Expect Better Website Results in Three to Six Months

Hi everyone, I hope everything is going good for you. I recently had someone ask me; How long does it take to see a traffic increase and start making sales on your website? This is a great question and I am happy to answer it for you Nick! In order to see noticeable results like this on your website it will take lots of hard work.

If you work hard, you will see very noticeable results within 3-6 months time. By working hard, I mean; “everyday”. Not a few times a week. Not when you have time. Make time for yourself if you want to have a money making website. Put aside 1-3 hours a day to advertise your website.

You can learn how to advertise your website or product right here. You can use various other ways to ensure you get website traffic. But it all comes down to time and dedication.

The more time and dedication you put into advertising your website, the better your results will be in the long run. You can’t just build a website and submit it to search engines or website directories. You have to reach thousands of people everyday in order to get real results. And that won’t happen if you only do one or two things to advertise. It’s collective advertising that works best. Combine many advertising techniques into your advertising plan.

You could ask another website to advertise for you. You could submit a press release article and submit it to press release and new business websites. PRweb.com is a great place to start. It’s important to get your name out there by telling everyone you offer a new service. Hopefully you offer an original service people will be attracted to visit.

Set up a feed on feed websites like feedburner and myyahoo. Then people can bookmark your website and keep track of new updates. It’s also important to blog about your business regularly. Tell the world all about your business and websites. Or you could blog to help others with free information about the subject matter on your website.

Submit your website’s blog to blog directories. You can place your blog right into the category your business is all about. Keep advertising and always search for new ways to bring traffic. As times change there will always be new methods and tricks coming out. For example, you can stay updated by visiting my blog. I do my best to bring you all the newest tricks and tips to better your home business.

Thanks for reading my blog everyone. See you tomorrow!

Software Can’t Give You a Better Webpage Rank

Hi all, I hope everything is going great for you today. I recently had someone ask me if they should buy a program that gives them a better web page rank on Google. Getting a better web page rank is very difficult. It takes lots of dedication, time, and creativeness.

I can promise you that, there has never been an effective software that will give you a better web page rank or more traffic. The only way to get a better page rank is to have back links, thousands of them. Stay away from these scams.

You can create back links a number of ways. Organic advertising and marketing are the best ways to get back links. You can learn how to create back links in this blog post I wrote. But, it will take some very hard work on your part. You can also pay someone to market and advertise your website. But this can cost you thousands of dollars.

You have to be creative and write constantly about your website. Tell your friends, family, whoever will listen. Nobody will advertise your website until you get some street cred online. Another words, nobody will promote your website until you earn it. So get out there and tell everyone.

Join all the forums, social networks, article directories, and website directories as you can. Make some friends and tell everyone about what you have to offer. But, don’t fall for anyone claiming to know all the inside tips on how Google or any other search engine is run. Nobody really knows. They just know what works.

Listen to the people that have lots of traffic and have a high webpage rank. There is lots of free advice on how to drive traffic and get a higher webpage rank. Don’t buy any programs that claim you the world. Although there are some really great e-books and programs to teach you how to drive traffic and webpage rank. Those programs take lots of time to see results but they usually work great. Don’t buy in to the ones that claim you don’t have to do anything and you’ll be rich also.

The problem is; people don’t want to work. They want things for free with little to no work involved. They want something that they can sit back and do nothing and collect money at the same time. There is no such program. Stop living in a fairy tale and wake up. The only way you make a lot of money is to work really hard. Unless; You just won the lottery or large inheritance.

So please take my advice. Don’t buy any of those software programs that promise you a higher webpage rank or more traffic. You may see a short spurt of results. But, it will hurt your webpage rank more than help. Do it yourself if you want it done right.

Thanks for reading everyone!

The Winner of My Contest

Hi readers, I hope everything is good. My contest ended yesterday. We pulled Marion’s name out of the hat. Congratulations Marion! Marion will get the presidential treatment on learning how to start a business at home.

Thanks for entering the contest everyone! This contest will be held again very soon so keep reading my blog when you can. Anyone that needs help starting a business can enter my contest.

I also have a little treat for my readers this weekend. If you have time, I suggest you stop by to read my blog this weekend.

Sorry to keep today’s post so short everyone. I will make it up to you really soon.
Thanks for reading and see you tomorrow!

Give Yourself Rewards and Motivation Will Follow

Hi everyone, I hope your weekend was great! My contest ends soon, May, 6th at 12(noon) eastern time. If you want to enter, just comment on my contest post. I recently got a weird question from someone who had a very negative attitude. They asked me how they could get motivated if they are a very lazy person. In a situation like that; you have to want to succeed. But, here is a little trick you can use to keep you going.

Laziness is the worst possible motivator for failure. By nature, anyone just getting starting with a home business is sure to have laziness in them. The best way to change laziness is motivation with rewards. You have to set up little checkpoint rewards(motivation) along the way to reach your goals. Checkpoints that reward you somehow are the best motivators to keep you going. With most people, all they need is a little money to motivate them.

It’s very important to give yourself something back for all the work you put in to your home business. If you don’t give yourself anything back, working at home can become very discouraging as well. Give yourself some motivator money. The best motivator do work everyday is a simple reward. Giving yourself a reward is the best possible way to motivate any lazy person.

If you give yourself little checkpoints with rewards you can have something to look forward to doing. To me, a checkpoint is everyday when I accomplish everything I needed to finish. Always working and giving nothing back to yourself as a reward is a great recipe for disaster. I see this all too often with new home business owners. They get sick of working because they don’t have free time, nor the money to do anything fun.

Rewarding yourself can turn your motivation in to a daily routine. That’s how you become successful working at home. A daily routine has to be created and followed through everyday, no matter how lazy you are at the time. Laziness is one thing; but not having a daily routine is another. A daily routine can actually show you the road to success. Putting you daily routine onto a list can really make a huge difference in the right direction.

A daily routine list can be very effective. When you write down your daily tasks onto a piece of paper there is no guessing. You don’t have to say, “What do I do today?” You have it all right there in black and white. Things become easier when you see what you have to do to complete your daily tasks. That’s why a daily routine/checklist is so important. Something about the human mind that doesn’t make your goals so impossible to reach when you can see them. Maybe they become more real when the list is not just in your head. This daily routine/checklist has worked for me through the years like a dream.

This checklist is nothing without any rewards though. A great reward at the end of the day, can give even the laziest person some motivation. I have a huge love for chocolate and it doesn’t take much to keep me happy. At the end of my daily checklist I give myself a reward. The last step on my list is to go grab a hot chocolate at my favorite diner. It’s a very small reward compared to most people’s expectations. But, it’s enough to keep me going. It’s important to give yourself a reward only if you do everything else on your checklist first. That’s why your reward should be the last thing on the list. Don’t give yourself a reward, if you didn’t earn it.

Your reward could be beer. I know most of my readers are men and I know how much men love their beer. The important thing is to make your reward small, daily, and enough to keep you going for the next day’s list. It has to be your constant motivator. As the days go by and you make more money; give yourself better daily rewards once and a while. With time, you won’t have to bribe yourself with huge rewards, because your daily routine has become habit anyway.

I usually make my daily routine list 3-6 times a week, as some days I do the same things I did the day before. I usually write my list the night before my day starts. This way I know what needs to be done the following day.

The fact of matter is; I can’t help anyone’s laziness habits. But, I can show you how to break all your bad or lazy habits. The power of the mind is very underestimated. You have to want to change. Once you feel the need for change, you will open roads to success that you never saw before. Overcoming laziness can be very difficult if it is in your daily routine already. Get off the coach and make your daily routine/checklist list. Don’t forget to give yourself a reward for completing your daily list.

Thanks for reading everyone! Let me know if you have any questions.

Enter My Contest If You Want to Work at Home

Hi everyone, I have a surprise for you today. I am having another surprise contest for my regular readers. If you win this contest, I will teach you how to start an online home business for 3 months “free”. Everyone I help has moved on to be very successful. You could be next..

I will be at your beck and call for 3 months. I will answer any questions you have about making money at home. I will do research that you don’t know how to do on your own( find wholesalers/drop shippers/ hot items, etc.).

Enter the contest on my other blog. You can read about the contest and enter here. Just comment on my contest post over there to enter.

I have helped people start and run successful home businesses all around the world. I have been helping people online and locally for a few years now. If you read my about me page, you can see how much experience I have.

I am having this giveaway to thank my readers. Good luck everyone!

If you have any questions email me.

Another Successful Home Business Owner

Hi everyone, I hope your weekend is going great. Today I am going to post a great success story from someone who bought one of my E-Guides a few months back. He told me about his success, so I asked him to write about it for my blog. His name is Bobby Tulley and I hope you enjoy it.

My name is Bob Tulley.I live in Tampa Florida.I am 42 years old.
All I can say is Thank you Lisa.4 Months ago I bought your ebook.
I wasnt expecting much cause the price was under 50 dollars.
When you said you would teach me for 3 months if I bought your book
I was very skeptical.I bought ebooks in the past for a hundred dollars
or more & ended up with nonsense & garbage.You helped me more in 3
months than any ebook I bought.4 months since I
bought your ebook and I have a website with really good traffic.My
website didnt get 20 hits a day.
Now my website gets over 500 hits a day
thanks to you. I finally get a steady flow of sales.
I usually get 3-10 affiliate sales each week.The results keep getting
better as time goes by.Business consulation companies
charge 10X’s more than you & do half the work.I know cause I
been down that route before.
What a huge difference from the methods I used before to make money.I went
from making about 30 dollars a day to over 400 hundred dollars a day.
You not only taught me how to buy & sell wholesale.You also
taught me how to bring traffic to my website.You taught me how to make
money from affiliate marketing with my website.My website gets steady business
everyday.I also make really good money on the marketplaces you showed me.
You answered everyone one of my
questions right away & helped me understand things I didnt know about.
You even found some great wholesale guys for me.
Your are sooo right about needing to ask questions.Like you say no ebook can tell
you everything you need to know.Having you as a cushion to help me
along was all I needed.Im not too sure about retiring early yet.
But I can see a great future for
my business & my family.Thank you soooo much lisa!I can only
say great things about your ebook & what you are doing.To think where
I would be if I found you a
long time ago.I make more money
online now than I ever have.Your ebooks are too
underpriced!

Congratulations Bobby, I knew you could do it!

I hope you all enjoyed this fantastic success story. Thanks for reading everyone.

How to Market Your Own Product

Hi everyone, I hope everything is going well for you. Have you ever had an idea for a great product that you could make yourself? Lots of people have ideas like this. The problem is; most people don’t know how to distribute the product they make. This can be a huge problem. After you read this post, you will know everything you need to successfully promote your product.

It’s easier to make your own product than most people might think. Just think of things you are good at doing. When you make your own product you have an advantage. You set the standards for prices you can sell your product. You will have little to no competition. Your product will most likely be original and rare. Originality sells anything on the market. Consumers love to try new things. If you can come up with a product that people need, you could end up being a millionaire.

The first place you can distribute your product is auction or social marketplaces. This takes a lot of time but you will reach millions of customer right away. This can be the money that keeps you going until you are developed better. Ebay is a great place to start; but I would recommend staying away from ebay for now. Ebay can cost a lot of money to make only a little if you are unexperienced. You can find some great auction places that won’t cost you as much as ebay in my top 15 list of 2007-2008.

If you already have a website, put your product on your website. Get a good template or build a professional looking website. Now that you have a website, you have to do the most important thing. ADVERTISE AND MARKET your website and product. So many people make the mistake of just having a website without telling anyone about it. They think being in search engines are good enough.

Promote your product and website to social networks. Especially the ones that let you distribute articles about your product to your friends list. Facebook, technorati, digg, delicious, myspace, are some great places to make some friends. Try and make friends with people that have the same interests as you. Chances are they will be interested in your product as well.

Write some articles about your product. Submit articles to major article websites. These websites get millions of hits everyday. All of these people come to read original articles. Keep your articles original and catchy. Hopefully your product is catchy enough. You can write articles at various places around the internet for free. I wrote a post about some good article websites you can use here.

Make some friends in forums. Forums can bring you tons of traffic. There are millions of members to various forums out there. Don’t underestimate the power of a good forum. Make sure the forums you sign up for are related to your product/business. Don’t spam the forums with posts either. That will only get you kicked off or suspended. You want to actually make some friends there. Talk about various topics in the forum. Make sure the forum gives you the option to have a signature. The signature is how you will get people to your website/product. Put your website in the signature. Now, every time you leave a response or start a topic in the forum, people will see your website link and visit your website. Because the forum is related to the topic of your business/product, more people will buy your product. Don’t join forums if they don’t let you have a signature.

Submit your website to as many website directories as possible. Most website directories will let you submit your website for free. This can be a great way to bring in traffic but can take time to see results. Try and set up the keywords on your website. Put as many keywords as you can that relate to what your product is about. This way search engines will find content related to your business/product. This can be very effective if you get good at it.

Keep the content one your website updated. Update your website at least once a day. Only the newest content makes it to search engine front pages. If the content on your website is over a month old, you don’t stand a chance to make it on the front page of Google. The old style of search engines would have let you slide. But new updated search engines are optimized to find the new stuff first. Google is probably the most popular search engine out there. They don’t want their readers to find old content on the front page and in the number 1 position. Think about it.

Most of these techniques take time to see results. The results are too overwhelming to ignore. These techniques are very effective if you have time and dedication on your side. Any marketing firm charging you thousands of dollars will advertise the same way if you are lucky. Now you know how to advertise and market your product. Get to work!

If you have any questions, feel free to email me or leave a comment. Thanks for reading everyone!

How to Make Better Pictures and Sell More Items

Hi everyone, I hope your week is going well. Yesterday, I told you an update way to post pictures in your ebay auctions. Today, I will be telling you about ways to make your pictures sell your items better. This may be old news to some of you. Having effective and clear photographs can sell your items better, especially on ebay. Most of the tips I give you will help you take better pictures with more sales.

First off, no auction should be without a gallery picture. A gallery picture is the little picture next to the title on the category screen. The customer can see your product before they even click onto the auction. A gallery photo attracts more people to click on your auction. I am not just saying that either. Through the years I have tested this and a gallery picture brings more than twice the traffic to your items, than an auction without a gallery picture.

Try and use a white or clean background for your picture. A white background is best. I have seen hardwood and clean countertops work well also. The clean or white background can really bring the best picture possible. A white or clean background for your picture makes it look more professional. It also avoids showing people your messy house, lol.

As I mentioned yesterday; host the picture yourself and use and HTML code to put unlimited pictures in your auctions. Adjust the size of each picture accordingly to fit your auction template.

Try and place each picture in the text where it belongs. For instance, if you were selling a car and talking about the interior, post a picture of the interior where you are talking about it. It’s a little trick to keep people interested.

Make sure your pictures are the highest in quality. Even if your digital camera card is only 32mb. Crank up the graphics to the highest. If your camera has extra quality options, set them to max. Use that 32mb card to take pictures of each item you have. I used to get 16 pictures with a 32mb card full graphics. It may be different now.

Focus is another important factor that people seem to take in to account. Unless you have a top of the line digital camera, I suggest using manual focus. If the picture is out of focus or blurry the customer will be less likely to buy your item, compared to someone who has the same item with a clear picture. This is especially true for used items.

Unless you are drop shipping, always use your own picture. Don’t use pictures you find on the internet or manufacturer pictures. Some of them are copyrighted and you can get in to trouble.

Try and take the picture from a slight angle to show and control depth perception. Angled depth is more attractive to the eye than a straight on picture. Use 2 or 3 light sources or angles. Two lights from left and right seem to work best for me. Sunlight is a bad light source unless you are outside.

People like to know you have the item in hand. A good way to prove you have the item is to take a Picture with item and your ebay ID in front of it. I like to take a white piece of paper and write my auction ID on it. Then I stick the paper with my ebay ID in front of the item I am selling. This shows that I have the item in my possession. This is a new security measure I picked up a couple of years back. It kind of reassures the customer I really have the item. It came in handy when I had some Playstation 3’s last year.

Use these tips to make your pictures better. I guarantee that you will increase your sales if you aren’t already using these tips. Let me know if you have any questions.

Free Pictures on Your Ebay Auctions

Hi everyone and thank you for reading. Today, I will be updating a post I made a while back with better information. Photobucket doesn’t seem to work well with ebay anymore. The post will be about adding unlimited pictures to your ebay auctions for free. If you don’t have a good place to host pictures this post will help you.

First, you need a place that will host pictures for you. I recommend geocities.com as they are free and very user friendly. They have been around forever and aren’t going anywhere. You don’t have to worry about the companies advertisment name through your picture for using their services to host your pictures. You don’t have to worry about the host leaving and closing shop. Here is how you can get free, unlimited pictures in all your ebay auctions.

* Sign up for a free geocities.com account or use your existing yahoo name and password to sign in.
* Now go to the Geocities control panel.
* Click onto the manage tab.
* Click the easy upload button under File Management Tools.
* Click the browse button to find the pictures on your computer.
* Click upload files button.
* Goto the file manager and open it.
* Click the view button next to the picture you uploaded. This is the web address your picture is located at until you delete the picture from your file manager.
* Now put that web address in to this HTML code. <center><IMG SRC=”http://www. place your picture web address here” HEIGHT=72 WIDTH=72></center>
Adjust the size by changing the numbers around.
* Place this code into your ebay auction description for HTML.

If you use this HTML code, you will be able to place as many pictures as you want in your ebay auctions. Free of charge. Ebay charges you for what geocities is doing for free, “hosting your picture”.
Ebays fees are high enough. Take a stand and stop paying ebay to host extra pictures for your auctions.

You have complete control over all of the files and pictures you upload on Geocities. Just go to your file manager to change anything. If anyone has questions, feel free to email me.

Use Vzaar to Add Video to Your Ebay Auctions

Hi everyone, I hope your weekend went well. Today I am going to tell you about Vzaar. Vzaar is a free program that lets you add video of the product you are selling. This is great if you have to prove something is in working condition. It seems video has become a big part of our lives online. Having video footage of the product you are selling can skyrocket your sales.

Vzaar is not needed if you are selling a brand new product still in the package. But it works great for selling everything like cars and computers. I have been noticing a lot of sellers that specialize in selling used cars on ebay have been using Vzaar. I actually found Vzaar when I was car shopping on ebay a short while back.

Vzaar actually came up with a great idea to add video to your about me page. Social marketplaces are really starting to take over. Having a video on your about me page could make your profile seem more professional and trustworthy. They actually claim you will get a good sales increase by inserting video to your auctions and about me page. I can definitely see the advantage.

Think about how big of an advantage you have adding pictures to your auctions; compared to someone who doesn’t use pictures. It’s pretty much the same with video. You will have a huge technology advantage over your competition that isn’t using video.

My big thing through the years is to change with the times. Most businesses fail because they don’t change with technology. Use as much technology as you can. The best way to get the upper hand on your competition is to have more than they offer. Most companies won’t move on with the times and will fade away. Take your chances with any new technology that will make things easier or more customer friendly.

Vzaar is very user friendly. All you do is record the video you want with a camcorder, digital camera, or cell phone. Then you upload the video onto vzaar. Then you tell Vzaar what auction you want to put your video in your ebay account. It’s really that simple.

That big advantage I see having video over just photos is; You can prove that the used item you are selling is in good working order. In most cases the video speaks for itself and you don’t even have to read the description in the auction. You are making it easier for the customer to make a decision about buying from you.

Some people and companies have even taken their ebay charity auctions a step up in the right direction. Instead of typing out a long description of what the winner gets, they make a video and explain/show you what you are going to get if you are the winner of the auction. Videos in your auctions or websites could be a way of the future. I really see so many advantages to putting a video in your ebay auctions.

If you think you are going to use more than 30 videos a month, you will need to upgrade your free account. If the videos are helping you sell big money items, I would suggest upgrading to a premium account. Packages cost $10-$20 per month. This is not needed unless the videos are selling your products though.

You don’t need to use vzaar if you are selling plain, non-moving items. For example, you might not want to waste your video on an autograph picture. But, you might want to use video in your auctions to sell a used television or monitor while it is working. Vzaar is made to capture used items while in working condition. It’s a great idea. Give vzaar a try it’s free to use.

Thanks for reading my blog everyone.

Is Facebook the Future of Social Marketplaces?

Hi everyone, I hope your weekend was a good one. I have been doing some research on good marketplaces lately. Today I signed up for Facebook’s marketplace. Yes, facebook has a marketplace. Facebook marketplace is not an auction marketplace but its better. It actually seems pretty good for free. I am going to use them for a few weeks. I let you know all about the results when I get a better idea on how things work.

I really like it. Facebook marketplace is very simple and very user friendly. It reminds me of craigslist classifieds. It keeps track of the most local items so you can buy from a person who lives near you. The best thing about this is; you know the person is less likely to be a scammer if you can see a profile of them. Facebook is kind of like myspace only better. It’s a social network where you find and make friends. It’s a great idea and I love it.

I have been a facebook user from the start. I find the experience a much better one, over other social networks. Since facebook recently added a marketplace it will become a lot more popular. There are millions of members that use facebook, so sales should be good! I can’t wait to see the results.

Facebook picked the perfect time to make this transition. Ebay has been losing sellers left and right because of recent high fee increases. Many auction marketplaces have already benefited from this increase of ebay sellers leaving. Facebook is just another kid on the block. Don’t underestimate Facebook. They have huge potential in this new social marketplace they have created.

Social marketplaces might be the way to go in the future. So many con-artists have popped up all over the internet. Being able to see a persons profile and background can feel a lot safer when money is involved. A profile with a picture can make the transaction a lot safer and more trustworthy. You can decipher someone’s personality and what you might expect if you choose to buy from them. It’s almost like feedback only better. I would feel a lot safer dealing from a guy that has a picture of him and his 3 kids; instead of some kid that has a party picture for the profile. Get my drift? You can get a better feel of what this person is really like. And maybe draw a judge of character from it.

You can also choose if you want to buy from someone other far away instead of locally. You get lots of different options that may fit different people’s needs. Facebook is not limited like craigslist or any other classified marketplace I have ever seen before. The communication seems to be a lot better than craigslist. You can message a person and get an immediate response from the seller if you have any questions.

You can barter your services locally. You can also find barter services locally. You can advertise if you have housing for sale or rent. You can also find a huge variety of places to live or move to, if you are looking. All in all facebook has just enough, but not too much like other classified websites or marketplaces.

You can find local jobs. This is another good one just because you already have a profile. The job can look at your profile before they consider you for a job. You can even post yourself in the “looking for work” section. I think this is a great opportunity for any young adults trying to get a good job. I predict that facebook will have lots of followers now that they have their own marketplace.

Facebook doesn’t seem to have any strict listing rules except for the obvious. You can check out listing rules and guidelines here. The rules are very basic and to the point.

Facebook seems to be a great addition to anyone looking to get a few extra sales everyday. Give them a try if you are looking for an extra boost. They are totally free. You have nothing to lose except a little time investment. Let me know if you have any questions.

See you tomorrow and thanks for reading!

Just Another Way to Work at Home

Hi everyone, what a beautiful day it is outside today. I always get people asking me about companies that hire you to work at home. Let me tell you, there aren’t many trustworthy companies that want you to work from home for them. I will tell you about a couple of really goods ones later in this post. The fact of the matter is; most work at home jobs are complete scams or rip-offs.

Make sure you do a complete background check on any company claiming you can work at home for them. Remember, any company that wants you to pay money upfront to work for them is a scam. Don’t ever give money upfront for any kind on employment.

There are a lot of companies out there that need virtual assistants. Lots of new companies would rather have virtual assistants than live telephone operators. There are people right now making a living from being a part time virtual assistant. If you think you have a knack for talking to people over the phone, then you might want to look into being a virtual assistant.

Liveops.com is a big company in the virtual assistant world. They hire virtual assistants all the time. Right on their homepage they advertise jobs for being an agent. You can make your own hours. You can take vacations whenever you want. Most people make more money part time being a virtual assistant than a full time job. They pay really well and they are a very legitimate company. Just sit at your computer and answer the phone.

teamdoubleclick.com is another great place to work at home. They have over 40,000 virtual assistants employed by them. They advertise virtual assistant jobs right on their homepage also. Most moms and disabled people benefit from working at home. But, now with a recession among us, everyone could use a little extra money. And heck, if we can work at home, that’s all the better. Teamdoubleclick is a very well known virtual assistant company. They are great to work for and I highly recommend them.

I am sure there are lots more virtual assistant companies out there. But, I have used both of these companies and can highly recommend them. If you do a search for work at home jobs; you find more scams than real jobs. It’s so sad that people have to take advantage of others to get a foot up in this world. Be really careful of all the work at home scams people. I have seen them all, so if you have any questionable ones just ask me.

Let me know if anyone has questions. See you all tomorrow.

Be Aware of Job Scams

Hi everyone, today I am going to give you some pointers on how to protect yourself against job scams. I heard about one of my local friends getting scammed this week. I didn’t get a chance to warn her because she never told me about it. She fell for a popular job scam. The sad thing is; these scams are everywhere, even your local paper. Nobody seems to care if they advertise a scam in their paper or website anymore, as long as the scammer pays for the ad.

Anyway, here is how this job scam works. You see an ad in the paper or online that says you can make big money if you work for them. You contact them and find out they want money up front to teach you a specific trade or skill ($100 or more). In return they will hire you “if you qualify” and you will make lots of money.

Sounds okay, doesn’t it? Not really, read between the lines on this one. Yes, they grab you with the part; you will make lots of money. Heck, you to pay to go to college right? You make lots of money when you get out of college. This must be the same. It’s not the same. This is what is really happening.

They know you’re hard up for money. They take full advantage of the situation by throwing big sums of money at you. The possibility that anyone can make more money than they already do can make them blind to the obvious.

So, you pay the fee to get into the employment with the new company. The new company then sends you a course through the mail. You need to get a certain grade on the course to qualify. The questions are very hard or in some case can be very easy. You send your course/test back into the company.

They send you a return letter or phone call informing you that you do not qualify for the job. Even if you get 100% of the questions right, you won’t get a job. But if you spend more money, they tell you they can guarantee you a job. It’s an on-going scam. Don’t fall for this one.

In some cases the workplace (scammer) doesn’t even give you a test or course. They take your money and call it an application fee. Then they go on to tell you they can guarantee you a job if you take a course……For more money. There are other types of jobs scams also.

Here are some tips to help you stay away from these and other popular job scams.

1. Exaggerated claims, you will make lots of money, retire early, be a millionaire overnight. Any of these things are the first warning that it’s a scam. The truth is, you have to work hard be rich. Someday you won’t have to work as hard. But, nothing will make you rich overnight, unless you won the lottery.

2. Never pay money to apply for a job. The only kinds of jobs that ask for money up-front are scams. A real job place wouldn’t need to charge you money to work for them. This one is a no-brainer. A real workplace would probably give you a sign-on bonus if anything. Never give money up-front for a job. Even if it is a work-at-home job.

3. Always ask questions first. This is the one people seem to skip. Ask as many questions as you can about the job. Make a list of all the questions you have and ask them. If they can’t answer your questions with a straight answer they aren’t the right place for you. Make sure they can answer all your questions and you are satisfied they are for real.

4. Watch out for professional websites. I am not saying, that all professional websites are scams. I am saying, scam artists are really good at putting up professional looking websites. Just because the website looks professional doesn’t always mean it’s a safe place. Scam artists are good at what they do. Don’t underestimate them.

5. New companies that haven’t been around long. This are another thing that makes it an obvious scam. Scam artists stay with a company for an average of 2-4 months. It’s just enough time for them to steal from hundreds or thousands of people and get away. They move their location and start another scam. This cycle keeps repeating until they are caught or retire with your money.

6. Always look at http://welcome.bbb.org/ to do a background check on the company. The Better Business Bureau is the best source to do any background research on a company. It will tell you how long they have been around and their reputation. If the business is even registered at all.

These are some straight forward tips to help everyone stay away from these new job scams. They are popping up everywhere and they need to be stopped. If everyone stays aware and stops responding to these types of job ads; maybe the scammers will give up and leave.

Let me know if you have any questions. I would hate to see any of my readers to fall for this type of scam.

Thanks for reading, see you tomorrow!

Liquidation Wholesalers Versus Wholesale Distributors

I recently had someone ask me if they should buy from a liquidation or closeout wholesaler, instead of a wholesale distributor. I say whatever fits your needs. If you have room to store large quantities of goods; you are better off buying bulk loads from a liquidator or closeout wholesaler. If you have the money to buy large amounts of goods up front, you should buy from a liquidation wholesaler. Most people starting a business don’t have this kind of money.

Liquidation and closeout wholesalers usually have older models and products. If you want to buy brand new goods I would recommend not buying from a liquidation or closeout wholesaler. But, if you don’t mind purchasing older goods you can go with a liquidator. Some liquidators or closeout wholesalers sell damaged or used goods. Be very careful and read the description of what you are buying before you purchase.

Buying bulk from a liquidator or closeout wholesaler will make you lots of profit. Usually these goods are sold in a pallet for more than half off regular price. Then you can resell them for full retail price and make a killing. Try and find products that are still popular sellers. Stay away from things that used to be popular and are not anymore. Look for products that are still in demand.

Buying from a liquidation wholesaler can lead to problems if you are not prepared. Make sure you are two steps ahead and pay attention to every detail. Some companies try to word a description so you think you are getting more than you really do. Pay attention to delivery instruction especially.

Some companies have a checkpoint (middleman) that will touch the goods on their way to you. The middleman will get a small percentage of the goods to move them along to you. Don’t be alarmed, a point of origin checkpoint is a regular thing when it comes to bulk or pallet loads of goods. A middleman is never a good thing. But it’s very normal with large quantities of product.

A real wholesale distributor won’t have any middlemen. That’s the big difference between wholesale distributors and liquidation and closeout wholesalers. But just remember, a wholesale distributor with middlemen is a bad thing. While middlemen for liquidation and closeout wholesalers are not a bad thing.

Wholesale distributors are good if you don’t have a place to store large amounts of goods. If you don’t have a lot of money, you can have your wholesale distributor drop ship for you. Wholesale distributors have an up-to-date catalog of goods. While a liquidation wholesaler usually has last years goods.

I really enjoyed it when I used to buy from liquidation.com. I found some great deals on pallet loads of goods. There are lots of places you can buy wholesale from liquidators. Here are a few good ones;

http://www.4sgm.com/ This is a great place that seems to have everything. I found this place on a website a year back and have used them ever since. They even have a $0.55 per item section in their catalog.

http://www.dollaritem.com/ This place is great. They have tons of cheap items that sell great. They even have a $0.59 and under section in their catalogs.

http://www.viatrading.com/ This is another cool surplus company. They have everything and their list is always changing as they sell a lot.

Besides liquidation.com, I think these three are the best out there. If anyone knows of others, feel free to let us know. If you are looking into liquidation or closeout wholesalers make sure you know all the rules in your city. Some cities do not allow you to store large quantities of items without a permit to do so. You probably need a warehouse or storage area in order to bypass a permit/s. But check your local laws first.

Good luck shopping everyone. Liquidation wholesalers can make you lots of rollover profit.

If you have any questions, just ask me. Thanks for reading my blog everyone!