Free eBook - Think And Grow Rich

Written by Napoleon Hill and first published in 1937, Think And Grow Rich is one of the classic success and motivation books of all time. Hill interviewed 504 of America’s most successful people over a period of 20 years to find their secrets of success. The result was the 13 step formula found in Think And Grow Rich.

Readers today may find some of the writing a bit old fashioned, but don’t let that put you off. Think And Grow Rich is pure gold and positively essential reading for anybody embarking on a journey of self improvement. The ultimate conclusion of the book is that the acquisition of wealth starts in a person’s thoughts, and how very true that is! If you are thinking of growing rich then you’ve already made a start so read the book and develop your thinking to the next level.

To download your own digital copy of the book in PDF format right now, just click the link below:

Think And Grow Rich

Is Financial Independence The Same As Rich?

How much money do you think you will need for financial Independence? One million? Two million? Many people are under the illusion that it would take many millions to achieve financial independence, but examine the figures and it can be seen that this is not the case, and in fact the amount needed is surprisingly less than you would think.

It all depends on your lifestyle choice of course. Rich idiots like Michael Winner have been quoted even recently declaring that £1 million or even £10 million is hardly worth having, and that to be truly rich one would need to be in the billionaire league. Utter nonsense! Unlike Mr. Winner, we don’t all need original Van Goghs hanging on our walls or yachts in the Med to impress slobbering cronies and bolster our self esteem.

In this day and age, when so many people are living from month to month making mortgage payments and seeing climbing credit card debts as they struggle to get by, I’ll bet that most would be happy to be debt free, live in a nice home and take a couple of good holidays each year. The added bonus of not having to work for it would seem like paradise – truly ‘rich’ indeed!

Anyway, just how much will you need for a financially independent lifestyle? The figure to start with is your current yearly income. For example, let’s set this figure at £25,000 for the sake of calculation. If you had just £527,000 in a savings account paying 4.75% interest, your income would be £25,032 per year, i.e. you would not have to work to collect your current salary!

Ok, I know this is a simplistic calculation and it is still a heck of a lump sum to acquire, but bear in mind that the current average house price in the UK is £194,589 and it starts to look attainable. Naturally, for long term financial independence you would have to take into account interest rates and inflation, so it isn’t really a figure to bank on for the rest of your life. However, it does put the whole financial independence thing into some sort of perspective and debase the myth of needing many millions. (If you're interested you can read some tips for financial independence here)

But perhaps the greatest luxury that can be had from financial independence is time. Time to do with as you please without worrying about getting to work each morning or spending 40 hours each week toiling just to get by. Now imagine how much more money you could make with your own Internet business if you had all of this time to devote to it.....

Monitor Your Stats For Free

Everybody knows how important it is to monitor their website stats (you do, right?). Without visitor statistics it is impossible to measure how many visitors are coming to your pages and where they are coming from. A good stats package is far more accurate and effective than a simple hit counter and will enable you to see your top referrals and which keywords are proving most effective, along with the search engines that are sending you the most traffic.

If you haven’t already got a statcounter on your blog or website, then it is a simple matter of signing up and then cutting and pasting a very small amount of code into your pages. My Rich Pickings is not only about making money, but also saving money, so for the best FREE statcounter I have seen available, have a look at www.statcounter.com. For the price, it is unbeatable!

Speed Is Of The Essence For Getting Web Traffic

We all know that making money online with a website means getting plenty of traffic to the site, so I recently searched for ways of increasing web traffic to see if there were any exciting new ideas out there. The thing that struck me was that one of the top Google results was a site that took ages to load.

Statistically it has been proven that surfers will only wait on average 7 seconds before hitting the back button and trying another site, and that is regardless of connection speeds. So it was quite intriguing to see that a self proclaimed authority on increasing web traffic was probably losing a heck of a lot of visitors simply because their home page didn’t load quickly enough.

So why is it that some web pages are slow to appear in a user’s browser?

Obviously, there are differences in the equipment used. Older operating systems, slow dial up connections, out of date browser software etc can all contribute to the problem. But sometimes even broadband users experience pages that are painfully slow to appear, and this is more often than not due to bad design.

Some things to bear in mind for fast loading web pages:

Keep it simple – Fancy designs with a multitude of tables and background graphics can look spectacular, but only if the surfer waits long enough for the page to load. If speed is your goal (and it should be) then keep the design simple.

Optimise Image Files – beware of using large photographs and images on a page, sometimes the file size can be huge, and for fast pages we really want our file sizes as small as possible. For a free guide on achieving this you might like to download Supercharge Your Web Images.

Specify Image Size – If images are essential to your web page then make sure that the HTML includes width and height attributes. This will allow the user’s browser to display the rest of the page while waiting for the image to download.

Use A Good Hosting Company – Sometimes it can be a false economy to have your site hosted on free or cheap web space as the server will often be slow and unresponsive. Use a good quality hosting company and reap the benefits in speed. The one that has proven consistent for me and I have no hesitation in recommending is One and One.

In conclusion, if you want to make money with your website you will need to get plenty of traffic, but make sure your pages are quick to respond or the visitors will leave before they even see them. Good luck and may you prosper!

Google Adsense Myths Revealed

There seem to be far too many eBooks and audio courses offering the 'secrets' to making riches with Adsense, and although most of them undoubtedly contain some great tips and advice, it is really not necessary to spend money in order to gain this information. Even worse, the ads and promotion for some of these eBooks and courses can be a bit misleading - there is really only one circumstance under which you can make 'overnight' riches with Adsense, and that is if you already have a well established website with lots of daily visitors (if this is the case then stop reading and sign up immediately because your site could be earning now!).

With this thought in mind I think it is time that some of the myths surrounding Google's Adsense program were dispelled...

First off: Can you make money from Adsense? Yes you can. Can you make a lot of money from Adsense? Yes, but there are some determining factors that have to be taken into account.

So what are the determining factors that make the difference?

High paying keywords - Adsense is contextually generated, which means that the ads appearing on your site will be relevant and fit in with your site content. So if your site is about financial services, or medical insurance (for example), you can bet that advertisers will pay a heck of a lot more than if it is about something that anybody can get for free - and the more the advertisers pay, the more you will get paid.

Clever use of ads - There is some debate about whether to disguise the Adsense on a page to make it appear like navigation or to make it stand out. Both can be achieved easily, so experimentation combined with regular checks on your stats will reveal the answer that best fits your own circumstances. But be very careful that you don't violate the Adsense TOS (Terms Of Service) because Google can easily kick you off the program without warning!

Traffic - Quite simply; the more visitors your site receives then the more money you will make from Adsense. It takes both time and effort to build a high traffic website and that is why eBooks promising overnight riches can be misleading.

But of course, Google already know all of this and there are a lot of useful tips from the the Adsense Support Site.

To learn how other webmasters are making money with Adsense and to save paying out for the 'secrets' you can find all the information you need from some of the popular webmaster forums. One I would recommend which even has its own section devoted to Adsense is at: http://forums.digitalpoint.com/

Good luck!

Do Your Homework And Reap The Rewards!

Whatever your involvement with the World Wide Web, there is usually a great benefit gained from taking the time to learn some HTML. This is especially true for individuals attempting to set up or run an online business without the budget to employ freelance web developers.

I’ve seen so many questions in forums from people attempting to maintain a website with only a rudimentary knowledge of how it is put together and complete reliance on a WYSIWYG editor like Frontpage or Dreamweaver. Some of the questions are very basic indeed, and it can be disappointing to see opportunities being missed because of a lack of simple skills.

But you don’t need to have your own website to benefit from the knowledge. Perhaps you want to make your eBay listings more attractive? Some basic understanding of HTML will ensure you can do this easily, and even go on to design your own item templates without paying eBay for the privilege.

It really isn’t difficult once you get started, and you don’t need to pay out for books or courses either. Perhaps one of the best, and certainly the most authoritative guide on the web can be found at www.w3schools.com. (If you didn’t know, the World Wide Web Consortium is the organisation that sets the standards for the web and is headed by none other than Sir Tim Berners Lee – the man who developed the whole shebang in the first place.)

So in conclusion; taking some time to learn HTML can help you to save and make more money online. Give it a go and I promise you will never look back!