They're using YOUR information and selling it BACK to you. Hmmmm. [Guest Post]

(This is the third post in a new series of guest writers.)

Tim Coleman is the author of Convert Offline and former sales manager and technology sales trainer at a well known national yellow page publisher.

Here is what Tim has to say about how "they" are using your information, but then selling it back to you :

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I did a search on Google for garage door repair in Orlando and the first organic result was not a garage door company in Orlando. Rather it was a directory, superpages.com.

Interestingly, if Google wanted to advertise in the Verizon Yellow Pages (superpages is owned by the same company as the Verizon yellow pages) under the garage door heading, they would not be allowed. I don't think that google would want to but that's hardly the point.

These directories seem to pop up quite a bit in the search results in all business categories; Did you ever wonder why? After all, Superpages is not located in Orlando and they don't fix garage doors.

They rank because they list company's that have words like Orlando and garage door repair in their names.

They do this... then they re-sell the traffic back to the small businesses, whose information allowed them to rank and get the traffic to begin with... interesting business model, eh?

What if small business owners refused to allow other websites to publish their listing information?

What if every business owner united and called the phone company today and non-pubbed (de-listed) their address and telephone number? An awful lot of Directories would go right out of business including the yellow pages print editions.

Depending on who you asked, it could be as much $100 Billion in Local Ad Revenue gone-overnight. And of course, $100 Billion in expenses saved by the local businesses.

It gets even better, the result of doing this is that their websites would then rank in Google searches instead of these directories. They would then get a lot of very high quality traffic for free instead of paying for it as they are now. I bet if you own a small business and you just read this it made you sick... sorry.

Unite brother... Unite.

Contxts texts your contact info

Now, here is an idea I am absolutely in LOVE WITH. As a mobile sales professional, I am often on the road and it seems that most of my clients are doing business from the road as well.

Being mobile and effectively sharing contact information via a business card or a brochure is likely to get lost or misplaced when you need it, but everyone's got their cell phones with them all the time, right?

In order to get my contact info sent directly as a text message, you simply need to text Contxts by texting the person's user name to 50500. To get mine to text:

SPK
to
50500

You will receive a reply in seconds with all my contact info and you can then enter me as a contact in your cell or just keep the text to call/email/fax me later.

Moon-set Sunrise

Moon-set Sunrise
Originally uploaded by BY-YOUR-⌘

This is so cool.

"With the help of the non-destructive, aftermarket firmware, CHDK, installed on my camera, I set the tripod up, and set the camera to fire off as many frames as it could, until it filled the SD card memory.

I did not know where the moon would eventually set, nor did I know if the sun would rise too soon, and thus wash everything out, as I could not reset the shutter speed, nor change any other settings once I set the program in motion.

It was pure, once in a 'blue moon' kind of luck.

ISO 50, shutter speed 1/60th of a second, +2 EV bias, and other info can be seen in the two stills, from this video, that I uploaded previously."

Flight 1549 Computer Generated Flight. Wow.

Computer animation of the entire flight path of US Airways 1549, overlayed with air traffic control audio. The whole thing takes only about 2 minutes. Really gives you a sense of how little time there was to react.

Andrew M Kish III

Becky and I visited Andrew at Bethlehem's famous Banana Factory Friday. Below is a small sampling of just how talented Andrew is.








Andrew M. Kish III
484-225-7958
art@andrewmkish.com
www.andrewmkish.com

Your opinion needed

We've got an interesting problem on our hands. This conundrum represents a significant part of our current economic state. What is the answer? I'd really like to know your opinion.

Facts:

- A homeowner buys his dream house for $600,000 and puts down $300,000 and mortgages the other half with an interest only loan.
- Real estate bubble bursts.
-House now worth $270,000.
-Due to negative amortization, now owes $350,000
-Guy wants to walk away.

Is he right? Should he walk away?

Is the bank right? Should they expect him to honor his contract?

Lets take both sides.

Guy:

-His interest only mortgage is ending and he will owe principal plus interest in a few months
-He's not late on his payments, so the mortage company will not re-finance
-He could buy his exact house down the street for $270,000
-It's not his fault the real estate market crashed
-If he leaves, he leaves $300,000 in cash at the house
-If he stays, he pays $350,000 more

Bank:

-Valuated the house at $600,000 before lending
-Loaned $300,000 to qualified buyer with an asset worth twice that
-Is making a good profit off the interest only mortgage right now
-It's not their fault the real estate market crashed
-If nothing changes, they stand to make hundreds of thousands of dollars
-If buyer walks away, they own a home worth $270,000 which means they're down $30,000

What's the right thing to do? I'd really like to hear your opinion.

Finding ways to save money at the grocery store [Guest Post]

(This is the second post in a new series of guest writers.)

Becky Kaine is the mother of my two children, my wife, my best friend, and the most amazing person you could ever meet.

We've been working together to manage our finances through this "new economy" and since groceries make up a large portion of "controllable expenses" - we made a budget and Beck made a commitment. We exclusively use the FREE Mint.com to track our expenses and budgets, check it out if you haven't already.

Here is what she has to say about all this:

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I’ll admit that I’m not necessarily the best saver. I really like the THOUGHT of saving…..but I really like the feeling of spending! This is why I’ve been put on a grocery budget. It’s this whole debacle of the economy that has our family – like countless others – abuzz with assessing our money habits – specifically where it is going each month. I’ve learned some very interesting things about my habits over the past three months. These revelations will not be new to many of you who were responsible with your purchases in the first place. But maybe a few ideas here might help your household, too.

First, I had to take an honest look at how and why I shop. I mean clearly, I’m going there to get food. But why am I getting the food that’s going into my cart? I am a visual shopper – easily persuaded by fancy displays and signs that tout “Special Savings!” My cart was filling up with expensive specialty items and bulk purchases that didn’t save me anything at all. I needed to arm myself with a plan if I was going to maintain my new budget. And here is the plan:

Shop once a week.
Yes. I was overwhelmed at the thought – but it has actually reduced my stress level tremendously. I have two daughters (3 and 5) and for each of you that have ever shopped with children – the grocery store is one of the last places you want to be with them. I can handle once a week. Of course this means you will need to….

Plan ahead.
I take a little time each week – a day or two before shopping – to decide what the family will eat the following week. I love to cook and bake – so I try a few new recipes and then round it out with old standbys. There’s a balance in the menu. Some dishes are a little “fancy” and require extra time to prep and cook. Of course, like most families, our days are filled with obligations like school, gymnastics, Girl Scouts, etc. I need to be flexible and have those quick go-to meals on hand, too. In addition, the tastes of our girls are not the same as mine or my husband’s and one daughter has food allergies. But don’t let the circumstances of your family steer you away from the simple act of planning ahead. And because you know when you’ll shop next it’s manageable. But you’ll need a…….

Shopping List.
This list has everything I’ll need for meals the next week (obviously) in addition to anything we ran out of. And here is where I really benefit from shopping once a week. My (bad) habit was to go buy something that I was running low on. I would stick it in a storage cabinet until I needed it. Two weeks later I would run out of the original product and (forgetting I already bought a replacement) buy more. Now when something runs low….I ask myself…..will it last another week or do I need to buy it now? That helps me decide if it needs to be written down on the list. It took me a couple of weeks to decide “how much” I needed for certain staples (like milk) to last a whole week. Also, I focused on using up fresh and “faster-going” fruits and vegetables soon after my purchase and then using frozen or heartier ones later in the week. But you have to stick to the list to make your plan work. Of course to really get your money’s worth out of your groceries you’ll want to….

Reduce. Re-use. Recycle.
Sort of. Become a fan of leftovers…..discover artful ways of “recycling” your meals into new creations the next day. Or at the very least….start freezing!! This has become a whole new world for me. Sounds silly almost….but I would usually eat leftovers for a day or two…..then let them mold over….forced to toss them in the garbage. Now I freeze leftover portions of soups, muffins, cookies, etc. right away. They make great meals and treats later on. Which brings me to my “safety net” of sorts. Once a week we have a “cleanup” meal. Basically whatever you can find to eat – that’s your meal. Simple classics like pb&j. Frozen meals. Breakfast for dinner. Essentially it’s a back-up plan for a night that didn’t go the way you thought it would – but it makes the most of the food you’ve already purchased. It doesn’t mean an unhealthy meal….just one that uses up what you have.

So there you have it. My plan for keeping to a grocery budget. Nothing earth shattering. Just common sense. Some days I feel frugal. Mostly I feel responsible and empowered. My husband loves that our grocery bills have been cut by almost 50%. I wonder what budget he has lined up for me next???

Mortgage Refinance: Do the math, it's not always obvious

I'm a numbers guy, and I love math. Despite this, I almost made a huge mistake on my mortgage refinance.

Let me explain: I had a 30 year fixed mortgage at 5.75% and had been watching the rates drop. I decided to re-fi when they hit 4.75% fixed for 30 years, no points. This one point spread is the "rule of thumb" for refinancing a mortgage. When you are saving one point, it usually makes sense to re-fi. I had the paperwork drawn up and was ready to sign it when I decided to "do the math" first.

I visited my favorite mortgage site, and opened excel. What followed was a quarter-hour of work that netted me $6,348 a minute in pure profit. Yes, by doing some math I saved us $95,000 of real cash.

What was blinding me was the new mortgage payment with the 4.75% rate - it was $300 less than my current payment per month!! No brainer, I thought. Not so fast. Over the last 5 years, I paid down a bunch of principal so the new loan wasn't apples to apples. When I looked at interest over the life of the loans, here is what I found:

-$69,601 of interest already paid.

-$165,225 to be paid if I just kept my current loan.

-$168,125 to be paid if I refinanced to a whole point lower. That's a loss of $2,900 (plus closing costs).

How can this be? A point saved, and paying more? The simple answer is that I just made my mortgage a 35 year mortgage.

The loan I ultimately chose (and closed on today) was 4.375% over 15 years (also with no points). The new interest will be $69,996 over the next 15 years - a difference of $95,228.

Thanks Dan!

Deep Fried Pizza at Pizza Snobz in Easton

April 22, 2009 Update:

Pizza Snobz moved
308 Old Mill Rd
Forks Twp PA 18040
610-438-5550
Free Delivery!

You can follow him on Twitter too.


Who knew that people would come from Doylestown and Philadelphia just to eat David Barker's deep fried pizza?

David is a client of mine, and a really great guy - check out the story and video that appeared in the Morning Call.

Do you use an RSS reader? [My 1,000 post!]

If you just said: What the hell is that? Then, this article's for you.

In plain English an RSS reader is your inbox to the web. When you want to see if you have new email - do you call each of your friends up and say "Do you have anything to tell me?". Of course you don't, you just check your email to see if there are any new messages, right?

The same goes for the web. When you want to see what's new on CNN or what articles are posted on ESPN, you don't need to go there and check. Your RSS reader will gather up all the new articles and place them in your RSS reader (your inbox to the web). This video from google will help:



See that orange logo up there /\? That's a universal logo for an RSS feed. When you see that logo, you can click it and add it to your RSS reader. I currently subscribe to 132 feeds and read an average of 600 posts per day. (Now you know a little secret about how manage "I read the entire internet so you don't have to.®")

I use Google Reader, but you can check out this list from LifeHacker and choose the best one for you.

Coordinate & Share Calendars with Google Calendar

I can't tell you how many times I've called Becky to find out what time I need to be home tonight or to ask what's going on this weekend?

Here is how we communicate our schedules:

- I started to use Google Calendar and shared it with Becky by selecting: Settings > Calendars > Sharing
- I installed Google Calendar Sync on my work machine and selected 2 way synchronization through Outlook.

Here are the benefits: Whenever Becky or I add en event, we can see it in near-real time on the Google Calendar. No more double-booking a weekend or coming home late with the girls have somewhere to be.

Don't use Outlook or don't need to sync with just one person? A Google Calendar can be shared publicly and published so your group/customers can have immediate access to all events.

Do you have a different solution for sharing your information? Then give me some comment love!

King County Sheriff, 15 year old assault video

Anne Bremner, Schene's attorney released this statement:

"We had argued strenuously that the video tape released to the media this morning not be released because it does not tell the whole story of the incident. As we argued to the judge, it will inflame public opinion and will severely impact the deputy's right to a fair trial. We will defend this misdemeanor case in court. No story can be sliced so thin that it does not have two sides. We hope that judgment will be reserved until all the facts of this case are given fair consideration in court."

Do you see two sides to this?

Creating “Five Rules For Life” [Guest Writer]

(This is the first post in a new series of guest writers.)

Jon D. Andre is the creator and editor of Five Rules For Life. I know we would get along, when I saw his profile picture on Facebook:

The caption reads: "I normally hate photos of myself, but this one turned out ok."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

At the end of 2008, I was thinking about how fortunate I was and what I could do to give something back. Many ideas ran through my mind…I could:

• end world hunger
• save the environment
• bring peace to the Middle East
  

All are worthwhile causes, to be sure. But aside from doing my part, I didn’t think I could make the serious impact of people much smarter than me already working on those causes.

I continued to reflect on my life (thus far) and the one constant through many years, many jobs, and many relationships was my study of self-improvement and motivational materials. I figured out at an early age that I can get further in life if I study people more successful than me…those who have already achieved things I want to achieve. The thought occurred to me that I could compile a “database of rules” that people think are important to follow for a happy, successful, and fulfilling life. And “Five Rules For Life” was born!

The value it brings people is twofold:

1.) We get to read the thoughts and rules of people from all walks of life – people with different experiences and different backgrounds. And not just high-profile people with publicists and books (though much can be learned from them), but the “everyday” person like you and me. The people who aren’t famous, but are leading – or strive to lead – a happy, successful, and fulfilling life. The guy that sits in the cube next to you, the waitress at your favorite restaurant, the parents working hard to raise their children, the person who has made mistakes and learned from them.

To have access to that information and be able to process and incorporate it into our own lives has tremendous value.

2.) The exercise of writing your "Five Rules" is itself a positive experience and a great start on self-improvement. It forces you to sit down and think about what is important based on your background, experience, and environment...but more importantly based on who you are now and who you want to be in the future.

Your rules don’t necessarily have to be something you are following at the present moment. They carry just as much – if not more – impact if they are rules you know you need to follow to achieve your goals, but currently don’t. So you commit them to writing and then submit them for the entire world (theoretically) to read. If that isn’t a catalyst for you to take action, I don’t know what is!

Fast-forward to today, and I am excited that what started out as an idea has now grown into a passion and has already garnered tremendous attention and participation. When I launched the site, I had two concerns:

1.) I knew everyone would enjoy reading other people’s rules, but would they be moved to write and submit their own?

2.) Would there be enough diversity in everyone’s rules to keep the site fresh and interesting?

The answer to both questions is a resounding “yes!” It is great to open my Inbox daily and find new, unsolicited submissions from people all over the world. And regarding diversity – there are commonalities in many rules but there are always unique insights in the supporting thoughts. Then there are rules that most people never think of …and those are often times the most intriguing and beneficial to implement; for example:

• Drive with your windows down and your radio turned up.
• Cover your mouth when you sneeze.
• Our lives are the stories we tell ourselves.
• Appreciate death.
• Don’t judge your insides by other people's outsides.
• Learn how to make one recipe really, really good.
• Get a dog.
• Buy a kayak.
  

Go to the site to read the supporting thoughts and rationale for each. While you are there, take the time to read through the other submissions.

And go that extra step – submit your “Five Rules For Life”.

Lyrics on your iPod

When I first started buying CD's back in the late 80's, I distinctly remember how I would rush back to the car, [spend 5 minutes trying to open the damn cellophane], pop in the disk and read all the words as the songs played.

There was something about it that made those songs *mine*. Somehow by knowing the lyrics - I was connected to the artist and the song. Maybe this way when it came on the radio - I could belt out the lyrics like I was an American Idol. I digress.

I don't buy CDs anymore and you probably don't either, so what's missing are reading those lyrics while listening to the track. You probably already know that you can add lyrics manually in iTunes, but I have over 1,200 songs and that could take up a few decades.

Enter the iTunes Lyrics Importer. It does exactly what it says and is so easy to use. Click the link to download, install, open, select songs, click "Get Lyrics" (make sure the Update Automatically box is checked) and watch the magic. (screen shot of it in action is above)

How does it work? LyricWiki is constantly being updated and iTunes Lyrics Importer compares the songs you select in iTunes, automatically polls LyricWiki and imports the lyrics into iTunes. (I suggest selecting less than 100 songs at a time).

iTunes Lyrics Importer and LyricWiki are totally free and with them you'll be singing to Paula Abdul (or Coldplay) in no time.

via

Greatest Pimp Name Ever

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/29331737/

Who IS this guy?

My paperless office setup

I am working at being 100% paperless in my home office. If you remember this post about my zero inbox, you may have already guessed I enjoy zero visual noise. I'm not obsessive about this (am I Beck?), but I am always trying to find ways to make things easier to find and visually cleaner.

It all started with a blog post from Lifehacker.com and has evolved into a really easy and effective system for scanning, filing, and keeping my paperless office.

Step one: Get yourself this scanner: It's the ScanSnap S300 from Fujitsu. 

Not another one, THIS exact model. It does everything it says and it has scanned thousands of pages for me with basically no problems.

Step 2. Get yourself another Gmail address. Call it something like [yourname] backups@gmail.com.

Step 3. Download Thunderbird or use Outlook and connect it to your current Gmail account, NOT your new one. Enable IMAP.

Step 4. Get a shredder.

Here is the process when you have paperwork that needs to be filed:

- Open notepad and grab your pile of paperwork.

- Enter the name of each document and any details you would like to be able to search for in the future.
- Each day, week or month grab all your papers to be filed and scan every single document into one huge file, don't worry about the size - I've done over 100 pages on one document. Now, you may be thinking that you should scan every document separately - but there's really no reason to. If you need to access that Verizon bill in 3 months, who cares if it's scanned right behind your 2009 tax notice or your car payment?

- Select Scan To Email. - Email the file to your new GMail backup account and paste the text from the notepad into the body of the email.

-Shred the documents.

- I have a filter set up in GMail to automatically delete any messages sent from my main account to my backups account. Otherwise all your backup files will be jamming up your main GMail account.

The benefits of using GMail are obvious, the search feature is well... google, there is more than 5 gig of free storage with every account, and it's accessible from anywhere you have an Internet connection.

Like this setup or have ideas you want to share? Leave me some comment love.

How do you keep track of your personal finances?

For the last 15 months or so, I've been using the fantastic and FREE Mint.com service to track our personal finances, budgets, and most recently our 401(k)s, auto loans, mortgages, and even our home's value.

I am a data lover and previously kept a detailed spreadsheet that had 20-30 entries that I had to manually update whenever we got a bank statement, credit card statement, etc.

Here is what mint.com does for you: You link your bank accounts, credit cards, retirement accounts, real estate, etc in your account and every night mint downloads the transactions and categorizes them. In the beginning, you need to identify the correct category for each entry, but after that - mint begins to recognize where you spend and automatically assigns the category (and does a great job of it too.) You get access to detailed spending and savings reports, graphs, charts and net worth figures updated to the minute.

One of the ways mint makes money is over in their "Ways To Save" tab. Here, they analyze your account and offer you better programs based on your current situation. For example, right now I have an offer for a zero percent credit card from Discover and a Virgin Atlantic "Black" American Express card with a $200 sign up bonus.

We have been using the great budgeting feature for our grocery bills. Our new years resolution was to reduce extra spending here and since mint downloads all of our transactions (we use debit for almost all purchases), we can see immediately where we are in spending vs budget.

Concerned about privacy? Check out their privacy policy here. It's rock solid.

Give Mint.com a try, you'll love it.

Five Rules For Life: My Five

A few days ago, I posted Gina Trapani's Five Rules For Life after reading it on her new blog.

Jon Andre's new blog is a huge hit and it's "premise is simple - people from all walks share what they believe are the most important rules to follow for a happy, successful, and fulfilling life. At one time or another we have all said "if I only knew then what I know now..."; now is your chance to share. What are your "Five Rules For Life"?"

After seeing my post, Jon invited me to contribute my Five Rules which are here.

1. Take things lightly.
I try not to get bogged down in how terrible something is or how great something is either. It really helps me to see things much clearer and as a result as I get older, I know this to be a fact and wish someone taught it to me a long time ago.

2. Laugh a lot.
People naturally mirror others who they respect and enjoy being around. I use my sense of humor to get the juices flowing in meetings or just because it feels really great to laugh with someone! Not only does it drop their defenses, it increases happy hormones that they unknowingly associate with YOU.

3. Make a plan.
The greatest things in life are the hardest to get: It is nearly impossible to get something worth having unless you have made a plan to do it. Use measuring techniques along the way, and reward yourself when you are on track or have done it! This can range from losing weight to the mundane of meeting a budget you created.

4. Save for tomorrow.
See rule number 3, this HAS to be included in your life. I learned at a young age that when I got a raise or a bonus to put that away into retirement or long-term savings. It's amazing how this money isn't missed and how fast it grows (then it becomes addicting).

5. Learn from others mistakes/triumphs.
I have a large family and learned this little tidbit early on by watching my brothers and sisters. It carried on into friendship, love and business. Whenever something goes wrong or wright: Stop and ask yourself - What could I do in the future to insure that this never happens to me or always happens to me.

If you would like to contribute, you can email Jon at fiverulesforlife [at] gmail [dot] com

View from below the water. WATCH OUT FISHIE!

Facebook folks: direct link here