Last summer I paid off my F150 pickup truck and then last month I paid off my Jeep Grand Cherokee.  Well, yesterday I went and made the second to last payment on my Dodge Durango.  It feels amazing and without a doubt I wouldn't be where I am without the affiliate income I earn on the internet and the motivation my 18 month daughter brings.  Of course, also, I would be lieing if I didn't give credit to Dave Ramsey.  But more on that later in the post.

In total, in just vehicles, not including other debt, my wife and I have paid off more than $30,000 in debt.  Every check I wrote felt like a stone had been lifted from my shoulders.  The vehicles feel different when I drive them now and they look just a bit more shiny setting in my drive way.  Never again do I want to go back to a vehicle payment, to become a slave to the bank.

My wife is in agreement with me, we will never go into debt to purchase a vehicle ever again.  Furthermore, we have been working to remove ourselves from debt all together and the goal is within sight.  Other than the mortgage on our house, we intend to be debt free by the end of 2009.  This long journey started with the planning of my first child and has now continue 18 months later into a way of life.  As mentioned previously, listening to Dave Ramsey and reading what he suggests has been a great motivation and inspiration.

What I'm Currently Reading

Last week I went to the library and checked out Richest Man in Babylon, per Dave Ramsey's recommendation.  Although I will typically only read nonfiction, this book has been a great way to solidy ideas I already have.  It's an easy read, straight forward, simple sentence structures, and everything written holds true today as the day it was written.

Are you looking to get out of debt?  Do you want to know how others became successful or why those who win the lottery almost always eventually go into bankruptcy?  This book will get you started on how to build wealth, by eliminating debt, and keeping what's rightfully yours...your income.

This post was not meant to gloat, because I know how fortunate my family is.  But now more than ever, it pays off to be frugal and focus on eliminating that slave feeling to your lenders.  I'm proof positive any happy spender can turn over a new leaf and become debt free.  Hell, I haven't even used a credit card in more than 18 months.  It's a lesson that has made my work life that much more rewarding and my wallet smile.

Adwords is a phenomenal and arguably the best PPC advertising medium currently available.  It's easy enough anyone with 5$ can get started, but advanced enough to meet any veterans needs.  Adwords operates on auction style pricing, meaning those who bid the most for keywords get highest placement, more visability, etc.  However, an individual ads pricing may need to be higher based on an ads quality score.

The qualitys core is described by Google as a dynamic variable, which takes into account many on page factors (your ad landing page) to determine keyword relevancy.  The more relevant the landing page is to the keyword you are bidding on, the lower your bid must be to gain placement.  There is an easy way to find out what your Adwords Quality Score is, for each individual keyword within your Adwords campaign.

1. Sign in to your AdWords account at https://adwords.google.com.
2. Select the campaign, then select the ad group for which you'd like to see keyword Quality Scores.
3. Click Customize columns at the top of Keywords tab in the ad group table.
4. Select Show Quality Score from the drop-down menu.
5. Click Done when you're finished.

For more official tips on maximizing your Google Quality score and finding out the official Google word, please view their Quality Score Help Page.  Getting a high quality score is extremely important to get low cost bids on keywords to maximize the ROI for any campaign.

I'm always game for finding a way to simply my work and currently I'm using a number of helpful scripts to get my job done. Often times finding a script that makes adding affiliate links to Word Press blog posts is just what the Dr. ordered, which is why I utilize phpBay. I've also discussed the benefits of using phpBay, how it can also help with unique content and getting search traffic for long tail keywords.

Today I came across a new plugin that I'm hoping will make my life easier, WP-Amazon. This neat little plugin makes configuring my Amazon Associates ID and searching items to add to posts a breeze. WP-Amazon adds an Amazon search bar to the side of your 'Write' post screen, where you can find an item, select options and automatically add it to your posts. I'm eager to see how this will save me time and convert visitors to affiliate sales.

Perhaps the maker of WP-Amazon should look into creating a similar plugin for big CJ affiliates as well. There is no doubt I could find a use for a similar wp plugin for NewEgg and others.

See below for an example of what an Amazon product added to a blog post with WP-Amazon looks like.

The E-Code: 33 Internet Superstars Reveal 43 Ways to Make Money Online Almost Instantly---Using Only Email

I'll be coming up with a full review of this plugin, along with other suggestions in the next few days.  After my first post I'm noticing a few bugs that screw with my display, but no big deal.  Furthermore, having a nice template print out instead of a drag and drop image and title would be beneficial as well.  I'll do some searching and be back later.

It looks like the eBay Partner Network is finally addressing some problems that date back to the beginning of April, unfortunately it doesn't look like problems that most are concerned with.  You can find a list of fixes and bugs that they've squashed on the EPN Blog.  Judging by the EPN discussion forums and other webmaster forums most people were concerned with actual ACRU and revenue reporting issues.  Personally, I've not experienced any problems.

According to the EPN blog they have addressed issues like Customer Support downtime, confirming registrations, API Id's and the like.  These issues do not discuss anything to do with their possible reporting errors with a small percentage of their publishers.  I'm still assuming that the ones having problems are just not use to the swing cycle of online marketing, especially on a garage sale affiliate network.  Guess what, people are outside this time of year and they don't have any money anyways.

I think Yoda knows what he is talking about, 'Patience'.

Check out the full post for the list of fixes on the EPN.

More on EPN Announces Problems and Fixes

Recently I sold off one of my websites for a substantial amount of money, at least for me. Now, I'm not a stranger to selling websites, since that's originally what I started off doing over a year back. However, those sites were not established and generally sold in the neighborhood of $300-$400, something easy enough to receive through PayPal and not require contracts. This site was different, it was in the upper $x,xxx range and I was not willing to give PayPal any of it, AND I was worried about protecting my ownership until the funds were verified.

The process was simple and the transaction painless, mainly in part to the great communication the buyer had and because I'm such a charming bastard. Anyways, we agreed to a set of terms, negotiated final price, and both decided to protect our interests we should make sure it was legally binding. eBay was our first choice for such a transaction, since the auctions were considered binding and everything would be in writing...nothing hidden.(I hate he said, she saids) The auction was setup as a Buy It Now and the buyer was notified immediately after posting, so no one else would jump in and ruin a perfectly good transaction.

Then, we both setup Escrow.com accounts, which was quite possibly the most painless thing I've ever done. Initial setup required only the basics and I opted to wait on revealing my financial details until I was sure the transaction would go through. Escrow was used for the domain ownership and as such Escrow.com had a simple sales template that I filled out using the predetermined details we discussed earlier. Within 15 mins the details were mailed to the buyer, where he was required to accept or decline.

After accepting the rest of the process was almost completely automated. The buyer was required to choose a payment option and in this case Wire Transfer was the only option for the dollar amount. Afterward Escrow.com kept in contact with me, notifying me when payment was selected, payments received, and payments verified.

After verification of monies, I was required to transfer the domain. After doing so I notified Escrow.com and then they checked to see if things had changed with the whois. Essentially it took about 48 hours for the process of money transfer to verifying domain transfer took place. After that it was as simple as me choosing a payment method.

Getting My Money

It's as easy as entering your banks routing number, account number, and making sure you have your Bank's address on file. But here is a TIP, ACH transfer and Wire transfer are not the same thing. Banks have a different Wire transfer routing number than the routing number found on the bottom of your checks, which is the correct routing number if you plan on doing an ACH transfer. I goofed, but caught it in time before batch processing had taken place.

Escrow.com Customer Service

Simply fantastic customer service! Not once did I feel like I was being left on hold too long, going through irritating automated messages, or getting the runaround. All I received was polite customer service attention and assurance that my problem was going to be fixed.

Thanks Escrow.com!

This was NOT a paid posting, only my honest to goodness opinion of a quality service. Because it was so painless, I may end up using it on smaller transactions now as well, just to play it safe.

More on Nails Escrow.com Review