Become Financially Independent

Escape the Rat Race

WELCOME to Lets-MakeMoney.co.uk. The aim of this site is to provide information on as many possible ways to make money and save money to escape the rat race and become financially free!

Are you financially free or just rat in the race?

OK, maybe you love your job and you may even earn a cracking salary. You may also feel secure knowing that your salary is paid every month, that your company pays you a pension and that because of your job you got your foot on the housing ladder and can afford a nice 2 week holiday every year, BUT I have news for you, your not FREE! You are well and truly imprisoned in the Rat Race by the fact that you need to go to work to pay for ALL you have and want! You are not financially INdependent you are truly financially DEPENDANT!

At the end of the day, no matter how hard you try to deny it, the company you work for is running your life, and deep down there is always the insecurity that someday, one day, that company could say they no longer require your services and bang goes that nice big salary which you may struggle to find again when you start looking for another job!

Become Financially Free!

• Do you want to be Free? Really Free?
• Be Financially Independent?
• Escape the Rat Race?
• Work for Yourself?
• Earn Extra Money?

Well I hope this site will help and inspire you on your journey to financial freedom.

Financial security is freedom. Freedom from worry, freedom to use your time as you see fit, freedom even to keep working if you so choose. The workplace is a great deal more pleasant if you are there because you want to be and not because you need to be.

How Financially Free Are You?

Think about it and ask yourself how free you really are?

• Are you living the life you really want to live?
• Although you have a nice car, is it the car you really want?
• Are you living in the house you really want to be living in?
• Do you have to work, too hard, to pay for all the things you really want?
• Do you feel stressed at work or do you dread Monday mornings?

Don't kid yourself when answering the above, be honest! If most people are honest they are in exactly the same position. I know people who earn great salaries, have a lovely detached house and nice top of the range car, BUT, they work 60 hours a week and rarely get a full day off work! That is not a life, and I am sure it isn't really worth it, those people are financially wealthy, but completely skint on time!!!

If you are currently trading your time to earn money you are just another rat in the rat race, regardless of your current career status or financial success! I’m certainly not suggesting you will want to leave your job right now, but, think about making plans to generate a secondary income, preferably one that takes little even none of your time, one other than that your employer gives you, only then will you begin to feel financially free and begin to escape the rat race!

This site is not an "advice" site. My aim is to provide a one stop information source about making money, saving money and becoming financially free to escape the rat race. If you choose to follow any of the information it is at your own risk. To make a lot of money involves risk and there are winners and losers, however, remember the old saying "he who dares wins"; if you choose to join me in the great escape....

©2012 lets-makemoney.co.uk. All Rights Reserved.

.

My Recommended Sites

Share Investing / Trading

Fantasy Trading

• Bull Bearings
• The Wall Street Suvivor
• WinInvesting.com

Trading Blogs

• www.nakedtrader.co.uk
  Fab site from Robbie Burns a guy who knows a lot about trading - enough to escape the rat race and trade at home for a living :)

Saving Money

Save Money on Bills

• EnergyOn
• Save On Your Bills
• energyhelpline.com

Save on Selling Your Home

• HouseWeb
• My Property for Sale

Comparison Sites

• Moneysupermarket.com - Compare & Buy

Great Saving Money Sites

• www.mysavingplace.com / www.101waystosavemoney.com
  These 2 sites are mostly geared for US savers but they are a great read with plenty of ideas for everyone.

Making Money

Cash Back Sites

• eCashBack
• Ipoints Ltd
• earn extra money from home

Making Money Online

• Make Money Online|Work At Home
  Work at home and make money online up to $10,000+ a month with Adsene, affiliate programs, and other money making opportunities with blog or web site.

Building a Website

Great Hosting Sites

• UKHost4u
• UK Domains & UKHosting
• www.eventurebiz.com - Not only webhosting but help with getting your website and business up and running too!
• Namesco

Web Design Services

• Web Design Aberdeen

Help with Building A Site

• DoYourOwnSite!
• www.easywebcreator.com
• www.WebsiteWizard.com

Affiliate Programs / Website Advertising

• BidVertiser

Property Investment

Property Development

• Renovate Alerts

Become a millionaire

Secondary Income

• www.onlineincomesreviewed.co.uk

Investing

• www.familyinvestments.co.uk

Escape the Rat Race

Some Fab Blogs

• escape-from-the-rat-race.info - My ongoing journey into making money online
• www.workathomeincomes.co.uk
• makemesomemoney.co.uk
• www.inspiringjourneytofinancialfreedom.com
• www.doesmoneymakeyouhappy.com

Misc / Fun Sites

• www.ezpaydayloanz.com
• www.thepoorhouse.org.uk
• milliondollarhomepage
• www.scamreview.co.uk

©2012 lets-makemoney.co.uk. All Rights Reserved.

.

Ways to Make Money!

Posted:Abigail Andrews – Saturday, May 26th, 2007

Most people complain they don't get paid enough and wait for the pay rise which never comes. One of the the first things people think of doing when they need more money than they can earn in their current employment is to get second job, perhaps working on an evening. Although this is an option it is not the only one.

If you're thinking about getting a second job to supplement your income, take a glance through this list first as there may be easier and more fun ways to make extra money.

By the way, this list is not exhausted by any stretch of the imagination, so keep coming back, I will be continually reviewing and adding to it. Oh, and if you have any ideas please feel free to email me and I will add it to the list, giving you the credit of course!

Make Money as a TV/film Extra

TV and film companies are always looking for extras to star in everything from Emmerdale Farm as a local sipping ale in the pub, to a dodgy geezer in the "new" lock, sock and 2 smoking barrels. People of all shapes and sizes are needed daily, so if you have the confidence to be seen by millions in the background of the local soap opera, then you could make a nice bit of extra cash, as well as having a fun day out "star spotting"!

Furthermore, you can apply to be on TV programs and shows, such as home make over programs or quiz shows. In both of these ways you can win, cash, prizes, or get a makeover for free which is usually worth a substantial amount of money. Check out some of the links below:

Useful sites:

www.beonscreen.com
www.starnow.co.uk

Pay:

You could earn around £80 a day, with bonuses for things like providing your own costume or doing a 'walk-on'.

Police ID Parades

You may laugh but it is easy money, all you have to do is turn up and stand there. Work does depend on your appearance and the traditional physical ID parades are slowly being replaced by electronic databases containing head and shoulder video pictures but you could still earn a one off payment for doing that. Of course there is the risk that you may get picked out as the perpetrator of the crime! :-)

More Info:

Ask at your local police station.

Pose as a Life Model

You don't have to be beautiful or in particularly great shape, but you do have to be brave, confident, un-modest, extremely patient, and able to sit still for a long time.

Pay:

£6+ clothed, £7+ unclothed

Useful sites

www.modelreg.co.uk
Also contact your local Art and Adult education colleges.

In-store Demonstrator

If you are confident and personable then you may fancy becoming an instore demonstrator in a supermarket or department store. Cook a simple dish, show off the new kitchen mop, demonstrate the new stain remover, for example. Mainly evenings and weekends so the hours can easily fit around your current life style.

Pay:

Can be up to £10 an hour. Full time can range between £10k-£16K

Useful sites

Profile of a Demonstrator
Also search for 'field marketing agencies' on the Internet

Event Steward

Football matches and concerts are just two places were stewards are needed. Training is given on the day. However, don't expect to see much of the concerts, if you are lucky you may get a quiet corner and may be able to catch a glimpse, but more often than not you are kept busy and earn your money.

Pay:

£5+ an hour; with training you can earn up to £15 an hour.

Useful sites

www.recruiteventservices.co.uk
Also search for 'Recruit Event Services' on the Internet

Mystery Shopping

Getting paid to shop is most women's dreams and perhaps with the mention of getting paid, some mens dreams too. Mystery shopping is not just about going to shops to purchase products, it can also entail going to a restaurant, bar or even a hotel for the night. All you have to do is report how you were treated and how good the customer service was. You get your expenses paid and if you are sent to the local supermarket for example, you may even get to keep the shopping you bought. There are worse ways to make money!

Pay:

£6+ a visit, but could be as much as £100 a day depending on what you are required to do.

More Info:

Find more detailed information on mystery shopping here.

Useful sites

Douglas Stafford
Gap Buster
Mystery Shoppers
Performance in People
Retail Eyes
Also search for 'Mystery Shopping' on the Internet

Become a Promoter

Promotions staff are always needed, though its not always easy work. From models to leafleting, sampling to merchandising, exhibition staff, street teams to road shows, the work is endless. However, if you get to go to big events it can be good fun!

Pay:

Varies but averages about 7.50 an hour.

Useful sites

www.stuckforstaff.com
www.promojobspro.com
More info: Search for 'promotions Staff' on the internet.

Medical Testing

You can earn good money from volunteering for a clinical trial and while doing so make a valuable contribution to medical research. However, be warned there are risks and make sure you read ALL the information you are given by the research company about possible complications. Basically the greater the risk the more you will be getting paid. People have had extreme reactions to the drugs they have been given as has been in the news recently, though it is rare.

Hey, if you are too chicken to take part in a trial yourself, think about those friends or family you have who would dare as you can even refer friends and get paid too!

Pay:

Varies depending on the length of the trial as well as the risks and discomfort involved.

Useful sites

www.entertrials.co.uk
www.gpgp.net
More info: Search for 'medical research volunteer' on the internet.

Refer people for jobs

Do you often search the job pages looking for your new career, only to find jobs more suitable or ideal for friends or someone you know. Well, at least now you can get paid for sending your mate an email referring him to the ideal job you found him!

Zubka is a referral platform whereby individuals get paid for referring people for jobs. Anyone can sign up as a referrer and then personally recommend their friends and professional contacts for jobs. Referrers receive job alerts making them aware of new vacancies within the industries they know people. Hirers benefit as well as Zubka can provide a much faster way of finding the right individual, and costs a third of traditional recruitment charges.

Pay:

Large financial rewards for successful referrals, with an average payment of £3,000

©2012 lets-makemoney.co.uk. All Rights Reserved.

.

Gadgets that Save Money!

Posted:Abigail Andrews – Tuesday, June 26th, 2007

Save loads of money by buying gadgets that can pay for themselves (and even see a bit of return) over the long term. This usually means they are efficient in some sort of way thus you can be kind to the environments at the same time! These gadgets will also make great gift ideas too.

Battery Chargers Save Money

Price: Depends on how many are changed at once and what type of batteries are charged.
Link: Good deals at www.amazon.co.uk or at www.mdsbattery.co.uk
Tip: Get good quality batteries and buy online as they are much cheaper

Look around your house and you will have loads of items that eat batteries. I have cameras, games, even the solar lights in the garden take batteries! It costs a fortune keeping up to them. You will have to fork out for the charger in the first place and the rechargeable batteries, but they will save you in the long term. Perfect for parents that have children with lots of battery-powered toys.

Electricity Usage Monitor

Price: £70 (approx)
Link: Electrisave at www.amazon.co.uk or on ebay.co.uk

This gadget allows you to see exactly what power your "on-standby" devices are actually using. This will help you decide which devices it is simply worth turning off rather than leaving on standby and thus save money. It's a very useful device to see in real terms how much things are actually costing you to run. You could cut your bills by up to 25%!

Save Money with an Internet Phone

Price: From as little as £20 to as much as £100+
Link: Tesco Internet Phone

PC to PC Phone Calls

Price: Free with PC to PC calls, cheaper than normal providers for PC to Phone calls.

You can call anywhere in the world completely for free and save money! The only requirement is that both you and the person you're calling have computers with internet access. A microphone and headset/speakers are needed, though it's possible to buy phone handsets for computers. The quality isn't fantastic but its perfectly adequate.

Internet Telephony Specialist Skype is becoming the Microsoft of internet telephony. Visit the site for more details.

PC to Phone Calls

Pretty much the same as above, you've a headset or phone plugged into your computer, you then go to a dial pad on the computer screen and dial the number you're calling which can be any 'normal' phone line and not a PC phone. Many providers also allocate you a number on which to receive calls, some even provide an adapter which bypasses the computer altogether and plugs into your regular phone handset.

You could start with these web phone providers to find out more information VoipStunt and VoipCheap.

Electricity Saving Plugs

Price: SavePlug £20 (approx) and IntelliPlug £15 (approx)
Link: SavePlug and intelliplug

By simply replacing your fridge's plug with the SavaPlug you can reduce its electricity requirements by 20%...that's approx £12 per year!!.

The IntelliPlug works by shutting down your computer's peripheral devices (e.g. printer, monitor, scanner, amplifier etc) once you've turned your PC off. Once everything is turned off it only runs on 0.4 Watt (that's virtually nothing).

Energy Saving Lightbulbs Save Money

Price: Varies on type of bulb but approx £6 for 2
Link: Good Deals on Amazon or check out sites like www.evengreener.com or www.naturalcollection.com

Saving energy is good for the environment as well as your bank balance and, with modern lighting technology, is as easy as plugging in a new light bulb! Energy saver bulbs typically use around 80% less electricity than normal incandescent bulbs. So when your next bulb fails and you start to run out of ordinary spare bulbs, then think about paying slightly more for the energy saving bulbs which will actually save you money in the long term!

Programmable Thermostat to Save Money

Price: Around £50
Link: Programmable Room Thermostat at Amazon or on ebay.co.uk

Saving: approx £75 a year, therefore the return on your investment is usually within 1 year.

Its surprising how many people actually have a thermostat and either don't use it or it does not work. Programmable thermostats automatically adjust your home's temperature settings, allowing you to save energy while you're away or sleeping. You can again save energy and save money on utility bills when used properly, about £75 a year.

Weather Strip your Doors and Windows

Price: £5 for 5 meters (approx)
Link: Find weather strip on ebay or check out sites like www.evengreener.com
Saving: Can reduce heating bills by up to 10% immediateley.

Ok it's not strictly a gadget but its, well, an item that will save you money. Just think, a 1/4 inch gap along the bottom of a 3 foot wide door is 9 square inches of open space. If you had a 3 inch x 3 inch hole in one of your exterior walls you'd fix it, wouldn't you?

Eco Kettle

Price: approx £30
Link: Get an Eco Kettle here

Your electric kettle gobbles energy, eating as much power as dozens of light bulbs. And since you probably boil more water than you need, you waste the extra hot water and the energy used to boil it every time you make a cuppa. The Eco Kettle helps by letting you decide exactly how much water you boil each time. Independent consumer trials showed it uses on average 30% less energy on than standard kettles.

LCD Monitor to Save Money

Price: approx £100 and falling all the time
Link: Great TFT deals here

What's in front of your eyes? Does your computer have a huge, old-fashioned CRT monitor rather than one of the latest slimline LCD units? If so, it's time to swap, since new LCD monitors can cut electricity use by up to 66% compared to those last century CRT monsters.

Efficient Shower Head Saves Money

Price: approx £7
Link: Search shower heads here
Saving: Save water for the environment while also saving costs of electricity to heat the water.

High efficiency shower head's save money by reducing the amount of water that needs to flow through your hot water heater reducing your energy cost of heating water and water consumption by a whopping 50 percent.

Motion Detector Outdoor Light

Price: All depends on what you want, but from as little as £30
Link: Search outdoor lights

Rather than flooding your front yard with lights after dusk, invest in a motion sensor light, your walkway will light up — but only when someone's headed toward your doorstep. Make sure you set the light up so it is not constantly going off due to the wind blowing a tree in its path for example. Also don't buy a spot light as these use a lot of electricity, a simple standard light will do.

Smart Power Strips

Price: Approx £25
Link: Intellipanel

If you use a desktop computer at home, it won't take long until this device is a money saver for you. Simply plug in your main unit into the control outlet and all of your other peripherals (monitor, printer, speakers, etc.) into the other outlets. Whenever you power on your computer, the other devices power on; whenever you power off your computer, the others power off. Even better, it actually functions as a switch, so when your main unit powers off, there is no phantom standby electricity being drawn to the other peripherals. Not only will you save money on the powered-down peripherals, but you'll save money from the lack of phantom charge. Furthermore This device should pay for itself in less than 2 months.

Solar Christmas Lights

Price: Approx From as little as £15
Link: Solar Festival String Lights or Solar Tree Lights

These should pay for themselves within 2-3 christmas's. Instead of buying strands of electric lights for outdoor Christmas decoration, get a set of solar LED Christmas lights. They charge up during the day, come on automatically in the evening, and stay on most of the night. You can just set them up and let them be with no maintenance cost or effort at all. The start-up cost is a bit high, but the cool factor of LED solar Christmas lights, plus the energy savings, quickly makes up for it.

Laptops Save Money

Price: Approx £400 depends what spec you want
Link: Cheap Dell Laptops

Now that laptops have reached a usability and reliability standard that approximates desktops, it becomes a serious choice whether or not to replace a desktop with a laptop. If you make the leap, you'll find that the energy savings are tremendous. It won't take long for this savings to make up for the differences in cost, plus you'll have all of the laptop portability advantages.

©2012 lets-makemoney.co.uk. All Rights Reserved.

.

Make Money With A Website

Posted:Abigail Andrews – Sunday, August 26th, 2007

Website Ideas

There are many types of website you could choose to run. Open your mind, think about what you already know and are good at. Do you have a hobby, do you like writing stories - an aspiring novelist, do you have strong opinions on certain subjects, or do you think you could sell something easily. Bare in mind the best ideas are the ones that have not already been thought of, when you have an idea search google, you may think your idea is unique, but you may find to your surprise hundreds of sites already offering your idea.

Here are just a few ideas to get you started:

Access to Information

One thing that can be sold on the web is access to information! People crave information to educate or enlighten them. By putting your own specialized information into e-books, manuals, reports, e-zines or newsletters, you can start putting a hefty price on the knowledge that you have no doubt been giving away!

Nearly everyone has some specialized knowledge that can be turned into an e-book and marketed on a web site for fun and profit. In fact it is a good bet that YOU have valuable knowledge that you can share with others. If you don't yet, then become an expert in a particular niche and charge for your advice. The great news is that this is the internet, and becoming an expert in a niche often requires nothing more than spending lots of time online, reading and absorbing. No school to attend, no fees to pay.

There are many advantages to selling e-books over regular printed books:

• Easier to distribute - Your e-book can be easily written for any audience and marketed to people all over the world interested in your knowledge for far less costs than a traditional printed book
• Advertising costs are generally less expensive on the Internet than they are in newspapers, magazines or other traditional media.
• It is very easy to add illustrations and even sound and video files to your e-book

I started building this with this site as a bit of fun, a hobby. In writing this site I not only educate my readers, but I also learn so much in researching money and about building websites. It's a good hobby that can make you money, so have a go.

Sell Products and/or Services

E-commerce is what everybody's talking about these days. Basically it refers to setting up an electronic storefront. You can use forms or shopping carts to take your orders. It is best to accept credit cards or electronic checks for payment, but you can have the customer mail or fax an order in too.

There is loads of FREE software out there to help you get started. Most website hosting companies have easy install tools that help you set up your shopping cart very easily, literally buy your domain name, get a hosting company, install shopping cart with very easy installers, tweak to your needs and your away. For example, my host (who I really recommend - without any affiliation to them) Awardspace offer a few shopping carts such as zencart. These are both really good and both completely free.

As you can see something which you probably thought was really difficult is really, really easy. So get cracking. Follow my easy steps to setting up a website in the How to Build Your Website section.

Start a Directory

Webmasters pay to be listed in your directory. The better your directory the more you can demand. Niche, hand compiled directories are a million times better than the directories which use spiders to search the net, and both companies and users know that. Sites such as google are great but they bring back so many invalid results on searches. If you can specialise a directory, i.e. a directory of the best money making sites, giving it the personal touch, you could make £100's a day.

Silly Sites

The milliondollarhomepage guy got famous for selling worthless pixels on his page. But, because he was in the news/having his 15 minutes of fame people focused on that and paid money for what they would normally have realised was fairly worthless links. He was laughing all the way to the bank, probably due to the stupidity of the people who wanted to advertise with him :)

Award Sites

Create an award and some fancy logos to go with it. The more credible they look the better. Award them to websites you like ... provided they pay you an "admin" fee every year to continue using the logo.

Giving awards used to be a useful way to get back links which increase your search engine ranking. Furthermore, when people's egos are sufficiently stroked they'll pay to continue boasting about how good the "rest of the world" thinks they are.

Online Role Playing Sites

MMORPG, or multimedia online role playing games are virtual worlds where otherwise sane humans lose all perspective and all sense of reality. Or they pretend they do. They spend money on invisibility cloaks, virtual machine guns, characters and even virtual money! Create your own world, there's a thriving economy worth millions of pounds every year. Examples of such sites are Second Life or Virtual Ibiza, both great sites.

Concierge Service Sites

If you know the exact type of shoes you want but can't find them, would you pay someone to find it for you? You'd be surprised how many busy people would. Whether it's a list for the supermarket delivery or a bathroom tap unavailable locally - for some people the hour or two hunting is not worth the 10 quid you'd charge. Maintain preferences for your signed up customers - so they can tell you to order "milk" without having to specify semi-skimmed, 2 litre, cardboard packing, etc. Furthermore develop close relationships with the businesses you use regularly and you could offer eh discount to your subscribers or take it for yourself :)

Blog

Have expertise in a particular subject? Well then, write regularly on that subject and give away your knowledge for free. People will bookmark your blog and visit regularly. The money is in allowing companies to advertise their products and services to your very eager audience.

However, if you don't have expertise in a particular subject don't let that stop you. That doesn't stop most bloggers. Some of them blog on the most mundane things - from what they had for breakfast, to how they spent their day. And still the advertisers come. So, don't have to blog to demonstrate your expertise. Blog to demonstrate your camera obsession and show all the stupid pictures you take everyday. I have some tips on how to set up a website or a blog here.

There are loads of free blogging sites and free blogging software for you to use. Most website hosting companies have easy install tools that help you set up your blog very easily, literally buy your domain name, get a hosting company, install the blog with very easy installers, and away you go. Once more I refer you to my host (who I really recommend - without any affiliation to them)Awardspace who offer free blogging software already installed such as Wordpress or b2evolution. These are both really good and both completely free.

Write for Money

Do people tell you your funny? Do you think you are good at story telling? Can you easily write speeches? How about building to get people to pay for you to solve their wedding speech dilemma? Easy money if you have a talent.

If you have a funny story to share, consider building a website around the story. Here is a very funny example of someone who decided to share his horrible experience on the internet, with a few ads this kind of site could make loads of money. So get your thinking cap on. Story of Tape Worm.

©2012 lets-makemoney.co.uk. All Rights Reserved.

.

Free Online Paid Surveys

Posted:Abigail Andrews – Tuesday, June 26th, 2007

There are loads of opportunities to make money out there on the internet and it doesn't cost you a thing to sign up and start to make money by giving your opinion. One of the easiest ways to make money online is through free paid survey sites.

Companies want your feedback, and these days, rather than sending somebody out into the street to stop you and ask your opinion, it is cheaper and quicker for them to pay people online to fill out surveys. The company gets instant feedback in a format it can quickly analyse. By getting instant feedback from several thousand people, they save thousands of pounds by not employing street canvassers, and you get the opportunity to make easy money at home online.

You won't become a millionaire by any stretch of the imagination, but if you sign up to enough sites and you fit the right demographic profile, you could easily earn over £1000 a year, in cash, prizes and reward points. Think of it this way, for a couple of hours a week you could make enough money to pay your gas and phone bill every month, or be able to take your family out for a nice meal more often.

It takes time and effort at first to get yourself going. I spent a whole week browsing the internet, reviewing sites, and signing up, however, after that you need to just sit and wait for the surveys to roll into your inbox and start making some money while sitting and watching some tele...easy money eh? :). Of course, there are ways to make the task easier and in this article I will provide some tips, links to the better sites, and tools which will help on your quest to make money online.

One important point is be wary of the paying membership sites. In your search you will find loads of sites that request payment from £10 - £50, it's your choice if you pay for the information, but please review what they offer and weigh-up the cost. Some will sign you up automatically for hundreds of sites, keeping you updated of new sites as well as providing free software to make surveys easier. Others charge ridiculous amounts for what is otherwise free information that can be found, with a little effort, by searching the internet. Be wary!

Anyway, there is a bit of background, but I can here you shouting, 'just tell me what to do!', well, now that you have found this site, I have saved you some of the time and effort I had to make. Though not exhaustive and definitely a work in progress, I have started reviewing some of the paid survey sites I have signed up for on the following pages - all free and no joining fees! Read my rating and join up for those you feel suit your needs. To be honest I think it's even best to join the surveys sites with lower ratings as the more you sign up for the more chance you have got of making money. Please keep coming back as I will continue to update it and add more as I get chance and have reviewed the sites for long enough to have an objective opinion and there are still many more that I am currently reviewing.

Site	Details	Reward
	Paid surveys between 50p and £3. At £5 or more, your rewarded with a voucher for a well-known high street or Internet shop. Surveys are fairly frequent, and I was invited to test a hair product which paid £10, plus I got some free conditioner. Surveys very frequent!	High street Vouchers Sign up now 10/10
	One of the UK's leading paid survey companies. Results often featured in national newspapers and on the television. £1 to sign up, then 50p to £1 per survey. Nice site, frequent surveys. Min £50 balance before cheque issued.	Cash Sign up now 9/10
	Test&Vote, now also known as La Luna, is an interactive, modern site. Test products and earn vouchers for surveys. Surveys are fairly regular. Payment is in points which are traded for vouchers for stores like HMV, Halfords and CDwow!	Vouchers Sign up now 8/10
	Well established and one of the originals. You can earn money by completing surveys but by also writing reviews on anything from appliances to hotels! Rewards are good and surveys are frequent. Payments range from £1 to £3.	Cash Sign up now 8/10
	Dialego is an established German market research institute. Complete surveys and earn points making money. You can help sponsor children from developing countries, redeem them for online shopping at Chateau Online or Amazon or with £40 in Points you can redeem for Money. Surveys not very frequent but pay nice amounts.	Cash/ Vouchers Sign up now 5/10
	A leading market research panel. Every survey earns you points. 100 points = £1 and with up to 500 points attached to each survey, the money soon adds up and can be taken in the form of cash! Nice!	Cash Sign up now 9/10
	Basic site with reward in form of amazon voucher. No cash option. Worth signing up to but don't expect too much from it. I still have my eye on it and will come back with a more informed opinion in the next couple of months.	Amazon Vouchers Sign up now 5/10
	TNS operates in over 70 countries worldwide. Obviously good for those of you who shop at Sainsbury's as all your points can be immediately transferred to your Nectar card, if you don't have a Nectar card then you may not want to bother with this one or you may want to go get a card first at as it is the only reward available. However, if you do collect nectar points it is well worth signing up. In one month I collected approx £8 in nectar points, does not sound much but probably only took about 30 mins of my time in total,it was easy money!	Nectar Points ONLY Sign up now 9/10
	Another established market research business with a great reputation. They have been quiet in recent years due to the sale of myvoice, however, they promise now to be back and the surveys should come flooding in. Once you have gained 2000 points you can convert your points into £20 vouchers from leading high street retailers. I will not rate them highly for now because of this, but if the surveys do appear I will reassess my opinion.	Highstreet Vouchers Sign up now 4/10
	When you have accumulated a total of 150 bonus points, you will receive a pay-out of £15. I have given this a rating of 7 so far as it offers a cash reward, which I believe is what most people are after. They also automatically transfer funds for you when you reach your total, which is very handy as you don't need to keep an eye on your account balance. However, I have not received many surveys as yet. This is another of those sites where you cannot just join, you need to receive a personal invite, I am still searching for one for you so please keep checking back.	Cash Sign up by invitation only - come back later 7/10
	A modern trendy site, with CASH incentives for completing surveys. Must accumulate £25 first, but money is transferred straight to your bank account. Good site, but again still need to see how many surveys I get approved for so will update in a couple of months. For now, I like the site design and it looks promising.	Cash Sign up now 9/10
	Receive Lightspeed Points for completing most surveys. Then, redeem your points for Paypal cash, high street vouchers or Gifts. Surveys are regular and points are generously awarded.	Cash / Vouchers/ Gifts Sign up now 10/10
	By one of the leading names in UK market research namely ICM Research. Typically paying £1 for every 5 minutes you spend completing surveys, provided the survey is completed in full and within an acceptable amount of time (based on average length) so be careful, no cheating and wizing through questions to complete quickly! Minimum withdrawl is £50, and payments will be made by cheque.	Cash Sign up now 6/10
	Synovate is one of the largest marketing research firms in the world. Accumulate points which are equivalent to cash. Surveys are regular. Withdrawals can begin at £5. You can transfer points to other members of your household which is also a good feature.	Cash Sign up now 10/10
	Ipsos Access Panels is a European company and is part of the Ipsos Group, one of the leading market research organisations. I seem to get regular surveys from this company and the points are really mounting up. One problem however, is finding the link to sign up. Ipsos was on my list of sites to join but I could find no way of signing up for their panel. In the end, I sent them an email asking if I could join the response was "no"! Panel membership is by invite only. BUT no worries i have done some digging........the links to sign up to the right may or may not take you to the membership page. If it doesn't go to "A Penny Earned" site recommended in the free directories section below and you can find a link there.	Vouchers-Argos. Boots, WHSmith Sign up now 9/10
	ZoomPanel members can participate in surveys, in home tests, focus groups and other market research projects. A one stop site for a variety on money making schemes. I only gave this a lower rating due to the reward of "gifts". I am not keen on this type of reward as the gifts look a bit naff and probably are not really worth the amount the per point they claim they are, however, if you are a traveller you could probably mount up some nice points for hotels like the marriot which may come in handy!	Gifts e.g. memory sticks, cameras, etc. Sign up now 7/10
	If you want to raise money for charities there is no better way than joining opinion world. Perhaps it should be done as a gesture of good will? But it is not a money making survey site. You will get the chance to enter draws for prizes but there is no other reward I am afraid. Funnily enough though surveys from this site are more regular than any other.!!!	Sign up now 5/10
	Voice in a crowd is a new survey site that offers registered users the chance to win prizes from £20 to many thousands of pounds in value. You have to login to the site to complete surveys for which you recieve entries to a monthly draw for prizes. I am not that impressed with this site at the moment, I always forget to login and there are no email reminders. Its worth signing up to be a member, but is in my list of poor survey sites unfortunately.	Prize Draw Entries Sign up now 4/10
	Canvasse Opinion offers 2 main incentives such as a Quarterly Prize Draw and Individual survey incentives. It also brings you the results of the Top Gear Motoring Satisfaction Survey to help you make informed decisions about your car purchases. A strange incenive, I know, but it must appeal to some people! :)	Prize Draws & Gifts Sign up now 5/10
	Join GlobalTestMarket now to start earning money for your opinions! Registration is easy and you will start receiving online paid surveys shortly. Share your thoughts on the latest movies, products and events, and you will be rewarded with cash.	Cash Sign up now 6/10
	Become a member of the Harris Poll Online and you will have the opportunity to influence important decision makers in government, corporations, and non-profit organizations. You can help shape the policies, products, and services they offer you! Redeem points for rewards that include a variety of merchandise and gift certificates. You can also participate in our sweepstakes for cash prizes!	Points for Gifts Sign up now 6/10
	KNOTs was established in 1996 so its a well established panel. You will be invited for surveys by e-mail where you will be told you will be exactly how many points you will be rewarded. You can redeem your points for vouchers from a wide range of leading shops. You will automatically receive an invitation to this campaign once you’ve reached 1600 points for a £10 voucher.	Vouchers Sign up now 5/10
	Rest assured your personal information is safe, and participation in surveys is anonymous. When a survey which matches your profile you'll receive an invitation by email. The invitation tells you what the survey is about and the rewards you will earn once you complete the survey. For those of you with morals you can dontate your earnings to a number of charities, of course if you already donate elsewhere then you can choose to be paind in cash and add your earnings to your pot!	Cash & Charities Sign up now 7/10
	Panelbase.net is one of the fastest growing research communities on the internet. For every survey that you complete, you will be rewarded in one of two ways. Some questionnaires will carry rewards between £0.50 and £3, which will be added directly to your account. In addition to receiving cash, other surveys may include entry in to one of the many prize draws where you could win anything from a case of wine, to an iPod or huge plasma TV! As soon as you reach the redemption threshold of £10 you can withdraw your money or convert it to high-street vouchers.	Cash, Prize Draws & Charities Sign up now 8/10
	You will receive £5 just for signing up and as a member of Response Panel, you will earn points for every survey you take part in. Each point has a value equal to £0.05 and points are awarded based on the length of time the survey takes to complete: 1 point = 1 minute = 5p. You will receive anything from 5 points (£0.25) to 60 points (£3.00) according to length of the survey. We also give a token 1 point as a good will gesture if you are screened out of the survey mid way.	Cash by PayPal or cheque Sign up now 6/10
	Planet Pulse values your opinion and rewards you for your time. 'Pulses' is the e-currency of Planet Pulse. You will be rewarded with Pulses for every completed survey. 100 Pulses = USD1.00. Convert them to cash, donate them to charities or redeem them for great gifts!	Cash, Charities, Gifts Sign up now 5/10
	Through thats-what-i-think.co.uk, you can express your opinions about what you see on TV and Movie screens and hear on the radio. You will have a chance to see and hear new releases before they're made public and help decide if they are up to your standards. Your opinions are passed directly to the decision-makers in the entertainment industry! Earn opinion points which are redeemable for great prizes, including gift certificates from Amazon.co.uk. You can even use your points to make donations to your favorite charity!	Cash, Charities, Gifts Sign up now 6/10
	For every survey you participate in, they credit virtual money, in so called trendchips, to your account with which you can shop at one of the cooperation partners such as amazon.co.uk. Not received many surveys at all but is worth signing up just incase as I have been a member of sites like this before and received little for motnhs then all of a sudden been inundated with surveys.	Cash, Vouchers, Charities Sign up now 4/10

Free Survey Directories

These sites will find survey sites for you saving you the hassle of searching the internet by sending you emails to let you know to sign up to any new sites. However they are not exhaustive and if you want to make decent money i also recommend doing your own searches occasionally:

Paid Survey Directories

These sites will find survey sites for you saving you the hassle of searching the internet by sending you emails to let you know about any new or existing survey sites. However they are NOT FREE so if you want to spend some cash to save some time, here are some sites you could start with. Please research and read about these yourself to check out what exactly you get for the cost, i cannot guarantee all the information below is completely up-top-date but it will give you some idea:

Free Tools

Join Pay Pal

Most surveys,auctions and many f the methods of making money online require that you sign up to pay pal. You can do so by clicking this link.

Download Robo Form

This is pretty much a free tool though it does have limited functionality for passwords and logins, it will allow you to fill out web forms much more quickly. Roboform is the top-rated Password Manager and Web Form Filler that completely automates password entering and form filling.

©2012 lets-makemoney.co.uk. All Rights Reserved.

.

Running Costs and Legal Requirements of Buy to Let

Posted:Abigail Andrews – Saturday, May 26th, 2007

Although becoming an investor landlord will not break the bank, there are quite a lot of costs involved that puts it well beyond the reach of most people. Here are some of the costs you should be aware of:

Acquisition Costs for Buy To Let

There are considerable costs involved in purchasing a property, these are:

• Deposit - 15 - 20 % of the purchase cost of the property.
• Application / Mortgage Arrangement fee.
• Conveyancing fees.
• Surveyors.
• Stamp duty.

Most of these vary and increase with the purchase price of the property. Be aware of them when setting your budget.

Occupied Running Costs of Buy to Let

The title speaks for itself really, these are the costs you will have to pay with tenants living in the property and which must be factored in when you calculate how much you are truly making from you Buy to Let. Remember to over estimate these costs, you are fooling nobody but yourself by underestimating.

• Mortgage payments.
• Accountant's fees - you may need one as your portfolio grows, though not with your first few properties.
• Legal Charges - if you do not use a letting agent and you employ a solicitor to deal with the Tenancy Agreement.
  If you manage the property yourself and you do not employ a solicitor, you should factor in the cost of purchased legal forms, like the Tenancy Agreement and books such as Landlord Letters. Allow for approximately £50 a year for such things, though free documents and advice can be found on the internet these days on sites such as www.landlordzone.co.uk There are other legal costs depending on your circumstances. be aware of them all.
• Tenant referencing, approx £35 per tenant if you use sites like www.tenantverify.co.uk.
• Minor repairs, allow 10% of rent over 12 months as a mean average.
• Water charges, normally paid by the tenant but some water companies impose the charge on the landlord; check with the water company for your area.
• Replacements and renewals for carpets, furnishings, fittings and equipment (allow 10% of rent over 12 months).
• Building insurance, some policies do not offer cover to let property and block policies offered through service charge payments rarely provide adequate protection to landlords. Be careful.
• Landlord's contents insurance, if your property is furnished (some policies do not offer cover to let properties or between tenancies, or for those considered to be a high-risk, for example student lets).
• Any management or service charge payable. The owner / long-lessee is most often liable. Usually only applicable to apartments.
• Gas-safety inspections which are legally required and must be conducted by a CORGI (Council of Registered Gas Installers) engineer. Factor in about £60 a year.
• Letting agent fees, 10-15% of monthly rent depending on the services you require.
• If you are letting the property furnished you will have to purchase all relevant furniture and white goods and kitchen utensils and also replace these if they break.
• Electrical safety inspections. A five-year check of wiring and system installations is considered good practice but not currently a legal requirement.
• Other expenses / Administration Costs - such as the use of a car to get to and from the property, telephone, postage, stationery, photographs for inventories, copying keys and photocopying manuals and documents.

Unoccupied Running Costs of Buy to Let

These are running costs you will need to pay when the dwelling is empty, of course some of these costs can be limited if you do the work yourself. These are likely to include:

• Gas and electricity charges for heating and lighting (heating will be needed in cold weather and lighting will be required for viewings and/or whilst undertaking maintenance).
• Council tax, at a reduced rate for empty properties. Allow two monthly payments per year.
• Interior decorating and exterior painting, a considerable expense if a contractor is hired.
• Cleaning (labour and materials); allow for pre-tenancy and post-tenancy cleaning. Allow for professional carpet cleaning every two years.
• Gardening, when the property is empty. Add an element for the upkeep of any garage, outbuilding, fencing or walls.
• Tenant advertising, or tenant-find agency charges. Factor in at least £300 per term, as it is the same wether the tenant stays 6 months or 1 year.
• TV licence, if a television set is provided.

What are the Landlord's Legal Obligations?

It is important that landlords fully understand their obligations. The Disability Discrimination Act, Sex Discrimination Act and Race Relations Act also apply to anyone letting, selling or managing premises. If you are in doubt about anything seek legal advice. These are just some of the main obligations, you can find many sites on the internet which will give you a full break down. This is a summary and in no way complete.

• repairs to the structure and exterior of the property, heating and hot water installations, basins, sinks, baths and other sanitary installations
• the safety of gas and electrical appliances
• the fire safety of furniture and furnishings provided under the tenancy
• ensuring that the property is fit for habitation
• repairing and keeping in working order the room and water heating equipment
• the common areas in multi-occupancy dwellings
• Not disturbing their tenants
• Following the correct procedure if they want the tenant to leave
• Following the rules on rent
• Giving the tenant certain information

Here is a very useful guide from www.communities.gov.uk if you are contemplating letting out your property:
Assured and Assured Shorthold Tenancies: A guide for landlords. You may also find Housing Health and Safety Rating System - Guidance for Landlords and Property Related Professional useful.

©2012 lets-makemoney.co.uk. All Rights Reserved.

.

How Can I Save Money?

I don't spend much!?!

Posted:Abigail Andrews – Saturday, May 26th, 2007

You really have to work hard at this. All of us like spending money, spending less is hard because buying stuff is fun. Most of us don't really know how much we actually spend a day. We may approximate, but usually, if we start writing it all down, we are surprised at how much money we waste on "rubbish" we don't really need.

Most of us don't really know how much we actually spend a day.

One insurance company has estimated that on average each of us spends approximately £2000 a year on stuff we never use. So next time you want that new car and think you can't afford it, start thinking of how much you spend on things you don't really need. I don't just mean those cans of pop you buy at work everyday, I also mean when you leave that light on in the kitchen when you are watching the television in the front room, I mean driving round on flat tyre's, I also mean that magazine you buy and only half read, or that top you buy that you wear once.

Saving money is one of the first and most important steps to taking control of your finances. Financial health begins with earning money, but for good healthy finances we also need to know how to manage the money we earn. Ultimately, you need to educate yourself to be financially healthy. It's scary how many people have no idea how to manage their money, particularly how to save money and why they should. It's even more scary how many people do not know what the reality of their financial situation is. They don't know what they earn and what it costs them to live. They have no idea what their total outgoing's are, and what's more too many people do not have any savings.

The following pages concentrate on saving money to be financially healthy. There are changes you can make to save money, right now, big and small. Make some small changes today and by the end of the month you may be quids in!

Steps to Saving More Money

Analyse your Current Financial Situation

Get your last 6 months bank statements and wage slips and analyse them to death.

• Work out what you are actually spending your money on
• Work out your total incoming's
• Work out you total outgoing's
• Work out where you are wasting money and set your self budgets, daily, weekly and monthly
• Work out budgets for food, luxuries and essentials

In future set yourself time every day, week or month to go through your finances. Stop turning a blind eye and ignoring it, its an important task.

If you can't be bothered at least thinking about where you waste money and where you could save money, then you may as well stop reading now.

Record your Finances

There were days where I went to the cash point and withdrew £20. By the end of the day it had all gone. For the life of me I could not remember what I had spent the money on. I could have sworn I had a hole in my purse. Even if you don't think you spend much money, it is worth jotting down what you are actually spending your money on. When you add up that 60p can of coke you buy at work 5 days a week, it's approximately £152 a year. If you had to buy your cola allowance on a yearly basis, would you really want to hand over £152 to "cola company" in one go? I bet not!

So keep a diary of your spending. Every time you spend money, write it down. Just doing that will mean you spend less and save money. At the end of the week or month - analyse it. You will be staggered by how much you money you waste.

Spend Less than you Earn

For some people, self-control is a real issue and if the money isn't 'accounted for' immediately, they tend to spend it on impulse and luxury items that are non-essential.

If you find yourself in this category, or have trouble saving money, you could think about creating a savings account that is automatically funded each month. To do this, you may need to create a monthly budget to determine a monthly savings goal. If you do create a budget, make sure that it is realistic, matches your lifestyle and that it leaves plenty of room for hidden expenses that seem to pop up regularly. If you create an unrealistic budget you'll be likely to save less than what your budget calls for, become frustrated and resort to your old ways.

Cut Back on Little Things to Save Money

Calculate how much you spend on things you don't need a everyday at work. A can of pop, a bag of crisps, a sandwich and a newspaper and a coffee - approximate total £5. STOP! If you made your own sandwich and took dilute juice to work, drunk the free coffee, and did without the bag of crisps, you could save at least £3.50 a day. The equivalent of approximately £900 a year. That would probably pay for your car expenses like insurance, tax and MOT for a whole year!

Stop Spending Tomorrows Money

Credit cards and loans kill your financial freedom and ultimately cost you more, as most people do not pay their credit card off in full every month. Even those with the best intentions usually end up paying interest at least 6 months of the year. So cut up those cards and pay them off as soon as you can. If you have not got the cash to buy, don't, you can't afford it!

Stop, Think and Don't Impulse Buy

Only carry money you need and make a pledge to yourself to only buy after at least 30 minutes thought. Next time you see a top you "must have" or a CD that screams "buy me", or even something as simple as a can of coke, STOP! Use those extra minutes to think, 'do I really need it? will I ever use it? will I use it more than once?'. If the answer is 'no', put it back. There is no harm treating yourself occasionally but make sure you get the best value from your treats!

A final thought - The key to successful money saving is spending less than you earn! Ultimately - STOP SPENDING!

©2012 lets-makemoney.co.uk. All Rights Reserved.

.

How to Build Your Website

Posted:Abigail Andrews – Friday, October 26th, 2007

A Simple guide to Building a website

The range of skills you will learn as a result of running your own website is impressive. You'll learn about aspects of graphic design, typography and computer programming. Your efficiency with computers in general increases.You'll also learn about promotion and your writing will probably improve too, as you adapt to write for certain audiences.

This is a very basic guide to creating a website, through which you can make money. This is by no means a conclusive and detailed guide, but I hope it will help you get started if you fancy trying to make money this way. This section provides ideas for applications to use, links to good website tutorials and books, and information about other recommended services such as domain name registrars. I hope you find the information useful, as when I first started creating www.lets-makemoney.co.uk, a year ago now, I did not have a clue where to begin and had to take time find out what to do. I hope to save you some time and provide you with some helpful hints here.

Step 1: Plan the Website

The first thing you need to do is start thinking about the content of your site. What's your website idea? Will it be a blog about your life? Will you sell something? Are you providing a service? Or do you simply want to develop some skills that may help you make more money in the future? Take a look at the website ideas section for some great ideas.

Step 2: Learn Basic Web Design Skills

Now some people would disagree with me when I say IT IS necessary to learn some programming in order to build your own site. Granted, these days with blogging tools like Wordpress, you don't really need to have much knowledge of HTML, CSS, JavaScript or PHP, etc, that is if you want a basic site and don't care whether it looks exactly like many other sites out there who have used the same blogging tools as you. However, if you want to tweak your site and make the design your own, without paying for someone elses skills, the very least you need to get to grips with is HTML and CSS.

What is HTML and CSS?

HTML is a computer language devised to allow website creation. It is relatively easy to learn, with the basics being accessible to most people in one sitting; its also quite powerful in what it allows you to create.

HTML consists of tags most of which are extremely simple to understand, such as <b> for bold <i> for italic and <p> for paragraph. Writing your own HTML entails using tags correctly to create your vision of your web page. You can use anything from a simple text-editor like notepad, to a powerful HTML editor to create HTML pages.

Me, being me, meant the first thing I looked for was something free, whilst at the same time retaining all the features of most HTML editors you would pay for. I highly recommend using Eversoft First Page. In the first instance you can simply stick with notepad provided with your windows installation so it does not become overwhelming.

Your first Web Page!

If you want to have a go at creating a very simple web page, try this :

• Go to Start>Programs>Accessories and open Notepad, then copy and paste the text in red (all html tags are in bold) into it:

<HTML >
<HEAD>
<TITLE>This is my page TITLE in the title bar of the browser</TITLE>
<!-- Theses are comment tags, my comment being - This is where any scripts like javascript and include files go (this is beyond basic so don't worry about this at the moment! -- >
</HEAD>
<BODY>
<!-- The body is where the content of your page goes. You will see this content in your browser. Only things between the body tags are shown on your site. -- >
<h3>Here is my title</h3><!- - A Title tag -- >
<p><!- - This is an opening paragraph tag-- >
This is the text that I want to show on my page
</p><!- - This is a closing paragraph tag-- >
<p><!- - This is an opening paragraph tag-- >
I can even <b>bold</b> and <u>underline</u> if I want to and the tags are very intuitive and simple to learn for very basic website design.
</p><!- - This is a closing paragraph tag-- >
</BODY>
</HTML>


• Save the notepad file to your desktop and call it myfirstpage.html - the .html is the important bit, don't save it as a .txt file, it will not work!
• You should now see the file on your desktop, double click on it and it should open into your chosen website browser, most likely Internet Explorer. If not open up your chosen web browser and go to file and open and browse to the file test.html on your desktop.

Now if your excited by how easy it was to create your first web page, then perhaps this is the money making idea for you? The very least it will do is get your brain working and become a useful hobby.

One of the best ways to start learning HTML and how a page is created and designed is to right click any where on a web page (such as this one) and go to "view source" on the menu. You should be able to identify some of the tags I explained above. Yes, it may look complicated, but most of the web page building tools create this code for you. It's only if you want to get into the guts of your site and tweak it that you need to understand what its doing.

In its basic form HTML is extremely simple and intuitive to use and almost anyone can learn it to build a simple web page. However, it can also be as complex as you like, and some page designs are far from basic. It all depends how far you want to go with your design and learning, but as I say, if you want your site to look good, and stand out from the rest, then you have to go further than just learning the basics or simply using the bog standard features of a blogging tool. You need to get to grips with HTML at the very least, and learn how to make your site stand out. It's easy to create a website, but it is extremely difficult and requires a great deal of effort, to create a unique, pretty, money making website.

If you want to learn more HTML I would recommend investing in a good book such as Build Your Own Website The Right Way Using HTML & CSS. This is one of the books I used to learn HTML and found it really easy to read. However, there are also some great tutorial sites on the internet to teach you the basics too. For example www.webmonkey.com, I also referenced this site when i first started learning too.

Going further than HTML

Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) are used to control how your pages are presented, and make pages more accessible. Basic special effects and interaction is provided by JavaScript, which adds a lot of power to basic HTML. Most of this advanced stuff is for later down the road, but when using all of these technologies together, you have a lot of power at your disposal.

Step 3: Register Domain Name and Web Hosting

Once you have an idea for a website and have even perhaps created a bit of content, you need to register your domain name in order to get your content out onto the internet. Start thinking about what you want to call your site. Try be creative and unique. Make it a name that contains one of your key words, such as “money” in my URL. Think of a name that clearly indicates what your site is about, it’s no good having a website called www.rabbits.com if your site is about hair dressing, know what I mean! ;)

Many services are available these days for a wide range of prices. I registered my Domain Name (URL) www.lets-makemoney.co.uk with www.123-reg.co.uk. Domain registration takes a couple days to complete.

Now you could host the site on your own PC/Server, but that would mean having your PC on all the time, and that is probably not suitable for beginners, and certainly not cost effective. Besides it would also entail making your PC a server, making it secure and a whole lot more complicated stuff. So while you are registering your domain name, sign up for Web hosting while you're waiting for your domain registration. I use www.awardspace.com but www.123-reg.co.uk also do a cheap package. You can search google for loads more options, and there are even some free hosting packages out there too such as www.free-site-host.com, but the service obviously will not be as good, less support, less space, less bandwidth and less database options. You get what you pay for at the end of the day.

For beginners I would say find a hosting site that you like and fits your requirements, and which also allows domain registration such as www.123-reg.co.uk. The reason being you do not have to modify your Nameserver information to point to Your-Site's machines. If you don't understand that then that's precisely what I mean. It's simple really when you know how but can take some time to do it. I had to do a lot of searching to get mine right and as a complete beginner it just adds to the time it takes to set up your site and begin making money. Leave it until your a bit more knowledgeable.

Step 4: Find CMS, Blogging Tool, Shopping Cart or Forum Software

When you sign up for your hosting site they usually provide a free tools. These are all open source tools. A couple of them will probably be Shopping Carts, CMS, Forums or Blogging Tools. These are the most useful anyway and they are all Open Source which most importantly means FREE!

What is a CMS and where can I get one?

A Content Management System (CMS) is critical to the success of almost every website. It is quite simply a system that manages content. A CMS makes it easy to publish and administrate content. Some examples of free CMS are mentioned below. One piece of advice. Unless you are an expert coder, do not try and re-invent the wheel. Use an established CMS, it will save you time and effort. I guarantee, if you don't (like i didn't at first), eventually you will realise that keeping your content up to date and developing all your tools such as RSS, archiving and email subscription, will take you an eternity. It's good to know how things work, and there is no better way than through developing it yourself, however, don't waste precious time trying to do it all yourself! If you want to make money, you need to get your site out there quick, and that usually means using a free tool.

Examples of my favourite Free CMS's are:

• Wordpress - was originally created as a weblog or blog platform but has grown into a powerful CMS now.
• Drupal - Drupal supports a variety of websites ranging from personal weblogs to large community-driven websites.
• Joomla! - Joomla! is easy to install, simple to manage, and reliable.

What is a Forum and where can I get one?

A forum is public meeting place for open discussion of various topics. A forum may also be referred to as a bulletin board or discussion area when it is on the internet. Now it is easy to run your own forum online, with loads of open source software to choose from. Once again, you do not have to go building a whole web application to host your forum, there are some fab ones out there to choose from. Your web host will most likely have already recommended a couple of forums to choose from and for simplicity it might be best for those just starting out to choose one of your hosts chosen forum applications as they usually also provide easy set up wizards too. Here are just a few of my favourites:

• phpbb - Since its creation in 2000, phpBB has become the most widely used Open Source forum solution.
• Simplemachines - is a free, professional grade software package that allows you to set up your own online community within minutes.
• Yabbforum - YaBB is a leading FREE, Open Source community forum system (bulletin board, message board) written in Perl.

What is a Shopping Cart and where can I get one?

If you are planning on selling products and services on the Internet (what people call "e-commerce"), then you will need a shopping cart. A Shopping car is the heart of any e-commerce Web site. It is a software application that allows your customers to do things such as searching for a product in your store catalogue, adding a selected product to a basket, and placing an order for it. Now I do not have much experience with shopping carts as I have never needed one ...yet....but I know once again you never have to start building your own from scratch and I also know of a couple of good (free) ones which I would consider using if and when I eventually need one. My recommendations:

• Agoracart - offers a very wide range of "out-of-the-box" features that allow you to setup an online ecommerce solution ranging from a simple template based store to the integration of a complex visual design concept containing all the creative magic of your web designer.
• Zencart - free, user-friendly, open source shopping cart software. The ecommerce web site design program is being developed by group of like-minded shop owners, programmers, designers, and consultants that think ecommerce web design could be and should be done differently.
• osCommerce - osCommerce has attracted a large growing e-commerce community that consists of over 172,600 store owners and developers who support each other and extend osCommerce Online Merchant with add-ons being contributed on a daily basis.

What is a Blogging Tool and where can I get one?

A blog is a personal diary, a political soapbox, a breaking-news outlet, your own private thoughts, memos to the world or a mixture of all theses things. Simply put it's whatever you want it to be. There are millions of them, out there on the internet in varying styles, and there are no real rules. If you right a diary, or like telling stories, or have strong opinions or knowledge on a particular subject that you would like to share with the world, then perhaps this kind of website is the money maker for you. Your weblog (blog) may make you surprisingly more money than you think if you can attract the right audience. With blogs showing up all over the internet, many people want to jump on board as fast as they can. So if you fancy joining these people then my advice once again is to use an established blogging tool to get your content out there as soon as possible. Here are my favourite blogging tools:

• b2evolution - includes all the features of traditional blog tools, and extends them with evolved features such as file & photo management, advanced skinning, multiple blogs support as well as detailed user permissions.
• Wordpress - WordPress is a state-of-the-art semantic personal publishing platform with a focus on aesthetics, web standards, and usability.
• Serendipity - is a PHP-powered weblog application which gives the user an easy way to maintain an online diary, weblog or even a complete homepage. While the default package is designed for the casual blogger, Serendipity offers a flexible, expandable and easy-to-use framework with the power for professional applications.

Some FREE Website building Tools and Templates

• Gimp - GIMP is the GNU Image Manipulation Program. It is a freely distributed piece of software for such tasks as photo retouching, image composition and image authoring. In short it is the perfect free tool in place of costly photoshop.
• Eversoft First Page - gives you unsurpassed freedom to create and edit web documents with absolute code control. Now includes full support for HTML, XHTML, PHP, ASP, Cold Fusion, Javascript, CSS, SSI and Perl. Create, Edit and deploy websites with absolute ease and precision. The perfect free replacement for Front Page.
• Open Source Web Design - To put it simply, Open Source Web Design is a collection of web designs submitted by the community that anyone can download free of charge! If your not sure where to start with your design this is my favourite site!
• a2z-free - A Directory of free website building resources.
• a2z-free - Free stock photos, images for your website without water marks.
• SmartFTP - FTP, file transfer protocol, is the simplest way to transfer files over the Internet. Use an FTP Client to transfer your Web files from your machine to your website. SmartFTP is my favourite as it is so easy to use and FREE!

Step 5: Develop a Money Making Strategy for your Website

Now you have your website it's time to make money from it. Visit my pages on promoting and advertising. Your website idea may also have been a money maker anyway, particularly if you are selling something, if not and you simply want to blog your life then add some adverts to your pages and you may see some nice commission come rolling in.

Whatever you choose building a website is rewarding both personally and possibly financially. It helps you grow and develop skills that will help you in your quest to make money. At worst it is an enjoyable, creative hobby that may even one day make you a few quid, so go on, give it a try, it's fun!

©2012 lets-makemoney.co.uk. All Rights Reserved.

Property Investors are doomed?

In recent years property has become "the" investment choice of many; becoming particularly popular with the amateur investor and "wanna be" millionaires, attracted by the potentially massive gains that have been seen due to the property boom of the last decade. The availability of cheap credit allowed those people who otherwise would not have been able to invest in property, the ability to grow their own property portfolio and become amateur landlords.

Reports in the papers and on news items in recent months would have us believe that all Buy to Let investors are doomed and that Buy to Let is dead, but in my opinion, you have not seen the last of this kind of investing no matter what the headlines say about falling property values and stricken amateur investors. Why? Here is my argument.........

You have not seen the last of this kind of investing no matter what the headlines say about falling property values.

Not all properties are equal

The reason I believe the Buy to Let market is NOT doomed is based on the fact that NOT ALL properties are equal when it comes to rental and investment potential. Property Investment is about picking the “right” property to suit your needs. In recent years, due to the property boom, the margin for error has been wide. Investors could pick a complete DUD and still easily make £50,000 within 2 years in the rising market. Yes, times are changing, but does that mean Buy to Let is dead? Well no, not all properties, landlords and investors will be affected by the current changes in the property market. I believe that the problems we will see in the Buy to Let market, will be limited to mainly new landlords, more specifically, those who have bought apartments in oversupplied areas. Many are amateur investors who poured their money into heavily marketed new properties, often in large developments in regenerated city centres.

I believe that the problems we will see in the Buy to Let market, will be limited to mainly new landlords, more specifically, those who have bought apartments in oversupplied areas.

I do agree that some landlords have stretched themselves too far. Even experienced investors in the boom of recent years have got a little carried away, taking out massive loans with little reserve in the bank for emergencies. I am particularly in agreement with those concerned about those landlords who are massively supplementing mortgage payments with their own money, simply because they have taken on a property where the rent does not cover mortgage payments. I agree that those landlords are making very risky investments, in simply hoping for house prices to rise, in order to reap the returns when the property is sold. With house prices leveling off, if not falling, this may not happen for a good few years and those landlords will have to supplement the mortgage payments for some time. For those that can, they should be able to ride any storm, but some may not be able to afford to do this as their circumstances may change. However, I believe the percentage of landlords in this situation is much smaller than reported. Most sensible investors will not buy any property that the cannot afford to hold onto under any circumstance for the long term.

THERE is the problem, oversupply of apartments for a market that is crying out for 2 bed houses!

Why on earth do we need so many apartments?

It is easy to say with hindsight that I could have told anyone that investing in some of the city centre developments was risky to say the least. I for one chose not to invest in any city centre developments after doing some research and realising that the figures simply did not add up. My question on many occasions has been, why on earth do we need so many apartments? A question prompted by the growing sky line of my city and by being bombarded with property investment emails for the next new development.

There is now evidence that prices are plummeting on these type of apartments. Furthermore, rents in this type of market are weak as so many investors are buying in the same area, saturating the market, usually two-bedroom flats, that are available to let simultaneously as the development completes. However, THERE is the problem, oversupply of apartments for a market that is crying out for 2 bed houses! The oversupply of new-build properties means falling rents on apartments but NOT on houses. Statistics show rents are rising on houses. That does not mean that Buy to Let is dead as many would like to think, it means part of the market MAY suffer, but not all of it!

Not Buying means Renting

Think about this; If property prices are too high for people to buy the result is strong rental demand, people have to live somewhere don't they?!? I mean some can live with parents or family, but be real, how long could you handle that before you wanted some privacy. There lies the crux of my argument. Furthermore, if you are buying a property to rent out for long term investment purposes, then does it really matter if the price of that property price falls in the short term? The key is long term. If prices rise as they have done, you can sell for a profit. Yes, if property prices are too high then people stop buying, and prices go down, BUT, the result is rental demand goes up. With high rental demand you have no problem paying the mortgage in order to wait for prices to start going up again. Either way surely its a win win situation?! As long as you are in your investment for the long term and do not HAVE to sell in the short term.

If property prices are too high for people to buy the result is strong rental demand, people have to live somewhere don't they?!?

The only thing that will bother any landlord is rising interest rates, however, that will bother any investor, landlord or family home buyer! Drastically rising interest rates would be the death of Buy To Let NOT falling house prices! However that looks unlikely as interest rates are one of the things that fortunately the BOE have under control. Yes, the cheap credit is drying up, but that does not mean to say Buy to Let will, it just means it will be harder for people to invest. I suppose it will weed out those investors who do their research from those investors who don't.

For two or three years now, there has been no shortage of commentators predicting doom, gloom and a lot worse for amateur landlords who have turned to bricks and mortar as an alternative to investing in a pension. Headlines in 2004, 2005, 2006 and 2007 can be found all over the internet with bold statements such as "the Buy to Let boom is over". Eventually the doomsters will be right, but so far Buy to Let has withstood anything thrown at it.

Investors Welcome a Downturn in the Market

Many landlords who have done their research and invested wisely, not greedily, will be excited, not frightened, about the apparent downturn in the property market, as it gives them great opportunities to buy property at below market value. Those that rode out the crash in the 1980’s saw huge profits. This is a relatively minor lull by comparison. Many, like me, are quite looking forward to a lowering of property values, it simply means we can buy more investment properties. If prices continue to rise we will be forced to stand back for even longer, as few properties currently work out financially as an investment. Many investors may have some properties which may see fall in value but it must be remembered that this is only short term. In 10-20 years time prices are very likely to have risen – they always do, just take a look at historical house price trends! It appears to be becoming a buyers market once again, and for the property investor that is never a bad thing.

Final Thoughts

Buy to let is not dead, but may be due a long sleep particularly in city centres, however it is likely to wake up refreshed and come back with full strength.

Perhaps people should stop criticising those who want to provide for their future by buying an investment property. Many people spend and spend without a second thought for their retirement. At least those of us who are investing in property are trying to provide for our future and our pensions. Some of us have to do it as the state pension certainly will not look after all of us when we come to retire. At least I will not be a drain on society in my old age. Many of my generation appear not to realise that the government will not be helping them in retirement and many people will find themselves reliant on the small benefits that may, or may not, be provided. I know I do not want to risk being reliant on a state pension when I retire, because its likely that there will not be one………..oh, that leads me nicely onto my next rant! :)

©2012 lets-makemoney.co.uk. All Rights Reserved.

.