Blog To Money

Ways to Make Money on the Internet

2008-07-29T23:25:00.000-07:00

1. Joining Affiliate Programs.

If you already have a website, then you should consider joining an affiliate network program. Depending on the theme and content of your website, you can get affiliate companies to advertise on your site. Different affiliate programs offer different schemes, such as pay per click and pay per lead schemes. Depending on the scheme you choose, affiliate programs can allow you to make money by just renting out your web page space to advertisers, or can give you a portion of the profit your advertisers make when a visitor from your site clicks on their advertisements.

Search engines, such as Google and Yahoo!, typically offer affiliate programs. Create links with other websites to increase traffic on your site; this can help you increase your earnings from these affiliate programs.

2. Selling Domain Names and Web Hosting

A domain name is a website’s Internet address. For any website owner, most especially businesses, a good domain name that is easy to remember will increase traffic on their websites, and result in more profits. Selling domain names targets these businesses, and is thus a simple way to make money online.

You may also want to host web pages on your domain. Web hosting will require you to maintain your customer’s website and keep them working. The downside to web hosting is that it requires technical expertise to be able to maintain the websites and your server.

Both renting out domain names and web hosting result in reliable income, since these services require regular payments from your clients.

3. Selling Your Products and Services Online

If you already have an existing business, you can choose to expand your market by selling your products and services online. This opens your business to a wider range of consumers, both local and international. You may also opt to start a new business online, and start advertising on your site.

If you do not know how to create a website, or do not have the time to do so, you should consider checking out certain sites that specialize in selling and auctioning different products. Sites such as E-bay allow you to make money by selling an extensive array of products, both old and new.

You can also get paid for your services, such as writing, blogging and transcribing. Sign up for different freelance jobs by searching for reputable websites and contacts.

4. Answering Surveys, Reading E-mails and Posting in Forums

Numerous websites are offering to pay online users and provide them with other incentives to answer surveys, read e-mails or post in forums. However, not all these sites are trustworthy; it would be useful to do a background check on these sites to ensure that they are legitimate. Stay away from websites and programs that require you to pay a certain fee before you can make money; most genuine paying sites will not ask you to pay anything. Also, do not believe sites that promise to pay obscene amounts of money; it’s more likely that they won’t.

5. Referring Friends

Certain websites also allow you to make money by referring friends to their website. Some of these networking schemes are genuine; however, majority of these sites are not.

If you want to make money online, know your business and select reputable websites. Most of all, be wary of scams.

Selling and Renting Back your Home

2008-07-22T23:23:00.000-07:00

If, somehow, you could win the lottery, all problems would be solved. But what do you do if that is an impossibility? What do you do if you are on the verge of being thrown out on the streets? What if you have a family and children and just cannot bear the thought of not living in your house?

I cannot, for a moment, pretend that it will be easy. But there might be a solution. It may not work for everyone, but renting back could be an option. So, what is this "renting back" that I talk about?

It works like this: You sell your home. Then taking the same home on rent from that company. What this does is: It makes the lenders happy as they get paid.

The company gets tenant from day one. What could be better? And it makes you happy as you have a roof over your head. Better yet, you have the same roof over your head that you wanted.

If things work out, you can get your house back again someday. Since the house will be owned by a property management company and not by an individual who lives in it, a decent offer would quite likely swing the deal. In fact, you can try and incorporate an option to buy-back in your initial agreement itself.

There is the physical value of the house compounded by the mortgage installments that you have already made. No one seems to be giving you any credit for that. It has turned into a situation where everyone just wants to point out that you have not paid recent bills.

But as I said earlier, there is equity in your house. The question is how do you release that equity. Simple, sell it and rent it back. In the usual case, you will not have to move out of the house even for a day in the rent back arrangement.

In fact, you can look forward to getting a significant sum of money for selling the house. This amount will primarily depend on how much of the house you had already paid for. If this amount is significant enough, you can hope to stay clear of worries about making rent. In addition to that, there is also the likelihood that there will be some spare cash left for you to use elsewhere. And that is certainly good news now, is it not? I think the answer is "Yes."

Being Able to Make Money Online is about Mindset!

2008-07-12T23:21:00.000-07:00

...and fortunately mindset is not something we are born with. Mindset is something we can develop. Its in our control. We can change the way we think. We can condition our mind to think in a certain direction. If you think you can, you can. If you think you can't, you are right!

To make money at home, what's required is a computer and access to internet. Tools and guidance are available online, free. No investment, no hidden costs, so much freedom and SO MUCH MONEY!!! You can't ask for more. All that's left is a mindset - that you can do it. And why not! So many people across the globe are making a living online! It requires patience. But don't forget when money pours, it exceeds all your expectations...

Just make sure to plan well. Try to be as organized as possible. And decide in advance, what and how will you like to sell. Your message/content of the website should be aspiring... sell the pleasure of smoking rather than cigarettes. Sell a dream house rather than real estate. My brother sold fear of fire, and not fire extinguishers! Its a fact.Think, observe, see which content holds your attention, why, what makes people buy, what headlines catch your attention. Apply it all to your own work at home business.

Work at home opportunities have changed lives of many a people across the globe. People from walks of life make money online. Some do it full time some part time. 15 years ago, we couldn't even have thought of a possibility to make money online but things have really changed since. Someone's mindset somewhere has made all the difference... right?

Nothing Seems to Scare Parents More than the Prospect of Paying their Children's College Tuition Fees.

2008-07-09T23:27:00.000-07:00

Most of the so-called experts seemed somewhat surprised by these results. Not me. I've received a great many letters over the years from parents on the subject of “Student Loans” and the hardships they have caused these families.

As a rule, I have always advised these parents to max out their retirement accounts before they consider saving for college fees. After all, there is little or no financial aid for retirement, but there's plenty of help for college fees once you know where to look. So why is it as rational adults, we can and do understand from a dollars-and-cents perspective that this advice is perfectly correct, but as parents, we seem more than a little uncomfortable with it.

Student Loans are big business and there is no shortage of companies out there willing to lend you the money required to pay these fees. The average cost at a public college is around $12,127 a year, according to the College Board, and at the private institutions they can average as much as $40,000. So how do we as parents reconcile these two conflicting forces tugging at our savings and our conscience?

Lets try and find some middle ground for this problem. After all, who wants to live with that nagging feeling that we are somehow neglecting our children by not making any effort to save for the education. We should aggressively seek out grants. Kalman Chany, author of "Paying for College Without Going Broke," notes that many people fumble their chances for more aid by waiting to apply until after they've done their taxes or after their children have been accepted to a college. By that time, many work/study and other campus-based programs are tapped out. At virtually all schools, the earliest financial aid deadline falls before acceptance letters are even mailed out.

According to the American Council on Education, more than 1.5 million students who could have qualified for Pell Grants - a form of financial aid that doesn't have to be repaid - didn't even bother to apply. Most public data suggests that's not all the money that's being left on the table. To see if your child is eligible for grants go to http://studentaid.ed.gov

There are a large number of reward programs out there that will put money into your tax-deferred college savings account as a thank-you for shopping at certain retailers. It may only be small amounts, but it's free money that's not coming out of your pocket. Two of the most popular are Upromise and Littlegra, both of which have websites that are well worth the visit. Ben Kaplan, publisher of http://ScholarshipCoach.com, was awarded $90,000 in scholarships when he was applying to college in the late 1990s. "It helped me immensely to know that my family couldn't pay for my whole education," he says.

There's a lot of research out there that has shown that success in life has much more to do with our children's overall ambition than where they go to school. This is a point you may want to think about when deciding between an Ivy League school, along with the six-figure loan that goes with this route, and a public school with a largely free ride.

Don't get ripped off trying to find scholarships. The fear of high college tuition bills leads a great many families to shell out for something you don't need. Stay away from the pitch "Pay us to search our vast database and win you a scholarship - and we'll apply for you!" Generally, you shouldn't have to pay to find or apply for any scholarship. There are plenty of web sites out there that have searchable databases that you can scour for scholarships and grants absolutely free.

The Blistering Truth About Get Rich Opportunity Offers

2008-07-02T23:20:00.000-07:00

THE PSYCHOLOGY OF THE GET RICH OPPORTUNITY

The get-rich opportunity works so well and has withstood the test of time because there are always people who need more money. And there are always those who think they can get something for nothing. Credit card debt and bankruptcy are at an all time high in our society. When people are facing a mountain of debt they become desperate for money. They become perfect targets for the get-rich-quick opportunity. The mind becomes fixed on finding quick and easy ways of getting money.

GAMBLING TO GET MORE MONEY

There was a time, not so long ago when Nevada was about the only state where gambling was legal. Now just about every state runs some kind of state lottery. WHY? Because there are tens of millions of people who are willing to put down their hard earned money to win the big jackpot.

People wouldn’t be playing the lottery every day if they didn't think there was some chance (no matter how remote) of them winning the big jackpot. People gamble for the same reason that they join get-rich opportunity programs, THEY WANT MORE MONEY, NOW!

THE HOOK

When the mind becomes fixed on the need for money, the door is left wide open for the get-rich-quick promoter to enter. He paints a fantastic mental picture of you obtaining all of your heart's desires, the dream house, the dream car , the dream vacation. All you have to do is purchase "THE SECRET MILLION DOLLAR PLAN" that will put you on easy street for ever.

The people who promote get-rich-quick schemes know exactly what their target market is thinking. They know their target market wants to make all of the money that they can, as quickly as they can. They know that when people feel they are in urgent need of money, they don't think in a rational, common sense way.

This makes it easy for the get-rich-quick operator to tell their target market exactly what they want to hear. They want to hear that they can get a huge amount of money, in a very short time, and hardly have to lift a finger to get it.

The get-rich-quick promoter knows that they have to strike while the iron is hot. They will tell their target market that their million dollar secret is legal, honest and ethical and that it is 100% guaranteed to work.

The sad truth is that there are millions of people each year who will spend their last few dollars buying into a dream that is really a myth made of the fleeting winds. They spend their money. And quickly discover they’ve been taken advantage of by empty dream sellers.

If you are among the millions of people who have fallen prey to the get-rich-quick dream sellers, if you feel you’ve have been unfairly taken advantage of, you can file a complaint with the FTC (federal Trade Commission) by calling, 1-877 382-4357. The FTC also provides information on how to spot and avoid all types of consumer fraud.

If you have a sincere desire to improve your financial condition, here are some things that you might want to consider: to improve your life style, you need to do what most people are unwilling to do. You have to create your own opportunities. You can do this by taking advantage of the free information available through your local library and the small business administration. You knowledge you gain is what will enable you to provide something of value to your customers

Don't expect someone else to do for you what you can easily do for yourself. You must be willing to sacrifice the time and effort that it takes to build your own opportunities. Perhaps you’ve heard the saying... "EASY COME, EASY GO." When people acquire huge sums of money without having to do much of anything to get it, in most cases, they usually don't hold on to it very long.

There are many lessons to be learned on the road to success. You will learn that true success in business comes only when you accept the responsibility of providing your customers with products or services that offer true value for the money that is given in exchange.

Always keep in mind that there is a price to be paid for anything of true value. If you want to build a successful business and make money, you are going to have to pay the price. That price is: MOTIVATION, PATIENCE, PERSISTENCE and SINCERITY!

Setting and Achieving Goals

2008-06-25T04:39:00.000-07:00

I love this topic because it usually puts fire under my butt to get off of it and get my life back on track. Whether I need to clean my house, lose weight or write my next book, going back over my goals and re-evaluating my future is exciting. We can blame others, justify why we are not happy in our lives, or we can take responsibility for our lives, grab the wheel of this car called life and drive it to exactly where we want to go. Here is a list of ten things that have helped me live my dreams.

1. Stop the self-pity.

Stop the blaming. Stop the justifying. We all have problems. You are not alone. We can look at our lives as, "oh, poor me; I'm not where I should be." We can blame everybody around us. We can justify why our life sucks by saying things like, "if this hadn't happened, I'd be..." or "I'm not successful because..." It is time to stop the pity and take responsibility for your life.

2. Be honest with yourself.

This is so important because you will not achieve one goal without honesty. These are the types of questions to ask yourself:

* Would I rather have my finances in order making my life easier or would I rather go shopping when I feel down, have expensive coffee every morning, and spend my hard earned money on other people so I can look like a big shot?

* Would I rather feel good about myself by being fit, healthy and energetic or would I rather binge on junk food, spend hours in front of the TV and stay chubby because that is what others expect of me?

If you enjoy the chaos of juggling your money to pay bills and you enjoy your television programs and junk food, than keep it up, but still love and accept yourself for who you are.

3. List your desires.

Write down what you really want in your life. This is a powerful exercise. But remember, you are not writing down your mother's dream for you, or your husband's desires or even what your girlfriends think you should do with your life; this is about you and what you want. So, what do you want your life to look like realistically? Write it down. Now, if you could dream big, huge, what would your life look like? Both are important because sometimes the big dream or what we think we want doesn't look that appealing when it is written down on paper. Dreaming big helps us get to what is really important in our lives.

4. View your new life

Now you have stopped the pity party, you have gotten real with yourself and you have a clear idea of what you want your life to look like. Exciting isn't it? Now you are going to list the goals that will help you achieve your dream. For example, on your list of desires you wrote that you want to be ten pounds lighter. Where do you start? Maybe you used to enjoy working out to a DVD every morning, but your living room has become so cluttered that there is no room for you to exercise. Then one of your goals will be to clean and rearrange your living room so you have the room you need to exercise.

5. Make a list of possible obstacles.

It is very possible that you have set similar goals before. It is also possible that you have hit some roadblocks that discouraged you enough to give up on your goal. One thing that happens when we want to change our lives is that we run into barriers that we did not think about. These barriers will stop us form attaining our goals if we do not prepare ourselves. So write down your possible obstacles. For example, you are exercising every morning in your clean, rearranged living room and suddenly you are required to travel for work. Now what? You know that the hotel room will not have a DVD player; you are not even sure the hotel will have a gym. These are the types of problems you will face, so be ready. Do not let anything stop you from what you want. Being prepared in life will take you a long way.

6. Achievable tasks

Back to your list of goals, it is now time to break your goals down into achievable tasks. This is so fun, and it will make each goal feel within reach. For example, your goal is to pay off all of your credit card debt. Breaking this down might look like this:

* Use the internet to investigate financial expert advice and create a workable plan.

* Have a garage sale and get rid of items that I do not need; I'll put that money toward paying off my debt.

* Start doing freelance computer work to create extra income.

* And so on

Then you may want to break down that list; how do I have a garage sale? How do I start a side business? Breaking work down is not complicated and neither is achieving small tasks. So, when you start checking your list and notice how quickly you are getting things done, make sure you take some time to celebrate how awesome you are!

7. Get going

You have finished your lists, you have made note of your obstacles and you have a plan. It is now time to get to work.

8. Get help

Get help when you need it, and you will need it. I used to be so stubborn and thought I could do everything by myself. When I look back, every time I achieved something good in my life, I had many people to thank.

9. It's up to you

Remember, nobody can achieve your goals, but you. Nobody is going to come along and rescue you, but you. In my life today, I always have goals. I feel like if I am not achieving something, I am not really living. I have gone from being homeless and beat down to having much success in my life. It is not always easy, but it is always worth it. Rescue yourself; you can make your dreams come true.

10. Choose to succeed.

Achieving your goals is a choice just like happiness is a choice. Choose both!

How to Self Publish a Book, 10 Money Saving Secrets

2008-06-22T23:16:00.000-07:00

Here are ten great tips to successful self-publishing:

Hire a student or a virtual assistant to edit and format your book. Professional editors cost a lot of money but they play a vital role in the process of making your book great. College students and stay at home parents can be a significant resource if you are on a budget.

Even better, ask a detailed family member or friend to go through your book word by word for errors. A second or third pair of eyes is always good book writing business.

Hire a student to design your book’s cover or contribute to the graphics inside. You can also hire students to design your website – you will be amazed what they can do!

E-publish your book for the most cost effective means of production and delivery.

If you absolutely must print, print your book in small quantities to keep your inventory low. You will save money on printing and storage.

Typeset your book yourself. Printers will charge you hundreds of dollars to typeset your book, why pay that money when you can do it yourself? Simply ask them what format it needs to be delivered in, example PDF, and then create the typeset copy.

Keep your book fulfillment in-house, do it yourself. You will save money in shipping costs and postage and you will make sure that people receive undamaged copies of your books!

Book promotion can be expensive. Cut costs by partnering with other relevant websites to promote your book in exchange for promoting theirs. This kind of trade works well for books that compliment each other. For example a book about how to raise healthy children might partner well with a recipe book for child friendly foods.

Use free online promotion tools like email, article posting, and press release distribution.

Take advantage of open source software products to create your book. Online you can find free software products that range from word processing programs to programs that will capture images or photos on your computer. Open source software can save you literally thousands of dollars in book production expenses.

15 reasons to choose Internet Marketing/Affiliate Marketing

2008-06-12T03:07:00.000-07:00

Here are 15 great reasons:

1. YOU decide your income.

2. YOU are your own Boss.

3. YOUR income is directly proportional to your efforts.

4. YOUR income grows exponentially more when compared to other businesses for the same amount of effort.

5. YOU build a long term income stream.

6. YOU Develop it, Stabilize it and Forget IT..But the money keeps flowing in.

7. YOU always have scope for improvement every other day you wake up.

8. YOUR website will work for you when you sleep.

9. YOU get to master a field and in due course become a product owner and earn even more.

10. YOU get satisfied in helping other people follow your strategies and earn.

11. YOU will love what you do and the challenges that comes on its way.

12. YOU will earn a lot and make a fortune for you and your family.

13. YOUR business reach millions of people by sitting in front of your computer.

14. YOU really need not spend thousands of dollars to know the business or to start earning.

15. YOU need not own a product to market!!!.

So ,what is required?

The listed 15 points are very much the top list of internet marketing advantages. What is required from your end to really make these 15 true in your business?

Undoubtedly EFFORT. Yes, as in any business or work you do here also you need effort and untiring effort in the initial periods. The real advantage of this business is, the initial effort you put towards your success will come till the end. Yes, its true as mentioned in point #6 you develop it, stabilize it and forget it. Develop it stands for initial phase where you develop from scratch, this is a real challenge and once you get that right the remaining process is a walk in roses. Stabilizing it stands for giving it great tuning to stand out from the crowd and bringing success. Once you get the strings right move to the last phase. Forget it, but wait you cannot just forget it. What I meant was just spend very little time on your stabilized internet business to just fine tune here and there and get more profits from there on.

Have fun choosing Internet marketing and, in specific, affiliate marketing as a beginner to see good money and great career in the comfort of home. But be careful about huge promises given on the internet. Have a safe and excellent career.

What You Need To Know - Multi Level Marketing

2008-06-11T04:52:00.000-07:00

Multi Level Marketing has been around since the 1950's. It's as old as the hills and just as crumby! If you are looking for a way to make money from a home based business and you're considering an Multi Level Marketing MLM opportunity, please read this report and I hope that my words will dhow you the big picture of what Multi Level Marketing MLM is all about.

Multi Level Marketing offers everything from water softeners to vitamins and anything else that can't sell in retail stores. Think about this, if the product had true value wouldn't it be on the shelf at a retail super store? If you had the patent and copyright on a great useable product would you sell it through major store chains or go to the effort of selling it door to door and cold selling? Of course you would sign the contract to put the product in stores. It's been my experience that MLM doesn't offer products that are worth continuing to pay a monthly fee.

The lack of real products is just the tip of the ice burg. Multi Level Marketing opportunities seem to be as far behind the times when it comes to marketing as they are when it comes to their products. Your upline will suggest that you purchase leads and spend all day cold calling, passing out flyers, attend conferences in various cities and other low response and low success rate tactics.

The primary tactic they teach members is "the 3 Foot Rule". I absolutely hate the concept of this particular rule. The 3 foot rule means that everyone who you come in contact within 3 feet of, you must pitch your business to them. I can not phantom hanging out with my friends and constantly pitching them on some vitamin or magic juice. Those who do this technique find that their friends develop a 10 feet rule. I other words they say "stay 10 feet away from that guy!"

I have been earning money from home for several years and never once have I used the 3 feet rule. When I'm out and about it's my time. If I had to tell everybody about my business it would seem like over time to me.

The Multi Level Marketing payment structures are created to make those at the top and the owner of the MLM rich. All the payment plans are matrices which usually are binary payment plans. Plenty of legs but little profit! Another bad thing about Multi Level Marketing payment plans is that they require monthly payments. Believe me or ignore this, it's up to you, but monthly fees guarantee dropouts.

I'll wrap this post up by saying this; If you want to spend years pouring your time and money into a business which offers very small payouts in hopes of future profit, then Multi Level Marketing is for you!

Top Money Makers for Bloggers

2008-06-09T04:26:00.001-07:00

Over the course of my time as a blogger, I’ve looked into numerous ways of making my efforts work for me. A great many bloggers choose not to use their blog in this way and I fully respect their decisions for this. However, I believe, if done conscientiously, you can use your blog as a way to supplement your teaching income while still providing a valuable source of information and entertainment for your readers. Here are a few of the ways I use, all of which are free to sign up for:

Smorty is a service that allows you to make money from your blog by writing opinion articles about available advertiser campaigns. It’s free to sign up and opportunities are sent directly to your personal admin panel and email account. Turn your daily blog updates into money: between 5 and 20 minutes of writing could be sending money directly to your PayPal account after posts are approved. You can apply with multiple blogs to write more opinions and receive more payments.

BidVertiser is basically a clone of Adsense, You can display BidVertiser text ads on your website or blog, get paid for every click and have the payments sent directly to your PayPal account. The big advantage of this service is that you only need to reach ten dollars before you get paid.

Sponsored Reviews works on a similar basis to Smorty, in that you earn cash by writing honest reviews about our advertiser's products and services. Of course, you get the chance to write reviews in your own tone and style, and gear them to your audience's interest. The advantage of this service is that you can look through a large list of campaigns and choose the ones that best suit the subject of your blog.

Adbrite is another service working along similar lines to Adsense, but also allowing you to place adverts on video clips and pictures.

Again, another website that lets you get paid for blogging. You write about web sites, products, services, and companies and earn cash for providing your opinion and valuable feedback to advertisers. This one requires that your blog has quite a high level of traffic.

How Much Time Does Your Staff Spend Selling?

2008-06-06T01:38:00.000-07:00

While doing a small seminar last week I noticed that only one company in the room actually had a sales department. The rest actually thought they did - and probably would say they did - but when we analysed the situation, they realised they had effectively misplaced their sales department a few years ago and hadn't noticed.

This led us to the realisation that sales departments can be inadvertently misappropriated and closed. This, naturally, is extremely detrimental to any business because a business without a sales department is just a ghost of what it could be.

Has your Sales department disappeared or been misplaced? Here are a few ways for you to find out.

A Time Analysis

One of the companies at the seminar was made up of the owner and four salespeople. On paper, it would appear that this is a large sales force. However, a time analysis revealed that all but one spent just 10% of their time (about four hours per week) on sales. The rest of their time, they did service and sales of other products, paperwork, service calls etc. This example shows that counting heads is not as accurate as counting hours. I suggest you take an accurate count of the amount of time each employee spends on sales activities such as prospecting and doing demos. The result may surprise you. How much time is your sales department actually selling?

The Number Of Sales Presentations

Another way to measure the size of your sales department is a game I call "Count The Presentations". Take an accurate count with customer names of the presentations or sales visits performed last week. First, calculate how many presentations is a day's work in your industry. If you sell complex products to businesses, it could be one per day. If you sell in-home to consumers, it could be two per day. If you sell by phone, it could be 30 per day. Take your total presentation that should be done each day and divide by the number of presentations per day that should be done. The number you get from tthis formula represents the real number pof salespeople on your team. If it is less than you expected, you need to hire or refocus your current team on sales.

The Hours Of Operation

It's a proven fact that customers prefer to buy when they are too busy. We actually do a lot, lot better when we make it easy for the customer to buy. So for most consumers that means evenings and weekends are the prime selling time. Business people don't want visitors at their busiest times and restaurants want no salespeople during their peak traffic periods. Does your sales staff work these prime selling hours or are the stuck with the old nine-to-five mentality?

One good way to see how much actual selling is going on is to see what percentage of prime selling time your team is in the field. If you set the "golden selling time" as 5 to 9 Monday to Thursday and Saturday, that is a total of 24 hours per week. Measure what percentage of those hours your staff is out selling and you have a good measure of the percentage of a sales force you actually have. If you have 4 salespeople who are in the field 50% of those hours, I believe you will find you should discount the size of your sales force by 50%.

It is also interesting to me that many companies who struggle in sales have new recruits and part timers working the best sales hours. This is a serious handicap to success. It just doesn't pay to have your experienced and talented staff in when fewer customers come by and your least experienced and successful team on the floor when most buyers come in.

Call Back Success

Another measurement of sales success is the number of sales generated each week from calling prospects who did not buy at their initial appointment and getting another chance to get the sale get the sale. Good companies add about 15% to total sales from call backs. If your percentage is less, you are leaving money on the table that could be in your pocket. For example, my wife and I visited a large retail store yesterday but did not buy anything. Could a call from a manager, asking why, get us back in? Yes, it could. Further, they would find out from the call why we did not buy. This would allow them to make decisions from actual (and valuable) customer feed back.

Focus & Importance

Another interesting measure of your sales department is the focus of your company and the importance of sales. If you company believes that anything other than presentations and sales is important today, you don't have a sales department. If the first question on everyone's mind today is how many did we present and sell last yesterday, how many will we do today, you have a sales department. If that is the last thing on the minds of your staff, you do not. Ask each of your staff members what is the most important thing on their minds today. The result may surprise you. If the answer is anything but presenting and selling, you will benefit from changes.

Sales Or Customer Dis-Service?

Another interesting measurement of your sales department, is its membership. Is anyone a full time salesperson? Just as important, is EVERYONE focused on selling? Do you keep track of the number of appointments generated per call-in? Do you train your entire staff on how to use calls to generate sales? Does your delivery staff call on neighbors of your customers to see if they your products or services? Do your techs ask customers if they have any other needs? If not, these staff members are overhead when they could be an important part of your sales department.

If you take these tests and find you have misplaced your sales department in the years since you opened for business, now is the time to take steps. Without sales, a company withers and dies. You have the power to direct every member of your team to sell every day. Costs do not rise from focusing on sales but income rises dramatically. No matter how many sales you make each month without a sales department, you deserve to sell a lot more.

I strongly suggest you keep this article and take these measurements monthly to see if you are making progress. The funny thing about sales departments is the moment you take your focus of them they begin to disappear.

Don't be oblivious to the gold around you

2008-06-03T04:55:00.000-07:00

What could be your easiest and most profitable promotion may be lying there, right under your nose.

It seems that nearly every small business owner I talk to is constantly looking for new customers. Despite the fact that more emphasis should be put on your existing clients than finding new, there is a formula you can follow to attract more than enough new ones.

First, open your eyes! As much as I personally dislike all the negativity in most newspapers, there are hundreds of potential story ideas and promotional themes you could use.

What does it take? Very little

Here are some headlines from my local paper today:

Total smoke ban on Tories' agenda

Good as Golden - Globes set stage for Oscar showdowns "Meryl Streep won her sixth Golden Globe, this one as best actress in a musical or comedy for The Devil Wears Prada"

Flames riding gusher of support thanks to hot economy

City building boom fuels national record

Blockbuster Video: "The Illusionist" top rental

Each one of these could be a potential reason to be in touch with your clients to promote your products and services.

This may seem a little abstract to you right now, but it is one of the keys to marketing success... the ability to see beyond the obvious and look for magical themes for your promotions.

For example:

Total smoke ban on Tories' agenda they want to ban smoking in all bars and restaurants.

Sounds good to me! I am an ex-smoker and the thought of being able to go out to a bar or restaurant without having to smell or breathe second hand smoke works for me.

Potential theme idea I could run: My 5 Year Anniversary and a BIG Thank You to the Tories!

October 2001 I took the plunge and quit smoking and haven't looked back. I don't miss the smell, taste, expense, or feeling period. And in honor of the big smoke ban taking place in our fine city I want to extend to you a special offer.

Bring in the coupon below, and for my 5th year smoke free you can buy one product (anyone of them in our showroom) and get a second one for only 5 CENTS! That's right a nickel sale. 5 cents for your second item no catch as long as the second item is of equivalent or lesser value. Good for 5 days from today.

One other theme idea I could run:

Good as Golden - Globes set stage for Oscar showdowns - "Meryl Streep won her sixth Golden Globe, this one as best actress in a musical or comedy for The Devil Wears Prada."

Promotion: Let's say I run a marketing consultation business.

My ad: Local Entrepreneur Challenges Local Business Owners with the Devilish Marketing Platinum Awards Ceremony. Announcing the first annual award for the most outlandish and daring marketing promotions in use by small businesses. If your marketing is "edgy" or is considered by many to be risqué this is for you.

These are just off the cuff ideas you would definitely put more time into your own. But the key is look at what the media is talking about and piggyback on their efforts.

Find a hot topic write a related hot promotion then make sure all your local media knows what you are doing (as well as national and international media). If you do it right, you will get exposure and you will make more money.

I dare you! Try it.

How Residual Income Opportunities can Help you Make Money

2008-06-01T03:58:00.000-07:00

Let's face it, we all are in the need for more money most of the time. Whether it's to buy a new car or a house, we all have experienced the difference between our desires and our financial situation. If we are ever going to live a life free from financial constraint, then we will need more money in the form of residual income.

So, how do we generate that extra income?

You have to work more to make more money nowadays. Either you get a new job that brings a much higher income or you just have to get a second job. Today, people are now working two jobs in order to make more money. However, this seriously limits the amount of money you are going to make even though you are working those two jobs. Imagine this, the amount of money that you are going to make will all depend on your skills and qualifications and more importantly on the amount of time that you will be able to dedicate. This is why it is more lucrative to focus on a residual income opportunity.

Residual income - also known as passive income - is a type of income that'll bring you money even if you do not work continuously for it. This means the residual income will keep on coming in. You have more free time to try to find new ideas to earn even more money. In this article two types of residual income will be discussed, reality real life and online residual income.

In real life, you could be earning extra income with many opportunities. For instance, you can have some stocks and bonds at the stock exchange that could be bringing you income in the form of interests and dividends while you are at rest. Alternatively, you can be earning money from the licensing of one of your products. Residual income is much more common than some may think in real life, but you certainly will need some sort of initial investment at the very beginning.

How to earn residual income online?

If you are searching to find a residual income opportunity and earn a residual income for the first time then the Internet is the place to begin. This is so because of the number of opportunities that are available. For example, if you have a website that has many visitors, you can be earning big with advertisements and affiliates program. In fact, there are numerous online residual income opportunities that exist and it is only to you to find out the one that most suit you.

Residual income is highly recommended for all those that are looking to break free from financial constraint. Most certainly, you will have to make some investment in the first place either in the form of money and capital or in the form of time and effort. However, once set up, you will have nothing or very little to do. You can then sit back and enjoy the dollars rolling in.

Buying your Software over the Internet can Save you some Cash

2008-05-24T05:11:00.000-07:00

Theoretically, software is the ideal item to buy over the Internet. Choose your program, hand over your credit card number and before you know it, your new software has been downloaded on to your computer and is ready to run. In practice though, things aren't quite that simple.

Many applications, especially games, are far too big to download over a modem and even if you could, you would miss out on all the documentation and that lovely big box you never know what to do with.

The bulk of paid-for software sales on the net still go through outlets selling boxed programs, but the number of pay-to-download options is growing, especially with the increasing respectability of shareware. Many small utilities such as WinZip can be paid for online, enabling computer users to save their consciences by registering programs that they've used way beyond the specified trial period. In any case, the nag screen becomes terribly annoying, and you may as well pay the few bucks for it.

If you do buy some software - commercial or otherwise - by downloading it and paying with your credit card, make sure you keep a record of the transaction somewhere other than on your computer. Should the worst happen and your hard disk throws itself off a tall building, it'll take ages to pick up the pieces of your digital life and you'll need some proof of purchase to give to the retailer so it'll let you download the program again.

But for the time being, it's boxed software we're after - the cheapest place to buy McAfee, or MSOffice. An increasing number of software publishers are selling direct over the Net, but few games publishers do so because the high street retailers that are so important to a game's success would get miffed if they were undercut online.

If you're buying an application, it's worth paying a visit to the publisher's site first - because it's cut out the middle man, it might be offering a good deal. Shop around on the Net and it won't be long before you've found your program on sale for less than it costs in the high street and as cheap as any mail order outlet.

However, the vast majority of software shops on the Net are in a parlous state. Ugly design, unhelpful search engines and badly organized directories are just the start of your worries. Few of the sites attempt to highlight new or popular programs, with most just content to let you do all the work. Take a look at Kalahari.net and you won't even see a description of their products.

The most impressive software sites are situated in the US. Many of them have clear, detailed descriptions, with plenty of bargains and a money making affiliate program. Their sites are searchable by title or category, and boast a simple ordering procedure. You will also see how cheap hardware and software is in the US. Go green with envy and smash your monitor in frustration. Remember, that US DVDs and console games may not work on unmodified kits in your own country.

It all begs the question, 'Who is going to be the Amazon.com of the software market?' If the existing shops don't get their act together, it's more than likely that it's going to be Amazon.com.

How you can Make your Blog Survive the Latest Blogging Fads

2008-05-12T03:46:00.000-07:00

It seems to me that every few years there is some kind of product or service that promises to make you tons of money or get you indexed by Google in just a few days. Most of these ebooks or guides overpromise and just don't deliver. You've probably been burned by one, two, or several of these so called "step-by-step" guides because the information was either to elementary or it was too complex.

Let me break down the steps that you need to take to make your blog survive and even thrive through all of the blogging fads that arise.

Step 1 - Focus on content

Content has to be the #1 priority of your blog and you need to write about what you know. Just by writing about what you know, you will be recognized as an authority in that area in no time.

You have to inject your personality into the content as well. Don't be dry or dull. Write engaging content that makes the reader think and act upon what you are saying.

Step 2 - Network with other blogs

To survive, you'll need to be friendly and make friends. Find other blogs related to your own blog and comment on them. This is a quick way to get people interested in what you have to say to come to your blog. Leave insightful comments on their blogs and people will follow you to your blog.

You can also contact the blog owner and offer to write a unique blog post for them in exchange for a link back to your own blog. Most blog owners will snap this up in a heartbeat because it's free content for them and it helps establish a relationship. Don't be afraid of networking.

Step 3 - Make your blog sociable

Take advantage of each and every plug-in or add-on that you can use for your blog. Most of these services are free and they are specifically designed to help get your blog content out to a larger audience. Make your blog Diggable, make it del.icio.us, use reddit, sign up with OnlyWire.com and get your content out there.

The more unique and better your content is from other blogs in your niche, the more that your content will be shared. It's just the natural effect of the blogosphere.

When others are trying the latest fad and wondering why it's just not taking off like they were told that it would, you will have separated yourself from the "fad followers". You will have a blog that has fantastic, unique content, is networked, and is sociable and these factors will be what makes you survive beyond the fads.

Working at Home: a Viable Option?

2008-05-11T04:02:00.000-07:00

Many people want to start their own business from home. Why? Well, working from home gives them the freedom to be their own boss and make their own money into the things that they want to do not have to do.

With the rising toll of joblessness - many jobs going overseas - and the rising cost of gas, it's no wonder many people want to find a business idea for home based work. There are many business ideas for home-based work you just need to get creative and think about what you know how to do best and the business ideas for working at home will come to you.

Ask yourself the following questions and the answers will give you some business ideas for home. What is it I like to do? Do I like to help people? Do I work well with others? Or do I work best alone? Am I a good salesperson? Or would it be better that I had a product or service that sells itself? What is popular right now in the world of work at home?

There are many ideas that will come to you after asking yourself those above questions. If you go with what is popular now than these things ideas for home are helping people start their own home-based business, helping people make money with a home-based business, losing weight, stop smoking, better your life, how to change your career and selling information online.

Helping people is a big business idea for a home based business. People need help when it comes to change because change scares a lot of people. Switching from a regular 9-to-5 job to that of a work at home job is a big idea for home business and this may intimidate a lot of people. If you offer your expertise as a work-at-home person such as the mentor or a life coach you will have many clients that need your help. If you can help them walk through the process of setting up a home-based business this is a great idea to get your own home-based business working. And it's something to help others.

If you prefer, you can always sell products or services. Products such as software are in great demand. You can buy the resale rights to many software products and then sell them again to people who visit your website. These software titles include how to start your own business from home, how to write articles to send more people to your website, how to copyright your articles and much, much more. Buying resale rights software products is a very lucrative moneymaking work-at-home business idea.

If you can use your real world business information and apply that to you now online business you will be on your way to making money at a work at home job. And the context you had in the real world will be just as happy to be your customers in the virtual, online world. It's called networking, you give them a call or drop them an e-mail and tell them all about your new business and tell them you want them to remain your customer. You can also offer them something for free such as an article or an eBook about your product or service is that will be an official to them.

The Pros and Cons of Day Trading

2008-04-19T04:04:00.000-07:00

With the technology boom that has changed the way business is done across the globe, one unintended result has been the rise of day trading. Day trading is a risky and stressful form of trading that involved buying stock and selling it within one working day. It's possible that, if this is done enough times, with the right foresight and financial advice, that a person can make quite a lot of money each day. Day trading wasn't even an option before the 1990's ane here's why.

Way back before the computer age allowed instant stock buying and selling, the financial settlement period use to take much, much longer. It was possible to buy a stock, and not have to pay for it for another 10 business days. It was common practice in those days to try to sell the stock for more than it was worth before you had to pay for it in an attempt to make a profit. Many traders who had no actual money of their own would make their livings this way, and it's obvious how dangerous this was.

A day trader has many different strategic options that he or she can follow to try to make a profit. The first is trend following. This is a tool that is used by all investors and its simply the idea that stocks that have been going up will continue to go up and stocks that have been going down will continue to go down. Obviously, this isn't always the case, which makes trend following a dangerous method to base all of your day trading investments on.

Range trading is another tool used by day traders. This is the practice of buying and selling stocks once they reach their respective highs and lows. The trader figures that a stock that is headed up will continue to go up, but only until it reaches a new high, and then it's due to go back down. The same is thought for stocks headed the other way. Once they reach a brand new low, they tend to rebound and head back up.

Playing news is another common tool of the day trader. The technique is exactly what it sounds like, buying stock that has just released good news and selling stock that has just released bad news.

While none of these techniques are guaranteed, day trading is increasing in popularity every year, and while the potential for significant loss is very real, many continue to walk the tightrope that is day trading.

How to Let your Money Work for you with Automated FOREX Trading

2008-04-16T03:50:00.000-07:00

In our modern world of luxury and comfort, some financial speculators are finding it advantageous to do FOREX trading the easy way: through automated FOREX trading systems.

An automated FOREX trading is exactly what it sounds like: a highly sophisticated and complicated computer program uses mathematical algorithms to determine when to buy and sell currency, and it makes the trades for you. You put an initial investment into the account, and then let the system do all the work for you.

It may sound risky to let a computer program choose when to buy and sell currency, but automated trading can often be safer than doing it yourself. Humans are subject to error, to misreading charts, and to overlooking data. Humans can also let their emotions get in the way of making smart decisions, like the gambler who loses everything because he just can't tear himself away from the blackjack table.

An automated trading program has none of those flaws. With the software doing it for you, it's as if you were always watching every market, noticing every trend, instantly analyzing all available data, and making the smartest decisions.

There is a cost for this, of course. Most brokers that offer it require a minimum investment of several thousand dollars or more, and they may charge a fee on top of that.

However, the benefits of automated FOREX trading can be fantastic. Whereas manual trading requires an investor to study the market intensely before jumping in to it, automated trading requires no training at all. Learn the very basics of how the market works so you can tell what your automated system is doing for you, and that's it. Sit back and let it make your money work for you.

Automated trading is also useful for companies and other institutions that want to diversify their assets but don't have the time or resources to devote to FOREX trading. If a computer program can do it for you, there's no need to have one of your employees handle it, right?

It goes without saying that automated trading systems rely on technical analysis rather than fundamental analysis. That is, the algorithms examine past market performance and general trends and base their trading decisions on that, not on external factors such as politics and environmental concerns, which may affect a nation's currency. Nonetheless, automated trading has proven to be highly effective and accurate for many investors, freeing up their schedules to focus on other things.

What to Do when your Website has no Traffic

2008-04-09T03:28:00.000-07:00

When you put your website together for the first time, it can be very frustrating to discover that just about no one comes to visit. Your traffic may be stuck at just a few visitors now and again, and it doesn't seem worth it after all the work you have done in setting everything up. So how do you go about getting good quality traffic to your website?

Guaranteed Traffic Services

Lets start by saying what you should definitely not do! There are lots of people on the internet who are exactly the same position as you are - struggling with no or very little traffic.

So as with anything in life - if there is a need, there is always someone ready and able to supply your need - or so it seems. Lots of traffic providers come along and say, OK you need traffic, we will sell you some. In fact there are lots of so called "guaranteed traffic" providers who promise you lots of traffic - maybe even millions of hits.

The problem with this "traffic" however is that it is so low quality traffic, it's very unlikely that all of the hits are worth anything at all

Why Does "Loads Of Any Old Hits" Not Work?

The secret to being successful online is not thousands and thousands of hits, although of course if you really did manage that then your website would do fantastically well. The secret to being successful is "targeted traffic" not "guaranteed traffic".

Targeted Traffic means that the people coming to your website are already interested in what you have to offer before they come. In fact they are more than just passively interested, they are desperately keen to buy what ever you have to offer. They are eager to get what you are offering

Where are all these people?

They could be in any number of places, but usually you will find them typing in keywords into a search engine search box, and you might also find them on forums asking questions about what they are trying to find, or more recently on social network sites like MySpace and YouTube

The key to being successful with your own website, and to attracting these people is to understand that if you design your website right to start with, you will be at an advantage, because the search engines will be listing your content, and so all these hungry seekers will be seeing your website listed in the search results

How Should I Design My Pages?

The key first step in setting up your website is to do some keyword research. I suggest you think about it like this - if people are going to find your website by typing in keywords into the search engine search boxes, then it's a good idea if your website is optimized for these keyword phrases to start with

However there's another very important point. Finding the right keywords and keyword phrases, is also about finding the right "niche" or theme for your website. If you try and produce a website about the same "niche" or theme as millions of others already out there, then there's a good chance your website will not get listed very highly in the search results. This is because the competition will be too strong.

On the other hand, if you research your keyword and keyword phrases before hand, and decide to target only those "niches" or themes which have relatively few sites listed, then the competition against your site will be far less, and if your search engine optimization is better than many of the other sites, then you have an outstanding chance of getting your website listed within the top 10 sites.

My advice is to work out carefully what "niche" or theme your website is going to be about, and approach the subject from the position of the person searching for information - not from your desire to have a website about x or y.

Now you might get lucky, and put together a website that just happens to be in a niche that you can get a listing for, but if you are going to put in alot of work running your own website, then its best to test the waters first, and research different keyword themes or "niches" that have a chance of working

What If I Can't Find A Niche?

To begin with you will have problems finding a suitable niche which is not already crowded, but here's a simple way to do it

1. Think of a one-word keyword e.g. shopping, holiday, hotel - all of these words will already be swamped with sites, but this is just an example
2. Go to the search engines like Google and type in your one word keyword
3. Look at how many sites it says are in the index - at the top of the page it will say 1 to 10 out of some number e.g. 1,489,543. The bigger the number the more the sites there are competing with your website
4. Now scan down the first page of results. Look at the ads down the right hand side, and the normal results down the main part of the page
5. See if you can find a second word, which will go with the main keyword. Concentrate on words that could be main keywords in themselves. An example might be "holiday brochure" - but remember the second word must be listed on the first page of results - this is a quick way for you to find a niche. If possible give priority to words that appear in the titles or description of the ads down the right hand side, because this indicates that your niche may well be profitable
6. Once you have your second word its time to check it, so type in your two words together as a phrase into the search box and see how many sites you come up with now. You might be surprised how few sites are listed as compared to the main keyword you started with

Making Money From My Website

To make money from your website is not so difficult if you have the right "niche". This is because after a little while you will start getting traffic automatically from the search engines every day. You can bolster this traffic by starting a page on any or all of the social network sites such as MySpace and by making and uploading a simple video on YouTube. Whenever you make a comment or make a post anywhere, be sure to list your website and your real name if possible, in the signature file or just enter it manually by clicking on the "enter link" button, that you will find around somewhere

To sell something of your own is alot easier than being an affiliate, however affiliate programs such as the products on Clickbank have many advantages, and can earn you a good commission over time

I would recommend that you find affiliate products that are a match for your website theme, and then simply write an article about the product, taking details from the sellers sales webpage, and finish the article with a "to find out more click here" type link.

This should mean that you will have found a niche that you can get a listing for high in the search results, and you website will get traffic for free everyday from the search engines, and you have affiliate products that will earn you commissions when anyone buys any of the products

In addition it can be a good idea to have an autoresponder program, so that you can offer your visitors a free newsletter. This can be another way to develop even more traffic, as these subscribers return later, and you can send them interesting offers and affiliate promotions in the future

What you Need to Know about Home Based Business Opportunities

2008-03-23T03:53:00.000-07:00

As you well know, there are many business opportunities in the home-based business world. You just need to know where to look for them! The Internet, business acquaintances, friends and family and just about anywhere you look. When you see a need for something, this is a business opportunity. You must have an entrepreneurial sense of curiosity in spirit make your own business opportunities in the home-based business world.

A business opportunity can come from a friend who needs some writing done for his or her business and they hire you as a ghostwriter, this is a business opportunity to make extra money. And then you can hire yourself out as a ghostwriter because now you have experience. And if writing is something you enjoy and are good at, you can write articles for other people and their websites that is a perfect business opportunity for you to make extra money.

A business opportunity can be found everywhere on the Internet if you know which keywords to type in the search engines. You can type in business opportunity and you will get a whole host of information regarding business opportunities. And depending on what you want to do, like selling or helping others set up their own business opportunities you can find it on the Internet. However the Internet is not the only place to find a business opportunity. A business opportunity can present itself to the newspaper - in the one ads, through your friends and family, just about anywhere.

If you sell a product or service from a website or out of your home there are many business opportunities when you meet other business owners for you to trade website links or information where you might become an affiliate of each other's businesses. This means you will be selling for the other person and they will be selling for you. This will broaden your sales team - even if you didn't have one you have one now - and you will get more business this way and so will the other person. When you're at a party like a dinner party or a meeting and you start talking with people about your business opportunity its called networking and they in turn talk to you about their business. It's always a good idea to carry business cards with your website address on them so people can check out your website and your products and services so they know if they want to join you in selling your products and services. The same goes for you, you want to check out their products and services to make sure this something that you want to represent to your business associates. This is a great way to produce more business opportunity to make more money for everyone involved.

You can make your own business opportunity by networking and therefore becoming an affiliate of someone else's business and they become an affiliate of yours therefore widening your sales reach to include theirs at the same time you are widening their sales circle which is a win-win situation for everyone involved.

Keep your eye out for a business opportunity because they are hiding everywhere.

Multilevel Marketing: Another Way to Make Money from Home

2008-03-22T04:12:00.000-07:00

MLM - also known as network marketing - is a means to market directly to customers by a business which is also known as a relationship of distribution.

The independent sales people go by many names, they are usually un-salaried and can be called distributors, consultants or sales consultants, independent business agents, or business agents or franchise owners etc. They represent the parent company or the beginning company and they are paid on a commission basis equal to the amount of volume they sell. They sell to consumers by building their own customer base through networking with other marketers sometimes called affiliate marketing in which they trade website links to be placed on each other's webpage so that each gets more business and sales and that is how multilevel marketing works.

MLM is not for everyone

There is a stigma attached to multilevel marketing because somewhere along the line there was a pyramid or Ponzi scheme in which an individual would be paid by recruiting other salespeople. A legitimate MLM only pays commissions for the product or services that are being sold not for the recruitment of other salespeople. This is why many people are afraid of MLM, they don't know how to determine if it's legitimate or not.

The 70% Rule

One of the legitimate MLM tests is the 70% rule. This means a salesperson must sell 70% are formerly purchased supplies before placing another order with the company. This rule prevents "inventory loading" in order for the person to qualify for bonuses. There are varying regulations about 70% rule, some MLM companies allow for the products in the 70% to be sold to other people in the MLM group or other regulations say the 70% rule states they must be sold outside of the MLM group.

When joining a legitimate MLM group, check with all the rules and regulations to make sure it is a legitimate MLM. Check to see what your commissions will be and if there is a 70% rule in place and where you can sell the 70%.

Since MLM is simply networking there are many ways to network. You can network over the Internet through what is called social networking. This is an often used technique by sales professionals to network themselves, 'get out there' and 'be seen.' But how do you do that when you are an on-line business? There are many different social networking sights available today that will help you remain visible and allow you to place your website or a link to your webpages within your profile.

LinkedIn is a social network that helps you find professionals either from schools or businesses. 43Things is a social network of goal oriented professionals. Pownce and Twitter are both microblogging spots to share whatever is on your mind.

Utterz is brand new and you can share your views about current event through voice or video as well as the old-fashioned way, typing on the computer!

Social bookmarking is another great idea when it comes to social networking. Social bookmarking is based on the idea that anything you bookmark, anyone can see, and you can see who has bookmarked the same website and so on. It's a great idea to have a social bookmarking tool on your website to allow those who use social bookmarking to bookmark your website as well. It also gives you the opportunity to see who has book market your webpage and a way to communicate with them!

The Growth in Home-Based Business is Astounding

2008-03-07T04:07:00.000-08:00

Presently, home-based businesses are growing leaps and bounds. More people than ever want to work at home at home-based business. There are many reasons for this turn from the traditional 9-to-5 work at a company to a work at any home-based business. Rising gas costs are probably the number one reason people would like to work at home. Not having to deal with the office politics and the supervisor or boss is probably the second reason people want to work at home and probably the third reason is people are losing their jobs and an alarming rate and therefore forced to find something else and why not work at a home-based business where you can make money, save gas, and spend more time with your family.

Home-based business can be a number of things it doesn't always mean to sell something, however, selling something is usually where people began their home-based business careers. From selling makeup, to the very popular "green products" which help to clean your home and are good for the environment to selling software that can help you boost your new home-based business all of these things are good places to begin and will make you money in your new home-based business.

There are also home-based businesses that help people, they help people begin in the home-based business world. These home-based businesses help people start their own home-based business by showing them what they should do, how they should do it and what not to do. Most of the home-based businesses that help people, but are selling a service, have already been through all the ups and downs of owning a home-based business and will show the new people what to beware of them starting their own home-based business.

In the beginning, working at a home-based business can be tough, especially if you don't know anyone to sell your items to and that is where networking comes in. Networking with other home-based business workers is a great opportunity to form friendships, get help with information you need and form alliances in which you might be able to trade websites which is called affiliate marketing so that you both can make a profit off of each other's products or services. Having a mentor or coach is also a good idea when you first begin your home-based business and there are a lot of mentors or life coaches that are willing to help when you first start out. Because they have been there and know that it can be difficult when you're starting out alone.

Just remember, if you pick a home-based business that you offer a product or service that people want you will do fine. Do a little research before beginning your home-based business, search the top selling items through a Google or Yahoo search and see what the top-selling items or services are at this time. Most of them have to do with weight loss or helping people make money through the sale of software that you can purchase the rights to and then sell on your own website.

More Tips To Survive The Google Pagerank Breakup

2008-03-06T04:24:00.000-08:00

So, Google just broke up with you after a yearlong pagerank 5 relationship! Don't worry too much, it’s just temporary of course. You’ll have the buggers chasing you back with some of these search engine flirtation tips.

Go bold

Just as women love bold suitors, so do search engines. Start highlighting keywords on each page with the tag to increase search relevance. Search engines are attracted to words contained in the H1 and B tags. Just don’t go wild- two bold words per page is enough.

Go Deeper

Having other sites drill deep into your web at various locations tells google that ‘hey, this guy has varied useful content’. It’s poor SEO strategy to acquire links just to link to the homepage. The search engines may ultimately discount those links .

Go foreign

Why focus on your country? You can take your business to India, Pakistan, UK and Hongkong! Start creating pages for lucrative markets and submit to their local directories. This ensures multiple streams of revenue. Imagine penetrating the vast Russian Market!

Newsletters

Provide articles to publishers like ezinearticles. The links breathe for many years in their archives and funnel backlinks to your site.

Go for text links

Image links are good, but text links are more appreciated. If your site is full of image links, have your webmaster place the text links first because that’s what google looks for. Subsequent links are often discounted.

Multiple Partners

Create different domains on varying IPs that talk about similar subjects. The reason is that Google only lists one domain page per search result. Imagine if you owned ten domains that came up for the same search result? You’ll be seducing more curious searchers. Another tip: search engine consulting firms recommend varying the keywords used on these domains just to minimize looking spammy. I link to my executive coaching firm and asian job board with at least 20 permutations of the same keywords.

Article Exchanges

You’ve heard of reciprocal link exchanges. Text link purchases. One way backlink purchases. Try them, and it’s like getting herpes on the net. Google blacklists you and treats you like a whore. But article exchages are different. Whip up an article, upload to Ezinearcticles and before you know it- wham! Dozens of sites publish your article and bring fawning admirers to your door.

Shun Unvaried Anchor Text

If 1000 sites links to you with the appellation “Gimme Money”, Google starts to squint and dig deeper, “Smells like automated filthy spam, methinks.” Avoid the search engine ban by varying the anchor text. Dance under different names and you’ll flirt more grandly with search engines.

Site map

Your visitors reach the honeypot more rapidly when you have a structured sitemap that links to every major page. Keep the map on a location easily accessible so you keep the action flowing. Google bots flirt with sitemaps too and often births detailed search results. So keep it search engine friendly.

Why you shouldn't Trust Psychic Phone Lines

2008-02-27T03:47:00.000-08:00

The big psychic phone companies make me laugh. They all offer the same bland uninspiring readings and then have the cheek to tell you how they are going to change your life for ever. They often employ inexperienced readers who may be supplied with a script to work from.

Their aim seems to be to encourage dependency on the psychic readers and boost their cash flow. I know I worked for one myself several years ago for a very short period. I quickly realised that my ethics did not fit in with theirs and ended my acquaintance with them almost immediately. They are totally profit driven and care very little for the client's well fare.

All readers are instructed to make sure the client knows their pin number (identification) and this must be repeated several times to encourage the client to get back to you whenever he/she has the need for some psychic advice.

In pay-per-minute readings you are instructed by the company line mangers who are target driven to keep the client on as long as possible even if this means waffling on about very little. If fact if you don't, you are told your pay will be reduced! At the end of the reading you must encourage the client to return to you if they need any further help or advice.

It doesn't matter even if they have called because they have financial problems and will make it worse by ringing psychic lines. Some troubled souls desperate for help will ring every day and run up a huge phone bill in the process.

The Real Deal

If you're dealing with a professional psychicthey will always tell you that you need to leave a gap of several months between meetings. This is for two purposes:

1. To allow events outlined in the reading to unfold.

2. A reading will just repeat itself if you seek one too soon - nothing new will be learned and you will have wasted your time and your money.

Now the companies have all introduced SMS text messaging to encourage further dependency. A text coming in out of cyberspace from a psychic (?) who has never had any real contact with you, is supposed to be of help! I remain unconvinced.

Why are Many People Are Giving Up Their 9-To-5 to Work From Home?

2008-02-16T03:55:00.000-08:00

You must know by now that many, many people are giving up their 9-to-5 to work from home online and there are several reasons for this. One has to be the staggering state of the economy. Another could be the jobless rate, people are being laid off at an alarming rate and what better place to turn to then to work from home online.

Work from home online can mean many different things to many different people. It doesn't always mean to sell something and it doesn't always mean you will become a millionaire. While working from home online does mean is that you will have the freedom to become your own boss, set your own hours and yes make money while you work from home online.

Do your research

If you'd like to work from home online, you need to do your research first. There are many unscrupulous work-from-home businesses out there that are only looking to cash in on your lack of knowledge regarding work-at-home businesses. the first thing you need to know when you want to work from home online is that you should not have to pay a dime to work at home online. If you're going to work for someone then they are going to pay you to work for them. You do not have to pay them to work for them. This is a test of legitimacy. You might have to purchase products if you're going to sell for them and that is something different however if you are asked for a start up fee that does not include the products then you should think twice about going with this work-at-home online business.

Find what interests you

There are many popular businesses for work from home online that you might be interested in. One of the most popular businesses for work from home online is the sale of products that are "green" which means they are good for the environment and everyone is for the environment at this time which is a good thing. These products are biodegradable and will not harm you or your family or your pets. There are products such as cleaners, cleansers, shampoos, soaps, make ups, even trash bags and countless other items that are good for Mother Earth. They are all big sellers and you can find them on the Internet and you can either open your own "store" as a work from home online business or you can become an affiliate marketer which means you sell for someone else who sells these products and you get a commission from what you sell.

How to help others

Other popular work from home online businesses include helping others such as helping people lose weight or start their own work at home business. Helping people start their own home-based business is easy when you have started your own home-based business because you know what you've gone through and what to avoid when be gaining your own home-based business. You can become a mentor or a life coach and help those who are just starting out. Life coach is not only help people begin businesses but they help people with their entire lives, from organization down to the tiniest items and lots of people need help organizing their lives.

4 Things you Need in your Office for an Online Business

2008-02-09T03:42:00.000-08:00

When you're ready to set up an online business, you need to have the right equipment. But if you've never run a business before on your own, what exact equipment this is might be a bit of a mystery. Instead of trying out a few things that might work, you may want to follow this list of the four things you absolute must have in your office to make your online business work.

1: Computer with High Speed Internet

It should go without saying that if you are trying to run an online business, you need to have a computer that works well. When you're looking at your website, your traffic totals, and your money transactions, you need to be able to access this information easily and without any interruptions. This is why you also need to invest in a high speed internet connection (not dial up) to help you with these tasks. When you have this faster connection, you can instantly pull up the windows you need on your computer as well as address any customer concerns and emails when they come in, rather than when the internet line is available for you. You will also not have to worry about external phone calls jamming or interrupting your internet connection.

2: A Fax

While most tasks can be done online these days, there are still things that you will need to do with the 'real' phone line. Most people still want certain documents and order forms sent via fax, so it's best that you have this available to use, with its own phone line so as not to interrupt any other tasks you have with the home phone. There are ways to set up your fax to handle transmissions over the internet as well, but you will need a newer fax machine in order to do this.

3: Phone and Cell Phone

Needless to say, email can only go so far in terms of allowing you to communicate with your customers and with your vendors. You will want to have at least two phone lines where you can be reached, in addition to several email addresses. A landline phone is always a good option when your cell phone doesn't work - and vice versa. You might want to keep one of these lines as your emergency line and then have the other line as your main business contact number.

4: Backup Systems

With all of the information you are storing on your computer and in your filing cabinets, it will help if you have several backup systems you can utilize. For your computer, you will want to have an APS power system that allows you to get surge protection for your electronic equipment, but it will also help you continue to use your equipment, even if the power goes off at your home. Though the battery pack is not a long life battery in most cases, it can help you to send out messages about your problems to those who might need to contact you over phone instead of email.

You will also want backup hard drives that will backup your hard drive at night to protect you from crashes and viruses. These can be installed easily and with a good backup program, you won't even have to think about whether or not you've backed up your hard drive as much as you should have.

Though it seems like a lot of equipment to have on hand at first, running an online business requires it. You need to have multiple access points for your website and for contact in order to be readily available when your customers and your vendors need you.

Picking A Winner In Horse Racing

2008-02-09T03:34:00.000-08:00

Anyone can make a living from horse racing: yes, just about anyone can make a living at horse racing. If you are selective in your bets and avoid the races where you have little chance of winning, then its much easier to turn your best into profit

Of course this is not what most punters do, and so the bookies more often than not make lots of money every day. However many millions every year is actually paid out on winning bets, so someone is being paid!

Race after race, season after season, some types of races always return more winners. A simple example is what are known as condition races or non-handicaps. If you look through the statistics for all conditions races, there is a significant increase in the number of favourites that go on to win the race. In handicap races, the percentage strike rate of favourites that win races is much lower.

1: The Form Always Wins!

The secret to picking horses that win is to look carefully at the previous form of horses involved in the race. This means looking at more than just the bare form figures, or the finishing position of a horse in its previous runs.

Take a simple example, suppose a horse came sixth in its previous race. You might conclude from a sixth place or what is often termed "unplaced", that the horse had no hope of winning. However this may not be a fair conclusion. Its important to look not only at the finishing position but at how close the horse was to winning. This can be established by looking at how many lengths short of the winner our losing horse was. Even if a horse came sixth it might have lost by only 3 lengths or shorter. Now there is all the difference between a horse that is 3 lengths away from winning and horse that came 2nd but lost by 20 lengths. In other words a proper look at the form will always point you in the right direction as to which horses have the form to win a race.

2: Winning Form

Its often interesting to look at the form of previous winners. Suppose a horse wins a race sometime in the recent past. By how many lenthgs did it win? Some horses barely scrape a win, while others win very convincingly. Its a much stronger form if a horse wins a race by 2 lengths or longer. So again 2 length winners are worth watching out for

3: Always Stick With Value

It has always been a "rule" that all professional backers stick by - that you must only bet when a horse is given a higher price by the bookie, than you think its overall form warrants. Of course it does take a bit of practise to get a feel for what price a horse should be in the odds. But after time you can say whether looking at the form a horse is a 2/1 shot, an odds on shot, an outsider etc. you can then use this yard stick to deceive if the odds the bookie is offering represent "value" or not

Another measure of "value" is to compare the odds with your strike rate. If you only get one winner in every 4 bets on average, then it is only "value", in general if you are getting at least 9/2 or 4.5. Anything less than this and you will probably lose overall.

4: Winning bets mean you get your stake back as well as your winnings

Its worth remembering that the odds system, used by the bookies to pay out your winnings, returns your original stake as well as your winnings. This means when you win at 2/1 for a $1 stake then you receive $3 back. This is a very healthy return if you can keep the winners coming. Increasing your strike rate towards the 50% correct figure, is virtually bound to mean you will profit overall

How to Save Money by Shopping on Ebay

2008-01-26T04:21:00.000-08:00

Online shopping websites like eBay have made finding bargains easier than ever. On eBay, millions of sellers list auctions for new and used products, and buyers bid against each other in auctions. You can literally find anything on eBay; there are even sections of the site for cars and real estate. It is no longer necessary to shop around to find savings, as they are all collected in one place.

New and used products populate eBay, and unless you absolutely need something new, it is best to always buy used products. Once something is used, its monetary value is automatically cut almost in half, even if it works as-if new. By acknowledging this, you can save a cumulative hundreds of dollars on everything you buy. There is no reason to purchase new DVDs, video games, or other similar merchandise when a used copy will operate just the same.

The process of bidding has evolved drastically since it was first introduced. To make bidding easier, one can utilize a system known as proxy bidding. With this technique, users enter the maximum amount they would be willing to pay for something. Doing this frees you from having to consistently return to the auction page to outbid other buyers.

For example, say you are trying to purchase something for which the current price is at $20. You can enter your maximum bid as $40, yet the auction will only increase to $21 (if the minimum bidding increment is one dollar). If nobody else bids, you win the auction for $21. If other people attempt to win, your bid will automatically increase until somebody else bids over $40.

When the clock is running down on an auction, intense bidding wars sometimes arise. Only a short time ago, bidding was a three-step process which could take as long as thirty seconds, which is a lot when only a short time remains before the end of a listing. Ebay recently implemented a new feature called One-Click Bid which enables users to make bids incredibly quickly and immediately see when they have been outbid. The tool is especially good for sellers, since it increases competition and ultimately the final price.

As if single items on eBay were not cheap enough, you can save even more money when you buy items in bulk. Instead of spending time finding individual items, you can locate just one listing with everything you need. While it may take awhile to identify that special listing, you still save more time than if you bought everything separately, and of course there is the monetary incentive as well. Many people have even made careers out of the economies of scale concept. They win bulk listings and then sell products individually.

Ebay has become a cultural phenomenon for reasons in addition to being a great place to save money. Creative individuals have found ways to make money from eBay without actually selling any products, or at least selling products that have essentially no real worth. We have all heard of items with religious or celebrity figures imprinted on them selling for ridiculous amounts.

One man set up an auction in which he stated the winning bidder could tell him what religious service to attend, and not surprisingly, the auction sold for an excellent amount. If you can come up with the next big eBay idea, it could make you rich.

The Inside Track On Making a Long-Term Profit from Horse Racing Tips

2008-01-19T03:38:00.000-08:00

Horse Racing Tips are simply a subscription service where a professional "tipster" provides his clients with daily selections of horses that are expected to win. Usually this information is provided by way of a daily email, which lists the horses which are advised to be backed, together with the horse racing meeting where the horse is going to be running, and the time of the race. Some horse racing tipsters may provide some more information along with their selections, such as information on the trainer or the jockey, going reports etc.

Do Horse Racing Tips Really Win?

You may have seen many horse racing tipsters services advertised on the internet, and even offline, and you may have wondered if the information really is as good as the adverts claim. In simple terms it is always wise to be a bit cautious - especially if the promises made are "overblown", or if they seem too good to be true.

The truth generally is that while it is certainly possible to make a level stakes profit over the longer term, this might not be achieved over a very short period such as a week or even a month. By level stakes profit we mean keeping your "stakes" or the amount of money you bet with - your wager - at a constant sum. Once you start changing this figure it is no longer considered to be "level stakes".

Looking at typical horse racing tips you might receive it would be true to say that some of them will win and some of them will lose - that is just the nature of things. Horses are not machines and they cannot always reproduce their form in every race. There will generally be peaks and troughs - times when a horse performs better than expected, and equally times when a horses run was "dissappointing".

However the key in horse racing is that how ever many horse raing tips win, and however many lose, overall a profit is still bing made. It's really a case of doing the math, and working out that the winners not only paid for all the losers, but also made a small profit in addition.

How Do Tipsters Make Their Selections?

Providers of horse racing tips make their selections in a number of ways. They might use some kind of horse racing system, they might rely heavily on statistics based on things like different courses, different types of races, different goings etc

The key point to understand is that a good reliable tipster will have tested their selection methods over the longer term e.g. at least a year or two, maybe much longer, and therefore they can pick winners with relative ease, simply by following their selection forumla. This formula will have been perfected over many years and the tipster will probably not want to divulge the details of their method to anyone else. So they will keep it a closely guarded secret. Should you come accross a website where a tipster is happy to sell you their selection method as an ebook type download, then unless you would have to pay alot of money, then this could be a good indication that maybe their method doesn't really work.

It can be quite surprising how accurate horse racing tips can be, with some professional backers making a very significant full time income from their own backing.

How Much Do Horse Racing Tips Cost?

Horse Racing Tips are provided as a private service, and so the cost will be set by the service providers themselves. This could vary considerably from tipster to tipster. As you are using the professional expertise of an experienced backer, you should expect to pay a minimum of $25 per month, although there could be discounts for longer terms e.g. 3 months or maybe even annual contracts. Some premium or well known popular providers may charge much more than this - even as high as $200 per month. Household names who normally appear on TV Horse racing programmes, will charge a very high fee, due to their almost celebrity status, however this doesn't mean that "more" is better. You might need to shop around and find a reliable tipster who has more reasonable charges.

What Do I Do If The Horse Racing Tips Start Losing?

In general if the horse racing tips start losing but you are fairly sure the tipster is genuine, then it is probably best to stick with the tips, and just soak up the loses.

You should of course always keep your stakes or wagers at a constant sum, and set up a betting bank to be something like 20 times your individual wagers. This way, even if there were a set of losers, which is an all too common occurance, then you would have to lose 20 bets in a row to lose your bank completely. It would be very unlilkely that a professional horse racing tipster would lose this many selections in a row.

Most good professional horse racing tipsters will have quite good strike rates overall - maybe as high as 40% strike rate, therefore even if they have a run of bad luck, you are unlikely to go too many races without finding a winner.

Should I Give Up My Job And Just Back Horses?

Absolutely not! You should always remember that horse racing is an extremely risky pastime, and some people will quickly lose alot of money. You should always bet responsibly, and best advice is never to back with more money than you can aford to lose.

How Much Money Could Someone Expect To Make Following Horse Racing Tips?

The amount of money someone could expect to make from backing horses would depend on the stakes or wagers being placed, and the odds offered by the bookmakers for the race in question. As a general guide the more money you are able to wager, then the higher the potential rewards, however you should always remember that nothing is guaranteed.

The way that betting works is that you always receive you stake or wager back when you win a race. So if a race is priced at 2's, which will stated as 2.00 or 2/1, then should you win, your return will be twice your stake as your winnings, plus your stake returned i.e. three times your stake alltogether. So $1,000 wagered at 2's would return $3,000 should you win.

Of course if your selection should lose, then you lose your stake completely, so a wager of $1,000 would return ZERO should your selection actually lose.

Hopefully you can see that if you concentrate on selections at bigger prices such as 2's, 5's, 7's etc, then it should be fairly easy on the math, to make a level stakes profit, even if there were also quite a few losers.

Horse Racing Tips are daily selections which are sent to your email account so long as you subscribe to the service. The costs for this private service will vary, with some being very expensive and other more competitively priced. Although there were be several losers as well as winners, the odds system is put together so that if your tips manage a reasonable strike rate, then you can return a profit overall, especially if you keep faith with your tipster over the longer period.

The Momzilla Phenomenon

2008-01-12T01:09:00.000-08:00

First there was Bridezilla (and maybe the occasional Groomzilla), and now a new terrifying creature is striking fear into the hearts of people everywhere - Momzilla! These mothers of the bride or groom operate on the same principle as bridezillas - it's my day, and whatever I say goes! Only these overzealous mothers have forgotten that it is not their day; the wedding is supposed to be about the wishes of the bride and groom.

There are a variety of reasons why a normally sweet natured mother loses her senses during the planning of her child's wedding. Sometimes she really just wants the wedding to be perfect for her daughter, sometimes she may regret not having the wedding of her dreams and sees this as her chance to make up for it, or maybe she is just self-absorbed. No matter the reason, a momzilla can make things really tough on not only the bride and groom, but also the bridesmaids, the wedding planner, the florist, and the caterer. It is especially difficult for the bride when it is the groom's mother acting up, because it is never a good idea for a bride to tell off her future mother-in-law!

Momzillas tend to think that every detail of the wedding requires their approval. One of the main battlefields is the bridal salon. Nothing is sadder than a bride showing her dream dress to her mother, only to have mom reject it. It can be a very sticky situation for the bride when her mother does not like the wedding gown that she wants, especially if mom is the one writing the checks. A note to all you mothers: if your daughter has fallen in love with a wedding gown, please paste on a smile and pretend that you like it, too. It is so crushing for a young woman to have her mother disapprove her choice of gown - it feels like a personal rejection.

Once the bride and her mom have agreed upon a dress, some momzillas will also try to dictate what accessories should be worn. Some of this is simply generational (older women think stockings are a must), but sometimes the mother is being too controlling. The bride should have the right to select her own wedding jewelry, headpiece, and veil. After all, she is the one wearing them! Sometimes a bride can find a compromise; for instance, if your mother wants you to wear her strand of pearls, but you love dazzling jewelry , offer to wear her pearls for the rehearsal dinner. That way, everyone is happy.

One of the worst momzilla stories I know of involved a woman's mother-in-law-to-be. She made a small monetary contribution to the wedding, and the bride and groom were paying for everything else. The problem was that since she had given the couple money, she thought that she had the right to tell them how to spend not only her money, but all of their money. This momzilla had such extravagant demands (such as limos to convey all of her friends to the wedding) that the bride and groom could not even afford a honeymoon! This was a mom gone wild, and her son was afraid to stand up to her. She didn't just torment the bride and groom either -" by demanding that all of her friends (most of whom the bride had never even met) be invited to the bridal shower, she burdened the bridesmaids with hosting an enormous event well beyond their financial means.

Some mothers morph into momzillas when they think that they are defending their children. One mother called up and cussed out a bridal shop owner because she did not think that her daughter should have to pay for alterations to the gown. When the shop owner pointed out that the bride had signed a contract stating that alterations were done at an additional charge, the mom went even crazier (most likely because she knew that she was in the wrong but did not know how to back down gracefully). The lesson here is that while it is wonderful to stick up for your child, if they are old enough to get married, they are also old enough to handle responsibility.

A wedding should be a beautiful occasion that brings families closer together. When mothers forget that the bride and groom are the ones being honored on that special day, things can get ugly. Hopefully, all of you brides out there have sweet, supportive mothers.

How to get your Business Card into the Hands of your Clients to Maximize Sales

2008-01-06T04:59:00.000-08:00

How many times have you had your business card thrown away upon handing it to your client or customer? Your customer may want to do business with you, but may look upon your ordinary business card as something of a nuisance, something that would clog their wallets or purses with worthless cardboard paper. In the end, you lose additional potential business, as they would of referred you to their family and friends who are in need of your business. You are long forgotten in their minds.

Let's suppose that you are the owner of a used car lot that has been in business less than 3 months. Typically, you're running your ad in the local newspaper and radio stations, and expect many customers to walk in through your door wanting to do business with you. Newspaper and radio advertisements are effective yet expensive media outlets. You also spend a lot of money on additional forms of marketing, including business cards, but don't seem to have any effect on generating more customers. Money thrown away. You might as well throw your money in the toilet and flush it. In a moment, I will reveal some tactics that you can use, to turn your business card into a viral marketing machine!

Many small and large business owners, think that having basic information on their business cards is enough that will make people keep them and share them with others, thus bringing in more business. Entrepreneurs, especially, are in the mindset that having a business card to pass around to strangers will bring in more than enough customers that are dying to buy their product or service. Reality check: Think Again!

One of the most important feature that you can place on your business card is a headshot of YOU. Remember that you are not just selling your products and/or services to your customers. You are also selling YOU. Having a headshot placed on your business card is the first step towards creating an effective business card. People want to see who they are dealing with and when they come visit your shop or your place of business, they will know who you are so they won't have to ask around, asking people where to find you. They will already know what you look like and know you when you greet them.

Whatever you do dress properly for your headshot. People expect to do business with a professional and not someone that just walked in from the street. If you have a tight budget and can't afford a headshot, go to your local mall, and have your headshot sketched for you. There are machines in all the malls in the United States that sketch your face and upper body for you. It's only $3-5 dollars. Take the sketch and scan it into your computer. Send your headshot to the business printers as a digital file and have them print it on your business card, along with your name, title and website information. Unless you have a place of business where customers have to come in, DON'T put your address, cell phone and telephone numbers down. Some people will take advantage of your information and harass you. Whenever possible, direct people to your website for more information, and have them contact you through email.

There is more to it than that. What about the blank side on the back of your business card? This is where it gets fun. As I have stated in my e-book, the back side of your business card is where the fun begins, and people will appreciate you more. They will have fun during the sales process and make sure to put your business card first and foremost in a special place, right in their wallet or business card file. You have to place something fun on the back of your business card that will keep people intrigued and excited, especially when it is something that relates to them, or has personal meaning. When you do something meaningful and exciting in the eyes of your clients and customers, they will run off with your card, and immediately show it to their family and friends. They, in turn, will approach you to help them with their needs (or recommend someone who might need your product or service) so that they can get one too! It spreads like fire, and that is only the beginning of successful business card marketing for your business.

The Importance And Benefits Of High Fuel Economy

2008-01-06T04:19:00.000-08:00

Gas prices continue to increase, with no end in sight. This trend further accentuates the need for every human to purchase more fuel efficient cars. Having an automobile with good fuel economy is not only helpful in saving money, but it is also an integral part of repairing the environment.

The official definition of fuel economy is how much gas is needed to move a certain distance. In the United States, fuel economy is measured in miles per gallon, while in the rest of the world, it is mostly calculated in liters per one hundred kilometers. These measuring systems vary greatly; a higher number in the US system is optimal, while a lower number is desired in the metric system (the lower the number, the lower the amount of fuel needed to travel one hundred kilometers).

Governments are taking notice of the importance of fuel economy, and are establishing guidelines which will regulate efficiency in the future. The European Union has decided that, starting in 2012, gasoline cars must have at least a 47mpg rating, and diesel cars must have at least a 52mpg rating. The United States currently taxes vehicles that do not adhere to environmental standards, as a means of discouraging their production. These taxes and penalties are expected to increase drastically within the next few years.

Engineers are constantly working to find ways to increase the fuel efficiency of vehicles. Several factors affect fuel economy, so it is a matter of altering those factors to produce better efficiency. The weight of a car is one of the biggest factors in fuel economy, so engineers are always trying to make cars lighter.

This can be done through replacing traditional materials, such as iron, with alternative options like carbon fiber. Wind resistance and drag require cars to exert energy to overcome them, so vehicles that are designed to experience these factors minimally have better fuel economies. Anything that can increase or save energy is beneficial. For example, shutting off the engine while the car is stopped saves energy.

Improving the efficiency of engine combustion is a key factor. Most engines only exploit 10-20% of the energy released from burning fuel; the rest is lost to heat and other forms of energy. Fuel cells are so desirable because up to 80% of their produced energy can be directly utilized. Different types of combustion, such as lean burn and HCCI combustion are being tested to identify what method is most efficient.

Average consumers can play their part in increasing the fuel economy of their vehicles. Fuel efficiency increasing products are popular in the market right now, but most of them do not actually improve efficiency at all. Simple things, like keeping the air pressure in tires high, and slowly accelerating and decelerating, can expand a vehicle's rating a fair degree.

Hybrid cars are the best option currently for those who want speed and great fuel economy. These models combine electrical and gasoline engine components to create something which does not feel like an electric car at all. Hybrid vehicles recapture wasted energy during breaking, shut off gasoline power during idle periods, and utilize gas and electric power simultaneously to reduce the total amount of fuel consumed. All of these factors combined result in fuel ratings of over 50mpg, as well as lower emissions.

Gambling is Not a Way Out of Debt

2007-12-31T05:00:00.000-08:00

"Where to find instant money to pay my debt, the harassing phone calls from my creditors really make me crazy. God, please help me!"

A debtor who is under very stressful condition screaming helplessly

Suddenly, he has an idea:

"If I use my little money to play at casino and win big, then I can clear my debt instantly."

He thinks he got a brilliant idea that will free him from his overwhelming debt situation soon. In order to "guarantee" the winning, he bought a few e-books about casino playing strategies that will surefire the winning and make him money, at least what the ads stated so. He feels relief now... and get ready to enter a casino close by or sign-up an online casino account.

There are more casino losers that the winners, that's why casino gambling is one of the most profitable industries. You can't make money from casino when you really need the money, gambling is an entertainment where you have money to lose if the lucks are not at your side.

Sadly, most debtors who believe they can win money from casino do not think so. Without knowing other options available to help them in handling their debt issue, they choose to believe that they can make money just by following the betting strategies guaranteed by those casino strategies books in the market. At last, they lost everything which not only can't resolve their current debt issue, it may make their debt situation worst by adding more debt. There are even debtors who borrow money from loan sharks or withdraw their credit card cash advances to cash out money for the purpose of making money at casino. When they lose, they are making their debt situation even worst because the interest rate for these loans is very high.

Gambling is definitely not the option for those who are in debt to find their way out of debt. If you are really overwhelming with heavy debt, you first action should be getting help from expert to analyze your current debt situation and explore all your available options that can help you to relax your debt condition to a more comfortable level while placing a plan to get rid of it eventually.

If you are at nowhere, the best option to get started is contact a credit counseling service and let them help you. Credit counseling services are non-profit organizations with the purpose of educating debtors and help them to resolve their debt issue. Most counseling services are free of charge and a counselor will be assigned to understand your debt condition. The counselor will let you know the available options that can help you in resolving your debt issue and propose you with the best option. Most of time, you will be proposed to enroll into a debt management plan that involve your debt payment schedule which are approved by your creditors. The debt management plan is optional and it involves a reasonable monthly fee but if you find it helps your debt issue, it worth to be considered.

To sum up, gambling is an entertainment for people who have money to lose as there is no guarantee for winning at casino. Don't make your debt condition worse by trying your fortune at casino because you can't afford to lose if your purpose of playing at casino is to resolve your overwhelming debt issue.

How to Improve your Shopping Cart and your Business

2007-12-06T03:34:00.000-08:00

While there are many decisions involved in developing a successful online business, few are as important as choosing the right shopping cart software. A good shopping cart can mean the difference between sales and a frustrated customer leaving the website before completing a purchase.

When customers visit your online business, a primary goal should be to make the entire website as user-friendly as possible. This aspect is never more important than it is when it comes to your shopping cart. With dozens of shopping cart software options available, there are certain features to look for that set you up for success when it comes to your site's shopping cart.

Making sure your customers feel secure purchasing items from your site is a top priority. If there is something about your shopping cart that does not run smoothly, the customer will likely begin to feel unconfident about the shopping experience and decide to take their business to another site.

Creating a sense of security for your customers involves going with a quality shopping cart software - one that has a professional site appearance and excellent customer service. Look for programs that offer a variety of choices and features for your site, so you can customise the shopping cart tool to do what you need it to do.

In addition, you want to choose a product that provides great customer service and technical support for both the site visitor and owner. Make sure it has support within the shopping cart software, such as FAQ sections or user manuals and help menus.

It is also vital for the software to be free of errors, so that your customers do not have to deal with error messages, which will send them away from your site in a heartbeat.

The two categories of shopping carts include externally hosted and locally hosted. Externally hosted means your site's shopping cart is outside of your website. When customers select an item to purchase from your site, they are sent to a secure shopping cart on your provider's website to complete the purchase. While this option may cost a little more, you do not have to deal with installation of the software.

With the locally hosted shopping cart, you are downloading and installing your cart software. You have flexibility and creativity to tailor your shopping cart to your site and the software typically comes with customer service and technical support. For security purposes, you will likely need to pay for a secured server when using the locally hosted shopping cart.

One product that seems to offer a great option for externally hosted shopping cart software is ShoppingCart, also known as AutomationWiz. It provides services covering not only the shopping cart, but also the autoresponder and affiliate system. It takes a lot of the hassle out of developing your customer base and bringing in return customers.

As you're striving to make money online, you realise it takes more than an eye-catching website design, great product, effective advertising and even enthusiastic affiliates. Focusing on selection of the best shopping cart software for your site will keep your bases covered and sets up your online business to obtain the sales numbers needed to meet your goals.

The Top 4 Paid-Survey Sites

2007-11-17T03:11:00.000-08:00

I Have Made Money With All Of These Paid-Survey Sites

Online paid surveys, we have all heard of them, or seen ads claiming you can make $75.00 dollars per survey, but is there any truth to this. All of the surveys I have listed here are completely free to join; I have personally signed up for the top four surveys, participated in the surveys, and made money on all of them. In this article I will review all four and let you know if it's worth your time to check them out.

The first on my list is pinecone research, this is one of the most exclusive online paid survey sites, and Entry into Pinecone Research is only through invitation or by finding its ads. So you may ask, is it worth my time?

The answer is yes.

Pinecone membership is restricted to the U.S, Canada and U.K, but that hasn't prevented people from all over the world joining it to take advantage of its payment by PayPal. They are one of the few paid survey sites that pay through PayPal, to me this was a real plus. And once you're a member you may also be contacted to take part in product testing, the compensation for which is usually quite high.

The average survey from Pinecone Research pays $5.00 dollars, which is above average.

Most paid survey sites beat your door down with offers to get you to join, but Pinecone tries to avoid members. They change there sign-up link every couple weeks, so finding the correct up to date link can be a hassle. Pinecone Research's sign-up URL is constantly in high demand, for a good reason.

Second on the list is SurveySavvy, this survey site has over 1.5 million registered members and has paid out over 10 million dollars in cash to date. So how did it become so successful you may ask? By offering the highest paid surveys in the industry.

SurveySavvy pays far more per survey than any of its competitors. You can expect to make between $2.00 and $100.00 per survey, and you can get paid even more for discussion groups and product testing. The best thing about there pay system is that there is no minimum you have to reach before you can request a check. The only reason SurveySavvy wasn't my number one pick is because they do not offer PayPal.

The other cons to this survey site are that

1. They are very selective for who participates in any given survey.

2. You will receive far fewer surveys than with many other survey sites.

3. They offer payment by U.S checks only.

The number three survey site is CashCrate, to date they have a membership of over half a million people, and they have paid out millions in cash.

The unique thing about this site is that they pay you to complete their 'offers'. These offers consist of filling out forms or registering for free websites. Each 'offer', pays between $1.00 and $15.00.

Within the first hour of signing up for CashCrate I had over $20.00 in my account.

They offer surveys as well including two daily surveys that you can take that pay 80 cents each, that may not sound like much, but if you took just those two surveys every day for a month you would have earned $48.00.

Some of the cons for CashCrate are:

1. They do not offer PayPal; there payment is sent in U.S check only.

2. Most of there 'offers' are available to U.S and Canadian members only.

3. Hardly anything for international members

My fourth pick is GlobalTestMarket, owned by Global Market Insite Inc, is the world's largest paid survey community with members from over 200 countries. The company has paid out over 7 million dollars to date.

They use the market point's currency system. Each market point is fixed to 5 cents U.S. The average survey pays between 50 and 150 market points or ($2.50-$7.50). You can request your payment once your account reaches $50.00, and a check will be mailed to you in your local currency.

Something worth mentioning about this site is that their surveys are much easier to qualify for than many of their competitors, they have recently launched their new Survey Shuttle, with this if you are invited to a survey and do not qualify they will automatically search for more surveys that you can complete. This is something most other survey sites do not do.

Another way to make money with GlobalTestMarket is with their refer-a-friend system. This system allows you to invite friends to the site and if they join you will be rewarded with 20 market points. For website publishers, they offer an affiliate membership that pays $0.7-$1.00 per signup.

They also have a blog with a vast readership, the blog post information involving future plans and site updates.

GlobalTestMarket over all has more pros than cons, but here are some of the cons:

1. Payment is made by check only

2. Checks have a processing time of 6-8 weeks for International members.

3. You must have a minimum of $50.00 in your account before you can request a check.

I recommend that you join all of these survey sites, after all it will cost you nothing, but it will dramatically increase the amount of survey offers you receive. At the end of the day, more survey offers means more money in your pocket, and who's going to argue with that.

Cash Gifting: Enriching Lives and Securing the Golden Years

2007-11-09T03:51:00.000-08:00

One of the most effective and exciting opportunities today is participation in a properly structured Cash Gifting program. Cash gifting is a private activity offered only through exclusive invitations and doesn't involve Network Marketing, MLM or any other type of business or commercial activity. It is not a business or an investment. There is no company name or location and there are no directors, officers, or shareholders. It is simply a private community of individuals giving to one another while supporting each other in a team concept.

It is absolutely legal and ethical to give another person a gift as an expression of kindness. Individuals are allowed to share their wealth with families, friends and any others they so choose. When someone accepts the invitation and becomes a member they move through a natural progression from the giving to the receiving stage of the activity. The idea is that by helping others you are in turn rewarded following God's law of Reciprocity. "Give and it shall be given unto you."

Cash Gifting is not to be confused with Pyramid Schemes which are associated with a company or a business. It is simply a private sharing club. There are no sales quotas, positions to sell and no ever-widening base to the structure. A Pyramid never allows anyone coming in on the bottom to ever reach the top. Only those at the top get the profits and people can and have lost their money.

Cash Gifting is not to be confused with Network Marketing. Although Network Marketing is a legal and viable source of income, who know of anyone starting at the bottom and reaching the top position? It just doesn't happen. Cash Gifting is neither a Network Marketing company nor a Pyramid Scheme.

Members work as a team for the mutual benefit all. Unlike MLM, there is no hierarchy. All participants are equal. No one individual has an advantage over another. The programs are structured to where there are no "fat cats" at the top benefiting from others efforts. Best of all there are no products to stock or sell. Cash gifting programs eliminate all of the nonsense that is typically found in traditional home based business opportunities. The selling aspect is completely removed. Since most people are not naturally born salesmen this comes as a relief. Something never comes from nothing and success is dependent on sacrifice and effort. A properly structured Cash Gifting program directs members to resources that help seek out like-minded individuals wanting to make changes in their lives. There is no need to pester friends and family members but once successful it is natural to share with people that matter the most. With extraordinary individual effort someone starting today could very easily generate more cash than someone that's been in the program for months or years.

The 1-Up System employed by most Cash Gifting systems is certainly one of the most exciting elements of the program. In order to qualify themselves each new member referred is required to pass up their first gifts to their sponsor at the same level they joined. Typically, there are 5 levels at which one can join; $500, $1000, $2500, $5000 and $10,000. This ongoing perpetual cash stream is in addition to the cash gifts received from direct referrals can easily add up to several thousand of dollars each and every month with no extra effort required.

Countless people have experienced the difference that cash gifting can make. It restores our trust in our fellow man knowing that there are like-minded people that not only need help, but are willing to help others as well. By exploring Cash Gifting one can discover and take part in something truly extraordinary.

Is it a Good Idea to Get an Unsecured Loan?

2007-11-06T03:30:00.000-08:00

If you are a UK citizen, you'll understand what is an expensive, high standard of living or luxury. It becomes difficult to stay in this atmosphere especially if your income is not high. You can get loans to satisfy your desires but again to get loans you need to mortgage your house.

Most UK citizens don't own any property. For this purpose lenders have decided to give unsecured loans to the citizens of UK where you don't need any security. The rules of the state where you reside are applicable for the unsecured loan. Some common factors though are that you should be a major, a salaried employee who pays the credit card bills on time and you should have a permanent bank account in the state of UK you stay.

For unsecured loans the amount of loan is less when compared to the secured loan. You'll get a loan up to £25000 and repayment period is short too. A period of only 5-10 years is applicable for the unsecured loans. This period is further shortened for people with bad credit who apply for this loan. As this loan requires no security the rate of interest charged for this loan is higher.

You can apply for such a loan online by visiting the site of the individual lender or bank and filling out the form online. Once the form is submitted, you might have to produce documents for residence proof, identity proof and other such on demand of the lender. If no such document is required you will directly get the loan amount. You need to make sure of the authenticity of the lender from whom you take your loan so make a thorough search and research on the different lenders before applying for a loan.

More Tips To Survive The Google Pagerank Breakup

2007-10-26T04:24:00.000-07:00

So, Google just broke your heart after a yearlong pagerank relationship. Don't worry, it’s just temporary of course. You’ll have her chasing you back with some of these search engine flirtation tips.

Go bold

Just as women love bold suitors, so do search engines. Start highlighting keywords on each page with the <> tag to increase search relevance. Search engines are attracted to words contained in the H1 and B tags. Just don’t go wild- two bold words per page is enough.

Go Deeper

Having other sites drill deep into your web at various locations tells google that ‘hey, this guy has varied useful content’. It’s poor SEO strategy to acquire links just to link to the homepage. The search engines may ultimately discount those links

Go foreign

Why focus on one country? You can take your business to India, Pakistan, UK and Hongkong! Start creating pages for lucrative markets and submit to their local directories. This ensures multiple streams of revenue. Imagine penetrating the vast Russian Market!

Fire Up Newsletters

Provide articles to publishers like ezinearticles. The links breathe for many years in their archives and funnel backlinks to your site.

Go Bi

Image links are good, but text links are more appreciated. If your site is full of image links, have your webmaster place the text links first because that’s what google looks for. Subsequent links are often discounted.

Multiple Partners

Create different domains on varying IPs that talk about similar subjects. The reason is that Google only lists one domain page per search result. Imagine if you owned ten domains that came up for the same search result? You’ll be seducing more curious searchers. Another tip: search engine consulting firms recommend varying the keywords used on these domains just to minimize looking spammy. I link to my executive coaching firm and asian job board with at least 20 permutations of the same keywords

Article Exchanges

You’ve heard of reciprocal link exchanges. Text link purchases. One way backlink purchases. Try them, and it’s like getting herpes on the net. Google blacklists you and treats you like a whore. But article exchages are different. Whip up an article, upload to Ezinearcticles and before you know it- wham! Dozens of sites publish your article and bring fawning admirers to your door.

Shun Unvaried Anchor Text

If 1000 sites links to you with the appellation “Gimme Money”, Google starts to squint and dig deeper, “Smells like automated filthy spam, methinks.” Avoid the search engine ban by varying the anchor text. Dance under different names and you’ll flirt more grandly with search engines.

Get a Site map

Your visitors reach the honeypot more rapidly when you have a structured sitemap that links to every major page. Keep the map on a location easily accessible so you keep the action flowing. Google bots flirt with sitemaps too and often births detailed search results. So keep it search engine friendly.

What is the Best Kept Forex Trading Secret?

2007-10-16T03:39:00.000-07:00

Everyone knows that the Forex market holds tremendous potential for profits. With more than $3 trillion dollars being traded every single day in the market, capturing even a miniscule percentage of these profits would turn one into an instant millionaire.

But it is obvious enough that becoming a millionaire in Forex trading is not an easy task. After all, if it was to easy to become rich in currency trading, then why doesn't everyone manage to do it?

The Best Kept Forex Trading Secret

I may become extremely unpopular with what I'm about to reveal next, but it's the truth you'll need to understand this if you want to become a consistently profitable trader.

The best kept secret in profitable Forex trading is denial.

Like most other things in life, people always wish for there to be some magical short-cut to becoming successful. We will always wish for there to be an easy way to accomplish our dreams and desires.

For example, when we want to lose weight, instead of exercising regularly and eating healthy meals, we try to cheat by ingesting expensive diet pills and paying for premium gym memberships in the hope that we will lose the extra pounds. As you know, in the end, the only winners of this deal are the pill sellers and gym owners.

And this is exactly what's happening in the Forex market. The lazy traders who think they can make easy money are promptly swallowed up by the traders who put in the hard work and extra effort.

So, stop being in denial. Stop telling yourself that there's some magical way to suddenly become rich. You can certainly become wealthy by trading currencies, but I can assure you that this won't happen if you keep spending money on magical automatic trading systems that claim to make you lots of money without any work on your part.

The people who really make money in the Forex market are those that rely on the natural human tendency of denial.

Don't fall into this manner of thinking!

How to Use Entertainment Agencies to Find and Book Entertainment

2007-10-09T03:54:00.000-07:00

Most people have had or been to an event or party at which they had entertainment. How did they find it? Was it any good? The answer to the first question is they probably used their local telephone directory, the Internet or had seen the act or service personally. The answer to the second question is sometimes yes and sometimes no. So why use an entertainment agency to find what you are looking for? Well first it takes the hit and miss out of finding what you are looking for, a good entertainment agency has access to lots of different forms of entertainment and will save you the problem of locating it.

Secondly, a good entertainment agency lives on its reputation, so it is in their interest to make sure that the entertainment they supply is of good quality. As the saying goes, you are only as good as your last event. Imagine you are looking for a band, you can spend ages searching the net only to find that what you want is already booked, and searching can take hours, and do you have that time to spare? If you use the phone to contact entertainers and lets say contact 10 at an average of 3 minutes a call, that is 30 minutes of calls on your telephone bill, it may not seem much but it adds up especially if the contact number is a mobile one. And if you do manage to find what you are looking for how do you know it will be any good? Contacting a reputable entertainment agency takes away all the headaches, as they will do all the work for you.

There are things to bear in mind, a reputable agency has quality acts and services which will be in high demand, so make sure you start looking at least 3 months in advance of an event, don't leave it until the last minute. Only contact one agency, many top quality agencies work with each other to source your needs, contacting 3 or 4 of them means they are duplicating work, time which could be spent on another client. If you were that other client ask yourself how you would feel, if the agency you were using had lost time they could have been using to help you. Running an entertainment agency we often used to get enquiries from people and start looking for their requirements only to have another agency contact us looking for the same thing for the same person. Nowadays we ask if any other agency is being used and if they are we polity refuse to waste time looking for the same thing, if we are told no other agency is involved and find out otherwise then we will drop the client. Many quality agencies act likewise, so you could find yourself back at square one or using a less than reputable entertainment agency.

The next question many people ask is how much will it cost, the answer is nothing unless you cancel, then you may have to pay a cancellation fee. An entertainment agency makes its money in the form of commission from the acts it represents, in other words they pay us for finding them the work. If you cancel the agency makes no commission, which pays for its time and effort on your behalf, therefore most agencies will make a cancellation charge, after all they have staff to pay just like any business. Similarly you might also have to pay a cancellation charge to an act or service in addition to the agency charge, if you have booked them then they are unable to take on other work for the date in question.

The other question is how long will it take? This can vary, many acts and services are registered with numerous agencies and don't always keep them informed of availability, secondly each act will charge a fee depending on the factors of the event such as getting to it, possible overnight accommodation etc, so a reputable agency will make contact with them to find if they are available and at what cost. If an act or service is on holiday or working away it may take a while for them to get back to the agency, so allow for this. If you haven't heard anything from an agency within 3 days then give them a call and ask for an update. A good agency will always tell you if they cannot find what you are looking for or if they have been unsuccessful. If that is the case then you can try another. Remember that with an agency you will get a contract, which will state all the relevant details, and you will have a legal document to give you peace of mind.

Remember entertainment agencies live to provide clients with a service, make use of it and save your time and a possible headache.

How to Spot a Fake Chopard Watch

2007-10-09T03:15:00.000-07:00

Spotting a fake Chopard watch is becoming a really difficult task these days and if someone does not intend to buy a replica watch on purpose, then a great amount of money may be spent in vain. The problem with the most recent replica watches is that they visually resemble to such a degree the real timepieces, that it is almost impossible to tell the difference between real and fake, authentic and knock-off.

Some of the most high end imitations are also made of materials of the highest quality, include Swiss precise movements and feature designs that are almost perfect copies of the originals, as they are cut with accuracy by lasers of this latest generation. Someone must be either an expert, or a true timepiece connoisseur to determine if a timepiece is an imitation or not.

The first method of telling an imitation from the original is to observe carefully the movement. A watch that has a self-winding movement will have a sweeping second hand. This means that instead of ticking each second, the second hand will move swiftly in a series of fine ticks. The bracelet may also be an element that gives away a Chopard watch replica. This happens especially if it is meant to be made of solid gold. Many replica watches are gold-plated, and evidence of that can be seen if you look closely.

Next, there is the crystal. Some replica manufacturers opt for normal glass instead of sapphire crystal. As Chopard is also a manufacturer of jewelry, some replica creators will even try to replace the diamonds that are used in so many Ladies watches with fake precious stones. This is certainly one of the easiest ways of spotting a fake Chopard watch. But the only hope a shopper may have, if they are searching for an original Chopard watch, is that the replica manufacturers may miss one or more details, especially those related to branding, logos and/or signatures.

As the replica watches are sold by thousands of dealers both offline and online, people are recommended to use a trusted source if they do not want to risk. This advice is not valid only for the Chopard watch, but for all the high-end brands that are available all around the world.

On the other hand, there are people who buy on purpose a replica watch because they do not have the financial resources to buy the original. There are even online stores that admit that they sell replica watches.

If you are indeed shopping for a real authentic Chopard watch, it would be best ask the online dealer for a serial number. They should be able to provide you with one. Next, contact the manufacturer to have them verify the serial number. This is indeed the best way to make sure that you've spent your money wisely and have avoided the purchase of a fake Chopard watch.

How to Avoid MLM Scams

2007-09-09T03:21:00.000-07:00

MLM scams are everywhere you look especially on the Internet.It takes work to make money within any business.If you think that there is an easy street to making money, we have some BAD NEWS for you.There is no such thing as something that will get your rich overnight.

You can make real money with some work and the right info.

You cannot make money online with 70% of the crap advertised.

If you've fallen for one of these scams already, you're not alone. Everyone that is making money online, or is looking to make money online, has been subjected to a "get rich quick" scam at some point.

A rule of thumb for you: If it sounds to good to be true, it probably is. The first clue to a scam is if the program tells you that it will not require much work at all to get up to $1000/day in profit. These are obviously not true, and if you are looking for a free ride to success, it is not going to happen.

The only people who make the money within a multi-tiered marketing scheme are those who start it (and maybe the lucky few who get in on the first level. Thousands of mlm programs have been removed from onlinebecause they were fraudulent and were simply taking peoples money without giving them anything in return.

To make anything with mlm you either have to know thousands of people to recruit or be lucky enough to be in at the top of the program. recruiting (hard selling prospects )friends and family.Selling outdated products that there is no market for anymore.

The odds of making $1000 a day doing nothing are even greater than the odds of winning the lottery!

There are resources that are 100% legitimate, and can build you a foundation for making money online. These are not scams, and they do not claim to get you rich overnight. They in fact teach you the best techniques and practices for earning money online, and they are essentially building the foundation of your business for you.

Believe it, no one is going to give you a sure fire get rich program for only 10 dollars.They make their money by you buying into their scam not by selling the product.

Don't be the next to get scammed into a MLM, there are some much better opportunities that you can take advantage of online, that will allow you to create real business, and have the potential to make large revenue. We are trying to single-handedly eliminate a large number of the people who are being scammed online, and this is an attempt for us to reach out to you.

The 6 Key Elements of an Attraction Marketing System for Online Marketers

2007-09-06T03:22:00.000-07:00

Listen, there's a serious lack of marketing skills in the home business industry. I'm deadly derious when I say that the vast majority of people in online businesses do not know enough about marketing and they are intensely interested in finding out how to really make their online, or home based business work.

What Attraction Marketing allows you to do is stand out from the crowd and position yourself as a leader that has something of value to offer. The key to attraction marketing success is to learn what you target market is insatiably interested in learning, and then teaching them those things.

Sounds simple enough - and it is - if you're resourceful and creative... and if you focus on learning what your target market is really interested in and you give them that information, you'll be able to attract quality leads who will turn into responsive prospects and ultimately buy your product, system or become your affiliate or partner.

In the home business/internet marketing arena, specifically the home based business niche, thousands of other online marketers would love to know how to advertise effectively and drive traffic to their websites. They're also intensely interested in learning what it really takes to turn traffic into closed sales.

You stand to benefit from offering this information to them and teaching them how to market and drive traffic. You'll build a responsive list faster and for less money and time than if you do what most other amateur marketers do, which is to simply offer hyped sales pitches to join them in their program.

The six key elements in a powerful attraction marketing system

1. Understand that people are looking for LEADERSHIP & Mentors that can actually show them how to make money online.

This is critical to your success. You must position yourself as a leader and offer your target market the training and marketing information they are seeking. Inexperienced people tend to wonder how they can teach marketing if they're new themselves...

You can go to ezine article directories like EzineArticles and search for articles on topics you want to learn. Read and learn the topics, and then turn around and teach what you just learned. To a new, struggling marketer you'll still be positioned as a person who can teach them something they don't know.

2. Know Your Target Market

If you're in the home based business industry promoting a direct sales or network marketing program, then you should know the hottest target market you can focus on attracting is the existing network marketer and online marketer. The time in your pipeline will be reduced with this target, they already believe in the industry so you won't have to worry about going through that skeptical debate and most existing marketers are looking for marketing knowledge and information.

By focusing on the existing marketer, you'll still attract plenty of new marketers as well so you'll benefit by attracting both targets.

3. Place Simple, Targeted Ads That Compel Your Target Market To Click

This is where Attraction Marketing comes into play. Knowing your target market well will allow you to identify their main frustrations with their business and what benefits or solutions they are looking for. Phrase your ads in a way that you agitate a frustration and then offer a solution that solves their problem. To get to the solution they must click on your ad to get to your offer. Offering free "How To" information to marketers on learning traffic tactics and marketing skills in the form of a free email course, video series, recorded audios, etc... is a high conversion tactic.

4. Drive That Targeted Traffic To Your Own Lead Capture Page

This is where most online marketers fail. Your company's replicated lead capture page is NOT the answer. Not if you want to attract more opt-ins for less money. Your own personalized lead capture page should contain a strong "Direct Response Marketing" headline, subheadline and some key benefits about your offer. A free newsletter, special report, video training series, audio recording or other compelling free information should be offered here that is designed to solve the frustration your ad agitated. This is key to building a responsive list.

5. Follow up with a systemized email autoresponder

A series of email follow up letters should be linked to your capture page so that you can follow up with your new leads using automation. This is where the majority of your sales will be made. Constant follow up is crucial in building trust, credibility and rapport with your list. By offering valuable content and teaching them exactly what your lead capture page and your initial ad offered to teach, you will warm up your list and prepare them to buy or join you in business.

6. Close Sales

A tremendously weak part of the average marketer's system. Most automated online sales systems are great at opening up the sales process and attracting leads in. At that point most rely on the marketer to actually follow up and close sales. This is where most home business systems fall woefully short and cause the high failure rate in the industry.

Depending on the process your system uses, you should be able to close on 1-2 sales for every 100 -150 opt ins in most online based home businesses programs that are considered "top tier" ($1,000+ start up pricepoint). If your system is not getting this closing rate then you should carefully analyze the entire system and determine which part in the sales process is weak. Many programs use leverage, technology and systems effectively to open and attract people into the sales process, only to leave the critical part of closing sales to the weakest part of the system - the inexperienced marketer.

Fortunately, in recent months there have been a few automated Attraction Marketing Systems that have hit the market that allow the online marketer to focus on the "front end", which is advertising and driving traffic to their system. The system leverages professional call centers or specialized copywriting, audios and videos on the sales presentation site that actually closes sales without the business owner/marketer needing to get involved.

For more information on how to leverage the internet and automated Attraction Marketing Systems to generate significant cash flow online people can perform Google searches on "Attraction List Building" or "Attraction Marketing" and also search EzineArticles.com for the same keywords and further their understanding of what is available in the marketplace.

Could you have a Career as a Freelance Designer?

2007-08-09T03:59:00.000-07:00

Most Designers and Creative people dream to work on their own. In a creative environment getting good commissions and concentrating solely on the creative process and their passion for design and art. This can be achievable but other skills need to be acquired.

You will become a marketeer, start to looking for areas where you can make your art sell. For example galleries, ebay etc. You will learn negotiation skills and start talking in marketing terms. You will find yourself when you are in bookshops and the library strangely being drawn to the business section. Also you will find that suddenly you have to become an accountant. Start learning about tax and spreadsheets.

The Freelance life can turn into a nightmare if you don't keep a keen eye on the finances from day one. A good business plan and realistic financial goals will help you no end. You have to be very focused. I find that I would get so wrapped up in the design side of things it is so easy to forget the other things. I reckon a freelancer spends about 25% of the time on the design work and the rest of the time sorting out all the other logistics that go with running a business.

For some people they have no choice but to enter the creative design world as a freelancer. Maybe your work is of a nature that does not fit in with the 'right company to work for structure'. You might be a graduate who has had a creative director saying "you have no experience, we need people who will make money from day one and I have no time to show you". I was told that when I left Art School. You may have been have been redundant and have a some redundancy money and thinking you will go for the freelance way of life. You might be tired of working for companies and just need to go it alone.

I think that most work comes from referrals and repeat orders. It has certainly been the case with me and the companies I have worked for. So it is important to give that extra effort with every commission you take on. Friends and family are good starting point. Show them what you can do and get them working as a mini sales force. They will be keen to help you out. For example a few years a go I put my details on Friends Reunited. I got contacted from someone I was at school with. He had a company and was starting others and I managed to get to design the Logos, promotional material and websites for the companies. Also he has referred me to other companies. Network with as many people as possible.

Building a good contact directory sounds like common sense but can be neglected. I made this mistake, I used to write numbers down on small pieces of paper and lose them. People would say "I might be interested in six months time so call me then". You need to store these reminders. Names, Email contacts etc. A program like Filemaker Pro would be a good way of doing this.

Email spamming is not a good idea, If you want to do an email campaign to promote your work I would recommend setting up a email permission based newsletter for subscribers from your website. Another good way of getting contacts is to call companies that you want to do business with and ask who is the Marketing director or the best person to send promotional material to. Then follow up with a call to try and arrange a meeting.

Once you are face to face you can show them what you are really about. Also it will give you a chance to suss them out also. They might necessarily be the right client for you. Get in touch with as many business schemes and free courses as possible.

Totally Free Ways to Develop a Home Based Business

2007-08-09T03:17:00.000-07:00

What does it take to begin and maintain a successful work from home business? This is the question new marketers face as they prepare to start their very own home based business. What you don't know could cost you serious losses in time and money if not done correctly. By using these free and low cost tools you can save yourself from the burdens that most new affliates find themselves going through when starting their new business.

Now most would feel like you would need to spend a substantial amount of money to build a new business, This is definetly not the case because most of the things needed can be found using a lot of free and low cost tools.

After learning from some of the top affliate marketers, I've found that there are 3 things needed to start and maintain a new home based business.

Tool #1: Your own website

The first thing that is crucial to your success is to have your very own website. By having this you can control what you want your potential visitors to see and guide their decision maiking. When deciding on what type of site to make determine first what type of market you plan on catering to and make it user friendly, so that your potential custtomer doesn't have any problem determing that you definetly have what they need. You can get your very own free website builder tool at My Free Website.com.

Tool #2: Free Give a ways

With the ever increasing competition on the web, you have to stay a step ahead of your competitors. The one sure fire way to explode your affliate earnings is to give away some type of valuable information or software. By offering your potential customer's wth free incentive you can build your subscriber base and have the potential to sell to your buyers on more than one occassion. No one can turn down valuable information or software especially if it's free.

Tool #3: Getting Free Traffic

In order to gain increased earnings you site has to be in front of as many targeted buyers as you possibly can. One very powerful way is to build backlinks to your site. You can achieve this is by writting and distributing articles in e-zines and article directories. By putting your website's link in the resource box, not only would you be getting backlinks to your site but you will also getting free advertising. As long as you have some original, relevant and useful material you will be providing the customer and search engines what they want.

By putting these things together and using your own personal skills and interests the possibilites are endless to what you can achieve.These are but 3 of the many tools that you can get or use for free to maiximize your earnings.

7 Secrets of Shopping for Kids Shoes

2007-08-06T02:31:00.000-07:00

Unlike adult footwear, kids shoes should be selected with utmost care and concern in mind about the little feet. In fact, it's healthy for those little feet to walk barefoot most often to strengthen the supple soles of the kids. But shoes too are necessary to protect the little feet from getting injured while walking on uneven surfaces.

An array of kids shoe styles and models are available in the market, ranging from kids dress sandals to sneakers catered to the comfort and style needs of your child. So, choosing one right pair of footwear among many models will be quite a difficult task to do. One should be very alert and conscious while shopping for kids shoes, as picking the wrong pair will ultimately affect your child's growing feet. To make your difficult task of shopping this footwear easy, in this post I'm providing you the best tried and proven secrets of shopping for kids sandals.

Below are 7 great secrets that will be of great help to you;

Shop footwear in a specialized children shoe store where the sales persons and other staff are well-versed with the hook and nook of kids shoes.
Instead of spending much money on any single pair of stylish kids footwear for a special occasion, it's always wise to prefer a fine pair of comfortable children footwear to allow the little tootsies walk freely without any worries.
Have your child's feet measured every time you shop for a new pair of footwear for them. Because the shoes that prove to snugly fit your child's feet for a moment in shoe store may prove unfit or uncomfortable after a day spending in the shoes or playing in them for a long time.
Prefer shoes with half inch free space in the toe region to allow the little toes wiggle freely inside the footwear without any discomfort.
Never buy too big shoes thinking that your child's feet grow faster. Wearing too big sandals will trip the child to fall and may also develop foot problems in the future.
Make sure the footwear fits snugly in the heel part without causing any discomfort. The shoe should snugly fit in the heel area but it should not be too tight or too loose.
Avoid preferring backless or slip-on sandals for your kids that may trip them to fall. Prefer footwear with laces, Velcro straps or any kind of fasteners that hold the feet firmly in a good position.

What is the best alternative to gas?

2007-07-26T03:43:00.000-07:00

Let's face it, if you haven't been living under a rock lately then you've notice that gas prices are though the roof and seem to only be getting worse. If you depend on your car or truck everyday, this can cause havoc on your gas bill. With any crisis, there are always some people that are trying to make a quick buck out of people's misery and then there's some people that offer products that really actually make sense buy and are very useful.

Two popular products I've noticed on the market today to help cut gas prices are Mileage Maker and Water4Gas. Both are similar in that they are both using Hydrogen to fuel the car but both are very different in many was.

Water4Gas is building plans for a hydrogen fuel cell that you can build yourself. The plans are cheap - I think $97 dollars - and you can find them just about everywhere on the internet these days. The claims are true people are cutting there gas bill and yes they are doing amazing things building these Hydrogen Generators but what it comes down to is, time. Really, do you really have that much time on your hands to build and test something on something so value as your car? What if you don't hook it up right? What if you can't find a certain part at the hardware store because there sold out? The variables are endless. But as I see from doing my research for this article once you've put in the hours getting it installed and you've wrapped your head around how it should be built then it can be a running, working system.

Mileage Maker is another similar service the I noticed doing research that basically took what Water4Gas did one step further. What Mileage Maker does is build, custom make Hydrogen Generators for Car, Trucks, Big-Rigs all ready to go. It's simply a matter of plugging them into your car and installing. No parts to go get, no down time. It comes pre-built with a 100% money back guarantee that it will work correctly. What I found to me the major flaw with Mileage Maker is that you have to wait to get the generators since there in such high demand right now, From looking on there website I can't get a clear indication of actually times for certain products. But on the other hand you don't have to get your hands dirty with trying to build something yourself and it works with a guarantee. Costs for the systems are reasonable and you can even move all the way up to a Hydrogen Generator for a Large Scale truck. I didn't see that in the Water4Gas plans.

All in all, both products are good. One Mileage Maker is the actual product and the other Water4Gas is just the blueprints complete. I've heard that you can find the plans all over the internet but who knows if it's the complete copy of the plans. So if you are a do it yourselfer then Water4Gas is probably your best bet. You've got the know-how, you've got the time and you like to build things in your spare time then I would suggest getting Water4Gas.

On the other hand if you don't have the time but have the money to spend on a complete Generator then I would go with Mileage Maker. You simply order it, get it, install it and start drive with less gas. Simple. It really makes sense for someone that what's to curb there gas consumption and save time and money doing it.

21 Ways For Teens To Make Money

2007-07-09T04:34:00.000-07:00
If you're a teen, at least one of these methods must apply to you. Now, get busy:

1. Family. Parents may reward their teenagers if they get good grades.

2. Babysitting. Get paid to watch some cute kid sleeping in front of the television.

3. Tell stories to young children.

4. Elderly care. Care for elderly and gain valuable experience and knowledge from them.

5. Pet Care. Help busy couples to take their pet for a walk.

6. House cleaning like mowning lawns, gardening, raking yards.

7. Sell your old toys, comics, school books on E-bay.

8. Start your own information publishing business.

9. Work in a department store and enjoy employee benefits and discounts.

10. Provide car wash service.

11. Start a face-painting business.

12.Help to deliver newspapers.

13. Help to tutor children in Maths.

14. Get allowance from parents.

15. Become a lifeguard.

16. Get a job at a summer camp.

17. Help companies to create websites.

18. Create art and crafts and sell them on E-bay.

19. Be a computer guru.

20. Work as a golf caddy.

21. Teach piano lessons.

The Secret of Easy Back Links

2007-06-30T05:04:00.000-07:00

When you have your own business at home, getting into internet marketing can quickly raise the status of your business. One of the most important facets to having success with internet marketing is how you are generating traffic.

With out traffic coming to your site it is impossible to have success. Therefore you must evaluate how you are going to generate a high traffic volume.

Why is article marketing important?

To generate more traffic to your web site, you need to let people know its there. When you write articles and publish them, you will find that, as long as you make the article relevant and interesting, they will be picked up by sites like E-zine's that need fresh content and you will have a new permanent back link to your site.

How Is this important?

Well the more back links you have the better your site will show in the search engines organic (free) results which will generate more traffic to your web site and you'll make more money!

By using a research tool like GistWeb you'll be able to spend a lot less time creating the articles.

You'll feel like submitting articles more frequently and by using a submission service like http:// www.submityourarticle.com you will benefit from having your article submitted to hundreds of publishers, and by using a very easy to master piece of software you can make almost every article submitted unique.

The way this works is that when you make your submission, you are invited to add alternative titles,and sentences, which when making the submissions the system uses in different combinations to generate multiple unique articles. When you submit more articles you'll generate more traffic!

Blogs and comments

Another way to create links back to your site is to write great blog entries that people will want to post onto their blogs, you can even publish your articles on your blog. In the world of blogging, people very often use another blog as content for their site,and give the author a link or trackback.

This allows you to have a viral marketing source and you won't need to do anything to generate this traffic. The beauty of creating a network this way is that the more you are on other people's blogs and commenting on their posts, the more traffic you will receive.

The thing to remember is that people love to have visitors on their site and they want to know who those people are. If you're commenting on posts they have written, you can bet that they are going to appreciate that and check out your site as well.

Whatever methods of web site promotion and marketing you use, you will need to know how many visitors or clients are attracted by each of the methods and what is the quality of the traffic generated from each marketing source. The reports and statistics of ProTrackerPlus.Com will provide you with the most complete information, so that you can concentrate your efforts on the most effective methods of web site promotion and increase the effectiveness of other methods.

How To Make Money Online by Creating Products

2007-06-09T05:02:00.001-07:00

You've probably seen many of these "become-a-millionaire-in-six-months" schemes on the internet. I certainly have, and I have been tempted to try a few. Thanks to my better judgement, I have not succumbed to them, but they are tempting, aren't they?

Don't fall for the "Become a millionaire in 6 months with no effort" line. It is going to take some time for anyone to make a lot of money on the internet, and it will take a lot of effort. But it can be done and very profitably, too.

One of the ways to make a LOT of money is to sell a product that everyone wants, and that you own. So how do you go about it? Here is an outline of a way that I have found to be well worth the time and effort.

First, how do you find a product that gives you USP (Unique Selling Point), that is, one which separates you from the competition, and gives you an edge. You start by brainstorming some ideas with friends and family, then researching them on-line. You make a list of subjects you are passionate about and subjects you have some expertise in.

Find out the ones that are profitable by seeing what the competition are up to. What are their weak points. Find an angle or some process steps that are not covered well, and there is your starting point.

Outline your plan for creating the solution to people's problems which your product will answer. Your plan should contain the form of the product, and the means of marketing and delivering it. Then, create the product content in light of the form it will take, that is, Ebook, audio or video.

The third part to consider is the packaging of the product. You will need graphics, a payment processor, a well written sales page, a download page for internet products, and some ideas for backend sales.

Lastly, how are you going to market the product? Here you have a choice of methods, or if you are ambitious, use as many of them as your budget will allow. You could set up an affiliate program, and have others sell it with you; you could write and submit articles and press releases to spread the word; and/or you could use Google Adwords.

As you can see, it is a lot of work, and if you are new, a considerable amount of trial and error - but it can be very fruitful, as I can attest, and it can bring a huge amount of satisfaction to you, as well as the income you are seeking..

Why do 98% of MLM and Internet Home Business Owners Fail?

2007-06-06T02:26:00.000-07:00

So, you've started a new MLM or home Internet business and you're not getting the results that you expected. When you first started did you think that you would start making money overnight, a few grand in the first month. It's probably not that you've been taken or scammed; many people are making a great living in with home businesses or in the MLM industry. The problem is that you have not set your plan for the long-term.

Within the first 3 months of being in a MLM or Internet type home business, most owners have closed shop and in the process wasted money, probably a good amount, too. In fact, 98% of business owners in the MLM or Internet industry fail.

So, how do you become part of the successful 2%?

First, realize this isn't a race and odds are that you're not going to make thousands in your first few months. In fact, you may not make a dime for a few months. Most of you have spent on average anywhere from $500 to $2,000 to become a distributor or associate for your MLM or home Internet business. Now, that's not a ton of money, but throwing it out the window would sting a bit. But, I bet it would be a lot tougher to throw $100,000 to $200,000 out the window, which is what you would have paid to buy into some well-known franchise.

So, how soon would you pack it in if you were'nt making any money with your franchise, 3 months, 6 months, a year? I'll bet you would try everything you could to make that business work. Now, why are people packing it in after just a few months without much success? It doesn't sting enough, it isn't $100,000. New MLM and home business owners are not as committed, when they pack it in their business is just a bad memory. Ok, my point is that you must have a long-term plan, don't expect to make it happen in the first few months and follow a course of action for at least a year.

Now, following a course of action for a year doesn't mean if what you are doing is not working, just keep doing it. You have to build a skill set and find out what works. If your MLM training is not working for you, find something new and invest your time in a new technique. Don't quit, there are many successful people in both MLM and Internet home businesses, but I'll guarantee you that most of them didn't make it happen in just a few months. They didn't quit; they kept at it and found what works.

Treat your business as just that, a business not a hobby. Set hours every day to work it and I do mean work. If for one second you think that it will be easy and all you have to do is place a few ads and set up a web site and the money will start rolling in, you will be one of the 98%. That being said, it will get easier at some point after you get the ball rolling and figure out what works. But in the beginning it you will work every bit as hard as you do at your job. Ask yourself a question, would you rather work hard for yourself or work hard for someone else? If you're like most, you joined your MLM or Home Business to work on your on terms and realize your financial dreams and odds are you know it won't happen in your job. MLM and Internet home based businesses are absolutely the way for the average person to achieve realize their dreams.

Tips for Shopping for the Products you See On TV

2007-06-01T03:56:00.000-07:00

The products or commercials we watch on television are the most polemic products we come across daily. Some people like them, while some dislike them but no one can refute them as they have engrossed so much in our every day life. The greatest success of this electronic shopping has become much accessible due to the fact that we get some of the unique and most diverse utilities or goods very easily without the necessity to leave our home, for instance, from an Ionic air purifier to the tart cherry or a handheld game like Sudoku. The TV shows, programs, or infomercials there in every consumer's house for many years evolved the technology of television and television industry developed into new methodologies for the platform of shopping.

From the purchasing by phone, to the 'shopping by catalogue', the sudden boom in telemarketing since 1990s, as perceived on the television, all type of products have obtained a specific niche along with the advent of the Internet in 21st century. However, the consumers themselves have to decide whether the product telecast on TV shows is worth its price tag or the product is of poor quality and is overpriced.

For other consumers, the Internet is not merely an online showcase but also a helpful tool to offer them a vigor research for the products they need to shop they have already seen on TV. There are numerous websites on the Internet, which are devoted to provide reviews on shopping and detail price comparison on every individual product for the ease and convenience of interested purchasers. Whereas other websites on the Internet display rating reviews based on distinctive aspects of several popular products advertised through several TV shows and these organizations or sites are there to save general audience and their own members from scams, fraudulent or misleading advertisements.

To get the best experience while shopping after seeing TV commercials is to locate the appropriate store which is offering wide range of quality commodities at cheaper price, customer services and other necessary things like guarantees to gratify the shoppers. You can also share your shopping experience as you have purchased a product after seen on TV , makes your ability for decision much better, and at the other side, you will be helping other customers. TV commercials are the main podium to make you aware of the product newly launched and its availability. But do not decide to buy a particular product that appears on the screen. It would be advisable for you to make a little research about specific product you have seen on TV before shopping for it or before putting your valuable money in that.

Commercials are generally a hyped form of anything, and thus generally do not give immediate results to the users of that product. Although these infomercials leave greater impact on the viewers and motivates them to shop for these. With little caution, care and research, make your shopping experience really exciting as the activity of shopping is a great provider of leisure, fun, and enjoyment but always try to make wise purchasing without wasting much of your money.