Ebook Sample Content Preview:

CHAPTER 13: MAKING SMART PLAYLISTS

You have the option of making mediocre playlists for your iPod that simply “do the job”. Or you can master the art of creating Smart Playlists that wow everyone including yourself. Smart Playlists are one feature of iTunes that is very underused. A Smart Playlist is automatically updated depending on what kind of criteria you set for them. iTunes lets you create playlists by combining your music tracks from a variety of albums, artists, and genres. Using Smart Playlists lets you take the playlist to an even higher level.

Smart Playlists were first introduced in iTunes 3. With the Smart list you are able to personalize the music that you listen to by updating your playlist with criteria that includes last played, my rating, play count, and comment. You have the choice of using any or all of these criteria when you are creating a Smart Playlist. You also have the option of eliminating some of the criteria, such as song name. The great thing about a Smart Playlist is that it is something different for everyone who creates a playlist.

One thing that you will want to know how to do on your iPod is “rate a song”. To rate a song all you have to do is press the center of the wheel two times. The first press will push the wheel into “jog mode” while the second push of the wheel will push the wheel into “rating mode”. Once you are in the rating mode you will see that there are stars on the screen. You can then turn the wheel to increase or decrease the number of stars that you are giving a particular song.

Make sure that iTunes is set to either one of the two automatic transfer modes when you are in the iPod options screen. If you are not in one of these modes you won’t be able to transfer the play counts, play dates, or ratings in an easy manner to your iTunes library.

Ebook Sample Content Preview:

Money certainly makes the world go ‘round, and we all need to be mindful of how much we have and where it’s going. This is especially true for college students. College expenses can be high with tuition, books, room and board, rent, gas, beer money, movie rentals, etc. Effective money management is made easier with these tips.

First, track your spending for two to four weeks to find out where your money is going. Is four trips to Starbucks a week really necessary? You probably don’t realize how much money you spend on little things like snacks and poker antes. Often, just by tracking expenses, you’ll start to curb your expenses and spend your money wisely.

The best way to manage your money over the course of a semester is to sit down and map out a budget. List sources of income such as scholarships, loans, money from summer jobs, and cash from your parents. Then list your expenses, such as tuition, books and groceries. If your income is larger than your outgo, you’re on the right track!

If you know you need to buy a new CD or go to concert or a party every week, make room for that in your budget. You do need some entertainment. You’ll get burned out if you don’t have any fun. But be mindful of your entertainment expenses so that they don’t get out of hand.

If you spend, spend, spend at the beginning of the semester, you could be tapped out later. Give yourself a spending limit for each week. Stick to it and you won't have to eat macaroni-and-cheese every day in December.

Be careful with credit card use. Having a credit card is a good idea in case of emergencies, but having that little piece of plastic can make your spending get way out of control, very, very quick. One quick way to spend beyond your means is to charge it. Use credit cards sparingly. Once you get into the habit of reaching for a Visa, it can be hard to stop.

Keep only one credit card. You’ll probably be barraged with offers from credit card companies wanting to give you a $5,000 credit limit at only 25% interest to celebrate your induction into the “real world”. Find a card with a low interest rate and use it as little as possible. And don’t charge small purchases! If you need a bag of chips, search the couch cushions for spare change before you plunk down the Master Card. You don’t want to be paying interest on a bag of chips!

You can set your own credit limit instead of letting the credit card company set it for you. Just because you have a credit card with a $2,000 credit line doesn't mean you have to spend $2,000. If you know you can only pay back $500, then just spend that.

If you’re afraid you'll keep spending as long as there's room on the card? Call your credit card company and request your credit limit be lowered. Keep at it. Card companies will try boost up your credit lines so you spend more. Tell them "no" each time they try.

Be realistic about your spending habits. You can do what you want, but you can't do everything you want. You're going to have to make some choices. Whatever you choose is going to cost some money. You need to understand you can't have everything and you have to understand there's consequences. At some point there needs to be a reality check in terms of what things cost. Most students have no idea.

Ebook Sample Content Preview:

Membership websites of all kinds have one thing in common. They allow for interaction between members. The old Web 1.0 was a one-way street but in this brave new world, communication flows in both directions.

You will notice that on all of the various types of membership websites there is a blog or a forum that affords a place for members to communicate not only with the owner of the membership website but also with other members.

The communication opportunities afforded by membership sites is one of the biggest reasons that membership sites are so very popular today and probably will be popular as far as the eye can see. People want to hear but they also want to be heard. They want to learn but they have information to share with others as well. Membership websites provide a place for the sharing of ideas and information.

There are different kinds of membership sites and different people will like different kinds of membership sites. If you are considering starting your own membership website, the good news is that there will be people who will like it and want to be members.

Membership websites are popular and membership websites are profitable. Recurring income is a very good thing!

Ebook Sample Content Preview:

All right, so it happened. Even with all of the precautions and care you’ve taken to protect yourself from those spineless and despicable thieves, somehow and someway they found a way to the inside…to the inside your personal and financial life that is. Now don’t be too hard on yourself.

I know that you’re saying to yourself right now, “I did everything I could possibly do. I took the time to make myself aware and educate myself on the facts and this still happened…why?” Well, unfortunately sometimes there is no real answer to the question why, it just is what it is. You have to keep in mind that these perpetrators are professionals and they will stop at nothing to achieve their goal.

Just like you go to work everyday and perform your job with the proficiency and skills that you have acquired, so do they. Their job everyday is to rip off honest, hardworking and innocent people such as you and I. It’s not fair and it never will be. They have made a huge mess of your life and you are the one who is stuck with the task of picking up the pieces and turning things right again. Sometimes you can build that fence higher, make the bridge more difficult to cross and even fill the moat with alligators, but inevitably there will always remain a weak and penetrable spot.

Identity thieves are adept at looking for and seeking out those particular spots. The most important thing for you to keep in mind right now is that regardless of how much damage was done and how bad the situation looks at present, it could always be worse. Think about what would have happened had you not already been so familiar with how identity theft works. You may not have been able to prevent it but you certainly knew how to recognize the fact that it was happening to you.

The signs were there and you didn’t just dismiss them, as many others would have this early in the process. Maybe you noticed that your credit card statements had not arrived at the time of month that they generally should have. Perhaps during regular review of your bank statements you noticed some unusual transactions that you had not made.

Maybe in looking more closely at the checks that had been returned to you from the bank you realized that one or several of them were made payable to an unknown individual, tipping you off to the fact that some of your checks had been stolen. Whatever the situation, you are to be congratulated for catching on so quickly. You now have the ability to stop this thief cold in his tracks and prevent him/her from violating your privacy any further. This could have gone on for months and months or perhaps even years and in the process could have resulted in hundreds or thousands of dollars worth of built up debt and a lifetime of rebuilding the reputable line of credit you once had.

Ebook Sample Content Preview:

Most people know that when buying a time share, great care should be taken. However, even more care and research should be used when buying a time share resale. Time share resales cost much less than buying directly from a resort developer, but you should still keep your best interests at heart. Being informed about your time share will lead to a positive experience.

It is a very good idea to actually see the time share you are buying. Some time share resellers may try to talk up their time share. If the reseller says that the time share is in a beautiful place, be sure to check it out. A time share, even a resold time share, is a great investment. It is important to make sure that you are buying what you want.

Time share resales often have very appealing prices. Sometimes, these prices can cause the buyer to overlook crucial questions. Be sure to ask about maintenance fees and property taxes. If these have not been paid up-to-date, then the time share will cost significantly more than the base price. It is very important to know the whole cost before you decide to buy a time share.

Some time shares are affiliated with an exchange company. If the time share you are purchasing is affiliated with an exchange company, make sure to find out if this membership can be transferred. Doing this can help you to avoid unnecessary hassles in the future. If the time share you are purchasing is a point-system time share, find out if the points are transferable. Finally, if there are any additional bonuses with the time share, find out if they can be transferred.

The seller often pays to advertise the time share, while the buyer is stuck with the closing costs. Be informed and find out all of the charges that you will be responsible for upon the closing of the sale. This is important because some buyers do not know how much they are paying when they decide to buy the time share.

Visiting the time share can solve this problem, but it is important to be aware of it. Time shares can sometimes be located in a facility that has only been partially remodeled.

Ebook Sample Content Preview:

Now the first key to his success was that he had a real income to pay his bills while he started his Internet business. Pete says to keep your bills paid and put all of your extra income back into your Internet business.

How many times has someone sat at home with no job, no money, and piles of bills and past due notices and then wanted to make $10,000 in 24 hours with the Internet and they don’t even know a thing about Internet marketing? Darling, if it were that easy to do, wouldn’t everyone be doing it?

Pete says don’t quit your day job. Once you make enough money consistently from your Internet business venture to sustain you financially, then you can quit your day job.

Next, you don’t get rich by doing certain things, you get rich by doing them a certain way. Pete developed a system and says you should too.

You must have a good system and then you must take action and implement that system, and then you must never deviate from that system until it stops making money. You can have as many as systems as you want to create.

Pete says it is impossible NOT to make money when you use a proven system.

The problem for most people who dream of making a zillion dollars is how to get from zero, or nearly zero, to a zillion dollars. That’s where the mental grid-lock happens. People can't figure it out, give up, and get a job.

Pete says the solution to making money is having a good system and then never deviating from it so you do not have to start from scratch everyday.

Being wealthy is the end result of effort, perseverance, planning, and selfdiscipline. Pete gave up dating, splurging on extra desires, etc. until he “made it”.