Investing the Profits from Your Home Based Business

by: Rhiannon Williamson

Having made the bold and glorious decision to sack the boss and go it alone you are one of the few who have what it takes to succeed. You have an entrepreneurial spirit and a strong will and these are rare and valuable attributes that will guide you throughout your professional and personal life.

Now that your business is up and running and you’re profiting from your efforts, it’s time to turn your attentions to investing the profits from your home based business wisely and for maximum gain.

One of the most consistently returning asset classes over the long term and the one that the majority of us can profit from is real estate.

Understanding market cycles

Now, you’re most likely aware that property markets are cyclical – this is because there is a direct correlation between the underlying price of real estate in relation to individual buying power. Simply explained: when property prices rise above what first time buyers can afford to pay the market slows down, stagnates and sometimes readjusts – but as soon as purchasing power increases again, either with a drop in interest rates or an increase in GDP, so property prices begin rising again.

And there are even ways to make money from real estate during a market downturn!

Investing in real estate for income

Depending on the nature of your home based business your monthly income may be slightly erratic – some months being better than others! If you invest in property assets in a buy-to-let or even jet-to-let capacity you can secure yourself a consistent monthly income which may afford you an added degree of financial security.

Buy-to-let is when you purchase property for rental purposes – this make be an apartment you corporate let, it could be a house you student let or even a family home you rent out long term.

Jet-to-let is similar but it involves purchasing overseas property for short term weekly or fortnightly rental to tourists. This type of letting is usually very lucrative indeed during peak holiday periods but may mean you have a property that is empty for a few months out of season.

Both types of property investment return you a regular income and at the same time the physical real estate asset will grow in value over the long term and if ever you wish to release the profits from your investment you can sell on the property and take the gains you have accrued.

Investing in real estate for profit

The alternative to building up a property portfolio for income generation purposes is purchasing property and selling it on relatively quickly to realize the gains the asset has accrued.

You can do this in a number of ways…firstly you can purchase run down property in need of renovation, tidy up the property and turn it into a home before selling it on at a higher price and reaping the profits gained.

Alternatively you could seek to beat the curve by buying into up and coming areas, waiting for prices to boom and then selling on for profit. This is quite a risky strategy for a first time investor as timing the market is hard!

An alternative to this is looking overseas for the latest emerging property markets worldwide and buying properties to renovate or properties off plan and then flipping them on for maximum gains in the short term.

Financing your investment

As a self-employed individual it can be tricky to get a mortgage unless you have audited accounts, bank references etc., etc. If you don’t have all of these requisite documents there are other options available to you.

The main options are re-mortgaging your primary residence and releasing the equity that you have accrued already for reinvestment in another property project or taking out a self-certification mortgage where you make a large down payment and basically tell the lender how much you can afford to borrow!

A winning attitude

You’ve already proved you have what it takes to succeed against the odds by establishing a profitable home based business, now apply the same steely determination to your real estate investments and you will succeed in making the maximum gains. Start small, begin gently, test the market and your understanding of it and slowly build up a profitable real estate portfolio from the profits of your home based business for maximum financial gain.

Good luck in achieving your goals.

About the author:
Rhiannon Williamson is a freelance writer whose articles about property investing and emerging real estate markets have appeared in publications around the world.

Have Google Pay You $100 Each Month for Your Parked Domain Names!

by: Michael Small

Domain Registration giants are making a fortune from your parked domain names and their AdSense accounts. It was happening to me until a few months ago. Now I earn over $100 per month per domain name! Best of all, it's all on auto pilot.

It's easy to do and takes very little time or effort. Basically it involves using your spare domain names to let AdSense generate extra paychecks for you. I'll walk you through it step by step.

The most important part will be getting great content. But don't worry, we have that covered too. After some digging, I went with an inexpensive service called "Why Park?" that automatically builds fully search engine optimized sites in minutes with a few lines of really simple input. They even host the sites for you. Of course I admit I became a little biased toward their service after my first auto generated site got ranked #5 on Google just one week after it went live.

All you need is a free AdSense account. If you still need to get your account just visit http://www.google.com/adsense.

Step1: Get the Best Keywords; Straight from Google!

It's easier than ever to find the best keywords. I use Google's own keyword database to figure out which get the most search volume with the least competition. Give it a try at https://adwords.google.com/select/KeywordToolExternal.

Step 2: Hook Google with a Great Title!

Let's do a real project. Let's say we have a domain name to do with custom cakes. If we enter the word "cake" into Google's free keyword tool, we'll get plenty of great ideas for what's hot. "Cake" might be too general to want to compete against but "wedding cake" and "birthday cake" are both great niches.

Take your most important specific and general keyword phrases and put them together, specific first; general second. Let's use "wedding cake" and "cake". Now separate the keywords or phrases by a pipe (that vertical key over the Enter/Return key). We now have "wedding cake | cake". Now go back and grab one or two more relevant keywords like "birthday cake" and "baby shower cake" and combine them like this "wedding cake | cakes for birthdays, baby showers and more".

Now you've covered all your bases and build a fantastic keyword rich title that won't look like keyword spamming. More importantly it's one that people will actually read. You have singular and plural versions of "cake(s)", which will also help a lot.

Step 3: Get Noticed!

Now we will write a META description that will really get you noticed. This is important. Not only can this tip alone get you ahead of most competitors, but it's also what readers see of your site before they decide to visit. You need to write something for people, but that search engines will like. Don't worry. It's a lot easier than it sounds.

Take all of your keywords and line them up in order of importance. Since "wedding cake" gets more searches than any other, let's start there and use the same logic for the rest. Now we have, in order, "wedding cake", "cake", "birthday cake", and "baby shower cake." Be sure to improve your keyword prominence (relevance based on position) by using your best keyword within the first few words of the description, like this: "Wedding cakes made easy! Get great articles, recipes and decorating tips to make cakes for your special occasion. From triple-layer double chocolate birthday cakes to baby shower cup cake buffets; we have tips to make your special occasion delicious."

As you can see, we used all of our keywords without overloading the text and broke it up a little by adding some detail. It works great! Just try to keep the description at or under 250 characters (including spaces).

Step 4: Add Content That Google Loves!

Why Park (http://www.WhyParkWeb.com) does 99.9% of the work for you. All you have to do is enter your keywords into the article finder provided by the "Research Your Keywords" link located beside the keywords box.

Without using any imagination at all, I found 121 articles in a few seconds... "cake has 98 articles, "wedding cake" has 11 while "birthday cake" has 9 articles and "baby shower cake" has 3.

That's 121 articles total. This might not sound like a lot but at an average of about 1,000 words per article that's the size of an average Harry Potter book.

Add "wedding" and get another 788! That's 909 articles in 10 seconds. You get the idea - more general related keywords can take you over the top and give you a huge, content-rich search engine friendly site, in seconds!

Step 5: Triple Your AdSense Earnings

My click-through rate (CTR) tripled when I switched to this format.

Select ad size 336 x 280. If that's too big, try 300 x 250. And try to make your ad border and ad background colors the same as your Website's background color. It helps it blend in and take away some of the "advertisement" feel. It's also usually best to go with the standard blue hyperlink color for the actual links.

But with all that said, don't be afraid to experiment. This might be the cheapest controlled research you ever come across, so enjoy it. I change my ad colors (but not size) every so often to see what works best but the above method has worked best to date.

Now you're ready! You can do this with no problem. Take back control of your domain names and pocket your own profits. Good luck!

About The Author

Mike Small is the author of seven SEO books and host of popular SEO blog

7 No Cost Tips to Market Your Business

by: Kathleen Gage

Marketing a business can be fun, exciting and creative. It can also be very frustrating and expensive if one doesn’t know what outcome they are looking for or how to evaluate cost effective methods of marketing.

Over the years people have come to know me for my unique ability to develop low cost and no cost strategies to market and promote a business, product or service. Strategies that have realized incredible returns.

Some of my successes have included:

- Before my last book was published I pre-sold over $8,000 in books
- Over 250 people registered for a recent seminar in less than 2 weeks and the cost to promote was under $25
- One company used my strategies for a career expo and made over $180,000 in consulting fees
- One speaker sold over $23,000 in product sales back of the room at a two hour seminar with strategies outlined in my program

I don’t share this to impress anyone, rather to impress upon you when using the right strategies for your market, you can realize some incredible results.

People have also come to know me as someone who is a stickler when it comes to putting systems in place. My marketing successes are a direct result of the systems I have implemented.

With a bit of forethought, planning and desire, you can successfully market your business in a very effective manner. Below are seven proven strategies sure to increase visibility, leads and sales.

1. Business Cards

Business cards are often one of the most underutilized tools in one’s marketing.
Use the front and back of your business card to gain full benefit. Depending on your market you can put some very valuable information on the back such as a sports schedule, emergency numbers, or special dates people want to remember.

Keep some in your wallet, your automobile, on your desk, and some at home. Be sure to carry them with you wherever you go and be willing to hand them out as opportunity presents itself.

Creatively distribute your card. When you eat out you can leave one with the tip.
If you borrow a library book, use one as a book mark. Hand them to clerks in stores who may know other people who could use your product or service.

When someone gives you their business card be sure to enter their information in your database. Send them a short note or email within 48 hours of meeting them to keep your name fresh in their mind.

2. Send a picture

A great way to keep your name fresh in a customer’s mind is to send them a picture of when they purchased a product or service from you.

Put a picture of a buyer’s auto purchase in a beautiful calendar. Likely, the proud owner of the vehicle will display the calendar for the next 365 days.

For specialty gift shops, when a customer makes a substantial purchase, have a picture taken with the shop owner. Frame the picture and send it to the customer.
Chances are very good the picture will be displayed proudly for friends and family to see.

A dentist who specializes in smile makeovers can easily arrange to have a professional makeup artist and photographer capture the patient’s beautiful new smile. No doubt the patient will be more than happy to show others their new look.

3. Associations

Associations particular to your market are a great resource for marketing. There are associations specific to virtually any industry, job type or business. A quick web search will likely show you how much is available.

A major opportunity within many organizations is the chance to network. Additionally, to make presentations. Along with presentations come publications.
Often, when you do a presentation, you will get a mention in the association newsletter, their Ezine and/or on their website.

In many cases, when an organization has a newsletter or Ezine, they welcome the presenter writing a press announcement for them. It saves them time and often assures you have a better chance of the information making it into the publication.

They may also welcome you writing an article for their publication or website.
This lends itself to pre-presentation visibility. Additionally, you will position yourself as an expert and increase credibility.

Most organizations have the following opportunities that can help you to gain visibility and do some very effective marketing:

-Newsletters
-Internet listings
-Links to you website
-Discounted advertising rates
-Networking opportunities
-Business referral services
-Special recognition events
-Education seminars
-Business and membership directories

In many cases you will need to be a member of the association to take advantage of the multiple marketing opportunities. In other cases membership is not necessary.

4. Committee Involvement

Committee involvement is a great way to give back to the association or community while building visibility for you and your business. In some cases, you may even want to get involved in a committee where you have little experience or knowledge. This will give you an opportunity to stretch yourself and meet and network with individuals you may not have otherwise had the chance to meet.

5. Contests and drawings

Contests are a favorite for many businesses such as restaurants or those that have high foot traffic. Contests are a great way to build your database quickly.
You are generating very hot leads when you have a contest with people who have already frequented your place of business. The key though is to do back -end marketing. Far too many businesses hold contests, get lots of names and do nothing with them. In this case, it is a complete waste of time to hold a contest.
You can advertise a contest to gain new foot traffic in your place of business.
Trade show booths are a great place to hold a contest. Pre-show marketing helps to generate traffic at your booth. Invite people to stop by booth (whatever your booth is) to enter to win. Creative contests can also generate free publicity.

6. Cross-promoting

Join with other companies who have products or services that compliment yours and promote each other. Let’s say you have a massage business. You could partner with a candle company to sell their candles to your massage clients. They can give out coupons for your massage business. Or the candle company can partner with a gift basket company. Cross-promoting is only limited by your imagination.

This can considerably cut down the cost of business promotion and allow each business to use promotion techniques that might be too expensive to implement alone.

7. Bonuses

Secure special offers from various businesses who want to share a similar market as you. When a customer buys a minimum amount they receive a bonus packet with the various offers from the other vendors. This is a win/win all the way around. The other vendors gain visibility, you have something extra to offer you customers and the customers get incredible value for their purchase.

Be aware of who you cross-promote and joint venture with. You want someone who will be equally committed to a campaign.





About the author:

Kathleen Gage is a business advisor specializing in marketing and promotions for small and home based businesses. She is a keynote speaker and the author of -101 Ways to Get Your Foot in the Door - and - 101 No Cost and Low Cost Tips to Market and Promote a Product, Service or Business.

Are You Ready For a Successful Online Business?

by: Clinton Douglas IV

Starting an online business doesn't have to be a challenge, especially when you're equipped with the right knowledge, tools, and business planning strategy. Choosing a niche market is the first step towards building your online empire, but there are many other important factors to consider before getting started. Are you ready for a successful online business? Here are some key items to consider so you are prepared with the right information before jumping in:

Mapping Out Your Small Business Ideas

When you're considering different types of small business ideas, mapping out each one individually can help you decide which ones will be most profitable-and which ideas just won't work for the long-term. Mapping out your small business ideas can help you outline the benefits and challenges of each, and help you make a better decision.

Your Small Business Startup Marketing Plan

Your marketing plan will consist of the different ways you plan to promote and build your network. This includes both clients and customers, and is an important step for a small business both online and offline. If your internet business ideas can't be promoted properly, you'll miss out on the right opportunity. Designing a valuable small business startup marketing plan is an essential step towards success. Whether you choose to launch a retail site, a newsletter, or even a blog, consider a variety of approaches so that your online business startup can be a success.

Number of Employees for Your Online Business

Is your online business going to be a solo venture, or will you be hiring employees? An online business that is maintained with just one or a few employees is easier to start and manage; you can plan out everything step by step, and slowly build your business until you feel you're ready to start paying a salary or wage to others. One of the biggest benefits of a small business startup is the ability to control and manage operations from the get-go; if you enjoy working independently and are interested in building your own small business, consider waiting until a later date to bring on a team of employees.

Designing Your Online Business Website With Success

If you're not web-savvy enough to build or design your own website, you'll need to hire a professional web designer to manage the project. Make sure you choose something that will attract customers and make it easy for people to find your products. You want customers to be able to get a hold of you easily, so it's a good idea to include an e-mail address or phone number for contact. Whether it's an online retail business or just a service, a great presentation can help you make the sale.

Building Credibility Online

Your online business will need to build credibility to attract customers, clients, and subscribers. You can do this by marketing and promoting your website using a variety of tools already on the web. From article distribution to press releases, you'll need a strategy to build credibility so your online business can take off easily. There are many money making ideas on the web today, but only a few survive because of effective marketing and promotions. Use a variety of strategies to start building credibility online, and you'll start seeing profits sooner than you think.

Being prepared for online business success is an important step. From marketing to hiring, get your online business off to a strong start with any or all of these key factors in mind.

About The Author

Clinton Douglas IV, writes E-Business articles for people who want to achieve more online success.

Why You Need a Research Before Start Your Home Based Business

by: Tsuyoshi Suzuki

A home based business idea is focus on providing a source of income from a home office and the smart way to identify the Best Home Based Business Idea is to make a serious study of the assets you possess and find out which are good at and love doing.

Research each home based business idea on your list. Do some careful research a person should be able to easily find a good computer home based business. So, if you do have a business that relies on your home based business idea, say an invention, then you need to research protecting your home based business idea through trademark, patent, or copyright.

Network Marketing is a learning process which requires time and research. If you have never run a business before and have little business understanding, do some research to teach yourself some skills. It is very important for anyone wanting to start a home based business to do their research on the opportunity before joining.

Using a variety of accurate internet marketing business reviews can be a great way to shed a little bit of light on your research and there are many out there that can make looking for marketing reviews easier for the consumer or the prospective business owner. Doing this is simply a matter of having the right sources, reading the right internet marketing business reviews, and learning how to spot a scam.

Internet marketing business reviews can come from multiple sources, but a general rule of thumb is to keep an eye out for a general consensus amongst the reviewers. There are many issues that may come into play in terms of Internet marketing business reviews. Some reviews may use testimonials to attempt to create more realistic tone. When reading internet marketing business reviews, it is important to maintain a clear focus so as to understand the actuality of what the review says and not just the spin.

A knowledge business can be a wonderful home based business idea for a number of reasons, for example, start-up costs can be very low, the business can be started part-time and develop into a full-time venture, you will be dealing with topics that you know and love by integrating your passion and the last point is the most successful home based business idea is based on a particular person's passion.

About The Author

Tsuyoshi E. Suzuki is an Expert Internet Network Marketer. Discover How To Build Up 1,000+ Downline. Generate Your Own MLM lead for FREE! Find out the best MLM business opportunity. The Dirty Truth about MLM Marketing that You Don't Know.