I hate having to take out loans. I think most people do. But we know that in this world most of us have to take out a loan once in a while. If nothing else we have our Mortgage Loans and car loans.

I was just looking at a website about loans and found it interesting to learn a little more about the reasons people do and don’t get approved for loans. For instance, I was reading about why people take out a cash advance on their paychecks. Fortunately, I’ve never been tempted to do this. The site advises to look to other options before taking out this kind of loan as you could end up getting into a situation that would take you months or years to get caught up financially. They give some good advice on alternatives that could save you the heartache of spending your paycheck before you get it. Even worse, you are spending your paycheck plus interest before you get it. It could end up in a vicious cycle that is hard to get out of.

The last time I took out a loan was when we got a refinance on our house to lower the interest rate. That should only be considered when the interest rate is low enough that it balances out the points and closing costs you will incur in refinancing. The rule of thumb is that the interest rate needs to be at least 2 points lower than the interest rate you are already paying for it to be financially beneficial to refinance.

Adeline,

I’ve been working on an adsense enhanced theme for Adeline and Hazel. I’ve added adsense to the template we are using but I need to do some more work on it.

There are several things we need to do to start generating revenue on a blog. A few of those things are obvious, but we’ll discuss that in another article. Right now, we need to get adsense working better for us.

I’m going to park these templates here so I don’t have to go looking for them again when I want to refer to them. I’ll probably add more templates when I find more that I’m interested in.

If you want to see the templates, just click on the screenshots below and it will take you to the template homepages.

See ya,

Click on screenshot to go to template homepage.

Hypereal - test run

Bubbles - test run

Bubbles is a two column theme available in four colors. You can use it with and without adsense.

SEO Adsence - test run

Problogger Clean - test run

Simple Corners - test run

Prosense - test run


The Prosense theme comes in several colors.

Typo XP Reloaded - test run

Merah Putih - test run

WP Colors - test run

Ads Minded - test run

Meet Ivan the Optimiser
Using adsense in forums

adsensethemeswordpresstemplates

We started Adeline and Hazel a couple of weeks ago with the idea of providing an eclectic mix of most everything blogging. The eclectic mix is because we have a variety of interests. Since starting this blog I have read article after article on the blogs that make money blogging. At least they claim to make money blogging.

Last night I read an article that took a different tact. This article basically downplayed every suggestion for making money blogging that is put forth on the other blogs. The author of this article made the statement that the money bloggers can’t make money because they don’t sell anything. He stated that you’re not going to make money just writing articles, you have to sell something.

Of course, he then went on to write a hard sell for a product he was selling.

The first half of the article was negative. It sounded downright catty. The second half was the hard sell. All of the article lacked imagination and appeal. I would have found it completely forgettable had it not triggered me thinking about what constitutes a salable product.

As a psychotherapist, I’ve spent my entire career earning my income from what I know. People have paid for my knowledge, insight and time. People didn’t walk out of my office with a shiny new piece of equipment in their hands. What they left with was intangible, but valuable all the same.

When looking at the blogs from this viewpoint, I have found myself wondering what is this person selling and why would someone buy it?

I’ve run across blogs that are all about making money. Some of them offer meaty articles with solid advice and instruction on how to pursue one avenue or the other towards making money. Others appeared to have authors who just want to make money on their blogs. Period. They had article after article about making money for themselves.

Which of those types of blogs would you go back to? Which would you make a link to so you could access it easily? The answer is clear, of course. The one that offers something you would want to reference again.

The product wouldn’t necessarily have to be tutorials on how to make money. The tech blogs are probably the very best at making money. The celebrity gossip blogs, how-to most anything blogs, humor and satire blogs all have something to offer. If they put coherent sentences together and give their readers something of value, they will develop a readership and be rewarded with an increasing blog income.

If you are serious about making money on your blog, you need to ask yourself two basic questions.

• Does my blog offer anything that would entice someone to return to my blog after the first visit?
• Would I buy what I’m selling?

Copying someone else won’t do it. Write about what you know. Find your own passion and offer that to your readers. It might be how to make money. It could just as well be how to do upkeep on your automobile or parenting advice. Most of all, keep a positive attitude. The dude who wrote that you had to have a tangible product to sell was way too negative. For my taste, anyway.

Adeline and Hazel has done very well in its first two weeks. It’s not breaking any records but it’s progressing quickly and we are having fun. We’ll keep you updated on our progress and any new gems of insight we find along the way.

Hazel, you are so right! In our professional lives, we both provide services - not products. We went through many years of schooling and then years of experience to develop the knowledge base we have. That is what we have going for us - along with determination and intelligence and darn good looks. Catch you later . . .

Have you ever noticed that in every relationship there is a spender and a saver? It’s kind of like having a night person and a morning person in each relationship. I think there is a law that requires it.

In my relationship I’m the saver and my husband is the spender. Oh, and he’s the morning person and I’m the night person. Fortunately, we both make decent incomes so until recently I haven’t paid that much attention to what he spent. I paid the bills and he pretty much had free reign on his spending. What that translates into is that we have not been financially wise.

Most people spend what they make. If you make $20,000 per year you spend $20,000 per year. If you make $200,000 per year, you spend $200,000 per year. That’s all well and good until something unexpected happens. If you and your spouse each earn $10,000 per year and one of you loses your job, it’s devastating. If you and your spouse each earn $100,000 and one of you loses your job, it’s just as devastating.

In the same way, you and your best friend might both spend $50,000 per year. That might work for your friend, but not for you. If your friend makes $60,000 per year and you make $45,000 per year then your friend is living within her means and you are not. In fact, under that scenario you are incurring more debt each year.

The point is, living within your means is all relative.

It doesn’t matter how much or how little you make. If you don’t live within your means you are digging yourself into more debt and any unplanned for financial set-back can be a serious problem.

There are a few things that can help you get on track financially by living within your means.

• Sit down and take an honest look at your finances and spending habits
• Make realistic financial goals. For instance, where would you like to see yourself financially in six months? You might need to break it down to smaller periods of time, maybe one month.
• Decide how much you can spend based on where you are now financially and based on your goals.
• Decide that you are willing to not let others dictate how you spend money. You don’t have to keep up with anyone else. In the long run you are the one that has to live with your financial decisions.
• Make a list of actions you can take to curtail your spending.
• Start making the changes necessary to live within your means.

There are a few things you can do to help you limit your spending. Decide how much you can spend before you go shopping and take that amount of cash and no credit cards with you. This will prevent you from impulse spending. If you tend to spend more with a certain friend then find something else you can do with that friend rather than shopping.

I’ll write more about this later.