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Tips for Your Boomer Years

Helping Boomers Find Wealth, Health and Happiness in Your Boomer Years

Archive for the ‘Money Making Ideas’ Category

Looking for New Ways to Make Money Online in 2010?

Posted by JE Jones on Dec-31-2009

The New Year is almost here and it could be time to start a new business sideline to make some quick money or even start a whole new career. Baby Boomers all need extra income so they can retire in style. Other reasons for needing quick money might be that a car that breaks down, or you’d like to start traveling or maybe just pay off some bills and provide basic household needs. Whatever reasons you might need money fast, here are a few ways to use the Internet to get that flow of cash into your bank account.

The Internet can provide anyone unlimited, legitimate opportunities to make money online. Choosing your money making method is the first step to earning an online income. Many of these online income opportunities require having your own blog or website, which I can also show you is easy, and inexpensive, to do.

Method #1 — Provide a Service to Businesses

One way to make money using the Internet is to provide a service online to businesses. There are many out there that are looking for people to drive traffic to their websites by posting on forums or on blogs or to write articles for them.

This is a good option if you have studied a little bit about Internet marketing and know how to do these things. You’ll probably earn a fee per hour or per job depending on how you make arrangements.

Method #2 — Affiliate Marketing

Many companies spend a lot of money on advertising. Part of this advertising budget includes paying affiliates to send traffic to their website. You can sign up for free with product or service, receive your affiliate links, which include banners, and post it on your blog or website, use it as your signature in emails and forums or simply let your friends know about these products. You are then paid a commission for any purchases made.

Many companies with affiliate programs are well known to you, such as Amazon.com and Google. Many pay immediately through pay pal so you get your money quickly.

Method #3 — Selling Your Own Information Product

If you are able to quickly create an e-book or other kind of information product, you can make quick money. You can simply drive traffic to your website through Pay Per Click, or by promoting your ebook on blogs and forums and you can start earning money right away.

You can see a common thread among these ways of making quick money is that they are all made possible through blogging.You can blog about your services or make a sales page for your services or ebook. You become an “expert” in your field by posting blog entries, which go up in the search engines. You add articles about the products you are promoting as an affiliate and add a link to the product.

Once you have your blog set up, with all the proper plug-ins to drive traffic to it, the rest is easy. If you know nothing about blogging, or if you’d like to set up a professional blog to help you earn money quickly through many avenues, you need The Niche Blogger Program. The Niche Blogger is a subscription site that takes you day by day through every single step to set up your first blog, then, using the same steps, you can create multiple blogs and begin earning real money fast. It even helps you choose a profitable topic, or several of them.

The Niche Blogger is affordable (in fact it can save you weeks or time and energy trying to figure things out on your own!) and you can cancel once you get your blog up and running. However, besides setting up a blog, The Niche Blogger program also teaches you to write and sell your own ebook, set up an automated email campaign and many other more advanced techniques to get you to where the real money is in blogging.

The program is set up like a blog, with steps to take each day and place for comments so you can get instant feedback if you have questions. There is also a helpful forum where you can get advice and tips.

To create a good retirement income for my husband and myself, I used The Niche Blogger program to set up several very profitable, self-hosted Wordpress blogs, including this one. You too can begin earning quick money on the Internet in 2010, by using The Niche Blogger Program.

Support Your RV Lifestyle - Book Review

Posted by JE Jones on Dec-29-2009



Want to retire and live the RV lifestyle? Full time RVing can be a rewarding way to spend retirement,

Support Your RV Lifestyle by Jaimie Hall

Support Your RV Lifestyle by Jaimie Hall

filled with fun and adventure. My husband and I are planning for full time RV living as soon as he retires in a year or so. Although people of all ages would love to live the RV life, retirees and others also need to make money on the road. Believe it or not, there are many ways to so this.

When we began our search for ways to support full time RVing, I purchased Jaimie Hall’s book Support Your RV Lifestyle! An Insider’s Guide to Working on the Road, 2nd Edition I highly recommend this book at a great RV lifestyle resource. Jaimie interviewed full time RVers for over 10 years and put together their tips and advice for working on the road.

It’s possible to take your job with you using her recommendations and resources. First, you need to evaluate how much money you need to make, what sorts of qualifications you already have for making money on the road and setting goals for yourself.

Hall covers setting up your own business that you can take with you while RVing, like writing, or how to find jobs at campsites, state parks or through tourism bureaus or temporary or seasonal work for RVers. She even has a section on managing your RV expenses and lifestyle considerations which are taken from stories told to Hall by other RVers.

The resources for those who want to live the RV lifestyle are worth the price of the book. Get a complete listing of state parks and tourism offices, tax information, grocery shopping and budget work sheets, websites for job searches, budgeting, using computers on the road, how to do a job search for the type of job you want, how to get hired at parks or resorts and so much more! I refer to this book again and again in our planning.

Since I like to write, I am already planning an RV blog about our travels. If you’d like to make money blogging about your experiences or some aspect of the RV lifestyle, visit the The Niche Blogger - a terrific resource that I used to help me set up my five money-making blogs. The Niche Blogger is a subscription site but you can learn all you need to learn in about 3 months of the subscription. You can cancel at any time and keep reusing the information to set up more blogs.

Jaimie Hall also has a free ezine and blog about her RV lifestyle experiences.

At present, my husband and I are RV shopping and downsizing our possessions so we can hit the road in another year. I’ll keep you posted on our progress.

If you own your own company and it’s time to retire, you need expert advice for selling at the perfect time. Since 1986, The March Group, the leading private mergers and acquisition firm, has specialized in the sale of middle-market businesses.

The March Group also provides a full spectrum of investment banking and consulting services. If you are an entrepreneur, they can help you obtain financing for all stages of your company’s development.

The March Group also focuses its efforts on providing financial advisory services to middle market companies. Their brokers help clients in all sectors, not only with mergers and acquisitions, but with corporate finance, restructuring, business plan development, strategic growth consulting and advisory services, developing an individualized outreach plan for every client.

To help you make the best deal possible when selling your company, The March Group offers informational workshops, business valuations, premium buyer list development and deal closing negotiations.

With headquarters in South Florida, The March Group also has offices located conveniently throughout the world. They employ more than 200 experienced mergers and acquisitions brokers who are experts in the valuation and sale of privately held companies.

Contact the The March Group for additional information about their merger and acquisition services.

The author was paid for this posting.

Teachers need to continue learning, right along with their students and distance learning puts graduate classes right at their fingertips. Canter.net is a leading provider of distance learning for teachers and Teacher Training, offering graduate classes for K-12 from an accredited program near you.

Every teacher wants the opportunity to provide the tools for success to their students. Canter courses allow teachers to take classes from some of the leading educational experts in the nation, on topics of importance in the classroom.

It’s easy to get started. Select the state where you wish to teach and find an accredited course near you. Choose from 25 different graduate courses such as Classroom management, which includes Assertive Discipline, plus courses in instructional strategies, motivating students, reading and literacy, teacher leadership courses and much more.

Canter has partnered with universities which are recognized as leading institutions in their regions.

Create Retirement Income - Earn Blogging Money!

Posted by JE Jones on Oct-18-2009

Visit www.TheNicheBlogger.com

About a year ago, I decided to try my hand at blogging for money. I love writing but what I needed to know is the nuts and bolts of how to build a self-hosted WordPress blog from scratch. Earning blogging money is easier than you think, no matter what your level of expertise - even if you aren’t sure of your writing or computer abilities. The most important thing, if you want to earn money from blogging is to have a solid plan of action to help you earn a good income from your blogs. It’s not enough to just put a blog up and hope that the money will soon show up.

Blogging can create retirement income for you. What will you do in retirement? Travel? Volunteer? Play with your grandchildren? Are you still working and saving? All of these make great blogging topics.

So, you think you want to earn money blogging - now how do you find the right plan of action to help you earn as much money as possible? By finding a mentor or model in someone who is already a successful niche blogger. Niche blogging is the art of creating a successful blog in one small subject area. Do you know something about gardening? Where to find great coupons on the internet? Birding? Nostalgia? Just about any topic you can come up with has a small niche waiting to be filled.

The source I used to help me create several successful niche blogs is called “The Niche Blogger!” This is a complete program that was put together to help new people get their own start in blogging.

This will cut down on your learning time and help to ensure that you don’t make mistakes that will prevent you from making money. The program covers just how to set up a self-hosted Word Press blog, how to choose a successful topic and write about it, what plugins you need, how to promote your blog and much more.

One note of warning, if you join The Niche Blogger, you are going to have to dedicate yourself to it. You need time each and every day to devote to the program, which takes you step by step. There is also a great forum for asking any questions you may have.

One of the problems with trying to earn money blogging is that there are many different methods out there. The trick is to choose a good model from the very beginning, making it much easier to dedicate yourself to it because you know you will be able to succeed.

You should also realize that even though you can start earning very quickly, you won’t become rich overnight. Building a successful niche blog takes time but it’s also fun and you can enjoy the process as well.

Blogging money will begin to trickle in and then build upon itself over time. Before you know it, you can be earning a great part or full-time income from your blogs! And, once your blog is set up, the income becomes relatively passive. All you need to do is write a blog posting 2-3 times a week.

Earning money from blogs gives you a great second income, retirement income or passive income.

All you need to do is make sure you find follow The Niche Blogger instructions, and that you dedicate yourself to it until you are successful. You may well remember the moment you became a niche blogger as one of the decisions that changed your life for the better.

Blogging money is truly the way to go for passive income!

The Niche Blogger - Make Money Blogging

How to Make Your Own Recipe Book with Tastebook

Posted by JE Jones on Sep-6-2009

Would you like to make your own recipe book in minutes? Are you looking for a unique home business, fundraiser or holiday gift idea? Do you have dozens of family recipe favorites or your own creations you’d like to share with family or sell on your cooking blog or website? Even if you don’t have your own recipes with Tastebook, it’s always easy to create your own recipe book to sell or give as a gift.

With Tastebook, you can also create your own recipe page and browse through thousands of recipes from contributors and Tastebook partners like Southern Living, Food Network and Better Homes and Gardens.

Tastebook also offers a terrific recipe website. Sign up with Tastebook is free and includes a free recipe newsletter too.

There are over 50 million foodies and culinary enthusiasts on the Internet, creating a ready market for you to sell the cookbook your cookbook. With Tastebook, you can:

  • Create and Publish beautiful hardcover cookbooks in minutes.
  • Create a widget to sell your cookbook on your blog or website. Recipes book prices start at $19.95 and you receive a 15% commission on all your sales.
  • Also, if you upload recipes to the site, you get links back to your blog or website for each recipe.
  • Or Make your own recipe book and give the gift of your family recipes to friends and relatives.
  • Create a Tastebook recipe books as fundraisers too!
  • Shop from other Tastebook users cookbooks as well.
  • Create your own recipe box on Tastebook to organize all your favorite recipes.

Now is the time to start making a unique holiday gift for friends and family - and for yourself too. Organize those family recipes and make your own recipe book for relatives, your children and grandchildren. Plus, a Tastebook is a great way to make some extra money with those family favorites.

Join Now - It’s Free - and start creating your own Tastebook Recipe book in minutes.

New Resource for Baby Boomers Wanting a Career Change

Posted by JE Jones on May-12-2009
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Are you a baby boomer who wants or needs a career change? Have you lost your job or just want more fulfilling work for your boomer years? I recently found out about a new resource for baby boomers called WhatsNext.com. This site offers help and advice to anyone over 50 who wants to change careers, find more fulfilling work, improve their work-life balance and achieve financial security.

What’s Next features great resources for your career change, including:

  • Inspiring stories from those over 50 who have managed satisfying career changes.
  • Advice for those who want to change careers - ask your own question of advisors too
  • A directory of financial advisers, career and life coaches
  • Retirement planning
  • Blogs by people currently in the middle of career transitions

The What’s Next directory gives advisors and coaches a chance to develop an in-depth profile of themselves and their practices. Users can search by name, location, certifications, areas of expertise and other criteria.

Here’s an example of some of the topics discussed relating to retirement and career change:

  • Five things to remember if you lose your 401k match
  • Will social security be there when I retire?
  • I’m 60 years old - how do I find a job?

Tools include:

  • Self assessment tests to help guide you to the right career
  • Financial planning calculators
  • Job listings for baby boomers

This baby boomer site also attemps to verify all professional credentials claimed by listers, providing a stamp of verification when possible. This stamp is visible on the listings so users have a level of confidence about the background and professionalism of anyone listed there.

WhatsNext.com hopes to become the destination site for people thinking about career change and better life balance. If you’re a baby boomer and thinking about a career change, check out the resources on What’s Next.


In the current bad economy, one of the money making ideas that is on the rise is work at home or direct selling. I saw a news report this morning that women especially, who have lost their jobs, are turning to direct selling and work at home businesses like Avon and other companies. Here are some tips on choosing the right work at home opportunity money making idea for you and a couple of ideas:

1. What are you interested in?

Do you like cooking and baking? Companies like Watkins offer quality cooking and baking products, as well as eco-friendly cleaning products. Are you interested in health? There are many great health products, like The Whole Wellness Club, which sells Holy Tea, out there that truly help people live healthier lives, and the sale of health products is on the rise, even in this bad economy.

2. Once you choose 4-5 companies you’d like to promote, check out the sign up fees involved.

If you’re building a new business, even if it’s working at home, you’ll have a few start up costs. However, don’t invest hundreds of dollars in any business until you find out if it’s for you and if you can be successful at it. Certainly don’t spend money on business building programs or advertising right away either. There are many ways to promote your business for free so try these before you spend any money.

Some work at home business opportunities are free to join, others have a fee, whether it’s a one time cost or an annual fee to belong to the business. Decide what you can spend, if anything, and stick to that. You may want to invest in a few catalogs or perhaps a website, if you plan to sell on the Internet but again, many of these money making ideas can be done on a shoestring budget. For instance, you can create a blog to promote your business for free.

Using health as an example, you could create a health tips blog like mine chat with others who also love health or are looking for ideas for healthy weightloss for instance, or healthy recipes. Blogspot blogs are free to create and you can put ads on them with no problem.

Some business opportunities offer free websites, just for joining, and the moment you sign up, you have your own business website. One such work at home health business is The Whole Wellness Club, which offers Holy Tea, Cinnamon 6 and a Coral Calcium product.

3.  Check out the company’s reputation. How long has it been in business? Check with forums to see if there have been complaints about the company. I was recently researching Acai berry products and found several people talking about the downside of belonging to MonAvie - namely the products are expensive and the ingredients are undisclosed. Look for an honest and straightforward company to deal with.

4. How do you want to market your business? Do you like giving home parties or would you prefer to sell your products online? Watkins has an entire set up for home parties, called “Good Tastings” and even awards for representatives who have the most in a month or sell the most products. Mary Kaye and Tupperware also offer home party systems for selling.

You can also sign up for a company website and then link it to your blog. Most companies, however, charge a set-up fee of anywhere from $40-$60 and then about $20 per month to maintain it. Also be aware that these “replicator” sites do not do well in the search engines so you need a blog or website with original content to hook your business site to.

Also be aware that most companies have policies about what you can say about them on your blogs or websites so read these thoroughly before deciding on either the company or an internet promotion as a way of doing business.

5. What is your personality? Do you like people and selling? If you’re passionate about your products and you like talking to people, you’re well on your way to a great money making idea. or you like the idea of running your own business and working for yourself, making your own hours? If you aren’t a self-starter, then working at home isn’t for you.

Despite the economy and perhaps because of fears about what is happening with health care reform, more and more people are interested in health products. More people are also cooking at home so businesses like Watkins and Tupperware are doing well.

6.  What sort of products to you use and enjoy? With the right money making idea for you, you can also get your own products at a discount. I save on Watkins products for my cooking and baking, I use Watkins natural dish soap, hand soap, laundry soap and Watkins shampoo, all at a savings. It’s the same with belonging to the Whole Wellness Club. I like drinking a gentle detox tea daily and with the commissions I get from selling Holy Tea, I can purchase my own products and also make money.

7.  Consider affiliate programs for products you use and would enjoy promoting. Are there products you like? The company probably has an affiliate program which will offer you links and banners to post on your website or blog. Companies like Linkshare and Commission Junction have hundreds of companies to choose from and your earnings go into one lump sum to be paid to you, rather than many small checks.

If you’re looking for money making ideas, (and who isn’t?), it’s even possible to create mulitple streams on income from several different sources, like I have. Just remember, though, to be successful at working at home, you must be ready to commit time and energy to making it work. No money making idea works by itself but it is possible to earn several hundred dollars a month to supplement income with about 25 hours a week.

Boomer Blog - Get Healthy With Whole Food Nutrition

Posted by JE Jones on Apr-18-2009

I’m a whole food nutritional supplement convert. I used to take a pile of vitamins every morning, mostly isolated vitamins, like B complex, Vitamin C and Vitamin E. These were isolated nutrients and possibly even  artificially created. There is a new trend in nutrition and healthy living, however, that advocated whole food nutrition and whole food supplements to give you all the hundreds of micronutrients, phytonutrients, omega 3 fatty acids and probiotics, all as they occur naturally in whole foods.

Some whole food nutritional supplements even contain superfoods like acai berry, noni fruit and chia seeds.

Where can you buy powerful whole food nutritional products and still save money too?

I use Dr. Mercols’s Whole Food MultiVitamin Plus Minerals as my favorite whole food nutritional supplement. As a reader of my Tips for Boomer Years Blog, you’ll know I advocate adding superfoods to your diet like green veggies, broccoli, kale and spinach, nuts and berries like blueberries and probiotics. Dr. Mercola’s Whole Food Supplement contains 25 whole, live foods like fruits, herbs and veggies

Whole food nutritional supplements offer great health benefits such as:

  • Helps slow the effects of aging
  • Helps protect the body from illness and diseases
  • Works at the cellular level to build optimum health
  • Gives increased energy
  • Helps build strong tissues, bones and muscles
  • Keeps the brain healthy
  • and More!

I trust Dr. Mercola’s products because they offer the best quality for the money. Whether it’s whole food nutritional supplements, digestive enzymes, safe cookware, natural health books or anything else related to health, Dr. Mercola backs up his products with research and information. Dr. Mercola also offers a terrific email newsletter with the latest in natural health information. Sign up for the newsletter is free.

More about whole food supplements

Easy Money Making Ideas

Posted by JE Jones on Feb-10-2009

Right now we could all use some money making ideas! If you had some extra money, what would you do with it? Pay bills, take college classes or buy a new car or a new home? Perhaps you’d like extra money to give to your favorite charity. Here is a list of simple money making ideas to help you generate that extra cash in your pocket and your budget.

1. Trim your spending - This is the simplest way to create extra money in your budget. Start keeping track of your expenses for a month - every penny you spend. Where can you trim? Could you read magazines at the library or get them at a used book store instead of subscribing? Could you trim extra features from your satellite TV or cell phone plan? Could you eat at home more or use budget ingredients like pasta? Everybody has extras they don’t really need. However, if you truly enjoy something, take that into consideration too. If you save one of your magazines for the recipes or features, it might be worth keeping.

2. Save money on books - Books at the library are free and libraries also offer audio books and movies too. Check out used book stores and while youre’ there sell your old books for cash or a credit to spend on more books.

3. Coupons save you money! - Check the weekly newspaper or sign up for online coupon sites. Sign up with restaurant websites to get free meals or appetizers - especially near your birthday. Some grocery stores also have special days when they double coupons so check that out.

4. Shop store brands - The taste and quality of these has greatly improved over the years and higher paying name brands cost more.

5. Combine errands into one trip - Keep a running list of where you need to go and what you need to buy and combine your shopping into one weekly trip to save money on gas. Better yet, if you have a friend or relative who needs to go shopping, go together and have a visit at the same time you are saving.

6. Give the gift of time to save money - When a special event comes up, offer your services instead of a gift that costs money. Offer babysitting services to your sister or mow the lawn for your dad.

7. Give homemade gifts - People appreciate the thought that goes into making a gift and it doesn’t have to be elaborate to say “I care.” Bake cookies or a cake, or cook a meal and deliver it.

8. Cancel memberships to health clubs - Walking is free or you can buy an exercise DVD for about $10 and use it every day. If you have a hard time staying motivated without going to the gym, grab a friend or your dog and walk every day. Many malls open early for walkers too so the weather doesn’t have to be a deterrent.

9. Sell things you don’t need. Besides selling books to used book stores, you can sell things online too with sites like eBay or CraigsList. Consignment stores also take items to sell for a percentage of your profits.

10. Have a yard sale. Better yet, get with neighbors and have a neighborhood yard sale so you can all chip in on advertising or making signs. Clean out your closet or garage. Everybody has things laying around they don’t need any longer. if you like doing it, you could create a business of buying items other people are selling at yard sales and reselling it online.

11. Sell things you make - Do you know how to sew, paint, crochet or knit, grow plants or bake? All these items can be sold at craft fairs or in consignment shops too.

12. Offer services as a home business - Offering services is an inexpensive business to start up. Have some business cards printed up for services like tutoring, sewing, cooking, lawn care or house cleaning. Pet sitting, child or senior care is also much needed. I pay our pet sitter $20 a day to come twice a day and feed and care for our pets when we go out of town. I’ve done daycare and house cleaning in my time too and I know people appreciate good, reliable service.

13. If you’d like to raise money to donate to a cause, hold a bake sale or yard sale and give the proceeds to your favorite charity. Sometimes you can get free advertising in your local newspaper by having them do an article on your sale. Ask others to donate items too or help you work the sale.

14. Repair your clothing instead of tossing it. Learn to sew and mend. It isn’t difficult and many sewing centers or craft stores offer simple classes to help you.

14. Remember too that NOT buying something is also saving money. Do your research before you make a purchase to get the best price. Check online for promo codes. Better yet, you may decide you don’t need it after all.

15. Save money on drinks by drinking more water and less bottled water, soda or fancy coffees. Get a filter for your faucet and a reusable water bottle to save big and create less waste.

16. Skip the fast foods and eating out - Cook healthy dinners and snacks at home. Take your lunch to work. Pack snacks like nuts or pretzels in zip loc bags and carry them with you. It’s healthier and will keep you from indulging in more expensive or high calorie options just because you’re hungry.

These are just a few money saving ideas for you to try. Once you get into the money saving mode, it’s fun to come up with new ideas and you’ll love what it does for your budget too.