http://www.blogigo.co.uk/MakingMoney en MakingMoney MakingMoney Mon, 28 Jul 2008 14:35:00 +0200 daily 1 People have too much money these days. They are constantly buying things they really don't need. Remember the pet rock craze a few years ago? People spent millions to own a common rock that they could get for free. The key to striking it rich is to come up with the right idea that has only one unique characteristic: No one has thought of it yet. So I have an idea you can try. Many people talk about "mountain air" being healthy. Everyone who lives in a big city likes to "get away to the country" to get some fresh air. Why not bring the air to them? That's right. Take a few empty bottles to a nice, high altitude place and bottle some "mountain air." Then sell the bottles for $19.99 each. Now most people are smart enough to know that they are just buying air. Yet do you think people who bought pet rocks really thought they were buying something special. No, people like cute ideas, and bottled air is cute. Your cost is negligible. Spend at least a... Mon, 28 Jul 2008 14:35:00 +0200 http://www.blogigo.co.uk/MakingMoney/Make-Money-Out-Of-Thin-Air/33/ http://www.blogigo.co.uk/MakingMoney/Make-Money-Out-Of-Thin-Air/33/ We are talking about making a lot of money if you want to be a member of this league - the yacht owners club. The Monaco Yacht Show which was held at Port Hercules in Monaco during September brings together professionals from the international luxury yachting sector; ship-builders and designers, equipment suppliers, brokers and service providers. The MYS is renowned throughout the sector for being the show that absolutely cannot be missed in the luxury yachting sector because it is the only yacht show exclusively devoted to Super-yachts of at least 25 meters in length. Are you getting the message about making money?   All the luxury yachting business sectors were present. 82 shipyards, 25 brokers, 45 naval architects and interior designers, 196 equipment manufacturers, 73 service providers, 27 magazines and more and more attended. From the luxury sector there were reps from companies selling private jets and helicopters, luxury goods and accessories and if that still isn't enough... Thu, 12 Jun 2008 14:38:00 +0200 http://www.blogigo.co.uk/MakingMoney/For-This-You-Need-to-Make-a-Lot-of-Money/32/ http://www.blogigo.co.uk/MakingMoney/For-This-You-Need-to-Make-a-Lot-of-Money/32/ I am not a true artist. I will admit it. People may say that I do not appreciate fine art. They are correct. Some even get disgusted when I say that the purpose of art is to make money. So what. I am not interested in being a "starving" artist. I prefer to be a "well-fed" one. I first realized the potential for making money through art on a trip to Washington, D.C. A friend of mine dragged me to the National Museum of Modern Art (I would never have gone on my own.) I was quite bored until I noticed something spectacular. I was astounded. No one around me seemed to realize what I had noticed. Let me explain. There was a display of the works of a very famous modern artist. It consisted of about eighteen giant sheets of canvas. On each one there was a painting. A painting of.... nothing. No flowers, no crying women, no landscapes. There was nothing at all on the canvas. Each one had been simply painted a different shade of "off-white." People were looking at... Thu, 15 May 2008 13:37:00 +0200 http://www.blogigo.co.uk/MakingMoney/Modern-Art-The-Road-to-Riches/31/ http://www.blogigo.co.uk/MakingMoney/Modern-Art-The-Road-to-Riches/31/ One of the best jobs I ever had was when I rented an ice cream truck. When my friends wanted to go to the beach, I went with them. While they got sun burns, I got money, lots of it. You see, when you have an ice cream truck you buy the ice cream wholesale and can sell it for.... well you can sell it for whatever people will pay. So all you need to do is find the hottest possible place where people with a lot of money hang out. Don't waste your time with kids. The real money is selling great ice cream to starving adults. They think paying $5 for a pop is not unreasonable. Here's a secret. Visit senior citizen homes. Seniors love ice cream as much as anyone else. The stuff they serve in homes is usually terrible. The problem is, ice cream trucks never drive up to senior citizen homes. These guys never get the chance to eat a chocolate swirl or Italian ice. Just ring the bell and they will come running (not literally.) And they don't mind spending a few dollars for a quality... Wed, 23 Apr 2008 13:46:00 +0200 http://www.blogigo.co.uk/MakingMoney/Frozen-Change/30/ http://www.blogigo.co.uk/MakingMoney/Frozen-Change/30/ A win-win opportunity is something that no one wants to miss. In this free slots tournament, you either only get to play several of the finest slot games that the best online casinos have to offer or you get to walk away with some cash as well! $100 000 is being given away at the free slots tournament this April. It is happening at All Slots and All Jackpots  Casino and you have an open invitation to join. Tue, 08 Apr 2008 14:04:00 +0200 http://www.blogigo.co.uk/MakingMoney/Win-Win-at-the-Free-Slots-Tournament/29/ http://www.blogigo.co.uk/MakingMoney/Win-Win-at-the-Free-Slots-Tournament/29/ $21,000 is a lot of money, especially if you can make it while having fun at the same time.  Well, here's how to do it. It seems that there are some people out there who are obsessed with the number 21.  They set up a trivia quiz called the 21 Trivia Competition, and it has - of course - 21 questions.  All of the questions relate, in one way or another, to the number 21.  So if you take the quiz and get all the questions right, they'll put your name into a hat, and then they'll pull one name out of the hat who will be crowned "Number 1 in 21" and win a grand prize of $21,000. The 21 Trivia Competition is found at http://www.number1in21.com / . I am not going to tell you any of the trivia questions here.  That would spoil the fun.  But I will tell you a little bit about the questions in general.  They are divided into three categories: easy, medium, and hard.  I personally found the categories to be kind of meaningless - after all, a... Mon, 10 Mar 2008 11:29:00 +0100 http://www.blogigo.co.uk/MakingMoney/Make-21-000-Playing-21-Trivia/28/ http://www.blogigo.co.uk/MakingMoney/Make-21-000-Playing-21-Trivia/28/ I'm running out of money-making ideas. It's not that I am changing or going senile, it's just that I have been overtaken by technology. Things are moving so quickly that whatever new money-making scheme I dream up is either already being marketed aggressively or is in some start-up being financed by millions of dollars while I am still to set-up a shoe-string budget based on single dollars and cents. Is it possible that the days of the good old-fashioned entrepreneur who starts out on the workbench in his garage are over? I still have some great ideas which I think are viable and feasible and would like to implement, but everything nowadays is highly competitive and involves the dreaded subject of IP, intellectual property. This means lawyers, engineers, patent offices and protection against every imaginable type of human blood-sucking species. It's gotten so that you just have to think up a good idea and the neighbors seem to pick up the positive vibes coming from your... Thu, 03 Jan 2008 14:48:00 +0100 http://www.blogigo.co.uk/MakingMoney/Are-the-Days-of-Making-Fast-Money-Really-Over/27/ http://www.blogigo.co.uk/MakingMoney/Are-the-Days-of-Making-Fast-Money-Really-Over/27/ Throughout my life I have read stories of how the rich pull off fantastic deals and become even richer. They get involved in huge takeovers, buy out ailing companies and make incredibly successful investments. My father used to open the paper and read about these events and use expressions like 'you see how you need money to make money?', or ?only money makes more real money !', or 'only the rich can make money!'. I hated them. So how does one get rich, I used to think. Somewhere there had to be the first rich person, how did he do it? He started with nothing. I just received a call from the bank to say that a savings account I have reached maturity and all the money moved automatically into my current account and can I please tell the bank what to do with it. They are sure I don't want to leave it there sitting idly and doing nothing. I dropped everything and raced over to the bank. I was sure I would be greeted by a smiling teller with a string of investments ideas.... Tue, 04 Dec 2007 09:36:00 +0100 http://www.blogigo.co.uk/MakingMoney/Only-money-makes-money/26/ http://www.blogigo.co.uk/MakingMoney/Only-money-makes-money/26/ Nobody in his right mind would advocate gambling as a way to make money. Whether it's at the slot machines, at the roulette wheel, or at the race track, more people lose money than make money gambling, and that's a fact. What I am talking about in this blog is something completely different. It's not even gambling. It is a free online slots tournament at All Jackpots Casino. No one will lose anything, because it's free. And a lot of people will make money. The first prize winner will get $50,000, and hundreds of other people will get smaller prizes that are still real cash money. So give this one a try. You have nothing to lose, and quite a bit of money to gain. Thu, 15 Nov 2007 14:35:00 +0100 http://www.blogigo.co.uk/MakingMoney/Making-Money-in-a-Free-Online-Slots-Tournament/25/ http://www.blogigo.co.uk/MakingMoney/Making-Money-in-a-Free-Online-Slots-Tournament/25/ The price of electricity is going up? Again? I've had it with you people! I'm going back to my old steam generated computer. Enough of this robbery! I squeeze out a living by writing, squeeze being the operative word. In order to do this I have to run my computer. It runs 24 hours a day, sometimes live and working and sometimes sleeping and dormant but it is always there for me when I have to pull in a few cents. It runs on electricity. Not much, that's true but every kilowatt counts. What's more I cannot even claim a rebate from the tax department on the use of electricity as the means by which I make my living. So from Monday morning I will fire up the boiler which runs on good old wood and coal, generate a head of steam and run my computer that way. What's more I will have instant boiling water for tea or coffee any time of the day or night. Electricity is a basic commodity, like water and air. Okay, so we pay for water because they filter it and pump it. No one pays for... Wed, 24 Oct 2007 16:30:00 +0200 http://www.blogigo.co.uk/MakingMoney/What-am-I-actually-paying-for/24/ http://www.blogigo.co.uk/MakingMoney/What-am-I-actually-paying-for/24/ Remember the group who offered a $10 million prize to the rocket builder who could send a small piloted craft into space in 2004? Read about their latest challenge - an unmanned moon shot. The prize is up to $25 million and will be paid by Google, the Internet company who have become part of our daily lives. The "Google Lunar X Prize" was announced this week in Los Angeles. The contest calls for entrants to land a rover on the moon that will be able to travel at least 500 meters and send high-resolution video, still pictures and other data back home. It is being thought of as one of "the grand challenges of our time that we can use to move people forward." The prize for reaching the moon and completing the basic tasks of roving and sending video and data will bring the winner $20 million, according to the rules. An additional $5 million will be awarded for other tasks that include roving more than 500 meters or sending back images of abandoned artifacts like the... Mon, 24 Sep 2007 13:57:51 +0200 http://www.blogigo.co.uk/MakingMoney/Want-To-Make-Some-Easy-Money/23/ http://www.blogigo.co.uk/MakingMoney/Want-To-Make-Some-Easy-Money/23/ The phone rang at an ungodly hour this morning. I am a writer and I write late into the night. My wife is a reader and she reads until late as well. So any phone call before 9 am works just like an alarm clock. I snatched at the receiver, snarled "yes?" into it and waited. My accountant. Usually he speaks quietly and sadly. "Hi!" It sounded like he was still at last night's party. "You are due for a 3,000 shekel refund from the tax department!" "Great!" I said. "Why didn't you call earlier?" He asked me to come to his office and sign the tax return. On the way back from his office I thought about the whole tax issue. I remember the time - it was exactly a year ago, when I received a letter from the tax department saying that they, or I, had miscalculated my tax pre-payments and demanding an immediate payment of 3,000 shekels or else?. I remember going to the tax department and arguing with a clerk to no avail.... Tue, 28 Aug 2007 16:51:10 +0200 http://www.blogigo.co.uk/MakingMoney/The-taxman-never-comes-stands-there-permanently/22/ http://www.blogigo.co.uk/MakingMoney/The-taxman-never-comes-stands-there-permanently/22/ Another day, another funeral. Big one this time with lots of people standing around in the baking sun, all come to pay their last respects to Paco. He was a neighbor and lived in one of the upper floors of our building. He was Spanish speaking and I hardly knew him, but he seemed to be a nice guy. Whenever our paths crossed in the lobby or the elevator or the garbage room I got a cheery "Hola!" which I understood to be "Hello!" in the language I travel on. So our conversations were limited to a few choice words on either side. Not being directly involved in the funeral, so to speak, I had a chance to look around the cemetery. After I had read a few of the inscriptions on the gravestones, it suddenly struck me that all these people were lying at exactly the same level, minus six feet from ground level. They were all facing the same direction, east, and of course none of them were enjoying the view. For once money was of no importance. Nobody asked if... Mon, 20 Aug 2007 12:16:37 +0200 http://www.blogigo.co.uk/MakingMoney/The-money-in-the-cemetery/21/ http://www.blogigo.co.uk/MakingMoney/The-money-in-the-cemetery/21/ The Bag Ladies The story of the Bag Ladies may well belong under the Environmental heading but the main thrust of the Bag Lady is a money quest, not an environmental issue. The elders in the village are all hyped up about recycling and every other day one of them comes up with another idea to save the earth from certain disaster. No one has suggested recycling us villagers yet, which is a great pity - I could be writing forever! Of course the most obvious recycling program was one of the first - bottles and cans. They are a terrible nuisance. Our soda pops come either in one-and-a-half liter plastic bottle supposedly bio-degradable but which last a thousand years in direct sunlight and others come in aluminium cans which appear to be indestructible. The council of elders debated up and down for weeks as to how to solve the problem until someone interrupted with a brilliant suggestion. "Put a hefty deposit on the bottles and cans and the problem will be... Thu, 02 Aug 2007 13:32:37 +0200 http://www.blogigo.co.uk/MakingMoney/The-Bag-Ladies/20/ http://www.blogigo.co.uk/MakingMoney/The-Bag-Ladies/20/ Grandfather was a great guy and an honest businessman. In the dark days of World War II he floated a company on the stock exchange. In those days, such an act of optimism must have been rare. The business consisted of a chain of retail shops. From the day the company was listed, grandfather would settle into his leather armchair every evening after dinner, open the newspaper and read the financial pages to see how the market was reacting to his bold move. It was a success. The shares came on at about 5 dollars and hovered there, sometimes up and sometimes down. Every time they dropped, grandfather became very upset and called his broker and bought back his shares. "I must not disappoint my shareholders," he explained to me one evening, "so I buy them myself to keep the price up." At that time I was a university student with little money and a small paying job. I watched the market like a hawk and every time I saw grandfather's shares drop below $5, I too would buy them,... Sun, 29 Jul 2007 15:06:00 +0200 http://www.blogigo.co.uk/MakingMoney/The-Grandfather-Principle/19/ http://www.blogigo.co.uk/MakingMoney/The-Grandfather-Principle/19/ I live quietly here in the village not paying too much attention to what's raging out there in the real world. But I do get a newspaper every morning just to stay in touch. This morning's paper came with a magazine called Essence. What they mean, I suppose, is the Essence of Life. The magazine is heavy and printed on thick glossy paper. This already made me nervous. Inside the front cover is an advert for electric sliding roofs. I could really use one of those up here in the mountains, right? Inside are articles on holidays, fashion, cooking and travel and on the last page some short pieces entitled The Essence of Living.  Of course every double page contains a full page advert and this is where we come to the money side. Page 9 is a chain of hotels advertised with dark pink cocktails in ice- filled glasses with little umbrellas. Pages 14 and 15 carry an ad from a spa which I know to be fantastically expensive, although you reputedly stop thinking about the money... Wed, 18 Jul 2007 14:48:39 +0200 http://www.blogigo.co.uk/MakingMoney/This-Is-Where-They-Want-Me-To-Spend-My-Money/18/ http://www.blogigo.co.uk/MakingMoney/This-Is-Where-They-Want-Me-To-Spend-My-Money/18/ I'm making money. At least that's what the income tax department has decided. Despite my ranting and sobbing at the unfairness of it all, they are relentless and pursue me wherever I go. It's not as though I am making bagfuls of money, just enough to make the days glide past peacefully knowing that the fridge is fairly full, the children are fed and the car has gas. Basic needs right? Income tax does not agree. Part of that is ours, they yell as they snatch notes out of my hand. Last year this time things got so bad with them that I decided to make some money on my own, without telling them about it. It worked pretty well. I painted small watercolor paintings in the French impressionist style. I splashed water and paint on the paper, stirred that brush around, threw in a few interesting spots of different colors. Then I went to the local glass cutter and ordered small pieces of glass. I put the paintings on cardboard backing, put the glass in front, fixed it... Thu, 12 Jul 2007 13:46:37 +0200 http://www.blogigo.co.uk/MakingMoney/Making-Money-Without-My-Partner/17/ http://www.blogigo.co.uk/MakingMoney/Making-Money-Without-My-Partner/17/ Have you ever noticed that today's society seems to push us to be preoccupied with various ways of making money.  Even my seven year old son has caught on to how things unfortunately work in this world.  Every thing, whether big or small, appears to revolve around making money.  "Why is it that everything costs money?" is his frequent complaint.  If there is a special promotion, offer or something offered free at a festival and he is advised that an item is 'free' - he becomes very sceptical.  He finds it hard to believe that an item really is offered for free!  Although I can understand his astonishment, I have to admit that it is rather a mature outlook for a seven year old child. This materialistic world forces many people to stretch their earnings as far as possible in order to purchase new and updated items and thereby to keep up with the neighbours.  Others find themselves in the position of constantly searching for different methods of... Mon, 09 Jul 2007 13:42:37 +0200 http://www.blogigo.co.uk/MakingMoney/Making-More-Money/16/ http://www.blogigo.co.uk/MakingMoney/Making-More-Money/16/ Have you ever thought about those people who make money by telling other people how to make money?  There are those who believe that they have found the perfect answer.  They have produced the ideal means in which other people may make their fortunes.  Perhaps think about it and then think about it once again before you are taken in.  Maybe they will say something like "oh this has changed my life - so you must try it too".  Did you never spare a thought for the possibility that if it had really changed their lives in such a positive way, then why would they be wasting their time in telling others about it? Put it this way - if you had just made your millions - would you really be waiting around to bestow this information onto others?   Surrounded by a new-found wealth and prosperity, would you not prefer to begin your changed life rather than holding back to enlighten others?  After all, what happened to that round the world trip that you have dreamt... Wed, 27 Jun 2007 14:48:46 +0200 http://www.blogigo.co.uk/MakingMoney/Make-Your-Own-Money/15/ http://www.blogigo.co.uk/MakingMoney/Make-Your-Own-Money/15/ This is by no means a new idea - but in these days of modern technology, the concept of car washing is rather a refreshing idea.  Let's leave the computer alone and forget the television for a while.   After the first occasion that my kids helped out and washed the car, I realised how useful their assistance was.  I offered them a small amount of money as a type of reward or incentive - hoping that this would encourage them to want to do it again.  Well, it worked.  They had a great time.  Putting the fun aspect aside, they actually did a great job on the car!  Now, not only can they have fun splashing around with water in the hot weather - they can also enjoy doing something useful where they can see the results immediately.  In addition, for them this is a great way of making money.  We are not talking about millions here, but for children it is a bit of cash in their pockets. The amount that I give is certainly not very substantial, but once the... Thu, 14 Jun 2007 14:40:00 +0200 http://www.blogigo.co.uk/MakingMoney/Cars-and-Money/14/ http://www.blogigo.co.uk/MakingMoney/Cars-and-Money/14/