My daughter had been wanting an iPod for a long time and in the worst way. Every time she turned around it seemed she was talking about getting an iPod, either when she’d saved enough money or as a birthday or Christmas present. But naturally she didn’t want the low end. She wanted the high end.

When I heard about a contest where people could win a free iPod, I sent her the details via email and she wrote back enthusiastically. She was convinced that she would win. (Ah, youth!) She was already researching what songs she would download.

Well, apparently she knew what she was talking about. Not only did she win the contest, but she also received a top of the line version for her birthday. The contest prize was on the low end, so she gave it to her best friend for Christmas. Hello? What about your mother? Did you think of me? No. But that’s okay. I’ll wait until my business can buy one for me. By then it will have more bells and whistles. Maybe it will even do my dishes for me.

Most people with artistic talent realize their skills at an early age, and develop them through their childhood years.  But for me, that just wasn’t the case.  You see, my parents didn’t have a lot of money when I was a kid, and we couldn’t afford paper for me to color on – in fact, I was punished a number of times for coloring what little paper we did have.

It wasn’t until I was in college that I realized what I wanted to do with my life.  You see, by that point, I had moved out of my parents home, and I was finally able to pursue my artistic interests.  I enrolled in a graphics art course, and that is where I was finally able to shine.

You see, it turned out that I had a knack for business logo design, and my marks showed it.  I continued my studies and received an art degree.  I had no problems finding a job working for a logo design firm, and that is where I am today.

I’ll have to admit, it doesn’t seem like work at all – I am finally able to do what I love.

The greatest person that I ever met in my whole life was my grandfather. We had a special bond that was shared only between the two of us and no one else. I knew that I was his favorite grandchild, though I know he would never actually come out and say it.

When I was thirteen, he gave me the greatest birthday gift that any new teenager could ever imagine. He took me on a trip to Scotland with him, to visit with his family there. It was amazing and I will never forget how special he always made me feel.

The memories of that trip are very dear to me, as Grandpa passed away later that summer. He had been battling cancer and never told anyone about it. I think that he knew it was the last chance he had to make lasting memories with him. He was an incredible man and I miss him so much, even yet.

I am involved in a joint venture partnership that is in the process of buying and flipping homes.  My stake in it isn’t that much, but I thought that it would be a good way to make my money work a little harder for me.

We have been working on our current house for the past two months, and it looks so much different than when we started.  New floors, paint, and appliances can be found inside, and it is one of the nicest houses that I have ever seen.

We are just about ready to sell, and we will be putting it on the market on Monday.  The inside of the house is clean, but we thought that we would spend some money to get professional house washing and concrete cleaning before it is on the market.

So, a pressure washing company is cleaning the house right now as we speak, and I can’t wait to see what it looks like when it is done.  We are looking at making a tidy profit on it, and with it being clean, we might even be able to squeeze a little bit more money out of it – we’ll just have to see.

For the longest time, the hot dog stand that we own has not accepted debit or credit cards.  There was a good reason for it – we thought that the price point that we were working with didn’t merit offering those types of payment options.

But times are changing and you can be hard pressed sometimes to find someone that is actually carrying around some money – in fact, most people don’t use money at all.

So, we have been looking into different payment processors that we could use at our stand that would be easy to be approved and meet our needs.

After talking to our bank, we were denied the opportunity.  They told us that we didn’t have sufficient credit so we didn’t qualify.

But, I was able to find offshore merchant accounts that didn’t require any credit and now we are in business – our sales are already up by 25% since we started taking credit and debit cards.

It is definitely the sign of the times when everyone is rushing to find their place online.  When we see many businesses online that is one thing, but we are seeing more and more organizations make their way online.  A good example would be the church I attend.

Our church wanted to have an online outlet to communicate with the members of the church in an easy fashion that would not be a lot of money.  Also, they wanted to have an easy platform that would be used by most of the congregation (we have a lot of younger couples in our church), so they decided to go with MySpace.

They used one of the many religious MySpace layouts that you can find online.  Someone tweaked it a bit so that it had the picture of our church on there, but it looks great.  The response has been good too – it has made it very easy for us to all stay in touch.

A number of years ago, I was floundering financially.  I thought that we were going to go under, but it was at that point that something amazing happened.  You see, a friend of mine introduced me to Joe – a successful land investment guru.

Now, he didn’t give me money or anything like that, but he did give me advice.  I learned how to manage my money better than I have in years, and now I am better at budgeting and living within my means.

But the advice didn’t stop there.  He taught me how to look at the land for sale section in the paper and pick out some winning investments.  In fact, I successfully bought some UK land and it has made me some good money.

I guess, what I have to say is that I have to thank Joe for his advice – without him, I wouldn’t be where I am today.

When I first started out in an MLM organization years ago, I really had no idea what I was doing.  Sure, I read the training materials and learned about the products, but after that, I had no idea.  I almost felt like I was sent out into the cold to try and learn how to hunt on my own – without knowing what tools I should be using.

Fast forward a few years and I am finally at a point where I have achieved some MLM success.  The only reason that I have made it to this point is that I have learned how to work the business along the way.

Though I am no expert when it comes to MLM lead generation, I seem to have made some headway when it comes to blogging for profit.  Seems each time that I put a blog post on my blog, I get inquiries from people wishing to join the MLM program that I am a part of – which in turn makes me some money.

I am amazed at all the free or inexpensive information and tools that are out there now online. Everything from lots of free web host choices to inexpensive domain registration companies, to books. Finding information on just about anything has never been easier.

In the main, I think this is a good thing. It means that competition and is alive and well on planet Internet. But I can’t help but wonder where all this information is leading? The larger the Internet becomes, the more it resembles a beast with a voracious appetite. Or is it Internet users who have the voracious appetite? Either way, there is more information available today than ever before.

Sadly, libraries and their physical books are losing their influence. Teachers at the high school level bemoan the fact that they must insist that research paper resources include books and periodicals. I don’t know how this will play out in the future, but I wonder if it will still be considered a bargain if we lose physical book appreciation and libraries become extinct?

When I first started building websites, if you didn’t know HTML, you were screwed.  In fact, it used to be the cornerstone of every site, and without it, you just were not going to have a web presence.

But now thanks to the quick and easy website design software that I purchased, I don’t have to be a coding genius anymore.  In fact, I would argue that it has allowed me to take my sites to the next level and do cool effects like having a JavaScript menu on each site.

I have even taken it one step further, and I have taught my wife how to use the software.  Now, I leave the designs up to her, and it has made my life that much easier.  Now, I can spend more time focusing on quality content instead of the design and I can make that many more sites in a shorter period of time.