UltraPing Blog

The equity in your home is not to be overlooked since in most cases it is your biggest personal asset. So you should not trust your most important asset to just any real estate agent. You should seek the very best real estate agent in your area.

Finding a top real estate agent will make your transactions flow more smoothly, and potentially make considerably more money. The following pointers will help you single out an exceptional real estate agent and may prove to be indispensable steps for a homeowner.

1. Collect names and contact numbers.

Referrals, classified ads and online sources are what people rely on when searching for real estate services. It’s easier to do a background check with referrals but if you want more choices, paper and online ads have a lot more to offer.

2. Interview Agents

Schedule appointments with at least three or more real estate agents, and be prepared. A prepared list of questions is good advice. Ask questions on the agents marketing techniques, follow-up methods and number of active listings, sales records and the option for cancellation of your listing.

3. The working relationship with your agent is key to a successful transaction

After interviewing your perspective agents ask yourself, who seems to be the most sincere, and who do you think will respect your decisions best? Often your “gut feel” will be your most accurate. Consults other experts such as mortgage bankers, and escrow company personnel. Make sure that you prioritize your needs when contemplating which agent to choose.

4. Take your time.

It takes time, lots of thinking and work to make the right selection. If you find the “perfect” real estate agent, consider yourself fortunate. Now is the time when the real work begins.

But no matter how much work is involved, the whole process will work much more efficiently if you have selected the right agent. Selling your home without the assistance of a qualified realtor is difficult and ultimately cost you more money than you save.

Bill McRea is the publisher of Lead Generation for Real Estate Pros and Selling or Buying A Home. Both sites offer information and services for new real estate agent and home

Print on Demand or POD publishing isn’t for everyone. There are a number of pros as well as cons to consider before deciding to venture into the world of POD publishing and self-publishing.

The advantages or pros which I found to be a convincing argument to choose POD for my book GETTING OUT ALIVE are as follows:

1. Your book gets published on your timetable, not the timetable of a traditional publisher who may or may not have your best interests as a writer at heart.

2. You retain 100% of the rights to your book. You own the copyright, not the traditional publisher. You do what you like with your book, including publishing it with more than one POD publisher if you’d like and it doesn’t violate the rules of one the PODs you choose.

3. You choose what you want to make for royalties rather than having to negotiate this with a traditional publisher.

4. You choose what you want for the cover art of your book, you don’t have to rely on someone else’s idea of what artwork best describes the contents of your book.

5. Your book gets printed only if someone orders it, you don’t have boxes of your book sitting in your basement or attic getting eaten by moths or mice or destroyed by mold or mildew.

6. You don’t have to put out a large amount of money printing copies of your book.

7. You can sell your book from the web pages of your POD publisher(s) as well as your own website, this can give you more exposure.

The disadvantages or cons, some of which almost made me decide to continue trying to find a traditional publisher are listed below:

1. You are 100% responsible for marketing your book, no one else will do it for you, including your POD publisher. So, you must be willing to educate yourself on the finer points of marketing a book both on and off line.

2. You must be willing to pay your POD publisher a fee to get an ISBN number and to have your book listed with online bookstores such as Amazon.com If you are not willing to pay at least a small amount for these services then POD publishing may not be for you. However, there is one exception, Lulu.com by and far is the least expensive POD publisher around, and you can choose to publish your book absolutely free by not purchasing an ISBN number or getting your book onto the online bookstores, and just have it available through Lulu.com. The downside if you choose not pay anything though is less exposure for your book.

3. You are responsible for providing review copies of your book to reviewers, and to getting it to the reviewers within their time frame. Some will only accept copies of books that are about to be released, or have been released within the past three months. And some will only accept a print version rather than an e-book version. You will also find that some will not review POD and/or self-published titles. I didn’t discover this to be the case until after my book was released, and I found that some reviewers simply refused to review it once it was past the 90 day period after release, or refused to review it at all simply because it was POD published.

4. You are responsible for setting up book signings, and other such events. If you want to add these kinds of events to your marketing plan, you have to be willing to approach bookstores and other places that sell books and be confident in selling yourself and your book to the people in charge.

5. You are responsible for either creating, designing and printing your own marketing materials such bookmarks, business cards, brochures etc. or be willing to pay someone else to do so for you. Either way it is another expense, although personally I’ve found it to be more cost effective to design and print my own.

As I said before, POD is not for everyone, but if you are someone who doesn’t mind spending some money on your book for marketing, and education and you want to have total control of your book then POD can be a great solution to getting that completed manuscript out of your drawer, box, or computer and getting it out to the world.

Regina Paul is the author of the science fiction novel GETTING OUT ALIVE, and editor of the free bi-monthly writer’s e-zine Regina’s Universe. You can read the first chapter of her novel, sign up for her e-zine and find many other writer’s freebies at: http://www.reginapaul.bravehost.com

If you would like to know how to advertise your home-based business in any mainstream publication — even the ones that charge tens of thousands of dollars per full-page ad — for only five cents (or less), then this article will show you how.

Listen: pretend for a moment that you have decided to advertise your home-based business in a mainstream publication. You know, like Cosmopolitan…Men’s Health…The National Enquirer…or The Wall Street Journal. Publications that charge tens (even hundreds) of thousands of dollars to advertise in and that get massive readership.

However, unlike everyone else who wants to advertise in this publication, you know an advanced, “insider” secret way to get this full page ad for absolutely nothing. Not one single penny.

Plus, because you’re on the “inside” with the publisher of the publication you have decided to advertise in, he has also decided to pay someone to write the ad for you…as well as have all the photography, typesetting and layout work for your ad done at his expense.

But wait!

I want you to further imagine the publisher has also “magically” arranged it so the vast majority of his subscribers and readers will believe everything your ad says 100%. In other words, nobody will wonder if you’re some quack, con artist or shyster out to make a quick buck. Everything you say will be taken as fact. Nearly all the hundreds of thousands of readers looking at your ad will automatically, totally and completely trust you.

And finally, let’s also say you have the exact same “insider” connections with the publishers of countless other publications all over the world. And not just print publications, but radio and TV stations also.

And because of these “insider” connections, you are able to secure the same setup with all of them. Including free air time, video production, radio production, on air talent, ad space, writing, typesetting, photography, graphic design and, of course, the automatic credibility, too.

Now, in this situation, with this kind of setup, and with the guarantee almost everyone will believe everything you say, how much money do you think your home-based business could generate? $100,000? $500,000? $1,000,000? A lot More? Maybe a little less?

Well, guess what? Believe it or not, there really is a way you can do everything in the above scenario.

How is this possible?

It’s actually pretty simple: As of now, the vast majority of home-based businesses (as well as most other kinds of businesses) only focus on one kind of marketing.

* Some of them mirror the way big corporations advertise.

* Others concentrate on “direct response” marketing.

* And the majority tend to rely completely on some sort of word-of-mouth advertising.

But, only a tiny fraction of home-based business owners are savvy enough to use their normal mode of marketing…and use dirt-cheap media publicity to market themselves with at the same time.

Which is why I think publicity is probably the single “best kept” secret for home-based businesses ever invented. Not only is it dirt cheap (the cost of a fax) to get media interviews and attention, but it also gives you instant credibility with anyone who sees the “advertising” (articles, interviews, etc) they will do for you, since people tend to trust the radio stations, newspapers, magazines and TV stations they watch.

Bottom line: If you have a home-based business, and you aren’t using media publicity to market with, then you are leaving untold thousands of dollars in profits on the table.

Ben Settle is an expert copywriter and direct marketer. If you liked this article then check out Ben’s website at http://bensettle.com — where you’ll find over 500 pages of advertising ideas, strategies and tactics just like this one — as well as rare swipe file ads and hot marketing information not easily found anywhere else.

If you are one of the many people who hate their day job and wonder, “what am I doing with my life?” you need to do what you truly love and turn your dreams into reality.

Many people dream of doing what they love but, sadly few ever act on it. One reason many people don’t act on their dreams is because of their job, which brings them a set amount of income every month. Even though they may dislike their job, the security of their income keeps them there.

When you make your dream into your own job or even a business you have the potential to actually earn more than what you earned at your job. Do what you love and the money will follow.

Though, you’ve often heard the phrase “don’t quit your day job”, maybe you have said it to someone. Maybe someone has said it to you after you told them what you’d really love to do instead of your day job.

If someone has said this to you and your instincts tell you not to listen to them- don’t listen to them. Listen to your heart and your instincts.

It’s only logical, your instincts tell you to do what you want but someone else tells you to do something they want you to do. Sometimes people won’t trust their instincts and listen to the other people because they want to be accepted. But be warned, the people you surround yourself with and those you listen to will eventually affect your mindset or ideologies. If that person is a cynic telling you it will never work you may be eventually convinced and say, “I guess they’re right; it won’t work.” They are not affecting you, they are infecting you with their mindset.

First of all, I have two things to say about “it will never work” mindsets:

Your instincts are key to your survival skills. In the animal kingdom, survival depends on instinct. Not only are your instincts key to survival, your motivation levels are also. I’m going to use an example from the animal kingdom where fights for survival and the motivation to stay alive occur every second.

If a lion is creeping up on a gazelle, the gazelle will sense or even see the lion and run for its life. It won’t just sit there and think, “Oh, why even try running away. He’ll catch me anyway. Besides, I don’t like running and I’m feeling kind of lazy today. Oh well, I guess today I’m just going to get eaten.” Even if the lion catches it, the gazelle will fight with all of its strength to get away or it will die trying to get away. If your instincts are telling you to do something that gives yourself meaning and purpose and it is ethical, moral and legal, do it.

The thought of “it will never work” comes from fear and obligation. These unsupportive thoughts are activated from the fear of trying to make something work. Fear is the number one reason most people never try to achieve their dreams. This fear is something that should not hold you back from pursuing things that give your life meaning and purpose. Eighty percent of success is just trying.

Additionally, these fears don’t even exist, and there’s a very good chance that they will never exist. Being too afraid to not try going for your dreams and missing out on what you could have done or accomplished is a very high price to pay for security. You’ll never know what kind of life you could have had.

You may also think you are obligated to stay at that job or think, “they need me.” You’re only obligations are to get purpose and meaning out of your life. Your employers do not own your life. In essence they do not need you, they need your time to get things done for them but remember your time is your time. Not anyone else’s and it is extremely valuable and irreplaceable.

Quitting your job and pursuing your goal(s) that give purpose to your life is scary and exciting at the same time. But it’s even scarier and much less exciting to think of your future if you hate your job yet, still stick around that toxic environment which doesn’t nurture you spirit or soul. You must get out of that environment immediately. Be aware though, you’ll need some income saved up to cover the rollacoaster of becoming your own boss.

Simply put you need to know what to do and do what you know. Don’t know what to do? Just do what the gazelle did, get away as fast as possible.

Elliot Hanson is a blogger and business builder. He specializes in financial and personal success.

Why is this happening to me? When is somebody going to train me? When am I going to find good people? I am sure you have all heard questions similar to these.

You may have even asked these questions yourself. But what ever happened to personal responsibility? People are too quick to point a finger and fail to realize that three fingers point back at them. They judge others in thirty seconds but don’t even take ten seconds to assess themselves.

Let’s pretend for a moment that you are a manager of a cell phone stand at the local mall. The stand is only big enough to have two employees working at once. On this particular day you are working with Joe. Joe has been with you for five months. He has been through all of your training programs, and you even sent him to a strategic selling seminar last month to help him increase his selling ability. It is a nice sunny day, so the traffic in the mall is minimal. After opening the store and not seeing a customer for the first two hours a middle-aged couple comes to your stand looking for a phone. Joe is with them for an entire hour! Everything looks like its going well. Then they walk away. That couple could be the only potential customers to walk over all day. You wonder what happened. Why did he lose the sale? Immediately you walk over to Joe to ask. He says, “They weren’t going to buy today… They were just looking… They didn’t find a style they liked.” Pointing the finger! They, they, they! All he needed to say was that he was outsold! No excuses. Just admit you were wrong and then figure out what you can do differently next time. Until Joe is willing to admit he is wrong he cannot move forward and he will to continue to lose sales.

People often reach a point in their performance that they cannot seem to surpass. They think they are so good that they don’t need to change. One way they can get through that is to admit they could have done things differently. If customers told Joe all day everyday that they were “just looking” and Joe didn’t overcome that objection, he would lose a lot of sales. Joe needs to quit making excuses and accept responsibility so he can formulate a way to overcome that. He might ask them open-ended questions like, “What did you have in mind?” or, “What can I show you today?” Rather than, “Can I help you find something?” Questions like these will help prevent losing valuable customers to the competition.

The only thing worse than excuses is, “I’ll try” or “I tried”. All that means is that you are too lazy to even come up with an excuse! One day I was listening to a fellow consultant and he was telling a story about one of his follow-up seminars. During this follow-up meeting, one of the students said that they tried what he taught and it didn’t work. Without delay the consultant took out a pen, walked over to the gentleman, set the pen on the desk and said, “Try to pick up this pen”. The man picked up the pen with ease. The consultant took the pen and set it down again saying, “Don’t pick it up. Just try to pick it up.” After one more try the man understood the consultant’s point. There is a significant difference between doing and trying. People that “do” don’t “try”. And people that “try” don’t “do”.

Take a lesson from Joe. The power is in the question. What can I do to improve? What can I do differently today? What image do I want to project of myself? Start asking yourself the right questions and take responsibility for your actions.

Author Bio: Adam DesAutels - President and CEO of DesAutels Communications Agency. A full service business development firm that specializes in planning, marketing advice, research, and general business Q and A (consulting). DesAutels supports the most successful small businesses around the nation in growing their companies. For a complementary Business Evaluation ($200 value) call 866.521.3780.

Have you ever thought what your life would be like if you lost all the money you had. In the past it may not have been a problem, but you might be a little older now. If you are 50 years old or older do you think your chances of being hired are as good as they were at 25? You will be lucky to find a job period, but if you do find one you will be lucky if you can cover your expenses.

Should You Be Worried?…I Think So

The World is changing, with automation the demand for workers has dropped. The cost of gasoline right now is lowering our standard of life, and gasoline prices are predicted to rise even higher. When gasoline rises almost everything else rises, have you looked at your grocery bill lately? Yes you need to be concerned, because even if you have a job now you may be looking for another one just to pay your bills.

You may still think you could pick up a little extra income, but here in the United States, we have people coming across our borders taking any kind of job they can get. So does that mean just people in the United States will have trouble? Think about it, if they are coming here for work that means there is little work where they came from or the pay is so low they can’t live decently. No we have a big problem all over the world.

What Should We Do?…What Can We Do?

The first thing we can do is get started, the longer we wait the older we get and the harder it will become to make ends meet. Take time to learn how to make money on the Internet. You need to start planning now and get a head start, before the flood starts, the last ones starting will have the most difficult time making money. If you will learn to make money on the Internet you won’t have to worry about getting hired, you will be your own boss.

How Can I Start Making Money On The Internet?

You need to study all you can about making money on the Internet, join forums, read articles like the one you are reading now. You can start your research free, so there is no reason to not get started now. You need to learn before you can earn, there are marketers on the Internet that will lie and cheat you, just like people off the internet, so you need to be aware of that, and learn the tricks people will use to steal your money also.

Good Luck!

About The Author

Perry Toms has been doing surveys for over two years. Surveys can make you money…Find out for yourself here! http://freedom.ncave.com

Perry Toms has been doing surveys for over two years.
Surveys can make you money…Find out for yourself here! freedom.ncave.com

There are three investment vehicles which can make you rich. Stocks, businesses, and real estate.

Stocks can return lots of money in a short amount of time, and can have a steady rate of return using investing techniques such as dollar cost averaging. However, but how much stock do you think you can buy for $20,000 dollars? $20,000 worth of stock. What about using someone else’s money to buy more? Try asking your bank manager for a loan of $100,000 to buy stock! You wont be very successful. This is the principle of leverage. In stock there isn’t much of that, you can’t get rich using other peoples money. Also with such a volatile market trading can be nail biting!

Businesses for most people, can be very hard to start and run. I read somewhere that 9 out of 10 businesses fail with in the first year. Out of the successful businesses left, within the next 10 years 9 out of 10 of those businesses fail. Although running a successful business can be very profitable most people are held back by the financial and personal risk, along with long start up hours.

I am not saying that these two assets will not work to create money, they can, but for the average person it is quite hard to do so.

Throughout the centuries the rich have used real estate as a safe guard for their money and as an asset. So why is real estate such a great asset? Read more in Part 2!

This article was written by John Whiteside. The original article can be found here http://www.use-your-equity.com/realestateinvesting.html . Use-Your-Equity can show you how to create value in your home, then show you how to use the newly created equity to make money. http://www.use-your-equity.com for more information.

Did Columbus first discover America?

Did the Vikings first discover America?

Did the Chinese first discover America?

No, in truth the American continent was first discovered between 10,000 and 15,000 years ago by bands of roving hunters from the Siberian steppes, who made the lonely trek across to the previously unknown continent during the last Great Ice Age when the sea level fell enough to expose a narrow causeway that acted as a bridge between the two continents.

No signs have yet been found of any human habitation on the continent before these times so it must be assumed that they arrived to find an uninhabited land. With no real threats and a landscape teeming with wildlife they decided to stay, though they didn’t have much choice in the matter as before long the waters rose as the Ice Age drew to a close and quite literally cut them off from their friends and family back in Asia.

With no boats and no chance of retreat, at least not until the next Ice Age (which hasn’t started yet!), they must have decided to make the most of their new-found home, which just happened to be a continent so huge it spanned the two poles and contained every type of landscape imaginable, from rugged mountains and steaming volcanoes to parched deserts and hidden valleys, from endless wide-open plains to dank, dense jungles, and from frozen snow-bound tundra to idyllic tropical islands.

Fortunately these hunters must have taken their females along for the trek and over the centuries they spread and multiplied, so much so that by 1500AD, when they were finally discovered by the rest of humanity, there were upwards of 10 million natives spread across all parts of the continent.

These indigenous tribes by that time had settled into 3 rough groups:

1) to the north, in present-day USA and Canada, there were between 1000 and 2000 family tribes, most eking out a subsistence lifestyle by hunting, whilst living in tents and temporary settlements as they followed the wandering herds.

2) throughout the central part of the continent and on the eastern part of South America these same tribes had joined together into civilized groups who lived in stone-built cities where the landscape was dominated by huge temples, the scene of fearsome rituals where the citizens were largely kept in obedience under threat of human sacrifice.

3) and finally, on the Caribbean Islands and around the deltas of the Orinoco and Amazon rivers, a third group had settled, on the whole peacefully, though even amongst some of these tribes cannibalism was still practised.

There they had lived for more than 10,000 years, unable to get back in touch with the rest of the world. In fact they probaby no longer even remembered there was any more to the world beyond their continent. But their isolation was not to continue and this book tells the fascinating story of how this long-lost continent was finally rediscovered and of how it once more became a real and living part of the known world.

This excerpt is taken from the first chapter of Discovery - The Story of America by Anthony Treasure. This book is already published in the UK (listed on Amazon.co.uk) and is due to be published in the US at a later date. For now it is published as an ebook and as a SPECIAL INTRODUCTORY OFFER Discovery Part One is available to download COMPLETELY FREE OF CHARGE. Three further titles - Discovery Part Two, Colonization Part One and Colonization Part Two are also out as ebooks and can be bought and downloaded from the website. To claim your free ebook today simply visit http://www.farawaybooks.com

Tired of sending the boring white envelope over and over again? Why not spice it up with colorful return address labels? Your recipient will surely be amused by your creativity, and you will definitely find mail work a lot more fun.

Why use stick-on return address labels?

You are not required to put a return address on every letter you send out, but it is still best to label your letters so that the post office can resend it to you (in case it gets rejected or undelivered for any reason).A legible, well-made return address label also lets your recipient understand your address and send you a reply.

Thousands of themes to choose from

There are literally hundreds upon hundreds of return address label deigns and sizes available to fit any personality, any mood, or any occasion. Among the best sellers are floral prints, fold foil, and special interest prints such as teddy bears or ships. You can either buy these from online stores, print shops, or even make them yourself. The possibilities are endless - all you need is a good printer, precut sticker sheets, and your imagination!

If you are using the address label for formal letters or work-related mail, it is best to stick to classic minimalist designs. This does not just mean boring white, of course - you can have a blue, green or what here background you want for as long as you keep the font professional-looking and easily readable. Avoid using scripts and other fancy letters, because unless you work in the creative industry, they just look very amateurish and can be difficult to decipher.

It’s also a good idea to have a number of different return address labels to choose from for different occasions, so that your letter is always ‘dressed for the part.’ Have at least one specific design for the following events: Christmas, Thanksgiving, children’s parties, weddings, Hanukah, Halloween, and others. Imagine the amusement of your when they see an orange return address label with a pumpkin on the Halloween invitation from you, or the face of Santa or one of his adorable reindeers on the return address label of your Christmas card!

Address Labels provides detailed information on Address Labels, Return Address Labels, Free Address Labels, Personalized Address Labels and more. Address Labels is affiliated with Personalized Rubber Stamps.

Recap

Greetings fellow entrepreneurs. The previous article has either encouraged you to move onto success or peaked your curiosity. No matter the reason, I am very pleased to see that you are continuing.

As I stated in Part 1, it is very important for you to select the correct business for you. After you have selected the business, you must learn about the business itself:

1.It’s services or products

2.how to use, explain, sell them

3.You need to learn who you are selling to: businesses, consumers, or both

4.How the product or service is given to the customers

All of these aspects can be learned from the business information you have chosen. You must study these materials throughly especially the products/services. The more you know about the products/services the easier it will be to sell them. Marketing on the other hand, must be learned from other sources.

Purpose

Marketing, or advertising, will be the most challenging and expensive part of running your business. As I have mentioned in Part 1, one of my attempts failed due to my neglect of learning about marketing. You have to learn how to perform marketing procedures in order to make your business successful. You must be willing to spend some money on marketing. Marketing is the way your business will be known to the world.

Marketing 101

As stated earlier, marketing is the way your business will be known to the world. Before you can sell to the world you must define the world you are selling to. For example, if your business sells guns, you would not want to sell your products to children. Hence, your marketing world consists of adults above the age of 18.

Once you have defined your marketing world, you must determine how you are going to reach, contact, your marketing world. This is done in so many different ways. This is were it starts to get ugly.

There are some many ways of advertising. The big questions are:

1. Were does my marketing world (m-world) get its information?
2. What is the most cost effect way to get to my m-world?
3. How much do I want to spend on marketing?

These questions are very important. I recommend these questions be answered in the order they appear.

After these questions have been answered, you are ready to start your marketing campaign. The article is not written to explain how to perform marketing. However, was written to get you started in the right direction.

Persistence and determination

Remember you started your own business. Assuming you have not bought an established business, you will spend at least 70% of your time and/or money marketing. Also remember, your business name is not yet known. Marketing is the only way you can get your business name to your m-world. This could take some time before you see any results. The results will very for each person and business.

Professionals

Marketing professionals are extremely eager to help a new business get started. They would also perform a very competent job. But, marketing professionals can be expensive.

Free Marketing

Believe it or not, there are ways for you to market your business for free. The usefulness of free marketing is determined by your business. For example, if you are starting an accounting business, marketing your business in FFA’s may be a waste of time. FFA’s are Free for All classifieds.

Conclusion

Marketing is very important to the survival and profitability to your company. You must have determination and persistence to keep your business alive for the first few months. In fact, marketing will keep your business profitable for many years to come; as long as you continue to market your business.

The next issue will discuss setting up your business.

Sponsored by:
T. M. Johnson - www.tmjohnson.us

C2C Mall - www.c2cmall.com

copyright 2005

Thom Johnson is an individual that has attempted several businesses. I am successful in my current business. I am writing these articles to help new entrepreneurs be successful on their first try.