When you have trouble deciding between two things and are riddled with indecision, you have already decided to not decide. When you think too much, it often results in getting stuck on an idea, you get tunnel vision and end up going in circles. Sure, thinking is good, but have a clear picture of what the end goal is.

- Edwin, CashTheChecks.com

For online marketers, getting surfers to click on your ads is crucial. You should do everything within your power to make them click. In the old days, a 468×60 banner worked. Later, text advertisements became king. Now that most people have plenty of web experience, everyone can spot an advertisement a mile away. So to entice them to click, you need to be straight forward in your ad, a simple image, your title and descriptive tag line is all you need. However there’s another ingredient here, the actual link. People like to know where they are going before they click, and affiliate programs have ugly looking links with question marks, ampersands and equal signs (the encrypted ones look even uglier). So what you can do with this nifty wordpress plugin is make those long url’s shorter and prettier. The end result will be a long link like http://www.sponsor.com/?id=abc&page=29889 can become http://www.yourdomain.com/sponsor/

- Edwin, CashTheChecks.com

They say practice makes perfect, but that’s not true. There is no such thing as perfect. The pursuit of perfection leads to inaction. Don’t let perfection stand in the way of what you’re trying to accomplish. Sure, you can turn a bad essay/webpage/drawing/plan into a better one, and a better one into a good one, but you will never make it perfect. So just go for it and be satisfied with the result.

- Edwin, CashTheChecks.com

1. Anesthesiologist – $292,000/yr. – Very stressful job, requires 12+ years of training.

2. OBGYN’s – $222,000/yr. – Risky job, always an in demand job.

3. Psychiatrist – $177,000/yr. – High hourly fees, little overhead costs.

4. Nurse Anesthetist – $157,000/yr. – Same as an anesthesiologist

5. Sales Director – $140,000/yr. – Without the salesmen you have no sales.

- Edwin, CashTheChecks.com

Here are some things to look for before buying that house of your dreams that you would not normally think of looking for.
– If it’s near a high school or college campus visit the house during the day and night to see if students park in front of the house.
– Check in on a Friday / Saturday and see if your neighbors are party animals.
– Get a water hose and flood the front / side / back yards to see where water accumulates. Ideally there should not be puddles by the door or touching any walls.
– See how your neihbors tend to their yards. Your property value is dependant on theirs so it’s good to see if they care about how their property looks.

- Edwin, CashTheChecks.com

You can always tell when someone is being paid by commission or by the hour by how annoying and aggressive they are. The place you see them most often is at those kiosks at the local mall. Most of these so called marketers have it all wrong. Begging, pleading or being overly aggressive won’t get the job done. What they need to realize is that few will buy out of pity or an obligation. Instead, take it easy and market a product so good it will sell itself.

- Edwin, CashTheChecks.com

Make it easy for your readers to get your content. Put your rss feed in a visible spot on your site. Don’t fill your site up with ads. Your first goal is to build up readers to your blog, worry about making money later. Some people swear by creating mailing lists but I’ve never tried that myself. Ultimately without your readers you’ve got nothing so keep them coming back by updating and happy with minimal ads.

- Edwin, CashTheChecks.com

It’s getting harder to find a place to keep your savings lately. I used to get around 6% APY from some online savings accounts as was chronicled on this blog several years ago. Now I’m hard pressed to find any bank offering just a mere 2%. I have been using GMAC/ALLY bank for 3 years now. I’m just going to keep my money there for now because I get 0% if I leave it under my matress. Before anyone says that I should invest it, I’m only interested in FDIC insured accounts.

- Edwin, CashTheChecks.com

With just a month left in the year now is the time to think about your 2009 tax returns. Here are some inique end of the year tax tips.
– If you feel you’ve earned too much this year ask whoever pays you to defer payments until January 1st. That way you won’t pay taxes on those earnings until April 2011.
– If your wife gives birth bu the end of the month you can claim another dependant this year.
– Business expenses are a great way to lower your tax liability. Stock up now for the next year. Spend a little extra on advertising now and reap the rewards come April. Put the charges on your credit card in Dec and pay it off in Jan with your delayed wages.

- Edwin, CashTheChecks.com

The early bird gets the worm, buy it’s the second mouse that gets the cheese.

Sometimes it’s best to let others ahead and see what they do before trying it yourself, you just might find out the rewards are sweeter.

- Edwin, CashTheChecks.com

If you haven’t gotten a shopping list ready for black friday you should do that as soon as possible. I’ve found that bfads.net has a nice layout of who’s having sales on what products. This time of year is always the best time to upgrade your laptop, flat screen tv, camera or gaming system. Those items are always discounted around this time.

If you’re staying home or sleeping in, Amazon has been having black friday sales all week. Unfortunately I haven’t seen any high priced items on their list, just mostly random products that are of no interest to me thus far.

- Edwin, CashTheChecks.com

The greatest ideas don’t happen after 5 hours of hard work trying to figure something out. These ideas come when you set your mind free. When you’re not thinking about work, creative juices can flow naturally. In fact, “thinking outside the box” is something that rarely happens when you’re actively trying to think of something. Big ideas are created spontaneously. So go outside, let your mind wander and see what happens.

- Edwin, CashTheChecks.com

- Ebay: If applicable, add a link to your site from your ebay listings. Ebay allows this only if you link to something relevant tot he product/item you’re selling. I have a product review site so when I sell an item I’ve reviewed, I add a link to the review.

- Reciprocal links: Sure the search engines have greatly devalued them, but this is one of the oldest methods of attracting new visitors that still works.

- Groups: If appropriate you can add links to your comments on yahoo/google group sites, yahoo answers and and forums.

- Social networking: Add a link to your site on all your social network sites and your email signature as well. The more eyes that see your link the better.

- RSS: If you have a site that updates regularly (and you should) publicly display a link to your rss feed because plenty of people add it to their google homepage, mobile phone or get new posts via email.

- Edwin, CashTheChecks.com

Often times when releasing a product/site/service you want to wait until it’s perfect. I mean what’s the point of putting something out there that isn’t perfect only to turn away potential customers, thus losing them forever. I disagree. Instead, put it out there immediately, call it a beta, ask for help with bugs and suggestions. The web in 2010 and beyond is different than it was 10 years ago. Now everyone has an email account, a profile on a social networking site or maybe even a blog too. Communication is encouraged and done more now than ever before. So put your product/site/service out there, say what it will be and what it will do, get them to sign up for free and let them know when it’s ready.

- Edwin, CashTheChecks.com

Working hard is always good, or is it? Sometimes you’re just stuck on something. You’re in the forest in the middle of work and all you see are trees. Walk away and take a break. Your greatest ideas and breakthroughs will come when you’re staring at the waves on the beach, looking at a mountain top, or just going outside for some fresh air. So remove your tunnel vision and see the forest from afar. Instead of seeing nothing but trees, what you’ll see is the right path.

- Edwin, CashTheChecks.com