At first I posted an ad on our bulletin board at work. The ad had a picture of the laptop, some of it’s specs and a reasonable price. While I had a few inquiries I didn’t get any real buyers. So I took the ad down and looked for other avenues.

Next I checked eBay for prices on the particular model I was trying to sell. There were a few laptops like it listed there but they were nearing the end of their auction and no one had bid on them. I want to turn this laptop into cash and I don’t want to wait around for an auction to end or give the laptop away for pennies because no one was really interested. Again, I looked for other avenues.

I did a few searches on Google for “selling a laptop” and this is when I started finding shops that actually buy used laptops and other electronics. So I started clicking on the links to see what they were all about. All the sites I found worked the same way: you enter the model number and some specs into a form, choose what condition the electronic is in and then the price that particular site is willing to offer appears. If you find the price acceptable you enter some personal information and you get further instructions. Some of the sites pay for shipping and packaging some do not. *See the table below.

With the first few sites I became a little concerned because they were offering much less than I was hoping to get for my laptop. Before I gave up on the “buy your laptop” sites I found Jay Brokers. Jay Brokers gives you two options: you can see what the FMV or “Fair Market Value” for your device is from historical data via eBay sales or you can fill out a form to get a personalize “guaranteed” quote. The guaranteed quote is “guaranteed” if you are truthful with the information you enter in the form about your device. A quote was emailed to me within 24 hours and it was $100 MORE than any of the other sites. Needless to say I was very happy but still a little skeptical. My next move was to send the laptop to someone I’m not familiar with in hopes of getting the money they guaranteed. Jay Brokers does not pay for shipping and packaging but I knew it would be around $20 ($13 for shipping, $7 for the packaging) from my past experience of sending a laptop out for refunds or repairs. Off to UPS I went and away the laptop shipped.

Two days later I got an email from Jay Brokers that they received the package and will be in the process of testing the device to make sure it works per the data I entered into their form. Within 24 hours I got another email that said the money has been placed in my PayPal account. That was it. A very painless and quick service. From my experience I give Jay Brokers a 5 out of 5 stars for providing an honest and transparent service.

I can only speak of my experience with http://www.jaybrokers.com and from that experience I recommend them for getting rid of devices you no longer use. They offered $100 more than the closest competitor and in some cases almost $200 more.

The kids all ganged together and played with various toys and games. At on point the games and toys became second hat to a new game called “Pile on Nathaniel”.(see pic) Thankfully no one was majorly hurt but there may have been some bumps and bruises.

Kids attempting to pile on Nathan.

Kids taking a break after a crazy time downstairs.

• 2 cups gluten free flour mix*
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 1 tsp xanthan gum
• 2 eggs
• 1 cup Stonyfield Farm Strawberry Yogurt
• 1/4 cup butter, melted
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 1 cup chopped strawberries, fresh or frozen

Preheat oven to 375. In a bowl, mix together flour, sugar, baking soda and xanthan gum. In another bowl, mix eggs, yogurt, butter and vanilla. Toss strawberries into the flour mixture. Then pour yogurt mixture into flour mixture and stir. Spoon batter into lined muffin tins. Bake for about 20 minutes or until tops are golden brown. Yields: 18 muffins

*Gluten free flour mix

3 parts white rice flour
3 parts brown rice flour
2 parts potato starch
1 part tapioca flour

Ingredients:

1. Mrs. Leepers vegetable twist pasta noodles (cooked)
2. 1 bunch of broccoli chopped
3. 2 stalks of celery chopped
4. 1 carrot chopped
5. 1 can of sliced black olives (2.25 oz)
6. 4 oz of cheddar cheese sliced in small cubes
7. 1/2 cup Marzetti’s Sweet Italian dressing (it’s unreal how good this is)
8. 1/2 cup of Good Seasons All Natural Italian salad dressing

Instructions:
Cook pasta, chop vegetables and slice cheese. Mix all ingredients in a bowl along with the salad dressing. Optional: Add sliced pepperoni.

Ingredients:
1 3/4 Cup Quinoa Flour
1 3/4 Cup All Purpose Gluten Free Flour
1 tsp Baking Soda
1 tsp Xanthan Gum
1/2 tsp Salt
1/2 Cup Shortening
1 Cup Brown Sugar
1/2 Cup Granulated Sugar
2 Eggs
1/2 tsp Gluten-Free Vanilla Powder (1 tsp liquid Vanilla Extract)
1 package Gluten Free Chocolate Chips

Directions:

1. Mix Quinoa Flour, All Purpose Flour, Baking Soda, Xanthan Gum and Salt.
2. In a separate large bowl blend Shortening, Brown Sugar and Granulated Sugar.
3. Mix in Eggs and Vanilla to Shortening mix.
4. Slowly add Flour mix to the Shortening mix until it is well blended
5. Scoop cookies into a tablespoon sized ball and place on greased cookie sheet(s)
6. Place cookies into 375 degree oven for about 10 to 13 minutes or until golden brown.

This recipe is a modification of a recipe found in Living Without.

First came twiturder.com. Twiturder (twit-turd-er) is a device that attaches to your toilet and ‘tweets’ whatever happens while you are on it. Yes, it can most certainly be gross. I tried to create a 1/2 serious and 1/2 silliness look and feel for the site hoping to have people guessing whether the twiturder device was real or not. The t-shirt for this product is a simple “got turd?” design. I also have a Twitter account @twiturder where I occasionally update what goes on at the plant including any new products that come along.

The next product to come out of the maelstrom is ThongDrive.com. During a conversation I was having with a co-worker I swear they said something about a thong drive. While he probably didn’t say anything close to that it sounded like a great idea to mix usb flash storage and a thong. Don’t you think? The site is complete with a little Flash application at the top where you can choose your skin color and preferred thong color. The t-shirt for this idea is a simple “ThongDrive” logo with the phrase “thong + storage = genius”. Usually people get a charge out of this product. I’m still working on a way to convince my wife to actually create one but it does not seem like she’s interested at the moment.

The newest product idea was easy to come up with due to the current scare of swine flu. The Swine B Gone.com product is supposed to be an aerosol spray that you can douse yourself with and remove all effect of the swine flu (H1N1). I had a couple t-shirt ideas for this one but stuck with the “Swine B Gone” logo and the words “swine flu protected” below it.

With each site I tried to make them have a similar theme but be fairly unique in content. Obviously the t-shirt element is in all three but the information about each product has it’s own unique flavor and humor. There are some key elements you should include in your site(s) when you build, develop and/or design.

Key Element 1
One of the key elements you need to include is an easy way to spread the word about your site via social mediums. There are a few ways you can cover Twitter, email, Facebook, Digg and a whole slew of others. I use the Add this menu which lists a number of popular social media methods in nice little package. The idea is to make it extremely easy for your viewers to spread the gospel about whatever page they are on.

Key Element 2
Another key element is keyword rich content. If you build a goofy site about a current event you should try to include the keywords in your content about that event. This goes for any site you build. Keyword rich content is extremely important for readability and SEO. Make sure you are conscious of grammar and spelling. People can be turned off by sentences that are difficult to read or include spelling errors.

Key Element 3
An important key element to add is data collection. At a minimum you should have a form on your site to collect emails and names so you can develop an email list. Once your list starts to grow you will be able to use it to spread the word of your newest ventures quickly. If you use Facebook or Twitter more frequently then request their Facebook or Twitter name.

Key Element 4
A key element I try to incorporate is some form of interaction. Generally, this can include a small Flash application that peeks someones interest, a game for people to play, a daily or weekly poll where people can vote on some subject or a comments section where viewers can interact with each other and you. The idea for this is to create a small element that could bring people back because they are curious about the results of a poll or the replies to their previous comments.

Key Element 5
Another key element you can easily include are affiliate marketing links. Obviously people have started putting on their blinders when it comes to banner ads and such but that does not mean they are completely ineffective. Try to think of a creative way to make them look more appealing in your design. There are so many cookie cutter looking sites that just slap them into a column and hope for the best. Try to add a new twist to your affiliate area that might peek more interest. Experiment. Experiment. Experiment.

Just because a venture is not as successful as you hoped does not mean it was a complete failure. Chances are you learned something from the experience and you will be able to put what you learned into use on your next venture. If you sense failure, reassess your position and either make modifications or move to your next venture. If you are just starting out, do not be afraid to fail. Usually in failure we learn enough to make the next attempt successful. Put some thought and creativity into each project you do.

Ingredients:

• 1/2 Cup Butter or Margerine
• 1/2 Cup Sugar
• 1/2 Cup Brown Sugar
• 2 Eggs
• 1/3 Cup of Peanut Butter or Soynut Butter
• 1 Cup of Gluten Free All Purpose Baking Flour Blend
• 1 Cup of Rolled Oats
• 1/2 tsp Baking Soda
• 1/4 tsp Salt
• 1/8 tsp Authentic Foods Gluten-Free Vanilla Powder (1/4 tsp of liquid vanilla)
• Enjoy Life Foods Gluten-Free Chocolate Chips

Instructions:

1. Preheat oven to 350.
2. Cream together butter, sugar and brown sugar.
3. Mix in eggs and peanut butter (or soynut butter)
4. Continue mixing in flour, oats, baking soda, salt and vanilla
5. Grease 9×13 pan and place mixture into pan and bake for 20-25 minutes
6. Pull from oven and sprinkle chocolate chips over top
7. Place back in oven for 2-4 minutes or until chocolate chips have melted.
8. Remove from oven, allow to cool and cut into desired pieces.

Uno’s offers numerous gluten free steak and chicken recipes, vegetable, rice and potato sides, and the normal salads. Uno’s then goes a couple steps further in offering gluten free pizzas (3 of them), frozen drinks and Redbridge a gluten free beer.

It is so refreshing to see restaurants accommodating dietary requirements. It is even more refreshing to see the restaurants embrace the gluten free community and cater to our needs. Ryan’s comments after eating the gluten free pepperoni pizza from Uno’s, “Mommy, I really like this pizza. I like it better than yours!”

Track down your closest Uno’s and give the gluten free menu a try. Store Locater

Ingredients:

• 1 Cup Gluten Free All Purpose Flour Mix
• 1 Cup of Rolled Oats
• 1 Cup of Brown Sugar
• 3 Cups of Apples (peeled and large dice)
• 1/2 Cup Butter (melted)
• 1/2 Cup of Sugar
• 2 tsp Cinnamon

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees
2. Grease or non stick spray a 9 inch square baking dish.
3. Mix floar, oats, brown sugar and butter until mixture forms crumb topping
4. Place a layer of crumb topping on bottom of baking dish (approximately half).
5. In a bowl combine sugar, cinnamon and apples together and place on top of crumb layer.
6. Cover the apples with remaining crumb topping and bake approximately 40 minutes. Top should be golden brown.

Recommended Shells
1 pkg. Brown Rice Grand Shells by Tinkyada

Shell Stuffing

• 1 bunch fresh chopped spinach, cooked
• 1 lb. ricotta cheese
• 2 eggs, slightly beaten
• Salt & ground black pepper
• 1 tsp Italian seasoning
• 1/2 c. grated Parmesan cheese, Romano optional
• 1/2 c. shredded mozzarella cheese

Sauce

• ¼ cup butter
• 1 cup heavy cream
• 1 tbs. cornstarch
• 1/2 tsp. garlic powder
• 1/2 tsp. parsley
• 1 cup Parmesan cheese

Heat the oven to 375 degrees. Rub the bottom of a 9 x 13 inch baking dish with olive oil.

In boiling water cook the shells, drain and transfer to cold water. Follow the directions on the package for cooking.

For the sauce, melt ¼ cup butter over medium heat. Mix 1 cup of heavy cream with 1 tbs. of cornstarch, add, and simmer for 5 minutes. Add ½ tsp. of garlic powder, ½ tsp. of parsley, and 1 cup of Parmesan cheese.

In a bowl, combine ricotta, eggs, salt and pepper, spinach, parmesan, and spice. After filling each shell with filling, gently set them in the baking dish, cut sides up. Spread sauce over all and sprinkle mozzarella cheese over top. Cover with foil and bake for 40-50 minutes. Serves 6-8.