Archive for February, 2010

« Older Entries

Real Estate Investing Strategies For Today’s Market

Saturday, February 27th, 2010

Virtual real estate investing probably makes you think of a number of things. You might immediately leap to real estate investing being real estate portfolios and real estate retirement plans or you may think instead of short sales, bulk reo investing and virtual real estate investing. You probably also wonder how these things play out in real estate investors life in the current economy.

There is a lot to learn about real estate investing. Getting the most out of real estate investing education involves being familiar with basic RE info. Whether your target is short sales, bulk reo sales, virtual real estate or improving real estate investor abilities, you need to know some real estate investing basics. You should review these three real estate investing basics to learn things even some experts do not know:

1. You always will get a positive result from investing in real estate investing education. Every good real estate deal represents thousands of dollars in potential wealth. The knowledge of how to get that wealth is the key to your success. Knowing more about real estate betters your odds of success when you do a real estate deal. A small investment in your education can yield big results when you implement your learning.

2. You can succeed in real estate investing regardless of the state of the economy. Many people think that you can only succeed in real estate when the economy is booming. Actually a poor economy is not a bad economy for real estate investors. You frequently can get properties at deep discounts. You might also find deals that simply would not exist in a booming economy. In fact, real estate investing can turn the tide for a poor economy. When an economy is less than thriving, short sales, bulk reo sales and virtual real estate can prosper. Knowing how to do these deals can create wealth for you and save others from major financial difficulties.

3. A lot of money is not vital to your success as a real estate investor. You can succeed in the real estate investing arena no matter how much money you are working with. There are many deals that will let you use other people’s money to do them. If you are a good investment private lenders may let you use their money. A good investment will know as much as they can about real estate investing. Then you will represent a good investment to other people who have money for real estate investing but do not know how to use it.

A good deal of wealth can be generated with real estate investing. You can create income regardless of the economy. By using a base of knowledge of real estate investing, short sales, bulk reo sales and virtual real estate you can create success for yourself. Knowing the basics of real estate investing will help you succeed as a real estate investor. Knowing some real estate investing basics (beyond what older gurus like Robert Allen teach) and applying them will help you succeed as a real estate investor.

Great real estate investing resources are available at RealEstate.BryanEllis.com.

Tags: , , ,
Posted in Uncategorized | No Comments »

The GDI Home Business Opportunity – Is This The Real Deal Or Another J.O.B?

Thursday, February 25th, 2010

Global Domains - GDI Review

Do you want to join the network marketing party? Then you couldn’t have missed those tempting videos of affluent people speaking of how they came into money through their MLM work. Lots of people have made promotional videos for Global Domains International where they claim to earn unbelievable sums of money through a seemingly simple business opportunity. The business deals with promoting .ws domains for personal and business websites. The following is an honest review of the GDI income opportunity to help the aspiring rep or the existing GDI executive.


GDI – A Brief History
In the 1990s’, the internet scene was monopolized by .com domains. It was then that Michael Reed and Alan Eizer hit upon the idea of selling domains that had a different extension. They settled on .ws, a domain that belonged to the state of Samoa since it was small and easy to market. They also felt this extension would represent the word website.  The MLM venture was started in the year 2000 and the business became a hit in just a few months.


The .ws Domain Extension
Global Domains provided customers with an opportunity to launch a website with a name they preferred by offering the .ws domain instead of .com extension. This was a new option and soon became popular.


Global Domains Pricing
The monthly fee charged for a .ws domain is $10. For this you get a website with hosting and email addresses. You could opt for a seven day trial product before you start your own website using the .ws extension. Joining GDI is easy; you are a rep from the minute you register for a .ws domain. From here on, you just need to refer people to make money.

The GDI Business Program
Affiliates get $1 for every person they refer.  There’s potential to generate more income when you refer more than five people in a week or 1000 people within a month. Most reps claim that the informative video of GDI alone is sufficient to make people join. But the business has its own downside too. Firstly, most customers feel the price is too high; especially when domains are available at much lesser rates. Most people wouldn’t be willing to put in so much money for a domain if it weren’t for the home business opportunity.

Making Money With Global Domains
-    Being an online income opportunity, GDI gives you access to an immense market. So instead of following the MLM routine and concentrating on your warm market, break the borders and reach out to people outside this network. They’re more likely to be your customers.

-    On the other hand, there are people who want to buy domains with names they prefer. There are millions of people who seek an opportunity to work from home and start their own online business.

-    Find out ways to reach these customers and get them to view your website. You could spread the word through articles, use facebook and other social networking sites. These are just a few techniques to highlight your presence and bring your business to the forefront. The internet offers many more avenues to advertise; make the best of these to maximise your profits!

Tags: , , , , , , , , ,
Posted in Uncategorized | No Comments »

Pre-Paid Legal Services - A Review Of The Business Opportunity

Thursday, February 25th, 2010

PrePaid Legal Services

We can never predict when we’ll need legal help. There have been so many times when we’ve been cheated by cons and needed the advice of lawyers. However, people hesitate to hire the services of a lawyer because of the costs and documentation involved. Prepaid legal services Inc. is a venture started to help people get expert legal services as and when they are required for a low monthly fee.

How It All Started – Background Of The Company

The foundation for PrePaid legal Inc was laid in 1969 when Harland C.Stonecipher got into a vehicle accident that left him in a legal tangle with lots of bills to pay. He started a scheme to offer legal assistance for a small monthly fee. In 1983, PrePaid legal was established as an MLM company to sell its plans through associates. Soon the business expanded to reach fifty states in the US and Canada. There were also bad times when the firm ran into legal problems with affiliates and customers.

The Pre Paid Legal Service

If you are a member with Prepaid Legal Services Inc, you could use legal services of expert attorneys for documentations and research work, wills, assistance in traffic violation issues, insurance claims, general minor attorney services and legal help in auto theft cases. Though major criminal cases, divorce and child custody are not covered for, members could get a good discount for consultations on such issues. The Firm also offers an identity theft monitoring and restoration service.

The PrePaid Legal Services Associate Program

The fee for joining the business opportunity is $49. Earn between $69 and $250 for each order you bring in. Good performers also get perquisites when they achieve targets. Associates get paid as soon as their referral’s membership form is logged in, so you wouldn’t have to wait for your commissions. Associates are backed by good support from the company and offered training in promoting the business.

Struggling with building a business

This seems like an easy way to make money; however, many people who were lured in with the promise of easy money have faced only disappointment. You may have a vast network of friends, but not everyone shows the same interest as you in this program. These are the problems you may face:

-    Most people don’t need legal services regularly; hence they wouldn’t want to spend so much money on prepaid legal services.
-    As an associate, you are encouraged to contact people you know and call them to hotel parties to make them join the program. Your demo parties may be very motivating; but frankly, parties to most people mean something else. Not a marketing program that’s going to coax them into buying membership for plans they’re not sure about.
-    Customers cannot be won over by trying to coax them to subscribe to your product. Pestering them will not help your cause nor get you referrals.

Winning PrePaid Legal Services Strategies

The way you market your business could completely change your income potential. In the network marketing field, people are either completely frustrated or brilliantly successful. Interactive marketing of your business through the internet is sure to fetch you good results. You just need to know the right knacks to promote your services and get people to contact you.

Tags: , , , , , , , , ,
Posted in Uncategorized | No Comments »

Develop Consumer Surveys Using Mind Mapping Software

Thursday, February 25th, 2010

http://clk.bz/business-planning

In any consumer marketing research study, the survey is the key element. It is with the survey that the consumer opinions are collected, driving the data that ultimately leads to the all-important research findings. As such, developing a good consumer survey is crucial. Marketing researchers use a variety of tools for brainstorming in order to come up with the correct format and effective questions for the survey. However, few of these tools contain the many advantages found in a Mind Mapping software tool. With a Mind Map, researchers have the ability to “map out” their ideas for survey questions in a creative and visually dynamic manner. By making use of diagrams that contain several points of visual and mental association, Mind Mapping software allows researchers to organize their thoughts surrounding the survey more easily and intuitively.

What is Mind Mapping Software?

Mind Mapping software is any software that is used to create diagrams, pictures, and other graphic visuals in order to show the relationship between ideas or other types of information.1 With Mind Maps, the key concept or main idea of the information being presented is represented by a central image, located in the center of the map. Any themes surrounding the main idea are shown on “branches” that are attached to the central image, with subsequent themes of less importance attached by “child branches” or “twigs”. The resulting diagram is a “map” of the ideas and information shown in a spatial, rather than linear, format. Moreover, along with the ideas shown on the map are images, visual graphics, and colors that the constructor of the “map” associates with each of the themes and ideas. Mapping out information in this manner is widely believed to allow the brain to process the information in way that is more consistent with its natural functioning.

Using a Mind Map to Construct an Effective Consumer Survey

A team of market researchers has just landed a big account for a cake company that wants to know what cake flavors their customers prefer most. In addition, the cake company wants to collect some relevant demographic information about its customers, such as age, income, and education. The team must develop a survey that will allow them to collect of the information the client wants, and they decide to use a Mind Map to help them do so. The team first begins by representing the main purpose of the Mind Map, the survey questions, in the center of the map. They then list the main objectives, or key pieces of information, they want collect, such as “Preferred Cake Flavors”, and “Demographic Information”, on the “branches” that are attached to the central topic. The team then brainstorms possible questions for each of objective on “child branches”. When the team has finished brainstorming, they select the best question from each group of possible questions to include in the survey, and lists them on “twigs” attached to the “child branches”. Throughout the map, the team has added visuals, colors, and graphics in order to make it easier to conceptualize. The attached Mind Map exhibits what the team’s described diagram might look like.

Finalizing the Consumer Survey

Once the team has selected the questions they will use in the survey, they can now begin constructing the format of the survey. In order to do so, the team decides to use another Mind Map to brainstorm about the order the questions should be presented in. Following a similar method as described above, the team collaborates about possible question order, and subsequently decides upon the appropriate question order for the survey. Thus, the team was able to use a Mind Mapping software tool to determine both what questions to include in the survey, and more importantly, how to list them, highlighting the usefulness of Mind Maps in helping researchers develop effective consumer surveys.

  1. Farrand, Paul; Hussain, Fearzana and Hennessy, Enid (May 2002). “The efficacy of the ‘mind map’ study technique”. Medical Education 36 (5): 426–431.

Tags: , , , ,
Posted in Uncategorized | No Comments »

The Global Domains Incorporated Home Business Review

Thursday, February 25th, 2010

Global Domains Review

Though the prospect of working from the convenience of your home is appealing, it’s difficult to find a genuine opportunity that’s profitable as well as feasible.
Global Domains International is an MLM company that sells .ws domains. Is this opportunity as good as it claims to be? Let’s get behind the scenes and find out.

About The Business

In a scenario dominated by .com websites, the founders of Global Domains, Michael Reed and Alan Ezeir proposed to make a difference by selling .ws domains. Global Domains International Inc (GDI) was started in the 2000 and .ws became established as a popular domains extension in just a few months.

GDI was started as a network marketing company where the business is promoted by customers.

The Income Factor

You will need to put in $10 per month for your domain which comes with a 10 page website, domain, a website builder, 10 email addresses and support.
Get someone to sponsor you to become a distributor with GDI; thereafter, earn $1 for each person you sponsor AND for each person they sponsor for up to five levels. You could generate really good income if you’re able to bring in at least 5 people every week.

Why Global Domains?

Testimonials on the GDI site praise this income opportunity as one that’s self selling and an easy way to generate thousands of dollars every month. Most affiliates claim the promotional video alone is enough to market your business. If you recruit five people and they continue the chain of recruitment, you get to earn as much as $3125 for the 5 people you’ve sponsored. 

Is This GDI Business Worth Taking Up?

While the income figures may make your head spin, you also need to the cons involved in this business opportunity. Take a practical estimate of how many of your friends or relatives would be willing to spend $10 a month to get a website of their own. Only the income opportunity makes this product good to buy. But don’t be discouraged; there are millions of people who want a site with a domain of their choice. To those, GDI WS is indeed a good product.  

Marketing GDI

If your goal from this business is to earn much more than just your investment, it’s not enough if you follow the training procedure strictly and bring in 5 people hoping they’ll recruit others. You need to highlight the advantage of a .ws domain extension that offers clients a gateway to have their desired name for their website.

For an online product such as this, outdated marketing techniques such as cold calling or meeting customers will not work. Use the reach of the internet to your advantage and promote your product online. Even while marketing online, avoid flashy, exaggerated advertising that make your product seem like a scam. Instead, reach out to target audience in a way that would make them take notice and approach you with inquiries. This is the kind of business that would flourish when marketed well.

Tags: , , , , , , , , , , ,
Posted in Uncategorized | No Comments »

Adverts For Small Businesses That Works

Thursday, February 25th, 2010

Do you like to throw money down the drain? No way is your likely answer. Why ask such a daft question? Well in reality it is not such a daft question as millions of pounds or dollars are basically thrown away each and every day by companies on advertising campaigns that simply do not deliver. It is never good practice to waste your money but in a recession, like we are currently in, it could spell disaster. What we need is advertising for small businesses that work.

So you have a restaurant, we will use a restaurant as an example of a small business. The owner of this establishment wants to see the restaurant full but to do this he/she is needs to attract the customers. Before deciding on the best way of promoting the business the owners need to do their homework to ensure that they only choose restaurant advertising accessories that work, this sure helps with business cost cutting.

In this particular industry a neon lighting menu board is becoming ever more popular and is an idea that has been bought to these shores after achieving high success in the Far East. The attitude here is “if it works over there then it could well work over here”. The quality is of utmost importance, anything that looks cheap is a real No No? Enough said!

In other businesses, small or large, doing your homework before going ahead with an advertising campaign is crucial. How much success have other small businesses within the relevant industry sector had? It would certainly be prudent to ask to speak with the relevant representative from the company itself to hear exactly how the advertising went etc.

In this day and age a large percentage of advertising spend goes into promoting a company website. A high quality and professional web promotion service does not come cheap but if the results stack up then it can easily be money well spent.

Certain areas of the internet are very competitive such as debt management, web design and companies offering cheap holidays however if you are offering more of a niche product then this should not be so expensive as it would be far easier for the web promotion expert to obtain high search engine rankings for your site.

Tags: , , , ,
Posted in Uncategorized | No Comments »

Advertising Strategies For Small Businesses

Thursday, February 25th, 2010

When I was twenty-three, I had what I believed was a good business idea. I was going to sell cheap holidays as I knew a contact in the industry.

At the same time I would also attempt to make money via offering a fostering services UK service to the people that I knew.

By reading a number of books on marketing for small businesses and by asking a good friend of mine who has a business which is to do with selling external doors, I managed to find some potential routes which could help me to get started.

Direct marketing

This happened to be the first area that I tried. I had a small leaflet produced which explained the speech coaching service that I was offering and then with the help of some friends and family, went around my local area delivering them. This was not as successful as I hoped it would be, however I am sure that this area of marketing could work well for other types of business.

Newspapers

I then decided to speculate to accumulate. I spoke with a few of the papers that were local to me and took out a small advert in each of them. This advert would reach quite a large number of people and even though this was quite an expensive form of marketing, it did work for me in the early days.

Open days

I wanted to expand the area that I was going to offer my services. I decided to hold an open day or presentation in various parts of the country which would help to promote my business.

This was successful as newspapers were happy to report this open day free of charge, as it was a local event which would be of interest to their readers.

Yellow pages

For around three years I advertised in the telephone directory Yellow Pages. For the first couple of years their adverts really did work for me but in the end the prices were just high in comparison to the amount of business it generated. The majority of people in the United Kingdom now have access to the web and for me this is very much the future; there will even be “internet houses” within a few years. Yellow pages or as it is now called Yell, has become more expensive when in reality probably less people are using it.

Advertising in the yellow pages did prove successful for me for a number of years however, and is certainly an area of marketing which could work for other small businesses.

Websites

About ten years ago, in fact it was in 1999, I had my first website built. The web designer who produced the site is still a good friend of mine today and I have to say that he did a brilliant job. This is probably the best form of advertising that you can have; a professional looking website which fully describes the service that you are offering. I have worked hard to promote this site and it is now doing well in the major search engines.

Radio and television marketing

I can not really write too much about this form of advertising as I have not personally given it a go. Why not? I hear you ask. Well purely because I think that it costs too much money. I have heard from other sources that advertising on the radio or television can be very beneficial for certain businesses, if they can afford the initial outlay.

I am sure there are many other ways of marketing a small business and I will seek them out in the future for my own business.

The above ideas are what I have learnt about and as you may have read, I have tried some of them myself with mixed success. Every business is obviously different and it is basically a form of trial and error to find which ones will work.

Tags: , , , ,
Posted in Uncategorized | No Comments »

The Benefits Of Hiring A Business Cost Reduction Consultant

Thursday, February 25th, 2010

The credit crisis is starting to really take hold and company profits are starting to fall. The time may well have arrived when we start to think seriously about hiring a cost reduction consultant.

So where are the potential cost cutting areas in a business? Well this differs for each and every business however there are certain general business costs which can be looked at for the majority of businesses.

To start with there are potential telecom cost reductions. This includes obtaining cheaper business telephone calls, lower mobile phone bills, cheaper BT line rental and cheap calls in general.

The business cost reduction experts are likely to be able to advise you on the potential savings that your business could make and this does not mean that you necessarily have to change the business telephone number.

As well as lower telecoms costs there are also lower charges to be had within the utilities, for example lower electricity costs. Then there is attempting to save money on the business broadband, the internet server costs, the printing and stationary costs as well as advertising costs.

These are just a few of many many changes that can be made which could ultimately enable your business to survive in this tough recession.

I run a Tesco Voucher Codes business and I have managed to save some serious cash by appointing a cost reduction expert.

In fact I know of many small businesses that have also managed to make some big savings by obtaining cheaper utility services such as cheaper calls to mobile phones such as one that offers training for foster carers.

I would recommend other people to also attempt to cut costs in this way, it has certainly proved to be of benefit to me and my business. I have to say that the recession would have been so much harder to cope with had I not managed to find these savings in my overall business costs. The overheads do not look so daunting these days.

 

Tags: , , , ,
Posted in Uncategorized | No Comments »

The Huge Increase In Shopping Online Continues

Thursday, February 25th, 2010

As no doubt you have noticed online shopping is becoming more and more popular. In this article I write about this new revolution and discuss whether in my opinion this popularity is likely to continue or even increase, or if it is just some sort of short term fashion trend.

I offer a work injury claims service, I am also involved with a business to do with obtaining Tesco voucher codes and also with selling external doors for a composite door company.

I was introduced to online shopping a few years ago when a friend of mine advised me that a certain electrical type company was offering their products with a discount of ten percent, when they were purchased online. I have to say that this something that was rather interesting to myself and I wanted to know whether this was typical of other shops. I soon discovered that many other online retailers had similar special offers and I soon became a real online shopping convert.

A couple of years ago at Christmas time, I must admit that I purchased around eighty percent of my presents online. This saved me having to go to the shops in the first place, fighting through the Christmas shopping crowds and trying to find a car park space.

My family even now buy our weekly food shopping online. My wife prefers doing the food shopping in this way as she does not have to wait to have her items scanned and does not have to put up with the children asking if they can have this or that.

I believe that this online shopping revolution has only just started. I think that more and more companies are going to offer this service and that their websites will become even more impressive and easy to use for the consumer.

In around five years time most households in the UK will have access to the internet therefore introducing even more potential customers to the option of online shopping.

 

 

Tags: , , , , ,
Posted in Uncategorized | No Comments »

Present Marketing Research Findings to Clients Using Mind Mapping

Thursday, February 25th, 2010

Presenting the findings of a research study to the client is the pinnacle of the entire research process. Working out how to present these findings in a way that the client can easily understand, is, therefore, a crucial part of any market researcher’s job. One way to present these findings is by using a Mind Map. A Mind Map is a means of organizing information spatially, rather than linearly, by “mapping out” the information using words, images, pictures, and phrases. Because the Mind Map uses spatial, visual and image components, it is believed to engage more areas of the brain, making the information easier to process via the brain’s natural functioning. Mind Maps can thus be an advantage when presenting research findings to clients, because they offer a visually stimulating, easily understood, representation of the results.

An Example of Research Findings Organized Using a Mind Map

Imagine a scenario in which a researcher has just finished fielding a study for his client on her new product, the Big, Beefy, Juicy Burger. The client wants to know how well her product did in a taste and naming test. After reviewing the data, the researcher discovers that the product did well taste-wise among all age groups except those18-24 years old, and poorly in terms of the product name among females in general, 25-34 year olds, and those age 50 and older. In addition, male respondents and those age 34 and younger said they were more likely to buy the product if sold than females and those 35+. All of these findings contain information that the client would want to know. How can the researcher use a Mind Map to organize these findings?

The researcher might first begin by listing the main research objective, to find out how well the Big, Beefy, Juicy Burger does on the dimensions of taste, name preference, and intent to buy, in the center of the Mind Map. He next could list each of the three dimensions stated in the research objective on “branches” that are attached to the central image. The dimension fields would have “child branches” labeled “Like” and “Dislike” stemming from them. Lastly, flowing from the “Like” and “Dislike” “child branches” would be the main groupings of the respondents surveyed, the age and gender groupings, depending on how well that dimension did with the group. For instance, if 60% or more of respondents in a group liked the product name, that group would be attached to the “Like” “child branch” of the name preference dimension.

The researcher should be as creative as possible when constructing the Mind Map to make it both visually appealing and easy to understand. Put simply, the client should be able to understand the research findings just by looking at the map, without any explanation from the researcher. Attached is a Mind Map showing the stated research example and findings “mapped out” in the manner described.

Easier Delivery of Research Findings to Clients

In the attached example, a Mind Map showing the findings of the research study was constructed using a very simple process. However, as the attached Mind Map exhibits, the findings are clearly identifiable, and are shown in colorful, visual, take-away representations. The inherent clarity and intuitive nature of the Mind Map makes it easy for the researcher to present his or her findings, and give any subsequent recommendations based on these findings. By beginning with a clearly constructed diagram of the findings, the researcher has now made the final step of delivering them to the client much simpler.

Tags: , , , ,
Posted in Uncategorized | No Comments »

« Older Entries