<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<rss version="2.0">
<channel>
<title>HomeBusinessTips_DMc_386</title>
<description>Home Business The Easy Way - DMc Update</description>
<link>http://www.blogmoneymiracle.com</link>
<language>en-us</language>
<generator>EasyRSS</generator>

<item>
<title>The Humility Advantage - How Less Ego Creates More Sales</title>
<description><![CDATA[<br />
<br />
By Jeff Mowatt<br />
<br />
See if this applies to you or the team members in your organization: You've been working in your industry for several years. Your responses to requests from customers, prospects and co-workers are fast and accurate. You know your stuff and your product knowledge is one of your greatest strengths. If this is the case, then the bad news is that your extensive knowledge may also be one of your greatest weaknesses. The reason&hellip;you may inadvertently be coming across as being arrogant and insensitive.<br />
<br />
This is not suggesting that you have a &lsquo;holier-than-thou&rsquo; attitude or that you are unfriendly. Because you are quick with your answers and recommendations, others feel you have not really been listening to their needs (even though you have). The greater your expertise, the more likely it is that you are unintentionally rubbing people the wrong way. The good news is that there is an easy way to prevent this misconception that I call The Humility Advantage&copy;.<br />
<br />
Working with over a hundred sales and service teams over the years, I've found there are at least seven key opportunities where a little employee humility pays-off substantially. Here are three that I often share in my Influence with Ease&reg; speeches and seminars.<br />
<br />
1. Mention your Homework<br />
<br />
Several years ago, a couple of branding consultants approached me about enlisting their services. My first thought was these folks knew nothing about my company or my industry, so why should I pay their sizable fees. I only agreed to meet with them because a colleague said they had done good work for his firm.<br />
<br />
When I sat down with the consultants, they did not start asking me lots of questions about my industry and me. (This would have confirmed to me they really didn't know my business world and it would have ended their chances of selling me their services).  By way of preparation, they began the meeting explaining, they'd been chatting with some of my colleagues and customers to find out their impressions of my company's services. Then, they asked if I would like to hear the &lsquo;word-on-the-street&rsquo;. That got my attention! The ensuing conversation led me to engage their services.<br />
<br />
When talking with potential customers, do you begin the conversation by mentioning the homework you've done on their company?  If not, you are missing the opportunity to let them know you are truly interested in them.<br />
<br />
Try commenting on something you saw on their website or read about them in an industry journal, rather than starting a sales conversation by asking about their needs. It's a powerful way to confirm to others that you are knowledgeable without coming across as one who brags. It is one of the first steps in applying the &lsquo;humility advantage&rsquo;.<br />
<br />
2. Confirm your Understanding<br />
<br />
As an audience member participant at one of my live presentations, you may have seen me step off the stage pretending to be a restaurant waiter taking food orders from several audience members.  During this skit, rather than order directly from a menu, each patron has a special request such as, &ldquo;I'll have the salad with the meal.&rdquo; or &ldquo;I'd like to have fruit instead of fries,&rdquo; etc. As the waiter, I don't write anything down, and when I walk away, the patrons assume that there is no way I'm going to get all the orders straight.<br />
<br />
There's the problem!  I may have listened accurately to each request, but the emotions I left with my customers are worry and lack of confidence in my service.<br />
<br />
As an experienced professional in your industry, you may be a great listener, but are you perceived as such? Being regarded as a poor listener is a surefire way to kill a sale or curtail your career. Fortunately, by using a little humility, this is easy to correct. In the waiter demonstration, I redo the same order-taking scenario, except the second time after taking the orders, I say, &ldquo;Let me make sure I've got this straight. You would like yours with fruit instead of fries...&rdquo; (I then confirm everyone's special request accurately).<br />
<br />
Suddenly, the restaurant patrons feel good about the quality of my service. Here's the KEY; I repeat my understanding of their needs with the phrase, &ldquo;Let me make sure I've got this straight.&rdquo; Fact is, I knew I had it straight, but the customer didn't. The catch is, if my ego were running my life I'd never say, &ldquo;Let me make sure I've got this straight.&rdquo; Hence the Humility Advantage.<br />
<br />
Here's one more application:<br />
<br />
3. Ask Permission to Present<br />
<br />
Have you heard the expression that &lsquo;people don't like to be sold-to, but they love to buy&rsquo;? Before you present the benefits of your products or services, remember to ask for permission. When threading these techniques together, sales conversation might start by pointing out the homework you've done on the other person. Then ask about their needs, confirming your understanding with, &ldquo;Let me make sure I've got this straight&hellip;&rdquo;  Later, ask permission to present with, &ldquo;Based on what you've told me, I do have some thoughts. Would you like to hear a couple of options that I think would fit for you?&rdquo;  Once the other person agrees, they will feel less like they are being forced, and more like they are being helped.<br />
<br />
Business strategist and international speaker Jeff Mowatt base this article on the critically acclaimed book, Becoming a Service Icon in 90 Minutes a Month. To obtain your own copy of his book or to inquire about engaging Jeff for your team, visit http://www.jeffmowatt.com or call 1-800-JMowatt (566-9288).<br />]]></description>
<link>http://miraclemoneyblog.com/homebiztips/HomeBusinessTips_DMc_386/user/index.php</link>
</item>

<item>
<title>5 Ways to Avoid the Biggest Bottleneck In Your Business</title>
<description><![CDATA[<br />
<br />
By Paul Speziale<br />
<br />
What's the biggest bottleneck in any business? Besides sales, this often-overlooked feature of any business could be causing you lost sales and your long-term success. Use these tips to reduce the most costly (and annoying) bottleneck with businesses today.<br />
<br />
Imagine for a moment that you have just spent a small fortune on marketing...you have a sale that you want to advertise and you have produced full page ads in the local newspaper setting you back $20,000 a day, sent out thousands of flyers, produced signs, sent out press releases and you even went on TV.<br />
<br />
The big day arrives and floods of people enter your store. You look at the people clawing at each other to buy your goods, while you eagerly wait to count your profits.<br />
<br />
Then something bad happens...<br />
<br />
A cashier takes a break to talk to his girlfriend on his cell phone, and she breaks up with him. He returns 15 minutes later disgusted, not caring about anything, right into the heat of the crowded store. He starts being rude to the customers, taking his time and tells some of the customers off.<br />
<br />
Appalled, your customers leave the store, and the profits you were counting in your head have vanished into the smoke they came from.<br />
<br />
So what happened?<br />
<br />
What happened is what many believe is one of the biggest problems of any business today...the people that interface with your customers.<br />
<br />
Usually they are the most underpaid, under trained people in your business. They are relied upon to handle all customer inquiries, complaints, joys and questions and basically close the sales.  It&rsquo;s not just in retail either. Any business that has prospects phoning and asking questions or placing orders has this problem.  <br />
<br />
If I had a nickel for every time I heard a story from a disgruntled long-time customer of some business that was driven away because the customer service person couldn&rsquo;t accommodate their request, I would have lots of nickels.<br />
<br />
And you know, the people that represent your business, the ones that interface with the customer everyday ARE your business to the customer. If they are mad because of some &ldquo;7 dollar an hour&hellip;can&rsquo;t wait to get home to go drinking&rdquo; customer service representative, they will lump you and your product right along into their mental state. If you receive a brick in the mail one day, you may be having this problem.<br />
<br />
So how do you avoid this bottleneck?<br />
<br />
First, isolate whomever is having any contact with your customers.<br />
<br />
1. Who&rsquo;s answering your phones?<br />
2. Who is on the floor greeting your customers?<br />
3. Who&rsquo;s answering the emails?<br />
4. Who is responding to your white mail?<br />
5. Who is placing the order?<br />
6. Who is making the sales?<br />
<br />
Second, you need to be constantly educating them and training them as to your specials, new products, etc. Make sure you have a networked computer system to take notes for telephone operators. There is nothing more frustrating then phoning one-customer service person, only to have to retell your problem to another one 10 minutes later after they mistakenly hang up on you.<br />
<br />
Third, educate them on how to deal with people. Once they know why certain customers behave the way they do, they might not be rude with them or they can adapt their behavior to build rapport and guarantee the sale.<br />
<br />
Fourth, give them a little negotiating power. Some customers will try to negotiate. Give the person some room with that, just to appease the customer&rsquo;s desire to &ldquo;get a good deal&rdquo;. Often people will warm up when there is some negotiating room.<br />
<br />
Lastly, perhaps give the people that deal with customers a small reward for their excellent people handling skills (in other words, closing the sale). It doesn&rsquo;t have to be money. In fact, chances are it will be material things, not money. Find out what your employees want the most. It can be an IPOD, or a trip, your own products, or something to encourage them. Use incentives so they make the special effort with your customers.<br />
<br />
Paul Speziale is a direct marketing consultant / entrepreneur based out of Toronto, Ontario. He has served all industries from manufacturers to retailers, from entrepreneurs to professionals. Besides helping clients, he is working on his own projects. He also volunteers his time for several worthy causes both local and global. You can reach him at: http://www.AnelloSolutions.com: Growing Your Business Through Low-Risk, Optimized and Results Based Marketing<br />]]></description>
<link>http://miraclemoneyblog.com/homebiztips/HomeBusinessTips_DMc_386/user/index.php</link>
</item>

<item>
<title>Ten Ways to Piss Off You Readers, Kill Your Blog, and Get Banned From the Internet!</title>
<description><![CDATA[by Barrett Niehus<br />
<br />
Everywhere I look there is blogging advice on how to increase your traffic, pagerank, and readership on the net. There’s syndication, RSS feeds, and any type of social topic you would ever need. However, nobody tells you how to stop the traffic and alienate your fan base; so I thought I should try.<br />
<br />
1. Active in blogging? Why not put as many popups on your page as humanly possible? Make it as difficult as possible for a reader to navigate away from your page and ensure that he will never come back! If you are not comfortable with popups, AdSense ads after every post and every type of widget that you can find will do the trick.<br />
<br />
2. Too many comments? Turn them off, don’t respond when they are posted, and return fire with fire. People like to feel engaged when they read your content. Don’t let ‘em!<br />
<br />
3. Got an RSS feed? Get rid of it, or better yet, find a blog that you absolutely hate and offer it as the feed through your site. It all looks like XML code until you plug it into a reader anyway. Your readers won’t know what hit them.<br />
<br />
4. You have a bookmarking widget; Digg, del.icio.us, News Vine, Reddit? Aren’t there equivalent bookmarking tools for adult sites? Couldn’t you use the same graphic and just replace the hyperlink? Hmmm, if you want to get some hate mail, this may be the way to do it. When responding to the hate mail, please refer to item 2 above.<br />
<br />
5. Member of MySpace, Facebook, Friendster, Xanga, LinkedIn, MyBloglog and other networks that syndicate your content? This one’s easy, don’t complete your profile, syndicate content that is not yours, be un-genuine, and do not respond to comments. We keep going back to step 2 for some reason.<br />
<br />
6. Overload your readers with useless bookmarks. Stop writing content and go hog wild with your Sumble Upon and del.icio.us bookmarking Wordpress widgets. Nobody likes going to a blog that has nothing other than a collection of non-related bookmarks. No content, just bookmarks; nothing slows down traffic like a great link farm.<br />
<br />
7. DUMP THE TAGS!!!! Nobody will read your blog if nobody can find it. If you have a search term that inadvertently shows up under a Google search, repeat it in the text as many times as possible. A black-hat trick or two will also work to get you banned from Google.<br />
<br />
8. All text and no pictures makes for a very boring and unpleasant blog. Pictures are worth a thousand words, and people love to look at and share video. Why do you think YouTube sold for a billion dollars? If you don’t want traffic, do not use flickr, youtube, or other multi-media sharing services.<br />
<br />
9. Whatever you do, do not reference blog posts that you had writen earlier. This would entice readers to go further into your blog and spend more time there. Why would you want that?<br />
<br />
10. This one I had to think long and hard about. How do you get blacklisted from as many sites as possible, kicked off search engines and banned from the internet? One word….SPAM!!!<br />
<br />
TAGS: spam, banned, rss, ugly, kicked off, no readers, bad blog, bookmark widgets, digg, anti-comments, popups, tricks, reference, readers, ugly blog, mybloglog, wordpress, blogger, stumble upon<br />
<br />
Barrett Niehus and 4MySales.com explore helping real estate agents and small business professionals market their business and grow their income. Join the real estate and marketing discussion at <a href="http://realtorleads.blogspot.com" target="_blank">http://realtorleads.blogspot.com</a> or explore investing in real estate at <a href="http://www.4mysales.com" target="_blank">http://www.4mysales.com</a>]]></description>
<link>http://miraclemoneyblog.com/homebiztips/HomeBusinessTips_DMc_386/user/index.php</link>
</item>

<item>
<title>

Get Motivated Today With These 4 Essential Pillars of Motivation</title>
<description><![CDATA[<br />
<br />
by Adam Eason<br />
<br />
==========================<br />
Just imagine if, before you use any techniques or strategies for improving your motivation, you had 4 main pillars installed in your life that underpinned your motivation and enhanced your capacity to be motivated throughout your life.<br />
==========================<br />
<br />
I want to give you four wonderful pillars for motivation, four main themes to underpin a healthy sense of drive and inspiration.<br />
<br />
- The first main pillar of motivation is to gain recognition from peers.<br />
<br />
When soldiers in wartime give up their lives during combat, why do they do it? Is it because of patriotism, a belief in the cause they are fighting for, or a fear of court martial if they do otherwise?<br />
<br />
Perhaps all these things play a part, but extensive research has shown that what really motivates a soldier to fight well in combat is the desire for the respect of the person who is fighting right beside him. This is much more important than medals or other forms of public recognition.<br />
<br />
This is similar to what motivates salesmen on the floor of a car dealership, students in a classroom or a team of lawyers trying to win a case.<br />
<br />
In the English Premier football league, all the players will tell you the best award that they want to receive is the acclaim of the others players and to receive the players player of the year award.<br />
<br />
Think of ways that you can develop recognition from your peers to enhance your motivation. The apply them to your life.<br />
<br />
- The second pillar of motivation is recognition from respected experts or authorities.<br />
<br />
In my own life, I love the fact that a wonderful multi-selling author in the US has helped me, guided me and become my friend professionally and personally. I desperately wanted to earn his respect.<br />
<br />
Has there been someone like that in your life? It is important to realise that a respected expert does not have to be someone who is known far and wide throughout the world. You are the one who establishes the qualifications, though very often people whom you find impressive will be equally impressive to others.<br />
<br />
Once you've met such a person, or even if you have just seen them from a distance, or perhaps read an article about them, stop hesitating and politely approach them and introduce yourself. Unless you happen to catch them at a particularly difficult moment, most successful people are eager to help others and to pass on what they've learned.<br />
<br />
The great thing about establishing a relationship with a mentor is that you eventually come close to that person and you can sometimes hear them advising you when they are not actually around.<br />
<br />
Think about how you can get recognition from a respected expert or authority. You can really stretch this concept to be good parents, local teachers, councellors, as well as business people; interpret this in the best way for you.<br />
<br />
- The third pillar of motivation is family.<br />
<br />
Although the approval of peers and experts may be important to your career, in your life, nothing compares to the influence of your family.<br />
<br />
Let me explain what I mean by this with an example of my own; when I had come off stage, speaking at an event in Dublin last year, a man approached me and asked me for some advice on the best way to stop smoking. He knew that I was the author of The Secrets of Self-Hypnosis, and wanted assistance.<br />
<br />
My immediate response was to ask him what his reasons were for wanting to stop smoking and he said the following to me:<br />
<br />
"My wife is pregnant with our first child and I want to have more after that. I want to be able to enjoy playing and having fun with my children and I want to be a healthy influence on their lives, too."<br />
<br />
I spent some time talking to him about some specific techniques and strategies. I have not heard from that man, but I know that he was driven by his family and am sure of his success. Think about your wealth goals; so many of us want to be able to rpovide for our family and for them to have what they want.<br />
<br />
So -- think about the ways in which you your fmaily can motivate you and get that lodged into your mind.<br />
<br />
- The fourth pillar of motivation is something closely related to number three: sharing the wealth and wisdom for the good of your fellows.<br />
<br />
To illustrate this pillar, I'd like to tell you a story I love about Andrew Carnegie, the Scottish immigrant who founded the United States Steel Company in the early nineteen hundreds.<br />
<br />
When Carnegie died, a yellow sheet of paper was found in his desk on which he had written a note to himself when he was in his twenties. This note illustrated the main purpose of his life. It read:<br />
<br />
"I am going to spend the first half of my life accumulating money, and I am going to spend the last half of my life giving it all away."<br />
<br />
During his lifetime, Carnegie's fortune was estimated at four hundred and fifty million dollars -- the equivalent to four and a half billion dollars today. In addition to building Carnegie Hall in New York City, he founded libraries in hundreds of small towns all across America and participated in dozens of other philanthropic activities as well.<br />
<br />
When we look at these four pillars of motivation, what do you really see?<br />
<br />
The thing that I immediately notice is that they all involve other people, whether they are peers, mentors, family members, or simply fellows of the human race. Ironic isn't it?<br />
<br />
To be successfully motivated, you need this very internal, very unique thing called your motivation. To acquire that innermost quality and set it to work, you need to recognise other people as reasons to believe.<br />
<br />
Adam Eason is a UK based, renowned consultant, speaker and best-selling author. Please visit his Website for a vast range of personal development resources and to receive your amazing, free, instantly-downloadable hypnosis session for ultimate relaxation -- and the sensational free ebook 'The Happy Brain Manual,' filled with techniques, tips and strategies to make more of your brain: http://www.adam-eason.com .<br />
<br />]]></description>
<link>http://miraclemoneyblog.com/homebiztips/HomeBusinessTips_DMc_386/user/index.php</link>
</item>

<item>
<title>Time Management Tips - Resisting Online Temptations</title>
<description><![CDATA[<br />
<br />
By Elaine Currie<br />
<br />
Working at home gives you the freedom to use your time in a flexible way. With no boss to set deadlines for you, it is up to you to ensure no element of time wasting creeps into your flexible schedule.<br />
<br />
If you are new to working at home online, one of the hardest things you have to do will be to learn effective time management. Time is too precious to be wasted.  It is essential to remain focused on the task you set out to do and complete that task before starting another. There will be numerous distractions inviting you to wander off course spending a little time in some completely unplanned activity. For anyone working at home, there will be distractions; such as a ringing phone, a parcel delivery, a demanding child, a bright day that just begs you to wax the car, a dog that wants walking, etc.<br />
<br />
When working at home online, in addition to all the normal domestic distractions, you contend with the Internet's own array of distractions. If you thought controlling domestic life while working at home was complicated, the early days of working online will seem like trying to perform delicate surgery in the middle of a three-ring circus. Offline distractions will quietly tempt you to wander off course.  The distractions you will encounter on the Internet positively clamor for your attention.<br />
<br />
Working at home provides the freedom to make your own schedule and the flexibility to work any hour of day or night you choose. The main attraction of working at home is there will be no boss breathing down your neck. In the absence of deadlines set by a boss, it is up to you to use self-discipline to get your work done.<br />
<br />
When you work for yourself, you will undoubtedly start with every intention of managing your time sensibly and following a schedule that will enable you to balance work and family life. Working at home online involves more than just good intentions. It requires planning, determination, persistence, and unwavering self-discipline.<br />
<br />
When you first start working at home online, you will be tempted to check your website at regular intervals. You will be tempted to check your sales figures several times a day. You will feel the need to check in at your favorite forums, and your email inbox will have an almost irresistible attraction. It is natural to feel like this. Each of these detours from your planned day will not take long on its own. If you add up the time spent on each one, you will be looking at an hour or more wasted each day.<br />
<br />
Those self-inflicted time wasters are a danger in themselves, but the danger lurking within them is worse. Every visit you make to a forum and every email you read can contain a link that you will not be able to resist clicking. This is where working at home online has unique dangers you would not experience if you had an offline home business. Clicking any one of those links can lead you to a website full of information that looks as if it might be of benefit to you. There will be offers of tools to save you time, e-books to educate you, and advertising that promises to make you a fortune. Your decision to read just one email can lead you down a path that costs you another half hour in wasted time.<br />
<br />
The problem with these online temptations is they tend to arrive disguised as something to help you in your home business. Ironically, many will claim to save you time while you are building your business. You will develop an instinct that enables you to ignore these offers because you have seen it all, (or something very similar) before, but the early days are a dangerous time. Your best defense in the early days is self-discipline. The solution is not always easy but it is simple: make a plan and stick to it. Have a list of things to do each day and make yourself work through the list systematically. The best way to do this is to use a system of small goals and rewards to keep you on the straight and narrow path until good time management replaces those bad habits.<br />
<br />
If you fail to exercise self-discipline and resist the temptation to wander the Internet back roadsFree Reprint Articles, you will find yourself spending long hours at your computer with nothing to show for the time spent apart maybe from a touch of eyestrain.<br />
<br />
Do you earn money working at home? For more time management tips and useful home business resources, visit Elaine Currie's Work At Home Directory (http://www.huntingvenus.com/).<br />
<br />]]></description>
<link>http://miraclemoneyblog.com/homebiztips/HomeBusinessTips_DMc_386/user/index.php</link>
</item>

<item>
<title>Developing the Best Internet Marketing Strategy</title>
<description><![CDATA[<br />
<br />
By Theresa Cahill<br />
<br />
After spending the past decade talking with individuals wishing to promote their products and web sites online, one theme appears to repeat itself and may be at the root of the marketer's problem.<br />
<br />
Wikipedia states that:<br />
<br />
"Real-life marketing primarily revolves around the application of a great deal of common-sense; dealing with a limited number of factors, in an environment of imperfect information and limited resources complicated by uncertainty and tight timescales. Use of classical marketing techniques, in these circumstances, is inevitably partial and uneven."<br />
<br />
The average advertiser often perceives himself or herself as a full-fledged "marketer." This, too often, is far from reality. The quote above shows there is an abundance of misinformation and limited, trustworthy resources on which one begins to build a marketing base. Choose the wrong ones and you are running around in circles, with little to show for your efforts.<br />
<br />
Developing the best internet marketing strategy can be difficult. It must encompass a wide variety of services, methods, and techniques to begin to show results. Often, the web site owner chooses one particular method, applies it to that task for a short period and then puts it on the back burner. They find that either the technique they decided upon was too hard to implement or too time consuming to pursue.<br />
<br />
Then it is off to find the next "biggest and best" idea.<br />
<br />
The lack of follow thru, compounded with life pressures, forces many to give up effectively working their online marketing strategy. Reviewing their plan of action, often it is discovered that there really is no method - just a hit and miss approach to try to gain web site recognition from a virtual world full of competitors.<br />
<br />
Cost effective internet marketing and a solid online marketing strategy are key elements to your online business success. Following the latest and greatest fad becomes an all-consuming monster. Reality tells us there is just not enough time in the day to work a fully developed online marketing strategy... not if you are going it alone. To hinder one's efforts further, many try to discover the "secret" from one online source or another. This, too, can chew up time and money without shedding any real light on effective marketing.<br />
<br />
Individuals, small businesses, and large corporations running successful endeavors online have one thing in common - a solid marketing strategy and effective ways to implement their plans.<br />
<br />
Remember, there is a good reason sayings like "Rome wasn't built in a day!" remain true even today. Haphazard marketing brings haphazard (and frustrating) results.<br />
<br />
Theresa Cahill has over two decades of online and offline marketing and puts that experience to use assisting businesses and store front owners in promoting their websites. FREE online marketing strategy analysis at http://www.market-for-me.com.<br />
<br />]]></description>
<link>http://miraclemoneyblog.com/homebiztips/HomeBusinessTips_DMc_386/user/index.php</link>
</item>

<item>
<title>Do Affiliates Make Money with Adwords and Affiliate Programs?</title>
<description><![CDATA[<br />
<br />
By Mohd Sharulnazeri Bin Mohd Ali<br />
<br />
Do affiliates really make money just promoting the affiliate program using the adwords or other PPC service? That is the most frequently asked question when the newbie enters the affiliate marketing business and wants to promote the product or business using the adwords or other PPC service. They have heard many stories about the affiliate's success using PPC.<br />
<br />
When we research this question on the internet, we will find much discussion regarding this matter. Some are making money and some of them are losing money. The truth about PPC is to help the affiliate or other business to make money, not lose money, provided they have some knowledge in PPC campaign and planned strategy. Many of them lose money because they are blindly using the PPC without any study or necessary preparation, such as keywords and ads.<br />
<br />
One question always asked by the internet marketers is, "Do the affiliate marketers make more money from the vendors?" The answer is "YES". Affiliate marketing business provides flexibility and freedom to the affiliate marketers so they will not be limited to one niche only. They can select from several niches that suit the markets. By this factor, the affiliate marketers can generate multiple sources of income from several niches. However, one of the advantages of being the vendor is having a huge pool of affiliate marketers helping you to promote your products. However, let us not forget the commissions they have to pay to the affiliate marketers. The vendors earn from quantities and bear most of the cost of creating and maintaining the business.<br />
<br />
You need to ask yourself these two questions:<br />
<br />
a.)Do you want to be in this business?<br />
<br />
b.)Do you want to work for someone else? With most jobs in the world, there are a learning curve, and remember, learning and practice will make you perfect.<br />
<br />
Sharul is one of the successful marketers. Learn more about affiliate marketing business at http://www.affiliate-marketingtips.blogspot.com and get the free adwords coaching at http://www.intincome.biz<br />
<br />]]></description>
<link>http://miraclemoneyblog.com/homebiztips/HomeBusinessTips_DMc_386/user/index.php</link>
</item>

<item>
<title>The Blockbuster Benefits Of Selling Information On The Net</title>
<description><![CDATA[by Lewis Low<br />
<br />
An entrepreneur on the Information Superhighway sells information, in fact, almost all successful online businesses sell information in some form or another. The most famous example is Bill Gates. He has become one of the riches men on Earth because he sells software, which is an information product.<br />
<br />
So what’s the big deal in selling information products online? Let's check out some of the benefits in doing so -<br />
<br />
1) Low Start-up Costs<br />
<br />
In comparison to a traditional bricks and clicks business, an online business requires low start up costs. For example, a franchise will set you back as much as $500,000 or more just for the rights to get started. You can start your own information business for less than $1,000.<br />
<br />
2) Low Inventory Costs<br />
<br />
You keep little or no inventory. Most information products can be produced and compiled into electronic format. As you can see, today information products are ebooks, manuals, as well as software. You have no inventory cost except investing in some software in the first place. Compare that to a traditional publishing business which might cost you thousands of dollars just for printing, labor, storage, etc.<br />
<br />
3) Zero Shipping Costs<br />
<br />
Don't overlook the cost of shipping in a traditional business. Just imagine how much money you might lose if the order was returned due to credit card fraud, a customer request for a refund, or product damage during the course of shipping? On the other hand, the delivery of electronic information products is safe, it is instant, and it is online. The only costs you bear are for web hosting and insignificant credit card processing fees.<br />
<br />
4) High Mark-Ups<br />
<br />
Information products have a high mark-up because customers are not paying for the format in which the products are delivered. They are paying for the valuable information contained within. Actual production costs are irrelevant and can not be applied when dealing with these types of products.<br />
<br />
5) Your Business Runs Entirely on Autopilot!<br />
<br />
Your whole business can be set to run on autopilot, right from customer follow-ups, to taking orders, credit card processing, to products download, and delivery. The system runs 24/7, 100% automatically, while you work on other projects, or spend time on vacation with your family. That's really a dream business!<br />
<br />
To kick start your online information selling business, you will need to have a set of your own high-demand products. You may want to create your very own product from scratch, or you can purchase resell rights to an existing product that already has demand. The latter will be a great option if you don't have the time or would rather save yourself the hassle of creating your own product from scratch.<br />
<br />
In either case, be sure to do your own market research before attempting any course of action. This should prevent you from getting into buying or producing unwanted products or products without market.<br />
<br />
Lewis Low is the founding editor of OnlineBizPromo.com. For more Practical Online Business Ideas and Work-From-Home Opportunities, visit his Work-At-Home directory at <a href="http://www.OnlineBizPromo.com" target="_blank">http://www.OnlineBizPromo.com</a>]]></description>
<link>http://miraclemoneyblog.com/homebiztips/HomeBusinessTips_DMc_386/user/index.php</link>
</item>

<item>
<title>Ten Tips for Making Money Online</title>
<description><![CDATA[<br />
<br />
By Bridgitte Williams<br />
<br />
Prepare to learn and get real facts about online moneymaking.<br />
<br />
1. Make sure that the program you join is a reliable one. This means checking to see if the company has been in business at least a year or longer. See if they have a better business rating, been paying, been a paid list or a paying program seal of approval or certification. These are awarded and displayed on the pages of the website of the business. If the business has them, you will know. They will want you to know. This way, at least you know they have a record of paying.<br />
<br />
2. Start with programs that are free to join and promise to pay you, with no money investment required. This will insure that you will make money without losing any of yours. You can start by joining free get paid to read email programs and surveys. You will quickly learn which programs pay and which ones do not. These sites do not give out your personal information or email address. They are bound by law not to do so.<br />
<br />
3. Look for websites that offer free advertising. These are sites and search engines that will advertise your personal or business website free. You submit your website link. It is that easy. If you do not have a website yet, be sure and create one, after you find a few good programs that have made you some money. Many websites offer you a free web page that is easy to make and promote. Make a site and keep it simple. On your web page, include the links to the sites of your favorite programs. This will be your link given to you by the program to promote the program. This will make you more money with less work, since you get a percentage of the money others make if they join your program under you. Submit your website link to all of the free submission sites you can find. You can post the site as a classified ad, on message boards, in forums and write articles about your site to submit to article sites. There are many free forms of advertising to be found online. They are well worth it.<br />
<br />
4. Make a simple business card with the name of your website and the link to it. You can give these out to the many people you know and to the ones that you meet. Some businesses even have a free place to post or leave your business card, especially if you are already a good customer of theirs. You can print out these business cards on your own computer for almost no cost. This is your home business. It can be as profitable as you make it.<br />
<br />
5. You can have a few shirts made up to promote your website. Give them to anyone you know that visits malls, restaurants, Wal-Mart, and very populated areas. Kids are great for this. They love amusement parks and like wearing unique clothes. You may want to wait to do this until you make some money from your program and have a small amount to invest in advertising.<br />
<br />
6. Get a PayPal account. It is easy to do and well worth it. Most reputable sites will pay you by PayPal. You will receive your money easier and faster. The only information you have to give to the one who is paying you is an email address.<br />
<br />
7. Visit some of the get paid, been paid and are paid to forums online. Read what programs people like and they say are paying them. This can give you an idea of what the best paying programs are.<br />
<br />
8. Be aware that some programs do not allow AOL members to join. It usually is noted on the site. Most programs do allow AOL members to join.<br />
<br />
9. Making money online takes some time. Any person that tells you any different is probably not telling the whole truth.<br />
<br />
10. Realize that any program that is free to join and actually pays you is a rare gem in an online world full of frauds.<br />
<br />
Thank you for reading. I have some more information to help you on your money making journey. Visit the resource links for a start on your way.<br />
<br />
Bridgitte loves writing, reading and finding free ways to make money online. Please visit these websites for more information. http://beep.com/members/bridgitte/index.htm<br />
<br />
http://all4webs.com/i/3/bridgitte/home.htm<br />
<br />]]></description>
<link>http://miraclemoneyblog.com/homebiztips/HomeBusinessTips_DMc_386/user/index.php</link>
</item>

<item>
<title>What Makes AdSense Work</title>
<description><![CDATA[<br />
<br />
By Karl Stadler<br />
<br />
Some AdSense sites are performing well and others just exist in the abyss of cyberspace. Make sure your AdSense site is the successful one and keep it out of the abyss.<br />
<br />
What makes AdSense work?  There are many ideas, as there are theories. Some maintain it is the placement of the ad on the page, some say integrate it into the page, and it must have the look and feel of the webpage. It should be at the top, in this format, and so the secrets continue.<br />
<br />
There is only one secret to AdSense success; it is nothing more than traffic. Without substantial traffic, your AdSense pages will not make you money. There is proof of this statement, just look at the click through rate you are receiving on your current pages. You will immediately notice that it takes many visitors to generate a click.<br />
<br />
If things go really well, you could have as high as fifty percent and upwards CTR. This is possible, has been done and proven, but it will not just happen on any old page.<br />
<br />
Placement of the ad does play a role but it is not as big as many would like you to believe. Information on the best placement of AdSense code on your page is no secret and is free information on Google. It is called a heat map.  It will show you exactly where to place your ads for maximum exposure and CTR.<br />
<br />
The problem with most AdSense driven sites is exactly that, they are AdSense driven. Nobody seems to care about the visitor landing on the page, becoming click machines supposed to make you money. According to most AdSense sites, they are there for you and not the other way around. No second thought is given to the surfing experience of the visitor.<br />
<br />
You have been made to believe that you need a multitude of sites and use all sorts of templates and secret positioning tactics for maximum income. Therefore, every second some would-be AdSense millionaire is putting up thousands of crappy pages all over the internet to get those AdSense clicks that will elevate them to the illusive four and five figure AdSense earners. They tend to forget the internet marketplace is probably the most dynamic market there is, and changes every day. Certain elements remain the same. You have to be able to broaden your thinking and think out of the box.<br />
<br />
Let us go back to the least important person for most AdSense publishers, the visitor to the page. These poor souls land on your pages through either generic or PPC traffic. Either way, you have the possibility t they might be clicking on one of your AdSense links. The only driving force for the visitor to click your link is he found the information on your page that related to his search.  After going through your page, he will click on one of your links in AdSense to further his search.<br />
<br />
Now AdSense displays relevant ads on your page based on the content of the page. If the visitor is not finding what they are looking for, how do you expect AdSense to find related content ads to place on your page?<br />
<br />
By considering your visitor and actually providing for them, you are also insuring for yourself that the correct AdSense ads will be displaying on your pages, and hence will deliver a good CTR. Just putting up one thousand new pages with some template or other automatic page-creating device will certainly not hit the mark.<br />
<br />
You would probably be better off with ten well designed and optimized pages, not only for the search engines, but also for your visitors Business Management Articles, and you might be able to ensure a profitable AdSense campaign.<br />
<br />
There will always be elements that remain a constant no matter how dynamic the market. Utilize these to their best effect, and change with the dynamics and be as profitable as you can. To get the real information visit http://www.yourenterprize.com/adsense/adsense-secrets.htm<br />
<br />]]></description>
<link>http://miraclemoneyblog.com/homebiztips/HomeBusinessTips_DMc_386/user/index.php</link>
</item>

<item>
<title>How One Person Sold One Billion Dollars Worth of Products</title>
<description><![CDATA[<br />
<br />
By Tim Sales<br />
<br />
If you want to increase the profits in your MLM Business, a good starting place is to sell more products. There are hundreds of different &quot;selling tactics&quot; being taught, but I have always found this one specific approach to work like magic.<br />
<br />
How in the world could ONE person sell a billion dollars worth of products? He knew his product...and he knew it well. The one thing that snagged my attention was &lsquo;how well he knew his product&rsquo;.<br />
<br />
Which comes first; knowledge of your product...or selling a billion dollars worth of it? Obviously, knowledge of your product comes first.<br />
<br />
This MLM training article is about the important Communication Quality called, &quot;Know what you're talking about.&quot;<br />
<br />
The MLM professional must possess a specific group of characteristics in order to truly have success in speaking with customers and selling products.<br />
<br />
I call these characteristics the 10 Communication Qualities. Being knowledgeable about these qualities and having the proper and correct MLM training to learn them, you will be amazed at how many prospects and customers will be interested in your MLM business and/or products.<br />
<br />
I watched a TV infomercial of a gentleman selling cutting knives.  I was greatly impressed with the knowledge of the sales persons&rsquo; presentation.  I could tell he knew everything one could know about his product.  <br />
<br />
I was listening intently, at the beginning, trying to find a hole in what he was talking about. The more I listened, the more I could see and hear; &lsquo;this man knows about knives&rsquo;!  <br />
He demonstrated to me why he was right.  He discussed it clearly.  Anyone could have understood it. <br />
<br />
He presented several demonstrations with his knives; everything from cutting a can in half to cutting other knives in half with his knife.  He did this without making me feel stupid for my lack of knowledge about knives.  He was not too assertive, (Communication Quality #4).  The more I watched this man, the more I realized he was using all 10 of the Communication Qualities.<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
Rarely have I seen all these qualities in one person.  By the way he delivered his knowledge, I could tell he had researched everything about his knives. He explained what a good knife was, told where the largest cost is in a knife, and why you (the listener) didn't need to have that in your kitchen knives. He gave a &quot;no questions asked, money back guarantee.&quot; That certainly sounded like he was &quot;interested&quot; in me. I bought the whole set of knives.<br />
<br />
I was intrigued with his charisma; I started researching him, and guess what I found? He has sold over one billion dollars worth of goods! NOT through a downline of thousands of people...or a company with hundreds or thousands of stores... he personally has sold a billion dollars worth of goods!<br />
<br />
His name is Ron Popeil. His mother and father split up when he was three. Neither parent wanted him or his brother. He grew up on the streets in the Bronx.  At 16, he visited his dad in Chicago and got a job working in a small kitchen appliance factory. Walking home one day, he passed by a place in Chicago called Maxwell Street; which is the equivalent of a dirty flea market today.<br />
<br />
The main things sold on Maxwell Street were stolen goods.  As he watched the people selling their stolen goods and the people buying them, he got an idea. The next day he bought some of the items from the appliance factory where he worked at wholesale.  He then went to Maxwell Street and sold them. As he describes it, &quot;I had never been loved as a kid - I finally found love. It was with my customers. I made a connection with them.&quot;<br />
<br />
He found out about state and county fairs...and mastered those. He volunteered to do live demonstrations inside of stores that carried the manufacturer's products. He mastered selling products &lsquo;live&rsquo; in stores, and then graduated to live television networks that sold the products. His company&rsquo;s name is Ronco. He's the man who came up with, &quot;It slices and dices... but wait, that's not all...you'll also get...&quot; and &quot;If you order now you get absolutely FREE...&rdquo; To date, he has personally sold over one billion dollars worth of products.<br />
<br />
Because he was the one working in the factory making those knives, he KNEW HIS PRODUCT!<br />
<br />
My whole interest in this was stimulated by his knowledge of knives. It was THIS quality of &quot;know what you're talking about&quot; that jumped out and grabbed my attention. When you know what you're talking about, prospects really admire it because your knowledge can help them get what they want.<br />
<br />
Your downline will also greatly admire you if you know what you're talking about...and they will follow you.  If you invent answers to their questions (instead of knowing what you're talking about); they quickly learn you will say anything (truth or not) to get them to buy the product or sign up in your downline...and they won't.<br />
<br />
You do not have to work at a manufacturer to know all about the products you are selling in your MLM business. You don&rsquo;t have to have a master's degree in nutrition to sell a nutrition product. The thing that impressed me the most was that Ron Popeil talked in such simple language that everyone could understand.<br />
<br />
He never tried to impress his audience with big words. He would say things like, &quot;The steel this knife is made out of is tough; look how tough it is&quot;, then he would demonstrate it. He didn't try to explain the difference between anodizing and case hardening.<br />
<br />
Instead, he would demonstrate for you what he wanted to communicate. It's the sign of a true communicator, to know everything about something, and to communicate it simply. Make it very easy for the prospect to make a decision.<br />
<br />
Be knowledgeable about your MLM business. Know everything there is to know about the products you sell. When you find people who can benefit from your business and/or your products, you can confidently help them get what they want. It's this kind of knowledge that really pays you in network marketing.<br />
<br />
Tim Sales helps network marketers gain the confidence and skills to be an MLM success. Discover what you must know to become a true network marketing professional. Sign up for his free MLM training newsletter and listen to free training at http://www.brilliantexchange.com.<br />]]></description>
<link>http://miraclemoneyblog.com/homebiztips/HomeBusinessTips_DMc_386/user/index.php</link>
</item>

<item>
<title>Foreclosures - How To Invest Successfully</title>
<description><![CDATA[<br />
<br />
By David Jacobsen<br />
<br />
If someone is about to lose their home to foreclosure, you can guarantee they're feeling stressed. They're probably being bombarded by calls and letters from creditors, and for many people it all becomes too much to handle. They close their eyes and hope it will all just go away.<br />
<br />
Reality is that it won't.  As an investor interested in buying foreclosures, the hardest part can be convincing the homeowner that they really are going to lose their house unless they do something about it. It is also difficult to convince them that you are really trying to help them, even though you are helping yourself make a profit at the same time.<br />
<br />
When you're dealing with foreclosures, time is of the utmost importance. You need to have enough time to bail out the homeowner and take over the property before it's too late. It can be a good idea to subscribe to a foreclosure listing service.  You gain access to listings at the earliest possible time, and don't have to use your valuable time looking for potential foreclosure properties from other sources.<br />
<br />
Many people facing foreclosure have spoken to an attorney. They are convinced that bankruptcy is their only option; in most cases this isn't true. Attorneys tend to stick to what they're familiar with, which is bankruptcy, rather than mentioning other possibilities such as:<br />
<br />
- Sale by assumption<br />
- Deed in lieu<br />
- Straight sale<br />
- Foreclosure presale<br />
- Compromise sale<br />
- Short payoff<br />
- Workouts<br />
- Assignment<br />
- Injunctions<br />
<br />
There are still more options available, than these, which show that bankruptcy definitely isn't the only choice for the homeowner. When you're dealing with a homeowner in foreclosure, make it clear that you are offering an alternative to bankruptcy. Find out whether they really understand what bankruptcy will do to their credit history and how it will affect their future.<br />
<br />
If you're serious about buying foreclosure properties, then you need to become familiar with everything that's required in the process.  Check out everything for every property you consider. These items include:<br />
<br />
- Loan and mortgage documents<br />
- Loan amount, monthly payment, and interest rate<br />
- Any outstanding taxes<br />
- Existing insurance policies<br />
- Any other liens or judgments<br />
<br />
Make sure you have enough information to complete all the necessary tasks before the foreclosure occurs. If there is not enough time, don't even bother starting. Having said that, learn as much as you can about ways to delay foreclosure, and help the homeowner to implement them all. It may just give you enough time to take over the property before the foreclosure auction.<br />
<br />
Above all, focus on creating a solution where everybody wins. It's never an easy time for the homeowner, so be prepared for plenty of anger, frustration and resentment; some of which may be directed at you. Walk away if it's obvious the person doesn't want to work with you. Find someone who is interested in finding a solution, show empathy for their situation, put together a strategy to get the best possible result for them, and before long you'll find yourself with a good portfolio of investment properties.<br />
<br />
If you want to read more about foreclosures, click over to David's site at http://www.foreclosuresonlinecentral.com . You can also access lists of seized real estate at http://www.buyingcheaphouses.info]]></description>
<link>http://miraclemoneyblog.com/homebiztips/HomeBusinessTips_DMc_386/user/index.php</link>
</item>

<item>
<title>Make a Living in your Underwear</title>
<description><![CDATA[<br />
<br />
By Angela Bailey<br />
<br />
Bill finished college in May. It was a beautiful ceremony, and the culmination of many hard years of study. &ldquo;So what are you going to do now?&rdquo; I asked him, over a cup of coffee in a local cafe. &ldquo;Get a resume together and start looking for jobs&rdquo; he replied. That&rsquo;s the reply of about 99% of the people graduating from college. It&rsquo;s the way we are socially programmed to think. It&rsquo;s the same thing everybody else does. This doesn&rsquo;t necessarily make it the right thing to do. I believe if you have a reasonable amount of intelligence and an entrepreneurial spirit, there are far better ways to make a living. People have the attitude that I need to work hard to support my family. In my opinion, it&rsquo;s all for nothing, if you can only enjoy time with your family a small portion of your life. When I am gone, I don&rsquo;t want my kids to know me as a good provider, I want to be remembered as a good father. I cannot be a good father when I am a serving and making another person wealthy and I am never around to interact with them.<br />
<br />
Goals<br />
<br />
The first thing you need to accomplish is to set some goals for yourself, I can&rsquo;t stress enough how important goals are in your life, set personal goals and spiritual goals. Goals will give you something to shoot for. Write them down and read them everyday. Don&rsquo;t set unrealistic goals (i.e. I want to make 20,000 a month in three months). Start small young man and meet the reachable goal. Then set another one and meet that. Be specific in your goals and structure the steps to meet them; don&rsquo;t write a goal like&hellip;I want to be a millionaire. We all want to be millionaires, but we have to be a thousandaires first. There are plenty of books and articles on writing goals. Your first assignment or goal will be to write down a set of goals, the steps to reach them, and read them everyday. It will be the motivation to keep you on track.<br />
<br />
Your Passion<br />
<br />
What is your passion? What do you have or what can you create that others will pay you for? Can you create art that people would love to have hanging in their home? Can you create music that others would love to listen to? Can you write computer programs that others just can&rsquo;t live without? Can you make beautiful websites? Can you write informational articles? There are no limits, choose something that you are very passionate about that others will pay you for, and then monetize it. At first, you might have to get a job while you monetize your passion. Take baby steps to start a goal to make an additional $10.00 a month with your passion.  Once you reach it, bump it up to $50.00, keep this momentum going until you are able to quit your regular job and do your passion full-time.  Then you will be successful<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
Obstacles<br />
<br />
Ponder these next seven words carefully, &ldquo;As you think, so shall you be.&rdquo;  Thoughts are things, if you think you can, then you will. If you think you can&rsquo;t, then you won&rsquo;t. Get rid of the obstacles that you have conditioned yourself to believe. It drives me crazy when you hear people sabotage themselves by blaming things that have happened in the past for the reason they cannot succeed in the future&hellip;I&rsquo;m not smart enough, I never had a chance, I was raised in the ghetto, I&rsquo;m too poor, I&rsquo;m too short, too old, too young&hellip; enough with the excuses. Quit using other people and other events for excuses why you can&rsquo;t do something or are unable to succeed; it&rsquo;s all too easy to do this. The other choice takes a little effort and in reality the person down deep inside really doesn&rsquo;t want to change or improve themselves, they just want to use excuses. Think about this parable; imagine yourself in the back of a truck riding down a dirt road. You are now standing in the bed of this truck looking out the back seeing the trail in the dirt from the tires. These tracks in the dirt are your past. Now think about what is moving the truck forward, it&rsquo;s the engine. Consider this engine as the driving force of YOU, to improve your life, to become successful. Now ask yourself, do the tracks the tires are leaving in the dirt make the truck go forward?  The answer, of course, is NO; so enough with the excuses of things that have happened in the past. It is now time to start moving forward.<br />
<br />
Residual or Passive Income<br />
<br />
When another company owns you, in other words trading your time for money, you only get paid while you are working. Wouldn&rsquo;t it be nice to make money all the time? This is the definition of passive or residual income. The simplest example of this is having money in a mutual fund drawing interest. It doesn&rsquo;t matter if you&rsquo;re sleeping, eating, playing with your kids, or whatever, you are always making money. This is what you must set in place to make a living and be able to do what you enjoy doing. Again, going back to your passion; write a software program and put it on a web site where people can pay for it and download it, so it will generate money at all times. Put some photographs on a site that people can buy, create a web site that generates a massive amount of visitors and sell your ad space. There are thousands of ways to create residual income, try them out to see which ones work for you. Generate multiple sites, put different items on them, and get rid of the ones that don&rsquo;t work, and keep and duplicate the ones that do.<br />
<br />
Success and Failure<br />
<br />
&ldquo;Before success comes in any man&rsquo;s life he is sure to meet with much temporary defeat and, perhaps, some failures. When defeat overtakes a man, the easiest and most logical thing to do is quit. That is exactly what the majority of men do.&rdquo; - Napoleon Hill<br />
<br />
&ldquo;Being challenged in life is inevitable, being defeated is optional.&rdquo;- Roger Crawford<br />
<br />
&ldquo;Defeat never comes to anyone until they admit it.&rdquo;- Josephus Daniels<br />
<br />
&ldquo;Develop success from failures. Discouragement and failure are two of the surest stepping-stones to success.&rdquo;- Dale Carnegie<br />
<br />
Keep in mind if you are not failing, then you are not moving forward, so don&rsquo;t get discouraged, keep the &lsquo;strong will&rsquo; going and you are destined to succeed. One of the biggest fears that will go through your mind is&hellip;I don&rsquo;t have anything to offer others, maybe, getting a job is the best option for me. Don&rsquo;t fall into this line of thinking; it is part of the social programming you are accustomed to. You already know that getting a job is not the option you want to take. Don&rsquo;t listen to others who try and discourage you, &ldquo;That is crazy talk, that won&rsquo;t work, just get a job!&rdquo;  The reason so many people, including family members, try to discourage you, is that when you try to do something to better yourself, it makes others feel guilty. You&rsquo;ve heard the old saying, &lsquo;Misery Loves Company&rsquo;; they try to discourage you. Learn to trust your Intuition, even if the whole world is telling you it can&rsquo;t be done. Years from now, when you look back as a successful Work at Home entrepreneur, you will be grateful you had the intestinal fortitude to stay on the straight and narrow and become a success.<br />
<br />
Angela Bailey lives in Houston, TX with her 4-year-old son. She does freelance writing and Internet Marketing for a living. Her hobbies include Yoga, Meditation, and Cooking. Angela's Blog lists legitimate work from home opportunities go to http://findworkfromhome.com.<br />]]></description>
<link>http://miraclemoneyblog.com/homebiztips/HomeBusinessTips_DMc_386/user/index.php</link>
</item>

<item>
<title>A Sure-Fire Shortcut to Competitive Advantage</title>
<description><![CDATA[<br />
<br />
By Paul Levesque<br />
<br />
All businesses that out perform their competitors have two key characteristics in common: a highly energized workforce, plus hordes of delighted customers that keep coming back. Two nice things to have - but of course everyone knows the reason so few businesses enjoy a clear competitive advantage is because these two things are so difficult to achieve. If it&rsquo;s really that difficult, shouldn&rsquo;t those few businesses that manage to pull it off be absolutely exhausted by the effort? When you take a closer look, (as I have), at those rare businesses that consistently achieve both objectives - flashpoint businesses, as I refer to them - what you invariably see is just the opposite. Employees at all levels seem perpetually fired up, as if every day they&rsquo;re engaged in some kind of fun group activity. Is there some big secret about &quot;energized workers&quot; and &quot;delighted customers&quot; that these flashpoint businesses understand, and everyone else seems to have missed?<br />
<br />
There most certainly is. It has to do with what most people consider the basic difference between &quot;work&quot; and &quot;play&quot;. The first step on a shortcut to competitive advantage is to understand the specific elements that make play so much more satisfying than work.<br />
<br />
Play Element 1: Challenge<br />
<br />
Achieving better bowling scores would be easier if the bowling pins were closer. On the other hand, who would pay to go to a bowling alley where anyone could knock down all the pins every time with ease? Knocking them all down over and over again would quickly begin to feel like the kind of repetitive, pointless activity most bowlers experience at their jobs, and go bowling precisely to get away from it. To be fun, it has to be a real challenge&mdash;that&rsquo;s key.<br />
<br />
In most workplaces, there is not one single well-defined &ldquo;mission&rdquo; that takes precedence over everything else. Instead, there are all kinds of tasks, objectives, and deadlines that often make workers feel they&rsquo;re being pulled in a dozen directions at once. For many, the only real challenge on the job is resisting the temptation to quit.<br />
<br />
Contrast this with flashpoint businesses, where the one crystal-clear overriding mission is to draw business away from competitors by attempting to delight every customer every time. In these businesses, the reason it looks like workers are having fun is because in many ways their work feels like a game with a single, challenging, shared objective.<br />
<br />
Shortcut to Competitive Advantage, Part One: Challenge everyone in your business to think of -outperforming the competition through superior &ldquo;customer care&rdquo; as the primary objective that overrides all others at all times.<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
Play Element 2: Rules<br />
<br />
Every play activity has it own elaborate set of rules. In a new game, even before play begins, all the rules are carefully spelled out. These rules add to the challenge, and keep the game fair for all.<br />
<br />
In the work setting, the rules are often vague and unclear. They may even seem to shift and change from time to time, based on different situations as they arise. Workers often feel reluctant to take initiatives, unsure if doing so will later earn them praise (for &ldquo;thinking outside the box&rdquo;) or rebukes (for &ldquo;breaking the rules&rdquo;). They tend to adopt a play-it-safe approach.<br />
<br />
By comparison, most flashpoint businesses spell out their values and their priorities&mdash;the rules&mdash;over and over again. &ldquo;Your goal is to delight the customer, but not by doing anything that harms the organization in any way.&rdquo; &ldquo;We want to pull business away from our competitors, but never in an unlawful or underhanded way.&rdquo;<br />
<br />
Shortcut to Competitive Advantage, Part Two: Ensure that your workers understand how the game is to be played&mdash;how, for example, you will be giving them opportunities to come up with their own ideas for enhancing the customer experience. Clarify what constitutes a &ldquo;foul&rdquo; or a violation of the rules.<br />
<br />
Play Element 3: Scoring<br />
<br />
In play activities of every kind, there exists some sort of scoring mechanism that lets the players know immediately how well they&rsquo;re doing. This immediacy is critical. How popular would bowling be if the pins were in the dark, and players never found out their score, how well they played, until it arrived in the mail weeks later?<br />
<br />
This is what it feels like for most workers on the job. They don&rsquo;t find out how well they&rsquo;re doing until the &ldquo;quarterly reports&rdquo; come out, or until their annual performance evaluation meeting.<br />
<br />
Things are different in flashpoint businesses. There, spontaneous positive feedback from happy customers becomes the number-one scoring mechanism. At the same time it also serves as the number-one employee motivator, the basis for endless internal celebration and recognition.<br />
<br />
Shortcut to Competitive Advantage, Part Three: Harvest immediate positive customer feedback by every means at your disposal, (especially informal face-to-face conversation), and direct as much of this feedback as possible to your workers.<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
Play Element 4: Satisfaction<br />
<br />
Bowlers know before every game that they won&rsquo;t succeed in knocking down every pin every time. Players in every kind of game know they&rsquo;ll never achieve a perfect score&mdash;but this does nothing to diminish their attempts to do so. When their score tells them their performance has moved closer to the unachievable goal, their feeling of satisfaction and accomplishment is profound. There&rsquo;s shouting, &lsquo;high-fives&rsquo; and every kind of exuberant victory dance imaginable.<br />
<br />
Flashpoint businesses also know they won&rsquo;t succeed in delighting every customer every time. When the feedback indicates they&rsquo;ve moved closer to that unattainable objective, the same kind of cheering and celebration erupt. It&rsquo;s something that&rsquo;s almost never experienced in the majority of workplaces, and it&rsquo;s something that&rsquo;s almost routine in flashpoint businesses. They once again have beaten the opposing team, once again the dance of victory unites all of them in their shared accomplishment&mdash;and in their shared determination to repeatedly play the game, and strive together to win another round.<br />
<br />
Shortcut to Competitive Advantage, Part Four: Create a culture of celebration that maximizes workers&rsquo; sense of accomplishment with every &ldquo;rave review&rdquo; from delighted customers. This is the motivational fuel that quickly gains the most powerful competitive edge in any business&mdash;and helps sustain it over the long term.<br />
<br />
Customer-focus consultant Paul Levesque&rsquo;s latest book is, Customer Service From The Inside Out Made Easy (Entrepreneur Press, 2006).<br />
<br />
Copyright Paul Levesque. All Rights Reserved.<br />
<br />
Paul Levesque is available for speaking engagements through http://www.keynoteresource.com 1-800-420-4155. Paul Levesque has more than 20 years' experience as an international customer-service consultant. He has helped hundreds of corporate and small business clients become more customer-focused.<br />]]></description>
<link>http://miraclemoneyblog.com/homebiztips/HomeBusinessTips_DMc_386/user/index.php</link>
</item>

<item>
<title>Afraid of Talking to Prospects? Get Over it Fast With These Four Simple Tactics</title>
<description><![CDATA[<br />
<br />
By Tim Sales<br />
<br />
It is very difficult to achieve real MLM success if you are afraid of talking to people about your business. Use these four guidelines to achieve confidence when talking with prospects. They've worked for thousands in my own MLM business. I know they will work for you.<br />
<br />
Why do you have a &quot;chicken list?&quot;  Because you fear you don't communicate easily or well.<br />
<br />
A &quot;chicken list&quot; is the list of prospects that you're afraid to call. Often people think they will call their &quot;chicken list&quot; after they get successful. But, they need these people in their MLM business to create the success.<br />
<br />
This is a &quot;Catch 22.&quot;<br />
<br />
The phrase &quot;Catch 22&quot; is from a novel by Joseph Heller, written in 1961.  The pilot was afraid to fight in World War II.  He feigned insanity. But the doctor said that if he were truly insane, then he wouldn't mind endangering his life by going into the war.<br />
<br />
If he were sane, then he would be capable of following orders to fight the war. Thus the phrase &quot;catch 22&quot; came to mean, &quot;a situation that trips one up no matter which way one turns.&quot;<br />
<br />
You need the people on your chicken list to create the success you need in order to contact your chicken list. How do you get around this catch-22?<br />
<br />
Your fear of the chicken list is based on your feelings that somehow, people are above you because of their status. If you were to examine this more closely, you would discover it is not that the people are any better than you; it's lack of confidence in your ability to communicate easily.<br />
<br />
If you knew you could communicate easily and effectively without making any mistakes, you could...and would...call anyone without hesitation. You would have confidence. You would have certainty. And there's NOTHING more rewarding than having that feeling.<br />
<br />
Communicate means: a. To convey information about; make known.  b. To reveal clearly.<br />
<br />
Easily means: a. Free from worry, anxiety, trouble, or pain. b. Requiring or exhibiting little effort.<br />
<br />
The reason I bring this up is there are a group of characteristics an MLM business professional must have in order to truly have success in speaking with prospects. I call these characteristics the 10 Communication Qualities.<br />
<br />
Having full knowledge of these qualities and having the proper and correct MLM training to learn them, you will be amazed at how much smoother conversations will go with your prospects.<br />
<br />
The fifth communication quality on my list is to, &quot;Communicate easily - no tension, strain, fakeness, sounding rehearsed, stuttering or hesitating.&quot;<br />
<br />
Let's look at each one of these issues:<br />
<br />
Tension &amp; Strain: (The definition for tension and strain is very similar so they are<br />
combined here.)<br />
<br />
a. To be subjected to great stress. b. A great or excessive pressure, demand, or<br />
stress on one's body, mind, or resources.<br />
<br />
When communicating, tension and strain are stress created by the mental activity of feeling unprepared, or fear that you will sound &quot;stupid&quot; to others. If you've ever been asked to suddenly speak in public, you know what this mental activity feels like.<br />
<br />
It creates a very uncomfortable feeling, of  &quot;being on the spot&quot;, and not knowing what to say. It&rsquo;s the reason someone's voice &quot;squeaks and quivers&quot; when talking.  This communicates an unprofessional, &ldquo;new to the subject&rdquo;, uncertainty to the prospect. <br />
<br />
The solution to tension and strain is to familiarize oneself with all situations that can arise on a call when talking to prospects. Be familiar with all situations regarding your MLM business opportunity and also the products you sell.<br />
<br />
Know what you are going to ask the prospect to do; invite for product, invite for business, send to a website, or get on a conference call, etc. When you are clear about what you're going to do and say, you will greatly reduce tension and strain.<br />
<br />
Fakeness: a. To represent falsely; pretend to. b. To fabricate.<br />
<br />
People sound fake when they use a lot of fluff words like, awesome, incredible, unbelievable, fabulous, wonderful, special, state-of-the-art, etc. These types of adjectives demonstrate a clear bias on your part. I'm not suggesting you be a boring communicator; by all means, be excited.  You don't have to use fluff or puff words to describe your excitement. This normally indicates a cover-up of real content.<br />
<br />
Sounding rehearsed: a. One that is not authentic or genuine.<br />
<br />
Rehearsing what you're going to say is NOT WRONG. However, if you talk with a prospect before you've rehearsed enough - you will sound rehearsed; which IS UNPROFESSIONAL. When you've received a phone call from a telemarketer, you could tell he was reading from a script. It didn't sound very genuine and when you detected that he was reading from a script. You wanted off the phone. That's what you want to avoid with your prospects.<br />
<br />
Stuttering and hesitating: a. If you hesitate, you do not speak or act for a short time, usually because you are uncertain, embarrassed, or worried about what you are going to say or do.<br />
<br />
Stuttering and hesitating loops us back to the first issue I discussed above which is Tension and Strain. It is the fear of saying or doing something the prospect won't agree with that causes us to hesitate and stutter. The solution for stuttering and hesitating is similar to the solution for tension and strain; is very familiar with all the situations that can come up on your invite call.<br />
<br />
Have you realized the simplicity of this yet?  Your willingness to talk to your &ldquo;chicken list&rdquo;, or lack of, is based on your ability to communicate easily. You need to become familiar with all aspects of your MLM business and company to communicate easily.<br />
<br />
Tim Sales helps network marketers gain the confidence and skills to be an MLM success. Discover what you must know to become a true network marketing professional. Sign up for his free MLM training newsletter and listen to free training at http://www.brilliantexchange.com.<br />]]></description>
<link>http://miraclemoneyblog.com/homebiztips/HomeBusinessTips_DMc_386/user/index.php</link>
</item>

<item>
<title>Power Up Your Performance! 6 Sure-fire Strategies</title>
<description><![CDATA[<br />
<br />
By Colleen Kettenhofen<br />
<br />
&quot;Success seems to be connected with action. Successful people keep moving. They make mistakes, but they don't quit.&quot; Conrad Hilton<br />
<br />
1. Get rid of clutter. Too much &quot;stuff&quot; in your office and inside your home clutters your mind, creates confusion and exacerbates stress. Start by cleaning one area at a time. What items do you have that need to be donated, sold, or put back where they belong? As you're cleaning and putting things away, repeat to yourself, &quot;Everything has a place.&quot; I often heard my dad repeat this phrase while we cleaned house. It still rings in my ears every time I clean.<br />
<br />
What clothes do you own that you haven't worn in a year?  Are you hoping to fit into them again? Donate these items to a local charity. What piles of paperwork are lying around that need to be filed? Studies show that 85% of everything that gets filed away never gets looked at again. Consider starting an archives file. You'll feel more energized, less stressed, and more self-confident when you eliminate clutter.<br />
<br />
2. What's going on outside you is a result of what's going on inside you. What self-limiting beliefs do you have about your skills, aptitudes and abilities? Be honest with yourself. Write them down! You don't have to share them with anybody. The average person has 50,000 to 60,000 thoughts a day. When we talk to ourselves about ourselves, much of that self-talk is negative. As the saying goes, &quot;How many times in a day do we &lsquo;should of ' all over ourselves with everything that we should be doing?!&quot; Get rid of the &quot;should of' .&quot; Become more aware of your thoughts, change them into positives, and you'll start achieving more success.<br />
<br />
3. Enroll in a sunrise semester. First thing in the morning spend 30 to 60 minutes a day reading motivational, inspirational, or other pertinent information related to your chosen field. Your subconscious mind is most amenable to suggestion the FIRST hour upon arising, and that LAST hour before bedtime. As John Wooden once said, &quot;If I am through learning I am through.&quot; Stay current and constantly upgrade your skills.<br />
<br />
Learn more to earn more and to improve performance. Much of this is material we already know. Yet, often we need to hear it again because we don't &quot;do&quot; with what we know. Invest at least 3% of your income in personal and professional books, CD's, e-books, and teleseminars. When pressed for time, listen to CD's in your car on the way to work, picking up the kids, or driving to and from the supermarket. Attend seminars and conferences no matter what the distance. It is worth the investment in keeping you motivated.<br />
<br />
4. Become more self-disciplined. The difference between successful people and unsuccessful people is that successful people make themselves do things unsuccessful people don't want to do. It's that simple. Once you start an important task, discipline yourself to keep going. Focus on it single-mindedly until it's complete.<br />
<br />
Be more aware of your every day habits and what distracts you. Make a list of the activities you engage in that are a waste of time. Resolve to eliminate them altogether or delegate them to someone else. Start by determining which activities only you can do. These are the ones you must do. Outsource everything else. The ability to determine where you should spend the majority of your time and then complete those tasks can have more impact on achieving your goals than anything else.<br />
<br />
5. To improve performance and productivity work faster. Compete with yourself.  Make it a game. Resolve to work more effectively and efficiently throughout your workday. Try arriving to work earlier and leaving a little later. Many business people in my speaking engagements tell me they get more work accomplished when they arrive to work at the crack of dawn. No one else is in the office and there aren't distractions. Try this at lunch as well. Everyone leaves from noon to one in the afternoon. Cut back on frivolous time wasters such as talking with co-workers around the water cooler and other idle chitchat. This will free up your time for the things you really enjoy, like spending time with your true friends, family and loved ones.<br />
<br />
6. Review your values and priorities. Make sure your goals are consistent with what's important to you. Otherwise, no matter how much you think you want something, you won't work hard to achieve it if it's not in line with your core values. Write down each individual goal you think you want. Is it consistent with giving you greater peace of mind and happiness?<br />
<br />
For example, values that are important to me in terms of work are helping others, freedom, creativity and flexible hours. A corporate job where I'd sit in an office all day would make me unhappy no matter how much it paid. So start by clarifying your values.<br />
<br />
Success means many things to different people. In powering up your performance for greater success, first determine what you really want&hellip;and why. For example, do you really want a new car out of necessity, or is it to compete with the neighbors next door? No matter how much effort you put into achieving your goals, if they don't fit in with what's really important to you, you'll find ways to procrastinate or sabotage yourself. It's easier to be self-disciplined when you're passionate about something and it fits in with your core values.<br />
<br />
&quot;The biggest mistake people make in life is not trying to make a living at doing what they most enjoy.&quot; Malcolm S. Forbes<br />
<br />
Colleen Kettenhofen is a motivational speaker, workplace expert, &amp; co-author of &quot;The Masters of Success,&quot; as featured on the Today Show, along with Ken Blanchard and Jack Canfield. For free articles, e-newsletter, or to order the book visit http://www.ColleenSpeaks.com Topics: leadership, management, difficult people, public speaking. Colleen is available for keynotes, breakout sessions, seminars. (971)212-2412.<br />]]></description>
<link>http://miraclemoneyblog.com/homebiztips/HomeBusinessTips_DMc_386/user/index.php</link>
</item>

<item>
<title>The Religion On NLP</title>
<description><![CDATA[<br />
<br />
By People Building<br />
<br />
I find it fascinating that as people, we are drawn to the idea of being part of something bigger than ourselves. We want to find unity and yet still be unique. We want to have similarities but not be the same.<br />
<br />
For me, religion is a classic example of where people can find unity and common ground, or common beliefs. A couple of weeks ago, I tried out the whole religion thing. I've not been bought up in a religious family, nor was my school particularly religious- although we sang hymns such. Prayer time was more of an opportunity to sit with my eyes half shut whilst sneakily looking around to see who was genuinely into this praying malarkey, and then usually discovering that the rest of the school was doing the same.<br />
<br />
So this was my experience. My boyfriend has been bought up in a very religious family and for him, popping off to church for the evening, was probably equated to the ease at which I could pop off to the pub. But church for me was quite an event, so I took the plunge one week and went with him.<br />
<br />
We got fed (great!) and it was cheap (very great!), but I have to say I was quite surprised to see a bunch of Christian grandma's dishing out rice and vegetables, with a decent sized lump of chicken breast on each plate. &ldquo;That's funny&rdquo;, I thought, &ldquo;They've managed to get God&rsquo;s permission to eat his creatures. There must be some sort of arrangement, where they spread his love and he lets them know it's ok to eat chicken&rdquo;. Still I know that Jesus ate fish and if it's good enough for him&hellip;.<br />
<br />
After the food, the vicar got up and did a presentation about Jesus and how we can know that he really existed. It was a good presentation. The vicar was quite charismatic and pretty funny, too. Afterwards, we sat at our tables having a chat about what the vicar had talked about. It seemed all the regulars were pretty sold on what the vicar had said. I felt like a troublemaker by throwing some new ideas into the agenda. It's not that I didn't believe that Jesus walked the earth, in my opinion, he probably did. But I don't think he was the only smart spiritual being to have ever set foot on our planet. There's a lot of convincing stuff about other religious folk from other religions. This concept wasn't welcomed I found. Now, don't get me wrong, they were a nice bunch and no one accused me of being in cahoots with the devil, when I told them that I'm a hypnotist (although that has happened since!) When they began to discuss the power of prayer, and I linked this to a higher consciousness rather than a higher being, I knew I was pushing my luck.<br />
<br />
Life is filled with possibilities, all the time in everything that you ever do or say. You have an abundance of other possibilities you can take. How then, could anything you ever do, be wrong or sinful? Would someone so great, powerful and majestic as God really spend his time watching a DVD of each of us throughout our entire lives, ready to place judgment on us when our time is up, and tell us if we're spending the rest of eternity in his kingdom or in the fiery furnace of hell?  That's a tough call.  How would He ever decide? Some people have done some really bad stuff, but they might have done it with a positive intention.<br />
<br />
You're probably guessing by now that I am in no way qualified to speak about religion. I don't claim to be, but bear with me.<br />
<br />
My other concern for a long time has been that there are a lot of good people in the world. Surely then, heaven must be suffering from over crowding, not least from the vast array of rabbits, hamsters, and goldfish I've had over the years, that my nan told me had all gone to heaven when they'd popped their clogs. I guess there are dead architects up there, god must have gotten them to create a high rise building like they have in China. Especially since Jesus said that the entire kingdom of heaven is smaller than the mustard seed.<br />
<br />
If you were married and your partner died, then you met someone else and got married again, which partner do you end up spending the rest of eternity with when you die?<br />
<br />
In my confusion, I decided to relate what I'd learned to the presuppositions of NLP, since they have for me for the last few years, been my bible.<br />
<br />
This is what I came up with.<br />
<br />
Everyone has a unique model of the world. This could mean that what you absolutely believe to be true is true, (for you at least), so if one person has absolute belief in god, then he exists, and if someone else believes that he doesn't then, for that person, he doesn't.<br />
<br />
The map is not the territory. In quantum physics, the whole contains the part and the part contains the whole. In the same way that an apple contains a part, which is just a seed, the seed contains all the information required growing into a tree and creating further apples. So I could be god (it has been said!) at the quantum level. When I die the tiniest quantum part of me that remains, could be god, who has the power to create further things.<br />
<br />
The meaning of all behavior is dependent upon the context it exists in. This might means that there is no judgment at death.<br />
<br />
All behavior has a positive intention and everyone one is doing the best that they can with the resources that they have available. No hell maybe?<br />
<br />
Everyone has all the resources they need to succeed and to achieve their desired outcome. Knock and the door shall be opened unto you.<br />
<br />
There is no failure only feedback. My flesh and my heart may fail, but god is my strength forever.<br />
<br />
I'd never thought about NLP as a spiritual tool before, more as a series of change techniques, but this ever-evolving subject continually inspires me to take on new perspectives in my life. I'm thinking now about starting up a spiritual group- no not a cult! - Something where people can meet together and discuss their ideas about the meaning of life, etc. It will probably create more questions than answer, but what's the harm in that. When we think we know the answer to something, we become cut off from all of the other possible answers. When we have only questions, we also have the wealth of possible answers - you might like to call that confusion! Possibilities create many opportunities. I suppose the one thing that I discovered about my introduction to religion, is that sometimes religion is about stating what you can and can't do, say or believe, how you should or shouldn't behave, and this could limit life's opportunities. I'd like to be part of something that is open to limitless possibilities of being. I think that that's the way god would like me to be.<br />
<br />
Welcome to People Building, a self-development company dedicated to inspiring growth, progression and better results in your life. The mind, body and human behaviour have fascinated us for many years now. It is our privilege to present to you authentic NLP and Hypnosis training for the betterment of your skills in Business, Education, Therapy and many other areas. Our unique trainings have been designed as one of the most innovative trainings available in the NLP field of learning. We will never cease to evolve, and it gives me great pleasure, to invite you with us on this epic adventure.<br />
<br />
http://www.peoplebuilding.co.uk<br />]]></description>
<link>http://miraclemoneyblog.com/homebiztips/HomeBusinessTips_DMc_386/user/index.php</link>
</item>

<item>
<title>Why Do I Need To Write A Sales Letter?</title>
<description><![CDATA[<br />
<br />
By Stuart Elliott<br />
<br />
&quot;If You Are Going to be in Business, You Must Know How to Sell&quot;<br />
<br />
In his book, Automatic Wealth, Michael Masterson states that in order to achieve Financial Independence you need to master a financially valuable skill.<br />
<br />
Selling is the number one skill you MUST learn if you are going to be in business. This applies offline too. If you do not know how to sell, you and your business will struggle financially.<br />
<br />
Now, before you give me that stock answer &quot;I don't know how to sell...&quot; think about this: we are selling everyday, whether we sell ourselves, our friends, or the latest film we've just watched.<br />
<br />
Look at this common everyday phrase: - &quot;have you seen x?x?x.  I saw it last night and I...&quot;<br />
<br />
Sound familiar?<br />
<br />
Well, that is selling in a nutshell! Some people do it better than others, but we all do it. With a little bit of training and practice you can soon become a master at it.<br />
<br />
If you do not know how to sell or HATE selling, how can you tell people about your product in a way that makes them want to buy it from you? If they don't buy from you - HOW can you make money?<br />
<br />
Today, the Internet marketplace is jam-packed with plenty of fantastic ideas and wonderful products. Chances are that you have already located:<br />
<br />
* A great idea that you think you can make money from<br />
<br />
* A product that solves a specific problem, and/or<br />
<br />
* An income opportunity to provide to people online<br />
<br />
But the fact is:<br />
<br />
&quot;If you do not know how to sell your products, you cannot turn them into money-producing assets, no matter how great the demand or high in quality they actually are&quot;<br />
<br />
You can't &ndash; period!<br />
<br />
Whether you are selling your intellectual asset, service, tangible goods, yourself, or whatever kind of product or solution you have, unless you have the ability to sell, your product or asset is worth absolutely nothing.<br />
<br />
This may sound a little harsh but it is the cold hard reality. Sure, you may get lucky once in a while but to really become successful&hellip;well, you have to be able to sell.<br />
<br />
Good News.<br />
<br />
All you need for the selling to be done on your behalf is powerful sales copy.<br />
<br />
Take another look at that last statement again because...<br />
<br />
&quot;Your Sales Letter is Your Sales Person&quot;<br />
<br />
Yes, your sales letter is your virtual sales person. Your sales letter does all the selling to your prospects on your behalf.<br />
<br />
Unlike in conventional and direct response marketing businesses, there is no need for you to train and recruit multiple sales people. Instead, all of your efforts should be focused on creating a powerful sales letter that produces a minimum 2 to 4 percent conversion rate, then fine-tuning that letter to improve the conversion rate as you go.<br />
<br />
In other words, for every 100 prospects you refer or who visit your web page, you are aiming for a minimum of 2 to 4 of them to be your customers. Once you achieve that (and you will!), all you need to do is introduce targeted prospects to your sales letter, confident that it will do all the selling for you, day after day.<br />
<br />
Your sales letter is like a personal letter from you to your prospect, in it you tell him why he needs your service/product. You remind him of his problems and why you have the solution to those problems, thus convincing your prospect to buy your product or the access to a service from you.<br />
<br />
What You Need<br />
<br />
You have probably already got a great idea, or a product, and some basic selling skills (remember the film you saw the other day?)<br />
<br />
Now all you need to do is develop and hone those skills in order to formulate a sensational sales letter. A sales letter that arouses a deep primal need in your prospects and makes them bolt frantically to your order button, desperate to buy your products, every time.<br />
<br />
This means that you have to:<br />
<br />
1. Improve your writing skills<br />
<br />
Since you will be writing your own sales copy, you will need to have good writing skills and a good command of English. Even if English is not your mother tongue, with a little work you can develop this skill.<br />
<br />
Note however, that you do not need to be a master of English to write a successful sales letter. As long as your letter carries emotion and personality it will work. Forget all the grammar lessons you learned at school - just copy what works and learn from the masters.<br />
<br />
2. Inject your personality into your letter<br />
<br />
Yes, you must inject your personality. You will be writing a somewhat personal or emotional letter to your prospects. A letter, which needs to move and arouse them to take action, so be friendly and approachable with your words. You need to write from the heart. Don't write a stiff letter, not only is it boring to read but it will turn people away from your web page faster than you can blink.<br />
<br />
NB. Mix your writing skills with your personality, write from your heart with truth and sincerity and you will compose the perfect sales letter.<br />
<br />
And last but not least, you need:<br />
<br />
3. To take action<br />
<br />
There is a wealth of information on how you can write your own killer sales copy staring right at you, don't waste it by not doing anything with it. If English is not your first language - no problem. Print out a couple of great sales letters that move you and copy their structure and grammar (Learn as You Earn) Don't just copy the letter wholesale though that's plain old theft. Your letter must come from your heart.<br />
<br />
Got it? Good, now go and get started.<br />
<br />
Copyright (c) 2006 Stuart Elliott<br />
<br />
Stuart Elliott is a world-class copywriter who has written numerous articles on sales letters and copywriting. Drop by: http://howtowritekickbuttcopy.com/why.html to pick up a free copywriting power guide.<br />]]></description>
<link>http://miraclemoneyblog.com/homebiztips/HomeBusinessTips_DMc_386/user/index.php</link>
</item>

<item>
<title>Why So Many People Fail In Affiliate Marketing</title>
<description><![CDATA[<br />
<br />
By Clarence Binayu<br />
<br />
More and more people are lured into affiliate marketing.  You might be one of them. Affiliate marketing is one of the most effective means of generating a full-time income through the Internet. It&rsquo;s a fair deal between the merchandiser and his affiliates, as both benefit from each sale materialized.  Like in other kinds of business, a great deal of the profits in affiliate marketing depends on the affiliate&rsquo;s advertising, promoting and selling strategies. Everyday, as the affiliate marketing industry expands, competition heightens, also, so an affiliate marketer must be creative enough to employ unique and effective ways to convince potential buyers to purchase or avail themselves of the products and services offered.<br />
<br />
Compared to traditional advertising practices, affiliate programs are more effective, risk-free, and cost-efficient.  Why do many people still fail in affiliate marketing? There are many reasons and many areas in the program to look into. The most critical aspect in the affiliate program is advertising. Many affiliate marketers&rsquo; fail in this aspect because they lack hard work, which is the most important thing in affiliate marketing and in all other kinds of business. Although it pays to be lucky, you cannot merely rely on it. Affiliate marketing isn&rsquo;t as simple as directing customers to the business site. If you want to earn big, you have to invest time and hard work in promoting the products. As earlier mentioned, the competition is very intense.  Customers nowadays are very wise. After all, who doesn&rsquo;t want to get the best purchase&mdash;that is, to pay less and get more in terms of quantity and quality?<br />
<br />
Another reason why one fails in affiliate marketing is the lack of preparation, whether he is a merchandiser or an affiliate. Part of the preparation is researching. The merchant has to be highly selective in choosing the right affiliate websites for his affiliate program. To make the best choices, he must have exhausted his resources in looking for highly interested affiliates whose sites are a sure fit to his products and services. The affiliate sites must match his targeted customers.  Also, the affiliate marketer must research on the good-paying merchandisers before he signs up for an affiliate program. He must ensure that the merchants&rsquo; products and services match his interests so he can give his full attention and dedication to the program. He can get valuable information by joining affiliate forums, comparing different affiliate programs, and reading articles on affiliate marketing where he can get tips from experienced affiliate marketers on how to choose the best merchants and products with high conversion rate.<br />
<br />
The website is a very important tool in the whole affiliate program. As an affiliate marketer, you should plan how your site is going to look, from domain name, to the design, the layout, the content, and ads. Some users are particular about what they see at first glance.  If they find your site ugly, they won&rsquo;t read through the content even if your site has many things to say and offer. In contrast, there are those who want information more than anything else. Affiliate marketers with &ldquo;rich-content&rdquo; web sites are usually the ones who prosper in this business because the content improves traffic to the site. Websites with high quality contents&mdash;with relevant keywords and more importantly, right information about the product and not empty hyped-up advertisements&mdash;allow you to earn big in affiliate marketing even when you&rsquo;re asleep. If you aren&rsquo;t able to sustain the interest of your site visitor, you won&rsquo;t be able to lead him to the merchants&rsquo; site. No click-through means no sale and thus, no income on your part.<br />
<br />
Selecting a top-level domain name is also crucial to the success of the affiliate program. A lot of affiliate sites don&rsquo;t appear in the search engine results because affiliate managers deem them as personal sites. Major search engines and directories would think of your site as transient ones and thus, they won&rsquo;t list it in the directory. Before you decide on the domain name, know first what you are going to promote. Many fail because their sites are not appropriately named. When they feature the exact products the customer is looking for, the customer might think the site is not relevant and will not enter the site.<br />
<br />
An affiliate marketer must be willing to learn more. Certainly, there are many things to learn and so an affiliate marketer must continue to educate himself so he can improve his marketing strategies. Many fail because they don&rsquo;t grow in the business.  They are merely concerned about earning money quickly. If you want long-term and highly satisfactory results, take time to learn the ins and outs of the business. Continue to improve your knowledge especially with the basics in affiliate marketing ranging from advertising to programming, web page development, and search engine optimization techniques. Study the needs and wants of your site users and how different merchandisers compete with each other.<br />
<br />
Keep on trying!<br />
<br />
Clarence B. is the founder and Webmaster for http://www.virtual-guides.com. Here you can find FREE information on many subjects including business, automobile, travel, vacation, affiliate marketing, advertising, internet, sports, entertainment, technology, communication, fashion, home improvement, culture, education, society, science, politics, fitness and health. http://www.virtual-guides.com provides you with helpful guidance, tips and news update, from basic to the latest skills, knowledge and information, about these subjects.<br />]]></description>
<link>http://miraclemoneyblog.com/homebiztips/HomeBusinessTips_DMc_386/user/index.php</link>
</item>

<item>
<title>3 Keys to Grow Your Business</title>
<description><![CDATA[<br />
<br />
By Grant D. Robinson<br />
<br />
Are you on pace to accomplish your important sales and financial goals this year?<br />
<br />
The truth is, a good majority of US Organizations have been unable to grow their businesses this year. They are not reaching their sales and financial goals.  Many have all but given up.<br />
<br />
Is this you? Are you now looking to next year to be the year you shatter previous productivity, sales and revenue records?<br />
<br />
It is a great idea to start preparing for your best year ever, regardless of whether you are on pace to meet your goals or not.  You will need to prepare!<br />
<br />
You have realized that it takes more than just setting a goal to accomplish it. The mere act of putting the goal on paper, sharing it with your managers, and giving the extra effort to accomplish the goal is really secondary to the preparation required.<br />
<br />
Before you begin to work toward an objective, you must insure all of the past barriers that stood in the way of prior goal accomplishment are eliminated. If they aren't, the unfortunate fact is, you will fail to meet the objective once again&hellip; for the same reasons as before.<br />
<br />
The following are the three keys market-leading organizations have used to grow their businesses. Consider these in order to take your organization to the next level of success. <br />
<br />
A. Operational Systems<br />
<br />
There are two types of systems in your organization. The first is your operational systems, including:<br />
<br />
1. Vision &amp; Mission                                            2. Financial &amp; Budgeting     <br />
3. Production, Manufacturing &amp; Distribution     4. Sales &amp; Marketing<br />
<br />
All four of these systems are in place for one reason: to efficiently grow your business. They are the standards to how your organization operates from day to day. More importantly, they are the standards to how your workforce operates from day to day.<br />
<br />
To improve productivity this quarter and prepare for your best year ever, it is vital to analyze your operational systems. In the next month, recognize what current productivity barriers must be eliminated, what operating expenses must be reduced, what unique cultural standards must be maintained, and what marketing promises must be upheld.<br />
<br />
<br />
B. Managerial Systems<br />
<br />
In answering the previous questions, most organizations realize an important fact: Changes to operational systems are almost always made to improve the productivity of their workforce. But the truth is; these changes alone rarely help.<br />
<br />
Organizations failing to accomplish their goals tend to make irrational decisions. They feel if they rewrite a vision, increase spending on technology, reorganize production procedures, or alter their marketing messages, workforce performance and profits will magically improve.<br />
<br />
However, the opposite is usually the case. The changes usually end up harming efficiency, production and morale. The usual outcome is, those employees who performed the job they were hired to do before the changes, still do. Those who failed to produce before the expensive operational modifications, still underachieve.<br />
<br />
The second type of system in your organization is your managerial systems. The five most important processes of your managerial systems are: recruiting, hiring, training, developing and retaining (productive employees). When you create a successful managerial system, your hiring success rate, employee motivation, and the effectiveness of your leaders will naturally improve.<br />
<br />
To prepare for your best year ever, there is only one question to ask yourself: Why haven't we been able to hire, develop and retain TOP-Performing employees in every position.<br />
<br />
C. Focus on People<br />
<br />
Market leading organizations realize &quot;people&quot; are the key to growing a business and meeting goals. The more productive their individuals are, the more productive their teams have become.<br />
<br />
A recent study of over 2,200 managers, by Watson Wyatt Worldwide, in Human Resource Executive Magazine found, &ldquo;Of the hundreds of management functions, &lsquo;Selecting Staff&rsquo; and &lsquo;Retention&rsquo; are the second and third most important management functions in business today.&rdquo; Recruiting was ranked fifth.<br />
<br />
Since three of the four new hires fail to meet our expectations within the first year, managers are forced to constantly replace underachievers. Recruiting is the number one management expense in business today. Although selecting staff and retention are rated very important, they rank 36th and 44th in management effort and spending respectively.<br />
<br />
Although executives understand the importance of Top Performers in every position, their time, energy and financial priorities have become operational. With the amount of organizations failing to meet their goals or grow their businesses, it should be apparent that this strategy just doesn't work.<br />
<br />
Hiring Top Performers for every position in your company, the first time, is the only way to insure your productivity and profits will improve. Traditionally, Top Performers are five to eight times more productive then their counterparts.<br />
<br />
You've probably learned the hard way; that no modification to an operational system will ever increase your organization's performance five to eight times. If you are like the most effective executives, you'll understand this and will double or triple the productivity and profits of your organization by giving your managers the tools to hire, develop and retain your greatest asset; your people.<br />
<br />
Great customer service, work ethic, motivation, productivity, and sales success comes from employees that fit your culture, their team, and the job they were hired to do. Whether it takes developing your underachievers or replacing them with someone who will naturally produce; now is the time to focus on your people to prepare for your best year ever.<br />
<br />
Grant D. Robinson is the President of People Values and the Author of the Market Leadership System. To improve your &ldquo;Hiring Success Rate&rdquo; of TOP Performing Employees, watch a free, 5-minute, on-line video at: http://www.peoplevalues.com.<br />]]></description>
<link>http://miraclemoneyblog.com/homebiztips/HomeBusinessTips_DMc_386/user/index.php</link>
</item>

<item>
<title>Why Your Prospects or Downline Won't Do What You Ask Them To</title>
<description><![CDATA[<br />
<br />
By Tim Sales<br />
<br />
There is one very specific quality you must have, whether leading just a few or a few thousand people in your MLM business. Achieving MLM success will be A LOT easier when you develop this one quality, tell the truth.<br />
<br />
If you do not tell the truth, your downline may be friendly to you...but they probably won't follow you.<br />
<br />
Truth means: that which is factual based on observable data.<br />
<br />
There has been much written about truth, a lot having to do with philosophy and religion. My only interest in the subject (as it pertains to the MLM industry) is that we, as a group, stop destroying our income and our reputation by not telling the truth.<br />
<br />
Being truthful should go without saying, but I have to discuss it because it is one of the Ten Communication Qualities that make up a great communicator.  It&rsquo;s also a major problem in the network marketing community needing correction for the MLM industry to grow to its fullest potential.<br />
<br />
My income dropped in 1991 - like a brick falling from the top of a building - from a monthly gross of $68,000 to $16,000 - just because people were not telling the truth.<br />
<br />
A media member sneaked into my colleague's business meeting and recorded the dialogue that occurred. Although it was a painful experience for me, the biggest loss stems from the CONSTANT number of people we repel because of not telling the truth.<br />
<br />
Every time we (I'm talking about me and you) don't tell the truth, we feel icky inside. Observe a dog that has done something wrong - do they come strutting into the room? Not at all! They actually hide under the couch. Their ears and tail hang low. They don't feel worthy. The same is true for us. That ickyness actually causes us to not feel worthy that others follow our advice...and so they don't.<br />
<br />
Five broad categories of not telling the truth have gotten individuals and/or companies in trouble.  It stopped them from growing to their fullest potential. They are listed below.<br />
<br />
1. False income representation or suggesting others can earn a stated level of income.<br />
<br />
2. Stating that a product or service can do something that has not been substantiated.<br />
<br />
3. Promising someone (or yourself) something and not doing it.<br />
<br />
4. Gossiping about others. Passing information to another that does not add value.<br />
<br />
5. Building the business in a way that is not truthful...such as suggesting distributors create fictitious accounts or positions.<br />
<br />
Let&rsquo;s consider, category one, false income representation.  If you don't know what your upline earns, don't say what you think it is. If through the grapevine you've heard its &quot;X&quot; amount, and you feel you must state it, say: &quot;The rumor is that he/she earns $ amount; although I've not verified it.&quot;<br />
<br />
Say nothing you don't know is absolutely true. This gives you tremendous credibility!<br />
<br />
When you discuss income, discuss what the prospect wants - NOT what someone else is earning. If the prospect states an income they desire, tell them it's achievable, (provided it is). Then state, &quot;Some people go to school and become the President. Some become billionaires, some sell illegal drugs and some draw a welfare check. It would be impossible to know what you're going to do with what I teach you, but there is the potential to earn a substantial income if you choose to fully apply what you're taught.&quot;<br />
<br />
Category two from above is unsubstantiated product claims; which, in the past, have also gotten the network marketing industry into trouble. If you market a nutrition product, the current law (in the USA) is the DSHEA Act, (Dietary Supplement Health and Education Act), which states you can discuss what a product does, provided THAT PRODUCT is what has been proven to get results.<br />
<br />
Most often an INGREDIENT has had some studies done on it (such as vitamin C) but your company's product (that contains that ingredient) has NOT. Therefore, it is against the law to claim your product does ANYTHING!<br />
<br />
Now, that doesn't mean you can't promote your product truthfully. You simply say something like, &quot;The active ingredient (vitamin C) in Potent-C (an example of your company's product) has demonstrated to increase/decrease ________ by X amount.&quot; That way you're not claiming your product does anything.<br />
<br />
Telling stories of your success or others' success with the product or the MLM business is also common.  Just keep in mind that the common way people get in trouble is from questionable claims reported by the media after coming in with hidden recording devices and capturing what you say.  Make sure you are not claiming anything that isn't the truth.<br />
<br />
If a friend went on your company's product and stopped having migraine headaches, you honestly wouldn't know if the reason was the product or the fact that she increased her water intake to take your product! You can't determine what really helped her - so be very careful what you represent.<br />
<br />
Category three is to keep your word once given. If you say you will be at a meeting at 6:45 - be there at 6:45. No excuses, just be there. If you say you're going to help someone, - help them. Keep your word!  If you're unable to keep your word, make it up to the person. Do something that shows you want to help.<br />
<br />
The most important person you must keep your word with is yourself. If you say you are going to bed at 11pm - go to bed at 11pm. If you say you will call five prospects a day, call five prospects a day!<br />
<br />
When you're honest with yourself and with others, people will trust you. This trust is what helps your MLM business to grow and be successful. My experience is that people will not follow someone they cannot trust.<br />
<br />
Tell the truth always and you will be on your way to experiencing passive income and time freedom in your MLM business.<br />
<br />
Tim Sales helps network marketers gain the confidence and skills to be an MLM success. Discover what you must know to become a true network marketing professional. Sign up for his free MLM training newsletter and listen to free training at http://www.brilliantexchange.com.<br />]]></description>
<link>http://miraclemoneyblog.com/homebiztips/HomeBusinessTips_DMc_386/user/index.php</link>
</item>

<item>
<title>Home Based Business- 7 Great Reasons to Start Your Own</title>
<description><![CDATA[<br />
<br />
By Kristy Breen<br />
<br />
Are you tired of working for someone else, always working more but never getting paid more? Are you tired of never being able to show up for your child's school events, because you have a boss breathing down your neck?<br />
<br />
Millions of Americans are starting their own home-based business. It doesn't matter if you are young or old, have a masters degree or a high school diploma. You can start your own home-based business with very little start up cost. I'm going to give you a few reasons why you should do this.<br />
<br />
1. More time with family-something we all want. Think about this. You work 9-5; an eight-hour day spent with the boss and coworkers, plus the hour compute to and from work. Arriving home at 6 p.m., the kids are excited to see you, wanting to tell you all about their day at school. You try to listen attentively while cooking dinner. After eating and maybe watching a television program together, it's time to put the kids to bed. It's now 8:30 pm., you read the kids a short bedtime story. You look at their precious little faces as they drift off to sleep, and your heart aches that you don't get to spend more quality time with your family. Why should you have to give your boss and coworkers the best part of you?<br />
<br />
If you're a parent with a traditional 9-5 job, this is probably something you deal with everyday. You go to work day in and day out, spending the best part of the day with the boss and coworkers. You are left with just a few short hours when arriving home to spend time with your kids and husband and juggle dinner preparation. This isn't how it should be, but you ask yourself, what else can you do? You&rsquo;re stuck in the daily grind of your job. You still have bills to pay and groceries to buy. Why not think about starting your own home-based business?<br />
<br />
You don't have to quit your current job to do this. Get on the Internet and start looking. You will be overwhelmed at first. A home-based business can offer you the quality time with your family you truly deserve.<br />
<br />
2. Flexibility- How many people can honestly say they go to work in their PJ's every morning, take a break when they feel like it, and run errands whenever they want to? A home-based business can offer you this kind of flexibility. Most people can't afford to quit their day job to start a new business, but it's ok. Here's where the flexibility part begins to play in.<br />
<br />
Most home-based businesses can be started on a part time basis. You may only work your business a few hours a week. It's not the quantity of time; it's the quality of time you put into it that matters. Work your business whenever it fits into your schedule. It may be late after the kids go to bed or it may be early before anyone gets up. You decide!<br />
<br />
3.NO Boss- Do you get tired of punching a time clock, someone constantly looking over your shoulder, telling you when and where to take a break? With your own home-based business, you're the captain of the ship. You are the boss. This means you&rsquo;re going to have to be disciplined. No one is going to do it for you. Being at home doesn't mean you can spend 6 hours a day watching your favorite soap opera.<br />
<br />
Write down some goals. This will keep you focused as you grow your new business. Always know your &quot;why&quot;. This is very important, as this is the reason you started your new business. When things get tough and you get frustrated, remind yourself of your &quot;why&quot;.<br />
<br />
4. NO Commuting- how would you like to save the money spent every week on gas and put it towards a vacation. The average American is spending anywhere between $2.15-$3.00 per gallon of gas. What if you are driving sixty to a hundred miles round trip to work? Look at the money saved in gas alone, if you do not have to commute.<br />
<br />
Plug in the numbers; see for yourself what kind of savings you&rsquo;ll have. You&rsquo;ll save gas, plus the wear and tear on your car. This all adds up quickly.<br />
<br />
5. Financial Stability- Do you avoid checking the mail like the plague because you&rsquo;re afraid of what is inside. Does your phone ring off the hook because creditors are hounding you? If this sounds like your life, you may want to think about starting your own home based business. Starting your own business can give you that extra income you need to pay off those bills without quitting your current job. Once you get your feet on the ground, if you are willing to give your business 1-3 years for growth, you could surpass your current income while saving in other areas.<br />
<br />
Most Americans carry an average of $8-$10,000 worth of credit card debt. Almost anyone can get a credit card these days. Most people should have only one credit card for emergencies. Think about getting one with a small credit line. If you only have a $1,500 credit limit, you can probably handle this. If you have one with a $5-$10,000 credit limit, you can get in over your head before you know it. I say this from experience. The smaller credit balances are better.<br />
<br />
Financial freedom is something we all dream about, but for most of us it's not going to happen with our current jobs. The right home-based business has the ability to offer you and your family the financial freedom we all long for.<br />
<br />
6. NO Daycare- wouldn&rsquo;t it be a great feeling each morning to wake up, and know your children are going to be with you all day and not some stranger? One of the hardest decisions we as parents have to make after having children is childcare. Having a home-based business allows you to stay at home with your children full time. You will be the one to hold them when they are sick, see their first steps, and hear their first words.<br />
<br />
Are you a lucky, fortunate parent who have friends or family who can watch your children when you&rsquo;re at work? Great, most aren't that lucky. You have to rely on daycare to take care of your children. You tell yourself, ok, these are licensed staff members I&rsquo;m leaving my children with, but leaving them with strangers at all, makes you sick.  Each day when you leave them, hearing them cry, makes for a long, guilt-ridden day at work. I have been there and know what it feels like.<br />
<br />
Your kids are going to get sick from time to time.  When they are home full time with you, the odds of them getting sick as often are reduced. You will not have to call work to tell the boss you can't come in because you have a sick child. You will be home with your child to comfort him or her when they are sick, play with them, and take care of them when they are hurt. This is priceless and no one can do it better than you.<br />
<br />
7. Tax Advantages- many people don't realize the tax advantages offered with a home-based business. I definitely do not claim to be a tax expert, but there are many common things that can be deducted depending on what your business is.<br />
<br />
Just to mentions a few, advertising, business miles, supplies, business building information, ex. Audiocassettes, DVDs, just to name a few. If you decide to be one of the millions of Americans to start a home-based business, talk with your tax advisor. He or she will be able to give you more information about what deductions are available to you.<br />
<br />
Kristy Breen is a full time Network Marketer. To Learn more about starting your own Home Based business visit her website at http://www.lightacandlemakeaprofit.com.<br />]]></description>
<link>http://miraclemoneyblog.com/homebiztips/HomeBusinessTips_DMc_386/user/index.php</link>
</item>

<item>
<title>Sell Your Knowledge Turning Your Hobby Into Profits</title>
<description><![CDATA[<br />
<br />
By Antonio Thornton<br />
<br />
Everyone has a hobby of some kind - most people have several. There are people who collect stamps; people who make scrapbooks or create graphic designs with their digital photos; people who love horseback riding, hiking or bicycling.<br />
<br />
Perhaps you do something that you don't even know is considered a &quot;hobby&quot;. Technically, anything that you engage in for fun that is outside of your occupational activities is considered a hobby- so chances are you have lots of hobbies.<br />
<br />
Have you ever considered turning one of your hobbies into a business? You may be surprised at how virtually any hobby can be converted to profits, and without tremendous overhead or ridiculously high start up costs.<br />
<br />
What's even better, you aren't required to have a specific product to sell! In fact, you can make your knowledge your product to sell.<br />
<br />
If you participate regularly in some sort of hobby, you are bound to know quite a bit about it. If you make scrapbooks of your family and friends, then you probably have extensive knowledge about where to get the best deals on your scrapbooking supplies, and how to create special effects on your photo album pages.<br />
<br />
You refer to magazines and websites for inspiration. You have the personal knowledge of what it took to get started in the hobby. For example, scrapbooking requires that you have access to supplies like paper, stickers, glue, photo albums and scrapbooking tools.<br />
<br />
Someone who has just learned about scrapbooking and thinks they want to start the hobby will need to figure out what you need to get started. You could offer this knowledge as your product to sell. Think people won't buy it? Think again.<br />
<br />
Have you used a search engine to look up information?  You know that it's time consuming to sort through all the data to find exactly what you're looking for. Often, you're given tons of information that does not seem all that reliable.  You have to determine what you can use and what you need to avoid.<br />
<br />
When you make your personal knowledge of a hobby your product to sell- you're helping everyone who wants to find that information without spending hours searching for it.<br />
<br />
You do not need to have a physical product to sell in order to make a profit. In fact, having an inventory or having to create physical items from materials offers a lower profit margin than selling information.<br />
<br />
Information products are among the top items to sell for a variety of reasons. They offer a low cost to get started, meaning you start earning a profit after just a couple sales. Informational products include eBooks, online courses or email courses, software, audio files, web sites- basically anything that can be downloaded from the Internet.<br />
<br />
You aren't required to have an inventory.  You can set up your business model to allow you to earn money by the work other people do for you.<br />
<br />
Maybe you're thinking that this is all well and good- but you still don't have a product to sell! You haven't written an eBook, and maybe your writing skills are weak. Creating online or email courses are time consuming, and to create software you need special training. You can still sell your knowledge. Create a &quot;package&quot; of items that someone would need in order to get started in a particular hobby, and promote it as the &quot;everything you need to know&quot; about starting the hobby.<br />
<br />
Contact someone who has written an informative eBook on the topic; find someone else who has made an online video or radio show regarding it, and request permission to sell the items in your package. If they have affiliate programs, you can probably sign up for the affiliate programs and earn commission that way. Include your list of great providers for supplies or information that you refer to regularly, and anything else you know a person needs in order to get started in the hobby. This is a product to sell: selling your knowledge.<br />
<br />
Once you've earned money from this type of information product business, you can invest in the creation of your own products if you want, or start offering more informational products that allow you to sell your knowledge.<br />
<br />
Copyright (c) 2006 www.hobby4profit.com<br />
<br />
Antonio Thornton started with $37 and turned his &quot;nerdy&quot; computer hobby into a $500,000.00 per year business. Get the free Hobby For Profit Audio Report and discover how to turn your hobby into profit today! http://www.hobby4profit.com/f