For years, people have asked me why I don’t get a “regular job”.They seem to struggle with the idea that I don’t have a 9 to 5 job and they just can’t figure out why I don’t like getting up early, complaining about Monday mornings, “working for the weekend”, etc…I could go on and on about how much I love the freedom, the option to set my own hours, the possibility of creating an incredible amount of income, and they would all be really good points.I really do enjoy sleeping when I get sleepy, getting out of bed when I feel like getting out of bed, traveling when and where I like, and knowing that my income is happening around the clock and around the world.And I’ve definitely got some big goals. Yes, some of them are related to the type of cars I would like to drive, the homes I would like to live in, the experiences I want to have, and all that fun stuff. Why not?But let’s break this down to just some good old fashioned “real world” thinking.If you give any serious thought to what is happening to the economy, the job situation, and what life is starting to look like for people from just about every walk of life, I personally believe that it makes sense for you to be honest with yourself. If you really do the math, I think you will gain a much better understanding of why I started my home based business.These days, if you have a job at all, you are considered “lucky” by those who are unemployed. But let’s take a serious look at what a typical job scenario is like for most people. We’ll make a few assumptions, such as:You’re working a job that pays you $15 an hour.
You’re working 50 hours per week.
You’re getting paid for 52 weeks out of the year.
This gives you a gross annual income of $39,000.With some standard assumptions about taxes which include you being a single person with no children, your tax bill is going to be about $4,000, making your Taxable Income $35,000.This means you get $35,000 deposited in to your bank account each year and you trade 2,600 hours of your life every year to get that money. That, alone, is a rather sobering thought in my opinion, but let’s keep going.We need to make a few more assumptions about what it takes to live the life you are in. Your numbers may be more or less than these:Expenses:
Monthly Rent/Mortgage $1,000
Utilities: $300
Car Note: $300
Car Insurance: $100
Fuel: $200
Groceries: $600
Monthly Totals: $2,500
Annual Totals: $30,000These numbers do not take in to account anything beyond the very BASIC living expenses! You are literally trading 50 hours of your life every week and chances are, you have more month left over at the end of your money. You’re not alone. If you are paying off a student loan, paying for credit card bills, have a car repair, unexpected emergency, health insurance, doctor visits, clothing expenses, etc… you can see how this gets way out of hand very quickly!When this sort of math settled in on me while being married and raising FIVE kids, I realized that I needed to do something else and I needed to get started FAST!So What Did I Do?I started learning about home based business and discovering how I could leverage my then limited time and financial resources to change my financial picture. For me, it has been one of the best decisions of my life. I’ve been successfully unemployed for more than 14 years. I’ve been able to be present with my family, coaching basketball with my kids, traveling with my family, and actually BEING a husband and father.I don’t look back on my life and wish I had spent more time with my kids because I was THERE with them throughout their lives. To this day, we are still very close even though they are all grown up, moved out, and pursuing their own life goals. (They all understand and are working on their own home based businesses, too!)Not everybody starts a home based business to “get rich”. Some folks just want to create some additional income. Some folks just want to set up a “Plan B” in case their job falls through. Others just want to supplement their income or pay off some bills and yes… some of us want to create a life we are really excited about and can afford to live on our terms.If you see this math and you believe that it makes sense to stay on that same path, then you need to understand that things are going to get tougher. But if you believe that a home based business may be a good option for you, then I encourage you to start your research. Find someone that is successfully building their home based business and ask them to show you howIf you saw the move, “The Pursuit of Happyness”, t hen you may recall that Chris Gardner’s life was changed by asking two questions of a very successful broker:1. What do you do?
2. How do you do it?Be willing to ask the questions and then learn the skills.A home based business may very well be the solution you need.

Is all the hype about B2B inbound marketing justified? Does inbound marketing deliver more high-quality sales leads at a lower cost? This article considers those questions and compares inbound with traditional outbound marketing.

There is little doubt the effectiveness of traditional outbound marketing is in decline. Consumers are more resistant to push marketing techniques than ever before. With the rise of the internet potential customers are much more likely to seek out the information they need. They are likely to consider the reviews and comments of their peers online as an input to their decision-making process.

Bad practice and overuse of outbound marketing techniques such as telemarketing and Email marketing have built a strong resistance to these techniques. There is a general cynical response to advertising and the use of printed media is in decline. All of these issues have contributed to an ongoing steady decline in the use of B2B outbound marketing.

As outbound marketing has declined B2B inbound marketing has filled the void. Much of the marketing comment online now relates to the effectiveness of pull marketing. However, as with any new shiny marketing object, an element of the comment and discussion is overhyped.

A B2B inbound marketing process delivers useful, valuable and engaging information to prospects. It allows them to make informed purchasing decisions.

The information is not pushed in the direction of the prospect but strategically placed. So it has the best chance of being found and read by the target prospect group.

The information is not designed to be sales message based in any way but designed to be helpful and engaging. Much of the information will point back to a website for more.

The purpose of inbound marketing is to inform, build credibility and ensure the business is front of mind. Unlike outbound marketing, it is not invasive but relies on the prospect coming into the business to learn more.

The quality of inbound leads is therefore much higher with pull marketing than with outbound. The lead is also more likely to come at a later stage in the sales process.

There are however some major issues with inbound marketing that are rarely touched on.

The process does not deliver short-term results and it is resource-intensive. This means many businesses that start the process stall before they achieve meaningful results.

The process also requires a significant new skill set which can mean either re-skilling or outsourcing marketing at least on a short term basis.

Outbound marketing is not dead but only changed. Many traditional outbound techniques are modified to support the B2B inbound marketing process. They can speed the process along and improve results. What is required is a mix of the best outbound and inbound marketing can offer and not more hype.

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.