Bachelor "Polar Bear Plunge"

The other night on the Bachelor Shaun and the girls took an ice cold plunge in a freezing lake in Canada.  You call that a date!?  I guess he wants a girl who is willing to do things VERY FAR outside of her comfort zone.  This might explain why almost every date has to do with hanging hundreds of feet in the air with only a rope holding you up... But hey, why not take advantage of the perks while you are the Bachelor??  When else will you be able to rock climb down a 400 foot cliff in the middle of Canada?  If I was him, I would be doing the exact same thing!

Crazy Schedules "How to Organize Your Time"

I am currently working a full time job and going to College full time as well.  I often find myself waking up at 5:00 AM and up until the wee hours of the night trying to get everything done!  Two years ago I would have wondered how I could possibly have time to get everything done.  I've learned a few simple factors that contribute to my efficacy at work and at school that I'd love to share.

1- Don't procrastinate!  If you have homework, DO IT NOW!  Every once in a while I let the lazy side take over and I put off papers or assignments and this ALWAYS leads to negative consequences.  Whether they be bad scores or even less sleep doesn't matter, the consequences will always be bad!

2- Keep yourself sane with a little "you" time.  I love to snow ski and play sports.  I try to go skiing once in a while and when I have time I will work out or watch sports.  Don't get so bogged down and busy that you can't find time to do things you enjoy!  Tip #1 should help with not getting too busy ;)

These two tips can help quite a bit with busy schedules!  I know, I've tested them out.

Good luck!

Affiliate Marketing Tips

If you have ever been interested in Affiliate Marketing or if you would like a few tips on how to do it better this is the article for you! 

I am offering a few simple basic tips to help in your efforts to reach your target market.  First, quantcast.com! This site is absolutely wonderful.  It's free and you can basically just copy and paste whatever URL you want to investigate into the site and pull up the demographics of people who visit the site most.  This allows you to find out what gender, age, and race is most interested in the URL of topic and tweak your marketing accordingly.  

Second, Facebook is the absolute last place you want to do affiliate marketing.  When have you ever gotten on Facebook to buy something?  Has the thought, "Hey I should do some online shopping on Facebook today," ever crossed your mind?  I think not!  Then why would you want to use it to market your affiliate ads?  Use Plentyafish or some other platform where people are actually in the "buying frame of mind."

Last, make sure you love to write, because that's all you will be doing!

Good luck!

Bachelor CRAZINESS Continues

With the new season of Bachelor well under way, we are seeing a similar pattern of at least one CRAZY during each season.  Teirra is this season's CRAY of CRAZIES!  Something new seems to happen every week to add to the drama surrounding the house.  She's tried everything from falling down the stairs to faking hypothermia, all of which have been successful in winning Shaun's attention and sympathy.  All the girls in the house seem to be on to her little tricks and have been warning Shaun not to fall victim of her antics.  These warnings have only added to the drama and to be honest, have kind of annoyed our boy Shaun.  Who knows when he will finally see through the CRAZINESS of Teirra's "Teirrable" two-sided personality???

Why we are spending higher % of income on GAS!

In the past couple of years Americans are spending more of their income on gas than ever before.  The main factors in this rise in percentage has a few different factors.  First, average household incomes have actually decreased in the past couple of years while the price of gas has only gone up.  That alone will increase the percentage of income spent on gasoline.  Another factor is the rising gas prices is the increase of world demand for oil.  The increase in demand is caused by technological advances, higher-quality roadways worldwide, and the increase of sellers in the world.  This increasing demand is putting upward pressure on the price as well causing gas prices to sky rocket to all-time highs.
Even though many Americans are paying more in gas percentage why's than ever before, this could change in the coming years.  The rise in gas prices hasn't had as large of an effect on domestic demand because there are not many goods more inelastic than gasoline.  This increase in price in the short-term may have little effect on how much gas Americans are actually buying, but long-term solutions are already being taken advantage of by many.  In Utah, UTA is putting forth more efforts and spending to expand public transportation which could lead to less people on the roads, and less gas needed to fuel those vehicles.  All vehicle manufacturers are working endless hours trying to come up with the next-best-thing in fuel efficiency.  Hybrids and electric cars are becoming more prevelant among drivers and will only become more abbundant on the roads.  These factors, long-term, could cut the demand for gasoline by huge margins in the years to come.  That's good news for those of us who prefer driving big trucks and muscle cars.
High gas prices are definitely injuring Americans pocket books now and probably always will, but at least actions are being taken to lessen the blow in the future.  Continued advances in motor technology and public transportation will become needed subsititutes to gasoline and will lower the global and domestic demand for gasoline.  As for now, corn and natural gas are the only other options which are hardly reliable subsititutes.  Regarding the future, there's still hope for major decreases in gas prices but every one must buy into the ideas of public transportation and electric motors.