The Monetizer heard a lot about the book "Rich Dad, Poor Dad" by Robert Kiyosaki, who's been featured as a financial guest speaker on CNBC, and is well known as a business-savvy friend of Mr. Donald Trump. Unfortunately, that first book in the series wasn't available at the bookstore, so I picked up book 3 in his series, Rich Dad's Guide to Investing: What the Rich Invest in, That the Poor and the Middle Class Do Not!
One of the underlying keys of the book is that Rich dad points out you want to be on the Business/Investor side of the equation rather than the Employee/Student side of things. In other words you don't want to be working for someone else, because that won't get you rich as quickly. His best tip is that the best investments are not the ones you buy (like stocks or land), but rather the ones you create. And that may mean a farm full of livestock, hand knitted blankets, wooden furniture, a flying car, a full-fledged business, and even a website. Under website also falls the blog, which we all know can be quite the moneymaking tool, and in fact a business. The blog is your creation and can basically be done with little or no initial investment, making it a very smart choice for those who love to write and feel creative juices flowing. All you need is your brain, some time, effort and Blogspot or Wordpress to get it going. Or you could choose to invest a little and buy a domain with hosting, taking a bit more risk.
We are a long ways from the profitable industrial age, and now in the extremely profitable information age. If you think of some of the wealthiest and youngest entrepreneurs around, they are the people behind major, successful websites or technology ventures. Bill Gates, Steve Jobs, Mark Zuckerberg, the Google guys...they all dreamed big and used internet real estate, creativity and an underlying desire to drive their products all the way to mainstream success. John Chow, Darren Rowse, Shoemoney and countless others have done so, or are doing so with blogs at this moment. There's no reason you or I can't do the same.
It always perplexes me when I see people doing blog entries about "Adsense doesn't work" or "well my blog isn't working out". The main reason I feel that they are even typing these statements, is a lack of passion or creative drive (which nobody really lacks). It's ok to point out the occasional mishaps or mistakes/failures, but giving up before you even see success is in my opinion the wrong way to go. Tapping into your creative thoughts and passions will almost always be rewarding. Having a blog in a niche can open up plenty of opportunities for other ventures as well via networking, collaboration and continued effort towards your blog.
I recommend to the people who are having trouble finding inspiration to continue with their blogging and online ventures, do more reading. Books like The Secret
3/16/08
Creative Blogging Leads to Success
3/8/08
Win a Nintendo Wii or High Speed Internet for Life!
The following entry is a sponsored review. The Nintendo Wii continues to be one of the most sought after video game systems around. From what The Monetizer has heard these things fly out of the stores the minute they arrive on shipment trucks! People love the Wii, and right now Charter.com is giving people a chance to win a Wii!
The prize package will include the Nintendo Wii Console, Wii Stand, 5 Sports games ( Boxing, Baseball, Tennis, Golf and bowling), 1 Remote Controller, 1 Nunchuk Controller, 1 Sensor Bar, 1 Wii AC Adapter, 1 Wii AV Cable. Not a bad prize at all, as you'll have quite the gaming setup without spending a dime on games or accessories!
Charter is also holding a pretty cool auction where someone can win Charter High Speed Internet for Life! You read it right, high speed internet service for life! The bidding starts at just $10 in the auction, and there's no reserve price. So it could go for more than $10, less than $25 or who knows! It's always great to have a life's necessity such as monthly hi speed internet paid for, especially for those online money makers! If you happen to live in any area of the United States serviced by Charter, it's definitely worth stopping by for a chance at a Nintendo Wii and also to bid on High Speed internet for life!
Click Here for a Chance to Win a Nintendo® Wii™!
3/7/08
The 2008 World's Billionaires
What would you do with 1 million dollars? An even tougher question might be, what would you do with 1 Billion Dollars?!? Forbes magazine has released its latest issue on the billionaires of the world. Topping the list is the investment guru himself, Warren Buffet. Buffet is considered the world's richest man at 62 billion dollars of worth. According to Forbes, Buffet's net worth jumped about 10 billion in the past year. Last year's top billionaire was Microsoft founder, Mr. Bill Gates, who has slipped down to 3rd on the list after 13 years being named "world's richest". The man at number 2 is Carlos Slim Helú, a Mexican telecom tycoon who has amazingly doubled his worth to 60 bill in just 2 years.
You may not recognize many Americans on the list below aside from Buffet, Gates and Larry Ellison. According to Forbes' writeup, just two years ago the list of top 20 billionaires was half Americans. Now it includes just 4 Americans in the top 20. Amazingly the number 2 country after the US in terms of total number of billionaires is Russia.
Top 20 Billionaires of the World:
- 1 Warren Buffett
2 Carlos Slim Helu
3 William Gates III
4 Lakshmi Mittal
5 Mukesh Ambani
6 Anil Ambani
7 Ingvar Kamprad
8 KP Singh
9 Oleg Deripaska
10 Karl Albrecht
11 Li Ka-shing
12 Sheldon Adelson
13 Bernard Arnault
14 Lawrence Ellison
15 Roman Abramovich
16 Theo Albrecht
17 Liliane Bettencourt
18 Alexei Mordashov
19 Prince Alwaleed
20 Mikhail Fridman
See the entire list here at Forbes.
Also of interest is the breakdown of "Youngest Billionaires". Forbes states it's a record breaking year for young billionaires, as Forbes found 50 billionaires under the age of 40. 25 of these young rich people are new to the list. 60% of the under 40 billionaires built that worth entirely from scratch!
One of them is 23 year old Mark Zuckerberg, the Harvard student and brains behind Facebook. His site has quickly exploded and received all sorts of buyout offers. He was profiled on Inside Edition Thursday night (which didn't give too much insight into his creative process). Inside Edition did toss it out there that Zuckerberg is single, so females looking to become part of a billionaire lifestyle, add him to your Facebook friends!
But another takeaway point from the young billionaires aspect is the fact that you can make money online with low or no startup funding. Sometimes all it takes is vision, creativity and a great idea put into motion! (via the internet of course)
View Forbe's complete section about Billionaires here. It includes everything from the Youngest Billionaires, Notable Newcomers and Rags to Riches stories.
Also see the previous Monetizer entry: A Billionaire's Mindstate.
3/4/08
Free Online Blackjack
The Monetizer used to be more of a gambler, with the game of choice being roulette. If you're reading this entry from anywhere besides the United States or Canada, you may enjoy the gambling site BlackJack Club which offers online black jack. BlackJack Club's motto is "where the smart players come to win". However, the smart players can only be gamblers in Europe and the rest of the world. Players outside of the US & Canada will surely enjoy the chance to play online slot machines, table games and fun 3-D games for free or money.
First off, BlackJack Club has a slick and stylish gaming look and feel to its site. Done in all black, red and white colors with great images of casino games, there's no question what the site is all about or has to offer. The site offers virtual casino gaming and some great promotions to give free money. In a current promotion, the site is offering to give gamblers a 50% bonus on their first deposit to the site. So if your initial deposit is $100, you'll be given $50 additional. On your second deposit the site is giving a 100% bonus. So $100 becomes $200, $200 becomes $400 and so forth. There's other promotions as well such as $100/pounds for getting a friend to join the site, weekend Double and Triple points on slot games and more! It's always nice to gamble with some free money for the chance to win even more money, so I'd fully recommend this site if you're the gambling sort from Europe or elsewhere. There's also loyalty reward points gamblers can accumulate for every 20 dollars or pounds bet in particular games. 25 Reward Points equal 1 US dollor or a pound. This encourages the gambler to continue playing while racking up more money to play with!
It still is unfortunate that the site won't allow players from US or Canada, but this is due to various gambling regulations and completely understandable. The site also offers some great looking, cutting edge 3-D games worth checking out at the link here:
http://www.blackjackclub.com/en/upcoming-games/
These games include table card games like "War", "Penguin's Playground" (a virtual slot machine based in a frozen Penguin world) and "Lucky Shot", a golfing game. All of the games look fun, so again it's a shame this isn't available in the US!
If you're outside of the US or Canada and enjoy gambling, stop by and check out BlackJack Club's free blackjack option where you can play for free on a Flash/instant play page. The site also offers support via phone, email or live chat for those needing assistance. With its fun gambling and game environment, BlackJack Club is sure to be a great site for gamblers around the world!
