The site is at http://www.matthewwolfe.com

Here’s a sampling of some of the articles available over there:

How to make money with affiliate programs

How to create a WordPress Blog

How to Find and Keep a Mentor

The Best Plugins For Wordpress

18, Must Have, FREE tools for internet marketers and bloggers

I strongly suggest that you go check it out. You can really learn how to create an easy passive side income.

-M

A lot has changed since my last post. My girlfriend of five years and I have gotten engaged. We are getting married in May of next year. I plan to discuss the financial implications of getting married along with my personal circumstances and experiences. Since we’ve become engaged, my fiance and I have been actively house hunting and talking with a mortgage broker. The time seems right for first time homebuyers and I definitely want to go in to more details on this later. I am nine classes in to my crazy, non-stop, class schedule and I’ve got about nine to go. My posts may not be as frequent as they once were but I do plan to get back in the game.

I’m still knee deep in school work and I’m really trying to use my time wisely. Once our other projects are unveiled, this site will probably act as more of a journal of the progress we are making. I am so thankful of all the readers and all of the people that have supported this website. This website, along with Be Healthy and Relax, has provided the finances needed to really get things moving on those other projects. Please stick around. You won’t want to miss what we have in store with these new projects!

Personal Goals

• Complete all of my Christmas shopping within a budget of $500
  Success. I think I spent a total of $350. I’m not sure the exact number but it is in that range.
• Open up a separate bank account for my side business
  I failed here. I never got around to getting to the bank to set up an account.
  

Blogging Goals

• Post 5 blog posts per week
  I failed here too. I only posted 15 blogs posts for the entire month of December.
  
• Get to 200 subscribers
  Failed. I maxed out at 135 subscribers. This is probably due to my lack of posting for the month.
• At least 2 carnivals per week
  Failed. I think I participated in 4 carnivals all month.
  
• Break $150 total money made
  Success! This was actually the first month I started to see a little bit of blogging income. The blog made $75 for the month. That puts my total income as a blogger at $197.14 (Over a 6 month period).
  
• At least 2 guest posts on other (more popular) blogs
  Failed. I only managed one guest post this month. You can read it over at Lazy Man and Money.

January Goals:
For January I’m going to tone down my goals a little as far as blogging goes. I start back to school on Monday and I have a feeling that it’s going to consume a whole lot of my time. Blogging is very important to me because I love sharing my goals and being held accountable when I fail (kind of like this month). I do think pursuing my degree in finance will fuel my blog; I just know that my free time is going to be harder to come by. With that being said…

Personal Goals

• Complete my first month of school (without going insane)
  Work is hectic enough. I’m starting back to school on an accelerated program. I will be completing one class per month for the next seventeen months. I will attend class three times a week for four hours per session. It is going to be intense.
• Open up a separate bank account for my side business
  I’m going to try to squeeze it in somewhere this month.

Blogging Goals

• Post at least 4 blog posts per week
  I’m going to shoot for five posts per week but I’m being realistic. Four is probably much more obtainable.

That’s about it. I’m not setting too many goals for myself until I see what my new life is going to be like. Next month, once I have a better feel for how hectic my school schedule is really going to be, I’ll set some more ambitious goals. For now, I’m just hoping to make it through my first class.

Thank Yous
I’ve never really had the StumpleUpon effect before December. For some reason, my site got stumpled like crazy though. That was the number one source of traffic for this month. Here are the blogs that sent me the most traffic in December.

1. Lazy Man and Money
2. Get Rich Slowly
3. Cash Money Life
4. Brip Blap
5. Plonkee Money
6. Consumerism Commentary
7. Stock Trading To Go
8. Moolanomy
9. I’ve Paid For This Twice Already
10. Be Healthy and Relax

Thanks so much to everyone who reads my blog and to all the other bloggers who support and help my blog. I appreciate it so much.

I’m back. I was sick for a couple days, I rested and took a lot of medicine and then I went to Las Vegas for New Years. It’s kind of a tradition to do New Years in Vegas for us. I think this is the last year that we are going to do it. Everything is getting too expensive. They raise the prices on everything. The buffets are $30 per person, the rooms cost over a $100 per night, the drinks are more expensive and it gets more and more crowded every single year. It is definitely losing its appeal. I’ve adopted a more frugal lifestyle and spending that much on New Years just does not fit in anymore.

I do have some tips that I can offer up.

Lower Your Room Prices
If you’ve booked your room quite a bit in advance (like we did), you can usually call a day or two before you leave and ask if the rates have lowered at all. We booked our room about three months in advance. Two days before we left, we called the hotel and asked if any of the rates have changed. Sure enough, we got our room costs down by over $50 per night. This is the second year in a row that this has happened. It may not always work like this but it certainly doesn’t hurt to try.

Get The Player’s Club Cards
Even if you don’t gamble, it’s still a good idea to sign up for the various player’s club cards at the various casinos. The card itself almost always comes with a book or a sheet of coupons. We signed up for a card at the Tropicana and received a two-for-one coupon at the buffet. A couple years ago we stayed at the Stratosphere and received free passes to go up in to the tower. It’s worth it to sign up for a card. I just give them a junk e-mail address that I hardly ever check and decline to give them my phone number.

Free Drinks in Las Vegas
If you are like me and like to have a drink now and then, you can’t beat the drink prices in Vegas. I like to go to the penny machines, put a dollar in and barely touch the machine until a server comes around. They comp me a free drink for gambling and I cash out and walk away. It’s the Vegas way…

Take Advantage of the Free Shows
Vegas has so many things to do that don’t cost any money. It’s fun to just walk up and down the strip and see what you can see. The Bellagio has the water show (See the end of Ocean’s 11). The Mirage has an “active” volcano out front. Treasure Island has a pirate show. The hotels themselves are just cool to see anyway. The Venetian re-creates the Venice Canal inside, Caesar’s Palace has Roman statues that move and talk, MGM grand has a large lion habitat, and the Mirage has white tigers. There are some very cool things to see and do, absolutely free, in Vegas.

If you’re ever in Vegas, follow some of those tips. My only other piece of advice is to stay the heck away for New Years. It’s too crowded and too expensive.

I’ve been taking Zicam cold remedy, eating lots of chicken soup and drinking echinacea tea. I’m starting to feel a little better now. I can finally breathe out of my nose.

I hope everyone had a great Christmas and if I’m not around for a few days, I wish everyone a Happy New Years!

It’s Christmas Eve for me and I wanted to take this opportunity to wish everyone a happy holidays. I’m a little bummed out at the moment because I ordered some Christmas gifts off of Amazon over two weeks ago and was informed today that they were lost in the mail. It’s too late to do anything about it now but I’m not going to let it ruin my Christmas. Instead, I just printed up pictures of all the gifts that I purchased and then wrapped the pictures in various sized boxes. When they open them tomorrow I’ll just have to let them know that they are on the way.

I’m happy to let everyone know that I stayed well within my Christmas budget. I will be taking the day off from blogging tomorrow but If anyone is interested, I will give a rundown of what my Christmas shopping consisted of.

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays to everyone.

Picture Credit: Krisdecurtis

I have about twelve days off after tomorrow. I won’t be going back to work until January 2nd, 2008. I’m really going to spend a lot of time focusing on this blog during that time. I want to apologize for the random, off-topic and short posts that I’ve been coming up with lately. My brain hasn’t had the chance to relax in the past week. This vacation will be much needed for my sanity and for the blog.

My girlfriend is throwing a formal Christmas party tomorrow night. I’ve got to get back to Ironing out all my dress clothes. In the mean time, go check out our sister site, Be Healthy and Relax. It has really been blowing up lately. The site has been really well received and has just been bombarded with traffic out of nowhere. It’s really amazing. I’d recommend it for people who are fans of Zen Habits, anyone wanting to learn how to relax or anyone wanting some good health advice.

I had a meeting with my school counselor earlier today. It’s official; I’m starting back to school on January 7th.

A little background on me.
There are a lot of people that read my blog that know me personally but there’s a whole lot more who have no clue who I am or what I do. In 2001, I graduated from high school and moved on to college. While I was in high school and college, I worked in the office of the family shutter company. I took night classes and, over the next few years, I finished an Associates degree in Business Management. Shortly after finishing my Associates degree, my family had a falling out with our general manager. They asked me if I felt like I could handle the position. I was confident and I accepted the position.

The new job consumed me. I was working seven days a week and putting in seventy to eighty hours. As you could imagine, it became a little too overwhelming to run the company and continue with my schooling. I decided, along with my parents, that it would be a good idea to take some time off from school.

Since taking my break from school, I’ve hired some help and really got the hang of managing the company. I feel like I’m finally ready to give school another go. I’ll be taking night classes and online classes and will have class sessions every single night of the week. It is going to be intense. I’m not really looking forward to the added workload but I am looking forward to learning more about finance and investing.

I’m hoping this move will be good for the blog. I will explore avenues that I’ve yet to venture down. It’s exciting and scary but I think I’m ready.

Photo Credit: Avolore

My girlfriend and I just purchased the game Rock Band. I’m not sure if anyone has played guitar hero but it’s very similar. You have the option to play guitar, bass, drums or even sing. The game is so much fun. It was kind of expensive to get the whole set but I’m a huge video game nerd and we splurged a little. We purchased the game the frugal way… We found it on eBay. We actually managed to purchase a copy for less money on eBay than it’s actually selling for in stores.

In Guitar Hero, you can play forever and it probably won’t ever help you get better at guitar in real life. Playing the drums in Rock Band, however, can actually teach you to become a good drummer. You’re basically going through the same motions you would in real life. It’s really cool. I think I’ve been getting a workout too. Joe would be proud of me.

I’ve re-registered for school. I’ve mentioned before that I’m working on a finance degree in school. I took one semester off to spend some time focusing on the family business. I’ve re-enrolled to get back on track starting in January. It should only take me ten more months and I’ll be done. Since I will be taking finance and investing courses, the topics of my blog may reflect this. I really want to get more in depth with investment topics so I would imagine that my blog may roll in that direction a little for a few months.

I hope people don’t mind my random rant of a post. If you do, just skip over it. I’m going to go play some more Rock Band before I go to bed.

Photo Credit: greatestpeopleever