Friday, September 28, 2007

The secrets of Jordan's success

Confounding those cynics who might have thought there were only two, admittedly significant, things behind Jordan's success, three if you count Peter Andre's nuzzling head, which you don't, The Star reveals no less than 6 top tips for super-stardom, straight from the horse's mouth so to speak. It might actually be worth paying attention, you know - her empire is worth, would-you-ken-it, £30million. Click 'continue' for her steps to success!

DIVERSITY
“I like challenging myself. I’ve got a whole range of things in the pipeline – my hair range comes out in October, I’ve got my clothing range, my make-up and my bed linen.
“My books have been No 1s and my perfume has been No 1 and sold out – though new stock will be in stores very in soon! There will also be gift sets out for Christmas.”

LOVE WHAT YOU DO
“It helps that I’m really interested in what I’m doing. I love doing the PR around it and I love doing the signings and meeting people.
“And I love to work. I still enjoy modelling – particularly my own lingerie range, which is really doing well – and I couldn’t be happier with my books.”

DON’T FORGET YOUR ROOTS
“However big I become, I never forget how I started out as a 17-year-old model. It took me a year before I made any money. I’ll never forget my roots. That’s where I started and I don’t regret a minute of it. I would never knock it.”

DON’T LET WORK OVERTAKE YOUR LIFE
“My family is my No 1 priority and always will be. With my career and my work I hope they’ll have the lifestyle I’ve got. But I’m not a lazy person – I love to work. We’ve got a good management team who look after me and Pete, and they arrange our schedules so we probably see more of our kids than most people with full-time jobs.”

DON’T TAKE LIFE TOO SERIOUSLY
“I think people like me because I’m honest and I can take the piss out of myself. I do take my business very seriously but I also like to have fun, and I’ve always been very humble. I still worry about whether people will turn up to my book signings.”

DETERMINATION
“Whatever I do, I make it happen because I’m determined. I have to keep proving myself to everyone, but I like that.
“I always say to people, ‘If there’s something you want to do, don’t stop, because you can do it.’ Being married shouldn’t be an excuse, having no money shouldn’t be an excuse. If there’s something you want to do, go and do it. That’s what I did.
“My aim in life is to conquer the world. And I’m halfway there! Remember, there’s only one Jordan!”
»

Wednesday, September 26, 2007

Secrets of the Top Internet Gurus: Here’s How to Grow Internet Business Profits.

Internet Guru Marketing 101: 8 Money Making Tips for Internet Businesses

( EMAILWIRE.COM, September 25, 2007 ) Farmington, Michigan –- If Internet Marketers follow these tips then they will make the money they want!

Money Making Tip #1: Creating a good product. Internet Marketers shouldn’t just create a product that they think will sell well. Instead, they should research their niche market and find out what people want. An Internet Marketer should survey the people in his niche to find his potential customers most pressing problems. They should create a product that is the only solution to their problem.

Another option is that they could create a product that trumps a similar product already out in the market place. If Internet Marketers do this, they must make sure to convey to potential customers why their product is an improved version of another product.

Money Making Tip #2: There are two ways to increase profit. Internet Marketers can increase profits through increasing sales or decreasing expenses. It should be easier for them to decrease expenses. Then, they need to figure out how to minimize overhead, and find out where they have trivial expenses they can eliminate.

Money Making Tip #3: To make the most money possible Internet Marketers need to have money coming in from a variety of sources. Their goal should be to have multiple streams of income. For example, they can make money from eBooks, coaching, teleseminars, and so on.

Money Making Tip #4: Internet Marketers need to look at their background, experience, and expertise. They need to create products based on what they know and what they are passionate about. When Internet Marketers work in a niche that they are more passionate about, that will drastically improve their chance of success.

Money Making Tip #5: Internet Marketers should write a book as their first informational product. Brainstorm 25 topics that their niche customers would be interested in. If their scared about writing a book, they should strive to write 2-4 pages a day and they will be done in no time. They should make sure to have the book edited and use a print-on-demand company such as Book Surge to print their book.

Money Making Tip #6: Internet Marketers should repurpose their material to make more money. They can write a sales letter based on their audio content. Pull out the bullet points from their content and convert it into a killer sales letter.

Money Making Tip #7: Internet Marketers should outsource writing tasks to freelancers on websites such as Elance.com. For example, if they don’t want to write their book then they can have a Freelance Writer write it for them. They will often find freelancers that provide great service and they will be able to utilize their services on a consistent basis.

Money Making Tip #8: Traditional books always trump eBooks. It doesn’t matter if the books are on the same topic; a traditional paper book still holds more credibility than an eBook. So Internet Marketers should make sure to have traditional paper books in their line of products.

Additional tips to creating their own wealth include: Follow the piles of cash. Find people who have successfully www.promotingtips.com [created wealth] and learn from them. "Matt Bacak, the powerful promoter, is the person who has done just that in business and is leading expert on how to achieve quick and easy success" said Ralph Marcus Maupin Jr. (Mark Maupin) co-founder of National Real Estate Network and PrEasy.com LLC.

Remember, it's not only what they know, but who they learn it from. Learn from someone who is more successful then you. Learn the tricks of the trade and www.powerfulpromoter.com [internet marketing tips] from someone that has actually built wealth and not just written a book about it. Forget the past. It does not matter who they are or where they came from. Everyone deserves to be a millionaire.

Contact Information:
Stephanie Bunn
2935 Horizon Park Drive, Suite D
Suwanee, GA 30024
(770) 271-1536
www.internetmillionairemind.com

Monday, September 24, 2007

Home Business Scams That You Should Avoid

With so many home business opportunities pouring into the internet that continuously offering guaranteed success programs and home business solutions, more people are starting to look into the internet to start a home business as a means of supporting their families. Unfortunately, individuals preying on the needs of others are making many offers for home business opportunities. Many internet users are finding their inboxes deluged with offers of making bog money with little or no work. Secrets to making big money on the internet are available from many different companies, offered only after they "unlocked the secret" of hitting it big on the internet.

In most of the internet websites attempting to get people to send money for a guaranteed successful business, will be filled with success stories about ordinary people who were nearly broke and facing bankruptcy until they signed up for this program. After signing the program, now they have more money than they know how to spend and they offer enthusiasm thanks to the person who unveiled the tricks to making an obscene amount of money for doing nothing.

There are a few aspects of internet advertising for money making opportunities that should raise red flags and sound some loud bells before sending any money or worse, entering your credit card information.

Beware of limited Time Offer Deals that will expire in a couple of hours, if not in minutes. People needing to find a home business are often duped into signing up for a worthless program, wanting to make sure they secure their place in line before the opportunity is gone. Go back and visit the site later in the day or even a day or a week later, and chances are the same ad will be there with the same time limit warning. Some programs accumulated hundreds and thousands of downline that goes under you that guarantee commission if you secure your place immediately, otherwise it will be gone.

Read through the entire offering in the initial ad and when you reach the end, go back and read it again. Usually there is nothing to indicate what product or service you will be selling to your friends and neighbors. If, after reading the ad a third time you still have no idea what the company is offering, close the page and delete from your online history.

It is not unusual for companies offering what amounts to a franchise for their business to request money up front. Legitimate brick and mortar businesses have been doing it for years and it's an acceptable practice. However, before you opt in to a program, find out exactly what you will get for your investment. If it is only the right to use the name, move on. If the company wants you to pay for training materials that may be the only thing you get for your investment.

Ask for contact information about those in the testimonials to get your own take on their success. Chances are that will be "confidential" information and not available. Additionally, contact information for the company wanting you to send money now should be clearly available in their website. Hiding behind an email address is a common ploy for those looking to take your money and offer nothing substantial in return. It's your money they want, demand answers before sending it.
by EditorsChoice

Tuesday, September 18, 2007

The Top 20 Most Powerful Secrets to Getting Rich

In life and in particular business, there are those individuals that excel to superstar levels and make millions upon millions of dollars. And likewise, there are some who struggle for years and make little if any money at all. Most of us people are somewhere in the middle ground between the two. The real difference between the successful people and those who are not is that the successful people know something that the others do not know. These are the so called secrets to success

Regardless of what business you are in, you should always try to emulate the superstars or mentors. Go find them and make them your friends. Read everything about them that you can get your hands on. Do what the superstars are doing. Do not re-invent the wheel. Just take their strategies and methods and use them without deviation. That is not to say that you will immediately vault up to superstar status, but your results will almost certainly improve. It is a law that if you copy and paste the successful people you will get similar results irrespective of who you are.

Some of the powerful secrets that the superstars know and practice are as follows:

* The market comes first: You must think about the group of people you want to serve. For example, the people struggling with being overweight. The product or service that you want to give them comes second. Go for a very big market with lot of people who desperately want something in their lives. They cannot do without it. It is like life and death to them.

* You must get the right kind of people who can help you. You cannot do it alone. Successful people pay talented people to take care of the details on their numerous websites. They pay others to take care of the more mundane day-to-day issues. This frees up their time to work on items that they believe to be more important, like advertising and marketing.

* Fight fear and adversity: Successful people set goals and a plan on how to reach those goals. Then they get down to do what they have to do inspite of fear, worry, frustrations and disapointments. Nobody is sure about tomorrow so you must focus on your goals and have faith that you will reach them.

* Succesful people know the simple formula for making the largest amount of money in the fastest period of time with the least amount of effort. For example, it takes the same amount of effort to make a $50 commission as compared to a $5,000 commission.

Success is sometimes based on the fine details. Watch for the details. Try going into different small markets one at a time. First concentrate all of your efforts in a single area, then when it has made you money, hire somebody to maintain it for you or automate it. Then move on to another niche market. By diversifying your business among several different sectors, your chances of achieving success are considerably better.

Put in a lot of effort work and always follow the leaders. I you do this you will watch your Internet business explode with massive profits. Realize that there is no substitute for real hard work. Those who succeed put in a lot of time into growing their business. They fought very hard to get where they are now. Most have worked very hard and earned every penny they have.

So, again, imitate those ultra successful individuals who have made piles and piles of cash and someday, people new to the business will emulate you.

Written by EditorsChoice

Monday, September 17, 2007

The 8 secrets that made the Model T No. 1

By Frank Hayes

Mike Elgan has a nice analysis of the secrets of Apple's success, and Mike says he wants PC makers and consumer electronics companies to "steal those secrets so they can start making better products."

But those other companies are likely to be leery of that -- and maybe with good reason. Some of what Apple does is tied to certain kinds of products, or being first to market, or preexisting brand associations. Just because it makes Apple successful doesn't mean anyone else can drink the same elixir and get the same results.

Which brings me to Henry Ford and his Model T. Here's a guy in a different era with a different kind of product who found his own success secrets. And they worked, maybe even better than Apple's -- in a few years, Ford went from being a little nobody in the automobile business to selling half the cars in the U.S.

What would Henry Ford have thought of Steve Jobs's secrets?

Secret 1: Engineering supports design -- no exceptions

They agree. Henry Ford wasn't selling Apple-style "experience" -- his design goal was to make a car his own workers could afford to buy. The ownership experience was ownership. But all Ford's engineering was still focused on that design goal. No useless geegaws, nothing that made it more complex or harder to operate or maintain.

Secret 2: Fewer is better

They agree. If anything, the Model T offered even fewer variations than Apple's products. Long before iPod white there was Model T black. Again, the marketing goal was different -- Apple reduces consumer stress, Ford reduced cost -- but either way, the rule holds up.

Secret 3: The experience is the product

They agree -- in principle. But in practice, Apple's and Ford's approaches were at opposite ends of the spectrum. Apple's even-before-it-comes-out-of-the-box approach extends the product experience to make it distinctive from its competitors. By its heyday, the Model T had no competitors in its price range -- once again, ownership was the experience.

Secret 4: The product is the product

They agree -- but hold on. For Apple, the iPod would be nothing without iTunes. That service is part of the user experience, and a big reason competitors haven't been able to knock it off the mountain. For Apple, the product is the experience, and the experience includes the services -- it' just that Apple focuses on the product that the customer takes out of a box. For Ford's Model T, the customer might never see a Ford dealer again. The product really was the product.

Secret 5: You can't please everyone, so please people with good taste

They disagree. "Targeting the low end cheapens the brand," Mike Elgan says. Maybe -- or maybe it makes it a market-dominating icon. Apple goes for the top end of the market. Ford went for everyone who couldn't afford the equivalent of $20,000 in today's money for a car, and made the Model T "the automobile for the rest of us."

Secret 6: Leave the past behind

They disagree -- sort of. The Model T wasn't a radical departure in physical design -- it had four wheels, a gasoline engine and all the parts in the expected places. Apple has the option of completely reinventing the wheel with new products. But Henry Ford did reinvent the manufacturing process in order to create that low-priced car -- he wasn't afraid to reorganize his factories, pick his workers differently and pay them more to get the results he wanted. (Side note: Interestingly, Steve Jobs tried to reinvent the computer manufacturing process when he built his automated factory in Fremont, Calif., for Next. That didn't work out.)

Secret 7: Product names are important. Really important

They agree. T is even simpler and more iconic than iSomething.

Secret 8: Group affiliation is the driver

They disagree. Not all products can be sold as "cool" -- and anyone who's ever seen a Model T sitting next to one of its more luxurious contemporaries wouldn't call a Tin Lizzie "cool" (I recommend the Henry Ford Museum in Dearborn, Mich., for that very experience).

Still, with different products, different markets and different eras, Ford and Jobs share a frighteningly large collection of success secrets.

Lucky for them, none of their competitors seem to be able to figure this stuff out...

Tuesday, September 11, 2007

7 Unknown Success Secrets Revealed

Hari Qumar
September 10, 2007

Who would not like to be successful in life in whatever one does? Every person would like to reach the heights of success. But, as it is rightly said “Success does not come overnight to anyone.” One has to work hard for it, have lot of patience to reap the fruits of hard labor. There are few guidelines which will help you pave a wonderful path to your ultimate success.

Let us know about them in detail.

1. Do what you are good at: Do the work that you love doing the most, even if it is web designing or just painting in order to gain success. You should not take up the job in which you are not good at or something that you are forced to take just because you need to satisfy your superiors. Don’t try to become a ‘Jack of all trades’ by learning all the latest technologies and ‘Master of none’. It is rightly said, “Make your passion your profession, money will follow you.” This means, do the job that you are passionate about, that you feel good doing it, where you get immense satisfaction doing it. Then this particular profession does not remain monotonous any longer, but it is now fun for you and you feel nice and satisfied in doing the job.

2. Be prepared to learn and to be positive: By becoming a ‘Jack of all trades’ and ‘Master of none’, I sincerely do not mean to offend you or stop you from learning new technologies. Because, the more you learn, the more you gain. The more you gain it is good for you as a whole. Infact there is no specific age limit for learning. Learning is an infinite process. A person learns at every stage of his life for achieving success. The moment, you feel you have learnt enough or you stop learning, you tend to indirectly limit your growth as a person.

Also, one needs to remain positive always. You must always keep a positive outlook towards whatever you do in life. As it is rightly said, “There is light at the end of the tunnel”. So, never think negative towards anything in life as a negative thought always kills you from within which is not good for your health in order to be successful.

3. Always be an innovative individual: You should always try to be an innovative person. Try to learn something new as this will increase your knowledge about the subject. Don’t be a ‘Run-in-the-Mill”. By this I mean, do not be repetitive. As this will only create fatigue within you and hamper your path to success. It is said that we should not break the rules. But in order to be innovative, one has to go beyond the rules laid. Rules only bind the person within the limits. But in order to be innovative, you have to go berserk.



4. Learn to invest not just money but your time, effort and resources, too:

Suppose you think of buying some business. And you put in your money into it. Once you are successful in purchasing the business you may think of sitting quiet, thinking that now my business will be run by the people working in it. This means, you are neglecting your people, your business. But, this should not be the case. You have to put in your time and effort for running your business and also talk to your people who are working for you. You need to know, what is going on in the organization. You need to take an active interest in the day-to-day activities of the organization. This is how you will come to know about your business, your people and learn to gain success in life.

5. Learn to set your goals and targets. Be persistent: One should be a target oriented person in life. You should learn to set your goals and targets in the work that you are doing. As life without goals, targets and ambition is a waste. It is like “Shooting an arrow in the dark”. When you set up your goals, you tend to work towards it in order to be successful. Be persistent in whatever work you do. Do not give up if you are not able to achieve your goal the first time and you fail. If you are able to achieve your goal, the very first time, then you do not come to know the true value of success. As rightly said, “Try and try again, until you succeed”. And, “When the going gets tough, the tough gets going”. So, one should never give up in order to be successful in life. Remember “Perseverance always pays”.


6. Learn to manage your time effectively: You should learn to manage your time effectively. As “A second lost is lost forever”. You should be able to complete all the given work within the stipulated time. Time management is the key to one’s success. One, who can manage his time well, has learnt the key to achieve success in his life.

7. Learn to give back to society what you amass, as you grow: Being rich and wealthy though look like they mean the same, (that is to accumulate more riches, money) but they are totally different. Being rich means where you accumulate more riches, money with yourself, but being wealthy means to distribute the wealth that you have accumulated back to the society. As you are living in the society and it is this same society that has helped you to become rich. So, it is one’s duty and responsibility to give back to the society what you have amassed in order to gain the real success. One should learn to be wealthy in order to be successful in life and not a rich person alone.

So, what are you waiting for? Go on! Apply these 7 principles of success in life to be really successful in whatever work you do.

UEFA EURO 2008 Austria-Switzerland

Monday, September 10, 2007

Special Report: Real Estate Magnate Shares Secrets to his Success

Orlando, Fla.—“Take good care of your employees and they’ll take care of you” is a well-known adage, but one that Harris Rosen, president & COO of Rosen Hotels & Resorts, Florida’s largest independent hotel company, takes to heart. Rosen operates a medical center for the employees of his seven Orlando-area hotels—an innovative idea that fosters employee loyalty while also saving money.

“In this business, where you’re serving others, employees have to feel their best,” Rosen noted. “Our philosophy has always been to treat our associates with great kindness.”

Rosen shared his cost-effective management strategies with attendees at Multi-Housing World, which is being held at his newest property, the one-year-old Rosen Shingle Creek Resort.

Rosen keeps a close watch on his properties, inspecting each one once a month. “It’s important to let your people know you care about your properties,” he said.

To find out what’s really going on, Rosen also schedules a lunch once a week with hourly associates in a certain department in one of his hotels. “You can’t find out the truth from behind a desk,” he noted.

Rosen has embraced “green” strategies, such as replacing incandescent light bulbs with compact fluorescents, tinting windows to reduce heat absorption, installing light sensors and water-saving devices. He expects annual savings to be $500,000.

“The nice thing about green is that you don’t necessarily have to be an [ardent] environmentalist,” Rosen said. “There is a direct connection between green and profits or losses; I believe, the greener, the more profitable.”

Any regrets over the years? None, he said. “Even incredibly stupid decisions were valuable,” Rosen said. “I learned to think through things differently.” He also pointed out that he had to sacrifice to achieve his goals but “if you have a passion for something, you’ll put in the effort required.”

Rosen earned his Bachelor of Science degree in 1961 from the School of Hotel Administration at Cornell University, and then served three years in the United States Army as an officer in Germany and South Korea. He began his career in sales in New York City at the prestigious Waldorf-Astoria Hotel, where his father had also worked.

Eventually, Rosen joined the Disney Co. in California as director of hotel planning, and then moved to Orlando when the company began work on Disney World. After parting ways with Disney, he became his own boss, buying the 256-room Quality Inn on International Drive in 1974.

With Rosen Shingle Creek, the company now owns more than 6,300 guest rooms in central Florida, approximately six percent of the area's total rooms.

A few years ago, he donated land and provided funding to build the University of Central Florida’s Rosen College of Hospitality Management.

By Teresa O’Dea Hein, Managing Editor

Five Great Money Books for Young Adults

So you want to learn more about personal finance but don't know where to begin? Finding information is not a problem. The amount of advice out there is overwhelming, especially when you're first starting out and aren't sure exactly what you're looking for -- or what you're doing. The trick is to find those gems of wisdom that'll teach you the basics of money management without leaving you feeling like you were hit by a bus.

Here are five great books that make finances simple. Whether you're looking for a basic guide to navigate your finances, a self-help book to start investing or a motivating tool to finally take your money habits seriously, there's something for every beginner here.

Each book is easy to understand -- no math major required -- and all come recommended not only from me but from several of my colleagues at Kiplinger's. I've included the list price for each book, but you can find them at drastic discounts on the Web. Either way, they're well worth the investment. (They also make great gifts, parents!)


Life After School Explained
By Cap & Compass ($13.95)

If you're clueless and overwhelmed by what lies in store after you untie yourself from Mom and Dad's purse strings, this is a good book to get your feet wet. It's short and humorous and doesn't weigh you down with a lot of confusing terminology.

I read it cover to cover in about two hours and actually understood what it said -- without my eyes glazing over once. It's sprinkled with witty anecdotes, pop culture references and comic strips to keep the mood light, even though it discusses such heavy-weight topics as choosing a health insurance plan, filling out tax forms and investing your money. It also covers lighter-yet-important subjects, such as how to avoid looking stupid at a business meal, what to wear on your first day of work and what to look for in a good apartment.

Life After School Explained is written by a team of young professionals who draw largely from their personal experiences in the real world. Its focus is for those who don't know anything about living on their own, which, whether we want to admit it or not, is probably most of us. It's basic, straight forward and a cinch to understand.


Get a Financial Life: Personal Finance in Your Twenties and Thirties
By Beth Kobliner ($15)

For a deeper understanding of financial principles to guide you through young adulthood, this is your bible. Here you'll find a collection of life's basic lessons on buying insurance, paying off debt, buying a home, saving money on taxes, managing your daily finances and investing for the long term.

But just because it's comprehensive doesn't mean it'll bog you down. Get a Financial Life is surprisingly readable, yet works well as a reference, too. Chapter one is a 12-page summary of the entire book - "a cheat-sheet for time-pressed readers," Kobliner calls it -- imparting quick financial wisdom on the book's entire range of topics. Then you can read the individual chapters for more information. Plus, the end of each chapter is capped off with a CliffsNotes-type summary to make sure you didn't lose anything in translation.

It's specifically written for the twenty- and thirty- something crowd, so you get tidbits of wisdom on topics and goals that you actually care about (for example, how to protect yourself when renting, how to pay off student loans and how to find the right mix for your investments when you're young). Get it. Read it. Reference it often.


The Wealthy Barber
By David Chilton ($14)

A big turn-off to reading a book about money is the snooze factor. Many are about as entertaining as a textbook. The Wealthy Barber, however, takes a novel approach to the self-help book -- it's written in a narrative.

It's the story of three young adults who realize that they don't know squat about how to create a long-term financial plan for their future. They turn to a parent for help who points them to an unlikely expert: The local barber, who managed to turn a low-wage job into a comfortable lifestyle with millions of dollars in the bank. The secrets imparted are simple and easy to follow, and it illustrates that you don't have to have a six-figure salary to live the good life.

"I have a very good friend who hands it out to almost anyone he knows and to kids when they graduate high school or college," says one of my colleagues at Kiplinger's. "It ain't hip or cool, but it's decidedly simple." Agreed. The Wealthy Barber certainly isn't a John Grisham novel, but at 211 pages it was readable and inspiring. I easily finished it in a weekend with plenty of time to re-evaluate my own long-term financial picture.


Debt-Free By 30
By Jason Anthony and Karl Cluck ($14)

Most of the personal finance books for young adults are about how to get started on the right foot. Which is great, but what if you've already taken a misstep? This book is written by two self-described money misfits who spent their twenties piling up credit card and other debt, only to find their lives were being controlled by their poor money choices. "Death by plastic," Anthony and Cluck call it, and it wasn't pretty. Debt-Free by 30 is their first-hand tale of how they dug themselves out of the hole and got on the path to financial freedom. The job wasn't easy, as the authors are quick to point out, but it was worth it.

Don't let the word "debt" in the title stop you in your tracks. Anthony and Cluck know the topic is a weighty one, but they keep the mood light with jokes, financial IQ quizzes and humorous, blunt language that'll awaken your inner financial slacker to the error of its ways -- and motivate you to take action. (Hint: "Make your own damn frappuccino!")

Debt-Free By 30 covers the basics of prioritizing your debt, finding extra money to pay it down faster and handling situations in which you might be tempted to rack up more debt. Methodically paying off your credit cards may not sound sexy, but this book will make you a believer and give you the tools to pull it off.


Saving for Retirement (Without Living Like a Pauper or Winning the Lottery)
By Gail MarksJarvis

What the heck is a stock or a mutual fund anyway, and why should I care? Pick up almost any book about investing, and you'll soon drown in a tsunami of terminology and complicated math to answer that question. But here is a book that actually manages to make sense of investing without confusing you along the way. MarksJarvis gives you a solid foundation of understanding of how investments work -- and how to make them work for you -- before diving in to the different kinds of investment products and accounts. What a crazy concept.

MarksJarvis doesn't try to impress you with her well of knowledge. Instead, she comes across as a patient and humble parent or teacher taking the time to make sure you know what you're doing. Saving for Retirement is a good size (228 pages) and the table of contents looks intimidating at first. But that's just because the book is broken down into small, easy-to-digest headings. That makes for quick referencing later.

Investing for the long-term should be a top goal for every young adult, and this book gives you the nitty gritty details you seek without sending your head into a spin. It's very thorough, yet simple to understand without making you feel like an idiot.

By Erin Burt

Wednesday, September 5, 2007

Five Things You Must Know Before Buying a Car

Car Dealer Reveals Insider’s Credit Secrets to Save You Money

The offers sound enticing—0% interest, no money down, low monthly payments and huge discounts. With offers like these, you’re sure to get a good deal on a car, right? Not necessarily. Seems like there’s always a catch or fine print. And that’s why most people hate buying a car. They rank it right up there with getting a root canal—downright painful. The basic problem is that most people don’t understand how car dealerships operate. So they wind up paying too much.

That’s where Mark Marine comes in. A long-time car dealer and author of the book, “Kick the Dealer...Not the Tires!” (Motom Publishing), Marine believes consumers need to understand the role their credit plays when buying a car. And shocking as it may sound having good credit does not automatically mean you’ll get the best deal. “You may not want to hear this but the people getting the best price on a car are people with bad credit,” says Marine. “The car-buying experience is designed to allow dealers to make up profits lost on bad-credit sales by making bigger profits on good-credit sales.”

That’s why Marine stresses the importance of understanding credit. He offers five key points that he thinks all consumers should know before they even consider buying a new vehicle:

1. Check your credit report. Most credit reports contain inaccurate information. It’s up to you to correct it—there’s no government agency that requires the credit report companies to amend mistakes to your report.

2. Good credit means you’re ripe for abuse. When you have good credit, banks place fewer restrictions on your loan and that allows dealers to charge you more. So it’s crucial to know your lender’s conditions on your loan up-front.

3. Bad credit means the bank protects its money. When you have bad credit, the bank places more restrictions on the loan. That gives dealers less wiggle room to add on extras and options. But bad credit still means you have fewer options when borrowing money.

4. Get pre-approved before you visit any car dealer. That way you know the conditions placed on your loan up front. Then the dealer is forced to make a deal that fits the conditions outlined by the bank—again, eliminating that profit wiggle room.

5. Have an exit strategy. Don’t let the lust for leather seats and a premium sound system melt your brain. When buying a car, keep in mind at some point you’ll sell that car. So you have to be smart. You’ll pay much more for options than you’ll recoup when selling it down the road.

Marine says he also wants people to know that when it comes to their credit, the best thing they can do is pay their bills on time. If they fall behind, he warns them to beware of ‘credit repair’ scams. “There is no such thing as credit repair,” says Marine. “These companies claim they can hide or remove negative information from your credit report, even if that information is true. But they can’t. What’s even worse is that after they’ve ‘repaired’ your credit, your score drops even lower than before you went to them.”

When it comes to your credit and buying a new car, Marine advises consumers to be informed. Check your credit score, get pre-approved first, and plan your exit strategy. “A car purchase will affect your economic life for roughly three to seven years,” says Marine. “That’s a long time to be stuck in a bad deal. Get pre-approved.”

Visit www.kickthedealer.com for more information about Mark Marine.

By Editor

The 5 Secrets to Buying Stocks

Quite a couple of weeks, eh? While not quite the chain of 25-sigma events the folks at Goldman Sachs think they saw, this is the most volatile the stock market's been in five years ... and the exotic hedging techniques we've invented over the past few years don't actually seem to be protecting anyone from anything.

As noted money manager Wally Weitz wrote in a recent shareholder letter, "These are the times that active money managers earn their fees."

Or are they the times that try men's souls?
Still, you don't need to be a professional money manager to start protecting your portfolio against short-term volatility, and positioning it to achieve superior long-term returns. Many of the best money managers, including Wally Weitz, have achieved their fantastic performance without doing anything quite so fancy.

Take Martin Whitman, for example. His Third Avenue Value (TAVFX) fund has crushed the market by more than seven percentage points annually over the past five years, and it's trailed the S&P 500 index just once since 2000.

That's an incredible track record that we'd all be wise to replicate -- and Marty's happy to let us do so. In his last shareholder letter, he revealed five of the key secrets to his success.

In no particular order
To be your own expert money manager, simply:
1. Buy cheap.
2. Buy quality.
3. Buy to hold.
4. Buy with minimal expenses.
5. Buy without leverage.

If you can consistently follow all five of those tenets, you're on your way to making more money in the stock market -- and three of them are so simple that you'd be silly not to be doing them already.

The three easies
"Buy to hold" means sticking with stocks unless, as Whitman writes, "there has occurred a permanent impairment in underlying value" of a stock. Such an impairment would occur, for example, if all 11 of Pfizer's (NYSE: PFE) drugs in late-stage testing were rejected by the FDA, or if Disney (NYSE: DIS) lost a challenge to its Mickey Mouse trademark.

Having the patience and confidence to hold the stocks you buy through inevitable volatility (except when a permanent impairment has occurred) will automatically reduce your tax bill and trading expenses. Do even better by keeping commissions to 1% to 2% of your investments.

Finally, don't invest money you can't afford to lose, and don't borrow money to invest. While leverage can increase your returns in good times, it will dramatically increase your losses in bad times. That's not the way to preserve capital and earn steady returns.

The harder two
Buying cheap and buying quality are more esoteric concepts. Put them together, and Whitman's essentially demanding that we all be smart investors.

But Whitman has a very clear definition of cheap: "Issues at prices that reflect substantial discounts from readily ascertainable NAVs [net asset values] ... [and whose] NAVs will increase by not less than 10% per year compounded." The classic Whitman example here is Brookfield Asset Management (NYSE: BAM), which Whitman bought cheap, and which has returned nearly 45% annually over the past five years.

To find stocks like Brookfield, start with companies such as Time Warner (NYSE: TWX), Bear Stearns (NYSE: BSC), and Sprint Nextel (NYSE: S), which are already trading for low-ish price-to-book multiples, and decide whether they're quality.

Easier said that done?
While "quality" will always be in the eye of the beholder, Whitman's definition is clear. It means having a strong financial position, competent management, and a business that is understandable.

Perhaps that's why Whitman has opened a position in homebuilder MDC Holdings (NYSE: MDC). It's trading for a little more than its book value, but it boasts $668 million in cash and more than 20% insider ownership, and it's poised to weather the real estate downturn. It may also explain why Whitman has steered clear of Bear Stearns, a complicated financial institution that has seen several hedge funds collapse over the past few weeks as a result of links to subprime lending.

Johnny 5 functioning 100%
At our Motley Fool Hidden Gems small-cap investing service, we follow every one of Whitman's tenets; not coincidentally, we share the opinion that MDC Holdings is a "buy." But we focus exclusively on small caps, because we believe they represent one of the few sectors where individual investors can gain an informational advantage over institutional money.

While recent volatility has our small caps often running up or down 10% in a single day, our long-term returns have us more than 30 percentage points ahead of the market on average. That's what happens when you buy cheap, buy quality, and buy to hold.

You can take a look at all our Hidden Gems research and recommendations -- including today's brand-new issue, releasing at 12 noon ET -- by joining the service free for 30 days. Click here for more information.

By Tim Hanson

Monday, September 3, 2007

Ten Ways To Make The Most Out Of An Affiliate Program

If you wish to enter the very promising world of affiliate marketing, here are ten tips that would definitely help you maximize potential profit from the system.

1. Focus on a particular area of interest. You can’t sell products that target different markets. It is better to concentrate on one specific field, study its ins and outs, and work your way around its demands. To illustrate, if you choose dogs as an area of interest, research on the places where dog lovers gather online. Then look for an affiliate program that offers products which cater to their needs.

2. Choose an advantageous affiliate program. There are some things to consider when choosing the most profitable affiliate program. First among these is the salability-commission ratio. Usually, products which are difficult to sell offer a higher commission, whereas products that are easy to sell offer lower percentage cuts. Try to find an advantageous balance. Look for a product that is easy to sell and offers an attractive commission. Additionally, you should also consider the credibility and reliability of the affiliate program. Do they actually pay? Do they pay on time? Are their products worth something? These are but a few of the things you have to clarify before committing yourself to their terms.

3. Build a focused and content-filled site. You will primarily sell the affiliate products in your site. But if your site does not attract that many visitors, sales conversion is virtually impossible. Create a site that focuses on the area of interest you have chosen, and populate it with rich, informative content that people would love to read. Just like that famous line from the movie Field of Dreams, “build it and they will come.”

4. Market your site. People would not automatically know about your site, so you have to advertise it across the web. Submit it to search engines, exchange links with well-visited sites, and promote it in online communities. You have to spread the word that your site exists, and that it’s good.

5. Market the product. Once a consistent influx of visitors is established, it’s time to promote the affiliate product you’re selling. This is usually done through a sales page that can be accessed from your site. A sales page is an article full of praises or the product. Things like “it changed my life,” “the secret that they don’t want you to know,” “be a millionaire in one week,” and the likes are not uncommon lines for sales pages. But they work. Hire a professional ghostwriter to write a sales page for you.

6. Discard anonymity. Anonymity is a common thing on the internet, but it is bad for a business venture. People would rather deal with someone they know, rather than a username like B1GB3N or R2D2. Give your real name. You could choose to keep your contact information undisclosed however, until you become sure that the other party is likewise worthy of your trust.

7. Build a network. Befriend other affiliate marketers. Share information about the best deals, the most effective strategies, and perhaps, even some lists of potential buyers. Remember, the world is all about a network of contacts. Each person you know would eventually help you out at one point. There is no reason why the internet should be any different.

8. Build a list. It is not enough that a visitor visits your site. You have to keep him. He may not purchase any of your available products now, but there’s no telling that he won’t decide to buy your future offerings. So build a list by encouraging them to sign up. Create a free service that would make them keep in touch. Remember, a lost visitor is a lost sale.

9. Protect your link. Your affiliate link is the one thing that would inform your chosen affiliate program that you were the one who was responsible for a particular sale. Link theft is rampant these days, which is unfortunate, because in affiliate marketing, your link is your bread and butter. So protect your affiliate link at all costs.

10. Do not limit yourself to one affiliate program. Join as many as you can without losing the focus of what you want to sell. The greater the variety of the products you offer, the more chances that one will be bought. Joining affiliate programs is free, so might as well make the most out of it.


Andre Foisy

The REAL Info Products Secret and How to Get Out of the Cycle

Most “info-products” revolve around Internet marketing, and get rich quick schemes. Everyone is looking for that instant “secret” that will guarantee them overnight success without spending the start up capital of a real brick and mortar business.

Selling those seekers a package of “secrets” that cost between $5 and $5000 that probably have a few real nuggets of really effective techniques and are 95% filler is a great way to spend your time and money. IF you are the one selling the secrets. It really doesn’t matter if you give away your truly secret marketing tips, because 99% of the people that order your product will never read it, or act on it.

I’m not trying to sell you an info product here, it’s just a fact that most people don’t do anything… although they want too. They just don’t have the time, or motivation to put the effort into learn how to be a webmaster.

The real info product secret for those that have no technical skills or writing ability is:

1.) Pick a topic
2.) Pay someone to develop it

Have you ever wondered how some “guru’s” churn out info-products, and endorsements faster than light? It’s because many of them have others doing all the work for them. They don’t write their copy (they spend several thousand dollars on it), they don’t write the info-product (they spend several thousand dollars on it), and they don’t even do most of their marketing (they do joint ventures with others).

That’s where all those info-products that basically say “do what I do!” fail for the average Internet user. It won’t stop them from buying the next info-product that comes along and tells them it has all the “secrets.”

Let’s summarize:

1.) You purchase e-books and info products for secrets that will tell you how to make money on the web.

2.) You don’t do anything with the information, because you don’t have the skills or thousands of dollars.

3.) You buy whatever the guy sells you on the backend because that first e-book you read was great (and your hoping this one will give you the missing pieces).

How do you get out of the cycle?

1.) Admit that you have wasted a lot of time and money on something that doesn’t work for you since you don’t have the skills required.

2.) Decide if you want to learn the skills required to create a niche website, e-book, or info product. If you DON’T want to learn all that stuff, decide to have someone make it for you. There are companies like Stmadeveloper that will help you make those ideas a reality for less than some of those info products you wasted your money on.

3.) Give up, recognize the fact that you aren’t ever going to do anything on-line to make money. Just stop doing the cycle….. you are smarter than that and they are preying on your hope.

There is really only one true secret to making money on the web. Get a space of your own, make it valuable to others, make it “sell,” and promote it through effective methods.

Good luck on your journey.

Ed Charkow is a leading marketer for several companies and has helped many start their own presence on the Internet at an affordable rate. You can contact Ed at http://www.stmadeveloper.com

http://www.yop2.com

The Number 1 Biggest Secret to Selling on Ebay

Ebay.com is a Tool. It is an awesome tool that can be used to make you tons of money in a short period of time without alot of work or effort on your part. But there is a big secret about using ebay.com to really explode profits and over 90% of ebay.com users know nothing about it.

It is a concept used by big name marketing experts like Dan Kennedy, Joe Vitale, John Carleton, and others. So what is this amazing little secret? Only this: selling to the same customers over and over.

Dan Kennedy imparticular has stressed how this can really explode your profits, here’s why; first, you already know they are interested in what you are selling because they have bought from you before. They trust you and your customer service and if you have kept in touch with them the right way they feel like they “know” and “like” you. People buy from people they know and like.

Second, every dollar you spend to advertise your product goes alot farther if the customer seeing and responding to your ad buys from you again and again. This way you can eventually build up a loyal customer base and spend your marketing efforts on there people and much less on “getting new customers”. Remember people buy more easily from those they know and like so it’s much easier to make higher profits from responsive people than from a “cold market”.

So how does Ebay.com tie into all this? Well lets look at selling on the internet in general. First for $0.35 cents you can list your item where people come looking for it intending to buy. This is so important simply because getting a steady stream of visitors to a website so you can capture their email address either takes a lot of Search Engine Optimization, alot of time, or alot of money, and in most cases all three.

The secret to using ebay.com is in both after the auction and your “about me” page. First when an auction ends you should have the buyers email address to contact them concerning payment, etc. You just got their email address for further communication. The first email you send them should attempt to help them “get to know” you. You should also show excellent customer service by leaving good feedback and following up via email after the auction to ask them if they recieved the item and if they are happy with their purchase. Mention that you occasionally offer great deals that are for past customers only as your way of saying thank you. Try to be specific about the deals like “free shipping” or “25% off your next purchase” or a package deal that you don’t offer to anyone else. Then ask them to opt in to your newsletter to find out when these sales happen. If you can, offer them a free gift for opting in to your newsletter, this increases response rates.

The second way to use ebay.com is the about me page. On this page always have a link to your website where customers can order similar products or “reorder” an item they may have purchased before. Once you get them to your webpage try to get them to opt in toyour newsltter by offering them some kind of free gift as a bribe.

So remember the real secret to using ebay.com for exploding profits is selling to the same customers over and over again. Getting new customers is much more expensive then selling to ones that already know and like you.

Jennifer Parks is the author of Selling on Ebay the Blog which offers free software, information, secrets, and tips for selling on ebay.

http://blog.infomean.com