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The first thing you have to decide when you are going to buy a stock is “what price are you comfy with buying it at?” In other words, let’s say you like the idea of buying XYZ and with XYZ trading at 50, you think it has 5 or 6 points of profit in it. Well, that would be great if you could buy it at 50 wouldn’t it? But as experience will show you, very often when you go to buy XYZ it has already moved up a few points. Are you still willing to buy it at 53? See the point?
Well, this is a big problem and it only gets worse with “market orders”. Because of that, we are really against anyone placing a market order to buy a stock, before the market opens. Here is why: Let’s say you call your broker at 8:30 am and tell him you want to buy 500 shares of XYZ “at the market”. You are telling him that 1) you are willing to take XYZ at whatever price it is trading at when your order comes up. Therein lies the problem. Remember we are at the mercy of the market makers (the guys who make a market, or warehouse the stock for us to buy). They are privy to a lot of information folks and one of the biggest advantages they have is that they see all the orders for the particular stock.
So here is a very typical situation. When you told the broker (or placed your online order) to buy XYZ “at the market” you have given the market maker the ability to “fill” you (or in other words execute your order) basically whenever they want. So let’s suppose XYZ opens the next day at 52 (remember you liked it at 50) and instantly runs to 53.50 on all the orders that are getting filled. Now that market maker has your order in his book and you have agreed to let him fill you at “wherever the market is trading”. Let’s say the market maker sees the new orders starting to dry up. So what do you think he will do when the new orders stop coming in?? He will fill your market order is what he will do! So you will get filled at 53.50 even though that is the exact high of the morning and it’s already pulling back. So in a matter of a few minutes, XYZ can be back to 51. but guess what? You own it at 53.50, meaning you are in the hole already. This is unacceptable.
When you place a market order you are putting yourself on the “wheel”, you might call it the “wheel of unfortune”. Basically, the rules state that your order will go on a numerical “wheel” and your order goes on the wheel at the bottom, and one by one as the wheel rotates towards the top, orders are removed and filled. The idea is a “first come,first served” concept like standing in line. But in the real world, it doesn’t work that way all the time. A certain amount of “market orders” are reserved for order execution at the “discretion of the market maker”. Now if he has your order in his hand and he sees a lot of demand for the stock, do you think he will put you in at 52 while he has all these new orders flooding his books, or will he fill them first and when they dry up, use yours? We suggest you know the answer.
So, remember these lessons. First never ever place a stock order “at the market” before the market is open for trading. Your chances of getting the stock you want, even remotely close to where it’s trading is poor at best. We don’t even suggest it while the market is open, but at least you have a “fighting chance” then. Next, buying a stock without getting a “feel” for the trading day is often suicide. In other words, if you send in a market order to buy a stock before the market is open, you are going to get that stock even if the market is in pull back mode and your stock falls like a rock. This is not a wise idea friends.
So we will leave you with this: trying
to buy a stock before the market even gives us a clue as to which way its going to go is a bad idea. Sending in a market order to buy a stock compounds the problem and assures you that you will be pretty disappointed! Next time we will look at the remedy for this problem.
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Then visit our sister site for even more great trading tips at: http://fastprofits.blogspot.com
Copyright 2006 llbglobal
If you’re like me then you are probably wondering how you can make a living working from home. I want to warn you on the dangers involved in starting your own Internet business. If you plan on starting a website then you had better know what you’re doing. Simply creating a website does not mean that you will become rich. If fact, it’s usually the exact opposite. There is a growing trend of people wishing to work for themselves and why not really? Wouldn’t it be nice if you could be your own boss, make your own time schedule. Set your own rules? You can do all of these things but just like with any business you must first have a plan. There are so many scams out there that it can really cloud your judgement when it comes to selecting the right tools for the job. Oh and anyone that thinks they can start an Internet business without tools is crazy. Just because your business will be online doesn’t mean that you will get out of making some kind of investment.
The hard part is really deciding which tools you are going to need and which tools you can live without. Obviously you are going to need accounting software. You are going to need a business license and a business checking or savings account. I would shop around before going to your local bank to see if you can get free business checking. You’ll need to watch expenses and this is one thing you shouldn’t have to worry about.
You’ll also be needing some other tools for instance, a computer or one! Hey if you’re gonna have an Internet business you better be able to get to it right? You will also need to decide if you are going to build your own website. Now I must issue a word of caution, stay away from cookie cutter sites that build a website for you.
Like I said earlier, simply building a website will not bring traffic to your site. This is were it stops being easy and starts getting very diffecult. You’ll have to submit your site to search engines which sounds easy until you understand the rules for how you need to accomplish this. You can’t simply submit a website to a search engine and consider it done. As a matter of fact, you’ll never be done submitting. Most search engines need to be submitted to on a regular basis at least twice a month.
If you aren’t building a website and you have thought of other ways to make money online then good for you! Here are a couple other ways to make money online. You can take surveys online, this can be a decent passion income if you are hooked up with the right company that will show you the ropes. You can try selling on Ebay but remember Ebay may not be right for you because of the added fees and charges you will be required to pay.
Whatever you decide to do I would make sure you look at all of your options. It’s ok to try new things to see if they will work for you. Just be careful and make smart decisions and you will be on your way to a successful business.
To find more easy ways to make money online visit www.linkbrander.com/go/13664
The State of Satellite Internet in 2005
For those businesses unable can’t get T1, Cable or DSL internet service for less than half a year’s Gross Profit, vsat (very small aperture terminal) satellite internet is about the only way to obtain decent internet speed. Over the last two years or so many companies have advertised about upcoming solutions to this issue…after all, the business internet industry is huge and growing by giant leaps each year and there are potential profits out there.
Let’s take a look at what is currently available and what is on the way:
Available Ku Band Enterprise Systems
This is a “catch all” phrase covering the more expensive equipment and service offered by several large uplink comapnies. It is characterized by larger satellite dishes (typically 1.0 meter or larger), more powerful transmitters (at least 2 watts) and less populated transponders than the “residential” or “small business” setup’s available from Direcway, Starband and Wildblue. The result is more consistent, faster service…..what most businesses expect.
There are two general avenues you can take regarding speed and throughput: Shared or dedicated bandwidth - and the difference in price is staggering. For most business applications, shared bandwidth (the less expensive choice) will work fine - giving a company 1.5 kbps downloads and 256 kbps uploads over 90% of the time for prices in the $400-$1500 range. The crucial element of ANY offering is the “contention ratio” - how much they oversell the product or the number of concurrent users they allow on a transponder. Any company that does not put the ratio in writing is not worth doing business with - period…and any company with a contention ratio above 20-1 is not offering you true Enterprise service. With dedicated service (Guaranteed speeds) you will spend over $1,900 per month (up to several thousand per month), but will have service that is nearly bulletproof.
The most tested and dependable Enterprise setup available today in N. America is centered around a modem designed by iDirect Technologies http://www.idirect.net. This is a proven system that will give you what you pay for.
Other systems are coming into the marketplace like the ViaSat Surfbeam DOCSIS setup and another DOCSIS product from Telnor; however, this is very new technology and certainly qualifies as “Bleeding Edge”. Only three companies have the equipment to make it work right now and there are bumps in the road. Surfbeam and Telnor’s big promise is a better utilization of available ku bandwidth, but no field results have confirmed this yet to my knowledge.
If it provides similar speeds during field testing, it will force iDirect to rethink modem pricing as the DOCSIS setup can be installed for about $500-$1,000 less.
Wireless and Satellite Internet Technology On The Horizon
The Satellite Internet world could be turned on it’s head in the coming years as WIMAX emerges. It is a grand plan by Intel and others to cover very large areas of the world with a brand of microwave technology capable of sending data extremely fast to small antennas at homes and businesses. The big difference between WIFI and WIMAX is the distance covered by the main antenna…..the claim is 15-30 miles! Talk about bleeding edge….many of the “Big Boys” including Nokia and Cisco have abandoned plans to invest in it and speak of it as a bad business model to try to replace DSL. They point out that there are currently over 15 “standards” for the technology, not exactly a harmoneous start!
Ka band satellite internet for Enterprise has some real promise. The ability to “reuse” bandwidth, if the concept works, will enable companies to have T1 speeds or greater at any business location for much less than a T1 cost. A unit of SkyTerra Communications - the company managing Hughes Network Systems now, is working on advanced ka band spot beam technology to that end.
The greatest challange facing the satellite internet industry during the next 24 months is figuring out how to make profit…..in the absence of someone finding a business model that can show consistant profit, all of the transponder space allocated to internet will quickly be redeployed to HDTV or other types of profitable communication….bet on it!
About the Author:
Randy Scott has been involved in the bi-directional satellite internet industry from it’s beginning as a Sr. Sales Engineer, consultant and business owner. Randy is the founder of VSAT U.S., a consulting and sales organization, representing the most prestigious satellite internet providers in the America’s. For more information about current VSAT satellite internet offerings including Ka band, visit http://www.vsatus.com or email randy@vsatus.com
The second step in writing articles after you have identified your article topic (Step One) that actually increase Internet traffic and deliver results is to research the key words for both the content and even more importantly for your title. Unless key words are expertly woven throughout the article, the likelikhood of your article being searched for have been greatly diminished.
Locating high traffic and high searched key words are very much like researching those “dreaded” high school and college research reports. Only, you have an advantage that you didn’t have years ago that being Inventory Overture at
http://inventory.overture.com/d/searchinventory/suggestion This free service allows you to type in any word and learn how many times that word was searched during the previous month.
Using a worksheet program, I use Excel, you can begin to create a listing of all pertinent and potential key words. In many cases, this is probably an extension of the keywords that were searched during the first step of locating a relevant topic. This type of harvesting allows you to build some historical information.
Another simpler way is to add a chart at the bottom of your article and start adding words to be checked at Inventory Overture. A rule of thumb for myself is to include at least 10 highly search keywords within each article not including the title.
For example, after determining that the topic is “small business help,” I noticed that small business had 7,410 searches in August while “business or businesses” had 1,730,952 and small business (small businesses) revealed 271,253 searches. By knowing these words or phrases ahead of time, I can begin to frame the content around these specific key words.
Additionally, you can subscribe to various ezines written specifically to Search Enginge Opitimization (SEO) such as one offered by http://www.axandra.com These publications provide additional research and knowledge regarding keywords.
Even though content is said to be king, if you can’t provide the “right” content based upon key words, then readers and potential visitors to your sight will not be interested.
Writing Hint: Build it and they will come is not necessarily the most effective attitude to have.
If you truly wish to connect your passion to your purpose to double your performance, then take some time to research those key words that will truly double the traffic to your website.
Copyright 2005(c) Leanne Hoagland-Smith, www.processspecialist.com
This article may be freely published. Permission to publish this article, electronically or in print, as long as the bylines are included, with a live link, and the article is not changed in any way (grammatical corrections accepted).
Leanne Hoagland-Smith, M.S. CEO of ADVANCED SYSTEMS located outside of Chicago, IL, is the Learning & Process Specialist. With over 25 years of business & education experience, she helps her clients to double their performance. By uniting systems, strategies and people to create loyal internal customers, Leanne delivers ROI solutions in 4 key areas: financials, leadership, relationships and growth & innovation within a variety of industries including education, healthcare, manufacturing and professional services. As co-author of M.A.G.I.C.A.L. Potential: 7 Capacities for Living an Amazing Life Beyond Purpose to Achievement due for 2005 release, Leanne speaks nationally to a variety of audiences. Please contact Leanne at 219.759.5601 or visit http://www.processspecialist.com if you are seeking to connect your passion to your purpose to double your performance for unheard of results.
Do you fear getting up in front of others to speak are you afraid of public speaking? The first thing you need to do is admit it so say it; “I am afraid of public speaking; I fear getting up in front of others to speak!” Okay you said it. Now ask yourself; “Why am I afraid of public speaking?” Think to your self what difference does it make? Are you afraid of what people will think of you, that they will be judging you that they may not approve of you as a person? Or are you more worried that they will disagree with what you have to say or that you will fumble your words, sound unconvincing and turn off the entire group to the subject or concept of your speech?
May I suggest that you contact your local Toastmasters Group in your area and attend a few meetings? The more the better and this will help you over come your fear of getting up in front of a crowd. Public speaking is not easy, yet with the proper help you can over come and never be afraid again, as there is no need to be scared. Practicing your voice inflection and variation is also good so you do not sound monotone when speaking. Public Speaking while not the easiest thing in the world can be done more effectively and compelling with a little practice and like anything else; practice makes perfect. Think on this.
“Lance Winslow” - Online Think Tank forum board. If you have innovative thoughts and unique perspectives, come think with Lance; http://www.WorldThinkTank.net/wttbbs/
I have always loved and played the game of basketball.
Still, on 25 different occasions I was handed the opportunity to take the game winning shot and I missed…
…as my team mate “would you be willing to give me one more opportunity at the game winning shot?”
Would 9000 more missed shots be enough for you to say enough!
You probably wouldn’t have given me another chance and maybe you would have started to look for another player, or would you?
The stats I shared are real.
Just in case you haven’t figured it out, they are not my stats. They are the stats of one of the greatest basketball players ever to play the game: “Michael Jordan!”
Have you missed a few shots or made a few mistakes?
So what, get over it!
Did you know that Jordan was even cut from the varsity team? He didn’t “quit!” He practiced, and often.
Here’s what I know is true. Michael worked hard to become the great player he was.
Was it easy? No! Was there doubt? Yes!
In fact Jordan was convinced as a youth, that until he was taller he wasn’t going to be as good a player as he wanted to be.
Jordan finally learned from his father that practice, determination, and a commitment to playing his best were the ingredients of a champion.
Jordan made the commitment to be a great basketball player. He literally devoted his life to the game.
What about you, what are you committed to?
In your work, are you just going through the motions?
Are you waiting for someone else to give you a chance? Even worse, have you given up and decided that something better isn’t possible.
Either way, there still is another option and it requires you to take a stand. It requires you to “make a commitment to YOU and what you want!”
Take time to consider, are you really committed? If so, what are you committed to?
What is it you want?
You are sitting on a bench facing a basketball court and on the court there are a couple of people each with a basketball.
One person is simply sitting on the court with the ball between their legs, not showing much interest.
The second person is taking one shot after another. Despite the many misses she keeps on shooting.
In fact you can sense that she is a little frustrated with the number of misses.
Who are you more inclined to want to reach out to?
The one who is taking the shots, and out there making an effort.
How different is this scenario from your business or work environment?
If you are the boss, which of your employees are you most likely to offer an opportunity?
If you are an employee, who is it that seems to be given the most opportunities on your job?
(Sure there will be exceptions. Just know that they exist and that they are just that “exceptions!”)
Just like in sports, more often than not, it is the person who is committed to something and who is out there making an effort and taking action that will command the most attention.
Why would it be any different?
After some 2,000 tries, and a year and a half of work he finally found success.
It is one of the most shared stories out there, and as I sit here writing this article I can tell you why.
In a phrase “let there be light!”
The impact from Thomas Edison’s commitment to creating the practical incandescent light bulb has benefited billions of people.
Edison, just like Jordan, was committed to finding a way.
How far are you willing to go to achieve what you want?
Do you even know what you want?
What about you? Is there something keeping you from going all out?
Are you playing, working, and living everyday at 110%?
Both Jordan and Edison were committed!
Each had a vision that kept them going with every failed attempt.
When Jordan was tired and was ready to call it a day, he would close his eyes and see the lockers without his name.
Suddenly, he wasn’t tired.
For Edison it was a lifetime of reading, and learning that inspired him.
Edison was known for saying things like:
“Genius is one per cent inspiration and ninety-nine per cent perspiration.”
“I am not discouraged, because every wrong attempt discarded is another step forward.”
Did Edison stop with the incandescent light bulb, no!
He immediately went to work creating a method, a system, to deliver power to the location of the light bulb.
Without power the light bulb wasn’t much more than a novelty.
Decide what you want and be committed.
Learn what motivates you best and use it.
Don’t worry about having all of the answers. Don’t worry about being the best.
Focus on being consistent!
It is so important to realize that your results are “NOT YOU!” Your results are simply “the results.”
Your results are an indicator for you to either change course or not.
If you don’t like your results then change what you are doing.
Before you can achieve something that is out of the ordinary you must be committed to something more than surviving.
Like Edison said: “Hell, there are no rules here - we’re trying to accomplish something.”
What is it you are wanting to accomplish?
If your trying to do everything, stop!
Pick one thing and do it “EXTREMELY WELL!”
Heck,why not be the best you can be at what you choose?
Being the best you can be doesn’t mean you have to be the most talented.
The world is full of talented and extraordinary people living ordinary lives in quiet desperation, waiting for a miracle.
STOP WAITING!
You always have a choice, it’s your life!
It is always “YOUR CHOICE!”
James B Smith
A Life of Possibility Be Bold, Be Extraordinary, Be You!
Copyright © James B Smith, All Rights Reserved
—————————————————————-
Please Note: The author of this article has authorized its distribution with the requirement that it be published in its entirety, without changes, including the author’s resource box.
Please notify the Author with a copy of your publication.
Are you overworked and stressed? Has your passion given way
to doubt?
James Smith will work with you to create a clear vision and a
powerful plan of action to set you on course to a thriving
business.
James offers a daily podcast “Believing In You!” Start your
day off with insights and inspiration for living an extraordinary
life.
http://www.alifeofpossibility.com/Believing-In-You.htm
Contact James by email james@alifeofpossibility.com or
by phone +1 (405) 570-9217
Just promoted to manager?
Here’s something you need to know.
Whether you are now a business, non-profit or association
manager, your road to success really means achieving your
new managerial objectives by altering perceptions. And I
refer to perceptions leading to changed behaviors among
those key outside audiences of yours that most affect your
new group, department, division or subsidiary. And,
incidentally, key external folks whose behaviors will affect
whether you will be a success in your new role as a manager.
Along the way, hopefully, you’ll not only do something
positive about the behaviors of those important external
audiences of yours that most affect your operation, you’ll
persuade those key outside folks to your way of thinking,
then move them to take actions that allow your department,
group, division or subsidiary to succeed.
Fortunately, others have trod this path before you. Lessons
learned include this one: people act on their own perception
of the facts before them, which leads to predictable
behaviors about which something can be done. When we
create, change or reinforce that opinion by reaching,
persuading and moving-to-desired-action the very people
whose behaviors affect the organization the most, the
public relations mission is usually accomplished.
That approach lets you attend to the perceptions and
behaviors of the very people who could hold your
professional success as a manager in their hands. And
not spend all your time with tactics like special events,
brochures and press releases.
When your PR program goes the way you want, you
should start to see new approaches by capital givers
and specifying sources; fresh proposals for strategic
alliances and joint ventures; prospects starting to do
business with you; welcome bounces in show room
visits; rising membership applications; community
leaders beginning to seek you out; customers making
repeat purchases, not to mention politicians and legislators
viewing you as a key member of the business, non-profit
or association communities.
You are forgiven for wondering just who will perform
these labors. Perhaps an outside PR agency team? Or
people assigned to your operation? Or your own public
relations folks? No matter where they come from, they
must be committed to you and this new PR plan starting
with key audience perception monitoring.
As a brand new manager, you need some back and forth
with your public relations support people to be sure that
those assigned to you are clear on why it’s vital to know
how your most important outside audiences perceive your
operations, products or services. They must accept the
reality that perceptions almost always lead to behaviors
that can help or hurt your operation.
When you talk with them, be clear about how you plan to
proceed, in particular how the perception monitoring and
gathering will proceed by questioning members of your
most important outside audiences. As examples, how much
do you know about our chief executive? Have you had prior
contact with us and were you pleased with the interchange?
How much do you know about our services or products and
employees? Have you experienced problems with our people
or procedures?
It’s expensive to use professional survey firms in the
perception monitoring phases of your program. If the
resources are there, by all means do so. But it should
also be a source of comfort to know that if the budget
is not available, your PR people are also in the perception
and behavior business and can pursue the same objective:
identify untruths, false assumptions, unfounded rumors,
inaccuracies, misconceptions and any other negative
perception that might translate into hurtful behaviors.
The worst distortions you discovered during your key
audience perception monitoring will be no match for the
right kind of PR goal. And that’s because the new goal
will probably call directly for straightening out that
dangerous misconception, or correcting that gross
inaccuracy, or stopping that potentially fatal rumor dead
in its tracks.
HOW to move forward with your new PR effort is always
challenging, especially when it comes to selecting the right
strategy to tell you how to get where you want to be. Keep
in mind that there are just three strategic options available to
you when it comes to handling a perception and opinion
challenge. Change existing perception, create perception
where there may be none, or reinforce it. Since the wrong
strategy pick will taste like butterscotch sauce on your
antipasto, assure yourself that the new strategy fits
comfortably with your new public relations goal. You
don’t want to select “change” when the facts dictate a
“reinforce” strategy.
Here’s a case where strong language can be an asset, because
someone on your PR staff must write a strong message and aim
it at members of your target audience. Obviously, crafting
action-forcing language to persuade an audience to your way
of thinking really is hard work. Which is why you need your
first-string varsity writer because s/he must create some very
special, corrective language. Words that are not only
compelling, persuasive and believable, but clear and factual
if they are to correct something and shift perception/opinion
towards your point of view leading to the behaviors you are
targeting.
With all that a new manager has to do to get oriented to the new responsibility, you’ll be relieved that one of the less complex
jobs is selecting the communications tactics most likely to carry
your message to the attention of your target audience. You can
do this after you check out the draft message with your PR
people for impact and persuasiveness. There are dozens of
tactics available to you. From speeches, facility tours, emails
and brochures to consumer briefings, media interviews,
newsletters, personal meetings and many others. But be sure
that the tactics you pick are known to reach folks just like your
audience members.
Another caveat, you may decide to unveil your message
before smaller meetings and presentations rather than using
higher-profile news releases. The reason: a message’s
believability can depend on the credibility of the means
used to deliver it.
Consider it your signal to begin a second perception
monitoring session with members of your external audience,
when the subject of progress reports arises. Many of the same
questions used in the first benchmark session can be used
again. But now, you will stay alert for signs that the problem
perception is being altered in your direction.
Also keep in mind that if your program suffers a loss
of momentum, you can always speed up things by adding
more communications tactics, and increasing their frequencies.
Brand new managers often are anxious for positive results
on their new job and, to that end, they had best worry more
about external audience behaviors than exploding out of
the gate with tactical broadsides.
Please feel free to publish this article and resource box
in your ezine, newsletter, offline publication or website.
A copy would be appreciated at bobkelly@TNI.net.
Robert A. Kelly © 2005.
Bob Kelly counsels, writes and speaks to business, non-profit and
association managers about using the fundamental premise of public
relations to achieve their operating objectives. He has been DPR,
Pepsi-Cola Co.; AGM-PR, Texaco Inc.; VP-PR, Olin Corp.; VP-PR,
Newport News Shipbuilding & Drydock Co.; director of communi-
cations, U.S. Department of the Interior, and deputy assistant press
secretary, The White House. He holds a bachelor of science degree
from Columbia University, major in public relations.
mailto:bobkelly@TNI.net
Visit:http://www.prcommentary.com
I am about to give you one of the most important keys to success
in any area of life. It will keep your motivation high and help
you to stay on target.
Reward yourself.
Reward yourself for achieving your goals, every step of the way.
When you take a step forward, reward yourself. When you hit a
milestone, give yourself a bigger reward.
When you complete the final step, have a huge personal party!
Let me break this down for you so you can apply this in your own
life:
Each year I set a number of goals which are meaningful to me. I
would recommend everyone do the same.
Some goals are a reward in themselves. For instance, taking
your wife to Hawaii for our anniversary is a goal AND a reward.
Some goals are good and meaningful, just not much fun-like
losing 50 pounds. Huge goal, important, but not much fun (at
least, not until you get there.)
For goals which are not in themselves rewarding, give yourself
rewards each step of the way, in proportion to the effort needed
to accomplish that piece of the goal.
First, take the annual goal-lose 50 pounds-and decide on a
reward for accomplishing it: A trip to the mountains for the
weekend.
Next take the annual goal and decide what you can accomplish
this quarter and set up a reward for that as well: When you
lose 13 pounds this quarter and you will reward yourself with
two new outfits.
Then take the quarterly goal and break it down into what you
will accomplish THIS month, creating a reward for that: When you
lose 5 pounds this month, you will get a subscription to that
magazine you want.
Finally, each week set a goal for that week and give yourself a
reward for that as well: When you lose 2 pounds this week, you
will reward yourself with a “movie night.”
Then keep pictures of the rewards in front of you all the
time-on your computer wallpaper, around the house, in your car.
Focus on the immediate reward: Losing 2 pounds and getting a
movie night.
This method helps me and thousands of others to stay motivated
and focused toward succeeding with our goals.
If you would like more information on how you can be more
successful in every area of life, put to work this free download:
http://www.All-In-One-Business.com/getdirection
Copyright 2004
by Kevin Bidwell
Kevin Bidwell is owner of http://www.all-in-one-business.com
Kevin is offering a FREE BUSINESS START-UP KIT to everyone
who visits his site. If you liked this article, you will
want to subscribe to his newsletter. To subscribe visit:
http://www.All-In-One-Business.com/subscribe
Geez, time flies so fast. We are already in 2006. What have you achieved last year so far? Have you started an internet business, have you promoted your existing business to new levels or have you just sit back? If you are at all serious about building a real internet business which can pay your bills every month, can pay your vacations while allowing you to make money even while you are sleeping or sipping a margherita on the beach, you need to read this now. This article is in no way an exhaustive list of everything you should do to run a successful business but it outlines the important things you should do so that you’ll be able to start, build and run a profitable online business.
If you are not working on your internet business regularly, you are not going to progress. If you are still procrastinating about starting an online business but always hesitant, you are never going to make it online. Remember how times flies so fast and if you consider 1 year has already gone by and you haven’t done anything, just think about how many things you would have achieved if you have started this business 1 year ago. I can tell you, lots and lots and you probably could be enjoying an incoming success right now no matter how small it is.
If you are among the very few to get an income online, it’s already a big thing because 90-99% of people who start venturing online in the hope of earning a revenue fail. There are many factors that could be the reason for failure like not working hard enough on your business, not motivated enough, discouraged on the first obstacle, not automating, targeting the wrong market, low quality products, not enough web traffic, poor sales copy, unprofessional website, lack of knowledge etc… the list goes on and on.
You don’t just need knowlegde but you need to take action as well either when you are starting an internet business or promoting an existing one. To make it simpler for you, here is a list of things you might consider to do regularly to get your business running successfully or to get you started on the right track:
(1) Publish A Newsletter
It has been said again and again in many articles that having your own newsletter or ezine is a lucrative way to run an Internet business. Why? Simply because people who are in your list regularly receive your emails and valuable information and have known to trust you with time. As a result, when you have a valuable product offer for them, do you think they will listen to your advice or from someone they haven’t heard before. You guess it. Because you’re the one who cares for them by providing them value, special offers, you have a loyal readership who are eager to know what you have for them and who will buy from you again and again. Your business might be completely destroyed but if you still have your valuable opt in email list, your business is still alive.
This is why it’s fundamental that you keep building your list no matter what. After many years, you’ll be surprised how your newsletter will grow if you are getting traffic to your website of course. But what counts is not really the size of the list but rather the quality of your subscribers. You can have only 1000 high quality subscribers on your list and just one product recommendation can be worth thousands of dollars in your pocket. On the other hand, you can have 100,000 subscribers but what if the majority are not of high quality for eg you haven’t provided them with much value and always bombard them with offers, your sales might suffer.
(2) Get high quality inbound links on an ongoing basis
The Internet is a network of websites and links and the more links you have, the more traffic you’ll get in general. This is why it’s imperative that you set your time everyday to get a few valuable links. By doing this regularly, you’ll build a large quantity of them and you will reap the rewards in many ways you can imagine. First of all, you will get traffic from these links alone and the more prominent these links are, the more traffic you’ll get. Secondly, your search engine rankings will soar.
You can request reciprocal links from websites who share the same theme as yours or more or less related, this is still good to have because the traffic will be targeted. You can also advertise on other websites via text advertising. Writing articles is also a very profitable method to get incoming links, just one quality article can be worth 100 links and more, it’s really possible if you consider many websites publishing your article. After you write your article, be sure to submit it to high traffic article directories or make special requests to popular websites to use your article which is related to their theme. Here is a small list of good article banks or article directories.
http://www.ezinearticles.com (My Favorite)
http://www.site-reference.com
http://www.articlesfactory.com
http://www.articlecity.com
(3) Automate your business
If you aren’t automating your business, you will get discouraged in the long run and won’t be motivated to continue. Save time, money and hassles with automation. If you are selling your own products, you might want to get a third party payment processor like ClickBank(For digital products like ebooks and software) at http://www.clickbank.com, 2checkout at http://www.2checkout.com, iBill at http://www.ibill.com amongst others.
If you are publishing your own newsletter, use an autoresponder service like GetResponse at http://www.getresponse or Aweber at http://www.aweber.com to automatically add and remove subscribers, broadcasting emails and many more.
(4) Update your website with new articles or content regularly
Having an updated site will get you repeat visitors and search engines love fresh content, hence they will visit your website on a regular basis and index your pages which can be the source of future traffic. Be sure to have at least some unique content on your website. You can create a page with a list of articles and you should regularly update this page with new articles or content. By adding articles on a regular basis, you are building more routes to your website.
Articles are rich in keywords and they will generate small loads of traffic to your website from the search engines. Every article has the potential to drive traffic and imagine you have lots of them, you can have a nice and constant flow of targeted traffic.
(5) Add adsense code on your website
If you are not using adsense yet, you still have time to use it. Adsense is not outdated yet and is still a major source of income for many marketers. Just blend the adsense ad format between your content and generate some revenue which can easily cover your web hosting fees and much more. Get a free account at http://www.google.com/adsense. Build a useful site with about 20-30 pages and get approved.
(6) Advertise your site on the pay per click search engines
Not many people like to pay for traffic but it might get you started much faster if you are just beginning. Drive traffic to your website according to your budget and don’t spend too much than you can afford. Bid on many related keywords that do not cost too much. Go to Yahoo! Search Marketing at http://www.overture.com or Google AdWords at http://www.google.com/adwords to open an account.
(7) Add and promote affiliate products on your website
If you have some space on your website, why not capitalize on this by promoting an affiliate product. You might get some sales just by placing a link to someone else product. And you can always change to see which works best and which ones are selling.
(8) Create your own products
If you have the skills to develop your own products be it a real book, an ebook, a software etc… it’s a wise decision to get started. All the knowledge you have in your brain right now can be worth a fortune to some people. There are no shortage of newbies online and these people won’t mind to pay for information that they can get in a single place rather than having to search everywhere on the web to collect tidbits of information here and there. Having your own product usually means more success for you because you keep 100% of the profits and you can recruit affiliates to sell for you as well. The major inconvenience is customer service but who cares if your business is running successfully. You can hire someone later on to do this for you as well and teach him/her about your business.
(9) Sell advertising on your website
If you have a successful website running, why not capitalize on the extra space on your website to sell some advertising be it banner or text. Many people want to gain more exposure for their websites and if you provide some advertising services, there might be some who will be interested. Some of the advertising plans you can consider are monthly, quarterly and yearly. You can even give discounted prices for long periods.
Well here is a brief list about your resolutions for this year. Implement it and I guarantee you will see some difference in your internet business. The key to success is to be persistent if you know what you’re doing is right. If you are planning to stay in your online business on a long term basis, you should treat it seriously, a business that can even enabled you to earn a living online.
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Would you really dare to give each client a gift of $500 this Christmas? What about something worth $2000? Or maybe $5000?
You think I’m joking right? I mean, here you are struggling with your 50 cent marketing budget and I’m giving you the key to your bankruptcy. At Christmas time, too!
Step up to the roller coaster and you’ll find out how Marie beat the system with some simple, yet smart marketing tactics and how you can too. Yeah, just like that…
Marie Ain’t No Santa Claus!
Nope! She’s just like you and me.
She can do the Ho! Ho! Ho bit, until she’s faced with the prospect of expensive client gifts. Oh sure she wants to revel in the spirit of giving, but her bank balance is screaming for some mouth to mouth resuscitation. And that’s something she can’t ignore.
What’s Worse Is Marie’s Clients Probably Won’t Even Like The Gifts!
Look at yourself. Did you really like that burgundy sweater you got last year? Or that gift basket full of calorie-ridden chocolates that made you wish you hadn’t seen them at all.
Let’s face it. Murphy’s Law, kicks in bigger and bolder at this time of the year than any other. On average (and often because you’re buying gifts in bulk) you’re giving your client a gift that’s so far off the mark that you might as well throw it in your own trash can and save him the trouble.
How Can Marie Play Scrooge And Santa Simultaneously?
There’s one simple concept every business ignores. It’s called Spare Capacity. Hotels are never totally booked, flights are never quite packed to the gills, and by golly, most businesses like yours and mine (no matter how busy) always have some free space and time.
Marie could use this factor to her advantage. If she approached my business, these are the steps she would logically follow.
1-2-3, Cha, Cha, Cha (Here Are The Steps!)
Step 1: It’s all in the way Marie puts it. If she simply asked me to speak to her clients, I might decline, but if she made it extremely tantalizing, I’d be only too willing.
“How would you like to meet with 20 new clients, that would be very keen to do business with you?”
That kind of question would get my curiosity wound up pretty quickly. She can then explain how she would be introducing me to 20 of her top clients. All I had to do was offer each of them an hour of my time. If I did a good job, I would get a whole bunch of new clients that would be quite eager to meet me.
Let’s say I charge $500 for a consultation. Marie could qualify her clients well, and give them each a voucher to meet up with me. In this consultation, they would have the opportunity to throw me any of their marketing issues and I would have the chance to wow them with my fancy footwork.
Step 2: Once we’re in agreement, she would create a voucher that she can give to her clients. This voucher offers them the specified time at my convenience (I only need to meet them in my free time). This voucher would offer them the benefit of some radical, unusual marketing either via the net, phone or in person. To make the deal sweeter, Marie could offer me 20 hours of her time to meet my clients.
Step 3: We give these vouchers to our respective clients for Christmas. We tell them that we’ve bought them a gift that will help them tremendously in their business and that the gift is worth $500 or $2000, as the case may be.
Any one of those solutions would be worth anything from $200 to $20,000, depending on what the client did with the idea.
How does that compare with your $20 gift right now?
Where Do You Start Looking?
There are no rules. Just because you sell product, it doesn’t mean you have to do this Christmas swap with products.
If you sell products like beds, start looking at chiropractors, massage therapists, interior designers. If you look around you, you will find dozens of businesses that will be more than willing to play Christmas gift if there is something in it for them.
If you sell services…ditto. Look for services as well as products. Every one has spare capacity. Services are most highly valued because they’re abstract and based on the person themselves, but you can find products that are sitting in someone’s warehouse and they’d be glad for you to take them off their hands, in return for access to your top clients.
Best of all, this solves the problem of the suitability of the gift. Wouldn’t a business be more excited by a highly prized service than another daily planner?
Why This Concept May Not Work For You
Marie, has got to make sure that I give solid information in the consulting session to her clients. Sales pitches are a no-no. Your swap must be a REAL gift, not some shoddily disguised sales pitch.
Pick your Christmas Partners carefully. A lot could go wrong here if all they’re seeing is dollar signs.
The second reason why this may not work for you is sheer laziness. You might find it easier to step into a gift shop and blow $1000 on gifts for your clients. It’s easy and it beats having to knock on doors and trudge through snow or sun (depending on where you live on the planet).
Hopefully You’re Not That ‘Duh!’
When you give your gift, all you’re doing is trying to make your current client happy (and that’s great!). With Marie’s concept, you’re actually getting a chance to meet another 20 new clients.
Say that quietly to yourself: Twenty new clients without you having to do any selling. You don’t even have to spend any advertising or marketing moolah to get them in the door. Best of all, they will actually be grateful to have you over.
Does that send a chill down your spine? What if you could do this deal with three people just like Marie? Would 80 appointments be good enough for you?
Are You Going To Have a great NEW YEAR Or What?
No one ever told you about Santa Scrooge did they? Well, now that you know, what are you going to do about it? This rocks, my friend. Now go there and create a New Year that’s really worth big bucks in your balance sheet.
If you do, the next time your banker hears Ho! Ho! Ho, he knows it’s not Santa!
Wouldn’t you love to stumble upon a secret library of small business ideas? Find simple, yet electrifying ideas on marketing strategy,psychological tactics and branding. Judge for yourself when you read these small business ideas.