[Graham Maddison]

As a result of a much lower exchange rate for the UK£ against the US$ I have had to revisit some of the things I am paying for on a monthly basis.

The first to suffer is my "Welcome Avatar" on my blog which although looked pretty and had a novelty value, cannot now justify her existense..so she's gone...for now at least.

I am also a power user of Traffic Swarm and am considering stopping this also as I am not convinced I am getting value for money with the present exchange rate.

Is anyone else cutting back like me?

Graham

[Patrician]

What a shame your avatar girl had to go, Graham.

I don't know about the exchange rate but I have cut back on a few things merely because I am not really actively promoting my IM businesses right now. This year they are going to be little more than a tax write off.

Things are tough all over and even on a good day doing whatever you have to do to stay afloat is advisable.

At the end of the day, thankfully we can still say 'it could be worse'... (e.g., hurricanes, tsunamis, wars, train wrecks)

[Matt Belock]

Yes it does seem many people are cutting back on things. These are tough times for many including myself. I wish there was a way I can snap my fingers and all prayers will be answered. Well thats not going to happen so I need to monetize and organize myself.

Best thing to do is find out how much you are investing in your affiliates (SU, Empow etc.) for the year. Next try to level it off with your current income and try to keep money aside.

A little hint to save some money, not much but some, is too same all change you have. I am talking about coins not cash. Every time I purchase something I never use the change in my pocket and at the end of everyday I usually have a couple dollars. Its not much but it can add up over time and might actually help pay for one of your products for the month.

haha, its just something I do. I am not a penny pincher its just that I have over $70K in debt.

[Stephen Meyer]

I cut back a few months ago and now only pay for programs and products I use. I found that the more affiliate programs you try to promote and the more products you try to use such as traffic builders and list builders the quicker your money leaves and the slower it comes back.

Concentrating on only the affiliate programs and MLM programs that have the highest payout is my number one suggestion. You can spend your self to death trying to promote something that only pays a couple bucks per affiliate. I have to ask myself why would I do that? The answer, I am not going to. They may be cheap and easy to get free signups (not talking about SFI) but who cares about that. I'm in it to make money and to help other people make money. If I have a product (and I do) that you can make 100% payout on that's where I'm spending my time.

Plus only using products that fit into my overall game plan and not being distracted by all the other stuff that hits my inbox is my second step at saving money. Way too many people launching way too much junk every week that will not make me a dime. So I ignore it. I've found I can effectively market with only 2-3 products and do better than if I bought all the traffic building and list building junk that comes along. I actually almost have my email cleaned up so I no longer get all the junk email and product launch stuff. Every now and then something really good comes out but it's rare.

I actually believe if a new person learned how to use and implemented a lot of the stuff in the 30-day PIPs training they would do much better than venturing off trying to find something better. Master the free stuff first and when you've done that venture into paying for advanced product use.

I could go on and on but I am amazed at all the stuff I see people buying that's going to be the thing that makes them money and moves them forward but months later they still aren't making significant money, if any at all. I'm no exception to that scenario except I quit doing it and I am making money now. So I say master what you have and you'll beat out all the opportunity seekers and next best thing buyers out there.

That was another one of my long drawn out post .