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The New Economic Order

2012-02-14T03:37:00.000-08:00

With the global economy going to hell in a hand basket (AGAIN), people are scared ...

You see it in the "Occupy Movement" demonstrations taking place in various centers around the world.

You see it in news reports about impending sovereign debt default in Greece, Spain, Portugal, Ireland, Italy and other European countries.

And you see it in the ongoing economic malaise in the United States, where despite one and a half TRILLION dollars in economic stimulus thousands of jobs continue to disappear each month.

What does it all mean?

And what should YOU be doing to protect your livelihood and the financial security of your family?

The First Thing To Realize Is That What We're Going Through Is NOT The End Of The World – Far From It...

It's simply the birthing pains of a bold new economic order... and the death spasms of an old way of doing things that's no longer workable.

You see, at one time it made sense for companies to try and dominate and control every aspect of the economic food chain – upstream through ownership of suppliers of raw materials and parts, for production... and downstream through ownership of the companies that distributed and sold their products to the consumer.

A car manufacturer, for example, gained much through the shrewd acquisition of a tire company, a glass company, and a metal company. Control of these entities smoothed away transactional friction.

No need to spend time researching suppliers. No need to negotiate the best deals. No need for manual paperwork and order processing. No intermediary commissions and sales fees. Less communication and travel costs and fewer legal expenses.

Having a financial interest in the dealer networks that sold the cars also reduced downstream friction in much the same ways.

So companies grew ever larger, employing more and more people. Not only did they seek to integrate vertically (both forwards and backwards) but horizontally as well, buying up competitors in a never-ending quest for "economies of scale".

Stock and bond markets grew to meet the insatiable demand for capital to fund endless consolidation. And governments grew in size too, creating massive social structures to support this model, running up astronomical debts in the process.

Educational systems were geared toward churning out the millions of employee drones needed to staff the global empires that were being built. Students were trained from an early age to fit into the predefined roles demanded by industry, commerce and government.

And people became very comfortable with the notion that their employers and governments were there to look after them. Strength in numbers insulated the little guy from the brutal self-responsibility, endless adaptation and uncertainty of entrepreneurship.

But gradually – unnoticed by most – the transactional friction that gave rise to all of this started to disappear ...

Just twenty years ago, if a New Yorker wanted to speak to a potential business partner in London England, a short ten-minute phone call cost $20 to $30.

If the potential partners wanted to meet face-to-face, one of them would have to spend thousand of dollars and several days in lost productivity to make the trip.

And if a deal was to be struck, it took millions of dollars in capital to bring together the necessary employees, buildings, machinery etc. to compete effectively in the marketplace.

Today, you can talk all day long between almost any two points on Earth, for free.

You can see the whites of a person's eyes across the ocean instantaneously and it won't cost you a red cent.

You can send money to somebody, share documents, or update database records on each other's computers in near real time for pennies.

And you can sell your products and services globally with nothing more than a laptop computer and a few inexpensive online tools and services.

There is no longer a need to integrate people, raw materials, information, and capital, under a large centralized command and control structure.

Now, independent individuals from all over the world can collaborate on an as-needed basis to get the same jobs done – for less.

A Lone Wolf Entrepreneur At Home In His or Her Pajamas Can Now Compete With Full-Fledged Corporations On A Level Playing Field In Many Areas Of The Economy...

Large companies MUST adapt to this by downsizing and outsourcing aggressively. Governments too. And this is why jobs continue to disappear.

This is not a nightmare to be afraid of. It's a miracle to rejoice in.

You now have the power to gain total control of how, when and where you do your work.

Your income, your lifestyle, and your focus can be entirely in your own hands.

And you no longer need depend on forces outside of your control for your livelihood.

Isn't It Time You Took Your Professional Skills And Turned Them Into A Thriving Full-Time Business Of Your Own?

It's way past time! And you know it.

So what's stopping you?

Well, if you're still putzing around at a JOB, chances are you're probably struggling with one or more of these three entrepreneurial blocks:

You Don't Like Selling – As an independent entrepreneur striking out on your own, you wear many hats. The most important hat you will ever wear is that of Chief Marketing Officer.

In business, NOTHING happens until something gets sold. So your first order of business is to become comfortable and skilled at selling yourself and your products and services.

Unless you are already in sales, chances are this frightens you, perhaps even repulses you. If you have a negative view of selling, it must be vigorously reframed, or you're setting yourself up for failure. The world WILL NOT beat a path to your door.

You're Easily Dazzled by Bright Shiny Objects – It's wonderful to be able to leverage web-based technology to engage with potential customers all over the world. You can and should be doing this.

But it's all too easy to become distracted and overwhelmed by the endless stream of whiz-bang communications options available, most of which you do not have the time or the resources to make profitable.

You can spend thousands of dollars building a fancy website, and hundreds if not thousands of hours plugging into a dozen different social media platforms. And not gain a single client for your trouble.

Or you can focus on mastering a simple blog platform and an inexpensive broadcast email service and make 7 figures.

You Lack Mental Toughness – This one goes back to the brainwashing you acquired while you were growing up. Part of the game was to make you feel small, inadequate and dependent on those with capital and resources.

Your parents pushed you to go to school, so you could find a safe, secure pigeonhole somewhere in the establishment. Much of the risk and uncertainty were removed from the equation, or so you were told.

And now, you find the self-responsibility and independence of thought necessary for entrepreneurial success terrifying. You fear rejection and failure, and find it hard to maintain the iron willed resolve you need to succeed in the face of inevitable set backs and adversity.

We all face the same challenges on our respective journeys to entrepreneurial independence. Your mission is to begin kicking them to the curb.

By Daniel Levis

[Ed Note: Daniel Levis is a top marketing consultant, direct response copywriter and publisher of the highly acclaimed home study course, How to Quit Your Job And Double Your Income – The Fastest Way to 6 Figures and Beyond, As an In-Demand Coach, Consultant or Freelancing Pro... Click here to register for a free web workshop. No Credit Card Required.]

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The Triple D Strategy for Success

2012-02-01T05:48:00.000-08:00

On any given day, most of us dedicate time to our children, spouses, careers, friends, charities, churches, parents, siblings, clients, household activities, and, oh yeah, if there is a little extra time left in the day, ourselves.

So why is it that only a select few of us can make it look easy... while so many look like they have been run over by a tractor trailer?

The answer is simple.

Most busy people don't evaluate the project or the task at hand before they begin. This holds true whether they are working on their business lives or on their personal/family lives.

Instead of taking a hard look at the task or project, they simply try to get it done. They do whatever it takes.

But unfortunately, the price they pay is very high.

They sacrifice special moments and milestones with their kids. They risk losing the closeness and tenderness of their spouses. They even jeopardize their own health. They take on all these hardships in order to prove that they are "superparents". And to add insult to injury, in the end, they often miss their deadlines, fail to properly complete the project, and neglect their spouses and children.

Why do they do this to themselves?

Because all of our lives we have been told they have to multitask. You have heard the old mantra, "if you want something done right, you have to do it yourself" about a million times. And you don't want to appear inferior.

If this sounds remotely familiar, I need for you to make yourself and me a significant promise.

You need to vow here and now that you are ready to read this issue in its entirety and apply my Triple D Strategy to your life starting today.

This strategy is so powerful that you will have an immediate sense of accomplishment and fulfillment.

When done correctly, it will allow you to have more free time and make more money in your business. Your friends and family will notice immediately that you are not stressed and moody. But most importantly, your "happiness meter" will be heading in the right direction – up.

And here's the really beautiful part – it is so simple!

Allow me to introduce my Triple D Strategy.

Ditch, Delegate, and Duplicate

When you start to evaluate every project or task that you THINK has to be done and done by you every day, you will soon find that the task could fall into three possible categories:

1) Ditch: This is extremely important if you have a hard time with simply saying "no." Most are unable or unwilling to say that a task is not important enough for their time or anyone else's. Look: we all have the same 24 hours in a day – no more, no less. So why is it that we sometimes feel that we should accomplish 28 hours' worth of tasks in a single day?

In order to turn down a task, just ask yourself the following question: "What will the result be if nothing is done about this project?" This makes your decision very easy. And when you are completely honest with yourself, you will find that 20% to 30% of the things you spend time on don't need to be done at all!

2) Delegate: The art of delegating relies on finding the right person whose strengths are YOUR weaknesses. You need to do what you do best. Not spend time and energy on tasks that you are not particularly good at or that don't excite you. Your time and energy should be spent on your natural gifts; things that are innate and that you love doing. You should apply this rule at home and at the office. For example, I'm not particularly good at building websites; this is something I delegate to team members. At home, I don't enjoy cleaning my house. This is a task I delegate to a cleaning woman who comes to my home and – believe it or not – loves to clean.

Because I do not spend my time on tasks like these, I get to devote that time to tasks that play to my strengths. At the office, my strengths are marketing and content creation. At home, one of my strengths is helping my kids with their homework. These are things that I am very good at and I love doing.

3) Duplicate: Have you ever wished you had a clone? I sure used to! Now I have several. Being able to make more money and have more free time comes down to doubling, tripling, and quadrupling your output without YOU doing the actual work.

The reason so many people don't duplicate is because they don't understand the correct way to do so. Most people think, "I will never find anyone as good as I am." Here is the beautiful part – you don't have to.

You see, you must simply find different people who can do specific tasks as well as you can. So perhaps you need to find three or four people. These people need to share some of your qualities. You need to check your ego at the door and strive to find people who have the ability to be as good as and even better than you are.

If you write all of your promotional copy, make all the affiliate deals, and develop all your products, you need to find three duplicates: One person to write the copy better than you do now while maintaining your voice and style. One person to cultivate new affiliate deals. This person should have your vivacious personality and be extremely outgoing (if these are your personality traits). And one person to develop products – someone who has even bigger ideas and the ability to get the products completed faster.

These are three simple things that you can implement TODAY. But they only work if you do them and do them right.

In the name of full disclosure, you should know that while this Triple D Strategy will help you immensely in your quest to balance your work and personal life... It's not the only proven, easy-to-implement technique you can use to create a happier, more productive, more balanced (and richer!) life for yourself.

By Mary Ellen Tribby

[Ed. Note. MaryEllen Tribby has created the site, www.WorkingMomsOnly.com, as the leading website and newsletter for the empowerment of the working moms. Her mission is to supply the tools that can give EVERY working mom the ability to lead a healthy, wealthy, and more balanced/blended lifestyle. To create a community where millions of working moms from all over the world come together in support and celebration of each other.]

Source : http://www.earlytorise.com

Disclaimer...The comments, products and services are owned by the poster. We are not responsible for their contents.

The Magic of the Free Day

2012-01-08T04:52:00.000-08:00

My mother retired in 2004, and since then she's been as busy than ever, but doing the things she's always wanted to do with her time off (volunteering, seeing more plays and concerts, etc.).

But you don't have to wait until you're retired to do these things. Today, Dan Sullivan shows you how to have more magical free days in 2012, even if you run your own business.

Craig Ballantyne

"Fulfillment comes from a life of meaningful achievement and from being present in each moment while moving in the direction we most want to move." – Peter Bregman

Free Day™ Breakthrough
By Dan Sullivan

A Free Day™ is a 24-hour period free from all work-related thinking, communication, and activity. In all my years of coaching entrepreneurs, Free Days™ are the change they most often thank me for helping them make. They help you stay creative at work, keep you physically and mentally healthy, and deepen your relationships with the people in your life who matter most.

Even if you know all this and agree with it, when you're under pressure or facing unexpected upheaval, you might start thinking of Free Days as a luxury that's hard to justify. That's why it's important to regularly reinforce the Free Day habit, consistently protecting them and taking them, because Free Days are the last thing you should give up in tough times.

When people "fall off the wagon" and begin losing the productivity gains they've made, it usually starts with compromising their personal free time. It may start innocuously with, "I'll just get this one thing done," then gradually slide into a state of living in a "Reactive Zone" where each new thing becomes even more complicated because they have no new energy for dealing with it.

The flip side of this experience is using Free Days to make sure as much of your work time as possible is spent in the "Creative Zone" where things seem easier, your relationships are more enjoyable and helpful, you've got lots of new ideas, your actions are effective, and you're doing all this without creating new messes.

The three biggest obstacles to taking Free Days are panic, guilt, and confusion:

•Panic: "I'll take Free Days when this is all over."
•Guilt: "How can I take a vacation when my team has to work?"
•Confusion: "What will I do if I'm not at work?

Let's look at each of these three:

"I'll take Free Days when this is all over."

Of course, it's never over – there's always something you could be doing for your business. The most successful entrepreneurs, however, evolve out of being "Rugged Individuals" who do everything themselves, and learn to delegate, empower others, and focus on doing what they do best.

These skills become even more important when emergencies happen. Besides, when you go too long without taking Free Days, everything starts to seem like an emergency. Driving this feeling of panic is the notion that, should you step away, there would be a complete catastrophe. In our experience, though, stepping back creates simplicity.

"How can I take a vacation when my team has to work?"

By starting your own business and raising it to its current level of success, you've taken risks and poured a lot of yourself into the company. Your team members (who get weekends, annual leave, and statutory holidays off) haven't made this kind of investment, so it's perfectly appropriate if you're rewarded differently. And if you really want to be of service to your team members, remember that you're far more valuable to them when you're fully rejuvenated and present.

Entrepreneurs ask us, "How can I get my team to work on their own, without having to constantly come to me?" Leave from time to time, that's how! When you're not there, your team members get a chance to catch up and to learn how to make decisions and take action independent of you.

"What will I do if I'm not at work?"

This is the biggest obstacle for many entrepreneurs. Work is rewarding–you're good at it. You get things for being good at it. The rewards in other parts of your life might be less tangible or measurable, and you might not be as good at them. Consistently going back to work–either physically or mentally–can quickly become a habit.

My experience from working with thousands of entrepreneurs is that one-dimensional people are vulnerable to losses in other areas of their life, such as deteriorations in their marriage or health. And paying exclusive attention to work isn't even a good business strategy, since business ultimately becomes the only thing you know. Creativity always involves an element of novelty.

No matter how much you love your work, there are always other realms in life that can give you opportunities to use your capabilities. And what's all this success you're building actually for if not to provide you with a rich life? Free Days are an investment in your future happiness and productivity that you won't regret.

Strategies for taking great Free Days.

It takes some practice to get the hang of Free Days, and, like diet and exercise, they need to be an active part of your life, not just something you know would be good for you. Luckily, the practice is its own reward!

Here are some strategies that really work:

1) Schedule your Free Days in advance.

As you look over the time ahead, try to schedule Free Days just before periods when you know you'll need to be your most productive. Think of it this way: one vacation, one breakthrough; two vacations, two breakthroughs; and on and on.

By booking your Free Days in advance, or even putting someone else in charge of your Free Days, you save yourself from having to justify or negotiate them with others–or yourself–at the time.

2) Do what you really want to do.

Don't make your Free Days just a different set of obligations, spending the whole day doing things for everyone but you. You might be rejuvenated by spending time on your own, or by being surrounded by other people. You may enjoy high-energy activities or quiet time. For some, a natural environment is a soothing break from our technological civilization.

Whatever you choose, it's important that it's consistent with who you are and what you need. If you're planning Free Days with friends or family members, involving them in the planning will ensure that you come up with something everyone enjoys.

If you're stuck for Free Day ideas, check in with your lifetime goals, and see if there's anything you can do that will move you closer to them. Or you might want to start small and achieve something you've been meaning to get to for a long time.

3) Let your team members help you.

Your team members can see when you're tired, even if you haven't noticed yourself falling into that state. When it seems like they're not understanding you or that they're just not "getting it," that's a sign that you need Free Days–and they have a vested interest in helping you take them! Their results depend on your creativity, for one. And you can be sure they prefer working with the rested and rejuvenated version of you.

4) Train your clientele.

There are two ways you can wean your clients and customers off having constant access to you. First, help them understand that Free Days mean that when they do get to be with you, you will always be fully charged and present with them.

Second, in certain areas, your team members have specific talents that actually enable them to take better care of these clients and customers than you can. So, in presenting this change, you can reassure your clientele that you're leaving them in the hands of a specialist. If they're properly introduced to this concept and the transition is smooth, their experience of your business can actually improve:

Getting less of you personally can be an opportunity for them to get more of the value they come to you for.

Do one thing.

If you don't already have a Free Day strategy in place, just start where you are and do one thing–book a single Free Day, brainstorm about locations or activities for your free time, or have a conversation with your spouse or friends about something you could do together. All that matters is that you do something, however small, to start developing the Free Day habit.

The most successful entrepreneurs manage to achieve a balance between their personal and professional lives. If you consider that balance an important part of your lifetime goals, Free Days can provide a crucial strategic tool for making sure you attain it, and that you enjoy all the freedom your success affords you.

[Ed. Note. Dan Sullivan is the president and co-founder of Strategic Coach®, a global organization that has helped tens of thousands of entrepreneurs grow their businesses exponentially while enjoying an exceptional quality of life. He is the author of more than 30 publications on the subject of entrepreneurship.]

Source : http://www.earlytorise.com/

Disclaimer...The comments, products and services are owned by the poster. We are not responsible for their contents.

A Self-Made Millionaire's Guide to Dealing with Debt

2011-12-25T09:46:00.000-08:00

I had my first serious run-in with debt when I was 30 years old.

My wife K and I were renting a condominium in Washington, D.C. Our landlady came to us with an exciting opportunity: We could buy the condo for $60,000 with no money down. For just $100 a month more than what we were already paying for rent, we would be paying a mortgage. It sounded like a great deal, so we took it.

What we bought was a negatively amortizing mortgage with a three-year term and an 11% interest rate. That meant, every three years we were paying $19,800 in debt service and another $3,000 in closing costs.

We didn't realize what was going on because our monthly payments were only $550. I was too foolish then to ever ask myself, "What is the cost of this debt?"

I tried to find another bank to take me out of this scam but none would. The mortgage we had signed was not backed by the government (Freddie Mac/Fannie Mae), which meant that no other bank would touch it.

I learned that when banks make it easy to borrow money, it's not because you are a nice, deserving person. I learned that if you can get a loan despite poor credit (as ours was at the time), there is usually a scam involved. It also taught me to always ask the two critical questions about debt, "How much will it cost?" and, "Can I afford it?" It was an expensive lesson.

Many of us view debt as a necessity. We buy homes with it. And cars. And boats, and toys, and vacations. Some use it to buy the basics: clothes, food, and furniture.

Debt is not necessary. It is a luxury. Sometimes debt is useful. Sometimes it is wasteful. But debt is always dangerous.

It is unnecessary because there are always less expensive ways of getting what you want. And it is dangerous because it can sometimes be very expensive.

Let me give you two examples.

Let's say that, like most Americans, you are in the habit of buying things with credit cards. After a while, you notice that you have accumulated $30,000 in total debt. You decide to cut up your cards and repay your debt. You can devote $400 a month to paying it back. How long will it take, and how much will it cost you?

The answer may surprise you. Assuming an interest rate of 10%, it will take you 10 years to pay off the credit card debt. And your total payments will be $47,275. Of that, $17,275 will have been in interest payments.

Or let's take a $150,000 home on which you take a $120,000 loan with a 6.5% interest rate over 20 years. The mortgage payments are $894 a month, which you can afford. But how much will that house really cost you? Including interest payments? You will end up paying $244,725 for that house. Almost 40% of that – $94,725 – will have been to interest payments.

The commercial community (bankers and manufacturers) doesn't want you to be afraid of debt. And neither does the government. These institutions want you to like debt. They want you to use it. They want you to go into debt because it is good for them.

When you take out a mortgage to buy a home, or sign a lease on a car, or use credit cards to pay for your lifestyle expenses, the commercial community profits. The manufacturers make money on products you may or may not need. And the banks make money on your debt.

The mainstream financial media rarely talks about the dangers of debt. That's because they make their profits from the financial institutions and manufacturers whose advertisements support their publications.

And the government actually encourages its citizens to take on debt. This was the recommended strategy for getting us out of the Great Recession that the (second) Bush administration (and the Federal Reserve) advocated and it's the same scheme that Obama's people are advocating today.

Here's what you should know about debt:

As a general rule, you should live without it. You should find less expensive ways to acquire the things you need.

Unless you are wealthy, don't lease your car. Buy it. Buy the car you can afford, not the car you believe will make you happy. Any non-appreciating asset (such as a car) will never make you happy if you have to pay its debt service. I didn't buy my first luxury car until I was a multimillionaire.

Don't buy anything with a credit card. Keep only one credit card for renting cars. Use a debit card to buy clothes and groceries. If you don't have enough money in your bank account to use your debit card on a purchase, don't buy it. If you don't have enough money in the bank to buy something, it means you can't afford it.

If you can't afford the debt on your house, sell it (if you can) and buy something cheaper. In any case, start paying off the principle balance of your house (the amount you owe, not the interest you will owe) as fast as you can. Make it a goal to own your house free and clear as soon as possible.

If you have debt, pay it off as fast as you can, but not before you have filled up your bucket for emergency savings. By emergency savings, I mean money you will need to pay your bills if you lose your job. Six months' income is what some financial advisors recommend. I'd recommend a year. It may take you that long to replace your lost income.

Pay off your debt even if the interest rate is low. In theory, you should put your extra money elsewhere if you can earn more on it than you are paying in interest. If, for example, you can get 4% in municipal bonds and you have a student loan at 2%, it makes more sense to buy municipals bonds and pay your student loan off slowly. But in reality, the extra 2% you are earning on the spread is not worth the risk in carrying the debt.

When I started earning money, the first thing I did was get rid of that terrible loan on the condominium I told you about earlier.

The next thing I did was pay off the mortgage I took on a home. I paid it off in two or three years, even though it was a 30-year mortgage. I loved the idea of owning my home free and clear. So I put every extra dollar I had toward paying down that mortgage. The bank didn't like it, but the day I tore up that mortgage... I felt like I had been emancipated from financial slavery.

Finally, if you are troubled by debt, know this: you can get out of it just as I did.

[Ed. Note. If you're not happy with your financial situation, you're in the perfect position to change it for the better – right now. At The Palm Beach Letter, we can show you how. For the equivalent of a tank of gas or a dinner out ($49)... you are getting a whole year of realistic investment and wealth-building advice. Click here for details.]

By Mark Ford, editor, The Palm Beach Letter

Source : http://www.earlytorise.com/

Disclaimer...The comments, products and services are owned by the poster. We are not responsible for their contents.

5 Steps To A Retirement Plan

2011-11-21T06:27:00.000-08:00

Old age financial independence is the ultimate goal of retirement planning. Whether you are a twenty-something year old student or the parent of a young adult, the process of ensuring that you have sufficient funds to maintain a desired standard of living through the "golden years" is worth considering. Naturally, depending on an individual's stage in life, the planning process will be different and contingent on one's unique circumstances. Basic guidelines exist to help assist people in creating their retirement plans. These guidelines will either form the premise of a self-directed retirement investment strategy or can be used to help guide the investment process of an external financial professional.

TUTORIAL: Introduction To Retirement Plans

1. Time Horizon

Current age and expected retirement age create the initial groundwork of planning a retirement strategy. Firstly, the longer the time horizon between today and retirement, the higher the level of risk that one's portfolio can withstand. The negative effects of return volatility are mitigated with a long term time horizon. Secondly, stretched periods of retirement portfolio accumulation must factor in inflation. A 64-year old who is planning on retiring next year does not have the same concerns regarding inflation as a much younger professional who just entered the workforce. Thirdly, although it is typically advised to begin planning for retirement at a younger age, younger individuals are not expected to perform the same type of due diligence regarding retirement alternatives as someone who is in their mid-40s.

Finally, and most importantly, a longer time horizon breaks up the overall retirement plan into multiple components. For example, a parent may wish to retire in two years, pay for their children's education when they turn 18 and then move to Florida. From the perspective of forming a retirement plan, the investment strategy would be broken up into three periods: two years until retirement (contributions are still made into the plan), saving and paying for college, and living in Florida (regular withdrawals to cover living expenses). A multi-stage retirement plan must integrate various time horizons along with the corresponding liquidity needs to determine the optimal allocation strategy. (The future may seem far off, but now is the time to plan for it. Check out 5 Retirement Planning Rules For Recent Graduates.)

2. Spending Requirements

Having realistic expectations about post-retirement spending habits will define the required size of the retirement portfolio. Most people argue that after retirement their annual spending will amount to only 70-80% of what they spent previously. Such an assumption is often proved to be unrealistic, especially if the mortgage has not been paid off. Since, by definition, a retiree is no longer at work for eight or more hours a day, they have more time to travel, go sightseeing, shopping and engage in other expensive activities. Accurate retirement spending goals help in the planning process as more spending in the future requires additional savings today.

Similar to the need to create a breakdown of multiple-time horizons, the time-specific spending needs must be determined as well. For example, a retired couple might determine that they will spend around $50,000 per year on basic life expenses while alive; actuarial life tables are available to estimate the longevity rates of individuals and couples. However, if the couple wants to purchase a home or fund their children's education, those outlays have to be factored into the overall retirement plan. Establishing the regular and miscellaneous spending estimates at the beginning of the process should help in ensuring the suitability of the portfolio allocation.

3. After-Tax Rate of Return

Once the expected time horizons and spending requirements are determined, the after-tax rate of return must be calculated to assess the feasibility of the portfolio producing the needed income. One of the biggest risks an individual can face is having their retirement portfolio be depleted too early. This is referred to as longevity risk, the risk of living too long and thus outliving your investments. A required rate of return in excess of 10% is normally an unrealistic expectation as low-risk retirement portfolios are largely comprised of low-yielding fixed-income securities. If, for example, an individual has a retirement portfolio worth $400,000 and income needs of $50,000, assuming no taxes and the preservation of the portfolio balance, they are relying on an excessive 12.5% return to fund retirement. A primary advantage of planning for retirement at an early age is that the portfolio can be grown to safeguard a realistic rate of return. Under the same assumptions as above, but using a gross retirement investment account of $1,000,000, the expected return would be a much more reasonable 5%.

Depending on the type of retirement account you hold, investment returns are typically taxed. Therefore, the actual rate-of-return must be calculated on an after tax basis. The above discussion omits the impact of tax implications in order to simplify the analysis. However, determining your tax status is a crucial component of the retirement planning process.

4. Portfolio Allocation

Whether it's you or a professional money manager that's in charge of the investment decision, a proper portfolio allocation that balances the concerns of risk aversion and return objectives is arguably the most important step in retirement planning. A somewhat common segregated approach breaks down spending objectives into multiple allocation components. Required fixed expenditures such as college tuition are funded with risk-free treasury bonds. Using the figures from the above example, a mandatory tuition outlay of $100,000 would be segregated from other portfolio assets, thus reducing the actual retirement portfolio to $900,000. This remaining amount would be invested in "normal fashion" to produce returns that match the expected cost of living expenses.

"Normal fashion" has ranging definitions for different people. Although retirement portfolios are generally focused on either domestic blue chips or fixed incomes, depending on one's risk tolerance, international investments and small caps may be included. The proportion between the assets will also vary from person to person, especially when the time horizon until retirement is considered. Stable dividend paying stocks are also popular for retirees as these investments provide a consistent tax-efficient income stream.

5. Estate Planning

Having a proper estate plan and life insurance coverage ensures that your assets are distributed in a manner of your choosing and your loved ones will not experience financial hardship following your death. A carefully outlined will also aids in avoiding an expensive and often lengthy probate process. Despite that estate and retirement planning are separate financial responsibilities, requiring the expertise of experts in different fields, the two procedures must be considered in tandem with one another. In other words, a well-defined estate plan complements a thoroughly structured retirement plan.

A substantial retirement portfolio indicates a decreased demand for life insurance, yet a greater emphasis on vigilant estate planning. Because a large accumulation of financial assets can be passed on to the family of the deceased, the financial impact of funeral costs is mitigated with a hefty inheritance. However, if a parent wishes to leave assets to either their family members or even to a charity, the tax implications of either gifting the benefits or passing them through the estate process must be compared. A common retirement plan investment approach is based on producing returns which meet yearly inflation-adjusted living expenses while preserving the value of the portfolio; the portfolio is then transferred to the beneficiaries of the deceased.

Conclusions

Retirement planning should be focused on the aforementioned five steps: determining time horizons, estimating spending requirements, calculating required after-tax returns, optimizing portfolio allocation and estate planning. These steps provide general guidelines regarding the procedures required to improve your chances of achieving old age financial freedom. The answers to many of these questions will then dictate which type of retirement accounts (defined-benefit plan, defined contribution plan, tax-exempt, tax deferred) are ideal for the chosen retirement strategy

One of the most challenging aspects of creating a comprehensive retirement plan lies in striking a balance between realistic return expectations and a desired standard of living. The best solution for this task would be to focus on creating a flexible portfolio which can be updated regularly to reflect changing market conditions and retirement objectives.

We'll show you how to choose between Roth IRAs, Traditional IRAs and 401(k)s. See Which Retirement Plan Is Best?

by Arthur Pinkasovitch

Arthur Pinkasovitch is an Analyst at Investopedia and is currently a CFA level 3 candidate. His investment focus is centered on energy and commodities as well as applying basic economics principles to everyday investment analysis. Arthur teaches introductory corporate finance at a local college and is part-owner of a Russian Grocery Store. You can follow Arthur on Twitter.

Source:
Read more: http://www.investopedia.com/articles/retirement/11/5-steps-to-retirement-plan.asp?partner=basics111811#ixzz1ePeraRJq

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FIVE INVESTMENT TIPS

2011-11-17T00:24:00.000-08:00

what’s the best way in getting and filtering Market News and Financial Information?

1.Don’t rely on any one source.

2.Identifying a few you like and make sure that they offer different points of view. Try to read them regularly.

3.Read and listen to stuff you agree and disagree with; it’s good to know what other people in world are thinking – right or wrong.

4.Reading the same thing more than once doesn’t make it right. But take note.

5.Be aware of what you’re not reading or hearing. What’s missing from the news?

Best of Luck

Source : miscellaneous

Disclaimer…The subject matters expressed above is based purely on technical analysis and personal opinions of the writer. it is not a solicitation to buy or sell.

Internet Business Tips For Easy Management

2010-11-04T01:51:00.000-07:00

Will you set goals more than plans? Or will you carefully plan rather than set your goals? In an online business, careful planning and goal setting is inseparable. That is why you should choose to absorb strategies from the internet business tips for easy management. If you own a business and have not tried using internet as your media for product promotions and rendering online transactions, you might as well give it a shot. Business and corporate websites, whether owned by an enterprise or of an individual, could greatly give twists for your business to demand more than internet basics.

Today, you do not need to sign up for a business management course, because internet business tips for easy management are highly accessible. Now, you can start up a business with reliable guidelines that will help you improve your management skills. This way, you will be challenged to learn on your own with the unlimited resources over the internet.

Internet business tips for easy management comes in many different forms such as e-books, forums and other information over the internet. There are available electronic books that could guide business entrepreneurs to learn and incorporate business concepts. On the other hand, one good thing is that e-books on the net are more updated than hard-printed books. Dominantly, internet itself can be considered as the most reliable bank of resources, where different websites can give answers to your questions as you will try to join forums or read certain articles. Essentially, an organization trying to compete with other businesses should be considered and must be given importance because of its money making potentials. And with the burgeoning industries on the internet, the only way to stand out among others is to be equipped with knowledge that could improve reliability and efficiency of your business. http://tonydraper.net/ Internet business tips for easy management could help your business more productive. Out of these, you will learn to promote your business through websites, expand your negotiations worldwide, give more opportunities for careers, maintain relationships with the valued customers, and deliver services from afar. Possibilities will just conform to your eagerness in learning the internet business tips for easy management. In time, you will gain a business with enhanced interactivity and a rising popularity on the web. And successfully, many investors will discuss their business prospects and other related issues. By then, from internet business tips for easy management that you tried to understand, all your efforts will be recognized through your profits and internet itself will become your large advertising platform.

by LUCY ANDREWS

About the Author

LUCY ANDREWS is a marketing guru and director of http://www.tonydraper.net, which specializes in internet business. Visit us and get internet marketing free ebook download today.

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Don’t Do It Alone! A Successful Home Business Is Not A One Man/woman Show!

2010-10-27T09:47:00.000-07:00

Even if your home business is a sole proprietorship with no employees you don’t have to shoulder the entire burden of management and operations yourself. You can and should think bigger in terms of leveraging other people to keep your business moving forward at all times.

Many people, when they think of their own home business, envision a one man/woman show where they as the owner literally do everything. This is the fast-track to fatigue, frustration, and failure.

Think about this:

Does a military General man every position himself? Of course not, he has an entire network of personnel to handle the appropriate positions.

The truth is if you have any ambition at all fulfilling your dreams of success will require far more productivity than you can handle on your own.

‘But Tim’ you might say ‘I can’t afford to hire a staff I’m just getting started here!’

That is perfectly understandable. But the good news is you don’t have to hire employees.

All you need is a solid outsource network.

It doesn’t take big money to assemble a great network of vendors and service providers who can help you maximize your production and tackle multiple crucial tasks without losing your mind in the process.

As you already know there are many crucial tasks involved with running your business in a profitable manner. Website development and management, product creation, advertising, customer/member support, and planning your marketing strategy are examples of things that may need to be addressed each week. All of these operations are vital, but some are menial.

Is it really a good use of your time to build and edit Web pages? If you’re not a professional Web designer then the answer is probably `No’.

Is it cost-effective for you to handle every email and phone call your office receives on issues of general customer support? If you do any sort of decent sales volume again the answer is `No’.

Is it smart use of time for you to be involved in the planning of this month’s marketing strategy? You bet.

There are plenty of qualified professionals you can pay to build graphics and Web pages, and to run an online Help Desk. But when it comes to making decisions about the future of your business and investing in good advertising or educational opportunities you definitely need to be involved.

These are all loose examples I’m using to build a point. And my point is, you should spend your time doing things related to your business that nobody else can do, and be willing to delegate less crucial assignments to qualified vendors.

A few more examples?

A certified public accountant can balance your books for you.

A professional copywriter can tackle your sales letters.

A programmer can install dynamic scripts on your Website.

But only you can plan your next project or series of projects.

Only you can decide to add a new service array to your list of offers.

Only you can deliver a personal message to your subscribers, members, or customers.

Are you beginning to see where I’m headed with this? By assigning appropriate tasks to your outsource network you can focus more effectively on those areas which create more profits for your business.

And if you are willing to spend some time looking and negotiating, you will be able to find the right people for every task that you wish to outsource. I recommend finding one or two vendors for each task and using these providers on a regular basis.

For instance find one or two Web design companies to handle all your template work, and find one or two writers to handle all your copy needs. By finding regulars for your outsourced labor you’ll be able to build an ongoing relationship with your vendors and avoid the hassle of finding somebody new each time you have a need.

Once a good relationship is formed you could end up getting a volume discount, or at the very least feeling comfortable that you have a reliable agent for every project that comes along.

Some people find it hard to ‘let go’ in the beginning. I admit it can be difficult to start trusting others with your business operations, and of course there is the financial commitment. But I assure you once you have a quality outsource network in place you’ll be amazed by how much more productive and profitable your company becomes.

About The Author: Tim Whiston is a professional Internet marketer who enjoys his work. He has owned numerous Websites and ezines and has created hundreds of thousands of dollars in profits for his clients. Be sure to check out his Information Marketing Course: http://info-marketing.timwhiston.com

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Investing in Gemstones

2010-10-10T04:29:00.000-07:00

A Closer Look at the Pros and Cons
In an article, I read how a rich contractor died owing a large tax bill and didn't have enough cash in his estate to settle it. However, he had a large collection of several hundred colored gemstones. His family, who'd always whined about him spending so much money on his gem collection, decided to send his collection to auction at Sotheby's. A few weeks later all the stones were returned except for three stones, the largest of which weighed less than 1 carat. What were these stones? They were colored diamonds. Sotheby's had sold them to a billionaire for way over a million dollars. More than enough to pay the deceased's tax bill. And what's even more amazing is that the deceased had only spent twenty thousand dollars to purchase the stones on retail. What his estate received was a colossal appreciation in value, wouldn't you agree? This article will investigate the pros and cons of investing in gemstones.

But before I dive straight into this, there's something I want to point out to you. Oftentimes referred to as a dirty term, "investment grade," although not illegal a term, has been used and abused by fraudulent salespeople and is frowned on by the US Federal Trade Commission for the same reason they frown on "precious" and "semi-precious." If you plan on becoming a dealer, don't use this term. It can instantly ruin your reputation. Usually applied to high-end gems, the term investment grade does not necessarily mean the gems are the best investment. Gems that are of lesser value oftentimes appreciate more and are a lot easier to liquidate. That said, the well-informed would invest in low to moderately priced gems.

On average, it is not uncommon to mark-up a low-priced gem five times or more. Whereas you couldn't do that with high-priced gems, profit margins are usually far lower in comparison. Typically, as things get more expensive, the mark-ups tend to get lower. Unlike alexandrite, where a 25% mark-up on a $30,000 piece would be gladly accepted, diamonds, whose market is very competitive, mark-ups can drop below 10%.

When investing in gemstones, the difference between wholesale and retail is your profit - and the greater your chance is of making a profit when you buy low. Not to mention, it is also easier to find buyers for lower priced goods.

In summary: investing in colored low-priced gemstones is the fastest, most assured way to make a profit. Market trends are unpredictable, hence it is advisable that if you're going to buy, buy at a low-as-possible price. Mark-ups on low-priced stones can quite easily exceed five times, but on the high-priced items like diamonds, it can go below 10%. Before making that investment, take a closer look at the pros and cons. Ask questions. Do some research on the current market trends, and be extra cautious. It may take years for your purchase to yield a profit – like it did the rich contractor I mentioned in this article – so make sure, at any cost, that you buy low.

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Top 5 Reasons Why Home Based Business Owners are "Killing It" Even in the Recession!

2010-09-29T22:15:00.000-07:00

Ever wonder why or how home based business owners are now making more money than ever in this industry? Even in the economic demise we're living in?

Let's take a look at a few things.

Whenever people have a problem, where do they go for answers? To the internet!! And with SO many people affected by the recession, they turn to someone on the internet to show them a way to make some extra money from home.

Here are the Top 5 reasons:

Reason # 1 With so many people taking their businesses to the internet, they are suddenly becoming the person that has the answer for another one's problem. They can provide that solution for income opportunity seekers to make some money from home and become an entrpreneur.

The home based business industry has also shifted their focus on pitching and selling products to more of an internet marketing approach. As you may have figured out, it's all about the marketing for businesses to be successful!

Reason #2 Another reason why the home based business industry is booming is the implementation of systems that help home business owners to leverage their time.

Systems like this can allow for the "heavy lifting" so that the business owner has more time to do other things. The business can run on autopilot if set up right.

Reason # 3 Getting better quality of training. The internet marketing millionaires are now providing the exact training that they have implemented and are making it available for struggling home business owners. They've made their millions selling their products and services, and now they sell their training courses to make even more money and to leverage their time too.

This training allows new members to duplicate the success of the internet marketing millionaires.

Reason # 4 More and more home businesses are 'system dependent' instead of 'sponsor dependent'. Meaning, if a new member has a question or wants to know where to start with their business, they can plug into their own "back office" to get the answers and receive more training provided by top producers etc. This helps eliminate the "whiners" and allows the sponsor to have less headaches!

Reason # 5 Value driven content and in demand products. We're seeing less and less network marketers selling juices, lotions, and pills. The internet marketing home business owners now market products that are in more high demand and and considered in the high ticket direct sales category.

They market items that may have $300, $1000, or $3,000 commission instead of the tiny checks from selling a juice. This allows the home business owner to make the money they want! Not sell 200 juices a month to make the mortgage payment!

So as you can see, these are some very different reasons why the home business industry is booming! The Direct Sales industry has taken over the MLM industry. Direct sales offers a more high ticket item that produces a higher commission and residual income. Internet Marketing is the BIG reason why home business are now more prosperous than ever! They know how to leverege the internet to bring peope to their business!

And there's NO recession on the internet! Forbes Magazine predicts that 79 million people will have some sort of a home business for themselves! With the economy not getting any better, this number may be higher!

That's alot of people! So it's very important to get yourself in front of these 79 million people, because they may be looking for YOUR business. Now won't that make things easier?

Current home based business owners know this and that's why they produce massive profits from this.

The future is on the internet. The future is owning a home based business.

I appreciate your time, Greg Schmidt

by Greg Schmidt

Posted 2010-09-21

About the Author

Greg Schmidt is an Internet Marketing Entreprenuer who shares the system needed in order to run a profitable home business using the internet marketing strategies to leverage the internet in your favor. Access this information by Logging In at http://www.AtHomeWealthCreation.com/?t=goarttop5

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Becoming an Entrepreneur

2010-09-22T19:56:00.000-07:00

Creating a Network of Solutions to Build Success

We all have those ideas that can make something better. Why not turn them into reality? Here are some steps to turn something small into something bigger to help bring in the big dollars.

It takes a special person to be entrepreneur. You need to have passion, drive, motivation, and the means to make it a reality. What's the process? First you get an idea, quickly followed by brainstorming and working out the kinks of the plan. Then it's time to begin creating the product or service.

Then you market. Online marketing is growing and popular because it's necessary these days. If you want to build success online, you can make a website builder work for you, helping you launch your online business. Once you begin marketing online, you can work to make your original idea as profitable as possible with activities that help you get those sales.

Growing Your Network of Solutions

The seed: It's the random thought you have to make something better. You at first think it's iffy...surely someone else has already thought of this. But it lingers in your mind, and you think about it some more. Ideas are like seeds. The more you think about them, the more likely they will take root and slowly grow.

What kind of ideas are we talking about here? It could be anything. Is it an improvement of something already in place? A new invention, perhaps? Or do you want to branch out on your own and start a business using your unique talents and skills? The beauty of an idea is that it is full of possibility. And with a healthy dose of determination and drive, you can turn that idea into something very profitable.

Brainstorming: With dedication, passion, and drive you can turn your idea into something that will bring in the green, and it starts with brainstorming. Because you initially have so many random thoughts, free writing is a great way to capture every detail. So grab a pen and a journal and start writing. Keep a note pad with you because you never know when you'll get an idea. The idea behind free writing is that you don't worry about what "makes sense" or what "might really work." You don't worry about which step you'll take first or how you'll manage the details. You just jot down random ideas. You can organize these thoughts later.

As the flow of random ideas begins to slow down, you can begin the process of organization. At this point, it might be easier to create a Word document of all your ideas so you can move them around more easily to come up with in an order that fits. During this organizing phase, feel free to group your thoughts however you want and rearrange until you have a clearer vision of your plan.

Roadmap: So how do you transfer brainstorming to dollar signs? You create a business plan. This includes a product description, market analysis, competition assessment, marketing, sales, possible manufacturing, and finance. A business plan is your roadmap. It will require some more thought and a bit more of a commitment on your part. A thorough business plan can steer you to the green. Even if your approach is informal, you need to completely detail each aspect of the plan because investors and clients will respond more favorably when all bases are covered. You have to be able to clearly describe what you plan to market-benefits, what problem it solves for the consumer. Knowing exactly who your potential customers are can help you direct dollars most effectively. And last but certainly not least, knowing how much you really need to start and continue operating is a must when approaching investors and setting sales goals.

You're in Business
Load up on carbs and stay hydrated. You're going to need lots of energy to turn your idea into a reality. You are now an entrepreneur, and hard work comes with the territory. So as you set the foundation for your new business, keep focused and continue working hard.

Getting Found Online: Surely you've noticed that almost everyone has a website. If someone wants a product or service, they search for it first. Having a website is imperative if you want to compete in today's market. You can actually do this yourself. You'll end up with a basic website, but at least your product or service can be found online. Most free websites and Web hosting packages are free with a website builder. And website builders allow you to use a template to create your website and are designed to be easy enough for children to navigate. Once you have your template set up, you just add your text and images, and you're set. You can get more technical by adding widgets and nifty tools if you want. And eventually, you can opt for a custom design as budget allows.

Reaching Your Customers: As you created your business plan, ideally you were able to gain an understanding of your market. Now it's time to use that knowledge to increase sales. Who is your target market? What solution do you provide to them? How will they find you online and or in your local community? If you begin building a marketing plan to attract new buyers and increase your sales, know that these plans are evolving. What doesn't work you can toss out. What does work you can build on. Part of your marketing approach will be your customer service strategy. How are you going to keep current customers and attract new ones? Since most consumers turn to the Internet, it helps to know which sites your target audience uses the most to find the type of product or service you're providing.

Before You Know It: Yes, it does take time to grow a business-you know that. It will be a roller coaster, that's for sure. You'll have lots of highs, times when things seem to be going perfectly. And other times will require more patience. No matter what happens as your business "grows up," you should be proud. You took an idea and worked to turn it into something amazing.

by Andreea Townsend
About the Author

Andreea Townsend is a copywriter for Network Solutions®, provider of Web marketing solutions that help small businesses and aspiring entrepreneurs succeed with Web hosting, SEO, PPC, free websites and more.

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Why You Shouldn't Be Scared of Silly Ideas

2010-09-12T22:41:00.000-07:00

It was an experimental wine that Thierry had been working on...

He thought it had potential, so he decided to share it with Guy.

He poured two glasses. They sipped it.

After they'd both appreciated it for a few minutes, Thierry declared in heavily accented English...

"Now zat iz what you call a phet best-ard!"

And so the wine -- and Thierry's winery -- was named.

The point: Don't be afraid of silly ideas...

That's the advice Paul Arden gives in his book It's Not How Good You Are, It's How Good You Want to Be.

And it's advice that I agree with big time.

Fat Bastard wine is just one example of a silly idea that turned out to be very successful. I mean, who in their right mind would call a wine Fat Bastard?

Yet, it worked brilliantly...

In just six years, it became an international success, selling hundreds of thousands of cases. In fact, the brand was described by BusinessWeek as a "marketing phenomenon."

I actually remember first seeing a bottle of Fat Bastard in a Tesco in Grimsby a couple of years ago. And I'm not surprised it's stuck in my memory...

Imagine looking along your typical supermarket wine shelf. There's Chateau This and Chateaux That -- and then, right in the middle, there's a bottle of Fat Bastard!

It's an absurd name -- almost juvenile. But attention-getting... and unforgettable.

Arden quotes John Cleese as saying:

"High creativity is responding to situations without critical thought."

That's what happened with the wine... Thierry and Guy weren't thinking critically when they decided to name the wine. They just went with it.

I bet there was a lot of critical thought afterward, as various "suits" undoubtedly told them it was a silly idea. But they stayed with it, and ended up with a hit on their hands.

Using Silly Ideas to Solve Your Problems

Arden also talks about how "thinking silly" can help you overcome a mental block...

This resonated with me, because it's something I often do if I get stuck. You're faced with a problem at work and you need to come up with a solution, but your brain just isn't firing.

It happens to us all, right?

You sit there trying to figure it out, but you end up going round in circles.

The problem remains.

One of the reasons your brain might not be firing properly is because you're being too critical of yourself... You're so concerned with coming up with the right solution, first time, that you're blocking your brain.

As Cleese said, "creativity is responding to situations without critical thought." So, you need to dump that critical thought and start thinking freely, start thinking "silly."

Arden's approach, here, is two-fold...

First, he recommends doing the opposite of what the solution requires...

And second, he recommends looking out the window and using whatever catches your eye -- be it a man in the street, a television aerial, whatever -- as a possible solution to your problem.

Both ideas sound strange, but it's exactly this kind of illogic that shakes up your brain and gets it thinking about your problem -- and its solution -- in a different way.

So whenever you're struggling to come up with a solution to a problem you're facing...

By Glenn Fisher

Follow Paul Arden's advice and start "thinking silly"... Your silly idea might just turn out to be the best one you ever have.

[Ed. Note: After studying business, economics, politics, and creative writing -- and working for many years in local government -- Glenn Fisher joined Shortcut Publications as the editor of their flagship publications, Shortcut Bulletin and Shortcut Confidential. Glenn has developed a loyal following by helping and inspiring his readers to achieve personal and financial freedom. To receive Glenn's free, daily e-letter, go here.

And for more help coming up with and developing your own "silly" business ideas, come to ETR's biggest event of the year, our Info-Marketing Bootcamp. Glenn Fisher and the team from Shortcut Publications come every year. And they're joined by hundreds of industry experts, Early to Rise readers, and small business owners eager to learn the next steps they should take to get their online ventures booming. Find out all about Bootcamp here.]

The "Be Here NOW" Success Technique

Recently, I observed a training session for the employees of one of my clients. When a couple of the attendees started goofing around, Lisa, the woman running the session, raised her voice and said: "People -- this was paid for by your employer. You are on company time, and I intend to maximize the use of that short time we have together. So please work with me and be here now!"

"Be here now." That phrase -- referring to the awareness of not only being in the moment but staying in the moment over an extended period of time, free of distractions -- struck me as being very much in tune with the overall goal achieving process.

Here's how to apply it to your goals:

Rule #1. Concentrate on defining your objective.

What do you want to accomplish? What matters to you? Why do you want to achieve that particular goal?

Rule #2. Concentrate on one part of your goal at a time.

Break down your ultimate goal into smaller chunks. Keeping on eye on the big picture is great. However, you have to focus on the individual steps that will get you there.

Rule #3. Concentrate on controlling your situation.

When focusing on those individual steps, control your natural tendencies (we all have them) to drift away from the task at hand and/or stop trying if it becomes too challenging or takes too long.

Rule #4. Concentrate on completion.

To achieve any goal, you have to make a commitment to reach the finish line. Strengthen your resolve and keep yourself motivated by visualizing the end result -- how excited you'll be and how great you'll feel when you reap the rewards of your hard work.

By Bob Cox
[Ed. Note: Bob Cox is a success coach who can help you achieve goals in every area of your life: professional, social, personal, and beyond. Check out his program here.]

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4 Steps To Making Your Home Business A True Automated System

2010-08-26T22:32:00.000-07:00

You hear it al the time if you have been involved or are involved in the home business or internet business industry:
‘You need a system to succeed.’
I like to take this a step further. You not only need a ’system’, but in order to get the most out of your home business opportunity, you need to have an Automated System. To take that even one step further, your Automated System must hit your prospects from EVERY angle in order to achieve the highest levels of prosperity.
Here are four techniques that if used on all of your prospects WILL increase your earnings with ANY home or internet business opportunity.

Step 1: Create a ‘capture’ or ’squeeze’ page.

Even if you have no idea what this is, you have almost certainly seen a capture page and even been ‘captured by one. A capture page is simply a page that is set up to give some brief information about a product or service, but then requires the prospect to enter their info to get the full details. It is often a teaser or hyped up page to get the prospect to want to know more. The most effective capture pages touch on the prospects personal or financial needs compelling them to find out more by filling in their information. Once they do, you own their information for life and can continue to follow up with them or contact them about other offers of services you have no, or develop in the future. Capture pages are a MUST to start building your list that you will be able to promote any product or service. A great program that allows even the most novice person to create capture pages in minutes is Lead Page Generator.

Special note: NEVER LOSE YOUR LIST OF CAPTURED NAMES, ADDRESSES, EMAILS, ETC.

Those that are highly successful in any home business or internet opportunity have a list of thousands that they have built over the years. Any time they have a new product, service or opportunity to promote they send it out to their list first. This gives you a big head start and if your products, services and opportunities have been successful in the past, your list will follow you everywhere.

This all leads into the second technique to creating a totally automated system, email auto responders.

Step 2: Follow up with prospects via email

This is the easiest and most recognizable form of follow up. When creating a capture page, all you have to do is tie the information form into an auto responder. This can be done very easily using services such as aweber. Now, when a prospect fills in their information, you not only get to keep their information for your list, but now you can follow up with them daily, weekly, monthly without having to lift a finger. Of course, you have to write your email follow up messages ahead of time, but once you have them completed, you are following up with your prospects over and over while doing no additional work.

While email is a nice tool to make your system automated, it is far too often the ONLY tool people use. This is a huge mistake. Fact is, that email follow up and marketing is becoming far less effective due to spam laws and people filtering their email accounts.

In order to reach as many people as possible, you need to come at them from different angles.

Step 3: Follow up with a voice broadcasting system

Voice broadcasting gives you yet another method of following up with prospects. It is an awesome tool and as of late has been sort of the ‘new email.’ Because email is getting caught by filters and spam control features, it is necessary to try and reach prospects using other methods. Outside of email, voice broadcasting is the easiest and least expensive means of following up. In addition, voice broadcasting can keep your system totally automated. You can record a simple message or series of messages, collect the prospects phone number on your capture page and then simply set up your voice broadcasting software to call them once, weekly, monthly or whatever you choose. There are lots of services to use out there. Goldcalling, voiceshot, probuilderplus, and protus are just a few.

Step 4: Postcard follow up

Direct mail is by far the most forgotten means of follow up, but often the most effective. Postcards are a terrific way to make sure that your prospects hear form you. By simply collecting their mailing info on your capture page, you have set yourself up to use an incredible tool that will definitely help increase your sales and income.

There are a couple of services that allow you to set up a direct mail campaign to work just like an email auto responder. The best service in my opinion is PostCardAutoresponder.com. You can input a prospects mailing address and set up a campaign that will send them a postcard once, twice, weekly, monthly, or whatever you choose. Just set it up once and forget it. You can contact a prospect for an entire year on autopilot . You can even create custom postcards for any business , service or opportunity.

If you use that simple 4 step plan to create an automated system for your business, you will definitely increase sales and income. Plus, you will not only have an automated system that works for you while you are doing the things you enjoy, but it will be one that contacts prospects from every angle so they are sure to get your message early and often. Remember, it is not always enough just to have a system. You need to have an automated system that you can plug each prospect into that will run itself while you focus on building your business.

About The Author: Copyright 2006 — Nick Bramble. Article may be reprinted if left as is, including all text and links. Learn more about how to run your home business using a 100% automated system. http://www.myautomatedwealth.com

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3 Steps To Starting A Home Business

2010-07-31T04:47:00.000-07:00

This little article will give some proper ideas for you to be able to choose and start a very profitable and enjoyable Home Business.

With so many different kinds of opportunities that can be found, it can be quite confusing on just how to make this whole Home Business phenomenon work for you, and earn you much income.

So, in order for you to prosper with your own business here are 3 steps you should always follow in order to make it all work for you.

#1 - Choose the right product or service to offer your future customers. It should be something you are comfortable with,plus having some knowledge of the product or service will be to your advantage. You will naturally have to do some research to help you with this.

In order for your Home Business to be enjoyable you must be able to pick a product/service that will work for you. Then your aim will be to earn money — ask yourself if this is the perfect product or service for you.

HOW DO YOU DO THIS? - Simple.

Choose the product or service that gets you excited.

Yep, that’s it. Make sure that you are happy with your choice, then you can honestly offer it to your buyers who will also be happy too.

This way,you will be able to get behind your decision and put your best effort into making your Home Business a true success for your future income, and you will have happy customers, too.

#2-Use time tested and proven marketing techniques.

Do not try to ‘reinvent the wheel’.

You MUST use proven techniques that have been tested to give your Home Business the very best results. Your buyers will want these results too!

Some of these are: Place little inexpensive classified ads in newsletters, newspapers, magazine etc. As well as using powerful and professional sales letters that are simple and to the point.

#3-Be Professional.

You must give the impression that your Home Business is not some hobby or passing idea. Remember, this is YOUR business and you will have to stay motivated. Do not forget also that there will definitely be some competition to be expected - you will have to deal with this also.

You are what you put into your Home Business. You may have to get a business license, and register with the BBB (Better Business Bureau). Also register your own domain name.

You may need to get some nice inexpensive letter head for correspondence. Even in these hectic times, people still like to receive letters on nice letter heads - they will appreciate your thoughtfulness.

So, there you have 3 ingredients that when used properly will surely build for you a profitable and very successful Home Business that can and will make you very proud.

In closing, let me also point out that a business will need some work on your part. As mentioned above, this will not be a hobby or a 1-minute passing idea, so be prepared to spend some time and energy to get your business up and running - SUCCESS WILL FIND YOU!

About The Author: Bona Koenig has a website that could help you to earn multiple streams of income easily using 3 easy steps. To find out more on how to start using this fantastic opportunity yourself, visit: http://www.HomeBiz4Income.com

Please use the HTML version of this article at: http://www.isnare.com/html.php?aid=198942

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10 Dumb Ways to Start a Business

2010-05-11T00:54:00.000-07:00

and Waste a Ton of Money at the Same Time

Here's just a short list of the misguided (and even ridiculous) business start-up advice I've read recently:

Create an instant-impact message that describes the chief benefit of your business. Put it on business cards and brochures.

Hand out hundreds of those business cards and brochures at business functions and meetings.

Find a great office space and fill it with furniture.

Take a field trip to discover how your product or service will satisfy people's desires.

Protect your "great ideas" by registering your business name, logo, and slogan.

Create a paper trail -- tracking all meeting dates, attendees, and discussions.

Consult a lawyer and get his or her advice on how to set up the right legal structure for your business.

Check with your municipality to make sure they permit you to operate a venture like yours out of your home.

Buy business insurance and "talk to an accountant or attorney" to make sure you're not missing anything.

Get a toll-free phone number (to give the impression that your business is much bigger than it really is).

If you do these things before you find out whether your product can sell... your business is practically guaranteed to fail.

Entrepreneurship is based on selling. You test the market with a product you think will sell well. If it does, you keep selling. If it doesn't, you try something else.

This approach lent its name to my most recent bestseller, Ready, Fire, Aim. The main point of the book is that to start and grow a small business, you must have a pragmatic, action-oriented mentality. Rather than spend too much time and money refining theoretical ideas, you develop a prototype quickly and then see if the market will buy it.

As I said in the book, for every business that fails because of poor planning there are a dozen that never get off the ground because of too much planning.

The Ready, Fire, Aim approach obviously doesn't apply to surgical procedures and rocket science. But it will be very useful for 90 percent of the new-business ideas you are likely to come up with.

Want to start a business selling diamond-studded collars for kitty cats? Fine. There are two ways to go about that:

You can spend most of your time and money designing and manufacturing a line of such collars -- and only after that is done, start to think about how you can sell them.

You can make a single collar, go down to your local flea market or neighborhood pet shop, and see if you can find a customer for it.

Most people start businesses the first way. That's why most businesses fail.

But with the Ready, Fire, Aim approach, you devote 80 percent of your initial resources to discovering an efficient way to sell the product. Once you have done that, you have found the key to successfully market it. With that key in your pocket, you don't have to worry about all the other problems that will arise in the natural course of business. You won't have to worry, because you will be able to create the one thing that can solve almost every business problem: cash flow.

Here, in a nutshell, is what I mean by Ready, Fire, Aim...

Ready: Get your product idea ready. Make it good enough to sell. Don't worry about making it perfect. There will be time enough for that later.

Fire: Start selling it. Sell it every way you can. Test different offers. Test different ad copy. Test different media. Keep testing until you discover something that works. This is what we refer to as your Optimum Selling Strategy (OSS).

Aim: Expand your customer base by focusing on your OSS. As your customer base grows, develop business procedures to accommodate that growth. Hire the best people you can to manage your business. Discover, through "back-end" marketing tests, other products and services that your customers will buy. Use those discoveries to refine and perfect a fast-selling line. As this back-end business flushes cash into your company, invest a good deal of that cash into front-end marketing.

Ready, Fire, Aim doesn't mean you are willing to be sloppy. Nor does it mean you are willing to sell second-rate products to your customers. On the contrary, Ready, Fire, Aim is the only truly practical way to find out what your market really wants from you.

And for a small business, Ready, Fire, Aim is the best way to get from good to great.

Think of it this way: When we say we have "a great new product idea," what do we really mean? When I say that, I mean I have a strong feeling that the product will sell well -- that it will be a big, commercial success.

But the truth is, I have only a hunch about how well my idea will do. Experience has taught me that my hunches are often right... but not always. If I spend too much time and energy on a business based on conjecture, what happens if my assumptions don't pan out?

What happens is that I'm left with nothing -- no money or materials or energy -- to start over again. The essence of entrepreneurship is the ability to try and fail and then try again. You can't do that if you blow your wad the first time you try.

So nowadays when I get the feeling that I have a great idea, I figure out how I can test that idea as quickly and as cheaply as possible.

Once I know the idea has "legs," I can roll out a sales program. And once a successful sales program is underway, I can refine and improve the product. The truth is, I can never perfect a product in isolation. I used to think I could, but, once again, experience has taught me the arrogance of that kind of thinking.

To get from good to great, you need the help of superstar employees and, most of all, feedback from your customers. The best customer feedback comes not from surveys or focus groups but from marketing results. Find out what your customers want by selling things to them. This gets you back into the Ready, Fire, Aim loop.

If I had to pick one thing -- one characteristic or quality of my work that is most responsible for the success I've had launching businesses -- I'd have to say it was this Ready, Fire, Aim mentality. It's something I believe in strongly. That's why I wince when I read the start-up advice of so many "experts" who advocate feel-good busywork over selling.

Again, here's my advice for starting a business:

1. As soon as possible, get the product ready to test.

2. Test it as aggressively and creatively as you can. Spend 80 percent of your initial resources discovering the most cost-effective way to make the first sale (your Optimum Selling Strategy).

3. Refine and adjust your sales process as market conditions change. At the same time, gradually develop business procedures to service your customers and improve your products according to their buying preferences.

By Michael Masterson
https://web-purchases.com/LSL/ELSLL502/landing.html?o=96851&s=98526&u=42336630&l=111812&r=Milo

[Ed. Note: There's a TON of foolish business advice floating around the Internet and in bookstores. But you can get proven, time-tested recommendations for starting and growing a business (from someone who's built dozens of businesses himself) in Michael's New York Times, Wall Street Journal, and Business Week bestseller Ready, Fire, Aim. And now it's available FREE. Get all the details here.]

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Seven Deadly Sins To Avoid

2010-04-23T23:51:00.000-07:00

Want Lots More Sales? Avoid These Seven Deadly Sins

The first sin is being slow to get to the point.

Weak beginnings kill sales. Signs of a weak beginning are being slow to mention the main benefit and incentive. (You don't offer an incentive? Shame on you. Incentives always, if they are relevant, increase sales by more than they cost.)

Your incentive should be impossible to ignore. Its purpose is not merely to persuade people to reply, it is to encourage them to read.

Research by Ogilvy and Mather, done 20 odd years ago, found that if you get people to read the first 250 words of your copy, 70 percent of them will read all of it. So a weak beginning loses your readers when it matters most.

Copywriters seem to have minds like old auto engines, which needed to be warmed up for a few minutes. They often put in a couple of paragraphs of waffle before they get to the point. Maybe it's fear of being rejected when they do.

You will often find that you can edit the first three paragraphs down to two without losing any meaning, but gaining in "attack." On a surprising number of occasions, you will also find that the best place to begin is round about paragraph three.

Your job is to communicate as fast as possible what you're are talking about. Prospects don't have time to work out our clever ideas or subtle approaches. Remember, they have only one thought in their minds: "What's in it for me?"

The second sin is forgetting there must be something for your prospect at every point in the message.

The reader's eye may turn first to the letter, the brochure, the order form, or some other piece in the mailing. Their eyes hover over an ad before they start to read it. And they skip around e-mails and landing pages.

Certain elements -- headings, illustrations, videos, and captions -- attract the most attention. So make sure your most prominent benefit and your incentives are boldly featured wherever that reader's eye might land.

Don't worry about repetition. Just vary the way you make the point each time.

The third sin is failing to do a complete selling job.

You must give every sensible reason why your reader should respond -- and overcome every reasonable objection they may have.

Years ago, when my agency had the Reader's Digest record account, I noticed that if we did not list every tune in a compilation ad, we lost sales. Everyone looked for their favorite tune. If it wasn't there, that gave them a reason not to buy -- and vice versa. Omit nothing relevant!

The fourth sin is failing to prove that what you say is true.

As David Ogilvy once said, "Why should anyone take the word of an anonymous copywriter?" Which is why you should always include testimonials in your marketing copy.

If you don't have a testimonial file, start building one. It's easy: Just ask your customers to tell you what they think. You can ask them to rate your product/service on a scale of one to five, or from poor to excellent. By doing so, you can then say something like "78 percent of our customers rated this good or excellent."

When using testimonials, it's a good idea to show photos of the people who wrote them, and even their signatures. Or show their letters in the original handwritten or typewritten form. This makes them more believable. It doesn't matter if your testimonials have spelling or grammar errors. In fact, that may make them even more convincing.

The fifth sin is not showing enough people.

I've lost count of the number of times I have looked at visual treatments of copy and suggested: "Why don't you put pictures of people in it?" People look at people.

For example, in the ads for our client INSEAD -- the world's most expensive business school -- I included a picture of the associate dean. We found that when it was omitted, response dropped by nearly half.

The sixth sin is wasting money on unnecessary elements.

Every word, every picture, every piece of paper, every element of a mailing must contribute to the result. If you can't see what job something is doing, take it out. You are wasting your money and your prospects' time.

Many mailings include the traditional letter, brochure, envelope, etc., where the brochure is only there because people think there should be one. Sometimes a letter without a brochure will do just as well -- or even better.

One famous example: an insurance company that sent out a mailing every year that included a beautiful brochure featuring the prospect's horoscope. It was timed to arrive on the prospect's birthday. One year, they forgot to put in the brochure... and response went up by 25 percent.

Another example: I changed a mailing for a loan company by taking out two brochures. The response doubled, while the cost of the mailing was reduced by 66 percent.

A brochure costs money -- and the higher the cost of the mailing, the harder it is to make a profit.

Some of the most successful pieces I've written -- particularly in the financial and business-to-business fields -- have contained no brochure. They were simple letters, perhaps even more persuasive because they seemed somehow less commercial.

The seventh sin is a weak ending.

Every element in any mailing, ad, e-mail, landing page, or commercial has to be good if you are going to get results -- but two are more important than the others: the opening (which I have already covered) and the close.

You must make it easy for your prospect to respond. American Express once enjoyed a 30 percent uplift in sales in a highly competitive market, largely by making the application easier to fill in.

The close should be powerful and persuasive, and should repeat all the reasons why your prospect ought to reply, including the offer. If you don't get every single person who is slightly interested to respond, it's a shame. You got them this far. NOW's the time to cash in.

One important weapon, originally developed by Reader's Digest, is the yes/no technique - getting people to choose. I have never seen it fail to increase response. You get more no's than yes's, but you get more yes's than you would have gotten without it.

Remember that you can have more than one call to action -- in fact, the more the better. Have one early on for people who don't need much persuasion. Then keep asking in different ways.

All of the above may sound simple and obvious. But then, most of the things that make big differences in business are.

And please don't think I'm being a know-it-all. I still make these silly mistakes -- but that doesn't mean you have to.

[Ed. Note: Veteran copywriter and direct-marketing strategist Drayton Bird has worked with American Express, Ford, Microsoft, Visa, Procter & Gamble, and scores of other clients during his five-decade career, which included a stint as international vice-chairman and creative director with Ogilvy & Mather. In 2003, he was named by the Chartered Institute of Marketing as one of 50 living individuals who have shaped today's marketing.

Ready for more marketing insights from Drayton Bird? For 101 ideas, free case studies, and articles on direct-marketing topics like the one you just read, and a 28-day free trial of Drayton's Commonsense Marketing Series, go here.]

http://www.draytonbirdcommonsense.com/introducing-cmm-free-trial

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Are You Already Marketing On The Internet

2010-02-21T22:15:00.000-08:00

Take a moment to think about how you would really answer this question. If given enough thought just about any business owner who utilizes the Internet for any purpose will likely find that whether or not they intentionally organized an Internet marketing campaign, they may already be marketing their products and services on the Internet. This article will examine some subtle ways business owners may already be marketing their business on the Internet.

Do you have a website for your business? Business owners who answer yes to this question are already marketing their products or services online just by virtue of the fact that they have a website online. Having a live website means there is the potential for curious Internet users to access your website. You may not be actively promoting your website but you may still find that your website generates interest in your products despite the lack of promotional endeavors; this is a form of passive marketing.

Do you participate in message boards and include a link to your website in your signature? Again business owners who answer yes to this question are already marketing their website online. Savvy business owners realize the importance of participation in industry related message boards to create an interest in their products and services, establish themselves as knowledgeable about the industry and offer a link to their own website even if it is in the signature line of their posts. However, even business owners who do not realize this may already be inadvertently enjoying the benefits of Internet marketing which result from message board participation just by doing something they enjoy and may be doing as a form of leisure activity.

Do you include keywords which are relevant to your business in the content of your website? Business owners who answer yes to this question are also already marketing on the Internet by optimizing their website for these keywords. These search engine optimization (SEO) affects the websites whether or not they were even aware of the concept of keyword density and how it can help to SEO a website. Business owners will likely use certain words often depending on the type of products and services they offer just because it is natural and logical to do so. This tendency, however, can result in search engines boosting your website rankings for these particular keywords. The concept of SEO is much more involved and complex than simply using keywords frequently but business owners can gain some benefit just by naturally applying relevant keywords to their website.

Do you solicit feedback from your customers online? This is yet another example of how business owners may be accidentally marketing their business on the Internet. Most business owners realize the importance of soliciting feedback from customers for business purposes and business owners who offer products online might solicit feedback in the form of online surveys. Although the business owners may be doing this simply for a business purpose the fact that it is done online makes it fall into the category of Internet marketing.

We have already discussed several ways in which business owners may already be marketing online but what about business owners who want to have an increased online presence? Business owners who may already be marketing online accidentally may wish to launch a full scale Internet marketing campaign. The best way to do this is to hire a consultant with experience in Internet marketing to assist you in creating a campaign which is effective for your target audience.

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A Thing or Two on Search Engine Optimization

2010-01-28T23:49:00.000-08:00

This concept may confuse people, especially when they hear about search engine optimization and website optimization. First off, web site optimization is the method of decreasing the web site size and complexity in order to maximize the performance of the website. Website optimization can also include search engine optimization, pay per click optimization, and conversion rate optimization, wherein it gets more traffic and sales as part of your overall site redesign procedure. So basically, search engine optimization is a part of website optimization where a number of tactics are used to make the web pages more attractive to search engines, and also to enhance the site to make it more search engine compatible.

Generally, search engine optimization tactics are critical, since one can get traffic for free. With optimizing the site, one can achieve the same number of visitors, even more, and all without paying for advertising. It is important for site owners to check the website rankings on a regular basis, especially when it comes to the top search engines and directories. According to researchers at Forrestre Research Inc., online users rarely go beyond the top thirty search engine rankings just for a single search. In addition to this, the researchers found out that most Internet consumers find websites through several mediums, such as search engines (of course), links from another site, guessed URL, online advertising, television, radio, direct mail, and viral marketing, or word of mouth.

However, search engine optimization provides special features that are low risk, reliable, cost effective, all with constant results, brand awareness, and affordability. By using this method of optimization, any business can deliver their message to the broadest and most targeted audience. Search engine optimization can help the user find their way amongst the competition, because of the websites good ranking, thanks to the optimization process.

When considering optimizing any website, take into account several things that are essential for a website to become successful. First, one should start from the title tag, since all the search engines recognize the keywords it contains. These keywords greatly affect the ranking since search engines give them a great deal of weight in their ranking system. It is also important when one's title tag appears in the SERP, or the search engine result page. Keep in mind that the interests of real people and the search engines are the same, so the title, with the help of the right keywords, should be attractive enough for the online consumers as well. Adding to this, there is also the description tags, the content, the quality of the website, and the link popularity, since this influences the site with regards to the search engine ranking process.

by Corazon Padol
submitted 2010-01-27

About the Author

SEO Brand Media is composed of a team of professional internet marketing consultants with a strong focus on Search Engine Marketing. We offer SEO services, Consultancy, Pay Per Click Management, Website Maintenance and Web Development.

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Where to Find Affiliates For Your Niche Website

2010-01-18T07:10:00.000-08:00

Making Money with Articles: Where to Find Affiliates For Your Niche Website

To make money with articles that you place on websites, you will also need a variety of good affiliate links that will help to generate revenue. It is important that you know where to find affiliates and that you choose the best affiliates for you and your niche site.

When you pick an affiliate, it is important that you determine which companies you will profit best from based on the frequency that the product is likely to sell. There are several types of affiliates and some will offer you more money from a sale than others will. Before you get hazy-eyed by dollar signs, however, remember some products are bound to sell more than others. If you sell on product four times a year from a little known company that gives you $100 per sale or sell a well known product 3 times a week at the rate of $10 per sale, then you will make much more money with the $10 per sale product. Often times large well known companies will offer a very small profit per sale because they are established and know that their product is likely to sell well. Small, unknown companies, on the other hand, need all of the promotion they can get. Also, because they are unknown, their products are likely to sell less frequently.

The most important rule when picking affiliates to promote on your site is to pick products that would be of interest to those who would likely visit your niche site. Otherwise you will be promoting a product to a group of people who do not even want nor need it. If your niche site targets parents of young children, then promote baby products. If you niche site targets gardeners, then promote gardening products. If you promote baby products to gardeners, you are almost guaranteed to not make a profit no matter how much money the affiliate company offers for a sale.

Lastly, there are two main ways to find an affiliate company for your niche website. You can sign up with a company that manages the accounts of hundreds of companies, big and small, and apply for the products within these accounts or you can do a web search for companies that would match well with your niche, visit their websites, and see if they advertise an affiliate program.

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7 Ways To Make Money Using Nothing More Than Your List

2010-01-10T03:14:00.000-08:00

An opt-in list can be quite crucial to any site or internet based company. Even for a small venture such as a niche profit site an opt-in list can make a world of difference and also add some extra income for your pocket. Rarely would you see an e-commerce site, big or small, that is without an opt-in list.

An opt-in list allows for a company to market their wares and site via an e-mail. With an opt-in list, a site and a subscriber consents to sending and receiving a newsletter from your company. Through this, you can keep your subscribers abreast of what is currently available in your site as well as whatever is coming out.

And because there is mutual consent between the two parties, any mail sent to the list is not considered as spam mail. There is a great number of successfully read promotional materials such as catalogs, newsletters and such that are sent because the subscribers themselves have signed up for them, meaning, they do want to be sent those items.

Building a list is crucial, only a small percentage actually subscribes for an opt-in list. Many people find promotional mails annoying but of you provide a good newsletter or promotional material, you will see your list build up and grow. You can also achieve this by having good content on your site. If people like what they see and read on your site, then they surely would want more. Newsletters would be a way to attract them back to your site. A little teaser or appetizer if you will.

But other than marketing your wares and your services, an opt-in list can also be used to earn extra profit. Not all lists can be used though. It would be good to first build a successful list with a huge number of subscribers. The more subscribers you have, the more money you can get. Here are seven ways to make money using nothing more than your list.

1) Place advertisements. There are many corporations who will be willing to pay to put their banners and ads on a list with many subscribers. Selling or renting out lists is not a good idea so rather than doing that, many companies would just rather place ads with lists that have a huge subscriber base. Your newsletter could be placed with many ads and each one spells money.

2) Have affiliations with other companies that have at least a semblance or relation to what your site is about. Here other companies will provide links and brief descriptions of what they offer, products and services. With every click made on the link that directs or leads a subscriber from your list to their site, the company will pay you. This P4P or pay for performance.

3) Make deals with other companies by asking for a small percentage of sales done through your list. With every sale done by customers that have come from your list and have gone there because of your newsletter, the other company will pay you a small percentage of your sales. The more people who buys from them, the more earnings you get.

4) You may also get products from other sites on a consignment basis and sell them to your list via your newsletter. Place descriptions, articles and photos of the product in your newsletter. There will be those who will buy from you and when that happens, you can order the product from the other site and sell it to your buyer.

5) Sell e-books or a compilation of your articles on your list. Manuals and how-to articles are in great demand. Many people will be willing to shell out money to gain knowledge about a certain topic and subject. With your existing list trusting your expertise in that area, an e-book could be offered and sold or used as an incentive. http://www.abcbooksearch.com/

6) Create a network out of your list. Get people to invite more people to view your site and subscribe to your list. The larger your list is, the more people will be able to click on your links and affiliate links as well as make your advertisement rates higher.

7) Subscribers are willing to pay for information if they know that it can be trusted and relied upon. Use your list to get more and more people to subscribe to you as well as browse your site. Lastly, you can use your list to earn money by making them your partners. Your list will be the bloodline of your growth and increase.

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Why Should I Make a Budget

2009-12-30T16:20:00.000-08:00

You say you know where your money goes and you don’t need it all written down to keep up with it? I issue you this challenge. Keep track of every penny you spend for one month and I do mean every penny.

You will be shocked at what the itty-bitty expenses add up to. Take the total you spent on just one unnecessary item for the month, multiply it by 12 for months in a year and multiply the result by 5 to represent 5 years.

That is how much you could have saved AND drawn interest on in just five years. That, my friend, is the very reason all of us need a budget.

If we can get control of the small expenses that really don’t matter to the overall scheme of our lives, we can enjoy financial success.

The little things really do count. Cutting what you spend on lunch from five dollars a day to three dollars a day on every work day in a five day work week saves $10 a week… $40 a month… $480 a year… $2400 in five years….plus interest.

See what I mean… it really IS the little things and you still eat lunch everyday AND that was only one place to save money in your daily living without doing without one thing you really need. There are a lot of places to cut expenses if you look for them.

Set some specific long term and short term goals. There are no wrong answers here. If it’s important to you, then it’s important period.

If you want to be able to make a down payment on a house, start a college fund for your kids, buy a sports car, take a vacation to Aruba… anything… then that is your goal and your reason to get a handle on your financial situation now.

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Seduction Marketing

2009-12-01T06:41:00.000-08:00

Picture this...

You're out with friends. Single and looking, you lock eyes with a woman whose glance stops your breath. Excited, you take a second look. Your face flushes and your knees wobble. You feel 16 again.

Yet you're smart enough to know one thing. If the first words out of your mouth have anything to do with what you're thinking right now, you're more likely to go home with a black eye than with her.

To have a shot, you need a different approach. You introduce yourself. Establish common interests. Reveal a little something about yourself. Listen as she does the same. Until she's starting to show signs that she's into you, too.

Only then, do you ask...

The same is true in marketing -- especially online.

You can quickly turn a prospect off -- and lose them forever -- by asking for the sale too soon.

How to seduce your customers

This article is about what to do, not how to do it. Strategy, not specific tactics. We're not dealing with marketing "pick-up lines" here. This is a specific approach you can take called Multi-Step Marketing.

The idea behind Multi-Step Marketing is that, instead of asking for the sale immediately, you ask prospects to begin a friendly relationship with you.

You ask them to take a small, no-obligation step. And that step is to give you permission to contact them again. They give you their contact information in exchange for some valuable information. A free special report or mini-course. You deliver that valuable information as promised.

Then you continue to deliver valuable information over a period of days, weeks, or months. You build the relationship until they're ready to take that next step. Until they're ready to commit.

Until they're ready to buy!

Why seduction marketing works so well

Before I got into marketing, I learned everything I could about psychology. I've always been fascinated by how our minds work.

Multi-Step Marketing is a great example of this. You see, in the deepest recesses of our minds, there are powerful instincts that drive our thoughts and behavior. Instincts that helped our ancestors survive. Instincts that, when we encounter something new, say, "Don't trust that until you're sure it won't hurt you."

Those same instincts fire off when we're approached by a stranger. Those same instincts fire off when a new person or company tries to sell us something. Those are the same instincts that we, as marketers, need to overcome if we want to make the sale. And Multi-Step Marketing helps us do just that.

Seduction marketing in action

A bit back, I was thinking I could publish an information product based on my hobby of playing ice hockey. As I looked into the market, I brainstormed how Multi-Step Marketing would work in this business:

First, none of my banner ads, Google ads, or any other ways of driving traffic to my website would actually sell my product (a hockey skills-building system). Instead, they'd offer free information, such as "Hockey Players: Free Report Reveals #1 Way to Improve Puck-Handling" or "Hockey Speed Secrets: Free Report Will Boost Your Skating Speed in 3 Days."

Once a prospect clicked through to my website, the page they'd land on -- the "landing page" -- would not sell anything either. Instead, it would build on the promise of free information. It would also give them a way to get the free information -- a form for providing me with their name and e-mail address. (A service like Aweber at www.aweber.com has copy-paste tools for adding these forms to your website.)

As soon as they submitted their name and e-mail address, I'd send them an e-mail fulfilling the promise of free information. It would give them download instructions for the report.

I'd set up an autoresponder series, continuing to give valuable information related to my skills-building system. While I could refer to my product, and even link to the sales page, the primary focus of these e-mails would be to continue to give real value to the prospect.

Finally, after giving away enough good information to establish trust and credibility, I could start sending e-mails selling my system.

One area where seduction marketing generates notably large profits

Multi-Step Marketing works particularly well in self-publishing. And I like the self-publishing industry for a number of reasons. A self-publishing business is easy to start, has low expenses and high profit margins, can leverage your passions and experiences into significant income, and can give you the lifestyle you dream of.

The Multi-Step Marketing approach makes it easy to grow your own self-publishing business -- in your spare time or as a full-time gig -- quickly and affordably, without having to be a marketing genius.

If you've started a self-publishing business -- or are considering starting one -- try it. See how Multi-Step Marketing can help you generate more profits quicker.

[Ed. Note: This article was adapted from one that appeared in Spare-Time Biz Success, an e-letter covering business opportunities that you can start in your spare time to generate a couple of hundred to a couple of thousand dollars in extra monthly income. If you're looking for a complete roadmap to starting your own self-publishing business, check out Self Publishing: Your Complete Business Plan for Creating a Life Without Borders.]

By Roy Furr

Posted Wednesday, November 25, 2009

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A Popular Auto Responder Marketing Technique

2009-10-30T01:08:00.000-07:00

Marketing through auto responder series is a popular strategy to increase repeat website visits and sales. Here is a popular strategy.

EZINE EBOOK

Instead of trying to publish a small daily or weekly eZines, try publishing one large monthly eZine (similar to a monthly magazine) as an e-book format delivered via auto responder, preferably an Adobe .pdf file.

You could have it made up of a large number of articles per issue and insert regularly featured areas throughout like inspirational quotes, industry tips, favorite sites and advice from the pros. You could also insert full-color graphics, multimedia components like audio / video file links and ads.

Then you can charge a monthly rate, with an annual discounted package purchase, and sell advertising spots to sprinkle in your auto responder announcements for each issue and with an informational series to announce your monthly eZine to new prospects.

In summary, by using customized marketing techniques like an eZine eBook, tailored to fit your own products and services, you can reach out and increase your website traffic and sales opportunities. Internet marketing can mean more ways to grow your business.

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4 Things ALL Articles Must Have - Don't Forget

2009-10-25T00:28:00.000-07:00

The importance of articles in today’s websites and internet based companies are immeasurable. They dictate a lot in the success and the drive of traffic into one’s site. It has become a key element in making a site work and earns a profit. A website operator and owner must have the good sense to include articles in his or her site that will work for them and earn them the many benefits articles can give to their site.

Articles have been known to be the driving force in driving traffic to a website. Articles are a factor in giving site high rankings in search result pages. The higher a site ranks the bigger slice of the traffic flow pie he gets. With a huge number in traffic flow, there are more profits and more potential for other income generating schemes as well.

But, it is not just about stuffing your site with articles; they have certain requirements as well. These requirements must be met to obtain the maximum benefits an article will provide for your site. A well written article will catch the eyes and interest of your customers and keep them coming back for more. They would also be able to recommend your site to others.

Here are some tips to help you and assist you in making your articles. Below you will read about four things all articles must have to make it successful and helpful in making your site a profit earning and traffic overflowing site.

• Keywords and Keyword Phrases.

An article must always be centered on the keywords and keyword phrases. As each website visitor goes to a site, there are those who are just merely browsing but actually looking for a specific something. When this happens, a searcher usually goes to a search engine and types in the keywords they are looking for (e.g. Toyota Camry, Meningitis, Tax Lawyer and Etcetera). It could be anything they want.

The Important thing is that you have an article that has the keywords that are related to your site. For example, if you maintain an auto parts site, you must be able t have articles about cars and their parts. There are many tools in the internet that provides service in helping a webmaster out in determining what keywords and keyword phrases are mostly sought out. You can use this tool to determine what keywords to use and write about.

• Keyword Density

Know that you have your keywords and keyword phrases, you must use them fully. An article must have good keyword density for a search engine to “feel” its presence. Articles should at least have ten to fifteen percent of keyword density in their content for search engines to rank a site high in their search results. Getting a high rank is what articles do best for a site.

Keyword density is the number of times a keyword or keyword phrase is used on an article. The number varies depending on the number of words used in an article. An effective article must have a keyword density that is not too high or too low. With a very high density, the essence of the article is lost and may turn off a reader as well as the search engines. It comes off as overeager. A low number may be ignored by the search engines.

• Good Article Content

Like what is stated above, you cannot just riddle an article with keywords. They must also be regarded as good reading materials. Articles must be able to entertain people as well as provide good information and help for their needs. Articles should be written well with correct spelling and good grammar. If you want people to trust you, make your work good and well thought out.

People respond well to figures, facts and statistics. Try to get great information and as many facts as you can. A good and well written article will boost your reputation as an expert in your chosen field or topic. As more people believe in you. They will be able to trust you and your products.

• Linking Articles

And another important thing to remember. If you are going to submit articles to ezines and/or contribute your articles to newsletters and other sites, DON’T ever forget to include a link to your site. A little resource box with a brief description of your site and you should always be placed right after your articles that you have submitted. If people like your articles, they will most likely click on the link directing them to your site.

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10 ways to empower your communication

2009-10-19T00:18:00.000-07:00

"A Piece of Blarney Stone" 10 ways to empower your communication

The Blarney Stone is a historical stone, or actually part of the Blarney Castle in Ireland where it was believed that kissing the stone can grant you the gift of gab. Yeah, it seems strange in this day and age, but who are we to question tradition? It's not like I'm saying that Santa Claus doesn't exist (OOPS!).

There is so much to know about conversation that anyone, even I, could ever realize. You can go though watching talk shows; radio programs; clubs dedicated to public speaking; ordinary conversations; certain rules still apply when it comes to interaction through words. It may sound tedious, I know, but even though it's your mouth that's doing the work, your brain works twice as hard to churn out a lot of things you know. So what better way to start learning to be an effective communication is to know the very person closest to you: yourself.

1. What you know.

Education is all about learning the basics, but to be an effective speaker is to practice what you've learned. My stint as guest at every Toastmasters' meeting I go to taught me that we all have our limitations, but that doesn't mean we can't learn to keep up and share what we know.

2. Listening.

It's just as important as asking questions. Sometimes listening to the sound of our own voice can teach us to be a little bit confident with ourselves and to say the things we believe in with conviction.

3. Humility

We all make mistakes, and sometimes we tend to slur our words, stutter, and probably mispronounce certain words even though we know what it means, but rarely use it only to impress listeners. So in a group, don't be afraid to ask if you're saying the right word properly and if they're unsure about it then make a joke out of it. I promise you it'll make everyone laugh and you can get away with it as well.

4. Eye Contact

There's a lot to say when it comes to directing your attention to your audience with an eye-catching gaze. It's important that you keep your focus when talking to a large group in a meeting or a gathering, even though he or she may be gorgeous.

5. Kidding around

A little bit of humor can do wonders to lift the tension, or worse boredom when making your speech. That way, you'll get the attention of the majority of the crowd and they'll feel that you're just as approachable, and as human to those who listen.

6. Be like the rest of them

Interaction is all about mingling with other people. You'll get a lot of ideas, as well as knowing what people make them as they are.

7. Me, Myself, and I

Admit it, there are times you sing to yourself in the shower. I know I do! Listening to the sound of your own voice while you practice your speech in front of a mirror can help correct the stress areas of your pitch. And while you're at it you can spruce up as well.

8. With a smile

A smile says it all much like eye contact. There's no point on grimacing or frowning in a meeting or a gathering, unless it's a wake. You can better express what you're saying when you smile.

9. A Role Model

There must be at least one or two people in your life you have listened to when they're at a public gathering or maybe at church. Sure they read their lines, but taking a mental note of how they emphasize what they say can help you once you take center stage.

10. Preparation

Make the best out of preparation rather than just scribbling notes and often in a hurried panic. Some people like to write things down on index cards, while other resort to being a little more silly as they look at their notes written on the palm of their hand (not for clammy hands, please). Just be comfortable with what you know since you enjoy your work.

And that about wraps it up. These suggestions are rather amateurish in edgewise, but I've learned to empower myself when it comes to public or private speaking and it never hurts to be with people to listen how they make conversations and meetings far more enjoyable as well as educational.

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Mailing List for Affiliate Marketers

2009-10-04T10:07:00.000-07:00

If you are an affiliate marketer who wants to make a comfortable living from referring your prospects to other people’s product or service for decent commissions, then you must consider building your own mailing list.

Building your mailing list of hungry prospects can be one of the best investments you will ever make, as it is time and effort worth spending on. When you strike on a Joint Venture and have a new product or service to endorse, you can look no further than your own mailing list.

Granted, that most affiliates, as in more than 90 percent of them, are not making money from affiliate programs, but this often results from the same amount of effort focused on least effective methods.

While having your own mailing list is, by a long mile, not the only effective affiliate marketing method, you can make affiliate sales very quickly even in the next few hours after sending a sales message, provided that your mailing list is huge and responsive.

This is often true, because owning your own mailing list for you to endorse products and services to is one of the fastest-producing results, beating other affiliate marketing methods imaginable.

In a nutshell, the affiliate marketer who gets ahead of the pack is the one who owns a huge and responsive mailing list of prospects.

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Why Publish an eZine

2009-08-26T23:04:00.000-07:00

On the Internet, it is very possible to make money without selling any product. One way of doing so is through starting your own eZine, also known as an electronic newsletter.In a nutshell, you send out your eZine issues on a periodical basis to your subscribers.

The good part is that you have a flexible choice in automating the process of sending out your eZine issues for you or manually sending them on a periodical basis.As an eZine publisher, not only can you easily achieve the benefits a conventional newsletter publisher enjoys without having to chop down several trees in the process, you can easily and conveniently spread your marketing influence and expertise to your base of subscribers from the shoes of an ordinary individual.

In other words, you do not have to invest in expensive printing equipment, brick and mortar business, and hiring staff just to run your own newsletter publication, resulting in a lot of time, money and effort saved.

Basically, all you need to start your own eZine are an auto responder and broadcast feature to go with, enabling you to reach out to your massive subscribers whom you can regard as your prospects, too.

All in all, if you do not have the commitments of creating your own product for sale, then publishing your own online newsletter can be one of the wisest decisions you will ever make, given the benefits of impressive marketing power and influence it can offer to you.

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A Sixth-Grade Dropout’s Secret to Coming Up With Great Ideas

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Taking Advantage of the Stock Market

2009-07-09T23:24:00.000-07:00

Is the market rebounding? The Dow, leveling out each week becauseit gets a rise in the market one day and a pullback the next day,comes from investors' taking their profits. This will probablycontinue for a year or so until the really large investors suchas Hedge Fund Managers, Institutional Investors like Mutual Fundand 401(k) managers start purchasing the really great stocks atlower prices for the longer term.

You might start looking for those investments that might be agreat buy and start to determine your strategies for owning newmutual funds or stocks. You may have a deeply hidden desire toown stock in a company like this 64 year old client never reallyinterested in investing any money for his future. I guess no onehad explained that you could put any investment into your Roth ortraditional IRA or after-tax investments. When he heard this hesaid, in a very mild mannered voice, "Could I own stock inHarley-Davidson?"

Being prudent and fiscally responsible we discussed what moneywould be used, how to choose an investment, and what exitstrategies we were going to devise for his portfolio.

Step 1. Review of your finances. Have you determined that you dohave discretionary income that could be used to invest? While wewill discuss strategies for choosing stock and discuss when youwill get out of the investment, the money will be at risk ifinvesting is a choice you make. It is very important to recognizethat there is a danger of loss in any investment.

Choosing a stock could be as simple as the client above stated,knowing about a company and wanting to own shares or you may wantto do your own research into stocks of various companies orsectors. While you are looking at your stock choice you will wantto read some of the newsworthy items regarding the business orsector itself. Identify problems that may have been causing thestock price to fall or to rise. Look at merger information, readthe annual report of the company you are considering.

Step 2. Start to follow the stock price in the paper or online.Start to form a list of those items that may be important to youabout the stock, itself. Does it pay dividends? How did the stockperform in the last period of 2000-2008? What is there about thestock that you like? Find worrisome? Has the stock beenrepurchased by the company recently, and why? What is the currentprice, etc.?

The newspaper will give you a variety of information about thecompany you are choosing. Compare it to other companies. Makesure you understand terminology or importance of concepts used todescribe the stocks such as selling on large volume, 200 daymoving average, etc. Go on-line or discuss the information withyour advisor.

Step 3. Determine an exit strategy. Exit strategies are veryimportant when deciding to own or purchase stocks. You must havea plan for buying and selling your stock. In years past investorsused a buy and hold strategy that kept them tied to theirinvestment for the long term, many years. Investing today isbased on exit strategies.

Step 4. Choose an Exchange Traded Fund (ETF) or stock, decide thepercentage of profit you will make before you sell it, and thensell it. Some investors think 8% over your purchase price, others10%. But having a plan is essential. Buy and hold is not as clearan option as it once was.

You may want to choose to sell the stock if it is not growingafter 3-6 months. Instead of keeping the investment for the longterm, sell it, buy something else you have researched that doeshave better growth potential. Investors are selling to get backtheir profits and it may be what is hindering the growth of yourinvestment.

Step 5. Look at opportunities to protect your profits with astop/loss. A Stop/loss strategy will allow you to protect yourprofit by placing a stop(sell) to prevent a loss on yourinvestment. You could further, protect profits by continuing tomove the stop/loss upwards as your profits increase, alwaysstaying about 2-3% below the current price. If the stock beginsto fall and hits your stop/loss price, it will automatically besold. Meanwhile, look for the next stock to invest your profits.

Written By: Irene A. MajchrzakCopyright: 2009Contact Email: mailto:irene.majchrzak@...

Irene A. Majchrzak helps people retire debt-free with a senseof well-being and the freedom to have the things they want.Get her free ebook, Debt Free to Retire, by going to http://debtfreetoretire.com

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4 Things ALL Articles Must Have - Don't Forget!

2009-03-09T03:35:00.000-07:00

The importance of articles in today’s websites and internet based companies are immeasurable. They dictate a lot in the success and the drive of traffic into one’s site. It has become a key element in making a site work and earns a profit. A website operator and owner must have the good sense to include articles in his or her site that will work for them and earn them the many benefits articles can give to their site.

Articles have been known to be the driving force in driving traffic to a website. Articles are a factor in giving site high rankings in search result pages. The higher a site ranks the bigger slice of the traffic flow pie he gets. With a huge number in traffic flow, there are more profits and more potential for other income generating schemes as well.

But, it is not just about stuffing your site with articles; they have certain requirements as well. These requirements must be met to obtain the maximum benefits an article will provide for your site. A well written article will catch the eyes and interest of your customers and keep them coming back for more. They would also be able to recommend your site to others.

Here are some tips to help you and assist you in making your articles. Below you will read about four things all articles must have to make it successful and helpful in making your site a profit earning and traffic overflowing site.

• Keywords and Keyword Phrases.

An article must always be centered on the keywords and keyword phrases. As each website visitor goes to a site, there are those who are just merely browsing but actually looking for a specific something. When this happens, a searcher usually goes to a search engine and types in the keywords they are looking for (e.g. Toyota Camry, Meningitis, Tax Lawyer and Etcetera). It could be anything they want.

The Important thing is that you have an article that has the keywords that are related to your site. For example, if you maintain an auto parts site, you must be able t have articles about cars and their parts. There are many tools in the internet that provides service in helping a webmaster out in determining what keywords and keyword phrases are mostly sought out. You can use this tool to determine what keywords to use and write about.

• Keyword Density

Know that you have your keywords and keyword phrases, you must use them fully. An article must have good keyword density for a search engine to “feel” its presence. Articles should at least have ten to fifteen percent of keyword density in their content for search engines to rank a site high in their search results. Getting a high rank is what articles do best for a site.

Keyword density is the number of times a keyword or keyword phrase is used on an article. The number varies depending on the number of words used in an article. An effective article must have a keyword density that is not too high or too low. With a very high density, the essence of the article is lost and may turn off a reader as well as the search engines. It comes off as overeager. A low number may be ignored by the search engines.

• Good Article Content

Like what is stated above, you cannot just riddle an article with keywords. They must also be regarded as good reading materials. Articles must be able to entertain people as well as provide good information and help for their needs. Articles should be written well with correct spelling and good grammar. If you want people to trust you, make your work good and well thought out.

People respond well to figures, facts and statistics. Try to get great information and as many facts as you can. A good and well written article will boost your reputation as an expert in your chosen field or topic. As more people believe in you. They will be able to trust you and your products.

• Linking Articles

And another important thing to remember. If you are going to submit articles to ezines and/or contribute your articles to newsletters and other sites, DON’T ever forget to include a link to your site. A little resource box with a brief description of your site and you should always be placed right after your articles that you have submitted. If people like your articles, they will most likely click on the link directing them to your site.

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Can Home Business Lead to Self-Employment

2008-09-06T04:51:00.000-07:00

The number of online users is estimated to reached 3 BILLION in 10 years time; With such a huge world wide market, starting an Online Home Based Business is a great way to gain self-employment.

Whether your Work at Home Business will eventually lead you to Full time Self-Employment depends largely on yourself.

If you are willing to work vigorously for it, you CAN and WILL be able to turn your work at home business into a full time business.

Most people who try an online business failed because most online companies will just provide you with their products and expect you to have the necessary online selling knowledge.

They only a handful that provides you with the necessary online advertising materials or business forums to guide you how to go about it.

For those who already possess the necessary online advertising knowledge, they can simply join any online business opportunity and start selling for the companies.

However, for those who are new to the online selling world, it is wise to choose an Online Business that teaches you how to operate a successful work at home business and achieve self-employment.

Alternatively to get help from an Internet Marketing Guru who will guide you and access your Online Buisness.

Best of luck on your business venture
ezymoney88

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Turn Your Hobby Into A Successful Business

2008-08-13T02:48:00.000-07:00

Many of the world’s most successful businesses began as a hobby. Probably the most popular company that actually began as a hobby is the major online auction site of Ebay. Other well known companies that were hobbies first include Dell Computers, Famous Amos Cookies, and Wendy’s.

If you’ve been considering starting your own business, but haven’t determined exactly what that business should be- think about the types of activities you enjoy doing. What are your hobbies? Do you enjoy hiking through the woods, or jogging around the track? Maybe you enjoy writing poetry or painting ceramics. Regardless of your particular hobby, there is a way for you to profit from your experience and knowledge.

Many entrepreneurs-to-be do not have much for start up capital. In fact, one of the most common reasons for considering a new business is because people are attempting to make more money to pay off existing debt and be able to afford more entertainment in their lives. While there are many businesses that would require a hefty initial investment, there are also hundreds of businesses you can start right now that are related to your hobby in some way, that don’t require much of a financial investment. You’ll need to invest your time, energy and devotion- and with these three ingredients, you’ll be on the path to a successful business venture in no time.

Low Investment Hobby Business Ideas

Affiliate Programs- If you are very new to online marketing and maybe even the internet in general, you may want to start with an affiliate program. An affiliate program allows you to earn commission on the sales you generate for someone else’s product. If your hobby involves playing poker, you could join one of the many online poker room affiliate programs (for free) and get your feet wet, learning how to use the internet to market a product, how to generate traffic and turn website visitors into buying customers. Once you’ve learned a few tricks of the trade, you can move on to actually creating your own business, rather than earning a commission by promoting someone else’s!

Audio & Written Interviews- If you have a hobby that features famous individuals, you could start a business by interviewing people and distributing the audio recordings of the interviews online. You could write out the interviews and sell to magazines or newspapers, or industry specific trade publications involving your hobby. For example, if you want to do something that involves skateboarding, find and interview Tony Hawk, or someone who has skated with Tony Hawk.

Retail Sales- If your hobby involves the creation of objects, you can develop your own product line and sell them via a website or mail order catalog. In order to keep your start up investment minimal, you’ll want to only make a few items for display purposes, and then make products when they are ordered from customers. Look for wholesale places to purchase your raw materials, in order to gain a larger profit when you sell the finished product.

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Ezymoney

Making Money With No Investment - Starting From Scratch

2008-08-10T08:12:00.000-07:00

Making money online from scratch with no investment is possible. First stop thinking it is impossible or that it is not for you. Think that as for everything in life, you just need knowledge, tools, and experiences. If it is your aim, it’s time you took the real shot to your first cents gainned online, believe me it is easier that you could think.

If it is your aim, you are in the best position. Cause, you are the master, you are the leader, you have what you need to succeed : YOU. You surely have friends, contacts, knowledge and incredibly, in Internet Marketing, those are the tools and the resources that you can get it at time free online. Having experiences supposes that you do it unless one time; supposes that you try. What you need now is the knowledge to make it happen.

If your real aim is to make money online you must figure yourself that you will work hard until you are comfortable.

To start from scratch, you need to find the good market for that. You have no money, but you have yourself. You can offer any service. And as soon as you have saved a few dollars, you could begin investing it in some affiliate program opportunities. The earlier you will start the sooner you will see the results. The more you will apply what you learn the better results you will get.

You can make money with no investment capital if you can get find the good markets or services to start.

In fact, what is important for you now that you’ve got the aim is not how much you are going to do but HOW YOU ARE GOING TO DO IT.

Making money online with no investment is the real situation you need to be to starts from scratch, the challenge being that you have nothing to lose. You will nevertheless get the experience and the knowledge.

It is a win-win situation - Nothing To Lose - and a chance to get on the ground floor of something that could pull you upon the crowd. Of course,you will not make the million by tomorrow. But if you manage to compose with the first few bucks you will make, when sit back you will laught at the time you were thinking it was impossible.

Extract from : http://www.myinvestmentadvice.info/

Eymoney

Balancing Your Home Base Business

2008-08-02T11:49:00.000-07:00

Running your own online home business, however, does require discipline, not only due to the many distractions in your home environment but because you have no set rules or working hours in a day.

It is advisable to work on a routine as soon as possible and decide how many hours a day you are going to dedicate to your online home business. Then it is a matter of ensuring that you do put in the hours-required daily to ensure the success of your online home business.

Practice a Do List. Urgent tasks can be added to your list, your plans and tasks it will prevent you from becoming distracted and help keep you focused and motivated to ensure you accomplish all that you set out to do.

To save you being disturbed, it is a good idea to advise your friends and neighbors, you do have an online home business that you work hard at and let them know when it is convenient to visit, otherwise you will have people calling upon you unnecessary.

Do your chores done first thing before you switch on that computer and get involved with your online home business, because as you know the hours can fly by so fast when working on the internet.

Have your break times for meals otherwise you may also find the day goes by and you have not yet had lunch.

Don’t allow yourself to become house bound and totally absorbed in your online home business. You need to balance your life. Spend quality time with the children, make time to get out and meet your friends, enjoy your shopping sprees or partake in regular exercise.

Don’t forget to keep invoices, receipts and slips and claim for everything that is tax deductible for you’re home based online business.

Be sure not to forget to attend to the maintenance of your computer. Back up regularly and which would ensure maximum performance of your pc.

You don’t ever have to miss another child’s excursion or sports day. That is the great advantage of the Internet and with an online home business you can make up the time working at night.

If you have a dog, working at home will change your dog’s life too. They will thrive and just love having someone at home all the time, instead of having to wait a whole day for human company.

Having an online home business can sometimes get lonely, so at least you can never be accused of talking to yourself when you have a pet to share things with. Looking at a computer screen all day is not good for oneself.

You may find it quite a juggle at first to settle down to working at home online but after a while you will relish the freedom of running been your own boss and able to come and go as you please without having to ask for permission.

Ezymoney

6 Secret Signs of an Easy Home Business

2008-07-26T01:13:00.000-07:00

1. A Well-Established Company With A Great Track Record
A company which is able to survive and thrive for 4 years, it means they have everything in place to run the business - and that means you can join up and hit the ground running. and easy home businesses have many times shown great track record.

2. Popular Products
By choosing an easy home business that has products that are easy to sell, it makes everything easier. You don't need to twist arms, or deal with a high percentage of product returns. Everthing goes smoothly when people are calling YOU to order!

3. No Large Up-Front Costs
This might sound surprising, but CASH is in short supply when you start any easy home business. That's right - every easy home business has this problem. It's important to know that the cost of getting into a business is not your only cost - there are marketing costs to consider.

4.No Inventory to Maintain
In today's environment, easy home businesses do all the product handling for you - they will produce it, package it, ship it, and even bill the customer on your behalf. Your only requirement is to tell them where to send your earnings!

5. An Easy Way to Attract New Customers
Having a system in place that lets customers find you.

6. A Great Marketing System
A system that you can plug into with minimal effort, and see results in a very short timeframe. Things like replicated websites, co-op advertising, and low cost marketing kits are things that indicate a great marketing engine is in place.

Ezymoney
There are a few Paid Ads Clicks and Paid Survey Banners that Pay You To Review Click on them to get paid

Reason For Business Failure!

2008-07-04T09:23:00.000-07:00

The number one reason for business failure is inadequate planning.
The second reason is under-capitalization.

Always starts with an idea

A successful business start-up always starts with an idea. Something that makes your business stands out from all the rest.
Does your idea provide the solution to a significant problem for your target market?
Does it satisfy a need or want?
Does it create an opportunity?

Niche Product
The most successful businesses either fix problems , They create a repeat need for a product or service among the target market.
Is there already a market for your product or service.
Can your target market afford to buy your products or services?
Will your target market perceive your product or service as valuable?

Your ability.
Do you have the people, the resources and the knowledge to be able to consistently provide your products or services to your target market?
Can you maintain a competitive advantage?
Do you have enough manpower?
Can you purchase the supplies and materials you need over the long run?

Your first step
Is to create a solid business plan. Your business plan is more than an essay on :
"Why I deserve to get funding for my idea"

The second step
For business survival is getting enough financing.
When you're creating your financial analysis of your business, make sure you're being realistic about costs and expenditures, so that you give yourself the cushion you need to succeed.
If finding financing is a problem, take the time to look into the resources that are available in your community.

Use other successful business models as a guide.
When you're getting started, look around. What businesses are successful? Why?
What is it they're doing that is working?
What attributes do you admire, and why?
You stand a better chance of succeeding if you're modeling someone.

Find a mentor.
Most entrepreneurs have great skills and abilities, but no one does everything well. You probably already know what your strengths and weaknesses are.

Best of luck

ezymoney