Home Business The Easy Way - DRe Update http://www.blogmoneymiracle.com en-us EasyRSS
By Angela Bailey

Bill finished college in May. It was a beautiful ceremony, and the culmination of many hard years of study. “So what are you going to do now?” I asked him, over a cup of coffee in a local cafe. “Get a resume together and start looking for jobs” he replied. That’s the reply of about 99% of the people graduating from college. It’s the way we are socially programmed to think. It’s the same thing everybody else does. This doesn’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’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’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.

Goals

The first thing you need to accomplish is to set some goals for yourself, I can’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’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’t write a goal like…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.

Your Passion

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’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






Obstacles

Ponder these next seven words carefully, “As you think, so shall you be.” Thoughts are things, if you think you can, then you will. If you think you can’t, then you won’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…I’m not smart enough, I never had a chance, I was raised in the ghetto, I’m too poor, I’m too short, too old, too young… enough with the excuses. Quit using other people and other events for excuses why you can’t do something or are unable to succeed; it’s all too easy to do this. The other choice takes a little effort and in reality the person down deep inside really doesn’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’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.

Residual or Passive Income

When another company owns you, in other words trading your time for money, you only get paid while you are working. Wouldn’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’t matter if you’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’t work, and keep and duplicate the ones that do.

Success and Failure

“Before success comes in any man’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.” - Napoleon Hill

“Being challenged in life is inevitable, being defeated is optional.”- Roger Crawford

“Defeat never comes to anyone until they admit it.”- Josephus Daniels

“Develop success from failures. Discouragement and failure are two of the surest stepping-stones to success.”- Dale Carnegie

Keep in mind if you are not failing, then you are not moving forward, so don’t get discouraged, keep the ‘strong will’ going and you are destined to succeed. One of the biggest fears that will go through your mind is…I don’t have anything to offer others, maybe, getting a job is the best option for me. Don’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’t listen to others who try and discourage you, “That is crazy talk, that won’t work, just get a job!” 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’ve heard the old saying, ‘Misery Loves Company’; they try to discourage you. Learn to trust your Intuition, even if the whole world is telling you it can’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.

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.
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by Wendy Maynard

A Website is one of the most powerful marketing tools that you can implement. You can update it immediately; it is unique to your business; it can be seen by thousands of people who are searching for EXACTLY what you have to offer; and it works as your sales force, 24/7. It also can be expanded and changed over time.

Make sure that your Website includes content that will keep your prospects coming back. This is called a “sticky” site. Things like articles, tips, and quizzes not only show off your company's expertise and skills, but they are interesting and can educate people about a wide variety of topics.

Here are some things you can do to enhance the "stickiness" of your site:

1. Update Your Portfolio: If you have a portfolio of your work (photographers, architects, landscapers, designers, writers, etc.), keep your "latest and greatest" work current. Send an enthusiastic E-mail to your customers, to let them know when you update it.

2. Write Articles: You are an expert in your field. Customers are hungry for the information only you can provide. Give them helpful advice and tips. On your homepage, let Website visitors know about this section.

3. Add a Discussion Forum: Your Website designer can help you add a discussion forum. This allows visitors to communicate with each other, and your staff can provide helpful answers.

4. Create a "Links" Page: Customers like being able to find out more information regarding their purchasing decisions. With a links page, you can map the way for them to visit other related Websites. People will return to your site as a resource, to access this compilation of links.

5. Publish an E-zine: Publishing an E-zine will help position your business as an expert in your field. It sets you apart from your competitors and instills confidence and trust in your readers, making it easier for them to do business with you. You can archive your articles on your Website on an ongoing basis, to refresh your content for business.

6. Ask Your Site Visitors What They Want: Is there something in your business you are considering? Do you want some feedback on a service? Why not ask for your customers’ opinion? You can post an online opinion poll and, down the road, post customers’ responses.

7. Start a Blog: If you are committed to posting regularly, a blog can be a great way to build relationships with your customers and leads. You can give them advice about services or products, you can offer them helpful advice, and you can give business updates. Best of all, a blog is easy to set up and update!

8. Publish "Audio Bytes": There is so much great technology you can easily incorporate on your Website. One example of this is easy-to-record audio. You can create audio reports or radio shows, to give your visitors helpful advice.

Copyright 2006 Marketing Maven

About The Author:

Wendy Maynard, your friendly Marketing Maven, publishes REMARKABLE MARKETING, a weekly marketing E-zine for business owners, freelancers, and entrepreneurs. If you're ready to skyrocket your sa1es, easily attract customers, and have more fun, subscribe at http://www.gomarketingmaven.com/ezine.html.

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by Sally A. Connolly

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"To follow without halt, one aim; there is the secret of success. And success? What is it? I do not find it in the applause of the theater; it lies rather in the satisfaction of accomplishment." (Anna Pavlova)
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Any success in life involves a blending of mind and heart with action. Only by committing our intellect, will, time, and energy can we achieve that Olympic gold, that certificate of appreciation, or that "A" on a spelling test.

When we look at high achievers in any field or endeavor, we see common elements. Whether we want to follow their lead and go for the gold or whether we want to set less ambitious goals or none at all, the model is there and the decision is ours.

The ABC's of winning:

A: An accomplishment or goal. We conceptualize an achievement, such as running a three-minute mile, winning an election, or losing 20 pounds of excess body fat.

B: Belief in the goal. We recognize our objective as achievable, that is, within human grasp. Playing Rachmaninoff's concerto or growing a 1000-pound pumpkin must be, for us, a real possibility.

C: Confidence in our ability to achieve the goal. Believing we can succeed builds gradually from birth. When even our minor accomplishments are recognized, approved, and rewarded by those significant in our lives, our self-confidence grows. We internalize their views and feelings; and when these positive self-images combine with an inherent talent, accomplishment is unlimited:

"When I was a child, my mother said to me, 'If you become a soldier, you'll be a general; if you become a monk, you'll end up as the Pope.' Instead, I became a painter and wound up as Picasso."

Believing in, first, the achievability of a goal and, second, our ability to reach the goal, sets the stage for action and becomes for us a self-fulfilling prophecy:

"If you think you can, you can. And if you think you can't, you're right." (attributed to both Henry Ford and Mary Kay Ash)

D: Defining the goal as worthy of pursuit and deciding to work for it. At this point, our values enter the picture. Is it more important to become a firefighter or an American Idol? Our value system shapes our personal decisions about what is and what is not worth pursuing.

Kaitlyn, six years of age and in the first grade, outdistances her peers on the track. Her red shoe markers -- earned for every five miles completed -- are multiplying quickly. Will she see her newly-discovered ability as worthy of her passion and dedication? Will she choose to devote time and energy to pursuing track records or other unrelated accomplishments?

What she deems worthy will direct her decision.

E: Setting an effective step-by-step action plan and exerting effective effort. The stories of the most accomplished persons illustrate the time and energy needed to perfect a golf swing or become a prima ballerina.

"Practice makes perfect," our mothers told us. Vince Lombardi put it this way:

"The dictionary is the only place that success comes before work" (Vince Lombardi)

Sustained effort requires a passion and zeal truly our own. What once may have been the dream of others for us, translates into accomplishment only when the burning desire becomes lodged deep in our heart.

"Success isn't a result of spontaneous combustion. You must set yourself on fire." (Arnold H. Glasow)

F: Following through with constancy of purpose and dedication and allowing failures to be only temporary setbacks. Tenacity and persistence are messages many children hear around the dinner table and on the playing field: "The Connollys don't quit," "Don't give up, and don't give in." or "Quitters never win, and winners never quit."

Success, thus, means following the lead set by exemplars of excellence.

First, look carefully at your interests and find something you are passionate about. Look realistically at the skills you currently possess, as well as your potential. Rather than a headlong, helter-skelter dash, set a plan and bolster your self-confidence by focusing on minor accomplishments. Don't be surprised by setbacks, and don't be fearful of them. Detours on the road to success are only temporary glitches. Work through them and keep your eyes on the ultimate goal.

Follow the roadmap you have set and visualize success while you enthusiastically devote time and effort. Enlist the aid and support of family and friends. Telling them about your plans can help keep you on track. In addition to the emotional support, you may need their support in other ways.

And, most importantly, never give up.

Sally A. Connolly, a retired school counselor and teacher, is editor of A BOY FROM LAWRENCE: The Collected Writings of Eugene F. Connolly (2006). Midwest Book Review says this verbal scrapbook of a teacher’s spiritual journey is “filled with such treasures. It is recommended for those in need of comfort, illumination, redirection, grace, or prayer.” For more information, go to http://www.freewebs.com/aboyfromlawrence.

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The Internet is continuously evolving. It has been incorporating all current technology into its domain and has thus stood the test of time and storm. From video conferencing to class sessions delivered online, it has touched almost every aspect of life. But none has been as popular as Instant Messaging, which gave birth to smiley icons, a product of man’s quest to make cyberspace as social as possible.

Smiley icons are sequences of characters and symbols which represent different facial expressions, human feelings and sometimes even social gestures. They were first developed in an attempt to make the web as humanly social as possible. Later on, however, they were extended to represent all forms of humor, nationalism, celebrities and all kinds of things. And yes, it is still developing.

So, what are the most popular classes of smiley icons?

Emotions: Smileys are used to represent most human emotions. The most popular ones are smile, frown, wink, laugh, mock, tongue sticking out, etc. These are very frequently used in chat rooms and online forums.

Cartoons: From smiley icons of fat guys scratching their pot bellies to other weird symbols, there are a whole bunch of cartoon smileys that may have quite a lot of appeal to you and your lifestyle. All you have to do to get these smileys is search them online and follow the instructions to download them.

Ideologies: Since people of all faiths, creeds and nationalities partake in the discussions at the forums and chat rooms, some smart guys came up with smiley icon that represented religious symbols, socio-political identities like national flags and others. If you have been wondering how that guy that you always meet in the chat room gets to display a waving US flag, now you know.

Celebrities: Celebrities are more like gods nowadays. There are people who have made a fortune just writing about them. So it shouldn’t surprise you that we now have some emoticons that represent them. From politicians like former president Jimmy Carter :(=) to celebrities and TV characters like Pamela Anderson &:-)3 or Alladin @:-) , there are many classes of icons that represent most things we care about, and these icons are continuously evolving.

If you want to master the arts of the internet world, you have to learns its ways and be a part of its cyber culture, which includes understanding and rightly using smiley icons to deliver warmth to your online posts and break the ice created by the screen.

Craig Thornburrow is an acknowledged expert in his field. You can get more free advice on smiley icons and animated smiley faces at http://www.smileyicon.net and http://www.smileyicon.net/animate-your-messenger-conversations-with-animated-smiley-faces.html.]]> http://miraclemoneyblog.com/homebiztips/HomeBusinessTips_DRe_123/user/index.php
By Paul Taylor

The title of this article is not just the newest TV show staring William Shatner, or a great line from a Tom Cruise movie. These four words should be the motto of small business owners everywhere. Without money, your business has very little chance of succeeding. This statement can be taken several ways.

First and foremost, is finding financing for your business idea. Each business owner has to decide where to find financing. The obvious choices include banks, finance companies, money brokers, etc. Another place to look for funding is friends and family members. That is not what this article is really about.

Second, is to price the items in your business so that it insures that your business endeavor is a success. You want your prices to be in line with your competition. Price is usually a consideration with most people. However, you do not have to have lower prices on every item; you must, however, be in the same ballpark with the competition. There are other items that customers consider when purchasing an item from you, but price is the main one.

And finally, the reason for this article is start–up costs.

What are start-up costs? Start-up costs, as the name implies, include all the expenses that you have during the process of opening your business. Simple enough. But many times, entrepreneurs underestimate the amount that it will take to open the doors. Each business start-up costs vary, depending on the type of business that you plan to open.

Many of the costs associated with opening a business are obvious, however, I will list many of them so that when you are planning your budget, it may refresh your memory.

· Location for your business. Of course, this is the most obvious. Initial maintenance problems or remodeling should consider a start-up cost.

· Advertising is often overlooked or underestimated. You should check with various media about prices to advertise. This can be a major expense. Having a sign made for your building is also necessary for your business.

· Insurance is a necessary evil. Do not open the doors without it.

· Office equipment such as computer, printer, scanner, copier, fax, adding machine, calculators, filing cabinet, desk, and a bookcase are all necessary in an office.

· Office supplies are also overlooked; these include paper, pens, computer disks, notebooks, file folders, tape, stapler, and so on.

· Business licenses are required and should not be forgotten, although the cost is usually minimal.

· Utilities such as electricity, water, and phone; also an Internet connection and mobile phone should be considered.

There may be other costs that can be associated with start-up that are not listed here. This is only designed to get you to think about what it really costs to open a business. Many start-up costs are one time costs such as a deposit on a utility connection or having a sign designed and placed on the building or marquee. However, many are recurring such as insurance premiums and monthly utility expenses.

One business owner that I know said this about start-up costs “you should add up everything that you think it will cost to get open and then at least double it, and you will come close to what it costs.” The lesson here is do not underestimate your initial expenses. It costs more than you think.

Paul Taylor is a business owner that helps other business owners and entrepreneurs locate wholesale distributors and drop shippers. Visit his website http://www.WholesaleMap.com for information about wholesale sources or opening a business.
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Launching a new product is often the joy of entrepreneurs. However, many entrepreneurs start this process by shooting their efforts in the foot, then wondering why their ambitions are only limping along.

In order to avoid this common error, entrepreneurs must come to understand a couple of facts that seem very cruel to most egos. One fact is that, at the launch stage, no one cares about your new product but you. The second fact is that you must find a way to change fact number one.

Sure, I know what just popped into your head. You thought, "Well, I will just advertise my product and let the money roll in." That sounds good, but if we could somehow convene a committee of the owners of failed product launches of times past, you would find that they thought the same thing at the beginning of their campaigns. They did just that. And not only did they NOT make money; they lost money they already had in hand.

There must be an educational process implemented at the launch of any product. Just coming out of nowhere and telling consumers to buy your product is rarely successful.

Much like the age old question of which comes first chicken or the egg, there is the question of which comes first advertising or developing consumer’s interest in your product. Many people think these are the same but they aren’t.

When you present information online about a new product you must consider the web surfers patience and tolerance for reading what you have to say about your product. Since there is no distance in cyberspace, web surfers can leave websites very quickly. Bore them and you loose them. Entertain them and they will read every word of your promotional material and be happy to do it. They’ll absorb your product’s info in the process.

The question that remains is how to entertain them long enough to get your product information into their head. Flashy websites won’t do it anymore. They are a dime a dozen in this template-driven Internet age. You must have a hook. Listing your website in entertaining areas of the Internet can be a great way to get your product noticed and appreciated for what it has to offer to consumers.

Lately, companies both large and small have employed this angle in the physical world. Baseball games, football games, basketball games etc. have been inundated by ads and product introductions. Employing these tactics online are a lot less expensive and a lot easier to implement.

There are multiple ways of doing this. One of the most interesting means of introducing a product to the public is to immerse your product introduction into entertaining websites, but even greater than that is to make your introduction documentation itself a part of the entertainment.

Websites allow product launch materials to capture the full attention of prospective buyers by making the introduction materials part of a game the consumer is already playing. Users look for spelling and other errors to report them to the owner. They read every word, catching the full impact of the sales pitch and learn all of the feature intricacies of the product in question.

One of the side benefits of employing this type of technique is the perfection of sales materials. This makes product offers even more appealing to future customers.

John Reed is an internet marketer that embraces innovation in marketing. You can learn more about low cost marketing innovation at http://www.errormarketing.com.]]> http://miraclemoneyblog.com/homebiztips/HomeBusinessTips_DRe_123/user/index.php
By Elias Georgi

Maybe you have just retired or perhaps you been laid off from your company. Now you have lots of time to pursue other activities and you are wondering if you should look for another job or try to develop something at home. Many people have difficulty coming up with ideas to work at home, and there are thousands of ideas to choose.

We cover a few approaches you can try in this article.

Anyone who has just retired or been laid off goes through a transition of emotions which can include shock at not having somewhere to go in the morning, to boredom, to significant concern about how they are going to pay the bills for themselves and their families. If you have decided to look for a job, there are specific approaches people use to find work, which include developing a resume, sorting through job openings, and most important, networking to let people know they are available, as well as, hear about openings that may be available.

Use these same skills and approaches in the quest for finding ideas to work from home. Although you will not need to have a resume, it is still important to develop an inventory of your skills, which you can use to assess any idea that you may consider. It is also useful to assist in deciding what additional skills you may need to make your work at home endeavor successful.

Networking with people who are already in the work at home area is very useful. You will obtain ideas, and pick up many useful hints and tips that may assist you in developing and starting a work from home business. Networking with people in person, and online, can be equally important. However, in both cases take care to protect your privacy and find legitimate ideas. There are many scams on the Internet. If it sounds too good to be true, then it probably is so consider each one carefully.

Successful entrepreneurs in every field usually start by asking what problem my solution will solve for the customer. Many people are willing to spend their money on solutions that solve problems for them and your trick is to find the one that does this for a large number of people. The key acid test for considering any work at home business idea is to ask yourself Science Articles, what problem I solve for my customer and how much is it worth to him.

Lastly, carry pen and paper with you at all times and jot down ideas as they come to you for consideration later. Sometimes the most amazing ideas will come to you as you are sitting enjoying coffee in your local coffee shop.

Elias Georgi is an experienced and successful sponsor, mentor and coach for many thriving, tested and proven home businesses. Elias offers proven Internet opportunities and strategies. Visit his Website: work at home business opportunities (http://www.eliasg.com/), he also runs the article directory (http://www.exclusive-article.com/).

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By Andreas Sundstrom

Running a traditional brick and mortar business with an online presence, is one very good way to make a part of your living online. However, for the purposes of this article, we are going to assume that you do not have your own business. Therefore, I am going to discuss two of the biggest online moneymakers right now: online business opportunities and affiliate marketing.

Network marketing

The typical online business opportunity built around a network-marketing concept, inheriting the basic qualities of the offline business model that has been available for many decades. The basic idea is that you recruit two or more people, who in their turn recruit two, and in this way your efforts, (at least in theory), are greatly leveraged.

The main difference doing this online is that, utilizing the power of the Internet, you as a network marketer can literally reach people all over the planet.

The problem with the network marketing, or "mlm", concept is it sounds so good on paper - excessively good. Most people who join with a company of this type tend to get a dose of Mr. Reality rather soon.

They discover that recruiting new people, which is what mlm’s are all about - even if they try to tell you differently -, is not at all a simple process. There have been plenty of fraudulent businesses in this niche, and people tend to stay on their toes as soon as they hear the words mlm or network marketing.

To further complicate things, this business model is also based on you paying a set monthly fee - whether you make any money or not, which means many people who start this kind of business actually end up losing money.

It is definitely possible to make a good living in network marketing, but it is definitely not for everybody. "Getting in on the ground floor" is allegedly not always as good as it seems.

Affiliate Marketing

Affiliate marketing is similar to network marketing, in the sense that you will be promoting a product produced by another company or person. This can make life simpler for you, as the merchant usually takes care of all shipping and customer support issues. Amazon.com is probably one of the most well-known (and respected) companies utilizing the power of affiliate partnerships.

As an affiliate, your task is simply to refer new clients to the merchant. When these people buy something, you receive credit with a certain percentage of the sale.

Contrary to network marketing, acting as an affiliate marketer, is generally free. There are certain companies that have a hybrid structure between network and affiliate marketing, which require you to pay a start-up and/or monthly fee to market their products. Most affiliate programs are completely free to join. I would personally stay away from those using their affiliate programs as an income generator, in its own right, or "affiliate sharks”, as one marketer aptly named them.

Affiliate programs are a great way that anyone can start to make money online, without having to invest a lot of money, if indeed any at all.

However, there are certain strategies and marketing methods you need to be knowledgeable of, if you are to make anything but peanuts with your affiliate marketing.

Choosing the right affiliate program, and promoting it to the right people in the right way is an art form in its own right. The people who are good at this, generally referred to as "super affiliates", make a very good living doing nothing else than selling other people's products.

If you are looking to make an additional income from the Internet, or eventually even replace your current income altogether, affiliates marketing is a great way to get started. To achieve the success you desire, you should study and learn the same techniques “super affiliates” use on a day-to-day basis.

Andreas Sundstrom has made a full time living online for the past six years, largely thanks to the power of free affiliate programs. At his website http://www.webhosting-tips.info/affiliate/ he will share some of the most important super affiliate secrets.

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by Cheow Yu Yuan

One of the Internet Business models is a website, which sells digital products online. To sell product online, you will need to have an online solution provider, which handles the order transaction through credit card or PayPal.

Clickbank is the global leader in the sale of digital goods online with more than 10,000 product publishers and over 100,000 registered affiliates.

Below are the steps you will need to do, before you start selling your digital product online:

1. Register a free Clickbank account, which will act as both your affiliate and publisher account.
2. Come out with your own product.
3. Design a "Pitch Page" to promote and sell your product.
4. Design a "Thank-You Page" to deliver your product and thank customers.
5. Test the links from your website with Clickbank.
6. Then, complete a product approval form.
7. Once, you have received your approval email, login to your account, and pay for your one-time $49.95 publisher activation charge.
8. After you have paid the one-time publisher activation charge, you are all clear to go live, and sell your product online.

You can also tap into the Clickbank Affiliate Marketplace, where you will be able to have thousands of affiliates helping you to promote your product. To list your product on the Clickbank Marketplace, you will need to send an email to Clickbank. In the email, you will have to specify exactly which category of the Marketplace you wish to place your product.

You can also place the affiliate link of your product on your website. Your affiliate link is called "Hoplink". When a visitor wants to join your affiliate program to promote your product, he or she will only has to click on your hoplink, and be directed to Clickbank, where he or she will be given a step-by-step guide to start promoting your product.

Affiliate marketing is one of the great ways to increase your sales and traffic. So do remember to tap into the opportunities that Clickbank Marketplace provides.

About the Author
The author is the co-founder of HomeBizGears.com

HomeBizGears.com strives to provide the resources and gears for you to start YOUR Internet Business.

HomeBizGears.com is also the publisher of the e-book "Your Perfect Guide to Start Internet Business".

Do visit www.homebizgears.com for more information.

Please feel free to republish this article on your website, or distribute it to your friends or clients, as long as you leave the resource box intact.

Cheow Yu Yuan,
Co-Founder HomeBizGears.com

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by Theresa Cahill

Online Website owners know that buyers don't just come to their sites, they must be enticed to visit and purchase.

For many, the sum total of promoting their Website revolves around "advertising." But ... did you know that there is much more to pulling in customers than advertising alone can do?

According to Wikipedia, a simplified definition of marketing is: "...the ongoing process of moving people closer to making a decision to purchase, use, follow ... or conform to someone else's products, services or values."

In a nutshell, "... if it doesn't facilitiate a 'sale,' then it's not marketing."

Does advertising facilitiate sales? There's no doubt that an effective online or offline ad works. However, the difference between advertising and marketing, especially online, is advertising involves a cold market process. You must be persuasive using text and graphics to create an interest in someone, an interest they were not actively aware they had. You must create that interest from scratch to get that all-important site visit.

Marketing, conversely, seeks out the warm market. Your warm market is in the mood, it is actively searching for what you have to offer.

Bringing the two of you together is the sole focus of a great marketing campaign.

Philip Kotler's definition explains:

"Marketing is human activity directed at satisfying needs and wants through exchange process."

Simply put, your buyer was already looking, now all you need to ensure that purchase is a sales-converting Website.

So -- does advertising alone cover enough ground to accomplish this goal? Not on its own.

Market research, product development, the management of the life-cycle of that product, pricing, and promotion are but a few aspects defining the term "marketing."

Strategic Internet marketing is geared toward defining, creating, growing, developing, maintaining, defending, and "owning" your market.

How does one "own" their market?

On the 'net, the one sure-fire way of dominating any market is exceptional placement in the search engines. When an Internet shopper heads to Google, Yahoo!, MSN, AltaVista ... wherever ... they have one goal and one goal in mind ... find what they are looking for.

Website owners who know what they want to accomplish also know they must strive to rise to the top of the search engines, and do so quickly.

Hundreds of thousands of new Websites pop up daily. Millions, if not billions, of Web pages already exist - before your site even hits the launch pad. Conquering and butting your competition out of the prime search engine positions needs to be your focus.

"If you build it, they will come" only works in the movies. Take the steps needed to make your Website a success.

Advertising is necessary. Marketing is critical!

Copyright 2006 - All Rights Reserved

Theresa Cahill has over two decades of online and offline marketing experience. Teaming up with Jeff Greer, of Everenterprise, they put their talents and experience to work assisting business, home business, and store-front owners in promoting their Websites. You are invited to receive a preliminary and free strategic Internet marketing site evaluation at http://www.Market-For-Me.com

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By Jeff Mowatt

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…you may inadvertently be coming across as being arrogant and insensitive.

This is not suggesting that you have a ‘holier-than-thou’ 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©.

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® speeches and seminars.

1. Mention your Homework

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.

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 ‘word-on-the-street’. That got my attention! The ensuing conversation led me to engage their services.

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.

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 ‘humility advantage’.

2. Confirm your Understanding

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, “I'll have the salad with the meal.” or “I'd like to have fruit instead of fries,” 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.

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.

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, “Let me make sure I've got this straight. You would like yours with fruit instead of fries...” (I then confirm everyone's special request accurately).

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, “Let me make sure I've got this straight.” 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, “Let me make sure I've got this straight.” Hence the Humility Advantage.

Here's one more application:

3. Ask Permission to Present

Have you heard the expression that ‘people don't like to be sold-to, but they love to buy’? 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, “Let me make sure I've got this straight…” Later, ask permission to present with, “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?” Once the other person agrees, they will feel less like they are being forced, and more like they are being helped.

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).
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By: Gary Foreman

Gwen writes: “What’s going on? This month on two separate credit card statements, there are notices informing us that as of October 1, we may be charged ‘more than two’ late fees or ‘over the limit’ fees per month.”

It is estimated that Americans have charged $1.8 trillion in 2005 on the 690 million credit cards outstanding. According to a Government Accountability Office study released in September 2006, 13% of credit card users were assessed over-limit fees and 35% were assessed late fees in 2005. So Gwen has a lot of company.

Let's try to do three things. First, understand what these fees are. Second, see how fees are changing. Third, what can Gwen do to keep from being hurt?

Credit cards have always had fees, such as, late payments. This is understandable. Other fees came along as credit cards took on new capabilities; cash advances and balance transfer fees. Still others should not seem possible; like over-limit fees. You would think they would not allow you to borrow more than your limit.

There are also 'penalty interest rates'. If you're late with a payment or go over your credit limit you could see your rate bumped to 30% or more.

The 2006 GAO study looked at fees and penalties. It said that not only were fees increasing, but also the credit card companies were doing a lousy job of informing consumers about those fees.

The credit card companies are obligated to tell you about any fees or penalties and how they're triggered. Some fees, like paying your credit card bill by phone, are sometimes not clearly disclosed. What Gwen received with her statement was a notice of a change in how fees would be charged. As long as she is notified, they can get by with almost anything.

Late fees have nearly tripled in the last 11 years. And many cards have adopted a 'universal default clause' that says a late payment on any card will trigger the penalty interest rate.

Credit card companies say that the higher interest rates and fees are appropriate based on risk factors. If it weren't for the higher fees, they claim that they wouldn't be able to offer credit to riskier consumers.

In fairness, the GAO's survey found that (at least among 6 of the largest card issuers) 80% of accounts paid interest rates of less than 20%. So the vast majority of card users are not paying penalty rates.

The study also found that the disclosures were written well above the eighth grade reading level and (surprise!) featured small print. They recommended that the Federal Reserve Board revise rules on credit card disclosures.

Now that we understand what's going on, we can try to help Gwen avoid problems:
1. Recognize the card issuers get to make most of the rules. Whether those rules are fair or not isn't relevant. The best she can do is to avoid getting hurt by those rules.
2. Get familiar with each account. The only way to know exactly what's allowed is to read and understand the "Card Member Agreement." Tough duty, but necessary!
3. Watch out for unexpected fees; like balance transfers or increasing your credit limit. Know what could trigger fees or penalty rates.
4. Know exactly when your payment is due. Keep a list of due dates for your credit card accounts. If you don't get the bill, it is your responsibility to contact the company and still make a timely payment.
5. If possible, the best thing is to join nearly half of the cardholders who paid little or no interest. That's because they do not carry a balance.
6. Obviously, for many people that's not immediately possible. It is important to send in your payment as soon as possible. Being seven days early is better than being one day late.
7. If you find it difficult to get your payment in on time, you might want to authorize the credit card company to automatically debit your checking account for the minimum payment each month. You'll probably pay for the service, but that way the payment can't be late.
8. Talk to your card issuer. If you’re due date falls at a bad time of the month, they'll move it.
9. If Gwen is near or over the limit on any card, she should try to shift part of the debt to a different card. Some fees are even being assessed when an account is merely getting too close to the limit. Your best bet is to keep balances to less than half the available credit.

Although the higher late fees are infuriating, they do minimal damage. The real problem is in the universal default clause. Most credit card accounts now have a universal default clause.

Suppose your rate went from 15% to 30% on every open credit account. For every $1,000 you owe, an extra $150 interest would be charged each year. So if you're the type of person carrying a $10,000 balance, that one late payment could cost you $1,500 per year. For as long as you have the balance!

Gwen needs to pay close attention to her credit card accounts. With newer fees and penalty rates in place, it becomes more important to manage your credit. In fact, it's critical to your financial ‘well-being’.

Gary Foreman is a former financial planner who currently edits The Dollar Stretcher website. If you'd like to stretch your day or your dollar visit today! You'll find hundreds of articles to help you "live better...for less". View their website at: http://www.stretcher.com
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By Vernon Anthony Johnson

Many people today are looking to own and run their own business. To do this they have three main choices.

1. Buy a franchise
2. Start from scratch to develop one’s own business.
3. Buy an existing business.

When speaking of capital to start or buy a conventional business, we are not talking peanuts. All these types of businesses will require a substantial sum of capital, perhaps in the hundreds of thousands of dollars.

They usually require suitable staffing, computer expertise for accounts and wages, and also people skills are required in the workplace. There are always some problems with staff that can cause difficulties.

In a conventional business, you will require a building. If you have bought an existing business, then probably rates and maintenance are your two main expenses. If you need to rent a building, then you may require a refit for your purposes, which may cost tens of thousands of dollars. Depending on the type of business, it may require new machines or electronic devices that are very expensive. You would need computers and office furniture. Considerable costs are involved when starting a business. Some of these will be ongoing, which involves, interest on the loan, staff wages and rent, etc.

Look at what you might lose if the business fails. The equity that was used to finance the loan - most likely the property you own, because you couldn’t pay off the bank overdraft. The fixtures and fittings that you purchased which now would be of no use to you and any equipment you purchased which may have to be sold, invariably at a loss.

Everything was lost to try and pay off your debt. This wasn’t enough, so you have to leave the home you love and look for rented accommodations. Many years later, you might work your way back to where you were before the time of the crash. The statistics for new conventional type business successes are not good.

With a conventional business, if you need advice, you usually have to pay for it. Some advice is available free with a franchise. With a franchise, business mentoring is usually not included. So if it’s new to you, you may have to pay for that help. In MLM home based business with a good company, the marketing help comes as part of the deal.

Why you may ask?

Well, because the MLM I am recommending is structured so that the person who does the recruiting also helps the people they recruit. In making them successful, all will benefit financially. This team building is the essence of success in MLM marketing. People who have done this for a few years reap large rewards without having to take a huge gamble to raise equity.

When looking at a MLM business which costs less than $2000 initially and potentially enables you to earn hundreds of thousands of dollars a few years down the road, why wouldn’t that be more attractive to you than risking your house?

There is a company that excels in all respects and is ideal for MLM people:

1. It is debt free
2. Publicly listed on the NASDAQ
3. Achieved 1.5 billion turnover in the first five years
4. Is a global business operating in ten countries and six more in 2007.
5. Ranked number 5 in the 200 Best Small companies by FORBES.

If we summarize the benefits, then we are talking about a business which:

1. Does not require a large amount of capital
2. Does not require you to hold stock.
3. Does not require staff.
4. Does not require you to rent or buy expensive property because you can work from home using one room as your office.
5. Enables you to make an income relative to your efforts that could be in the six-figure bracket after a few years.
6. Does not confine you to office hours - you can work at a time convenient to you and your family.
7. Will still function once established without loss of income if you decide to take a long holiday.

Why then would anyone wanting to start a business not want to take the least expensive option?

The MLM choice comes without all the financial risk and headaches.

You can have the same earning potential as the conventional business with total support as part of the deal.

For more information, contact Vernon Johnson, 11/134 Hill Road, Runcorn, Brisbane 4113 Australia, biohealth@aapt.net.au . Vernon Anthony Johnson is a former electronic engineer, professional actor. Interested in making movies and making money from home business.
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By Paul Levesque

Some businesses remain that manage to consistently deliver superior customer service year in and year out, while howls of protest over poor customer service continue to fill the air. These are the places where turbo-charged employees pursue customer delight with a passion, places that ignite a flash point of contagious enthusiasm in employees and customers alike. Foremost, to be learned from such flash point businesses are the ‘blunders’ to avoid—fatal mistakes that trip up just about everybody else.

First Blunder: Making Customer Service a Training Issue.

Businesses of all kinds invest huge amounts in training programs that do not—and simply cannot—work. The function of this training is to identify the behaviors workers are engaging in, and then coax, bully, or legislate these behaviors into the workplace. At best, this is almost always a recipe for conduct that feels mechanized and insincere; at worst, it intensifies worker resentment and cynicism.

The better approach is to give workers opportunities to brainstorm their own ideas for delivering delight, instead of dictating what workers should be doing to delight customers. Management’s role then becomes to help employees implement these ideas, and to allow workers to savor the motivational effect of the positive feedback that ensues from delighted customers. This level of employee ownership and involvement is a ‘key’ cultural characteristic of virtually all flashpoint businesses.

Second Blunder: Blaming Poor Service on Employee De-motivation.

Businesses looking for ways to motivate their workers almost always are looking in the wrong places. Employee cynicism is the direct product of an organization’s visible preoccupation with self-interest above all else—a purely internal focus. The focus in flashpoint businesses is directed outward, toward the interests of customers and the community at large. This shift in cultural focus changes the way the business operates at all levels.

The reality is that employees are de-motivated because they can’t deliver delight in most business settings. The existing policies and procedures make it impossible. Instead of “fixing” their employees, flashpoint business set out to build a culture that unblocks them. Workers are encouraged to identify operational obstacles to customer delight, and participate in finding ways around them.

Third Blunder: Using Customer Feedback to Uncover What’s Wrong.

Surveys and other feedback mechanisms are used by businesses to get to the causes of customer problems and complaints. Employees come to dread these measurements and data-gathering efforts, which often lead to what feels like witch-hunts for employee scapegoats, formal exercises in finger pointing and the assigning of blame. Flashpoint businesses use customer feedback very differently. In these organizations, the object is to uncover everything that’s going right. Managers are forever on the lookout for "hero stories" - examples of employees going the extra mile to deliver delight. Such feedback becomes the basis for ongoing recognition and celebration. Employees see themselves as winners on a winning team. In this type of workplace, there is always some new "win" being celebrated.

Fourth Blunder: Reserving Top Recognition for Splashy Recoveries.

It happens all the time; something goes terribly wrong with a customer order or transaction. The dedicated employee goes to tremendous lengths to make things right. The delighted customer brings this employee’s wonderful recovery to management’s attention. The employee receives special recognition for his or her efforts. This is a blunder?

It is when such recoveries are the primary—if not the only—catalysts for employee recognition. In such a culture, foul-ups become ‘almost a good thing’ from the workers’ point of view. By creating opportunities for splashy recoveries, foul-ups represent the only chance employees have to feel appreciated on the job. Attempts to correct operational problems won’t win much support if employees see these problems as their only opportunity to shine.

Flashpoint businesses celebrate splashy recoveries, of course—but they’re also careful to uncover and celebrate employee efforts to delight customers where no mistakes or problems were involved. This makes it easier to get workers participating in efforts to permanently eliminate the sources of problems at the systems level.

Fifth Blunder: Competing on Price.

It is one of the most common (and most costly) mistakes in business. Price becomes the deciding factor in purchasing decisions only when everything else is equal—and everything else is almost never equal! Businesses compete on the perception of value, which includes more than price. The total customer experience—and aspects such as “helpfulness,” “friendliness,” shapes it and “the personal touch” often gives the competitive advantage to businesses that actually charge slightly more for their basic goods and services.

Businesses that deliver a superior total experience from the inside out (that is, as a product of a strongly customer-focused culture) are those that enjoy a long-term competitive advantage—along with virtual immunity from the kinds of headaches that plague everybody else.

Customer-focus consultant Paul Levesque’s latest book is Customer Service From The Inside Out Made Easy (Entrepreneur Press, 2006).

Copyright Paul Levesque. All Rights Reserved.

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.
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By Joe Leech

Let's face it: you’re probably working for far less than you need to. The sad thing is you may not even be aware of it or the options that are available! We're going to change that for you, and share, not only a thought, but also a vehicle that can change your financial life.

We’re going to show you how to get so much more out of your sales time investment.

This may apply more to the part time, home based business person than the professional...but we have seen, met, and talked with professionals who really are under- valuing their return on time investment. The phrase “time investment” is used repeatedly, but you MUST consider it just as important as you value cash or a money investment.

It is even more important because once spent or invested, you can never get that particular moment or minute back. It's gone! You can always invest more money, but you only have so much irreplaceable time. Your sales time investment is one of the most precious investments you can ever make.

As we look at business models, we find on one end, the model that proposes high volume but low profit per sale.

Wal-Mart has certainly shown this model works. Many, many supermarkets work this same way. If you have the ability to create large volumes of sales, it will work; the question is, do you? If you are an individual sales rep, or a small business, just how much of an opportunity do you have in creating large volumes? The appeal to the small businessperson is to do this by creating some type of a multi-level sales organization, (probably incorrectly referred to as a pyramid); and in the ideal world, ‘IF’ you can do this, you can create volume. This could take years to accomplish, and still never guarantee any income or security because: (1) The company behind it could go out of business, be taken over, or any number of things. (2) The pay plan could change. (3) The group suddenly dissolves, particularly if or when a heavy hitter or group leader decides to switch to another business taking his distributors or sales force with him. Do you make a good sales time investment if you choose this model?

Of course, you still have the ability to sell the product or service yourself, but (1) can you do the volume, and (2) is the profit per personal sale worth your time?

The second business model, at the other end of the spectrum, is one that provides a relatively high profit or earning per sale. Often, in this category, we think of real estate people and car sales people, as well as, sales people of specialized capital equipment, but that's not the majority of us.

The downside is, if we are thinking about selling a high ticket/high profit item, we have to ask (1) is there a large market and prospect base, and (2) if we are thinking in terms of the ability for a part time person--possibly a "stay at home mom", can this high ticket, high profit product or service be first mastered in terms of the technology, and is the customer prospect base readily accessible?

In most cases, the answer to those questions is "no, not available". But if it is, or was, then here's a fact that can be virtually carved in stone:

IT TAKES NO MORE TIME OR SKILLS TO SELL THE HIGH PROFIT PACKAGE THAN IT DOES TO SELL THE MASS PRODUCT WITH ONLY PENNIES OR DIMES IN PROFIT!

Think about that! This is ALL relative to your sales time investment. It's the MOST IMPORTANT investment you have to make. Ask yourself: "Am I working for pennies or dimes, when instead with the right vehicle I could be working for dollars?"

If the answer is yes, and this is so true of particularly home based business entrepreneurs who are involved in the sale of nutritional supplements, skin care, fad gadgets, etc., then ask yourself, "Am I doing this because I want to earn a nice income, and do it as quickly as possible... or am I kidding myself about that goal and do I just want to get products wholesale or discounted and have some fun?"

There is nothing wrong with that, if you have an honest assessment of what you are doing and why. But...if your goal is $4000 to $5000 a month or more, and you do not want to spend all your waking hours "working your business", then it is time to change!

This article is written from the school of hard knocks. It is one that really had us very emotionally involved with the businesses; rah, rah, rah, recognition pins, etc.…Amway…Free Life…Primerica…Herbal Life. Been there, done that! Made some money? Yes, but far, far less than in other options. This represents the part time side of things we did to supplement our “real” job. We made some money, but had no security, and worked for far less than we could have been doing. Plus, we just sold our time for money, no residual income…that is a subject for another article.

We hope this has helped you focus your thinking and our resource block will point you to one tool that will let you change your life.

Joe Leech has been involved in both conventional and home-based businesses for over 40 years. He offers sound advice from his experience and at his website at http://www.wideworldinfo.com/abundant/opty.html he offers a way to do what he writes about.
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By Wiley Long

The year 2007 is here. There are several issues to consider if you currently have a Health Savings Account (HSA), or are planning on getting one in the near future.

The deposit you place in your HSA is 100% deductible on your federal income taxes. HSA contributions are tax-deductible on state income taxes, except in four states. If you’re looking to reduce your 2006 tax burden and put more money away for retirement, your HSA is the first place to consider putting your money if you have not yet maximized your contribution.

The maximum that can be contributed to your HSA in 2006 is the lesser amount of your deductible, or $2,700 for single persons, and $5,450 for families. Individuals, who are age 55 or older, may contribute an additional $700. Be aware, the contribution limits are pro-rated, based on the number of complete months during the year in which you have a qualifying HSA health insurance plan.

The deadline is April 15, (or later if you file for an extension), to make your 2006 contribution. If you do not fully fund your account for the current year, you can’t make a “catch-up” contribution for 2006 after this deadline. However, you can reimburse yourself in later years for qualified expenses incurred in 2006, even if you don’t have the funds in your account to reimburse yourself at this time.

In 2007, the maximum annual HSA contribution will go up to $2,850 for individuals and $5,650 for families. Individuals 55 or older will be allowed to contribute an additional $800.

It is also important to have your HSA-qualified health coverage in place no later than January 1, to maximize your tax benefit for 2007

To pay for a medical expense from your HSA, it must be a qualified expense. Some of these qualified expenses include: dental expenses, eyeglasses, chiropractic visits, over-the-counter medications, and sometimes even nutritional supplements.

Make sure you have an accurate record of your medical expenses for the year. Separate the expenses for which you have reimbursed yourself from your HSA from those that you have paid for out-of-pocket. Keep receipts for all medical expenditures paid from your HSA with your 2006 tax records. Place the "non-reimbursed medical expenses" in a separate file, and keep these receipts with the concurrent year's tax records with the year you decide to reimburse yourself.

There is a 6% penalty for over-funding your HAS. You have until April 15, 2007 to withdraw excess funds for the 2006 tax year to avoid this penalty. Your HSA administrator may notify you of any over-funding, however, they are under no obligation to do so. It is your responsibility! Make sure you check into this if you think your may have over-funded you account.

The minimum deductibles for HSA-compatible health insurance plans in 2006 were $1,050 for individuals, and $2,100 for families. This amount will increase to $1,100 for individuals, and $2,200 for families in 2007. If you currently have an HSA-qualified plan with the lowest eligible 2006 deductible, this deductible will automatically go up on January 1 to the new minimum.

Strategies to Maximize Your Tax Benefits

There are basically three different strategies you can take to decide how to fund your health savings account:

1. Put no money in the account, except when you incur a medical expense. This strategy allows you to legally "launder" any money used to pay medical expenses. By depositing money into your HSA, then immediately withdrawing it to reimburse yourself for medical expenses, you’re making all your medical expenses tax-deductible. Use this strategy if you are on a tight budget and need to keep your cash outlay as low as possible.

2. Fully fund the account, or put in as much as possible, based on your budget. When medical expenses are incurred, take money out of the account to cover your costs. Then let the rest grow tax-deferred. This strategy will maximize your tax deduction, while making your HSA funds available to pay any non-covered medical expenses before your deductible is met.

3. Fully fund the account, but pay all medical expenses from a non-HSA account. Reimburse yourself for medical expenses at a later date. This strategy will allow you to maximize your tax deduction, and also allow you to maximize the tax-deferred growth of your HSA. You can reimburse yourself, tax-free, at any time in the future for medical expenses incurred over the ensuing years.

To maximize the potential growth of your funds, you may want to make your 2007 deposits as early in the year as possible. Any growth in your account is tax-deferred, like an IRA. If possible, plan to make your deposits the first week in January.


Wiley Long - President, HSA for America (http://www.health--savings--accounts.com) - The nation's leading independent health insurance firm specializing in Health Savings Plans that works with Health Savings Accounts.
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By Wally Bock

For centuries people have debated whether leaders are born or made. Several decades ago researchers started trying to answer this question. The debate goes on, even though we know the answer.

It turns out to be a little of both. Leaders are ‘sort of’ born and they are always made. Knowing the details will help you develop effective leaders for your company.

Leaders are ‘Sort of’ Born

There's only one thing a person needs to actually be born with in order to be a leader later in life; that is intelligence. A leader needs to be smart.

Effective leaders are not necessarily the smartest people in the room, or the company, or even on the team. They have to be smart enough to do the job they are assigned.

The kind of person the potential leader is when he or she becomes an adult is very important. The person who emerges from adolescence into young adulthood has the psychological and character traits they'll demonstrate for the rest of their life. Some of those characteristics matter for leadership.

By the time a person reaches adulthood, we can tell if they know how to help other people achieve results. That, after all, is what we expect leaders to do. We expect them to achieve success through a group. We expect them to help their subordinates grow and develop.

When a person becomes an adult, we can tell if they want to achieve objectives or if they just want to go along and take it easy. We expect leaders to be responsible for achieving results. You can have a marvelous life without a results focus; however, if you're going to lead successfully, you have to have the drive and willingness to be measured by the results of your leadership.

Upon reaching adulthood, we can tell if they are willing to make decisions or not. Lots of people wake up every day and let the world happen to them. Leaders must be able and willing to make decisions that affect themselves and others.

When achieving adulthood, we can tell if they have the basic qualities that we expect leaders to have. We can determine if they're smart enough to do the job. We can tell if they are willing to help others to achieve results as a group. We can tell if they will make decisions.

Those things are essential. People who have those qualities can learn the multiple skills it takes for them to become effective leaders.
No one emerges from the womb or from adolescence with all the skills in place to be an effective leader, no matter how they measure up on the key essentials. Everybody has to learn the job. That's why leaders are always made.

Leaders are Always Made

Leadership can be learned by anyone with the basics. There is a lot to leadership that cannot be taught.

Leadership is an apprentice trade. Leaders learn about 80 percent of their craft on the job.

They learn from watching other leaders and emulating their behavior. They choose role models and seek out mentors. They ask other leaders how to handle situations.

Leaders improve by obtaining feedback and using it. The best leaders seek feedback from their boss, their peers, and their subordinates. They modify their behavior so they are able to obtain better results.

Leaders learn by trying things out and then critiquing their performance. The only failure they recognize is the ‘failure to learn from experience’.

In their book, Geeks and Geezers, Warren Bennis and Robert Thomas identify the special power of what they call "crucibles." These are trials that teach hard lessons which leaders use as the basis of their strength in later crises. Many of these events can be called "failures," but leaders turn the bad situation to good by learning from it.

Effective leaders take control of their own development. They seek out training opportunities that will make a difference in their performance.

Effective leaders look for training programs that will help them develop specific skills they can use on the job. Then, when they return to work, they devote specific, deliberate effort to mastering in real life what they have learned in the classroom.

Marshall Goldsmith and Howard Morgan studied the progress of 88,000 managers who had been to leadership development training. The people who returned from the training, talked about it, and did the deliberate learning applications, were judged as becoming more effective leaders. The ones, who didn't, showed no improvement.

If you're responsible for leadership development for your company, you should structure your support for your leaders to recognize that most leadership learning happens ‘on the job’. Help people develop leadership development plans. Help them select specific skills training. Then work on transferring skills from the training to the job. Help them find role models, mentors and peers to discuss leadership issues.

Help your leaders get feedback from their boss, peers and subordinates. Work to create the culture of candor that will make that feedback helpful and effective.

Don't stop there. Make sure you evaluate your leaders on their leadership work. Reward them. Hold them accountable for accomplishing the mission through the group. Hold them accountable for caring for their people and helping them grow and develop.

A Leader's Growth is Never Done

Leadership learning is a lifetime activity. You are never done. There's always more to learn. There are always skills you need to improve.

Effective leaders seek out development opportunities to help them learn new skills. These might be project assignments or job changes. This develops knowledge and skills that can be used elsewhere.

Effective leaders seek out opportunities that will increase their visibility. Great performances alone will not propel you to the top in your career. You also have to be visible to people who make decisions about promotions and assignments.

If you are responsible for developing leaders in your company, set up programs to give your leaders both kinds of development opportunities over the course of their careers.

There is no magic formula for developing quality leaders in your company. By selecting potential leaders with the essential traits, supporting them with training, feedback, on-the-job learning, developmental experiences, and holding them accountable for results, you will have the leaders you need to shape your company's future.

Wally Bock is an author, speaker, and coach who help leaders improve the performance and morale of their teams. Wally is the author of Performance Talk: The One-on-One Part of Leadership (http://www.performancetalk.com/) and the Three Star Leadership Blog (http://blog.threestarleadership.com/).
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By Lynette Chandler

Just when you think you understand the content publishing trend of the day, here comes another one to mess up your plans. If you're frustrated, confused and don't know how to fit everything or if you even should. It's not easy coming up with a web content publishing management strategy. It's something I struggle with from time to time, as well.

I believe it's a personal choice. All these are just different methods of publishing your content. There are some key questions you might want to consider.

What is your audience most predisposed to?

The reason we publish web content is so people will find it, read it, use it, and hopefully generate a sale for your products. It doesn't matter which is the best format but what is best for your audience. Which content format do they respond to most? Are they highly mobile people, always on the road? Do they prefer reading to listening? Are they technically savvy enough to understand how to use an RSS reader? If you don't know, ask them.

You'll naturally have a hodge-podge of answers. Sometimes even after asking, the result is not always clear. Overall, written content still triumphs over multimedia for several reasons. People cannot scan an audio or video file. If they want just one piece of information from that hour-long recording, they are forced to find an hour of their time that they may not be willing to give.

Why are you building that site?

How do you picture your website? For example, if you start a site answering 'questions about coaching' then a Blog would be an ideal type of publishing to use, and you can easily publish the questions and answers. Blogs are perfect for sites like product reviews; launch updates, deal of the day, news and event reporting and FAQ's. You can always use a Blog and articles as a compliment to existing sites.

Other sites, especially those built for educating and dispensing information, would be better off with a regular article based site. While you can use a Blog as a content management tool for your articles, a regular website offers much more control when you're trying to optimize each web page individually. True, you can optimize a Blog, however, overall I find it's easier to optimize a website.

Relevance

This is where a good long look at your overall business helps. Some people build sites in all kinds of niches, from gadgets to babies. Others find their niche and build upon it by creating different sites related to that niche. Example: the main business is coaching. They have one site on coaching FAQ's, one for coaches, one for life and balance articles for a working mother, and so on. If your business is structured like the latter, it's going to be easier for you to figure out which approach you should opt for.

This is because all of these sites are working in tandem to support your main business. It doesn't matter which you use, in the end, the focus is on your business, you are promoting your services no matter where people go and you'll reap the rewards. Each of these sites also becomes a network of content. Doing so also means you could keep only one Blog and use it to direct people to new articles, highlight special articles or alert people about a teleseminar call, kind of like a news hub just for your business. Another nice plus to this is, you don't have to build so many Blogs that you’re unable to keep up with.

An example is this page you're on. Some of you are directed here because I mentioned the article on my Blog. Some of you come here from my newsletter, and some from reading the Blog's RSS feed.

When to pod cast

There are many benefits to pod casting. It can take up an awful lot of time. It's hard work publishing a show every week or every other week for that matter. So, make sure you can commit that kind of time before doing so. That doesn't mean you can't publish audio your Blog when you have an audio to publish.

Many people misunderstand pod casts; they look at it like they see radio and magazine, which are totally different things. Fact is, many pod casts are Blogs and vice versa.

If you think pod casts are just a little too much to handle right now, here's one way you can leverage them without committing yourself to it. Become a guest on someone else's pod cast who’s reaching the same niche as you. Pod cast publishers are always looking for great content and people to interview so, fill their need. Why create your own when you can piggyback?

There are many things to consider, it could go on forever, but given this time slot I'll make it quick and point out a few key areas.

Some sites are just made for Blogs – reviews, FAQs, deals, news and updates.

Look for synergy. I'll usually start off with a regular articles based website. I think you can’t go wrong with it. It's the basis of the Internet and will be for a long time; just like books are still in publication today, it's not going anywhere. However, also try to see if an existing Blog can help drive traffic to this site simply by highlighting articles or mentioning certain things about the content.

Sometimes time itself is of the essence and we just do not have enough of it. If you find this to be true you can still create an influence of a pod cast by being a guest on a show or by contributing recorded segments. You could create an audio of an article that you've already got written so that it doesn't take up much of your time. This could also apply to Blogs. If you find you don't have time to write a Blog, or another Blog, then see if you can be a contributor to a relevant Blog. You could even set up a 'Community Blog' where three or four people will add there posts; so that it is busy without one person having to do all the work.

Lynette Chandler helps entrepreneurs recognize and apply the power of technology to their marketing. Discover how web conferencing can work for your business today at http://www.webconferencingworks.com.
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By Allison Thompson

People will find themselves in difficult financial situations, at times. It may be because their business has not worked out and is on the verge of becoming bankrupt or it could be for personal reasons (a divorce settlement is not what it should have been). At any time, the need for financial support is important. When faced with situations such as shown previously, a loan to help them recover is hard to find. There are many reasons why getting a loan could be difficult, it may be they have a poor credit rating or they have no equity to act as security on a loan that lenders will normally provide. However, now there are moneylenders around called ‘bad credit’ lenders who can assist these people when their state of financial affairs is so dire.

You will find that ‘bad credit’ lenders are institutions or organizations that are able to provide loans to people who are in desperate need of financial assistance. One type of option that these kinds of lenders provide is a private loan (also known as a hard money or ‘bad credit’ loan). This type of loan does not require the borrower to have any equity, and as a result, are able to provide such loans but at an increased rate of interest.

Different types of ‘bad credit’ lenders exist, and banks are one source. Should you need to arrange a ‘bad credit’ loan, you could first consult a bank. Many banks require some sort of equity against the loan that you are looking for. It is advisable that you seek assistance from a bank where you have been a customer from some time. This provides the bank with a guarantee of knowing who you are and they will have full details of your banking records.

If this does not work out, there are a number of companies around which also act as ‘bad credit’ lenders. Such companies will provide you with a loan proposal, but be aware that they will often charge much higher rates of interest than usual.

Many financial experts say that when looking for the right sort of ‘bad credit’ lender, it is wise to do as much research as possible. Obtain all the information you can on each lender. Make sure you are aware of what sort of loan programs these lenders have and what the interest rates are that they offer on their loans. After getting this information, it is wise to compare each one. See which ones suit you and the one you will not have difficulty in making repayments to.

Allison Thompson, an expert author, after becoming a work from home mum, runs a small real estate company in Spain. Due to her involvement in the property market she has carried out extensive research relating to all financial matters. If you would like to learn more, please visit http://www.centrallendingservices.com.
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By Tim Sales

I've made millions in network marketing, I've made millions through investments, and I've also lost a lot of money too. Profit from my mistakes and learn how to best invest the money you make in your MLM business.

Network Marketing professionals often ask me how to manage the profits earned from their MLM income.

Can you make more money by diversifying into investments such as stocks, bonds, real estate, etc., and have your money working for you in other areas besides an MLM business? Or would you make more money by really focusing and investing your money back into your MLM business?

There are three items to think about when answering this question for yourself.

A. What else would you do with your time?

B. What else would you do with your money?

C. What else would you do with your attention (definition: the ability or power to concentrate mentally)?

Every investment (stocks, bonds, real estate, your sister's business) requires that you learn about it. Just the learning costs time and attention. It is the using up of your attention that rarely gets factored into the "diversify your money" advice.

Probably what's most important here is, the greatest amount of money you will ever lose is that amount you will never make because of misuse of A, B, and C from above.

When listening to a radio talk show 10 years ago, the advice given to me was, "Select the top three stock market sectors based on trends. Put one-third of your investment capital in each. Wait 10 years and you should be wealthy off your passive investments." I was making about 50 thousand dollars a month above my expenses - so I thought, "Why not?"

I chose the following sectors: Health Care, Technology, and Telecommunications. After losing about half of my investment, I changed to three different sectors. I look at my portfolio today and I have lost another $11,848.78.

Don't get me wrong; there have been times I've made over $50,000 dollars in the stock market in a day. Fun! And there have been times I've lost $150,000 dollars in a day. Not fun.

In addition to that, I've spent an enormous amount of time on my "passive" investments. Many hours (per week) have gone into "pondering" (wasting item C from above) what the stock market is going to do next. Reading newsletters, magazines, newspapers, watching the stock market news and commentaries on TV. Still, my return has been negative.

The only thing that has remained very stable and predictable is my network marketing income. Had I taken the same amount of money, roughly $500,000 and invested it into promoting my MLM home-based business would I have had a greater return? Yes.

So what about the "Rich Dad Poor Dad" philosophy of "Buy assets that produce more income?" Or more commonly stated, "Create multiple streams of income?"

As you may know, I created a prospecting tool based on that philosophy where I explain to prospects how wealth is created by investing in assets. (www.mlmbrilliance.com) So I'm very close to this subject.

However, if you listen closely to the way I stated it in the online movie, I say, "So what are assets? Well the most obvious ones are: stocks, bonds, real estate..." Then I say, "...education and businesses." I'm referring to educating yourself about businesses; whether that is your MLM home-based business or your pinball machine business.

Two common mistakes in making decisions on A, B, and C from above are:

1. Making decisions based on now vs. decisions based on future. Of course, you need to pay your bills now. They're screaming at you! Keep in mind what I talk about in Brilliant Compensation - it's not faster, (in the long run), to tie your young son's shoes than teaching him how to do it himself. If you tie his shoes for him, you silence the screaming urgency, but you're still stuck with the job, UNTIL, you teach him to tie his own shoes. When you make financial decisions, make sure you're looking at the long-term. Residual income that can be generated from an MLM business is sweet.

2. Making decisions based on "could you" instead of what "will you" do with your time, money, or attention. Example: A guy determines that it's a poor use of his time and attention to mow his own yard, so he hires the boy down the street to cut his grass. Now, what does he do with that extra time (A), and the extra attention (B)? He watches TV. Bad choice. When he was making the decision to hire the lawn boy he thought, "It's a waste of my time to mow the grass when I could be doing more important things like building my MLM business." Make sure when you free up any of the three resources you use them wisely.

Summary: My personal opinion is; invest your time, money and attention into KNOWING your MLM home-based business and become really good and profitable at it. Find and study MLM training that is proven and effective, and master it.

Continually reinvest your profit back into your network marketing business by promoting it more, that’s where the high return is. When you have a surplus of income, buy a secure investment like Treasury Bills http://www.publicdebt.treas.gov/of/ofbasics.htm, until you're ready to learn another business FULLY. By business, I'm including all investment activities as well. Then focus your time, money, and attention (from the surplus only) on knowing THAT business.

From my experience, diversifying my money has done nothing more than dissipated my focus, which has in turn lost a lot of money, time, and attention.

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.
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By Stuart Elliott

Interestingly enough, the majority of people who ask me if their sales letter is too long have missed the boat somewhat.

Their mind is focused on the length of their sales letter rather than the job the sales letter has to do. When they do that, it is impossible to write in a manner that will convince the reader to take action and buy their product.

No, your main focus when writing a sales letter must be on the job it has to do and that, in a nutshell, is to convince the reader that he or she needs to buy your product.

Pay special attention to the word 'need' here. You must focus upon the emotional need of the reader - this could be nothing more than simple 'one-upmanship' over a neighbor instead of a logical need.

For it is a fact that man…

"Buys based upon emotion and justifies that decision with logic."

Just think about that statement for a second. When was the last time you bought something based purely upon cold hard logic? Probably never, right? It was your emotions that directed you toward the purchase and the logic that justified it.

Take a shiny new car as an example. (And by the way, 'shiny new' is a subtle emotional trigger...)

If you were to look at the purpose of a car through the eyes of cold hard logic, there would be very little reason to buy one with all the latest gizmos that are designed to pamper you. (And cost you more.)

All a car has to do is get you from A to B safely, dryly and quickly. Given that logical explanation, who has need of a radio, electric windows, self-adjusting vibrating seats, automatic distance sensor for reversing, and so on?

They don't help you in the primary purpose of getting from A to B, do they? No, rather they serve to pamper you at an emotional level.

So going back to your sales letter, you need to identify these emotional triggers inside your prospect and write about them in an exciting way that is sure to trigger those emotional needs further.

If this means that you have to write 30 pages of copy to do so then do it!

The more you have to write, the better the chances you will have of getting the sale.

However...

Don't just go and write thirty pages of waffle or repetition. You should ensure that your pages are full of emotional excitement, not just page after page of boring old features.

Also, prove how your product has helped others. Social proof in the form of testimonials from other satisfied customers is a powerful addition to your sales copy. They are usually written in a persuasive, emotional way. The testimonial writer has bought your product and it has helped him or her; often, it is all that needs to be added to your copy to convince your reader to buy.

Going back to the car again...

Here are a couple of features that will do nothing to add excitement to your sales letter:

Auto reversing distance sensor...

It has the latest auto-reversing, distance sensing device.

"So What?" You say, " What use is that to me?"

--------------------

Vibrating Seats:

The seats vibrate as you drive.

"Err... Excuse me?" You think, " Why do I need a car that has seats that shake about when I drive? I mean, if I drive over a bumpy road, I'll get the same effect won't I?"

--------------------

Blah, blah, blah... What is this doing for your prospects emotional needs? Nothing! It's just another page full of boring old words, Goodbye!

Now, if you change the above sentences to something like...

For the auto reversing sensor:

Save Money On Your Insurance Premiums...

The truth about sky rocketing premiums is out. Major insurance companies have admitted that 60% of all claims for minor bumps on vehicles they insure is due to parking bay mishaps.

"Many people just don't know how big their car is and accidentally bump into another one when maneuvering around in busy parking lots..." Quoted an Insurance company spokesperson.

The shocking truth is, your premiums are being loaded due to others carelessness, but...

Now you need never worry about those fools or how big your car is again, because XYZ model will actually tell you when you are getting too close to another car. This means you have the pleasure of driving and saving on your insurance premiums at the same time.

--------------------

For the vibrating seats:

Personal Masseuse, Yours Absolutely Free With Every Car...

Imagine your very own personal masseuse... yours to pamper you as you drive... takes away the stiffness in your back and legs in an instant... You stay fresh and alert while you drive, arriving safely at your destination - No other car has massaging seats that will pamper you like a king.

--------------------

Don't these two paragraphs create a little more excitement in your mind?

All you have to do when you write your sales letter is keep building more excitement with every word until your prospect suddenly says "Wow! I gotta have one of those!"

It doesn't matter if you have to write 50 pages of copy to create that feeling, as long as you keep the excitement building up, your copy won't ever be too long.

Remember that your sales letter has to be exciting and long enough to do its job otherwise you won't get the sale.

Copyright (c) 2006 Stuart Elliott

Stuart Elliott is a world-class copywriter who has written numerous articles about sales letters and copywriting. Drop by: http://howtowritekickbuttcopy.com to pick up your Free Copywriting Power Guide.
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By Biba Pedron

Networking is my favorite, low-cost marketing tool. However, a large number of people often find it a challenge to get results and turn prospects into clients, by networking.

Here is another very effective marketing tool requiring no skills. It can be applied to your business immediately, and will help you to gain new clients.

Simply get testimonials from your current clients!

Testimonials from satisfied customers are the best way to promote your business. It doesn’t cost you a thing. Stop selling; let your clients and raving fans do it for you.

Contact your best clients, who know and appreciate you and the value your products and services. They will be happy to help you; providing you with testimonials that praise your products and services.

Be sure to obtain their permission before using their information in your brochure and on your website.

Use their testimonials on your website. This way your clients will make the sales for you. When people see the results and the benefits your clients reaped from using your products and services, they will want the same results for themselves or their businesses.

Don’t use a testimonial like “Mary it was great working with you” John S., NY. This is useless.

Use effective testimonials where your clients mention the benefits of working with you. What was their experience and results in their businesses after they bought your product/service or program? Make sure that you mention their name, website, and eventually their email and phone number. Give your prospects the opportunity to see that there are real people like them, who can be contacted or websites to check out to verify who they are and what they do. The new clientel will probably never contact them to ask about the experience they had with you, but they will feel more comfortable if they can identify themselves with your current clients.

When it comes to testimonials, I always mention one of my businesses, my French consulting business, www.focusoncareer.com, I don’t have to promote it. Because I am working within a specific niche - French solo-entrepreneurs who want to start their own businesses in the US -, and my website has a very rich content providing a great deal of free information, including some very powerful testimonials from clients. I have at least 3 to 4 people weekly, who contact me for consultation. I don’t have to chase them; they just come to me. When I ask them why they decided to contact me, they always mention the testimonials. They say, “You did so much for so many people that I imagine you can do the same for me”. Because my clients did the sell for me, after the first consultation, 50% decide to work with me immediately. Others may need to talk further or find out a little more about my services and me.

Have a complete page with all of your testimonials on your brochure or website.

If you promote a special product or program, insert your testimonials, along with the description and benefits of your program.

As an example see my program at http://www.powerofnetworkingsecrets.com

I work with lots of people who are just starting their businesses, so their question is always, “But I don’t have clients yet. How can I get testimonials?” Well, offer to trade your services with a couple of people who really need your services but who perhaps cannot afford them, in exchange for a testimonial. That is a good way to start.

Don’t hesitate to contact your best clients now. Ask them for a testimonial. Make a list of clients you could contact today; those raving fans that enjoyed working with you and for whom your products made a significant impact on their businesses. You will see they will be more than happy to help you in return for what you did for them.

When asking for testimonials, don’t forget to ask for referrals: friends, colleagues, or family who would benefit from your products or programs also.

Another way to use your testimonials is to prepare a direct mail campaign, and send it to the list of referrals your clients just gave you.

Don’t you think that when the targets see their friends’ names in your brochure or mailing campaign, they will trust you and be keen to work with you also? You will get a better response to your campaign than advertising in a magazine, where nobody knows you and most readers won’t even notice your ad.

Need more techniques and strategies to boost your business and turn more prospects into clients? Then learn more about “The Power of Networking”. In this 5 step program, you will find everything you need on how to maximize your networking results.

You will learn: how to create an outstanding business card – how to polish an elevator pitch, which will hook your audience so that people will remember you – how to create a 7 step follow-up system to turn more prospects into clients – how to use testimonials - how to use your newsletter to promote your products or services without hard selling – how to create strategic alliances to grow our business faster. For complete details of the program “The Power of Networking” visit http://www.powerofnetworkingsecrets.com

(c) 2006 Biba F. Pédron

Biba F. Pédron, also known as The Connection Queen, is a marketing consultant, founder of Biba4Network, that specializes in networking for small business owners in the greater New York area. Biba helps entrepreneurs to maximize their networking results so that they can grow their businesses faster.

Biba is the author of “Start Your Dream Business Today! The Proven 11 Steps to Start and Grow Your Own Business”. http://www.startyourdreambusinesstoday.com.

For more information or to receive free tips like this one, please visit http://www.theconnectionqueen.com
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By Todd Brabender

When starting a successful business venture or launching a new product, most entrepreneurs or business owners conduct some type of marketing research to determine the extent of their prospective customer base. When getting the word out to that customer base, many entrepreneurs may turn to the media to help generate a buzz for them. However, as detailed as their marketing research might have been, very few business owners are as meticulous at determining their proper "media market" – that is, all those media outlets whose editorial profiles are a match to a product/business profile and would be appropriate for generating media exposure and publicity.

One of my favorite things to do is educate my clients about their "media market." Consider this, in North America there are more than 75,000 media outlets and almost one million reporters, editors & producers in the entire media market. However, only a small percentage of those may be appropriate and applicable to your business/product. Which ones are they? Unfortunately, too many well-intentioned entrepreneurs are either uninformed or misinformed regarding what it takes to attract media attention for their business. I recently surveyed 100 business owners and entrepreneurs who contacted my business about a publicity/media exposure campaign. Here's what I found:

11% - "Are Admittedly Media Market Clueless"
19% - "Have Unrealistic Media Market Perceptions"
29% - "Think Local & Large Media Are The ONLY Media"
41% - "Have A Good Grasp On Their Potential Media Market And Its Benefits"

Here are the descriptions of these categories and the lessons I try to teach those who fall into each category:
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11% - "Are Admittedly Media Market Clueless" These are the business owners who know their product and market inside and out, BUT they have never thought about launching a publicity/media exposure campaign before now. They know very little about their potential media market or how to generate publicity therein.

The Lesson: For these types of business owners I recommend asking for help from a smaller PR agency or publicity specialist who is willing to "hand hold" to get the client educated. Research to find one who doesn't mind spending the time to educate you about what should be included in your specific media market and the pitch. Make sure the agency or publicist understands the product/business as well as you do and can in turn educate you about your media market – one that will be able to benefit your business for years to come.
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19% - "Have Unrealistic Media Perceptions" These are the business owners who are CONVINCED that EVERY newspaper, consumer interest magazine and TV show will run a feature on their new products when they launch a publicity campaign.

The Lesson: No product or business, no matter how big or great can be assured media coverage in every outlet in a media market. But you can get coverage in a good number of them given the right media tending. Every media pitch will be weighed against the media outlet's editorial lead-time, its available editorial space, and availability of an editorial staff member to cover your pitch. It is totally up to the discretion of each media outlet as to whether your pitch makes it to the pages or on air. It can be an uphill battle if you target the wrong media with the wrong message. With a little expertise and media market know-how, you can greatly increase the chances generating those media placements.
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29% - "Think Local & Large Media Are The ONLY Media" These are the ones who think of their media market in two simple terms: LOCAL & LARGE LOCAL, as you might imagine, means the media outlets in their city or surrounding geographic region -- the local newspaper, a regional business magazine or two, a few shows at local radio/TV stations. LARGE, on the other hand, are media outlets like The Wall Street Journal, Newsweek, Good Morning America, Oprah or your other favorite large circulation, trade specific media outlet.

The Lesson: The reality is local and large are indeed part of your media market, but not the only ones. The best media market opportunities may well be the dozens of other smaller scale papers, magazines, newsletters or TV/radio/cable shows that may generate more customer interest and sales than a placement in the big media might. Because of a lack of media market knowledge, many business owners don't even know these smaller, more targeted media outlets exist. This is where a PR agency or publicity specialist can be integral in your publicity campaign. They know the media market very well and will be able to find those media members who will be the best for generating editorial features on your business or product. They also have great media contacts that can turn one feature into a syndicated story that runs in multiple media outlets nationwide.
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41% - "Have A Good Grasp On Their Potential Media Market And Its Benefits" These are media-savvy entrepreneurs and business owners who are realistic and knowledgeable about how the media can benefit their business. They know that they have to narrowcast their media pitch to a select segment of the media in order to get coverage that will increase exposure for the business.

The Lesson: Don't let a PR agency or publicity specialist tell you they will send your pitch to 20,000, 30,000 or 50,000 media outlets. The reality is, of the 8,000 daily & weekly newspapers, 11,000 magazines & newsletters, 15,000 radio/TV/cable stations and 7,000 Internet news sites in North America, only about 25% of those accept press releases from outside their geographic area. They cover only LOCAL issues, businesses and products, and it is a waste of time to target them. The key is researching to discover which media outlets will be receptive to your pitch and knowing how to parlay those media contacts into positive consumer interest features that will educate and entice customers about your product or business.
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Just like marketing to find the right customers, one should be equally diligent about finding and pitching the right media market. Bottom line – whether you have a general interest product that has widespread consumer appeal or a trade specific business with a very narrow customer base, knowing your appropriate media market can mean the difference between product/business publicity and product/business obscurity.

Copyright (c) 2006 Todd Brabender

Todd Brabender is the President of Spread The News Public Relations, Inc. His business specializes in generating media exposure and publicity for innovative products, businesses, experts and inventions.
http://www.spreadthenewspr.com
mailto:todd@spreadthenewspr.com
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By James MacArthur

Seller financing opens your home up to an entirely new segment of prospective buyers. The more buyers viewing your home, the quicker you will find that one qualified buyer. Specifically, you will attract more buyers who don't want to or would have a problem getting a bank loan, or those who want a quicker closing or more flexible payment plans than banks offer. Such buyers include the self-employed, who may be great candidates, but are not viewed as favorable by banks, as are W-2 employees. Also, those with credit blemishes, which may be going down the long road of credit repair. Real estate investors are another large group, since they may own many properties with mortgages, which make it difficult to get another mortgage from a bank.

Banks typically take 30 days to close a loan. With seller financing, YOU make the decision, and it can be done much quicker, thereby removing a buyers contingencies faster, and in effect, leading to a much faster home sale. Make sure you use "Seller Financing" in your marketing and advertising, be it in newspaper ads, flyers, or in the MLS description, regardless of whether you are selling FSBO (For Sale By Owner), or with a real estate agent.

Other Ideas to Sell Your Home Faster

Number 1: PRICE IT RIGHT! Not too high, not too low, check comparables and local agents to get the right number. If you are not getting any action after a week or two, you probably have it priced too high.

If you will be selling FSBO, use a flat rate MLS open listing. For under $500 you can get listed in MLS with no frills. Check the newspaper or call agents to find one who offers this. It will give you much broader exposure and is advertising well spent. Also, strongly consider offering a buyer agent commission of 2-4%, depending on how quick you want to sell and how hot your local market is.

Put up lots of signs around the neighborhood, especially on weekends. Hold regular open houses. Prepare your house for sale. Keep it neat & tidy. Remove the clutter.

Sell Your Home for Full Price

1. Normally a seller will accept a lower price (below market) for all cash, no contingency fast closing.

2. It will sell for market price if the buyer needs 30-60 days to close escrow, will need to qualify for a loan at a bank, and do a home inspection.

3. You as a seller should charge even more (above market) if you will be giving seller-financing terms, maybe 5-10% higher than Case 2, or more depending on the terms.

A Good Investment

Taking back a note can be a very good investment since you will be making interest on your money, which is usually better than CD's, or money market rates. In fact, you can select the interest rate you want! This is especially appealing if you have no need for the money right now.

In fact, it is such a good investment, that many investors buy seller carry-back notes. If you have no interest in holding a note, it is common for a home seller to carry-back a note and sell it at the same time as the home closing occurs. This is called a simultaneous closing.

We Buy Real Estate Notes and can facilitate simultaneous closings, call for more info on this. We can also assist in setting the terms of the note so you get the best price.

Tax Benefits

When selling a home, under current tax law, if you lived in your home for 2 of the last 5 years, your capital gains will be exempt up to $250,000 (twice that if married). Otherwise, your capital gains will be taxed in the year that you collect the capital gains. If you will have significant taxable capital gains on your home sale, it may be very good for your tax situation to take back a seller carry-back note and spread your sale proceeds over several years, or postpone it for several years. Talk to your tax adviser.

Steps for Successful Seller Financing

1. Pull the prospective buyers’ credit report. Their permission will be needed. Always review a credit report on each borrower. It is a small expense.

2. Can they afford the home, job, income? If they can’t afford it, or have a shaky job or income situation, a foreclosure will be much more likely.

3. Use a professional to draft the paperwork. Each state has various laws regarding real estate sales, contracts, and mortgages. Use an experienced attorney to draft the promissory note, mortgage, or deed of trust.

4. Down payment - Sellers usually ask for 10-30% down payment to protect themselves in case the buyer stops making payments and the seller has to foreclose on the loan, and take the property back. The larger the down payment, the more equity protection you, as the seller, have. The buyer will also consider how much money he has put down, if he is in foreclosure and can’t make the payments, and wants to walk away from the house. Zero down is very little encouragement for a buyer, should he hit a rough patch.

5. 1st position or 2nd position - A first position note is much safer for the seller than a second position note.

6. Set the interest rate above current bank rates. This will encourage the buyers to refinance down the road.

Also Read this Article: "Tips for Creating a Seller Carry-back Real Estate Note" at http://www.jmacfunding.com/articles.htm

Other Alternatives to Seller Financing

1. Land Contract / Contract to buy

2. Lease Option

Disclaimer:

I am not an attorney, nor a tax accountant, laws vary from state to state, and any advice implied by this paper should be checked with an attorney and/or tax adviser.

JMAC Funding
PO Box 91472, San Diego, CA 92169
jmac@jmacfunding.com
http://www.jmacfunding.com
(619) 846-1550

James MacArthur, http://www.jmacfunding.com, is a real estate broker-licensed in the State of California, as well as an investor of real estate and debt instruments. We buy real estate notes and real estate contracts nationwide and make private and hard money loans on real estate in California. Feel free to contact me with any feedback, or if you are contemplating selling a real estate note.
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By Grant D. Robinson

Are you on pace to accomplish your important sales and financial goals this year?

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.

Is this you? Are you now looking to next year to be the year you shatter previous productivity, sales and revenue records?

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!

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.

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… for the same reasons as before.

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.

A. Operational Systems

There are two types of systems in your organization. The first is your operational systems, including:

1. Vision & Mission 2. Financial & Budgeting
3. Production, Manufacturing & Distribution 4. Sales & Marketing

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.

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