Starting your own home based business can be hard, never easy. You always need money to pay your bills, and things just don’t happen for you very easily in terms of getting unique visitors, them turning into leads, converting those leads into prospects and then actual clients, and then enrolling them into your primary business. All of this while trying to pay your bills. It’s hard for a person whether they are single or whether they have a big family to support so I won’t talk about that. What a lot of people don’t realize is that business expenses are 100% tax deductible, but that doesn’t make it free, especially if you’re not earning any money. So most people that start with a home based business do so while having a job or do so from savings as a big investment.They are many types of home based businesses and most of them, I mean besides the kind that are there for stuffing envelopes, require the use of a telephone or more often the computer with an internet connection. All home based businesses pay you for how much processing or prospect conversions that you do.This is especially true with a Network Marketing or MLM home based business. So how do you get your unique visitors to come to you? How do you turn those unique visitors into leads? How do you get them as prospects who are interested in your company or product? And, how do you actually enroll them into your business as a client? That’s when they are now in your boat asking these exact same questions. Questions that you, like I will have to answer for them.So the first step, getting unique visitors is usually the most easiest thing to do, specifically you must invest enough money into marketing. But how much does it cost, and are you marketing in a specific niche that is interested or caters to your product or service? Once you find your target niche, after that you have to worry about your competition. So how do you stay ahead? Well, it’s really up to you. And I’m going to try to help you as much as I can.First of all, what is a niche market? A niche market is composed of individuals and businesses that have similar interests and needs, which can be readily identified, and that can be easily targeted and reached. Finding a niche for your business means finding a great product or service for a highly targeted audience. An example of a niche market is women teenagers clothing, or boys clothing, or catering for needs of the elderly.A great tool is ranking on Google for free, and I have a few tricks up my sleeve which I won’t discuss in this article and am saving for my personal team. Another great tool is pay per click advertising using overture, word tracker, or my favorite, Google AdWords. This is where you can find a specific keyword term with less than 300,000 results that you can actually compete in. Of course pay per click marketing is very expensive, and seldom people can afford this at first unless you’re already making money with your online business. But to find a good keyword phrase with little competition use Google’s, Google AdWords: Keyword Tool. Just Google that phrase on Google and you’ll find it.But before I get into more trends, I have to establish that if you’re going to have an online business, what you need is a lead capture page and an email auto-responder so people can subscribe to your newsletter and it helps you keep track of your leads. Now if your great with computer technology you can get a very affordable domain name with GoDaddy and host it for less than $4 per month using HostGator but then you have to really understand html and create a programming environment where every time someone clicks somewhere on your page that, that information is tracked, stored, and processed using some type of program environment tool. Most people that have a home based online business or are interested in having one are not savvy enough with computers, much less savvy when it comes down to html and especially programming. Things like cgi scripting, perl scripting, php, asp, java, java scripting, etc. What most people need is a capture page that already has everything set up and running for you. A capture page that lets you sit back, relax, and see exactly what is going on with your online campaign. This isn’t going to cost you $4 dollars per month. If you want all these tools available to you you’re going to have to find something a lot more technologically practical, useful, convenient, sound, and concrete; and yet still at an affordable price. Say for under $50 per month? I personally recommend this site. It’s called lead system pro and it automates a lot of or all of the things necessary to effectively host a web capture or lead page and allowing you to track your visitors and doing a whole bunch of other cool things, basically also giving you a back office where you can manage and edit your site and content without any knowledge of html or web based programming. You could also take advantage of a whole bunch of Web 2.0 applications that are all free and link them into your capture page. Applications such as youtube, MySpace, Facebook, twitter, and more are covered in the tutorial section with step by step video guidance in lead system pro. The company also has recorded webinars or phone/computer seminars that are pre-recorded that you can watch or listen to so you can take examples from what others already know and apply it to your own site(s) and business and market that way.You’ll also need some type of advertising that you can do about every 3 days or so in order to get consistent traffic coming to your site. I know about two services which cost about $200 each for 1 year and I think that, that is a great offer. It comes down to advertising costs of about a little over $16 dollars per month each, and lead system pro shows and tells you about these great non-spamming email list advertising programs. So you can learn a lot of information from that website, and I highly recommend it. It costs about $1 for a 14 day trial, where all other similar hosting sites only give you a 7 day trial for the same price, and probably offer a lot less. They also offer you a bunch of affiliate programs that you can sign up for on other websites to generate money from each lead whether or not they join you in your primary business or not.Now I know I’m talking about a lot of upfront money here just for a capture page and advertising, but if you decide that you want to join my team, I’ll share with you ways to do marketing and generate 20 leads per day guaranteed and all for free.But for now, let’s get back to more trends. How do you turn those unique visitors to turn into leads? Leads are people that opt-in or sign up for your newsletter, an interested market, that put in their real name, email, and phone number and automatically get put on your auto-responder newsletter. If you’re worried about the auto-responder newsletter, don’t be, lead system pro has all of that built in and taken care of so you don’t have to write a thing to your list unless you want to. Once a person is a lead, there’s no cold calling, no hunting people down, no convincing other people or telling them about your business. These are people that are already interested, so they are called your warm market. What that means is that they’re open to you, what you have to say, and what you have to offer. But although I’ve told you what a warm market is and what a lead is, I never explained how you turn those unique visitors into these leads.Simply put, to turn a unique visitor into a lead requires original content. Just like you’re reading my article now, or watching one of my videos on YouTube, you need to be descriptive, creative, and unique basically coming up with a marketing formula or system that brands you instead of your company. That is what makes people interested in what you have to offer them. People are not generally interested in buying into a company. People are more interested in leaders so what they will usually do is sign up with the person that offers them the most value. And that person, that leader, is going to be you. And I’ll show you how.You need to create Your own unique selling position – study your competition to find out what they emphasize about the product which makes them stand out from the crowd or their niche that you want to compete in. Then decide on something that will make your business unique from the others. It could be something unique about the product, the service, or you, or you could choose a more highly defined target market. You need to build and promote your web site – to develop a profitable web site for your niche product you need to create a number of informative pages that will not only attract visitors from the search engines, but inform and move them to purchase from your site.Define Your Purpose – Without a clear purpose for your site, you will not know where you are heading, for example, to help small business owners attain a presence on the web to sell their product or service. Now, write down the statement of purpose for your web site. Go over it a few times to make sure it is crystal clear, then write an article and/or make a video. Otherwise your unique visitors will be trying to figure it out for themselves.Realize many others may be competing to sell the same product. Focus on something unique you may have to offer, that stands out from your competitors. If you are setting up a company, make sure it is a reputable company with a good track record with lots of help available from others involved, such as your upline, partners, coaches, mentors, etc. Don’t recklessly jump in – you will waste a lot of time and money. This is the number one reason, why many entrepreneurs give up so quickly and basically fail.You have to have to put on your customers shoes. Make a thumb nail sketch of this person – who is your customer? What is his/her wants, needs and worries? Try to understand what makes them tick. Then you can understand what gain you can offer and what worry you can solve. This is the only way to gain trust or confidence in your customer so that they will buy from you in a very competitive market.Develop your product that addresses one or more of these needs. Always refer back to your thumbnail sketch as you write for your site. Elaborate on the points that fit your product and what it delivers. As you start writing, new ideas will naturally emerge, but always keep them focused on your targeted customer so you won’t go off the track of what your customer wants. Remember, to sell to your customer you have to have their wants and needs in mind.Maybe you have seen the ads, “Get 10,000 visitors to your site, for only $20″. Wow, you think, that’s a great bargain, I’ll go for it. The result – 10 people visiting your site and no one buying. What do you do?Write Your Copy to Sell – When you begin to write the copy for your site, always stress the benefits. Develop a theme for your site that focuses on this benefit and don’t stray from it.Also, make your customer want to click through to the next page or click through to your order page.Now, that you have identified your targeted customer and written copy tailored to solving your customers’ problems, you will no longer lose those that you have driven to your site.More realistically put, to turn a unique visitor into a lead, as mother said, you only get one chance to make a first impression – and that’s the one that sticks. What she didn’t say was that when it comes to web sites, not only must it create a good impression, it must be effective.Your web site has two choices. It can choose to sit quietly in the corner like a wimp, or it can engage with visitors, make contact, and do business. Not much different to a real world encounter when you think about it. If you have something to offer, you either go out and tell people about or sit home and get ignored. And guess which web site does more business – the inactive wimp or the pro-active go-getter?But there’s a problem. To interact online, you have to have some way of establishing contact with your visitor. Most importantly, finding out who they are, what they need and when they need it. With lead system pro, on your capture page they have a form where people put in their name, email, and phone number. This is what you need to contact the person and truly find out their needs.Let’s get one very common misconception out of the way. However good it is, don’t expect your web site to sell your organization, your product or your service immediately; it won’t.Using the Web is called browsing for a reason. Visitors are browsing, not shopping. But be it on the Net or in the local shopping mall or store, people do see things that catch their eye while browsing [aka window shopping]. They do ‘come in’ and ‘look around’. They may not need what you have at the moment. They may not even be able to afford it right now. But they are interested or they would not have ‘come in’ and browsed around. Your web site’s critical task is to ensure that when they can afford it or when they do need it; they know exactly where to find your web site – easily and quickly. But how do we achieve that?I use the term pro-active. To me web sites that just sit there and wait for visitor requests or signs of interest are re-active [aka: wimps]. They do nothing until poked by the visitor. Pro-active web sites poke the visitor – in the nicest possible way, of course! It is vital your web site finds a way to engage your visitors again in the future.You must always give in order to receive. The better quality you give, the more you receive. It is a universal law of nature established long before the Internet or probably even the dinosaurs. Provide a *quality* ‘something’ to you visitors in exchange for the ability to contact them. Then treat this exchange with the care and respect it deserves and, sooner or later, that visitor will become your client. It may take days, maybe months, but sooner or later, when they have a real need of what you provide, they will come to you and ask for it – guaranteed. You won’t have to sell it. They will want to buy it.A good example of this is building that email list and writing articles for your leads to read on a weekly basis, sort of like a newsletter, adding value and insight, not just promoting what you can do for them but also helping them to solve a want or need as well.Thousands of people may visit your site every day. This is totally futile unless you help them to help themselves. Help them remember you by offering articles, newsletters, RSS feeds, Blogs, Videos or whatever does it for you. There are many avenues you can choose from. Whichever you choose, don’t just have your web site sit there in the corner looking pretty – and doing nothing. Make it work for its living.You invested time, effort and probably money in putting your website up. Make it earn its keep – it owes you that. Ensure it greets the visitor, what you do, have plenty of attractive and useful content, but above all else, ensure you make all efforts to get your visitor’s calling card/email address before they leave your web site.I think by now you’ve got the general idea. We’ve also covered how do you get them as prospects who are interested in your company or product.The last step is, how do you actually enroll them into your business as a client? Well we’ve covered that as well, and with a system like lead system pro it is all automatically done. Your content, your brand/image, and what you put into your site will make the browsers actual shoppers.

WHAT IS A PENNY AUCTION?

Penny auctions have exploded in popularity with the massive growth of the internet. However, few people know the true origins of penny auctions.Beginnings actually stretch back to the Great Depression. Those were hard times for everyone, but even harder for farmers. Farmers struggled to bring in steady income because of droughts and crops not selling as well as they had previously. As a result, the banks would foreclose on the farmers who couldn’t keep up with their mortgage payments.

The banks weren’t satisfied with just repossessing the house, they wanted to raise as much capital as possible, so they resorted to selling off the possessions of the owners of the repossessed houses. There was not much the farmers could do about it so they began bidding ridiculously low prices, pennies, on the items while threatening others who dared to bid higher than a few pennies.

The auctions of today hardly resemble their tremulous beginnings. Being part of a penny auction today is exhilarating, fun, and addictive. It combines the selling format of auctioning with a little bit of chance factored in.Auctions are a game of strategy but also a game of luck.

The premise behind penny auctions is giving people the chance to win an item at a drastically reduced price.Auctions make that possible by spreading out the cost of the product among multiple bidders. In order for a person to take part in an auction, they must pay a set price for each bid. For example, if a person wanted to bid on a fifty dollar Amazon gift card then he would spend a dollar for each time a bid placed. If he ended up winning the gift card, then he would only have spent a few dollars for a fifty dollar gift card. Usually penny auctions sell bids in packages.

HOW PENNY AUCTIONS WORK!

The main foundation of penny auctions is the pay-per-bid format. It is the key that allows bidders to win items at the fraction of their retail value and allows the auction owners to keep their site profitable. Most y auction sites run on the same premise: people pay a set amount for each bid, whenever a person places a bid within the closing seconds of the auction time will be added, the last person left with a unique bid after the clocks runs out will win the item. There are a large variety of items that can be won, but they tend to be popular electronics or gift cards to popular stores.

There are two types of auctions: lowest unique bid auction and highest unique bid auction. Lowest unique auction sounds confusing but it is actually quite simple. A unique bid is when only one person has a bid at a certain price. Bids usually start at one penny, a bidder can then place a bid at two pennies. Until another bidder places a higher bid, the most recent bidder will be the lowest unique bid because that was the only bid at two cents and nobody bid higher. However, penny auctions generally don’t stop at one penny. It is not uncommon to find auctions that end up at a couple hundred dollars based on the popularity of the item being auctioned. However, the same principles apply for those auctions. Highest unique bid auctions follow the more traditional auction format such as eBay. The person with the highest bid at the end of the auction wins the item.

Auction site owners turn a profit by selling bids. Say twenty people are bidding on a ten dollar gift card at one dollar per bid, at the end of the auction if there were twenty bids placed in total then the site owner would have made twenty dollars with a ten dollar profit.Auctions do seem like a win-win situation:The site owner makes money while the bidder gets an item for dirt cheap. However, not everyone wins in penny auctions. The people who paid one dollar each bid but left with nothing to show for their investments will not be so happy.

HOW TO WIN!

Penny auction has a lot of chance mixed into it, but one can incorporate strategy that will help raise the chances of winning. Playing smart can make all the difference between gambling and auctioning.

The first crucial tip to winning penny auctions is to know how to manage your bids. Your goal should be to win as much as possible without spending a ton of money buying bids. Managing your bids means that you should already know how much you are willing to risk in order to win an item. The amount of capital you are willing to risk will determine how many bids you can use. Once you know how many bids you have to spend on an item, then you will be better able to manage how and when you place a bid. That will keep you from blowing away all of your bids in the first few seconds of the auction.

The next tip is to practice time management. When fighting in the trenches of penny auctions, you have two enemies: other bidders and time. Knowing when to bid is a must if you want to have success. Placing a bid when there is a lot of time left on the clock is never a good idea. You have to remember that the key to winning a penny auction is being the last one standing when the clock runs out and that each bid increases the amount of time left. It would be a good practice to wait until the last few minutes of the auction before you begin to bid.

The final tip for successful auctioning is to keep your emotions under control.Auctions have a lot of similarities to gambling, and just like gambling, your spending can get out of control. If you keep your emotions level, it will keep you from making rash decisions and blowing loads of cash. Keep your mind clear so that you can gage the behavior of the other bidders and outsmart them.

HOW TO AVOID SCAM SITES!

Penny auctions are a great addition to the web whether you want to win an item that otherwise you wouldn’t be able to afford or if you simply enjoy the thrill that comes with bidding in auctions. Unfortunately, scam sites have tarnished the reputation of the legitimate penny auction sites. However, there are ways that you can protect yourself from scamers and enjoy your auctioning without having to worry about losing your money due to dishonesty.

Checking the reputation of the auction site before you start spending your hard earned money is always a good idea. Chances are other people have tried the site before you and some of them have left reviews. The reviews are your way to gage whether a auction site is trustworthy or not. If a site is getting overwhelmingly negative reviews, then that is a clear indication that you should steer your business elsewhere.

Another tool you can use to protect yourself is checking the Alexia ranks of the auction sites. Alexia rank will give a solid view of how much traffic the auction is getting. If you see a huge difference in the amount of traffic Alexia is projecting and the amount of active bidders on the site, then warning signals should be ringing in your head. Some auction sites have been known to set up robots that automatically bid on projects in order to keep the auction going and inflate the price. That is known as shill bidding. You can sniff out those sites by comparing the traffic the site should be getting to the amount of users using this site.

CONCLUSION!

New legislation may come out later down the road that will officially make penny auctions gambling, but until then, it is a fun, exciting auction that allows one to win the item they’ve always wanted but couldn’t afford.Auctions are also quite lucrative for the site owners because of the pay-per-bid strategy they’ve incorporated. Penny auctions had humble beginnings with farmers who just wanted to get back at the banks who kicked them out of their house. More recently, auctions have enjoyed an explosion in popularity with the rise of the internet.

There are two main formats fora auctions, lowest and highest unique auction, however they both run on the same premise where the last unique bid wins the item. Winning a penny auction will require a certain amount of mental tactic and a bit of luck. However, you can increase your odds of winning by practicing certain techniques such as managing your bids wisely, learning how to work with the time, and keeping a level head and your emotions under control. When you combine those three strategies to your bidding plan, you will find that you win a lot more often.

It is important that you do your due diligence to protect yourself when participating in auctions. Not every auction is run by honest and trustworthy people. There are people out there who just want to take your money. You can protect yourself by ensuring that you only bid on sites that already have a very positive reputation from real users.

On a sunny afternoon in Florida, an energetic crowd gathers on the lawn of a high end luxury estate. A loud and eager banter between an auctioneer, a group of bidders and bidder assistants fills the air. For several minutes the auctioneer asks for the next highest bid and the bidders respond. Suddenly the bidders grow silent. The high bidder holds his breath in anticipation of winning the auction. The auctioneer calls for one more bid. In a loud clear voice which rolls over the audience he says, “Fair warning, last chance” the auctioneer pauses, “SOLD!” And in less than 10 minutes another multimillion dollar estate has changed owners.

Successful real estate auctions like the one above are happening all over North America and the Caribbean. Recently real estate auctions have been on the rise, the increase in popularity is partly driven by growing inventories and fading buyer confidence. Properties that were selling in weeks using traditional methods are now languishing on the market unable to attract buyers even as seller’s lower prices. Many say the real estate boom is over but savvy buyers and sellers are profiting from real estate auctions.

Real Estate Auctions Work in Up or Down Markets.

Regardless of trends or market cycles, real estate auctions provide an open and transparent process for buyers and sellers. Properly conducted real estate auctions attract ready and willing buyers and motivate them to act now.

The auction method removes the “wait and see” attitude which serves to further depress real estate values. Buyers are always concerned about overpaying. Buyers gain confidence with their purchases at real estate auctions because they can see what others are willing to pay.

When market demand is high and inventories low, real estate auctions can deliver selling prices well above what a willing seller would have accepted in a negotiated private treaty sale. In good selling climates many property owners using traditional real estate methods; negotiating with one buyer at a time, leave thousands of dollars of equity on the table. During up markets real estate auctions are the best way to establish top market price.

Evaluating Your Real Estate for Auction

Not every property or seller for that matter makes a good candidate for auction. First of all sellers must be ready to sell now and for the current market value. Also a real estate auction will not fix problems caused by a downturn in market value of your property, if you owe more than a willing buyer will pay, be prepared to come to closing with your check book.

Properties that do well in real estate auctions have a high uniqueness factor. Ask your self, “What makes my property different from most others?” Maybe you own a resort property or high end luxury home, commercial properties and land do very well at auction. Real estate auctions thrive on uniqueness. If your property is like everyone else’s, the best thing you can do is offer the most competitive price.

Most importantly sellers must be reasonable about setting a minimum bid. A seller must look at the lowest, most current comps and price below that to generate the interest and urgency necessary for a successful real estate auction. Once the auction begins and qualified bidders start competing against one another you can watch the selling price increase.

Locate a Qualified Real Estate Auctioneer

Start by checking with the National Auctioneers Association, the best real estate auctioneers belong to this organization. These real estate auctioneers are well trained and adhere to a standard of practice and a code of ethics. Many attend the annual International Auctioneers Conference where the latest techniques and innovations in the real estate auction industry are presented.

Find out if the company you are interviewing is a full time real estate auction firm. Many real estate agents are getting auction licenses yet have no experience with the auction method of marketing. Conducting a successful real estate auction is nothing like (private treaty) traditional real estate sales. Go with a real estate auction pro.

You’re probably better of with an auction house that specializes in real estate auctions. There are many qualified auctioneers who have generations of experience selling personal property; furniture, dishes, lawn equipment and the occasional rare painting. Selling real estate at auction is a complex matter that should only be attempted by full time experienced real estate auction professionals.

Commissions and fees may vary, sellers must pay all marketing expenses up front and buyers typically pay 10% of the sales price to the auctioneer of which a share goes to participating real estate agents.

Types of Real Estate Auctions

Auctions are effective because they create a seller’s market. Professionally conducted real estate auctions create urgency, a reason to buy today and competition for the property. Terms and conditions of sale are established ahead of the auction. Real estate auctions will follow one of these three approaches:

Absolute Auction

The property is sold to the highest bidder regardless of price- using this process often returns the highest sale price.

Minimum Bid Auction

Seller agrees to sell at or above a published minimum bid price – this method is useful for internet auctions.

Seller Confirmation or Reserve Auction

With a reserve auction, the seller “reserves” the right to accept or decline any bids usually within 48 hours of the auction. Reserve auctions are used when there is a lien on the property from a lender or a court ordered sale with a minimum selling price.