10 Things To Do Before You Head Off To Your Vacation Rental Cottage

If you're planning a cottage vacation this summer, get started on the planning early. It's all part of the fun - get the kids involved and have regular family meetings to talk about what you should take with you, what you plan on doing when you get there, and who has responsibility for what. Here's a few tips to get you started.

1 Read the contract and Terms and Conditions thoroughly

Make sure you know when check-in an check-out are. Don't plan on arriving earlier than the appointed time. Owners have only a short amount of time to changeover a cottage between guests and often have a lot of work and general maintenance to do. Arriving early does not mean you will gain access to the cottage or the waterfront and you may have to leave and come back again at check-in time

2 If you plan on taking your pet, make sure the owner has permitted pets

Taking a pet to the cottage is a privelige and not a right. Often, owners will not permit pets in their property because their children have allergies, or they simply do not like dogs or cats. Please respect that and don't put the owner in the embarrassing position of having to ask you to leave and find alternative accommodation for your pet.

3 Buy a good map of the area, Plan your route and have an alternative to hand

The main cottage country roads get very congested at the weekends in summer. Buy the MapArt book that covers the area you are visiting and plan your route well in advance. Make sure the directions you have from the owner or agency can be followed from the map. Put the directions, address of the cottage, and access details in a clearly labelled plastic folder. This should be the first thing you put in the car, and the last thing you check!

4 Write a packing list and get all the family to add in their lists

When you arrive at the cottage late at night, 15 kilometres down a cottage country road, it's not the time to realise you forgot to pack the toilet paper. Most cottages will have a supply so that is perhaps an extreme example, but good packing lists are vital to remembering all those little things that make self catering more comfortable.

5 Check what time the stores shut in the area

Cottage country stores stay open later in the summer season, but not as late as the city. It may be better to stop earlier rather than later if you are planning on picking up groceries on the way.

6 Buy water shoes

Zebra mussels are commonplace in many lakes now despite all efforts of lake associations to prevent them. They are razor sharp and can cause quite painfulcuts. I'd recommend taking water shoes wherever you go, particularly for the children. They are also useful if you're in an area where the lake bed is soft and squishy, unless you like it squidging between your toes!

7 Find out if life jackets are provided and check the sizes

It is the law that life jackets,or personal flotation devices (PFDs) of appropriate sizes for the occupants, are carried in any watercraft. Of course it is far safer and more sensible to wear them! Some cottage owners will supply a selection of PFDs but you need to be sure they fit correctly or you may find yourself subject to a hefty fine. If in doubt, purchase your own.

8 Purchase a fishing licence

If you plan on fishing, even off the dock, buy a fishing licence. Go to the Fish Ontario website for more details. Lakes are patrolled by the OPP in summer just as the roads are, so make sure you have the correct licence to show. http://www.fishinontario.com/regs.html

9 Check you know what size the beds are

If your cottage does not supply linens for the beds, check the sizes before you go. Struggling to stretch full size sheets onto a queen size bed is not what you want to be doing on your first night. Most owners will supply linens for king sized beds but it's best to check on that too. And if you are planning on using sofa beds or pullout couches at the cottage, ask the owner if she supplies comforters, blankets and pillows for those.

10 If you are going on vacation with friends, decide on the ground rules before you go

This is the subject of another article so for now, plan on a couple of get-togethers with your friends to discuss how you plan on making the vacation work for you all. Talk about your expectations and be realistic and honest about anything you may not be prepared to compromise on. Bedtimes for the kids and eating patterns are often the issues that become cause for disharmony.

Good planning will pay dividends in creating a stress free and enjoyable vacation. Start well in advance and you'll have a great time.

Related : Buy SHOES Now and Pay Later my blog magic

Cheap Sofas - The Ultimate Guide

Anyone who has ever tried to buy a new sofa will know exactly how difficult the choice can be with so many discounts and special offers from companies all claiming to be selling cheap sofas of the highest quality. Here's a quick guide to help you understand all of the various deals and what their benefits and drawbacks are.

Lets start with the classic cheap sofa offer - the buy now, pay later scheme. This is pretty self-explanatory in that you pick out whatever sofa you want and arrange delivery immediately. However, you don't have to pay for that sofa until a much later date, giving you extra time to get your finances in order. Unfortunately, many people order these sofas without actually considering whether they will have the cash available to pay for them when the time comes. This can lead to all kinds of problems, as buy now, pay later deals often turn into very expensive loans if the full amount isn't paid back by the agreed date - so beware.

Next up is the buy one, get one free sofa offer. This is probably the least risky offer to opt for as there aren't any hidden clauses attached and you do get two sofas for the same price you'd normally pay for one. However, many people end up going for these offers when they only really need one sofa anyway. What sofa companies normally do is mark up the price on one of the sofas they're struggling to sell and then go out and say they're offering two for one, when really the offer is 2 for 1 and a half. Always consider what is going to be best for your personal situation. Set yourself a budget before you go out and get an idea of the kind of thing you're after.

Like any product, a lot of sofa companies will offer 0% finance deals to tempt consumers who can't afford to pay for their sofa in one lump sum. However, these seemingly good offers can quickly turn into a nightmare if you don't read the small print. For instance, what are the charges if you miss a payment? Is the whole term of the agreement 0% or does it revert to a much higher rate of interest later down the line? How much is the sofa worth and how much will you have paid by the end of the agreement? Always work everything out before committing to a deal.

Hopefully this quick guide has helped you understand some of the offer that companies will throw out to advertise their seemingly cheap sofas, but remember you're always the one in control so get the best deal you can possibly secure.

Visit : Buy SHOES Now and Pay Later my blog magic

No Cash? Do Not Worry! Buy Now Pay Later

'Buy now pay later' stores have really opened up the avenue for you to enjoy more fun while shopping online. I guess how would you feel when you could not purchase your favorite designer handbag or jewelry for want of fund. But online stores seem to have opened up endless options for you to buy your favorite item and make payments later.

I agree, you might have opted for a frugal living and might have decided not to purchase anything more driven by your uncontrolled shopping spree. But there are situations when you are compelled to go out for shopping irrespective of your pocket - like purchase of gifts, schoolbooks or to attend a celebration party. Under these circumstances, you have no option but to rely on 'Buy now pay later' stores.

Before discussing the pros and cons of such stores let me tell you what you can purchase from such stores. The list of items available nowadays for credit shopping is endless. For example, simply think of an item and I am quite confident that there is a store where you can buy it without any payment for the time being. You can purchase accessories, apparels, bed-covers, Furniture, fittings, lighting fixtures, sports gear, jewelry, handbags, music videos, home decor items as well as home appliances - just to name a few. Matter of fact is that there are a number of stores offering credit shopping on myriad of products. Now you have to decide what would you like to buy.

So now you can see that you can purchase nearly anything and everything using credit facilities. A popular choice is 'Bill Me Later' as now it is an established, convenient and secure payment method designed for purchasing on the web or over the phone without using your credit card. A fast and comprehensive registration process has made this service one of the most popular online payment options. Many stores have already integrated it as one of their payment options. Barring few complaints about Bill Me Later for turning down customers' request for a credit payment, it has earned a good reputation so far.

Apart from that different stores offer their own credit shopping facilities like 'No payment for 90 to 120 days'. Some stores even waive off interest for payments within 90 days. These offers are usually available when you make purchases over some specified amount, which varies from $100 to even $500 or more.

The big word of caution that I must tell you is that despite getting everything in 'Buy now pay later' offers it does not make any sense to go on for endless shopping just because you are getting huge discounts or because of available deferred payment options. It is always advisable to prepare a list of items you want to purchase, set your monthly budgets for payments of EMI and then only use credit-shopping facilities. It must not be thrown out of your mind that each purchase you make must going to be followed by EMI bills sooner or later.

In fine, to conclude I must say that 'Buy Now Pay Later' offers provide you more flexibility to make deferred payments, and you can even buy costly products using such offers, but you must be using it judiciously applying your sense. Have fun and enjoy credit shopping.

Tags : Buy SHOES Now and Pay Later my blog magic

Using a Metal Detector to Find Your Lost Ring - Tips For The Amature On How To Use A Metal Detector

Lost a ring? Engagement, Wedding, Anniversary or Sentimental ring? Thinking about trying to use a metal detector to find it?

I lost my wedding ring and rented a metal detector to help me find it. Several months later, after hearing the story of my success finding the ring, my uncle asked me to come over and look for his wedding ring. It had been lost 10 or so years ago during the construction of a small retaining wall under a deck at his home.

After my initial 4 day ordeal looking for my own ring I was a little apprehensive about the prospect of finding his ring, but at least it wasn't under water like mine had been, plus he had a pretty good idea of where it should be. So, he rented a metal detector, coincidentally the same one I had used to find mine, and on a nice Sunday morning I went over to start digging. We broke out the shovels, a wheel barrel, a bucket and coffee.

He showed me the area, about 20 square feet, and we considered that it could be at a depth of up to a foot or two near the front. I took off my own ring and placed it on the ground to get a feel for what a good strong hit should sound like on the metal detectors speaker and then I started working the area.

In less than 5 minutes I got a good strong hit and sure enough, there was his ring! We spent more time pulling out the tools than we actually spent looking for the ring. After 10 years in the dirt his ring was back on his finger and I was now 2 for 2 finding lost wedding rings.

So, with all that in mind, here are my beginner's tips for finding a lost ring with a metal detector.

TOOLS -

One good metal detector. Nothing super-fancy, but it should have the discriminator settings to set for rings and not coins. Set for rings, they are much more sensitive to heavier metals like gold.

A good plastic trowel (small shovel). Plastic ones are better for this job since they won't interfere with the metal detector.

A decent plastic bucket, without a metal handle. Again, no metal to interfere with the detector.

A gold ring and a few coins. - I know this may sound silly, but when you read my techniques section it will make more sense.

Shoes WITHOUT steel toes or steel shanks. If you wear steel toed work shoes or boots, they will interfere with the metal detector.


TECHNIQUES -

First, make sure that you can search the area. If it is a park you are usually allowed to do it if you don't damage the grass. That means that just like on the golf course, you need to put your divots (bits of grass you pull up) back. If the location is on private property, make sure that you have the owner's permission to enter and search.

If this is your first time using a metal detector, ask for some assistance from the shop where you rent or buy it and/or read the manual. If you are looking for a ring, make sure that you set the 'discriminator' to the 'ring' setting. This will help you avoid getting lots of false signals from small bits of metal like old gum wrappers.

Find a nice little practice area where you can move the detector around without getting a bunch of beeps. This may mean clearing some stuff away, or you may get lucky and find a clear spot right away. Just give yourself a few square feet that you can pass the detector over without finding anything.

Train your ear. Take a gold ring and place it on the ground, then place a penny on the ground about 3 feet away from the ring. Pass the detector over both of them and listen to the difference in the beep. If the detector is properly set, you should hear a much stronger beep from the ring than you do from the penny. Do this for awhile. You really want to get a good feeling for the difference between a solid 'hit' and just a small beep.

Once you start actually searching, work in an orderly pattern. Pick out the area you want to search and work in a methodical way. There are many different patterns you could use. One method that seemed to work for me was to do the border first, all the way around and then work left to right, front to back. However, the exact pattern isn't as important as the fact that you use one. You need to know that when you've covered an area you have really covered it.

If you hit a beep and you feel it's worth digging, move the detector around side to side and front to back until you have a pretty good idea exactly where the target is. Digital detectors (which I haven't used) will have a little indicator screen that will help you narrow in on it. Once you've decided to dig, use your plastic trowel and bring up a small area. Put the dirt and grass into your bucket and then check the area again. This will help make sure that you got the item. Don't start sifting through the bucket until you're sure you have gotten the target out of the ground.

After you are sure that the target is out of the ground, use the detector on the bucket and see if the target shows up in there. If it does, then you know you got it and something is in there. Search the bucket until you find it and the bucket reads clean (no beeps) from the detector. If it wasn't what you were looking for, get it out of the way. Don't just throw that little piece of foil or penny back into your search area (I learned this the hard way when I spent 5 minutes to find the target I had just spent 5 minutes to find and then tossed in my search area).

After you have dealt with each individual target, you must put the dirt and sod back! Don't leave the park or yard looking like a mine field! It is up to you not to destroy or deface property.

Keep working the search area until you have covered the entire area. From time to time, set your test ring and a penny on the ground and re-tune your ear to hear the difference.

GOOD LUCK!!!

If you aren't successful, can't find a rental shop, or just don't want to deal with it, there are people who do this as a side job / hobby. Expect to pay $50 to $100 to have someone search for a couple of hours. They are skilled at this and may have a better chance of finding the object that a novice.

Related : Buy SHOES Now and Pay Later my blog magic

E-Commerce is Dead

Let me rephrase this, e-commerce is dead for companies that don't have a unique product. So if you're not an Amazon or an Overstock, and you're trying to sell a tangible product than anyone can sell, forget it. That game is over.

Roughly seven or eight years ago, you had a chance. Around the fall of 2003, a good friend of mine and I embarked on an effort to get into the e-commerce drop shipping market.

The Plan

Our plan was to launch a series of e-commerce drop-ship websites in repetition. Our goal was not to have one "home run" website (although that would be nice), but to make a few thousand dollars off of each website and build dozens that could be easily managed by a handful of people.

We thought that using search engine optimization (SEO) techniques (basically a method that would place us on page one of search engines) and entering very tight product verticals would be an excellent strategy.

My friend and I both had years of experience developing sophisticated software, primarily for wall street firms, and so we figured that we could build a superb e-commerce engine that would meet our needs.

It took us about three months to complete the initial release of the engine. We chose Java as the language to build both the front-end (using Servlets) and back-end of the system. The choice of Java turned out to be a mistake and we had to make a shift to PHP, but I'll explain this in a later blog post.

The Launch

We launched the first website in early 2004. On this site we sold hundreds of knives for outdoor use; hunting, fishing, tactical and recreational. We found one primary distributor that would ship the product for us under our name. We were totally hands off, except for the sale and customer service. This is exactly what we wanted.

We hired a search engine optimization company in California, and they basically educated us on the process of SEO. We incorporated the website SEO techniques into our e-commerce engine so that we could quickly launch other websites and the on-page optimization techniques would come for free.

To drive traffic to our outdoor knife website, while we waited for the SEO process to kick in, we employed Google AdWords. This was expensive, but it worked in driving sales, albeit at a break-even price point.

A Troubling Vertical

We didn't want to stop with the knife business, so immediately went to work on a new site in the wrist watch business, which we later found out was much more competitive than the outdoor knife business. We again employed Google AdWords to drive traffic, but this time, we didn't see any sales at all.

This was troubling and we later determined that there was heavy price competition in this vertical. Sometimes competitive prices were even lower than what we would pay our drop-ship distributor. After about 6 weeks, we shutdown the watch website.

Perhaps the product vertical was really important. This was puzzling. Remember in 2004, many of the larger players (Amazon, Overstock, etc) were not as prominent as they are today. The nimble vertical players seemed to be doing well.

Growth

Conversely, in our outdoor knife business, we started to see more traffic and more sales. Our organic search engine rankings started to jump to page one and at one point we were actually #1 on Google for the keyword "knives". Sales increased to where we were doing mid five digit numbers per month. This continued through 2005 and 2006. Profitability was also very good.

We started another outdoor knife site, carrying many of the same products but focusing on the niche of "pocket knives". This further increased sales. We did make an SEO related mistake with this website however. I don't want to get into too much technical detail, but we hosted the new website on the same IP sub-domain as the existing outdoor knife site. Google didn't like this and would not rank the new website. Yahoo and MSN didn't care though. Lesson learned.

Amazon Momentum

Then something started to happen in 2007. The economy was doing very well at this time but sales started to decline. Our search engine rankings were pretty much the same and in some cases even better than they were the previous year. The problem was competitive.

There were now a few drop-ship distributors in the outdoor knife space and there were many new websites popping up in our industry. Prices were falling, shopping sites were becoming popular (NexTag, Google Marketplace, etc) and Amazon was starting to dominate a large portion of e-commerce. Competitors were driving profits to a near zero level.

Amazon was gaining momentum with its Amazon Marketplace program. Using Amazon Marketplace, any person or business with an item to sell can offer that item directly to Amazon customers alongside the same item offered by Amazon or other Amazon Marketplace participants.

Amazon Marketplace partner companies now had the ability to create data feeds to Amazon and do a daily push of all of their products to the Amazon website.

This created a problem for small e-commerce companies. Would a customer buy a commodity product, like a knife, from a niche website? Or would they prefer to buy from Amazon, often at a lower cost. I think the latter, except for only the most loyal of customers.

There could have been something else happening here as well. What's to prevent a drop-ship distributor from placing their entire product line on Amazon via the Amazon Marketplace program? All they need to do is work under a different name. The online retailer network would never know and couldn't really do much if they did.

All of this is problematic for the niche e-commerce player. Sure, Amazon won't penetrate every market, but they are making inroads in quite a few, especially products that are largely commodities.

Product Uniqueness

What I take away from this experience is that if you want to sell something online, you have a tremendous advantage if your product is unique. Meaning you are the only provider, you manufacture the product or have it manufactured, and you control distribution.

When this happens, you become much more powerful and not a pawn in the e-commerce system. You can sell product on your own website, upload product to Amazon and control your distribution and your own destiny.

Tags : Buy SHOES Now and Pay Later my blog magic

Selling Insurance Online - How to Bowl a Strike

I started selling life insurance on the internet in January of 2001. Online direct response marketing was a fairly new concept at that time, so gradually I'm becoming a person people go to when they are trying to decide whether to get into this career. Recently, someone went so far as to ask me for ten practical steps to establishing a successful online life insurance business. Ten steps. How does one convey the vision it takes to succeed, in ten steps? How can the steps be practical without becoming drudgery?

I started subbing on a bowling league in January of 2005. Some simple tips offered by my teammates helped me discover the thrill of making strikes. Whether those ten pins scatter like buckshot, or trickle down like dominoes, strikes make you feel great. I found myself excited to repeat the steps that enabled me to bowl strikes. And suddenly, my ten-pin/ten-step analogy was born.

Making life insurance sales online feels at least as exciting as making strikes, and has the added bonus of making you money! Having a goal that rewards you emotionally is what will enable you to follow, with enthusiasm, these ten steps to success. So here are ten pins to get down to experience the thrilling achievement of consistently making "strikes" in the direct response market.

1) Understand the game. Selling life insurance online is not the same as selling in an office. I have heard many traditional life insurance agents say that the hard part used to be getting someone in the door, the easy part was making the sale. The easy part of selling online is getting the client "in the door"; the hard part is making to the end of the process with a check in your pocket.

So what are online leads like? That can depend on how they came to you. If they were using a search engine that led them to a web site where they filled out requests for a quote or application, they are most likely motivated to buy. They are already your customers, and you had best serve them efficiently and expediently, because they will go on to the next web site, if you don't!

Perhaps your leads were prompted to request a quote as the result of reading or hearing an ad. Others are "incentive" leads, which means they've filled out a quote request form as a hoop to jump through in order to get some type of other reward. You may think that kind of lead is not serious, and some aren't. However, most are asked to give enough info that the truly uninterested ones will usually bow out before their form is submitted.

You've got to put yourself in their shoes to understand how to approach them. If you don't answer leads promptly, they may get the feeling the ad or form was insignificant, and blow you off. Some will see the ad or form as a "nudge"; you'll want to assure them that you can easily help them get the coverage they have been putting off. Some incentive leads will hear you out because they know every prize has a price. They may be pleasantly surprised to find that they've received a good insurance price along with their other prize!

It takes some conversation to get to know your leads and to build their trust. But you also have to respect their time, because people use the internet to save time and fuss. Unless they have complicated needs, it's best to start by offering the simplest solutions possible. No matter how your leads came to you, they did ask. So you have every right and every chance in the world to make that sale. And you WILL make strikes with internet leads.

2) Know the rules. You've got to have knowledge of all the products being offered at your fingertips to be successful in online life insurance sales. Leads often aren't willing to wait for answers, so you have to give them as much as you can on the first call. If you need to delay the quote due to needing medical records or having to first obtain a preliminary offer based on their health, it's important to explain that if anyone else is giving them a quote without that step, that quote will most likely be wrong and could end up with a blot on their MIB.

Ordinarily, you will find the best quotes for those with perfect health from about 3-5 competitive carriers (rated at least A by AM Best) that use traditional underwriting. Likewise, the best quotes for those with health problems will come from about 3 impaired risk carriers. You'll want to know which 3 instant issue carriers offer the best rates for those of good health, and about 3 simplified or guaranteed issue carriers for those of poor health. Those choices will more than satisfactorily meet almost every need, and anyone can learn the underwriting guidelines, ratings, etc. of a dozen carriers. This also helps you approach your leads from a point of wisdom, building their trust in you and enabling you to serve them most responsibly.

Along with understanding the underwriting guidelines, you need to get familiar with how each carrier works, i.e. whether they require a preliminary offer, whether the app can be filled out online, etc. You also need to know what health conditions are best met by what carriers. This sounds like a lot, but within 6 months, you'll have it down. Knowing the rules of the game will help you get many more strikes.

3) Have good equipment. Good bowlers know they will get more strikes with the right ball, shoes, etc. It is essential to getting sales to have a well equipped office. An all in one fax machine (fax, copier, and scanner) is great for a small office. A phone headset is a must with today's online apps. It's nice to have an auxiliary color printer, but mainly using a black laser printer will save cost. I don't waste one sheet of paper on a lead that isn't at least somewhat interested. Therefore, a good computer and some way to organize leads is essential. It's to your advantage if your lead provider offers software designed to manage your leads. If not, My Documents, an online calendar, and/or Mail Merge can help. It's important to get a system set up to systematically keep track of your leads, because it takes lots of leads to make lots of money, and otherwise you'll get overwhelmed.

I would have business cards and stationery printed for the apps you send out by mail, and to include with policies. You have very few chances to make an impression, and your mail is one way to make one. Use a phone with Voice Mail. Have a toll free phone and fax number. Be sure you have Adobe Acrobat Professional. Try to have an email address that identifies you with insurance. Have a web site, if possible. Good equipment is not only practical, but identifies you as professional, and that is a big part of consistently making strikes.

4) Invest in the game. You have to go bowling to get strikes, and you have to work leads to make sales. That means setting aside the time and/or money to work at least several leads per day. It will take at least 2 months before commissions start coming in, and about 6 months until you start getting some good stats. But at that point, you need to start keeping close track of how much time/money you are spending and earning, per lead. You will continually increase your profits if you commit to increase your lead volume as you are able, increase your average premiums and application placement rates (this will come with experience), and control your expenses.

Most good agents hire assistants after a while, because they see that they can make much more by SELLING more. Assistants free you up to sell. You can get to the point where you don't want to do anything but sell in this business, because your time so literally, is money. However, you've got to be able to follow up on the leads your have, keep track of your commissions, fix your computer, pay your bills, and all that other stuff that goes with your own business. So keep your finger on that other stuff, but have someone else do as much as possible, and aim for those strikes.

5) Start off on the right foot. Bowlers disagree as to whether to approach the lane on the left or right foot, and online agents disagree whether to first contact your lead by email or phone! But if an introductory email is sent to your leads as soon as they are assigned to you, there is no doubt that a phone call is the best action to take after that. Your leads are expecting a call, and you become a person to them so much faster by phone than email. You can ask the questions that enable you to give a valid quote, and ideally, you will make the sale on that very first phone call, app and all.

If a lead won't answer the phone within 24 hours, I go ahead and send an email, telling them I tried to call and would like to visit with them to find out their wishes and give them an accurate quote. If there is no response to that email or subsequent phone call attempts, I'll send them a second email with a guess at a quote, based on what info they gave. That is usually the email that will draw out leads who will only respond by email; they generally won't respond to later emails if they don't respond to that one.

Calling can go on longer, because you might just keep missing people, and eventually catch them at home. However, you'll want to make a rule of thumb as to how many messages you'll leave, because after that they might see your efforts to contact them as harassment. Getting a hold of your leads by phone within minutes of receiving their contact information is ideal, and the very best approach to getting strikes.

6) Come from a good angle. You get a strike by aiming at the strike pocket. Internet leads have many motivations that can form that pocket. Some are:

a) looking for a competitive price on life insurance

b) looking for a price they can afford

c) being unable to find life insurance anywhere else

d) having some life event that caused them to think about life insurance

e) wanting life insurance but not liking to meet with an agent

f) wanting life insurance but not wanting any hassle (e.g. exam)

g) wondering if what they have is their best deal (most do this with Term, while ignoring their UL which could be their biggest albatross)

h) hoping their request will convince their spouse/parent/etc to apply

i) curiosity

How do you find that pocket? You will lose them in the first seconds if you don't approach them from the right angle. I ask for the person by first name, introduce myself by my full name, and say that I am responding to their request for a quote for life insurance from our web site. That intro, done in a friendly, conversational tone, almost always opens the door to a response, and that is the first goal, just to get them to respond.

If their response is, "I don't recall filling that out", I usually ask if maybe their pouse did it for them, and give them a little info about themselves so they know that someone that knew them had to fill out the form (but not their health condition). Any response is good! Any response can lead to a sale. And if their response is no, you can thank them and go on to the next ones who truly want your service and products. You have nothing to apologize for in answering their requests with the best there is to offer!

Once they respond, pick up your cues from them in chatting for a little while. If they don't start chatting, I say something like, "I needed a little more information from you in order to find the best quote". And I start out with something very basic. E.g. if they've checked diabetes, I'll say, "I see you marked that you have diabetes. How old were you when you got that?" I'll stay on that, being professional but also trying to convey empathy with my tone of voice, until we've covered that (or until they give a sign that they don't want to talk about it any more... you can always go back to it). If no health conditions are checked, I'll usually start out asking how much insurance they would like me to quote, then go on to risk factors. Be sensitive, respectful, yet direct in guiding them to the details you need to know in order to quote them correctly. We do no one a favor by avoiding delicate questions if the application is later declined (or worse, payment of the death benefit is contested) due to our reticence to ask what the carrier wants to know.

In that conversation, you find out their strike pocket, and appeal to that. Hopefully, you can either convince them to wait until you get a preliminary quote back to them, or fill out an app right there on line. You might even sell a policy to a family member.

At the end of the call, I always tell them I'll send them an email with all my contact info, even if I've just made the sale.

7) Follow through. Once you've obtained the application, you need to submit it and follow the carriers' guidelines to issue (your brokerage could be a big help in this). However, you also need to guide your clients through, so you don't lose them in the process. I send emails to my clients with applications in underwriting about weekly, just to let them know how things are going. The minute you find out about requirements, use that as an excuse to touch base and let your clients know you are still on top of things (or as an excuse to find out what's going on with them). Following through will ensure that the strike is made!

8) 9) 10) Don't give up strikes for taps. The 8, 9, and 10 balls are the most common "taps" in bowling. A tap is a pin that stays standing even when you hit the strike pocket. Likewise, up to 3 out of every 10 leads you get may not respond affirmatively to you, if at all. You can try to pick them up, but don't give up strikes to do it. You knock down those first 7 pins to successful direct response life insurance selling, and the strikes will fly!

Copyright 7-26-2005

Tags : Buy SHOES Now and Pay Later my blog magic

Guide to Buy Now Pay Later No Credit Credit Financing Plans

Are you looking to make a major purchase and don't want to pay for 6 months, 12 months or even longer? There are thousands of such programs available. They are often called "90 days same as cash" or "1 year same as cash" or "buy now pay later". Let's take a quick look at how these types of programs work and whether or not they make good financial sense.

If you are about to make a major purchase such as a home appliance or electronic gadget you will definitely be presented the opportunity to buy the item now and pay later. Sounds great, right? Not so fast, these deals don't come without strings attached and if you're not careful it can end up costing you hundreds or even thousands of dollars in finance charges. When you agree to a buy no pay later deal you are immediately given a credit application. This credit application is necessary because you are essentially being approved for a credit card or a loan in the amount of the purchase you are making. If approved the lender pays the store and you owe the balance to the lender. You will make no payments and accrue no interest until a certain date in the future. In the example of a 1 year same as cash deal you will make no payments and accrue not interest for a period of year after the date of purchase.

Now, here's the tricky part - Once you reach that anniversary date you will begin accruing interest each day at a very high rate. The interest rates on these types of deals vary but are usually about what you would pay on a credit card cash advance (in other words - really high). If you do not pay off the balance in full buy the anniversary date you immediately begin getting hit with finance charges that are being accrued at a high interest rate and add up VERY quickly. The lenders in these types of transactions are betting on the fact that a large percentage of consumers will have every intention of paying off the debt prior to the anniversary date but ultimately will not do it. This is how they make big money on these types of deals. If you are very disciplined and organized with your finances you can take this type of deal, pay off the balance before the anniversary date and pay no interest whatsoever. If you are this type of person then a buy now pay later deal can be a terrific what to make a major purchase.

Can you get a buy now pay later deal without having your credit checked? The quick and easy answer to this question is no. As mentioned earlier, these types of transaction are loans and anytime you get a loan the lender will need to see how risky of a borrower you are. The only way they can do this is by checking your credit report.

Is your credit suffering because you already have too much credit card debt and are starting to fall behind on payments? You may not realize how easy it is to quickly reduce your credit card debt by up to 50 or even 60 percent. There are reputable debt reduction companies out there who can work with the credit card companies on your behalf and arrange for you to pay back a fraction of what you owe. This is all perfectly legal and is a great alternative to bankruptcy. Get a free debt reduction quote today with absolutely no obligation.

Tags : Buy SHOES Now and Pay Later my blog magic

Where to Buy Crocs Shoes

Are you looking for where to buy Crocs shoes online? Crocs shoes are quickly becoming a must have in comfort. There are hundreds of stores around the country that are selling Crocs shoes. But if you're too busy to run to the store consider making your purchase through an online shoe store.

The Internet is a vast source for your venture into buying shoes online. Not only will you save time by shopping online, but you will likely save money as well. Some key points to keep in mind when you are looking to buy shoes online include pricing, company reputation, shipping costs, and return guidelines.

Finding an online store that sells Crocs shoes will be easy. The first obstacle you will have is to find an online store that has Crocs that you can afford. The web is filled with places you can purchase shoes online, but they will not all be at the same price. Spend a few moments searching for the most competitive prices available for the Crocs shoe you want to buy.

The next consideration in your search to buy shoes online needs to be the reputation of the company. Out of all the shoe stores that are offering your Crocs at the price you want, you are going to have to decide which one is the best online store. Any department store that is selling Crocs shoes online will be a safe place to purchase your shoes. Other things to look for are a customer service phone number, physical address, and easy to use web page. A company that openly posts this information on their Internet page is probably a reputable online store.

Shipping costs should be kept to a minimum. There are many stores on the web that will even offer free shipping. Make sure to take into account the shipping costs when you are looking at the price of the Crocs shoe. There is nothing worse than finding a great deal on a pair of Crocs just to pay the difference in shipping costs. With so many Crocs shoes online, you should be able to find a good quality online store that will offer free shipping as well.

You always want to consider the online company's ease of returns. Many will offer free shipping and pay for any return shipping as well. Now that's a good place to buy shoes online! There is no reason an online shoe store should offer any less customer service than a retail department store. A good return policy is a sure sign that this online store is working to meet their customer's needs. This is always a big plus when buying anything online.

Buying shoes online can be an intimidating task. By spending a few minutes surfing the web, you will soon find several top-rated online shoe stores. Buying online is more convenient than ever before and online stores are working harder than ever to keep their customers coming back. Consider buying your next pair of Crocs shoes online and save your time and money!

Related : Buy SHOES Now and Pay Later my blog magic

Starting An E-Commerce Business

The development and expansion of the Internet has made business opportunities, once only available to the wealthy, available to nearly everyone. In the past, opening a business was a huge commitment in terms of finances and risk. Traditional business owners had to quit the their current jobs, obtain bank financing, and sign leases before they even made a penny. It's easy to see why 95% of them failed within five years. Today, business opportunities are available to anyone willing to put in the time and effort to learn about the world of e-commerce. Best of all, you can start an e-commerce business with minimal funds and very little risk. This guide will take you though the steps necessary to start your own e-commerce business.

Find Your Niche

The first step to creating your own e-commerce business is to find you niche. Examine your hobbies and interests for potential business ideas. If you love soccer, consider selling soccer supplies or team uniforms online. You may also consider opening a business that is similar to your current job. For example, as a nurse you may know a lot about medical supplies and how hospitals obtain them. You could start a medical supply business. Your contacts and industry knowledge could give you an advantage over a competitor who does not know the inner-workings of hospitals the way you do.

Research The Demand

Now that you have a few business ideas, it's time to research the demand for your products or services. If you plan to sell to the general public, you'll want to find out how many people are looking for your products or services. As a small business owner, you will not have the marketing funds to create a demand for a product. The products you sell, must already be in demand. A great way to determine product demand is to see how many people are searching for a specific product. Overture has a wonderful keyword tool (http://inventory.overture.com/d/searchinventory/suggestion/) that displays the number of searches for specific keywords. It will give you a good idea of which products are popular and the specific keywords you should target when building your website.

Scope Out Your Soon-To-Be Competitors

Before settling on a business idea, scope out your would-be competitors. Visit their websites and compare the following:

· Professional Look & Feel

· Products and Services

· Search Engine Ranking

· Page Rank (Available on the Google Tool Bar)

· Keywords

· Back Links (how many sites link to them).

You'll need to know your competitor's websites inside and out. Spend some time exploring each one. This will give you an idea of what you're up against. Keep in mind, that your website will need to be equally as professional or better than theirs. Don't worry if you don't think you have the technical skills necessary to create a professional website. The use of professional website templates will be explained later.

While you're researching your competitors, check to see if the products you intend to sell are sold at large department stores such as Wal-Mart, Target, and Amazon.com. It is very difficult for a small business to compete with these large companies because the profit margins are extremely low. You'll need to sell products that are in demand, but aren't sold by corporate giants.

Establish A Business Entity

In order to conduct business, you need to establish a business entity. Fortunately this can be as easy as filing a "Doing Business As" or "Fictitious Name" form with your local County Clerk's office to become a sole proprietor. When you arrive at the County Clerk's office, they will check their records to make sure your intended business name is not already in use. If it's available, you will need to complete the appropriate forms and pay your filing fee. Each state has different requirements. Check with your state for requirements on becoming a sole proprietor.

You will also need a sales tax id. You will need to charge sales taxes in the state where your business resides. Contact your county office for details about sales tax ID's and any other requirements they may have.

Open A Business Bank Account

Now that you are a legitimate business owner, it's time to open a business bank account. Take your court documents to the bank and open a business checking account. Most banks offer a variety of business accounts. Choose the one the best meets your needs. It's usually best to start with their least expensive account because it could be a while before you start earning revenue. You can always upgrade in the future.

Some banks require a business owner to wait specified amount of time, usually 90 days, after the court documents are filed before opening a business bank account. These rules are in place to help prevent fraud. Check with your bank to obtain waiting period information.

Choose A Domain Name

While you wait to open a bank account, you can start building your website. First, register a domain name. Names that end in ".com" are best. If possible your, domain name should include one or more of your target keywords. For example, if you are creating a yoga supply business, you'll want to choose a name with the word yoga, such as yogacenter.com, yoga-supply.com, or yogastuff.com.

Create Your Website

One of the keys to successful e-commerce businesses is a professional website. Your website is the first and often the only impression your visitors will have of your business. A professional website can be the difference between your visitors viewing you as a home-based business operating out of your garage and a multi-million dollar business with hundreds of employees. Fortunately, you don't need to be a web programmer to create a professional website. There are companies that sell professional website templates. You can get website templates for free, but it's much better to pay for a highly professional template. To find these templates, simply search for "website templates". You should expect to pay $50 - $150 for a good template with multiple pages and professional images.

Most website templates can be customized with common HTML editors and a simple graphics program. Templates can be edited without having to invest a lot of time and energy into learning how to code web pages.

You'll want your website content to target specific keywords. This can be achieved by creating articles, product reviews, product comparisons and detailed description of your products. Avoid repeating the keywords so often that the text becomes difficult to read. There is a fine line between good copy text and spam text. Spam text is designed to increase your site's listing in the search engines, but often backfires when penalties are issued and your website is dropped from the listing.

Host Your Website

Now that your website has been created, it's time to find a company to host your website on their servers. You should be able to find a good hosting company for around $10 per month. This fee should include technical support and email accounts with your domain name. Domain name-specific email accounts are important for a professional image.

Your website files can be uploaded with a simple FTP program. The hosting company's technical support personnel can walk you through the steps to upload your files and launch your website.

Implement A Shopping Cart

No e-commerce website is complete without a secure shopping cart. There are many shopping cart options. Many e-commerce business owners make the mistake of using Pay Pal to accept payments, which immediately tells visitors that their company is very small and not professional.

A good alternative to Pay Pal is a remotely hosted shopping cart. Remote shopping carts take the burden of maintaining security and credit card numbers off your shoulder and places the responsibility on another company. Remote shopping carts can usually be configured to look similar to your website. In fact, your customers may not realize that they have left your website to place an order. The remote shopping cart provider will give you the HTML to add to your website. When your potential customer clicks on the Buy Now button, he or she is taken to the remote shopping cart to enter the personal information and payment details.

Depending on your choice of a shopping cart, you may or may not need a merchant account to process transactions. Some shopping cart services allow you to use their merchant accounts for a slightly higher fee.

Stock Your Inventory

Now that your website has been created, it's time to stock your inventory. The first step is to find the manufacturers of the products you wish to sell. You can find this information by reviewing your competitor's websites. Some of them may list the manufacturer with the product name or description. Once you have the name, you can search for the manufacturer online.

Contact the manufacturer and tell them that you are interested in becoming a distributor. Ask for a wholesale price list and an application. The price list will help you determine if the profit margins are high enough to justify selling their product.

You'll want to ask the manufacturer the following questions:

· What is the MSRP (Manufacturer Suggested Retail Price) for the item?

· Am I required to sell the item at MSRP?

· What is your minimum order quantity/amount?

Some manufacturers will not sell to e-commerce businesses that do not have a brick and mortar retail location. If this is the case, you'll simply have to find a company that manufactures a similar product and is willing to sell to an e-commerce business.

Promote Your Business

Now that your website is live and you're open for business, it's time to promote your website. If no one knows that it exists, you will not receive any sales. Most website visitors originate from search engines. Before search engines can list your website, they have to know that it exists. You'll need to submit your website to search engines and directories such as Yahoo!, DMOZ, Excite, and others. Search engine submission programs and services are available, but they not effective. Most good search engines require websites to be manually submitted. They enforce this by displaying an image with a series of letters or numbers that automated programs cannot read. The code embedded in the image is required to submit your website.

Search engine algorithms are extremely complex. The ranking of a website in their search results depends on a number of factors, including keywords, density, back links, page rank, and other factors. After submitting your website to the major directories and search engines, the next step is to establish back links. When search engines crawl the web and find a link to your site, they count the link as a vote for your site. The more votes you have, the higher your site will rank (assuming other criteria has also been met). You can acquire back links by sending emails to other website owners and offering to exchange links. It's very difficult for new websites to acquire back links. Most people prefer to exchange links with established websites. In a way, it's a catch-22, but it can be done and the results are worth it.

Starting your own e-commerce business is a lot of work. Making it successful is even more work, but the pay-offs can be rewarding. Thanks to the explosion of the Internet age, e-commerce business opportunities are now available to anyone with a computer, a few hundred dollars for start-up costs, some spare time and the desire to create a business.

Copyright 2004 ZIP Baby. All Rights Reserved.

My Links : Buy SHOES Now and Pay Later my blog magic

Chanel Logo Earrings - How & Where To Buy

The much sought-after Chanel Logo Earrings, as with other Chanel brand fashion and perfume products, are famous for the unmistakeable Chanel logo design. This design is formed by an interlocking double-C, one C faces forwards the second faces backwards. The double C originates from the full Chanel name, "Coco Chanel", although this full name is less commonly used now.

There are many products which bear the famous Chanel mark, for example earrings and jewelry, sunglasses, watches, and fragrances. The Chanel logo design is perfect for their range of earrings in particular. The Chanel logo is itself a work of art, attractive simple and elegant, so why not use it as the focal point of their jewelry range? Unfortunately the range has changed considerably over time and now incorporates earrings and jewelry which is seen by some as "fussy" and overly complicated, relying less on the simple logo. In fact browsing the latest catalogue online there do not appear to be any traditional double-C earrings.

In addition there are many fake Chanel products being sold online, mostly originating from China Vietnam and Thailand, which are designed to trick buyers into thinking they are purchasing original Chanel merchandise. There is a simple way to tell of course - a real new Chanel product cannot be found at discount prices. If you want a new Chanel product keep in mind that you will have to pay full price for that quality. If you are tempted by someone selling supposedly new Chanel Logo Earrings at an impossibly low price, it is very likely they are selling fakes, and you will find later that the quality of the product is not comparable.

However, if you have set your heart on Chanel Logo Earrings then do not despair - there are a number of solutions. One of the joys of the internet is the ability to see products and store catalogues from all across the globe, simply and quickly. Having access to this global market you can always locate Chanel Logo Earrings, Purses and other products which are being sold by their current owners, potentially at significant discounts when compared to new Chanel prices. This also means you may be able to find older designs which you perhaps prefer.

Visit : Buy SHOES Now and Pay Later my blog magic

The Wrong Way To Go About Buying A House In France

Buying a house in France is a serious business for anyone. Whether you're selling up lock, stock and barrel and moving to France permanently, or you're fortunate enough to be searching for a French holiday home, the expense is still considerable. So why do we see so many people treat buying a house in France with so little common sense? It's not a pair of shoes - you can't take it back if it doesn't fit right!

Yet month after month we hear the same stories. Someone who has bought a French house on a whim and is now starting to find problems. Who are these people? They must be pretty wealthy to just go round buying French property as the fancy takes them.

The crazy thing is, nothing could be further from the truth. Often - in fact more often than not - these are people putting their life savings, their whole future, into their French dream house.

And a frightening number of them haven't got a clue. They've done next to no research, they don't speak the language and they've sought no expert advice.

Then when things go wrong they start complaining about the system, the language, the French, the agent... just about anything and everything is to blame but themselves. They treated buying a house in France like buying a lottery ticket and now they're complaining because their one-in-a-million gamble didn't pay off!

Now maybe you think I'm being a bit extreme. I'm not. I know one couple who you would think of as very sensible and level-headed who signed an agreement to buy a French property while on holiday. They weren't even looking for a house when they left England but they fell in love with the place.

What they didn't know was that by the time they got back to the UK ten days later, getting out of the deal would cost them 12,000 Euros.

I can give you another example of a couple who bought a French property to live in part and turn the rest into gites. They wildly underestimated the renovation costs (because they didn't ask) and now live in a place that needs a new roof. They can't finish the work so they've only got small pensions to live off. The house is in a bad way so they can't afford to sell and return to England either.

It's all very sad, really. I hear one of these stories about every other month and it's such a shame. Now I'm no saint, I've made plenty of mistakes myself living over here and renovating an old French property, but fortunately my mistakes have been fairly minor because I've always checked and double checked the big things.

Which is, when you strip it all back to basics, all anybody has to do.

The French property market offers a wealth of opportunities and buying a house in France is neither particularly difficult nor particularly complicated. The problem is that unless you're French or you've bought French property before it IS different. There will be things you haven't come across before. There will be things that don't go quite according to plan.

The important thing is to get some knowledge behind you. Search the internet, buy a book or two, ask questions - and don't stop asking questions until you're satisfied with the answers.

France is a great place to live but it's not dreamland and miracles don't happen very often. If you stumble around blindly in the French property market you will get hurt. Do your homework however and buying a house in France will be a delight - which is what it should be and what I wish for everyone who comes here.

Visit : Buy SHOES Now and Pay Later my blog magic

How to Maintain Sales Revenue in the Great Recession - Effective Marketing Strategies (Part 2 of 3)

In part 1 we identified the key to maintaining your sales revenue and profitability during the economic downturn is understanding what your patrons are currently thinking, how their thinking changes their buying behavior, and then adjusting your marketing strategy accordingly to meet their new needs.

(A brief pause for a definition refresher: Marketing is everything you do to tell your target market how you can help them and how to contact you to get that help. We now return you to your regularly scheduled article.)

Now that you understand your patrons' current outlook, what should your marketing strategy response be?

Recession Busting Business Strategies

Generally speaking, it's best to focus on doing a few things very well, rather than many things poorly. When you expand or broaden your offerings, make sure that you offer everything associated with your new product in one stop under your roof. Dump fringe products that are slow sellers or can't be marked up to pay their way. Keep this principle in mind as you take the next steps.

First, maintain your pricing margins - don't engage in across-the-board discounting, which will result in your sales floor being festooned with "Sale" tags and could be perceived as the desperation strategy of a failing business. You certainly don't want to give that impression! Plus, marketing strategies based on widespread discounting are addictive to the customer and ruinous to the business. Don't go there if you can possibly avoid it. Then...

Get Creative

Create scarcity - stock and display only a small number of a particular size, color, or type of item, which encourages the customer to buy now to avoid it being out of stock when they return later. You've probably seen that some department stores have brought back layaway plans to encourage this behavior, a service that was discontinued a few years ago when customers could just charge the item to their credit cards.

Focus on quality - customers are carefully scrutinizing every purchase and want whatever they buy to last a long time. In most cases, luxury items are out, but consumers are still willing to shell out for durable, well designed and built stuff with fewer bells and whistles. As an example, well made tools are in, gadgets are out. Well-made basic handbags are in, high-end single purpose purses are out.

Focus on timeless stuff, not trendy stuff - again, in this economic environment consumers want what they buy to meet many needs, so timeless items are on their radar screen. Clothing in basic colors or styles that can be accessorized easily for a fresh look is the way to go; outfits that can't be mixed and matched are out. Khaki, denim, basic black in items such as shoes, and neutral colors will be on their mind. Remember, flip is out and practical is in.

In part 3 I'll expand this list of recession busting business strategies that will help you maintain, and even grow, your sales in the Great Recession.

Visit : Buy SHOES Now and Pay Later my blog magic

Control Your Money - The Big Scary Word - Budget

The idea of having a "budget" is very scary to a some people. It makes you feel like you are being controlled somehow. It makes you have self control and not splurge $400 on clothes and pay it "later." Where is all this debt going to lead you? We all have to face facts that they money we spend that we don't have will not just take care of itself and you have to start taking care of it now!

Make a list, figure out where your money to going! Here are some things for you to look at when you are making your list.

Auto Expenses - maintenance, gas, car payments

Clothing Expenses - shirts, sweaters, shoes, socks, underwear, anywear!

Dental Expenses - cleanings, dental work, surgery, anything not on your insurance

Dining Expenses - restaurant food, fast food expenses, snacks

Entertainment - concerts, movies, cable TV, anything you do for fun

Gifts - birthdays, weddings, anniversaries, etc

Groceries - anything you buy at the grocery store

Household Items - furniture, cleaning items, etc

Insurance - auto, life, home insurance

Pet Expenses - if you have pets, list what you buy for them every month

Rent or Mortgage - most likely your biggest expense

Taxes - real estate and income taxes paid

Utilities - phone bills, electricity, gas, water bills

Vacation Savings - hotels, airplane tickets, tours, souvenirs

Once you have all these listed, see if there is anything you can do to reduce the amount you are spending every month. Maybe find a cheaper auto insurance company. Maybe you could rent movies instead of going out to the movies every week. Use less electricity and conserve water and save on your utilities. It's all up to you how much you want to save!

Friends Link : Buy SHOES Now and Pay Later my blog magic

Best Perfumes For Women - What Are Your Options?

Perfume is now a fashion statement. Just like a fashionable handbag or nice shoos it gives your look a touch of extra elegance. But there are so many women's perfumes, how to select the right one? Discover different types of fragrances and the way to find the best perfume for you.
Even though there are hundreds of different perfumes on sale, all of them can be divided into several major categories:

floral

fresh

woody

oriental

fougere

When do you plan to wear your perfume - everyday or for special occasion?

When selecting a perfume it's very important to know where you are going to wear it. Not every fragrance can be worn at work. For daytime it's best to go for fresh or light floral scents. Many companies have a "no perfume" in their dress code all together. Never stopped me, from wearing one. A fresh scent applied moderately should be all right. Most retailers mention in the description whether a particular product is for day or evening wear.

For a romantic evening or a party, you can choose a completely different scent. Luxurious floral fragrances are just as suitable for the evening as they are for the day, and you can also wear something rich with woody or oriental notes.

Trying perfumes - testers and free samples

You, probably already have a good idea what kind of fragrance you are looking for. But you still shouldn't buy perfume relying only on its description. Trying it yourself is the best way to select a scent that is the best for you. You can do it in any department store or perfume shop - they always have testers.

Just sniffing the tester bottle won't give you the real idea of the scent, it's best to spray perfume on a little tester paper that the shops provide. Keep the paper with the fragrance and smell it in a few hours again. Most quality perfumes change their scent as you wear them, the scent might be quite different from the original.

Another great way to test perfumes is to ask for samples. Most department stores have free perfume samples and if they see, that you are interested in buying something, they will happily give you a couple of samples. Another way to get samples of perfume is online, there are many websites that will send you a free sample of perfumes hoping that you will buy from them later.

Finding discount perfumes online

An expensive department store is a good place to try and choose your perfumes, but is it the best place to buy? It's certainly not, because being a smart shopper you can find the very same brands of designer's perfumes much cheaper in specialized discount perfume shops and online.
Getting fragrances online is actually the easiest way to find cheap perfumes. Big online shops keep their prices significantly lower than department stores. They sell hundreds of perfume bottles a day and don't have to pay rent and stuff salaries, so online shops simply have less expenses and they pass the savings to you.

The quality of your perfume will be just the same as you would buy it directly from Lancome of Ester Lauder counter. But you have to make sure that the online shop you choose sells genuine designers brands. Some of them specialized in selling knockoffs - replicas of famous designer's perfumes. They say that it smells the same, but it doesn't, not after you wear it for a couple hours.

Carefully chosen perfume can be a great accessory. Surely it's expensive, but for all the hard work a modern women do, we deserve a little treat, wouldn't you agree?

Friends Link : Buy SHOES Now and Pay Later my blog magic

DIY Garden Shed - What Does it Really Take?

Today we are going to discuss what it takes to build a DIY garden shed. If you have never heard of one before, these sheds are often used to store garden and landscaping equipment as well as tools. Of course, you could stow just about anything in a standard shed from old clothes to baby toys. Modern sheds are also quite attractive and look like miniature houses or barns.

The Alternative Option - Prefabricated Sheds
For homeowners that do not have the time, skill or patience to build a DIY garden shed, there is an alternative. They are called prefabricated sheds and they can be purchased at just about any home and garden center. The average model is 10 feet by 10 feet and costs between fifteen hundred and two-thousand dollars.

Prefabricated sheds are often aesthetically appealing, but they are seldom available in many different styles. In the end, you may have to take what you can get. Also, the standard prefab model does not come in a wide variety of sizes, so if you are looking for a bigger model you should expect to pay quite a bit more.

Another thing that should concern shoppers who are searching for a prefab shed is materials they use. To save money, many companies opt for untreated wood, which can be damaged by bad weather in short order.

The DIY Option - Building Your Own Garden Shed
Now, we will move on to the DIY garden shed. The great thing about these sheds is that you can customize them and make them any size or with any materials you choose. The reason for this is simple: plans for nearly any type of shed are available on the internet. These plans can often be downloaded for free or for a nominal fee.

Let us take a moment to focus on the kinds of materials homeowners should use in their sheds. As we mentioned, it is important to purchase treated lumber, especially for the floor of the shed. This is due to the fact that ground water can damage the floor if it is untreated. Over time, the water can cause warping, rotting and eventually the floor will begin to sag and later crack.

Other great low maintenance materials include: steel doors, aluminum or vinyl windows, or faux-slate shingles for the roof. All of these options will add years to the life of your shed and may not end up costing you a penny more. For example, vinyl windows are cheaper than glass ones and it is unlikely that they will ever need to be replaced. And while a steel door may cost a few dollars more, it will never require any maintenance.

Lastly, there is plastic or PVC lumber. These boards are lightweight and extremely easy to work with. They are recommended for parts of the shed that are the most exposed to the elements. For example, they can be used on the windowsill or on the trim around the doors. The boards will never rot, split, warp, or decay.

My Links : Buy SHOES Now and Pay Later my blog magic

Living in the Confinements of a Household Budget

Oh, how sad it is to have one, but the reality is that when it comes to running a household, most of us have a budget of some kind we have to stick to, sort of. No budget is unbreakable because there will always be variances in the finances and in expenses as well and sometimes adjustments have to be made. The best way to achieve a bigger budget is to make fewer bills. Even if a larger income has developed, that is not always a reason to add new expenses. This would be missing a great opportunity to save money for things that are important.

When you are the primary homemaker, it is usually you that is required to do most of the shopping whatever it might be. It can be groceries, clothing, home furnishings, or a number of other things. When your budget is small, you have to be very careful about spending on little luxuries that you could easily do without. The temptation to splurge on this little thing or that little thing can be so tempting. It might be something for yourself, the kids, the house, or even the family pet. Now, this is not to say that you can never buy anything that is not budgeted in, because that would be just unrealistic, but you do need to use a common sense approach to any purchases that you do not have in the budget.

The first question you need to ask yourself is it is something that is really needed. For example, if you already have two or three different cleaners for your kitchen and bathroom that you have not used up yet, do you have to try the new one that is supposed to be so great right now? Wait until you use up the ones you have first and then try the new product. It might seem insignificant at the moment, but these small purchases add up and makes money disappear.

Another example of when it might be a good idea to give in to temptation is if you find sneakers on sale in the shoe department and your 6 year old is in desperate need of some. Take advantage of a great bargain when you can if it is something that is going to have to be purchased anyway. Shopping must be done with common sense. If you are too lax with your money, you will always be coming up short, but if you do not learn to take advantage of great deals, you could end up spending more in the long run.

Always shop for things that are on sale whether it is food, clothes, or anything you are responsible for buying for the home or family. Dollar bills might not be gold in the sense that it is yellow, but it is the same thing. You have to treat your budget money like it is precious, especially if you do not have a lot of it. The more you save today is all the more you will have left over to use later when you might really need it even more.

Recommend : Buy SHOES Now and Pay Later my blog magic

I Am a Millionaire Now - It is Different Than I Thought it Would Be

I am a millionaire, but I don't feel like one. Perhaps the better way of saying it is it does not feel like I thought it would. Let's get back to that a little later.

First a bit about me and the family. I am a forty-one year old white male. Married for 12 years with two kids- a nine year old girl and a seven year old boy. I have an undergraduate degree in finance and went to night school to get an MBA. I have spent my entire career working in information technology (IT). Most of that time has been programming. I have a few stints in management, but it didn't take.

My wife works at home and has done so since our daughter was born. She volunteers at the kid's school quite a bit. I also keep her busy with a lot of the business activity. Our kids attend public school. We were going the private school route for a few years. When both were going to be all-day students, the bill was $18,500 for the year. By the time they are be in 2nd and 4th grade, the bill will be $21,000 and that was if tuition stayed the same. Fat chance on that.

I have started my own company. The dream was to have a big operation where I would have 50+ people working for me and spend my time running the business and helping bring in new clients. Four years into it, we are considered successful, but the big dreams have turned out to be little dreams. I have a few people working for me but the majority of revenue is still billing my own hours.

I come from a middle class home. My father worked for the federal government and never made more than $25,000 a year. I went to public schools. I am smart and my grades always reflected that. I graduated high school in the top 10% (barely). My father passed away when I was in high school. While there was life insurance, it was not much. My mom had to go back to work after staying home to raise the kids for 20 years

My career and savings started when I was 22 and graduated from college. 18 years later I can see several things:

I made some great decisions
I made some bad decisions
I made good decisions with bad results
There has been good luck and bad luck, which came whether intended or not Inaction that should have been action.

Some Good Decisions

Student Loans - I never had any. My undergraduate was paid for by scholarships and out of pocket. My employer paid for the MBA. I did not go to a big school, although I could have. The decision to go where I did, McNeese State University in Lake Charles, LA, was made out of finances. They offered a scholarship that covered tuition, books and a room. I was on my own for food. A little help from mom and some part time work took care of that.

I noticed that many of my friends upon graduation were paying off student loans. Every month they were paying a couple of hundred dollars. For them this went on for years. I was saving my money instead. This provided a good foundation for later.

Avoiding bad debt - I can remember one day talking to a friend who was about to get married. He had $8,000 in student loans, $10,000 in car debt, $3,000 in credit card debt and was about to get a loan to pay for his portion of his $30,000 wedding. He never told me exactly what he wound up paying for the wedding but I bet his portion was half. Here is a guy who is 25 years old and $36,000 in debt and all he has to show for it is a car and a marriage certificate. He was going to be paying that off until he is in his thirties and then start saving. I had a ten year head start for savings on him.

While I have had car notes, they were never huge and never more than three years. I put as big a down payment as I could. I have bought more used cars than new cars.

I pay off the credit card every month. I do charge everything I can. This maximizes the points. The bill has often been higher than what I want it to be. My wife and I have had more than our share of fights when I opened the credit card statement. In the end I made sure the balance never got up and we never paid interest or fines.

I recently had a conversation with a co-worker who told me she had $75,000 in credit card debt. This fascinated me because we had similar jobs with similar pay and are similar ages. How can I have so much and her so little? Her answer was it started small when she was in her 20's. She and her husband would carry a balance this month and go on vacation instead of paying for it. That balance never got paid. The next month they had an $800 car repair, adding to the balance. They had a cycle of accumulating bad debt for 15 years that resulted in $75,000 of debt.

Ground rules with the spouse - Before we got engaged, I wanted to go over finances with my then-girlfriend. I discovered she had $2,800 in credit card debt. I let it be known that we were not going to get engaged until she got it off the credit cards. She applied for and received a debt consolidation loan at a much more reasonable rate. This started the groundwork very early for us about what would be good and bad financial decisions.

My wife is not a money person. She is a spender and consumer. She impulse buys regularly while I seldom do. My saving has often been countered by her spending. I could have been a millionaire many years ago if she viewed money like I do. The things we do for love.

While we have fought, and will fight again, over money and spending, there have always been some ground rules. No credit card debt, do not touch the savings unless for another investment, save every month, try to avoid spending on the big things.

We have taken trips, bought clothes, had nice meals and remodeled kitchens. We temper these things. I try to delay these expenses and question if we really need all of it.

One thing that works for us was we created a separate checking account for her. Every month we transferred money into that account. Birthday gifts, baby gifts, wedding showers, clothes and her pocket money all came from there. These were the items that would get out of hand. More than once she was giving a wedding or baby shower with other people. It always seemed that one of the others would go out and spend an outrageous amount. The $400 dollar cake was my favorite. They would through the receipts in a pile, add them up and divide. Three showers in a month totaling $450 can bite you quickly. When these types of expense would come from our savings, she treated it like there was a bottomless well. When she had to pay from her own account, she started budgeting. The account literally saved our marriage.

Buy a house early - I bought my first house when I was 25. I paid $52,000 for it. It is a 2 bedroom /1 bath with 1100 square feet. I lived in it for 5 years. Four years being single and one after we got married. I still own that house today. It has been a rental property the rest of the time. By the time we moved out, I could rent it to cover the note and then some. As time went by and property values rose so did rents. This house is now paid off and is valued at $210,000. I collect $850 a month in rent. I could get a little more but we have a good tenant who pays on time and doesn't call much.

That single decision is now responsible for nearly 15% of my net worth and provides around $6000 a year positive cash flow (minus taxes and insurance).

Maximize 401K - We have put as much in to our 401Ks as we can. These accounts are now worth over $200,000 and the returns have just been average. I have changed jobs several times. Several of these 401Ks are now in IRAs. This money is taxed-deferred, encourages savings and adds up over time.

Save every month - Shortly after college I opened a mutual fund account. I started putting $100 a month into it. After a while I upped it to $110. I got another fund and started adding $50 a month into it. Over the course of time, those monthly investments became $800 a month. But over the course of time, these mutual funds are now worth $180,000.

Look into making money outside of your job - There are lots of ways to make money on the side. We have gotten in and out of direct-marketing companies. We have bought and sold on Ebay. I have been to dozens of foreclosure auctions. These are only a few of the items I have looked into. I have invested hundreds of hours and thousands of dollars over the course of time. Multiple times I had to make the decision that this was not worth my time or any more of my money and had to cut my losses.

In the end I have found side incomes that bring in an extra $30-$40K a year. There are a ton of get-rich-quick ideas out there. Many of the things you will come across are scams. Some only work for certain types of people, usually not the type of person I am. What I currently do, I stumbled into. I stumbled into it because I was looking into something else that did not work. Every opportunity you see, book you read, seminar you attend will spurn some other thought and idea. The challenge often becomes evaluating what is the best match for your skill, capital and time.

Hobbies - I know guys who play golf every weekend. Others go hunting or fishing. While we all need our hobbies, often these hobbies dominate our lives and finances. Golf is not cheap. Even the cheapest green fees can run up the hundreds of dollars a month for the avid player. Add in balls and clubs and it can really get up there. If you are making $70K a year and have two kids and spending $300 a month on golf, it is time for a financial re-evaluation. If golf is more important than wealth keep it up, but you are not going to make it to the millionaire club that way.

Let's not just pick on the golfers. Hunters, boaters and shoppers have equal if not more outflow. I see hunting leases for $2000 a year. $500 pair of shoes. $17000 boats. If you want to save, you eventually need to decide - hobbies or wealth?

I started my own business - I could have easily just worked for someone else or gotten a job in a big IT shop somewhere. Instead I put myself out there to accept contract gigs. There were times where it was just me. Luck plagues the diligent. I sought out opportunities where I could bring in other people. Since I was incorporated, I could do that. I knew a bunch of programmers and could get them better rates that anywhere else. I kept thin margins, but making $4K a year off of someone is better than making nothing.

Starting your own business enables multiple opportunities outside of the obvious profit centers. There are so many expenses that I used to absorb that I could now deduct from my taxes. Office supplies, mileage driving to client, etc.

Work Hard - whether I was working for myself or someone else, I was always a hard worker. I came in a little earlier and stayed a little later. I did not whine if I had to come in on the weekend. I accepted responsibility and sought allies. I took the blame and shared the credit. I became valuable wherever I was. This set me up for higher pay when I worked for someone. When I went out on my own guess who the first clients were - people who used to work with me. They knew they would get a certain level of productivity out of me.

Things I wish I did

Increase the monthly investment - There were long periods of time (5-6 years) where I left the monthly investment in the mutual funds alone when my income went up. I should have increased the monthly payment into them each time my pay went up.

Buy and move into more houses - I look at the house I bought when I was 25 that is now worth $210K and regret not repeating the process. My wife and I could have moved 2 - 3 times more and bought a house each time. This would have left us with a bigger trail of rental properties all well on their way to being paid off.

The single best beginners way to build a real estate empire is to buy a house, live in it, buy another, move into that and rent out the former. Fixed rate loans for the owner of the house is still the cheapest way to get a loan. It also avoids the extra loan costs of buying investment property.

Things I cannot control

Luck - This goes both ways. The house I bought when I was 25 was in an area that has not suffered from urban decay. I cannot predict how a neighborhood will get that disease. It could have just as easily turned out to be a bad neighborhood. Fortune smiled there.

Just like that was good, I can account for $250,000 I have invested back into my business that I have not received a return on. I have hired several sales people who did not work out. Each one of them drew a salary, submitted expenses, hired outside support and took people away from billable efforts all to help close a sale. While these are things you do to grow a business, you want to them to actually grow the business.

My business has grown more from my efforts than anyone I paid to do it. Was it my bad judgment in evaluating their sales talents or I did not give them the support they needed? I cannot rule it out. Were they not putting their all into it? I cannot rule that out either. When they were hired, everyone thought it was a good idea, the approach was sound and we communicated regularly. I just never got the result I wanted. It was a good decision that had a bad result.

The Dot Bomb era - I had a lot of technology stocks. There was a point in time where my and my wife's IRA was worth $160K. This was in early 1998. A year later they were worth $60K. There is a reason I primarily invest in S&P 500 index funds today.

I used to consider myself a "very aggressive" investor. Not any more. Losing $100K in the market will do that to you.

What it is like to be a millionaire

Having over a million dollars in net worth is a good place to be. It sounds oversimplified but being a millionaire is better than not being one. It is not the penultimate financial goal that I once thought it was. I am not retiring and picking up golf any time soon.

I still worry about cash flow. So much is tied up in real estate, mutual funds and the business that I cannot get to a lot it without tax consequences. I still drive an eleven year old car. We eat at the same places. We still argue about the credit card statement. I still buy the generic pasta at the grocery store because it is 15 cents cheaper. I am not going to "summer" in Europe or buy a Mercedes. That is not how I got here. If I make those types of lifestyle changes, I might not stay here. I have splurged on a few things. I have "invested" in my baseball memorabilia collection and we took a nice vacation.

I do sleep better knowing I have some flexibility and assets working for me. There are people I work with that have a couple of thousand in the bank, even more in credit card debt and live from check to check.

I have over $1.4 million in assets. This includes everything. If I get 5% return on them, that is another $70K added onto the amount in the next year. The same people I just references are years away from saving $70K much less $70K in a single year. That is what a lot of people make in a year. That is my return when I do nothing.

It was not positive linear growth every month. Many months went backwards or stagnant. Remember, I saw my market values drop $100K. There was over $250K invested back into the business. To save a million dollars you to need to be out there and take a chance. Not all of them are going to work. Hopefully a lesson learned pays dividends down the road.

Having the money allows me to look at different investments. Doors that were shut are now open. I just have to be smart. I can consider different options. In the end that is what I am really after - the options to control what I want to do and on my terms.

Related : Buy SHOES Now and Pay Later my blog magic

Making Money Online - How to Find Your Niche in the Market

For anyone who wants to make money online, finding their niche is the first and most important step that they need to learn about. The niche is that sector of the online marketplace that you should corner and focus all your online moneymaking efforts on. When you target a specific niche with laser-like precision, you increase your chances of making money online, you make your work easier for you, and you also lower your chances of getting burned out later on.

Now, how do you find a specific niche on which you can focus all your efforts in making money online? Here is how:

Find out what drives you. Running an online business can be a time-consuming project. It can also require some emotional investment, especially if it is your first time to try out making money online. To make it easier for you, you should list down the things you are passionate about. And then you find products and services that fit.

For example, if you are a bookworm, you can try becoming an affiliate marketer for online booksellers like Amazon.com. Since you love books, it will not be difficult for you to find selling points for them and convincing your target audience why they should buy this or that book.

Find a specific product that you know a lot about. To be able to sell a product or service effectively, you need to be knowledgeable about the product. It may be tough for you to learn new information about a specific product at this point, so it may be best for you to start with what you already know. In this way, it will be easier for you to promote your product because you already know what to promote about it.

So let us say that you love books. Naturally, it is possible for you to like certain genres more than others. So let us pretend here that you like reading books in the horror genre. You can focus your online moneymaking efforts on horror, ghost stories or vampire tales.

Find out market demand. You can learn about market demand for your niche by zeroing in on specific keywords to use. In our horror and vampire books example, if you use the Google AdWords keywords tool and if you type in "vampire books" in the search box, it will give you a list of keywords used in the last month related to "vampire books." You will notice that among the list of keywords are vampire books written by Anne Rice and the books in Stephenie Meyer's Twilight saga. You will also notice that those keywords have a high ranking, indicating that there is a high demand for those books. So, you now have a target niche and possible products to sell.
It is not that difficult to find a niche when you try to make money online. It is, nonetheless, the first and most important thing you need to learn about when you are making money online.

Recommend : Buy SHOES Now and Pay Later my blog magic