daily blog

It time again to revisit alternative financing strategies for business owners needing money. Whether your business needs capital to grow, meet payroll, or to just simply survive, there are numerous alternatives for your company when banks so ‘NO’.

Personal loans are no longer viable options for business owners. Banks have tightened their purse strings on personal credit just as they have with business credit. This tightening typically does not have anything to do with the state of your credit or the value of your collateral. But more reflects their past indiscretions with their depositors’ money. Further, most business owners, over the last two or three years, have already encumbered all of their personal assets, leaving nothing of value to collateralize.

The following lists many alternatives that may still be available to your business. These alternatives allow business owners to capitalize on their previous hard work; be it from building relationships with suppliers and other business partners to closing sales and building a strong customer base:

Using Your Business Relationships!

Trade Credit: It never hurts to work with your suppliers. Ask for better terms; either more discounts or longer time for payment. Here you can reduce your overall costs or allow more time to collect money from your customer before payment is due to these suppliers. Now, your suppliers may baulk at this discussion as they are probably feeling the same pinch as you are. However, impress upon them that it does their business no good (short term or long-term) if you go out of business, have to cut back your standard orders, or are forced to find other suppliers who offer better terms.

In conjunction with trade credit, do all that you can to collect your receivables from your customers, as soon as possible. If your suppliers offer you discounts for early payment, offer the same to your customers (just maybe not at the same magnitude) or offer discounts for cash. This allows you to collect payments faster as well as reduce you costs by paying less for the goods you need to run your business. Just remember, in this type of economy, cash is king.

Using The Strength of Your Customers!

Receivables and/or Purchase Orders: If your business has accounts receivables sitting on its book just waiting to be collected, you maybe able to get cash for those assets NOW. There are cash advance companies (not banks) that specialize in purchasing your receivables. Companies like Bridgeport Capital Service, RTS Financial Services, or Paragon Financial Group. These companies will purchase your invoices for up to 90% of their amount. They will then work with your customers to collect these receivables (saving you both time and money on collection). When the invoices are paid, these companies will refund to you the remaining 10% of the invoice amount. This type of funding is great for struggling companies as these cash advance businesses will focus more on your customers’ credit and business strengths than your.

Many of these same companies will also finance your purchase orders. If you place an order with your suppliers and agree to pay for their goods over time, these cash advance companies will finance these agreements. This could allow your business the opportunity to take advantage of trade discounts (percentages off the purchase amount) as your company will have immediate cash to satisfy your supplier. This is very similar to having a line of credit with your bank but as an individual credit facility for each purchase.

Credit Cards: I not saying go out and get more credit cards. If your business accepts credit cards, there are companies (again, not banks) that may advance cash to your company based on your FUTURE credit card receipts. These facilities are only paid back when your business generates credit card sales. Thus, if you have a slow month, you are not stuck with a huge monthly loan payment. As your credit card sales ebb and flow, your repayment of these advances will ebb and flow in tandem.

Using Your Character!

Need just a small amount of cash to get you by? Try social lending sites like All World Private Funding!, Zopa, Prosper, or Lending Club. These sites create peer-to-peer lending in which ordinary people, who have additional cash, can review your request and contribute to the funding of your loan. The benefits of these programs include getting the money you need, possible lower rates and better terms than most banks offer, and you get to tell your story directly to the lenders.

Similarly, there is Micro-Credit companies. The largest in the US and around the world is ACCION USA. Micro-finance companies limit their total out lay to a maximum of $25,000 per loan. However, most micro-credit funders like to build relationships first with their borrowers. Thus, they may only approve smaller amounts in the beginning and increase your loan amount as you pay back each facility. These companies will also work with startup firms or those that have been turned down by traditional banks and other financial institutions.

Never forget your friends and family. These are the people who know you best and may better understand what you are trying to do with your business. There are many cons with borrowing money from those closest to you but new companies like Virgin Money will help you manage this new relationship. Companies like Virgin will help you keep everything in a business like manner.

Now, while there is a lot of focus these days on traditional banks, most communities also have Credit Unions. Credit Unions are not-for-profit organizations. Thus, they do not have to worry about Wall Street or shareholders. While the majority of Credit Unions have yet to fully adopt commercial lending departments, they should have lending programs in place that will meet your business needs.

Some of these alternative options maybe a little more expensive, overall, then having a single credit facility with a bank. But, they are a sure fire way of leading your company through our current credit drought. The key to success is to do your homework. Find the program that best fits your needs and that will provide the greatest benefit at the lowest cost to your business. Some business owners tend to panic a bit when they begin to feel the credit pinch. It is only natural as raising money for your business is time consuming, time that can hardly be spared in these trying times. But, remember to think about the long term. Don’t just settle on the first source that gets approved, find the best fore you. Be diligent!

Joseph Lizio holds A MBA in Finance and is founder and owner of http://www.businessmoneytoday.com

Forex trading is the simultaneous buying of one currency and the selling of another currency.
This continuously changing number financial system was launched in the 1970s. It is now the largest liquid financial market today with daily trades totaling well over 1 trillion dollars. The New York Stock Exchange is not nearly as large as the Foreign Exchange or Forex.

Trading

Forex is a true 24-hour market, which offers a major advantage over equities trading. Forex transactions take place online anywhere in the world around the clock. The market activity starts in Sydney, Australia and moves around the globe as various financial markets open around the world. Trading is not limited to a centralized location like the Stock Exchange or Futures Markets.

Currency

Currency exchange trading involves buying and selling two different currencies simultaneously. Markets are primarily affected by international trade flows and the flow of investment currency. Prices are quoted in pairs with a “Bid”, and an “Ask” price completing the quote.

The “Bid” price is the price the Dealer will pay or the Trader will sell for the currency. The “Ask” price is the amount the Trader will pay or the Dealer will sell the currency. The quote on some currencies are dependent on the US Dollar such as the Euro, British Pound, and the Australian Dollar to name a few.

Market

The foreign exchange market never closes so there is not the backlog of orders or excitement over breaking news stories that affects the open of the stock exchanges. The market in the traditional sense does not exist since there is no central trading location. The main currency market is the “interbank market” where large institutions deal with the risks of the fluctuations of the values. The “spot market” is the market for the buying and selling of currencies at the prevailing price. The Forex ECN provides an area or marketplace for traders to buy and sell very similar to a giant department store.

Trade

Trades can happen very quickly in seconds or take months to complete. The trader must secure a profit from the purchase and sale of the currency. This has spawned a technology allowing the trader to automate a lot of the process. The traders that are consistently profitable are those that have done their homework and understand the risks involved. By entering a trade, you are gambling the price will change in your favor by an amount that will allow you to break even or make a profit. If you decide to close a trade because of an unfavorable position, you stand to lose the spread also.

Price.

The price of the trade can be as little as one hundred to several thousand dollars and can move in a direction that will either favor or hurt your position. Price graphs are used to monitor this movement. A “pip” is the smallest amount the price can change and us used to reference the movement of the value of the currency.

Remember, only a small percentage of forex traders profit consistently and they’re the ones that have learned well

95 % of the investors in the forex market are losers! Do you have the drive to join the five percenters? Learn how to become a member of that 5% club.

Interacting with your online visitors is crucial in getting your point across and in ensuring their interest in the product or service that you are promoting. In order to be successful in the online world you simply must engage your audience. The best way to engage your visitors and ensure their interest is to use video to get your message across. Streaming video is the best method for interacting with your online audience and ultimately ensuring the success of your website.

Online video presentations are by far the most effective methods for getting information across to your visitors. No matter what product or service you happen to be promotion, you can ensure that your visitors retain this information much better when they are learning through video. In general, people absorb much more information when it is presented in an interesting form. You also have the opportunity to present more information when you use video than you do with simple text or photos and your visitors feel a more personal connection to you and your product or service. You can use videos to showcase testimonials from real people to gain your visitors’ trust and get their interest level even higher. Using video develops a much higher level of trust for the product or service that you are promoting and thus increases your chances of making a sale.

When you use video on your website you have the ability to capture the attention of every visitor who happens onto your site. Instead of boring text and outdated pictures, you can add an interesting and attention grabbing video presentation that will give your customers or clients all the information that you are trying to convey and in a much easier method. Imagine speaking for just a moment. If you were to be assigned the task of informing someone of how to wash a dish and you could only do so via text, wouldn’t you find that just a tad difficult? Now, imagine having the ability to instruct that same person on how to wash a dish but this time you are permitted to use audio and video in your demonstration. Do you see the impact that the second scenario could make on your website?

Providing information for people is just like everything else. You need to choose the most effective way in which to get your message across. If you simply rely on written words you have no idea how your visitors are going to take your message. The written word contains no emotion. If three different people all saw the same text, chances are that they would all three read it differently. On the other hand, when you use a video presentation to convey your message to online visitors you can determine exactly how your message will come across. The spoken word contains emotion and you have much higher chance of encouraging your visitors to purchase your product or believe what you are saying when they actually hear the words as opposed to simply reading them. In the old days of interacting with potential customers you would have had to establish a traditional store.

Then we moved on to brochures, flyers and other methods of text and image presentation. Today’s marketing includes video. Video is a much more effective marketing tool than you may realize. If you truly want to increase website conversion, sales or just ensure the overall success of your website then you really do need to implement video. This is truly the best way to interact with online visitors. Like the old ad once said “It’s the next best thing to being there”.

Steve Hill is a webmaster from Birmingham, he has interests in a number of websites including:
stuttering therapies
video advertising

Many times, we see others as well as ourselves getting into the debt trap very easily. A deadly debt trap never allows the savings to remain with you. However hard you try to save money, you ultimately spend them on paying huge interests on your accumulated debts. So what all, does it take to save money and lead a care-free life without debts? To crack this puzzle, you need not think hard.

While we can see various reasons trigger one deep down into the word of debts, we can broadly classify these so-called reasons as personal, economic and social. Personal situations may include reasons like loss of job, cut in the pay, accumulation of existing debts, treatment of illness, family crisis and so on. Personal situations are never predictable and so one should always be prepared for any such crisis contingencies, which can cause a major blow to the income. It is always advisable to set aside some portion of your income in a different bank account, so that it can be effectively used during such contingencies.

Coming to the economic triggers, one can get blown away with a sudden loss in business, tumbling sales, bad debts, inflation, economy slowdown etc. Currently, we are indeed witnessing the recession in the economy with the cost of living doubled and the means of income reduced.

While personal and economic reasons may be unpredictable, social triggers definitely are self- sponsored and can be truly avoided by adopting certain means. Don’t you think you will be in a posh car showroom tomorrow, if today you see your junior colleague getting that swanky car to the office? Yes, I am talking about status anxiety. As you put a step ahead each time in your career and status, you always tend to get anxious about maintaining the same. As a result, you do not even hesitate for a single moment and delve deep down in the debt-pool.

When we go out for shopping with our friends, we do tend to splurge more than what we actually should. Many things are purchased just because “My friend also bought it”. And to make things simpler, we always carry the very famous “plastic money” with us. Credit cards had come as a convenience, but now we use it to satiate our status hunger. Although, it may sound a little strange, but it’s always wise to ask yourself a small question “Do I need to buy this?” before you actually swipe your card for the purchase.

And what happens next is the rather unending sequence of debt repayments. If you have bought an exotic product on debt, just check out the interest rate you are paying on the actual or principal amount and then you would come to know the real worth and utility of the product.

You get into debts largely because of two reasons – Improper planning and tendency to spend more. Always remember that debts should be availed ONLY if necessary and ONLY to the extent of what you can repay without much encumbrances. Budgeting, planning and control are three simple, yet magical keys to have a debt free life.

Andy Eaton is £21,040.57 in debt, read his personal blog and discover his step-by-step plan for why and how he is eliminating his debt. His journey to debt free is going to happen quickly for him as he is using a plan. Follow his amazing story at http://www.sick2debt.com

Merchant cash advances help business owner’s open doors for better types of funding opportunities. The business cash advance industry is climbing at a continuous rate. This ever increasing growth is because traditional bank loans are not meeting the demands of small business owners.

Business cash advances are a unique funding method. It’s a purchase of future credit card sales, not a loan, so we have to use specific language consistent with purchase of future credit card sales, like payback rate and discount rate instead of commonly used interest rate on bank loans. Merchant cash advances are a lot like factoring but are based on a sale that hasn’t happened just yet.

A business cash advance lender gives business owners a sum of cash advance up front. In exchange, the business owner agrees to pay back the principal amount plus the fee, by giving the lender a daily percentage of their visa and master card sales until the payback is completed.

The daily payback percentage won’t be higher than 10% of daily gross sales, the daily percentage is based on the monthly credit cards sales volume and the amount of cash advance required. The payback time-frame is structured for a 6-9 months term, but it’s not fixed, and there won’t be any penalties if it takes longer.

Business owners usually must switch the credit card processor because the advance is paid back automatically as a percentage of each batch’s proceeds, but the rates will be the same if not better. Just a small number of merchant cash advance lenders don’t require the merchant to change their credit card processors company. Most time this won’t be a problem at all since the rates will be matched.

Business cash advances differ a lot from the traditional bank funding programs. In essence a merchant cash advance lender purchases a small percentage of future Master Card and Visa sales, and the business owner pays back this as a daily percentage of such sales.

Obtaining cash from the bank can be difficult for most business owners, but particularly retail businesses, restaurants, store franchisees or seasonal businesses. These merchants mostly use credit card processing, making a merchant cash advance program a great funding opportunity for them.

What are some of the benefits?

The money is available much faster than it is with a bank loan. Unsecured merchant cash advances are specially a great option for retail and restaurant merchants, not only because these types of businesses can hardly be funded by the traditional bank, but also because of the immediate liquidity and simple process.

Many merchant cash advance lenders advertise that the money will be available in as fast as 10 days, and unlike a bank loan that have a fixed interest rate, as the amount due and due date are fixed each month, no matter if your sales drop. Instead, with a merchant cash advance the payback comes from future credit card receivables, not straining your business cash flow.
Fast merchant cash advance programs are cash flow friendly, during seasonally slow periods specially.

Traditional bank loans require a fixed set of payments every month, whether the business has made a sale or not. But if you choose a merchant cash advance, payments are calculated as a percentage of credit card sales, and if the sales are growing, the re-payment could be quicker, but if the business owner experiences some interruption or sales drop in the business, the payments will drop with it.

Another great advantage of a merchant cash advance, is that the business owner won’t risk he’s personal assets, because there’s no collateral required.

David Castro often writes articles about Merchant Cash Advance and Small Business Loans for Merchant Resources International – To Learn more Visit Us at http://www.cashprior.com

We want to save more money, but we’re not sure where to begin.

Our first step is to make a budget, so we can then make a plan on how much we can save after our necessary bills are paid. It may seem like there’s nothing left, but even if we’re just putting away a few dollars a week, we’re heading in the right direction. An easy way to do this is if you have a direct deposit with your paycheck. You can automatically have a certain portion put into your savings account and then your savings can just accrue. The secret is to save more and more until it just becomes habit for you.

When we’re saving, we want to have a general goal in mind. What are we saving for? Is it to pay off our house sooner — say we tuck away $100 a month and put $1,200 extra a year on our house. Or maybe we want to buy a new stainless steel fridge with no fingerprints — let’s say a cost of about $1500 — we’re able to save $300 extra a month, so in five months we can have that fridge paid for with cash and with no financial debt to anyone. If we understand the importance of saving, whether for retirement or a long-awaited vacation, then now we must find ways to actually save the money.

So now we have a budget in mind and we have a reason to save. But if we’re not spending-freaks and we actually do live paycheck to paycheck to cover the basics — so it’s not just a question of limiting our wants — then we must find ways to come up with those extra dollars to save. Here are some ideas:

Save On Gas

• Take public transportation or ride the bus. I know that’s not really possible for some — but for some it may be. It can also be an opportunity to multitask — get ahead of your reading.
• Investigate gas prices. The internet is filled with information, including prices of gas — so do your research before you drive around town trying to find the cheapest price on gas while wasting gas!
• Idle no more and get a tune-up. The running engine is just burning gas — wasting money — if the car is idling. Efficiency is lost if the car hasn’t had a regular tune-up and thus gas mileage could be pretty lousy.
• Drive the speed limit. If you change your speed excessively, it uses up more gas — so stick to the speed limit to improve your gas mileage.

Save on Groceries

• Use coupons.
• Buy in bulk.
• Look for sales.

Save on Utility Bills

• Winterize your home. It may seem expensive initially but it saves a lot in the long run.
• Use wood stoves to heat your home. If you live in a colder climate or just have harsh winters — this can really save you on your heating bill and efficient wood stoves can warm up the house quickly!
• Summerize your home. So I know that’s not a real word, but I think you get the meaning. If you live in a hot climate — use window shades and instead of warming up your home even more by using your oven — use crock pots, barbeques etc. so your air conditioner doesn’t have to work even harder in the summer.
• Save on your water bill. Use less water!

Save on entertainment.
Instead of going to the opera and eating escargots at the expensive restaurant next door — maybe we can have a picnic and use our discount tickets at the cinema. So maybe that sounds too restrictive, but it depends on what your interests are — you can have a lot of fun even on the most limited of budgets!

So remember to budget, save, and continually look for ways to live more frugally! Becoming financially independent within your means is a happier stress-free life than being financially yoked to a money-making institution while in your palatial home.

Jaycee Fox writes on subjects with the goal of achieving a healthy and balanced life. She has a Bachelors in Psychology and a Masters degree. If you’re interested in the many resources in helping to achieve that balance — even financial and budget resources — then check out Jaycee’s website at http://jayceeliving.com/

Here’s how I plan to turn the $1,000 per child that the Rudd Government is giving to my family on 8 December, 2008 into a gift that lasts for life.

For those readers who are either not Australian, or who are not aware of the recently-announced financial assistance the Australian Government is offering to families; here is a brief of what is on offer.

The Australian Government, which happens to be in Surplus (given the amount of debt per capita, I am not sure what this is a Surplus “of”…), announced recently that if you have children and you fall within the “Family Benefits Tax A” bracket, then to help ‘boost’ the economy, the Australian Government is offering families a cash payment of $1,000 per child, to be paid on 8th December 2008.

There is a whole swag of other payments being made right across the country to Age Pensioners, Disability Pensioners, Carers, and others, on the same day. The media had a field day, rejoicing in the announcement, saying that families will be able to spend this on Christmas presents and will boost Christmas sales and the economy. People everywhere are plotting how they will spend the unexpected booty.

Not me! I have bigger ideas than that and will actually be applying the cash handout to remedying – at least within my own family – the underlying cause that’s behind this whole sorry mess in the first place.

That is to say, I will be putting this money to work. I will use it to create more money for my children, which will, in turn, be reinvested to create recurring incomes, from a number of sources.

What’s more, I have found a way to do this in a risk-free environment – outside of the stock market, and outside of the property market – yet which allows me to invest small amounts in carefully selected businesses by purchasing their products and receiving profit-share from sales. More on this in a minute.

First off, I will open a bank account in each child’s name to accept their windfalls and start their Investment/Savings plans for the future.

Of the $1,000 each receives, I will put into action what every Investment book out there tells me to do. Invest 10% of all money received into growing more money.

So, $100 per child will be invested and put to work using the strategies set out in the free book “How To Let Your Money Make More Money Online… While You Are Busy Doing Other Things,” by Taylor Adams.

This has taught me exactly how to use subscriptions to online companies from just $5 per month as profit-generating investments. Money Buddy Alliance (MBA) offers a free service, so I am not paying any money to them. The money I pay is to my own subscription account, in return for which, I receive the product I subscribe to, along with a profit-share in the form of commission income. How cool is that?

$100 will more than cover a 12-month subscription to my children’s first Investment. So I can just pay the annual amount and not even have to think about it for the next 12 months.

All of this I have already had set up in my own name for some time, and know from my own experiences that it works a treat. So I will simply create a subscription in each of the kids’ names, and basically set them up for life.

There is a reinvestment strategy for when income reaches successive levels that will pay for a series of additional investments from profits, one after another. It’s so easy.

MBA just lets me know when my profits are sufficient to add the next investment position. I then take a look at it, and if I like it, I commence reinvesting in that one too. So far I have 8 different investment vehicles at various stages of development, from well established to very new. It’ll be fun teaching the kids how to do this as they grow.

Sometimes I still am amazed that for as little as $5 per month I can set my kids up for life in this way. And anyone can do it.

So what am I going to do with Kevin Rudd’s Christmas bonus – the $1,000 per child ‘windfall’ that the Australian Government has given to my family…??

I will teach my children how to invest just 10% of that money. I will show them how to purchase their “Money Tree seedlings” – an annual subscription to an online gardening club; which costs just $5 per month and pays out 90% of its subscriptions to its members.

This will dovetail very nicely with the gardening that we are teaching them in our own suburban backyard, where they now have a thriving worm farm and lush crops of organic fruits and vegetables.

I will teach them how to set up their online money processor which will collect their commissions, and pay their subscriptions from profits when renewal time comes around next year.

Everything at Money Buddy Alliance is kept so easy and straight forward, it’s just like following the “bouncing ball.”

This is the first step of a program that will teach my children how to invest their Christmas bonus money and put it to work while they are busy being kids; and I can monitor and watch my children’s investments grow, while I get on with being “MUM.”

For a free report called “The $5 poverty Cure,” send an email to Leanne with “$1,000 Family Tax Benefit A” in the Subject line. A detailed report will be sent to your inbox outlining how to start putting YOUR money to work, so that you will be ready to help start your kids’ investments when you receive Kevin Rudd’s Christmas bonus in December 2008.

Leanne Cane
leanne@moneybuddyalliance.com

How many times have you come across a new Forex expert advisor that claims to make you overnight riches within the Forex market. These trading systems are being pumped into the industry at excessive levels and unfortunately they have saturated the market and in turn given the automated Forex trading industry an abysmal reputation.

Most of these Forex Expert advisors have computer software they have programmed within their system which they claim will make you money – however the vast majority of them are based on unsound logic which has no chance of working and producing consistent winning trades.

The major issue concerning these phony expert advisors is the fact that most of them will present you with a hypothetical back test as evidence of the systems money making power. These records are basically made up and simulated to fit the creator’s needs and they prove absolutely nothing. The vendor clearly knows all the opening and closing prices, the exact tops and bottoms, and therefore knowing all these facts he is easily able to simulate a dodgy track record to prove his system is making immense profits. Obviously the main problem is that these records are not real and just a tactic to steal your hard earned money.

Most of these systems are released by those extra savvy marketing gurus, who have only one thing on their mind, SELL SELL SELL, and they don’t care if their product works or if it is actually beneficial, they just want to make that sale. Their sites are fairly easy to spot out, as they will have pictures of tons of cash, Ferrari’s, mansions etc. and also don’t forget about that “ever convincing” backtest record. If you come across an expert advisor vendor who has all of the above elements on his site then you should leave the site immediately, it is 99% likely the trading system is a scam.

So forget those get rich quick methods that don’t work and seek out a Forex expert advisor which has a real track record or something worthwhile to teach you so you can devise your own. Legitimate Forex expert advisor will always show you proof of their results, and yes all of them will incur losing trades, there is no trading system out there that doesn’t ever lose, if you have found one then please let me know. However the best expert advisor will consistently produce a lot more winning trades than losing ones and will have a very low drawdown level, in turn assuring you make some decent long term profits off the market.

When searching for a good Forex expert advisor always look for live forward test statements, these tests are conducted in real market conditions with real money, therefore they actually let you know how the EA will perform in real live market conditions. These tests are probably the closest things to letting you know how profitable the expert advisor is and they should be the basis of your selection criteria when looking for a legitimate expert advisor.

If you do manage to find a mechanical Forex trading system with a real track record over a few years, just check the logic, make sure you understand it and can trade it with discipline through losing periods. Make sure it is suited to your risk and money management levels and do your research before making any final decisions. Also ensure that the vendor provides regular ongoing after sales support, so you know you are in good hands and will be looked after shall you encounter any problems.

Just remember most phony vendors will attempt to fraud you out of your money by hoping you fall for their simulated track records, and then one day get wiped out of your trading account. Don’t fall for their trap, shop around and find a real Forex expert advisor vendor, who provides legitimate live forward test statements, and is well recognized in the industry as a legitimate seller.

It is no secret that in order to succeed in the world of Forex Trading You must follow a good trading system and adhere to strict money management techniques. An Expert Advisor can seriously simplify the process and get you well on your way. If you wish to automate your Forex Trading Decisions by using a Forex Expert Advisor then check out this Collection of The Best Expert Advisors available for Forex Trading.

Promoting affiliate programs can undoubtedly produce great financial returns, but unfortunately most people never see these kinds of returns because they never figure out how to effectively promote their affiliate programs. Well this article will hopefully solve this problem as listed below are ten of the best methods you can use to start earning regular affiliate commissions.

1. Forums

Forums are one the most effective ways of marketing your affiliate programs if done correctly. By posting in relevant forums that allow sig files (where you can link to your own affiliate site, or directly to the product you are promoting if this is allowed) you can reach a targeted audience quickly and easily. As long as you post constructive comments, then you should see plenty of people clicking on your sig files to learn more about you, and the products you are promoting.

2. Articles

Writing articles is another cost-effective way of reaching your targeted market. By writing quality articles (that contain your resource box where you can link to your affiliate site) and submitting them to the various article directories, you can gain enormous exposure for your offers. A few people will come across your article in the article directories themselves, but it’s when website owners and ezine publishers pick up your article that you can really reach a massive target audience.

3. Press Releases

Press releases are similar to articles in that they provide a quick and easy way of reaching a large target audience. They can best be used when you have something newsworthy to say about either your own site or the actual products you are promoting. All you do is write the press release (in a journalistic style) and submit it to one of the larger online (or offline) press agencies.

4. Search Engine Optimization

This is probably the optimal form of promotion, but it’s also the most time-consuming, and it can take many months before you start to see any results. Nevertheless, if you can take time to optimize your website, and gain a lot of backlinks to your site using relevant keywords (including long-tail buying keywords) as the anchor text, you can receive a lot of traffic to your website when you start to obtain high search engine rankings.

5. Pay Per Click Advertising

This is a highly effective way of promoting your affiliate programs, either directly, or by using your own website to pre-sell the visitor. Pay per click advertising gives you the ability to advertise on the first few pages of results of the search engines for the exact keywords that you choose, so it’s no wonder that so many affiliates swear by this form of advertising. The main thing to remember is that you have to keep testing as much as possible and make sure you don’t spend too much per click on any of your keywords, so you maintain a positive return on your investment.

6. Advertising On Other Websites

You can buy advertising space or text links from numerous websites in all types of niches, so there’s plenty of opportunity to advertise your offers on other websites. The only downside is that it can be tricky finding websites that will give you a positive return on your investment, but if you can do this then there’s definitely good profits to be made.

7. Free Reports And Ebooks

Writing free reports and ebooks provide an excellent opportunity to access your target market, particularly if you add a viral aspect to them. All you do is write your own content, based around the product you are promoting, and include your affiliate links within this content. If your information is of a high quality, you can get massive exposure for your affiliate links as people pass it on to other people, and share it with their list of subscribers if they have one.

8. Blogs

Promotional blogs are a modern and extremely effective way of promoting your affiliate programs. Because they often contain fresh content on an ongoing basis, they are loved by the major search engines, and can therefore attract high levels of traffic.

9. Email Marketing

Advertising in relevant ezines has traditionally been a good way of promoting affiliate programs. Although not as effective as it once was due to strict spam filters, a well-written solo ad or an attention-grabbing classified ad in a targeted high readership ezine can still get great results. For best results, however, you should aim to build your own list of subscribers so you can send out your emails whenever you want, and can actually build a relationship with your list, which will increase your affiliate sales.

10. Offline Advertising

This is the final of form of advertising I want to discuss. Most online marketers ignore offline advertising completely, but there’s no doubt that offline advertising still works, and can even outperform online advertising in some cases. Business cards, flyers, magazine and newspaper advertising are just some of the ways you can effectively promote products offline.

James Woolley is a full-time marketer who runs a number of profitable websites. His latest site is essentially an affiliate program directory that reveals his best high paying affiliate programs.

When I first found out about Liberty League International, I thought I’d stepped right into partnership movie “The Secret”, you know, the movie about the Law partnership Attraction. I had watched the movie a couple of times partnership realized the significance of what it was all about. I was online looking for a home business opportunity and an impression (landing or splash page) came up with a picture of a couple who were retired. According to them, Liberty League was a wonderful home business opportunity, they were only working the business a few hours a day and were able to spend time on their catamaran in the Gulf of Mexico and really take the business anywhere in the world.

“Wow! I’ve found it! The home business I’ve been looking for is right in front of me, the Law of Attraction at work” I’m thinking. So I filled out the contact information and waited.

A short time later I received a call from a very nice woman who explained that it was her website which I landed on and she would answer any questions I might have. My first question was “what is this all about?” and she explained that I would have all of my questions answered on a “business overview call”, when would be a good time for me to go to a call? The next call was at 3:00 p.m. so I jumped right on that call.

On the call one of the members of the Executive Marketing Council reads from a script and tells you that you can actually start your own home business which has the potential to generate a multiple six figure income for only $1,495.00, and they explain how, once you have passed up your two “training sales” to your adviser you are now in a position to earn a “profit” on all of your sales at this level for life. Then they carefully explain that now that you are “qualified”, everyone who you sponsor will in turn be passing up their first two sales to you, and those two people will in turn pass up their first sales, and those four people will in turn pass up their first two sales, and those eight people will in turn pass up…well I guess you get the picture.

Next, they start explaining the historical numbers. Seems that one out of every three people who signs up at the first level – which is called the “Beyond Freedom” level – will purchase a Liberty Conference ticket for $7,995.00 and here’s the great news, you’ll be earning $5,000.00 for each of those purchases.

And it just keeps getting better. About half of those people who purchase the Liberty Conference ticket will purchase a Summit Conference ticket and, are you ready for this? you’ll be earning $8,000.00 for each of those purchases. Well I was mildly excited about all of the potential to say the least.

Then, after the call was over, something very interesting happened. I received a call from the very nice woman who asked if I had any questions and I said “yes, I have several”. Her response was “OK the next step will be to do a three-way call with another leader in the company so that they can answer all of your questions. And she made the arrangements for a call back in about a half hour to get my questions answered.

One of my questions was “I heard somewhere in the “business overview call that I can get started for $49.95, is that true?” “Well yes, but then you’ll have to pass your first five “Beyond Freedom” sales up, that would mean passing up $5,000.00 in “profit” why would you want to do that?” How true. I had much to think about so I told my prospective sponsor that I”d have to give this whole thing some thought and I’d get back to her.

That night – actually about 2:00 in the morning – I woke from a sound sleep and thought about the numbers. All I have to do is pass up my first two sales and then I’ll be “qualified”. After that everyone who I sponsor will be passing up their first two sales to me, at $1,000.00 profit each and then there are those profits of $5,000.00 and $8,000.00. Now I see how people are making fortunes in home based businesses. But I’m still holding back for some reason. Then I receive an email from the very nice woman inviting me to a a special Friday morning call which will give me a “peek behind the curtain” into the lives and successes of many of the Liberty Leaguers. Wow! this sounds like its too important to miss, and besides I have an extra half hour on Friday morning, think I’ll go to the call.

This is where “The Secret” went to work on me. I dialed in to the Friday morning call and lo and behold the stories which I was hearing were just incredible. One in particular grabbed me. Seems there was a young man who had been a security guard in a wealthy community out west, perhaps Colorado. He kept getting calls to this beautiful mansion because of a faulty alarm, and remembers just a few short years ago how one day while in the mansion he made the comment that he would never earn enough to be able to afford such luxury. Well guess what? Since joining the “League” a few short years ago, are you ready, he now owns that very same mansion. Pretty cool, right?

Well I’m sold! And let this be a lesson to you, do some due diligence before you invest in a home based business. Because not only did I invest the $1,495.00 plus shipping, I wound up investing more than $20,000.00 to “capitalize” my business. Want to know why?

Shortly after joining Liberty League and receiving my “Beyond Freedom” package I went right to work on the business as well as the personal development program. I was placing ads on the free internet sites and getting some responses and was so eager to be able to pass up a sale and then another sale to my adviser and be “qualified”. Then I received a call from the very nice woman who explained that I should go on the Tuesday night call that explains the conferences and how to really make the BIG money. Well I was shocked and dismayed. Now and only now I find out that you have to purchase one of the Liberty Conference tickets for $7,995.00 in order to qualify to earn a “profit” of $5,000.00 on tickets that you sell. Oh, and as for the Summit Conference? Same thing you have to purchase a Summit Conference ticket for $12,995.00 in order to qualify to earn a “profit” of $8,000.00 on tickets that you sell. As its explained, “this is the way to properly capitalize your business”. I was upset but what the heck, I’ve got the $20,900.00 so once I make a couple of these “Beyond Freedom” sales, I’ll go ahead and get myself “properly capitalized”.

Well a few months go by and I’m following the program and nothing’s happening. I’m generating plenty of leads and placing a lot of people on the business overview calls, I’m doing my personal development and journaling, and still no sales. Good thing for me there’s a Super Saturday event coming up and its close to home, all I have to do is buy two tickets, one for me and one for my wife, at $299.00 each, and we can go and talk to all of the leaders and find out what they are doing to be so successful. I’m certain that they will reveal all of the inside secrets and it won’t be long and we’ll be earning a fortune, just like they are.

We went to the Super Saturday and I’ll be darned if I learned anything new. Oh I realized that these people who were making five figures in a week or six figures in a month were just ordinary people, just like you and me, but about the best advice seemed to be “I was just like you, my business wasn’t going anywhere until I made the commitment and decided that this was it and I was going to go “full boat” (which means I’m going to buy my Liberty and Summit Conference tickets) and then my business, as if by magic, just took off.

So that’s the secret! You just have to have faith and take the big leap and invest another $20,990 to capitalize your business and then it will happen for you. Well there must have been something in the air or water at Super Saturday because against all reason and logic, I did it. I purchased both the Liberty Conference and Summit Conference tickets. As a matter of fact, I couldn’t wait to do it. I actually went online and placed the order for them on Sunday following the event. And again, I did it “no questions asked”, and again the most important information was withheld until the tickets were paid in full.

Here’s the real kicker! I found out shortly after I “qualified” at the “Beyond Freedom” level that it would take an incredible effort to become qualified at the other levels. Here’s why. Seems that your adviser has a register for each level. After I purchased my Liberty Conference ticket their register had to have four ticket sales after mine in order for me to be released. You want the most interesting aspect of this entire adventure? My advisers weren’t even actively marketing Liberty League anymore. What did that mean for me? It meant that I would have to pass up four ticket sales at the Liberty Conference level in order to qualify to earn profits at that level, and four ticket sales at the Summit Conference level in order to qualify to earn profits at that level. Can you believe it? That’s $52,000.00 more in profits that the very nice woman, my adviser, would earn before I earned a DIME!

Is Liberty League international for you? Only you can decide however, if you want some more information you might want to Google Liberty League International and do a thorough investigation of the first couple of pages. Then, when you’re finished there, Google Australian 2 up. Read Michael Dlouhy ezine and also scroll down and you’ll see Liberty League International has had a class action lawsuit filed against them. I’m certainly not telling anyone not to go with Liberty League, just do your due diligence – something I didn’t do.

Hi, I’m George L. Kenney

I’ve been in direct marketing for over twenty years and have built some substantial businesses with low end products and a lot of hard work. Now I’ve found a much better way, and I’ll teach you as well. If you’re someone who would like to have all of your questions answered before you invest in a home business opportunity and want to join a team that works together to assist everyone in succeeding, then please visit my website http://www.prosperityprescription.biz