Although one has to be concerned about Google’s virtual monoply on search, tools such as providing access to government data can only be seen positively.  I have spent some time looking at government data and soon realized that I could spend hours trying to generate simple charts.   Google promises that this access to unemployment rates and population figuress is just the beginning to providing more access to government data.

• 15 Minutes to Riches Has A New Owner
  Posted on Saturday, March 7th, 2009 in Site Update – Comments: (0)
  March 7, 2009: I have purchased 15minutestoriches.com from Matt.  Over the next week or so I will be working through the usual issues with a transfer, introducing a new name for the website and will begin regular posting.
• 15 Minutes to Riches is Now Wealth Itself
  Posted on Sunday, March 15th, 2009 in Site Update – Comments: (0)
  March 15, 2009: The new name of the site is Wealth Itself (www.wealthitself.com).  Please see About Wealth Itself on why I picked the domain name. If you are looking for a post, please search the Archives or use the site’s Google custom search function.  I will be soon posting regularly, mostly about the creation and preservation of wealth, but not exclusively.
• Buying Glasses Online – PD & Fitting Height
  Posted on Saturday, March 28th, 2009 in Buying Online – Comments: (0)
  photo credit: oskayHow often have you heard someone tell you how much he or she paid for their prescription glasses? How often have you told someone how much you paid?  These statements never seem to suggest that the glasses were cheaper than expected.  In response to the high cost of glasses, buying glasses online is becoming commonplace, with price being the primary driver for the increasing success of this option.
• How We Saved $31 Dollars This Month on Our Electric Bill
  Posted on Saturday, March 21st, 2009 in Save Money – Comments: (2)
  How often do you look at the inserts that are stuffed in your monthly bills?  A year ago or so I decided to research an insert that was included with my electricity bill, because it said I could shop for an electricity supplier.   Why would I want to do that?  Well, apparently, these other suppliers offered different rates.   Still curious, I went to the website noted on the insert and discovered a number of approved suppliers – all of whom offered lower rates than the default supplier (CL&P).
• Look for Opportunities During a Recession
  Posted on Wednesday, March 25th, 2009 in Blogging – Comments: (0)
  photo credit: philectricThe ongoing economic turmoil and uncertainty has dominated the news.  There is a fear that this recession could be the next depression, that nobody is quite sure of the way out of it and that government actions will have consequences long after the recession is over.  Or maybe you or a family member, friend or neighbor has lost his or her job or is worrying about losing their job.

• 5 Reasons to Track Your Expenses
  Posted on Sunday, January 4th, 2009 in manage money – Comments: (3)
  One of the most important things you can do for your finances is to track your expenses.  For many people, this means using Quicken.  For me, it’s a simple Google Docs spreadsheet.  Whatever your method, there are countless reasons to perform the simple task of tracking your expenses.  5 of these reasons are listed below: It’s absolutely the simplest way to overcome your paycheck-to-paycheck lifestyle.
• A Penny Saved is a Penny… Saved
  Posted on Monday, January 5th, 2009 in save money – Comments: (4)
  Want to know a quick and easy way to save money?Keep a piggy bank.That’s right… just like you did when you were a kid and had no financial worries in the world. Simply find a container that is lying around the house, unused, and put it to use. I use a sugar jar (which hasn’t actually contained any sugar for probably about 2 years) to collect my spare change.
• Garbage Disposals and Money in My Pocket
  Posted on Saturday, January 10th, 2009 in save money – Comments: (5)
  We’re in a recession–no doubt about it.  Companies are downsizing left and right, coworkers are getting laid off, the housing market is stagnant, and pay raises and corporate bonuses are smaller than ever.  On top of that, things are likely to get worse before they get better.Drastic times such as these call for drastic measures.  In this post, I’m going to present to you one such measure.
• Information Overload Will Eat Your Brain
  Posted on Sunday, January 11th, 2009 in manage money – Comments: (5)
  Well, it’s the 21st century and there is so much information floating around that it’s just impossible to ever consume it all.  This surplus of information has given us a need to quickly sort through our sensory inputs, separating the good from the bad, and ignoring (if we can) the bad.As a result, we’ve seen the rise of social sites such as Digg and StumbleUpon, we’ve been introduced to new groundbreaking productivity systems such as GTD and ZTD, and we’ve witnessed the uprising of a new psychological condition commonly referred to as ADD.
• Want a Quick and Easy $25?
  Posted on Tuesday, January 6th, 2009 in Uncategorized – Comments: (3)
  Here’s a quick and easy way to get $25 for practically nothing…Open an Orange Savings Account or Electric Orange Checking Account with ING Direct and get $25 deposited into your account FOR FREE, when you deposit at least $250.Folks, if you save your money, ING Direct is an excellent bank to work with.  They generally offer higher rates than B&M banks and are very reputable.

All guest post submissions must follow these guidelines:

• Topic must be related in some way to personal finance (it helps to provide not only money-saving tips, but time-saving tips as well, in order to fit with the “15 minutes to riches” theme).
• Post must be a minimum of 500 words.
• Post must use proper spelling and grammar.
• Post must be original content.
• Post may contain one or more links to your own site for promotional purposes.

If you are interested in being a guest author for Wealth Itself, please let me know.  Thanks and happy reading!

Open an Orange Savings Account or Electric Orange Checking Account with ING Direct and get $25 deposited into your account FOR FREE, when you deposit at least $250.

Folks, if you save your money, ING Direct is an excellent bank to work with.  They generally offer higher rates than B&M banks and are very reputable… not to mention the fact that they are giving you money to sign up!  I’ve been with ING Direct for years and have had nothing but positive experiences with them.

If you are interested in this offer, contact me for an invitation.  I will then send you an invitation via email which you can use to get the free $25. This offer has expired.

I have a limited number of invitations to give out, so don’t waste time!

(Note that I do get a $10 bonus for each new account sign-up, but I would not recommend ING Direct if I did not believe in their service.  If you are going to have a savings account, ING Direct is the way to go.  Period.)

• 3 Simple Money-Making Ideas
  Posted on Friday, December 12th, 2008 in make money – Comments: (2)
  In this information age, it seems everyone is looking for simple money-making ideas that he or she can implement from home. While there is certainly no shortage of opportunities out there, there are just as many scams.Not only that, but many of the legitimate opportunities require more work than the average person is willing to put forth.In a world literally FILLED with money-making opportunities, it can sometimes seem that there are no legitimate, simple money-making opportunities out there.
• Blog Carnivals!
  Posted on Saturday, December 6th, 2008 in updates – Comments: (0)
  3 Reasons to Clean Out Your Closet Immediately has been featured on some recent blog carnivals.  Please take some time to review these carnivals, as they have aggregated some great info all in one place.  I’d like to say thanks to: 154th Festival of Frugality The Money Hacks Carnival: The Best Crazy-Simple Money Hacks EditionThanks for featuring my article!
• Gym Expenses: 3 Ways to Save
  Posted on Thursday, December 18th, 2008 in save money – Comments: (0)
  Saving money on gym expenses can be a difficult thing to do.  The gym represents a cost that many will say is unnecessary, but for the majority of us, it is probably a good investment.  Before you consider quitting your gym habit to save money, read the following tips to see if there is an alternative: Negotiate.  It’s possible to haggle for a lower gym membership fee.
• Merry Christmas!
  Posted on Tuesday, December 23rd, 2008 in Uncategorized – Comments: (0)
  To all my readers: THANK YOU for visiting and reading wealthitself.com in 2008!I’ll be out of town and busy celebrating for a few days. In 2009, we’ll get back to a regular posting schedule! See ya soon!Have a wonderful and safe holiday season!

I’ll be out of town and busy celebrating for a few days. In 2009, we’ll get back to a regular posting schedule! See ya soon!

Have a wonderful and safe holiday season!

• 3 Reasons to Clean Out Your Closet Immediately
  Posted on Tuesday, November 25th, 2008 in make money – Comments: (0)
  Let’s get straight to the point. If you’re like me, your closet probably needs an overhaul. Well, mine DID need an overhaul, but I took care of that earlier today. I couldn’t believe some of the things I found in there! There were clothes that I literally hadn’t seen in years, because I had decided, long ago (in a galaxy far, far away), that I simply didn’t like to wear them!
• How PB&J Saved Me $1,296 This Year
  Posted on Monday, November 10th, 2008 in save money – Comments: (4)
  How I Saved Over a Thousand Dollars This Year By Changing My Eating HabitsEating out is one of the worst things we can do for our finances.  While I think everyone should eat out occasionally (it can be very relaxing and socially rewarding), I don’t think eating out for lunch every day is acceptable; although it’s something that many of us do.
• Shake a Stick at Unnecessary Gym Expenses
  Posted on Saturday, November 15th, 2008 in save money – Comments: (5)
  Are you spending close to $5 on protein shakes every time you go to the gym?  If you’re like me, then you’ve gotten into this habit at one time or another.  It’s just all too easy to be drawn toward that beautiful sound of grinding blenders when you’ve just finished a hard workout.  After all, protein is very important after a good strength training session, right?

Okay okay, so while this may not be a “breakthrough” formula for success or anything (it’s more or less a paraphrasing of some great tips I try to keep in mind when blogging), it does condense some useful reminders down into an easy-to-remember (and tasty!) acronym.  Here we go:

• Contribute good content.  As Steve Pavlina has stressed time and time again, content is (almost) everything.  Without good content, you’ll never have a loyal readership.  Without a loyal readership, there’ll be no profit.
• Aspire.  Don’t be afraid to set lofty goals for yourself.  When the going gets tough, you’ll need to think about these goals for motivational purposes.  Want to be able to relax on the beach every day while your web ventures are earning you passive income?  Visualize this dream when you feel yourself sink into a lazy, unproductive mood.  Think about how lousy you’ll feel if you never achieve this goal.  Realize that you can make it happen, if you just put in the effort.  That’s sure to make you get back to work!
• Kommunicate with your community.  (Umm, so I think I may have spelled that incorrectly, but CACE wouldn’t have been a very meaningful acronym… )  Remember, communication is key.  Your goal should be to build a community for your readers–a place to which they’ll be comfortable coming back over and over again.  In my opinion, this is really how a blog creates value.  Anybody can pick up a magazine and find advice on any given topic.  The power of blogging is that each and every post creates an open forum for discussion from your users.  Utilize this!
• Educate the community.  Tell them how your blog is doing.  Tell them what kinds of posts are generating the most interest.  Tell them what kinds of ads are generating the most revenue (IF this doesn’t violate your TOS).  Tell them where the majority of your readers are coming from.  You’ll see several examples of this on wealthitself.com, especially when I do things like post earnings reports.  This is how we learn from one another.  I really believe that this kind of “open” approach to blogging adds considerably more value than one would initially expect.  This is the same principle upon which open-source software is based, and it works.

Well, there you have it–four tips for creating an online community that will be mutually beneficial to you and your readers.  Remember, if you’re not creating value for your readers, you’ll never create (monetary) value for yourself.  That’s easy as, well… cake.