Freegans & the Secret Science of Getting Rich

In today's lesson, the Monetizer will tie 3 concepts together: a “Freegan” episode of Oprah, "The Secret" and "The Science of Getting Rich", because they all relate, yet Freegans are in opposition to money making concepts.

First off, if you aren't familiar with a "Freegan" they are individuals trying to make a statement by living below financial means. They are trying to tell corporate America they won't be induced into constant buying to "keep up with the Jones's" or the latest trends. So what they do is go to great lengths to essentially "trash pick" for items that will be free. These items include furniture, office supplies, clothing and yes even food.

The food part is probably the toughest to "swallow", so to speak, because not many of us would go dumpster hunting for food, or consider it sanitary. The Freegans go to dumpsters outside of grocery stores. On Oprah's show, they went on a large group tour of one dumpster site at nighttime and were able to retrieve items like eggs, cupcakes, breads, vegetables and other thrown out foods. They amassed a pile of usable food, and even the host was ready to take some baked goods. They said that grocery stores throw out usable items which basically could go to the homeless, but supermarkets generally fear lawsuits. Oprah's message was to think about how much stuff we waste in our daily lives, and what it’s costing us. The Freegan truly wants to send the message that they don't need so many things at top dollar, and they don't need to live extravagantly. The Monetizer also believes that all consumers make choices of what they buy and what they have to have. The "freegan ideology" is really a personal choice and commitment to a certain lifestyle, just as making money is.

That brings me to an interesting book called The Science of Getting Rich by Wallace D. Wattles. Wattles' book opens with the chapter titled "Your Right to Be Rich". His main point is that we all should strive for success in our lives and not be limited by beliefs such as "there aren't enough resources for us all". Those beliefs cause people to "just get by" or sacrifice rather than trying to advance and live the best life they can. So Wattles says we should strive to accumulate the riches we want by forming a clear picture and not letting it go. He offers many other steps in his scientific analysis for how to acquire riches, such as showing gratitude, choosing the right profession, acting in a certain way and not focusing on money problems. It's also Wattles' overall belief that the more wealth you have, the more completely you can live and experience things. This is a complete opposite focus from the Freegans shown on Oprah who say wealth makes us greedy and prone to buy more, giving corporations control of our happiness.

Wattles' book is also what inspired Rhonda Byrne to write her bestselling book The Secret . If you've read that book or heard of it, you may know its basic premise; You can attract to you the things you want by focusing properly. It's been described as a self help book by some, but can be better summed up as personal development. It's not all about wealth either, as it covers the secrets of relationships, health, life and You. I enjoyed this book and it's what made me pick up Wattle's book next. Both books are generally encouraging, and while some may view Wattles' book as a greedier read it still offers plenty of positive advice beyond money.

So I'd recommend two of the 3 things above. Check out The Secret and The Science of Getting Rich, as each book will put you on a better path towards acquiring wealth and success. I'd recommend becoming a Freegan to anyone who has a strong stomach and isn't so interested in acquiring wealth.

The Credit Crunch Continues

You may have noticed this quite a bit lately, where various “helpful” companies are really preying upon the emotions of the credit card user and those in debt trouble. One commercial shown repeatedly on television seems to be the "freecreditreport.com" jingle. You know the one where a dude strums his guitar and sings a happy tune about how he was burned by not checking out his credit report. He sings how he had his identity stolen and credit destroyed, but if he had just checked his credit report he'd be fine. He even has to settle for a crappy, smaller car and take a job as a pirate at a restaurant, making him look like he's gone into the witness relocation program due to identity theft.

And that commercial isn't the only one being launched at people. There's also ads running all over about saving you from the IRS or "we will save you from all your debt". Consolidate now! Of course these helpful programs will also come at a fee, monthly yearly or percentage rate wise. The question really becomes who is to blame, the consumer or the lender? Credit card companies make it extremely easy for consumers to rack up debt, but the it is the consumer who makes that decision.

Even a UK site which discusses Secured Loans, says their nation's credit card market is starting to tighten the reigns on its lending criteria, reducing amounts loaned from 10,000 pounds to 5,000 pounds. Credit card companies are also starting to turn more of the risky applicants down. This has also been a repeated emphasis of 2008 presidential candidates, to save people from the debt, foreclosures and general financial mess going on in the US.

The credit card companies might be called the worst offenders here. While they don't necessarily run up all that debt, they definitely profit from it in a huge way with hidden fees, inflated interest rates and penalties. Consumers are at their mercy as they fight to survive. But when it's all said and done, the wisest decision may be to just become rich and pay for everything you want in cash, instead of letting vicious lenders gain the upperhand on you.

Boomertowne is Fun and Rewarding!

About a week or so ago the Monetizer had heard through another social media site that Boomertowne is the place to be. You may say "not another site to join", but this one clearly offers fun and value, with an easy way to rack up points. While Boomertowne doesn't give out money online per se, they do offer a great array of rewards including Target, Best Buy and Visa gift cards. The beauty of those sorts of items is they translate into great, free prizes you've earned that you can buy things with or use for blog contest prizes.

The way Boomertowne works is simple and almost similar to Myspace. You sign up for the site and create a profile. Once you're a member the points begin to accumulate immediately. Filling out your profile is an automatic 100 points. Every new page you view on the site gives you 1 point each day. Friend requests you accept give 10 points. Reading the daily newsletter is 100 points, participating in the sites various Flash games is 25 points, and so forth. As you can see accumulating points on the site is not only easy, but fun as well. Among the games offered are a Wheel of Fortune variation, a hangman style game and more.


(Above: A glimpse of the stylish Boomertowne landscape)

There is a cap on daily points at 1,500. So choose activities wisely and don't over-exert yourself. And to illustrate the points cost of some rewards, a Best Buy or Target card will run you 12,500 points. It sounds like alot, but with the way points add up quickly, it would take 10 days or so to do. A $75 Visa gift card is 32,000 points, just to give one more example.

The biggest way to earn points is to refer 5 friends within 1 calendar month. Once you're a BT member, you can go to the referrals section and easily email 5 or more friends the invite. If you get 5 friends to join in the month, you're awarded a bonus of 10,000 points. Technically if you do that and earn 1,500 points a day, you could get that $75 Visa card in no time.

There is also a Scavenger Hunt offered on the site which gives special clues and will award winners a nice prize of $1,000. Yet another way to play and get payed for participation..

If you're interested in becoming a Boomertowne member, use this special referral code: 1264246176 when you sign up! Remember, the Monetizer sent ya ;)

Be careful, with many sites like this as they become extremely addictive and can consume time quickly!

Make Money Online Without a Website!

Since moving to a new state I've been reduced to using dialup for a bit of time, making it more of a challenge to post to blogs and complete other tasks. That said, I wanted to provide a bunch of ways for people to make money online without having the stress/complication of running a website or blog to do it. So here are just 10 ways you can profit online without owning your own website..

1) eBay - Since moving to a new place I've been putting a lot more items on eBay. The key factor here is you really need to evaluate the items you just can't get rid of. It's easy to say that about a lot of things we own, but if you can part with things that just aren't being used, there's extra money. I also am starting to investigate the local consignment and Goodwill type stores for electronics. These can be gold mines for resale of items.

2) Associated Content - With AC you are paid for your unique written articles. These are upfront payments or performance payments. Sometimes AC will accept your articles for upfront payment and you'll see money to your PayPal within a week. Depending on your article you can see from $3-$4 for your articles. Other times you will only be approved for performance payment, meaning you get $1.50 for every 1,000 views your article gets. AC also provides you with topics you can write if you choose and some pay from $5-$10 each.

3) Cash Crate - It's a "get paid to" and "paid survey site" but I've found it very easy to earn with and reliable for payouts. It's all about the time you're willing to put in to either do things on the site yourself, or get others to signup who will earn you referral money. Cash Crate includes paid surveys at 80 cent a piece, various sign up offers which pay you, as well as points offers where you can earn prizes such as gift cards and electronics.

4) Gather - A social media type community. You start out earning points for uploading content like articles, images and videos, as well as getting and giving comments and more. If you earn 3,000 points in a month on the site you may be invited to their cash program, where 3,000 pts = $50. The gift cards are nice from Borders, Macy's, Home Depot, and Omaha Steaks among others.

5) Squidoo - I can't recommend this site enough because I like it's look and feel. It is a free place to make a lens page about any topic you choose and you can make as many as you want. So the possibilities are endless for specific topics you can make a page about. You then earn based on performance of your page as you receive a cut of the Adsense revenue. You also earn royalties should you put Amazon, eBay and any of a variety of other products on your page that someone buys.

6) HubPages - I've used it less than Squidoo, but it follows the same concept with revenue share. The difference here is Hub Pages will allow you full commission of Adsense money from your pages. You just need to be signed up with Adsense first and supply your Publisher ID.

7) Ximmy - A newer site I've found which is alot like Digg, but it pays you for votes, comments and hitting the front page. 1,000 points = $10. There's also a great affiliate program paying out 50 cents per member you refer, with minimum payout at $25.

8) Amazon Mechanical Turk - It's a site where you are paid to do tasks that computers can't easily do. Everything from locating maps or contracts online to creating javascript code or transcribing MP3 lectures to text. Some tasks give very low payouts of a few cents but allow for you to do them 1000's of times. Others pay $1-$10 and more for completion but require tougher work.

9) CafePress - If you've got that fashion designer or artistic knack, this site could be for you. Cafepress allows you to create your own custom designs on an art program then upload them. The designs are put on mugs, shirts, moues pads and other clothing items/accessories.

10) Image/photo sites - There's quite a few of these going on on the internet. Some are sites where you flat out sell your original digital photos and interested buyers pay to download and use them. Other sites will pay you per impressions or views of your photo. Copyright applies to most of these sites, so make sure the pictures you upload belong to you.

Out of the above listed items, my biggest moneymakers have been eBay followed by Squidoo, AC and then Cash Crate. Associated Content is also the fastest payer of any online money making site I've found, as you are paid within a few days of your article being approved. Try the above ideas out for additional sources of income, but remember often times the money you make is closely related to how willing you are to put in work and effort.