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I was out cruising the intertubes today and I came across a post at Cromely’s World where he was talking about recycling an AC unit. Not one of the big ones thats tied in to a thermostat in your house, but a window unit, and how he had to PAY $50 to have it recycled. Somethings you get paid for (like copper) others you have to pay to recycle and I thought to myself, wouldn’t it be great if you could make money from your stuff? Thats when it hit me. Gazelle!!

I had come across a site that claimed to Buy Your Used Cell Electronics! Phones, Ipods, Cameras, Laptops & More! I thought it was a little good to be true until I checked it out. I could send them some old phones (Nokia e62’s) that had been replaced with blackberries or iPhones and I’d actually get about $30 per working unit. Granted, it doesn’t pay for the iPhone, but it covers one month of data service.

I was FLOORED!! I wanted to know what else I could push on them. Old Laptops. They’d give me $147 for my laptop. Granted, thats roughly 10% of what I paid for it originally, but its going on two years old and by todays standards is WAAAAAAAYYYYY out of date! Besides, with $147, I’m almost half way to the cost of a new eeePC or one of the smaller notebooks from HP.

It appears they take almost any kind of electronic you could throw at them as well. Cell Phones, MP3 Players, Digital cameras, GPS Units, Game Consoles (sell your PS3 for $200 and put that towards a wii!), camcorders, portable hard drives and satellite radios (just in time to pick up a dual xm/sirius radio). They’ll pay you for it! And if they won’t give you cash, you can still ship it to them free of charge for them to recycle (who knows, maybe they’re building a huge Transformer out of used GameCubes or something).

Its worth a look if you have old phones or computer stuff laying around. Who knows, maybe you can Cash In Your Old Gadgets and get that new model you’ve been eying at Best Buy…

When Michael Phelps trains for a competition like the Olympics, he really trains. Most days he swims four miles in preparation. Others he works outside of the pool on building muscle mass and endurance. The man is a machine and its no wonder that he’s on pace to set an Olympic record of 10 Olympic Golds in his career. Everyone could learn from Michael Phelps. He sets his goals and he works to accomplish them, much in the same way a blogger should.

Perhaps you started blogging for any number of reasons (I started because it sounded like fun). After awhile though, your original goals become outdated and often forgotten. It doesn’t hurt to reevaluate your goals every couple of months. Perhaps you reached that goal of 100 subscribers on feedburner. Maybe you average $100 a month from adsense for the past three months. Nows the time to step it up. Instead of posting once a week about your cat, post twice. Find new things to post about. Venture in to an area where you might be considered knowledgeable.

Much like Phelps and his Olympic team mates, we need to always be working harder on our blogs/sites. There’s always going to be someone with better grammar, a cooler layout or better plugins. If you keep the same site you’ve had since you started in 2001 because you’re used to it, things will over time become stale. Instead, push yourself to the limit.

It doesn’t hurt to reinvent yourself, as long as you’re not doing it weekly. The important thing is that you work hard. After all, PR and Alexa ranking don’t just fall from the sky. You have to earn them.

Don’t forget about the ENTRECARD CONTESTS I’m running right now, you have the chance to win 3k in credits!! Also, if you haven’t Joined the Pepperjam Network and Received your $10 Sign On Bonus You’re missing out on a great opportunity to take your blogging to the next level!!