Best Websites to Buy Feminine Stock Photos
Like it or not, image is everything in the online world. If you’re launching a blog or site, you need to have a certain aesthetic or style that’s consistent across all of your content, including social media. Feminine stock photos can help you maintain your brand’s style. But where do you find high-quality stock photos with a feminine look and feel? Here are some of my favorite sources. Best Websites to Buy Feminine Stock Photos Styled Stock Society Styled Stock Society offers stock photos and brand visuals designed with female entrepreneurs in mind. All photos are shot by professional photographers, and their library has 9,000+ images. What I love about Styled Stock Society is that they group photos into curated collections. Each collection has a theme and color palette, which makes it easy to stay on-brand. Photos are of super high quality: at least 2500px X 2500px and 300 ppi. Along with their stock photo collections, they also offer 2,000+ Canva templates, videos and other resources. Pros New content added every week You can continue using the content you downloaded after your subscription ends Unlimited downloads for members Monthly, annual and lifetime subscriptions available Cons Monthly memberships aren’t always available Styled Stock Society’s monthly membership option is only open for a limited time at certain times of the year. But their massive library and the value they offer make their annual and lifetime subscriptions worth it. Visit Styled Stock Society here> Haute Stock Haute Stock is one of the top sites for feminine stock photos, but they offer more than just premium photos. Members also get access to: Stock videos, including vertical videos that are perfect for social media Canva marketing templates for Pinterest Pints, blog graphics, PDFs, sales promotions and more Curated mood boards Members can browse their massive library by industry-related categories or even by keywords. If you’re not sure where to start, they have a Couture Curation® service. Just fill out a request, and they’ll send you a custom mood board along with 100+ photo selections and keyword recommendations for searches. You get all of this at no additional cost, so that’s a major selling point. Haute Stock offers other helpful resources, too, like a daily content calendar that you can use to plan your content, graphic elements and a content marketing guide. This is the website that I use to download amazing photos for PreppSocial and for UrbanMamaz – it helped me earn over $11K per month! Read my blog income report here. If that wasn’t enough, Haute Stock also offers 21 free stock photos if you sign up for their newsletter, so you can check out their quality and decide whether you want to become a member. Pros Stock photos for a wide range of industries Quarterly and annual memberships available (unlimited downloads) 9,000+ stock assets Free personalized Couture Curation® service Cons Monthly memberships are limited and work on a restrictive credit system There’s no easy way to find information on monthly memberships, but you get 30 credits to use every month. Haute Stock also doesn’t provide any information on how often they update their library with new content. Get 15% off through my affiliate link here or by entering this coupon code: 4f2af0a674 Visit Haute Stock here> Ivory Mix Ivory Mix offers styled stock photos, Canva templates and other assets you can use in your content. They’re all about helping female entrepreneurs succeed, so they also offer caption templates for social posts, pre-made content plans, Reels plans and more. Ivory Mix has a giant library of 18,000+ downloads that members can use. But if you don’t want to sign up for a membership, you can purchase styled stock photo packs and individual photos from their shop. This is one area where Ivory Mix has an advantage over other stock photo providers. Many sites require you to sign up for their memberships and don’t allow you to purchase assets individually. The site also offers high-quality, free resources, which are perfect for new site owners or anyone wanting to test out Ivory Mix’s quality. When you sign up for a free account, you get access to: 550+ photos, templates and strategies Unlimited downloads New free monthly downloads Ivory Mix has a lot to offer anyone looking for visual content assets to grow their online business. Pros Lots of freebies 18,000+ downloads for members Content plans, templates and other resources 8 bonus bundles for annual members Option to buy photos and bundles individually Cons There’s so much content that it can feel overwhelming Ivory Mix has so many assets in its library. Along with the templates and content plans, it can feel overwhelming to find what you need. Visit Ivory Mix here> Unsplash and Pexels (Free) If you’re on a tight budget, you can find some great feminine-styled photos on Unsplash and Pexels for free. Both platforms offer high-quality photos that you can use in your blog and social media posts. They can also help you discover photographers who create content that aligns with your brand. But it’s important to remember that these platforms have more limited options. Because the content assets come from a wide range of photographers, you may struggle to maintain a certain aesthetic or mood. Pros Free, high-quality photos Multiple photo size options Cons Not ideal if you’re going for a certain aesthetic Some of the best photos are premium and require a subscription Visit Unsplash here and Pexels here> Styled Stock House Styled Stock House (formerly known as KateMaxStock) offers curated feminine stock photos. Their library isn’t as big as some other stock providers (4,000 images and counting), but they offer imagery in a wide range of categories (seasonal, lifestyle, tech, stationery mockups, etc.). Styled Stock House has an Etsy shop, which can give you a better idea of the quality of their photos. You can also sign up for their newsletter to get free photos delivered to your inbox. Pros Option to download images at full-res (3500 x 2300) or social media sizes Monthly, annual and quarterly memberships with unlimited downloads New collections are launched every month Cons No previews of their images No testimonials Although this provider is well-known, their site doesn’t offer much information about their content. But the monthly membership option is affordable enough that you can test their service. Visit Styled Stock House here> Etsy If you’re looking for more flexible ways to buy stock photos, Etsy is a great option. You can purchase photo packs individually, and if you find a shop you like, you can stick to their content. One advantage of using Etsy is that you can test out different creators (many of the sites above also have Etsy shops) before deciding whether you want to buy memberships. Plus, you’ll be making a purchase through a trusted marketplace. And there’s no shortage of options on Etsy – over 2,700 results for feminine stock photos. Pros Lots of options Photo packs can be purchased individually Trusted marketplace Reviews and ratings help you gauge the quality Cons Some sellers are unresponsive I’ve seen complaints from buyers that some stock photo sellers are unresponsive, and that can be frustrating if you’re having issues with downloads. Fortunately, Etsy has excellent customer service. Floral Deco Floral Deco’s Creative Market shop has a beautiful collection of feminine stock content with lifestyle, flatlay and still-life themes. You’ll also find templates, mockups, graphics, illustrations and more in their shop. Floral Deco has been active on Creative Market for almost a decade and receives rave reviews from customers. Their photos are high-quality and affordable, so you can fill your site with gorgeous imagery without breaking the bank. Pros Tons of photo content (108 pages) Collections with themed photos Affordable prices Cons No membership options With Floral Deco, you can only purchase images separately or in bundles. If you’re more interested in a membership-style site, this creator won’t be a good fit for you. Visit Floral Deco here> Sourced Co. Sourced Co. offers stunning images with styled stock photos and acrylic styling blocks. The company offers 10 free stock photos that anyone can use to see how professional the platform’s photos look. I love that they know everyone’s needs are different, so you have access to: $365 – lifetime access to the 4,000-stock image library $8 – per image cost if you can’t commit to the lifetime deal Pros Multiple purchase tiers available Standard and extended license upgrades Cons Lots of their photos are wedding-themed Although Sourced Co. markets itself as a stock source for creative business owners and wedding pros, much of their content seems to be centered on the wedding theme. Visit Sourced Co. here> Atelier21 Co. Atelier21 aims to elevate your business with high-quality photography that you can use in your visual content strategy. Users can sign up for access to 5,000+ ready-to-download images and a content library that is always updated with unique photos for numerous niches. What I like about Atelier is that they offer: $25/mo. membership $250/year membership You’ll also gain access to a training video on how to curate images from Instagram that match your brand perfectly. And everything is neatly put into collections, such as “offices,” which will have a ton of great images that are all related to – you guessed it – offices. Pros Collections make it easy to find the images you want for your posts Mockup templates help non-design-savvy users streamline graphic creation 50 – 100 drops add per month to the library Cons Can’t use for client accounts or brands
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How I Earned $8,038+ in August 2023 – Urban Mamaz Income Report
YESSSS, this month I broke a new record and managed to earn $8,038+… omg and it feels so good! I’ve been blogging for a few years now and one thing I’ve learned; no matter how hard and frustrating things can be, if you have a goal you want to achieve, never give up! It has been a long time since I shared my last income report… The truth is that there were a few months that my site’s revenue dropped to almost $0. It happened after Pinterest released their crazy algorithm updated that caused my Pinterest account stop getting impressions, and my site traffic dropped from 100k monthly visits to ZERO visits! Just like that, one day without any warnings. And because most of my site traffic was coming from Pinterest, from that day I stopped getting site traffic, which means no ads or affiliate revenue at all! I was solely relied on Pinterest traffic without optimizing my website for Google SEO, leaving all my efforts in one basket. My site was dead. I was depressed, tried to send lots of messages to Pinterest’s support but nothing helped. Didn’t know what to do. It lasts for a month and a half and suddenly one day my Pinterest account came to life again and the traffic returned. It felt like someone just turned on the switch and things were back on track again, like nothing happened. But I wasn’t the same person anymore. I didn’t trust Pinterest. I was afraid that it will happen again and I didn’t feel safe dedicating more time to create content for Pinterest. I even found a day job, wanted to feel more secure. It took me months to start publishing new pins on Pinterest again. Instead, I decided to focus on Google SEO. I tried the “low competition keywords” strategy and managed to grow my traffic to 14k after a few months. But it was moving pretty slow because I had to invest and publish lots of articles per month to grow it faster. I was desperate to hear other blogger stories on how they handled this situation but I mainly found articles on how much traffic they get from Pinterest and how good it works for them. So I decided to give it another try and get back to Pinterest, but this time I changed my Pinterest pinning strategy. And because I got myself a day job, I outsourced my work and hired freelancers to help with my blogging tasks which eventually boosted my blog growth (I share more details about this below). My New Pinterest Strategy First, no more repining old pins (even if they used to be viral) – I used to do it a lot and I felt that Pinterest might consider it as really spamming. Instead, every new pin that I publish, I repin it to 3-5 more related boards. And that’s it. Upgrade my pin designs – I signed up to Canva Pro and picked a collection of pins that has a feminine/minimal style. Hired a VA to help design a few more designs and bought premium stock photos to use in the pins and website. Images and attractive designs are critical to get more traffic. Publish ONLY high quality articles – SEO optimized, trending topics, minimum 1500 word count. I use Uber Suggest and Ahrefs to track viral topics that will work great on Pinterest. And another good source is Pinterest trends where they share trending topics and keywords. A year later, after following this strategy, my site traffic reached 150k sessions, I managed to doubled my page RPM from around $20 rpm to $40 rpm (and on some pages even more), and freakin’ reached $8k+ revenue on August this year! Additionally, I think that hiring great freelancers really helped me boost my website growth. It helps me get the weekly tasks done, meet my deadlines and it allows me to free my time and focus on strategy and blog growth. Wondering what are the exact earning streams and expenses? Here is a breakdown: Urban Mamaz Earnings: $6,582.85 – displaying ads with Mediavine $1,455.55 – Amazon Associates $36.65 – Skimlinks $8,075.05 Total revenue Urban Mamaz Expenses: $60 – Rocket.net hosting – love them – this hosting service makes my website so much faster and my website never shuts down like it used to happen often on Bluehost – worth every penny! $600 – VA – publishing content and graphic design $1500 – Content writers (increased lately) $20 – Adobe – professional graphic design software when I need a better tool $12.99 – Tailwind for scheduling posts $10 – Buffer ($120 annual plan) for scheduling posts $12.5 – Canva Pro ($149.9 annual plan) – User friendly graphic design software for my team $2,215.49 Total expenses *** I know that the expenses might be a bit high, but because I have a day job, hiring freelancers and getting help allows me to work only 2-3 hours on the website per week. Here are a few screenshots from August this year: What’s Next? Well, the goal is go grow of course… and I have a few cool projects that I’m working on. To grow Urban Mamaz I plan to: Continue publishing more content according to the content plan. Considering to increase the number of monthly articles. Plan a strategy to generate free organic traffic from Facebook. Google SEO Optimize and update old content. Amazon Merch on Demand If you visited my website, Urban Mamaz, and you’re subscribed to my newsletter, you probably know that there is also an online shop where you can download lots of free printables and cool digital designs. Because I have many designs I decided to sign up to Amazon Merch on Demand and sell products with my designs. I started on July this year and a few days later I sold my first t-shirt. I promote the tees through banners on Urban Mamaz and that’s it. So far I sold 9 t-shirts – for each one I earn around $4. I uploaded only 9 designs so far because the limit in tier 10 is ten. Once I’ll sell ten products, I should be able to access tier 2 and upload more designs. You can actually set your own price for each t-shirt and this way control how much money you want to earn on each product. What’s good about Amazon Merch on Demand (compared to Printify and Printful) is that you don’t need to deal with delivering the products. Just choose the type of products you want to sell, upload your designs, and focus on marketing. Once I’ll have more time, I’ll plan a good strategy to promote the products through my websites. This can be a great and easy income stream. Final Thoughts I know blogging can be complicated. There are so many things that needs to be done. My best tip is to try to focus on tasks that have high ROI. Do things that directly affect your profit when your time is limited. But still remember to plan a long term strategy for growth. Have any questions or want to share your thoughts? Leave a comment below and I’ll be happy to answer!
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15 Printable Student Planners to Achieve Your Goals
Printable Student Planners for Download We Love the Most Today’s students have to juggle a full schedule, a laundry list of assignments, studying and their social lives. It’s not always easy to keep your schedule organized when you’re constantly on the move, but printable student planners can help. We’ve rounded up 15 of the best planners to help students stay organized and achieve their goals. 15 Printable Student Planners to Keep You Organized 1. Student Planner Printable Pack With 16 Pages It’s easy to lose track of assignments and deadlines, especially when your day is packed. These printable student planners will keep your assignments and exams organized. There’s a table to add your: Assignments Class Due date Grade for each assignment There’s another table, where you can add your: Exam Date of the test Grade And of course, you can also add some notes to help you remember important things. It’s a simple assignment tracker, but it will keep your workload organized. 2. Grade Tracker You’ll find plenty of printable student planners that focus on schedules and assignments, but what about grade tracking? It’s helpful to have an overview of your grades for each class so that you can see which classes may need more attention. With this printable, you can add your: Class description Date Grade Notes This is another simple printable design, but that’s what makes it so great. The simplicity makes it easy to stay organized and check your grades at a glance. 3. Study Planner Printable If you’re looking for printable student planners for studying, here’s a great template to use. It’s difficult to be successful with studying when you don’t have a plan or way to track your progress. With this printable, you can add: The day’s subjects that you want to study Deadlines Study progress A log of your study time schedule Hours you spent studying Goals The planner is meant for daily use so that you can study consistently throughout the week. It’s a great way to make sure that you’re ready for exams or to ensure that you’re improving your understanding of challenging topics. 4. Free Printable Student Homework Planner Template Here’s a great printable for younger children. It allows kids to keep track of their homework assignments for the week. All they have to do is add their assignments to each day of the week. There’s also a space for adding the month and week at the top to keep things organized. For students that are struggling to keep on top of their homework assignments, this planner can help them stay organized so that they don’t miss deadlines. Related: 15 Best Printable Planners To Organize Your Life 5. Student Planner Printable Pack With 16 Pages Here’s a printable that will help you keep track of your college classes for the semester. Just add your classes to the right date and time block. There’s also space for writing down your goals and notes. This printable is great to have at the start of the semester when you’re still getting used to your new schedule. You can easily see, at a glance, which classes you have to attend and when. 6. Essay Planner Printable For many students, essays are some of the most challenging or tedious assignments to complete. However, planning out your assignment and getting your ideas down on paper can make things go a bit more smoothly. With this printable planner, you can plan out your entire essay. Just add your: Title idea Date Main ideas Introduction Ideas for your three main paragraphs Conclusion The planner can serve as your rough draft and help you flesh out the assignment before creating your final draft. 7. Semester Planner Here’s a more detailed semester planner that’s especially useful if you’re attending a new school or taking classes in a new part of campus. With this planner, you can add your: Class schedule for each day of the week and the class time Details for each class, including the name, location and teacher information Start and end date of the semester The planner has a simple design that makes it easy to keep your schedule organized. You can also add some extra details to your class list if you have notes or comments you want to add. 8. Assignments Due https://www.pinterest.com/pin/5136987065269473/ Here’s a printable that you can use to track your weekly assignments. It’s a simple and organized planner that has a place to write down your most important tasks for the week, including your: Assignment Due date Class Important dates for the week Reminders list Each assignment list has a checkbox, so you can cross out each assignment as you complete it. You can fit a lot of information on this single-page planner, so you don’t have to carry around a mountain of papers with you everywhere you go. 9. Student Project Planner Template Project planning can feel like a tedious task, but this printable can simplify things. The minimalistic design helps keep things clean and organized. There’s also plenty of space to plan out the details of your project, including: The subject Due date Description of the project Action plan To-do list Materials list It’s a simple, easy way to keep your project organized, no matter the subject. Students of all ages can use this printable. 10. 40+ Free Student Planner Printables for Back-to-School! For students with reading assignments, this printable can be very helpful. It’s not uncommon to have reading assignments throughout the year and even over the summer. This planner can help keep these assignments organized. There’s space to add your: Assignment name Title and author of the book Citations Notes and associated page numbers It’s a simple way to keep track of your required readings, and it’s a printable that can be used by students of all ages and grades. 11. Free Digital College Planner Printables + Stickers Here’s another great planner for young students, especially those who are going to a new school. This printable can be used for each class to help students get familiar with the: Teacher’s name and contact information Classmates Course information There’s space to add classmates’ names, emails and phone numbers. You can fill in as much or as little information as you want, but this printable can be helpful for students to get to know their classmates and teachers. 12. Topics to Study Sheet! Even if you’re a great listener and diligent note-taker, there will still be topics or subjects that you struggle to understand. With this printable, you can keep track of those challenging subjects that need more of your attention and your progress. Just fill in: Topic areas that you find challenging Your current level of understanding (on a scale of 1-10) Whether you’ve completed your studying New level of understanding For students who struggle to keep track of their studying needs, this is a great printable to have on hand. You can easily use it for any subject and track your level of understanding after each study session. 13. Formulas For students who struggle with remembering formulas, this is a great planner to have on hand. This printable provides an organized chart that students can fill in with formulas to remember. It includes space for: The topic The formula The meaning of the formula Students can keep this printable with them to use when working on assignments or open-book tests. Writing down and studying these formulas will also help you remember them so that you don’t need this printable in the future. 14. Goal Setting Journal Insert Most students have goals they hope to achieve during the year, whether it’s academic or personal. One of the best ways to achieve the goals you set is to write them down. With this planner, you can do just that. Just fill in your: Goal Start date and deadline Motivation for your goal How to achieve it Action steps to take and dates to take them Notes You can even track the steps that were easy and challenging. The simple design of this planner is what makes it such a great option for students who are goal-oriented. Related: Free printable weekly planner for download 15. How to Prep for the Semester With Free College Printables If you’re looking for a simple weekly student planner, here’s a great printable. It includes a chart for the entire week and times so that you can keep track of your: Schedule Assignments If you’re struggling to stay on top of your class times and deadlines, this planner is a great option for you. Final Thoughts These printable student planners are easy to incorporate into your routine and can help you stay organized so that you reach your goals. Whether you need to keep track of your schedule, create a study log or complete an essay, there’s a printable for every student to improve organization.
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How to Track Your Expenses
Budgeting: How Can I Keep Track of My Spending Patterns? how-to-track-your-expenses-and-save-money Facebook Pinterest Positive financial management can never be void of keeping track of your expenses. You have to know where exactly your money is going on a daily or monthly basis. If you plan to win with money, then you have to change your habit with money. Believe it; the best budgetary plan is useless without tracking your expenses. There is no way you can tell if you have overspent for the month. Well, to cut a long story short, here is how you can keep track of your expenses. Steps to keeping track of your expenses 1. Create a budget There is no way you can track your expenses without drawing up a budget. The budget, in this case, refers to your financial plans for the month, which entails your expected income and how much you will spend on needs for that period. The good thing about a budget is that you are in control, not the budget controlling you. A budget is like a tour guide that ensures that your money is doing the necessary thing you ask it to do. To set up your budget, you will have to do the following: Clearly state and define your monthly income Put down your monthly expenses: you can start with necessaries like foods, clothing, transportation, shelter—rent or mortgage—and other utilities. After that, include other expenses like cable services, gym membership, etc. Then make sure when your income is removed from your expenses, it will equal zero. If it doesn’t end up in zero; you have to make some adjustments until you get to that. 2. Keep a record of your expenses Now you have to cultivate a habit of keeping a record of your expenses on a daily basis. We mean every day because, if you are not recording all your daily expenses, you will end up living a life of false reality where the pocket never runs dry and your bank account keeps swelling like a pregnant woman. While that is good to think, unfortunately, it isn’t real. In the real world, you cannot eat your cake and have it, so you have to keep up with the amount you spend on a daily basis. This is the key to understanding and communicating with yourself or with your spouse what is left to use in taking care of all the categories you listed in your budget. 3. Keep watch on those figures One of the needs to track your expenses is to make sure you don’t overspend. Therefore, each time you record an expense in one category of your budgetary list, keep track of the amount left in that particular category. Assuming you are married, you and your partner should ensure both of you are keeping records and watching the figures spent, communicating same with each other before incurring new expenses. By keeping watch over the figures you spend, you will become more communicative and accountable. By doing so, neither of you would say. “I didn’t know you spent the majority of the entertainment budget purchasing tickets to the super bowl. I wanted to sign us up for a trip to the UEFA Champions League Finals in Milan.” When you don’t track and watch your expenses, you will end up blowing your budget. 4. Mark your spending limits Except in an emergency, you have to stop spending once you discover you no longer have money for a particular category on your budget. This is the most important way you can stay within your budget guidelines. Along the line, you might be tempted to see your budget as insufficient, and you may need to swap money between categories. Try not to give in, instead, wait until next month budget to make the necessary adjustments so you can achieve your aim. Always remember that debt payment and saving takes precedence over vacations and entertainment. 5. Carefully plan for surplus money At times, your budget at the end of the month may turn up some money you did not use due to one or more reasons. In that case, you should carefully plan what to do with such monies. You can decide to roll it over to the next month’s budget for that category where the money was surplus. Assuming the surplus was from power bills, you could roll it over to cover the cost for next month utilities. Assuming it is from groceries, you can decide to transfer it to your savings. Final thought The only way you can be successful with money is to know how you are spending it. To know how you are using your money is to keep track of your expenses. Doing otherwise will amount to failure in your financial management life.
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10 Ways To Start An Emergency Fund When Money Is Tight
How to start an emergency fund How-to-start-an-emergency-fund Facebook Pinterest No one is certain of tomorrow, neither it’s tomorrow certain of what it has for you economically. That is why people need to prepare well for emergencies. Unfortunately, 57% of Americans lack an emergency fund. Worst still, 39% of them have no savings at all. That lack of emergency preparedness leaves people vulnerable to financial emergencies. But what if you find yourself in a money-tight situation? How do you build up an emergency fund when you don’t even have enough to go by? Well, the good thing is that there are ways by which you can set up an emergency fund even when you have little or nothing in cash. Let’s explore those possible ways, shall we? 1. Make A Plan The first step to achieve anything is to set up a goal. That goal must be clear, concise, and realistic around your total monthly net income. Know how much you spend and how much you can save. Go slow on your spending habit and avoid the temptation to dive into your emergency fund for luxury. Look into your list and see if you can cut down on some expenses to add more to your emergency fund. After that, watch your progress and see if there is room for improvement. Use your funds only to solve the necessary needs. 2. Sell Something Take some time to look around your house. You will be surprised at how many “non-essential” items you can sell to raise funds for your emergency needs. From dusty power tools to exercise equipment to kids toys and idle furniture, the list is sometimes endless. You can convert these items into cash. Only use what you have sold to offset an immediate emergency need. 3. Do Side Tasks There are plenty of quick side jobs; you can do to earn extra income. The beauty of it all is that you can do this from inside and outside your home. You can write reviews, answer several online surveys, take care of pets, and guide them while their owners are away, and more. Use the money to restock your emergency funds. 4. Take A Second/Extra Job While some of us hate the idea of committing extra hours outside our regular work hours, it is worth the sacrifice when the rainy day comes calling. One month of a second job can make an enormous difference. The money earned from your extra job can go into handling unexpected financial outcomes. 5. Cut Down On Your Budgets If you look into your budget, you will find that there are lots of different cuts you can make. While you may not immediately notice their effect, they add up significantly to your savings. Cancel unnecessary memberships or services, clip some coupons, and turn down the thermostat to a lower degree. The outcome could cause some heads to spin. Here is how to track your expenses. 6. Buy And Pay With Cash That is how our parents in the good old days were able to save one or two dimes a day. Cultivate the habit of buying and paying for everyday goods and services using cash. That will allow you to keep the change and continue saving for a rainy day. 7. Work Overtime If the job you are working has room for overtime services, use them accordingly to stack up on your fund. Monitor the time you spend doing overtime and transfer the income into a market or savings account each period you receive payment. Once you get to your goal, let go of the oversight or plan for some other financial targets. 8. Build Up A Fund With Your Tax Refund Why spend your yearly tax refund on unnecessary shopping? Instead of withholding much from your paycheck and giving the government an interest-free loan yearly, put the money into judicious use, far away in an interest-bearing account and use it for emergency purpose. 9. Save The Bonus/Raise If ever you are fortunate to have a pay raise or a massive bonus for an excellent job correctly done or to mitigate the cost of living, add the extra money to your immediate emergency funds. 10. Tell It Out Tell your friends and family members that you are set on a course of achieving an important financial goal. While you don’t need to disclose your financial secrets, it is still important to tell them so you can skip a few holidays, lunches and even brewing your coffee to ease on your budget and save more funds. Final thought Remember that it isn’t always going to be easy building your emergency fund from a tight money perspective. But you can do it with the above tips. And also don’t forget to use your funds only when there are an emergency needs.
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How To Plan Easy Steps To Get Out Of Debt
How to Get Out of Debt Faster – Guidelines Debts are meant to be paid, and when the time comes for them to be paid, life can turn out to be one hell of a pain in the butt. It doesn’t matter what led to the mountain of debt clenching their vengeful fist against thee. The thing is that debt, and the thought of it alone is an unpleasant and stressful experience to the body, soul, and spirit. Even the most hardened minds do worry about the debts they owe. But don’t give up yet! People everywhere are getting out of debts every day—you also can do the same! Whatever, here are the best-laid plans with easy steps to get out of debt. Let’s get out of the debt train! The 5 Grand Commandments and Guiding Principles To Get Out Of Debt 1.Set up a debt repayment plan No football team goes to the field without a playing formation to win. So once you decide it’s time to rise out of the debt sepulcher, one of the first and most important steps you need to take to achieve your debt-free goal is to develop a debt repayment plan. A debt repayment plan will keep you on the task and assist you in abandoning the debt ship quicker since you’ll be able to picture real progress. It doesn’t stop there. With a debt repayment plan, you will be able to know how, when and where to get extra cash to offset your debt balance. In fact, your ability to live debt-free rest entirely on your debt repayment plans. So pay attention to it. Setting up a debt repayment plan also means you have to be goal-oriented. 2. Make a list of all your debts Precisely, you have to know what you’re facing! After setting up your debt repayment plan, the next thing you must do is to write and list down all the outstanding debts you owe. The list should include how much you owe, the minimum amount of payment allowed, and the interest rate involved. Make sure the list also include debts from personal loans to student loans and debts from credit cards. You can even include your mortgage, as well as money, owe to family members and friends. 3. Prioritize your debts in a ranking order There are elders, then young adults and teens in your family tree, so too are your debts. They come in the order of “great,” “greater,” and “greatest.” After listing out your debts, you have to rank and categorize them in the order you want to offset them. We recommend that instead of starting from the ‘eldest debt’ (the most significant amount owed), start from the smallest amount. The reason is that, if you start from the largest debt, you may get discouraged on the way as the massive size of the amount may affect your psychological willingness to work harder and pay it off. But when you start from the smallest, it will encourage you to keep up with the momentum. Nonetheless, you can also decide to rank your debt payment in the order of the highest interest to the lowest interest rate, which is capable of saving you more cash. Whatever ranking method you use, just remember that you have to maintain the consistency to pay it off. 4. Pay attention to one debt at a time This is where your goal-oriented repayment plan will be put to the test. The only way you can record consistent success in paying off your debt is to focus on the first debt on our list of priority. Channel whatsoever extra money you make into paying this first debt on your repayment list while satisfying the minimum payment on other debts. The good thing about focusing on one particular debt at a time will enable you to offset that deft faster than you think since most of the cash flow will be going directly to the principal balance while spending less in paying interest. If you decide to pay more than one debt at a time, you will end up paying more interest and record very little success on your overall debt payment. In fact, you might even end up owing more debt. Don’t forget that anytime you successfully pay off debt; you automatically free up extra money for the next debt. So, move swiftly over to the next debt and kick the living daylight out of it. Continue the momentum, and before you can say “Jack,” you’re out of debt, pronto! 5. Sell off whatsoever is unnecessary Too much of everything is bad! Heck, what are you doing with two or more TVs in your home when one is enough for you? Why run two vehicles when one is more than capable of taking you around town? You will be surprised to know that one of the major reasons why your debt ceiling is crying high up to the heavens is because of your indulgence in the sin of too many acquisitions. Trade-in one of your TVs, cars, furniture, or other valuable items and you will be amazed at the important balance you are left with. Use that to pay off your debt. Stop buying too much when paying off your debt. Otherwise, you will just be running round in circles. Over to you So now you have a practical guide that can take you out of debt easily, but with patience and determination. Use these fundamental commandments, and you will never regret it. On this note, we draw the curtain on how to plan easy steps to get out of debt.
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10 Characteristics of Debt-Free People
10 Characteristics of Debt-Free Living 10-characteristics-of-debt-free-living Facebook Pinterest Getting free from debt takes dedication and unwavering commitment. It is a habit that you must learn to imbibe and put into practical use. While this task may seem daunting from the word go, some people have been through this phase before, and have successfully become debt-free. You can draw inspiration from these people by looking at the kind of life they are living financially and materially. Study and copy their characters and learn to live within them. Here are 10 characters of debt-free people you can adapt to become debt-free yourself. 1. They Are Very Attentive Debt-free people pay strict and consistent attention to their personal finance. They keep a close eye on their material and financial needs. They don’t waste money by not remembering overdraft fees or payment due dates. You can start from this point to develop your attention. Check on your credit card statements each month. Weigh your needs and study your abilities. Then start thinking of a budget. 2. They Have A Budget A budget is the only way you can remain consistent in being attentive. Having one doesn’t mean you must have a restrictive lifestyle or that you are broke. Rather, a budget is what debt-free people use to plan for their finances, control their spending, and achieve their goals. 3. They Operate An Emergency Fund Debt-free people have reliable emergency funds that help them to take care of emergencies whenever they arise. Assuming your roof cave-in or you lose your job tomorrow; an emergency fund will help you scale through till you find solace gain, instead of borrowing money and becoming a debtor. Start building an emergency fund by throwing in any extra cash, and start monitoring your spending. Here are 10 ways to start an emergency fund when money is tight. 4. They Go With People That Have A Similar Initiative The people around you and your environment shape your personality, and debt-free people know this. The quickest way to achieve your goals is to spend your time with people of like-minded passion who have been through the same issues in the past. If you plan to stay out of debt or save money, then you must avoid friends or relatives that want you to go out for expensive vacations or lunch every day. Stick with people that share the same mindset as you. 5. They Always Commit To Saving Money One of the hallmarks of debt-free people is that they always remember they have a savings account. So, the moment they receive any money as income, they deposit a percentage of it into their savings account. Do the same. Try to keep and save a percentage of your income, at least 10%. Use the remaining balance to augment your budgetary needs. 6. They Live Lesser Than They Make Debt-free people understand that the best way they can secure their financial future is to live below their means. If you can become aware of the income you make now and then, and you commit to living within your means, you will get out of debt sooner than later. You will also get to save more cash and get to your financial goals. 7. They Have Very Little Or No Time For Stuff Debt-free people rarely put most of their attention on materialism. They understand that material things have no sentimental value, and they can never replace more meaningful engagement, relationships, family, and friends. 8. They live patiently Patience is a great virtue of success, and debt-free people know it. If you must achieve anything in life, including your financial goals, you must be patient and focus mostly on your long-term goals. Debt-free people understand that whatever action and inaction they take today can affect their tomorrow. Never try to be like the Joneses when you don’t have the means yet, or you have more crucial needs to meet. Doing otherwise will only drive you deeper into debt. Wait for your time and save up for whatever you wish to purchase. There is always time for everything. 9. They Do Thorough Research People who are living debt-free understand that information is power and getting the current info put them a step ahead in their pursuit to achieve their goals. They usually do their research before embarking on buying anything. You can find the best deals on many products and services and save up more cash for your savings. Without research, you won’t be able to achieve such. 10. They Are Disciplined Debt-free people knew that the greatest enemy to a debt-free life is oneself. They are continuously tempted by many opportunities to live large beyond their means, dining with friends or lunching with co-workers, and such other small expenses that can quickly mount up. They know the danger and have disciplined themselves to say no when they need to, no matter the allure of the moment. If you must succeed in saving money or paying off your debt, you must be disciplined. Conclusion There is no better way to learn something than to cultivate the new and positive habits of people who have been through that same road. The best-laid plans to live a debt-free life start with you. So lay them out and start your journey to a debt-free life.
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How To Graduate College Debt Free Without Having Rich Parents
Get out of debt stories How-To-Graduate-College-Debt-Free Facebook Pinterest Debts from student loans are some of the most uncomfortable things in life. For college graduates who are within the 20 to 30 years age bracket, the situation is even more frightening. If you are in this group, you may find yourself drowning in the sea of debt. Paying off your student debt is never an easy task; no thanks to the bleak financial profile of many millennials. So many of us don’t have a job and are living at home with debts. As at March 2018, outstanding student loan amounts to $1.14 trillion, with close to 17 million students in the 30 years age bracket holding a total amount of $383.8 billion in student loan. It becomes worse when you don’t have rich parents that can conveniently bail you out. In spite of this entire negative outlook, some young men and women have overcome the burden of student loan debts and are living debt-free today. They did it while in school (some out of school) and without having rich parents. Here is how they did it. Maintaining A Lower Cost Of Living Katelin Anderbery, a 29 years old attorney said she was able to stay debt-free by keeping her cost of living down to a feasible level during her time in law school. She did it by working two part-time jobs. She started paying off her loans immediately the extra income was coming in, and never waited for the 6 months grace period to elapse before she started to pay. Katelin’s goal was to pay off her loans (which have an interest rate of 6.8 and 7.9) before 5 years. Did she succeed? Yes, she did because much of her money wasn’t going into an extravagant lifestyle, but to her savings (saving about 40% of her income). Katelin paid off her $87,000 student debt and became a loan debt-free student. Making Advance Payment Via Interest Rate Margin Danielle Desir, a 27-year-old grant specialist, is another excellent example of a student who never graduated from school with debt lurking in her financial shadows. While in school, Desir uses the strategy of always paying ahead of schedule. She took this step after calculating her interest rate, which happens to be $10 a day. By making regular and consistent payments, she was able to pay off her student loan debt within four years while in school. Desir signed up for an auto-pay option, which removes 0.25% of her interest, making it easier to pay off the debt. You can start making an advance payment today by adding an extra $50-$100 on your due payment each month. Tame Your Lifestyle And Commit Extra Funds To Debt Payment One of the ways you can become a loan debt free student while in school or out of school is to channel whatever extra cash in a bonus or refund to your debt payment plan. Instead of moving out of your parent’s house, stay put, and substitute your rent for extra cash payment towards your debt. Even if you want to move to your apartment, go cheaper, and avoid the high-cost neighborhoods. That would allow you to save on rent and divert more money to your debt. Use Your Grace Period To Your Advantage If your parents were super rich, you wouldn’t be looking for some window of opportunity to living a debt-free student life. But here is the catch: your creditor (the loan lender) usually gives you a period of grace after you stop attending or graduate from college. During this grace period, you will not be making any payment on your loan. You know what? Say no to the grace period (which could be up to six months, depending on the type of loan). Draw up a budget and include your grace period. Then start making payments on your grace period, as you would typically do for your due dates. For example, if your student loan charge would be $200 after your grace period expires at the end of six months, start paying that amount now. By the time the grace period is over, you would have put the sum of $1200 ahead of your debt. Also, it would create in you the habit of always setting aside such money for your dent every month. You can do this without your parents. Conclusion Debt is not a happy experience in any one’s life, and the situation is direr when your parents lack the finance to support you. But, with the above tips, you can become a loan debt free student and enjoy the rest of your life with no debts haunting your financial shadows.
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A Step-by-Step Guide to Driving 50,000 Visitors a Month with Pinterest
Pinterest for Bloggers Facebook Pinterest Are you a blogger or an affiliate marketer looking to drive 50,000 visitors or more to your websites every month? It may be your product page that is not performing, or you might be a web owner whose content is not getting the desired views as supposed by the right audience. Well, I have a few tips for you. With Pinterest, you can drive massive monthly traffic to your site or blog page for free. This is a short version of my Pinterest step-by-step guide which is tested and proven – since I managed to drive almost 200K page views a month to my website by using only Pinterest! Now, you can end your search on how to increase site traffic. Just follow the steps, and increase your monthly blog views and followers from Pinterest. What is Pinterest and who is it for? Pinterest is more than a social media platform. Pinterest is a search engine founded by Bell Silberman, Evan Sharp, and Paul Sicarra. It is a mobile app company and a social media website that helps in the discovery of information around the world. Pinterest enables bloggers and web content owners to gain customers, publicity, and traffic to make more money. With Pinterest traffic, companies can drive the relevant audiences to read content on their sites. Regardless of the usefulness of platforms like Pinterest, it is useless if you don’t have the right strategies to drive visitors to your page. Before I take you through the step-by-step guide on how I used Pinterest to increase my site traffic from 0 to almost 200,000 in less than a year, allow me to give you a brief look at what Pinterest represents. Facts That Define Pinterest as The Best for Driving Traffic If you’re still having your doubts, here are the statistics for 2019 that shows why you should start using Pinterest right away: Pinterest is the world’s fastest-growing website by membership growth—beating Facebook by 56%-%6 growths. It’s the second-largest social network after Tumblr by membership growth. Pinterest has more than 300 million active users—and they aren’t just there sitting idly. More than 200 billion pins are posted and saved on Pinterest. Over 14 million articles are pinned daily on Pinterest—meaning there are substantial activity levels that will benefit your business. 6 out of every 10 millennials use Pinterest to find new products—that makes it a promising social media marketing strategy for you. More than 600 million searches are recorded on Pinterest every month. That’s an excellent opportunity for your business to be discovered by online searchers. More than two-thirds of all the people that use Pinterest lives outside the United States. That means your business can benefit from a vast global presence. We can go on and on, but the information above would suffice. It also means that Pinterest thrives as one of the best software systems designed for data. The uniqueness of this site, as earlier stated, is what makes it very useful for bloggers, affiliate marketers, and online business models. The use of images to search for content is a beautiful and innovative way of increasing traffic. If you’re a beginner or if you feel that your knowledge of Pinterest is limited, this article will help you. So pay attention. You are about to learn how to create a Pinterest profile that rocks. Set Up a Pinterest Business Account Signing up for a business account on Pinterest is easy and straightforward. Steps to opening a Pinterest business account Download the app or visit the website – Search for Pinterest.com or download the app on play store. Sign up for free – When you have downloaded and installed the Pinterest app, you will see at the bottom of the Pinterest home page a signup option. That is for a personal account. If you want to optimize your account for Pinterest traffic, then you should check for the signup business account call-to-action button. Sign up for your Pinterest business account (it’s totally free). Fill in your details: after you sign up, click on the settings of your account, and fill your profile. You must put in your best and utmost care into creating this account. Include detailed information about yourself and your brand. Use professional logos or pictures, and sometimes, including a success quote helps. Make sure you have added your email address, your URL, and every little thing that matters so other Pinterest users can know what your site offers and intends to provide. Verify your website after opening your business account Add a “Save” button to your website Enable rich pins 6 Pinterest Strategies to Drive Over 50,000 Visitors with Pinterest You may be wondering, “Could this be possible?”, “How can I get all this Pinterest traffic for free?” Well, it’s all possible. The tips I’m about to give you below worked for me, and in my first year of trying it, my monthly page views grew significantly. Here are 7 tips on how you can get more than 50,000 visitors with Pinterest. 1. Make Sure Your Niche is Popular on Pinterest If you want to drive tons of traffic to your blog, you must write about popular topics. I’m sure you’re thinking that popular niches are competitive, and it is true. It is not a secret, all you need to do is to get inside Pinterest insights and check out what the popular niches are. This is why you should write high quality content too. By writing the best content that you can about popular topics, you will increase your chances to generate high traffic to your blog. What Are the Most Popular Niches On Pinterest? Arts and crafts Traveling blogs Food Fitness and diets House and homes Fashion 2. Optimize your Pinterest Profile To optimize your profile, start with setting up a good profile name. Your name is a crucial aspect because having a good name helps to be ranked high on Pinterest search engine results (SEO). For the best result, make sure your business name comes first, so visitors can know who you are. After that, add a few related keywords that best describe your blog niche. Adjust the profile to your audience. In other words, design your profile in a way that people who are looking for a particular service will know at a glance that you’re offering this service. The next optimization step is to organize your Pinterest boards and Pins. Make your boards focus precisely on what your target audience is looking for. You can do this by choosing relevant names and writing quality board descriptions that will target your niche audience. Always think about how your profile looks in your customers’ eyes. To understand better what people are looking for on Pinterest, you must make keyword research. That means that you need to find the most popular keywords on Pinterest that are less competitive. Check out this free printable planner for Pinterest bloggers that includes the exact steps you should take to make good keyword research. After you will have a list of optimized keywords, make sure to include these keywords in the following places: Profile name and description Board names and descriptions Pin titles and descriptions Hashtags Blog posts 3. Join Several Group Boards On Pinterest That Are Related To Your Blog Niche After setting up your account, you can start getting the most of your views by joining group boards on Pinterest. Group boards are the best medium for driving visitors to your post, especially if you are a new blogger. These boards are actually communities where other pinners can pin their content. With these group boards, you can reach out to a broader range of audiences, which is perfect for your traffic growth. Just make sure to pin your posts every day. Once your content is unique and is what interests them, there will be a follow up from members. Group boards are quite popular; hence, you can grow your follower base through them. To find new group boards, you can look for related keywords in the Pinterest search query or look for other users’ board lists. For instance, you can type travel and get many results if you choose “search for boards” option. To join a group board, you need to contact the board owner. The only way to join a group board is by invitation. Most of the group boards have instructions on how to join them. Usually, the group board owner will ask to send an email with your details and the name of the group board you want to join. Arrange your boards properly. Here there are more helpful strategies that I use to organize my boards. I believe there should be 2 main board strategies. One is for new bloggers and the second is for advanced bloggers. Each stage is different and you should adjust your strategies to the stage you are in now if you want to achieve the best traffic results on Pinterest. 4. Create an attractive blog content The contents of your blog matter a lot when optimizing for traffic. Write high-quality blog posts that solve people’s problems – write about popular niches that people are looking for. To generate a lot of readers, create the best content you can. Make them see that you have their interest in mind. Even if you’re a beginner, it very important to make your blog contents look professional. The majority of the people that use Pinterest are there to learn and get inspiration, and it’s only the best content that can satisfy and convert them into loyal viewers and followers. Represent your strings of ideas in a direct and straightforward way, so even those who are not familiar with your niche get a good glimpse of your post. Use branded images to improve the outlook of your blog post. Make blog’s contents more professional, and avoid fluffs, so you don’t get your readers disengaged. 5. Design Pins that will go viral For your pins to go viral, you must use clear titles, high-quality photos, and 2:3 pin size. You can use Canva or Adobe Illustrator to create your pins. Pinning attractive images and Gifs from your blog pages on your Pinterest will make your profile look more appealing. If you want your Pins to go viral, make sure they have: A catchy title Popular topic Optimized for SEO Well-designed Pin High-quality image Interesting creative Leads to high-quality article Establish Pining Action Plan 6. Pinning consistently at the right times is very critical. Plan a pinning schedule that will include: The best times to pin on Pinterest. Usually, it is between 2 am – 4 am EST or 8 pm – 9 pm EST. You should Pin when your audience is the most active on Pinterest. Spread your Pinning sessions during the whole day. Don’t pin it all at once. You should pin more during weekends because users are mostly online throughout the day on weekends. Post at least one new Pin a day – Pinterest love fresh content. Pin 15 to 25 Pins a day (max 50 a day). For each blog article create at least two pins Use Tailwind scheduler to automate the repines Join at least 30 group boards that are related to your niche and track their performance on Tailwind statistics on a monthly basis. Plan a Pinterest pinning strategy and make a daily, weekly, and monthly task plans – Use this free printable planner for bloggers to set your goals. Be consistent. Bottom Line With Pinterest standing as one of the fastest rising social platforms and business platforms, investing your time in it is very safe. If you adhere strictly to these Pinterest strategies, be sure to generate high monthly traffic to your blog from Pinterest. Feel free to share your thoughts!
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Pinterest Marketing Printable Planner for Bloggers
How and why you should use Pinterest printable planner to grow your blog free-printable-pinterest-planner-to-drive-more-blog-traffic Facebook Pinterest Since I started using Pinterest, my blog traffic grew significantly. In June 2018, I started a new blog, and 5 months later I already had more than 65K monthly page views. I continued to optimize my Pinterest strategy and 3 months later my blog traffic reached almost 200K page views. 95% of that blog traffic was from Pinterest. I joined Mediavine and finally, some real money started flowing into my bank account. It was extremely exciting and I became even more passionate about the idea of making money online. Today, I know exactly what it takes to drive steady monthly traffic to my blog. Check my Pinterest marketing guide if you want to know more about how to drive high traffic to your blog each month. When you get this kind of traffic on a monthly basis, you can monetize it and earn money from your blog. The most important rules to succeed on Pinterest are: Create high-quality content Optimize pinning times Organize your boards Pin constantly Implement Pinterest SEO Every one of these rules includes many tasks that should be done or taken into consideration when optimizing your Pinterest profile. Sometimes it feels that there are so many things to do when marketing on Pinterest that maybe you are missing something important. Especially when you are working hard but you don’t see any results and you just not getting the expected traffic from Pinterest. What can you do? The best thing to do is to organize your tasks and establish an effective action plan. A good action plan should include all the exact steps you should take each day to increase your blog traffic and finally, achieve your traffic goals. A well-organized action plan will help you create the best Pinterest strategy that will skyrocket your blog traffic. Your action plan should include: Your Pinterest profile branding and description Target audience List of the top keywords Board organization strategy Daily task list Monthly task list Goals to achieve Progression tracking The Ultimate Pinterest Printable Planner After I optimized my Pinterest strategies and succeed to generate high monthly traffic to my blog on a monthly basis, I decided to create a Pinterest printable planner – and share it here for free for all my readers. This free Pinterest Printable Planner is based on my Pinterest marketing guide (mentioned above). I published this eBook a few months ago, and it includes all my best Pinterest strategies that helped me achieve almost 200K monthly page views from Pinterest. HOW CAN THIS PINTEREST PRINTABLE PLANNER HELP YOU? This Pinterest Printable Planner will help you define what your blog is about, set up your monthly goals, organize your boards, track the best keywords, optimize your Pinterest profile and track your monthly progression. But the most important purpose of this free Pinterest printable planner is to facilitate your daily work on Pinterest. Driving traffic from Pinterest doesn’t have to be so hard! All you need is an organized and effective action plan. The planner consists of 15 pages that include: 1. My Pinterest Profile Details – name, description, niche, profile setup checklist 2. Pinterest Keyword Research Template 3. Keywords Grouping Template 4. Top Keyword List Template 5. Competitor Analysis Worksheets 6. Pinterest Boards Organizing Template 7. Pinning Action Plan Template – To determine what is the best time and days to pin on Pinterest 8. Weekly Planner 9. Monthly Overview – To track the progression, completed tasks and set new goals 10. Notes HOW TO USE THE PINTEREST PRINTABLE PLANNER? First, you should print the planner. Then, enter all the details about your blog and Pinterest profile. Make the keyword research and competitor analysis. As you progress, you will find that everything becomes clearer and you can define a precise action plan. It will help you to organize your tasks, identify your brand on Pinterest, optimize the Pinterest profile and drive more traffic to your blog. Then, you should set new goals and track your tasks on a weekly / monthly basis. By tracking your progress, you will improve your Pinterest strategy over time. WHO SHOULD USE THE PINTEREST PRINTABLE PLANNER? This Planner is for bloggers and business owners who use Pinterest to promote their website/products. HOW TO DOWNLOAD THIS PRINTABLE PLANNER? To download this free printable planner, please add the planner to the cart, then proceed to checkout (the price is $0). Enter your details and click “Purchase now”. Then you will get to the page where there is a link to download the planner – click “Download Now”. In addition, you will receive an email with the link to download the planner.
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