Male pattern baldness

There comes a time in every mans life when he has to face up to hair-loss, and make a decision as to what he will do about it. I decided to go the frugal route and bought myself a hair trimmer - Every month or so I sit out in the garden and shave off my flowing locks - it saves me a fortune in barbers fees, and keeps my hair from looking unkempt or uneven. I would not really consider having 'something done about it' as I consider male-pattern baldness to be entirely natural for males, hence it is called 'male pattern baldness'! For those who are particularly traumatised by this natural consequence of being male... there are all sorts of 'treatments' one can embark on. The least intrusive of those is hair loss shampoo, at least it doesn't involve the use of a scalpel and the loss of significant amounts of hard-earned cash...
Of course, baldness is not always male-pattern and may come before it's proper time, in which case it may indeed be quite distressing. Recent trends accept baldness far more readily than a few decades ago, nevertheless not everyone is prepared to get the trimmer out...

Addicted to eBay...

I seem to be spending an inordinate amount of time on eBay lately, I guess I just can't resist a bargain! Yet if I didn't keep going back to it, I could save myself a fortune!

This is the perpetual trouble with 'bargains' - you have to spend in order to make the savings, I have a whole host of bargain purchases, but my Paypal account has been completely empty for weeks, not only that, but the latest purchase had me transferring funds from my credit card!!

I am breaking all my own rules on frugal living lately and my credit card balance is ballooning as a result.

I must resolve to actually ensure that some funds trickle from my Paypal account into my 'real' bank account rather than the other way around. Generally I am pretty good at ensuring that my internet purchases do not impact on my 'real' money, but lately I have found myself drawn into a bit of a spending spree.

I have some stuff I need to sell, but have not yet got around to - I even have some small bids on things now, even though my Paypal fund is at zero (fortunately I have some pay-days coming up). Even though I am fairly well practised in the art of frugal living, it is still very easy to revert to bad habits. Every so often I remind myself of how hard things have been and I hope that is enough to make me see that if I don't keep things under control, that hardship will have been in vain.

I promise myself that in the few remaining months of the year, I am determined to make an impact on my small but growing debt...

Getting the tasks done

There is little that is more satisfying than having a list of tasks and being able to tick them off one by one. I find that DIY tasks hang over me like a burden on my shoulders, being able to reduce the list of tasks lightens the load considerably.

For the last few weeks I have been working on preparing the walls to have the hall and landing of our home newly plastered. The house is getting on for 100 years old, so there is a considerable amount of preparation to be done. We had considered wall-papering the existing surface, but have decided to take everything back to the plaster and start again... Having just replaced one of the door surrounds upstairs (one of the critical tasks before the plasterer can come in), there are just a couple more preparation tasks to be done.

The great thing about having this done is that he will be in and out in a matter of 1 or maybe 2 days after which the whole house will feel like it has been transformed.

However, when one task is completed, there is always another to do, and the bathroom is the next major project in my sights. I have yet to price up baths, showers and pedestal sinks, but I am quite sure we can't afford to make an headway on this particular project as yet...

Safety Gear

Everything in the modern day, has an element of Health & Safety and carries a risk of varying severity. This risk extends to the hobbies, sports and pastimes that we all get involved in as well as the more obvious risky working environments.

Headgear is about the most important piece of safety gear that you can invest in, whether it be a hard-hat for use on a building site, or equestrian helmets for horse-riding. it is important that that headgear is appropriate and provides the proper degree of protection, it is also essential that it fits correctly. Of all the kit you purchase for the task ahead, don't skimp on the headgear, or you may not live to regret it...

Busy September

Along with the restart of the school year (end of the summer break) and the general busy-ness of life, our family has a multitude of birthdays in September. This week sees birthdays for both of my parents and my wife - September is often an expensive month for me and extra earnings are more than welcome!
The good news is that I have been doing a large batch of cassette tape to CD conversions over the last few weeks, but the bad news is that the last batch has been completed, so the extra earnings from this is about to end. This should spur me on to work on other pending projects in order to keep the revenue flowing, but whether I will have enough time is a very real concern.
I have some DIY work to do around the house, but I really need to find some time to get stuck into Wordpress and get some sites up and running. I have loads of plans including buying about three more domains to supplement my current domain holdings... These plans have been rumbling on for some months, hopefully the coming month will allow me to spend some time developing things that should bring income for the future. Hopefully by the time I come to do my end of September report, I will be in a position to report that I have got somewhere with my wordpress projects - being able to knock out WP sites without too much effort is key to the next stage of my earnings plan.

Making Legal History

The face of the legal profession has changed a lot in the last few decades. Until a few years ago, lawyers were not even allowed to advertise on TV in the UK. Nowadays, adverts for personal injury claims are commonplace.

The legal profession has proved adaptable to the degree where you can now have specialist law companies that not only specialise in injury claims, but work in very specific niches including Texas truck accident lawyers . Such is the size of the accident claim industry, that companies can make a good living from unlikely-sounding niche markets.

Economic Recovery Uncertain

Although some statistics seemed to be indicating an 'easing off' of the economic crisis that has gripped us for so long, recent reports have given rise to concerns over a 'double-dip' recession.

The situation in the UK seems to be steadily improving, but the rate of recovery in the US is now falling behind initial hopes. This does not mean that the US alone will be affected because whenever the US sneezes (financially), the rest of the Western economies are bound to catch a cold.

There are a few key indicators of recovery including house prices (but don't forget house pricing, and miss-sold mortgages was what got us in this mess originally...!), and job statistics - decline in construction jobs and manufacturing jobs indicates a decline that cannot easily be reversed.

Manufacturing jobs are often permanent losses, construction work tends to fluctuate, but the amount of construction taking place is a good indication of how healthy an economy is.

Good at teaching..

A truism struck me today as I was browsing 'Yahoo answers' - I often browse through and distribute my 'wisdom'... ha ha

What struck me was this - an answer might be technically perfect, but the way in which you put the answer over is just as important as knowing your subject. In the same way as a research Professor might know it all, but be useless as a teacher because he cannot adequately convey his meaning to a pupil. Knowledge is imperative, but it does not automatically qualify you to teach the subject to a third party, because teaching is a skill.

I have often thought the same about managership - just because you are good at your job does not mean that you will be a good manager in your department, because management of people is a skill that needs to be developed and honed.

I have a friend who is a policemen, he never wanted to take his sergeant exams because he loved his job. He knew that promotion would mean he would be distanced from the hands-on tasks he enjoyed and turn him into a man-manager. It is only recently, now he is thinking about a final-salary pension, that he has given in to thinking about climbing the ladder of promotion.

Well, that's my thought for today.... hope you enjoyed it.

Feel Good about yourself - Day 7

Finally (seven step to feeling good about yourself should be enough).. one last thing you might consider, is your financial well-being. We have looked at exercise and diet, then pampering and treats along with smatterings of how your confidence can be boosted by the way you look or feel. We have even thought about the merits of tidying up those little jobs around the house that need doing, and how that can positively affect your life.

My last step in this series is going to be about encouraging you to be financially astute, with all the comparison websites around it would be relatively simple to save money on your utilities or broadband charges.

My philosophy is that the quickest way to make money is to save money - take a look around you and see how you might be financially better off, again this is long-term so consider all options...

Feel Good about yourself - Day 6

Whilst you are checking the mirror and rubbing in the olay regenerist, you might want to consider how else you can feel good about yourself. Here are a few more suggestions:

If you have a niggling physical or medical problem, why not get it checked out?

Something needs doing at home, some wallpaper peeling off, a lock that needs fixing - set yourself a list and work through it - it's surprising how these things preying on our mind can drag you down.

However don't forget the basics, keep exercising and eating/drinking well - plenty of fruit and plenty of fluids. Keep rewarding yourself even if only in a small way. Most importantly, don't forget this is for the long-haul - if you fall off the wagon, get right on it again and come back better and stronger..

Earnings August 2010

August has been a good month for blogging and for converting cassettes to CD's, turnover being over £160, outgoings mounting up to about £30 (much of that spent on buying blank CDR's). I have just completed a decent amount of cassettes that I should get paid for soon, and may well have more on the way. I am still working on several projects in the back-ground, I have been delayed a little by the fact that I have discovered how easy it is to set up Wordpress sites on my new hosting service - many of my latest projects (and a few of the older ones) will be done in WP rather than Dreamweaver. The learning curve has started, hopefully I will have something to show for the hard work soon...

Lady Gaga on tour

Lady Gaga hits the road on a world tour that is going to run for months and months, the latest phenomenon to hit the pop world is about to launch her zany self on the world. Each concert is sure to be a spectacle worth seeing if past performance and costumes are anything at all to go by.

Judged by many to be the 'new' Madonna, she is set to set both the US and Europe alight between now and next April. lady gaga tickets are set to be some of the most sought-after commodities on the market....

Feel Good about yourself - Day 5

Long term plans for feeling good about yourself might include a daily treatment with a wrinkle cream or changing where you buy your clothes or have your hair cut. Basically I am saying look after yourself, not only internally but also your appearance.

There is a tendency as we get older to 'let yourself go' a little, but taken too far, it can start to look as if you don't care about yourself. If you look like you don't care about yourself, others are not going to find it easy to care about you either - a sad but true fact...

Looking your best does not have to mean expensive clothes and the like, but it does mean being smart when the occasion calls for it, ironing your clothes even when there does not seem to be much point, and generally keeping up appearances. This may appear to be 'shallow' advice, but the reality is that you will feel smarter and once more exude confidence, people around you will pick up the positive vibes.

Feel Good about yourself - Day 4

To continue the pampering theme, don't forget that feeling good about yourself is not all about denial, and treating yourself is not all about over-indulgence.

You may choose to treat yourself with a spa-day with a mud-bath or colon cleanser. You might treat yourself to a days shopping or trip to the cinema. Pleasing yourself, doing something just for you - all helps to get you feeling good about yourself.

Even just creating some 'me-time' with a good book can be part of your new regime to create a new lifestyle which not only helps to reaffirm you as an individual, but also helps you to feel more comfortable and confident. A more relaxed, confident person is going to exude calm and confidence to those around them - the knock-on effects could have a far more significant effect on your life than you thought possible.

Feel Good about yourself - Day 3

To continue with the feel good about yourself series, todays post is about pampering and giving yourself treats rather than denial to achieve an ideal body shape. The balance between a strict regime of exercise and treats should be carefully managed. Treats that don't involve fatty and sugary foods or drinks are ideal, but even indulging in a sweet treat can be beneficial if done in moderation and if done only when certain physical goals have been met.

It is always helpful to have a goal to aim for, even better if that goal carries a reward. To the purist, it may be that the achievement is reward in itself, but judging by the way most people fail to keep to a plan, some other sort of reward can help to focus the mind.

Feel Good about yourself - Day 2

For the second day in our feel good about yourself series, we are going to concentrate on ways to keep fit and lose weight. To get to your desired weight, you should consider an exercise regime that begins at a gentle level, but progresses towards an increasingly intense schedule.

During this period, you may also consider an aid to weight-loss such as weight loss drinks or snacks - these options may prove easier to supplement your exercise with, than medications that may seriously disturb your metabolism.

The whole aim of a weight-loss program (assuming it is not simply to get into a particular outfit for an event), should be to begin a lifestyle NOW that you can maintain for the rest of your life.

Feel Good about yourself - Day 1

As the end of summer approaches, and the sun threatens to disappear for another winter, we could all do with a reason to feel good about ourselves. I have decided to launch a 'feel good about yourself' series for Munny4Hunny readers.

Starting with day 1 today...

Todays top tip is about getting in shape by starting a new exercise regime - I have to tell you I played Wii sports for the first time yesterday and was really puffing and panting by the end of it!!

Todays tip is two-fold as for those who are not in good enough shape to get into regular exercise, they could start by finding some diet pills that work although I must stress that exercise is a better way forward in the longer term than medication. Think long-term and think sustainable improved lifestyle, not quick-fix...

SEO - off site techniques

The off-site SEO is a bit of a minefield, but bear in mind that you can get position one without any offsite optimisation if your keywords are 'niche' enough...
Getting links is possible from one of four methods that I can think of, and be aware that there is a value in a link whether or not anybody ever sees it or clicks on it. Search Engine 'bots' will see the link regardless of whether it is seen by your potential visitor, the bot will also take note of what is called the 'anchor text' ie. the words that are highlighted, for instance I might use the words SEO genius to link to my blog that deals with website building, search engines et al... having anchor text with specific keywords is considered key to off-site optimisation.
These are the different links you might have:

• Directories: Getting yourself listed in directories is fairly easy, there is even software available to help to automate the process, still painstaking, because most directories allow a certain amount of automation ie. the software populates categories like 'description' 'keywords' 'URL' and 'Title' etc,,, for you - you still have to add them by hand - or pay someone to do it for you... Some directories make a charge, others are free - I prefer the free ones! - it may be a risky process as some sites are blacklisted by search engines and it may have a negative effect if you get yourself listed on one of the 'bad neighborhoods'. An indication of a 'good' site would be whether the site is 'cached' by Google or whether it has any 'PageRank' (the google toolbar will tell you this or a browser SEO plug-in such as the one I use on Google Chrome).
• Paid links: many people get a company to find websites that will insert links for money - blogs often carry 'sponsored posts' or 'reviews' from which they get a small one-off payment. Other will use networks and forums to offer sponsored links directly to site owners and bloggers - invariably, they will request a specific anchor text - in fact they will often have three links in each post which has to be a minimum length (100 words, 200 words etc.). Google do NOT like this, and will punish sites that they find are doing it - the cynical person might argue that is because Google like to be paid for their own 'sponsored links' in search results - I think ultimately the monopolies commission may take a dim view of the way that Google controls search results, and 'punishes' sites that try to 'compete' with paid search engine entries (a company can legitimately pay Google to appear in position 1, but will be 'slapped' for paying someone else to try and achieve the same result..)
• Link exchanges: I can't possibly keep track of how many times I am asked to place a link on a site in exchange for an external link back to my site. It is important to realise that Google recognises a link exchange, and treats them accordingly eg.. If you link to 'joes carpets' and joes carpets links back to you, the link won't be as effective as when joes carpets links to you and you do not link back ie. if you get 'one way' links to your site, your site grows in 'authority'. So most webmasters indulge in what is called three way linking where the link that comes back is from a different site. The danger is that the link you are offered in exchange is possibly valueless, and unless they are in the same niche as you, there is little point anyway. This is the dilema then, your competitors are in the same niche, but they're not going to link to you... Your suppliers may link to you, you may get colleagues or consultants to link to you, but you can spend a lot of time asking for links and will rarely get anyone take you up on it...
• Ghost sites: which brings us nicely onto the last point, if you can't get sites to link to you, make your own... create a site which to all intents and purposes has content that is liked to yours, has all the right keywords and is optimised... then start linking words into your site - ideally picking up on anchor text. don't forget that you are not really trying to drive 'traffic' to this site or even to your own site - it is ONLY the link that is important - as long as you can guarantee that the site is 'crawled' and 'cached' by google, then the bots should automatically attribute authority to wherever those links point - and these are 'one way' links, nothing comes back the other way. Of course you can take this further and make more ghost sites which link into this ghost site, thus bumping up the authority down the line...

That's about the long and short of it, you can use searches to find out what your competitors are doing, there are supposed 'formulas' for keyword density and all that, but I think content should be 'organic' and should flow naturally rather than be made to fit into a formula that may or may not have an impact. At then end of the day, Google is looking for cheats, so don't go looking for short-cuts. Build good sites with good content, everything else should stem from that starting point.

Water filters

The town that I was born and raised in had its own water table which means that the water there didn't taste like the water that came out of taps in the surrounding districts. When I moved, I discovered I no longer enjoyed drinking the water straight from the taps because the taste of Chlorine or Fluorine was so strong. Since then, the only time I have really enjoyed drinking plain water is when we use the refrigerator filter. I think it's crazy to pay all that money for bottled water when it is freely available from the tap, but it's only when it's filtered that it tastes like the water from home...

SEO - on site techniques

On-site search engine optimisation techniques include:

• Content: keyword stuffing up to an optimum point, variation of keywords to cover similar and related terms - at the end of the day, 'content' is supposed to be what it's all about...
• Tags: the traditional stuff such as 'keyword' tags and 'description' and 'title' are used by some search engines, and importantly may show up in results - in SEO terms having a page which has the title tag 'homepage' or even worse 'untitled' is a major crime worthy of public flogging.
• URL's: - using keywords in a URL seems to me to be one of the easiest way to get your point across - apart from your 'index' page, other pages should be richly laden with keywords. Don't call a page 'methods.htm', instead call it 'methods_for_making_money_online.htm' or some other title that includes your target keywords and search terms.
• Pictures: may not be an obvious optimisation tool, but it doesn't do any harm to get yourself into 'google images' and the theory is that this could have an impact on standard searches (but of course no-one actually knows..). Therefore, to be on the safe side, every picture can have it's own title tag - which should have keywords where possible and also, each picture filename should reflect the content eg: the file should not be called 'IMG000345.jpg', when we could call it 'portable_music_device.jpg' or other more descriptive title.

[Note that spaces are a bit of a pain when using browsers, so I tend to use underscore instead to separate words in a phrase.]

Of these four, I tend to concentrate on content and URL's primarily, time spent on onsite optimisation is time well-spent in my estimation, off-page takes a lot of effort for few positive results..