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Archive for April, 2006

Taguchi Method for some side income

April 26th, 2006 at 05:10 pm

I am about 3/4 done writing my book. I still have some more expenses before I can hope to make any money on it -- these include book cover design (around $400), printing a few copies to send to potential affiliates (about $50). I also may need to prepay some of the book printing costs before I sell any -- this may be a couple hundred dollars.

I came across some info yesterday related to marketing. It dealt with a method of increasing conversions on your website. Typically marketers use "split testing." A much more accelerated method is called "The Taguchi Method."

I'll spare the details, but I ended up purchasing some software called

Text is KaizenTrack and Link is http://www.thetaguchimethod.com/category/kaizentrack/
KaizenTrack for $197 to help me increase conversions on my website. It comes with a money-back guarantee, so I thought I would give it a shot.

Anyway, I was so impressed with the program, that I figured I could make some side income as an affiliate. I spent an hour or two last night setting up a
Text is Taguchi Method and Link is http://www.thetaguchimethod.com
Taguchi Method blog and then writing an article to direct traffic there. I also set up a google adwords campaign. The commission is 50%, so I'm hoping to make a few hundred dollars in the next month to help pay for the book publishing. We'll see.

Total Business Spending - $953

April 20th, 2006 at 03:32 am

My total business-related spending has reached $953 so far. $375 of this was related to a home-study course I bought through eBay on how to effectively launch new products.

My total is up almost $600 from when I last reported my business-related spending. Another big expense was a $99 for a merchant account for accepting credit card payments. (Let's hope people are using their debit cards!)

Now that we're living in our own home again (and actually paying for our lodging), I won't have much extra money to spend on business-related purchases.

Let's hope the book sells when I release it next month!

(Incidentally, I've been using a COOL web application called

Text is Basecamp and Link is http://apex.url123.com/basecamp
Basecamp to manage my project. They have a free account available. Check it out if you need to manage any projects.)

Timeshare Resales Mini-Course Complete

April 19th, 2006 at 04:36 pm

As I indicated in a previous post (which had some great discussion -- thanks Jeffrey), I am writing a book on how to not get scammed when making a timeshare resale purchase.

I thought it was fitting to get out of debt the same way I got into debt -- timeshares.

While Jeffrey makes some great points about how it is almost ALWAYS better to rent, I still feel the market needs some unbiased information on how to purchase a timeshare on the resale market for those who choose to make that decision. The only other book on the market (a "for dummies" book) was written by a former timeshare salesperson who justifies financing a timeshare by saying you should use your first paid hour of every day toward your timeshare purchase as a vacation investment.

Well, anyways, here is my free

Text is Timeshare Resales Mini-Course and Link is http://www.timesharevacationing.com
Timeshare Resales Mini-Course. There are 5 or 6 emails given out over the course of a week or so.

We are back in our house

April 17th, 2006 at 12:27 pm

A little over a year ago we left NC and rented out of our house to take a job in DC. We moved back 3 months ago and just moved back into our house this past Thursday. Our renter kept the place pretty clean. The only issue we had is she used toothpaste to fill in some nail holes in the walls.

Gone are the days of free rent at my in-laws we have been enjoying these last 3 months. We had been planning to stay there until the summer (and just rent out our house again), but privacy & space is worth $1000 a month. My wife is planning to get a job so we can keep accelerating our debt payoff. (We don't have any kids yet.)

Here's what I've been working on... Resort Vacations!

April 11th, 2006 at 03:03 pm

As you can read from my previous post, I have been working on an "information product" (book). A big part of why we are in debt is a BAD decision we made to purchase a timeshare a few years ago. We learned a lot about how to get scammed and how to avoid getting scammed when buying a timeshare. I'm writing my book about this. It should be ready in a month or two.

We also learned how you can take vacations at luxury resorts and pay the same or less than you would to stay in an average hotel.

If you want this free report about how to stay in luxury resorts for cheap, visit my new website,

Text is www.ResortVacationing.com and Link is http://www.resortvacationing.com
www.ResortVacationing.com.

(Yes, that's me and my wife in the picture at the top!)