Site Review Blog

Money501 is a blog all about  money matters and Personal Finance and is another blog from the 501 Network.  If you have been following our recent reviews you probably have a reasonable idea as to the sort and quality of the info on this site.  This particular site is the latest and at the time of writing only has 4 articles posted.

As there is only 4, I’ll make a quick comment on each of them in turn. Tax Free Retirement - well this is something that we all aspire to! The article covers how your current savings, if done correctly can have huge tax advantages. Info is good, but a little brief. The next one, keeping track of your finances was not what I expected.  I was expecting something about creating a budget and sticking to it.  Everyone knows how hard this and that it really is a waste of time. How many people actually stick to a budget? Now, what the article was about was keeping track of your spending, so you can identify where you might be able to change your habits a little and have more money for other things. This particular strategey sounds like it is much better than creating a budget and not sticking to it.

With a title of Benefits of using Credit Cards I didn’t hold much hope for the next one.  From personal experience, credit cards have kept me in debt for way too long!  I read it with an open mind, and by the end, I must admit that the info was worthwhile. As long as you control the card and don’t let it control you I can see how useful it may be for some people.

The final post is all about income and quality of life.  It is quite good at explaining that you may not need $80K to live very well on - you might be able to get away with earning $30Kand actually be better off! While I would prefer to be earning the former, and not the latter, you do get a good explanation - read it and decide for yourself.

I look forward to seeing more info on this site as it is off to a good start.  As always, when dealing with finances it is always best to read everything and seek professioanl advice.

Visit www.money501.com

Moving from one country to another is not something that everyone does and those that do can have some great experiences along with the not so great. Mexico501 is a blog about a family that did just that, they decided to move from the US to Mexico and live there for a few years.  Rather than just do it, like most people would, they went ahead and wrote about some of their experiences about living in Mexico in a blog.

Now, this might seem like a pretty radical move, and almost everyone around the world hears about people tring to go North across the border, you don’t often hear about people going in the other direction.  I guess it also take a bit of courage to pick up and move from one country to another and live and after reading a bit on this site I found it pretty fascinating.

The blog looks like it was getting very regular updates for a few months and now - nothing.  I really hope that this is due to the owners taking a vacation!  I can say that I couldn’t find a single post that was not interesting in some way - the cultural differences and how someone is handling it is what is so interersting about it all.  Some of the posts about visiting the hospital are a little on the personal side and for a site that is all about living in another country I think concentrate a bit too much on this - The general information about communicating when the Doctors only speak a little English and the Patient only speaks a few words of Spanish are the interesting parts of these posts.

What is really great about the blog is that there is also a gallery of some photos that add to the overall story.  The pictures show different parts of Living in Mexico.  The pictures by themselves, unfortunately, only tell part of the story.  Only a few of them are captioned and the un-captioned ones would really benefit from a few words.  If all the pictures were captioned then me, the reader would have probably spent a bit more time browsing the gallery and reading about the pictures.

The site, even though it would currently benefit from a few minor updates provides a fascinating glimpse of someone moving from the US to Mexico.

Visit www.mexico501.com

Everyone who runs a website desires to rank high in the Search engine Results.  To get a site ranking high can take a lot of time, effort and knowledge.  There are several people who document their experience and steps taken to acheive these results.  The Ituloy AngSulong Blog falls into this area.

Now If you are like me, you are probably wondering what the term Ituloy AngSulong is all about but a quick look at this Blog and all is revealed.  The Term was chosen as a unique phrase for an SEO Contest.  The Idea of an SEO contest was a bit foreign to me but a quick read and all was revealed.  The Idea of the contest is to get a particular site to feature high in the SERPS (Search engine Results pages) in a fixed amount of time - usually 3 to 6 months.  At the end of the Contest prizes are awarded to the site owners for the sites that are in certain places in the SERPS.  I didn’t realise that such contests were popular and with prizes for some contests being several thousand dollars, no wonder they are popular!

Now the BlueSEO Blog is not just about the contest, but I guess at the moment it is a fairly high priority.  The posts read ok, and the info within them seems pretty sound.  The  Philippine Weblog gets fairly regular updates, which is what you expect from a blog.  They also have a web directory as part of their site.

The site itself is using Wordpress for the Blog and phpLD for the directory and they have done a pretty good job integrating the design so both the blog and directory look the same.  Quite often, sites use several different scripts but all too frequently they look different, but they have ensured that all parts of their site look the same.

Visit www.blueseo.com

Nearly of of us in our work life answer to someone, and if you are anything like me you probably question the competence of the person who is your boss or Manager.  Rather than just complain about him or her there are things that you can do.  But, before you do anything, wander over to to the Leadership501 Blog and read up on their leadership resources.  You might just get some sort of insight into why your boss thinks the way he does, but it is more likely that you will quickly come to realise that his or her leadership skills are just not up to scratch!  You would have to be one of the lucky ones if this is not the case.

The Leadership501 site is part of the 501 network, of which we will look more closely at over upcoming days. This site promises info and help for people to become more efficient in a leadership position.  A look at the topics and the count of articles in each gives an indication that the topics cover a fairly broad range of subjects from education, leadership motivation, resources and teamwork to mention a few.

I took a quick look at the latest article to be posted on the front page which is titled Functional Leadership Model.  I really had no idea what a Functional leadership Model is but the article was easy to read and clearly explained what it is all about.  Onto the 2nd article.  Once again, the article was fairly easy to read and presented what I thought to be pretty good info.  The 2 articles seem to be a reasonable balance of quality and provide a reasonable degree of information on their topic.

So, with these article seeming pretty good, I randomly selected another article from the middle of the last viewed list.  The chosen article happened to be Management Systems.  After reading the first 2 articles I was full of hope and anticipation about this one.  It, like the other articles was well written, stayed on topic, but unlike the other articles had very little actual substance and information.  I got to the end and couldn’t find the page 2 button that I was expecting.  Well, I understand a little about the subject and that is possibly why it didn’t meet my expectations.

With 2 out of the 3 articles I read, this site looks like it would be useful for someone with little to no management skills or training and possibly an OK resource for people with experience and wanting to brush up a little on current infor and trends.  Have a read for yourself and you decide.

Visit www.leadership501.com

Do you like Fast cars? Well, I am pretty sure that you at least have a passing interest -so why not check out the great street racing videos of cars most of us can only dream about.  With all the Vids and pictures you will be entertained or inspired for hours.  This website is a whole lot more than a collection of vids and pics of hot cars it also has a News section with headlines about all things that a motor sports enthusiast is interested in.

After looking at the videos you will then be thinking of how you can enhance your own car and the Car Tuning Blog has that covered for you.  With articles and reviews of all the latest tuning and “go fast” gadgets you will be able to get your car up to speed in no time!  The blog is not just about tuning, it also reviews a lot of high-tech gadgets and other accessories to not only get you moving, but showing how you can do it in style!  From hot Mags, Stereos and exhaust systems - you can find reviews here.

I am not generally a fan of websites that are white text on black, but I think that in this case it works out pretty good. They make use of Orange as well which breaks things up a bit.  The site is easy to use and easy to navigate and the blog plus the vids and pics give a nice mix of info and entertainment. 

Go, I know you want to…..

Visit: www.2fastlane.com

Tags: car tuning, street racing, car wallpapers

Technorati Tags: car tuning, street racing, car wallpapers

Regular Readers of this blog may or may not realise that most posts are paid reviews of websites.  In order to maintain our Integrity as to what we are doing, we have made use of the services of Disclosure Policy website.  This site is set up in such a way to make it easy for blog owners to generate a Disclosure Policy.

The site was super easy to use to create a policy and it only took a few minutes.  By simply answering a series of questions I was able to generate a policy in just a few minutes.  Anyone who runs a blog that accpets any sort of sponsorship should consider doing the same thing.

Here is the Policy as-generated for us when we answered the questions.

Our Disclosure Policy

This policy is valid from 21 November 2006
 This blog is a personal blog written and edited by me. This blog accepts forms of cash advertising, sponsorship, paid insertions or other forms of compensation.

 The compensation received may influence the advertising content, topics or posts made in this blog. That content, advertising space or post may not always be identified as paid or sponsored content.

 The owner(s) of this blog is compensated to provide opinion on products, services, websites and various other topics. Even though the owner(s) of this blog receives compensation for our posts or advertisements, we always give our honest opinions, findings, beliefs, or experiences on those topics or products. The views and opinions expressed on this blog are purely the bloggers’ own. Any product claim, statistic, quote or other representation about a product or service should be verified with the manufacturer, provider or party in question.

 This blog does not contain any content which might present a conflict of interest.
To get your own policy, go to http://www.disclosurepolicy.org

There comes a time in our lives when we realise that we are no longer waiting for the next pay-cheque so we can pay the bills.  We have made some savings and want to them try and see if we can invest these savings for the maximum return.  Most people start with the safety and security of cash in a bank, but the rewards can be less than satisfying.  Here is where people who are willing to look at alternatives can make considerably more than the Interst that a bank is willing to pay. The Stock investing Blog was started back at the beginning of 2004, and is an interesting read.  It follows a little bit of the writers investments and strategies over the last (almost) 3 years.

Investing in the stock market is not without risk, and before anyone leaps in, they should very carefully research the market.  Along with the risks associated, there can be spectacular profits and Losses.  This is where research, experience and professional advice comes into play.  If you are considering investing in the stock market, the best advice you can get it to not rush in without considering that you could potentially lose every single penny you invest.  If you cannot risk your capital, then the Bank may be a better option for you.

With 3 years of information, the Blog is a good read for anyone considering venturing into the Stock market.  You can read on both the success and failures of somoeone else which you could use to assist your own learning.  Never take any information as investment advice from anyone who is not registered to give such advice.

What I liked about this blog is that some of what I get out of it is stuff I have already learnt for myself.  It is much safer to not put all of your investments into the 1 or even similar things.  Diversification is the key to minimising risks in 1 area.  Over the 3 years of the blog the author has also talked a little about his own diversification in the real estate investing blog category.  While it only gives a glimpse, it shows how that diversifying can be rewarding, as it is fairly usual when 1 part of the market is depressed, another part is running hot.  Investing can be a lot of fun or serious business, but doing it gives you a great control over your future.

Visit www.stock-market-idea.com