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Showing posts from January, 2018


Should I Take an Unpaid Internship?

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I know what you're thinking, Ugh, another crazy college communist who wants me to work for free! No. Here are some of the best reasons to seriously consider an unpaid internship. Internships Help You Get Ahead I'm in graduate school right now so I can become a city manager. That's the end goal. Right when I graduate with my masters degree though, I'll probably have to get a job as an assistant city manager somewhere first, and get some experience. My buddy worked an unpaid internship, that later became a paid internship at a consulting firm for local governments. He graduated with his bachelor's degree and within a few months had a job as an assistant city manager. He essentially skipped the step where he was supposed to get his masters degree, the step that I'm spending thousands of dollars on now. Tuition for my masters program costs about $30,000 every year. Internships pay for themselves. I also am at the number 1 public affairs school in the country

The Power of Asking Nicely

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Can I have that? What was I asking for? A dozen bicycles. Nice ones. Ok, not your $2,000 mountain bike nice, but not your Walmart special either. My apartment sent out a notice saying that they were going to be cutting bikes off of the bike racks that didn't have the apartment tag, and people had a month to get them removed. A month went by, and I asked the apartment if I could have some of the bikes. They said yes.  Not only did they say yes, but I got to pick from about 50 bikes that they had removed and take the ones I wanted. These bikes are worth about $100-200 each, and most only needed minor tune ups, and a healthy amount of oil. I was a bike mechanic on my LDS mission . Piece of cake. I've made about $3000 from it so far, got my wife a classic teal beach cruiser with a cute little basket, started putting together a bike for myself, and have a few more bikes to sell. I should get the last parts in the mail today to list a Giant Mountain Bike for sale. I als

The Oil Distributor: Nikki Merrell

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I'm not a hippy. I like red meat, power tools, America, and drink milk from a cow, not from a nut. That being said, here's the story of my cousin, the Essential Oil distributor. I was first introduced to essential oils by my construction boss. Imagine a big burly bearded guy. His leg was as thick around as my whole body. He used power tools all day. He also had a little pouch full of little vials of oils that he carried to help with his daily ailments. It was kind of funny, this big manly man carrying a small pouch of dainty vials, but he loved them. He had an oil for losing weight, a couple for reducing inflammation, one for sunburns, sore muscles, etc. He tried to get me using them. I'm not entirely sold on all of the oils. I like how lavender oil smells, and I love making mint truffles with peppermint oil. I also once put some peppermint oil on a buddy's deodorant, and that was something I believe in as well, for others, not me (hilarious!). I also am absolutel

Please, Not Another Pointless List to Click Through!

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What Problem Each State is Known For This was the last one I clicked on when I was scrolling through Facebook. I live in Utah so I have to click through 44 pages just to read the one page about my state. To save everyone a lot of time, Utah consumes a lot of porn and pain killers. People from Alabama, I'm jealous. I don't remember what your problem is, but you don't have to click through 44 pages to get to your state. Why do they do this? Answer: Page views I have tried a couple different monetization techniques for my blog. Ad companies are a big one, but not one I do anymore. There are two main ways people make money from lists. 1. clicks. people clicking on the ads, and 2. impressions. People just seeing an ad. People clicking on an ad is obviously worth more, but impressions can still make you money. When I was reading the list of State problems, I gave that website 44 page views. Impressions take about 1000 to make $1. Don't quote me on that, that&

Lock Screen = Easy Money

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I'm an Android person. I occasionally get in arguments with mac people about who's phone is better. My easy win is that I've got a headphone jack. Another winner is an app, and also a group of apps, that are only available to android users. A couple months ago, I tried out an app I read about called S'more.  Its only available for androids. Apple users don't care about money though. Why else would Apple release a $1000 phone? Then sell an attachment just so you can plug in headphones? I've made $10 in Amazon gift cards. It took as much effort as it takes to unlock my phone. I occasionally feel bad about wasting time on my phone. I like phone games. Starwars Galaxy of Heros is my current go to. Then I remember that I should be productive. Isn't it great that my phone makes me money, even when I'm just opening it to play games? Yes. Yes it is. Here's how it works: The app puts a lock screen with an  advertisement on it. You swipe past that and i

A Single Grain of Rice

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Once in boy scouts we were given the task of feeding a group, where every person only got $1. There was a pretty large group, but at the end of the activity we had spaghetti, garlic bread, a salad, and finished it off with cake. Each person ate for a buck. Fast forward to college times. When people think of college food they think of Ramen, mac and cheese, dollar menu items, and other bland, cheap, and generally unhealthy food. There are three factors in everything that we can buy. Inexpensive High quality Convenient or quick Generally speaking, you can only have two of these. It’s almost always the case that to get more of any one of these things, you sacrifice in the other areas. For instance, rice and beans are two of the cheapest foods you can buy. I bought a 25 lb bag of rice for $8, and I’ve had it and been eating from it for over a year. According to google, a pound of rice makes 11 servings, so I bought 275 meals worth of rice, which breaks down to about 2 cents