Learning to Trade Forex - A Simple Guide!
By The Geek | June 10, 2008
Learning to Trade Forex - A Simple Guide!
By Peter Burke
Don’t jump in the deep end by putting $1,000 down and then thinking you are going to double it within the year without doing much work! That doesn’t happen. The most likely outcome of such enthusiasm is usually burn out with the person losing the initial trading deposit.
As a start you should familiarize yourself with the terminology that traders use - for example what are ‘pips’? What is a margin trading account? What is technical analysis? What is a Trading Platform? These are basic elements that you should know plus many more things!!
Visit Forums
If you feel that forex is for you visit forex forums, ask questions, try and get a feel for the market and the temperament of traders. Try and sort out who the ‘real traders’ are from the ‘ego trippers’.
Open a Practice Account!
When you feel that you are starting to get at least a basic knowledge then look for a company (usually a brokerage company) that supplies a trading platform and a ‘practice account’.
If you haven’t traded before and you are a complete ‘newbie’ to this business (yes -treat it like a business) learn as much as you can by ‘doing’.
Once you have got to the practice trading scenario, try and ‘replicate’ what it feels like to both gain and lose money - put some money aside and add and take away appropriately according to your results on that day.
One of the first lessons you should be learning is never never over-stretch your finances.
Don’t over-margin your account!
When learning to trade forex you will need at some stage to start trading ‘for real’ on a margin account but don’t leverage $1,000 up to $100,000 your broker may cut your position to limit any exposure their company may have if your position goes against you - so only utilize 15-20 times at first - gain confidence and with confidence knowledge and skill expand your leverage.
To find out more about what it takes to be a profitable forex trader join my Free Weekly Newsletter which is filled with tips advice, guides and product reviews. Join Forex4Traders.com here.
Peter Burke MBA has been writing Journals and Articles for academic publications for over 7 years and is Managing Director of a Consulting Company in the United Kingdom.
Article Source: Peter Burke
Learning to Trade Forex—A-Simple-Guide
Topics: Forex, Getting Rich | No Comments »
An Introduction to Options and Futures Trading
By The Geek | June 7, 2008
An Introduction to Options and Futures Trading
By Larry Haywood
In the world of finances, futures and options are classed as “derivatives”. They are financial instruments whose prices are calculated by the price of another underlying asset or security. Generally, futures and options are used to guard against risk and for speculative roles. Whenever an investor from Europe purchases shares of an American company on the NYSE, for instance, he is exposed to some stock price fluctuations and currency exchange rate risks. To minimize his overall degree of risk, the investor can purchase currency options to make certain the exchange rate is fixed when he sells off the stock and converts the American dollars back into euros. We will now take a better look at how futures and options work.
Futures
A future is merely an agreement to purchase or sell an asset for a preset price at a specified date in the future. A future’s fundamental asset can be, amongst a lot of other things, an agricultural commodity, individual shares, stock market indices, bonds, and interest rates. A future contract will have fixed delivery dates, traded units, and other clearly defined terms and conditions.
For illustrative purposes, let’s imagine that you’ll “open” a futures position by either purchasing or trading an equity futures contract where the underlying asset are shares. Whenever you’re anticipating the price of the stock to go upwards in the near future, you will purchase a futures contract that will oblige you to receive a specified number of shares at a preset price on a certain date in the future. This is known as a long futures position. If, on the other hand, you’re anticipating the price of the stock to go downwards in the near future, you’ll sell a futures contract that will oblige you to deliver a specified number of shares at a preset price on a certain date in the future. This is known as a short futures position.
Like any other kind of investment, futures contracts carry a risk - that market prices may not go in the direction you thought they would. Nevertheless, they enable you to profit both in a rising and a descending market. When you invest in shares, you typically profit from purchasing low and selling high. But with a short futures position, you can still make money even if the stock price drops.
Options
An option gives its holder the right to purchase (call option) or sell (put option) an underlying asset at a planned price before or on a particular date in the future. But unlike a futures contract, the holder of an option is not obligated to take any action. If the holder decides not to exercise the option, all he stands to lose is the premium he gave for it.
Imagine you currently have a number of shares of a specified company’s stock and you plan on selling them in a month. If you anticipate the share price to drop in this one-month time period, you could purchase a put option that will give you the right to sell your shares at a preset price at any time within the next thirty days. Whenever your expectations turn out to be right, you’ll be able to sell your shares at a price that is more than the market value.
Options could be utilized as an insurance mechanism against future dips in the price of an underlying asset. The purchasing of options arrives with limited risk as the holder of the option only stands to lose the option premium if his anticipations of market movements do not happen. Additionally, they allow you to take part in market price movements without actually having to take on the underlying asset.
Hopefully, this brief article has served to shed some light on what futures and options are and how they function. The examples preceding were very simplified and were only meant to show the basic concepts of derivative trading. In reality, trading with derivatives is a good deal more complex and warrants additional reading. You need to be extremely acquainted with the different types of products to be successful and fruitful in your positions.
Larry Haywood is a stock market enthusiast, focusing on innovative and unique techniques for building up wealth via the stock market. For a limited time, you can claim the “Insider’s Guide To Forex Trading” e-book absolutely free at: http://www.mystockmarkettips.com/ebook-offer.htm
Article Source: Larry Haywood
An Introduction to Options and Futures Trading
Topics: Getting Rich | No Comments »
Getting Rich Isn’t Complicated
By The Geek | April 5, 2008
I was looking around the internet today, trying to find ideas for blog posts, and I was struck my the number of sites telling me how to make money and get rich. It all seemed so complicated. I could invest money in the stock market or the currency markets, I could flip houses or websites, I could even click my way to riches. Some sites would only reveal their secrets if I bought an ebook or a membership to their site. Then there were those that claimed I could get rich by writing an e book, or starting a membership site.
The answer to how to get rich isn’t complicated at all. In fact, it is pretty boring. There are just a few simple steps, and I’ll share them with you right now, for free!
1. Spend less than you earn. Or earn more than you spend. It is common knowledge that people’s spending increases as their income increases. Making more money isn’t going to help you. Unless you have a plan to spend less than you earn you will spend everything you earn, and probably more.
2. Stay away from debt. If you are in debt, get out! I never said it was easy to get rich, I just said it was simple. The simplest way to get out of debt? Quit getting more debt. Pay at least the minimum payment on all your debts. Eventually you will be out of debt. (I didn’t say it was fast, just simple.)
3. Save and Invest Money. Now that you are spending less than you earn you will have money to save. Start with a high interest savings account. When you have a few thousand there, start looking at investing in index funds.
4. Max out your 401(k)plan at work. Don’t tell me you can’t afford it. Find a way to make it work. If your employer has matching you are a fool if you are not putting the max in your account.
There you go. 4 simple steps to getting rich. And once again, I didn’t say it was easy, I said it was simple.
Topics: Getting Rich | 1 Comment »
How To Find Killer Selling Products On Clickbank
By The Geek | March 21, 2008
How To Find Killer Selling Products On Clickbank by Danny Palsley
ClickBank is used by over 10,000 web businesses and 100,000 affiliates to deliver their products and services instantly over the Internet like Ebooks, software and site which provide web based access.
There are two types of users active on Clickbank:
Vendors or publishers: They use Clickbank to handle the complete ordering and payment collection process through credit cards, echecks and Paypal. Clickbank automatically pays an affiliate, in case sales is made to a user who is redirected from an affiliates link. In short Clickbank bills the customer and pays the vendor and affiliate as per percentage fixed by vendor. Clickbank has a limit of $50 as the maximum price which a product may have. However in rare circumstances they may approve limits up to $200.
Affiliates: Affiliates earn revenue by selling (referring users to Clickbank through special links) products. They can also make money as a reseller by referring other affiliates and vendors to ClickBank . It’s free to become an affiliate.
How does Clickbank Marketplace Works?
ClickBank’s affiliates earn a percentage of every purchase of customers who are referred to ClickBank product for purchasing products. ClickBank affiliates select product from ClickBank Marketplace.
Every product listed in the ClickBank Marketplace is associated with a sales commission rate. Commission percentages range from 1% to 75%. On any one sale the minimum commission is $0.25 and the maximum is $100.00.
Clickbank provides a rating system to help affiliates select products.
How does Clickbank’s product ranking system work?
Clickbank gives a Popularity Rank to products based on “productivity score”. This rank depends on four factors:
USD earned per sale: Average net amount earned per affiliate per referred sale. The net earned per actual sale includes refunds, chargebacks, and sales taxes.
Percentage earned per sale: Average percentage commission earned per affiliate per referred sale. This number will vary only if the publisher changes the payout percentage over time.
Percentage referred: Percentage publisher’s total sales that paid to referring affiliates.
Gravity: Number of distinct affiliates who earned a commission by referring a paying customer to the publisher’s products. This is a weighted sum and not an actual total.
How to select killer products on ClickBank?
Lets divide the products into different categories.
Products which are slowly gaining in popularity: Select a few products and look at their popularity trend. Is it dropping slowly (Decreasing trend indicates that the product is getting popular)? It means product is making steady sales. Users are liking the product.
But, before you jump in. Check the sales page of the product. Is it good? Find out what other people are saying about the product in different forums. Are their any complaints about the product? Contact the products publisher and ask them a few questions. Check their response for promptness. Are they answering your questions well?
Look at the gravity and earnings per sale trends. Increasing gravity means that affiliates are slowly promoting products. A steady earning per sale trend indicates that user are lking the product as they are not asking for refunds. If things seem to be in order, go ahead and promote the product.
Has product gained popularity suddenly?: A sharply falling popularity trend indicates that this may be the next killer product. Study the gravity trend along with the value for %tage referred. If gravity is low and %tage referred is low, it means you can promote the product before others start doing it.
As usual check the sales page and different forums to know what other people are saying about the product.
Products with very high popularity: These are all time popular products which have a very high and steady popularity value. Newbies should be careful of promoting these products as most probably few super affiliates with massive mailing lists maybe promoting these products!
Products with falling popularity: Be wary of promoting these products. Look at the popularity and earning per sale trends. If popularity curve is rising and earning per sale is falling (refund rate is increasing), avoid these products. Maybe the product has lost its novelty or it is not coming up to the buyers expectations.
If you are one the affiliate selling the product, it is better to stop selling it, or you may lose money!
Did you find this article useful? Visit trackcb.com - to do clickbank research, analyse, tracking on hot selling products and find them easily using CHARTS and GRAPHS.
Article Source: Free Top Paying Keyword Articles
Topics: Uncategorized | 2 Comments »
The Ultimate Blog Contest
By The Geek | March 16, 2008
Blog Contests Are Boring
Now normally I wouldn’t blog about a contest. I mean there are so many of them out there and I get tired of seeing them. They all seem the same, jump through 500 hoops and you might win a link on my boring blog. Yawn, no thanks.
This Blog Contest is Not Boring
But this contest is different. The prize list is huge! Lots of good stuff I woudn’t mind having. The prize list is so long I put it at the bottom of the post, but do take the time to look it over. Just be careful not to drool on your keyboard! There is over $100 in cash being offered, (I could use cash!), one person will win 25,000 Entrecredits. That will buy a lot of advertising through Entrecard! But I think the prize I would most like to win would be the one hour consultation with The University Kid.
Why Should I Care About The University Kid?
Now why would I want some young college punk telling me what’s wrong with my website? Because I’ve seen him around in a few forums I visit and I think this kid might be going somewhere. He is working hard at becoming a successful blogger and I think he is going to make it. On top of that His blog, The University Kid, is interesting to read.
How To Enter
I suppose what you would really like to know is how to enter the contest! Here is the link to the Ultimate Blog Contest. Have fun entering the contest, while you’re over there tell him Kat sent you!
Contest Prizes
Wordpress Themes
- Two licenses for the Revolution Theme ($160)
- Two licenses for the Premium News Theme ($200)
- Two licenses for the Purple Fever Theme ($100)
- One hundred accounts to the Themes Club ($500)
Blog Tools
- Three licenses by FruitfulTime.com ($90)
Blog Analysis
- Full Video Review By Marcus Hochstadt ($700)
eBooks
- SEO Book Donated By The Net Fool
Blog Advertising
One Month
- Two 125 x 125 on Wayne Liew ($30)
- One 125 x 125 On Blogger Noob ($25)
- One 125 x 125 on EZ Money Online ($25)
- One 125 x 125 on Affiliate Gossip ($15)
- One 125 x 125 on Rhyan ($10)
- One 125 x 125 on Jim Karter ($30)
- One 125 x 125 on Neotrepreneur ($10)
- One 125 x 125 on Life is Colourful ($30)
- One 125 x 125 on BLJConsultant ($5)
- One 125 x 125 on Resell Rights World ($5)
- One 125 x 125 on Viking Blogger ($25)
- One 125 x 125 on Dot Com Mogul ($10)
- One 468 x 60 on Blogging 4 Cash ($10)
- Five 16 x 16 on Blogging 4 Cash ($10)
- One 150 x 150 on Blogging 4 Cash ($5)
- One Text Link On Mr Javo ($7)
Three Months
- One 125 x 125 on The WWW Observer ($75)
Blog Reviews
- One Review By The University Kid ($60)
- One Review By Yimto ($20)
- One Review By The WWW Observer ($35)
- One Review By Bloggeries ($25)
- One Review By Neotrepreneur ($10)
- One Review By Life Is Colourful ($40)
- One Review By DaBlogger
Consulting
One hour consulation with The University Kid
Thirty minutes consulation with Neotrepreneur
Design
- One Custom Done 125 x 125 Ad By Affiliate Gossip
- One Custom Done Sketch By The Pencil Sketch And Art Blog
Entrecard Credits
- 2000 Entrecard Credits By Xavier Media
- 1750 Entrecard Credits By Mixed Market Arts
- 1000 Entrecard Credits By Toast & Egg & Me
- 1000 Entrecard Credits By Affiliate Confession
- 1000 Entrecard Credits By Yimto
- 1000 Entrecard Credits By Site Hoppin’
- 1000 Entrecard Credits By Neotrepreneur
- 1000 Entrecard Credits By Affiliate Gossip
- 1000 Entrecard Credits By BLJ Consultant
- 1000 Entrecard Credits By Resell Rights World
- 1000 Entrecard Credits By Happier Life
- 1000 Entrecard Credits By Article Snatch
- 800 Entrecard Credits By Kirushanth
- 750 Entrecard Credits By Money Making Student
- 500 Entrecard Credits By Bud Calabrese
- 500 Entrecard Credits By Mr Javo
- 500 Entrecard Credits By ImpNerd
- 500 Entrecard Credits By Life Is Colourful
- 500 Entrecard Credits By Money Making Blogs
Total: 15,800
Cash
$100 Paypal by The Profit Hustler
$30 Paypal by Viking Blogger
$15 Paypal by Final Fantasy Fan
$10 Paypal by The WWW Observer
$5 Paypal by Affiliate Gossip
Miscellaneous
300 Stumbles + 300 Reviews from Niklas
$50.00 In Stumble Upon Advertising By Mixed Market Arts
Twenty Pages By One Buck Wiki
Domain Monetization Package By Domains Earn 4U
One featured, three regular links from The SEOTree Directory
Are you still with me? Good, because I think I changed my mind. A page on the one buck wiki would be cool, and it has been over a week since I changed my blog theme. It might be cool to have the revolution theme….
Topics: Blogging, Contests, Entrecard | No Comments »
Qassia Gives You Free BackLinks
By The Geek | March 12, 2008
I have been seeing a lot of Qassia posts on the internet lately and it sounded pretty good. I am still checking it out but I think it is going to be an excellent way to get free backlinks and promote my blogs.
Because I am still checking it out, I decided to just let Qassia explain themselves. Here is the About Qassia Page:
About QassiaQassia is a credit-driven intelligence engine coupled to a cascading tag-based web directory. What exactly does this mean? It means that Qassia will change your life. Good stuff your websites will likeAt Qassia, you can add your websites for free, and without having to add reciprocal backlinks. You’ll get unlimited quality backlinks (as opposed to “no-follow” backlinks). You can also add intel. Short for “intelligence”, intel is a tidbit of information. Qassia rewards users who add intel in three ways.
Inside Intel, rather than Intel InsideQassia is sometimes confused with sites like Wikipedia, Squidoo, most recently, Google knol. Qassia is fundamentally different from these sites, because Qassia is not about asking people to upload authoritative articles. You don’t need to be an egghead at Qassia. You could upload a lengthy academic treatise if you want, by all means, but you can also get away with contributing a hastily scribbled tidbit of information about a person, a company, a place, an event, a thing, or anything you know about. What we value is intelligence about the people, companies, and places around you. The people and places do not have to be famous, and the intelligence does not have to be earth-shattering. Here are some examples of intel. Qassia isn’t a wiki. Your intel will not get edited (it will get rated, but not edited). You can write your intel in any tone or style you like. You can write in the first person, and you can write your entire intel without using the shift key. By asking for less, we receive moreWe are sometimes asked if it is free to join and use Qassia. That makes us chuckle. Not only is Qassia 100 percent free - we do not even ask for reciprocal links - but, in addition to promoting your websites and discovering stuff, you can also earn real money - very easily and without any hassle. We have the best, most generous, and most reliable ad revenue sharing program on the web. So if you’re thusly inclined - and who wouldn’t be? - you’ll actually get paid for the effort you put in promoting your websites. No hitch, no catch. Now, if that ain’t a sweet deal, we don’t know what is. We believe that, only by completely pampering our users and giving more than any other website, and in fact giving more than the users themselves expect, can we attain our goal of becoming the most incredible website the world has ever seen. Qassia is a new eraThink of the bits and pieces of intel as the gravel which will fill the potholes on the information superhighway. While the Wikipedia and other knowledge repositories are huge, boasting tens of thousands of articles, less than 1 percent of human knowledge has been uploaded to the Internet. At Qassia, we are giving users the incentive and the freedom to add the remaining 99.9 percent. The vast web of intel created at Qassia will produce more than a useful intelligence engine. The advent of Qassia is a cataclysmic event in the history of the Internet. We are redefining the web experience. Come be part of history and create your free Qassia account now. |
So if that sounds interesting to you, why don’t you go ahead and sign up? It is free to join, and who knows, you could make some money.
Topics: Blogging, Internet Marketing | 2 Comments »
When Ethics and Integrity Get in the Way of Making Money
By The Geek | March 12, 2008
I originally posted this on my other blog, MyCFOontheGo.com. But I feel it is important, so I really want to get the word out, and I am posting this on all my blogs.
My Daddy once said to me, the only thing you have, that no one can ever take away from you, is your integrity. You can only give it away. Everything else you have, even your life, can be taken away. So never, ever, give away your integrity. It can be hard to get back.
I have been seeing a new “make money on the internet” widget popping up on blogs everywhere. It is a simple concept. You buy a widget. You put it on your blog. When other people buy the widget, you make money. How much money you make depends on how much you paid for your widget. It sounds simple. It will work, at least in the beginning, and the company that came up with the idea is probably making a killing.
So what’s the problem?
It is just another pyramid scheme, or ponzi scheme, with a Web 2.0 flair.
There is no real product being sold, no value being given. Not even a poorly written e-book. Just the promise of getting money without doing any real work.
The following is a quote from Wikipedia on pyramid schemes.
The essential idea behind each scam is that the individual makes only one payment, but is promised to somehow receive exponential benefits from other people as a reward. A common example might be an offer that, for a fee, allows the victim to sell the same offer to other people, or receive bonuses through other people they refer. Each sale includes a fee to the original seller.
Clearly, the flaw is that there is no end benefit; the money simply travels up the chain, and only the originator (or at best a very few) wins in swindling his followers. Of course, the people in the worst situation are the ones at the bottom of the pyramid: those who subscribed to the plan, but were not able to recruit any followers themselves.
The internet is huge, and it may very well be awhile before this particular scam hits the bottom and people are no longer able to make money. And that is where the ethics and integrity part comes in.
People who get into this right now will probably make a good deal of money. Many people don’t care that it is a scam, and that eventually, some people will get burned. I have to admit that I had a little bit of temptation to go for this myself. After all, it is the people who get in early that make the big bucks. And with the vast market of the internet, it could be a long time before the market saturates and people start losing money.
BUT SOMEBODY WILL LOSE MONEY,BECAUSE THERE IS NO REAL PRODUCT!
And I can’t be knowingly responsible, not even distantly, for someone losing money to a scam.
Now I know probably most of the people who have this widget don’t know that it is a scam. At first glance it does look like a really good idea. So how can you tell if something is a scam, or a valid money making opportunity.
It is simple, you just have to ask yourself one question.
Can I make money selling this product, without having to recruit anyone else into selling the product?
If the answer is yes, then you have a real product and a real opportunity. (It might not be a great or even good opportunity, but it is a real opportunity.) If the answer is no, you have a Ponzi scheme.
I’m not going to tell you the name of the widget. There are plenty of people out there who don’t care that people will lose money, and I don’t want to help them find a new way to scam people.
However, if you have such a widget on your website, do the right thing and take it off. You may lose some money in the short run, but in the long term, you keep your integrity, and that is worth more than any money you could earn.
Please feel free to share this information with others. I would appreciate credit and a link back. Thanks.
Topics: Getting Rich | No Comments »
7 Money Making Blog Techniques That Spit Money And Profit
By The Geek | March 10, 2008
7 Money Making Blog Techniques That Spit Money And Profit
By Christopher Stigson
These are 7 simple money making blog techniques that anyone can use to make a couple of dollars online their first couple of days using free blogs and simple money making techniques. I won’t waste your time and I hope you enjoy this simple, but effective information that’s simply making money when put into action!
If you go to Google right now and search for “money making blog techniques” you’ll find about 7-8 million competing pages and odds are that one of the first 10 is an article! Why? Because articles, and blogs rank high in the search engines!
In this article you’ll learn step-by-step a few marketing tricks to increase search engine rankings and make money from your blog using simple optimization tactics, marketing and more…
Tip #1: Correctly Optimize your Blog For The Keyword.
First you’ll want to optimize your site for the keyword you are targeting. In my case “money making blog techniques”. That is a strange, but long-tail keyword and people obviously search for it! If you find a keyword that you didn’t know you ranked for, create a page and optimize it for that keyword. So instead of being, 4th or 5th, you’d be ranked #1 just by optimizing another page. The difference can be huge.
Tip #2: About URLS And Post Slug On Your Blog For Optimization
Now that you’ve optimized your article by using the keyword in the title of the article, as you probably will see above? You’ve also included it a few times in the post to make sure Google and Yahoo knows what this page is all about This is what I like to call “Relevancy 101″. Another thing you’ll notice is the “url” of your article. It’s most likely to include the keyword. That’s now done and you can hopefully see in the URL in your browser that the keyword is right there? Hope so!
Tip #3: Taggin And Pinging
Having a WordPress blog in this situation is killer! You can set up a huge list of ping services and list ping sites that will easily help you get more exposure. You’ll want to set up tags for your articles that you are about to post. This is easily done and the tags are what makes sure you get “found” by technorati and a few other sites that utilize tags to recognize new content online.
As you can see they are all relevant in one way or another. This means that all the words in the tags are on the page somewhere and that means more relevancy for Google and the search engine is more likely to find your article. This also helps boost your rankings for Technorati and all of the other pingservices you are a member of.
Tip #4: Create Unique Articles And Submit Them In Directories!
Now it’s time to submit articles for MASSIVE backlinks and that can easily be done by writing 2-3 unique articles, spin them in a content spinner and submit them to article services all of the internet. You shouldn’t spam and only post 1 unique article to each website. There are many softwares and services that does this for you.
Tip #5: Structuring The Resource Box For Well Written Articles
If you are targeting, let’s say “money making blog techniques” and “internet marketing” as your keywords, you should try to optimize your resourcebox to have a ONE way link from these words using an anchor text.
Your resourceboxes need to have a compelling and well formatted structure like this:
To discover awesome fast and easy cash-pulling
Having a resource box like the one I just mentioned might not be the BEST one or win any beauty awards, but it’s most definitely good enough for getting optimized backlinks from the anchor texts. Hoovering the mouse will reveal the sites you are linking to and therefore ranking.
Linking to pages “deeper” than the top-level domain is called “deep linking” and is a widely known tehcnique among SEO experts. When you have a very competetive keyword take this a step further and create a Squidoo lens and link to that lens instead of your site. Then link the Squidoo lens to your site as well.
Increasing search engine rankings from Sqduioo lenses like this also let’s you have temporary traffic until your main, new site gets ranked for anything. Since your site is new and Squidoo is an authority site… Your site will slowly climb the rankings while you maintain a slow steady stream of traffic.
Tip #6: Increase Visitors By Submitting To Socialbookmarking Sites.
So, you will want to submit to StumpleUpon using the toolbar. You want to submit to Reddit.com and MAYBE to OnlyWire, but I prefer to use a tool called BookMarking Demon.
Also remember to ALWAYS have your RSS feed announced using RSS announcer or RSS submit. This makes your post get instant backlinks in the hundreds! I’m not kidding. Your logs might tell you that your FEED is the most visited “part of your website”. That means submitting it to hundreds of sites using these tools will most likely pay off. LATER, not when you submitted them.
Tip #7: How to ask people for help in socialbookmarking.
Asking other people to Stumble the post and link to it using their own socialbookmarks, trackbacks and comments. So that’s what you should ask for right now. Tell people to click the simple “thumbs up” and trackback your articles if possible. Also tell them to comment on your posts.
Great. Now you know how to use a blog and profit! I might have forgotten to tell you to add affiliate links to your posts, but this article has said exactly how to drive targeted traffic!
To discover awesome dead simple cash-pulling money making blog techniques. Be sure to visit Chris Stigson’s authority site for passive income online now! And find out how he uses dead simple techniques to make passive income on autopilot., and it’s free!
Article Source: Christopher Stigson
EzineArticles.com
Topics: Blogging | 2 Comments »
5 Top Tips For Raising Investment In Your Company
By The Geek | March 5, 2008
5 Top Tips For Raising Investment In Your Company
By Andy Warren
If you want to grow your company then one of the best options is to raise more finance to support that growth. However, raising finance doesn’t come without risks. You need to make sure you know what you’re getting into and, more importantly, how to get out.
The biggest challenge most business owners face is how to even get started on raising finance. So here are 5 top tips for raising investment in your company.
1. Have a great business plan
Although it’s true that many investors don’t even read the whole business plan this doesn’t mean you can ignore it. A great business plan is an essential part of your business and going through the process ensures that you think about all the different elements of how your business is going to work. It’s no good having great expectations on sales if you haven’t thought through how you’re going to market the business to generate the leads to convert to sales. A business plan gives you focus and allows you to cut away those elements of the business that obviously don’t make sense.
An investor will be looking to the business plan to show that you have considered, researched and planned your business. You don’t have to produce reams of paper but you do need to show you’ve given serious consideration to all the critical factors in your business and market. And make sure you know what’s in your plan.
The plan alone may not be enough to raise the money but it’ll be a whole lot harder without it.
2. Be realistic in your forecasts
There’s nothing worse for an investor than scratching the surface of a prospective investee’s financial forecasts and finding there’s nothing but hot air, hyperbole and broad assumption.
Every investor has seen plans that say something along the lines of “if we can get just 1% of this £8bn market, then we’ll have revenues of £80m”. And those plans and forecasts have a tendency to go straight to that great shredder in the sky. Be realistic and show that you have some valid justification for how you’re going to reach the numbers you’re forecasting.
If you have marketing spend (and you should) then show how that translates into sales leads and how those get converted into sales. Create financial models that underpin the numbers. If you’re expecting to convert 75% of all prospects then you had better have a fantastic justification for how and why. Most businesses simply don’t achieve this sort of conversion rate and you will lose credibility very quickly with this type of assumption.
The reality of business is that even with realistic forecasts, sales usually take much longer to be achieved and costs are usually much higher than expected. An experienced investor will look at your forecast and check that they still work with half the sales and twice the costs to check the risk in the business.
If you’re going to build your forecasts yourself then educate yourself in the best approaches and if you’re going to get others to help then make sure they have the right knowledge and experience.
A solid forecast won’t guarantee investment but a shaky one will receive a definite “no”.
3. Show the investor what return they can expect
The best investors only invest when they have a high certainty of the outcome. Successful investing is about knowing what return you expect to make. Anything else is speculation and gambling. When an investor puts money into a business they want to know what they’re going to get and when.
As part of your plan and forecast, you need to build in a realistic and achievable exit strategy. This allows the investor to get their money out, with a decent return on it.
Many investors, private equity firms and VCs will invest in a portfolio of companies. They go in with the expectation that each one will succeed but they know that overall some will and some won’t. The trick is to ensure that the gains on the good ones more than outweigh the losses on the bad ones. To do this they will often be looking for a return of between 3 and 5 times their investment within 3 to 5 years. Different investors have different criteria but this works as a general rule of thumb.
The return on the investment for the investor is really determined by 2 things. How much they put in and how much they get out. That’s why investors will push for more equity for their investment, as it increases their potential return on exit.
If you can show a decent return, in a reasonable period, to the investor then they’ll be more inclined to back you. If you can’t then they’ll take their money elsewhere.
4. Practice your presentation
It’s said that investors invest in people and this is most obvious when a business owner presents their business case to prospective investors. You may have the greatest business proposal and CV in the world but if you can’t string 5 words together in a sentence then an investor will lose a lot of faith in you.
If you’re not used to presenting then it can be scary. If you’re not used to the tough line of questioning that can sometimes come from investors then that can be daunting. And if you haven’t prepared then you’ve effectively blown it before you’ve even walked through the door.
Investors are not ogres, although some are quite curt and don’t like wasting their time or concentration. So you need to prepare carefully, anticipate and address the areas of potential concern, listen to their questions and answer them clearly, succinctly and honestly. If you do all this then you’ll have a much stronger chance of succeeding in raising investment.
If you prepare and practice and build your own confidence in what you’re presenting then you stand a much greater chance of being financed. If you try to wing it and expect to convince investors with the sheer force of your personality, charm and cheesy sales techniques then a used car lot awaits.
5. Know what you want and what you’re prepared to give
This may sound obvious but it’s the cornerstone of any negotiation. And this is a negotiation from the very beginning. You need to be very clear about what you want and be willing to walk away from the table if you can’t get it. You also need to understand that you won’t get something for nothing and know what you’re prepared to give which could include an equity share in your business, security on your business assets and your own assets, commitment to pay high interest rates on loaned money and covenants that will obligate you to frequent detailed reporting and the potential to have all your assets and your company taken away from you.
Now if all that hasn’t scared you off yet, then you also need to be aware that an investor is probably going to be looking to get more than you are prepared to give and you’ll end up in some element of negotiation.
You need to understand what the investment will do for your business, and what will happen to the business without it, and decide whether the sacrifice of equity is worth the investment.
You’ll also need to consider what it will really mean if the equity given for the investment hands ultimate control of the business to the investor. That’s a serious step and needs to be taken very carefully.
Ultimately, although you want to negotiate, you need to be realistic about what you are asking for. In proposing an equity share for an investment you’ll be assigning a value to your business. And that value will be challenged, so be prepared to back it up. Investors get very tired of business owners trying to convince them that their start up company with no sales warrants £1m of investment for 10% of the business. It’s unlikely you’ll be able to justify a £10m valuation on an empty space, a few bits of paper and a big dollop of enthusiasm.
If you know your desired outcomes and you can justify them, you’ll be in a better position to negotiate. If you’re walking around in a dream then you’re likely to get a rude awakening.
If you’re not sure on any of these areas then make sure you get some professional help. It’s a lot better to invest some time, effort and money up front to get the right approach then to waste many months and even more money learning the hard way. Think about what it costs you personally for each month that your business growth is inhibited. When you look at it this way, getting the right support in early can save you a lot more in the long run.
Andy Warren is the Managing Director of Marshall Keen Ltd. He is a chartered accountant and successful CFO and entrepreneur with extensive experience in M&A, Corporate Finance, Business Growth and Exit Strategies. Marshall Keen http://www.marshallkeen.com specialises in providing CFO services to early and mid stage businesses, particularly in the tech sector. Marshall Keen also provides support for companies seeking to raise finance through Funding Decisions http://www.fundingdecisions.com
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Identity Theft Protection
By The Geek | February 19, 2008
To prevent Identity Theft the common advice is to protect your social security number and keep it secure. We are told not to respond to unsolicited emails or phone calls requesting our social security number, but have you ever stopped to think about how many people legitimately have your social security number? Take a moment and make a list. Here is one I came up with:
- Employer
- Bank
- Tax Preparer
- Doctor
- Investment Adviser
That didn’t seem to bad, these are all trusted and responsible people, right?
But then I started thinking about others who have requested my social security number for tax reporting purposes, like affiliate programs, advertising networks, and my consulting clients. Add in their employees and subcontractors, and I would guess that thousands of people have access to my social security number. That is a huge number and it only takes one of them to steal my identity.
That is why I am happy there is LifeLock. With LifeLock Identity Theft protection it doesn’t matter who has my social security number, my identity is safe. In fact, LifeLock guarantees your identity up to $1,000,000. That gives me peace of mind.
Now, you can use the LifeLock Promo Code and save money while you protect yourself from Identity Theft.
LifeLock will guarantee your identity up to $1,000,000. LifeLock is America’s #1 identity theft protection program. To receive the best discount available use the promotion code RD17.
Topics: Off Topic | No Comments »
