With New Years approaching, we have decided to wrap up 2009 with several of our favorite posts we have written since the beginning of the Finding Benjamin project. We have learned so much and come so far from those first days back in July when we launched the site. But with a new year comes new ideas, and boy do we have plenty of them, so stay tuned!! Here are the top five favorite posts from 2009…

Finding Benjamin Crib Notes – House Tour

A great video with Dave showing everyone around the infamous House Of Pain. The house was a lot cleaner back then…

From Barista To Blogger

This article was featured on the popular site Blogussion.com. A great article with some great advice.

The Best Of Halfbakery – October Ideas

Maybe it’s just the Lazy River Office that intrigues me, but this happens to be my favorite collection of half baked ideas.

Finding Benjamin Closet Sessions – BEDROC

Our favorite interview of the year with an awesome freestyle at the end. Since this interview, BEDROC has made some big steps. They had their first headlining show a month ago at the prestigious Water Street Music Hall, and they are kickin’ off the new year with a big concert at Water Street again on January 2nd.

10 Ways To Make A Benjamin

In our eyes, this was our best list of ways to make $100 from the “10 ways” series. Lots of great, easy ideas can be found from this list.

Dave Buechel, a member of the HOP, was sent in to do some undercover work and see if Amazon Mechanical Turk is the real deal! See what Dave has concluded! If you aren’t familiar with our previous article on Mechanical Turk, check it out here.

If you have the time and devotion, Mechanical Turk is a great way to earn fast, easy money. The tasks, or HIT’s you accomplish in order to make money are simple. Most HIT’s take only a few seconds to complete, however you are given at least an hour to complete them depending on their difficulty and the amount of money they are worth. I have completed HIT’s that are worth anywhere from $.01 to $2.15. When I first started out I wasn’t very careful with my submitted work, which resulted in rejected HIT’s. These rejected HIT’s led to a lower approval rating. Your approval rating is the ratio of approved and rejected HIT’s. Most HIT’s require you to have an approval rate of 80% or higher, and if you have a lower rating than that you will not be allowed to even attempt the HIT. Without being able to attempt most HIT’s, it was extremely hard to complete tasks and  make money. After a month of increasing my rating back to a reasonable ratio, I could then do most tasks and start earning money.

Since starting in September, I have completed 1275 HIT’s and made $40. If I spent the time and gave as much effort as I did for my schoolwork, and didn’t have the approval rating setback, I could have easily made a Benjamin by now.

I also tested online sports betting sites. I must admit that I have not been very active on these sites. However, with that being said, my total balance is just over $12 after only placing a measly 15 bets. If I could commit myself to these sites like I do with my fantasy football team, I feel like I would have at least $50 right now. There is no work required for placing bets, unlike creating a quiz. Placing bets is fun, and you risk NOTHING! Here are some good sites that I recommend.

Cent Sports

Free Sports Bet

Remember Bill Nye the Science Guy? With his quirky antics and silly puns, his PBS television show helped kids to see the fun side of science and physics. Even though Bill Nye show no longer airs new episodes, its creators have come up with a new successful show that has popularized another subject that can sometimes be pretty dry: making, managing, and saving money. This time, instead of using a zany, comical scientist as a host, the television show connects with young viewers like you (if you are a teenager or even younger!) who have already made it big with their product or service. The series of half-hour episodes covers all aspects of financial basics, from saving and budgeting to spending and investing. In particular, BizKid$ places an emphasis on inventiveness and creativity by highlighting the stories of young entrepreneurs, and provides tips on how you can start up similar businesses.

The recently remodeled BizKid$ website offers a blog with stories on young money makers as well as an entire teaching curriculum to go along with the television episodes. Also, a “Cool Biz Stuff” category provides tools and resources just for kids, ranging from credit calculators to a lemonade-stand simulation game.

With Biz Kid$ episodes airing on over 330 television stations, the TV series and its corresponding website are vital resources for any young aspiring entrepreneur looking for tips and advice, or even just for kids who are looking for good ways to save and spend their hard-earned money. Check it out and see for yourself!

Looking for something fun to do? Or maybe you just need a little break from chasing after those Benjamins. Check out Bitstrips.com, an online comic creation and sharing service. This website lets you design yourself or any other character you can dream up and put it into your own comic strip! Its very simple to use, and all the different customizing tools let you put a personal and creative spin on your strip.The one you see here didn’t take much time to make at all, but was tons of fun to put together!

Are you an aspiring comic strip writer? Not only can you use this website to create your comic strip episodes quickly and easily, you can also use Bitstrips to share it with a large audience and potentially gain a great following, which could lead to opportunities down the road.

By Chris

Mark Victor Hansen, co-author of the Chicken Soup For The Soul series, really hits a home run with his newest book titled The Richest Kids In America.

In the book, Hansen interviews 14 young, successful entrepreneurs (most of whom are already millionaires) and combines their words with his to create an extremely inspirational and motivational piece of literature. The book’s biggest theme that is stressed over and over again is to have that “never give up” attitude. Just about every interviewee shared with Hansen that one or more of their ideas had failed, but they continued to throw ideas at the wall until something finally stuck. They all attribute their success today to their stick-to-itiveness.

There were several stories that stuck out to me, one of which was about renowned painter Olivia Bennett. Olivia was diagnosed with a type of leukemia at an early age, and during her treatments all she would do was paint. Painting became a passion of hers, and now at age 19, she is a successful artist, entrepreneur, and speaker. 

One important qualification that Hansen had when creating his book was that all of the young entrepreneurs included must be involved in “giving back”, in one form or another. I thought this was a very nice feature that made the book touching and genuine. Instead of writing about rich snobs that care about nothing but themselves, a book was written about successful, hardworking, caring individuals that serve as role models for all.

If you would like to read this book, click below!
The Richest Kids In America: How They Earn It, How They Spend It, How You Can Too