A relatively new concept in the online world is “Virtual Real Estate Investing“. What is meant by “Virtual Real Estate Investing” ranges from online games like SecondLife (where real profit can be made) to the use of internet technologies to make normal real estate investors more profitable.
To get the facts, I sought out the man generally considered to be the father of virtual real estate investing: Bryan Ellis.
“I began using the term ‘virtual real estate investing’ in the late 1990’s when I realized the clear similiarities in profit strategies, regardless of whether the “real estate” is “virtual” or “physical” said Ellis.
One example of the parallels between virtual and physical real estate Bryan Ellis cites is the similarity between the monetization of domain names versus physical property. “There’s a huge difference between a website and a piece of real estate, but the ways you can profit from them are similar: ‘flipping’, rental/leasing, advertising sales, etc…all of these apply to both markets” he states.
The similarities really are obvious. Consider: A valuable piece of real estate is valuable largely due to the interest that other people have in that specific location. Likewise, if you own a desirable domain name, others will find value in it because it serves their purposes. So it doesn’t matter if you own physical real estate or virtual real estate - you’ll likely use similar strategies to turn them into money in your pocket.
In our next installment of this series on virtual real estate investing, Bryan Ellis will share the internet analogies to the physical concept of real estate development.
I love artsy web page graphics! I found a really cool website design artist who understood my needs & was able to catch the vision of what I wanted to express through my web site for my art work, as well as my online classes.
The classes had to especially be attractive, as they were online & I was not to teach them in person. But I needed my classes to give the same feeling, as if I were there in person with the student, guiding them & tutoring them in the way that they needed to be.
My web designer did a fabulous job at capturing this for me. I needed some very unique & impressive web graphics for my new site. I found a fantastic website design artist who specialized in the type of art & graphics that I needed.
I wished to have the web site graphics to evoke the same emotional response from my clients that seeing my art in person does for them.
I own & operate a small soft sculpture portrait business & my art pieces range from very impressionistic, to quite realistic. I needed my web page to have the ability to flow these different styles together, without looking compartmentalized. My web designer did a beautiful job making it all flow together.
We live in an “instant gratification” society. We want things, and we want them now. Need to know the weather? Get the forecast online, or turn on the weather station on cable. Stock market? Yeah, online or the stock channel. Since we live in the “now”, clever marketers take advantage of that, and use what I call the Marketers SOUL.
We have all heard such things as:
“There has never been a better time to read this than right now! We have a limited quantity of time left, and were only able to secure 150 lines to write this in. Our normal price is $99.99, but if you act in the next 10 minutes, we’ll cut that price in half! Friends, this is a ground floor opportunity, but spots are filling up fast!”
We have all heard the hype, and dare I say it - some of us have bought into it. Why? Simply because we’re human and have emotions. The majority of time-limited deals out there are simply taking advantage of that.
How many times have you gotten an offer to purchase something, not acted on it, and then a week later, the same product is offered again, but now with a time sensitive discount? I know more than once I’ve been on the other end of that - where I purchased something, then a week later, got the discounted offer. That just makes me mad.
Back to our clever marketing friends and their SOULs.
Marketers bear their SOULs for one reason, and one reason only: To get you to buy something you otherwise wouldn’t buy.
The human emotional mind is a curious thing. We don’t like to be embarrassed. We don’t like to feel confused. We don’t like to be wrong. We don’t want to be left out. Take those 4 things, roll them up, and package them. That’s the SOUL of a clever marketer.
SOUL, my friends, stands for “Sense Of Urgency or Loss”
…we all know marketers have no other souls…
Sense Of Urgency or Loss. That’s where we are afraid we’re going to lose out on a deal if we don’t do something about it right now. It’s the chance of a lifetime, and we don’t want it to pass us by. Besides, there are other people doing it…. they look like they’re having fun…. they look like they’re making money…. they must have made the right decision…
Interestingly enough, researchers are now looking into what they’re calling “Urgency Addicts”. Those are the people in society who just have to be out there on the edge - completely connected with everything going on, the first to know any breaking news, the first to respond, the first to buy the new toy, the first….well, just the first. Companies who produce cell phones know these people, and know them well.
And so do MLM Marketers. The only difference is MLM Marketers like their SOUL under pressure.
We find ourselves in a meeting. Someone is describing a business opportunity to us. Numbers are thrown about. Pictures of yachts, planes, people in Hawaii… more numbers, a few testimony’s from not-so-attractive people, a few more numbers (but this time, the numbers are in the millions!). Now we’re confused. Could those numbers be wrong? But wait… what if we’re wrong, and the numbers are right? Man, that sure was a nice boat. I’d like to go to Hawaii. If that ugly guy could sell this thing, imagine what I could do…
The Marketer has just grabbed our SOUL.
Here it comes. They tell us they only have permission to sell 10 of the package at this discounted price, and they can only offer it to us tonight, right now. In fact, they’re only allowed to make the offer one time. That’s it. Once you turn it down, the regular price would have to be charged.
Our SOUL twitches.
They tell us they really want us to be in this program. They want us to succeed - because the only way they will succeed is if we succeed… we’re in this together…
Our SOUL begins to waiver.
The initial investment isn’t that bad, they say. If it helps, they can break it up into 4 equal payments…
Our SOUL falls.
We whip out our credit card. We swipe it. We sign. We’re in. Our SOUL is lost.
Just this week I watched a news report about an elderly lady who spent 16 THOUSAND on a Real Estate course. They got her SOUL, too. 5 days later, she tried to cancel her check, only to find out it was too late. Not only that, but she also found out about the clause in the contract that said if she attempted to cancel the check, she would be responsible for the FULL AMOUNT of 25 Thousand.
Friends, please listen to me. Our SOULs are precious. We must safeguard against them. Never sign up during a high pressure meeting. Always come back to them, after you have had a chance to review the information, product, service, and program. If they really believe in the program, the offer will still be available… of course, they’ll tell you they normally don’t extend the offer a second time…
For MLMEruption.com, this is Phil Foster - the Trusted Voice of MLM
Successful online entrepreneurs are a breed apart in themselves. Each of them is different from the other in their approach of making profits on the internet. However, all of them do have a common denominator, focus, focus on one single marketing technique at a time and give it all they have to give.
This is not a lesson limited to online business. One can take the same approach and succeed in any business. The problem is not the lack of marketing ideas or people; the problem is too many of them being available and not being able to stick to one. As it goes… Too many cooks spoil the broth…..
Try concentrating and focusing all your efforts on one good marketing idea you have, the results will surprise you and your competition together.
Successful people are also people like me or you, only they take one idea at a time, succeed at it, and then move to the next. They also know that they have more to do, but they realize that they need not do it all together. There is no hurry, they just take one at a time.
Let us look at some success stories and find out how they did, what they did.
Truck-Bed-Covers.com
This website ranks on top in all search engines for the search ‘truck bed covers’. Eric Weeks, when he began his foray into online business, realized that traffic and only traffic will get him business and money. This is true for most online businesses. So this realization, the quicker it dawns, the better. Once Eric was convinced of this, he concentrated all his energies on this aspect of online business, so much so that he sold $800,000 worth of products in his first year online adding $200,000 of pure profit to his fortunes.
Eric took up search engine optimizing his website as a challenge. He says “”The opportunity to compete for top search engine positions was exciting to me, I love competition. It gave me a target, a bow, and the arrow.”
“I studied every article I could get my hands on pertaining to the subject,” Eric says. “And the site began turning a profit day one. Top listings on Yahoo! and Google for the term ‘truck bed covers’ (which gets roughly 800 searches daily according to WordTracker) and a healthy profit margin ensured early success.”
Eric’s advice to those who want to duplicate his success:
* Define your main keywords, always use your main keyword in your URL.
* Separate the keywords in your URL with a hyphen, so that the search engine can locate them easily while spidering your site.
* Get as many reputable and relevant sites linking to you as possible.
* Include excellent and relevant content.
* Always place main keywords in your hyperlinks.
* Try using text logos instead of images — search engines can’t spider image files.
Eric’s success comes from focusing all his energies on one marketing strategy and getting to the bottom of it. Now that Eric has conquered the search engine optimization strategy, he can concentrate on other marketing ideas that have been on his mind.
To add to this Eric says “If we weren’t the first listing on page one of the major search engines — if we were the first listing on page TWO, we’d only do a small fraction of the business we’ve been doing”.
Jahn A. is the Owner and Founder of http://www.FavCart.com. He has trained ordinary people online and offline, inspiring them into netrepreneurs overnight through his e-marketing courses in Singapore.
Jahn A. is a Marketer and a licensed eCommerce Consultant by profession and he has a BSc Degree Majoring In Marketing and also Strategic Mgt. Visit his business blog at: Noorazan.com to subscribe and download 77 free software and ebooks.
I am often asked by MLM’ers and network marketers as to why so many people fail in the business.
To answer this question effectively
let’s look at why people join Network
Marketing companies.
For the purpose of this article I will
refer to Network Marketing, MLM
and direct sales as MLM even though
they are all a bit different.
Whether openly or indirectly MLM
Opportunities offer a kind of hope to
to people who feel somewhat trapped
or stuck in the so called traditional
way of earning a living.
The average person who works in
a traditional business or company
and has a family is really stuck with
a great perceived problem. How to
break free financially without with
scrimping and saving for most of
their lives.
Being financially free is one of the
last great freedoms. Probably only
second to disease and death.
This freedom is the real attraction
to the individual who does not know
how to create financial freedom any
other way.
Most individuals pick a job or
career or job based on what they
think they can do and what the
job pays.
People are simply not taught
to find their passion, find what
they love to do and then to earn
whatever amount of money they
desire to live the lifestyle of their
choice.
Their whole decision for a career
was really based on responsibilities
and survival. They have never learned
principles and habits that lead to success
and financial freedom.
When a prospect looks at an MLM
opportunity they see something they
perceive they can do with their current
skills and become financially independent.
They join the company and attempt to
build a business based on survival principles.
That never works. The result leads to frustration
and eventually the person falls into blame or just
flat thinks the opportunity did not work for them.
MLM business is a wonderful opportunity
For the average individual to build success and
wealth if they are willing to develop themselves.
MLM should be understood not as just the distribution
of a product. MLM is a combination of a product
and a personal business and requires a mindset
change from the effort of a job to the lifestyle
of a successful entrepreneur if you are going
to beat the odds and succeed.
You can succeed if you will change your
belief’s about success you go right to
the top of your company.
Changing beliefs is essential to the success
of the person who wants to be a successful
distributor.
David Neagle
Get your Free report “The Ultimate Secrets to Success” http://davidneagle.com/ezine.html
This article may be reproduced as long as it includes copyright
Information and web links.
Copyright 2005 Life is Now, Inc http://www.DavidNeagle.com
CONTACT INFO: David is available for background information and interviews on personal growth and prosperity consciousness. He can be reached through Life is Now Inc. at 805-696-6909 or 815-765-9500. Rights to reprint and reproduce this article are granted as long as it includes the full last paragraph tag line complete with web links. For questions about this article contact Lance Jones at email Lance@DavidNeagle.com, 805-696-6909
If you are burned out with writing how-to articles to promote your business then consider writing a book review. I recommend you write a review about a book you enjoyed that is related to your products or services. Your review, of course, will be capped off with your 5-6 line byline that includes your contact information and web site URL. Many of the article directories, e-zines and web sites that normally accept articles will accept book reviews too. In addition, you can find and submit to the many sites featuring book reviews.
To begin a review, I start with the format required by Midwest Book Review. I then adapt the format and word count to what is required by each submission site. Midwest Book Review recommends the following format (examples of paragraphs are enclosed in parenthesis):
Book Title:
Author:
Publisher:
Publisher Address:
ISBN:
Price: Publication Date: Page Count:
Reviewer Contact Information:
Name: Address: E-mail:
First Paragraph: Include information about the format of the book. A nice touch is to comment on the cover design, table of contents structure and/or glossary at the back of the book.
(Sample: This beautifully laid out trade paperback has a gorgeous and practical design both inside and out. I recommend you read this book with a highlighter and a pen, ready to take copious notes in the blank pages thoughtfully provided between chapters.)
Second Paragraph: Detail the recommended audience and note why they should read the book.
(Sample: Manners That Sell: Adding The Polish That Builds Profits should be required reading for high school and college students and for anyone already in the business environment. Once upon a time, good manners were taught in school and at home, but that time has long since passed. This book provides the perfect refresher course for those of us who learned manners but no longer remember the finer points of etiquette.)
Third Paragraph: Write about the book structure and layout, number of chapters and topics covered.
(Sample: While reading this book, I discovered that the author, Lydia Ramsey, covered every conceivable point of etiquette including many that I’d never been taught. Each of the twelve chapters covers one main topic broken down into digestible bite sized chunks of rules and guidelines to enhance credibility and professionalism. Topics include first impressions, greetings and introductions, the art of conversation, dressing for business, telephone courtesy, electronic etiquette, correspondence in business, etiquette in the office, gift-giving in business, etiquette out of the office, dining for profit and doing business internationally.)
Fourth Paragraph: Give a brief biography of the author including their name, name of their business (if applicable), business or personal expertise and if available, include titles of their other books.
(Sample: The author of this delightful book, Lydia Ramsey, is a business etiquette expert with over thirty years of experience working with non-profits, corporations, colleges and universities. She is a frequently published author who presents workshops, seminars and keynotes on all aspects of business etiquette.)
Fifth Paragraph: Recommend the book and offer some ideas of its practical use by individuals or groups. If applicable, mention that it would make a good gift book and wrap up the review with a positive summary of the book.
(Sample: I recommend businesses buy this book in bulk and present one to every employee from the frontline up to the top management. In this ever-changing world of so many consumer choices, the bottom line is often affected by the simple courtesies that can and should be afforded to customers. You need this book if you want your employees to succeed and your business to thrive.)
Add your copyright statement and byline to the bottom of the review and, as usual, have the review proofread by an editor before you begin submission. Your book reviews can be very effective marketing tools that will generate considerable exposure for you.
(c) 2005. Davis Virtual Assistance. All rights reserved. Permission to publish online or in print granted provided the article and byline are printed intact with live links.
Bonnie Jo Davis is an experienced writer and publications coordinator with over ten years of experience submitting articles online and in print. Visit www.ArticleSubmissionSites.com today to gain access to her submission list, e-book, newsletter and more!
The WWW Of Affiliate Marketing
Introduction:
I was just reading in an E-book about the amazing concept of
Affiliate Marketing and decided I needed to get this info out to
as many people as possible. We will take a short look at these
three topics, the Who - What - Why, of Affiliate Marketing in
reverse order.
The Why of Affiliate Marketing:
Whether it is extra income or full time income, one of the main
reasons why, of course, is to make money. A second reason would
be to try out different niche markets and some marketing ideas
you may have for those niche markets.
The What of Affiliate Marketing:
For some of you affiliate marketing is a mystery or at least a
not completely understood concept. Let me explain it to you with
a story. Mr. Jones is a business owner and has a great product
or service that you have ideally used yourself, or at least know
someone who has, and you and/or your friend are highly satisfied
with Mr. Jones product or service. Mr. Jones wants to expand his
business sales, so he puts together a plan that allows people to
refer customers to his business. When you refer someone to Mr.
Jones, he has, as a part of his plan, a way to know who referred
this new or returning customer. When the referral customer buys
from Mr. Jones he sends you a check as a referral fee. All you
did was refer the person. Mr. Jones took care of stocking and
delivering the product and/or providing the service. He also
handles all service requests, repairs, complaints and refunds.
Now is that a cool, no brainer, way to make some extra cash or
what! We actually do this all the time in our everyday life. We
just don’t get paid for it. Like when we tell someone to go see
this great movie or to try this wonderful restaurant, etc.
The Who of Affiliate Marketing:
Those who market their products or services on the World Wide
Web use this concept of Affiliate Marketing extensively. If you
have products or services to sell you can expand your sales with
this concept. Or find a niche market you have a great interest
in and start an on-line business using the affiliate marketing
concept. If you want to, you can sign up as an affiliate for any
number of products and services, generating for yourself some
potentially serious part time income.
Yours truly, Thomas H. Goepfrich
P.S. This is just one of the many wonderful and helpful
techniques taught at: http://www.InternetProfitMentor.com Go
there NOW and get your FREE 12 hour video course, plus many
other wonderful tips.
P.P.S. So what are you waiting for? Go generate some cash!
