The price Nigerians Pay for being patient

When the tyrant General Sani Abacha died, no body not even of his supreme ruling council lifted an eye brow talk less of calling for the investigation into circumstances surrounding his death. Before him, there were many uninvestigated deaths and after him there have been more. The most recent of a state sponsored killing is that of the Boko Haram. The government labelled them militants and anti western culture. Simple civil law states that everyone is innocent until proven guilty, so what led to the assasination of the leader of the Boko Haram group, his family members, his mother and most especially his innocent children. I think if Yaradua wants to die, he shouldn't be going to his grave with human heads. I think this image calls for the immediate resignation of the President. Check out the interview just before he was assassinated on sahara reporters

Evaluating your investment

There are many investment strategies that can be used in the capital market but there are certain characteristics to look for in any plan. Before developing a strategy for investing, you must have a set of critreria for judging if it is a good plan or not. The following nine criteria can be used to judge if it is a good plan or not.
　
Let gains run their course but cuts losses
This is a necessary element for any god plan of investing, especially the part of letting gains run their to their full potential. as well as a portfolio is well diversified, you can make the mistake of holding on to your losers, but you should not make the mistake of prematurely cashing on your winners. since we expect our gains over long periods to exceed 100% of our initial investment, the amount of damage that could be done for cutting our winning stocks far surpasses the damage we can get for failing to cut our losses.
A lot has been said on when to cut losses. some analysts believe losses should be cut at 10% while others feel 5% is preferable. But these two positions are rather too short and does not allow a good stock enough room for normal day to day fluctuation. Also at 5-10%, it is easy to get bumped out of a sock only to have it recover and begin soaring again without you being on board.

Aim never to lose more than 5% of your total portfolio on a single stock position
If you aim not to lose more than 5% of your cash on any one position, it will take a long string of uniterrupted losses in order to seriously deplete your portfolio capital. There is nothing magical about the number 5 but the point is that you should greatly minimise your losses so that it does not affect your portfolio. Even in bears, it is improbable that all of your positions would drop to your sell point.

Gradual entry into major positions as long as the positions remain profitable
it is inevitable that any system which attempts to let gains run will eventually build some large positions in a few stocks as the stocks grow in value. this is a good way to develop a large position. Also it is OK to build a position by adding to the position as it advances in value. In fact most professional add to their stock holding as the price moves in their favour.In this way, they maximise the the potential reward for holding a particular stock or basket of stocks. However, some approach makes an investor to plunge a large amount of his capital into and out of the market all at one time. this type of approach must be avoided at all cost. it is risky to enter into any market all at once because it maximises your ability to lose a lot of money in a hurry. One poor timing decision can result in a loss of a large percentage of your capital and those depletion of your capital really hurts your portfolio.


Minimal chance of a large loss from any one position
This is an adjunct to #2, as the gradual entry into a position is a means for minimising the chance of loss from a single bad decision. Again it cannot be over emphasised that massive loss of capital should be avoided at all cost. ideally, no stock should form more than 25% of your total portfolio value.
Clear, predetermmined criteria for initiating, adding to, or liquidating a position
In the heat of battle when you are dealing with your hard earned money, the instruction from your system must be as clear as crystal. if not you'll find yourself making judgement calls that relieve short-termstress, and yet are poor long term decisions.Precise and unambiguous signals and marching orders are the best way to head off the the effects of euphoria and fear. You may still feel these emotions but as long as your system is sound and you adhere to it fastiduously, everything would turn out well. Set exit and entry positions early in the game
Sell a stock once it begins to underperform
While we want to make sure we have a means of riding a stock's trend for as long as it can go, when it becomes clear that the trend is beginning to profoundly weaken or even reverse, we need to have a system which allows for selling the stoclk we can redeploy capital to greener pastures
　
Maximum Naira invested in biggest winners
If a strategy allowsus to build a large position in an issue that is lagging or even losing money for us, there is nothing seriously wrong with that strategy. A successful strategy has to ensure that ourbiggest investments are in our best stoccks not in the worst. Restructure your portfolio as often as the market allows especially during bull markets

Minimum naira invested in losers/ underperformers
This is the converse of#7. it is interesting to note that the only way you can accomplish having too much invested in a lose is to either plunge into it all at once and fail to cut your losses or add to a losing position once it is established as a loser

Not time consuming to maintain
This is important because tim is your most valuable asset after your mind and probably is short supply as well
　

Patience as a virtue in investing

Most successful market beating investing strategies tell you to buy the right company, pay the right price and wait for the market to realise your foresight.
These strategies in themselves are great- take for instance the first that says you should buy the right companies- Isn't this the obective of every investor. the second also advises that you pay the right price- how do you establish the right price?
With the third, there is a little problem while you are waiting, it is your maoney that is at risk in the period.

From the time you make your purchase to the time your investments workout; the market would have its own ideas as to how much your companies are worth. Obviously, there would be times it doesn't agree with you.


It has been said that patience is a virtue in investing. However when you are looking at a sharp drop in price so after buying a stock, it is tough to be patient without having irregular heartbeats. Fortunately, there is a way of reducing all the anxiety by insisting on being paid while you wait. this is by buying companies that pay their owners well via dividends and look most likely to continue.This way even if it takes a while for the market to catch up with your thinking, atleast you are getting some cash for your efforts. However, there is a caveat here, to beat the market over the long haul, those businesses must be backed up with solid businesses and staying power. if a company has an attractive yield but a weak business, the dividends would surely cease. Therefore, the business must pay attention to the business behind the stockin order to be in a position to know when the dividend is at a risk.
In spite of this, patience is needed throughout the cycle of any investment ie at the entry(buying), holding and sale(exit). Lets now consider the role of patience in these scenarios.

Waiting for Entry
The investment process usually starts with determining an acceptable entry position for an identified stock. With this in mind, you are expected to wait for the price to reach your target entry point. Unfortunately, rather than moving towards the price, the stock hovers far above your stated position. This ordinarily pushes you to panic. and buy at a price higher than what your strategy dictates. Having done your homework and developed a plan,emotions can undermine your capacity to achieve your long term goals, hence the need to focus on the long term objective. It has been proven that impatient investors who violate their disciplined plan usually ended down the path of ruination.
Following a predetrmined strategy keeps the emotional side of investing at bay. Waiting for the right entry point is the essential characteristic of every successful investor.


Searching for winning positions
Patience in investing is similar to that experienced on the high seas while fishing. There are many fish in the sea and it is not essential to catch every fish that comes your net's way.It is important to note that there are many investment oppurtunities in the market, so the difficulty is not so much in finding oppurtunities but in making sure they fit into your sset plan.
The fact is that catching those few that meet your criteria is the mostimportant objective. It is vital that you concern yourself with good entry points while making sure that you have defined exit points. Having done this, even if the stock deviates from your set plan and you are sure for the underlying reasons for buying, dont panic, BE
PATIENT.

Though on the contrary, there are times that inspite of your faithfulness and patience, the price of your stock barely moves. With this it is important to re-examine your analysis of the stock. In many cases, this may be as a result of the market's interest in other sectors at the time being and this also buttresses the need for patience.



By and large, most of investing is psychological; therefore exhibiting patience at entry points and having patience

while an investment position develops are integral parts to successful investing. Moreso, investing in stocks with

good and consistent dividend pay-out history and being rewarded with numerous dividend while you wait is a plus in

this wise. Therefore, the key to success is to find the right company at the right price. in this case, the right

companies are those that have a strong underlying business; have a history of paying their owners well; and trade

at a decent price when compared to their underlying worth.

Debt recovery solutions

Debt recovery is the collection of overdue debts. Whther a person owes money or is expecting payment, several key points can ensure the best experience possible. Understandingboth sides of the proverbial coin creates a stronger knowledge base in either instance. Debt recovery solutions may include learning how to write a better contract for business, but more importantly, it helps the client understand the position the business owner is stuck in. Compassion instigates creativity in matters of how money is spent. If a case describing the human-like characteristics a business owner has is conceptualised, then more often than not the money appears.
　
On the other hand, when a person cannot come up with the money required to pay a bill and serviceshave been rendered in full, honesty is the best route. financial hardships occur out of nowhere and honesty brings out the most compassionate trait even in the most serious of businessmen. However, honesty has to come from a decent understanding of personal finance. Debtors have to open their financial lives up to the people they owe money to.
debt recovery system can mean consolidation, elimination, building credit or negotiation. Understanding all these concepts enables the consumers to make the right situational decision concerning debt recovery solutions.
Consolidation of debts means paying off all the debts with a loan and making one simple payment each month. This makes the process less overwhelming,difficult and helps build credit at the same time. Sometimes, the same debt recovery services that offer consolidation also offer elimination and / or negotiation services. though this sounds tempting to simply get rid of debts, it is however not ethical nor good for credit rating. In some cases the action is worse than not paying at all. this will all depend on the credit and the attitude of the creditor at the time of the application. Although the results can be unpredictable, the best thing to do is to work hard for the best credit history as possible.
　
In regards to companies trying to collect money owed them, remember that unexpected circumstances happen even to the most well laid plans. that being said, it is not unreasonable to expect payment according to a contract. spending time with a client before starting a project in order to determine how trustworthy their word is. If any doubt remains, then clever ways to alter a contract may be required to better ensure payment when desired. likewise, not pressuring someone into more than they contracted for increases the chances of getting paid. Wanting more than a person can afford is normal but if this decision determines whether a bill collector gets paid at all, then consider the most realistic approach.

HOW TO AVOID PROBLEMS CHEAPLY
First check out
It is ridiculous for anyone smart enough to be in business not to make routine credit checks. There is no point chasing a debtor with summons when there is nothing there. You'll get plenty of legal actions but you'll pay for them all by yourself and the debtor would not be touched.

Then get it in writing
the more you get in writing, the stronger your hand would be if the debtor goes badly and if you decide to go to court, your case would be tight( yo'll not need to because the debtor realises that his position is too weak.

Have a credit management system
how much documentation you use and what sort depnds on the size of your business, how much bad experience you,ve had with debtors, how much you know about credit management, how tolerant your customers are about signing papers. and a host of other things. one very important thing is to have a right credit management system. whether or not you like it, if your credit management is wrong, it'll come back to thump you. if you get it right, you'll get your money almost every time.
There are various ways of getting your clients to pay up on time. however despite your best efforts, you may find that some still end up paying late. if this happens, you should get in contact with them to resolve the issue and review your procedures to reduce the possibility of customers paying late again in future. note that you have right to charge interest and/ or debt recovery costs for late payment. you can exercise these right at your discretion.
You can take a non court action in debt recovery which may involve a collecting agency, solicitor, or an accountant. A court action may be your last resort. keep an eye on cash flow to allow you avoid insolvency and do not allow debts to exceed assets

Paris and Berlin out of recession

Fresh signs of a nascent economic recovery came from hard-hit Europe on Thursday, with Germany and France unexpectedly becoming the first major industrialized nations to officially pull out of the global recession. Though their recoveries were modest by virtually any standard and may yet stall in the months ahead, the surprising bounce back to growth in Europe's largest economies comes on the heels of steadily rising economic optimism across the globe.
Analysts are pointing to improving indicators in the United States, China and even Japan, the world's second-largest economy, which some observers predict is set to announce its own return to growth in the coming days. Though a host of other European economies -- including Britain, Italy and Spain -- are still mired in one of the worst recessions in generations, contractions are moderating even in many of those nations, an indication that they too may be close to rebounding. It underscores, analysts say, how ramped-up government stimulus spending around the globe appears to be having at least some of its desired effects.
A significant rebound in the global economy could both help and hurt the United States. Growth abroad could fuel an eagerly anticipated uptick in U.S. exports, boosting the manufacturing sector and potentially channeling more investment into U.S. soil. Yet too quick an increase in global demand could spark a painful price spike for commodities such as oil, driving up inflation before the United States and other nations have fully emerged from recession.
In the United States, the Federal Reserve this week signaled that it sees the American recession easing. The central bank said that it will begin pulling back from two years of unprecedented intervention in the economy this October. Even countries that were spiraling downward only a few months ago, such as South Korea, appear to be on more stable ground. The International Monetary Fund this week predicted that the South Korean recession, while severe, may not be as deep this year as originally thought.
The turnaround in Germany and France drove up major stock indexes from Seoul to Paris to Moscow on Thursday, while the euro gained more ground against the dollar. The Dow Jones closed up 36.58 points, to 9398.19. "We don't know whether these numbers are going to hold out in the long run, but they do seem to indicate that we're reaching a bottom a lot sooner than we thought," said Raj Badiani, senior economist for IHS Global Insight in London. "It looks like the worst might be over."
Yet analysts including Badiani caution that it is still far too early, and that the indicators remain too weak, to declare the global recession dead. Recent gains, particularly in Europe, mask the still-ample threat of more pain ahead.
In Germany, economic activity jumped 0.3 percent from April to June compared with the previous three months after a 3.5 percent quarterly contraction in the beginning of the year. Though detailed economic data have yet to be released, the rebound in the second quarter there, analysts said, came partly from consumer spending related to government-sponsored programs, such as a cash for clunkers plan, that are set to expire soon.
In addition, the German government so far has cushioned job losses through state-sponsored corporate incentives that are also due to run out, leading many analysts to predict a further surge in the unemployment rate there in months ahead.
France also reported growth of 0.3 percent in the quarter.
Economists also do not discount a fresh wave of bank rescues in Europe, where financial officials are still under pressure to do more to force the cleanup of balance sheets at ailing institutions. Recent signs of recovery will also be tested if, as many observers predict, unemployment rates across Europe continue to edge higher.
With many analysts also predicting a "jobless recovery" in the United States, such as the one following the 2001 recession, a projected global turnaround later this year may be more visible in statistical calculations than in consumer pocketbooks around the world.
Though Germany and France may have exited their yearlong recessions, Europe as a whole is still struggling. Economic activity across the 16 member nations that use the euro fell by 0.1 percent in the second quarter, the European statistical office reported Thursday. The drop was less than predicted by most economists, but it signals that the deep recession that started in Europe in the first half of 2008 continues. Just Wednesday, the European statistical office also reported that June industrial production fell 0.6 percent from a month earlier while the unemployment rate climbed to a 10-year high of 9.4 percent.
Yet optimists were taking heart on signs that Germany and France -- now statistically ahead of the United States in the race toward recovery -- were aided in the quarter from April to June by recovering global demand for everything from German-made power plants to French cheese. In both nations, exports, which had fallen off a cliff in recent months, either ceased their precipitous fall or edged upward.
Those are among the strongest signs yet, analysts say, that robust growth in China and a budding recovery in the United States may finally be pumping life back into world trade, which suffered its worst declines since World War II recently.
"They are good signs, but not yet conclusive," said Janet Henry, chief European economist for HSBC in London. "We still have to wait and see."

The Nigerian stock exchange

I have realised with dismay the frustration one has to get before one gets information about activities on the floor of the stock exchange. I recently visited the site of the NSE and realised that to get information about daily trades, I must be a subscriber with a minimum annual fee of N15000. I then decidedd to visit the NASDAQ and amazingly, I didn't see any login nor subscription link.
I don't know when this corruption would stop

Detroit exhibition

Detroit carmakers were trying to impress at a recent expo.
DETROIT – We're different, and our new stuff is really good. In a nutshell, that's what General Motors, Ford and Chrysler tried to tell consumers — and taxpayers — Sunday as they rolled out an array of new vehicles at the North American International Auto Show.
They told their stories in different ways, with Chrysler LLC making its senior executives available to assure people that it remains a viable company. General Motors Corp. held a pep rally with hundreds of cheering employees and supporters who watched a parade of 17 new and upcoming vehicles. Ford Motor Co. emphasized its plans for electric vehicles, joining the list of automakers that have promised one next year.
The fanfare, on opening day of the Detroit show's press preview, comes after a year of dismal sales that forced GM and Chrysler to get $17.4 billion in federal loans to stay alive. Ford doesn't need money now but says it might in 2010 if U.S. sales don't improve.
But industry analysts say the automakers could still be in trouble this year if U.S. auto sales don't recover. Several are predicting annual sales of around 10.5 million — almost 6 million below 2007 levels — as consumers delay major purchases due to economic uncertainty. In the third quarter of last year, GM and Ford each spent more than $1 billion per month above their income.
On Sunday, the U.S.-based automakers touted new products with a focus on fuel efficiency that they say will help return them to financial health and ensure that their cars and trucks will roll off assembly lines for years to come.
GM said it would build a 40-mile-per-gallon minicar for the U.S. market, and it unveiled an electric-powered Cadillac concept car.
Ford announced plans to put a battery-powered commercial van on the market in 2010, with an electric car coming a year later, followed by plug-in versions of its gas-electric hybrid vehicles in 2012.
Chrysler showed off a sleek new midsize electric concept car called the 200C, and one of its executives said it could be the inspiration for a new midsize car to compete with Toyota's top-selling Camry.
Chrysler CEO Robert Nardelli told reporters that while its key new products won't show up in dealer showrooms until next year, the Auburn Hills automaker expects to survive 2009 and remain an independent company.
Yet many analysts say that because of Chrysler's 30 percent sales drop last year and 53 percent decline in December, and a model lineup that doesn't change significantly this year, the company will be forced to sell itself to another automaker or be sold off in pieces by majority owner Cerberus Capital Management LP, a New York private equity firm.
Chrysler Vice Chairman Jim Press said dealers are reporting they are losing 25 percent of sales in showrooms due to a lack of available credit, and says sales will improve if credit loosens. He also said the December sales drop was due to an intentional cut in low-profit sales to rental car companies and other fleet buyers.
Nardelli said the company came out with the new Dodge Ram pickup, Journey crossover and Challenger sports car in 2008, all excellent products that should sell in a better economic environment.
GM CEO Rick Wagoner said his company's restructuring plans submitted to Congress, which include concessions from the United Auto Workers union and other cost cuts, combined with GM's lineup of new products, will make the company prosper when the worldwide auto market recovers.
"We'll be in a position to run the business at break-even or profitable at a much, much smaller industry than frankly a year ago that we ever felt would be possible to deal with," Wagoner said.
The new vehicles GM introduced Sunday included the Chevrolet Spark subcompact, which was called the Beat when GM unveiled it as a concept car in 2007. The three-door hatchback with a 1.2-liter turbocharged engine is about the size of a Honda Fit or Toyota Yaris and is set to go on sale in Europe next year and in the U.S. in 2011.
GM also announced that the Chevrolet Orlando seven-passenger crossover vehicle will go on sale in North America that same year.
But the surprise of the automaker's event was the unveiling of the Cadillac Converj concept car, which is designed to go 40 miles on electric power alone after being recharged from a standard wall outlet. A small gasoline engine would extend the range to hundreds of miles.
It's the same powertrain technology GM is using in the Chevrolet Volt, a much-anticipated extended range vehicle set to go on sale next year.
GM's Wagoner said the Detroit automaker's vehicles are smaller, smarter and more fuel efficient, with "enough towing capacity" to pull GM out of its current troubles.
Toyota Motor Corp. confirmed plans to have an all-electric vehicle on U.S. roads by 2012, introducing an ultra-compact battery-powered concept car at this year's Detroit show. It also unveiled the 2010 Lexus HS250h sedan that will go on sale this summer. It's the first standalone gas-electric vehicle for the Japanese company's luxury nameplate.
Honda Motor Co. unveiled its next-generation hybrid, the Insight, which will arrive in U.S. showrooms in April. The much-anticipated car is expected to compete head-on with the Toyota Prius, which remains the top-selling hybrid in the U.S.
BMW AG said it's ramping up its production of gas-electric hybrid vehicles, giving consumers hybrid options with the 7 Series and X6 crossover vehicle.
Volkswagen AG showed off a concept sports car — the Bluesport — that is expected to get 55 miles per gallon based on clean diesel technology, while Lamborghini showed off its new Gallardo LP 560-4 Spyder, which sprints to 62 mph in four seconds and gets 20 mpg on the highway, respectable for such a high-end sports car.
The 2009 Mini Cooper convertible made its global debut. The four-seater has a powered soft-top roof that allows the driver to open and close it while going up to 20 mph.
___
AP Auto Writer Bree Fowler reported from New York. Associated Press Writers Kimberly S. Johnson, Ken Thomas and David Runk in Detroit and Dan Strumpf in New York contributed to this report.

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Investment in Crude oil

Just before Christmas Eve 2008, oil prices fell to their lowest level in four-and-a-half years -- $33.87 per barrel of NYMEX Light Sweet Crude.

Bad Santa
So forgive petro-investors if they're looking a bit glum these days. Even after Santa's conciliatory post-holiday boost in oil prices, the fact remains that when Christmas arrived, all these guys and gals got was (if you'll forgive the inexorable mixed hydrocarbon metaphor) a lump of coal.

Now, it's worth pointing out at this point that, as far as prices have fallen, we're still a ways away from the lowest price in recent memory -- $10.72, a nadir hit on Dec. 10, 1998, or $13.97 in today-dollars.

Today, oil trades for $42.63. In other words, for it to regain the crest of its recent super-spike -- $145.29, reached on Independence Day Eve 2008 -- it must more than triple in price. To revisit its lows of the decade, it must fall only 60%. And so I submit to you that ...

We're closer to the bottom than the top
Now, I'm not necessarily saying we'll see $145 oil, but at least based on these historical prices there's about 70% downside versus 240% upside. On the face of it, that makes for an interesting proposition, yes? For those of us who missed Big Oil's last bull run, now looks like a pretty propitious moment to jump in and catch the rebound.

So let's take a moment to consider a few options for how we might accomplish that:

	Price on Dec. 5, 2003	Recent Price	Return
Petroleo Brasileiro (NYSE: PBR)	$5.60	$27.08	394%
ExxonMobil (NYSE: XOM)	$36.31	$79.09	137%
Chevron (NYSE: CVX)	$33.46	$74.24	122%
Transocean (NYSE: RIG)	$21.75	$56.63	160%
Halliburton (NYSE: HAL)	$11.54	$21.16	83%

Data courtesy of Yahoo! Finance. Stock prices adjusted for splits and dividends.

As it turns out, oil stocks haven't been hit as hard as oil prices. To the contrary, despite oil barrels selling for little more than they fetched five years ago, oil stocks are sitting on sizable gains. Why might that be?

Super-spike me!
I suspect that investors' memories are still fixated on that super-spike price of six months ago. Years of watching oil go nowhere but up conditioned us all to believe that this was the normal, usual, natural state of affairs. All the evidence seemed to point this way, right? After all:

• We're not making any more dinosaurs, hence no new oil.
• The cheapest oil has already been extracted. What's left is going to cost us.
• Remember China and India? They're becoming richer than ever before and signing up for driver's ed.
• Two-thirds of petroleum in the U.S. is used in transportation, so even if green energy companies like Suntech (NYSE: STP) and SunPower (Nasdaq: SPWRA) achieve grid parity, that won't have too meaningful an impact on oil prices in the absence of plug-in hybrid use.

As so oil bulls say that oil prices naturally want to gush, and today's downturn is just a temporary loss of pressure -- easily fixed. Problem is, with the global economy in recession, and oil demand dropping like a stone, it may take longer than people think for revenues to resume pumping.

Manage your expectations
But here's the thing: By the time oil is finally ready to rebound, people's recent experience may well have shifted once again. The longer oil stays down, the more people will expect this new trend to continue, and undervalue oil companies accordingly. That's just the way the human brain works -- we tend to take the recent past, and project it into the future. Fortunately, clever Fools can take this built-in psychological glitch and turn it into an opportunity for profit. Here's how.

Fools must:

• Recognize that when the reversal comes, it will surprise all of us. No one can time the market, so spread your investments out over time.
• When you do invest, demand a margin of safety, and make sure to buy with a 3-to-5-year time horizon. This process will take time to play out.
• Meanwhile, make sure your stock pays you to be patient, in the form of regular, robust dividends.

Ready to get started? Then sign up today for a free trial of Motley Fool Income Investor, where we have eight active energy recommendations that we think will profit from this opportunity.

Fool contributor Rich Smith does not own shares of any company named above. Petroleo Brasileiro is a Motley Fool Income Investor recommendation. Suntech Power is a Motley Fool Rule Breakers selection. The Motley Fool's disclosure policy has been collecting dividends for 15 years, and is saving up to buy a Prius.

Under 1000 dollar homes

Like a blogger once commented on my post, Real estate prices are now going for bargains. Here is a post I got from yahoo
The real estate market is so awful that buyers are now scooping up homes for as little as $1,000.
There are 18 listings in Flint, Mich., for under $3,000, according to Realtor.com. There are 22 in Indianapolis, 46 in Cleveland and a whopping 709 in Detroit. All of these communities have been hit hard by foreclosures, and most of these homes are being sold by the lenders that repossessed them.
"Foreclosures have turned banks into property management companies," said Heather Fernandez, a spokeswoman for Trulia.com, the real estate Web site. "And it's often cheaper for them to give these homes away rather than try to get market value for them."
In Detroit for instance, Century 21 Villa owner Randy Eissa has a three-bedroom, one-bath bungalow of about 1,000 square feet listed at just $500. It's a nice place with lots of light, but it needs a total rehabilitation inside, which Eissa estimates will cost between $15,000 and $20,000. But that's not bad, considering that the home last sold for $72,000 in late 2007, according to Zillow.com.
With prices this low, lenders aren't looking to make any money on these deals. They just want to get these houses off their books, so they don't have to bear the cost of maintaining them and paying property taxes.
In fact, the $500, $1,000 or $3,000 that a buyer forks over often goes straight to the real estate brokers as a commission. And often the lenders have to kick in extra cash to make it worthwhile for a realtor even take the listings, according to Eissa.
"Usually these homes are bank repossessions that the lenders have already tried to sell on the market, perhaps then put up for auction without success and then re-listed," he said.
Fixer uppers
These houses are almost always small fixer-uppers. Wiring, plumbing and heating systems have to be replaced, walls and ceilings sheet-rocked, plumbing and light fixtures installed and new kitchen cabinets and counters put in. Few come with working appliances.
Often buyers are legally required to rehab these homes to bring them up to code. In Detroit, buyers are required to sign Affidavits of Compliance Responsibility, which obligates them to make repairs outlined in an inspection report. Only after that can a certificate of occupancy will be issued, which makes the house legal to live in.
But even factoring in these costs, they're still bargains.
And as the housing crisis drags on, there are more and more four-figure listings popping up, as lenders try to unload their repossessed properties.
Cleveland is another city with many incredibly inexpensive homes. On Ardenall Avenue, in East Cleveland, McMullen Realty has a listing for a four-bedroom, one-and-a-half bath house for $1,900. It's been vandalized inside, but the outside is in good shape.
It features a deep front porch with Doric columns, double dormer windows and a separate garage. It's an excellent opportunity, according to agent Tonya Stoudamire. The last time it sold was in March of 2008 when it went for $16,677, according to Zillow.
"East Cleveland has a beautiful housing stock," she said. "These houses just need someone to come in and love them a little."
Another property for sale in Birmingham Ala. is priced at $1,900. The one-bedroom, one bathroom home was built in 1923 and has major fire damage, according to its listing broker, Tom Murphy Realty. The listing states that "Rooms are hard to distinguish."
But it's on a nice-sized lot, about 0.38 acre, close to downtown and transportation and has all utilities. Nearby, comparable homes in good condition sell for about $100,000, according to Zillow.
Rehab money
Most of these $1,000 homes can be renovated relatively inexpensively, and buyers can actually get government help to finance these repairs. The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) has a special loan program for just such purchases.
Its rehabilitation mortgage insurance, available through FHA-approved lenders, was designed to encourage banks to issue a single, long-term loan to buyers that covers both the acquisition and rehabilitation of a property, according to HUD spokesman Brian Sullivan.
He adds that there may also be grant money available from the $4 billion Neighborhood Stabilization Program, which was a part of the massive housing rescue bill passed by Congress in July, to assist buyers with grants for down payments.
Buying homes like these is certainly a leap of faith; they're generally not in the best of neighborhoods and they're often surrounded by many other vacant and deteriorating homes. Still, some of these neighborhoods may turn around and provide residents with good, dirt-cheap housing.
"It's a sad time," said Stoudamire. "But it's also a time of opportunity, especially for low and moderate income people."

Marketing summary

Staying up-to-date with online marketing

The key now is to apply what you’ve learned to your business and continue to learn more. The Internet is continually changing. Six months down the road, the most effective marketing strategies may be completely different; therefore, you must stay up-to-date with what is working and what is not.

The best way to do this is to stay close to different Internet marketing websites. Many of these websites have free monthly newsletters that you can subscribe to as well as tons of free content on their sites. Some of the best marketing sites online are the following:
www.marketingtips.com
www.wilsonweb.com
www.searchengines.com
www.searchenginewatch.com
www.mycomputer.com
www.payperclicksearchengines.com
www.jimtools.com
www.ts100.com
www.business2.com
www.trafficzilla.com
www.emarketer.com
www.websitegarage.com
www.webmarketingnow.com
www.webpromote.com
www.efuse.com
www.proboost.com

Converting traffic to sales

As you implement the marketing and continue to see the amount of traffic you get to the site increase, you will want to focus more and more on converting that traffic to actual sales. Much of that conversion comes in the marketing and the preparation for the marketing of your site. However, if you need additional ideas, read the following article: www.clickz.com/sales/traffic.

Marketing and conversion are a continuous, intertwined process. You'll find the strategies that work best for you, but there's always room for improvement. Make sure to stay close to your website tracking statistics. You may find that you are losing most of your visitors at the same place on your website. If this is the case, you will want to change around that page to keep people from leaving from it. Some great tracking programs are at www.webtrends.com and www.mycomputer.com.

Creating multiple streams of income

Understand that most people don't strike it rich on their first business start-up. It is a learning process. Therefore, utilize the information and knowledge you've gained to apply to other possible Internet start-ups to create multiple streams of income for yourself. If doesn't take much more time to market five Internet businesses as it does to market just one.

Internet Success Team

If you are interested in further information and guidance on marketing your online business, you can check our MyBusinessKit.com’s Internet Success Team. The Internet Success Team consists of a group of individuals who have been down the road of online success. They’ve been in the same place you are now, and they know how to help you become successful.

As part of the Internet Success Team, you will receive a personal coach to walk you through business topics such as business set-up principles, website design strategies, and online marketing tactics.

To learn more about the Internet Success Team, call 801-787-6597.

Online websites and resources

www.marketingtips.com
www.wilsonweb.com
www.searchengines.com
www.searchenginewatch.com
www.mycomputer.com
www.payperclicksearchengines.com
www.jimtools.com
www.ts100.com
www.business2.com
www.trafficzilla.com
www.emarketer.com
www.websitegarage.com
www.webmarketingnow.com
www.webpromote.com
www.efuse.com
www.proboost.com
www.clickz.com/sales/trafficwww.webtrends.com

Offline marketing

The importance of offline marketing

Many website owners will put together a site and then think that they can advertise to the whole world, which they can. However, many people fail to realize that there is a local market in their area that they will also want to market to. That is done through offline marketing strategies.

Examples of offline marketing strategies

There are hundreds of offline marketing strategies that you could apply to an online business. Here will be listed a few of them; however, your imagination is the limit.

You will want to be creative and apply as many offline marketing strategies as you can to your website. That doesn’t mean that you should be thinking about how to design a Superbowl commercial, but there are many offline marketing tactics that can be applied to you website at a very low cost that can bring is tremendous traffic. Some examples of offline marketing strategies are listed below:
§ Word-of-mouth advertising
§ Hand out business cards
§ Put a sticker or magnet with your website address on your car
§ Sponsor a little-league baseball team
§ Hand out flyers
§ Get a billboard ad
§ Post an ad in a newspaper or magazine
§ Create a radio ad
§ Speak at seminars or hold free conferences about the subject of your website

Keys to a successful offline marketing program

Get your website address on everything – every brochure, receipt, box, anything. Make sure your website address is on it all.
Be creative. The only limit is your imagination.
Start small and inexpensive. Don’t do a commercial for your first offline marketing strategy. Start with small, inexpensive tactics, like handing out flyers for your website or putting a sticker with your website address on your car.

Online websites and resources

www.allbusiness.com
www.inc.com
www.businessknowhow.com
www.americanexpress.com
www.nolo.com
www.gosmallbiz.com

Offline marketing

The importance of offline marketing

Many website owners will put together a site and then think that they can advertise to the whole world, which they can. However, many people fail to realize that there is a local market in their area that they will also want to market to. That is done through offline marketing strategies.

Examples of offline marketing strategies

There are hundreds of offline marketing strategies that you could apply to an online business. Here will be listed a few of them; however, your imagination is the limit.

You will want to be creative and apply as many offline marketing strategies as you can to your website. That doesn’t mean that you should be thinking about how to design a Superbowl commercial, but there are many offline marketing tactics that can be applied to you website at a very low cost that can bring is tremendous traffic. Some examples of offline marketing strategies are listed below:
§ Word-of-mouth advertising
§ Hand out business cards
§ Put a sticker or magnet with your website address on your car
§ Sponsor a little-league baseball team
§ Hand out flyers
§ Get a billboard ad
§ Post an ad in a newspaper or magazine
§ Create a radio ad
§ Speak at seminars or hold free conferences about the subject of your website

Keys to a successful offline marketing program

Get your website address on everything – every brochure, receipt, box, anything. Make sure your website address is on it all.
Be creative. The only limit is your imagination.
Start small and inexpensive. Don’t do a commercial for your first offline marketing strategy. Start with small, inexpensive tactics, like handing out flyers for your website or putting a sticker with your website address on your car.

Online websites and resources

www.allbusiness.com
www.inc.com
www.businessknowhow.com
www.americanexpress.com
www.nolo.com
www.gosmallbiz.com

Unique marketing sites

Why unique marketing sites

There are a lot of websites out there that offer great products and services that help with Internet marketing that don't fall under any of the categories we've covered. These sites we categorize at unique marketing websites. For example, Respond.com falls under this category.

Finding unique marketing sites

You can find these different unique marketing websites through Internet marketing newsletters. Within these different newsletters, you will find sponsoring companies with ads for their businesses. These companies usually offer some type of product or service that can help with Internet marketing campaigns. A list of good Internet marketing newsletter websites will be given in the Marketing Conclusion.

Free traffic sites

Many sites have offers for ways to generate "free" traffic to your site. Some are better than others. Most of these are not methods to center your marketing campaign around; however, they can help to generate additional traffic to your site. Some of the free traffic methods are listed below:
Browser Start Pages. When you set your home page on your browser to a Browser Start Page, you earn credits that translate into hits to your site. Some sites that offer this are www.startblaze.com, www.trafficg.com, and www.nomorehits.com.
Exit Exchanges. When a surfer accesses a page with an exit exchange code, a new window is opened in the background. The ad waits in the background for the user to close their current window. Once closed the ad in the background receives the full attention of the surfer. Some sites that offer this are www.exitexchange.com and www.exitblaze.com.
Surf for Traffic. For the most part these are not targeted and not worth your time unless you're focusing on giving freebies.
Classified Ad Multiplier Sites. Generally not very targeted or effective.
Pop-under Exchanges. Basically the same idea as with the exit exchanges.


Online websites and resources

www.startblaze.com
www.trafficg.com
www.nomorehits.com
www.exitexchange.com
www.exitblaze.com

Usenet

What the usenet is

The Usenet consists of two areas: newsgroups and chat-rooms, or online conversation areas. Newsgroups are not live conversation areas. You can go into a newsgroup, ask a question, and then check back the next day for the answer to the question. Chat-rooms are live conversation areas. You can talk one-on-one with people about many different subjects.

Newsgroups can be very profitable because they are demographically targeted (broken up into different interest groups), easy to access, and read by millions of users each day. There are a lot more people that read along and follow conversations in newsgroups and chat-rooms than the number of people that are actually talking on them, so this can be a very powerful marketing tool.

However, you cannot blatantly advertise in some newsgroups or chat-rooms. If you do, you may get "flamed," which means that a bunch of people will send you hate email telling you not to advertise in their newsgroup or chat-room. If you get flamed, don't ever respond; it will only encourage and agitate them further.

Therefore, you have to apply schizophrenic marketing tactics. This is essentially having conversations with yourself as people follow along and read. You will be asking and answering questions that would guide people to your website.

Steps to using the usenet to advertise

There are four steps to applying schizophrenic marketing to the usenet:
Set up 2-3 free email accounts
Find newsgroups that consist of people from your target market
Register your different email accounts under different names
Apply schizophrenic marketing techniques

1. Set up 2-3 free email accounts
To talk on the newsgroups, you must have an email address and a name. To find free email accounts, go to the search engines and type in "free email" and hundreds of sites will come up that offer free email services. Many of the major search engines, like yahoo and msn, offer free email. Some free email sites are the following:
www.hotmail.com
www.yahoo.com
www.juno.com

2. Find newsgroups that consist of people from your target market
There are newsgroup categories for just about every subject under the sun. Think about the characteristics of your potential customers. Then choose some categories that would have people with these characteristics discussing things in them.

A good place to start would be to go to www.google.com. Google has a directory of online newsgroups. Your Internet Service Provider (ISP) will also have newsgroups to register and talk on.

You can also find newsgroups through searching the Internet with the different search engines. Go to the different search engines and search for newsgroups in the category of your target market. Focus on the newsgroups at the top of the searches. You don't want to waste time talking in newsgroups that don't have many people talking on them.

3. Register your different email accounts under different names
Again, in order to talk on the newsgroups, you must have an email address and a name. Don't use your own name, or they will know that you are advertising. Therefore, make up different names for each email account so it looks like completely different people.

4. Apply schizophrenic marketing techniques
Before you begin guiding people to your site in the newsgroups, you'll want to build a rapport with the people out there. Spend 2-3 weeks asking and answering questions without referring to your site at all.

When your site is completed, begin asking and answering your own questions in the different newsgroup areas guiding people to your site. Ask a question with one email address and name, and then answer that question with your different email address and name by referring to your website. For example:
Q: I’m looking for a website that offers a great budgeting spreadsheet to help with doing a family budget.
A: I was just at www.myfinancialsoftware.com and they have a great Excel spreadsheet that can help with family budgeting.

Remember, there are a lot more people that are following along and reading in the newsgroups than those that actually talk on them; therefore, as you get your website address in front of people through schizophrenic marketing, they will visit your site.

Chat-rooms essentially work the same way. You cannot blatantly advertise here either; therefore, you must apply the same schizophrenic marketing tactics.

Online websites and resources

www.hotmail.com
www.yahoo.com
www.juno.com
www.google.com

Online classified ads

Why online classifieds are important

The search engines are not the only place where Internet surfers look for things. Classified ads are also a popular resource to find great deals on products. Online classifieds are similar to the classified ads you would find in regular newspapers. On the Internet, however, these classified ads are listed in more specific categories so that it is easier to find what you are looking for.

Steps to a successful online classified ad campaign

There are three main steps in putting together a successful online classified ad campaign:
Write the headline
Write the rest of the classified ad
Post the ad

1. Write the headline
The key to writing a good classified ad is in the headline. Make it short and to the point – about 6-12 words long. You don't want to try to sell anything in the headline, just create enough interest for a lead.

Use headlines that are packed with keyword phrases and action words that would appeal to consumers. If possible, offer something for free or at a discounted price.

Some tips on writing good headlines are the following (adapted from Bill Guting’s Marketing System for the Internet):
Make your headline newsworthy. For example, do you have a new product? Or a new use for an existing product? People want to hear about what's new, what's improved, what's different, etc. Begin your headline with the word "Announcing". One thing your customers and/or prospects are always asking is "what's new?" Well, this one word opening answers that question and gets a lot of people's attention. For example: "Announcing Amazing New Phone Tool That…" or "Announcing a Great New Way to Make a Living From Your Home…”
Create curiosity in your headline. Curiosity should be part of your headline and not a stand-alone element, this happens way too frequently. Look into any major magazine, newspaper or banner ads and you'll see advertisement after advertisement, which use nothing but curiosity in their headlines to try and get a response. Remember, if you use curiosity, make sure to combine it with a major benefit or newsworthy announcement.
Keep your headline positive. Avoid negative words, or the dark, gloomy side of the picture. For example, Dale Carnegie's first headline to his famous book was "How to Ruin a Good Marriage" and it bombed! His second attempt at a book title was "How to Win Friends and Influence People." This simple change of a title helped sell millions and millions of copies of his famous book.
Feature a free offer. Free is and probably will always be the most powerful 4-letter word in marketing. Giving something away to prove your worth is probably the most "sure-fire" strategy that leads to future sales or sign-ups. Use it in as many applications as you can.
Address your headline to a specific person or group. This type of headline does two important things: 1st it targets and hits your prospects like a laser beam and 2nd it allows you to offer up a solution that is close to your prospect's heart.

2. Write the rest of the classified ad
The rest of the ad will be just 2-3 short sentences focusing on the main benefits of your products or services. Include a link back to your homepage in your classified ads (some classified ad places do not allow this, but if they do, take advantage of it). Promote link exchanges in your classified ad. Use these networks to advertise your desire to trade links.

3. Post the ad
In posting your classified ad, the key is to get your ad circulated in as many categories as you can. For example, an ad in 10 categories running for 1 week will be much more effective than an ad in 1 category for 10 weeks.

You might place 6-10 ads in different classified categories and rotate those ads each week to build the most effective classified ad campaign. Or you can keep the same ad and just rotate the headline occasionally.

The best place to post your classifieds are at Yahoo. Yahoo has more people that look at their classified ad network than any other site out there. To register to Yahoo’s classified ad network, go to www.classifieds.yahoo.com. Other good sites are the following:
www.freeclassifieds.com
www.classifiedsforfree.com
www.uran.net/imall/mother.html

There are also many classified ad submission services that will offer to post your ad in multiple classified ad areas automatically. Once you find an ad that is bringing a lot of traffic to your site, you can submit your ad to a submission service.

Submitting to several different classified ad networks can be a lengthy process; therefore, utilizing a submission service will allow you to post your ad in large number of ad networks for a small fee. Be sure to test your ad on a free classified ad network prior to posting the ad with the submission service.

A method of finding submission services is to go to the search engines and type in "classified ad submission services.” This will pull up a list of websites that can assist you in this process.

Online websites and resources

www.classifieds.yahoo.com
www.freeclassifieds.com
www.classifiedsforfree.com
www.uran.net/imall/mother.html

Webrings

What webrings are

Webrings are a collection of websites that have organized themselves into a circle. Each site in the ring displays a webring navigator that links it to the next site in the ring. The whole point of a webring is to share traffic with the owners of other sites in the ring.

For example, if a person is interested in basketball, they could visit every single site in the basketball webring without ever having to go back to a search engine. Webrings are usually free services that can be added to your website.

Finding webrings

The best place to find what types of webrings are available is a http://www.webring.org/. Webring.org anchors thousands of webrings. They have an easy to navigate directory where you can browse the available webrings by topic. This is a free service as well.

Once you find a webring you think is appropriate and relates to your site, take some time navigating through the ring. Compare your website to the ones you find in the webring. You will want to join webrings that have many other sites registered at the ring because they are the ones that are receiving most of the traffic.

Utilizing webrings

After you have navigated through a webring you like and that relates to your site, then you want to apply for membership to that ring. The process is simple. You only need to fill out the online application form. Your application will be reviewed to make sure that you site is appropriate to the ring (this is why you want to do your own research on the ring ahead of time, so you won't get rejected).

If you accepted then you will receive some source code (HTML) that represents the navigator for the webring, which you need to add to your website. Some webrings are strict and insist that the navigator be on the front page of member websites. Once you've done that, you will be added into the ring within a few days, and you should start receiving traffic right away.

Online websites and resources

http://www.webring.org/

Gateway Pages

What gateway pages are

Gateway pages are free one-page websites that link to your original homepage. They are an alternate way for people to find your website, other than through your homepage. The whole purpose of gateway pages is to make your website more visible on the search engines. So instead of people having to find your website only through your homepage, they can find it through multiple pages.

In order to be found in the search engines, you must rank in the top 10-30 matches found. To do that that requires the creation of pages that appeal to each search engines' preferences. These pages are often called gateway pages, doorway pages, splash pages, or bridge pages since they act as a doorway or an alternate entrance to your website.

Methods of utilizing gateway pages

There are two main methods of utilizing gateway pages:
To focus on different keyword phrases
To build pages specific to certain search engines’ preferences

1. To focus on different keyword phrases
Remember back in the first marketing strategy when you read about what search engines look for? The emphasis was to build your homepage focused on a couple keyword phrases so that the search engines will rank you higher. Creating gateway pages allows you to build multiple pages focusing on different keyword phrases. So instead of an Internet surfer only being able to find you under a couple keywords, he or she can find you under many.

For example, if you are in the competitive category of "travel" and find it too difficult to obtain a high ranking on the word "travel," then create pages that describe in detail one particular destination or activity. Perhaps create a gateway page discussing "sailing in the Caribbean.”

Most people try to be specific in their search engines today because they know if they don't, they will get back thousands of pages that they aren't interested in. Therefore, you can create gateway pages for specific elements of your website to allow for a higher ranking in the search engines. A great website to help you research keyword phrases is http://inventory.overture.com/d/searchinventory/suggestion.

2. To build pages specific to certain search engines’ preferences
Every search engine is different and looks for different elements in ranking pages. No single page can rank well for all search engines because all search engines are different. Therefore, you must customize your gateway page to the different search engines you are registering at.

For information and tips on what the specific search engines look for, go to the www.searchengines.com, www.searchenginewatch.com, and www.searchengineforums.com.

Steps to setting up a gateway page

There are three main steps to follow in setting up a gateway page:
Find free web space
Put together page
Register page to the search engines

1. Find free web space
There are many different resources that offer free web space that you can take advantage of on the Internet. Many of these places are online builders that do not require you to know any HTML to build a page.

Some of those websites that you can use are the following:
www.freeservers.com
www.homestead.com
www.thefreesite.com

Many Internet service providers also give out free web space as well for using their services. In choosing a place to build the page, make sure the URL that they give you is not just the domain name of the site and then /whatever at the end of it. The domain name must look something like www.camping.freeservers.com instead of like www.freeservers.com/camping. This is primarily for the search engines. Many search engines are ignoring domain names that look like free sites, like in the second example.

2. Put together page
In actually building the page, you will set up a gateway page just like you would set up a regular homepage. You will want the text laid out introducing your website and products. You will also want a keyword phrase that you are focusing on to be repeated throughout the text and meta tags.

You will also want graphics on the page to make it look more eye appealing. A consistent logo on each gateway page would be a good idea so that people know that they are at the same place. As well as similar color schemes on the gateway page and your actual homepage.

The main difference between a gateway page and a regular homepage is that with a gateway page you don't need working navigation buttons. You'll usually have Click here to enter in a couple places on the site, which, when clicked on, would link to your original homepage or whatever page you'd like it to link to on your site.

3. Register page to the search engines
Once you’ve got the gateway pages built, you are now ready to register them to the search engines. The fastest and easiest way to do that is to use free submission sites like www.jimtools.com.

Online websites and resources

http://inventory.overture.com/d/searchinventory/suggestion
www.searchengines.com
www.searchenginewatch.com
www.searchengineforums.com
www.freeservers.com
www.homestead.com
www.thefreesite.com
www.jimtools.com
www.webposition.com offers a very advanced software program that automatically creates gateway pages to rank high on search engines for you. The program is called Web Position Gold.
Some great articles on gateway pages are at www.searchengines.com/doorway_pages.html and www.wordtracker.com/articles.

Press Releases

The importance of press releases

In the newspaper business, editors hate “white space.” White space is when there are open areas in the paper that aren’t filled with articles or ads. Every now and then, an article will fall through for a newspaper at the last minute, so the editor will have to scramble to fill the area where the article was going to be placed; this space is called white space. At these times, the editor will usually look into a special file that he or she has for such occasions and find something to fill the space. This special file usually consists of press releases that have been written and submitted to the paper.

A press release is an article that is placed in a newspaper or other press area to fill the white spaces. The press release is usually announcing a major event for a business, like the launching of a website, a new product coming to market, a service project that the company performed, or just sales and growth announcements. Once your website is completed, you will want to have a press release written up and ready to be submitted to the online and offline newspapers and other press areas.

Many people first hear of websites through press releases. Millions of people read the papers every day, both online and offline. Therefore, if you can get articles making announcements about your business in these press areas, your website traffic can increase substantially.

Steps to using press releases

There are three main steps to writing and submitting press releases:
Do research on what to write in your press release.
Write at least two press releases.
Submit the press releases to both online and offline areas.

1. Do research on what to write in your press release.
A press release is essentially free advertising. Editors are not interested in putting free advertising in their papers; therefore, you will need to research as much as you can to know what the editors look for in a press release. The more research that you do, the better chance you'll have to get your press release included.

The best way to this research is to go to the search engines and type in "how to write a press release" or "writing a press release" or something like that. Make sure you put quotation marks around the phrase your searching for – this will narrow down your search. This research will give you information on what you want to have in your press release – information like articles from actual editors as to what to include and not include.

Some great press release research websites are www.press-release-writing.com and www.newsbureau.com.

2. Write at least two press releases.
Once you’ve done your research, the next step is to actually write the press release. You will want to write at least two press releases – one to a local audience and one to a national audience.

The press release for the local audience will focus on the fact that you're from the local area in which you reside. Make it personal or "hometown" sounding. The national press release will be submitted to a national audience both online and offline. Make this press release more general.

In writing the press release, make it short and to the point, and make sure that it does not sound like an advertisement. Come up with a newsworthy angle about your online business. Focus on how your company can benefit the community.

The primary functions of a press release is not to publicize your business or help sell your products, but to provide news, entertainment, and relevant information to readers. Write your press release with this in mind.

The 1st paragraph is the lead paragraph. This should not be longer than 3-4 lines long. Answer the 5 W's: What? Why? Who? When? & Where? The rest of the paragraphs should be simple sentences answering these questions. The paragraphs should be short.

Write in 3rd person so that it doesn't look like you're writing an ad for your company. To get your release noticed, position your company against competing companies in some way, the press loves conflict.

3. Submit the press releases to both online and offline areas.
Now that the press release is written, it’s time to get it out there in front of people. In dealing with submitting your press release, you will want to submit to both online and offline areas.

In working with offline submission, realize that it is very difficult to get a press release in large publications, make certain your press release stands out from the rest by tailoring it to specific magazines or newspapers. Only 1 in 10 press releases actually get submitted – this is why you want to do good research ahead of time.

Treat each editor like a unique customer, and cater to his or her needs. Develop a relationship with each editor. Get to know them. After a relationship is solid, it is quite easy to convince them to write a feature article on you, your product/service, or something special you offer.

In working with online submission areas, submit your press release to as many areas as you can. Use the free submission sites. As you do research and find sites that deal with writing your press release, you'll also find sites that will offer to submit your press release.

You can also go to the search engines and type in "free press release submission" and you will find many articles giving websites that offer to submit your press releases.

Online websites and resources
personal finance
www.press-release-writing.com
www.newsbureau.com
www.searcher.com
www.prweb.com
www.prnewswire.com
www.gebbieinc.comwww.gapent.com/pr

online auctions

The importance of online auctions

When people think of online auctions, the first thing they think about is Ebay. Ebay is the largest online auction site on the web and most people only think of Ebay as a resource for buying and selling your and other peoples’ junk. However, Ebay and the other online auction sites can be a powerful marketing tool for your business. There are three main reasons to utilize the online auctions:
To make money selling products
To build a database of customers and potential customers
To drive traffic to your website

1. To make money selling products
As you post your products on the online auctions, you will find buyers for those products. You may not make as much money selling them on Ebay as you would just selling them on your site, but the auctions are a good way to get some revenue coming in.

2. To build a database of customers and potential customers
As you start making sales on the auctions, you will creating a database of customers and potential customers to your website. Down the road, as you have other similar products that you are offering, you could send them an email letting them know about the deals that you could provide them.

3. To drive traffic to your website
The main feature of the online auctions is in the ability to link your website to your auction listing. This is a great way to generate qualified traffic to your website because even if someone doesn't bid on your product, they may be interested enough to go to your website and perhaps purchase an entirely different product. You will want to include your website address in the description of the product that you have for bid.

How online auctions work

There are many different online auction sites on the Internet and they all work a little differently. However, the basic concepts work the same and are outlined in the following steps:
A vendor, or seller, goes to an auction site and fills out a simple online form. On this form, included is all the information about the product, including the minimum bid to accept and the length of the auction time period.
This information then becomes available to site buyers on the auction website.
Buyers will then bid on the products of their choice via the Internet.
If one buyer gets outbid by another buyer, he or she will be notified by an email message, which includes a link back to the bidding area.
Once the bidding time period is over, the top bidder and seller are emailed so that they can get together and finalize the sale.

Online auction companies

There are many different online auction sites out there and Ebay is larger than all of them combined, but here’s a list:
Ebay – www.ebay.com
Ubid – www.ubid.com
Cnet.com auctions – http://auctions.cnet.com
Amazon’s auctions – www.auctions.amazon.com
Yahoo’s auctions – www.auctions.yahoo.com

For an extensive list of different online auctions on the Internet, check out www.auctionsa-z.com.

Selling on the online auctions

Before you begin selling your products on the auction sites, make sure you take some time reviewing each auction’s listing guidelines. Also, make sure to browse around the site and check out what is selling and what is not. It wouldn’t be a bad idea to even post a bid on a product to see how the process works.

Once you feel comfortable with the auction site, then set up an account with them. This will usually be free, and all it takes is providing some personal and contact information from you.

Once you’ve got an account, you will want to do some preliminary work before you post your products to sell. You will want to create the following policies: shipping, international sales, a refund, guarantee, and payment. These policies will outline exactly what you will do and will not do for the customers.

Once you’ve gotten your policies written, then you will want to also choose the type of auction you want to hold. There are four major types:
Straight – Here you will set a minimum opening bid and then sell to the highest bidder. This is the most common auction type.
Reserve – With this type you set a price below which you will not sell your item. Bidders will not know the reserve price, and you only have to sell to the highest bidder if it is above that price.
Dutch – This type of auctions allows you to sell multiple identical items to multiple bidders. Bidders can specify not only their bid price, but also the amount of items they want. All of the top bidders would pay the same amount, or the lowest successful bid.
Private – This type is the same as a straight auction, but the seller and bidders are not revealed.

Once you’ve picked the auction type, then you will want to choose a category for your item. Obviously, you will want to choose the category that best describes your product, but also one that receives a lot of traffic, which drives up the price. Usually, the more popular categories have more products up for bidding on them.

You will also want to take some pictures of your item. Most buyers won’t bid on something unless they can see it. Digital cameras work best for this. The key is to take pictures that persuade people to buy.

Next you will want to write a title for your ad. The title is usually between 40 and 50 characters long. The description is the next element. Your description should anticipate questions, impart detail, and acknowledge any flaws, all while making a compelling and convincing sales pitch. In the description, you will want to include the name of your website, this will bring traffic to your site.

Once you’ve gotten all this preliminary work done, then you are ready to post your products to the auctions. As you do so, you will want to monitor the auction’s progress and make sure to respond quickly and clearly to inquiries from bidders.

Once the auction is over, you will want to exchange information as quickly as possible with the winning bidder so that you can get them your products right away. Once you’ve exchanged information and accepted payment then ship the product out promptly.

Online websites and resources

www.ebay.com
www.ubid.com
http://auctions.cnet.com
www.auctions.amazon.com
www.auctions.yahoo.com
www.auctionsa-z.com
www.auctionwatch.com - this site offers powerful tools to manage your auction listings

Sponsors and Affiliates

Why sponsors and affiliates are important

Sponsors and affiliate programs fulfill two primary purposes for your website:
Increase revenues to your website
Make your site look more credible to Internet surfers

1. Increase revenues to your website
Sponsors would pay you a monthly fee for you to place their logo or ad on your website. Affiliate programs pay you commissions as you refer visitors to other sites. Therefore, these two methods allow you to increase revenues to your site without having to sell your products/services.

2. Make your site look more credible to Internet surfers
Sponsors and affiliates make your site look more credible to people visiting the site because others would see name-brand companies advertising on your website. This increases the credibility to others, especially if they are not knowledgeable about the affiliate program concept.

How sponsors work

On many websites you'll see Please visit our sponsors followed by some logos of different websites that would link to the perspective sites. If you had someone sponsor your website, you would place their logo on your site, and, in turn, they would pay you a certain amount of money each month.

Having sponsors benefits both the sponsoring company and also your site because it brings traffic to the sponsoring company. It also adds credibility to your site because of all the sponsors on it, as mentioned above. Sponsoring also allows your website to earn some extra money. You can charge anywhere between $50-$200 a month to have someone sponsor your site. If you had 4 sponsoring companies on you site all paying you $50 a month, which would be $200 a month, and this is at the low end of the pay scale.

Finding companies to sponsor you

As you look for complementary companies to exchange links with, you can also look for companies to sponsor you. Usually larger organizations or companies will sponsor other sites, but any business may do this. Also, as you talk to businesses about trading links or banners, you can also ask them to be your sponsor.
Initially, you would not charge a large fee per sponsor because you would not have much traffic coming to your website. However, as your traffic increases, you can increase these fees to have companies sponsor you.

How affiliate programs work

Have you ever been on a site and seen Amazon.com's little banner on it? If you click on that banner and go to Amazon and buy something, the site that you left to go to Amazon makes 10-15% of whatever you spend.

Having affiliate programs on your site allows you, as the site owner, to earn extra income on your website. Usually it's about 10% of the sale price for most affiliate programs.

Finding and signing up for affiliate programs

As you surf the surf the Internet and look for complementary sites, you will oftentimes see on websites Become our Affiliate or Affiliate with us. If you see this, you can join those sites' affiliate programs. A couple websites that list the different affiliate programs that are available are at www.cj.com and www.linkshare.com.

When you sign up for an affiliate program, the company that you're signing up under will email you the source code (HTML code) that represents the banner or ad which you would then copy and paste to your website.

It usually does not cost anything to become an affiliate of someone else. All you need to do is sign up and add the code to your site to get involved with the different affiliate programs. Then as you get clicks on the banner or ad to the affiliate program sites, and people buy, you will get paid, usually on a monthly or quarterly basis, a commission on each sale (usually about 10% of the sale). The affiliate companies have tracking software that keeps track of your visitors and purchases. You would not want to add the affiliate program banners to your products page if you are trying to sell products of your own.

Creating your own affiliate program

Affiliate programs are a great method of driving traffic to your website, and you don't pay a cent unless someone actually buys something, so it's very effective.

In order to make your website ready to accept affiliates, you will need to apply some pretty advanced programming that will track where visitors are coming from and store a database of affiliates that have signed up. This will require hiring a professional programmer to get this type of system set up, but it will be well worth the cost. A lower cost method of starting an affiliate program on your site is to use www.clickbank.com.

Online websites and resources

www.bcentral.com/articles/whitman/102.asp
www.amazon.com
www.cj.com
www.linkshare.comwww.clickbank.com

Banners

The importance of banners

Banners are advertisements on websites that, when clicked on, link to an advertiser’s website. They are usually ¾” by 6” in size. Banners fulfill two purposes:
To increase traffic to a website. This happens as Internet surfers click on the banner they are taken to the website directly.
Establish name recognition or branding. The more people see a website’s banner, the more the company name gets branded into their minds, like commercials.

Banners are viewed a lot by many people as they surf around the Internet; however, banners are not always being clicked on all the time. Here you will learn how to effectively utilize banner campaign to increase traffic and sales for you business.

Methods of getting banners on the Internet

There are many different methods to get your banners out in front of your target customers; here three main methods will be reviewed:
Purchasing impressions
Banner exchanging
Banner placement on search engines

1. Purchasing impressions
Impressions are the number of times a banner is seen online. As someone pulls up a website with your banner on it, then that counts as one impression. The average impression cost throughout the industry is $0.02 to $0.05 per impression. A click-through is when someone clicks on your banner, which transfers him or her to your site immediately. The industry click-through rate is less than one percent. This doesn't sound too good, but here you will learn how to increase that click-through rate.

There are banner networks out there that will allow you to purchase impressions from them. You can utilize these companies to advertise; however, make sure that they allow you to control the types of websites/categories that your banners are shown in. If they are just placed on random categories, you will not get a high click-through rate. However, if they allow you pick the website categories that your banner will be shown in, this can be an effective method of placing banners online.


2. Banner exchanging
A second method of getting banners online is through banner exchanging. Through this method, you are actually finding websites that complement or go hand-in-hand with your own and offering to trade banner ads with them. So you would place their banner on your website, and then they would place your banner on their site. This is effective because you are actually controlling the eyes of who is viewing your banner. So you’ll get a much higher click-through rate.

If the company that you want to trade banners with does not want to trade, they may be interested in you just paying to have your banner placed on their site, which is also fine. However, in purchasing banner space, try to get the company to charge you on a cost-per-click (CPC) method. This means that you are only paying when someone actually clicks on your banner. Most companies will charge on a CPM method, or they charge you a flat rate for every 1,000 impressions your banner gets. Which is fine, but this does not guarantee any traffic, so paying on a CPC method is better.

3. Banner placement on search engines
A third method of placing banners online is through targeted banner placement on the search engines. Any time an Internet surfer searches for something on a search engines, a banner that relates to what they searched for will usually appear at the top of the page of the search results. This is where you would want to advertise. So you would want to pay for advertising space for the banners that appear at the top of a search under specific keyword phrases that relate to your site.

Many search engines charge on a CPM method, so you are paying for every thousand impressions. You can do this, or a better method is to find search engines that pay on a CPC method, so you do not have to pay anything unless someone actually clicks on your banner and goes to your website.

Designing effective banners

The key to a successful banner is to have a good headline. The headline is 5-7 words long, like a magazine advertisement headline. It would be a good idea to look through magazines and read through the different advertisement headlines and see what grabs your attention, and then write your headline.

Focus your headline on words that are action oriented that grab the attention of consumers. The following is a list researchers at Yale University say are the most powerful attention-grabbing words: free, secrets, discover, easy, guarantee, health, love, money, money-back, new, powerful, proven, own, results, save, tested, and you are some examples.

Once you’ve got the headline written, you’ll want some graphics for your banner. These can be either animated or static, but keep in mind that your banner is small, so your graphics cannot be really large. Some good graphic websites are the following:
www.mediabuilder.com
www.bellsnwhistles.com
www.animfactory.com
www.eyewire.com
www.andyart.com
www.photodisc.com

For the finishing touches to your banner, make sure you have Click here written on your banner somewhere. Also, you’ll want to have your domain name on the banner, this will help with branding.

When programming the banner, you can either pay a website design company to program the banner for you, which would cost between $100 and $200 per banner. Or you can design it yourself through website building and editing programs like PhotoShop, DreamWeaver, or other programs that you may find.

Online websites and resources

www.bannersgomlm.com
www.mediabuilder.com
www.bellsnwhistles.com
www.animfactory.com
www.eyewire.com
www.andyart.com
www.photodisc.com