Many of us have felt the pain of our investments over the past couple of months and especially over the past few weeks. As we speak the stock market fluctuations are creating havoc with individual investors and hard working employees’ retirement accounts. This is precisely the reason why investments alone can not be counted on as a supplemental and/or prime source of income, there are just too many what-if’s involved.
Many people seek advice from me on what to do because they know that I invest in stock derivatives. The first thing I tell people are to spread there money and time around and I don’t mean diversification in the stock market (yes that is important) but in other money making ventures. People just don’t realize how incredibility easy and affordable it is to set up a business working out of their own home. The market I’m talking about here is called affiliate marketing. Affiliate marketing campaigns means that you’re basically selling other people’s products in return for a commission which is sometimes up to 75% of the selling price!!! There are many techniques involved that I will not get involved in here but it is not that difficult to start making a few hundred bucks a week.
Thousands of people everyday try affiliate marketing but very few make money doing it. It is very easy to get frustrated because the big money is not instantaneous and list buildings as well as writing good copy are prerequisites. Of course anything to do with writing can be hired out at a relatively cheap price from some websites (elance comes to mind). If you are knowledgeable about something and have average writing skills you can get started right away without paying someone else.
What I tell people is to start simple and ask people in the industry that have had success lots of questions. This is not a business you can do alone out of a hat. Even though it’s a home based business it involved working with and talking to others that are in the know and setting up joint ventures with those people. After a few successful sales you’ll be ready to create your own front-end and back-end products at which point you’ll notice a steady influx of income. The beauty of your own product is that you don’t have to sit and think up your own product from scratch. Find out what products are selling and are on the incline. Take those products and make your own improvements and sell the improved product.
Affiliate marketing is a great way to make extra income if you’re willing to work at it. Like I said, it’s easy to start up but it takes work to get it up to speed. Given the current state of the economy we really don’t have the luxury to sit on our hands while your investments are going down the tube. Start by creating another stream of income.
30 September 2008
25 September 2008
Municipal Bonds; A Safe Bet
If you’re an investor that is leery about the state of the economy and the mass of credit issues facing companies then you probably are not sure where to safely put your hard earned money. One conservative yet still liquid option is to invest in Municipal Bonds (Munis) which offer a high rate of interest and principal payments received from the issuer. Munis are bonds issued by public entities below the state level in order to raise money to build and/or make improvements.
For the most part Munis are exempt from Federal Taxes and in many areas, local/state taxes as well. This is where research comes in because there are a group of taxable Munis. These often offer a higher rate of return but with taxes taken you’re usually better off taking a lower yield tax exempt bond. Good websites for researching Munis and their rates are www.investingbonds.com and www.bondsonline.com
Munis are also liquid which means your money is not trapped and you can cash out of them at any time. Make sure you pay attention to the yield of the bond because if you have to sell it prior to maturity you will get the current yield rate and NOT the maturity yield. The minimum investment for most Munis is five grand, so it’s affordable to most investors that want to enjoy the conservative approach while receiving predictable and steady payments from their bond investment. One other great option of Munis is that you can sell your bonds prior to maturity in the over-the-counter market. This is especially advantages if the price of your bond has grown substantially and you can make more out of selling it in the open market than you can make from keeping it through maturity.
Besides looking at tax exempt status another important issue to look for from companies that offer Munis is to make sure they have a BBB rating or better. The higher the rating the more reassuring it will be that the company will be able to pay you the principal/interest that they promised. Also remember that the highest yields are not always the best. A good rule of thumb is the higher the yield for Munis the more risk you take of the company not being able to payoff the principle/interest. One more way to make your investment safe is to purchase Insured Municipal Bonds whereas the insurance company will pay you the principal and interest owed in the rare cases where the Muni company defaults.
There is no absolute safe haven for investments. If you’re looking for a very reliable investment with nice steady interest payments then I suggest looking into investing in Municipal Bonds. From my experience they offer one of the safest investment vehicles for conservative and economy leery investors. It sure beats stuffing your money under the mattress and letting it devalue over time.
For the most part Munis are exempt from Federal Taxes and in many areas, local/state taxes as well. This is where research comes in because there are a group of taxable Munis. These often offer a higher rate of return but with taxes taken you’re usually better off taking a lower yield tax exempt bond. Good websites for researching Munis and their rates are www.investingbonds.com and www.bondsonline.com
Munis are also liquid which means your money is not trapped and you can cash out of them at any time. Make sure you pay attention to the yield of the bond because if you have to sell it prior to maturity you will get the current yield rate and NOT the maturity yield. The minimum investment for most Munis is five grand, so it’s affordable to most investors that want to enjoy the conservative approach while receiving predictable and steady payments from their bond investment. One other great option of Munis is that you can sell your bonds prior to maturity in the over-the-counter market. This is especially advantages if the price of your bond has grown substantially and you can make more out of selling it in the open market than you can make from keeping it through maturity.
Besides looking at tax exempt status another important issue to look for from companies that offer Munis is to make sure they have a BBB rating or better. The higher the rating the more reassuring it will be that the company will be able to pay you the principal/interest that they promised. Also remember that the highest yields are not always the best. A good rule of thumb is the higher the yield for Munis the more risk you take of the company not being able to payoff the principle/interest. One more way to make your investment safe is to purchase Insured Municipal Bonds whereas the insurance company will pay you the principal and interest owed in the rare cases where the Muni company defaults.
There is no absolute safe haven for investments. If you’re looking for a very reliable investment with nice steady interest payments then I suggest looking into investing in Municipal Bonds. From my experience they offer one of the safest investment vehicles for conservative and economy leery investors. It sure beats stuffing your money under the mattress and letting it devalue over time.
24 September 2008
Making Affiliate Marketing Cost Effective
The number one reason that affiliate marketers fail is quite frankly…cost. Not the cost to set up a marketing page or to find products, that’s relatively cheap and easy. The cost I’m talking about is adwords and advertising costs to get people to their website. New affiliate marketers are spending hundreds of dollars just to finally get a sale on their $40 dollar product. The problem is that most of the people that have been around own the high sales niches and you’d have to pay way more than you should just to get a click on your website. What you may not know is that those advertisers at the top of the list are paying less than what you are at the bottom of the list. The reason is simple, it’s called ‘cost per click’ or CPC for short. The higher percentage that number is, the more Google wants your ads to the top because even if they make less per click they will make more in the long run because a good ad will have more clicks per day hence making them (Google) more money.
One easy way to increase your CPC is to limit who sees your ad and when they see it. One simple way to do this is to change your settings so that your ad doesn’t show up on the content network. This will give you less impressions and less clicks but it will raise your CPC percentage in a short amount of time. It does this because of the decline in impressions. A large amount of impressions with few clicks is killer on a CPC percentage. So in the short term you may get less visitors to your site but if you have patience and raise your CPC percentage by doing this you will be paying less per click on your add and will eventually get yourself in the top 3-4 slots which is where you want to be. Once you get that you can then add the content network back on if you wish. This whole process only takes a matter of days to a couple of weeks to accomplish.
So the short answer is yes, affiliate marketing can be cost effective and lucrative if you know how to get Google to get you higher on the ad list for a fraction of the cost that the advertisers below you are paying for their ads.
One easy way to increase your CPC is to limit who sees your ad and when they see it. One simple way to do this is to change your settings so that your ad doesn’t show up on the content network. This will give you less impressions and less clicks but it will raise your CPC percentage in a short amount of time. It does this because of the decline in impressions. A large amount of impressions with few clicks is killer on a CPC percentage. So in the short term you may get less visitors to your site but if you have patience and raise your CPC percentage by doing this you will be paying less per click on your add and will eventually get yourself in the top 3-4 slots which is where you want to be. Once you get that you can then add the content network back on if you wish. This whole process only takes a matter of days to a couple of weeks to accomplish.
So the short answer is yes, affiliate marketing can be cost effective and lucrative if you know how to get Google to get you higher on the ad list for a fraction of the cost that the advertisers below you are paying for their ads.
Being Your Own Boss
We can all go through life working for someone else, mindlessly going into work at the same time each morning, leaving in the evening (hopefully after only 8 hours), going home for dinner, trying to get some work done around the house and go to bed. Is that it? Is this all our life has to offer? The short answer is no, it isn’t and it doesn’t have to be this way. The #1 issue with most people in starting their own business or income opportunities is fear. Fear that they won’t make it, fear of quitting their jobs, fear they won’t be able to support themselves and their families if things go wrong…basically fear in the unknown. I’m here to tell you that if you would just act and do instead of over thinking and reasoning to yourself, you’d be a lot better off. For one thing, you don’t need to quit your day job right off the bat.
For instance you can work on some programs such as affiliate marketing that will allow you to keep in the rat race and at the same time earn a passive stream of income which would supplement your main paycheck. When you see that start working you will open more lines of passive income, find yourself working fewer hours than you were used to and enjoying life more! Eventually your passive streams of income will become your main job and you’ll have the time to do whatever it is that you want to do.
Another stream of income is by investing. Whether it’s the stock market, derivatives, commodities, futures or whatever else tickles your fancy. The key part of this is to educate yourself on the basics, find a system that works for you and stick with it. Don’t let emotions get the best of you!!! Find a system, set entrance/exit strategies, develop a good money management system and let the money roll.
The last one I’ll mention for now is to find money saving ideas and implement them into your lives. I’ll go over a few of these in another article but the key is that you save extra money, put that money into a separate account, use that saved money in one of the investing or home business opportunities that I mentioned above.
I’ve tested many programs and I use a lot of them still, there is no end to the income that you can create for yourself. Some good sources are shown below. Take note, most if not all of these have money back guarantees!!!
Working From Home - One of the best affiliate marketing programs out there.
Money4Gas: This is cool, it saves tons on gas and it actually works!!!
Forex Auto Pilot - This is a neat Forex trading program that takes the guesswork out of trading.
OK, there it is…one program for each of the areas to make and/or save money that I mentioned in the article. Now the key is to stop reasoning yourself out of doing anything and act now, I’ve just given you the tools to get started.
For instance you can work on some programs such as affiliate marketing that will allow you to keep in the rat race and at the same time earn a passive stream of income which would supplement your main paycheck. When you see that start working you will open more lines of passive income, find yourself working fewer hours than you were used to and enjoying life more! Eventually your passive streams of income will become your main job and you’ll have the time to do whatever it is that you want to do.
Another stream of income is by investing. Whether it’s the stock market, derivatives, commodities, futures or whatever else tickles your fancy. The key part of this is to educate yourself on the basics, find a system that works for you and stick with it. Don’t let emotions get the best of you!!! Find a system, set entrance/exit strategies, develop a good money management system and let the money roll.
The last one I’ll mention for now is to find money saving ideas and implement them into your lives. I’ll go over a few of these in another article but the key is that you save extra money, put that money into a separate account, use that saved money in one of the investing or home business opportunities that I mentioned above.
I’ve tested many programs and I use a lot of them still, there is no end to the income that you can create for yourself. Some good sources are shown below. Take note, most if not all of these have money back guarantees!!!
Working From Home - One of the best affiliate marketing programs out there.
Money4Gas: This is cool, it saves tons on gas and it actually works!!!
Forex Auto Pilot - This is a neat Forex trading program that takes the guesswork out of trading.
OK, there it is…one program for each of the areas to make and/or save money that I mentioned in the article. Now the key is to stop reasoning yourself out of doing anything and act now, I’ve just given you the tools to get started.
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