Category Archives: Money & Work

Earn Real Money for Virtual Goods

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This weekend I randomly met a guy from Crowd Flower on the street. Reminded me it’s GREAT to talk to strangers, because you never know what will happen.
From him I learned with Crowd Flower’s “labor on demand” service you can make cash money or virtual money (like for Farmville) doing fun little tasks online. The company has built a great tool for corporations, non-profits and people to get major small tasks done by many people – including organizing large amounts of photos on Facebook for a relatively small amount of money.
A couple of years ago I used Mturk to do a fun experiment for SuperViva asking completely random people what they wanted to do.
To sign up as a “worker” and make money:

1) Sign up on Amazon’s Mechanical Turk
2) Do tasks assigned by Dolores Labs (former name of Crowd Flower)

    Have fun seeing the cents add up to $s!

    Remaking Your Life in a Small Town

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    When tossing old papers recently, I came across an April 2005 Sunset Magazine article about Bizbee Arizona, an eclectic small down I was always curious to visit.

    Almost more fascinating than the article (viewable in PDF) was the sidebar about “remaking your life.”

    Short and sweet, it touches upon how, if you want to “simplify” your life, you can thrive in a town like Bisbee – where the “economy doesn’t fuel many conventional careers.”

    • Find somewhere with a low cost of living and relaxed pace then use your time to explore and be creative.
    • Count your riches in terms of living a useful life instead of income or prestige.
    • Take something negative like killer bees and put a positive spin on it.”

    Know of other old towns that have newly thrived as former bigger city dwellers move in?

    Living Minimally – A Trend Worth Following

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    In But Will It Make You Happy? the New York Times sheds light on the result of living a simple life with very few belongings.

    “While the current round of stinginess may simply be a response to the economic downturn, some analysts say consumers may also be permanently adjusting their spending based on what they’ve discovered about what truly makes them happy or fulfilled.”

    A couple of years ago I chose 5 things a day to give away. Tshirts, knick knacks etc. It was completely fulfilling and I’ve never missed anything I shed. Having moved recently – and facing just how much I own – I’m going to start that up again. 5 a day to happiness!

    While I’ll admit many of my things make me happy, in their beauty, representing the skill of an artist, or allowing me to dress for whatever occasion the mood fits – life is definitely easier with less.

    Given the choice, good experiences vs. possessions is a winner IMHO. How about you?

    –>Next stop: Freecycle


    Travel This Summer or Year Round On the Cheap

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    A recent post by Tim Ferriss (of Four Hour Work Week fame) makes a very thorough case with lots of tips on how you can embark on your dream travels – or even spend you life achieving your travel goals as part of your everyday life.

    “Indeed, the freedom to go vagabonding has never been determined by income level, but through simplicity — the conscious decision of how to use what income you have.”

    Could reading article Living Well vs. Doing Well change your life?

    Or perhaps the Four Hour Work Week will.

    you here in france

    A Rags to Riches Family Business Success Story

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    The Costco Connection magazine often has in-depth interviews with successful businesses and famous consultants, making it a surprisingly informative and interesting “life management” type of publication.

    This month they featured a long story about the Sugarbowl Bakery and how the Ly family went from Vietnam to Very successful. Check it out if you have a life list goal to start a business, have one now, or just like reading about successful family businesses.

    I first saw the Sugarbowl Bakery in Berkeley and thought it was just “any old” bakery. Then over the years I started to notice cookies and other baked goods popping up in various stores, packaged in plastic tubs, with the Sugarbowl Bakery’s name. In addition to fulfilling your cookie and brownie needs, they also supply to Starbucks and other large retail food places.

    Little would I have imagined the story behind this bakery, a nearly 30 year long effort that started with $1 and grew to $45 million and many awards.

    The secrets seem to be:
    1) Hard work
    2) Family cooperation and role sharing
    3) Right place at the right time, including their start in the 80s before there was as much competition as now
    4) Stick-to-it-iveness
    5) Risk taking, willingness to grow
    6) Taking advantage of unforseen opportunities that arise even if it’s a change of course.
    7) Dedication to quality, based on a mission statement

    Now that I’ve made that list, it seems those are the usual suspects for success, eh?

    If you’re starting a food business yourself, look at Foodzie, an artisan food marketplace where I work, and get in touch if your food business is up our alley!

    Got feedback about the Ly’s story or others you’ve read in Costco’s magazine?

    I Want to Fly !

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    Skydiving bah humbug. Hang gliding…for wimps. Paragliding, as if. My new goal is to FLY like a flying squirrel or bat, inspired by this great video about wingsuit flying.

    Are you in? (Add a goal to go wingsuit flying to your life list!) Or better yet, have you done this?

    If you like having dreams (the sleeping kind) about flying, try watching this just before you go to bed…


    wingsuit base jumping from Ali on Vimeo.

    Great Jobs for Women Over 40

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    Inspired by a MORE Magazine article on 10 Great Jobs for Midlife Women, here’s a list off the top of my head of some interesting jobs requiring “smarts, savvy, and experience” that I’m guessing either have real potential…or that I find a little amusing:

    1. Assisted living anything. Any role related to assisted living, including becoming a real estate developer of communities targeted to people downsizing who a) need some kind of help but not full-time b) want to be near their friends c) want to feel independent.

    2. Artisan food maker. Now that Foodzie has come along, you have a great website that makes it easy to start a food business wherever you are and sell online, with all your effort going into creating great food products. (PS – They’re so great I’m working with them!)

    3. Expert in whatever you want to be. The evolution of the Internet and social media (online video, social networks, Twitter, books on demand, e-books…phew the list is too long) makes it possible for you to position yourself as an expert in whatever field interests you. Of course you have to deliver or you’ll be called a snake oil saleswoman. I like this personal branding blog which discusses approaches to branding yourself as well as cheese in a can.

    4. Sewing machine consultant. It took me forever to find information online on how to thread my sewing machine. While I would have hired you for some quick advice it may not be quite a moneymaker. However a business where you teach sewing and help parents make costumes for kids definitely has some possibilities.

    5. Pole or belly dancer. It seems like everyone suddenly is taking pole dancing and learning to belly dance is one of the most popular goals on SuperViva. Some of the best belly dancers I’ve seen are in their 40s, so shake on, even as a side job in a restaurant.

    6. Decluttering / downsizing consultant. Oh yes, we all need that. Partner with moving companies and be there for kids who are having a hard time helping their parents separate the wheat from the chaff in an effort to move to a smaller place. It’s a little different from idea #1 but a perfect companion career.

    7. Virtual personal assistant. Get my software updates, iPhone/iPod/iTunes/eyeballs all synced up, advise me on year end tax stuff etc etc etc. I know plenty of people who are not overflowing in money but are more willing to give up money than time to optimize their lives. If you are great at managing your own life, think about how you could help others and make a nice flexible career of it.

    8. Anything you want to be. Don’t limit your career to a list of advised careers. Figure out what you’ve always wanted to do and how you can make it happen. Get some ideas on SuperViva as well as Vocation Vacations.

    More Magazine listed “online professor” as one great career. On the flipside I recently that the advent of online classes makes it possible to take classes from any state or community college within your state, from home. Pretty cool eh?

    If you have interesting “midlife” career ideas, please share away! Self-promotion is even encouraged here.

    How to Make Fans and Influence People

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    The Open Forum business blog has a detailed and clever analysis about what went right with the Obama election campaign. In Dale Carnegie Meets Barack Obama: Winning Friends And Influencing People In A Web 2.0 World, Brent Leary observes the parallels between how the campaign managers used video, word of mouth marketing, and other tools to connect with, endear, and influence voters using similar techniques to those prescribed by Dale Carnegie in How to Win Friends and Influence People.

    If you need to wrangle a constituency to your side or win new customers, give it a read!

    I Never Wanted to Watch the World Series

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    philly fans watching world seriesThere are many things I’ve always wanted to do—none involving baseball goals.

    But when my friends invited me to a walking distance bar to watch the World Series, how could I refuse? The bar turned out to be THE bar of choice for Philly fans. So it was fun to see my friends on the local news. Now they can check their goal to be on TV off of their life lists!

    On my SuperViva list I’ll add this experience as a “private memory note” – since it wasn’t a goal – and have it there along with all the other cool and fun things I’ve done this year.

    Today will mark another great event to add to my list: Attend a legal gay marriage!

    Need Money? Check for Unclaimed Property and Get Your Money Back

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    You may have money waiting for you from old utilities who tried to send you checks, people who left you money, or simply cash that somehow you didn’t know about.

    NAUPA is the official website for all the states’ unclaimed property departments.

    You can claim unclaimed property yourself

    You don’t need to use a “middleman” company. It usually requires proving who you are and notarizing the forms.

    Find your state’s website and search it today! Help your relatives and search on their names as well.

    You may also search over 40 unclaimed property programs at once on Missing Money. This is the only national database endorsed by NAUPA: http://www.missingmoney.org/