised of all sorts of biased and unbiased viewpoints. As a whole, the ability of bloggers to reach a wide array of readers will only help spread the word of informational truth on a larger scale. Individually, we perhaps may be biased, uninformed, self-motivated, and personally skewed to our own predilections, but as a whole, citizen journalists help to positively expand the wealth of societal information available.

Of course there will always be anti-technology, Armageddon inspired naysayers that will want to cling on to print newspapers like a security blanket. The ridiculous argument of some that we still need to preserve the newspaper tradition because of what might happen if technology ever failed or satellites get blown out of the sky is just plain silly. That’s like saying we all should preserve the tradition of burning wooden logs at home because of what might happen if electricity ever permanently failed and we fell back into the stone age. It’s just not going to happen.

Despite The Growth Of The Internet, Newspapers Will Probably Not Disappear For A Few Decades, So Long As There Are Old Fashioned Folks Who Insist On Clinging Onto Their Old Ways Of Living

Since the rise of the Internet, even my own technologically clumsy parents have started to slowly embrace the Internet as a primary source for getting their daily dose of news, political commentary, and current event updates. However, like many of the baby boomer generation, they still prefer to resort to their old accustomed ways sometimes. While they’ve gradually started to use the Internet more and more in everyday life, my dad still goes out to the local convenience store every morning (as he’s done for decades) to buy his daily newspaper to take home to read. For him and those of the older generation, they probably get some semblance of habitual and familiar comfort by handling tangible things that they feel like they still understand – like paper newspapers. I think my dad still enjoys the timeless practice of reading the paper on his daily subway commute to the office instead of having to squint his eyes for hours at a time in front of a flickering computer screen.

But in the long run, the seemingly unstoppable reality is that as times passes, there will be less and less of individuals like my dad remaining to carry on the newspaper reading tradition. But at least for now, newspapers probably won’t disappear for years, so long as there are senior citizens, baby boomers, and stubborn technology Luddites who are not accustomed to the new technology of computers still around (is it really all that new anymore though?). While I see the newspaper form in inevitable decline in the future, perhaps the future isn’t now. It seems typical that futurists such as myself always seem to predict the future will arrive sooner than it actually does.

But even a futurist, and an early eager technology adopter such as myself must acknowledge that newspapers will be missed. After all, without newspapers around, where else am I supposed to get my Sunday paper grocery store coupons? The ones I see in magazines and loose leaf advertisement mailers and flyers aren’t as good as the ones I often see in my Sunday paper coupon bundle. And yet more importantly, without newspapers, what will we use to line bird cages and train puppies on? What will we use to wrap fish, or crumple up to use as cushion for the insides of boxes during a move or use as stuffing for packages? Computers, monitors, and keyboards simply aren’t as absorbent or cushiony, not to mention as cheap or plentiful.

Source URL: The Future Demise and End Of Newspapers and Print Media

Copyright Protected © 2008 Money Blue Book: Personal Finance Blog. All Rights Reserved.

As discussed in a recent post, out of nowhere I recently experienced a vehicle breakdown in the middle of the night. While I was waiting in my car with the engine still running the motor suddenly stalled, and all dashboard controls and indicator lights stopped working. Turning the ignition key was met with cricket chirping silence, and even the electronic door lock stopped responding to my unlock button pressing, causing me to worry momentarily. At the time I grew concerned as I wasn’t sure how I was going to get out of the vehicle without a working or functional electronic door lock. Then I laughed and realized I could manually pull up the door lock tab to open the door that way and use the metal key to manually lock the car door again. It’s funny how I’ve grown so dependent to using the key less lock clicker that I’ve almost forgotten how to lock and unlock the car door manually.

Well, after taking the car to the repair shop, I found out that the engine alternator had broken down and that the car battery also needed replacement. I don’t know about you but all of the cars I’ve owned in the past and present seem to enjoy eating alternators for breakfast. Not sure why that is the case. Such types of vehicle breakdowns alarm me because you never know when they may happen. It’s one thing to have a vehicle malfunction close to home, but it’s a whole different matter to break down somewhere far away on a major highway during a heavy rain or snow storm for example.

While cars, trucks, and vans are made up of a thousands of small to large electronic and mechanical components, there are probably only a handful of critical parts that have the potential to make or break your vehicle’s performance immediately and completely. Components like your break disc and break pads get worn down naturally over time through continuous use and need to be replaced regularly, but worn break pads are rarely critical to your car’s immediate performance. Having thin pads won’t cripple your vehicle or cause it to immediately stall, forcing it to shut down in the middle of the road. Along the same lines, proper engine oil changes are important to ensure the proper lubrication of your engine performance, but even timely oil changes aren’t critical. While lack of regular oil changes have the potential to cause excessive wear to your engine over time and ultimately lead to mechanical problems down the road, failure to get one won’t immediately prevent your car from starting or driving. Those types of less imperative maintenance concerns are more long term and cumulative effect issues.

However, there are certain very important car components that drivers must keep their eyes on. These critical engine and vehicle components have the potential to force your car to a complete stop if you’re not careful with proper repair and replacement. It’s important to know what they are to ensure they are properly maintained and checked during regularly scheduled maintenance. Some of these critical vehicle breakdown problems can be prevented, while others are somewhat inevitable in the long term – but it’s still important to know what they are to better plan for and anticipate their future occurrence.

Here Are The Top 5 Most Common and Likely Causes Of Crippling Vehicle Breakdowns:

1) Broken or Blown Alternator – You know you likely have a broken alternator when your car suddenly powers down when it is idling or when you are unable to elicit any response out of your car. By then, your battery will likely have drained itself of all electrical power and everything in your car that requires electricity to operate will have ceased to function – including car radio, wind shield wipers, indicator lights, and even your key less entry system.

The alternator is a tiny but vital component found under the hood of your vehicle’s engine compartment. Its primary function is to produce alternating current for the majority of your vehicle’s electrical systems, and to keep the batteries full. While your car battery provides some needed electrical power, without a means to re-charge it, total reliance on the battery alone will drain it in a matter of minutes. To prevent this from happening, vehicles need a functional alternator to continuously convert your engine’s mechanical energy into electrical energy to keep the battery recharged so that continuous electrical power can be supplied to your car. Frequently, vehicles can keep running even with a blown alternator by drawing electrical power directly from the battery until it’s completely sapped and depleted. However, continuing to drive on the street or highway with a broken alternator is extremely dangerous and should be avoided at all cost. You may be able to use jumper cables to give the battery a quick temporary charge, but with a faulty alternator, your car will only be able to travel for a short and unpredictable distance before cutting out completely.

For most ordinary folks, there is little that we can do to maintain the component ourselves, other than to use our eyes, ears and gut feeling to detect the signs that may suggest a dying alternator. Keep an eye out for weakening electrical components or dimming indicator lights when the engine is idling. If your headlights or internal indicator lights start to fade or flicker, you may have a faulty alternative on its last legs. If your windshield wipers or car engine seem to be sluggish or underpowered, your alternator may be breaking down. Don’t be like me and wait until it’s too late before getting it replaced. Two times in the past I ignored the warnings signs of a possibly faulty alternator and twice I ended up with a sudden vehicle breakdown. It’s best to get the damaged alternator repaired or replaced at the time of your choosing than to experience a sudden malfunction out of nowhere.

2) Damaged or Worn Car Battery – Don’t you hate it when you hop into your driver’s seat, turn the ignition switch and hear only a whirling sound but no engine startup. Along with a broken alternator, this is one of the most common reasons why your car is unable to start up or run properly, but it’s also one of the easiest problems to fix and patch up. If such an occurrence happens, chances are your battery has either died or lost its ability to retain a charge. Car batteries can lose their electrical charge for a variety of reasons and one of them is simply old age. Depending on your type of vehicle, your battery will have to be replaced a few times throughout its working lifespan. But there are other reasons why they run out of juice as well. If you’re the type who drives very rarely and only for very short distances at low speeds, your battery may have trouble keeping itself charged due to your sporadic driving habit. The recommended solution is to run long distance errands to give it the routine opportunity to properly regenerate itself.

Brand new and perfectly normal batteries should be able to retain a strong charge that will allow the vehicle to start up easily. It requires a lot more electrical power to start up a car than it is to keep it running. If you’re noticing that it’s taking a few turns of your ignition switch to start up your engine, your battery may be losing its potency. It could the one of the battery terminals, or perhaps one of the clamp connections are corroded. Either way, if you’re a do-it-yourself type of person, replacing your car battery can be done on your own (assuming you can handle the weight of the battery itself – anywhere from 15-35 lbs). A brand new car battery only costs between $50-$75 and is fairly straight forward to install, at least according to my self-proclaimed vehicle expert brother. I’ve never done it myself but I’ve heard that car batteries are not all that difficult to remove and latch back on.

I also recommend that all drivers carry a spare set of jumper cables in their trunk. Jumper cables are really cheap – only something like $5.00 on eBay. If you don’t want to use eBay, your local Walmart or Target should have a cheap set for around $15. Don’t bother paying for quality as they are all the same. With your own set of jumper cables, anytime your battery runs out of juice, any working car can supply a temporary electrical charge to get your car battery going again.

3) Broken Starter Motor – For most people, a broken starter motor problem is easily confused with a battery or even an alternator problem. Here’s how you can tell the difference: If your headlights or dashboard indicator lights are running strong without flicker, the radio is still working perfectly, your air condition is still operating fine, and your key-less locking mechanism still functions, and yet you are still unable to start your vehicle, it is likely a starter motor problem. When you turn your ignition switch and all you hear is a continuous whirling sound despite your electrical components working normally, your starter’s likely damaged or busted. With a failed starter motor, your car won’t be able to start. Like the alternator, it’s hard for ordinary people to really prevent the starter motor from breaking down over time. Your best solution is to have the starter regularly inspected in a repair shop for signs it may need replacing.

4) Flat Tire – When you have a flat tire, your car is pretty much un-drivable, unless you are crazy and don’t mind grinding up sparks along the pavement on your wheels and rims alone. Even slapping on a temporary spare can only get you so far. Your goal should be to keep your primary vehicle tires well inflated and maintained. Getting a flat tire is a common problem for those who drive frequently or those who travel on difficult terrain such as unpaved roads, rocky surfaces, or over pot holes. All of those bumps, stray pebbles, and jagged metal plate coverings on road surfaces take a cumulative and aggregate tole on the material integrity of your tires.

Every few months you should use your trusty air pressure gauge and run a quick check of the air pressure level of each tire to make sure each one is properly inflated. Keep in mind that the front and rear tires often require different PSI (pounds per square inch) levels. Your vehicle owner’s manual should indicate the exact tire pressures needed for your front and back tires. Under-inflated tires are one of the biggest causes of tire wear and tear because the weight of your vehicle bears down on them in a malformed way they weren’t fully designed to handle. While tire inflation tends to rise and fall with the temperature (becoming more inflated in hot weather and sagged during cold), if your tires are perpetually losing air pressure over time, you may have a serious problem. There could be a tire puncture wound from a sharp rock or nail, or the tires may simply be too old. Keep in mind that even seldom used tires that are kept out in the open air under the rain and snow still gradually lose their strength and durability over time. Replace them when they are worn and don’t keep using them when the tire treads are visibly cracked or distressed. You don’t want to ever experience a catastrophic tire blow out when you’re driving at high speeds. That’s how accidents and even car rollovers happen.

5) Running Out Of Gas – Unless you are lucky enough to drive one of those new electrical, ethanol, hydrogen, or even one of those tasty and nice smelling vegetable oil powered vehicles (yes, they exist!), chances are your vehicle consumes gasoline to power itself. Without gas, your oil-powered car or truck won’t be able to run. Avoiding the problem of running out of gas should be a piece of cake if you exercise common sense. If your fuel indicator light ever comes on, you likely only have a single gallon of emergency backup gas left in the tank. At that point, don’t risk driving away from the nearest filling station in search of lower gas prices when your fuel tank is running low. Get that car fueled up sooner than later and don’t take your chances on the road. I know gas prices are high, but there are ways to deal with that hurdle more responsibly (such as purchasing gasoline using gas rebate credit cards to earn cash back rewards). Don’t force yourself to end up having to walk to the nearest gas station like some highway vagrant and lug back gas in a heavy red rubber container. It’s inconvenient and dangerous.

Source URL: Major Causes Of Vehicle Breakdowns – Broken Alternators For Example

Copyright Protected © 2008 Money Blue Book: Personal Finance Blog. All Rights Reserved.