Study Investment

Q: I have a great idea for an amazing new product. There is nothing like it on the market and no competition that I can find. I think it will be a huge success and so does everyone I tell the idea to. I’m willing to bet the farm on this one. What do you think my chances of success are?

A: I’m a lousy poker player, mainly because I can’t help grinning like the village idiot when blessed with a winning hand or frowning like a sad clown when dealt a dud.

I also never make odds on the success of “amazing new products” because more often than not the only thing that’s amazing is the way the product is totally ignored by the buying public. In my software business there have been times when we came up with what we thought was an amazing idea for an amazing piece of software – a piece of software so amazing, in fact, that we knew that all mankind would sit up and take notice, then line up to write us checks.

After hundreds of hours and thousands of dollars spent developing the product we were amazed to find that the only people who thought the software was truly amazing was us.

We made mankind yawn. Quite an amazing accomplishment, if I do say so myself.

It worries me that you say there is nothing like your idea on the market. While you may think that is a good thing, it might actually mean that there is no market for your product. The same holds true for a lack of competition. A total lack of competition might mean that there is no demand for such a product.

Rarely does a product come along that revolutionizes an industry. Rarer still does a product create a new industry on its own. So, how can you tell if your amazing new product really is worth gambling on? The truth is, you can never be 100% certain that your idea will sell. No matter how enamored you are of it or how much your friends rave about it, the success of a new idea depends on a number of factors, many of which are beyond your control.

Such factors include:

John Wanamaker, a 19th century entrepreneur, once famously made the statement, “I know that half of my advertising is wasted, I just don’t know which half.” Fortunately for today’s marketers, there are scientific ways to determine which half is wasted, and which half is not, through the use of common direct marketing measurements.

Advertising is, and has always been, part art and part science. With direct marketing, the science part takes center stage as there are common direct marketing measurements that can be utilized to verify the results of the advertising.

With the increased popularity of direct marketing, the success of advertising can be measured through a variety of common direct marketing methods such as cost per acquisition, cost per piece, and response rate.

Before continuing in describing these common direct marketing measurements in detail, it is beneficial to review one of the direct marketing tools needed to determine the success of the mailing. The most important direct marketing tool is the response mechanism. This is how you can gauge the success, or lack of success, of a direct mail campaign. This is the mechanism by which the prospect will use to respond – it may be a postcard to request more information, an 800 number to call, or a website address to place an order. You can than utilize this response to determine the success of the direct mailing.

The first of the most common direct marketing measurements is the cost per acquisition. The cost per acquisition can be determined by taking the total cost of the mailing and dividing it by the number of responses. For example, let’s say the total cost of a mailing is $2,000 and 20 people respond. The cost per acquisition is $100. This is an important tool to find out if the cost to obtain a new customer is in line with the profits that you will receive.

The second of the most common direct marketing measurements is the cost per piece. To find the cost per piece, you would take the total cost of the mailing and divide it by the total number of pieces sent. For example, if the total cost of the mailing was $4,500 and you sent 2000 direct mail pieces, the cost per piece would be $2.25. This is an important figure to keep in mind, because by lowering the cost per piece (as long as the number of responses stays the same), you can lower the cost per acquisition.

The third of the most common direct marketing measurements is the response rate. The response rate can be calculated by taking the number of people that responded and dividing it by the number of people that were sent the direct mail package. For example, if 2000 people were mailed a direct mail package and 20 people responded, the response rate would be 1%. This is an important tool that you can utilize to forecast the success of future mailings.

By using all three of these common direct marketing measurements, you can finally determine which half of your marketing is working, and which half is not.

==========================================

Wanna Learn the Secret of Creating Passive Income
Online
From a man who made $3,244,842.32 from the Internet
in Only 27
months? => http://www.the1andonly.biz

Presented by:
Perfect Home Based Business Opportunities

There are always homes that struggle to sell. You may have a very good home in a very good location but still find it difficult to sell. Well, there is always a reason. Here are some common reasons why such homes don’t sell:

Being Over-priced – The foremost reason for many homes not selling is their price. If you’re selling your home, make sure you price it in line with market expectations. Your home’s only worth as much as buyers are willing to pay for it. You may have got a high appraisal value but if you’re struggling to sell your home at that price, you need to realize that your home’s over-priced. You need to look at what other homes in your neighborhood are selling for and how much have recent homes sold for. You can only charge a premium to other homes if your home has any special feature that there is a demand for. Otherwise, do not outsmart yourself by pricing your home higher than what other homes are selling for.

Poor negotiation – Second reason for the fallout of most home sales – poor negotiation. If you get an interested home buyer who’s reached the final stage of negotiating the price, don’t let him go away just because he’s not willing to pay your price. Be a little inventive. Perhaps you could give away some of your furniture or your electronics as part of the deal. Or you could offer him assistance in his down payment. There are a 1001 ways where you can actually give the buyer the feeling that he’s winning the negotiation and getting more than what he initially bargained for.

Thinking people are going to love the house the moment they see it – As wonderful as you may think your house is, there is always room for improvement. Some people are put off by small things, like chipped doors, a messy lawn, patches on the walls, etc. A common mistake is to get too used to seeing the house the way you’ve always seen it. As a result, many of these small things tend to get overlooked. You need to see your house from a fresh perspective.

Now that you’re aware of these common mistakes, make sure you don’t fall into the trap of repeating any of them.

Sameer S Panjwani is the CEO of ChoiceOfHomes.com – FSBO Home Selling Made Easy.

Would you pay $12,500 to discover the keys to great sales copy? Maybe not, but Brian Keith Voiles did. And he put it to use for Fortune 500 Companies.

When you begin any kind of stay at home work or home based business, it’s a good idea to put a lot of thought into your stay at home working environment. After that cubicle where you were forced to make good use of your space, it’s easy to spread out and become disorganized. Or worse, not put any thought at all into your stay at home work environment.

For instance, your stay at home business office needs to have its own phone. In many homes, the phone is in a central location where it’s easily accessible. You will waste untold amounts of time and energy if you don’t have a phone for your stay at home job. This is a problem that’s easily solved with a remote phone that you keep in your stay at home business office.

Too, it’s easy to let the office where you perform your stay at home job get cluttered and dirty. After all, you think, no one sees my stay at home work office but me. And that’s exactly why you need to make sure your stay at home office is neat and clean. It reflects professionalism which has a psychological affect of making you feel more professional, which makes it easier to take a more professional attitude toward your stay at home job.

And it doesn’t hurt to decorate your stay at home work office so that it’s a pleasant place for you to be. You’re going to be spending a lot of time in your stay at home work office, so you want to feel comfortable and make it a place you enjoy being in. That enjoyment carries over to your stay at home job and can make it far more enjoyable. So paint the walls a cheerful color that makes you feel good and put up some posters or pictures. Invest in some houseplants. You’ll be amazed at how great a difference making even a few small changes in your stay at home work office will make you feel toward your stay at home job.

If your stay at home work office must be in the basement of your home, you want to pay even closer attention to the lighting and humidity levels. A constantly damp environment isn’t good for office equipmentor you. It can cause you to be more susceptible to colds and allergies. So invest in a good dehumidifier to protect both yourself and your stay at home office equipment. And make sure you have great lighting. A basement can be a dreary, gloomy place for your stay at home office and good lighting can not only make it brighter and more cheerful, it also makes it a lot easier to seewhich is important to performing your stay at home job more efficiently.

Also, no matter where your stay at home work office is in your home, it needs to have good ventilation. This is especially important for a stay at home work office that’s in a basement. You need fresh air, and, again, so does your equipment. So invest in a good fan and/or air filter to ensure the air in the office where you do your stay at home work has the freshest air possible. Your stay at home work office equipment will work better and so will you.

Finally, you also want to invest in some quality stay at home work office furniture. You want a good, comfortable chair and a good desk for your stay at home work office. Nothing’s worse than spending a lot of time in a chair that isn’t comfortable or a desk that’s too high or too low to allow you to do your stay at home work comfortably. Buying quality stay at home office furniture doesn’t have to cost you a fortune, either. You can pick up great furniture for your home office at liquidation sales and online auctions. So chose stay at home office furniture that fits both you and your budget.

Charles Fuchs
http://www.charlesfuchs.com

I grant 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.

Copyright © 2006, Charles Fuchs, President of Vision Management Enterprise Inc., is an established online marketer who specializes in helping people start their very own
Work at Home and Home Based Business.

There seems to be a huge craze lately with everyone trying to blog and ping to get their websites indexed into the search engines. Although this can be a great tool, all marketers should first understand exactly what they’re getting themselves into before starting.

This article is to serve as a beginners guide to getting started with blogging and pinging.

1. What is a blog?

A “blog” is short for “web log.” A web log is an online diary or journal. The main aspect blog is that it is frequently updated – at least once a week, sometimes every day or even more.

Since blogs are regularly updated, they tend to carry more value than regular static HTML pages (in some cases).

2. What is a ping?

A ping is a program that sends out a brief request for a response from another computer or server. When you ping on the Internet, you send out a program to see if a remote server is responding.

3. How do bloggers use pings?

Two main reasons to use pings with blogs: First and foremost is to let the search engines know that you have updated your website so they can send their spiders.

Secondly, pings also update the websites on the internet who are using your blog on their site (through a feature called RSS feeds, they are displaying your messages on their site).

4. So what is the big deal about blogging and pinging?

Smart affiliate marketers use blogging and pinging to help get their sites crawled and indexed by the search engine spiders a lot quicker than they normally would.

They set up a blog either on their main site or on a sub-domain of their site. They then post links to their product pages on their blog and send out a ping to all the major servers on the Internet.

That ping says “This site has fresh content, time to go add it to your database!” It’s a trigger that sends the search spiders looking for updated pages on your site. When they find the new pages, search engines tend to index them much faster.

Blogging and pinging will not get you into EVERY search engine overnight. As of this writing, it is most effective with getting into Yahoo. But often MSN, and even Google, will follow in short order.

Combine blogging and pinging with good link recruiting for the best indexing.

Also, blog and ping on a regular basis if you want to “stay” indexed in the search engines.

6. Is blogging and pinging a requirement to get indexed?

No. You can get indexed quickly by getting plenty of natural backlinks. But for backlinks to be most effective, they have to appear as if they were natural and this can take weeks if not months. Blogging and pinging does seem to drastically shorten the process.

7. Is there a downside to blogging and pinging?

Yes, some marketers are starting to abuse this strategy and the engines are getting wise to it! If you go over-board you risk getting your website completely banned and removed.

Also, many marketers are blogging and pinging for a few days and then forgetting about the website – your website will likely be de-indexed if you do not continue to naturally blog and ping.

The bottom line is that blogging and pinging is a great strategy right now to help you get your website indexed faster. However, the old natural way of getting incoming links is still the best and most assured way – not to mention the long-term benefits of having incoming links.

If you have not yet started blogging and pinging, I suggest you start with a practice website first, not your main website.

Copyright 2005 Kurma Group

This article has been authored by Anik Singal, an extremely successful and young internet entrepreneur and affiliate marketing consultant. Anik has developed his own affiliate marketing system that helped him earn over $10,466 in 60 days – he is now training select students on his system.
http://www.AffiliateClassroom.com/free-course.html

Taxpayers have two easy and convenient options for getting copies of their federal tax return information tax return transcripts and tax account transcripts by phone or by mail.

A tax return transcript shows most line items from the tax return (Form 1040, 1040A or 1040EZ) as it was originally filed, including any accompanying forms and schedules. It does not reflect any changes you, your representative or the IRS made after the return was filed. In many cases, a return transcript will meet the requirements of lending institutions such as those offering mortgages and student loans.

A tax account transcript shows any later adjustments either you or the IRS made after the tax return was filed. This transcript shows basic data, including marital status, type of return filed, adjusted gross income and taxable income.

Request either transcript by calling 1-800-829-1040, or order by mail using IRS Form 4506-T, Request for Transcript of Tax Return. The IRS does not charge a fee for transcripts, which are available for the current and three prior calendar years. Allow two weeks for delivery.

If you need a photocopy of a previously processed tax return and attachments, complete Form 4506, Request for Copy of Tax Form, and mail it to the IRS address listed on the form for your area. There is a fee of $39 for each tax period requested. Copies are generally available for the current and past 6 years.

Richard Chapo is CEO of http://www.businesstaxrecovery.com – Obtaining tax refunds for small businesses by finding overlooked tax deductions and credits through a free tax return review.

Most people wish they read more.

Who am I and what do I love to do? Well, isn’t this the twenty million dollar question! A more appropriate question might be “Who was I and what did I love to do?”

As you search to find yourself, and what it is you love to do, you may find the task harder than you thought it would be. Try to think about your childhood. Can you remember what thrilled you as a child? Like many people you’ve probably forgotten what brought try joy and excitment to your essence.

Children instinctively just “know” what they love. We quickly forget what makes us happy as we grow into adults. External influences eventually diminish the thought of actually “doing what we love to do.”

When I was a child I vaguely remember wanting to be a stewardess, a mother of 8 (don’t know why it had to be 8, sounds rather ambitious in today’s world), and a musician.

Well, didn’t every little girl who grew up in my world want to be a stewardess? It seemed so. Or, could it have been a clue to what really was the essence of me? Maybe I longed to travel and this was what society offered at the time.

I did have a musical inclination. I seemed to learn to play clarinet fast, and was quite good for a beginner. Never got past the beginning, victim of circumstances, but that’s another long story. I could pick a tune on the piano by ear and dreamed of being able to sit down and flawlessly play the most beautiful of compositions. But, that didn’t happen.

The mom thing? Don’t know where that came from. Maybe the caring side of me. Maybe just that period most little girls go through where they emulate their mother and “play house.” Who knows?

But, I did grow up to be the mother of four. I quickly learned that 8 was really ambitious. Some days, I don’t know how I survive the four. I’m far from super mom status, but I guess I don’t do too bad.

I’ve found recently, through self searching and pondering, that the question of “who am I?” becomes increasingly difficult with age and life’s interference. Yes, life interference can be very damaging to our happiness. Our experiences tend to mold us into the person we are today. By the way, that isn’t necessarily who we were meant to be.

Have you ever longed to be able to do something you are passionate about and truly loved as a child. Maybe it’s some form of art; painting, drawing, crafting, dancing, or singing. Maybe you enjoyed building things or, taking things apart and putting them back together. Or, were you the mathematical genius in the class? Did you love to play school and teach real or imaginary children?

Childhood is innocence. As children we accept our true essence without question and pursue it daily in our real and imaginary play. It is life and life’s external influences that re-route us away from what we love to do. We are too quickly discouraged from the pursuit of happiness.

It is apparent in many happy, successful, adults that there is often a common denominator. Most extremely successful people really love doing what they do. They live their work. They strive to be better and better at it. They never dread going to work and are always thinking about new ways to improve. They simply love the work. They “live to work” not “work to live.”

America’s most famous billionaire, Malcolm Forbes, reflected this same belief, that you should do what you love to do to be successful, in several of his statements:

These quotes from Malcolm Forbes pretty much sum up the importance of doing what you love to do. Everyone should pursue what they love to do. Then work at doing what they love. You may say “It’s too late.”

It’s never too late to rediscover your childhood passions. It’s certainly never too late to start getting some satisfaction and enjoyment out of life. If only for your own pleasure, you should pursue what you love to do.

Whatever it is you feel you would love to do, go for it. Take an art, singing, dancing, literature, accounting, computer, home decorating ,or mechanic class. Invest in yourself and your happiness. You may find that through pursuing what you love, you will find your best work. Share your knowledge, passion, or talent with others. You will see yourself become confident and successful at what you love to do.

I found that my favorite thing to do is to simply be a housewife and mother. Maybe it’s not “just being a mom.” Rather, it’s doing the things required to be a housewife and mom. It’s not a glamorous career. But, it does require quite a few skills. Moms are usually very talented in more than a few areas; art, organization, accounting, negotiating, and decorating are just a few that come to mind.

My favorite task is saving money. A family of six makes saving money pretty much a requirement of my job but, I’ve found that I Love IT! I get great satisfaction in getting the most for my money, getting things for free, and managing a household on a very limited income. So, in order to expand on my happiness, I decided to share my knowledge with others. I actually have fun sharing my ideas and money saving tips. And, I enjoy researching and finding more money saving tips for myself and others.

Sometimes, it seems like I can’t pull myself away from my work. That’s because I love it so much. I love it, I am passionate about it, and I believe in it! Enthusiasm is contagious. If I can get others excited about saving money, then I am happy.

I don’t like the way things are lookin’ for family finances today. It’s discouraging to see so many families in financial trouble. Maybe, I’ll help change that! Maybe you can change something too!

Cheryl Johnson is a mother of four helping herself and others become, and remain, debt free. Publisher of Simple Debt Free Living at http://www.simpledebtfreeliving.com – A self-help plan, ideas, and resources for household budget planning, debt management, frugal living, and work at home ideas.

In a previous article we introduced you to the concept of O.P.P., or Other People’s Property.

In that article we asked you what you would do if you found a business that:
* could generate multiple streams of income
* would work in any area of the country
* could be worked both locally and nationally
* could be worked both on and off the web
* would allow you to build your long term net worth
* and, can be started either in your spare time or part time

What we are talking about is a wonderful business that allows you to generate immediate cash flow and also build your long term net worth.

So, what is this wonderful business. Lease Purchasing.

Lease Purchasing is a specialized niche in the field of Creative Real Estate, which allows you to control property without the trouble of ownership; and profit from this. Lease Purchasing affords wonderful benefits and opportunities to sellers, buyers, investors and those who would like to operate a home-based business. Lease Purchasing allows you to control property without ownership and this has benefits for all.

Lease Purchasing provides you with a variety of ways to make money. Some of them are:

You make money with the assignment fee. The assignment fee is the money you receive from selling a contract you have on a property. This will vary depending on the strategy you use.

You can also make money on cash flow. Cash flow is the difference between what the tenant/buyer pays you and the obligation you have on a property. You can also negotiate with the seller for a percentage of the positive cash flow, even if you are using one of the strategies in which you do not remain in the deal.

You can receive money at closing. When the tenant/buyer exercises the option to purchase the property, and if the deal is structured in this way, you can receive money at the closing.

You can create your own, high quality notes, which will give you a very nice monthly income.

You can flip a contract or sell a pure option to another investor and receive money in this manner.

You can consult with buyers and sellers. Sometimes the seller just doesn’t want you in the deal or a buyer wants to do it themselves. In these cases you can consult with buyers and sellers and show them how to do it. You charge a consulting fee to help buyers and sellers with the lease purchasing their property.

Every year, thousands of people get started building their fortunes in Real Estate. It is well documented that Real Estate is the world’s greatest wealth builder.

The niche of Lease Purchasing grants you the ability to reach your financial freedom, with O.P.P., Other Peoples Property. All it takes is the desire to succeed, some time investment on your part and some specialized knowledge.

As you can see, Lease Purchasing comes very close to being the Perfect Home-Based Business. A realistic first year income is $50,000 to $75,000 for someone working full time. You can add $20,000 to $30,000 to your present income on a part time basis.

Don’t you think you owe it to yourself to explore the potential of O.P.P.?

What are you waiting for?

Copyright DeFiore Enterprises 2000

Interested in having your own successful, home based creative real estate investing business? Chuck and Sue have been helping folks start successful home based businesses for over 19 years, and we can help you too! To see how, visit http://www.homebusinesssolutions.com for the latest FREE tips and tricks, educational products and coaching in creative real estate investing and home based businesses. No time to visit the site? Subscribe to our “how to” Home Business Solutions Digest, it’s like having your own personal coach: mailto:subscribeHBS@homebusinesssolutions.com