What is a Timeshare? Your Basic Guide to Timesharing

You may never have heard of the term timeshare. Even if you have, you might have no idea what a timeshare actually is.

A timeshare is the shared ownership of a resort or holiday home. Multiple buyers will purchase their share of the home from its owner, so they can spend a few weeks in their dream resort without having to buy the whole thing.

This might sound ideal, but there’s a lot more to owning a timeshare. Here is a simple guide to what timesharing is and whether or not they are worth spending your money on.

What is a Timeshare?

A timeshare is often also referred to as vacation ownership, although this term is quite misleading. With a timeshare, you don’t actually own the holiday home outright. Instead, you pay a smaller fee to own it for a small portion of the year (usually a few weeks or months).

Why Do People Buy Timeshares?

Most people choose to buy a timeshare so they can enjoy their favorite resort every year without having to fork out a large amount of money buying it. It enables you to choose an annual fixed date to jet off to your dream destination without the worry or stress that usually comes along with finding a great hotel.

Unlike a hotel room, a timeshare offers a resort that feels more like home. Essentially, you are buying a share of your desired vacation home or villa that provides private bedrooms, a kitchen full of the latest gadgets, and the perfect scenic location. Many people find it much easier to return to the same trusted place each year, instead of scrambling to find a nice hotel every summer before they get fully booked up.

What You Need to Know Before Buying a Timeshare

If this sounds perfect for you, there are a few things you should be aware of before you jump into buying a timeshare of your favorite vacation home.

Firstly, consider searching for the best timeshare exit companies so that you are covered in case you decide you want to leave it. Of course, you can try and see your timeshare, but they can be extremely difficult to get rid of, especially if your chosen resort is in an undesirable location.

Keep in mind that timeshares are not investments. They don’t work like real estate where you buy a property, fix it up, and sell it for a profit. You don’t gain anything for your money apart from a few weeks away in the sun. And even then, you are paying more and more every year for this.

You must also take into account that your payments are not fixed. When you sign the contract for a timeshare, the prices can vary annually depending on interest rates or inflation rates. It’s really up to your landlord how much you’re going to be charged. Aside from the annual payment for your timeshare, you will also be expected to pay regular maintenance fees that cover any repairs around the resort.

Final Thoughts

Ultimately, there are good and bad points to getting a timeshare. Make sure to do your research before committing to one so you don’t end up stuck in a contract paying for something you don’t want!

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5 Tips for Establishing Loyal E-Shoppers

We’ve all heard the idiom “the customer is always right.” However, this popular saying has less to do with the actual accuracy of shoppers and more to do with customer service. Even when the customer is dead wrong, a smart storekeeper knows that it’s in the best interest of themselves and the store to treat the customer with respect.

The same thing is true when it comes to online shoppers. While you might not get the same face-to-face interactions with consumers as you would in a brick and mortar, customers still expect (and deserve) an amicable experience. Especially as ecommerce begins to overtake physical stores.

Not to mention that online vendors are in hot competition as industry grows with both small-time digital merchants and enterprise giants. In fact, online sales are expected to reach $523 billion in the U.S. in 2020. The message is clear: making yourself and your business stand out from the crowd is essential for your success in such a crowded marketplace.

Below are a few tips for establishing a loyal customer base for your ecommerce site.

Sell Quality Products

This one should be obvious, but hosting higher quality items, even if they are more expensive, is a great way to keep customers happy. Sure, you might be able to get more customers in the short term by selling products made from cheaper materials, but do you think those same buyers will come back for more? Not likely.

Selling better merchandise will separate you from imitators, build a strong customer base and ensure that shoppers will spread the good word about your offerings.

Build a Website That Is Easy on the Eyes

Prospective customers are much more likely to buy from your site if it is attractive and simple to use. Just as selling high quality products is important, so to is building a high quality website.  Do your best to cut down on clutter and avoid grainy images, as these will only distract from your most important offerings. Remember to include an ‘about us’ page, a contact page and search bar. These should be readily accessible to anyone visiting your site, whether they are a return user or first-time customer. The best ecommerce site builders will offer various templates to make your job easier.

Get Social

In today’s world, it is absolutely vital that businesses establish a social media presence to engage with customer. Research shows that the majority of consumers value a brand’s Facebook page more than its website. There are a few reasons for this: Social pages update more often than webpages, they are regularly seen in feeds during normal browsing and they offer a way for customers to communicate with their favorite ecommerce sites.

So, start a Facebook page, a Twitter account or an Instagram profile today.

Host Promotions & Contests

Once you’ve created your social media strategy, consider sharing exclusive promotions or contests with your followers. Not only does this make shoppers feel special and appreciated, it also gives you an opportunity to find new customers.

For example, you could ask your fans to tag five friends for a chance to win special prizes, encourage followers to post images of themselves using or wearing your products, or have them join you in a virtual scavenger hunt for 50 percent off select items. What other ideas can you imagine?

Use Email Marketing (Sparingly)

Obviously social media marketing has its perks, but nothing is quiet as successful as email marketing. Believe it or not, email marketing has an impressive ROI — $38 for every $1 spent. And more than 44 percent of email recipients made a least one purchase as a consequence of targeted email marketing. That’s huge!

Push your customers to join your mailing list for updates on upcoming sales, new product releases and more. That being said, you can have too much of a good thing. Sending too many emails could annoy your subscribers, so use email marketing sparingly.

As you can see, building a robust customer base is all about finding shoppers where they are and giving them what they want. Experiment with the above techniques to find out what works best for your brand and your shoppers.

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Tips for Dealing with Bankruptcy

Don’t Jump Into Bankruptcy Too Fast – Know Your Options

If you have a lot of debt and no solutions, you might feel that bankruptcy is the only option. This post covers tips for dealing with bankruptcy.  Bankruptcy is a way to re-organize or erase consumer debt, which ultimately provides a fresh start and lets you rebuild your credit score. It’s a choice that most people don’t like to make. However, if creditors call your house day and night or send threatening letters, or if your income isn’t enough to pay off your debt, you might feel trapped in a never ending cycle of minimum payments. But before you make a hasty decision, you need to understand the consequences of a bankruptcy.

Filing bankruptcy can wipe the slate clean, but it also reduces your credit score by as much as 250 points. A bankruptcy stays on your credit report for up to 10 years, and after filing, it might take up to three years before you’re able to buy a house, and even longer before you can qualify for prime rates on loans and credit cards.

Bankruptcy is certainly a simpler way to deal with debt, but there are several kinds and you need to know the difference. DoanLaw.com breaks down the differences between Chapter 7, Chapter 13, and Chapter 20 combo bankruptcy filings.

Tips for Dealing with Bankruptcy – Get credit or debt counseling

Sometimes, managing your credit and debt comes down to education. And sometimes, you need to work with a professional to get your finances on the right track.

Rather than jump into a bankruptcy filing, look into credit or debt counseling. Several non-profit credit firms and law firms can help you overcome this hurdle. Many types of services are available, such as debt settlement and credit repair. The firm might negotiate a lower interest rate and payment with your creditors, which keeps your debt payments manageable and helps you pay off balances sooner. They also offer education on managing credit, budgeting and saving money. Credit or debt counseling doesn’t offer an immediate solution to debt problem, but it can slowly improve your finances and help you avoid bankruptcy.

Tips for Dealing with Bankruptcy – Refinance your mortgage loan, if possible

If your debts are high, but you haven’t defaulted on your bills yet, your credit score might be high enough to qualify for a mortgage refinance. By refinancing your mortgage loan, you may be eligible for a lower interest rate. And since a lower interest rate can reduce your monthly house payment, this frees up cash in your budget to pay off debt. Let’s say you refinance your mortgage and save $350 a month. That’s a savings of approximately $4000 a year, which can be used to pay off your debt.

Tips for Dealing with Bankruptcy – Liquidate your belongings

If you want to get rid of debt without filing bankruptcy, you have to make sacrifices. Some people get into debt because they can’t control their spending and they purchase things they can’t afford with credit cards. To undo this damage and avoid bankruptcy, liquidate your personal belongings and use any proceeds to pay off debt. Walk around your house. There are probably plenty of items you don’t use any longer. These might include electronics, furniture pieces, clothing, toys, etc. Have a massive yard sale, post these items for sale on Craigslist or unload your items on eBay. You can even take your debt elimination efforts further and sell an extra vehicle or downsize to a cheaper home.

Tips for Dealing with Bankruptcy – Borrow from a savings account

Money experts recommend never touching a retirement account unless absolutely necessary, such as after a job loss. But if you’re on the verge of bankruptcy, and you have plenty of money in your 401(k) or individual retirement account, tapping these funds as a last resort can help you avoid bankruptcy.

There are consequences to early withdrawals. You’ll have to pay a 10% penalty plus income taxes on funds taken from the account. Also, taking money from a retirement account reduces earning potential, and you’ll have less money when you’re ready to leave the workforce. Therefore, only borrow from your account when retirement is far off in the future. This way, you’ll have time to rebuild the account and recoup what you took out.

At the end of the day, getting out of debt and avoiding bankruptcy take self-restraint and a plan. You’ll have to make sacrifices, and the journey won’t always be easy. But with patience and determination you can get rid of debt and improve your finances.

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Yard Sale Arbitrage – Wii Games

I mentioned in my earlier Yard Sale Arbitrage series on Vera Bradley Purses that I absolutely love arbitrage!  This is the process of buying an item for a low price that you are almost guaranteed to sell at a higher price.  One is able to do this well if they are familiar with the  “market” for the good in question and have a buyer “lined” up to purchase the product.  If not, you run the risk of over-paying or getting stuck with the item if you cannot move it.

Yard Sale Arbitrage – Wii Games – Background

One item that is guaranteed to move are Video games.  If you can fetch them for a good price at yard sales, they sell like hot cakes on sites online auction sites like Ebay.  I’ve sold more than 100 video/PC games on Ebay, and I’m constantly surprised at how much some of the rarer games can go for.  Check out this post on how I sold my old used Zelda Gameboy game for $80!  Other very popular games will not net much money and can actually end up losing you money if you’re not careful (over pay for the game).  It pays to have a little bit of knowledge (or a smart phone with Ebay :-)) on which are the rarer games when looking for games at yard sales.

Yard Sale Arbitrage – Wii Games – The Find

We were at a community yard sale this past Saturday bright and early when I hit the jackpot.  The person was selling some really popular Wii games for $3 each.  I happened to know specifically about several of these games as I’ve sold several of my own personal copies for $20+ each.  This seemed like a great opportunity to make a quick buck, so I jumped on it.  I bought eight out of the nine he had for sale right then and there.  I tried to bargain him down on the price since I was buying so many, but he wouldn’t go any lower.  I think he was a little suspicious that I was buying so many of them without much thought…  Here are the games I bought and the prices I have listed them for on Ebay (green ones have already sold):

• Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword – $31.99
• The Sims 3 – $14.46
• Super Smash Bros. Brawl – $22.99
• The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess – $14.99
• de Blob – $4.99
• Sonic Riders: Zero Gravity – $10.99
• Wii Play – $4.50
• Wii Sports – $19.99

I kinda hit duds with the “de Blob” game and Wii Play, but the others will hopefully make up for it.

Yard Sale Arbitrage – Wii Games – The Flip

So, how to I plan to get top dollar for these Wii games?  Why, Ebay of course!  I can set the prices pretty high and leave them as a good ’til canceled auction.  It may take a couple of weeks to sell them, but I should average $15 for each of them.  Because they are small and easily fit in a cheap envelope, there are ideal for Ebay selling.  After all of the Ebay/Paypal fees, I stand to make about 440+% profit.  Not too shabby

Yard Sale Arbitrage – Wii Games – Final Thoughts

In the end, I should make somewhere around $80  profit for selling the Wii games on Ebay.  I figure it should take me maybe two hours of my time to post all of the games to Ebay and ship them.  That should work out to be roughly $40 a hour.  I won’t get rich quick doing this, but it’s not too bad if you ask me

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How To Get Sponsored Posts On Your Blog

If you would have asked me when first starting this blog what would have brought in the most revenue, I’d answer without pause that Google Adsense would lead the pack.  well, I would have been dead wrong

How to Get Sponsored Posts on Your Blog – The Background

When visiting other sites, I’d notice from time to time that there would be articles that didn’t really seem to fit with the main content hosted on the site, or they’d have really strange links…  These would usually be labeled as “sponsored articles.”  Maybe I’m just slower than most, but I didn’t really realize what these were until just recently.

How to Get Sponsored Posts on Your Blog – What is a Sponsored Article?

Well, I’ve come to find out that a sponsored article is a post where typically a third party will write some content, include a link to another website, and pay the webmaster some amount of money to post it on their website.

The way things typically work is that an “advertising company” will solicit businesses to improve their Search Engine Optimization.  When they find someone that is willing to pay, they will plan out an article with a link to the business’ website.  They will then farm out the articles to blogs in an industry that fits.

Why would someone pay for this?  Companies shell out big bucks to get higher search engine rankings for their websites.  Higher Google rankings means more money coming in – at least that’s the pitch from the advertising companies!

How to Get Sponsored Posts on Your Blog – Sponsored Articles vs. Guest Posts

Sponsored articles differ in one main difference from a guest post.  A guest post will usually contain a link back to a BLOG whereas a sponsored article will link back to a COMMERCIAL website.

Why is this important?  For me, as MoneyAhoy began to increase in traffic, I started getting unsolicited emails daily for “guest posts.”  I followed up on a few of these, and the article quality was almost always completely terrible!  They also linked to some of the most random stuff you could imagine.  In addition, most of these were pitched to me as a: you get free content, and we’ll get the link type of a deal.  Not exactly that great of a deal from my end…

How to Get Sponsored Posts on Your Blog – My Experience

One day I received an email to sign up for a service called Valued Voice.  This company basically acts as the middle man by selling advertising links for you to place on your blog.  They write articles for you to use with the paid link, or you can compose your own if you’d rather.  The great thing about Valued Voice is that you can name your own price what what you’ll sell links for on your website/blog.

With Valued Voice, I have heard of some folks getting anywhere from $50 a post all the way up to $250 a post.  The price that you could command for your blog will usually depend on the Google page-rank.  The higher the rank, the higher you would be able to charge per post.  Regardless, those sound like great results to me!

How to Get Sponsored Posts on Your Blog – Final Thoughts

If you have a blog and you’re looking for ways to monetize it, you should consider sponsored posts. It’s a great way to pick up a little side money each month.  Just be sure that the content is something that your readers would be interested in viewing.  If the articles are completely off in left field, I could see how this could hurt your blog.  In addition, if you’re getting side offers through email for “guest/sponsored” posts, Valued Voice is a great tool that can help you determine what a good market price for sponsored posts would be for your site.

One thing to keep in mind is that “sponsored posts” are against Google’s terms and conditions.  This means that if you get caught, you could have your search results hit as a slap on the wrist.  All the popular blogs do “sponsored posts”, but few like to talk about it because of this.  If you do decide to try sponsored posts for your blog, please keep this in mind  

*Note: the Valued Voice link above is a affiliate link.  If you sign up, then I get a small benefit.  If you do decide to signup and use the service, then thanks

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Money Making New Years Resolutions

Happy New Year!  I hope everyone had a great holiday season with time to relax and enjoy family and friends.  We’re now at that illustrious time of the year where folks like you and me set new years resolutions they hope to keep throughout the year.  I’m going to try something a little bit different this year and create some money making new years resolutions for myself.

Money Making New Years Resolutions – Simplify and Eliminate

This first resolution is not as much of a money making new years resolution as it is a simplification one.  Believe it or not, the wife and I have not always been quite as good at resisting the temptation to buy retail crap.  Yes, it’s true  As a result, we’ve built up quite a collection of stuff (junk) over the years.  Well, I’d like to set a goal to get rid of as much of this unneeded stuff as we can this year.  This will help us “declutter”, make some additional side money, and readjust our lives to be less consuming.  I’ve set a goal to get rid of (mainly sell on Ebay and the like) at least 20 things a month.  I feel this is definitely an achievable goal, and I hope to also work with my wife and kids to get them in on the junk reduction fun!

Low hanging fruit that I’ve identified so far are old Nintendo DS games, computer games, DVDs, books, etc.  We’ve already given our first load of stuff to my mother-in-law to sell at her thrift shop (RichmondThriftStore.com).

Money Making New Years Resolutions – Write an eBook

The second money making new years resolution is a bit more lofty.  I’ve set a goal for myself to write an eBook on stock market investing for beginners.  I’ve read several financial planning books recently such as: A Random Walk Down Wall Street, I Will Teach You To Be Rich, and Rich Dad Poor Dad.  These have all been great general books on how to get your financial house in order, but they leave out some of the basic details on how to get started with investing.  I’ve also seen many reviews in the blogoshpere for different investing services that try to simplify investing.  To me, none of these is really hitting a good mark.  The information out there is either too detailed for beginners (like a Random Walk Down Wall Street), is too vague (like Rich Dad Poor Dad), or over-simplifies stuff to the point where I worry that folks don’t really understand what they’re getting into (like Betterment).

I plan to create a simple eBook that will take your average business professional by the hand and help them get started with stock market investing.  I haven’t created an outline yet, but I plan to keep everything on a pretty high level to give folks a well rounded understanding of stock market investing without getting into too much detail.  I’m thinking somewhere in the neighborhood of 50-75 pages would be ideal.  I’ve looked into on-line publishing with Amazon, and it seem incredibly easy once I’ve actually finished the book.

Money Making New Years Resolutions – Final Thoughts

So, what do you think?  Do these money making new years resolutions seem doable?  Did I set the bar too high or too low?  What type of new years resolutions have you set for yourself?

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Selling Pokemon Cards on Ebay

One of the suckiest things about being in MBA classes every other weekend is that I miss out on all the great yard sales with my wife and kids.  Just this past week, I think my wife struck yard sale gold!

Selling Pokemon Cards on Ebay – The Haul

My wife was at one particular yard sale with a couple Pokemon young reader books for sale.  My son had a quick look at them, and they decided to buy them.  Shortly thereafter, the man at the yard sale pulled my wife to the side.  “Would you be interested in buying this box full of Pokemon cards?” he asked.  He didn’t want to offer her the box where my son could hear.  He was going to give her an entire adult sized shoe box full of Pokemon trading cards for only $5!  My wife decided to buy them because she knows how much he likes Pokemon.

Selling Pokemon Cards on Ebay – How Much Are They Worth?

She showed me the box when I got home and I could hardly believe my eyes.  Someone probably paid more than $1,000 at some point for all of these cards.  They are about $11 for a pack of 40 on Amazon.  My son has a handful of hand-me-down cards that his friends have given him over the years, but we’ve never bought any new cards for him because they’re so damn expensive.

So we called our son over to the table, and I told him to close his eyes.  I brought the box over and set it in his lap.  I then told him to open up the box.  He almost had a kids excitement attack when he saw the box full of Pokemon cards in front of him!  As we were looking through them, my brain popped into MoneyAhoy mode – “I wonder if any of these are worth anything?” I thought aloud.

Selling Pokemon Cards on Ebay – Learning to Value Pokemon Cards

A Google search and about 30 minutes of study later, and my son and I knew what to look for in terms of rare and valuable cards.  We spent the next 3 hours sorting through all of the cards looking for all the rare and valuable Pokemon cards that we could sell on eBay.  We made a deal that we’d split any profits 50/50 – I thought it would be a great way for him to learn how to make some money.

Now, these cards aren’t in the best of shape – it’s evident that they been used pretty heavily.  Out of all of the cards, we identified somewhere around 250-300 that were rare and valuable.  Checking Ebay, most of these rare cards have sold for anywhere from $1 – $5 each.  We’d get much more money if we sell them individually, but I’m not sure if it is worth that much time and trouble.  I suspect when we sell they’ll fall on the lower end because of their condition, but we could get $300-$400 buck for all of these in total depending on how much time we devote to listing all of them!  Or so I thought…

Selling Pokemon Cards on Ebay – So Far, Not Too Much Luck

I’ve listed a handful of them so far, and they haven’t really sold at all.  The problem is the sum of PayPal, Ebay, and Postage fees comes up to about $1.  So, if we sell each card for $1.50, it really isn’t going to be worth our time.  I’m going to try and list a couple more of the most expensive cards to see if I can get any takers.  If not, we’ll have to mark this down in the history books as a waste of time  I was hoping we would be able to get $300-$400  for all of them combined (a return of up to 60,000% on our money), but it doesn’t look super promising at this point.  All-in-all, we’ve spent about 6 hours so far sorting through all of them.  I’d hate for it to be a complete waste of time, but I guess some times that’s the way it goes  I may try to combine some together into small lots to increase the chances of getting them sold if I continue to have trouble moving them individually.

Selling Pokemon Cards on Ebay – Final Thoughts

Selling Pokemon cards is just another example of yard sale arbitrage.  You win some and you lose some  The pic on the left below is of the box of Pokemon cards my wife bought for $5.  The pic below on the right are all the cards I’m hoping to sell for $1 – $2 each (fingers crossed).

Box ‘o Pokemon Cards – Whole box for $5

Hope to Sell these for ~$1-$2 each

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Selling a Blog

There is a great article written by Thomas over at YourDailyFinance.com about Selling a Blog for Millions: interview with Jim Wang of Bargaineering that I suggest you check out.  It’s a great read and really gives some great insight into selling a blog or business and things to consider!

After reading this article, it really made me wonder – when is the right time to cash out of a blog, or for that matter an entire business?

Selling a Blog – Jim Wang’s Story

The long and short of it is that Jim Wang started the site Bargaineering.com and worked his butt off to build it into a large site that eventually sold for $3.5 million dollars!!

Jim currently still works for the company that bought out his blog, but he does not have direct control over it.

So, When is the Right Time to Sell a Blog or Business?

People usually start a business because they have a great idea or skill that they’d like to bring to market.  Hopefully, the business idea or skill has real meaning for them.

To me, the time to sell a blog or a business is when the amount offered from a prospective buyer is greater than the meaning that the current business has to its owner.  Maybe the owners heart is no longer in the business.  Maybe the owners desires have changed over time and they could take the money to do something even greater that holds more meaning for them?

Selling a Business – Bittersweet

One of the questions that Thomas posed to Jim was how did you feel after the deal completed?  At the time I read this, I thought “what kind of question is that?”  Of course he felt on top of the world – $3 million bucks!

But, Jim’s answer was very unexpected.  He said he felt sad in a way.  The more I thought about Jim’s answer, the more I realized that I would probably feel the same way.

If you put your heart and soul into something for years at a time, I would guess its almost like losing a small piece of yourself when you let go of it.

Selling a Business – After The Dust Settles

After a business is sold and the dust settles, many entrepreneurs will continue on to start a new business or venture.  With the new influx of cash, this allows them the potential to shift industries or start much larger scale operations.

In Jim’s case, he is back and at it again with his new site: Microblogger.com .  This site focuses on teaching bloggers how to make money based on Jim’s own personal experience.  A bit of a shift in focus for Jim, but mostly he is continuing in the same industry (blogging).

Selling a Business – What About You?

If you own your own business, does it still hold the same meaning as when you first started it?  Does it make sense to jump at that first or second offer to buy you out, or should you hold out with the belief that your business will blossom and grow as you continue to build it?

In the famous example of Microsoft’s bid to buy Facebook for $15 Billion, I have to admit I thought Mark Zuckerberg was crazy to reject the offer!  Fast forward to today and Facebook has IPO’ed and the company’s market cap is currently $93B+.  Not too shabby!

So, for those business owners, how long have you been at your business and what price would it take for you to sell your business that you’ve built from the ground up?

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