The Adventures of Johnny Bunko Book Review

If you're new here, you may want to subscribe to my RSS feed. Thanks for visiting!

I have finished reading The Adventures of Johnny Bunko and although it was a short and easy read, I didn’t not necessarily think that it was too impressive. This book was the first time that I had read anything in the manga style and thought that it was alright. The story of the book is pretty decent and sort of the usual career advice that you may hear from other people however, if you were a younger student, the advice may be helpful. Here are the 6 different career secrets that the book shares with you.

6 Career Secrets That No One Ever Told You:

1. There is no plan
2. Thin strengths, not weaknesses
3. It’s not about you
4. Persistence trumps talent
5. Make excellent mistakes
6. Leave an imprint

The story that the characters go through to learn the different advice is comical and will have you laughing at some points throughout the book. Some of the drawings are also funny, however, there is nothing overly thrilling coming from the book in my point of view.

Sorry for the short review, but I just don’t think I can say too much about it. It is a good nice easy read if you are interested in something to just pass the time - I read 1/3 of the book in the bookstore before I bought it. Yet, I also returned it 3 days later for Suze Orman’s Women and Money: Owning the Power to Control Your Destiny. Just to make it clear, I did not buy the book for myself, but as a Mother’s Day gift for my mom. However, if it is good, maybe I’ll read it later on just to write a review about it.

Hope everyone has a good week and does well in the blogging and business worlds! Congratulations to those universities that are having their commencement ceremonies! Now, I go back to the overcast weather at the beach and to by other book, Rules for Renegades.

ProfessionalGFX Secures New Website Design Client in Ellicott City, MD

ProfessionalGFX Secures New Website Design Client in Ellicott City, MD

I am happy to announce that my web design business, ProfessionalGFX, has secured a new client in the Ellicott City, MD area. This is a great accomplishment for ProfessionalGFX because this is the first time that I have heard from a potential client that they found my website through the search engines. And the other good news is that apparently out of all the companies that he contacted, I was the quickest to respond – and yet it took me two days to get back to him. So, it sounds like to me, even though there are other companies and businesses in the immediate area that are offering the same services as I, I seem to have the upper hand on them just by being able to respond semi quickly.

The scope of services are going to be pretty basic by outfitting the current website with a completely new design, a couple more pages, and some new images. I will also work in some keywords and a few other SEO strategies. My client is in the industrial chemical cleaning business, so most of his clients are from referrals and not finding him directly on the internet. The business is very face to face as far as interaction goes, so displaying basic information about the business, the industry, and his niches will be enough to get someone interested in picking up the phone – rather than displaying a full line of products or having the opportunity to purchase online.

I am waiting to get the contract and down payment from the client and we should be getting started next week. With luck, I will be able to wrap everything up in the middle of June.

This new client will definitely be a boost to my new method of savings that I wrote about the other day!

As we go along with the process more and move towards wrapping it up, I will be posting more about what different tactics are implemented to help his business out.

If you are looking for a low cost and effective web design service in the Ellicott City, MD, Baltimore, MD or Washington D.C. area, feel free to get in touch with me to discuss your project!

Picked up some new books to read! Check it out!

Just a quick note that I picked up a couple new books yesterday while at Barnes and Noble. I had a gift card left over from my birthday that I wanted to use since I will be taking a vacation next week down to the Outer Banks, NC.

The Adventures of Johnny Bunko - As I was looking through the shelves this book caught my eye. I remember reading something about it on another blog about the different lessons that it reveals about finding your right career and how it embodied some of the lessons from The 4 Hour Work Week. Because it is put together as a cartoon/manga book, it should be a pretty quick read. In just about 15 minutes, I have read half of it. Just didn’t have the chance to finish it at the time. There is even a movie like trailer for the book, see below.

Johnny Bunko trailer from Daniel Pink on Vimeo.

Rules For Renegades - This was a bit of an impulse buy as I had never heard anything about the book or heard of it in general. But, the green lettering on the cover caught my attention and the descriptions made me interested. It talks about how to make more money, rock your career, and revel in your individuality.

I should probably finish Johnny Bunko tonight or tomorrow and then get started on Rules for Renegades, hopefully finishing up in a couple weeks as long as it is interesting and can keep my attention. Look out for reviews coming soon on them both!

Saving Your Income When You Graduate

Now that I have graduated from college, it is time for me to start saving my money and income a little better than I had been during school. While a student, I was not really paying attention to how much I was spending and how much I was putting on my credit cards. So, now that the reality has set in that I need to watch my money, I have decided to set up some different “accounts” within my savings account.

Basically, as I deposit money into my general savings account, I am going to divide it up in a spreadsheet with how much I want to put towards each different “account” or expense.

As of right now, I have decided to put money towards the following expenses:

• Rent – As many of you know, moving into an apartment right out of college and not being able to live at home can be a really big expense, especially if you live in a highly populated and growing area such as the DMV (D.C., Maryland, Virginia). Being from outside of Baltimore, and just above Washington D.C., rent is expensive! A two bedroom apartment will cost you easily $1,200 or more. Lucky for me, I am able to live at home with my parents and save my money up, before having to make a big commitment to paying rent. I will be living at home for at least the next 5 months, so I will have an opportunity to save at least $1,000-$1,500 into this account before the possibility comes up to move in with my Fiancé.
• Honeymoon – I had mentioned before that I got engaged in January of this year, and we have been starting to plan the wedding and work out the different details – reception site, catering, etc etc etc. But, one of the main things that the Groom is responsible for covering is the Honeymoon. We don’t know exactly where we are going to be going, but it is going to be tropical and warm that is for sure! I have been looking at all inclusive resorts such as a Sandals resort, but also want to keep it open enough where we will be able to get out and take some different adventures on our own such as hiking or ziplining through the trees.
• Car expenses – Owning a car, no matter what kind or how old, is expensive. Besides the rising cost of gas, being prepared for unexpected expenses such as repairs, emergencies, and regular maintenance is extremely important. I do not want to get caught with a bill for say $300 worth of repairs and have to take that money from a different savings account.
• Vacation/Travel – This travel account is different from the Honeymoon account because I want to be able to have the freedom to travel when I want and make it out to many different cool places – with the only hold back being my full time job. So, when I have the vacation time available, I want to be able to travel and not have to worry about how much we are spending on the trip. Most of my blogging income will be put into this account J
• Wedding – This account will be for miscellaneous wedding expenses. While my Fiancé’s parents are paying for most of the wedding, we are still going to have some of the bills to pay for. So, I want to be prepared to have enough money saved up to be able to cover some of those things. They will include flowers (my responsibility anyway), covering the costs of inviting extra people if we want, and also gifts for the groomsmen.
• Gifts/Presents – This is just going to be a miscellaneous account for any gifts or presents that I would need to purchase for different holidays or other occasions.

I know that over the next 2 months, I will not be able to save as much money as I would like into these accounts because I will not have started my full time job yet, but I will be able to save some money into them. However, come the beginning of July when I will have been working at my full time job for a week or so, I will be able to start figuring out how much I will be able to continually put into each account when each paycheck comes.

How am I going to be saving the money?

Most of the expense accounts I will transfer the money from my checking account into my ING account so that I can earn better interest on the money rather than in a normal bank savings account. Yet, some of the money I will just keep in my normal savings account and keep it divided by using the Excel spreadsheet that I am going to develop. This will most likely be the car expense account as well as the gift/presents account. The only reason is that having the money in my bank savings account is quicker to transfer into my checking account then with ING.

Now that school is letting out, how are you going to be saving your money and what for? For those student entrepreneurs out there, the summer is the best time to A) make moves to get your business rolling, B) find a full time or part time job to make you more money on top of your business, and C) save your money as much as possible to be able to fund your business expenses throughout the rest of the year.

Congratulations Chris!

This is off topic in terms of the usual posts that are brought to you at Dorm Room Biz. But as a personal friend of Chris Pund - I would like to extend my congratulations to him for graduating from Radford University today.
Great Job Chris!

Note from Chris: On a side note, that Bobby probably did not catch, is that I was awarded with the Outstanding Student award for Entrepreneurship Spirit. The award, which I don’t know if they ever offered before or not, was awarded to me for my work with the Collegiate Entrepreneurs club and also establishing the Entrepreneurial Summit.

What do bloggers get their Mother’s for Mother’s Day?

Mother’s Day is just around the corner, so I am curious as to what other bloggers get their Mother’s for Mother’s Day. What are your plans? A card and flowers? A card and taking her out to lunch? May 11^th is coming quickly, so you better hurry up and decide.

My family usually takes my mom out along with her mom, my grandmother. There is a restaurant in town that has a special Mother’s Day menu and also gives small flower pots to each mother. Flowers are always the safe bet for the occasion, but you could also try a Mother’s Day gift basket. Gift baskets are great ideas because you can get them in so many different arrangements and they can include some many different options – chocolates, fruits, cookies, flowers, wine, and more.

When you are thinking about what to get your for Mother, make it special and get a gift baskets. Mother’s Day gift baskets are the perfect answer, especially if you don’t know what else to get her! Don’t forget though, it is May 11^th, so make sure if you order one or buy one, you get it delivered/picked up on the right day! Nothing like giving a Mother’s Day present on the day after…that could be bad!

Make Money From CashCrate. It is as easy as 1, 2, 3!

Over the last couple months I have been involved with a great money making opportunity for students. The service is called CashCrate. I have most about CashCrate many other times on Dorm Room Biz describing the program as well as when I got my first check! Well, another check came recently and I thought I would post a little bit more about CashCrate and how easy it is to make money from surveys and different offers.

CashCrate is a great system because you can make money without even filling out the surveys. Although filling out the surveys means that you can make more money, it is time consuming and can be a bit of a pain. The problem with these surveys and offers is that to complete one you will definitely have to give up your email address and will most likely have to complete other offers for it to go through. However, there are some great ones that pay well, if you pay. For instance, I completed the Netflix offer which was a 15 day free trial and then costs like $8.99 a month after that. I joined through CashCrate and submitted it as being completed, and although they waited the 15 days to make sure that I actually joined the service and made the first monthly payment, I was then paid $15.00 - so I essentially made $6.01 for joining Netflix which I had been wanting to do anyway. If you take some of the higher paying offers that you may spend a couple bucks on, you can make even more money back. Some offers will cost you $2-$5 to complete (usually for shipping of something like a book or DVD) and then you’ll get paid say $15-$20.

However, surveys are just the tip of the iceberg with CashCrate. They have a great referral system which allows you to promote a referral link on your website or in forums. When people sign up through your link, you get paid. When the person completes their first $10 worth of offers (the minimum payout), then you as the referrer get paid $3.00, these are your first level referrals. You then also make money from your second level referrals. This means that when you refer someone to CashCrate and then they refer someone else, you make money that way. Starting out, you make 20% of what your referrals make and 15% of what their referrals make; yet as you refer more people, this percentage gets adjusted and can increase.

So, if you can continually refer people to CashCrate, or any similar service that has the same kind of referral program set up, you can be making money without even having to fill out the surveys. This is the point that I hope to get it. So far I have 13 first level referrals and a second level referral. As these people continue to refer others, I will continue to make money.

Here is the important secret though - you need to complete your first $10 worth of offers to really take advantage of the program. So, spend 30 minutes when you sign up and just keep completing offers. If you reach that $10 mark, great, but you could always keep going. For my first check, I only had one referral payment of $3 and the other $20 some was from referrals. For April so far, I am making about $10 from my referrals. So if you join and complete that first $10 mark and then refer people, you can really make some money with the CashCrate program.

Now, this is a great side income generator so, I encourage you to join CashCrate, complete the $10 worth of offers, and then promote the hell out of the program. It is great to watch your monthly earnings continue to rise and receive emails saying that you have earned more money for not doing any work.

——–

Are you already a member of CashCrate? How are you promoting the service and earning money? I’d love to hear other people’s success stories from using the program!

Win 10,000 EntreCard Credits from John Chow

Just a quick note - John Chow is running a contest on his blog with the prize being 10,000 EntreCard credits. For those of you how are running EntreCard on your blogs, you know that it does indeed bring in some extra traffic and that if you had 10,000 credits, you could start doing a lot more advertising then you may already be doing via EntreCard widgets.

So, check out John’s post about the contest and get involved for a chance to win!

Do You Report Your Blog Income? Question To My Readers

Just a quick question that I wanted to ask my readers today - do you report your blog income? Basically, here is what got me thinking.

Yesterday, I got another check from CashCrate for participating in surveys and for referring new members. My pondering began because I thought about how when I signed up for the program, they asked for my Social Security Number for their records and their own reporting.

So, to any affiliate program users and money makers out there, I want to know if you report your blog income. I can understand if you are making more than a couple hundred dollars a month and how it may look a fishy if you do not have a business entity set up to report it as income to. But for the average blogger who may make say $30-$100 a month off of affiliate programs such as Commission Junction and CashCrate, do you report that income with your income tax?

I figured this would be a good time to pose the question since the deadline for taxes just passed…which was also my birthday!

Finally upgraded to Wordpress 2.5!

Just a quick note for right now. After hearing so many other bloggers talk about upgrading to Wordpress 2.5 and what a wonderful change it was, I thought it was about time to do so for my sites too. So, over the last couple days I have slowly been uploading version 2.5 to my different sites and getting used to the new layout of the Admin area. And all I can say is that its….GREAT!

Compared to the previous versions, this is a HUGE step in the direction of simplicity, ease of use, and attractiveness.

If you have not upgraded to Wordpress 2.5, then I strongly suggest that you get on it. Not only will it make you feel better and possibly make you more productive, but it will save you from any security problems that were showing up in the previous versions.