Today on MoneyLife

Chuck Bentley begins the program talking about today's guest, John Nardini.  John's story was featured in a December 2007 New York times article.  John is the Executive Vice President of Denali Flavors.

Denali is an ice cream manufacturing company located in Michigan that licenses it's flavors to other stores.  It's a small business with a limited ad budget, so John decided to use blogs to build brand awareness for Moose Tracks, its most popular flavor of ice cream.

John runs marketing for Denali and is responsible for these blogs.  He's experimented over the years with different types of blogs to see which would generate the most traffic for their ice cream site.  By far the most successful blog for generating traffic is one called "Free Money Finance."  It's a blog that has nothing to do with Denali's ice cream business (although, note banner ad for Moose Tracks).

John's plan was to create a blog with a lot of traffic that would serve as an independent media outlet owned by its only sponsor, Denali Flavors.  So John chose personal finance because it's popular and is a great search category on the web, and because he knew he personally would not get tired of posting to it.  John posts about 5 times per weekday to the site.

Free Money Finance receives about 4500 visits a day.  Each visitor goes to approximately 2 pages, which means they see 2 ads for Moose Tracks.  The effort costs only $400 a year, excluding his salary.  The site accepts advertising, which earns Denali Flavors over $40,000 a year, and they donate all of that to charity.

John and his wife have been budget coaches for Crown for many years, following God's financial principles in their lives.  Chuck says he'll interview John not about his business, but about how to increase income and grow personal finances.

After the break, Chuck welcomes John Nardini to the program.  John tells listeners that the roots of Free Money Finance go back 15 years when he and his wife became counselors for Christian Financial Concepts, one of the parent ministries of Crown Financial Ministries.

Chuck asks John for some of his top tips for boosting their household income.  John says the simplest way to make more money is to focus on how you're doing it now and to try to make more from that route.  For most people, that means their job.

Ask for a raise.  Before you ask, make sure you deserve a raise.  If you deserve it, you shouldn't be afraid to ask for a raise.  How do you know you deserve a raise?

1. Determine expectations for your position.  Make a written list with your boss
2. Work to over perform versus those objectives.
3. Document your success, at least quarterly, if not monthly.  Email results to your boss.
4. If possible, show that you're underpaid.  Use websites like salary.com to research salary levels for your type of work
5. Have a great attitude

Get a promotion.  If you do the things mentioned above, you'll likely to get a promotion without asking for a raise or promotion.  If a higher position isn't available, ask that you be considered for the next one.

Change jobs.  If a raise isn't possible and a promotion isn't available, you always have the option of leaving for another company that affords you the chance to use your skills better for higher pay.  Usually that's how people advance.

Chuck asks John about ways to increase income outside of one's regular job.  John says most of us have hobbies, things we enjoy doing in our spare time.

You can turn your hobby into an extra income.  John's friends turned a love of cycling into a part time job repairing bikes.  Peopl have turned a love of hunting and art into making decorative knives to sell at flea markets.  Another friend of John's turned a love of baking into a business that sells "high end" cookware.

Look at what you do for a hobby and see if there's an opportunity to turn it into a part time money making enterprise.  John turned his love of budget counseling into blogging and free lance writing on finances that earns extra income.

Chuck he says many people today need to get out of what he calls "job slavery," where they are stuck in a job; they're not going anywhere in that particular field, maybe their field is being crushed in the current economic downturn.  These folks need some other way to earn an income, and a side business is a great strategy.  Chuck asks John for more ideas about starting a side business.

John says a side business is a wonderful way to tailor the time you have available to make the extra money you need.  John recommends people look at areas that will be popular for the next 5 to 10 years.  Pets are a good example.  People now have pets groomed, walked, and watched.  There are lots of pet services one can do with a flexible schedule.

College students want to know how to get into the right college, take the right tests and perform well, how to interview correctly when they find the right college, how to apply successfully for a college loan.  If you have the experience in that area, that would be a phenomenal side business to have these days.

You can stage homes.  A lot of folks are trying to sell homes now and they need help getting them prepped for sale.  If you have a flair for design and making a house look inviting, that's a great side business.

John also recommends that listeners learn to trade or barter skills.  It may not make money, but it will save you a lot of money not having to pay for various services.  You can also use your current job skills to moonlight.

John says another great way to get extra cash is by selling stuff that you don't need.  Our basements, garages, storage sheds are jammed with stuff we'll never use.  Take those items and sell them, especially if you're paying a monthly storage fee.  If you have extra room in your house, you can rent it out to other folks who want to store their stuff.

In the final segment, John tells listeners about "abandoned" money in checking accounts, tax refunds, etc. that is going unclaimed.  Some of it may be long to you.  Go to missingmoney.com to find out more.  John says he did this and found a claim for less than $100, but he was still glad to have it.

John also recommends that you adjust your income tax withholding to make it as accurate as possible.  On average, Americans get $2,000 back from the government when they file their tax returns.  That's money the government is paying zero interest on.  Change your W-4, get that money on a regular basis and put it in a money market account where you can make a few percentage points interest rather than giving it to the government.  Make sure you don't spend it and don't plan on having a big tax refund windfall.

Chuck tells listeners that the way to get financial margin is to either increase your income or decrease your spending, or both.  Chuck invites John back on tomorrow's program.

Chuck reminds listeners to check out John Nardini's web site and blog at freemoneyfinance.com.  Chuck says there's nothing wrong with making more money.  What's wrong, he says, is if you love money, you place your dependency on money and your confidence in money.

The Bible says whoever loves money never has enough, but if you simply have a need, that you have to increase your income, God understands and will bless your efforts if you follow hard after Him.

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Other Resources:

• ABCs of Money Package
• Career Direct
• God's Principles for Operating a Business
• Business By the Book
• Crown Mvelopes