Financial Matters Archives ⋆ L.J. Diva

The Rise of the Bloggers came, now we need to get rid of the Floggers

24/08/2017 by L.J. Diva Filed Under: Financial Matters, Websites & Social Media Leave a Comment

We get it, bloggers wanted to make money out of their blog and their writing. Isn’t that what a lot of people want to do? But somewhere along the way companies took note. Saw how many followers, subscribers and likers people had, and started offering free goods in turn for good reviews. Companies wanted bloggers to flog their shit to their followers so they could get money.

But just as they were now acquiring bloggers to do the free work that celebrities had demanded payment for, so now were the bloggers. If you want their review, you’re gonna have to pay for them to flog your shit.

Hence, the rise of the Floggers began.

Floggers, I cannot stand.

I’m all for reading a blogger’s post about the great bargains they found at their local Kmart, or the awesome shoes they bought last Friday. But I am over seeing those hateful hashtags and words in their posts, regardless of what platform those posts are on.

#sponsored #gifted #sp

BLECH!

I am so god damn sick and tired of seeing the free wardrobes, free accessories, free every fucking thing that these imbecilic pissants are getting to flog to their followers.

Does it work business wise? More than likely. And I know many companies have seen a massive increase in sales.

Does it work on me?

Fuck no.

Once I realised that a certain shoe company was giving more than one blogger a pair of free shoes, I got cranky. I sure as fuck can’t afford to spend $250 on shoes every fucking day. I refuse to spend $129 on a pair of faded ripped jeans because they are flogged by bloggers. I refuse to buy anything at full price when it’s over $25 unless I desperately want it.

I’m not a scab, I just know how to get better deals because I know the tricks of the trade. Jeans do NOT cost $129, it’s only cotton, and when shows do exposés on companies and their products, and which products are better, and the cheaper chain stores always win out, then I ain’t buying your $129 shit flogged by bloggers, or instagrammers, or facebookers.

I’m over the bullshit, the inconsistencies, the lies. Everything you have is sponsored by these companies wanting to make more money. You are being used as their cash cows, and your followers are being used as sheep by you.

Well, not this little black duck! (to quote daffy duck) I am not a sheep and will not follow blindly just because something may perk my attention.

I refuse to buy from stores anymore that use bloggers to flog their shit.

I refuse to pay full price for what you’ve got.

I refuse to follow bloggers and pissant reality contestants who think they’re celebrities and get entire holiday wardrobes for free.

I refuse to flow with the masses.

I refuse your bullshit ways.

I refuse to follow floggers!

Floggers must fall!

What Is Your Worth?

25/05/2017 by L.J. Diva Filed Under: Business & Legalities, Financial Matters 1 Comment

With my birthday being last Sunday and turning the ripe old age of 43, not only did I think this was a timely post, but I would also like to mention my weight loss to date of 2stone/28pounds/13kgs in about four months. You can read the whole sordid weight loss journey over on my style blog, Jewel Divas Style.

Let’s move on with this costly post…see what I did there…

Sometime last year I somehow came across blog posts from authors who were doing book tours and what they charged for a visit. Reading on, I found lists that they compiled of what they charged for and one author suggested adding the cost of your child caring time, your housework time, your time away from writing, basically everything that your visit would be taking you away from. And then there was the time needed beforehand to prepare and get ready, the cost of petrol to drive there, the air flight to fly there, the hotel stay etc, etc, etc.

So I thought about this and many a year ago after I did my styling course I was going to set up a style business off my jewellery business and planned out a pricing guide. That of course didn’t come to fruition but I was considering what my hourly rate was going to be.

Obviously since 2013 things have changed. I’ve written more over the last two years and my jewellery has been pushed to the back of the bus. My jewellery store is on holiday more often than not because I just couldn’t deal with it all. At least I don’t have to package my books and send them off. People can just buy them online and download them to their device.

But more about money. I decided to try out the author’s suggestion of dividing up my time and what I would be taken away from, so I’d know what to charge for and came up with this plan…

What I Do…

Run a business and all it entails.

Care for parent and all it entails.

Run a household and all it entails.

Broken down into detail…

1 – Jewellery Creation: time spent on finding and buying beads, findings and everything else, creation of pieces, making full collections.

2 – Book Creation: handwriting of books, typing of books, editing, creation of covers and interiors to produce complete book.

3 – Business Management: taking pictures of jewellery and books, uploading of jewellery or books to sale sites and spending time filing descriptions, covers, interiors, publishing, blogging and social media, paperwork, research, web management and all that entails.

4 – Caring Management: appointments, calls, doctors, medications, home care and anything else that comes up.

5 – Household Management: calls, appointments, tradies/housing trust, housework (cooking, cleaning, dishes, washing etc), and anything else that comes up.

Now originally when I had set a cost for my styling business I was going to charge $60 for the first hour and then $180 for each hour after. But after what’s happened to me and the amount I’m working all day if I needed to be taken away from this then my time had better be worth it. So I came up with this…

First hour, $1 per minute per each item, so that’s $1 X 5 items = $5 X 60 minutes = $300 for the first hour. Each hour after it’s double that at $600 per hour. Now that may be a bit rich for some but seriously, I do the one job the rest of my siblings don’t do…LOOK AFTER THEIR MOTHER!!!!!

So quite frankly, I’m worth it. My time is worth it, and my bloody energy is worth it. If you can’t afford me, don’t ask me!

Telling winners they should give their money to the losers is bloody rude and disrespectful!

13/10/2014 by L.J. Diva Filed Under: Financial Matters, Movies & TV Leave a Comment

On Sunday Channel 9s show, The Block, finally came to its conclusion. The auctions were done and dusted and there were winners and losers.

After months of hard work and renovations the end came with a strange twist.

Only two couples scored big, the other three got almost nothing.

After months of hard work and the lowest judging scores in The Block’s history, Chris and Jenna came out of the box first to sell at $1.81 mill when their reserve was $1.5. They scored over $310,000 for themselves.

Second were the brothers, Simon and Shannon, selling their apartment for $1.9 mill with a reserve of $1.75 mill, scoring $335,000 plus $100,000 for winning the show.

Third was Max and Karstan, with a reserve of $1.7 mill they only sold for $1.71, scoring $40,000 for themselves.

Fourth was a tie between Michael and Carlene and Deanne and Darren who only scored $10,000 each.

So the big question after all the auctions were done and dusted, and before congratulations were barely over, was to Simon and Shannon, who were asked if they’d share their winnings with those who “weren’t as lucky”.

WHAT.THE.FUCK!!!!!!!!!!!!

Guilt trip much!!!!!!!!

What the fuck has happened to society that to appease the losers the winner must hand over their winnings to make the losers feel better?

Why in God’s name would you even ask that of a winner just moments after winning?

Hosts have done the same to big lotto winners, with lines like, “you should donate it all to charity.”

Uh, what about me, you know, the winner of the money?

NO ONE thinks about the utter stupidity, the rudeness or absolute disrespect of that question or comment. “You should give the losers some.”

Again, why?

When you have a competition, even if it’s a reality show, there is always a winner and losers. In this case, two couples struck it rich and three didn’t. Although Max and Karstan got a free wedding out of it. In this case one couple came out in first place and four didn’t. That does not mean they should give their hard earned and won earnings away to make the losers feel better.

Asking or telling someone to give it to the losers means you haven’t even begun to think about the whole scheme of life for the winner.

Are they poor or struggling? In which case they need the money themselves. Would the losers even accept the money? Would they feel bad about being made charity cases?

People don’t consider the bigger picture when asking these stupid questions.

If I won $40 million in lotto and someone said to me, “you should give it all to charity”, then I would say to them, “then I would need to get help from those charities because I would still be poor. Why should I give it to other people to live a better life and still go without myself.”

People don’t think about these things when saying stupid things. To tell a poor person who just won big in lotto that they should give it all away to help other people and make them better off while still suffering themselves is fucking stupid! The question itself implies that the winner should stay shit poor and suffer for the rest of their life so they can give it away and make other people’s lives better.

What has political correctness done to society, where losers must get something because it’s all about participating and losing doesn’t exist. That’s not helping anyone in any way, shape or form to learn about the world. And raising kids to believe there are never losers, only winners, is wrong. They need to learn how to deal with not getting everything they want and losing is a part of that.

I feel sorry for Simon and Shannon, being asked that question by almost every host on every tv show in interviews afterwards. How embarrassing for them, and how fucking rude of the hosts.

Even radio stations and magazines were asking the same question on their Facebook pages, and they got a big stinking resounding NO from almost everyone.

And to all the people saying they would and the boys should, NO THE FUCK YOU WOULDN’T! When you’re poor and struggling, hoping to win the comp you entered to make your life better, there’s no way you’d give your hard earned money away to the losers.

Especially bitches like Deanne who was a foul mouthed bitch the whole way through. Her and her ex-footballer arsehole of a husband only got $10,000 and it serves them right. She kept saying karma was a bitch, and yes Deanne, it certainly was. After the auction they just got up and walked out of the room without saying anything to the host.

How fucking rude!

Congrats to the boys. They’re taking their builder away for a surfing holiday, probably to Bali. Considering all the hard work he put in I hope he’s grateful they’re doing it, especially when they don’t have to.

The Today Show’s “Double Cars and Cash Giveaway”competition IS a rip off!

31/10/2013 by L.J. Diva Filed Under: Financial Matters, Movies & TV 4 Comments

Yes, proof that tv shows rip people off!

The Today Show and Mornings are running a new competition
where they are giving away a car twice a day. Now many people, in this day and
age would not be able to afford to run the Jeep Compass or Sport they’re giving
away, there’s also a Fiat Punto or Chrysler 300 Limited.

That’s fine, but what’s not fine is what they claim about
the cash.

They claim, ON THEIR WEBSITE, that each car will be FILLED
WITH CASH! Yes, they actually say that on the competition page here.

Now as far as I know, to FILL a car with money it would take
a million or ten to ACTUALLY fill it. So if you click on the “terms and
conditions” link and actually read the terms and conditions you will find
they are ONLY giving away, and it quotes – “$1,000 OR $10,000 (except for the 6th Draw
Period when the cash prize will be either $1,000 or $50,000).

On top of that, you don’t get to choose WHICH car you want,
you win what they pick, and secondly, you may only win $1000 OR $10,000. So the
ads they have been running are technically inaccurate and a lie as they say you
WILL win $10,000 and the website says they are FULL of cash.

The cars are NOT full of cash and you won’t necessarily be
winning $10,000.

LIAR, LIAR, PANTS ON FIRE!

All I can say is read the terms and conditions to find out
how these comps work because some of them ARE a rip off.

I love the Today show and enter their normal cash give away,
but this one is a rip off.

Leeches who do nothing for money

20/10/2013 by L.J. Diva Filed Under: Financial Matters Leave a Comment

On Saturday I was in my local library and saw the new book by Katie Price aka Jordan, the busty page 3 UK model once married to Peter Andre and who just had another kid by another husband. Have no idea how many she’s up to now.

But her book was sitting there on the shelf and I simmered.

Simmered because she doesn’t write the bloody things and because she’d be getting millions for it.

So that got me thinking about all the other leeches who do nothing for money.

All of the “celebritards” who don’t drink Pepsi but will take money from Pepsi, those don’t wear a certain brand, don’t eat a certain food, don’t do a certain thing (like write their own books) and yet rake in millions for it.

It’s because publishing houses jump on band wagons basically. They see a money making scheme and they offer.

Someone has a hit single/album and tour, someone wants to make money.

Someone has best selling books, someone wants to make money.

Someone has a popular blog, someone wants to make money.

Someone has a hit show, someone wants to make money.

It’s all the same, and that’s where people become leeches. Accepting money for things they don’t eat, drink, wear, use or do.

Leeches because they don’t put the hard yards in and actually write the book and that’s what I keep coming back to, people who do not write books, have never written books, will never write books, have not even thought of writing books and yet get book deals. Damien Leith to name one.

Leeches, all of you, just for the sake of earning money to fund your life style you lie and cheat your way through life by not actually doing anything and get it all for nothing.

You are a leech, plain and simple. You are sickening, and so desperate for money you would sell your soul by lying about what you do. So desperate for money you will do anything and then happily go through life believing in your own bullshit about how fantastic you are because you do all these things when you actually don’t.

Bullshit lying leeches who don’t deserve what they get because they didn’t earn it by doing the hard yards like the rest of us. You get everything you want for free while the rest of us struggle. You are a leech because you do nothing yet get everything.

How long should we put up with companies wasting money on leeches? What can we do to revolt against it, to show these companies and celebritards we do not like it? What can we do to show people we will not put up with fakes and frauds who just leech money from the companies who offer it so freely?

Ugh! Gives me the shits!

Apparently I was the talk of the town on Lottos.com.au

13/10/2013 by L.J. Diva Filed Under: Financial Matters 4 Comments

It’s funny what you find when you go browsing through your blog’s stats.

I found myself the centre of attention on Lottos.com.au. They were talking about the Today Show’s “I Wake Up With Today” comp and someone googled about it and found me and my video for “IS THE TODAY SHOW COMP RIGGED”

this is the conversation that ensued, sorry they’re a bit blurry

someone found me from googling

this next one says how rude I was for the way I spoke to the girl who got called but didn’t answer. I still say she’s stupid!

this next one says I’m an A grade biatch and need to be slapped about with a dead fish, roflmfao, they also think I’m stupid enough to have removed the post! nup!

it’s amazing the kind of things you can find through your stats page.