The fall in value of currencies, while costs continues to rise is causing millions of older people around the world to fear what their life will be like in their senior years. There is so much uncertainty that retirement savings carefully put aside for all those years will no longer be sufficient to provide the expected comfort in later life. Such questions as what would happen if they developed health problems, what if one partner dies and the other is left, what if they could no longer afford to live in their family home.
It is not all doom and gloom. According to USNews Money department writer, Richard Satran in an article published 5th March 2103:
Fear has motivated people to start saving more, but here are two positive ways to upgrade savings
Given a half-decade of economic uncertainty, fear may still be the biggest motivator for retirement saving. The financial crisis inspired people everywhere to save more and hold off on short-term spending. “It shook people out of their complacency and got them thinking, ‘I should save more,'” says Ken Hevert, Fidelity’s vice president of retirement products. “All age groups—young people, too, are showing a tendency to be more conservative.”
New surveys by two leading financial-services companies show how attitudes toward saving have evolved, and highlight a couple of easy steps that can have a big impact on savings.
These easy steps can be summarized in the following two tips:
“Tip 1: Planning for retirement boosts savings dramatically” – the planning process gives them positive goals for retirement
“Tip 2: Putting eggs in more than one basket produces far higher returns” …. “opening more channels for collecting funds has a positive effect on the amount people save”
Does planning give people a sense of taking control of their lives which helps to overcome the fear factor?
Many people, when creating their website, don't think about the importance a logo can play.
Your site's logo is sort of like your business card. When people see it, the design makes an immediate impression in their mind, for good or for bad. Want to make sure it makes a good impression? Follow these easy steps!
1. Begin with a simple black and white design.
You don't have to finish with a black and white design, but you want to start with one. Think of this as the pencil sketch for what will become a great painting. Even the great artists start out with a rough sketch of what the finished product will look like. With a black and white design, it doesn't matter if you have the latest graphic editing software, or a more outdated version. Using black and white as a starting point, you can create a clean design from which to start.
2. Fonts are great, but don't go overboard.
There are a lot of great fonts out there and you might be tempted to put a few of your favorites in your logo. Don't! You never want to use more than two fonts in your logo. Any more than this and you risk having your logo go from neat and professional to amateurish. Professional graphic designers will tell you that too many fonts can be off-putting to a site visitor. Coco Chanel once advised fashion-conscious women to take off the last accessory they put on, in order to avoid looking like they were drowning underneath their accessories. Don't let your logo drown in unnecessary fonts!
3. Make sure your logo looks good in any scale.
One common mistake people make when designing logos is by designing logos meant to be viewed in only one scale. Remember, you may want to reuse your logo later on in either a higher resolution or lower resolution. Design your original logo in a high resolution and test it out in different scales. How does it look when you scale it down?
4. Avoid overly elaborate fonts.
Avoid overly elaborate fonts
Avoid overly elaborate fonts
Sure, that fancy font with all the bells and whistles looks interesting, but is it readable? There is a reason that the simple fonts are the most commonly used. If your reader cannot read your logo, you might as well not have one. Make sure the font you use can be read by more people than just yourself.
5.Try your logo on more than one background.
You never know where your logo might end up. For right now, it might look great against the white backdrop of your site, but what about when it is on an affiliate page? An advertisement? Does it look great against both dark and light backgrounds? Vibrant backgrounds? Dull ones?
6. Look at your logo from different angles.
People don't think about the impression their logo might make when turned upside-down or sideways. A logo that looks fantastic when turned the correct direction might look different when turned upside down. Your logo might only be on your website right now, but what if it is placed on a product or book later? Avoid unintentional disaster by making sure your logo looks great when viewed from all directions.
7. Get a second opinion.
Second opinions aren't just for medicine. You love your logo. Great! What about other people? Don't be afraid to ask for criticism. Make sure to ask for second opinions from people who are going to give you their honest opinion. Everyone wants to hear from other people how great their work is, but is it more important to have a bunch of people who tell you how great your work is because they think it is what you want to hear, or because your work really is great?
8. Tie it all together.
Your logo isn't complete until all the individual parts of the logo work together. Do the fonts and the graphics work together? Does everything flow well together? The components of a well-designed logo should work with each other and not against each other.
Remember to take your time with your logo design. Great logos look like they took time and thought to put together, so make sure you put time and thought into your design! And don't be afraid to deviate from your original design. Your original thoughts and designs may not be the best final choice, so don't be unwilling to adapt. By following these easy tips, you are sure to create a design you will be eager to show off!
Use the same marketing tools as a standard brick and mortar business, to promote your at home venture.
Advertising your service or product, is just as important, if not more, when you work from the home. It is important that the public knows how to find you and that your business exists. In order to find success in running your own home business, you must be totally comfortable promoting yourself.
As the owner of a home business, you will need to talk up your business to a large number of potential customers. You have to be able to make your customers feel that your business and products are of the highest quality. Learning to successfully self-promote, is one of the keys to making big time profits.
Participate in trade shows that focus on your particular product or service. Trade shows provide a great way to network with others in your industry. It is also an effective way to promote your business to many potential customers by providing you with a setting to demonstrate your product or service.
Create a mailing list for your home business. This can either be through snail mail or the internet. Let others know about any special deals you are offering or just promote your business.
You can also send out small updates or newsletters to your customers to let them know what has been going on. This will increase traffic to your web site.
Examine all of the ways your home business appears in the marketplace and be sure you have a consistent message and presentation.
Whether it is your business cards, web site or social media business page, keeping your messaging professional and synchronized helps you promote your business appropriately and clearly across multiple channels.
Having a home business does not mean you have to stay home.
Get out of the house to network and promote your home business.
Promoting your business will help make your business grow and in turn make you more money.
Being active in the community will help to spread the word of your business. Business cards are a great way to promote your home based business and get your name out to the community.
Search for free business cards online and then distribute them wherever you go, including grocery stores, dentist offices and your children's schools.
Set up an advertising and promotional item budget for your home business and make sure you stick to it.
Advertising, free products, printing and more can add up quickly.
When you stick within your allotted budget, you help your business stay on track. Your budget will grow over time and you will be able to spend more money to promote your business down the line.
Promote your home business by offering a coupon for a free sample or a discount for your services. People are attracted to free offers, so this is a good way to bring in new customers. People are more willing to try a new business if they do not have to risk their own money to try it.
If you are caught by what is being called the "latest recession" and you are wondering, "How is my family going to get by?", see if some of these ideas and helpful tips can help you survive and improve your financial situation.
How do you go about creating your eBooks and reports?
With all the free reports available these days, I download and read a great deal of them. You know the type of reports I mean, standard format, single column, eBook title, basic contents page and body. It was a pleasant surprise to see something different.
This eBook is from a guy called Daniel Sumner and naturally I was interested in finding out how his eBook differed from mine. His tag line for the eBook is Create Convert Cash-in!
This had me impatient to know what he had to offer and discover what was so special about the eBook Cycle. To my pleasant surprise, this was no regular eBook; it was presented in a novel format, single column, basic contents but it was visually enticing, full of colour, graphics, tips hints and very cool formatting, so kept me reading.
As I read, it was obvious that this was not a 10 minute quickie that you see so many of. There was time, effort and passion put into this mini masterpiece. It flowed nicely as I read, learning everything Daniel was writing and seeing the picture he was creating with his use of the images. I was learning a very important lesson in report writing in a very easy to learn way.
Daniel engages you a lot as you progress, so you feel that you're getting to know him, like him and trust what he has to say. He lets you into his world and you feel grateful for the information he is providing, and at the same time encouraging you to get to work to create your own eBooks better than you have before.
In the eBook Cycle Daniel teaches you:
Why you should write an eBook
What format to choose
Getting started
Essential includes
Getting your eBook ready
Free or paid eBooks
Sales pages and squeeze pages
Payment processors
Marketing and traffic
And a whole lot more
I'm very impressed with this eBook to say the least and will return to it when I create my next report or eBook. Its definitely one for the book shelf and future reference.
But best of all, it's free. Yes FREE! You weren't expecting that, were you?
But believe me; it's true! A 100% Free download for you today.
I don't think I need to say more, so go experience it for yourself at: http://trishlikes.com/eBookCycle Give it a good read and please come back here and let me know what you thought of it. I would love to hear your comments!
There are a lot of things to consider when you work from home. If you need help getting through the do's and don'ts of a business you run out of your home, then this article will give you the help you need to understanding how to make it successful.
Commit yourself not to decisions but to action. Starting and growing a home business does not follow a linear path. It zigs and zags and requires constant flexibility. There is no way to make all the right decisions up front; you just have to jump in and start doing. Commit to action everyday, and have faith that you will be able to make the right decisions each time choices come up.
There is no one product or service that everyone is going to need, want or be happy with. Do not try to morph your business to make everyone in the area happy. Concentrate your energy on the consumers that are interested in the things that you have to offer to them.
Provide transcripts of any video or audio you post about your home business products or services so that search engines can index it and customers who can't see or hear can read it. Making your content accessible to the widest possible audience will open you up to getting leads from any demographic.
A great tip for your home business is to try to include a gift or surprise with every order that you send out. This will speak volumes for you and your company and give customers a reason to come back to you. The personal touch is critical with your success.
Another great tip for your home business is to pay your takes throughout the year instead of waiting until tax time. This will keep you from being hit with an unexpected amount of money during tax season which might potentially hamper your business. Check with the Tax Office for specifics on how to properly submit your taxes quarterly.
Take advantage of new technology that allows you to charge credit cards from home. Most people want to pay with a credit card, so invest in a product that will easily let you do this. Many companies have figured out how to make this very affordable for home businesses.
To help promote your home business, consider joining forums that are related to home business generally and your own niche in particular. This is a great idea because you will be able to get free advice and many tips or tricks that you might not have been exposed to otherwise. Do your research on which forums benefit you the most.
People can't be bothered clicking through a hundred pages on a website to find out what your home business is about, so feed it all to them on the front page. Include what you do, who you are, quick testimonials, a photo of yourself or your product, and how to contact you, and your leads will skyrocket.
As was stated at the beginning of this article, having a home business requires a lot of work and follow up in many different areas. The tips and suggestions here should help anyone who has or is hoping to start a home based business make it more successful.
Internet marketers often work alone to generate income for themselves, but sometimes it can be mutually beneficial to form a joint venture with other like-minded folks working on similiar projects.
The ability to spread out effort and risk, while increasing returns, can be somewhat risky, but one worth taking because, if the exercise is successful, you have made a new friend and maybe even developed a permanent working relationship.
As with any worthwhile pursuit there are some core basics and guiding principles that joint venture participants should practice when seeking partners and executing a plan.
Before proceeding, it’s essential to know what a joint venture is. A “JV” is an agreement between two parties each seeking to cooperatively leverage the assets of each other, be it a skill, a product, a trade secret, or a customer or prospect list. In the case of an internet marketer, the agreement usually involves one marketer mailing to the other’s mailing list.
Once it’s been determined that a joint venture will be undertaken there are some fundamentals that should be followed to assure the best outcome.
Assessing your partner is a critical first step when forming a joint venture. Analyzing each other’s strengths and weaknesses and discerning each other’s agenda beforehand will serve to lessen negative surprises later.
Strategy development is an initial activity where both participants assess the viability of their effort and any potential obstacles to the outcomes they plan to achieve. Concurrently, the partners can set milestones and financial agreements during this period. A 50-50 profit split is most common. In some cases, a newer marketer may forego some of the proceeds in order to establish a presence in their market.
Once these tasks are found to be suitably addressed, the new associates can move on to carrying out the campaign. Of course, this is not a static operation. If time and duration allows, testing and improvement should be ongoing as the campaign proceeds to its conclusion.
Finally, the hopefully happy and prosperous end is reached and various goals realized. It’s important to note that any end-defining milestones should have been during the assessment and strategy sessions. This will prevent misunderstandings and promote further collaboration.
Another pointer is to aim high. Sure, rejection may be the first response, but perseverance rules the day and a big player could be the tipping point to reaching a critical mass of success and security.
Lastly, always operate with a win-win mentality while following the sequence. Do it right, and it will be the first of many join ventures…or the last one you’ll ever need.
For more information, you can get a free copy of “Joint Ventures: Tips for Successful Partnerships” from this link or by clicking on the book below.
Do you have a blog already, but it has been a while since you posted something?
Or perhaps you thinking of starting a Blog?
To keep your blog fresh and interesting, then you need to post frequently, preferable at regular intervals so your readers have an idea when to expect another instalment. Create different types of posts to keep your readers interested. This also helps you from getting bored with your own blog. It doesn’t matter if you have a blog to make money directly fromit, or you are blogging to drive traffic to someone else’s product to earn affiliate commissions, you need to be aware of the following types of post.
1. The Review Post
Review blog posts can help you to earn income because you review several products, including your affiliate link for each. When reviewing, be unbiased and give an honest review, including both positive and negative comments about the product. Even if you totally loved the product, keep your review balanced by mentioning a few things that could have been improved. Your readers will appreciate your honesty and be more likely to trust your recommendation.
2. The Quick Tip Post
In between your longer posts you can do a “quick tips” type of post; these are approx 150-250 words.We may have a lot of information about our niche that we want to share but it may not rate a full length post. In that case, post a quick tip. Focus on ONE key area of the niche. For example, “How to connect a new monitor” would be a quick tip article for a beginner computer users blog.
3. The List Post
Blog readers love lists! The most popular blogs make good use of lists. You can create lists that fit with any topic imaginable. This is a great way to convey information online because it can be easily scanned by web readers who are “skimmers.” You can also create lists of different ways to accomplish a goal in your niche. “10 Ways To Prepare Your Soil For Planting” would be a great list for gardeners.
4. The Interview Post
Interviews will require some preparation, but they are very valuable to your blog. Interview someone in your niche and then share the results of that interview with your readers. This will not only provide valuable content for your blog, but will also bring more traffic. Most likely, the person you interview will also publicize the event on their blog or Website, directing traffic to your Blog.
5. The Instruction Post
This is similar to Quick Tips as you are providing your readers with valuable information. However, these Instruction posts will go into much more detail on a certain topic. Sometimes your instructions can even be divided into two or three posts or courses. Look at comments and questions from your readers to find what topic would be most beneficial to them.
As you blog, remember that your readers like variety. Don’t always write the same type of post, but add something different to keep it fresh and new.
There is more to your computer than the monitor, the keyboard and the mouse, though most of the other components are hidden away.
In that big box that you often complain about being too bulky, lies the heart of the computer.
It houses all the vital parts that make your computer fully functioning.
Get to know some of these parts.
The processor or CPU (Central Processing Unit) determines how fast your PC will be & is perhaps one of the vital parts of a computer, if not the most vital. Having a fast processor will allow your computer to convert data faster
There are many tips on how to create time for yourself and to manage your time in your business. Here are several items that may just help you remember the basics.
Learn to say “No”. Many people find it hard to turn someone down especially if it is a customer or a good friend. You more than likely have your day planned as to what needs to get done in your business and then along comes someone and wants you to “help” them in whatever problem they are having with something in their private life or in their own business. Much of the time, the reason they are having trouble is lack of planning on their part or lack of understanding of your work time. If you stop and interrupt what you are doing, it can impede your progress in your own business, so learn to just say “no” when the time is not right for you and schedule another time that suits you both. Of course, if you are free to help, then that is fine.
I’m sure we have all complained that our PC is slowing down at some stage, so perhaps some of the tips here can help in your own particular case. They are all fairly simple, designed for beginners to implement if you follow the steps given.
1. Defrag Your Disks to Speed Up Access to Data
One of the factors that slow the performance of the computer is disk fragmentation. When files are fragmented, the computer must search the hard disk when the file is opened to piece it back together. To speed up the response time, you should monthly run Disk Defragmenter, a Windows utility that defrags and consolidates fragmented files for quicker computer response.
* Follow Start > All Programs > Accessories > System Tools > Disk Defragmenter
* Click the drives you want to defrag and click Analyze
* Click Defragment
This may take some time, so perhaps leave a defrag running overnight or while you do something away from your PC.
2. Detect and Repair Disk Errors
Over time, your hard disk develops bad sectors. Bad sectors slow down hard disk performance and sometimes make data writing difficult or even impossible. To detect and repair disk errors, Windows has a built-in tool called the Error Checking utility. It’ll search the hard disk for bad sectors and system errors and repair them for faster performance.
* Follow Start > My Computer
* In My Computer right-click the hard disk you want to scan and click Properties
* Click the Tools tab
* Click Check Now
* Select the Scan for and attempt recovery of bad sectors check box
* Click Start
3. Disable Indexing Services
Indexing Services is a little application that uses a lot of CPU. By indexing and updating lists of all the files on the computer, it helps you to do a search for something faster as it scans the index list. But if you know where your files are, you can disable this system service. It won’t do any harm to you machine, whether you search often or not very often.
* Go to Start
* Click Settings
* Click Control Panel
* Double-click Add/Remove Programs
* Click the Add/Remove Window Components
* Uncheck the Indexing services
* Click Next
4. Optimize Display Settings
Windows XP has a nice visual appearance but it costs you system resources that are used to display all the visual items and effects. To customize your settings, right click My Computer, select Properties and then the Advanced tab and under Performance, click Settings. Windows looks fine if you disable most of the settings and leave the following:
* Show shadows under menus
* Show shadows under mouse pointer
* Show translucent selection rectangle
* Use drop shadows for icons labels on the desktop
* Use visual styles on windows and buttons
5. Speedup Folder Browsing
You may have noticed that every time you open My Computer to browse folders that there is a little delay. This is because Windows XP automatically searches for network files and printers every time you open Windows Explorer. To fix this and to increase browsing speed, you can disable the “Automatically search for network folders and printers†option as follows:
Click Start, and then click Control Panel, Double-click Folder Options and on the View tab, de-select the “Automatically search for network folders and printers†check box.
6. Optimize Your Pagefile
You can optimize your pagefile. Setting a fixed size to your pagefile saves the operating system from the need to resize the pagefile.
* Right click on My Computer and select Properties
* Select the Advanced tab
* Under Performance choose the Settings button
* Select the Advanced tab again and under Virtual Memory select Change
* Highlight the drive containing your page file and make the initial Size of the file the same as the Maximum Size of the file.
Windows XP sizes the page file to about 1.5X the amount of actual physical memory by default. While this is good for systems with smaller amounts of memory (under 512MB) it is unlikely that a typical XP desktop system will ever need 1.5 X 512MB or more of virtual memory. If you have less than 512MB of memory, leave the page file at its default size. If you have 512MB or more, change the ratio to 1:1 page file size to physical memory size.
7. Remove Fonts for Speed
Fonts, especially TrueType fonts, use quite a bit of system resources. For optimal performance, trim your fonts down to just those that you need to use on a daily basis and fonts that applications may require.
* Open Control Panel
* Open Fonts folder
* Move fonts you don’t need to a temporary directory (e.g. C:\FONTBKUP?) just in case you need or want to bring a few of them back. The more fonts you uninstall, the more system resources you will gain.
Hope you find these tips useful.
Best wishes
Trish
1. Begin with a simple black and white design.
5.Try your logo on more than one background.
Do the fonts and the graphics work together? Does everything flow well together? The components of a well-designed logo should work with each other and not against each other.
Get out of the house to network and promote your home business.
