The Double Challenge

Double Challenge Officially Transferred

2008-09-01T06:52:00.001-07:00

Well, I got paid by Pay Per Post for my third and final post. It's time to shut this baby down and officially continue at Money2aMillion. See you on the flip side (no pun intended).

Flip

Almost There

2008-08-02T06:44:00.001-07:00

One more week before I am paid by Pay Per Post for my last post. After that I can finally shut this baby down and concentrate on Money 2 a Million. Remember to change your links and your bookmarks!

Flip

Still a Great Site!

2008-07-19T14:42:00.000-07:00

Pay Per Post, that is. In reading my previous post, it seems like I may have been putting down Pay Per Post. Actually, I still believe it is a great way to make money and I think it is unfortunate that Google has decided to target them simply for a legal advertising scheme - something Google does themselves.
Pay Per Post is still a great way to make a decent advertising revenue - I just didn't want anyone upset if they signed up for Pay Per Post through me and found that their Page Rank went down because of it. I'm still going to be using Pay Per Post, at least while it helps the doubling level I'm currently at and I still endorse them as they have paid me on time twice now. $25.50 is nothing to scoff at with just two sponsored posts!

Flip

Pay Per Post Warning

2008-07-18T20:57:00.001-07:00

I have learned something about Pay Per Post and can't in good conscience promote it without mentioning it here. It seems that Google has taken exception with what Pay Per Post does. I am still reading up on it, but since November 2007, Google has been actively trying to detect Pay Per Post (and other similar programs) posts on people's blogs. When they do detect this, they end up reducing the Google Page Rank of the blog. There seems to be two sides of the debate. The pro-Google people are saying that these paid posts are messing up the search engines because, they are trying to sort based on relevance, which has to do with how many and more importantly WHO is linking to you. If you have a high Google page rank and you are paid to link to someone who is essentially "irrelevant" (ie. low page rank), then their page rank will increase artificially. If enough people with high page ranks point to this site, then it will rise in the search engine rankings and they will have essentially paid thier way in, as opposed to 'earned' it normally with people linking to them because they have important and relevant information. It does make sense to protect their main product - a good search engine. The other side of the argument has people saying that Google is simply trying to kill the competition, calling them hypocrites because they, themselves sell ads on their site. I have checked my own Google Page Rank on the Double Challenge and indeed it has gone from 2 to a big fat, 0! This is not good. My new site, Money 2 A Million (also Page Rank 0) has never had a sponsored post, but apparently Google has even been just LOOKING for certain phrases on people's blogs like "Pay Per Post', which I did mention on the other site. I've edited my posts on that site to take these off, but I have no idea if the Google Page Rank of 0 over there is because it is a new site, or if it is because of mentioning Pay Per Post. I have no idea what to do now. Part of me wants to start the new blog AGAIN, but maybe I'm just being paranoid. Anyway, you have been warned about using Pay Per Post - it's too bad - I personally think their a great way to make a few bucks, but if you care about your Page Rank, you might want to stay away.

Flip

Pay Per Post Coming

2008-07-14T21:34:00.001-07:00

My first $20 Pay Per Post payment should pay out tomorrow. I'll keep you all informed about if and when it hits my Paypal. And in case you're wondering why my Total Balance looks a bit high, read THIS!

Flip

My money is growing!

2008-07-11T04:47:00.000-07:00

Ok, only 11 cents of growth, but it feels so good to know that since I opened a bank account for my double project, my money is actually DOING something instead of just sitting in my sock drawer. Do you realise that if I get 11 cents every month for 757,576 years, I will have A MILLION DOLLARS! And that's not even counting compounding interest! I'm on my way!

Flip

Site Review: Zenni Optical

2008-07-09T17:54:00.000-07:00

Need Glasses? Zennioptical.com sells stylish prescription single vision eyeglasses for as low as $8! My wife wears glasses. Usually we fork out hundreds for those darn things, but for $8 I am shopping at ZenniOptical from now on. How do they do it? The Secret to Zenni’s Low Prices is that they sell only their own manufactured frames direct to the customer, with no middlemen and virtually no advertising budget. They seem to have a good selection of frames, and lenses on their website, which is very easy to navigate with a standard cart/checkout system. Check it out..

14 days left

2008-07-08T19:30:00.000-07:00

There's 14 days left until I get my two Pay Per Post payments. Once I get those, I'll officially move over to Money2aMillon. I could probably do it right away, but I don't want to take any chances of them saying that my blog has stagnated or anything like that. Remember, if you have any links to The Double Challenge, I would appreciate if you moved them over to the new site.

Flip

New Name and Home for The Double Challenge

2008-07-06T11:11:00.000-07:00

I finally got the Money2aMillion site up and running. It turns out I was making it much more difficult than I had to be since there was a auto-wordpress install included in my domain hosting. I have much work to do on the template, etc. , but I really wanted to get my first post in as soon as possible because Pay Per Post makes you wait 30 days before you can apply. Now I SHOULD see the number of opportunities increase (hopefully a lot) since I no longer have a blogger blog. I'm still not sure why so many advertisers refuse to advertise on free blogs - I guess it probably has to do with staying power of the blog. If you're willing to spend money on actually getting your blog up and running, there is a bigger chance that this isn't a blog just created to simply make some money from advertising. In any case, I will definitely keep you informed as to whether or not my number of advertising opportunities go up with the new blog. I'll keep posting on here (as well as the new blog) until I get my payments from the two pay per post ads I did. That should be another two weeks or so. After that I will permanently migrate to the Money2aMillion site. If you have a link to the Double Challenge, I would appreciate if you moved it to Money2aMillion.com.

Shipping and Handling

2008-07-02T20:30:00.000-07:00

I went to the post office today to figure out how much I should be charging for shipping and handling on the watches. I asked the guy what the most would be to ship anywhere in Canada and what the most would be to ship anywhere in the States. Unfortunately, they don't seem to be set up for that question. I had to pick somewhere so I picked Vancouver and L.A. But, perhaps the cost to a remote community would be more, what about Alert, Canada (the most northern settlement). How much is it to ship there? I think I'll just add a few bucks to what he quoted me just in case. Of course, you don't want to add too much or no one will buy from you due to high shipping costs. I'm hoping to set up the Ebay auction tomorrow or the next day.

Flip

Money2aMillion

2008-06-28T19:16:00.000-07:00

I finally selected my new domain name for this blog. I could have just selected www.doublechallenge.com. It was available. The problem is that I always regretted that choice becuase it doesn't perform very well in the searches. When people are looking for money making blogs, they don't type in double or challenge. They DO type in Money though. I really like Mike's domain name at Mikes Money Making Mission because a lot of people might type in "Making Money". I could have tried, "Flips Money Making Mission", but I also wanted to have a reference to doubling somewhere in there - not to mention it would be pretty cheap to steal his idea. I could have named it Double Money Challenge, or Making Double Money or something like that, but nothing sounded right. I settled on Money2aMillion because it had the word money which does great in the searches and the number 2 refers to the doubling aspect. Now I just have to figure out how to upload blog software and start blogging there. (Any tips are welcomed) Until then, this will still be my home.

Flip

Another Approved Pay Per Post - Post

2008-06-27T21:03:00.000-07:00

My boots post I did for Pay Per Post was approved. That's another $5.50. I can't wait until it hits my paypal - I think it's done once per month. I'll let you know when I have it. Remember, you can register through my link to the left. Why havn't you signed up yet?

Flip

Paid for Webhosting

2008-06-26T20:18:00.000-07:00

I paid for the webhosting for the new blog address and the Cashcomrade.com site today. Now I just have to pick a new domain name for the site and figure out how to set up a blog on it. I'm too busy tonight. Maybe tomorrow.

Flip

$20 in my pocket (ok, not yet)

2008-06-25T18:01:00.000-07:00

My $20 post was approved by Pay Per Post today! Now I just have to wait for the payment. Definitely the easiest $20 I ever made. It's worth it to sign up just for that post, although you will likely want to take advantage of others. I'm still trying to come up with the new domain name for my blog. It's actually a very serious decision when you think of search engines and all. Not many people looking for blogs like this type in the word double or challenge. But how many type in money? A lot I imagine.

Flip

Received watches

2008-06-24T20:58:00.000-07:00

I received the 6 watches today. Like I said, I paid $80.65 for them so I need to sell them for more than $13.33. Having seen them, I am quite sure this is going to happen. I have three styles (2 of each). Two of the styles look great and the last one I am not sure about. Once I put them on line I should get a hint at how well they sell. If they DO sell well, there is more where that came from as the place I bought them from is STILL selling them at a steal. I'll keep you posted.

Flip

New Domain Name for the Double Challenge

2008-06-23T21:13:00.000-07:00

I've been noticing that a lot of Pay Per Post opportunities require that you have your own domain name. I think I will probably end up getting my own domain name to take advantage of this opportunity. The web space I am buying can only be split into two domains, so the Double Challenge will have to pay for the whole $50, but I figure I should make back this money in the extra opportunities available to me when I get that one approved as well. Now, if I could only choose a new domain name...

Flip

Cashcomrade.com Back on Line

2008-06-22T19:02:00.000-07:00

I've decided to re-instate the Cashcomrade.com website. It still hasn't made me much money, but I have some new ideas I want to try. My problem was that I couldn't afford the $49 that was being asked to renew (based on my stake - this is really a good price for what I was getting). Well, it looks like someone I know needs to start thier own site too, so we're going to split the cost of the website fees, which would only cost the Double Challenge $24.50. A much easier pill to swallow. I haven't paid yet, so i havn't adjusted the shown profit on the left, but when I do you'll see it drop a touch. I think this is a good investment as I have learned a TON from it so far.

Flip

Opened a Double Challenge Bank account!

2008-06-21T12:07:00.000-07:00

I decided to go out and get a bank account exclusively for the Double Challenge. Actually, I took out three of them. I was going to take out one, but I wanted a high interest savings account so I could make the most amount of money (yes, yes - a savings account does not give you the most amount of money, but I mean the most from a bank account for now) The bank I like has a policy that if you want to withdrawl from your savings account, it takes one business day. Usually, you would transfer the money from your savings into your chequing for the next day - at that point you can withdrawl it. So I needed two to do that. BUT they also have two types of Savings accounts. One where if you have any amount of money you get a decent interest rate, and one where it is really crappy under $1,000, but really really good if it's over $1,000. So I figured I should get both of these because in the future I may have more than $1,000 in the bank. I deposited $300 and decided to hang on to the rest for now so I'd have some on hand in case a good deal came my way. Finally, I will at least be making some interest on this money I have made and it won't just be sitting in my sock drawer.

Flip

Used a Coupon

2008-06-19T18:49:00.001-07:00

I used one of the Cheerios coupons that I found on my cereal box. Actually, I had to register at a website and download and print the coupon. I definitely would have bought the Cheerios anyways - ok, maybe not on that particular day, but I would have bought Cheerios anyways since that is all my 2 year old wants to eat. I also saved the GST and PST taxes that I would have had to pay on the $1 I saved, although I had to use printer ink and paper, so I figure they cancel out and I'll add a cool $1 to my stake. I'll try not to spend it all in one place.

Flip

Turnonepoundintoonemillion.com

2008-06-18T18:26:00.001-07:00

Ok, so the previous post was blatant advertising, but like I said, you should check out Pay Per Post (check out the link to the left). If they're happy with it, I'll make $5 for writing the below post. Hey, why not? I really do think it's a decent boot website. Anyways, I've been checking out a fellow doubler's blog (well, she planned on doubling, but needed the money too badly) who is kicking royal *ss! She's made over 8900 British pounds and she started in Febuary 2007. That's just a bit more than my measly $450 in twice the time. I decided that if I want to make some serious money too, I should check out to see what she's done to make so much cash. I just finished reading her entire blog and I must say it is worth the read. If you are serious about making some money blogging, you should check it out!

Flip

Need Boots?

2008-06-18T05:34:00.000-07:00

I came across this work boot webpage and thought they were pretty cool. The quote on their webpage is, "We specialize in American work boots and shoes made in the U.S.A. We take great pride in re-investing our profits in Made in U.S.A. work boots and shoes, keeping American manufacturing alive and Americans working." So if you're filled with patriotic pride, you might want to consider purchasing your boots from these guys. They also don't charge for returns and exchanges. Heck, they will even pay the shipping if you decide to exchange your boots for a different size! So give them a try and buy your boots from AmericanMadeWorkBoots

Flip

Death and Taxes

2008-06-16T17:38:00.000-07:00

For those of you who havn't been following my blog, I've been trying to get my US Citizenship sorted out. I just got off the phone from a 2 hour call to the IRS. Holy crap there is a lot to absorb. The lady was really nice, but she didn't want to go through my list of questions until she had asked me a billion questions to make sure I had the right forms. Most of what she said I already knew, but she refused to just go through my questions. FINALLY we went through my questions and I got most of them answered. Only a few remain that either I couldn't understand what she was saying, or she didn't really answer to my satisfaction (I don't think she really knew the answers). On one hand I feel much better now that a bunch of my questions have been answered and I can do most of the forms, but on the other hand, my mind is so boggled trying to absorb it all. The best part is that the lady said usually they want your current year (2007) and the previous 5, which is 6 years instead of 7. That was nice to hear. The worst part is that I might owe some tax this year because I sold my house in 2007. Apparently if you rent it (like I did for 10 months), then you are subject to tax on the amount you would have claimed for depreciation. I think I'll try to write up a few specific years now and call in if I have specific questions about those years. I can't wait to be DONE this.

Flip

I'm Annoyed.

2008-06-14T21:19:00.000-07:00

I'm so annoyed. The VCR remote control doesn't work. I explicitly asked the lady if it worked and she said yes. But how do you go knocking on someone's door who sold you a VCR for $2 and demand your money back? I'd look like a lunatic. I guess that's the risk you take when buying from a garage sale. It was also missing the screws on the top case, so I'll have to buy some (I did know about those though) I'll just have to sell the VCR without a remote, which will be much harder to do. I have the same problem with the TV, which brings me to the next thing I am annoyed at. I had a buyer all set up for the TV at 6PM on Friday and she simply didn't show. She hasn't answered any of my e-mails since, even though she was responding very quickly before she stood me up. Luckily I was going to be home anyways that night, but it still annoys me. I was supposed to make $20 that night and now I am looking for a buyer again. And THEN I put new batteries into one of the walkie talkies (the other one works already) and it didn't work! I was SOOOO annoyed since the guy had talked about his kids playing with them yesterday. I was just about to throw them in the trash when I decided to try one more time with the batteries in the other walkie talkie. Amazingly, it worked! I think I was because I didn't put the back on it the first time. At least that one worked out in the end. I posted an ad and already have people amazed that it takes 10 AA batteries. Hopefully that is a good thing (although i suspect it is not).

Flip

Blog Approved by Pay Per Post!

2008-06-14T20:26:00.000-07:00

I'm so excited! My blog was approved by Pay Per Post! Now I can get paid to blog! I logged in and checked out the opportunities and what did I find? I found a $20 offer to do this post. That's right! I'm being paid $20 to write this post RIGHT NOW! That is so awesome! Maybe the easiest $20 I ever made. The Pay Per Post website is set up so that it's easy to see what opportunities you can apply to. All you have to do is click on a button and Bam! It's reserved for you. Then you write up the post (like this one) and then send them the link to the post. It's like taking candy from a baby (not that I condone unscrupulous activities like that). The part I like the best is that right on the Main page, it shows you a breakdown of your posts taken, posts approved, posts rejected, How much you've been paid and how much you will be paid. Everything you need to know where you stand without hassling around with e-mails to support desks, etc. Honestly, ever since I discovered Pay Per Post at Mikes Money Making Mission I have wondered why I don't try joining up. Now that I am an official Postie (as they call us) I honestly don't know why every blogger doesn't sign up. Seriously.

Flip

Garage Sales Again

2008-06-14T07:11:00.001-07:00

I managed to haul my butt out of bed for the third straight Saturday. I don't even know who I am anymore. That isn't like me. I usually need my beauty sleep. I guess I've become motivated about this challenge again and I want to be successful. I havn't heard of anyone yet who's actually made it to the million so maybe I can be the first! I only had an hour at the garage sales since my nephew is having his first birthday party today so I had to be out there bright and early, right at 8AM. I was looking at a couple of air conditioners. They were asking $50 for some old one and $100 for a new one. I might have made some money on them, but I wasn' t sure so I passed them by. I did end up picking up a VCR for $2, which I am sure I can sell for more considering I have already sold VCRs for $10 and $20. The other thing I bought is more of an experiment. I bought some really old walkie talkies. They each take 10 (yes - TEN) AA batteries, which is insane. The antenna is unbelievably long at about 1 meter. They are really old so I figured there was a chance that someone might want to buy them as a blast from the past. They only cost me a $1 so if they're a dud then so be it. There was a part of me that thought no one is going to want Walkie Talkies that take TEN batteries. After I bought the Walkie Talkie's I headed over to another garage sale where I was acosted by a crazy lady. First she started talking about her cat and how he liked the chair she was selling. Fine... but then she asked me if I wanted some weed wackers that didn't work (3 of them) and that it takes a mechanical mind to fix them... and that she tried fixing them herself, but her friend called her and interrupted her... or maybe she should turn them into modern art and become famous and move to California (not making this part up - this is what she said). She went on and on and on. THEN she said I should buy some shorts that SHE used to own and that they would look great on me. She held them up to me and said I could try them on behind her bush and that she'd block others from looking. Seriously! I had to get out of there. Luckily someone else got her attention so I bolted. She was CRAZY! She killed 15 minutes of my hour so I'll have to watch out for time wasters in the future. Time is money Lady!

Flip

Sold the Windows NT Workstation CD

2008-06-13T18:19:00.000-07:00

My Copy of Windows NT Workstation sold for $6, which is sort of low for the ones that I can see that have sold on ebay, although some seem to not have sold at all. Probably what hurt me is the fact that my ebay account is not 'verified', which means I can only ship to Canada. Since the States has 10 times the population, this is 10/11 of the population I cut out. Not very good. I have learned my lesson and will make sure I am verified before my next ebay auction. The other thing I did that was dumb was assuming that $7 would cover the shipping since it was in Canada. Turns out that Expresspost costs $8.28 so I cut into my bottom line by 20%. Not very smart. Mental note - if you are going to charge a flat rate for shipping, you should make sure it will cover the maximum you'll have to pay. I didn't even cover the minimum. So in the end, I sold it for $6(auction)+$7(shipping charged to customer)-$8.28 (shipping charged to me)-$0.68(paypal)=$4.04 A lot of work for not much gain - but every bit helps and I basically got paid to learn two lessons. I'll take it.

Flip

Bought 6 New Watches!

2008-06-12T20:03:00.000-07:00

I found some heavily discounted watches on line today. Their suggested retail price ranges from $95 to $100 each. I managed to snag all 6 for $80.65 total including shipping! That's $600 worth of watches for just $80.65! They were listed as 90% off plus shipping. I couldn't pass up the deal, as I figured out that I only needed to sell each watch for more than $13.33 to realise a profit. There's no WAY I should have trouble doing that (I think). I mean, even the crappy plastic watch went for $5. SURELY a watch that is supposed to sell for $100 should sell for more than $13.33. Even if the manufacturer is exaggerating, they couldn't possibly exagerate that much. I signed up for the slowest possible shipping, so I may have to wait 2 weeks though. Hopefully when I get the watches they aren't pieces of crap. They looked good on the website. I'm just glad I have something exciting on the go.

Flip

Coupons Again

2008-06-11T19:10:00.000-07:00

I noticed a coupon on the side of my ceral box today. A long time ago I considered using coupons and adding this amount to the Double Challenge, but I never made a final decision. After seeing this coupon, I thought about it again. The point of the Double Challenge is to make money without affecting my real life finances, so if I would never use the coupon (and I NEVER use coupons), then it should count. But this is a very slippery slope, because I may convince myself that I would have bought something when really, I'd just be buying it to use the coupon, which would mean I would be negatively affecting my real life finances. I've decided in the end to allow coupons IF and only IF the following two conditions are true.
1) It needs to be something I definitely would buy anyways. Like the exact cereal I eat all the time, not tickets to the latest theater production.
2) If it is for a different brand than I would usually buy, I have to check and make sure the new price plus the coupon is the same or better than the usual brand.
The coupons on the cereal box were two for $1 off Cheerios. Since this is practically all my son eats for breakfast, they qualify. Next time I buy Cheerios I'll have $2 extra for The Double Challenge.

Flip

Don't Just Follow the Crowd

2008-06-10T20:24:00.000-07:00

I am at the movies waiting for my movie to start and I am blown away. When I entered the theater I was met by a massive line. Five massive lines actually. After about 10 seconds I figured out that four of those lines led to three people who were selling tickets. The fifth line led to ten machines that sold tickets. This fifth line initially looked longer than any of the other four, but if you really looked you would see that this is because the machines lined the wall causing this line to start much closer to the door. In fact, this line had less people than any of the other four by half. Surely, anyone would easily figure out that a line half as long with three times the number of ticket sellers would be much faster. But there they were. 100 people all just standing there, waiting, completely oblivious to the fact that they were going to stand there 5 times as long for no reason. It amazes me, but this example just goes to show you that you should not always follow the herd. Just because everyone else is doing something a certain way does NOT make it the best way. Keep your eye out for what is best for you and follow your gut, not the crowd.

This makes me think of an e-mail I sent some guy selling his vending route. I asked him why he would sell it if it were such a good route. I had the feeling that since he was selling it, it must not be very good. But how do I know he's a good business man? He could be making a big mistake and just not realise it - just like the movie go-ers. Or maybe he's moving, or just needs the cash. I should look at it as a business decision on its own merits - not just assume its bad because he's getting rid of it.

Indiana Jones is starting now so I'd better go. Time to enjoy my great seat since I got in before the crowd.

Flip

Some Interest, but no Sales (but there will be)

2008-06-09T19:10:00.001-07:00

I put the humidifier and the TV on kijiji and the local for sale board and I have had a response on both already! The guy for the TV offered me $25 which would be a $20 profit. The only problem is he asked if there was a remote control. There should be, but the lady at the garage sale couldn't find it. She said she would give me a call when she finds it. Hopefully this does not become a huge liability. He hasn't responded if he's still interested. Hopefully he is, but we'll see. The guy for the humidifier was even more interested. He said he would come TONIGHT to come and pick it up. Luckily I was going to be home all night anyways. Unluckily he never came. Hopefully he still wants it, but I'm a bit annoyed, especially since he doesn't know that I was going to be home anyways.

I have a bid on the Windows NT software that I put on ebay. His bid is showing as $0.99 at the moment, so hopefully someone else gets interested or I will be giving this one away too cheap. Oh well, that is what the experiment is about. I'll keep you posted.

Flip

No Sale!

2008-06-08T14:44:00.000-07:00

I went back to the guy selling the air hockey table and offered him $50. He suggested $75, which I turned down. Sometimes you just have to walk away I guess. Like they say, you make your money when you buy, not when you sell. I was able to work on my US taxes again last night and I think I am finally at the point where I have all of my questions ready (or at least the first wave of questions). They're mostly questions about where certain types of income go considering that they are all foreign receipts that don't cross reference very well. I was talking about hiring an H&R Block type of business to help me, but I decided that I will just call the IRS directly and ask the questions. That way, I won't have to pay ANYTHING to get this done. Or if I do, then at least it will just be the 2 or 3 that I really need advice on. Unfortunately, they are only open during the week to call, so I'll have to call tomorrow before or after work. I can't wait to FINALLY get this monkey off my back. It's been in the back of my mind for years.

Flip

More Garage Sales!

2008-06-07T07:48:00.000-07:00

I managed to pull my arse out of bed for the second straight Saturday morning and this time it paid off (I think). I picked up a small colour TV for $5. I should be able to sell it for somewhere between $10 and $20. I also picked up a humidfier for $5. It is a bit old, but I sold one in the past for a big profit, so I figure I should be able to unload it for more than $5. There was also a telescope, which apparently originally cost $800 with all the accessories. He was asking $300, so I probably could have talked him down to $250, but I decided this was too much of a risk since I don't know anything about telescopes and was a fairly big chunk of my stake for a risk. I think my rule of thumb for the future will be not to risk more than 10% of my stake on any particular venture. That means I can only afford to pay someone about $45. This definitely removes the telescope possibility. There was also an air hockey table the people were asking $100 for. I MIGHT go back and offer $50 (ok, $5 more than I just said I would) but no more than that. Other than that there was another TV, but the lady said the picture comes and goes - don't want that risk, and some speakers which looked ok, but I have been trying to get rid of my current speakers for a long time. The problem I find with garage sales is that you can't research the product unless you go home and come back (which I sometimes do). If you think you find a good deal on line, it is pretty easy to see what new an used ones are going for in general. I'll put my new products on line some time this weekend.

Flip

Free copy of Windows NT!

2008-06-06T04:49:00.000-07:00

My co-worker gave me a free copy of Windows NT Workstation 4.0 today. He apparently never installed it so i figured I would put it on ebay and see what happens. In the past, I have always been afraid to list the posting too low, but some people argue that if you start the listing a $0.99 then it will encourage bidding and you may end up with a higher purchase price in the end. I figured that since it was free and I have nothing to lose, might as well conduct an experiment with this one, so I posted it for $0.99. Apparently my Pay Pal account is not "verified" yet, which means I can only post it in Canada until I fix that. I have no patience so I posted it anyways. Now that I really think about it, the States has 10 times the population, so I have lost 90% of my audience. Not a smart thing to do. If this doesn't sell, I'll make sure I get my Pay Pal verified first next time.

Flip

Post for Sale! POOOooooost for SALE!

2008-06-05T04:50:00.000-07:00

Well, I'm officially a hired gun. You may have noticed the Hire Me advertisement on the left hand side of the blog. This is a feature of Pay Per Post, where advertisers can contact me directly and negotiate how much they will pay me to write a sponsored ad. I can turn down any opportunity I want, so I can make sure the content is at least somewhat related to my blog. Even though I can take advantage of this feature, I'm still waiting to get my blog approved so I can take advantage of the normal opportunities listed at Pay Per Post (I just signed up last night so it will probably be another day or so). I also figured out how to put up an affiliate link, so if you are interested in checking it out and want to support the Double Challenge, click on the link below and I'll get $15 (if you sign up and do one sponsored post.) I feel like a kid at Christmas!

Pay Per Post!

2008-06-04T17:59:00.000-07:00

Well, this is the last post I need in order to apply to Pay per Post. I needed 10 posts in the past 30 days and this is the 10th. Like I said, I have heard some really good things about this website and I am really eager to see what kind of offers they have. The way I understand it is that they list different products/websites that are to be promoted. You pick one and post about it as a sponsored post. Once they approve your post then you get paid. You have to follow thier rules on how they want it written, but it sounds like a great win/win/win for the blogger, Pay per Post and the company trying to advertise. I'll let you know how it goes and how long it takes to get approved. Don't worry, I don't plan on bombarding my blog with a million sponsored posts, but I definitely need to get a piece of this pie if I want to get up to the next doubling level. A nice steady income stream would do wonders for me since I've been in the $400-$450 range for over a year now (has it been that long?) Pay Per Post seems to be the most recognised website like this, but there are others that I will be checking out as well. I'll try to keep the ads related to this blog as best I can. Who knows, maybe I'll advertise something you really need!

Flip

Get your free credit report!

2008-06-03T15:06:00.000-07:00

Did you know that you are entitled to receive free copies of your credit report? I have been meaning to do this for some time now and I FINALLY got around to it. I was very easy. If you live in Canada then all you have to do is go to Equifax! Be careful, because they try to get you to buy thier 'quick' version, which allows you to get your credit report instantaneously. You can buy a free version by clicking on the right where is says, "You can receive a free credit file disclosure from Equifax Canada Inc. via Canada Post. " You have to mail it in, but it supposedly only takes 5 to 10 days, so you might as well save the 15 bucks. I'll keep you informed when I get mine. I hope there's nothing fishy on there. If you're not from Canada, check your local credit bureau to see if you can get your credit report for free! It's your right to know what your credit score is.

Flip

Taxes, Taxes Go Away!

2008-06-02T15:19:00.000-07:00

My head is spinning. I've been doing my U.S. Taxes for the past two hours. I sold my house this year and I am afraid I willl owe tax on some of the gain because I rented it out for 10 months a few years ago. It seems that if you rent your house out, that portiion of the gain is not tax exempt. I'm not sure if I have to figure out how much it gained (or lost) during those 10 months, or if I'm supposed to multiply the gain by the percent of time it was rented for. I have so many questions on just this one topic that it is becoming clear that I will have to see some sort of financial advisor at least as a consultation. I really don't want to pay to have them all done as that would likely cost over $1,000! This dual citizen thing is supposed to be an advantage, but so far it is just been a big pain in the arse. I suppose if we ever want to move to the States, we'd have to do this anyways. Well, back to the grind.

A Garage Sale-ing We Will Go...

2008-06-01T11:02:00.000-07:00

Well, I managed to pull my arse out of bed at 8:30 to check out some of the garage sales around the neighborhood. There was a lot of junk that no one would want, but I did find two things that I might be able to flip for a profit. One guy had a sewing machine for $5. It was quite old, but I can't imagine anyone paying less for it. Apparently I was wrong because when I went back a bit later with my wife, he offered it to me for $2! I'd definitely make a profit with that. The only problem is that we actually need a sewing machine and it's somewhat difficult to justify selling this one for $40, only to turn around and spend $200 on a new one.... or even 40 for a used one. The other thing I found was a DVD, plus a CD player that can hold 5 CDs. They were selling the combo for $20. I was a bit less sure about this one, but I think I could find some buyers eventually. They say that you make your money when you buy instead of when you sell, so I figured I would wait until a bit later in the morning when they're feeling more desparate to get rid of stuff and offer $15. I went back at 11AM and they had closed up shop. Crap. I guess I should have asked them when they were packing up. So I ended up the day very tired (went to bed waaay too late) with nothing to show for it - maybe. The worst part is that I KNOW we'll barely ever use the sewing machine. Some days are more profitable than others I guess.

Flip

Rain, Pay Per Post and Vending Machines

2008-05-31T09:24:00.001-07:00

It figures - It's garage sale day and it's raining. That means it has been potponed to tomorrow. I'm still feeling kind of sick anyways, so I was happy to be able to sleep in. I could run the garage sale tomorrow, but I am leaning towards going to the other garage sales instead since most of the stuff left for me to sell are not Double Challenge items. Also, all of my advertisements have said Saturday, so I fear i will fall into the trap I did last time and waste my entire morning. I'll probably better spend my time looking for bargains tomorrow, especially since I don't have many items to sell at this point.

I've been checking out the website, Pay Per Post again. I think I will try to up my post frequency so I can register and try this out. I have heard good things about them. As I understand it, they pay you to write reviews on products. I have to have 10 posts in the past 30 days in order to register, so it shouldn't take me long since I've already posted 5 times in May. I'll keep you posted on how it goes and if it is worth it.

I also was checking out the Thin Air Millionaire site. He seems to have purchased a vending route, which is making big money for him. I think I may start to research this and see if it is someting viable for me in the future. If I could somehow get some vending machines into some stores close by, this could be a long term earner with minimal effort. If it goes really well, I could even pay someone to go fill them for me. Now that is what i call passive income! We'll see though.

Flip

Sold the Clubs

2008-05-26T18:13:00.000-07:00

Yes! The guy came by and picked up the clubs from work today. He didn't try to bargain me down at all, so I made 30 dollars! That brings the total to over $450! It took a long time, but it turned out to be worth it. I've been sick for a week with bronchitis, so my US taxes have sat there doing nothing. I'm starting to feel a bit better, so hopefully I can get back at it soon.

Flip

No Flyer Bites, but One for the Clubs

2008-05-22T17:10:00.000-07:00

Well, no one signed up for the garage sale. That was a waste of time. I'm still going to have the sale though. I can't possibly imagine doing worse than last time. On the brighter side, I finally have someone interested in the golf clubs I picked up more than a year ago. They're supposed to pick them up Monday night. I don't know if they're going to negotiate for them, but I'll pretty much let them go for whatever they want - it has been a year since I have had any interest. That's pretty wierd actually. I could never figure out why I was having so much trouble with these clubs, but with the other set, they were sold within a week. I think the difference is that the other clubs were really good, while in this case, it is the bag that is good. They're differet products and no one goes hunting for a bag, while lots of people go hunting for a good set of clubs. Something to think about I guess.

Flip

Flyers Delivered

2008-05-15T05:28:00.001-07:00

Well, I printed off the Community Garage Sale flyers and distributed them to everyone on my street. So far no one else has signed up for it (Remember, I need 5 to get the free advertising), but there is still time. My biggest problem is that a house is being built right beside mine and there is a big big ugly rusty dumpster right beside my driveway. Talk about a turnoff. And it will block people seeing my garage sale from the main road. I'd better get some good signs made this time or no one will find me. I have my doubts that many people will sign up on my street because there is a lot of construction. About 1/3 of the houses are still being built. It's a pretty dusty enviroment for a garage sale. Still, I can't possibly do worse than last year. I'm not going to charge the Double Challenge for the printouts, or the signs because my main rule is to not affect my real finances and I can honestly say I would have had this garage sale anyways. There's only a few double items, but the greater majority will be crap I owened before the Double Challenge started. I'll be glad to get rid of it all. And hey, look at the bright side. Whatever I don't sell, I can just heave into the dumpster instead of lugging back into my basement.

Flip

The Garage Sale Redemption!

2008-05-10T05:31:00.000-07:00

I just noticed that my community is having a "Community Garage Sale". If 5 people sign up on your street, the community association (I didn't even know we had one) will include your street in the newspaper advertising! I really hope this goes better than it did last year. The posts for that dismal Garage Sale are here and here. This time I hope to end up in the black (That sounds really wierd for a garage sale. You have to suck pretty bad to end up in the red for a garage sale). I should do MUCH better since my mistake last time was a lack of marketing and choosing a very poor day. This time, there should be people out in droves since there will be lots of free advertising and people with garage sales all over the place. The only problem is that no one else has signed up on my street yet. I've printed off some flyers to give out to my neighbors to try and get them to sign up. I NEED that free advertising. I'll keep you posted.

Flip

Finished Once over of 2006 Taxes

2008-05-08T05:10:00.000-07:00

I've finally done a once over of my 2006 US taxes. Boy, are they ever different than the Canadian kind. I really hope I did them right. The good news, is I have $0 owing. I still have some questions about where I put some forms of income, but even with this in I should still owe $0 for 2006. Hopefully the rest come out this way. I'm probably going to have to go to H&R Block or some other tax help place to make sure I'm doing this right, but one thing is for sure - I don't have the money to just pay them to do 7 years of taxes. That would probably be something like $1400 bucks! I think I'll do my 2005 and 2007 years before I go there though because I was in Australia in 2005 and sold my house in 2007. Might as well get all my questions ready at the same time.

Flip

Cashcomrade off line

2008-04-29T05:15:00.000-07:00

I've decided that I cannot justify the cost of keeping the Cashcomrade site up and running for now. I am just not bringing in enough cash from it to keep it going. Thanks to Arkad at The Richest Man in Atherstone for helping a fellow doubler purcahse and set up his first website. Looks like I have a lot to learn before I try again. On another note, I have finally finished my 2007 Canadian Taxes, which means I can finally get to my US ones. I started with my 2006 taxes because that is when I tried starting the last time so I have a bit done already. It's very difficult because it is not obvious where to put Canadian entries onto the US form. For the Canadian ones, it says enter box 18 from your T4, which is easy - but with the US Taxes, they expect you to have US tax documents so you have to figure out where box 18 goes on their forms if at all! This isn't going to be easy.

Flip

2008-04-19T19:44:00.000-07:00

Arkad at The Richest Man in Atherstone has been hosting my Cash Comrade site for a year now and it is time to renew. This is where I have been selling my Financial Spreadsheet. This hasn't been a big money earner for me and I am thinking of letting it lapse for now as I don't think I have enough money in my stake to justify it for now. I'm going to think about it for a few days first, but I really don't see how I can afford it since it is about a 1/8th of my stake for something that hasn't really been panning out. I paid for the domain name again because I think it is a good one, but I don't have to host it again until I am ready with something better and a good plan.

Flip

My Real Problem

2008-04-10T05:05:00.000-07:00

I have a problem. A problem that gives me a disadvantage compared to every other internet marketer out there. You see, I am a Canadian, but I was born in the U.S. This means that at any time I can claim my U.S. Citizenship too. I have done nothing to persue my U.S. Citizenship - ever. Why is this a problem? Because a lot of the internet marketing opportunities involve a company from the States paying you money. People who are citizens simply give thier SSN's and they pay tax on it like usual. People who are not citizens (or residents) fill out a form to indicate that they are not citizens. I, on the other hand, am in limbo. I can't fill out the form to say I am not a US citizen because that may be construed later on as a denouncing my US Citizenship and I also have no SSN. Soooo..... Why don't I just apply for a SSN? I could, but once I do this, the IRS will be asking for the past 7 years of my taxes. I don' t have a problem here because I'm pretty sure it will all come out to be $0 owed, but this is not a small undertaking. The tax laws and procedures in the States are VERY different than the ones in Canada. Plus, when I do my Canadian ones, the form is very obvious (insert Box 17 of your T4 form, etc.) When you're filling out US taxes with Canadian forms, there is no Box 17. You have to figure out where EVERY SINGLE piece of data goes. Not very easy. But I have come to the conclusion that in order to be competitive in the world of internet marketing I am going to have to sort out this area of my life. There have been several opportunties missed because of this. The main reason why I got a refund (after a LONG time) on that Google Cash Detective software is because most of the products I could track were from companies I couldn't accept money from. So - I've decided to get myself in order, learn how to fill in the forms from the past 7 years of US Taxes, fill them out and apply for my SSN. I am hoping to get this done by August 1, 2008. My balance may not change much until then, but at least I will get this off my back once and for all.

Flip

Re-registered domain name.

2008-04-06T06:00:00.001-07:00

I renewed my cashcomrade.com registration. It hasn't exactly brought me great wealth, but I think I covered the cost... barely. Hopefully this is a better year for it. Maybe someone will even waltz in and offer me a million dollars for the domain name. Yeah - right. So I'm out another $10.07. I'm headed in the wrong direction at the moment - my hosting renewal is coming up too.

Flip

Can't win em all.

2008-04-06T05:52:00.001-07:00

We had another poker night last night. Lady luck wasn't on my side. I lost two $5 games and one $1 bounty (everyone puts $1 in front of them and you give it to who ever knocks you out). So, I'm down $11. I decided at the start of the night that since I was doing so well at poker, 100% of my winnings will go towards my doubling project from now on. We actually have a friend who sometimes plays with us who has qualified for the World Series of Poker for the third time in four years. Perhaps I shouldn't have went to 100% on a night he was coming (not that he was much of a factor). My wife on the other hand won both games and $30 to boot. Too bad it wasn't me.

More Poker Winnings

2008-03-15T21:28:00.000-07:00

I'm glad I said that 50% of all future poker bets will be from the double up fund. Tonight we had one poker game. It was a $5 buy in with seven people. The winner got $20, $10 for second and third got their money back. The turning point was when I went all-in with two pair. The big stack called me with a better two pair, but I hit my kings for a full house. Boy was I lucky. I ended up winning. So that's ($20-$5)/2=$7.50 for the double up fund. Too bad I didn't say 100% of all gambling.

Sold the VCR!

2008-02-27T19:22:00.000-08:00

I sold the VCR I had for $20! Not bad considering I almost sold it for $15 last week (the guy didn't show up). Once I saw how many responses i had for it I knew I could easily find a buyer any time I wanted - so I might as well hold out for $20 instead. It is SOOO nice to finally be making money for this project again. Focus is all i needed. That and doing SOMETHING every week. Last week i was going to find more joe blow places to post my spreadsheet. I posted on Craigslist, but so far it hasn't produced anything.

As I was checking in with other doublers i noticed that most of them have really stagnated (kind of like I did for a whole year). In fact, most of them don't seem to post very much at all and some seem to have given up. One doubler that has not though, and posts VERY VERY regularly. I am talking of Rachel over at Turn One Pound into a Million. I must admit that I had stopped reading her blog regularly because she had so many advertisements and my bloglines RSS feed would fill up so fast, but I recently noticed a post about how she has almost reached 1000 pounds a month at this point. Hang on! Why am I NOT reading about a doubler who is almost making 1000 pounds a month. Rachels blog should be my Bible! I should find out exactly what she is doing and replicate it as soon as possible. She obviously knows what she is doing! Way to go Rachel. So my task for this week is to completely read her blog and implement what I can immediately. I've already signed up for 20 Million Hits, which is a site that Rachel recommended and is basicly a scheme to promote your website to lots and lots of people. Check it out. I used it to promote my Financial Tracker. I'll let you know how (if) it worked for me.

FINANCIAL TRACKER SOLD!

2008-02-22T18:00:00.000-08:00

That's right. I have sold my first spreadsheet in 10 months. TEN MONTHS! It feels so great to finally sell something. Yes, I fully admit that I could have put more effort in, but there were times I put a lot of effort in trying to sell these things. I mean, I know it's just an excel spreadsheet - it's not like its the cure for cancer, but you'd think after all that effort it wouldn't have taken me 10 months to make a sale. I still can't believe that it seems that I only sell them when I seem like some average Joe just trying to make a few bucks as opposed to trying to appear like a legitimate business. Weird. I'm going to post on Craigslist Newyork tonight to see if maybe I'm on to something. So - now I am up an additional $3.57 USD after paypal fees. Yeah - I sold it cheap, but after 10 months you're willing to try anything to get things rolling again.

A good start (again)

2008-02-21T04:53:00.000-08:00

Well my goal last week was to post the golf clubs and VCR on line for sale. I accomplished these goals and agreed to sell the VCR, but the guy never showed up. Apparently no one is interested in golf clubs in the middle of the winter - to be expected, but I needed to at least try. I even put up an advertisement for my spreadsheet again, figuring nothing would happen. It turns out, I did get a response from someone who might want me to make a customized version for him, which I could charge a bit more for. So how come I had my spreadsheet on this site for a year with no bites and as soon as I decide to post again I have interest? I think it might be because people only look at the new posts, so I'm going to do an experiment and re-post it every 2 weeks or so. The other thing that is really interesting is that it seems the only place I can find people interested are on this local site. 4 out of 5 that I have sold have been from there and the other one was a Google Ad. People seem to be responding more to crappy amateur ads that say, "Hey, I made this spreadsheet in my spare time - anyone want a copy" compared to links to my more professional looking website. I haven't completely figured it out - maybe its some sort of trust thing where people are willing to trust their neighbors as opposed to a faceless company. Not sure. The important thing is things are starting to happen again - all I had to do was start moving.

Double Goals for This week:
- Explore more 'Joe Blow' type places I can advertise my spreadsheet.
- Advertise two speakers that I have and forgot to include in the list of what the Double Project owns.

A New Beginning

2008-02-17T07:55:00.000-08:00

You may have noticed that I have not posted in a long, long time. I decided I needed a break from the Double Challenge to recharge my batteries. That and I also moved houses, had Christmas and got sick for 2 weeks. I guess my heart wasn't in it anymore because my total had stagnated for so long. It seemed that if I hunted for things to buy and sell I could make some money (I made $400 in the first four months!), but if I tried to do ANYTHING else I was just spinning my wheels. I tried selling my financial spreadsheet and I did sell a few, but then it all stopped. So I made a hack job of a website to try to drive traffic to. After that didn't work I put a lot of effort into a better website to no avail. I learned how to do Google Adwords, purchased a domain name, and learned how to get a webpage on line. All great stuff! But it didn't work. I wrote some of an e-book to get out of debt, but didn't finish it. I started to try to get a collection together of the works of H.G. Wells (copywrite has expired). I tried Google Cash and Google Cash Detective, but nothing other than simply buying and selling things brought me cash. I'm back with a good attitude again. Perhaps I didn't make any money, but I really did learn a lot and I can honestly say I know more than I did before so perhaps this was just an investment in time that is still to pay off. I think I will do some thinking about where to put my efforts. If its one thing I have learned it is that I don't have much free time (2 year olds will do that to you) so I need to focus my efforts when I DO have time.
Here is an inventory of everything the Double Challenge owns:
$414.47 CAD
$4.30 CAD in my paypal account
$4.45 US in my paypal account
1 Set of old golfclubs 1 golf bag
1 VCR
1 Crappy Coffee Maker (left over from the OneGreenPaperFlip project).
$7 Secrets E-book (100% Resale Rights)
Google Cash E-book
A few boxes of Readers Digest and National Geographic books. (I donated some - I can barely give this stuff away)

I think instead of thinking of progress in terms of cash made, I have to start making weekly goals and try to accomplish them. How do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time. So my weekly goal (actually, this was supposed to be posted on Wednesday so that will be the start of my 'week' from now on) this week is to get the golf clubs and the VCR on the local For Sale boards again. Sound simple? It is. I should have no problem doing this, but without this goal, I probably would have procrastinated thinking the project too great and no progress made. We'll see if this gets me going again.
Oh, and since I posted I spent $0.06 on a Google advertisement for my builder (they give a $500 referral bonus) and made $1.50 from poker winnings. In the past, I was gambling 10% with my double money. From now on 50% of my gambling (doesn't happen often) will be from my double money.
Flip

2007-12-06T05:09:00.000-08:00

In the past couple of weeks I have been tempeted to buy an e-book. TWICE! Both times I talked myself out of it and one of them seems to have been about an ethically questionable method of making money. Of course I didn't know it was ethically questionable until others started making comments, etc. I've decided to come up with two new rules for myself. This will hopefully make all of my purchases worthwhile, instead of buying emotionally. The first new rule is that if I want to buy an e-book for the project, I must make the money first. Yes, I have $420 in the project right now, but I need to make the money from the moment want to buy the e-book. That way even if it is a dud, it does not deplete my seed money and will give me more time to think about it. It also motivates me to make more money if I really want it. The second rule is that I cannot purchase anything until I have at least seen a few reviews about it. Why should I be the guinney pig? Let others try it out and tell me if I should spend my hard earned double money? I don't have very deep pockets just yet.

On a side note, I get posession of my new house today. I lose my old one in four days so if I can just avoid snow for 4 days that will save me from shoveling two driveways!

Later,
Flip

The Importance of Testing ALL possibilities

2007-12-01T08:43:00.001-08:00

Wow! I'm not sure how many of you noticed, but the pictures on my Financial Tracker Salespage were not appearing, despite the fact that they appeared when I originally revamped it. Luckily I noticed it when I checked it at work. After some investigation that night, I realised that it was fine on Firefox, but not ok on Internet Explorer. It turns out I was missing a ">" on the lines for the pictures. Apparently Firefox was smart enough to know what I meant, but not IE. Because I tested it on Firefox only, I was miss-displaying my sales page to 90% of my potential customers. (I got those numbers from tracking numbers - seems most people have IE.) That is HUGE! If I never noticed that, then I would have never been able to figure out why my sales were so low. Not that I have sold anything since then anyways, but that surely was a big hurdle in my way. So make sure you test on every browser you can and perhaps on multiple versions if possible just in case.

Flip

Introducing: The Financial Tracker

2007-11-29T04:58:00.000-08:00

I completely re-vamped my Financial Spreadsheet sales page. Actually, it is now called Financial Tracker. The old sales page looked very amateurish and indeed I was an amateur when I first made it. The new one still needs a bit of work, but I think it looks SOOOOO much better. It will be interesting to see if it affects my sales. I'm still getting search engine hits due to my Ezine article. Now I plan to start posting at some financial forums again - with good quality posts and just a link in my signature. I think this is key because if people think you're spamming them then there's no way they'll click on your link and you would probably get banned from the site. I might be able to find the time to write another article, but I am moving in a week and a half so I will be lucky if I find time to post on the forums. I'll keep you updated.

Flip

Shut My Mouth!

2007-11-28T09:54:00.000-08:00

My reader left. Next time I'll shut my big fat mouth. I promise! LOL

Flip

I have a reader!

2007-11-27T13:59:00.001-08:00

Hey! I just noticed that I have my first reader. You can see him or her over on the left hand side under the subscribe button. "Hello reader. How are you?" What do I say? What do I do?... I feel like I'm on a first date or something. Last time this happened I got excited but the person left the next day. I gotta play it cool... Yeah... cool... "So,.. reader, Wazzup?" Oh crap. I can't believe I just said Wazzup to my new reader. This is supposed to be a semi-serious business site and I just said Wazzup! This isn't going well. Don't scare off the reader... must be interesting. That's the key... gotta keep it interesting. "So, reader, what do you think of the weather?" Ok, now go in for the kill! "Soooo..... wanna buy a financial spreadsheet?" Oh crap! I think I was too forward. Don't leave Reader... Don't Leave me! I worked so hard to find you! NOOOOoooooo.......!!! THE HUMANITY!

Ok, sorry - I'm in a wierd mood today. Whoever the mystery reader is - Thanks! You made my day. It actually makes me feel like I should post more since someone is at least interested enough to click the subscribe button.

Flip

Competitive Advantage!

2007-11-20T18:06:00.000-08:00

I have a competitive advantage. Apparently my house builder has a referral plan where if you refer someone to them and they buy a house, both parties get $500 cash. It's really $500 off the house you bought, so it is not treated like income. I referred a work mate of mine who is building a house with the same builder so come May 2008, the Double Challenge should be getting a nice fat cheque for $500! Now that's what I call doubling! This is such a windfall at my current level that I have taken out Google adwords ads trying to find other people I can refer. My ad sends them to a page where I recommend my builder and asks that if my webpage was a factor in thier purchase to please list me as thier reference. At $0.06 per click, only one in $8,333 people who click my ad need to take me up on it for me to break even. I think those are good odds. I've already received one click, so I have reduced my stake by 6 cents. Anyone want to build a house in Ottawa?

Flip

Lots of visitors, but no sales

2007-11-19T04:46:00.001-08:00

I have been getting a lot of success as far as people seeing my financial spreadsheet sales page. For a while, it was mostly due to links I had been leaving on some financial advice sites with my spreadsheet link in my signature. That actually worked better than I thought it would. But lately I have not had as much time to do this, but I am still getting 1-4 people per day. I figured out that these are mostly from search engines. I'm pretty sure this traffic is all from that one article I wrote using the Bum Marketing Method. I am somewhat impressed how well this has worked for me after only one attempt. The down side is that I still havn't sold a spreadsheet in over 6 months. I think my sales page needs a lot of work but I am having a hard time getting to it with moving and all on the horizon. Still, half the battle is getting people to your site, so I am very happy I seem to have acheived that with a modest amount of success.

Flip

Free VCR

2007-11-05T21:13:00.000-08:00

I picked up a free VCR that someone was giving away at work today. Hopefully I can sell it for some cash. Seems to work just fine. I'm moving in a month, so my focus is going to be packing instead of the Double Challenge for the next few weeks.

Flip

Products Matter Too

2007-10-22T18:43:00.000-07:00

A while ago I posted about how marketing really matters. Well, having a good product matters too. I just sold my house. I have a 3 bedroom townhouse and I didn't have a problem selling it. I ended up selling it privately and sold it for what I wanted for it. My neighbor has the same model from the same builder as me so I told her that she shouldn't have any trouble selling it. In fact, she even has put $11,000 of upgrades into it including a shed, a deck. Also, she has a finished basement, which I do not - which should be another $10,000 or so. She's only ASKING $10,000 more than me, so someone should easily give an offer a few grand below that and she's willing to take it. The problem? She hasn't had a single call. Not one. In two weekends of open houses, she's had one or two visitors. That's it. Two. I had 6 calls in the first day. For the longest time I didn't get it. Her house is clearly worth more than mine. We have the same model from the same builder, but she has tens of thousands of dollars of upgrades. What could possibly be the problem? And then it dawned on me. When we built our houses, we had the choice of a 3 bedroom, or a 2 bedroom and loft. I chose the 3 bedroom partly because I don't really get the point of a loft and partly because of resale. My parents have always told me to think about resale when I buy or build a house and boy were they ever right. One simple choice that perhaps didn't seem to matter much to some people, but fast forward to the day when we're trying to sell our places and I am stress free with a buyer and she's desparate and liklely going to lose her chance to buy her dream home. And when she finally does sell, it very well may be for much less than mine, despite all the upgrades in her home over mine. Choose your product VERY carefully. One tiny difference from a competitor could make ALL the difference.

Flip

Gambling Pays off Again

2007-10-20T21:26:00.000-07:00

I went to a poker game tonight with my friend. As always, 10% of my poker gambling is done with my Double Challenge money. There were 8 people with $5 buy ins. $25 to first place, $10 to second place and $5 to third place. I lost out in 6th place in game #1. I was doing very well when I made a dumb emotional move and moved all-in. The worst part is my opponent miscalculated his odds of calling, so he called and won. If he had done his math right (and realised he had a diamond instead of a heart), he wouldn't have called me. The second game I did a lot better. I was determined to not make any bonehead moves. I think I played this one a lot better and it showed as I was heads up at the end. I was slightly behind in chips and it was getting late, so I was happy to chop (ie. split the winnings.) We also had something called bounties, where if you are knocked out, then you give a dollar to the person who knocked you out. I collected two bounties and held on to my own, so after the two $5 entry fees and the $17.50 of winnings after the chop, and $2 from the bounties, I made $9.50, which means I made 95 cents for the Double Challenge. Now I can buy that boat I always wanted. LOL.

Flip

The Bum Marketing Method Works!

2007-10-19T04:50:00.000-07:00

Holy crap. That is all I can say. I can confirm with 100% honesty that the Bum Marketing Method works. I read this free document about 6 months ago and finally got around to trying the technique shown. I just checked Google for the search phrase I was targeting and guess what? Out of 19 million webpages that came up on my search, yours truly was number one. That's right! Number 1 out of 19 MILLION! Holy Crap! I'm so excited I want to climb on my roof and yell, "I'M NUMBER ONE!" Although to be technically correct, I should yell, "I'M NUMBER ONE IN THE SEARCH PHRASE THAT I WAS TARGETING ON GOOGLE!". Although I"m not sure that has the same ring to it.

I highly recommend checking out this free report. Notice that there is no affiliate link there. I'm not making anything off this - in fact, neither is the author. It's just a good way to obtain FREE advertising for your blog or webpage. Happy bum marketing!

Flip

Cashflow!

2007-10-11T11:24:00.000-07:00

I'm so stoked! On October 29th, I am going to play Cashflow for the first time! For those of you that don't know, Cashflow is a boardgame intended to teach people how to get out of the rat race and to get on the fast track of getting rich. It's part of the Rich Dad products by Robert Kiyosaki. I have wanted to play this game for a very long time now, but havn't had the urge to put down the $195USD required to buy it. I found a group of people in my city who play once a month. Now I can try it out and see what it is like and maybe, just maybe fork out the dough. I'll let you know what I think about it after I play. I think I'm going to have a lot of fun and they also apparently talk a lot about local investment opportunities to boot!

Flip

2007-09-26T11:29:00.001-07:00

I'm not sure if anyone remembers this (LOL - I'm almost sounding like people read this blog), but I had a small medicine cabinet that was still in its unopened box that my former renter left. I declared this to belong to my double project and I FINALLY sold it. I tried a few times, but every time I tried to negotiate the person dropped off the face of the earth. I decided to get rid of the dead weight and sold it for $10. I also found 55cents in a pay phone. I am finally back to where I was before I lost money on the exchange rate for my purchase and then refund of the Google Cash Detective software. I feel like I'm finally back in the game.

Flip

I'm in da Money!

2007-09-13T13:16:00.001-07:00

My plan worked like a charm. I love it! I just made a sale with virtually no risk. I advertised the hand held sewing machine before purchasing it from my co-worker. Once I had someone offer me something, I bought it and sold it. Awesome! It all happened in two days. I bought it this morning at 10AM and sold it 5 hours later at 3PM! I am soooo going to try this again. And the best part was that the lady I sold it to threw in another 5 bucks because she felt she wasn't giving me enough. Beautiful! Money, money, money!
Flip

Find a buyer beforeYOU buy!

2007-09-12T11:41:00.000-07:00

So I'm surfing the for sale forum on the intranet at my work and I find this hand held sewing machine listed for $20. I'm always worried if I will be able to make money on it or not, or if I will be stuck with it forever, so I hesitate to buy and often do not. THEN IT HITS ME! Why don't I advertise it on craigslist or something like that. If I get a buyer for a better price then I buy it if it is still available. If I don't find a buyer, or if it is already sold, then I simply don't buy it. Awesome! Well, I posted it and a few days later had a buyer who was offering $20. Crap. same price. So I tried to offer to buy it for $15 and ureka - they agree! So now I have an agreement to purchase it for $15 and sell it for $20. It's only $5, but every buck counts and this one was done without ANY worry (ok, not none... I could still get shafted if the person backs out of the deal). Awesome! I'm going to try and set up the purchase AND sale both for tomorrow. I love flipping!

Flip

New Goal and the Eye of the Tiger

2007-09-09T19:54:00.001-07:00

I'm not sure if you've noticed, but my total has not moved in over six months. That's the sign of someone not really trying (actually, it's the sign of someone who has been super busy at work, and selling his house, etc.) At the start of the year I had a goal of making a few thousand dollars. That is unlikely to happen, so I've changed my goal to completing my current step by the end of the year. I've also been thinking that since I haven't been very motivated lately, I would change some things to help my motivation level. Firstly, I downloaded Eye of the Tiger from the web. I'm going to play this every morning to help motivate me. I know it's cheesy and corny, but I really think this stuff works. Hey, if it's good enough for Rocky, it's good enough for Flip! I'm also going to download a picture of a nice beach house and put it on my background. It's a nice reminder of where stuff like this can lead and will hopefully motivate me at least on SOME days. 8 months with no progress is pathetic. I refuse to let this project dwindle. It's a journey of ups and downs. It's time for this down to end and for a nice up.

Flip

The Best Real Estate Agent in Ottawa

2007-09-08T12:42:00.000-07:00

Ok, this is a bit off topic, but I felt that I simply had to post a free advertisment for the best real estate agent in Ottawa. She went above and beyond what she had to do, despite the fact that we ended up trying to sell our house privately. If you're in Ottawa, or are thinking about moving to Ottawa then I would HIGHLY recommend using Melva Peever. Check her out at her website. She really cares about helping you with your house sale and is not at a like a lot of vulture agents out there. I've even decided to give her a free ad on my site for six months. I'm not getting paid at all for this. Melva is simply that good that I just HAD to give her a reference on my blog. Thanks Melva!

Flip

I FINALLY got my refund!

2007-08-31T07:40:00.000-07:00

I'm not sure why it took so long, but I FINALLY got my official refund. Acutally, now I have two refunds. Before I didn't have my money and now I am swimming in it. The day after Visa gave me my temporary refund, the REAL refund came through. But I ended up losing over 20 bucks in the exchange rate difference from today compared to the day I bought it. At this point, I am willing to suck up the loss as payment for a HUGE lesson. DON'T TIE UP ALL OF YOUR MONEY IN ONE SINGLE VENTURE... EVER! I'm a bit behind what I should be, but at least I have most of the money I worked hard for. I'm already eyeing another venture, but this one is free for two weeks and then only costs $45 per month after that. I'm hoping to use the 2 week trial to see if it is profitable and then after that either cancel before I have to pay, or keep going. That's a MUCH safer way to do it. whew! I am so relieved. I was getting sick of seeing negative numbers on the left side of the screen.

Flip

GIVE ME MY MONEY!

2007-08-27T18:40:00.000-07:00

Ok, I'm on a roller coaster ride here. I logged in to find an e-mail saying that Google Cash Detective has already issued a refund to me all the way back on August 6th. Yikes! Now I'm getting really worried. So I e-mailed back to tell them that I never received it. After sweating a few bullets I decide to call Visa to see if they can help. After explaining my story, they were actually quite helpful. They credited my account temporarily. Once they confirm with the Google Cash Detective people that they want to give me a refund, the temporary refund becomes a permanant refund. I'll know it is permanent becuase the GCD guys have 30 days to dispute it. So on September 26th, if it is still there then I know I got my money back. Whew! Talk about a mistake. I think the Double up gods are punishing me for breaking the rules. Stay tuned. Things are looking better.

Flip

A ray of hope

2007-08-27T10:32:00.001-07:00

I have been getting increasingly worried about getting my refund back from the Google Cash Detective guys. I e-mailed them and used thier help forums without a response for a few days. They FINALLY have responded and said that they submitted my refund to thier financial people on August 5th and that they would follow up to find out the status. I'm still slightly worried, but I feel a bit better. I hope I get it soon. It's very annoying having my entire stake (and then some) tied up all this time. I have DEFINITELY learned not to put all my eggs in one basket. I'm sure no millionaire would ever put all thier money into one thing. Lesson learned!
Flip

Show me the Money!

2007-08-23T19:27:00.000-07:00

Ok, I'm getting worried. I havn't received the refund yet. It's been 16 days now. I sent an e-mail yesterday asking where the refund is, but I didn't receive a response. Now I've tried their special message board, which they seem to check more often. If I don't receive a response to this then that might be it. I don't know. I really thought I was going to get it. They said I would. Maybe this is just a hard lesson about not risking my entire stake on one purchase. That would be an entire years worth of effort down the drain. I havn't given up yet, but I'm less optomistic. Besides, if I keep doubling from my current stake of negative 12 dollars, I will end up doubling to negative a million. LOL

Worried in Canada,
Flip

ZZZZZzzzzzz.......

2007-08-21T04:40:00.001-07:00

So much for the 1/2 hour of work I planned for this morning. My son had other ideas. He was up ALL night. Not crying - just bouncing around like it was time to play. He drove me CRAZY and forced me to sleep through my 1/2 hour in the morning (on purpose by that time). This is going to be a tough day at work. Hopefully I can keep my eyes open.

Flip

RSS Feeds and 1/2 hour in the Morning!

2007-08-20T19:07:00.000-07:00

Wow! The more I use these RSS feeds the more I love them! I know, I know - they've probably been around forever. I'm such a newbie! Still, I love them. You've got to set yourself up if you havn't done so. It's SUCH a time saver. I can check everyone's double blogs in one tenth of the time! And if no one has posted I know that immediately also! On another topic, I've decided that every morning I am going to devote 30 minutes to my Double Challenge. I was finding that there was no time in the day to really work on it with work all day and then raising a 1.5 year old at night. By the end of the day I am always so tired that I really don't have the energy, and the few times I did, I ended up surfing You Tube or some silly thing like that. Focus, focus, focus. If it's one thing I have learned you really need to focus or you're not going anywhere with this project. So, 1/2 hour in the morning every morning. I'll let you know how it goes.
Flip

Subscribe to The Double Challenge!

2007-08-15T13:55:00.000-07:00

Ok, I think I figured out this whole feed thing. For those of you who are like me and just figuring this stuff out, you can set up your blog so that people can subscribe to it via news readers like Bloglines. I THINK people can now subscribe to my blog so they don't have to continually keep dropping in to check it out (yeah, like there's thousands of people who rush home at night to read my blog). This way you can follow your favorite blogs all in one place. This sounds really great. I wish I had looked into it before now, but I always sort of looked at the links and thought to myself, "I don't know what this stuff is all about." The way I set up my feed is to go to Feedburner and click on register. The rest sort of explains itself. Then you can add things to promote your feed on your blog. It's all there. There may be an easier way - or maybe blogger already provides a feed. I'm still trying to figure all this out - but I think I have set it up so you can subscribe to me. So what are you waiting for? Do you really want my subscription number to remain at zero any longer? Of course not! Sign up! All you have to do is click on the icon on the far left that looks like this:

Flip

Secrets and Wholesaling

2007-08-15T05:42:00.001-07:00

It's funny. These types of blogs are partially set up to try and help others to accomplish thier goals by learning from the bloggers mistakes, but when we find something really good, we are so reluctant to tell the world in fear that everyone will jump on the bandwagon, thus making the opportunity no longer profitable. So do I want to help people or not? Well, I do, but I guess I don't want to at the expense of my own success. But how many people would REALLY jump on the bandwagon. I mean - how many people are really going to drop everything and cut me out of my market. Maybe if I had a larger readership, but I don't. Still - I think I'll keep the details to myself. I have been looking at wholesaling and I think I know which product I will be starting with. There seems to be lots of activity on Ebay for this product, so I am fairly sure it will sell and I'm hoping at a profit. This is a better use of my money as I will be risking only a small portion instead of the entire thing. I'm still waiting for my refund for the Google Cash Detective , and I must admit I am starting to get a bit worried. I still have faith though. I still think they're a reputable company, but I would feel better if I had the money in my hands. I can't do anything other than research on this until I get this money. Lesson learned - Never invest ALL of your money into something or you will be risking starting from zero. I'll never forget that one.

Flip

Are Real Estate Agents Worth the Cost?

2007-08-13T20:06:00.000-07:00

The engineer is coming out in me again. I find it very difficult to bring myself to call a Real Estate Agent, as opposed to trying to sell my house myself. There is a local company in Ottawa that is doing quite well that helps people sell thier houses themselves. It's called Grape Vine. I just can't bring myself to give such a large commission to sell my house when I can do it myself. But is this just another case of me not giving Marketing the respect it deserves? Perhaps I can save a bit of cash if I sell it myself, but how much exposure am I passing up on? Is it really good to save $4,000 if it takes you an extra six months to sell. Or maybe it will never sell. Without the MLS listing that a Real Estate Agent gives you, you're really only going to get local people who know about Grape Vine to check out your house. I hope this doesn't turn out to be another tough marketing lesson. I just can't bring myself to pay the extra money. I'm so cheap!

Flip

2007-08-12T10:05:00.000-07:00

$1.25 That is the amount of money I grossed at my garage sale. I sold one book and one cup. That's it. What a waste of time. I didn't even cover the cost of the signs for the garage sale. The Bristol Board was $1.63 alone and the marker was $1.99. That's right. I didn't even make enough money to purchase a marker. How depressing. Well, like I said in my previous post, I learned a valuable lesson about marketing. I should have had this sale much earlier in the year and certainly spent more time advertising and thinking about the best day. Well, you learn from your mistakes so the day was not a complete waste. Still, I have so much more I could have done to sell my house. I think I'll drown my sorrows in a beer.

Later,
Flip

Marketing Matters

2007-08-12T05:48:00.001-07:00

I'm sitting in a chair on my driveway with all my junk around me. I'm having a garage sale before I move to try and reduce the amount of crap I need to move. It's scheduled from 8:00 to 12:00. It's 8:45 and I have not had a single customer. All is quite on the garage sale front. I think I am going to learn a hard lession in marketing today. I'm an engineer, so by nature I am more interested in getting the job done than trying to sell it. At work I work all day to make the perfect product. In the past I am sure I thought that if you make a good enough product then people will come and buy it... because it's a good product. I am starting to see that making a good product is only half of the work and that marketing IS VERY IMPORTANT. For this garage sale I worked hard cleaning my house, finding things to sell, but the marketing was an afterthought. With a few days to go I figured I should make a few signs. I posted on a few local message boards about it too. What I forgot until the day before was that since Monday was a holiday in Canada, garbage day is pushed back one day to Saturday morning... right when I wanted to have my garage sale. I figure no one wants to walk past loads of garbage to get to my stuff, so I changed it at the last minute to Sunday. Luckily I forgot to put the day on my signs so I could change them easily, but my two message board postings were now wrong. I corrected one, but ran out of time to fix the other one. I didn't post my signs in the neighborhood until 5PM the night before. Looking back, I did a real crappy job marketing this garage sale and I am paying for it now. If no one comes then I all I did was waste my time dragging all my crap onto my driveway and now I have to drag it back in a few hours and STILL have to move it to my new house. For some reason I never seem to give marketing the respect it deserves. Hopefully today will make me see the light. Marketing matters!

Flip

Dropping Take the Internet Back

2007-08-11T10:26:00.000-07:00

I've been doing the Take The Internet Back program for about 8 months now. I have only made 4 dollars so far (plus the 10 bonus dollars for signing up). This seems painfully slow for someone who needed four dollars to double up months ago. Now it's barely going to change my situation when I finally DO get paid. You need $20 to make a withdrawl, so at this rate it would be more than another year before I received my $20. Despite this, I was going to chug along and not be a quitter. The other thing you need to do to get paid is bring in a referral (now it is two, but I got mine before they made this change). I had my referral, but they have since taken it away from me because he is not active any more. This is very frustrating since it was so difficult to get the referral in the first place. I've decided to make a business decision to stop doing the Take The Internet Back program as it takes up too much time for so little gain. Check it out if you want. It is a good program... I do think they are a reputable company, but I'm not going to spend any more time on this.

Flip

One Year Anniversary!

2007-08-10T14:14:00.001-07:00

I just realised that yesterday was the 1 year anniversary of the Double Challenge. Yay! I have mixed feelings about my accomplishments. I think I did amazing in the first six months, but after that I haven't really done anything as far as making money goes. A big part of that is due to my workload at work going up significantly and that I am in the middle of building a house (not to mention, trying to get my own ready to sell). Work has died down a bit, but I am still in the middle of getting my house ready for sale. After I move then I am really hoping to get serious and try to make some dough. It's kind of funny that my total after a year is less than zero, but i really think my refund will come through (please?).

On the non-money front, I am very proud of myself. I learned A LOT about different things like how affiliate marketing works, some html, some marketing, bargaining skills and yes - how to make a blog. I even purchased my own domain name and have a sales page hosted on it. I was also hosting my Google Cash Detective database on it too, but that is now worthless (still waiting for my refund). One of the most important things I learned is to finish one project before you start another. Losing focus and spreading yourself too thin is one good way to not make any money. Focus, focus, focus... The other thing I learned is that sometimes the audience is more important than the product. Mike at Mikes Money Making Mission figured he would try making money from blogging. He started trying to get traffic and THEN started worrying about how to make the money. It seems to have worked like a charm for him. After 42 weeks he has made $2730 just from blogging. That's six times more than I have made in a year and his year isn't even over yet. It's all about the people. Because of this, I am going to really try and make sure I post every day (or every other day) and try to write good content. That way, when I finally DO have a product to promote (like the financial oriented e-book I am writing) I will have an audience ready to hear it. It makes so much sense.

Here's to a better second year to the Double Challenge. I KNOW it will be more successful than the first.

Flip

$0.25 charge for Google Adwords

2007-08-09T04:32:00.000-07:00

Looks like I had one Google Adwords campaign that I forgot to stop. It had been going for a while and I finally got my first click ever on it. It was the first click after 7638 impressions, which gives me a 0.013% click through rate, which is horrendous! Google wants you to have a 0.5% click through rate to keep your campaign active all the time. Well, it didn't turn into a sale, but it did cost me $0.25 so I have taken this away from my total. Still waiting for my refund... getting nervous.

Flip

Fraudulent Charges!

2007-08-08T18:08:00.000-07:00

I have been watching my credit card on line like a hawk, waiting for the refund. I had a not so nice surprise today. All of the sudden there appears nine charges for a Famous Players theatre in Quebec totalling over $500! At first I didn't know what to do because I had to cancel my card to stop the theives from charging any more, but I also was waiting for my refund. Luckily (if you can call it that) it was my wife's card that was comprimised, so we cancelled her card, but mine can keep going waiting for the refund. I can't believe there are people out there who do this crap. Visa said I would get my money back, but it still irks me. I just wish I knew where it happened.

By the way, I found $2.59 over the past two months (A $2 coin in one shot!), so I have adjusted the total.

Flip

A confession and a new resolution

2007-08-06T18:34:00.001-07:00

It has been two months since my last post. The reason I have taken so long to post is because I was not sure what to write. I have a confession to make. I purchased some software with my Double Challenge money that cost more than the total amount of money I have. This is some really cool software called the Google Cash Detective that keeps track of other people's Google Adwords ads so that you can eventually, over time see which ads are working and which ads are not. This takes all of the guess work out of trying to select affiliate programs that are profitable and let's you go right for where the money is. This software cost me $432.31CAD (which was $397USD). At the time I only had $417.02, which means I shouldn't have been able to purchase it. I was able to purchase this software on the opening day and with a discount because I had previously purchased the Google Cash E-book. I havn't posted because I kept on changing my mind on how to handle this. At one point I thought that perhaps I would not make this a Double Challenge purchase, but that would not really be the truth. The goal of the Double Challenge is to make money in ways I never would have before without jeopordizing my real life's money. There is no way I would have bought this software if I was not doing the Double Challenge. If I used my real money for this then nothing would stop me from risking my real money in the future. Then I thought that perhaps I would pay $200 from the Double Challenge and loan the rest of the money from the "real me" at a nice interest rate. I really thought this is what I would do, but I just couldn't bring myself to write the post. I knew I was breaking the rules, so I couldn't go through with the post. I have decided that I have to pay for it using all Double Challenge money. This is the only way I will learn that I can't play games with this. If I want to get rich then I have to follow my rules. I now have a negative balance, but the fine folks at the Google Cash Detective have assured me that they will honour my refund request. I'll report back when I receive it and, if all goes well, I will finally be back where I was with my honour intact. From now on I will stick to the rules and get back to making money!

For what it is worth I can confirm that the Google Cash Detective does exactly what they say it does. It keeps track of ads displayed for different search keywords on the Google network. You get to find out without risking any more money, which ads are prospering (ie. there still there after a long time) and which ones aren't (ie. they are pulled because they aren't performing). This is an unbeliebably powerful tool once you learn how to use it and at an unbelievably low price given what it can do for you. They seem to be a very reputable company as they offer free coaching when you purchase thier software. I am not concerned about my refund. I am quite sure I will get it and will report back here when I do. Give it a try. If it doesn't work out then you can request a refund like I did. If you do purchase then it would be nice if you purchased through my link as I'm now an affiliate. Hey, might as well promote it since I like it and have actually seen it in action.

Sheepishly,
Flip

Gambling Catches up with me

2007-06-01T09:53:00.000-07:00

Well, it was bound to happen. I had a poker night the other night and as usual, 10% was with Doubling money. Each game had a $5 entry fee, which translates into $0.50 of doubling money. I played 3 games, which is $1.50 of entry fees. The first two games I ended up out of the money and the third game I placed third, which wins me my money back from that game. So, I am basicall $1 down in double money. The good news is that I found a penny, so I am really only 99cents down. Boo-yeah!

Coffee Money

2007-05-11T06:20:00.000-07:00

Someone gave me $5 worth of coupons for coffee at the local coffee house. Since I don't drink coffee (how do i survive?) I sold this to a workmate for $4. I figure he gets a good deal and I get $4 for my double stake. It's only about 1% of what I need at this level, but what the hey. And look! For the first time in a LOOOOONG time I have more in my pocket than when I started the current level. I must be doing something right.

Flip

Bought and Sold a copy of Norton Antivirus

2007-05-09T14:02:00.000-07:00

Some guy at my work sold me a copy of Norton Antivirus 2007 for $15. When I got home I realised that this was for Windows XP instead of Windows 2000. So, I put up an ad and sold it for $20, making $5 profit. The best part is that the guy who bought it just happened to work in the same building for a different company. Go figure. What are the odds. So now I'm $5 closer to my goal and have actually earned back all the money for the domain name and web space (but not with web activities, so it still remains to be seen if it was a profitable venture.)

Flip

Gambling Pays off Again!

2007-05-07T10:30:00.000-07:00

I don't know if I am the luckiest person on earth or what, but ever since I delcared that all gambling I do (which is rare) will include a 10% contribution from the Double Challenge - I have won every time. The latest is that I went to the local Casino for my birthday. I did only a few spins of the roulette wheel for fun and my number came up on my third spin! I ended up making $114, 10% of which goes to the Double Challenge. I've added $11.40 to my stake. Man I'm lucky. I should play the lottery!

Flip

Cashcomrade.com!!!!!

2007-04-28T20:55:00.000-07:00

Well, like a said a few posts back, I have purchased my first domain name. Introducing CASHCOMRADE.COM! I'm actually very proud of the name and am somewhat surprised that it was available. I have to give credit to my beautiful wife. She's a whiz with words. I have big plans for this site, but it will be a slow evolution. For now, it is a great place to host my Financial Spreadsheet sales page. I have automated the purchasing process so I can sell these things while I sleep (I hope). All I have to do is work on the marketing (which is really what I am working on, although it is bigger than that). I would appreciate any comments you may have on my sales page, as this is the first one I have put together. I'll tell you more once my next product becomes available.

Flip

Sold Another Spreadsheet

2007-04-23T20:26:00.000-07:00

Well, it's been a while, but I sold another spreadsheet. That brings the total to 5 spreadsheets I have sold. My new "Big Thing" addresses a better way (hopefully) of marketing it. Back at it...

Flip

Big things happening

2007-04-19T19:54:00.000-07:00

I have something big in the works and have even made the big step of purchasing my first domain name. I'll let you know more when I have things more in order. I'm trying to follow the example of other internet marketers I have seen. We'll see if it works or not. Thanks to Arkad at The Richest Man in Atherstone for selling me some nice cheap web space and Blondie at The Million Dollar Journey for helping a newbie like myself out. I spent $23.36 on the web space and domain name, but also used some of my US money in paypal. I've updated my total and US Asset dollars. I'm not sure how long this is going to take, but I will try my best to get this new idea up and running as soon as possible. Wish me luck!

Flip

New Level Strategy

2007-04-10T19:52:00.001-07:00

Now that I am on a new level, now is a good time to evaluate my strategy for this level. Looking at the different methods I made money, here is the breakdown of my incomes (I won't consider e-book expenses because they are already paid and won't need to be paid for this level).

Buying and Selling Physical Items - $458
Selling my Financial Spreadsheet - $29
Donations $8
Other means - $0 (I've since sold a $7 Secrets book for a profit of $6.50)

Clearly the overwhelming success has been buying and selling physical items. If I did it once then I can do it again to double to the next level. The problem I see is that although, this seems to be a good source of income at this level, I think this method is limited. I only have so many hours in a day to go and find good items. I will likely get to the next level this way, but each level will be more difficult this way until it is completely a waste of time. If I solely concentrate on this method then I will have a LOT to learn when I need to change strategy. I still believe that Internet Marketing is the way to riches - I just have to find out how. (Any tips would be appreciated.) I think I will expect to clear this level by buying and selling things again, but I will also work in the background on learning more about Internet Marketing. I think I may splurge for a domain name and web space since I can't seem to get my free space with my ISP up and running. I'm off to try to sell those free clubs I have. Later,

Flip

Sold a $7 Secrets book!

2007-04-09T20:43:00.000-07:00

I sold a $7 secrets book! Yippee! I paid $7 USD for it and now have my $7 back minus the paypal fees. ($0.50) If I sell one more then it was a good buy. I still haven't taken the time to apply the technique to my spreadsheet. It is on my list of things to do. The problem is that the money is in paypal in US dollars. Since my blog is in Canadian dollars, the Canadian value is going to change day to day until I withdraw the money, so how do I represent this? I think I'll have to just put a US dollar section on the side until I withdraw the money. Remember, this sells with resale rights, so if you buy it off me then you only have to sell one to get your money back (minus paypal fees)

NEW LEVEL and a MASSIVE DONATION (sort of)

2007-04-06T14:53:00.000-07:00

I just received a massive donation from the site, One Green Paper Flip. I should probably mention that I am the owner of that site. The bottom line is that I am having trouble maintaining both sites and that one is really similar to this one in that it has the goal of making money to pay off my mortgage. Now some of you might think ,"Hey, you can't do that. You're cheating!". I assure you I can and in fact, I have. Check out this link where I discuss my reasons and how I justify to myself how I can do this and still call this a doubling blog. I am treating it as a donation from a third party and since this is still money that is outside of my normal life, this is acceptable to me. I'm going to be happy not having to decide if a purchase is for one blog or the other. So... I guess that means I have... ahem... achieved (can I use this word?) a new level. I am now on $415.56 to $833.12 I guess I should start thinking of a new strategy for this level.

Flip

More Rental Income

2007-04-05T13:11:00.000-07:00

I can't believe I have two rental income posts in a row. I guess that says something about how little I have been working on this project. The reality is that my real life has been super busy lately. I am moving, doing my taxes (who isn't?), work is insane and I have a 1 year old. I have about 25 seconds per night to work on this so I guess that explains it. I am hoping that with Garage sale season upon us I can make some real leaps and bounds. Anyway, I have an extra $5 for storing my neighbor's jeep, but the bad part is that he has now taken it out because the weather is nice. Stupid nice weather. No more rental money for me.

Flip

$5 for Garage Rental

2007-03-16T13:49:00.000-07:00

I made another $5 for renting my garage out to my neighbor. You may recall that I decided to take 10% for my double project because it was 10% of the reason. Sorry for not posting for so long - life's busy busy busy.

Flip

Seven Dollar Secrets!

2007-03-02T08:21:00.000-08:00

Ok, I splurged again for my double project, but this time it only cost me $7 instead of last time where I paid something like $70! I bought an e-book called 7 Dollar Secrets. This e-book comes up with an awesome marketing strategy aimed at selling $7 e-books. Anyone can do it. In fact, right after you buy it, you can turn around and become an affiliate. Want to know your affiliate percentage per sale? 100%! Yep, that's right, you get the entire $7 every time you sell this guys e-book and it goes directly into your paypal account. No need to wait for a cheque from some third party. It sounded too good to be true, but I figured I would buy it anyway and boy am I glad I did. Now that I have read his report, I completely understand why he is willing to give 100% commissions. He also gives you the scripts needed to set the same thing up yourself for your own $7 reports. I highly recommend giving this a try. After all, it's only $7, right? I am DEFINITELY going to try doing this to try and sell my spreadsheet.

Flip