I’ll be the first to admit that I don’t appreciate telemarketing calls.  Sure, once in awhile something good comes along, but honestly, most of the calls I get are not worth my time.

Now, I don’t blame the telemarketer at all, I realize that it is their job, and I try to be polite when they call and explain that I am not interested in their offer.

But about two weeks ago, I had a bad experience with one.  The telemarketer called to offer me a deal on long distance and I explained that I didn’t make long distance calls and asked if the could take me off of the list.

Usually, you don’t run into problems when this happens, but the telemarketer started to swear at me and was just plain rude.  I asked to speak to his supervisor at which point he promptly hung up on me.  I tried to call back, but the line wouldn’t accept incoming calls.

At that point I used a reverse phone directory and found the address of the company and sent them a letter.  I received a reply in the mail today issuing an apology for the treatment and confirmation that I was removed from the list.

There has been one consistent thing that I have read in books about investing:  you need to follow a system.  It can be something as simple as just buying and holding, or it can be a series of buying and selling strategies designed to get the best return on investment.

So I have been looking online for a legitimate stock trading system that would help me to get better returns on my portfolio, and I think I may have found the answer.  From many blogs that I have read, I have found that the Bettertrades system is one of the best.

They show you a way to increase returns by up to 2800% by knowing some of the tricks that the rich people use.  It is a way to achieve success through a proven system, and there are many testimonials to support their claims.

I think that I will attend one of their upcoming seminars to see what it is all about – though I am pretty much sold already.

If you’re unfamiliar with how to get started online, here are the bare bones of the process. There are many intermediate and advanced steps, but this will give you an overview.

1. Determine a topic you’re interested in and do an online search for it plus “forum”

2. Visit the forums that came up in your search. Find a topic people are asking about that you have knowledge in. Offer useful tidbits without giving away everything you know.

3. Purchase a domain name based on your topic.

4. Find a web host. There are lots of free web hosting companies out there.

5. Start a free blog using your domain name.

6. Create a page on where people can sign up to get your report free.

7. Go back to the forum thread and mention that you have a free report that answers the question.

You are now on your way to building a list and about ready to start monetizing your blog. But that’s another topic for another day.

Isn’t it interesting that in our society today, we have become a bunch of freebie seekers. And yet, research has shown that we do not value free as much as we do paid services or products. Is this a personality disorder or at the very least a personality contradiction, or is it two different groups of people? Are there freebie seeking consumers and yet another set of consumers who believe that if it does not cost a lot it obviously is not worth anything?

Another interesting contradiction is this: Those same people who believe “free” is inferior, are thrilled when they win something, for example a free iPhone. All I can figure out is this.

When the price of an item, like an iPhone, has already been established, the value of receiving it free is obvious. The problem lies in products, particularly e-books, with no intrinsic value in the eye of the consumer. The price of such an item which is not found in stores, has not been set within the common marketplace. The price and therefore the perceived value need to be firmly established in the consumers’ mind before they will buy. This is the challenge everyday marketers face. It’s easy to see, then, why tangible goods fare better in some instances than digital goods. Just a little insight from your friendly Internet philosopher.

After many years of investing in real estate properties in North America, I thought that it was time to expand my horizons.  You see, I had been doing research for land investment deals in other countries and I wanted to take that first step.

After doing some checking online, and with my team of advisors, I think that I have found the perfect place to invest for the first time – the UK.  You see, the UK land deals that I have looked at are very lucrative compared to some of the investments I have purchased over here.

So, we have been going over the land for sale listings online, I think that we have found a couple of good potential properties to invest in – now all we have to do is go out there and do our due diligence.  Once we have narrowed it down to a good one, we will make our first purchase – I am excited.

Since I am a bit of a computer geek (don’t tell anyone), I have been asked by the church choir to create a MySpace page for them.  I thought that this was a bit odd, on the other hand, the choir performs for many groups, so a central location that speaks of their performances does make sense.

The reason that they decided to go with MySpace is that it is a perfect opportunity for them to create a fan base for their music.  Not only does it give them an easy medium to connect with their fans, but they can easily notify everyone of their upcoming performances.

Instead of creating the template from scratch, I have been looking at a number of Christian MySpace layouts to find one that would work perfectly for them.  So far, I have found a couple of potential ones and I will present them to the choir at the next practice.

The thing that I hate the most about spring is how dirty everything is.  I mean, I didn’t buy my house for it to look like a pig sty – and that is just what it looks like after the snow melts.

But a couple of years ago, when I was complaining to a good friend of mine about my problems, he suggested that I look into getting a pressure washing company to come in a clean everything up for me.

I looked into it, and I decided that it was the right thing to do.  I mean, when they can come and do the house washing and concrete cleaning (on the driveway) for you, why would you bother going outside to do it yourself.

Since I have been so impressed with the results, I will be giving the cleaning company a call – I can’t stand my filthy house any longer.

Years ago, when I started to market my first website, I felt overwhelmed.  You see, I really didn’t know what I was doing, and it was a lot of trial and error.  But, after a number of tests, I finally figured out a marketing system that was going to work for me.

Many years later, I still have a marketing system, but I do things differently now.  You see, instead of doing everything by hand like the “olden” days, instead I depend on Internet marketing software tools to help automate some of my tasks.

Not only does the software help make the tasks easier, but with the number of sites that I am marketing at the moment, it also helps me to remember the marketing tasks that I have already completed.  I can also see at a glance the progress that I have made in my marketing efforts.  It definitely makes my job – and life – easier.

One of the things that I find that takes up lots of my time as a webmaster is all the website designs that I do.  I have the content for the sites outsourced already, but the web design is another story.  Unfortunately, I don’t have the budget to outsource everything, so I still have to do some of the work myself.

In an effort to make my life easier, I did a search on “quick and easy web design software” to see if there was a tool available to help me out.  After wading through the search results, I found some software that would be a perfect fit for what I wanted to accomplish.

I found a DHTML menu builder that would allow me to make menus with ease.  All I do is fill in the blanks and the code is generated automatically for me.

Now that I will have some free time, I think it will give me more time to focus on promoting my sites which should increase my income – something that I wouldn’t mind at all.

With the birth of our third child, I knew we had it made.  Our first you were a boy and a girl, so we had all the clothes we were going to need, as well as all the baby gear required to properly equip us for a baby.

When friends and family members came to visit us, inquiring about what we needed for baby gifts, it was difficult for us to come up with ideas about what might be useful.  We wrecked our brains and couldn’t come up with anything.

In the end, the ideas that they came up with were amazing.  We were given lots of meals, as well as certificates for babysitting.  We also ended up with as many diapers as we were ever going to need for our new little bundle of joy.

The best one was the one that both of our families pitched in for.  We got a new backyard play structure that all of the kids could eventually enjoy.