A Super Income

Lottery players all over the United Kingdom were today left unable to buy National Lottery tickets today due to a nationwide computer fault, this I know first hand as I was unable to either buy a ticket for tonights national lottery game, but also to cash in my £10 winning ticket from christmas eve. When I went to my local lotto retailer, I was told to buy one online instead, however that is also not working.

Camelot say technical hitch crashed the computer system at around about 11 o'clock this morning, which meant lottery tickets were not able to be purchased.

A National Lottery spokesman said: “Due to a network communications issue on Saturday afternoon, players may have experienced difficulties buying National Lottery tickets in-store or via The National Lottery website.“The issue is currently being resolved. In the meantime we would like to apologise to anyone affected – and reassure those people with tickets that the draws will go ahead as usual.”

This has left many lottery players myself included very frustrated, for all those lottery players who have the same regular numbers, how will we feel if the our numbers come up? I know how I will feel anyway.

 

Many players have started to buy their lottery tickets online via the official National Lottery Website. However that is down too, when I checked at about 5pm to buy my regular ticket, the system wasn't working and so I am without a ticket for tonights lottery draw, and sadly I have regular numbers, so if they come up I will be a little upset.

Some lottery players around the world now play in an e-lottery syndicate, which is a proffesionally run syndicate operating in both the UK Nation lotto and the EuroMillions lottery game. These people are unaffected it is believed as the tickets are purchased in advance, along with many other syndicates, which also buy the tickets days before.

 

A lesson learnt I think, I will be buying my normal ticket weeks ahead now, just in case. I also play in the above mentioned elottery syndicates so at least I have a chance of winning a cash prize tonight, however thats not with my normall lotto numbers, so here's hoping my normal numbers don't come up.

 

One disappointed player, Danny Edwards, 50, from Birmingham, said: “If they are not able to let everybody play, it’s not a fair draw.

 

“Many players keep standard numbers. What would happen if their numbers come up but they haven’t been able to put them on? They’d be pig sick.”

 

Another angry player, Philip Munro, 42, from Ingatestone, Essex, fumed: “Camelot should cancel the draw.

 

“If it goes ahead, it would be outrageous. It is going to be unfair on people that cannot buy tickets and also those who have already bought theirs – especially if they win and the jackpot is tiny.”

 

All day there was NO explanation left on the website about why people were not able to buy tickets.

 

And hundreds of furious players called The Sun saying they couldn’t contact the National Lottery because all the phone lines were engaged.

 

An interesting one here I think, because you can see both sides of this coin, if you have a ticket you would want it to go ahead, and if you don't have one then you won't. Anyway its going ahead so thats that, and then on Friday it's a EuroMillions lottery rollover worth a nice £35 million.

Income Money and the UK economy 

 

This isn't new news at all, and a lot of you will have guessed this, however it seems that more and more households finances are being squeezed by an shock change in financial circumstances in 2008. according to research carried out for the Bank of England. 

 

A combination of higher food and massive jumps in utility bills and of course petrol, coupled with falling house prices and less credit avaliable have reduced household budgets and spending over the last quarter of 2008. And there is no end in site to this, it could be another year and a half before we see things return to normal. Of course no one really knows, it could be sooner, or longer. 

 

Around 2,500 households were interviewed for the survey in late September and early October 2008, and the answers really came as no suprise. 

 

Typically, they said they now had less spare cash either to spend or save. This is scary when you think Christmas is fast approaching, and fuel bills won't go down untill early 2009. So people having lots of shopping to do, and the months will be colder, less money to spend and more things to spend it on. Add onto this, the recent job losses by many big companies, it's all doom and gloom at the moment.

"The typical household reported that the income it had available after meeting household bills had fallen over the past year and that it had saved less than it had expected," said the Bank. So more and more people have more month left when all the income is spent. 

 

The good news is that with Bills unlike mortgage payments only a small minority (3%) of people reported that they had fallen behind with repayments. Mortgages however are a different story, as more and more people fall behind, however the recent drop's in interest rates, should help to stop this so much, and the banks now allowing customers 6 months before they start repossesions, means that its not all bad for the mortgage customers. 

 

People who were renting their homes, or whose mortgages were particularly high in relation to the value of their homes, were those most likely to be in that 3% who had failed to make some repayments. 

 

The main reason given was that their household bills had been higher than expected. This could be due to the shocking rises in bills over the last year, with another recent survey reporting that some gas bills had risen by upto 33%, maybe this is why OFCOM is investigating the amount billed by companies.

 

More than half of those who took part in the survey had seen a decline in their available income after paying tax, debt repayments and utility bills. This in my opinion is another reason why people should have multiple income streams, preferably with one of them being a residual income stream. A home based business, or an online venture or even just a 2nd job. Every day as a society we seem to be more and more consumers, paying for things on credit, consuming and then moving on. What happened to the day's of saving up for something and then buy it? 

 

I am only young, and this is how I have been brought up to think, if you want something you save for it, and not just go out and out it on the credit card or get it on the tick. More and more consumers today seem happy to get it now, and worry about paying for it later. Saving surely is the key, espically now as people like me find it harder and harder to get a mortgage. Bigger deposits are needed, to even have the chance of a bank lending you the money to buy a house. 

 

About 40% of households have a mortgage and most of these will see their borrowing costs cut sharply because of the Bank of England's successive rate cuts in October, November and December. I know my landlord did, at the house I rent a room in, his mortgage fell by a bit, and he even gave me a discount on the rent! Result.

 

These cuts have taken the official bank of England base rate down from 5% to just 2%, with many economists expecting further reductions as the impending economic recession in the UK deepens. This is of course great news for borrowers, however its not so much good news for savers. Saver's now struggle to find a good place to save there money, a few banks offer decent rates, but nothing is great at the moment, maybe its time to buy premium bonds?

Melaleuca Review – MLM

Melaleuca have been around for over 20 years and they are a Direct Selling Referral company who manufacture and sell direct to customers their non-toxic environmentally friendly complete range of household cleaning products. Also, natural personal care products and their own exclusive range of natural "Nicole Miller" skin care and make-up range. Many other products also.
Customers simply switch their household budgets over to Melaleuca so "new money" is not needed to be found from budgets. All customers are also entitled to refer others and of course there is a generous compensation plan for those who wish to do this, there is no extra cost and this option can be taken up at any time.

For those who do wish to make a home business out of this then I find it great that my business overheads are taken care of by just ordering my normal cleaning and personal care products from Melaleuca, this is all I need to do to receive my commission, which by the way, pays for my products anyway. Also, these products that I AM going to buy from somewhere, for instance Tesco's, Boots, Holland and Barrett will be tax deductable for me as they are part of my business overheads.

Currently available in ten countries including, US, Canada, UK – more recently launched into Holland. I am looking for partners to help me get the word out in the UK.

To check this out go to www.melaleuca.com and then pick country UK from the drop down menu on the right. This will give you an idea of the products and why Melaleuca came about – to hear more or to try out an account either as a customer or business or both you need to speak with an existing customer of Melaleuca (me LOL). All customers join via referral from other customers.

I have a personal page with a little info here:

www.suemarshall.ws/page3.html

please scroll all the way down as there is extra info on the biz opp and my contact details at the bottom.

If you would like to see an online presentation about Melaleuca then please contact me from the above web page where I can arrange to send you a personal pin code in order to be able to view it.

Heres what I'd recommend as a good starter for internet promotion.

1) Get A Web Domain.

This would replace your signup link with a name you have selected. An example domain could be exampledomain.co.uk

You need to be imaginative here and select a name nobody else has used but also something which is easy to remember and relevant.

Once you have selected and purchased your domain name you need to redirect to domain to your signup link
2) Search Engine

You then need to add your new domain name to the major search engines. The following are links which may help you.

Submit Express - www.submitexpress.com/submit.html

Google - www.google.com/addurl.html

Yahoo submit.search.yahoo.com/free/request (You must have an account)

MSN - beta.search.msn.com/docs/submit.aspx?

Alexa - pages.alexa.com/help/webm…crawl_site

AOL - search.aol.com/aolcom/add.jsp

ExactSeek - www.exactseek.com/freemember.html

3) Pay-Per-Click (PPC) Search Engines

This is how you get a advert at the top of the search listings on popular search engines but it does cost.

You pay when someone clicks on one of your adverts and the amount you pay depends on the amount that you havebid on certain keywords, if someone searches using that word or phrase your ad gets shown. If you bid highest you get shown 1st out of the ads. If someone reads your ad and clicks to get to your site – only then are you charged.
www.payperclicksearchengi…ines.shtml lists UK based search engines you can get clicks very cheaply but bear in mind traffic may be quite small from some of them.

You don't care how many people read the ad, but as you only pay for the ones who click on your advert its best to tell them from the outset the cost of joining.

Hope that helps

A quick superincome blog post here today, before I dash out. As more and more people start to worry about their money and what they can get for xmas with their income, I have just found an interesting post on another blog. Click here to read it. 

 

It talks about how the slight decrease in VAT is going to be short lived, and in the long run, how we can expect to see increases in tax to cover this. Is a short term fix reallly worth it? Check out the article its very good.

Just been  sent this email, online marketing methods for your mlm business. Anyone got anymore? Please add them, then we can all build our mlms into massive income producing structures.

You need to advertise your online business both online and offline. Below you will find some creative ways to advertise & market your business online.

#1. Write some short articles and donate them to online websites, ezines and newsletters.

These articles can be on family life, raising children, hobbies, cooking, pets, shopping, weddings, just about any thing!

Make sure your article has an attached signature tag with your name, business name and your website address.

#2. Attach an email signature tag to every outgoing email that you send. Make sure it includes your business name and website address.

#3. Write a FREE blog! Blogging is very hot these days! A blog is a online journal and you can write one on a variety of topics including topics that relate to your online business. Do a keyword search through a search engine such as www.google.com to learn about blogging!

#4. Get yourself registered and listed in online yellow page phone books under your business name & business information.

#5. Get yourself listed in online business directories.

#6. Get yourself listed in online shopping & gift directories.

#7. If you offer a contest through your online website, make sure you get yourself listed in online Contest & Sweepstakes directories for some free business exposure.

#8. Online talk radio is big these days! Contact those sites and inquire about being a guest on one of their online talk radio programs.

#9. If you can afford it, get some online advertising on a online radio station.

#10. Do a online web search for your local city radio stations. Alot of your radio stations also offer online contests to their listeners. Offer to sponsor one of their online contests or inquire about advertising on their website.

#11. Do a online web search for your local city tv news station websites. Alot of them offer online contests on their websites. Offer to sponsor one or inquire about advertising on their website.

#12. Start a online newsletter for your business. I recommend doing a monthly newsletter. You will get more subscribers to your newsletter if you add informational content along with 2-3 specials that you are running. A newsletter subscriber contest is also helpful in promoting a online newsletter.

Newsletter subscribers don't want to read just sales ads so its important to also offer informational content, tips, product reviews etc.

#13. Online gift certificates are big business these days. Make sure your website offers online gift certificates for your business products or business service.

#14. Get yourself listed in online search engines. You can start out with the free lesser known search engines and then work your way up to the pay-per click type of search engines.

#15. Do a web search for message boards for your local city or town. Get on those local area message boards and start networking! Get to know others who live around you. This is a great way to get local customers and local leads. Alot of times you can get a text ad or a banner ad on those local message board sites to help promote your business locally.

#16. Ask your online friends and family to attach your email signature tag to all of their outgoing emails.

#17. There are alot of FREE online classified ad sites. I recommend that you place ads ONLY on the most popular of these types of sites. The best ones are sites that cater to your local area.

#18. Link Exchange. Contact other websites and offer to exchange web links with them. You add their web link to your website page and they add your website link to theirs.

#19. If your business offers a bridal gift registry to new brides to be, make sure you get yourself list in some of the popular online bridal gift registry directories. Alot of them also offer contests to their readers so consider sponsoring a contest too.