My biggest regret about how I spent my college years is that I didn’t apply some—or all—of my free time to entrepreneurial pursuits. If you’ve got time between classes, your college dorm room is a great place to start a business. After all, Microsoft, Dell, Apple, Facebook, Netscape, and FedEx were all started by college students. If you want to start a business at college, here are a few tips: Read the rest of this entry »

Maybe you’ve got a killer business idea and a bullet-proof business plan, or maybe you’re already raking in some cash, either full-time or on the side. If you’re an entrepreneur, eventually you’ll need to decide how to structure your business. Read the rest of this entry »

Business credit cards are the credit card industry’s best-keep secret. They feature lower APRs, better rewards, and better introductory terms than consumer cards—and anybody with good credit can get one. No business? No problem. Here are five reasons to swap your current plastic for a business card. Read the rest of this entry »

If you’re serious about making money blogging and already have your blog topic and your blog set-up, the next step is to get eyeballs on your site! Here’s how you can begin to write great content and utilize several unique strategies to begin to build traffic on your blog. Read the rest of this entry »

Continuing our series on how to blog for profit, this post looks at how to start your blog for less than $20 – or even for free. Read the rest of this entry »

With plenty of bloggers making a steady part-time income from their sites and some even earning a full-time income, I thought I would share the strategies I employed to turn my blogs into a significant source of extra income each month. Read the rest of this entry »

“Startup” by phitar.

Astute readers of this blog will know that I advocate increasing your income more often than reducing your spending. It’s time to put my money where my mouth is with ten real business ideas (not cheesy work-at-home ideas) that require little or no money to start up.

I’m not saying these ideas will make you rich, but with a little hard work you might end up with a nice second income. Read the rest of this entry »

If you, like me, are a nine-to-fiver and a part-time entrepreneur, the IRS is not going to congratulate you for your hard work, but they will take their cut. Did your side-gig take a loss last year?

You may be able to deduct that loss and beef up any refund you are owed. But be careful: Deduct a business loss for more than a couple years in a row and you may be flagged for a painful audit.

The IRS has recently caught on to taxpayers utilizing self-defined business losses to reduce their total income and, subsequently, their tax liability. As a result, the IRS has instituted the so-called hobby loss rule.

There is no way to easily distinguish between a for-profit business and a not-for-profit hobby. Whether you are a photographer who shoots weddings, a musician who plays a few gigs, or a blogger with advertising revenue, whether you earn $1 a year or $100,000, your side work could be considered either: a business, or a hobby. Read the rest of this entry »

So, you think you want to be filthy rich? Thirty year-old Alan Corey had the same dream, and in his new book, A Million Bucks by 30, he explains exactly how he went from average Joe to a millionaire before his thirtieth birthday. Read the rest of this entry »

Yesterday I purchased the personal finance page at MillionDollarWiki.com. What is it, and why did I buy it? Read the rest of this entry »