Debt - it's a big business. It's estimated that the total level of personal debt in the UK is around £1,460 billion! This is an almost unimageinable number. It does mean that a large proportion of people reading this blog are in debt.

Debt in itself is not necessarily a problem. For instance many people with a large mortgage do not class themselves as "in debt" as they can manage the debt without problem, making their monthly payments each month.

When debt becomes a problem is if you are struggling to keep up with repayments of your monthly bills. If you recognise this situation you should act as soon as possible. Failing to address debt problems will only make them worse.

For free debt advice visit IVA Debt Problem who offer a complete debt solution. This includes debt management, debt consolidation loans, and IVAs (Individual Voluntary Arrangements).

With so many people in debt in the UK there is an opportunity to help them by training to become a debt counsellor. This allows you to work from home with hours to suit you.

Not only is it a way of earning a living (and it could be a good living) but you will be helping solve debt problems for many people who are struggling.

We are currently formulating a debt training package including a two day training course which will take place in the Midlands. At the end of this training course you will be straight up and running with your new business.

Leads in your area can be supplied to get you off to a good start and you can quickly start to generate an income. We provide help and support at every step of the way.

If this sound of interest please use the enquiry form on the front of this website to register your interest. Full details will be available at the end of August including online brochures and marketing materials.

I started my first website in June 1999. At that time I new nothing about websites and got it built by a friend of a friend who owed me a favour.

In the following months, as I needed to update the site, I taught myself a little about html and went on from there. Throughout the last 11 years I have had a number of websites online and spent a fair proportion of that time earning enough from them to pay the bills.

I've never hit upon the idea that is going to make me a million, and I've put in lots of effort for fairly average rewards, but I live in hope every time I launch a new website!

Anyone can start a new business online. You don't necessarily need your own website, for instance there are many ebay traders who use the ebay platform exclusively.

If you do need your own website the domain name and hosting do not cost much and even if you need to get it built by a web designer there are plenty of freelance designers offering good deals.

Starting a business online is easy, making money online is much tougher. A website without visitors isn't going to generate much of an income.

Many people I know have come to me over the years with internet business ideas and wanted to launch new websites but have not thought about where they are going to get visitors from. This is the fundamental problem with most new websites.

So as well as a good idea you need to think about how to get that idea across to as many people as possible. This will usually involve promoting your business offline as well as online.

Does your new business have geographical limitations? If you are only offering your service in your local area promotion by way of leaflet drops and local advertising is the obvious first step.

It is also easier to achieve good positions in the organic search results quickly if you have a geographical limited keyphrase. eg. "plumber in Nottingham" rather than just "plumber".

A quick way to start a new business online is to buy a ready built website. We offer just such a service at Improve Your Future and along with the website comes a host of promotional ideas, help and advice.

For a very limited outlay you can be up and running with your new online business within 48 hours. To find out more follow this link - start a new online business - make money online.

Well that's my holiday screwed for another year. I was due to fly to Thailand from Heathrow at 12.30pm last Thursday, when they cancelled all flights from 12pm! So the volcanic ash has claimed another victim, one of millions Europe-wide.

It cost me some money, not on my main flight but on a connecting flight, plus a wasted day and diesel travelling to and from Heathrow. Plus I apparently have to wait several weeks for my refund (why?). Anyway it could have been worse and many people are in a much worse predicament stranded abroad or missing really important events rather than just a sunny holiday.

It will be interesting to see when flights resume, and whether the airlines apparently succesful test flights in the volcanic ash sway the decision to re-open European air space. There are going to be some serious economic consequences if flights don't resume soon.

So it's back to the day job instead of lazing on the beach. Currently continuing work on IVA Debt Problem, a website dealing with debt problems and solutions including debt management, debt consolidation and IVAs.

Starting to make its way up the rankings, albeit rather slowly, but I have high hopes for it making the front page for a key phrase or two in the next few months.

Nothing much else to report, no competition wins, no good luck of any kind in fact! No new projects on the go, I really need to concentrate on the ones I already have and start to make them profitable (easier said than done).

So just to remind you there are pages on the main website for making money, online business opportunities and more. If you haven't given them a read so far now is the time - everyone could do with some more money in these difficult times.

Just been told about a new work from home business opportunity. It's VERY early days at present and the website is not yet fully up and running but the details I have heard make it sound interesting.

This business opportunity can be run from home and fit in around your existing commitments. It does involve some training but most people would be able to learn it in a relatively quick timescale.

You are not on your own as some leads will be supplied as part of your package meaning you can be up and running and making money relatively quickly.

As with all business opportunities you cannot just sit on the sofa and expect cash to roll in without any work. You will only get out of it what you are prepared to put into it.

Being self employed and working from home is not for everyone. Many people who are currently in 9 to 5 jobs and wishing they could make that change might be surprised how much self determination you need to make a go of it on your own. Also you don't have the safety net of a steady income when you first go self employed.

So think carefully before getting involved with any type of work from home opportunity, although if it is part-time to start with (fitting around your main job) and does not involve a large financial commitment what have you got to lose?

I can't post too many details at the moment but will do so as more information is made available. In the meantime keep your eyes on their website, New Home Career, which will launch fully in the coming weeks.

However bad 2009 has been for you, and it's been a bad year for many, 2010 is a fresh start. Think positive, try to make things better by your own actions. Don't wait for a miracle (I've just checked our lottery account online and we weren't the £10m winners!). You are in charge of your own destiny - improve your future!

New years resolutions are a good way to start, although how many people actually stick to them? That could be because they are often a bit airy-fairy. For instance, many people will be promising themselves they will "lose some weight". It's much better to say that you will lose 5kg by 31st March 2010. You have set yourself a measurable goal and have something definite to aim for.

Once you've set your goal make a plan to get there. Between now and the end of March there are 13 weeks so make a chart to plot your progress. Work out what you will eat for the next 13 weeks and when and what sort of exercise you will be taking. Write it all down and cross it off once you've done it.

Weight loss will definitely be one of my New Year resolutions. I also need to make some more money. This one is a bit harder to achieve. I am looking at improving a number of websites I own and getting them to produce a small monthly income if possible. I'm going to set myself a target of £50 per month by the end of March.

Once that target is reached I can then press on with getting to £100, £200 etc as the year progresses. It's going to be hard work and not as easy as it might sound to many who think the internet is a gold mine!

I've also been trying to tie up a lot of loose ends before the year ends. I've moved most of our accounts away from the godawful Lloyds TSB, just one more to go. I'm in the process of closing my poker account. I just don't get any time to play, and any spare time should be used making money. Although, saying that, I was in profit on my account but it just takes up too much time.

As I haven't played on my bingo account for ages I was also looking at closing that. I've used their money so far so I couldn't withdraw. I thought I would play it all and get rid of it. But I got a line and full house double win on my second game so ended up increasing my balance.

So I've decided to keep my account and use it as a distraction when I get a few minutes downtime. The bingo games only last a couple of minutes so I don't need a huge time investment.

Whatever you are up to tonight to celebrate the New Year have fun and stay safe. Don't drink and drive! All the best for a happy and prosperous New Year to all.

Hope everyone had a good Christmas. Ours was very busy and I'm looking forward to a few days off now to relax (as much as you can with a 15 month old in the house!).

Nearly at the end of the year, in fact the end of the decade. It's a good time to look back on what's happened and take stock of the past, present and future.

2009 has ended well. My competition wins in December (three arriving in Christmas week) cheered me up no end. Although I have had a few problems this year, particularly with work, I am at least in work and nothing disastrous has happened this year in terms of death or illness.

We are a bit poorer financially than this time last year, a trend which looks like continuing for the forseeable future (lottery win permitting), but things could be a lot worse and there are plenty of people worse off than ourselves around the world.

I'm already looking forward to 2010. I've been hammering the competition entries over the last few days and am extremely confident that prizes will be showing up in January. I've already set up my 2010 competition wins page in anticipation.

I desperately need to lose weight and something drastic may need to be done on this front. My gym membership has had to be cancelled and I haven't had chance to try out my new running shoes with all of the snow and ice underfoot.

Need to do something with this website too. The money making DVD is still available as is the free money making ebook but neither have been making me any significant money so I'm looking at changing track. Not quite sure where to go at the moment but I have some time now to give it some thought and come up with some ideas.

Happy New Year to everyone. Hope 2010 brings you everything you wish for.

Over the past few years I have dabbled with affiliate marketing with varying success. At the moment I don't have a steady stream of income from this source, although I have had in the past.

When selecting your affiliates you need to make sure that it could be worthwhile all of the time and effort spent amending your website and promoting their program. Some affilate programs don't last long and others pay a pittance.

If the commission payable is 3% and the average sale made is £20 then you are only going to receive 60p for each sale. You need a LOT of sales to make a living. Plus affilate links tend to have a poor conversion rate, so think of the number of visitors you need to generate even a tenner!

Concentrate on the bigger paying sectors. One of these that I had success with in the past was the finance sector. Unfortunately this sector is not paying out anywhere as much or as often as it used to. Plus finance affiliate programs seem to be closing all of the time at the moment!

Another sector that has paid me well in the past is the mobile phone sector. Payouts tend to be on a flat fee per sale and this could be around £30. A few sales here soon add up and could make into a viable business.

However, with the popular sectors competition is always going to be greater. If you are spending money to promote your site you are going to have to pay more for programs such as Google Adwords.

It is unlikely too that you can just set up an affiliate program on your site, leave it alone and watch the money roll in. At the moment I have several programs that need to be closed as the affiliates are no longer going and I need to find other programs to replace them. This is time consuming.

So affiliate marketing can generate you income, but it is not as easy as it looks (unless you already have a high traffic site within a specialised sector) and is time consuming. As with everything, the more you put into it the more you are likely to get out of it!

Just had a thought that the bumper money making DVD might make a good novelty Christmas present for anyone you know who wants to make a little extra cash.

At only £4.99 with free delivery it could be a bit of a stocking filler for someone. Before you wrap it up you could download it onto your hard drive so you can benefit from the thousands of programs yourself.

It contains over 4.4GB of data. When I was copying it yesterday it showed a total of 1,752 folders containing 33,806 files! At £4.99 that's 0.01p per file - 100 files for a penny. Great value.

You could also use the disc yourself to make some other Christmas presents. For instance hypnosis CDs, coasters, keyrings, horoscope forecasts, novelty bank notes.

To see some more ways you could use the DVD to make great Christmas gifts visit the bumper DVD page which lists just some of the contents.

I'm making it my mission to put ALL of the contents on this website. This means exploring all of the 1,700 plus folders, using the programs and info and cataloguing them all.

There's so much on there this is going to take some time so I'll break it down into smaller chunks. At 10 folders per day it's going to take me nearly 6 months working every day to get through all of the data!

Still, there are bound to be some nuggets of gold hidden away deep within the 30,000 plus files. It's going to be fun finding them and you never know, one of them could be the key to my fortune! I live in hope.

So for the perfect novelty Christmas gift for under a fiver buy the IYF Bumper DVD while stocks last.

As promised in a previous post I've now added the new bumper DVD to the website. To find out more visit the "make money online with our bumper DVD" page.

The reason it's on DVD is simply that it contains so much data - over 4GB in total! You would have to package a number of CDs to contain that much. There really is an incredible amount of stuff on there.

There is something for everyone. I don't believe there is a single person out there who wouldn't benefit from at least one of the programs, ebooks, manuals etc. At only £4.99 it represents incredible value even if you only use one of the hundreds of software items.

How do you make money out of it? As well as money making ideas, ebay tips and tricks, advice on starting a business etc. there are a number of useful programs that can be re-sold seperately. For instance there are a number of hypnosis CDs.

You could record these individually onto CD and sell them seperately. The subjects of weight loss, stopping smoking, and improving confidence are bound to be sought after by many. Each CD could potentially sell at £4.99 (or more) giving you a 100% profit from just two sales!

You could sell them online as audio downloads at £1.99 each, or send them to people by email. The money making possibilities are endless.

There are also a number of artworks and images which could be turned into posters, key rings, mouse mats, coasters and other items. Plus a variety of programs which you could use to offer services or sell on CD to other.

This bumper money making DVD is available now at £4.99. Payment is handled by Paypal and it will be despatched within 24 hours of your order.

It doesn't come with any fancy packaging - it's the contents that are important! Get your copy now and have some fun with it.

Can't believe this is my first post in November. Just haven't seemed to have the time to update the site or even write a few words.

My day job is getting in the way, causing me untold headaches and putting me under a fair bit of stress. I've had so much on my mind recently, none of it positive, and it's been a very unproductive time.

Hopefully this post will herald a return to a more regular blogging pattern as there are a few things coming up which will hopefully make me some money!

The first is selling trainers online. Through a contact on a car boot we've managed to source some ridiculously cheap Nike and Reebok shoes. They are originals, not copies, and should yield a few quid profit on each. We're trialling different adverts and prices on Ebay to see how it's all going to work and if the first few sell well we will look into getting some more.

We've also found a source for cheap food to sell at car boots and markets. It's either out-of-date or nearly out-of-date but most of the items are still going to be OK to eat. I've never had any problems with buying out-of-date stuff in the past, it's a good way of saving money.

The first order has been placed and is being picked up tomorrow with a view to running our first car boot stall this weekend, weather permitting.

I've also taken delivery of a great money making DVD. It contains over 60 CDs worth of stuff for resale. One sale will get my money back and then it's into profit.

It contains hundreds of ebooks, ringtones, clipart, hypnosis tracks and lots, lots more.

I'm going to be selling this DVD on this site for £4.99 and for people looking to make some extra cash you could do worse than get your own copy to re-sell yourselves.

Actually all of the stuff on it is worth far more than £4.99 and with so many different programs on there you are bound to find something useful or interesting for your own pleasure. It's an absolute no-brainer.

All being well this new money making DVD will be available by the weekend. Come back soon for your copy.

The quest to make money online continues. I've had a little time to make a start on Financeworx and I've just remembered I have another site I could use, both for finance and business opportunities, called Cash 2U.

Again this site was set up ages ago and has been languishing without any effort being put into it. I need to get more visitors coming to all three sites to start making some sales and thus make some money.

That's the key to making money online - visitors. It doesn't matter what you're trying to sell online, carpets, light bulbs, accountancy services or business opportunities, without visitors to your website you are not going to make any sales.

There are a variety of ways to get traffic to your site, many of which are free but require time and effort listing your site. You can also pay for traffic by pay-per-click or participate in banner exchanges etc.

Once you start to make sales and make money you can apportion a percentage of your profit to ongoing marketing to keep traffic coming in and to continue making money online.

Getting started is the hard part and it can be a daunting prospect and easy to give up too quickly. Websites require a little time to gather some momentum and need plenty of work in the early days. But once the traffic starts coming in it can snowball.

When I have more time I will compile a list of traffic generation methods which will help anyone participating in the online business opportunities listed on this site. Sign up with me and you will have my support available by email 24/7 (Well you can email me 24/7 and I'll reply as soon as I get it!).

The dream of running your own business, rather than working for someone else, is a dream shared by many people bored with their 9-5 jobs.

However, setting up your own business can be costly, time-consuming and entail a lot more work than you think.

Setting up a business from scratch needs a lot of commitment and full-time focus. If it fails it could spell financial ruin! Not everyone is cut out to run their own business.

Rather than give up your current job (and income) to start from scratch, why not consider starting a part-time business which could expand into full time if successful.

There are plenty of business opportunities out there that require very little in terms of funding and are flexible, meaning you only have to work your hours of choice. If you find that the business is not for you, either you don't like it or cannot make any money from it, then you have only lost a small initial investment and a few hours of your time.

It might be that by trying one business opportunity that doesn't work out it focuses your mind on what would work for you or gives you some ideas for the future.

So our advice to improve your future is to think big but start small. Don't commit money you cannot afford to starting a new business.

Give it a try and see how it works out for you. Everyone is different and we all want different things from our lives.

Visit our home page and complete the online form there and we will contact you with current opportunities that suit your requirements and let you know of new business opportunities as they arise.

Still not cracked it. Business is slow on Improve Your Future so I've had a look round at other websites that have been left dormant.

One of these is Financeworx. This site deals with personal loans for tenants and homeowners as well as debt management and other finance related products.

I must have updated it at some point during 2009 as it has a 2009 copyright notice on it but I suspect that was done in January and since then I haven't touched it.

It is very out-of-date and needs work on pretty much every page. I've just added Google analytics to see whether it currently attracts any traffic and, when I get time, I will start to go through each page and replace all of the old programs with new ones.

I've got a few similar sites that are sitting idle, gathering dust, so once I get this back up-and-running I'll move onto some others to try and get some more visitors across a range of websites.

Hopefully I can get some referrals between sites and cross-sell on them. I have to do something. Last months bank statement is in and it looks like we are spending around £100 more than we are generating each month.

A slow, steady descent into the poorhouse beckons unless I can reverse this trend. So need to start generating some income quicker than I had anticipated.

Making money online is not easy. Not everyone can do it and it is not a matter of simply switching on your computer and watching the money roll in.

However, plenty of people ARE making money online, and as the amount spent online increases exponentially year after year the slice of the pie you need to make a reasonable living reduces.

What do you need to make money online? A good idea is a start plus, if you don't want the expense of employing someone to get your website up and running, some knowledge of website design and protocol. This can be learned fairly quickly or there is plenty of software out there that will help you get set up in no time.

Of course if you have a product to sell and need an online shopping cart and payment processing this is going to take longer and be more expensive unless you use other peoples systems.

When you are starting out research is key. There are plenty of websites, this one included, who will point you in the direction of the next big business opportunity or method of online money making.

Some will promise you untold riches (not us, we know that is highly unlikely) but remember - if it looks to good to be true, it probably is. I call this the first rule of business opportunities.

If you don't want the hassle of setting everything up yourself, or just don't have the time, a turnkey business is probably ideal for you. This is where everything is set up for you, the website, product delivery and payments, and you just have to get visitors to your new website. For an example of this download our free money making ebook.

You could have your new website up and running within 48 hours and open for business. Then it is up to you to find visitors who are interested and want to sign up to. All of the knowledge of where to find them and how to get them to your site is included, as is ongoing email support.

Many people who are employed, and have always been employed, dream of breaking free and setting up in business on their own.

However running your own business is not for everyone. People tend to only think of the advantages of their own business without thinking of all of the things that can make running a business a nightmare.

For instance, they want to break free from a 9-5 job and be able to set their own hours. In theory an excellent idea but often your customers will want you to be available outside of these hours at THEIR convenience.

I worked as a self-employed Domestic Energy Assessor for a while and in order to make ends meet had to visit my clients in the evening and at weekends when it suited them. I had little or no say over my hours if I wanted enough work to pay the bills.

When you first start the business it is likely that longer hours are going to be the order of the day until things get up and running and the business starts to build some momentum.

The business opportunities listed on Improve Your Future aim to get around the many problems you can come across when you set up a regular business.

For instance, rather than setting up a business needing premises, staff and stock (all of which come with their own problems) you can set up a business making money online.

Our free money making ebook shows you how easy it could be to get started with your own website. Everything is done for you in fact and within 48 hours you could have a website online which you can start promoting.

It's not going to be as easy as that. You will need to put in some effort getting visitors to your site and following up on any leads you generate to turn them into sales but there are no ongoing overheads (other than your time) and you can work from home and fit it in around other commitments if required.

Plus if you sign up at Improve Your Future you will be able to contact me anytime by email for ongoing help and support. Remember I'm doing it too and will often have experienced the problems you are coming across and have already worked out the solutions.

As promised my new money making website is now up and running. I've also added a page on my main website where you can download the free money making ebook.

Is it easy to make money online? I've been working online for a few years now and am completely self taught. I've used a mixture of books and online research to enable me to use html and asp. I've also spent a lot of time and energy learning about search engine optimisation, not that I'm an expert by any means.

All of these skills should stand me in good stead for making a go of my new money making venture. In fact I've already had my first free ebook request which I've sent out this evening.

So fingers crossed that I will soon be making money online and I will be reporting back here on this blog from time to time with my results.

For the complete novice this will obviously be a little bit harder, although the website set up is done for you and you just have to learn about promoting it.

The materials that are provided will give you a good start and should enable you to get your first sales to at least get your money back. After that it's all profit.

You need to look at it sensibly, you are unlikely to become a millionaire but could make a nice few quid or more if you get it working right for you. You will only get out of it what you are prepared to put into it.

I'm looking long term for when this site gets a few more visitors and generates its own income without me having to work too hard. At the moment it's all work with the promise of rewards in the future!

Anyway, to get started download my free ebook about making money online and see what you think. Good luck.

Further to my recent post about my new online money making project, I'm just letting you know the progress so far and the reasons why it's not up-and-running yet.

I signed up as promised to check it out and I really wanted to get it online this weekend. However, the first mistake I made was not pressing the right button after making my payment.

So instead of returning to the right website to complete my order I saved the receipt, closed the page and got on with other things. It was only a couple of hours later, when I had heard nothing, that I realised I should have clicked.

Luckily I had saved the receipt and could retrieve the website address I needed. Rest assured if you make the same mistake when signing up I can point you in the right direction.

Now I had a four step plan to follow to get the website online. I recommend you read everything fully and slowly complete this process as directed.

I had to purchase a domain name from GoDaddy, which was relatively straightforward (and cheap - around $11 for two years). I managed to get the domain name improveyourfuture.info which fits in perfectly with the main website.

I submitted all of the details for this domain as directed and waited for the new website. However after a few hours I got an email telling me that they had not been able to add this domain to their server.

Now I had to contact GoDaddy to resolve the problem. They are based in America but have an 0207 contact number from the UK so it is free if you have a call package with inclusive landline minutes.

I got redirected to Arizona and the problem wasn't obvious straight away. However after much brain scratching, and to cut a long story short, the problem was this:

Although I had bought the domain anew, it had previously been registered and used by someone else. They had allowed the domain name to lapse but had not cancelled the hosting. This hosting was still attached to the domain meaning it could not be transferred elsewhere.

So GoDaddy had to get the old hosting cancelled before it can be transferred. This they are doing, but it could take up to 72 hours to complete. So I've decided to wait until Monday and see if the problem is resolved.

Hopefully the site will be up-and-running Monday or Tuesday. So bookmark my new online money making website and wait for exciting developments.