Monday, May 31, 2010

FTC Blogging Disclosure


Peaceful Forest Homestead is touched by the big arm of the FTC Blogging Disclosure

What is this page about you ask? This is another of the constraints of our wonderful FREE country. I have to and so does every other blogger in our country have to post this….. FTC needs a blogging disclosure so that my readers understand that there are times that I may be getting paid for the links in the material I write about. I also have Amazon and other links on the side of the text that I think may be of interest to my readers. I have tried to use reputable companies to affiliate myself with. As of December 1st 2009, I’m required to disclose this for the material I write on.
My text is always about me, my lifestyle, my family, my thoughts or how I did things. Sometimes I write about a subject that I didn’t actually do because a reader had contacted me with a question. Then I go out and do the research on that particular topic and write about it. Not from my own view but from my research.
I never receive anything free from any company or anyone to write a biased text. My content is usually based on my own or my husband’s opinions on business or financial matters.  I do things different than most people and do not expect you or anyone to follow my example. If you want to try some of my ideas that is fine, but you need to do your own research. I will never write a good review about a product that I don’t feel deserves it. I try to be very honest in all my posts whatever the subject.
What I am trying to explain here is that I am an affiliate marketer as well as a blogger. When I choose to write about my experiences with a product and/or service, often times I will have an affiliate link attached to that product. If so when you buy that product I will get paid a small commission. It’s not much but keeps my site going. So thank you if you do click my links and make a purchase. I appreciate it.
According to the new law from the FTC, I need to disclose this to you.
Kathleen G. Lupole
May 31, 2010
Copyright © 2010 Kathleen G. Lupole
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Sunday, May 30, 2010

Little Steps #1 - Goals


Freedom comes with planning and hard work!

Your first step should be listing your goals.What is it that you want? Do you want to own a big fancy house? Drive a fancy sports car? Or are you happy with a modest home and vehicle and look forward to seeing the world? Traveling is the goal of many people. Paying for your children's education is another good goal. List every single thing you can think of. All your wants. Maybe you just want to pay off all your debt. For me, I'd have to say my number one goal is the freedom I mentioned in my last post. Freedom will give me any or all of those things if I so choose.

Freedom will give me the choices I want in life. The choices to do what I want when I want. Not having to do something because it is all I can afford. Not having to buy a certain kind of car because it is the cheapest or in my price range. I want to be comfortable in my life. But not to have to work nonstop because I want freedom. Then that would not be freedom. That would chain me to a computer or whatever I am doing to make money.

Having many different streams of income also gives me the freedom of not being dependent on one business or one form of income generation. I enjoy working on my computer so that is where I find my source of income. Establishing my business of selling guitar strings has been a focus of mine for some time now. I am building this business up little by little. I see an increase in my sales and the hard work is beginning to pay off. I also write two other blogs that I have had up for more than a year. I write about my lifestyle on Homesteading On The Internet and on Solar Baby I write about our small affordable solar system. I have affiliate links on both of those and will have some on this site as well. Affiliate links help to keep my sites up and running. Maybe some day they will generate more income. I have to learn how to hit the right mix of affiliate links and non-affiliate links to generate the trust of my readers. Many of my links are not paid hits just links of sites that I like.

Another form of income for me is my eBook, My Homesteading Journey. It is a book I wrote about my lifestyle about three years ago. I was surprised with that book when I had a VERY famous celebrity buy it. Here I was thinking that a poor person living in Los Angeles was buying my book to learn how to escape from the city. I put the person's name in the search engine and who should come up but a VERY famous father and his address and telephone number! I could not believe it. I did it over again. Then I checked the address and telephone number and sure enough..............a rich person, living in Hollywood bought my book. It was on their computer! I was so psyched!! So working on the internet brings your products to the worldwide market.

So take a few minutes today and write your wants and goals down. They are two different things. Your wants are your dreams of the future. What it is that you want from life. Money does not matter. Whatever it is. As Donald Trump says, "Dream Big." Your goals are your list of what you must do to make your dreams come true.

Copyright © 2010 Kathleen G. Lupole
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Saturday, May 29, 2010

Welcome To Little Steps!

One of my many steams of income comes from my eBook,
My Homesteading Journey

Welcome to my new blog, Little Steps! I am hoping to share my knowledge with anyone who comes here looking for answers. Answers to what? Answers to living in the world we now have. A world of depression and economic uncertainty. Doctors now say that the biggest cause of disease and ill health is caused by stress. Stress that comes from financial struggles. And I am not talking about just people living at or below the poverty level. I am talking about people making what most consider to be good incomes. Makes sense to me. The reason being that people who are living at poverty, or below poverty levels, are used to it. They know what to do to survive. Not people with good incomes. Or people who USED to have good incomes. By the way, what exactly is a good income anyway? 

Everyone is looking for money. Everyone is looking for an easy way to riches. Everyone is searching for a way to eliminate debt. People are struggling financially the world over. If you are not rich you are suffering from no freedom. Freedom is only available to people with the means to pay their own way. To pay for their own health care. To pay for their own food, housing, transportation, etc. What to do? Such a big to do over the health care insurance that is being forced on us. Don't you think everybody would have it if they could afford it? So what happens if you just don't have the extra money for it? Do they throw those people in jail? Maybe they should, because then they could get their health care without having to pay for the insurance. Maybe that is what will have to happen. If you are stretched already trying to live from one paycheck to another, how do they expect you will be able to pay for another bill? And how much will that bill be? Health insurance is very expensive. Otherwise, everyone would already have it!  

I presently have eight different streams of income. Some provide more income than others. Some do well for awhile and then lose their momentum for a period of time. You have to work hard on each of them. But I have learned not to keep all my eggs in the same basket. If I am too dependent on one income and something happens to it then I would be out of luck. Luck? Not really luck but hard work. Even with hard work things happen.One other way to have extra income is by cutting expenses in other areas. Now I am not talking about living frugally..........even though I have written often on my other blog about living that way. I have decided I want to live the good life, but not by being a penny pincher or a tightwad. I have cut expenses in ways that have raised my standard of living. I will elaborate more about that in future posts.

I believe you need a goal list or a map of sorts. One that will keep you motivated to actually do what needs to be done to realize your goals. Little steps is what my husband calls it. Little steps lead to the bigger steps, to attaining one of your goals. You work on one of your little steps and that will enable to move up to another step, and soon those little steps have enabled you to attain one of your goals. Your goals can be whatever you want them to be. There are no rules in following your little steps. It is what you want to do with your life. Think about it.



Copyright © 2010 Kathleen G. Lupole

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