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It’s a new day in  America, and It’s about time!

It’s about time George Bush is out of office, and it’s about time that America will finally have its first black president.

Barack Obama, you rock!

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Happy New Year everyone. I really wish everyone the best in 2009. 2008 was a heck of a year and I’m pretty happy that it’s over. Hopefully, 2009 will be a better year for all of us.

New Year Resolutions

Just like many other people around the world, I’ve also made some new year resolutions for 2009. The new year is always the best time to make promises. The top 3 resolutions for 2009 will be to lose weight, exercise more, and quit smoking. Funny, those are also my top 3 resolutions!

1. Lose Weight - I need to shed a few pounds in the new year. My goal is to lose 25 pounds in the next 6 months. At 2 pounds per week, I should have no problem reaching this goal. In order to lose these 25lbs in 6 months, I will eat healthier, eat proper portions, exercise regularly, and take Acai Berry Pills!!! I’m just joking about the acai berry pills :-). So, lose 25lbs, piece of cake!
2. Exercise More Often - It’s been a long time since I’ve been to the gym at least 3 times in a week. There was a time when I used to go to the gym a few times a week. Even if it was only for 30 minutes, it felt great. I had more energy, I felt healthier, and I looked better. In 2009, I will get back into this routine. I would like to go at least 3 times a week, maximum 4.

   The hardest part about going to the gym is finding the dedication and time to go. It’s definitely hard to find the time and dedication to go work out when you have a full time job. When I’m at work all day, the last thing that I want to do when I get home is go to the gym. I just want to go home, eat some dinner, maybe watch an hour of tv, check my facebook, etc, etc! You don’t want to go to the gym, you just want to relax.

   Another issue that I had with the gym was the location! Who the hell wants to go to the gym if they have to drive 15 minutes to get there? Not me! Forget that, I rather just stay home and not think about it. I’ve found the solution to the location problem. There’s a gym not far from my house now. It’s literally 3 minutes away. The gym is called Retro Fitness, and it’s a great place. They have lots of machines, cardio equipment with TVs on them, shake bar, and a fitness theater. Also, with the membership being $10 cheaper than Gold’s Gym’s, I’ll save over $120 a year or $240 for me and my wife.

3. Quit Smoking - In 2008, I picked up a bad habit that I had previously dropped. I had been smoke free for almost 2 years when all of the sudden, I was sucked back into it. I would occasionally smoke a cigarette when I would go out for a drink with my uncles, thinking that I had everything under control. Who the hell was I kidding? That addiction snuck up on me so fast and that I didn’t know what hit me.

   I will stop smoking in 2009. When I first stopped smoking couple years ago, I did it with the help of the nicotine patch, and this year, I will use patches to help me stop again. My plan is to use the patches for about 1 month and then to just quit 100%.
   
   

4. Read More Books - Last year I didn’t read as many books as I wanted to. My plan was to read at least 12 books, 1 a month. How many did I read? I’m pretty sure I didn’t reach my quota. I might have read 4 books in 2008 compared to 12 in 2007. My goal in 2009 is to read at least 12 books again this year. The first book that I’m going to read in 2009 is “Be The Pack Leader” by Cesar Millan. I have two small dogs who need a little bit of help.
5. Incorporate - My last post was about incorporating; I still haven’t done it. Hopefully, by mid January, I will have incorporated my online marketing business.
   
   
6. Keep In Touch With Family and Friends - In 2009, I will keep in touch with my family and friends more than I have in the past. Not that I don’t keep in touch, I just don’t do it as often as I would like, and in 2009, I will do it more often.

The begining of a new year is always a good time to set goals. I’ve set my goals for 2009 and I plan on achieving all of them this year. Did you make any resolutions for 2009?

Once again, Happy New Year and have a great 2009!

Personal 2009, goals, new year, resolutions

The time has come for me to officially create a corporation, and guess who’s going to be a CEO? Seriously though, I really need to form a company. I’ve been running my affiliate business as a sole proprietor for 6 years. I’ve paid enough in taxes and I’m ready to be a slave, to my company, and work for a salary.

Why am I incorporating so late?
It’s easy, it’s because I am a major procrastinator! Seriously, I could’ve done this a long time ago and saved myself thousands in taxes (and also protected myself), but I like to learn things the hard way.

At first I was going to go with an LLC (limited liability company) but after thinking and reading a lot on the topic, I’ve decided to go with an S-Corp. Once I form the corporation, my company will be its own entity, and I will become an employee of my company. Of course, I still have to consult with a lawyer before doing anything.

At first I was going to do it on my own by just using legalzoom or some similar service, but I really don’t want to F this up, and since I’m not an expert at forming companies, it’s best that I seek advice from a professional. I have exactly 27 days to get this rolling. So, by the end of the year, I will be a CEO.

Why am I Incorporating?
I am incorporating for a lot of reasons, the top being the following:

1. I Get To Save on Taxes! I have no issues with paying taxes. But damn, can I keep some more of my hard earned money? I know it goes to good causes (some of it), but must you take all of that, Uncle Sam? One thing that people who are self employed hate about taxes is the self employment tax. Why must we be taxed an extra 15%? By incorporating, I won’t be self employed anymore, Booyakasha
2. I Will Protect Myself! If someone were to sue me right now, they could go after my personal assets. When I incorporate, the most they can go after is the company (unless I mix personal and business income, then they can “pierce the corporate veil” and go after my personal stuff) Now that I’m a home owner, the last thing I need is for someone to sue me, not have enough $$ to cover the lawsuit, and end up selling my house to cover the lawsuit.
3. I Get To Be CEO! How cool is that? Being CEO of a company. Although it’s not CEO of some large corporation with billions in sales every year (although it will be in the future :-), think BIG), I think it will be a great feeling.
4. Business Credit! Once the corporation is formed, I can start building credit and hopefully borrowing a lot of money. We all know that in order to make money, we need to spend money, and it’s always nice when you’re not spending your money, although you have to pay it back :-).

I haven’t decided on a business name yet, I have some in mind, but the decision isn’t final yet. Once it’s official, I will announce the business name.

Did you incorporate your business? How was the process? Are you glad you incorporated? Let me know by leaving a comment.

Thanks a lot.

Jonathan

Personal business, ceo, incorporate

It’s been a while since I last posted something on this wonderful blog of mine. I keep promising myself that I will be more active on my blog, but in the end, I end up not being as active as I wish to be. I don’t know exactly why I keep going this route. But anyway, instead of making false promises of posting on a regular basis, I will just post when ever I want, and I will post what ever I want to post. I’m pretty sure that the world doesn’t need another “Make Money Online”  blog. And I have to admit, that was one of my problems with keeping this blog updated. I didn’t want to just post recycled information that is available from 1001 different places.There are thousands out there and they all have the same exact information.

So with that said, this blog is going to just be a place for me to write what ever I want, when ever i want. If I feel about writing about affiliate marketing, I will do so. If I feel about writing about my new house, or the last book that I read, or the crazy shit that I saw today, I will do so.

If you really think about it, most of the money making blogs out there aren’t really giving you any new information. And if you think that an affiliate marketter with a blog will actually tell you what he/she is doing right now to earn some money in affiliate marketing and share it with you, keep dreaming, because it’s never going to happen. You’re either going to get recycled information or the information is going to be divuldged long after the money has been made, so when you read it, you’re going jump in the boat to late.

The only way to make money is by simply testing new things and tracking everything. If you test enough things and keep track of things, you’re going to succeed. So keep testing and trying new things. Also, stop wasting your time reading every damn blog on the planet and actually put what you’ve read into action and DO SOMETHING! You’re not going to make a single dollar from reading all those money making blogs until you actually try something.

Another you need to stop doing is being afraid. Don’t be afraid to try that idea you’ve been thinking about. Don’t be afraid to lose an extra $50, $100, $1000 today, as long as you learn from it. I know that my last guest post said that affiliate marketing was easy (I apologize for not completely reading a guest post before posting, lesson learned), but it really isn’t. It’s a never ending roller coaster and you just have to remember from each and every down.

With that said, go out and try something. That plan you’ve had in your mind for the last 3 months, execute it, try it out and if you fail, learn from your mistake.

Have a good night.

Personal

I’ve owned a MacBook for about 1 month now, and so far things have been good. It took a little bit for me to adjust to the change, but everything is working out good, so far. I’ve always wanted a Mac to play with at home. Im a windows type of guy, and I never understood why Mac users were so…loyal to their computers.

After about a month of using it, I now totally understand why people love Macs so much; it is an extremely easy system to use. It wasn’t easy for me to learn at first, but after a few days, I pretty much got it down.

Likes

Here are some of the features of my macbook that I really like:

• The ability to easily install programs by simply dragging the installation file to the applications folder.
• The ability to scroll down a page by using two-fingers on the touchpad
• The charger with the magnetic end. If you trip on the cord, it simply comes off. I think that’s a really neat feature, especially since

Dislikes

• Right clicking is hard! Seriously, if you don’t have a usb mouse, it’s a pain in the ass to right click. You have to hold on to the touchpad and then click.
• This isn’t really a problem with macs, but there’s something wrong with my macbook’s keyboard. Sometimes I have to press a key multiple times in order for it to register. It’s really annoying. I’ll take it back to the Mac store this weekend.

I’m pretty sure that as I continue to this this new toy of mine, I will find more likes and dislikes to this list.

Overall, I think that the Mac OS X operating system is a pretty cool system and I will continue to use it. I won’t do a 100% conversion, I’m still a windows user!

Personal, Technology

It’s been a while since I last posted. I promised myself that I would make an effort to something on a daily basis, but that promise has fallen quite short. The truth is, I’ve been very busy over the past few months. A lot of things have changed in my life.

Married Life
I am now a married man! I married my wonderful girlfriend of 4 years, Katie Welsh on 5/31/2008, in Bethlehem, PA. The wedding was wonderful. We had an outdoor wedding at Saucon Valley Acres, a small private venue. The wedding was officiated by Lois Heckman, who did such a great job! We were extremely lucky to have our wedding outdoors on that day, since it was scheduled to rain. I swear, we’ve never checked the weather forecast so many times prior to this day.

We started checking the weather 10 days prior to the event and everything looked good. As the date approachd, the chance of rain increased. It had been a wonderful week prior to Saturday the 31. On the 31, that’s when all hell broke loose. There was a 100% chance of rain with lighting, thunderstorms, strong winds, and a possibility of hail! WTF? It did rain during the morning, but luckily for us, it was nice and dry at 4pm. We were able to get married outdoors and it was great. Take a look at some pictures.

The number one question I get ever since I’ve gotten married is: “So, Jon, how’s the married life?” To tell you the truth, the married life is…..pretty much the same as the un married life. Katie and I had been living together for more than a year prior to tying the knot. So there weren’t any drastic changes to our lives. We are currently in the process of buying a house.

Affiliate Marketing
Affiliate marketing has been treating me nice. I’ve been doing a lot of work with the eBay affiliate program. It has really been working good for me. I also purchased a copy of Build a Niche Store and so far, I’ve been pleased with it. It’s a very nice piece of software and it’s extremely easy to use.

Affiliate Summit

I’m counting down the days until Affiliate Summit East 2008 and I’m getting pretty excited. Being the procastinator that I am, I have yet to book my airfare or my hotel room. The Boston Seaport hotel is now booked, and it looks like I’ll have to stay at a different hotel. It’s all good. I’ll probably just end up staying at the Westin Boston Waterfront hotel, which isn’t that far from the Seaport.

If you haven’t booked your hotel yet, you should consider the Westin Boston Waterfront.

Personal

I mailed my 2007 tax forms and payments today. It’s such a wonderful feeling to know that for the first time in 3 years, I’m not going to be on any payment plan with the IRS. For the last 3 years, I’ve been on some sort of payment plan with the IRS for not completely paying off my tax obligation. I got myself in this situation because I either wasn’t putting away enough for taxes or because I was dipping into my tax savings when times got hard. The bad thing about owing the IRS money is that you owe them money. The good thing about owing the IRS money is that if you’re willing to pay, they are very flexible and will work with you in order for you to pay off your debt.

I remember the first time I realized that I was going to owe money to the IRS. I thought for sure that I was going to go to jail for not paying my taxes in full. I think I was around $18,000 short. I can remember nervously freaking out at the thought of owing Uncle Sam money; it really scared me!

When I called the IRS to let them know that I didn’t have all of my tax money, I was very surprised when the lady on the phone told me that I can pay over time. She asked me a series of questions such as how much I could afford to pay each month and when I wanted my payments to be due. In the end we agreed on a fixed amount. The agreement was that I had to make my payments on time, each month, and I also needed to pay the next year’s taxes in full. If I broke any of those terms, they could’ve placed liens and garnished my wages, etc. Lucky to say, I paid them off in time!

The next year, and the year after, I was in the situation! I was in the same situation because each year, I would use my income to pay off my previous year’s tax liability. And for a while, I really though that I was going to be like this forever! Luckily for me, it wasn’t the case. I was able to pay off all of my tax and I still have money saved for my 2007 taxes.

I promised myself that I wouldn’t let myself be in this type of situation again, ever. To help me keep my promise, I’m putting away 35% of my monthly affiliate earnings in a special business checking account. I’ve also started making quarterly tax payments. Making quarterly tax payments will help me out because I won’t be tempted to use the money when times get hard. I will also not get penalized by the IRS each year!

So if you’re in a similar situation, remember the following:

• If you owe money to the IRS, talk to them. The worst thing you can do is pretend as if you don’t owe, or as if the it will go away if you don’t think about it. It will follow you until you pay it off. Call the IRS, talk to them, explain your situation. They will listen to you and work with you to pay off your liability.
• Make quarterly estimated tax payments. If you’re self employed and are paying a lot in every year in taxes, the IRS expects you to make quarterly estimated taxes. If you don’t make them, expect a penalty.
• Put away a good percentage of your affiliate earnings for taxes. Don’t do what I did and use your tax money to help family, friends, or yourself when times are hard.

Personal taxes

Last night I went to my first meet up for internet marketers in the Lehigh Valley. Although 9 people were scheduled to show up, only 4 of us actually made it. It would’ve been great if everyone who promised to show up actually did; it was still cool.

All of the other guys were either currently selling on eBay or used to sell on ebay. I was the only one doing affiliate marketing. One of the guys, Tony, really impressed me. He spends 60-70 hours per week working on eBay and sells a ton of shit. And Tony is a smart guy. He thinks outside the box and has figured out a lot of ways to get things to sell on eBay. He’s currently a trading assistant. Basically, he charges people 30-35% of the final selling price to list their items on eBay and get it sold. Once their item is sold, he sends them a check.

He gets customers/things to sell by:

1. Purchasing leads of people who would like to sell their items on eBay. He’s currently paying some kid in India $10-15 per lead.
2. Buying things at garage sales. He usually tells the seller to contact him at the end of the day with all the unsold items and makes a deal. Sometimes he gets the items free, and other times, a deal is brokered on the spot.
3. Liquidating used/return merchandise from local retailers. He likes to target small local chains, maybe 5 or 6 stores.
4. Using Amazon.com as a drop shipper. When drop shipping was discussed, Tony said that “the only reliable drop shipper I use is Amazon”. I don’t know if he uses Amazon to send directly to the buyer or if he sends the item to himself first, and then ships it to the buyer.

Nobody at the meeting really did affiliate marketing. A few said they had in the past, and that they no longer did it because it was so time consuming. I thought it was the other way around. Affiliate marketing is less time consuming than selling on eBay. I don’t have to worry about shipping, packaging, and stocking items.

In the end, the meeting was very fun. I got to meet some new people and ate some ok food. I will go a few more meetings to see if any other affiliate marketers join.

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Starting today, I will learn how to make tons of money online. There are many people out there who are making millions every year by doing different things online. Some people make their money by blogging, some by blogging, some by selling links, some by selling on ebay, etc. The point is: there’s lots of money to be made online.

I know this because I’ve made money online myself. Four years ago I started www.creditlovers.com. My plan with the site was to make a few extra dollars each month by placing affiliate ads. I succeeded. I was able to make a few extra dollars each month, plus a little extra.

Today, my plan is tro create an online network of money making sites. And I plan on documenting the entire process here, on RoyalRadande.com.

To get me started, I’ve begun reading Jeremy Schoemaker’s blog at www.shoemoney.com. I discovered the blog the other day while browsing the net. I can’t believe all the information that’s available on his blog. This guy makes thousands of dollars each month online. In September of ‘05 alone, he received a $132,994.97 check from Google Adsense!

I’ve decided to study his ways and learn listen to what he has to say. I’ve started reading his blog, and I just can’t stop. I’m slowly working my way to the present post. I didn’t want to miss a thing so I started reading the blog from its inception on May 13, 2005. On his blog, Jeremy talks about his family, search engines, online marketing, pay per click marketing, affiliate marketing, blogging, and more.

From reading his site, working hard, and implementing his tricks, tools, and advice, I will try to emulate him. If I can’t emulate him, I will damn sure try to imitate him; expect a picture with my Adsense check real soon.

This site will be my money making journal. I hope to learn a lot from this new venture I’m starting. At the same time, I wish to teach what I learn.

See you around.

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This is my first blog post, ever! I am starting this blog for a number of reasons:

1. To write more
2. To share my thoughts and ideas
3. To have fun

Since this is my first blog post, I guess I should let you know a little bit about myself. My name is Jonathan. I am 25 years old college graduate currently residing in Pennsylvania. I work in the IT industry as a service desk technician. Service desk is just another fancy term for help desk; yes, I’m on the bottom of the totem poll. I just graduated last may from the State University of New York with a bachelor’s in computer science.

Read more…

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