Position Position Position – The secret to success online

When you saw this heading you possibly thought of real estate or search engine placement. While this is very applicable to these two systems I want to take you a little deeper into the concept of positioning yourself for success online. Position is really a life skill with its own set of stratergies and skills. Position: A place or location. A strategic area occupied by members of a force. An advantageous place or location. A point of view or attitude on a certain question. Sports. The area for which a particular player is responsible. The arrangement of the pieces or cards at any particular time in a game such as chess, checkers, or bridge.

Over the past seven years I have been involved in Internet Marketing. The first five as part time and the last two years full time. Many people asked how I made the graduation from part time to full time and the answer is always positioning. The Concept of Positioning. If you have played or watched sports at any time you will know that positioning is the key to winning or loosing. In football you need to be in position to accept the ball if you are going score. The same applies to your life and business. My basketball coach always told me that I needed to put all my effort to get into the right position and once I got there I could have a rest. I think you would know .... he lied.

Once you get into position there is no rest as you then have to maintain that position. Positioning is a skill that can be developed: It is very important to do your homework because positioning is a skill that is developed by training and studying. It is not a haphazard occurance. Last year I was looking at a new business I could start up online so I looked at what was growing and developing. In doing this I found that baby boomers are an economic force in the community and that they like gadgets, technology, investments because they are rapidly approaching retirement and health for a similar reason. I also found that streaming audio was becoming something that people wanted to use on websites without the need for special servers, a lot of technical ability etc.

In fact in my research it was the fastest growing multimedia tool people were looking for. So I went out and found a product I could develop to position myself in the middle of this growing market. Hence was born MP3 Sound Stream that allows anybody to add streaming audio to their website easily and simply. Positioning for life. I know that we are mainly talking about business in this article however if you do not also use positioning in your everyday life then it will not flow over into your business. Success is a mixture of both personal and business strategies and this is why so many people when they come into large sums of money loose it within five years and are back to where they started if not worse off.

They had not positioned themselves in life to handle the pressures and responsibility of there new found wealth. This is possibly why many people who start working for themselves also do not make much more than they did in their job. They never re-positioned themselves. Summary As I mentioned before positioning is a skill you can develop.

1. Find out what position you want or are capable of attaining.

One of my friends is a great sales person. He sells welders and turns over millions of dollars selling this equipment. A few years ago the company he worked for decided that it would be better for him to train a lot of other sales people so they could do even more. It turned out that the company actually sold less with more sales people because the positioning of my friend to train people was not in his ability. The company actually went backwards so they repositioned him back into sales and re took the market lead again. His position was sales not training.

2. Take action and hold on.

In an instant society we are all looking for the quick fix however we all appreciate those who can maintain a solid position. I belong to an online MLM company and for 4 years nothing much happened however I knew that it was positioned for success. Today it is growing in leaps and bounds. Unfortunately some of my friends left a little too early and have missed out on the benefits of holding on. If you believe in what you are doing do not give up.

3. You don’t have to make millions to succeed online.

The concept of positioning is really all about strategies. Remember the old saying how do you eat an elephant. A bite at a time. Positioning is the same. You do it a bit at a time. First you learn then you apply. Then you learn some more and then you apply what you have learnt. By being consistent you will see it start to pay off. Finally let me tell you one last story. While I was writing this article my son was watching a documentary on the salmon in Canada that migrate up river to lay their eggs.

Some of the scenes where they would jump up waterfalls bashing against the rocks to get to their final destination impressed me. The point is they would either make it or die trying. Now there are people who are going to make out that becoming successful online is easy and both you and I know this is a lie. Just like the coach who told me I could rest once I got into position. The fact is it will take hard work and there will be casualties however if you are determined to succeed you will have a better chance of success. Some people will just find this all too hard so my advice to you is take the easy road and don’t start. by: Quentin Brown

7 Reasons You Should Be Using The World Wide Web To Leverage Your Local Business

More and more, potential customers are not letting their "fingers do the walking." To find what they need, they are using their fingers to click at Google, Yahoo! or MSN . If you do not have a website – you are loosing them before you even have a change to tell them about your product or service. Think of a Web site as multiple, full-page Yellow Page ads that gets 100 times more results for your local business. Cover every business category and geographic region for a fraction of the cost of a single Yellow Pages ad. A Web site that works is the most cost-and-time efficient way to:

1. Build loyal lifetime customers

2. Grow Your Client Base

3. Build Trust With Potential Customers

4. Get the Jump on Competitors

5. Develop and Stay "Top of Mind"

6. Extend Your Reach - Attract new local (and global!) customers

7. Diversify: Open up new revenue streams. But where do you start? Well, you need to register a domain name, host your new site, build the site pages, submit your site to the directories and them promote it.

You’ll need other people to link to your site and you’d want to send your customers emails. Perhaps most important of all you’d need to know how many people are visiting your site and how many of those are buying from you. It might seem like a lot at first glance and it can be, but not if you choose a company that gives you all the tools, in one place, with a straightforward, integrated, step-by-step process to support you every step of the way. Site Build It! (SBI!) is the only product in the world that combines site-building, site-hosting, and site-marketing and that makes it easy for you to build a professional, popular, and profitable business. You don’t need any technical experience (html, ftp, etc.) either, they handle all that for you.

Sites built using SBI! consistently get high traffic, as a recent Alexa.com survey shows. - 62% of SBI! sites fall within the top 3% most popular sites on the Internet - 53% fall within the 2% most popular - 35% fall within the 1% most popular. If you can use e-mail and surf the Web, you can create a professional-looking, traffic-generating, sales-producing site. Real estate agent, landscaper, restaurant owner, health practitioner, artist, alarm system distributor, boutique owner...whoever you are and whatever you do... Site Build It! (SBI!) is the affordable, all-tools-in-one-place solution you need to build and host a Web site that WORKS. There is no better time than now to get your business on the World Wide Web... before you competition does. by: Anita van Wyk

A Real Estate Formula

It was a simple Real Estate formula. The ads ran in our small-town newspaper for years before I realized exactly what was going on. They were always the same: A house for sale with 5% down and payments of 1% of the purchase price. Maybe a three bedroom home for $90,000, for example, with $4,500 down and $900 per month payments.

When a friend started doing the same thing he explained the process to me. It was a way to get a great return on capital, and it was the opposite of buying with no money down. There is no down payment at all when you buy, because you buy for cash.

The Simple Real Estate Formula
You probably know that when you buy for cash, you can often get a much better price. With no financing contingencies in the offer, and the promise of a faster closing, sellers are willing to sell for less. You can offer $95,000, for example, on a house that might be worth $108,000. If you can't get it for less than, say, $99,000, you walk away - there are always other opportunities.
Once you buy the house, you put few thousand into high-return repairs and improvements.

These might include paint, carpet, and maybe asphalt for a dirt driveway. For our example, we'll say you spend $5,000. Let's suppose the house is worth $116,000 now. You're ready for the next important step in this Real Estate formula.

You put it up for sale, targeting buyers who can't get financing easily. You provide the financing. Because you are making it easy for the buyer, you can get more than the $116,000 value for the home - and do it without paying a realtor's commission. Let's say you sell it for 123,000. The buyer needs a down payment of just 5%, or $6,150, and makes monthly payments of $1230 per month. You charge higher interest than the going rates at the banks, of course.

This is a win-win situation. Your buyer is able to buy a home instead of renting, and you get a capital gain of perhaps $16,000 after expenses, plus good interest. Your total rate of return will often be over 20%!

In our town, the first to do this consistently were a father and son team of lawyers. They saved money by doing their own foreclosures when necessary. Once they foreclosed, they raised the price and sold the home all over again.

They made millions. Did you know that if you can get an average return of 18% on your money, you'll turn $75,000 into more than one million dollars in about fifteen years? That's the power of a good Real Estate formula. by: Steve Gillman

Buy if You Expect to Stay Put a Few Years

If you expect to remain for several years However, the smart location offer the flexibility for those who create new jobs. He, no doubt, we are not in a time of economic uncertainty. Jobless claims are rising and sales, and harder than ever to borrow for all purposes, including the purchase of a home. Therefore, it is still useful to buy a house? Here are some ideas: Buying a home is perhaps the concept of long-term investment. Day to buy a house this year and next year will be sold to a large pipe, which lies behind us and will probably remain so for a while.

Therefore, it may not make sense to buy a house when they decided to remain a place for some years. If your situation requires that you be over several years, or if you wait for the opening of employment opportunities elsewhere in the coming years will be better than letting your home. Do not forget to pay your mortgage in the first five years of ownership is almost nothing, and we simply can not all forms of identification for the foreseeable future. Yes, most economists believe that the current malaise will end, but if there is no agreement. And there is a real possibility that your house is worth more than it is today.

One of the disadvantages of real estate is likely to sila high transaction costs. What I mean is that there are significant costs associated with buying and selling of goods which can not be avoided. For example, if you buy a house, it is likely to pay the estate agent and lender and may be inferred. Fees are often thousands of dollars. At least you can contact the seller to pay the costs that are normally included in the price of the house and can not be returned. So, if you sell, we now expect the buyer to view the tab for many of the costs associated with the sale. If your house has appreciated more than it is new, you can send money on the table, only to the sale. The situation is not only financial idiots.

In recent years, buying a home as a tenant not to dumb your cousin who ate the white flesh of the first class. This is not the case today, the freedom of the end of the lease and move the jobs to which it calls the intelligent planning. In addition, because many households can not afford their mortgage payments, many have focused on leasing as a means to supplement their income. So, if you buy, you are very well equipped to rent a nice house where you pay less than the actual cost of ownership. In other words, the owner, in May, in effect, subsidizing the rent. I know that the day came in May when the rent is again less than a sense of the financial move, but it is not the case today.

If you buy, the number of exit strategies. In the best of all, buying a house, which is used for many decades, so that the inevitable development of the family and give you happiness and satisfaction of the track. But if not, and if it happens in the market, sold the house perfectly, if you sell, an alternative approach. In other words, you can rent a house to suspend payments if you do that? It is more realistic to the fall in prices higher than those of the real estate prices with more weight to arguments for the entry of luxury instead of colleagues. > Take advantage of the gaps in the market. Elsewhere in the piece, now you can use cheap prices and the lowest interest rates we have for generations.

If the possession of a sense, then it is time to buy. The concept of value depends on supply and demand, and now has a large amount of "gray duck house from the bank, under pressure to sell, sometimes at discounts of 50 percent or more. If you are willing to invest time and money on cosmetic improvements, you can purchase a whole, but this game is not for the faint of heart. You need patience, a lot of money, time and patience.

The use of professionals in their favor. This is not the time to walk alone on the real estate market. Good research, including the representation of professionals and a lot of patience can lead to non-standard offers. But it is extremely important that you "start to finish" The Game Plan, the advice provided by your agent, your attorney and your lender

Top 10 Home Buying Mistakes

Buying a house is the largest investment most people ever make; yet all too often it's a decision made in haste without adequate preparation
Use our list of common house-buying mistakes to avoid costly regrets.

1. Doing it alone. Buying a house is a complex transaction. Even if you don’t use an agent, you’ll need a complete, dependable team: lender, lawyer, inspector, insurer, as well as referrals and advice from friends and family. Enlist the help of these individuals early in the buying process.

2. Buying at first sight. You may be in love with the place, but does it fit your family’s needs and budget? Make a list of your needs and wants and make sure the house fits your requirements. Check out the neighborhood and the community before you buy by visiting at different times of the day and week to learn about noise and traffic patterns. Even if you don’t have kids, check out the local schools to make sure your resale value will be good.

3. Not getting pre-qualified and pre-approved. Being pre-qualified gives you a general idea of how much you can afford to borrow. Being pre-approved means a lender has verified your information and credit rating and agreed to provide you with a specific amount of money. You are in a better position to go house hunting knowing exactly how much you can afford and that you have financing.

4. Overbuying. You may qualify to borrow more, but can you afford to? Analyze your monthly costs: debt, food, transportation, entertainment, and savings. As a general rule, your total monthly debts, including your mortgage, should not exceed 36 percent of your income before taxes. Be sure to budget enough to cover closing costs (often two to five percent of the home’s purchase price), plus moving, redecorating and maintenance. Allow for increases in ongoing expenses such as utilities and taxes.

5. Misplacing your trust. No matter how much you like the agent, sellers, inspector, or the guy down the block who vouches for them, remember this is a business transaction. Your decision is binding. Do your own research and know your support team’s roles and responsibilities.

6. Relying on oral agreements. Get it right and get it in writing. Written agreements almost always trump oral ones when it comes to contracts. If the offer says the lawnmower is negotiable, but the agent says it’s included, get it in writing.

7. Skipping the fine print. You need to understand what you’re signing before you pick up a pen. Ask for documents in advance, make time to read them and ask questions. Get copies of your mortgage papers a few days ahead of closing.

8. Forgetting or betting on resale. Avoid buying a home that costs 50 percent more than neighboring homes and think before buying the most expensive home on the block. Your neighbors’ lower home values will weaken yours. Remember, markets change. If you buy intending to flip your investment and the market falls and you have to sell, your selling price may not be enough to even cover your mortgage.

9. Making an unconditional offer. Protect yourself with at least two of these contingencies in your offer:
§ Mortgage financing -- You’re pre-approved, but is the house? Before a bank will lend you money, it will want a formal appraisal of the property to confirm that there is sufficient equity in it to warrant the loan. If the house appraises lower than the sales price, the loan may be declined.
§ Inspection -- never buy an existing or new home without a thorough home inspection. Walk through the home with the inspector to learn more about the house and any concerns he or she may have.
§ Insurance -- confirm you can get adequate coverage. In some areas, it’s difficult to get hazard insurance.
10. Having buyer’s remorse. No place is perfect. There will always be surprises. Don’t let a few initial blips spoil the whole ride. And don’t miss a great house waiting for the perfect one!

Real estate commissions: What you need to know

Confused about real estate commissions? You're not alone. Here are some answers to a few of your most common questions.
There’s no question a good real estate agent can be a valuable resource when it comes to buying or selling a home. But how much is that help going to cost? First of all, if you’re the one buying the home, it isn’t going to cost you anything. The agent’s commission comes out of the selling price. That means it’s deducted from the amount the seller receives, not added onto the amount the buyer pays. Of course, it can be argued that as a buyer you are indirectly paying the commission by virtue of the fact that it’s included in the price. But following that logic, all homes for sale by owner should cost less than those being sold through an agent, and that certainly isn’t always the case. Second, if you’re the seller, you don’t have to pay an agent anything up-front to market your home. A real estate agent generally doesn’t receive any commission until closing, at which time they will receive the amount stipulated in their contract -- typically somewhere between five and eight percent. But chances are (unless you’re in a particularly hot market) your agent is going to have to work hard to earn that commission by investing a lot of time and effort into marketing your home. And they’re going to have to give a cut of that commission to both their brokerage and the buyer’s agent (unless they represent both the buyer and the seller). To help take the mystery out of real estate commissions, we provide the following answers to a few of your most common questions. Q. What is the average commission on a home purchase? A. The average commission is about 5 percent, although 6 percent commissions are still common. Q. Who pays the commission? A. The seller. It is paid out of funds received from the sale of the home. Q. Does the commission go entirely to the seller’s real estate agent? A. No. The broker whose firm lists the house sets the commission. The listing broker then offers part of the commission -- often 50 percent -- to the broker whose firm represents the buyer. Both brokers then share their portion of commission with the agents who work with the seller and buyer. The agents’ share may be as little as 50 percent or as much as 100 percent, depending on their arrangement with the broker. If either brokerage is part of a franchise, it may also pay part of the commission as a franchise fee. Q. Is it possible to negotiate the real estate commission? A. Yes. An agent may be willing to negotiate his or her commission in order to get your business. This is especially true if the agent is independent and doesn’t have large operating costs. In some cases, both agents might agree to cut their commissions in order to bring down the price of the home if the buyer’s offer doesn’t quite meet the asking price. Sometimes a buyer’s agent may offer concessions such as paid closing costs, a repair allowance or a rebate in order to help close a deal. Buyer rebates are legal in most states. Q. Will I pay less if I buy a house without using a real estate agent? A. You might be able to negotiate a reduced price. Since the listing broker won't have to share the commission with another agent and broker, he may agree to a reduced commission and pass the savings on to you. This may also be possible if you use the same agent as the seller -- for example, if you toured an open house and retained the listing agent. This is called dual agency, and is legal in most states, although it may be subject to special laws and regulations. Q. Is a real estate agent likely to push me to buy a more expensive home so he can make a higher commission? A. There isn’t a big incentive for an agent to push you to buy a more expensive home because of the way commissions are divided. Your agent may be entitled to 65 percent of his broker’s share of the commission -- perhaps 3 percent of the sale price. Under that scenario, if you were to buy a home for $260,000, rather than $250,000, your agent would earn only an additional $195. However, there could be an incentive for the agent to steer you toward a house on which his broker has been offered a larger share of the commission. This practice is not prevalent, but it does occur. Q. Are there other commissions that buyers don’t see? A. In some cases, a seller, listing agent or builder might offer the buyer’s agent a cash bonus or other incentive to help sell the house. The buyer’s agent should disclose these fees if you ask. Q. Can I get a lower fee by using a discount broker? A. A discount broker may offer you lower fees, or a deal in which you pay only for the services you receive. However, discount brokers may be more suitable for those with a good knowledge of real estate, since they may not offer a full range of services.

Will a Home Warranty Help Your House Sell?

Give yourself a marketplace edge by offering buyers peace of mind.
Which home would you rather buy? One that offers you no protection if the furnace, air conditioner, dishwasher, plumbing or garage door opener go kaput, or one with a home warranty that gets the problem fixed for less than $100? Most buyers would select door No. 2, so it’s easy to see why many sellers are making a home warranty part of the deal. It’s almost standard in some markets, according to industry experts. Offering buyers guaranteed, low-cost repairs is especially valuable in a slow housing market. In some cases the warranty will give you an edge over other properties; in other cases home warranties are expected, and not offering one might cause buyers to reject your home outright. “It’s one more benefit that the seller can offer,” said Kathy Aymard, manager of the Annapolis, Md., office of Prudential Carruthers REALTORS®, which is affiliated with RealEstate.com. Home warranty coverage costs a few hundred dollars, but what you’re offering buyers is peace of mind for their first year in the home. “Most buyers don’t have a whole lot of extra cash when they get in the house” after coming up with a down payment and paying for a move, Aymard said. Under a home warranty, repairs are covered, with the new owner paying a small deductible – generally $30 to $75, depending on the policy. A good listing agent should suggest offering a warranty, Aymard said. Her office considers it so important that its listing services include providing a warranty. She cautioned that home warranties won’t cover pre-existing conditions. In other words, a seller who knows he has a plumbing leak and buys a warranty with the intention of having it fixed under the policy, she said. Likewise, a problem caught during the pre-sale inspection should be repaired before closing. Indeed, the offer of a home warranty does not mean that a buyer should forego a home inspection. Although the buyer bears the cost of the inspection, it’s critical to have a qualified home-inspection specialist give the home a thorough once over before you sign on the dotted line at closing. Keep in mind that purchasing a home warranty for the buyer doesn’t get you off the hook for making repairs before putting your home on the market. You’ll still need to patch and clean and paint and do whatever you can to get your home in showcase condition. However, sellers can purchase a home warranty while the home is on the market to protect themselves against unexpected repair costs, then transfer the warranty to the buyer. Several companies offer home warranties. Ask your real estate professional for recommendations if he or she doesn’t suggest the warranty as part of their services. “I don’t know that a warranty by itself sells a house, but a warranty is a benefit” to the buyer, Aymard said, noting, “If the seller’s not offering it, the buyer ought to get it anyway.”